#knitterlyfe

Flowers for Eliana baby blanket is washed and blocking dry, and then I have all the ends to weave in 😅

I've been working on this blanket on and off for almost a year, and I'm so happy with the decisions I made. Started with an attempt to create a spiralling gradient, and then pivoted drawing inspiration from patchwork quilts.

The colours are warmer and softer in person, this phone's camera is allergic to colour accuracy.

White yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply Luxury in Frost. Pastel rainbow yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills Multicoloured Sock in French Macaron. I used 2.25 balls of the Frost and 2.5 balls of the French Macaron.

I'm okay, I just fell down the Heated Rivalry fandom hole hard enough that I am writing for the first time in years.

I'm about 50k words into the first draft of my fanfic (which is turning into a full goddamned novel) and I'm having so much fun!

I'm just... not really blogging or knitting while I do it 😅

But out of curiosity, once I've finished and I begin publishing it to AO3, do folks here want me to share the links?

The latest recently acquired skill is combination ribbing - knitting in my usual English/throwing style, and purling in Eastern style.

It's taking a little bit of time to gain the muscle memory for the clockwise yarn wrap for the Eastern purl, but I can already tell that I will develop it!

And oh, the ribbing looks so much better! No flaring or sagging of the knit stitch next to a purl stitch. And it's not as tight a result as fully twisted ribbing, which is great!

Presenting the Quilted Roses henley:

Check out the perfect buttons I found for this! The buttons were really the foundation for the whole project. I bought them with these yarn colours in mind, and designed the jumper to match.

I'm super excited to post this to my sister, and to see how well (or otherwise) it fits my niece.

Both of these jumpers are intended for my baby niece, but the "6 month old" size for the T-Rexes jumper honestly seems sized closer to 9-12 months.

I'm really proud of how both of these turned out, especially given that the T-Rexes jumper was my first real stranded colourwork in almost 11 years of knitting!

The rainbow was a homebrew - I used the Organic Guernsey free pattern as a launching point, but heavily modified to my own yarn, gauge and the 3mo measurements for my niece, and added my own colourwork motif.

I hesitate to call it an original motif, I suspect that I just reinvented an old wheel, but I reached it on my own!

You're very welcome!

I'm going to spruik one of my favourite knitting books, you might find it as useful a resource as I do!

(Link to Goodreads, I encourage you to check your local library or independent bookshop for a physical copy!)

This book is honestly my go-to. Nearly 11 years of knitting, and I still reach for it to find options for cast-on and bind-off that will give the foundation and finish I want for my projects!

The physical book is spiral-bound so it lays nice and flat, and breaks down the different steps for multiple cast-on and bind-off techniques. It's not every possible cast-on or bind-off, but it's a lot of them!

This book taught me my preferred cast-on techniques for flat, circular and ribbed knitting and I still reach for it at least once per project.

New project cast on!

I'm planning a modern cosy AU cosplay of Fearne Calloway from Critical Role campaign 3, in her Level 10 outfit, with a mix of off-the-rack premade items and a couple of original handmade pieces.

And because I'm a knitter, not a sewist, I am of course knitting the handmade pieces!

First piece is a cropped jumper that I'm using in substitute for the breastplate.

I'm using the beautiful - and beautifully written - Anne's Puffed Sleeves pattern by Aimee Sher as a base, but with some modifications:

Deeper neck by using more short rows to shape the top of the yoke

A tight cabled braid and a "knit front, slip back loop" modified kfb increase instead of the eyelet increases

An oak leaf motif at each shoulder peeking out from under the box pleat (oak leaf chart adapted from the Gnarled Oak pattern by Alana Dakos)

Full length sleeves with a cabled i-cord bind-off

Super cropped body, finishing just below the underbust, with the same rapid decreases as the sleeve cuffs

A cowl neck instead of the mock turtleneck from the pattern.

I've already swatched out the oak leaf motif and the cabled i-cord bind-off, and I'm super proud of both!

This pattern is challenging me with a few new techniques, with increases and cables worked on the wrong side during the short rows. I've already had to tink back and ladder down to fix the cables once 😅

So that's another new-to-me technique!

I'm honestly astonished that I couldn't find any tutorials or write-ups of cabled i-cords. Surely other knitters before me have done it?

And yet 🤷‍♀️

I cast on last night, promptly lost my cable needle and had to buy a new set this morning (some very cute Cocoknits cable needles, plus the magnetic slap-strap wrist keeper for them, which is very handy!).

I'm now about to finish the short rows and dive into the oak leaf motif!

I plan to wear the cosplay for the CR live show in Melbourne in mid-June. I'll have the jumper finished in time, but the big challenge will be finishing the next piece in time as well: the purple cabled snake stole!

I love seeing others' progress pics and brag posts (you all make such excellent and beautiful handcrafts!), so why not share mine?

Here's the first photo, when I properly dove into the weaving-in, from my first post:

Only half of the right-hand long edge and the very centre had been woven in at that point.

Then, after three fairly solid days' work weaving in, I reached the first short edge:

And now, a week later (and after another weekend of solid work, amidst high temperatures and humidity I might add):

Ta-daaaaaa! Past the halfway point, and VERY happy with how it's going!

Ideally I'd like to block this after I finish all the weaving in (actually I'd prefer to block first and weave in second). But given that I don't have the space to be able to do that, I'll have to settle for being happy that my tension is so consistent.