Not just for Pandas - Knitting up a Lacy Bamboo Cotton Cardigan

The finished cardi 

I have been working on this fab cardi for the past month and am very happy with the end result, so much so that I am writing this quick blogpost to share it with those of you on Blogger who may not be on Ravelry, where I shared some photos and pattern details here. 

The pattern is by Anniken Allis who is a pattern designer for, among other publications, Let's Knit, a lovely UK Knitting  monthly which I have been getting when I see it in the bookshops for the past few months. This pattern is called Serena and is from the May 2012 issue. It is in King Cole Bamboo Cotton, a lovely yarn with a great fall and drape, which means it hangs well on the wearer! It also doesn't seem to crease, as I've had it bunched up in a bag in my car and it was fine, so it's a dream for holiday packing.

I got the yarn as a stash-busting treat to myself when I got a gift voucher from my daughter-in-law's mother Irene last month when she was here for the wedding of Shayne and Jany, and they came to visit us for an afternoon during their  holiday after the wedding. As the yarn is a bit pricey (about 7 euro for 100gm) and the cardi pattern called for 4-5 balls, I probably would have balked at buying it with my guilt-inducing stash and my pledge to forego any new purchases till it's diminished. But a gift voucher is different isn't it? Yes, thought so!

Note the matching nail polish!

Blocking on foam playmats!

And in the spirit of supporting local crafts, I was delighted the voucher was from the fabulous Design Workshop where Angela plays host to our Tuesday Knitters Circle. I dithered over the colour to choose, given that she had my fave colour hot pink but I decided to be daring and go for another fave colour of this vivid Peacock Blue Shade 531. I started the cardigan in one piece for the fronts and back, and it worked fine, to the sleeve divide and then I worked as if I was working each piece individually. The only thing I didn't do was eliminate the side seam stitches for a totally seamless pattern of lace. I think my maths and chart reading aren't good enough for that yet, or my confidence.

Blocking the sleeves

WIP Stitch and side seam detail

The sleeves were worked in the round using the Magic Loop method with a circular needle, size 3.5mm used throughout (size 9 UK). I had used that  method on two previous jumpers and it worked fine. They were also Anniken Allis designs from Let's Knit.

Blocking on playmats

The shoulders were joined with the three-needle cast off, and I had some short-row shaping to do for the last few rows. I liked the detail in the lace pattern that meant right and left front were mirror images of each other, not identical. This kind of detail is something I'd never think of which is why I knit, not design! This is the third Anniken Allis jumper I've made in the past 4 or 5 months so I think I can safely say she's a favourite and very easy to follow. The charts are also easy to follow and she explains the technical stuff too, like short row shaping and neat buttonholes.

detail of armholes

I took some photos of the WIP and the Blocking (on kiddies' foam play mats that slot together) as well as the modelling - it got premiered at a colleague's hen party last Friday and got plenty of praise, much to my delight. There's something about hand-knits that's extremely satisfying and I am delighted I rediscovered the Zen of knitting and crochet in recent years - as I said to someone on Facebook yesterday - it's my Yoga!

New Knitting - My Teal Lace-Trim Jumper

My new cotton jumper

 This is a jumper I finished in time for the Immrama Launch in Lismore Castle so you've seen it being modelled if you read the blogpost on that event - and it's also on my Facebook profile pic, as it was taken by the pro photographer on the night and the quality is great. Better than my Panasonic Lumix point'n'shoot or my iPhone pix!

I thought to share this project with the various knitaholics among my blog readership, apologies to the rest of you who find knitting up there on a par with watching paint dry, but that's the joys of blogging - anything goes.

I got the pattern from the March 2012 edition of Let's Knit, a UK knitting mag, which was new to me, but has lovely patterns in it. I get a lot of American crochet and knitting mags, and find the crochet ones easier if they're American as I use the American stitches in crochet, which means the UK crochet mags wreck  my head. I have to do a translation of the pattern as I go along, and often mess up, and even though I am totally baffled  by pattern charts in crochet, which the Americans favour, I am getting used to reading knitting charts for lacy projects, as in the cast of this jumper.

Bathroom mirror modelling - to show neck detail!

It was designed by Anniken Allis (her Ravelry link) and it was a first for me, working from a lace chart. Also the shoulders were not cast off, just  left on a stitch holder and they involved the Wrap and Turn technique to slope them, and then they were joined by the 3-needle cast-off (bind-off for my American readers). This is a technique I was used to from my sock knitting, as I always use it for the toes, and my iPhone cosy too. It leaves a lovely neat finish, and I will use it ad infinitum!

Another first for me was knitting the three-quarter length sleeves in the round, which meant they were seamless. I was chuffed with that as it wasn't on the pattern, and I managed to incorporate the sleeve shaping with no problems. I also blocked the pieces, which was  a step I've never done before - all those knitting books are paying off - and it really gave it a neat finish.

Detail of neck back

My favourite part of the jumper was the lace detail, especially on the neck back. It is a little triangle, and it was easy enough to do once I could concentrate on the counting. The same trim was in the pattern for the sleeves, and I adapted the pattern to include the same trim on the front and back hem. I think that enhanced it and it turned out lovely. What do you think?

Note seamless sleeve: pre-blocking, a bit too blue.

Swanky launch at Lismore Castle - with hubby Jan

The yarn was adapted too - as long as it was cotton 4-ply (sportweight for American knitters) I was happy to go along with it. I had lovely teal cotton yarn from Lidl, called Lima - but I only had 250gm. That should have been enough, but that wasn't applicable to this yarn, and I ran out before the front was done! Disaster loomed as Lidl only bring out wool about twice a year and don't always run the same ranges from year to year, so I thought I'd  have to park the project. Then an angel of mercy appeared, in the person of Annie, one of the Tuesday Knitters at Angela's Design Workshop. She heard of my dilemma and offered me a pack of the same colour yarn she had bought last year! It was called Spring, and it was a 5-ply yarn with a slightly larger gauge, however, I decided to continue on the 3.5mm needles and it wasn't discernible. So unless you look with a gimlet eye for flaws, and spot a tiny discrepancy at the neck, it's totally fine by me.

