cushion for H

cushion front, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

Now that it's reached its intended recipient I can show you this.

The tree are from Leaves in Relief. I've loved this pattern ever since I saw it, but didn't think it would really suit me as a jumper. The tree pattern makes a beautiful cushion.

This is for my friend H. It's backed in green to match her colour scheme.



Started: 10 March 2008. (Strictly speaking it was started on 7 March, but the first attempt came to a halt when I ran out of wool in that particular shade of off white. That's the trouble with going stash diving in a bag of various balls of unidentified off-white aran.)

Finished: 13 March 2008. (and that includes the sewing. I took it to work on Wednesday to work on in my breaks and then spent most of Thursday finishing it.)

Needles: 3.5mm circs.

It's more or less square. I left off the top leaves to make it a bit more square and then blocked it even squarer. A wet block would have done the job better, but I only had time to steam block. The edging is applied i-cord.

If I made this again I would swatch more thoroughly to make the panel properly square and calculate the right ratio for picking up stitches for the applied i-cord on the sides. Having said that, I'm really pleased with how this turned out and H likes it, so I'm happy. :-)

purple jacket finished

purple jacket - cuffs up, collar down, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This one was pretty quick, really. Started some time in February, finished last night.

Pattern: Drops jacket 103-1 mostly, although the cuffs are adapted from Brompton by Alice Bell.

Yarn: 800g of Debbie Bliss Maya, colour 12.

Needles: 6mm straight and circs. (I started on straight because that was what I had, but it was far too heavy and uncomfortable so I bought some circs, which were much better.)

Notes: My gauge wasn't quite right, so I knitted the M size directions (of the finer gauge set of directions), but ended up with the L size. The cuffs were a last minute inspiration, but they suit the adaptable collar well. The buttons came from John Lewis. I think they're rather lovely.

The wool's a little bit itchy, so I suspect I'll wear the collar down more than up. I'm pleased with how glam this jacket looks. Sort of Russian or Elizabethan. More pictures on flickr or ravelry.

ETA: I knitted the body as written, but the sleeves were knitted circularly from the top down by picking up stitches round the armhole and using short rows to make the sleeve cap. I first saw this technique on a blog which now doesn't exist. Jenna Wilson's knitty article on sleeve caps has some pointers. I got to something I liked by trial and improvement.

This jacket's quite heavy, so (thanks to the Yarn Harlot's timely advice) I stabilised the shoulder and neck seams with crochet.