Needles on the Move

The flattering round neck and intricate cabled rib on Mabelle make her perfect for a night out when chilly winds are blowing. Dress down with jeans and a white tee-shirt underneath and she’s just plain Mabel, wear her anywhere! There is no complicated shaping in this pullover: the heavily cabled rib creates a figure-hugging waistline and careful adjustment in fitting will accentuate your curves perfectly.

Size: XS[S, M, L, 1X, 2X]

To fit bust : 30[33, 36, 39, 42, 45]inches

Requirements: Yarn: 8[8, 9, 10, 11, 12] balls Debbie Bliss Rialto DK (105m/50g) Needles: 4.0mm/80cm circular needle, 4.0mm/120-150cm circular needle (optional), 3.75mm/80cm circular needle, or sizes needed to obtain correct gauge; stitch markers, cable needle, spare circular needles.

Gauge: 22sts/30rows = 4 inches in stocking stitch on larger needles

Pattern Notes: Mabelle is knitted completely seamlessly from the bottom up, sleeves and body are united at the underarm and the yoke is knitted with raglan shaping. Short rows raise the shoulders and back of neck for a more comfortable fit. Detailed notes are included in the pattern for tailoring the fit of the garment and working the short-row shaping.

This pattern is sold as an electronic file delivered in PDF format. File size is 603kb, 4 pages. Upon payment, the file will be delivered automatically to your email inbox.

Price: US$6.95

With thanks to Kai for the photography.

Friday.

My photographer is busy moving house ;-)

You may have been wondering - and yes, I’m afraid the next Spin-a-Long will be a little delayed.

This is due partly to a whole lot of other work stuff which I won’t bore you with, partly having several busy weekends in a row, and partly to make way for this weekend’s Steek-a-Long :)

As I’m keeping you waiting I’ll leave the entry date for Colour Ways open until Sept 3rd.

The next Spin-a-Long will be dealing with spinning Mohair, with tips on other fluffy/hairy fibres. If you can get hold of some kid mohair curls that would be best - but processed top is also fine. I will be sharing a little bit of the lovely hand-dyed curls that mum sent me :-D if you are interested then drop me a line and I’ll send you a paypal link.

For the following Spin-a-Long you will need white, un-dyed silk top and some more mohair, white or coloured, for a truly cool yarny experience. I promise you’ll want to be in on this one!

Happy Spinning!

Paris was well fun! (And I have learnt a new colloquial adverb)

Here are we being dorky:

And lots of touristy stuff:

And beer:

And some awesome street dancers at the Trocodero:

We promised Mel and Dan way back that we’d take them to Paris in return for dumping ourselves on them for three weeks when we moved here. We are now patting ourselves on the back for having had such a brilliant idea which involved us being rewarded too :-D

The weather was perfect, the streets weren’t too crowded, we did all the right stuff. Oh, and there was rather more beer than is implied by this photo stream. 

What has been occupying me for the last few days? A new pattern, an old design. I was planning to finish the green lace this week (it’s this close) but with the miserable weather we’ve been having I decided to dig out my spring project which I had put aside in that one week of warm weather we had early this summer.

The “day or so” of work that I thought was still left in it has stretched into nearly five, and it didn’t help that I accidentally used a smaller needle for about an inch of the body and then decided it wouldn’t really show. It showed. It is however, on the home stretch and will be available to purchase from Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

What is it though? I hear you ask… well you’ll just have to pop back on Wednesday and see ;-)

Here’s a preview:

If you like cables, this one’s for you!

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes! Especially those who wished me more yarn in the coming year :-D

Neil just did the honours and the birthday draw winner is Melinda. Congratulations! I will be sharing fibery goodness as soon as I have your address.

Oh and I wound up the STR today :-D What shall I make? I really want to do cables (note the Stitchionary 2) but am worried that the medium weight in cables might make for too-chunky socks. Hmmm. Has anyone done it?