Border detail - colour very hard to capture but this is it!

I wore the jumper for the launch of the Immrama Festival in Lismore Castle, and it got many compliments. The photos from the launch have been in the local papers so everyone can see my lovely jumper. I hope you like it too.

More Afternoon Delights - A Wonderful Waterford Hideaway

The Book Centre Waterford and the coffee shop ceiling

In my last post about my trip to Dublin last weekend I alluded to an afternoon in the city and decided it deserved a post of its own. In fact, two afternoons in two cities in one week made for some pleasant R&R, and two separate blogposts. You can read about my day in Dublin here. 

On Tuesday last week I took a half day off from work - not a holiday, rather it was something in the public sector that may have those in the private sector grinding their teeth at the great lives we have - ergo, I had what's quaintly called time off in lieu (of payment), or TOIL. It's a rather oxymoronic acronym as it implies work, rather than the leisure it represents. I had done an evening talk to a Ladies Club recently on Women's Health and as health promotion is an integral part of the Public Health Nurse role, I always enjoy these evenings. I've done about three in the past year to different Ladies Clubs in West Waterford, and I've done them in the past for different Carers' Groups. They are one of the pleasures of my job, the informal sharing of knowledge and information that  people really value. Of course there is no payment from the community group for these talks, and I am delighted with getting a half day back within the month of the talk.

mmm, lekker cappuccino and carrot cake...

So I took a half day during half-term and took my teen queen daughter and three of her friends to Waterford City, an hour's drive from home. The main purpose of the trip was so that she could get her tongue pierced. (I know, I know, there's probably a collective gasp of blogospheric horror at  questionable parenting, but having weighed the option carefully following the tentative request a few months back, we decided to ensure it was done safely and hygienically in a reputable tattoo place rather than some back-street dive.) On foot of this, and after checking it out,  Swineline in Waterford got the gig. They use a numbing local anaesthetic spray and sterile equipment and it was all captured on phone video by one of the pals. I declined to watch, and left them to their own devices, being much relieved when I got the call saying it was done and went fine. The aftercare was well adhered to - ice cubes, Nurofen Extra, and lots of salt-water rinsing. Thankfully no complications, and it's healed by now, and doesn't cause a lisp or look awful like I'd thought it might. The local school is quite blasé about bodily embellishments and doesn't ban piercings, tattoos (tasteful) and oft-disastrous home hair-dyeing. Unlike the school in today's Irish Times - thankfully! Currently my daughter's hair is a sort of Bosco red, which is lovely when newly done but seems to fade fairly quickly. Thankfully it's home dyeing which is cheap as chips compared to salon work - and I love the way they get to experiment in a way that was totally alien to my youth!

Let's Knit! and check out their website.

Can't wait to get cracking here!

Back to my afternoon in the city - I dropped the three girls and one boy in City Square and as I am not at all a shopaholic I headed off to The Book Centre, a magnet for any self-respecting bookworm. I headed for the upstairs reading area, where there are open invitations to browse and read and relax, and then discovered there's a lovely coffee shop on the upper floor. This was too irresistible and I made for the cappuccino  and carrot cake. Before that I made a quick recce of the creative craft section and found some great books and a couple of magazines - and took them off to browse as directed. The relaxed atmosphere of The Book Centre positively encourages inertia and I was happy to oblige. I had my knitting bag with me - well, a small bag with a few things in it, like the Noro Sekku scarf I've been making for the past few weeks in between other things like frilly ruffle scarves. So I spent an entirely self-indulgent three hours on the sofa (oh, did I mention the sofas? None of your cheap plastic bum-blistering seats designed to move  you on in 15 minutes for the discerning browser!) knitting up at least a foot of scarf and browsing books I'd no notion of buying now,  but maybe at some future date, while enjoying cappuccino and carrot cake with whipped cream. I ended up with two magazines - a Burda Style full of lovely sewing patterns and other crafty stuff, which has only recently become available in English in Ireland; I used to buy them in Holland and have a  big library of them in Dutch along with other Dutch pattern magazines like Knip and Marion. Then I saw a lovely Let's Knit! which has a website full of great free patterns and is perfect for the knitting anoraks out there - you know who you are! The magazine came with balls of wool and a pattern sheet for  baby bootees and socks - delightful in pastel green and purple. I couldn't resist this lovely sock book which was the same price as some of the magazines, around a tenner, and will give  me endless pleasure experimenting with various heels on long winter evenings!

Burda Style - with its maze of patterns!

The piece-de-resistance of The Book Centre though has to  be the ceiling of the coffee shop - it's entirely papered in sheets of old newspaper, which must have been a labour of love and begs a stepladder to do a Michaelangelo and read the ceiling. I discovered later on why the shop is so quirky in layout, as it's a veritable Hogwarts of labyrinthine proportions with tiers of floors at all odd angles, and Escher-like optical-illusionary steps and stairs going in all directions. The building was an old cinema - which perfectly explains the stepped layers to the top and the sloping ceiling of the upper coffee-shop level. It's the most atmospheric bookshop I've ever been in and this was my first time absorbing it. I was at a whole other level of relaxation when the teens summoned me to meet them as Penneys was closing, and I was in a Zen-like state all the way home, unperturbed by the booming bass of their high-decibel music played on my car radio from their phones via my knock-off wannabe iTrip.