Cashmere collar

Love these classy and elegant cashmere accessories by lowie, available at Labour of Love.

Festive sweater - FO

I finished my festive sweater last night - I love it!



So, the construction is standard Zimmermann percentage system, but with the addition of a scoop neck (increased about every 8 rows, then every 4 rows). The body shape is snug at the top and flared out at the bottom, and long like a tunic. The bottom hem has a purl-turned row (decided the picot was too fussy) and the neckline is simply edged in reverse stocking stitch which curls neatly in on itself. The super-long arms have a smaller snowflake motif taken from the main chest pattern and are edged in 1x1 rib.



The Sirdar Balmoral yarn washed and blocked beautifully and it's incredibly warm. It will be getting airings at my work and knitting group Christmas parties, and maybe even an appearance on Christmas Day.



Ravelry link
More photos

Festive sweater: progress

Some progress on the festive sweater. The body is finished - I added increases from the bust, creating a kind of empire line to suit my body shape, and cast off with a picot edging. I think I made up the technique for the picot - I did a row of (yo,k2tog) then a few rows plain, then I folded at the yo row and stitched the live stitches down to the inside to create the seam and bind off in one go. It worked quite well and made a nice stretchy edging. I hate when the bind-off row feels too tight.



I've started the arms now using Magic Loop, just trying to decide how to shape and finish them - probably picot edging to match the body, maybe with a smaller fair isle motif around the cuff.

Tea cosy

I was commissioned a few months ago to knit a tea cosy for a digital agency, to use as their logo/branding. Here's the finished result.

Festive sweater WIP

I've just started on a festive sweater that i'm hoping to have finished to wear on Christmas day! The pattern is just based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage raglan, and I made up a reindeer-snowflake-hearts-tastic fair isle pattern for the chest using Photoshop (I've even made sure the pattern centres on the front, which is quite advanced forward thinking for me). The chart's below if you'd like to use it - it's worked over 48 stitches which worked handily into 3 repeats around my 144-stitch chest.







Ravelry project link