Eid Mubarak

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and all-around wonderful Eid!

Prairie Fire

 

The second attempt at a toddler sweater with the yellow yarn, was a success.  This time, I went for a pullover rather than a cardigan. Interestingly, this pattern has the same lace pattern as Lucille cardigan, which I had tried earlier. 

 Again, I had to recalculate for finer yarn and needles. I went up to a size 8T to get a size 2T but it was easily managed and I had enough yarn to finish it comfortably.

photo taken in front of a mirror

The pattern was a pleasure to knit and went fast. It fits our toddler wonderfully well and after nearly a month knitting with this yarn, I am more than eager to take on a different one.

Ripped

Even though I have little progress to report, I have been busy this month, knitting-wise. I got some new yarns, picked out the patterns for them and got down to knitting the first of them. I intended it to be a cardigan for my toddler. I wanted a size larger than the one the pattern was originally in, so I went up a few needle sizes, and that seemed to work well with my yarn. I knit, and knit and knit. I had some doubts that it was turning out a tad bit larger than the target size, but I persevered. I had doubts about the color and the pattern together, but I continued. I divided for the armholes, and continued with body.

 

 I went much farther down the body than seen in the picture. With each passing day, and every growing inch, my dislike for the project grew. Even then, I gave it another chance, and started a sleeve to see if I would like it better once the sleeves were done. In the end, I had to be honest with myself, I hated it, no matter what. Hated it enough to rip out a couple of weeks of work and start afresh. So, I have finally done that. My confidence is still a bit shaken and I am not ready to share a picture of the new WIP just yet. But I know already that I do not hate it. So, there is a good chance, it will have a happier ending. 

Little Craft Projects

While the inspiration for my next major knitting project still eludes me, I tried my hand at a couple of smaller projects. The first one is a bit different from my usual ones and I made it earlier this summer. It is a macrame belt for my daughter.

I used some colored beads from her stash to embellish it.

Macrame is fun but I ran into difficulty when the cord lengths I cut initially, turned out to be quite short and I had to add length. That is why the end section is a bit lumpy.

As for the second project, I wanted to do this for a long time and had saved a stone just for it. It is a crocheted stone.

 

 You probably have seen many gorgeous versions of this around the net. (Here is a google search). They look quite striking in a group. I found some patterns on ravelry too, but in the end, I just picked out the central part of a doily pattern from one of my crochet magazines and improvised the rest of it. Can you guess what it is for?...

 

I mean to use it as a doorstop. In fact, it is already in use and is performing its function beautifully!

Linen Stitch Top

 

When I started this top, it was with the intention of using up leftover yarns and getting a small sweater (toddler size...maybe) as a result. As I mentioned earlier, I was too lazy to measure and estimate gauge and just cast on with a random number of stitches. It turns out that my approximation was way off, and I a bit off and the top ends up being a 6-year-old size. Other than that, it met the target of using up a lot of leftover yarns and has turned out to be as a nice, wearable top. The yarns are all DK-to-worsted weight, acrylics; pattern, none.

Life After Eid

Ramadan passed too quickly and we deeply miss all its wonderful routines and busyness. Eid is over too, and life is slowly returning to its mundane routine. It is hard not to experience a dip in our energy and mood, as the holiday comes to an end. However, life suddenly seems a lot less hectic. That is good news, as I can now make time for some back-to-school preparations. (Schools open here in second week of August.)
  On the knitting front, I did finish the linen st top and will blog about it in the next post. A couple of smaller craft projects are also coming up, soon.

New Knitting Project

Before my knitting hiatus, I had started this project. This is to be a top, with linen stitch detail, which is actually an attempt at using up scrap yarns. I cast on with a certain number of stitching, keeping in mind, the amount of yarn I had. And I had no idea what size it would be. Having three daughters, mashaAllah, means I can be lazy this way. It is bound to fit one of them, sooner or later!  Now, I am estimating it to fit a 5-6 year-old. In other words, my middle one, next winter.

I am happy to report that I am finally back from my knitting break, and have had some time to knit on this top, this week. At the moment, I have just started the yoke and hope to get it finished soon.