Fair Isle Workshop

To start this year off learning something new I decided to go to Ovelha Negra this past Saturday and join in on the Fair Isle workshop given by Fernanda. I even knit Portuguese style, which I'd been practicing all over the Christmas break. Fernanda explained things fantastically, I really learned a lot, and I personally believe that knitting Fair Isle in Portuguese style is a lot easier than knitting in continental style, that's not to say that I won't even knit in continental style again, because there are some things that are just easier that way. But anytime I'm knitting Fair Isle from now on, it will be in Portuguese style for sure.

So below I leave you with some photos from the workshop.

Knitting Group Christmas Presents 2010

These were the Christmas gifts exchanged in our knitting group this year. I want to thank everyone for the lovely gifts. Mine was the owl scissor fob, I made them in various colors and each person chose their own personal favorite. Cookies were made by Mari, the sweater by Xana, the crochet heart by Filomena, the "dessert" in the jar by Maria Jose. Thanks again

2010 Neckwarmers - Shalws, Cowls and Scarves

Top1: Adam's Rib Cabled Scarf by Margaret, Tulip Cable Scarf by Daniela Perreira, Shizuku by Angela Tong, Saroyan by Liz Abinante, Top2: Annis by Susannah IC, A Buddy Cowl by Ann Lundblad, Trevi Cowl by Ashley Knowlton, Entangled Cowl by Janelle Martin, Camouflage by Hilary Smith Callis

Bottom1: The Age of Autumn 1 & 2 by Orange Flower, Ranco by Ysolda Teague, Aestlight Boticelli by Gudrun Johnston, Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante

Bottom2: The Age of Purple & Green 1&2 by Orange Flower, Haruni by Emily Ross, Forrest Olives by Ysolda Teague

2010 Gloves, Mittens and Fingerless Gloves

Top: Mittens by Daniela Perreira, Texel Gloves by Dagmar Mora, Blue Leaves by Laura Peveler, Mittens by Xana/Ovelha Negra Workshop.

Bottom: Igulavu by Raquel Garcia, Bamboo Field Mitts by Holly Terrell, Mystery Gloves by Cheryl Romanow, Birnam Fingerless Gloves by Dagmar Mora, Cafe Au Lait by Paula McKeever

Christmas Knitting

I've been busy doing Christmas Knitting. That's to say I've been busy knitting present to give at Christmas. These are all the same pattern, but using a variegated yarn (Carina bought at Wibra in Den Haag and Leidschendam, Holland), they get a different look. The two above were from one ball of Carina, leaving me with about 10g left over, these two are currently blocking. The one below is the first one of two as well, the second one is about halfway done. These mini shawls/kerchiefs are super easy to make and you can find the pattern here, it's a free Ravelry download. I manage to average about 4 hours per kerchief. I hope the recipients will like them.

Test Knit Texel Gloves (Stormy Seas)

This is the latest project I've completed. It was a test knit for Dagmar (I also did the Birnam Fingerless Mittens for her) and I absolutely loved it.

These are my first pair of actual gloves and they were no where near as difficult to make as I thought they would be.

I can't show any other projects I'm working on at the moment because they're this year's Christmas presents and I don't want anyone seeing what they're getting ahead of time.

Aestlight Red Boticelli

This is Aestlight Shawl I made using Malabrigo Sock yarn color Red Boticelli. A lot of my knitting friends here in Portugal had already made it and I really loved the shawl and so eventually ended up making one myself. I've decided to give this one to my grandmother, either for her birthday in November or for Christmas, I'm not sure yet which. I loved making this shawl and it's so much easier than it looks I definitely will be making myself one of these in the near future.

Camouflage/Citron

This is my finished Camouflage (Citron). This will be one of many Christmas gifts I've started making. I haven't really decided who will be the lucky recipient, but I still have several months to think about it. I've already had comments on the colors and the shawl itself, and I'll be making one for myself with a different shade of Malabrigo Lace. This color of Malabrigo Lace is called Jaen and I used 4mm needles as recommended in the pattern, I might use 4.5mm in the next one I make, but will swatch first to see how it comes out. I think I had about 5-10g left of the skein at the end of the shawl.

Homeless

So last Saturday I finally started knitting the hats for the Homeless. My knitting group had the idea of using yarn that nobody was going to be using anymore for knitting hats, gloves and scarves for the Homeless. Someone had a lot of yarn she wasn't going to be using anymore, so I got several balls of yarn and on Saturday during out get together I started the first one. I finished the first one (the grey/blue one in the bottom left hand corner) in about 3 hours, and when I got home I started the light blue one. I managed to finish the brown, grey and striped one on Sunday, I've also made a brown one, but I've not taken a photo of it yet. I've taken a bit of break right now because of the heat wave we're having here in PT. It's just too hot to work with the thick yarn, so I'm working on my Mystery KAL Fingerless Gloves.

WWKIP Day

WWKIP stands for World Wide Knit in Public Day. The knitting group I belong to here in Porto decided to hold it in the Jardim da Cordoaria in downtown Porto where we decorated a small area of the garden with knitted and crocheted flowers along with some animals as well. It was a great turnout and I had great fun.

