Milano sweater.

A week ago I finally finished this project - Milano sweater by Caroll Sunday.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/milano. 

I've started thinking over it in spring, and now it is ready to wear. I've tried it - the colors look great and it is very warm. 

For this sweater I chose Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca Mix yarn (100% alpaca, 167 m/50gr). It doesn’t have exactly the same colors, so I’ve ordered all the colors I liked and chose this combination. I was afraid to make a color combination which would become tiring, irritating, but still I like the colors. I think it's a right alternative for the original colors. 

I couldn't resist the temptation and started this project in May, knitting it now and then, as it is perfect for travel.

I didn't purchase the pattern as it was easy, and I was using different yarn. 

For the back I cast on 170, for the front - 182, later I decreased them on the front part of the neckline. I knitted 9 rows for one stripe instead of 8 rows. 

During summer months I knitted the front and the back part, and this November I "was ready" to finish the project.

I found online what does the “cable decreases” mean, finished the neckline, washed the main part and started the sleeves. Here I was hesitating whether to follow the pattern or make changes. 

Recalculated the sleeves, knitted half a sleeve, starting with the upper part. Honestly I don’t like the idea of long sleeve on boxy shaped sweater, and I don’t like the rib knitted with this yarn.

At the end I've knitted the wider and shorter sleeve with some rows in garter stitch instead of the rib. And I undone the rib on the main part replacing it with the same garter stitch. 
What else can I say - I like it(:

"Unfortunately", the idea of oversized boxy sweater on slim body cannot be appreciated a lot on me for now, so I have to wait some months to see if it looks really good on me. For now I'll ask my cousin to be my model. She is a bit taller, so the sweater and the sleeves looks shorter on her. 

Striped blanket.

For years I was waiting for an occasion to knit some baby blanket, and finally I don't find any reasons to wait. This blanket might be used on the baby bed as well as on the bigger teenager bed. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/striped-blanket

After looking through all my "Le copertine piu belle" magazines of Mani di Fata I chose between 2 patterns, adapting them to my taste. I used Garnstudio DROPS Baby Merino yarn (100% merino, 175 m/50gr). It has a great choice of colors and it's perfect for making blankets, as it grows a lot. I had bad experience with some other yarns, when after washing the garments were reduced in their size. I wanted to have a knitted fabric which grows rather than shrinks.

I used colorways 24, 02, 09. 17.

Here is the summery of the work done: 
27/09 Started the border. 
29/09 Finished the first stripe. Even if the blanket is planned to be rather big (90cm per 120cm), I think it will be enough 1 skein of each color and 4/5 skiens of cream. Still I have to order a yellow color. I like the stitch pattern and with the rest of the yarn I can do some hat and scarf, and even little jacket. 
30/09 I‘ve started the third, green stripe and I’m not sure I need a yellow one. Maybe instead it would be better another brown, and then green, blue and brown again. 

02/10 I’m on the middle of the lenght (9 stripes instead of 8 in total). Not bad, but for knitting 2 stripes I need a little bit more than 1 skein, so I have to reorder one skein of brown. I’ll definetely order more skeins of this yarn to make matching cardigan, hat and scarf.

04/10 The green stripe is on the needles, blue and brown are left. It is much quicker project then I’ve expected. But I need more brown yarn to finish it. And I haven’t ordered it from Fiordilana still (they make 25% discount on it till the 7th of October). So, now I’ll start the hat for me.

07/10 Ultimate stripe, the yarn has just arrived. Then the border, and my biggest (for now) blanket is completed. And then, what should I start? Umaro III (even bigger) or Market jacket? 

11/10 Feeling a bit tired to cast-off, but tomorrow it will be fresh off the needles.

After washing the blanket I had a couple of days of anxiety. The reason was that the blanket has grown more then I had expected, and as I don't have any surface big enough to be able to block the garment in the better way, I had to wait till it had shrunk to its expected size. That was really a stress. 

Scroll lace scarves.

Here is one of my favorite patterns, Scroll Lace scarf by Ysolda Teague. I'm so glad that finally I've decided to try it, and now I have two of them done already. And I would knit some others, as this pattern will look gorgeous with any yarn, gauge and color.

The first one I knitted for myself, it's a lighter version.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/scroll-lace-scarf

I used Cashwool 2/30 super melange RP yarn for machine knitting and larger needles size (6mm) as the yarn shrinks a lot after washing. Also for this reason I repeated the lace pattern 32 times instead of 28, and made more short rows on the main part. 

Also I knitted the main part in garter stitch, as it has more volume and looks better than my stockinette. 

To my shame it took me some time to stop doing mistakes and restart this shawl. May be it was for the blame of my numerous WIPs. 

I made one error - I’ve attached the yarn on the RS, so, that the picot border is on the WS. It looks nice as well. 

The shawl came out longer then the original, and I can turn it around my neck several times to show all the beauty of the lace part, using decorative pin to fix it.

The second shawl was intended to be warmer and bigger

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/scroll-lace-scarf-2

I've started it for myself, but now it belongs to my Mom. 

I used the mixture of Pexorka Peruanskaya Alpaca (50% alpaca, 50% wool) and Tricot Filati Superkid (80% mohair, 20% nylon). At first I've tried another pattern of Ysolda, Peaks Island Hood, but it wasn't made for me, and I used these yarns for my second Scroll Lace scarf. This time I used 5,5 mm needles.

Baby blanket - Copertina verde.

To my surprise the photo of my recent WIP had a success after publishing it on Facebook. Some knitters had asked me for a pattern, so I decided to write it down. It is simple and quick, but still of a great effect. It was "inspired" by a pattern from Mani di Fata magazine, but after trying to knit the original slipped stitch pattern I gave up and found this simple leave stitch pattern in one of stitch dictionaries. 

The blanket is knitted with Garnstudio DROPS Merino Extra Fine yarn, using 4,5 straight needles (I knit very tightly). 

The pattern is:

Cast on 120 st.

Knit 10 rows in garter stitch

Continue knitting 6 st in garter stitch, 13 st in main pattern till the late 6 st, 6 st in garter stitch.

Then knit 10 rows in garter stitch. 

Make the necessary number of stripes and finish with 10 rows in garter stitch. 

Main pattern:

1, 3, 13 rows - Knit.

2, 4, 12, 14 rows - Purl.

Row 5: K2, yo, K3, K3tog, K3, yo, K2.

Row 6: P3, K3, P1, K3, P3.

Row 7: K3, yo, K2, K3tog, K2, yo, K3.

Row 8: P4, K2, P1, K2, P4.

Row 9: K4, yo, K1, K3tog, K1, yo, K4.

Row 10: P5, K1, P1, K1, P5.

Row 11: K5, yo, K3tog, yo, K5.

Then you can knit a border if you like. I'll knit one. 

Cove hat and cowl for VIcka.

As I have already posted here  http://vintagecasahandmade.blogspot.it/2014/10/cove-hat.html,

the second Cove hat I knitted was a present for my cousin Vicka. Garnstudio DROPS Nepal yarn is perfect for this project, smooth and bulky, but easy to drape. As it was too bulky to knit the matching scarf, I decided to knit a cowl. The result - warm cowl that can be worn over a jacket or a coat, with or without a pin.