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Completed – Kouyou Shawl

christinahopgood
I finally made my first shawl!
Pattern: Kouyou, by Angela Tong
Yarn: Katia Brisa in Gold
My Ravelry Notes Here
I found the construction really interesting and easy to do.  The lovely triangular shape is made by increasing at the middle and ends of each row.  It was a really well written pattern, very clear and easy to follow.
The lace section took easily three times as long as the stocking stitch section, but I found it pretty interesting!  It’s always fun seeing the pattern emerge.

These photos are of the shawl blocking on a towel.  It was incredible how much better it looked after blocking! 

I made this shawl to go with a particular dress.  We are going to Japan at the end of this month for our friend’s wedding on the first day of spring.  I had read some articles on what to wear to a Japanese wedding and they all said WEAR A SHAWL!
I think I might have been bitten by the shawl bug!  I enjoyed knitting it SO much, I want to make more now.

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Completed – owl eyes cardigan

christinahopgood
So while I’ve been recuperating from my surgery, I knit a cardigan!
This is “Ginny’s Cardigan”, from the Interweave Harry Potter special magazine. While I was in America I picked up a copy of the pattern.
I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a brand new colourway which I can’t find on ravelry.
My Ravelry Notes Here
My buttons are shell buttons from my stash. I think I got them from a garage sale!
I made a few changes to the pattern. I shortened the amount of ribbing on the sleeves (got sick of it) and also shortened the sleeves considerably. My arms are short. I also opted for ribbing around the neckline instead of garter stitch, and I put a buttonhole in the neck band too.
I love the lace panel. It looks like owl eyes!
This cardigan is great because it’s long enough to wear with jeans but it doesn’t look weird with skirts either. It’s The Perfect Length! One criticism is that the sleeves are incredibly tight, especially near the wrist. I figured they’d loosen up with wear but they’re still pretty tight.
I also made the blouse I’m wearing – it’s New Look 6107 (or thereabouts) and the fabric is a silk from Liberty that my old boss gave me. She must have bought it twenty years ago! Isn’t it a great 90s print!
These photos were taken on one of the first walks I took after my surgery so no makeup. That’s why I look a bit bedraggled. But you don’t read this for my face do you! Do you?
I am writing this post using Blogsy, which is an iPad app for writing blog posts. We’re going overseas in a month and I want to blog without my laptop! So far it’s ok, but I think anything on iPad will be a bit cumbersome. Does anyone have a suggestion?

 

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First pattern published to Ravelry – Diagonal Stripe Scarf!

christinahopgood
I’ve published a pattern you guys!  It’s an easy double-sided scarf pattern.
This is my Diagonal Stripe Scarf
To be honest, originally I wasn’t going to publish this pattern.  I just started winging this diagonal design on the plane home from America a couple of months ago.
It’s an easy pattern using only knit and purl stitches.  If you make it as long as I did, it’s a great length scarf for all kinds of different tying methods!
It’s shown on my female mannequin but I actually made this for my dad for his birthday.  It works equally well as a womens pattern though!  Scarves are good like that.
It’s for sale on Ravelry for $3 just to test the waters.  I have some other patterns up my sleeve to release sometime so I hope this is the beginning of something good!
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Brief update

christinahopgood

Hi Friends, just a brief update to let you know what’s been happening.  3 things:

Firstly, and most excitingly, my brother’s jumper made the Ravelry blog!  That’s right, I’m in Community Eye Candy for December 31st.  You can view the Ravelry blog if you’re a member, it’s just http://www.ravelry.com.  Since then I’ve received almost 40 comments and almost 200 favourites!  Many of those comments were asking me to release the pattern, so that is something I will be working on in the next few days.  I am totally thrilled and flattered.  I am currently trying to think of how to present the work, and whether I should charge money for it!

In other news, I have been in hospital with appendicitis!  The surgery had a few complications due to my appendix being weird, so it was open surgery instead of keyhole, and they took more guts than intended.  This means that I will be recovering for quite a few more weeks.  I was in hospital for 5 days (over New Year) and am now home, but still feel pretty awful.  It was a huge ordeal and I don’t want to go into it on my blog.  Luckily I can knit now that I don’t have IV drips in both arms.

Finally, I’ve been working on a scarf of my own design and I think it’s good enough to publish – simple but effective, and double sided!  Hopefully I can get to that soon too.

Hope you are all doing better than me!  But good things are ahead 🙂

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Completed – Christmas Jumper

christinahopgood
This year, my brother requested a Christmas Jumper.  Despite it usually being super hot on Christmas Day!  Of course I said yes.
Pattern: Patons mens jumper pattern
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply
My Ravelry Notes Here
The pattern is just a regular old pieced jumper by Patons.  I have several pattern books from Patons from various decades, and compared two similar jumpers from the 1970s and 2000s… the pattern was almost exactly the same.  So you could use any Patons jumper pattern for this.
I measured my brother and decided on the size, but made it longer since he likes jumpers that way.  
To make the fair isle design, I charted out the pattern in Excel and just coloured in! Since it is pieced, I had to do the stranded colourwork on the purl side too.  Knit rows are read R-L and purl rows L-R.
The back is just the little V design… I had already done the front and never wanted to do another reindeer in my life.
It took me right up until Christmas day to have this ready.  I knit until the 22nd, then soaked it and blocked it on the morning of the 23rd.. and it took two whole days to dry properly!  It was wrapped on Christmas morning!
I wasn’t too happy with how my stranding turned out… it’s a little lumpy.
Can you spot the differences in the reindeer?  I literally only noticed after I’d given it and was looking at the photos… but there is something weird going on there.
Most importantly, my brother loved it and wore it most of the day.  Until it got too hot!
Apart from that, we had a lovely Christmas day.  We ate turkey and ice cream plum pudding and played Bocce outside.  The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect Australian Christmas.