Red stripes go faster!

Ever since I saw this MillaMia pattern I've wanted to make it for Connor.  So I was most pleased to get it as a freebie in a magazine at last year's craft fair (not that I'd mind buying the book, they are lovely patterns!)

I've been working on it trying to get it done in time so it could go in the Knitters' Guild display at the Royal Easter Show this year.  Success!  I got it done in plenty of time!

Details
Pattern: Niklas cardigan by MillaMia, from the book Bright Young Things. Nice pattern, easy to follow, all made in pieces - which I didn't mind - smaller pieces seem to go faster!  (just like red stripes!).  I made the 2-3 yo size.

Yarn:  Even though the MillaMia yarn is lovely, I substituted Morris Paddington, an 80/20 bamboo/merino blend.  Mostly because I had a voucher for Morris & Sons and these colours were perfect!  I used about 1.5 skeins of each of the 3 colours - 634 Lipstick (red), 625 Pearl (silver grey) and 636 Magnetic Grey (charcoal).  I did think about converting the pattern to do seamlessly, but I thought the seams might provide some extra infrastructure to combat bamboo's tendency to sag.  Fingers crossed!

Sticks:  3mm and 3.25mm KnitPicks Options.

Time:  6 February 2012 - 29 March 2012

Modifications:  I made the body of the cardigan longer - everyone always says you need extra length in knits for babies and toddlers.  And I'm hoping it will fit him for longer than one season.  The extra length (about 5cm/2") meant I had to add an extra buttonhole, which fortunately worked out to be just at the point where the decreases start for the v-neck of the cardigan.  Nice one!

Of course, as soon as I finished the cardi, we got a wave of warm weather (summer is finally here!  in autumn!), so I don't have any modelled shots, but I will post some eventually!  I was going to show you a photo of my excellent seaming (it really is so much easier when you can match the stripes!) but the photo I took does not show said excellent seaming...um, the seaming is not quite as even as I thought it was, heh!

And so this year Connor has one new cardi and I have none.  Even though I planned on making myself at least 4 cardis this year!  Heh!  I'd better get a move on, since I haven't even started the first cardi for myself and it's already 1/4 of the way through the year!

Red stripes go faster

My first FO of 2012!  Towards the end of this project, I never thought it was going to be finished, but then, as if by magic, the very last fat stripe was done and I was casting off.  Amazing!

Details:
Pattern: Stripe Study by Veera Valimaki.  Yes, just about everyone has knit this. Something about the stripes, the garter stitch, and the clever, but easy pattern.  Not to mention the great photography and yarn colour choice.  You can't underestimate the power of good project photographs to sell patterns!

I really enjoyed knitting this.  Yes, the last stripe seemed neverending - 4"/10cm of garter stitch on rows approaching 500 stitches each (I think - I couldn't bring myself to actually count!).  But the short rows to provide the assymetrical shaping is a really cool feature, and fun to knit.  And you don't have to pick up the wraps in garter stitch short rows either!  I used a stitch marker where I wrapped the stitch, so on the next row I just had to remove it and count 20 stitches beyond it, before the next wrap. Made this even more of an autopilot knit.

Yarn:  Wollmeise 100% Merino superwash in Clementine - 1 skein plus 20g, and Wollmeise 80/20 Twin in Vamp, just under 1 skein.  I really like orange and red together, but omg this orange is BRIGHT!  It really didn't look as flurescent in the skein.  And nor does the colour really show true in the photos - it is much much brighter.  I figure this will be just like a safety vest in poor visibility weather - like a beacon!  It will certainly brighten up a dull winter's day!

Sticks:  4mm KnitPicks Options

Time:  30 August 2011 - 8 January 2012

Modifications:  I did 13 orange stripes (the pattern has you knit 12).  Mainly because I had enough yarn.  As it turns out, I had to omit the very last 2 rows of orange, because I would have run out, but it is a very forgiving pattern, and so this isn't really noticeable. Otherwise, I knit the pattern as written. It ended up being 60"/153cm in length and 27"/68cm in depth (pre-blocked - I haven't actually blocked it yet!)/

I really enjoyed knitting this.  I'm not entirely convinced how wearable it is - not because of the colour, but the shape.  I will reserve my judgment on this, I think it is going to need a shawl pin to stay on, especially if I wear it more as a shawl (ie for warmth) rather than just a scarf.  But I do know that I'll never get hit by a car when wearing it, heh!

