In-the-pink and pastures new (but never leaving pastures old, obviously)

Remember this?

It was neglected (again) for several months what with Christmas, and then moving (twice), and then a lovely lengthy holiday, but it called to me a couple of weeks ago and after some intensive ribbing knitting I reached an exciting moment last weekend. Look at it now!



I'm essentially guessing the whole bottom-up-seamless-set-in-sleeves process (I haven't found instructions anywhere else), but it seems to be working just fine so far. I did the maths first, months ago, about when to do decreases, and I tried this on last night to check the fit now that the arms have been joined to the body and it fits perfectly (I'd show you, but it involved so much wrangling with extra circs and trying not to stab myself in the eye that I failed to capture the moment on camera). All I have to do is get the neckline to work the way it looks in my imagination, and I'm hoping to have a self-designed jumper that I actually want to wear. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

In other news, I am almost embarrassed to show you the other things I've been working on recently. Because doing so will highlight a woeful gap in my knowledge and experience to date.

But what the heck.



Yes, it's (yikes) crochet. It is my first crocheted swatch! Aww.

I should 'fess up and say that, crochet and me, we've always kept each other at a wary distance. The only crochet I've done, prior to last weekend, is rows of chain stitches for provisional cast-ons, and you know what? I've always hated doing that.

Turns out, I was holding the yarn wrong and the hook wrong, and actually when I do it properly crocheting is kind of a delight. Given that Debbie Stoller held my hand through the re-learning to knit process a few years ago, I thought I'd see how she got on with teaching me a whole new skill, and thus far her Stitch'n'Bitch crochet equivalent has been pretty ace (though sadly none of the patterns take my fancy much, but the instructions and stitch patterns are tip-top). Hooray! I no longer have to skip past the cool crochet patterns on Ravelry and in my knitting library. Ooh, what project shall I crochet first?

That said, I foresee a number of extra coasters in our flat's future until I'm happy with my technique.

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