Dishcloths and washcloths

I have a 3000 word essay to start and finish by Sunday night so I'll keep this brief - Look, dishcloths and washcloths!! We needed them, so I made them! If you'd like details on yarn or patterns, you can find them here on my Ravelry page. I've been doing them a row at a time while working on other essays. 

Also, thank you for the lovely comments on my last couple of posts, I'll reply to them when this essay is done and handed in :) But for now, thanks!

Ashley x

Fiddler's Mitts

Blocking really helped smooth out the stitches and colour work on these mitts! (There's a before blocking photo in this post) The pattern is Fiddler's mitts by Ysolda Teague. It's part of the book 'My Grandmother's knitting'. There are some lovely patterns in this book :) The yarn is Excelana 4ply. It's lovely to work with and softened quite a bit with some Soak wool wash. 

I've been working on finishing the Narwhal mittens (they're for Dom, so I feel bad that he didn't get to wear them this winter), and I'm now tired of colour work! I'm onto the lining now so at least there is no colour work left to do :)

Ashley x

Socks, gloves and a shawl

I didn't intentionally take a break from blogging, it just sort of happened! I've been working on finishing up some knitting projects, as having 6 (plus 2 long term) projects on the go wasn't fun. So I'm now down to 3! The long term ones don't properly count ;) So here are the projects I've managed to finish:

This is an Ishbel shawl by Ysolda Teague, made in Botany Lace by Araucania. I'm not sure how to wear it. I like it a lot more than I thought I would before I blocked it. Here it is before blocking:

It was all rumpled and bumpy. And it grew a lot!! Before blocking it was 39 by 13 inches. After blocking (and a little shrinkage) it is 57 by 16 inches! It's a nice size for wearing around my neck like a scarf, but it doesn't show off the lace as much as I'd like.

I also finally finished Dom's socks. He's was very happy to put them on today, as it's very windy and rainy.

He says that they're very comfy :) The pattern is Manly Aran socks from the Toe up socks for everybody book. The yarn is Superba 100 Klassik 4-fadig by Rico Design. It's a very good sock yarn, and relatively cheap too. Lucky for me, Dom doesn't like his socks super long so once I was past the heel there wasn't much further to go :) Oh and the background is some fabric I bought last week for a summer dress when it was lovely and warm. I think I jinxed it! 

And lastly, the gloves. These are the Fiddler's mitts by Ysolda Teague from the book My Grandmother's knitting. I used Excelana 4ply yarn, and I really like it :) The photo shows them before blocking, and you can see where the colour work isn't as smooth as it could be. They're currently drying, I just soaked them for a bit and smoothed them flat to dry. They look much better, so I should hopefully have some blocked photos soon :)

I hope they're dry by tomorrow so I can wear them into town to meet a friend. They should keep me warm enough :) I'm also getting my hair cut tomorrow and I'm planning on a shorter cut. I'm still not entirely certain about it, but we'll see :)
Ashley x