Unless I happen to be lying down whilst wearing it ... a certain someone thinks it makes an excellent superhighway for all of his cars - it has already fulfilled this function a number of times, and I haven't even worn it yet!

Hello TwentyTwelve!

Can you believe it?  I almost can't - but all the great knitting retrospectives I've been reading (and have waiting still in my blog reader) tell me otherwise!

I'm not organised enough to do a photo review of my knitting year, but thanks to the magic of Ravelry and my trusty moleskine knitting diary, I can tell you I started 34 projects, and I finished 34 projects.  If only the new projects matched the finished projects, heh!

Some of my FO's were big - my Olive jumper and Big Woolly vest, plus 2 skirts - Lanesplitter (which I have still to blog properly - woops!) and my Super Special Birthday Skirt.  Some were small - crochet snowflakes and a bunch of crochet dishcloths, plus a BALL!.  There were things for the little guy - a cardigan, 3 vests and a pair of pantses; gifts for friends - a baby cardi, a shawl, a hat, a tea cosy and a crochet ball; and of course socks - Nutkin, Heritage socks and husby's Frankensocks. And a few other bits and pieces - two scarves, a hat, another shawl, some mitts and a bag.

Amongst those FOs I managed to finish 7 pre-2011 WIPS.  And yet at the end of 2011, I still have 15 WIPS!  So it will be a Binding Off 2012 year again...but more of that in another post.  One thing that won't be bound off in 2012 - of course my Beekeeper Insanity! 

As for stash honesty...well, I am sad (sort of!) to report that I have not broken even, let alone reduced the stash in 2011.  But it hasn't grown much...heh heh.

In December, I just had to buy 2 bags of Rowan Calmer - a unique yarn, discontinued!  And a great price, thanks to Jannette's Rare Yarns.  I forgot to take a photo but I got a bag of garnet (a lovely red) and a bag of Tree, which is a fab green.  I can't decide which to knit up first!

I also received some lovely gift yarn - a skein of Cascade Heritage Silk from Bells - which I think just might be too nice to knit sexypuffs with!  It is so soft.  Yummo.

And a couple of balls of red yarn from my friend MissJ, who wanted to be a part of my Beekeeper insanity!  I must say, it is a lovely thing that so many of my friends are a part of my quilt, through their leftover yarn donations and gifts.  It really is a bit of a group project in that way, which makes it even more special.

So let's not put off the final tallying any further:

In: 22 x 50g balls
Actual balls used:  6 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  9.5 x 50g balls
metres used:  1076m

For the year 2011
Actual balls used: -16.5 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  112 x 50g balls
metres used:  13,054m

I was surprised to find I'd used the equivalent of 112 balls of 8ply yarn this year - I didn't think it would be that much!  And whilst I came out with a bit more yarn than I started with, it wasn't a crazy amount (and if I'd just ignored that Calmer, I would have been ahead!!  Oh well, I can't ignore a discontinued yarn bargain, that's nothing new!

Christmas snowflake sexypuff!

I will keep up the stash honesty next year, I think I need the bit of discipline that it gives me - because trust me, if I wasn't writing it all down each month, I know I would have more yarn than I currently do!

I will leave you with my first sexypuff of 2012 - I spent the last few minutes of 2011 and the first few minutes of 2012 knitting this in lovely Wollmeise whilst watching the NYE fireworks (yes, my life is that exciting!). You know how they say you should start a new year the way you want it to continue - well, knitting with great yarn, donated by a lovely friend, on my crazy but great big 5 year plan project.  Yes, that's how I'd like to continue TwentyTwelve.

Happy New Year! 

Third time lucky

I have this yarn - my very first Wollmeise, a lovely gift some years ago now (thanks again Michele!).

I have tried to make something out of it twice before.  The first time, I just decided I didn't like the pattern I'd chosen.  And I was glad to frog it.

The second time, I loved the pattern (still do) but the gauge wasn't right.  So after some time, I frogged it too. 

This time, I have hit the jackpot!  I decided to use this very special yarn to make a special something for me for my birthday.  So for about 6 weeks before my birthday, I was quietly working away on this, which I called my birthday suit!

Details:
Pattern: Charlotte Skirt by Doris Chan, Interweave Crochet Summer 2010.  I know!  A crochet skirt!  And it's not even the (19)70s!  heh heh!

