Work in progress

I've been enticed lately by so many beautiful projects . I have no finished garment to show so instead I took some photos of what I've been up to.

This is Will by Kim Hargreaves, classy cardigan which uses two yarns , Rowan fine lace in black and kid silk haze in a grey colour .
Combining the two creates a soft drapey fuzzy fabric with a deep Gray colour.

I managed to purchased some of those Rowan shank buttons in grey shell which suit this cardi perfectly. I use stitch marker's to separate between the cable section , a fantastic buy from etsy -real copper and bright blue glass beads. Oh and look how I manage to bend all my knitting needles.. 

Another piece of knitting - a vest from Amimono.I always looking forward to any publication from  Helga Isager. She creates such good looking , fashionable pieces. Such a striking slip stitch effect .

The third garment bellow is Ravi from Carol Feller. I'm participating in her KAL.

An unusual construction - must have been a challenge to write a pattern to this one. I'm using a heavy 4 ply Sheila sock yarn from fyberspates. I'm out of gauge so need to reclaculate the pattern. The colour is understated rusty metal, blend of browny denim, I think its called verdigris.  

I decided to modified the front neck line, make it lower . Here is my progress so far :)

Oh and I'm so thrilled to go this year to the Rhinebeck wool show in October with a bunch of my knitting friends. Just cant wait !

Jubillee sweater

I had in mind to knit this sweater for the Jubilee weekend here in Britain. I know that the queen is not eveybody's cup of tea but I had to swear allegiance to her when accepting British citizenship and she symbolised the country where my life I live . A lot of Union jack flags were raised this pass week on houses , shops, cars and streets and  I raised my own one in the way I know and love best ..

You can see that I used neutral colours for the flag. There is no strong red and blue in your face. All the yarn are from British sheep breeds , undyed of Rowan . The breeds in use are bluefaced Leicester- fairly fine, dense and demi-lustrous, soft to the touch and drapes well, Jacob with their often multiple horns and Suffolk -its fleece moderately short with fine fibers.

I used one of Rowan's designs , the union flag dress to knit my sweater. On the model in the Rowan website the dress looks very well fitted. Truth is that the model is tucking away the unsightly extra width of the sleeves. The designer decided to have a very wide but shallow sleeve caps to set in the armholes. The result is excess fabric in the shape of 'arm wings'.. So, to the person who is reading this and decides on knitting this -you are strongly advised to calculate again those sleeves caps. I am too fed up to reknit the sleeves -one will just have to do with what it got !

:-)