Hetty and Agatha

Oooo, a new pattern from Andi Satterlund!! Hetty looks totally amazing. It’s my birthday next month and I already had two of Andi’s patterns on my list along with the wool to knit them and now Hetty might make it to the top of my list.

Scratch that, Hetty has made it to the top of my list. I think it’s my favourite pattern of hers yet.

Anyway, enough swooning. Agatha is another one of Andi’s patterns and the first one I started knitting (remember how I knit a bit of one thing and then one of another so believe me when I say I have other Andi patterns underway 😉 )

It was a pain in the backside at first, this being the first garment I’ve ever knitted,  but it was complete user error and not Andi’s pattern-writing at all. But once I got the hang of things I was all over this and I’m halfway through a second already!

I have to apologise for the photos, Mark is away working and decided he absolutely needed all of the memory cards so I’ve had to use my phone 😦

There’s definite mistakes in it, things I didn’t realise until several rows later and was too lazy to frog and reknit. However, I feel confident that the next one is going to be better so this purple version was just a very drawn out muslin :p

This is how I blocked the thing:

Not conventional by any means but actually I’m not sure why?! Perhaps people care about their carpets…

I started out with boards and plastic bags, blah, blah, blah… This was much much easier. My board was too small to do the whole cardigan so I had to do it in halves which was quite frankly, rubbish. My carpet is considerably larger than my cardigan and the pins stay in nicely which makes for a perfect blocking tool. I stuffed the arms with plastic bags as well to open up the detail on the arm a bit more, I spritzed and steamed the thing and then left it overnight.

Now to choose a colour for my inevitable Hetty project. Oh wait, I did just do a post about all my WIPs

but Hetty….! ❤

Process or Result?

Are you a process or a result sewer/knitter?

I am most definitely a process knitter. I had believed I was all along but today really confirmed it.

Let’s start with my Agatha cardigan. Looking back on my Ravelry notes I started this in September of last year. I remember finishing a sleeve around January time but when did I actually finish the cardigan?

Yesterday.

I loved knitting my cardigan, it was really fun getting to grips with all the new techniques, this being the first garment I’d ever knitted, (you just don’t see cables and lacework in stuffed toys!) and although there were times when I wanted to burn the thing and then drop kick it into oblivion I can genuinely say that overall it was good fun.

But I’d already done one sleeve. The left sleeve has to look the same as the already-knitted right sleeve and where’s the fun in that?! So it sat and sat until holiday time came and the only thing I took with me was this cardigan. 2.5 hour plane journey there and back plus a delayed flight meant the only thing I had to do was knit this sleeve. Plus, after 6 months I’d kind of forgotten how to do it so it was almost fun again!

Back to today. I don’t know if you’re aware, or if you are aware but pretending you’re not, or if you just live under an anti-seasonal rock but it’s 4 months people. 4 months and Christmas will upon us. I for one do not want to be empty-handed when it comes to gift giving so I’ve been making plans already. (Actually I completed my first project in April. I’m a regular Christmas elf, so shoot me.) Today was wool-buying day for said projects which is always fun. I got this amazing yarn which self fair-isles!! (Yes, I believe this is the technical term.) So when I got home from the wool shop what did I do? Cast on a new project, of course.

New wool also requires a sort out of my wool area. I ‘d like to say wool shelves, or wool cupboard but realistically it just takes over an area, which is usually the size of my house….

Whilst doing so this is what I found:

That’s 6 WIPs,  SIX!!

Not forgetting the project I cast on today (7), my Christmas gift projects takes us up to 10 plus I’ve been asked to do a very weird project indeed for my SIL which makes 11. That’s not even counting the sewing WIPs which is almost as bad. (Think there’s 3 or 4 of those)

The cream thing at the top right is also missing a sleeve, but that’s it, so I’m determined to get that finished over the weekend. That’ll be one down, bam! Next up will be one of the Christmas projects. I know, I know, WIPs need doing but it’ll be quick, I promise. Then that pink thing, maybe a sewing project or two. Just you wait, this blog will be filled with all kinds of knitty goodness! Starting with my Agatha, which just needs photographing 😀

I’m sure you’ll forgive me..

Well hello!

It’s been literally months since I was last around, but give me two minutes, let me explain:

 

Yeah! I’m bloomin’ married! So as I’m sure you can understand I was preeeeety busy- I made my own cake:

 It was originally supposed to be 3 tiers but let’s just say it got to 2am on the morning of my wedding and I decided to stick with 2… 

 

So yeah, I’m married. 

 

It’s now the 6 week summer holiday so lots and lots of sewing and knitting time for me 😀

I’ve just completed something very exciting but the buttons I chose for it look tacky. To his credit Mark told me the buttons looked tacky the day I bought them but I ignored him. Now I have to wait a couple more days until I can be totally finished 😦

I’ve had time to finish a billion other things too but they’ll get their own post. 

I just wanted to say hi 😀