Agatha

This is Agatha, an Andi Satterlund knitting pattern.  It's the second (adult-sized) cardigan I ever made, and definitely the first time I attempted anything this complicated.  It's an unblogged make that I completed in May 2014, but I thought I'd blog about it now as it was a bit of a 'eureka' moment and sparked a year of intensified knitting! 

I had managed to make one cardigan before from the February Lady Sweater pattern but it took me 18 months to complete!  Inspired by Lladybird who took on Agatha for her first cardigan I thought I'd give it a try and cast on.  Gahhh!  Establishing the pattern was so tricky I thought it might break my brain.   Once I got past the first 20 or so rows it got easier and I managed to knit the whole thing up in 2 and 1/2 months.

I knitted it in Hayfield Bonus Aran in 'Spruce' (ravelry notes here).  I like this yarn because for a beginner like me (who never knows if a garment's going to turn out well) it's cheap to buy but still has some wool content so it feels nice to knit and to wear.

My Agatha is not perfect by any means, and I learnt a lot knitting it.  The lace pattern was impossible (for me at least) to memorise so I had to keep the instructions close by at all times.  I knit a Small and followed the pattern except for the sleeve cuffs.  I wanted long sleeves that would sit over my hands rather than the turned back cuffs specified in the pattern, but that was an easy enough adjustment to make.    

Things I really like about this cardi...

• The lace pattern is awesome! 
• The colour of the yarn is lovely.  These photos don't really do it justice but it's a jewel-like emerald colour with lots of variation of shade within it.  It works really well with the lace pattern.  
• I like the long sleeves - my other knitted cardies have 3/4 length and it's nice to have a cosier option.  Also the lace pattern is really showcased on the sleeves.
• The buttons.  I used a selection of vintage glass buttons - similar sizes but different designs - that look great against the colour of the wool and the lacework.
• I made it!  Making it has given me the confidence to try other projects that I wouldn't have attempted before. 

Things I'm not so happy with...

• The length/fit.  Although it fits very much as the pattern is intended, this style of cardi is both a bit on the short side, and a bit close fitting for my taste.  I wouldn't normally wear it done up like this. I think if I made it again I might cut down on some of the decreases and add at least an inch to the length.  
• The scoop neck.  Although it looks lovely when the cardigan is done up, when worn undone the neck flops around a bit because the scoop is so low.   Since I normally wear it like this it does get a bit annoying.
• The bind off.  I used a slightly stretchy bind off at the waist (it was so long ago I don't remember which one), but I should have used Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  The negative ease in this pattern means you really do need the extra elasticity because the hem will need to stretch out when you do the cardigan up.
• The buttons!  Although I love them I'm wondering whether to take them off this cardi and save them for another project as the weight of them adds to the tendency of the scoop neck to flop around. Boo! 

Despite any niggles though, this cardi does get a lot of wear and I love it.  It will always be the cardi that made me realise that if I just keep following the pattern and plugging away I can actually make (and finish) something wonderful!  

Hooks and needles!

Wow - the urge to create has really gotten a hold of me at the moment - I can only put it down to the impulse of all those creative hormones flooding around my body at the moment, combined with the need to conserve energy by mooching around the house.  

I now have no less than 4 active projects on hooks and needles, and I stress the word 'active' as opposed to my usual trick of starting something, getting a bit bored and abandoning it to the excitement of starting something new!

I picked up this yarn yesterday and cast on to make the Honey Cowl I have been seeing on so many blogs lately.  The pattern is really simple, knit in the round on circular needles, and hopefully won't take too long to knit up.  Great for cold February days!

I can't quite describe the  colour of this yarn.  It's a Sirdar Click wool and acrylic mix - nothing too fancy for my first attempt, but it's nice and soft and hopefully won't be too itchy.  It was also on offer for £2 a ball!  The colour could be grey, but has accents of blue, green, and red or pink, or possibly brown, so the overall effect changes with the light.  It's a bit like oil on a puddle, or the North Sea under a British sky!  It will be my mirage cowl! 

I have replenished my yarn supplies to continue working on my ripple blanket, although the perfectionist in me is tempting me to frog it and start again now that I know I made such a significant error interpreting the instructions!  I shall have to see which wins out - my OCD leanings or my or my reluctance to start over!

I've made some progress with the dress for Baby Bjorn.  I've customised it a fair bit as the bodice was a little too tight to slide on over the dolls legs.  I added in a few rows of double crochet (English!) whilst joining the sides - of course I had run out of pink yarn by then so had to go with stripes!  For the same reason I decided not to join the straps on to the back of the bodice (it made the neck hole too narrow to pull on over the legs) and instead lengthened them slightly and added buttonholes.  I also wanted to add some scallops to the straps to make them look a little more finished and to cover up Baby Bjorn's rather chunky shoulders!  Unfortunately I wasn't concentrating and managed to complete both sets of scallops beautifully before realising I had the dress inside out!  Doh!  So I shall have to unpick them and do it again.

And finally....

I have cast on to make another February Lady Sweater - an awesome cardigan pattern with a terrible name!  This is another free pattern made available through Ravelry.  It's the only large item of clothing I have ever attempted knitting for myself, and it was really successful (shock!).  I wear it all the time, so much so that it's already starting to go bobbly.

