Rhombing Around

Looking back at my projects I'm fast becoming a Rililist. I enjoy immensely and appreciate all her small details, technics and style. If I'm looking for some inspiration, La Maison Rililie's ravelry page is my address.
You've surely notice the dominance of cardigans in my wardrobe but this time I fell for a Jumper. Rhombing around just ticked all my fancies. An interesting texture for the main body and cuffs in a lovely 'seer sucker' stitch pattern that create multi little rhombus(es) hence the naming I guess. An interesting construction when you begin at the top, and I'm all for unusual constructions.
Color combination choice is fun and even more satisfactory when all is knitted from stash. And oh did I do well restashing- double fingering held together for body and kidsilk haze added to sleeves for extra luxury and fuzz.
I admire her collar cast off - so clever. And look at the cuffs, see how the seer sucker stitch pattern complement the body and completes the jumper. That is good designing.

 

Ok, firstly it took sometime to come up with the colour scheme. The decision to use white, yellow pink and grey together came from a recent trip to My John Lewis store. I have a weakness for scarfs and I totally loved this Ted Baker little number (colours on photo are too intense). Had to splurge and buy it.

 

 

Next stage was stash diving. A year ago in a weak moment I ordered 4 skeins of Cashmere merino fingering yarn from 'Skein' in Australia in Sterling (soft grey) and got painfully stung by tax and post office charges. Never again she says.. I knitted those double which created a lovely soft textured fabric. The white colour is Madelinetosh pashmina 'silver fox' plus some Rowan kid silk haze in cream. I introduced a bit  yellow on the top arm's fair isle- uncommon thread in 'London stock' a pale yellow that I enhanced with some 'Skein Queen' alpaca lace in zingy yellow. The peach pink is an amazing skein, BFL silk DK I bought in Brighton Unwind from the Walk collection stand. I think it is called strawberry cheesecake -A stunning mix of pinks and golden oranges. 

 

 

 

 

I had a setback with the sleeves, totally my fault. Looking at the knitted sample of the pattern pages I felt the armholes were too tight for wearing a light shirt underneath so increased the armhole depth and went one size up the sleeves. I was happy with the depth but not with the sleeve which looked too baggy on me. A third sleeve was knitted as you do..

Another mod to this jumper is connected to its shape. It is an A line jumper so I was careful and increase only once down the body. Its roomy but not too baggy on my tummy.

Success !

 

Funky grandpa in Crete



Almaryda, Crete

Here in the UK we are basking in an unseasonably warm weather. I moved to England about 17 years ago and built my life here but I always long for the Mediterranean Sun. We had our long deserved holiday in Crete last week, our first time in Greece and I enjoyed the food (too much I'm afraid), views and friendly people but soon after arriving, it was storming for four days with very strong winds and rain. The drainage system just could not cope with that amount of water and streets became rivers. Inconvenience to idle tourists like us.

I packed my newly finished Grandpa by the lovely Rililie which was light enough to wear the last sunny day of our holiday. Not for the first time I stole/copied/inspired by the version of my dear friend the cycling-knitter  with her permission of course. Part of the fun of knitting your project is dreaming and planning the combination of colors and I always look at other ravelry projects to get ideas. I just loved the light background with the subtle stripes of the variegated skein cashmere fingering in 'Fig'. The background is not white nor cream but like a light fawn or stone color. Yarn purchased at 'unravel' from Kettle yarns Co Beyul- nice blend of yak, silk and merino in fingering weight, not too floppy just with the right heaviness. The scrumptious skein in Fig has colors ranging from purple, pink, yellow and beige. The deep brown sleeves in uncommon thread tough sock 'Pitch' with the whimsical saddle sleeves give a bit of boldness. Can you see the long stripe of Brown on the beginning of the button Band? beautiful little details. Oh and the icord bind off of the cuffs, nice short rows on the button band and double the yarn on the bottom Rib.. It really is a funky fun knit !