First FOs of 2009

I have been a productive knitter, so far. My other resolutions, such as exercising and reading more books, have taken some time to get off the ground (though I did purchase and read Z For Zachariah, a book I remember from my teens, last week) but I already have two FOs to share, and another on the way.

FO # 1: Lelah

Pattern: Lelah, by Christina Buhagier at Knitting for Boozehags (no link because it's defunct now, sadly)
Needle: 4mm and 3.5mm Knitpicks
Yarn: Allhemp6 in Midori, three full skeins and about a third of a fourth.
Mods: I knitted in a couple of extra lace panels and phased them out at my waist. I knitted more repeats of the lace pattern. I did four short rows around halfway up the bust to make sure it was high enough at the front.

I basically took the pattern at its word and measured and did some maths and it came out a perfect fit. It's such a perfect fit it doesn't even need elastic to keep it up! I have knitted a couple of icord straps though, which will be attached with poppers or hooks and eyes.

There was a bit of a wobble where I realised my gauge was different to my swatch (must be the round-knitting as opposed to the flat-knitting) and I had to rip back a day's worth of knitting and do rather a lot of decreases, but it was made a lot better because, for the first time ever, I used a lifeline. I don't know what made me do it. Prescience!

It's hard to do the pulled back shoulders, one leg forward pose
when Mr Z tells me to flick my hair from side to side.

Then, of course, it snowed - a lot. Hence the pictures. I like the irony. Really it's for my trip to the Red Sea next week. I may have bought 7 different kinds of green ribbon online because I couldn't pick the one I liked best...

FO # 2: Fingerless gloves for swap



Pattern: Mayahana Flying Gloves
Needle: 4mm DPNs
Yarn: RYC Baby Cashsoft in pale pink (that colour that looks sort of grey). It is so soft and lovely.
Mods: I didn't knit a thumb I just made a hole. I ribbed at the top, too, though that may be part of the original pattern. I only really used it to get the number of stitches ot cast on, and for the link to the lattice stitch. They are very pretty, and luckily too small for me or they might not make it into the swap parcel.

Tonight I have knitted one Eowyn mitt, too, for a friend from knitting group who is trying to rustle up something warming for friends of her son, who lives in a unit for people with head injuries in Devon (I think that's what it is - it's one of those stories I missed the beginning of). Apparently the unit is very cold at present.

I haven't knitted any Eowyns for over a year and it feels funny to go back to a pattern I am so familiar with, when I am a considerably more accomplished knitter. For a start, I can't understand wtf I EVER knitted them flat and seamed (I remember thinking of a good reason at the time, heaven knoiws what it was). For another thing, the first mitt only took me an hour, and I certainly wasn't that quick last time.

I bought a new camera. I have many, many snowy pictures to share. But talking about Eowyn makes me want to go and CO for the second one, so they will have to wait.