Knitting update

My sewjo is still feeling shy and elusive, and is rarely sighted. Matters haven't been helped by the fact that I've been knitting to a deadline, which was an alarming experience. But I have finished my mum's Christmas present with a whole two days to spare, so can breathe a sigh of relief!

(I should add at this point that Mum isn't online at all, so I can talk about her present here without any danger of spoilers.)

Completed, phew!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mum had asked for a longer version of my Express Line cardigan, so I measured a favourite RTW top of hers when she wasn't looking, and worked from that. Happily, the pattern has top-down construction and no waist shaping, so it was easy to lengthen. Mum also favours more jacket-like styles, so I just did a short bottom ribbing for interest (the pattern can be knitted without ribbing, if preferred), but using the same size needles. I also fixed the slightly too short sleeves of my version by knitting two more rows, but those were the only changes I made.

Comparing the two

Meanwhile, I have continued to work on my Lothian shawl whenever I'm at Mum's. I had to stay there for a couple of days recently, to take her to medical appointments, so got quite a lot done. I've just finished the second set of five 'routes'.

Showing all 10 'routes'

After this, there is one eyelet row and three plain rows of grey, and then I am onto the border - two rows of each of the route colours, interspersed with two rows of grey. At present it's bunched up, even on my longest cable, but I'm looking forward to the transformation when it is blocked. Hopefully I will get it finished before my birthday after all, and that will be two of my three projects done!

The shawl so far

Finally, although I haven't started my Poppy jumper, I've been unable to resist practising colourwork. I've knitted another swatch, this time following an actual pattern.

This really could get addictive

This time I was more consistent about carrying over yarns at the back.

Tidier

My fabric use review of the year is going to be terrible. I think that I may need to calculate my total yarn use for the year, in an attempt to redress the balance a little!