0 Knitting Bits

As usual, I'm knitting away. Here are some bits and pieces on that....



The biggest news lately is the Outfit-Along being run by Andi and Lauren, two of my favourite bloggers! It involves knitting something and sewing a dress to match! Duhh, of course, count me in! I'm knitting the Marion cardigan from Andi, and the dress is yet to be chosen.
Here's a snapshot of some progress I've made:

A wee tip, that little loop of dental floss (I love dental floss for lifelines too!), is put in row 1 of the cable chart. So  if  when I forget which row I'm on, I can just count upwards from my little loop. Because I'm not a pro at reading cables yet, this saves me time...



Also, I also upgraded myself to an officially obssessed knitter. Why is that? Because I bought me some fancy playthings! I'm now a proud owner of a ball-winder and swift!

Observe my lovely giant yarn-cake!

I'd seen people talking about making their own swift from household items (I do love a freebee!), such as here and here, and here. Making my own was my initial plan but then I ended up buying a second-hand vintage swift online. Funny how money slips out of my pockets like that!
Anyway, I used it and it was fun times!  At first the yarn kept falling off it because the joints were a bit saggy, so I found a handy-man to help me tighten them up and then I had, well, a ball (forgive me for the terrible pun!).

It does expand much bigger than this, so it can keep a hank of yarn taut. No in-action shots sorry!

Yarn winder made by... Toyota. The... car company?

More yarn stuff:
I recently bought some lovely yarn on sale, with no clear idea what I wanted to do with it. Sometimes you just push the BUY button right?

It's Cleckheaton 8ply merino angora silk blend yarn.

The facts:

-It's a rich rusty burgundy

-It is tweedy, with little flecks of other colours in it, something I've never worked with before! I've usually avoided anything that wasn't a solid shade, but wanted to branch out

-It is 1531 yards (1400m), and is 8ply

Swatch.

However, I ended up deciding to sell it putting it up on Ravelry as after seeing it all swatched up I decided it was too rusty for me. It's just not a colour I love so why would I spend that much time making a garment? Check it out here, you know you want it! ;)

Moving on to sadder news, I thought I'd have a moment of silence for a frogged garment:

I can't believe I almost knit the whole thing before I admitted it was terrible. Talk about denial! It gave me really stiff shoulders because to get gauge, I'd gone down to a too-small needle. The fabric was dense, and the tension was yucky. Not to mention the yarn stunk like sheep-butts!
Rest in peace. You shall be reborn into a new garment, I promise!

Frogged. I turned it into hanks and I had to wash them a bunch to get the stinky sheep-smell out. Ooh now I can wind them into balls with my new toys!

So my knitting definitely isn't without its missteps, but I'm still really enjoying it! More, more! :) What are you guys knitting at the moment? Had any hiccups like me? ;)