Green Pastures

Name: Green Pastures
Yarn: YarnArt Jeans, 120 g
Hook: 3.5 mm
Pattern: Inspired by Blue eyes
(bg-mamma username)




This is almost an exact replica of Blue eyes' shrug. Truth be told, I sampled at least a dozen patterns from this precious site, but my daughter liked so much the original, that I gave up and crocheted the shrug as requested :)
The pattern is easy yet intricate enough and beautiful, and I find the final result quite pleasing:







Linked to Natural Suburbia, a place for creative people and ideas

What's New

Some post-Breeze thoughts ...
It amazes me lately, after a year of active, somewhat hectic knitting, how sometimes I drudge over a pattern, knit and unravel, study others' experiences on Ravelry and Osinka and various blogs and I finally get a fine and even perfectly fitting garment which I almost never get to wear. And then there comes something quick and unpretentious, a blouse, or a hat, or a shrug, and one might begin to wonder if I have been walking naked/hatless theretofore, as I seem never to take the new item off my back/head. Yes, this is exactly the current situation with Breeze. I simply love this sweater :).

And what's new - a three-color blouse, which painfully slow is growing out of otherwise worth for nothing single ball remnants from Blue Jeans, Simply red and Quanun, all knitted in YarnArt Jeans. I've dubbed the blouse Frenchy for obvious reasons, though in the beginning it looked more like an elections ribbon :).
The idea is an improvised version of this blouse, which I loved the moment I saw it on needled, but the pattern is a combination of the ripple effect from this winter tunic for my daughter and probably some sort of raglan sleeves, as in Simply Red and Breeze.

Breeze

Name: Breeze
Pattern: Green Gable by Rachel Bishop
Yarn: Nako Breeze 70% cotton 30% viscose
Needle: 3.00 mm (US 2 1/2)




Technically speaking, this isn't Rachel Bishop's Green Gable. First, it is knit from down to top in the round, the rib is ridged rib, the sleeves feature some short rows. Still, it's a short sleeved summer raglan sweater with meshed front, inspired by the look of said Green Gable pattern.
The yarn - lovely, for a viscose blend. The colour is such a rich sea blue green that I fell in love with the moment I saw it. Sadly, the camera fails to capture the nuances of green in the blue. I have a skein and a half left and I plan to buy some more of the same for this Filati short jacket.
It's a bleak rainy day outside, so I've been playing with my Micrografx and producing such funny photo-montages:





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Sea Gray Vines

BTW, my geranium is in full blossom now :)


Name: Sea Gray Vines
Pattern: Vine Yoke Cardigan by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Lanoso Alara, 50% cotton 50% acrylic
Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)

This is a bit tricky and very original pattern by Ysolda Teague. Tricky, because it is knit sideways and with a latent length. I wish I had listened to my guts and added a few stitches to the body - now the cardigan is almost short. When it came to casting on for the sleeves I knew better and added 12 stitches (could have added a couple more). For the short rows I followed the modifications suggested by knittingfan:
Modification for Neckline Decreases:
* rows 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 as instructed
* row 4 knitted all the way to the end (same as row 8)
* row 6 - same as row 2
For the grafting I used two youtube videos for grafting in stockinette stitch and in garter stitch.

It took me about 10 days to knit the cardigan and another 10 days to find some buttons. Alas, not THE buttons. From the very beginning, when I bought the gray yarn, I knew I wanted this cardigan with tomato red buttons. I found the perfect ones on an old dress of mine, but they were only 6. Nevertheless, I made the 9 buttonholes, certain that eventually I'll find either three more of the same or 9 similar buttons. Well, I reckoned wrong. All the round red buttons available nowadays in Sofia are either pinkish or brownish, and the tomato red ones are too large, or square, or elliptic. So, having rummaged through all button-selling shops known to me in Sofia, I settled for these simple unobtrusive gray buttons.

But button issues set aside, this is a nice pattern and I like the final result.