Saturday, October 28, 2006

Yelena cardigan, etc.

It hasn't been a good week for trying to finish the hood on the BdF jacket. I find I can't knit very well with the yarn if I'm tired, so I've left it alone! It is very prone to catching loops on the needles, in much the same way as Lasso.

I started the Yelena cardigan a couple of days ago. This is from Colinette's Femme Fatale book, another collection of designs using Giotto. I'm using shade "Marble" that I bought well over a year ago, originally intended for Maeve from Akashya. This cardigan is in 1x1 rib, might sound slow but actually I'm finding it reasonably quick to knit. Big needles and big yarn is a good combination. I also think this type of fabric is excellent for Giotto.



I'm only using one skein and so far it's looking good, no pooling or striping.

I wanted to show you the wonderful "Sheepish" needles that I received today from Knitz&Glitz, but have had a contretemps with the camera's memory card and the pictures were trashed. Take a look at them on the website! I also can't show the gorgeous skein of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 yarn (shade Mermaid) that also arrived today from Get Knitted (along with various knitting notions and a pair of Brittany needles). This is my end-of-the-month yarn buy and is for the Ilga Leja Diamonds on the Diagonal scarf. Jannette is selling these patterns on eBay now, and Woolly Workshop also stock some of them.

I'm pleased with how my Octber "yarn diet" went. I did not purchase any yarn on a whim, my only purchase has been the yarn mentioned above (which I was going to do early next week but figured it made little difference overall!). I'll try to continue with being more "restrained" in my yarn-buying for November, to be honest I didn't find it difficult at all for one month.

Another reason to use some lovely stash, at work we have decided to take part in "Operation Christmas Child", and fill two shoeboxes with items for children who otherwise wouldn't get anything, in Europe and elsewhere. At minimum I'm making two hats, one for a 2-4 year old girl, and one for a 5-9 year old boy. These will have to be done this week really so hopefully I'll have them to show when I next blog.

Today we went on a Global Volunteer Day event at the local zoo. We were clearing up some of the animal enclosures, mainly for fallen leaves. We ended up cleaning the capybara and spider monkey area, and later on the enclosure and surrounds of the miniature donkeys. It was a great way to spend part of the day and it was wonderful to see the animals. It's years and years snce we visited this place and they have made huge improvements, some really excellent, large areas for the animals and plenty of environment enrichment.



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15 Comments:

At 8:39 pm, October 28, 2006, Blogger Angie said...

"Don't cry for me Argentina" ....after all I've got life pretty good and how else would lots of folks get to see the cutest rodents in the World.

 
At 9:29 pm, October 28, 2006, Blogger Craftydramaqueen said...

I love the scarf you knit and I'm glad your chinchilla is feeling better. Well done for restraining yourself from too many yarn purchases this month, I can feel and urge to look at Get Knitted coming on...

 
At 9:36 pm, October 28, 2006, Blogger Sarah said...

I love the sheepish needles. Thanks for pointing them out. The cardigan looks lovely so far.

 
At 1:15 am, October 29, 2006, Blogger Sarah said...

Your cardigan is off to a beautiful start. I think it is neat that you had such a great opportunity to help out at the zoo.

 
At 11:31 am, October 29, 2006, Blogger Rain said...

It looks absolutely stunning so far, it's producing a very pretty fabric.

Sounds like you had fun at the zoo. Good thing you weren't cleaning out the monkeys - they might not have let you out *ducks and runs off quickly*.

 
At 12:21 pm, October 29, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fun needles!

That loopy yarn can be quite trying to knit with, can't it? Still, it does make you appreciate the lovely, smooth stuff, once you go back to that. I bet the cardi will be worth it though.

 
At 12:36 pm, October 29, 2006, Blogger Piglottie said...

The Giotto looks wonderful knitted up, I love the colours. I love Knit Yoga's needles and have some on my Christmas list.

 
At 1:32 pm, October 29, 2006, Blogger Daisy said...

What a cool idea at the zoo! Monkey wants to know if you took any monkey pictures?

 
At 3:26 pm, October 29, 2006, Blogger T said...

Zoo pics are great, glad you had fun :) I do like the marble Giotto, that'll be nice, although I've forgotten what the cardi is like and will have to go look it up :)

 
At 4:03 pm, October 29, 2006, Blogger Unknown said...

I love the way the cardigan turning out. What lovely colors.
You got some great zoo pictures!

 
At 6:29 pm, October 29, 2006, Blogger KnitYoga said...

The Yelena cardi is looking lovely so far! I SO want to knit one of those Ilga Leja patterns and the one you've chosen is gorgeous! Great zoo pics and well done on the yarn diet!

 
At 9:48 am, October 30, 2006, Blogger acrylik said...

Your cardi is looking lovely, the colours are gorgeous.

The yarn you have bought for the scarf is beautiful and I love the pattern you have chosen. And now that I'm on the Get Knitted site... ;)

 
At 11:05 am, October 30, 2006, Blogger yarnivorous said...

Gosh those capybaras look like they have plenty put away for winter!
Your marble giotto is coming up well - I must find a use for my lonely skein of it in ?shimmer? (If I ever find it again, lol)

 
At 1:52 pm, October 30, 2006, Blogger Seahorse said...

I love the colours in that Giotto!

Great work at the zoo!

 
At 12:04 pm, November 03, 2006, Blogger Dipsy Doodle said...

Your cardigan is going to be a beauty - this yarn looks absolutely divine!
Sounds like you had an amazing time at the zoo, I so love the pics you've shared!

 

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