(pre-blocking)

Yarn:  2 skeins of Wollmeise 100% Superwash merino in Rosenrot (yep, that's RoseRed in German!).  Actually, it was less than 2 skeins, probably about 1.5 skeins in all.  They are some big skeins, such good value!  And of course you know what I did with the leftovers...yes, more sexypuffs!

Hook:  4.5mm hook

Time:  30 September 2011 - 9 November 2011.  Crochet really does go so fast!

Modifications:  I made the pattern as written, except to make it much longer (as written, it would be shorter than knee length on me - I don't think it's a great idea to flash my 40 yo knees to anyone much any more!  So I did an extra 20 rows (repeated rows 13 and 14, I think - the last 2 rows before the increases), to the length desired. Which fortunately coincided with finishing the first skein of yarn - so I blocked it, to see how much it would grow with blocking.  Lucky I did, because it grew quite a bit!  Loose gauge will do that for you!

What I learnt:  Three main things:
1.  How hard it is to find a plain black straight skirt to wear underneath!  If I'd had time, I would have sewed a skirt.  In fact, I probably could have sewed one in the time it took me to find this one at the shops!

2.  I made a "foundation chain" for the first time.  It was a bit fiddly but I got the hang of it after about the first 10 chains!  I'm not sure it is better than a regular chain.  I suspect it is. I figured when making a skirt for the first time, I should just follow the experienced designer's instruction, as I suspect she had a good reason for doing it this way!

3.  Best not to store your yarn out on the coffee table, no matter how attractive it looks...because when you go to wind it some years later, this is the outcome:

Woops!  At least it was still usuable!  The rest of the yarn that was on display is now quarantined in ziplock bags!

I do love my lovely rosered swingy birthday suit skirt! And because I frogged a pre-2011 project to make this, I figure this counts as another Binding off 2011 challenge project done!  Woohoo!

StashDownUnder - November 2011

Lots of knitting and crochet this month but I'm afraid I fell off the wagon when it comes to yarn purchases.  A ball here, a holiday skein there, a couple of destash temptations over there, a "well, I'm going hopeless anyway so I might as well buy another ball" here.

And surprise surprise, its all red!!  (shown with a bunch of donated leftovers for my Beekeeper Insanity). 

But on the Beekeeper front, I am doing well!  35 puffs this month, ahead of schedule!  Yay! What do you think of the chevron arrangement?

In: 14 x 50g balls (ulp!)
Actual balls used: 6 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent: 12 x 50g (LOTS of 4 ply work this month!)
metres used: 1395m

Year to date
Actual balls used: -4 x 50g balls. 
8ply equivalent:  102.5 x 50g balls
metres used: 11978m

Last month I commented that I might come out stash negative or at worst stash neutral by the end of this year.  I am predicting right now that that will not be the case!!  Darn you Rowan for discontinuing Calmer!  (not that I've bought any yet...but I'm prety sure I will be!)

Knit for Connor month: Floyd Vest

This is my third and final instalment of Knit for Connor month (which should more correctly be called Knit for Connor Two Months, since I made most of this in September rather than August!).

When I was planning the projects for KfCm, I found something very interesting - well, to me anyway.  And perhaps those also knitting for small children.  The sizes are SO INCONSISTENT!  It shouldn't come as a surprise, really, given that this is also the case for women's clothing (I can't really speak for men!).  But it is annoying, because it makes it very hard to knit in advance.  I knit the 12-18mo size in the Pembroke vest, and it is a good fit with a bit of room for next year (and with any luck, the year after, since people who know tell me small kids tend to grow up more than out for the first couple of years!).  This vest I knit the 3yo size, because I had enough yarn and I thought I might as well.  And what do you know, it fits pretty perfectly now.  With a little bit of room, maybe less than the Pembroke vest.  Although to be fair, I haven't blocked it yet, and being cotton it might grow!  And I even made it a wee bit longer than the pattern specified!!

Details
Pattern:  Floyd vest, by Martin Storey, from Rowan Miniature Classics.  This is a lovely book of baby and toddler patterns.  Sizing issues aside, I will definitely be making more from this book.  I hope!

As with almost all Rowan patterns, it is knit flat and seamed.  It could be converted to knit in the round if you desire, although the shoulder and side seams are fairly short and don't take much seaming really!

