Pillow sham (test knit)

One of the great things about knitting in 2010 is you the wealth of online patterns, not to mention the number of other knitters out there who are ready to give advice and share their knowledge on sites like Ravelry. Yesterday I finished testing a beautiful pattern through Ravelry's Free Pattern Testers group, and I'm so pleased with it I want to share the results here.

This pillow sham was fun to knit and the end result looks great. It was designed by Lindsey at PreciousKnits, and the pattern should hopefully be available to buy at her etsy shop fairly soon. I highly recommend you check it out.

So my only question now is: what to knit next?

Silk purse - first design

Ages ago I made an undertaking that I would try and get some pictures online of various things I've been knitting. Given that I take on projects in spurts and post to this blog rather infrequently, that hasn't happened yet, but I wanted to post now because I'm rather proud of this purse I made - in particular because I designed it.

It's knitted with Rowan Pure Silk DK yarn, which I had a small amount of left over after making a cushion for my grandmother-in-law as long ago as Christmas... and I finally finished it last weekend. Glueing the frame was a bit of a messy business, but so far the whole thing seems fairly stable. I'm pretty pleased although if I attempt any future purse designs, it would be nice to get the bottom a little less, um, bulging. Still - not bad for a first effort!

Knitting obsession

I'm becoming a bit of a knitwear obsessive. At the Folk Festival last weekend I kept spotting lots of garments that looked like they were hand-knitted and had to restrain myself from asking the wearers about them (I imagine they wouldn't have been best-pleased if I was wrong!). Simon thinks it's all a bit amusing, but I can just throw his model plane obsession back at him, so we're both super-geeks now. Anyway, it turns out I'm enjoying this new hobby so much I'm now planning on making all my Christmas presents knitted. I guess I'd better get cracking, since I'm not exactly the fastest knitter!

I've signed up for a Ravelry account to try and keep myself a little more organised with what projects I'm working on, but until that becomes active I'm going to attempt to keep track of what I've already done here.

So far I have two completed projects - the first being a scarf I made a couple of years back while I was in Nottingham, which I've never really worn. It was more of a practice project - all in garter stitch, which I don't find all that attractive and which, in any case, doesn't sit all that well round your neck - as you can see.

Continuing the garter stitch theme, I also completed this tank top in July - I prefer this, but I'm still not sure how often I'll wear it. It has a fine example of my cack-handed crocheting (I had to learn how to do this just for this top) along the neck and armholes. I'm fairly pleased with the result as a first attempt at altering a pattern. It fits!

Failed!

Oh dear... on reading my last post, I've realised that my green-fingered ambitions have been somewhat foiled. The sunflower seeds, sadly, failed to produce any sunflowers (probably because they were planted too late) and, in a new turn of events, our landlord appears to have started working on the flowerbeds I was going to use. Which means I now have an enormous pot of mint growing in the windowsill, that really really wants an outside home. I think perhaps I need to recruit some people to help me find a patch of scrubland to plant it out...

On the other hand, I have picked up an old hobby and started knitting again. Strange how you suddenly rediscover things your mother taught you as you near your 30s. I'd forgotten how satisfying it can be... although I think I may need to learn how to be patient again; something I've lost since I first learnt to knit. I'll try and post a picture if I ever complete my current project!