It's getting there. I just have the sleeves to finish now. And I'm going to go out button shopping soon too.

You can see the shaping clearly here. I really like an A-line shape which I worked into the sides of this top.

When I look at the photo I can also see some horizontal lines across the middle. I am currently trying to loosen up my grip on the needles. It makes my tension somewhat irratic at the moment. Washing may take some of that out, fingers crossed. The death grip I have on my needles might be due to knitting sample garments and trying too hard to make them look good. I never used to knit this tightly so I'm trying to go back to my old relaxed ways, sometimes a little toooo relaxed obviously.

-Deb

It's Here!

Yes! Teens & Tweens has arrived! Here are a couple of images from the book. I'll post all the colour pages on the gallery on the web site.

The Cabled Hoodie above, Kendra's Tunic below:

The Waffle Scarf & Mittlets, below left, Mirror Stripes Pullover, below right & bottom left, and the Tam & Zigag Scarf bottom right:

Now to update the web site!

-Lynda

I finished Mary's Shawl/Scarf. This is the scarf size which uses one skein of sock wool. It starts at the tip goes up to the top which was a new wasy of doing a shawl for me. I really enjoyed it. The pattern should be ready the first week of May.

And another finished item, yay!

I think I have 3 black and white checkered buttons at the shop. They would look so cool on this Last Minute Baby . It feels terrific to finish a couple of things. Now back to some of the UFO's I have stuffed behind my chair (and we all know why they are behind the chair - guilt is oozing off of them, it's messy).

-Deb

Fiona Ellis (canadian designer) told me that she and her friends do a 'knit count' on all the movies that they watch. So chime in when you have one that's got a high count. Elizabeth has started the list with 'Out of Africa' for shawl knitting. I would add in 'Emma' which has only a couple of shawl sightings but better than nothing. I do remember that 'Cider House' had quite a few of knitted garments in it.

What a fun class we had, 3 Saturdays making socks and mittlets, 2 at the same time. These classes are run by the Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association  http://www.simcoecrafts.ca/quilting-rughooking-stainedglass-knitting-weaving-spinning.html who's mandate it is to support the heritage crafts. The first class was all about the cast on and it's tricky. I put everyone in training (the Olympics are just over afterall) starting with one sock and then graduating to two socks on the two circular needles. Everyone got it and now they have one pair of mittlets finished, 2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of mittlets well on their way. Next year I think we'll tackle lace knitting with charts.

And I learned something this weekend. Some projects need a certain atmosphere to progress. My shawl was a little stalled or at least progress was slow. But under the right conditions ...

... it took off. Pride and Prejudice viewing did the trick and I'm now on the second last row! Although there was a shocking lack of knitted shawls. This movie gets a '0 knit' rating I'm afraid. I hope that my knitting a shawl while I watched helped.

-Deb

I think it's really coming along. And are you noticing that lace is showing up everywhere? So to jump on the bandwagon I decided to put a lace border on my summer sweater. It must be this lovely sunny weather that is causing this outbreak of lace.

I think lace knitters would call this scarf 'true lace' where you work the lace pattern on both the right side and the wrong side of the scarf. No gooffing off with a Purl Back row. I am testknitting this pattern so I have worked through both the written instructions and the Chart. I'm definitely a chart person. It makes so much more sense to me to follow the pattern when it's in chart form. But my state of mind is rather jumbled and disjointed at present and I'm finding I can only concentrate for small periods of time (totally me and not the pattern which is lovely to knit) so I've been sitting and working through one set of motifs and then putting it down for a bit. By working this a couple times a day I'm hoping to finish this scarf up next week.

Because I'm also knitting a very quick couple of  Last Minute Baby samples in cotton. They are fast and fun and a really easy TV watching project. I am quite convinced that one must have several projects on the go. Lace for when you are bright and want to really create something beautiful, a simpler lace to add a certain something to a plain sweater and the dead easy, work it in your sleep, project for when you're asleep at the needles. I'm sure that's not enough yet, I should start a sock soon too.

-Deb

I'm outside today even though it's not quite warm enough. The sun is shining which is such a change from the other day. You're right Jo-anne, I have some time before summer comes to get my sweater finished.

We finally got our usual April snow storm. So now that that's over with it's officially spring.

 To celebrate I'm knitting a new testknit.

A new scarf designed by Mary Hobbs. It starts at the point and works up. It's my first time doing it this way and I like it. Mary knit the matching shawl so I'm making the smaller version scarf. Just right for this time of year.
And my sweater for summer has reached another milestone, the bottom lace border. Lovely, lovely to knit with big double yo's.

Don't you love double YO's!

-Deb

I thought at the end of the last post that I was half way along on my summer sweater but . . . NO. I find myself in that great middle distance where you are looking at the horizon and the long road running towards it and even though you are moving along the road the horizon never seems to get any closer. Don't get me wrong, I love knitting sweaters. I love wearing sweaters. I love knitting sweaters even better than working on small projects which finish quickly. I'm busy paying attention, working the increases, so it's not boredom. But there is this long, long middle section before I get to the horizon where I know there is a slope down which my sweater will roll without effort to the finish. I wish! I don't find finishing up easy either but at least I can see the finish line. You would think that every time I start a new sweater I would know this is coming but I'm still surprised when it arrives. It does not deter me, obviously, because I always start another sweater. Maybe it's the satisfaction of overcoming the middle and hanging on to the end that does it.

So all of that is to say that my sweater looks the same as the last post, only a little longer.
-Deb