Happy New Year! (I know I'm very late to the party)

Hi everyone!

First of all, I wish you all a happy 2016 and hope that 2015 ended well.

My last entry was almost two months ago. It's the time it takes me to take some pictures and come back around here. In my defence, I can argue that the days here are way shorter than what I'm used to and I still need to adjust (after two years) to limited day light to take pictures.

Anyway, no sweaters today (at least in adult size), I'm here only to show you two shawls. First is my Paris toujours shawl. The design is by Isabell Kraemer and it was an easy and fast knit. I am very pleased with it :)

The yarn is from Ice Yarns, I used leftovers from my stash (and didn't finish everything yet, so I think I'll make myself a hat with the last ball).
Since I've knitted this shawl, I've been wearing it everyday, I really love it.

The second shawl was a present I knitted for a good friend of mine who came to visit me for my birthday. I improvised the design and used almost two balls of Holst Supersoft. It wasn't the hugest shawl ever but she was pleased and very happy to have it as an extra layer when it got colder (needless to say I was beaming with pleasure inside myself when she told me that).

 

Finally, here is a little sweater I knitted for my 2 years old niece's Christmas. The design is  Coquelicot from Hel et Zel and it's available for free. I used some Holst Supersoft (as often), I think it took less than 2 balls of yarn to make the whole sweater.

 

I added cute little whales buttons that I bought some time ago at Textile Gardens (I highly recommend this shop, I had trouble at the checkout and the staff was very helpful and super nice, I'll definitely order more from them. Plus the choice they have is insane!).
It seems that when she received it, my niece did not seem very interested in it, but she then decided it would be a good idea to wear it on top of all the other layers she was already wearing, I guess that means she liked it in the end :)

So that's it for now. I'll come back soon (meaning in 2 months most probably ;) ) to show you some sweaters (if I managed to take pictures).

See you!

Coming back

Hello all,

It seems like I am a sporadic blogger. It's been month and month since I posted here. Not because I didn't knit anything (quite the contrary) but because I have been extremely bad at taking pictures. I think that on this regard it's getting worse and worse.
Anyway, today I finally found the time to take half of my latest knitting in pictures. The weather here is terrible so the quality of the pictures is not top one, you've been warned :)

First, I'll talk to you about a nice test I've been in, one for Connie (yellowcosmo on ravelry). I tested her pattern called "When skies are grey" and it couldn't fit my version better (as it is... grey).

I got the yarn for Christmas last year and held it double to knit the sweater.
The construction is very smart and I really enjoyed knitting this project even though I am not naturally encline to much bottom up knitting (I am tall and usually I need to add a couple of centimeters at the bottom of my sweaters in order to avoid wearing crop tops only, that's why I mostly knit top-down).

This little digression leads me to the next projet. I participate (yes yes I'm still knitting on some projects there) in the ongoing KAL in Isabell Kraemer's group on ravelry. When I joined, I had just began working on "A hint of summer" so it was perfect timing.

Yes, you could almost believe that I am warm and that summer is still there. Well no it's not, it's freezing cold here lately.

I used Holst Coast in black and silver grey. I love this sweater except that:

1. I knitted it with 2.75mm needles in fear of knitting too loosely and in fact I could have used 3mm needles for a looser fabric.
2. I should have lengthened the sleeves and the hem because I'm always pulling them dowm.

All in all I'm still very pleased with it but I'll keep these two details in mind the next time I'll knit one.

Then, my second finished project in the KAL was my Ravello. Remember, once I told you about another KAL and my Ravello project. Well I finished it now (yes I can be inconsistent in my knitting sometimes, especially when sleeves and a changing in seasons are involved at the same time). Anyway, NOW was the perfect time to be done with it as it is COLD. I can wear my sweater all the time (which is actually what I've been doing since I blocked it).

I love it! I love the colours, I love the yarn (Drops Alpaca). It's soft, it's warm, it's PERFECT!
The pattern in itself is like any of Isabell's, straighforward and quite easy to knit with a little twist here and there to make you learn something and be proud of your work in the end.

Now I'm planning to finish another of Isabell's sweater for the KAL (but I still have one sleeve to go and Christmas is right around the corner so... no promises) and her Paris shawl (I'm almost done here too but the need of a nice shawl is really there as my current scarf is not very effective with the dropping of the temperatures).