Yarn:  Rowan Handknit Cotton, 3 x 50g skeins in red (shade 215 lot 3883038).  I liked knitting with this cotton, although it definitely is harder on the hands than wool.  It knits up really nicely though, I am very happy with the way it looks.

Sticks:  I started this when I was away, and even though I grabbed my set of KnitPicks Harmony Options, I found I didn't have the correct size for the ribbing (3.25mm) so I used 3.5mm instead, and I think it looks fine!  I used 4mm for the main part of the vest, as specified by the pattern.

Time:  27 August 2011 - 28 September 2011 (it took me a little while to sew on the buttons!)

Modifications: I knit the vest as specified, except for the change in stick size noted above for the ribbing.  However, I omitted the pocket, because it really is pointless.  Not big enough to be useful, and for some reason which I cannot fathom, the pocket flap does not have a button hole, even though the pattern shows it with a button on it.  The flap is knit separately and then joined to the front of the vest as you knit it (very clever!).  But the pocket itself is seamed on afterwards.  I figured it would just add bulk and drying time, and as the flap had a tendency to stick up, I thought I'd just sew it down when I added the button.

The button-hole-less pocket flap!

If you want a useable pocket and flap, I'd suggest adding a buttonhole to the flap when you knit it!

I think this is a very cute, easy and practical knit.  I just wish that the size was a little bigger so it would fit for longer!  Next time, I will pay more attention to the schematics and Connor's actual measurements!

StashDownUnder - September 2011

I had a good month this month!  I can't say no yarn came in, because I did receive two lots of red 4ply for my Beekeeper insanity, but nothing that I bought myself!  So that's not too bad! And I somehow managed to have a HUGE knitting month, so go me! Heh!

This month:
In:  2 x 50g balls
Actual balls used:  10.5 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent: 15.5 x 50g balls (LOTS of 4ply knitting this month! plus a couple of balls donated to Guild)
metres used: 1,138m

Year to date:
Actual balls used: -7.75 x 50g balls (I might just come out neutral by the end of this year!)
8ply equivalent: 78 x 50g balls
metres used:  9001m

I thought I might as well do my Beekeeper update today too.  This month was a good month, I managed to do 34 sexypuffs - yes, more than one per day!  Hurrah!

I also tried out the crochet version, which is free on Ravelry.  I had to modify it a bit, to ensure they match my knitted puffs in terms of size, but that is easily done.

And I like the bit of texture that the crochet puffs give to the quilt.  Red and texture!  I might have to try a moss/seed stitch puff sometime soon!

Um, yeah, I think I really must BEEE crazy!

So the other day I was surfing Ravelry and decided to have a look at some of the other Beekeeper Quilt projects.  One of them very helpfully linked to an online calculator to work out how many hexagons you need for a hexagon quilt (sewn).  You plug in the size you want to make it - in my case, queen size bed size - and how big the side of your hexagon is, and it tells you how many you need.

So.

Yeah.

I need to make 1829 sexypuffs!  1829!!!!  (just in case you thought I'd typed it wrong the first time!).  I put the numbers in the calculator 3 times just to check I hadn't done it wrong the first two times!

I was thinking I needed to make about 800.  And figured it would probably take me two years to do that.  So I had to do a little rethink.  Now I'm aiming to make a sexypuff a day.  And even then it will take me more than 5 years to finish this thing.  Heh heh.  Let's see how we go!

I'm going to keep a running tally in my sidebar, as to how I'm going each month.  In August, I managed 28 of the little fellas.  Not bad, considering I started on the 8th of August.  I've been thinking about how I'm going to put them together (design wise).  The original quilt is randomly put together (as far as I can tell) but what do you think of this? 

They sort of look like flowers, right?  I've got lots of the plain red (about 1kg) so I thought I'd surround a variegated flower (with a plain red centre) with plain red flowers, which have a variegated centre.  Any other suggestions?

You can never have too many

You can never have too many pairs of red socks, right?

I needed a nice easy portable project a while back (um, in February...) and what better choice is there than stocking stitch socks with a pretty yarn?  (let's not mention that I actually wound this yarn in May last year to take to hospital with me.  Yeah, it never left the project bag!)

I finally finished them, and seem to have taken almost as long to get around to posting them as I did knitting them!

