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:

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).

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!

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.

And from the 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:
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.

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.
(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.

OK, enough for now!
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:

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).

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!

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.

And from the 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:

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.

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.

(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.

OK, enough for now!