WIP
Yep, that's WIP, singular. As I've been secluded away from the majority of my stash, I've been forced to finish all of my previous WIPs, and I've been left with only one active Work in Progress. Obviously, I only ever show the active WIPs, I think I actually have around 10 WIPs in total, if you count all the things in time-out, or hibernation, or long-term projects. But they don't count, right?
Anyway, I'm currently working on a sweater for my youngest godson. He will be 1 year old in August.
I'm adapting a free pattern by Lorna Miser, called the Busy Baby Boy Sweater. I think cables look great on baby sweaters, so I've just changed the stitch pattern to plain stockinette, with a cable motif up the centre front.
FOs
There's a few more of these:
A Nice Ribbed Sock, adjusted to fit me specifically, knit in King Cole ZigZag, colourway Gorse.
More ribbed socks, but this time using the Fish Lips Kiss heel technique. I thoroughly recommend investing the tiny sum required to buy this pattern. The notes alone are worth a kings ransom for sock knitters in explaining how to create a sock that will fit well. This technique also allows for beautifully neat contrasting heels, toes, and cuffs. This particular pair of socks may look like they're knit all from one skein of yarn, but actually the toes, heels, and cuffs are knit in Signature 4-ply by West Yorkshire Spinners, in the colourway Black Currant Bomb, and the rest of the sock is knit in Zwerger Garn Opal 4-ply self-patterning yarn. The colourway for this has no fancy name that I'm aware of, it's only listed as "8863". I saw the colours together and they matched so perfectly, I couldn't believe they were totally different manufacturers!
Meet Mr Tengi. Obviously he's not a knitted toy, he's sewn and glued out of felt. He is a version of the logo for Kellys latest work project, and I believe he's already famous on the Tengi Twitter feed. Kelly asked me to help him make this little fellow to help with their promotional efforts, so I did. He's kinda cute :)
This is my completed Ribs to Go, by Susan Ashcroft. The yarn is Countess of Mohair 3-ply by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "I follow the wide fame of my father". It's a bit relentless while you're knitting it, so I found I had to take breaks to work on other things to break it up a bit, but it is lovely when it's finished.
Finally, this is my completed test knit of the pattern for Never Been to Greece. Since so many people commented on how much they liked the original, and a few even asked me to write up the pattern, I decided I would give it a go. This version is knit in Louisa Harding Amitola, the colourway is listed only as "116", and King Cole Masham, colourway cream.
Stash Enhancement
Only 2 new items added to my stash in the whole of the last month, although to be fair, it's not as though I needed any more after my indulgence in May!
This is "Dark-clouded son of Kronos" on Countess of Mohair 3-ply, by Countess Ablaze. This will be my last purchase from the Countess for a while, as she is taking a leave of absence for this summer to enjoy some time with her family. So I'm taking the opportunity to declare a yarn diet for the next 3 months. With the exception of potential birthday presents next month, I really shouldn't have any new yarn to show you until September at the earliest. Do feel free to tell me off if this isn't the case!
My youngest godsons mother is greatly enamoured of the colour grey. I already have a small pile of grey Drops Merino intended to make a sweater for his older brother, so I bought 3 balls of this to make a sweater for the little one. It's a worsted weight superwash wool by Ella Rae Yarns, in dark grey.
Stash Re-organisation
Well, I guess you've seen a lot of what I've used and acquired over the last 8 months or so, and I hadn't tidied my stash since September last year. So you can imagine that it was a bit of a mess!
I like to keep everything well organised, and logged on Ravelry. It makes it so much easier to choose a yarn for a new project, I simply search my own stash using the filters on ravelry to see if I have anything suitable. Over time though, things get moved around, and over-full, or shoved in wherever they will fit. So a few weeks ago I went through everything, checked it all over to be sure no pesky moths had snuck their way in, tidied it all up, and cataloged it properly.
While I was at it, I took a few photos, and I know how much you all love a bit of yarn porn, so take a look at my newly organised stash:
Publishing
Here's the bit I'm really excited about. As you saw in my FOs, I have test knit a version of the pattern that I've written up for Never Been to Greece. Yep, that's right, I've checked the maths, written it all up legibly, and tested it physically, and it works!
So I've published it! It is now available for download via Ravelry. It will cost £2.40 if you're in the UK or EU, I believe that if you're anywhere else in the world, including the USA, then our VAT doesn't apply to you, so for those of you outside of the EU it should only cost £2.00, or around $3.15 in US Dollars.
You can buy my first ever pattern here: Never Been to Greece
If you do choose to try out this pattern, then please feel free to contact me with any feedback you have, or ask any questions, then I can perhaps use this information in any updates I may need to release in the future.
What, no penguins?
Sadly, there are no penguins to show you this time. I haven't been anywhere that might provide me with penguin souvenirs. Perhaps next time.
That's all for now my dears.