Details
Pattern:  Just my basic cuff down plain vanilla socks!  Although I did add some calf shaping into these.  I think I started with 72 stitches and steadily decreased down to 64, as I moved down the leg.  I did a tubular cast-on and twisted rib, and my favourite eye of partridge heel flap, and wedge toe. 

Oh, I did do something different, I did a dutch heel, from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  Thought I'd try it out, as others have commented on how they like it.  I don't mind knitting it, but I don't think it fits my foot as well as a regular heel.  Good to know!

Yarn:  A new yarn for me, Cascade Heritage Handpaints, a lovely blog prize from GeekKnitter.  I like this yarn, it feels nice but still sturdy, and I like how the colours behaved, with a subtle blue and purple stripe effect.  I would use this yarn again for sure.

Sticks:  2.5mm KnitPicks fixed circular, for magic looping - my favourite method for plain socks.

Time:  2 February 2011 - 1 August 2011.

And a nice little bit of leftovers which go straight to the Beekeeper Quilt yarn fund, heh!

Bumpity bump bump bump

I have a bit of a backlog of projects to post about.  I don't quite know how this happened, but I'd best get some up here on the blog for posterity!

First up is a new vesty cardigany type thing...

Details
Pattern:  A heavily modified version of Bump by Gina Bonomo. 
Yarn:  4.25 x 100g balls of Rowan Big Wool in Cassis (col 24).  A funny (sort of) story about this yarn.  I bought it a few years ago, maybe 5 years, on sale at a yarn shop in Mittagong (which no longer stocks Rowan yarns).  I had always thought I had 6 balls of it, and so while I was planning what to knit from it, I based my planning on the fact that I had a certain amount of yardage.  And that it's really too hot in Sydney, even in winter, for a long sleeved garment using a super bulky yarn such as this.  So I always figured it would be some sort of vest.

Anyway, I bought this pattern on a bit of a whim, and when I got the yarn out of the depths of the stash cupboard (ok, one of the stash cupboards), I found I had 8 balls of it.  GAAAHHHHH!  It really could have changed my planning entirely.  But by that stage, I was over planning, had bought the pattern, and just wanted to cast on.  So I did.

50g ball of worsted/10ply yarn on left for scale!

And I ended up only using just over half the yarn anyway!!  Now I am trying to decide whether to destash the remainder or keep it for some other project at some time in the future...heh!

Sticks:  12mm and 10mm KnitPicks Options.  It's funny, people think it's really quick to knit garments with superbulky yarn and huge crowbar needles.  But really, it's not that fast!  I mean, the knitting grows quickly, of course, but I find I knit so much slower with such huge sticks.  Nevertheless, I did get a completed vest in a pretty short time!

Hello small hand!

Time:  20 June 2011 - 30 June 2011 (ok, a vest in 10 days, when I was working on other things as well, is pretty quick, isn't it!)

Modifications:  The pattern only gives two sizing options.  I did some extra raglan increases for the armholes (it is knit top down, seamlessly - good for superbulky yarn, to avoid even more super super bulky seams!).  And I did the raglan increases as yarnovers, to give it a bit of a lacey look and also allow some air in (as I was still a bit unsure about whether a vest in this yarn would be too hot for Sydney!). 

I did not do the reverse stocking stitch section on the pattern, which starts just under the bust.  It just didn't really appeal to me.  Instead, I kept increasing on the front edges, and then added a stepped garter edging down the fronts, and around the bottom.  I thought a smoother line would be more flattering in a vest which already adds enough bulk through the yarn.

And I have worn it a few times and have been pleasantly surprised at how cosy but not hot it is to wear.  Yay!  I'm not sure it is the most flattering of garments, but it's red and it's cosy and I like it anyway!

I must be(e) crazy!

I first saw the Beekeeper's Quilt early last week on Ravelry.  As some designs tend to do, it kept popping up in my friend's activity tab, being favourited and/or queued by lots of people.  And I thought it was cute, but that was it.

But then something happened, and I'm not even entirely sure how.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it.  And how nice it would be all done in shades of red (how unusual for me!  Heh heh!).  But I didn't buy the pattern straight away.  I figured if I still couldn't stop thinking about it after a week, then maybe I should buy it.

And yesterday, I did!  And I went stash diving and gathered up my red sock yarn leftovers (reds and red-purples and red-oranges and a few red-pinks).  I also just might have bought a ball of heathered red yarn last weekend at Morris & Sons, and I have quite a bit of solid red 4ply/fingering yarn which MissFee picked up for me at the Wang mill last year.  But funnily enough, I don't actually have that much variegated and semi-solid red yarn leftovers.

