Works in Progress

Good morning! I've been a little lax in updating (for me, anyway)... I've been under the weather, and all I could manage from Sunday night on is lying on the couch, one of Diva's sleeves in hand, knitting slowly between dozing off. Brigitte's delicate stomach revolted against something... When I was initially diagnosed with celiac disease, I had to cut out certain kinds of food to determine if something else was causing the problems. For the most part, re-introducing them goes just fine, however... sometimes... and some foods.

Anyhoo. TMI.

A BIG thank you should go to the very talented Marina! But not for a knitting thing - I snagged a link from her site to Thur's Templates, a site that gives those on Blogger a few more template options. I wasn't satisfied with what I had, and this layout works out much better for me. Once I get my ass in gear, I'll also be able to list my FO's. Not bad! Thanks Marina (even though you had no idea I clicked on your link and took advantage of the freebie)!

I did manage some really good stuff this weekend!















A little bit of everthing! On top - Hanne Falkenberg's Diva. I started one of the sleeves. You first knit the cuff, done on the bias, and then pick up the stitches for the sleeve 'body'. Looking good! It's hard to believe that there are no funny instructions for the sleeve. It's just, well, a sleeve. With normal shaping. Wow Hanne, what a concept.

Then, below that, we have the lovely Diva. She is now good as new, and only about 10 rows short of the shoulder grafting. You would never know she decided to tousle with Atticus. She's sailing along nicely...

Amphora was not worked on this weekend. Just because.

This and that...

So, I came across an interesting quote on Hanne Falkenberg's site. She's discussing how she developed her knitwear style, and has this to say about her concepts:

"...expresses my emancipation from the expectations of the ever impatient fashion world craving for novelties."

Hanne - bravo! My sentiments exactly. Although I don't have a collection (duh), you can easily replace the dotted section at the beginning of the quote with "my knitting style"... I went through a period of time where all I worked on was what I saw in magazines and my LYS. Usually based on whatever novelty yarn was being most prominently displayed in the store. I ended up dumping most of the completed stuff in a corner, and forgetting about it. Or, never finishing it at all. Then, I zeroed in on the stuff I enjoy working the most - Fair Isles, Arans, and the likes - and I really discovered my niche. OK, so as a result my visits to the LYS are few and far between now, that doesn't mean that I'm not slowly but surely draining my finances on yarn!

Just a thought...

Have you had a look at Anne's blog recently? She has some incredible How-To's on knitting up button bands and necklines. You can be sure I'll be referencing those entries when I work Ophelia and Amphora's necklines. I told her that she should be posting those How-To's to her Fair Isle 101 pages on She Ewe Knits, they are that helpful!

And - Wendy also has yet another couple of great entries on fearless steeking and just the coolest way to steek your buttonband in order to knit it completely in the round! If you have your doubts about cutting through your knits - don't! I've never had any issues with it, and Wendy will really put your mind at ease.

So, between Anne's picking up tutorial, and Wendy's button band cheat sheet... It goes to show you that we knitters can ALWAYS learn something new!

Thanks Ladies!

My stomach is still somersaulting, so I will end this now. I hope everyone has a great day!