Never-Ending Tunic

Finally finished the back of mum’s tunic!  The shaping is a bit odd as you can see, it’s completely straight then about six rows worth of casting off stitches at the beginning of each row and then…. that’s it!No wonder I was getting bored!  The front is a bit more interesting though.  It’s split half way up so it’s worked straight for about 14 inches then each side is worked on it’s own. I think that’s about as interesting as it gets, so this might be a long project!

I’ve also added to my queue Na Craga  from Alice Starmore’s “Aran Knitting”.  This is for my dad, but I’ve yet to find the right wool yarn for it.  You can’t have a fisherman’s sweater that’s not made out of wool!  And there’s a new addition to the extended family due in September so I’m thinking of knitting some cute baby things too!

Wordless Wednesday: Dave Modelling Rosie’s Jumper

Calculations

Ok so I confess I’m still on the back of this damn tunic.  I’ve just started my fourth ball and my fifteenth pattern repeat.  I’ve made some calculations, which are as follows:

• Each repeat is about an inch long
• Each repeat takes about an hour
• The ribbing was about five and a half inches

Therefore:

• For twenty eight and a half inches I need twenty three pattern repeats (including ribbing)
• The remaining eight I have to finish should take me eight hours solid knitting

I’d like to say this only takes me to the shoulder shaping, but at that point the end is in sight.  So technically if I knit all today without pause, I should get it finished!  Watch this space….

Wordless Wednesday: Rosie’s New Jumper

Freedom Spirit Tunic

As promised, this is the tunic I’m knitting for mum!  When I bought this pattern, I made the same mistake you probably are right now – ooo, it’s cabled!  But no, that’s not cabling, it’s actually unblocked lace!  Lesson learned – read the pattern before paying for it, or you really will pay for it later!

The yarn is Freedom Spirit by Twilleys, and is 100% wool in a colour which is a loosely spun mix of caramel, brown and red plies that  stripes subtly over a few rows.  I had to cut a small amount out because of a rather unattractive slub, but that didn’t seem to make a difference to the stripe.  It was actually discontinued when we bought it, and on sale at half price – absolute bargain!

So far I’ve done 42 rows of rib and 48 rows of pattern, which is about twelve inches, really slow going for over a fortnights worth of work!  There’s another sixteen inches worth before I even start the shoulder shaping (I don’t think there’s any sleeve shaping, but I might be wrong – at least I hope I am because sewing it together is going to be a nightmare!) which is going to be a bit of a faff – I’m intending to butcher the pattern a bit so I can use a three-needle bind-off for the shoulder seem, I always think that looks a lot neater and much more solid than I can manage with a yarn needle!