And I made my first hexapuff.  And my second, and third, and fourth, and fifth (and I'm knitting my sixth right now!).  Each one uses somewhere between 11-15m (according to others on Rav who have knitted and then frogged one - I can't bring myself to do that, heh!).  So I'm going to have to accumulate some more red leftovers (or use whole skeins of sock yarn, which is perhaps a good idea - I mean how many pairs of red socks do I really need, heh!!)

I figure if I can make 5 each week then it will only take me, oh, nearly 2 years, to make one to cover a queen size bed.  See, I told you I must be(e) crazy!  Is anyone else going to join me?

Red red reddy red Rudy

I decided I wouldn't torture myself (or my friends/relations) this year by doing any Christmas knitting - with one small exception - I'm not sure why I made this exception, maybe subconsciously I'm trying to demonstrate to non-knitters that knitting is (a) cool and (b) useful. Although I suppose "cool" and "useful" are all relative!

Anyway, I made this for my parents group secret santa (we had a Christmas get-together on the weekend - nice - because we got to meet the dads - well, except of course for the couple of dads that come to group every week!)


Details
Pattern: Rudy by Elaine Fitzpatrick - an easy knit/purl bib with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The pattern is free but is written - so I spent a little bit of time charting it before I knit it - so much easier to follow. I particularly like the short row shaping at the bottom edge, to give it that nice curved edge.


Instead of doing i-cord ties for the bib, I knit a neck strap with buttonhole in garter stitch and sewed a button on the other side - I think buttons are (slightly) easier than trying to tie a bib on a wriggling baby.

Yarn: Peaches and Cream worsted cotton - in red (but of course!) - about 50g


Sticks: 4mm bamboo straights (old skool!). Bit tight knitted worsted cotton on 4mm sticks, but it does make a good thirsty fabric, which is what you want in a bib. And it won't really stretch either, also good for a gift for a non-knitter!


Time: 25 November - 4 December 2010


Little Sophie was the lucky (?) baby who received this gift (which I wrapped with a couple of books - can never have too many books for babies and kids, I think). Her mum seemed to really like it, and told me at group the week after that she was going to make it into a little Christmas lolly bag once it's use as a bib was done, by sewing a piece of fabric on the back. Which I thought was an excellent idea!

Big blanky for me!

I bought this great yarn (Karabella Margrite, an 8ply/DK 80/20 merino/cashmere blend) when an Australian online yarn store closed down a few years ago - there were only 5 balls in the red, an awkward amount for a project - not enough for a garment but too much for most accessories - but I couldn't resist. Like all good knitters, I knew the yarn would tell me what it wanted to be eventually.

Then when I saw DrK's huge red Shetland Triangle (Ravlink), I knew that I had found the project for my yarn. Just not the time to cast on...

Until one day in December last year, I had the knitting blahs, so I decided it was time, time to start my own huge red Shetland Triangle.

Details

Pattern: Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl by Evelyn A Clark, from Wrap Style. A lovely, easy, beautiful pattern, which uses the fir cone lace stitch pattern which I love! Looks like a blobby mess pre-blocking...but apply water and a some Soak wool wash and magic happens.

The pre-blocked size was 144cm/57" across the wingspan, and 65cm/25.5" deep.

Post-blocking, I achieved a wingspan of 190cm/75" and depth of 98cm/38.5". Fabulous!

Yarn: Karabella Margrite, 4.5 x 50g balls. This yarn is expensive, but has amazing yardage (154yd/141m per 50g ball)! I ended up doing 13 repeats of the body pattern and tossed up whether to do another, but really didn't want to end up short of yarn, and I'm glad I made the right choice, I wouldn't have had enough for that extra repeat.

Sticks: 5.5mm KP Harmony Options

Time: 9 December 2009 - 9 April 2010. While the beginnings of the shawl went quickly, I thought it was never going to end - those final rows were quite long! But I got there in the end!

And I'm so glad I did, I love it! It will be my lovely winter blanky shawl. If only it would actually get cold here - we're in mid-Autumn and still having daytime temperatures of 25C or higher (that's 77F for my US friends). Not that I'm really complaining. But this weather is not so good for the knitwear!