Roundabout Leaf Tank

First I would like to thank Lilikoi Knits for inviting me to join. I just love Norah's designs and will start the Ram's Horn Jacket soon. I am almost finished with the Roundabout Leaf Tank, I am trying to figure out the best way to attach the shoulder straps to the main body.Could someone please tell me how they did theirs? I would appreciate any suggestions. When I finish the tank I will post a picture of it.

basalt tank - the final post!

i present to you......... the basalt tank - off the blocking board and on the ole body!


while i still am unsure about how much i'll wear this, i'm pleased with how it turned out (and very displeased with the photograph, but i was anxious to go ahead and post it). i feel like everything time i finish a project, i get a little bit closer to knitting that elusive perfect garment. i consider this basalt tank to be one baby step closer to that goal.. i've posted more pics and details of the project at my blog. thanks for motivating me to get this thing finished!! i'll be back with progress on the ram's horn jacket once it cools down a little... in the meantime, i look forward to seeing all of your finished (and in progress) gems!

basalt tank is done!

my basalt tank is finished!! ends woven in, blocked and ready to go! i still haven't put it on for a photoshoot, but here you can see it blocking in all it's brown, hard-to-photgraph glory:



as you can tell, i modified it that there are 1/2 hexagons on the sides, but other than that, it was knit exactly to the pattern. the arm holes are a teeeeeeeeeeny bit small, but it fits pretty well. doesn't necessarily mean i'll wear it a lot. now that it's finished, i find myself wondering: "hmmm, a brown knitted hexagonal tank top... is that something i would really ever wear? is it worth wearing just because i made it? will people take one look at me wearing it and think 'there she goes, wearing her weird, knitted stuff'".. hmmm. hope to have modeled pics soon!

What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs...

Pie Pie

Me oh my

Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry
all at once o well it's pie
Apple!
Pumpkin!
Minced
an' wet bottom.
Come to your place everyday if you've got em'
Pie
Me o my
I love pie

- Andie McDowell in the movie "Michael"

I heard project spectrum was all about red and black this summer. I noticed the annual increase in flag waving and bunting bearing, all in patriotic shades of red, white, and blue as we drew closer to Independence Day.

I went stash diving, in search of something, anything to help me get my red fix. Came up with three skeins of Handmaiden lace silk that were too lightweight for the project they were intended for.

Found this pattern in Knitting Nature.

It calls for a gauge of single strand on ones of nine stitches to an inch. Double strand on size five needles yields five and a half to an inch. Wound one up and swatched. Perfect. At both gauges.

Now I know what you're thinking.

How is that totally embarrassing belly baring top going to look on a fifty year old goddess woman?

Not to worry. I am adding two and a half inches onto the length so my rolls of fat pleasantly plump stomachs don't show.

Sat down last week and cast on. By the weekend I had enough done to tell whether it was working or not.









Oh yeah, it's working!









The shine is fabulous; the drape is luscious; the color shifts so subtly between crimson and berry, you almost think you must have imagined it.

The knitting gods have smiled on me.

Because sometimes a girl just needs pie...









a la mode!

Fireworks Day! (USA)

I've finished my summer version of the hex coat. When I start to feel a chill in the air, I'll add sleeves - until then, I have a lovely long sleeveless coat. I knit this with cascade 220 superwash wool (220 yards on size 8 needles) that I bought at Webs last anniversary sale. It was about half the cost so materials for this coat came to about 25.00 without sleeves. It will be about 35.00 with sleeves. Surprisingly, I had no problems with the moss stitch, even in all of it's monotony. The yarn is only a little rough, softer than I expected. The heathered green is gorgeous. The hexagons, however - worried me to no end. I think I could have cast on more stitches per side. And I must have been asleep while making the shoulder seams, because they are not the same as in the book. I will have to adjust the cap sleeves or I will be in trouble. I knit the entire body in the round (sorry in one piece), and added waist shaping. I skipped the ribbing at the bottom edge, because I thought it was an unnecessary edge. I also made the back smaller, and in doing so created a collar where the hexagons join. This looks rather nice, and I've fastened the first three hexagons with clasps. I am happy with this, although, I should have known I'd have trouble making the hex's fit right. The bottom of the coat curls in because of this.

Snapping Turtle Skirt

Hi all, I’m Herdis, a newbie on this KAL. My Snapping Turtle Skirt is finally ready! Actually, it’s been ready for a while, but my camera broke and I couldn’t get any decent pictures of the thing. That’s why I couldn’t post any pictures of the progress on knitting the skirt either… well, that and the fact that it looked so horrible while being knit that I wasn’t sure it would ever become anything. Then in the end, it did actually come out pretty well. I really enjoyed knitting this skirt and I plan to wear it to pieces!

I made some modifications, mainly unintentionally, so the finished garment looks quite different from the one in the book. First of all, I chose to knit it in wool.

Second, my carefully checked gauge turned out to be all wrong. Instead of having six hexagons to the round, I needed only five, which is fine by me if they hadn’t looked like hats rather than hexagons. This was the main reason I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to wear this thing. Blocking the skirt improved this a lot, but even after blocking you can still see the hexagons bulging out a bit. The skirt is also quite a bit longer than the original b/c of the bigger hexagons, but I actually really like that.

Third, I knit the skirt “in the round” and so did not have to sew the skirt together in the end. Doing it this way makes so much more sense… I didn’t even realize that I wasn’t following the pattern until the skirt was almost ready.

Happy knitting, thanks for reading!