I tried to take some photos of the detail, but my lighting wasn't great and it was really hard to reproduce the colour - it definitely looks best in the sunshine above!  The yoke is knit in garter stitch, then the arms and body continue in a gull lace pattern.  It's lovely and goes with everything!

Admittedly, this make might take me a while.  I blush to admit that this first one took me a year and five months to complete (eek!).  Not that I was working on it constantly.  A sudden fear gripped me three-quarters of the way through that it wouldn't fit, and I completely stalled, putting it away for months.  Thankfully I did finally dig it out and make the final push to get it done.  Then came the moment of truth, and - VICTORY, Hoorah!

So, I now have several projects on the go with enough variety to keep my hands and brain busy as I sit and wait for the baby to arrive.  39 weeks today - won't be long now!

Can you guess what it is yet?

Poor neglected sewing machine! It has been sat on this chair in a forlorn manner for nearly a month now, with nothing but a shepherd (painted by a 3yr old) for company.  I feel very sorry for it, but am resigned to the fact that I'm unlikely to use it now until after the baby's born.  

I have been resorting to more crochet instead!  My ripple blanket is coming along - although I realised I had made a HUGE error whilst using my Ravelry pattern!  I had forgotten that many Ravelry users are from across the pond, and consequently use American crochet terms, which look the same as English crochet terms BUT ARE DIFFERENT!!!  You say tom-ay-to, I say tom-ar-to?  In this case a dc or double crochet in American terms does not mean an English double crochet, but a treble crochet.  Doh!  I should have had a better look at the picture first and I might have noticed that something didn't quite add up!!  As it is my blanket still looks lovely, but it is probably a lot more dense and less soft than it would have been if I'd followed the instructions correctly!  It may just end up being a 'rolling around on the floor' type blanket instead of a 'wrap me up so I'm nice and cosy' type blanket.  Nevermind - I'll know for next time, and because I've started I'm going to blinking well persevere!! 

For those who may be at risk of making the same mistake I did, here is a chart comparing American and English crochet terms that I lifted from About.com:

British vs American English Crochet Patterns
British English	USA - American English
double crochet (dc)	single crochet (sc)
half treble (htr)	half double crochet (hdc)
treble (tr)	double crochet (dc)
double treble (dtr)	treble (tr)
triple treble (trtr)	double treble (dtr)
miss	skip
tension	gauge
yarn over hook (yoh)	yarn over (yo)

Hope it helps!

Anyway, the ripple blanket is currently on hold as I ran out of yarn yesterday - double doh! - and need to take a trip to Hobbycraft to get some more.  I've been trying to go with more neutral colours for this one as we don't know whether we're having a girl or a boy (and my granny square blanket did have a distinctly girly feel to it!!) so I went with purple, green and cream.  That meant I was still left with my remaining pink and yellow yarn (also from the granny square blanket), so I decided to make use of this on a smaller project until I can get to the shop for more supplies.  

Can you guess what it is yet?

Despite looking alarmingly like a toilet roll cover, this is in fact going to be a baby doll dress for Emily's new Baby Bjorn.  It's another Ravelry pattern (Delightfully Pink Baby Doll Dress by Anna Ness) and yes, I did work out that it uses American crochet terms - yay!  I'm loving the fact that crochet projects come along so quickly (soooo satisfying!) and also that they are so portable.  I've been taking my crochet everywhere with me lately, and it's such a conversation starter!  What with that and being nearly 9 months pregnant I've been talking to all manner of folk recently!  All good fun.

The urge to crochet!

Must be a new record for me.  I only finished my granny-square blanket on Sunday and I already have another project 'on the hook'!  So strong was the urge to crochet that I cast on (is that the right term, or is that just in knitting?!) another baby blanket.  Not that I need to make one - I was just desperate for something (anything) simple to crochet.  Perhaps I can put it down to the nesting instinct!

Check out that bump!  Something to rest my crochet on!

I said before that I have only recently taught myself to crochet.  This is mostly true, although I did make an attempt to learn in the past, only to give up in frustration.  Previously I had tried to make a blanket out of treble crochet stitch, but I found I had difficulty making a starting chain of the right gauge.  As a result my blanket would start out one size, only to get wider and wider and w-i-d-e-r!  After frogging and retrying it several times I eventually gave it up as a bad job.  

This time, after completing a successful project, I'm glad to say I started with more confidence.  I also went for a pattern with a little bit more structure, although still very simple.  I am trying my hand at a ripple or zig zag pattern I found on Ravelry*.  It was still a pain to started off, but very quickly became more solid and dependable after a couple of rows.  Now it is a dream to crochet!  Up the hill, increase over the top, down the hill, decrease through the valley - ahhhh!  So relaxing.  Almost couldn't put it down to go to bed last night!  This will now give me something crafty to do till the baby's born.  I have mostly given up my dreams for last minute sewing as I still haven't hit the haberdashery dept for all those necessary bits and bobs.  At least the crochet can slip easily into my hospital bag and come along for the ride!

*Ravelry is a free site for knitters and crocheters.  There are tons of patterns (many of them free) to browse and use, and you can build your own profile and record of your creations.  It's ace!  You can also see what projects friends are busy creating.  My Ravelry sign on is SuzySu if you want to look me up.