Thermal

Without futher ado, I give you Thermal!

Thermal by Laura Chau from Knitty Winter 06
16 balls of Merino Bambino in Off-white (on sale for 99¢ a ball!!)
Ravelry link to my version

I love this sweater so much! it's so light, warm and soft! It took me quite a long time to knit, but folks, it was totally worth it. I have had numerous people ask me I have knit it myself or I bought it. I really like this pattern in white and I know that it will go with everything I wear.

Spoiled

I am happy because I have some new yarn :)

Claudine ran out of the yarn I used for Jamesey so I offered to send her the remaining balls I had sitting in my stash. Generously, she sent me some Noro Kureyon in the beautiful bright colourway 154. I am sure I want to try out entrelac using this yarn. Maybe an entrelac bag?

Everything inside Claudine's package was so cute and colourful. she also included the bright buttons in the picture below. Thanks so much! Another package came for me this week. The long awaited buttons for my Twinkle Hoodie!

Does the background fabric look familiar? It's my thermal which is completed; Buttons and all! I'll show you a shot of it on the table: Will have a full FO report soon!

Finally, To feed my recent fibre hunger I won some Sweet Georgia (!) roving on eBay from Alison, who by complete coincidence just happened to live in Mount Gambier too! Isn't it amazing how the Internet connects people who you wouldn't meet otherwise?

Burn, Baby Burn

It's musical year again at my school and auditions were held last week for 'Disco Inferno' which is set in the mid-1970's. This year I was casted as a back-up singer and 'voice coach'. I am not quite sure what being a voice coach involves but I get to make up all the harmonies all three back-up singers, including myself. I am very excited!

Knitting has been going slowly due to the sudden influx of due dates and exams. At the moment knitting has been my stress release time more than anything. Thermal is making some progress still and I am quite excited about the finished product:

I also jelly-dyed some more merino bambino. I followed Eunny's tutorial for making self-striping yarn. I am not sure how 'self-striping' it's going to be but it will have some nice colour graduations. The pink is raspberry jelly, the dark pink is port wine jelly and the yellow is the original colour of the yarn. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

And now for something completely different....

I've been tagged by The Knitting Librarian! I am supposed to give seven random facts about myself and then tag seven other people by leaving a comment on their blog. here it goes:

1. I have been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for just over two years. Hence the name, The Sleepy Knitter. Things are starting to look a bit brighter health wise, but It will take some time still for me to recover.
2. I am fourteen years old! My birthday is on the Queen's birthday!
3. I have a cat, Miss Millie, a rabbit, Shelby, and two guinea pigs, Tiny and Fatso.
4. Both my parents are music teachers.
5. I hate spiders. One time, in primary school (year 4) I was in the gym with my class and we were getting ready for a race. I had my leg out in a lunge getting ready to go. Ready...set....go! Then suddenly i felt something on my leg and I looked down to see a HUGE huntsman there. I screamed and started jumping in a circle. Jacob, a boy in my class, got it off my leg. Thank you Jacob, I owe you big time. Apparently, the huntsman fell off the 20 meter roof and onto my leg. Whats the odds of that?
   

Well there you are. not quite seven but that last one counts for at least two

Now for an update on Thermal; which is taking it's sweet, sweet time:

In which the author is a hypocrite

It has been perfect knitting weather here in Mount Gambier, it's been raining, cold and stormy. This promted me to get going on my thermal which I think I am going to need pretty soon. On the craftster forums there has been alot of dicussion about how much the finished piece grows in length. Since I am using merino yarn instead of a silk/merino yarn I was pretty sure my finished sweater wasn't going to grow 2 inches. To work out just how much (ala Grumperina), I decided to investigate because I needed to know so I could sleep at night. Ahem.

I threaded through 2 yarn markers 2 inches apart
I blocked it and then I measured it again.

Dada! This means that my sweater will grow about an inch. So, If I knit 13 inches total my after blocking, It should be 14 inches long. Perfect!

This proves that you do have power over how your finished sweater looks and just proves even more that you should wash your swatches, something that I probably should do.

Completed at last!

Yarn: Twinkle Soft Chunky, Peach
Needles: Denise 15mm and 12mm
Mods: Made the cardigan seamless and I also used shortrow shaping on the neckline instead of binding-off and picking up the stitches for the collar.

Well, Here it is at last! My Best Friend Cardigan! Overall I am very happy with the end result. Surprisingly, it isn't really puffy when you put it on. It's kind of slinky and very very soft. I am not sure how practical it will be, but i guess I have other cardigans for that job. It looks great over a my dark blue winter knit dress, tights and grey ballet flat shoes!


Progress of Thermal; Getting there slowly.

Opposites Do Attract

The extra skein of Twinkle Soft Chunky was received today so my Best Friend Cardigan should be finished very soon. The Thermal Sweater I just started is coming along slowly but surely and I am enjoying knitting the waffle stitch. This picture got me thinking; how cool would Thermal look with a peach-coloured Twinkle-inspired beret from my leftover Soft Chunky?

Out With The Old :: In With The New

Out: Halter Dress from Vogue Knitting Holiday 06:


As much as I love the design of this pattern my silly decision of a yarn choice managed to end this project prematurely. The CaraMia yarn was to drapey for the pattern and with the weight of all the knitting my dress sagged and as a result my gauge was scarily/crazily off. I might tackle this guy again sometime with a more suitable wool yarn.

In: Thermal From Knitty Winter 06:


The too-good-too-be-true price of Merino Bambino at my spotlight store prompted me start this sweater. I really like the design and the the low scoop neck so you can wear a matching (or contrasting) singlet underneath. It might take some time to get used to going back and forth from 15mm needles (for my twinkle) to 3mm needles, but I am assured all the time is well worth it! wish me luck!