Knitting like a grown-up.

I've made 4 dinosaurs, 7 pairs of handwarmers, 1 iPod case, 1 odd-looking-bunny-ish-thing, 11 hats, 4 scarves and 4 pairs of baby bootees. Granted, I've also made 4 jumpers, 3 adult-sized and 1 child-sized too, but after getting a skein of Malabrigo Sock in the Persia colourway for Christmas, I decided I needed to do something grown-up and, gulp, lacy.

A before picture:
The picture really doesn't show off the colours properly. There is teal, bronze, steel grey, dove grey and pale blue in there, it's amazing.

The after shot, please ignore my horrible beach towel and completely ghetto blocking wires. When you live in Lancaster you have to make do with what you've got, and B&Q is all I've got!
There is actual lace in there, and central double decreases to make the little ridges, and I didn't fuck up once. I popped a life-line in to make sure I could rip back if I ran out of wool for the edges, but I had plenty left over. I thought I was going to lose my mind, casting off almost 300 stitches (285, to be precise) but I did it!

The shawl blocked out to a good size, it's more a shawlette really, and is just the right size to go round my neck with the point at the front. I may re-block it more aggressively when it needs washing, but for now I'm really happy with it.

I finished Nik's Knucks at long bloody last, I really, really hate knitting the second one of any pair. I feel like I lose momentum when I cast off the first one and really stop caring! Oh well, they're done and just waiting for their new owner to SEND ME HIS ADDRESS so I can post them off, just in time for the height of summer!

I've cast on another jumper, from Knitty's Spring/Summer 2011 issue. It's called Rondeur and is not what I'd usually choose to knit, but for some reason I was quite attracted to it. I think the cables and lace on the raglan increase are really neat, and I've come round to short-sleeved jumpers since I knitted my Kidsilk Crack cardigan. Plus if it all goes horribly wrong, the wool only cost me £5 from the local BHF shop, so I won't be too upset. I won't be knitting the round hem, however. It looks horrifically unflattering and will draw all sorts of attention to an area that caused me to take up knitting in the first place. Shop-bought knits are often too short in the body for me and mean I spend most of my time pulling them down to cover my stomach. Hand-knits can be made any damn length you want, and keep your belly covered. I do not need a big gut-flap in my hand-knits, thankyouverymuch.

I'm going a close in projection at work tonight, I haven't done one yet, but I'm assuming it's an open in reverse. Switch off all the things, make sure everything's on the platter it's supposed to be on and turn out the lights!