FO : Latrigg

My latest FO to date : the test knit I did for Lily Kate from Joli House blog the cute little bag she designed and I am so glad I test knit with her again ! The pattern is very clever - no sewing at all - only have a little of ends to weave and voilà ! Done !

It took me a long time to knit because life hit me with a few issues : the first cold of my little one, I got Lasik for my eyes (Yay!), school is very time consuming. At least I have found a daycare for Florence in time and I did not miss any courses because of that. Finally we are shopping for a new car to replace the one my boyfriend is driving for a little over 2 years, a old 2002 Elantra without A/C... which is necessary to carry our daughter around and he's working as a sale representing on the road so we don't have choice. Oh! and what about the wedding, we are getting married in Cuba on April 26Th so a little to take care of here too...pff. Maybe I can ask for days of 26 hours ?

Okay let's get back to knitting

Pattern : Latrigg by Lily Kate France

(soon to be release)

Yarn : about 150 gr. of Red Heart Super Solids in light gray and 50 gr. of each green color and variegated green as contrast color.

Needle : 3.75 mm

Notes : It's my first bag - and second test knit for Lily - and I really enjoy knitting it ! Clever and simple but not too much to keep it very interesting. I love the texture and the colors I choose. the very best part is that there is no sewing involved in it, only a few ends to weave in at the end ! If you are looking for a cool and cute little bag it's the one !

Busy busy...

Life is full of activities, baby entertaining, knitting and school... pfff and I wonder why I don't have time to blog these days! I have 7 FO to show in the next few weeks, including 2 free patterns coming and tomorrow the FO about the latest test knit for Lily Kate from Joli House blog will be online and you will see the result of my hard work on this cute bag of her : Latrigg.

Here a little preview picture for you to enjoy...

My daughter is now 6 months and after 3 full weeks of saying «maman» all the time now she learns «papa» (dad) and say it all day long, keeping the mama calling when she's crying... :P She's so funny.

First FO of 2011 !!!

and it's a fresh start for 2011 FO's, still I didn't finish blogging about last FO of 2010...but I am too busy to do all I have to do at the same time ! It's my test knit hat : Kirkstone by Lily Kate from Joli House. I had a good time test knitting for her and I really enjoy the final product too, clever construction and cables, all I need to be happy while knitting. Not much of a challenge but enough to keep me interested while knitting.

Here are the specs of my latest creation :

Pattern : Kirkstone by Lily Kate France

 

Yarn : Classic Elite Premiere in pale lavender colorway (maybe not the best choice to knit with cotton but I wanted a hat to wear at spring time) about 1.75 skein used.

Needles : 4mm

Mods : not really mods but a little error in the original pattern (that she corrected after)... I ended with different cable at the crown of 2 sts knit instead of 3, but it's look gorgeous anyway like that so I didn't mind rip it off and do it again. I said it's my personnal touch... they are not supposed to know anyway how it was mean to be huh?

 

I really did enjoy test knit for this cool designer and it was a charm to knit one of her design too ! She kindly offered me another of her design so I will be able to present another creation of her "collection" this year. Thanks again for choosing me to help you out with your new pattern !!!

Working on test knitting

I have a new quick wip on needles since yesterday night : I am test knitting the new pattern of Lily France from Joli House : Kirstone. She is one talented young designer and I am very proud to test knit one of her design !!! I am already almost done with first repeat of the pattern and I truly enjoy this knit. I will also wear proudly the final product : a cute slouchy hat just how I like them.

Here is my progress so far with my little helper

Hopefully it will be soon my first FO of 2011 ! :)

FO : Amidon mitten

Yes I finally kick myself over my procrastination on that project and I finish the cuff of the Amidon mittens I was test knitting for Becky Herrick on Ravelry. It was a very fun knit and so easy to try your hands on felting.

Spec :

Pattern : Amidon mittens by Becky Herrick

Yarn : Knit Picks Wool of the Ande in color wine, 2 skeins

Knit Picks Merino Style in color coal, 2 skeins

Needle : DPN 8mm and DPN 5mm

Mod : I made the the cuff with yarn holds only double for the Merino style and simple for WOTA instead of the double as the pattern called for, because I felt I was going to be too big and I wanted to be easy to hide the cuff inside of sleeve in a winter coat. And I reverse color for the cuff too because I was running out of red and I prefer coal anyway !

I wish had made the thumbs smaller, they look ginormous on my hand and I am unhappy with this part. If I do this pattern again, I will cast on only 12 of 14 sts instead of 16 and I'll made it shorter too, but overall the pattern is really good and if you want to try on colorwork/felting for the first time, this is the pattern you need !

About the yarn : it felt very well but be aware that KP WOTA bleed a LOT when you wash it for the first time, my kitchen sink was all red after the first soak in hot water !

My lazy method of felting in front load machine washing...

I begun with a try on hand felting and after 10 minutes I was unable to continue, it's really really hard to do ! So I decide to trow them in my washing machine at the hottest cycle for an hour and then I check after an hour to mesure and I was still too big, I continue the cycle for another 45 minutes, check again with mesurements and it was just perfect !

Hopes this help because I had question by Ravelry about that.

Box is gone

Yes I just sent my last swap box for fall, on "swap on a budget" group. Still waiting for 2 of my own boxes now... and also another little project coming by. I agreed with a designer to test knit her new sock design and send it back to her in exchange with a little something. I will probably get her stuff in the next week or really soon.