Sock Knitting

I really should be focusing on finishing my cross stitch project no. 128 (shown in my previous post), but when browsing the web yesterday I came across a simple sock pattern on Andrea Wong's blog (www.andreawongknits.com then follow the link to the blog at the bottom of the page). Seeing as I've been meaning to try knitting socks for some time now, I decides that this was as good a time as any. While in Australia I bought Patons Big Baby 4ply yarn (60% acrylic, 40% nylon 100g/420m) in this variegated color (picture above) which according to the label is Color 3910 dye lot 763786. It's really thin yarn and even though the label says to use 3.25mm needles I don't have any double pointed needles in that size, so I decided to go for 2mm needles instead. I'm still on the ribbing, but I've decided to only do 3 inches of ribbing as I prefer short socks, but if these work out fine, I might just make another pair where the leg part is longer all the way up to my knees. Anyway, the photo below shows the ribbing at about 1.75 inches which is where I got to yesterday. During my lunch hours I managed to add another inch or so of knitting in between beeing interrupted every now and then. So tonight I'm going to finish the ribbing part and carry on with the pattern. Will show updates shortly.

Ribbit by Spud and Chloe

This is RIBBIT designed by Susan from Spud and Chloe (http://www.spudandchloe.com/). I came across this website while I was vacationing in Australia, but at the time I didn't have the patience to sit behind the computer for too long as it was such nice weather outside. Well this past weekend after doing some regular housework which really needed to be done, I decided to visit the blog and start at the beginning. Well there's plenty of patterns I've added to my knitting list and having just finished the two Best Friends Cats for the two little boys, and not wanting to start on my cross stitch project (I'm starting that as soon as I finish writing here), I decided to try this little fellow out. Of course I didn't have the suggested yarn, but I went through my stash and found some left over green, black and red from a jacket I knit for my cousin two years ago (he wanted a Jamaican flag on it), I just started it. I wasn't sure I had enough, but low and behold I had plenty, because I still have plenty left over. So anyway,the only things I changed were that I didn't add the tennis ball for the body (didn't have one at hand), and I didn't cast off where I was supposed to for the body, but just continued on with the head which worked out quite nicely. The hands and feet were a bit trickier, but after I got the hang of the first one, it was clear sailing the rest of the way. The arms and legs are done in I-Cord, but I'd never done that, but I liked it so much that I even made Ribbit a little red I-Cord scarf. I'm not sure which Spud and Chloe project I'm going to make next, it could be the turkey, rabbit, elf, hats one of the many other projects. They're regularly adding new posts and patterns, so if you're a knitting fan and liked Ribbit here, definitely go check out their site. Actually I'm thinking I'm going to get a request as soon as a friend of mine sees this little guy, because she loves frogs.

Lincraft's Best Friend Knitting/Sewing Kit

Having finished my cross stitch project yesterday afternoon (except for the letters to put on the back, which I haven't figured out yet) I just couldn't resist the Best Friends Knitting/Sewing kit I'd bought at Lincraft, so I opened it up and had a look at the pattern to see if it was easy or difficult, but it was easy.

I took this photo after having started already, so there were initially three balls of white 100% cotton yarn. Luckily one of the size bamboo knitting needles I'd bought at the store as well was the right size to start knitting, so I had everything to start the project.

The picture above shows the first arm, still have to knit another one, which is what I'm going to start as soon as I finish this post.

So here we have two legs.

This is the body of the dog. I must say that even though it's quite thick cotton, I managed to make all the items above with only one ball of cotton. I'm only now starting on the second ball, so I'll use that to make the 2nd arm, the head and the two ears, and then I'll switch to the brown to make the patches and the nose. I'll do the sewing together and stuffing when I get back to PT, and I'll have a go at making the clothes. On the picture the dog has little shorts, but I think I'm going to be making the dress instead as it seems easier to make. I'll do this at my mum's house so that I'll have help with it if I need it as I'm not too great at sewing with the sewing machine just yet.

Bitten by the Knitting Bug

I was recently bitten by a bug, the knitting bug that is. I needed to make some baby gifts and then suddenly I just couldn't stop knitting. Even though I had some cross stitching projects to finish, I just couldn't put down my needles.

So here are some of the things I managed to complete. First off, this blue and white baby blanket that will soon be going on a trip to South Africa for a baby boy that will soon be making his appearance. I made some more gifts for this new baby boy, but haven't taken any photos of them yet.

Seeing as this baby boy has an older cousin, I decided to make this cute little hat for her so that will also be joining the blanket on the trip to South Africa.

I loved the pattern for the hat so much, that I knit another 5 hats before stopping and going back to cross stitching. I had a ball (200g) of green yarn that I'd bought last year and I managed to make two adult hats and one toddler hat and with the left over yarn made a scarf (not in the picture).

I made a smaller hat in yellow yarn and my mum gave me some blue yarn that I couldn't resist, so I knit a hat for myself from that, as blue is my favorite color.

In case you're wondering, the blanket was my own creation. The hat pattern I got from Coats and Clark's website (www.coatsandclark.com/fun_and_free/yarn/lw1268.htm)