Spring is in the air!

Well, there's been a lot of crafting around here, and some finishing though not as much as I had hoped! :D Oh well, we keep on going.

First of, I did finish my first sweater for IntSweMoDo2010 challange, even though it was only sewing on the buttons. But the sweater is finished and I already wore it and I love it! :D

Pattern : Riding to Avalon by Connie Chang Chinchio (Ravelry link)
Yarn : Textiles de la Marque Laine et Alpaga
Needles : 3.75mm

The picture isn't to great (the sleeves are the same lenght!) but well, it's a nice sweater. I love the buttons! I also love the pattern. I'm not to happy with the lenght (should have been just a little longer) and the set in sleeves (well, I'm not happy with my sewing skills!). but I think I'll wear it quite a bit. The bottom edge is a bit wonky from the blocking, but I guess it'll get better after another wash. I also think the sleeves might look better after wearing it a few times.

I am knitting on the dress which should be my second sweater. I seem to have no luck with sewing in sleeves, and well, the sleeve cap looked horrid with the dress, so I decided to knit the sleeves from the top, based on the instructions of Barbara Walker. It's quite a bit better and I might do this more in the future!

Now I've fallen totally in love with this sweater (it's a Ravelry link, the knitter doesn't have a blog). So I've gotten the yarn for a stripy cardigan and I'm going to swatch. Now I do plan on knitting this top down raglan style (I don't owe the Zimmermann book for a EPS, and it's not available through Amazon but second hand). And I've got a few more cardigans and sweaters in mind. There is so much I want to knit! :D

Here's another knit I'm really happy with :

Pattern : Andrea's Shawl by Kirsten Kapur (available through Knitpicks or through Ravelry)
Yarn : Misti 100% pur Alpaga des Andes and Noro Kureyon
Needles : 5.5mm needles

I totally love this shawl! Knitted it for my mom for her birthday (and actually finished it in time!). I finished the same shawl in some Cashmere for myself, but I still need to sew in the ends and block it. It's a ton smaller though (knitted the same size but on 4,5mm needles). I want one like this for myself too! I love the striping of the Kureyon shawl and I love the size. My LYS lady already requested one for herself as well, so I guess I'll be knitting a few more! :D It's a quick knit though, to that's ok.

I also finished this scarf/cowl and totally love it.

Pattern : 5th Avenue Infinity Scarf by Margaux Pena

Yarn : 100% Cashmere

Needles : 5.5 mm

I love this scarf and I love to wear it, even though it's a lot bigger then what I had planned. I can wrap it around my neck 3 times! It's lovely and warm and easy to wear and I want 10 more! :D I love my scarfs so much, it makes me hate that Winter is over.

And there's a woven scarf too but I'll keep that one for next time.

I do want to share the spinning I did the last few weeks. I don't have the possibility to visit any yarn shows or so, but I decided to particpate in the Great Stash Spin-up at the Spunky Club group on Ravelry. I don't get much yarn spun up as I'm addicted to spinning my yarn as thin as possible. But I got 2 yarns done :

Flowering weeds (Spunky Club fiber), 70% merino & 30% mohair

3ply, 223yards (204m) to 3oz, about 16wpi before washing

Insect Wings (HelloYarn club fiber), 100%BFL
2ply, 421yards (385m) to 5oz, about 22WPI

I'm a bit dissapointed in the yardage on the last yarn as I had hoped on more. The problem is that my spinning was really inconsistent so it's thin in some places but rather heavy in other. Oh well, I'll keep on trying. This by the way was fractal spun.


There's more to show, but I'll keep that for next time! The weather is turning into Spring and I do like Spring (I really don't like Summer). It has been raining a lot too, but well, I'm living in Belgium! What do I expect? I do hope on some better weather to start riding more again, but for the time being I'm just knitting more!