Look at the cute little bangle I knit yesterday to complete my spoilee package : the Skulls bangle !

I just hope she will love everything ! :)

About my current test knitting on the Amidon mitten, I felt them yesterday night and I'm waiting for them to be fully dry. I begins with hand felting, but it was exhausting ! So I decided to use my front loader washing machine and it went very well. I'll send picture once they are completed, but for here how they looked just before I begun the felting.

They were HUGE !

So I'm out for now, I have my spoilee of the season swap fall 2008 in town for the week end ! It's so fun to meet her after I spoiled her ! I'll tour her around my city and see if she likes it ! BTW I just realize that all my post is all about red and black... LOL hopefully my swap box is in another color sheme ! :)

Happy bloganniversary to me

Hey it's already a year since I first post on my blog ! Wow this year have past so fast I can't imagine it's already the first round done on the blog...

Here some stats :

Today I'm posting my 90th message on the board.

I have now around 100 visits by week --- Thank you so much to all of you !

I do have visit from over 20 country around the globe (WOW!!)

Since the last few month I post around 3 times a week

knitting stats...

I produce ...(FO)

9 pairs socks - adult only

5 knitted accessories

4 baby related items - 2 pairs of socks, a hat and a pair of booties

3 pairs of fingerless gloves - none for me

2 sweaters

and 1 dishcloth

I have 9 WIP listed on my Ravelry account... but I think I have some non lited somewhere around my appartement. I do have to make a statement about some if I frog of not... I will post about my frogging experience soon since I decided to frog my 103-1 jacket...

I just hope that I can continue to interest all of you in reading my blog for another year !

And a little previex of what I'm doing right now... a pair of felted mitten for a test knitting...

My mom is modeling for me

FO : Hera socks

Yes it's done, the second sock was way easier beacause I knew the pattern and was sure it was error free because I test for the first one. So here it is :

Hera socks pattern by Jessamyn Leib

Needles : 2.25 mm and 2.75 mm

Size woman size 7.5

Yarn : Araucania Ranco Solid less than a skein (have enough to knit a baby pair of sock)

Cast on May 3rd and cast off May 13th

I love love love this yarn and it was very inexpensive and a good sock maker ! Definitly will buy more as soon as possible... and in many colors...

One sock down

Hey look I just grafted the toes of my number 1 Hera sock. Pattern is about to be release in a few days, be sure you check it, it's a fun pattern and the finish product is lovely ! A picture worth a thousand words as they say...

Hera

I will have a FO soon with these ! Stay tune ...

New IK summer 2008

Just received it yesterday and since I did not look the gallerie before today I am a bit disapointed of the designs for this summer, so far I only like 3 pattern enough to consider maybe knit them :

Apres Surf Hoodie by Connis Chang Chinchio

Plaid Halter by Gryphon Perkins

and Windowpane Socks by Chryssy Gardiner

(links are on Ravelry)

About Hera, I am doing good and I am close to the toes and will be done by the end of the week with the sock #1 for sure and will knit furiously to make the #2 as fast as possible because with all that sun today that makes me wanna knit socks and wear them in open shoes ! So people could see that I am wearing those cool socks and they are handmade, even if I am the only one to know... it will be my little secret while walking aroung in Quebec city ! Picture tomorow morning with the sunlight because I can't catch a could one so late today.

Umm by the way... it's my post #50, great huh ?

For tonight get a kitty(my ex-kitten)

Test knitting : Hera

As I told you, I am test knitting Hera pattern for Jesh and here are the progress :

The cuff and the leg is almost done now and I am waiting for instructions about the heel and the foot from her. Pattern is fun and easy to memorise and I love playing with this yarn ! It's my first time test knitting anything and so far this is fun to collaborate in the process. The yarn is the Araucania Ranco Solid that I bought some weeks ago. The yarn is fun to work with but a bit splitly. It's soft and the fabric created by the stickes is very very soft. I will probably buy of this yarn one day to maybe make myself a tank top of something close to the skin.

I think that I told you yet, but I sign in the Summer of Sock 2008 KAL. I also sign in both contests the most socks and the vacation picture. But my concern is about the sock yarn that I need to achieve my goal : I don't have large stash and I could not afford to buy that much new skeins so I arrange myself to get some sort of a sponsor.... my mommy and my BF will both sponsor some socks during the contest. How great is that !!!

PS if any yarn dealer what to sponsor me, I will be more than happy to provide you publicity for a very long time !!! :) What ? We never know...

Good bye my love

No bad news, but it's today that Mr Wonderful flew to a foreign country for his work... It's for a year and I will see him every 2 months for 2 weeks, but since today it's only the first day it's horribly hard to be alone tonight, I will miss you a lot honey !

Anyway, back to knitting !

Today I needed something to keep my hand busy and I knit this :

A little pair of sock ... incomplete because I ran out of yarn, it's the colinette jitterbug left from the Monkey sock, I will look at it maybe tomorow I will have to complete with another yarn for sure, I still also have a left over from another colinette jitterbug, but it's green... It will look weird. No rumor starting, I'm NOT pregnant or anything. Since the point was just to have fun maybe the green toes are acceptables Do you think so ?

Also, I will be test knitting a pair of socks for Jesh from Ravelry. My first test knitting ever and I am very excited to begin, You can see on my link her blog and the fabulous sock that I will test knit for her. Fun ahead.