Excuse me now, I have to go stroke the cashmere some more.

Why? Because through knitting one meets knitters. Almost 11 months ago we arrived in London knowing practically no-one. However, I stepped right into a crowd of ready-made friends who were warm, open-armed and generally Fab! A few of the guests yesterday were old friends from Melbourne days, a couple were relatives, but the majority by far were knitterly friends who have I met during the year either through Stash or on the Angel Yarns Forum.

Oh and did I mention that knitters (and non-knitters) are extremely generous :-D (although Kai did try to take most of my birthday presents home with her)

Socksies by Kate:

Pattern from MSKS, Yarn is from Middle Earth Yarns - the best sort! They fit perfectly and are so yummy I can’t take them off!

Yarny goodness:

STR ‘Midsummer Night’ and coordinating dishcloth cotton from Nathalie, Middle Earth Sock Yarn in ‘Aquatic’ from Cairi and the scrummiest cashmere blend by The Knittery from the lovely Kai (she tried to pinch it back again).

Bedtime Reading:

From people who know that there’s always space for one more knitting book on the shelf: Melissa and Dan, Jacqui, Kate and my Dad :-D

Other fibery stuff:

The most gorgeous hand-dyed kid mohair from Mum, Fibre from Ali and Nick, Square needles (yep square!) from Michelle, I can’t wait to try them!

Non-knitting stuff for in between (or perhaps during) knitting (All those chocolate boxes are still full. Truly. Almost…):

That football in the middle is proof of true sisterly love - Only someone from Melbourne could understand the wrench it is for a Collingwood supporter to buy Carlton merchandise.

I am off to knit and watch Grease now. The special edition came with a songbook so if you hear me singing you’ll know I’m dancing around the living room with my knitting and pretending to be Sandy :-D

To Me :-D

This is not going to be a long post, I have presents to open ;-)

In traditional Blog fashion I’m going to share the love with a birthday draw. Leave me a Happy Birthday comment by 9pm Monday, London time and I’ll draw a winner from the hat for a fibery prize. Don’t forget to leave me your email (it doesn’t show on the comments page).

And please can you tell it to STOP RAINING ALREADY! My picnic’s in 6 hours :-(

Oh, and the Bear Poop - it looks like bear poop (what I assume bear poop looks like anyway. It kind of looks like wombat poop actually) but tastes of peanuts, praline and chocolate :-P it helps if you shut your eyes a bit ;-)

Apparantly bears are important in Montana, and huckleberries. Sometimes the bears eat the huckleberries, inflicting moral dilemma on the local residents.

Speaking of local residents, it was Jennifer who sent me my awesome parcel and told me all about Montana and made me want to go and visit the mountains and the bears. I’m trying to hunt down her blog and will link to her when I’ve found it :-)

Ciao!

Wheee! The postman was friendly to me today :-D

The socks are Baby Cable Rib from SKS and are knitted in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock. They fit great! I put them on to take the photo and now I don’t want to take them off :-D

This came along with them:

Lots of local treats from Montana :-) The yarn is Mountain Colours ‘Bearfoot’ and yes that package does say ‘Bear Poop’ ;-) It’s yummy!

Everything came beautifully wrapped and labelled - and unwrapping everything was a welcome relief from having to gaze forlornly at things-that-must-not-be-opened-until-Sunday. Here is the pile now:

Okay, some of it I’ve peeked at, but some is still a complete surprise :-D Bronte and Kai are coming around on Sunday morning to help me open things up!

The Swatch

Part two is ready :-D As I thought people would want to print off the instructions and the chart, I have made it a pdf and you can download it from here.

Here’s my swatch so far:

I’ll give you all a couple of weeks to knit the swatch … I’ll be away on the weekend of the 25th so how does Sept 1st and 2nd sound for steeking days? Or will you be ready sooner?

Good Luck!!

For the knit-a-long and ongoing discussion click here