Jackie is finally finished!

And here she is, Jackie herself! I'm so happy to finally be finished with this sweater! Feels like it took forever, but in reality it hasn't been that long.

As I've stated before, I started this sometime in september last year, but it got put on hold over Christmas cause of other projects. Finally picked it up again now in january and finished it off. Got it washed and blocked a few days ago and tonight I finally sewed in the buttons on the sleeves! So happy to finally be finished with this one! The yarn is Nepal from Drops, also where the pattern comes from which you can find here.

I sewed on a extra set of buttons on the sleeves so the lenght can be regulated however I please.

Buttons are really pretty too

Glad to scratch this one of  my UFO list! On to the next project...which I am currently working on...

Almost time for Jackie + Batman updates!

So, I finally got around to getting Jackie washed and layd of for blocking. Been holding it off since the only safe place for laying it out to try flat in this appartment is on top of the drying rack, and I've been really busy with laundry this past week.

Since Jackie was made in 65% wool and 35% alpaca yarn, not superwash threated, getting it washed is a gentle prosess. I always wash any wool items, superwash or not on cold or 30°C handwash in the machine along with soap specially made for silk and wool. If I use a program that's too fast or too warm, the garments will shrink and felt.

One awesome thing about wool garments, expecially cardigans and sweaters is that you can almost mold it into whatever shape or form you want when it's wet. Like Jackier here, by the way I've laid her out here, the cowl neck and the bottom will be super wide when she's dry. And that's the I want her to be. This wouldn't be possible if I didn't wet her first.

While I was going to wash Jackie, I threw in my Marius at the same time. I've been wearing this sweater 24/7 lately and I really love it! So warm and so cozy and yet so stylish! But since Jackie is taking up the whole drying rack and I don't have a second one, Marius here will just have to dry hanging on this chair. I'm not that picky about the shape of this sweater so it doesn't really matter where I put it to dry.

But I really need another Marius sweater or too... They're so classy and stylish... I really hope Silja here will work great as a sweater yarn, it's really good to knit with, but the real test will be when I've tried the Batman sweater on if it holds up or not. If it does, then I'll make myself some crazy and colorfull sweaters cause the yarn is really cheap and good quality!
Speaking of which... I've done quite some work on Batman and the body now is currently measuring just about 40cm (15.7") I'm planning on making the body quite long so I might do another 10cm before I cast off for the armholes.

I've yet to draw up the fair-isle pattern though and I'm still pondering if I should do it raglan or round. There's cos and pros for both parts so I think it'll all come down to how I make the fair-isle look. I've also been tossing around the idea of making a hood on it. Since it's Batman, a hood would be perfect and bring it all together, but I'm not 100% sure how to do this. I've read through a few patterns for hoods and I got an idea, so I guess I'll just have too see if it'll work in real life.

And one more thing. I've been wondering if I should try and make sleeves like these for it. It may crash a bit with the style though... I'm atleast pondering if I should make the ribbing that long, so we'll see if I'm to add or drop the poofyness of the sleeves.

 

Anyways, see yall later! I'm off to do some more mindless knitting on Batman before bedtime!

Progress of the day - 30th jan

Huzzah! Managed to finish two projects today! First off I finished the second pair of ugly scrap socks.

And then I finished off Jackie, the grey cable sweater! I'm still missing the buttons cause they haven't arrived in the mail yet, and I also need to block the cowl a little, but it is fresh off the hooks with all ends weaved in! I am wearing a t-short with white print on it underneath so it's not too tight over the chest, it's just glaring through the purl stitches.

I will get better pictures of it whenever I've recieved the buttons. Which reminds me, I've never showed off the buttons before! I got them off ebay and I think they'll look good on the sweater. I'm also thinking about sewing on double the buttons needed so I can regulate the sleeves more.

It is a glorious day (night) indeed! Now, I got several new project planned and I might start some of them tomorrow...even though I should be focusing on the UFO's I got lying around the livingroom... Oh well!

Progress of the day - 28th jan

So, my hand is more or less back to normal again after my stabbing accident, and my speed with knitting has started to pick up again.

Over the last 4-5 days, I've been working on Jackie again, trying my best to get her done cause dang, I'm tired of her! The yoke are finished and I'm about 3/4 on the cowl neck!

Yes, I'm watching Cake Boss...

I'm also working on a second pair of ugly scrap socks and they're comming along pretty well! Used most of the good colors on the other pair so these are a bit more dull...atleast for now, might throw in a few rows of red and turquoise.

Oh no...

I think I'll just go and hang myself right now... The grey cable sweater I've been working on, well, the pattern for it has always seemed a bit too vague on the sleeves for me... But now I got it confirmed for sure. The raglan on it is total opposite of what I'm used to, and it didn't say any total stitch amount to decrease so I just did it normally... I was wrong and I saw now that I only needed to decrease half of what I've been doing... So now I got to frog it down and redo a whole days work.

The positive thing though... It looks good on the sleeves and body...

Sleeves done!

FREAKING FINALLY!

They didn't take forever, but I just hate working with thick needles! Just finished the hard couple of rounds after you put the sleeves on the needle too, that's the worst part... And now my arms ache!

Hopefully, it'll all be worth it!

Progress of the day - 19th

There's really not too much to blog about when I'm only focusing on one project, but I am doing progress on Jackie though! Finished the first sleeve today and I'm about halfway done with the second... Starting to feel the ache of thick needles in my shoulder though...

The cables and ribbing makes the sweater look really tiny, even though it's actually size L/XL.

Progress of the day - 18th jan

Cause of back pains, I haven't gotten too much done today I'm afraid. Still working on Jackie since I want to actually finish it this time, and I'd rather not start any new projects until I finish off some of my current ones...as I've said too many times allready.

The sleeve pattern is kinda confusing actually, so I'll just have to wing parts of it, but it is comming along nicely. The fact that it's all ribbing with a tiny bit cable is killing me though, with needles at 7mm, my shoulder starts acing too soon.

Now, I am off to bed cause I'm dead tired...

Progress of the day - 17th jan

Been working on the Jackie sweater almost all day, so I made good progress on it! But dang, I'm so tired of it! Finally finished the body and got the decreasing for the arm holes done.

Also started the first sleeve...only to realise that I needed buttons so I went to eBay and got some.

I really don't like working with thick needles like these... Love the cables though!

Progress of the day - 16th jan

Another kinda quiet day. Didn't get too much done either cause I decided to bake chocolate cookies!

But as of yarn crafts, I did manage to finish the first chair blanket, more or less. Still need to weave in ends and all that and maybe get a boarder going around it, but I managed to finish connecting everything! And yes, it is supposed to be this thin and long, it's going in a chair.

There's still a whole nother blanket I need to get working on, got all the squares though so that part I don't have to worry about. But seeing as just the connection part takes about a week if not longer...I'm dreading it... Doing all the connections and crocheting around every single square on this first one took about 3 and a half skein og black yarn. I got 10 in total, so hopefully I'll be able to do a boarder around each blanket when I'm finished. After both blankets are all done, I'll wash them and do a little bit of blocking just to even the squares out. Some of them had different sizes even though I used the same hook. Dang yarn thickness...

I also picked up another of my UFO's today, my Jackie sweater! I spent an eternity just looking for the dang pattern but couldn't find it anywere, so I decided to just take a shot in the blind, pick a size and read the rest of the pattern on my computer. From the picture on the UFO blogpost, there's really not much progress, so I'm not gonna bother with getting a new picture of it, so here's an old one!