Backlog of FOs

I'm going to do several posts today/this week, to make up for the MONTHS of absence. No good reason, I'm afraid, I just haven't posted, so there you go.

I've finished quite a few things since I last wrote, so I'll add pics and see how that goes.
First up, Secret of Chrysopolis:

Secret of Chrysopolis done bike
This took 3 and a bit skeins of Malabrigo lace. Oh, and over a year of knitting (not quite true - I half finished it last year, and knocked out the second half in August, September and October, just in time to use it to snuggle on a November trip to the UK, of which more anon).
Secret of Chrysopolis done 1
It's the Secret of Chrysopolis pattern, and these photos were taken AFTER the trip home, hence the crumpled nature. Oh well!
(D'you like the traditional shawl-on-bike shots, first tried with Tuscany?)

While I was in the UK (less than a week) I quickly knocked out the Meret, a beret mystery knitalong by Woolly Wormhead. This is a lace beret pattern, and I used some of the remaining yarn (Rowanspun aran in Hardy, discontinued) from the Silver Chunks. Fun to do. Here it is, rather closely matching my hair colour!
Meret 3

The next thing I finished was just before New Year - and this was a project I started after my bro and family left in August, but I got bored part way through a sleeve, and put it down (I hadn't finished the body but had 3 balls left and wanted to judge it right). This is Liesl, by Ysolda. I did her free Cloud Bolero a couple of years ago, and this is a development of that same idea. Easy, worked well. I used 6.5 balls of RYC cashsoft aran, which worked really well, and I think it'll be very wearable cardigan (for work, maybe?) I plan to put 2 or 3 buttons, but there won't be one at the top as I forgot to do the buttonhole there!
Clare took the pics - it was 30*C and I wanted her to GET ON WITH IT but she likes to do things properly.
liesl complete - too hot!
And from the side....
liesl complete - side

I finally finished Clare's water-lover socks (well, I do have to darn in the ends, but that counts, doesn't it?) No pics of them completed, but:Waterlover sock

Next up, is Jaali - this is a pattern by Alison Green Will, published in Twist Collective (a great new resource!) I love this. And I couldn't imagine it in any colour other than orange (one of my favourites, but uncommon for me not to change from the pattern colour).
The yarn was a bit of a saga - I ended up getting 17 skeins (of which I used less than 15) of Bella Baby Layette bamboo80%/merino20% (vom-y name, I know) from Spotlight for under $100AU
. I bought it in various dyelots of cream, and then dyed it in the laundry sink using Dylon Multi-purpose, 1 pot of scarlet and lots of tangerine. Success!
The instructions were excellent, I thought - though JoVE found a few errors, they were pretty obvious things easy to correct (and corrected by TC very quickly). JoVE's Jaali, of course, was purple, and looks great.

Jaali complete
I should be able to wear it over something (as here) or without - that's why I chose the bamboo mix so as not to be too hot.

Emily1
(Talking of JoVE, I could do with a bit of posture work, no?)

So, Jaali was the first completed object of 2009. And I am now working on John's 40th birthday jacket (fingers crossed I have enough yarn!) - done a lot of designing, and I've started the first arm. Going to use EZ's seamless hybrid idea, but my own workings, I think.
I'm also knitting Fine cabled socks - using stitch counts and cable from Knitfreak, here, but knitting them toe-up a la Widdershins. The Trekking XXL yarn is a delight. I've got the yarn and pattern for the Honeybee Stole by Anne Hanson
using Fyberspates old laceweight silk. I started this back in Feb, but fell done on the whole 'read the instructions' part - I didn't do a provisional cast on. I think I'll rip it out and start again.
IMG_1910

OK, enough for now!