I was also part of a couple of other tests (but I need to take FO pictures there too) and plan on some Christmas knitting (2 sweaters, a hat, and some fingerless gloves... I'd better get started). I'm also testing new things right now so this means you'll hear from me again. As to when, well, you know.... I can't promise anything here either :)

This blog is not dead*

It's already been two months since my last post!!!
I hope I haven't lost all my readers in the meantime. Now Spring is there and I can try to come out of hibernation (at least for one little post, I don't know when the next one will be written though...).

One good reason for my non-blogging is that I have been a very bad knitter lately. I finished a test BUT did not take any picture yet (I'll try to get this done before the end of the month though I am not sure I'll be able to make it). Apart from that, I have lots of works in progress but that is the problem, they are in progress (and I already blogged about the mentionned progress before beginning something else so they are not really progressing right now...)

Anyway, I DO have finished something AND took picture (which is already amazing).

The finished project is another test for Isabell Kraemer (lilalu on Ravelry). I had the great chance to test her latest pattern Hanami.

Here is my version.

 I knitted mine in Holst Supersoft (for a change ^^). My main colour is Oatmeal and then I used, Sugarsnap, Sunrise, Burnt Orange, Clementine, Poppy and Bokhara. Of course, being the loose knitter I am, I had to go down a needle size (and use 3mm).
At first, when I swatched, I was a little afraid it would look over kitsh (I do like over kitsh sometimes though) but in the end, it turned out very casual. My advice if you knit this sweater will be this one: make a big swatch with the complete stripe repetition to see how the stripes are going to look with the main colour.
Apart from that, as always with Isabell's sweaters, the pattern is clear, the sweater is gorgeous and it has little details that makes it unique, and I learned new things (like the I-cord  neckline, now I'm obsessed with it). I love it!!! (but if you didn't know by then, I'm partial to Isabell's designs) 
 

The back, in a kind of action picture...

 Nothing to say about the yarn, as always, I'm very happy with it, the colours are gorgeous and the quality is great. I wasn't sure about my colour choice so I ordered more (and more) yarn so you'll probably see more Holst Supersoft items around here in the near future.

And a last front picture because I couldn't choose :)

HOPEFULLY, I will finish some of my projects soon (and take pictures) and I'll be able to show them here (at least one...). I can't make any promise though (but I'll try real hard).
If not to show projects, I'll most probably blog about my weekend in Berlin! I'm going to the yarn festival and I hope to be able to buy tons of yarns (fingers crossed for having saved enough money). I'm also going to attend the workshop of Rililie on Sunday, I'm sure it's going to be great fun and that I'll learn tons of things (fingers crossed for finishing my FIRST revamp during the last days of the SECOND one so I can wear my cardigan at the workshop, though somehow, I doubt I can make it...).

Now I'm off to work so I can show you some stuff soon ;)
 

*I've just been very busy...

Work in progress

As I told you in my last post, I am currently part of a KAL. It's the celebration KAL in Isabell Kraemer's group on ravelry. I had some Drops Alpaca in my stash and I decided that I would knit myself a Ravello. I had be looking at a good deal of projects with great envy, so I decided to make myself a gift and bought the pattern (with the nice discount that Isabell gave for the anniversary of the group).
So, here is my progress on my sweater:

pattern: Ravello by Isabell Kraemer, yarn Drops Alpaca

I hope I'll be able to reach the body section tonight ( I should because I have knitted a little more than what is shown on the picture now).

More on this project soon and on other things too :)

The latest!

I am a huge fan of Isabell Kraemer's designs and I had been waiting for this pattern to be published for a very long time. When it finally was, I was ready to start.
I had my yarn ready, my needles ready, everything.

This is the yarn I had chosen, Cascade 220 Heathers.

I was still hesitating about the contrasting colour but after thinking it over (and the help of people from the Ravelry group) I finally chose the orange and I must say that I am in love with the result!

 It was the first time I was using this yarn and I was really pleased with it. It knits up really well and it is WARM! I think this is going to be one of my favourite cardigan this winter (and so far, I think it is the warmer I have). I definitely want to knit other garments with this wool (especially with all the beautiful colours this yarn comes in).

The pattern was great, easy to follow (as always) and it knits up fairly quickly. It had been some time since I had knitted something in worsted weight and I had forgotten how rewarding it was. You feel like you're knitting as quick as a flash.

Of course you can read my project notes on my Ravelry project page. And now, off to knitting!