Entrachat Citrus - almost finished

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! 

Sorry I have been slack in my posts, don't you hate it when the day job gets in the way of your fibre time? But then one could argue that if one is better organised one could... oh well, evidently this "one" is not that organised!

I have finally booked my flights to China in September, it's my mum's 70th birthday so I can't miss it. Unfortunately the first born has to do his work experience (the only window of opportunity left for him to do this - he's not that orgnaised either, guess who he takes after!) so he has to stay behind, and so hubby has to stay behind. At least I still have Elliot for company.

As such I am now in gift hunting-gathering mode, and I've been making some gifts too. Although it has been generally agreed that many Chinese people don't appreciate handmade stuff, my family is somewhat different in that respect... my uncle is an artist so he appreciate all arts and crafts, my aunts have requested my handknits in the past so they obvious appreciate the efforts, and so I've been busy making things...

This is a cute little bolero/cardi for my niece, the yarn I chose is much thicker than the pattern calls for so I followed instructions for size 2/3 to get a size 5/6. I think it worked :)

The pattern is Entrachat on Ravelry. My project page is here.  I still need to sew the button on and do the edges around the sleeves, but other than that it's done. This is a cute little pattern, it didn't take too long to knit, for me it took about a week of bedtime knitting. I've got another one on the go for my other niece, this time in pink.

I also wove a scarf from one of my early handspuns, it's a little shorter than planned but still a good length, so I am happy.

Oh, you might have gathered from my previous posts that I am a Game of Thrones fan, so is my business partner Sparrow. In keeping with our obsession of GoT we are hosting a Night's Watch SKAL (spin-knit-along), using the Night's Watch shawlette pattern by the talented Lara Smoot. The sign up for the SKAL is open, the kickoff date is 10th September and runs until 30th November. If you don't spin there is a knit only option. Details can be found on our Facebook page or in our Ravelry group, pattern code, prizes details, etc.

Night's Watch Batt:

Night's Watch Yarn:

That's all from me. Thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.

SKAL - Spin & Knit Along

I recently joined a group on Ravelry called Spin A Shawl, every three months the group work on a chosen shawl pattern, the whole project start from spinning the yarn to the finished item. The January - March project is a pattern called Sea Level, what's so interesting about this pattern is that the shawl is knitted with one ball of fingering weight handspun yarn in a gradient colourway, but its worked from both ends simultaneously to create a contrasting stripes pattern that gradually changes colour. I love the concept very much and ordered a lovely merino top just for this.

This is a superfine merino at 15 micron in the colourway of Ocean Flower, hand-dyed by the talented Nicole of Spin.Knit.Love. I spun this worsted and N-plied to a slightly larger than fingering weight at 13wpi, the yarn is super soft and has a lot of bounce. In my excitement to get on with the knitting I forgot to count the number of loops while it was still on the niddy noddy to I'm not sure of the yardage, it weighs 106gms so fingers crossed I should have enough.

Next week we are going on a road trip to the Central Coast in New South Wales, it's about 1000km each way so I'm hoping to get some knitting done when I'm not driving.

This summer holiday is disappearing fast, after we get back from this trip the boys will be back at school and the normal routine will resume. But that will mean less crafting time so I'm not looking forward to that, on the other hand I'll be waiting around a lot more in the car (between jobs, school pickups, etc.) so I might get more knitting done :)

What have you been up to this week?

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!