Patagonian Night Sky and Hearts and Roses

It's been a very busy week so I haven't done much in the way of knitting. The Foxy Gilet is finished but still needs sewing up. Sewing up and finishing off seem to be things I avoid like the plague and I've noticed that others seem to have the same problem. Perverse when you think about it because it's assumed that the purpose of knitting is to achieve the finished object. I'm wondering, however, at least with myself, if what I get out of knitting is in the knitting itself and the finished result is secondary? I do enjoy my KnitYoga!

The one thing I did knit this week (in one evening) was a babies' wool soaker from the free pattern provided by Clair Coult available at The Knitting Room. I had two 50g balls of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK - one in a dark pinkish colour (trellis) and one in cream - that I've had for ages so I thought that making the wool soaker would be a good way of using it up. It was also something not too demanding that I thought I could do fairly quickly whilst trying to do something different with it. I decided that the background should be in cream and that I would do knitted roses on the leg cuffs and a strip of heart stitch pattern in pink. The roses were done by knotted tube stitch. I'm not sure what to think of the finished result or even if it will ever serve any practical purpose but it was good fun doing the roses and the heart stitch pattern! Here's a photo of the soaker modelled by Tilly. Very girly isn't it! Well, it had to be with only pink and cream at my disposal.


I call it the hearts and roses soaker. Here's a close up showing the heart stitch pattern.


It took roughly 75g of the Jaeger merino so it's possible that two soakers could be knitted with three 50g balls. I was considering the economics of knitting them to sell on Ebay (a bit plainer than the one above) but decided it really wasn't for me. As the pattern required it, I also learned how to do mattress stitch by watching a Knitting Help video.

At the weekend, I plan to sew up Foxy and the baby shawl. I'm also half way through both a baby blanket and a Rowan Summer Tweed top (not to mention Bob's jumper).

Here is a future project I'm planning, mainly because I want to learn to knit with beads.


It's Lily Chin's Patagonian Night Sky Scarf. Here it's knitted in Lurex Shimmer but I wanted something a bit more special so I've managed to source some Jaeger Cashmina (80% Cashmere and 20% extra fine merino) in noir - unashamed luxury!