Queue of presents!

Incredible! This is the only word that comes in my mind when thinking to the development of my hobby in those last months!
Christmas is a nice time of the year to show to the beloved ones you love them and you think of them and you dedicate a special moment to them... when all this is made with knitting presents the situation starts being hectic.....

Who are the ones I love most?
First of all my husband... and I started knitting for him a scarf... the longest scarf I've ever knitted!
Long because of the length but long even because of the gauge: to make 10 cm of scarf I had to knit 40 rows... when I came to the end I could just repeat to myself NEVER ANYMORE!

It took me two whole months, but the result was awesome! I'm really proud of it!

Then it came to my parents: who does not love mum and dad?!!!

For dad I went for a simple ribbed beanie of soft alpaca. I was happy with the result and it took me 4 hours of work,but I did not expect the fact that my grumpy dad could be so happy to receive it... project really worth doing!

For my mum I was a little doubtful to what exactly she would like because she continues to say that after a certain age she decided to wear more sober outfits, with dark colors... so I let her decide the color, that was a dark gray, but I decided the shape... that was the patter of the Meret hat that I find lovely and feminine... she loved it too and I was happy!

Then my heart is all for my nephew and niece... two little ones of four and six that decided to draw themselves their own sweater.....

After Christmas I started with the more difficult one... the one for my nephew....
he wanted a green like a field sweater with triangles on it and trees!

Now I'm not just the genius of the knitting.... I'm a beginner and this was a real challenge... it was the first time I had to project a whole sweater by myself.... I started with the gauge and his measures, programming the developing of a top down raglan sweater. Then, to that plane project, I added some design elements....

It can be a simple result, but I'm glad because I was able to finish it!

Now that it's January I'm ready to start the sweater for my little princess... it will be a variation in pink and I bet she will love it! As she did not ask for a specific design element, but just for a color I will base it on a ravelry project and it will make me go faster!

The only thing is that, wanting to show them how much I love them, I had to put on hold my nice red Ambiente project... will I ever finish it?

Mountain knitting!

I've been  in mountain for a few dais and there I've been knitting some projects....



The first is a two crafts project made of:
the Worsted Capelet (by Abuelita n Ravelry)

and the Quick Cable Slouch Hat (by Azure)

I had this yarn from last year in mountain and it was very "wild"... to tell you the truth it smells of goat scent!
But the nice thing is that it's really warm and a beautiful dark grey colour. I wanted to do something with a country touch and I thought about cables. I had already done the Quick Cable Slouch Hat for a present and really liked the way it came out, so I decided for a two objects match with cables and the use of even a contrasting colour to make the dark grey a bit more lively and feminine.

I have to tell that the main cable (front of capelet) has some little mistakes. But I'm very happy of how it came and it's very useful!

The other project is the BoHo Blouse by Stefanie Japel.
I really love almost everything I've seen from Stefanie Japel creations and I fell in love with this blouse the minute I saw it!

From last winter I had this white soft angora that was the right size for the project so I decided that my first BoHo Blouse would be white (In my intentions it's not my last BoHo Blouse!).

I've read all the comments on Ravelry of people that already had done it and I decided to do it a small size to make it fit fine and it worked well! As I'm not so skinny as the model in the photo I had to add some extra stitches after the waist line for my hips. I added total 12 stitches in 12 rows divided in 3 additions of 4  (two each side with a kfb stitch).

Miss Bennet, it is the end!

What to tell if not just that finally I've finished Miss Bennet! I loved it and I started it some months ago, but I had to stop in the summer as it was too hot to work with wool. I could not wait to see it finished and now that the end finally came I'm soooooooooooo proud of my lilac sweater!

First I casted on 220 stitches, but it was too much, so I started again with 180 stitches and it seems better.I divided them in 31-28-62-28-31. When at the wrap and turn point I made it on 8 stitches base instead than 10 stitches. On marker C I increased 6 times instead of 5.

Then I went of 'till I tried it on and I thought it was the right size for me (I have not taken note of how many rows or increases I did, but surely more than the ones of the original pattern as I'm not a teenager like the beautiful girl in the photos!).

When arrived to the bust I made more decreases 'till I arrived at my waist, always trying the sweater on.

Then started to increase. when  I was near the finishing length I decided not to do the 28 seed stitch rows, but to stop the seed stitch at 14. Then I made a bigger garter stitch part, increasing the needle from 2,50mm to 3,00mm and at the end to 3,50mm so to have a loose bind off. It worked nicely!

Almost forgetting to say that when alternating seed stitch rows and stockinette stitches rows I made them 14 and 14, same number, even if the pattern suggested a 15 and 14 division.

My lacy singlet - my first crochet project!

I sow it, I loved it, I wanted to do it!

It was on La grande Maglia n. 16- 2013.

I decided to use the Carina Cotton by Grignasco and I used 4.5 skeins. The beginning was a little bit tricky but with a little help from a Raveler I could go on. The rest was quite easy and I decided to make it a little bit longer, just one block of 16 rows and it was perfect for me

I know that the effect is not the same of the model ... but give me a few months of running and working out and I will improve widely!

The most difficult part of this project, in my opinion, was the crochet at the bottom.... I had never performed with crochet so I was a bit doubtful about it...

but you can see that I managed to do it fine!
Another thing I did was addin an extra 16 rows at the bottom of the body, they were perfect for the lenght I wanted forme and did not alterate the optical effect of the pattern.

I really loved it and I learned that crochet is not so intimidating!