So I’ve been in a little knitting slump of late and don’t have an awful lot to show.
Fortunately though, I went down and helped Ailsa out with her yarn store stuff today, and she took some pictures of my finished projects for me!
Finally, I get to show off Rosa.

Isn’t she just beautiful? I’m so pleased with it, I think it may be my favourite finished project yet!
Specs:
Pattern: Rosa by Kim Hargreaves, from the Thrown Together book.
Size: Small
Yarn: Rowan 4ply Soft in Tea Rose. I used just a smidgen more than 5 balls.
Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Pearl, 1 ball.
Needles: 2.5mm and 3mm.
Mods: None.
I knit it exactly the way the pattern said, and I’m over the moon with it. It was super quick for me, too. I started it just before we left to go on holidays in December. We were away for a little under two weeks, but all the car time gave me the opportunity to do the front, the back and the sleeves. After I got home I only had to do the neckband, seaming and ruffles. I think those bits took as long as the rest of it did.

But I’m so happy with it that I can’t even put it into words. If I was to change anything at all, it might be the ruffles. The pattern calls for them to be knit separately and then sewn into place – I’d probably pick up stitches and knit them outwards. Seeing as I have a few more of her ruffled designs in my queue, I might try that next time.

I need to get back into the mojo of this blogging malarky. It’s not that I don’t have anything to blog about, it’s just that I’ve fallen out of the habit, I think.
So far, 2010 appears to be the year of the small project. That suits me just fine, the satisfaction of a quick and dirty project is sometimes just what I need.
On Sunday, I pulled out a single ball of Noro Silk Garden Lite that had been kicking around, and trawled Ravelry looking for a suitable pattern. I decided on the Waterfall Scarf.

Started on Sunday night, it was finished on Monday afternoon!

Happy Supermodel shot!
Specs:
Pattern: Waterfall Scarf by Cosette Cornelius-Bates
Yarn: 1 ball of Noro Silk Garden Lite, Colourway 2032, Purchased an aeon ago at The Wool Inn at Penrith
Needles: 4.5mm Birch straights
Mods: I added one stitch to either end, and began every row with a slipped stitch, otherwise, it’s as written. I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.
Overall, it’s a nice, quick knit with a good finish. Would make a good gift knit, I think.

I am a knitting lunatic, I fear.
To get over the trauma that was the Cap Shawl, I have cast on a Neibling doily. With #30 cotton and 1.5mm needles.

Lets all hope I don’t drop a stitch on this one!
Seeing as Rosa is all done bar the buttons, I cast on for a new garment, too. I’m still feeling the Kim Hargreaves love, and I love me some sparkle, so I pulled some KidSilk Night out of the stash and began knitting Precious.

Those are the fronts, I actually finished the back in a couple of days while I was at a dance comp with Em. The pattern actually has little seed beads all over, but because the KidSilk Night is shot with silver, I’m only putting the beads around the edges.
That’s all my knit news, I had the mopes for a few days after the Cap Shawl debacle! That yarn has been shoved down deep into a stash box until it learns it’s lesson. I will admit though, that I’ve already been looking at alternate patterns for the yarn, I don’t think I could bear to do the same shawl again!

So, here’s how the Cap Shawl was looking on January 11.

I cast on the shawl on June 12, and have been working on it intermittently in the seven months since. I started to work on it again on Monday, because I had plans to enter it into the Sydney Easter Show, and needed to get back to work on it. By this morning, I was up to row 135. Not long after I began my first round, I discovered this mistake.

I contemplated it for a little while, but decided it couldn’t be fudged, the stitch count was out and it would affect the pattern in that section. It’s twelve rows back and I didn’t much like the idea of tinking back 12 rows when there’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of 700 sts per row.
I decided to be brave and try surgery to remedy it.

I carefully undid that section back to the mistake. I sorted out the threads and pinned them out of the way.

So far, so good.
It was all downhill from there. I dropped stitches that I couldn’t recover and lost the pattern entirely.
The Cap Shawl is no more.
Seven months of knitting, twenty minutes to frog. You’ll find me in the corner, with a box of tissues.

Here’s a sneaky pic of Rosa, heading to the finish line.

I knit most of this sweater in 2 1/2 weeks while on holiday, and it’s taken me the 5 days since we got home to knit 6 ruffles and do some seaming. Ah, life!
I’ve spent some of this past week ruminating over the past year and thinking about the new one. We had a generally pretty good 2009. No major dramas, a few hiccups, but that’s what life is about, isn’t it? I started a full time course, David started a new job and things flowed along pretty nicely. It was certainly one of the better years for us.
In 2010 there’ll be a few changes for us, a few Big Deal type things. I’ll finish my course and hopefully get a job after being a stay at home mum for almost 9 years. Emily finishes High School towards the end of the year, and to be honest, I’m just trying not to think about that one too much. I’m going to try to just go with the flow with everything and not worry too much about any of it. And that’s kind of a Big Deal for me anyway.
We’ve made a habit over the last four years of spending New Years Eve somewhere different every year. First was Bundaberg, then Las Vegas, Sydney and finally the Gold Coast. That’s something I’d like to continue with every year, so maybe we’ll think about a holiday towards the end of the year.
Onwards and Upwards!
Knitting wise, I got thinking about resolutions, goals, aims, whatever you’d like to call them. Last year I did the Personal sock club, with a pair of socks a month, and that was pretty successful. I could join the 10 shawls in 2010. Or knit only from stash. Knit a pair of socks from every sock book I own. Aim for at least 6 sweaters. Gift knit, charity knit. There’s a great many respectable knitting resolutions and goals out there. So which one am I going with?
None of ’em. Not a one. This year, I’m going to knit what I want, when I want, with whatever I want, from wherever I want.
And I’m going to enjoy it.