This 1920’s style hat is a present for a friend. I’m quite excited about it because it looks so cute and is easy and quick to knit.

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I was so chuffed with it that I’m now knitting one for myself.

More photos from our Barrington Tops camping trip soon. First, I’d like to share my latest knitting endeavours with you.

This neck warmer was taken from an old Patons booklet I had. It was a relatively quick knit using my leftover wool, to match my gloves and skirt. Hubby thinks I look like a colleen, hahaha.

After knitting gloves, I tackled this vest for Hubby. It took me ages to finish because I had quite a bit of fabric to knit up. Construction also was not without incident since the pattern had quite a few mistakes in it. It took all my vest knitting experience to bring it back into line, but thankfully the results were good. It looks a lot like a cricket vest without it being a cricket vest. Hubby likes it as he can wear it over his t-shirts and not overheat.

It might be deep Spring, but I’m still knitting. I knitted these gloves to match my skirt. No real dramas this time – the pattern was as clear as crystal and the yarn more or less behaved. Unfortunately, I finished them too late to enjoy them, but I’m sure they’ll get a lot of use next year when hubby and I travel to Europe.

I had a lot of trouble with this skirt. Not because it was difficult to knit – the instructions were very clear, even with photos for the trickier techniques – but because in the end, it sagged like anything.

It was probably because I didn’t knit a swatch with what was a new yarn for me, and because I knitted one half during work time, and the other in the holidays. I was very relaxed in the holidays, hence the skirt grew.

The pattern actually called for a column of buttons to hold it all together, but considering the weight of the skirt (around 400g), and the sag factor, that was out of the question. So I learned how to sew in some reinforcement in the form of grosgrain ribbon (I didn’t know what that was before this skirt), and then sewed up the button band so that only the top two button holes were free.

Oh yes, the one row horizontal buttonholes gave me a few tense hours. It was a shame that I didn’t use most of them in the end. I sewed on two buttons and a set of snaps, and then had to adjust the position a few times to fit my waist properly.

At that point, the skirt seemed stable, but when I wore it out to work I found that it still slid down more than I would like. Now I wear it with a belt – I’m just thankful that it’s wearable, otherwise it would have been a waste of 7 weeks worth of work. I guess that’s how it goes with knitting.

Just catching up on the posting my finished objects from the end of Autumn.

First off the rank is this simple top for autumn/spring, or whenever one does not need long sleeves on a jumper. I used this pattern, which was very clear and simple – good for someone who would like to know how to knit in the round.

The jumper had some great use on our outback trip, when we were camping out for 9 days and the night temperatures were quite nippy.

I made use of the leftover yarn and knitted another cowl for my friend Fran. Unfortunately even though her birthday was mid June, she didn’t get it until yesterday when the winter’s almost over!

I knitted this for my friend Nina’s birthday – a belated present since her birthday was all the way back in November. She feels the cold so I thought that this cowl would be great for her. I used leftovers of my favourite yarn, in my favourite colour, and got to practise some cables and the kitchener stitch.

It looks and feels so good that my other friends want one too.

I made my first cardigan in blue, hence the name Blue Shalom. The pattern is very popular on Ravelry, and not too hard for a semi-beginner like me, though the twisted rib stitch yoke (that's the shoulder area for non-knitters) nearly drove me around the bend. After wet blocking the cardi was rather log (draping over my derriere), but that's ok for me. I even found a good button in my button jar for the single button closure.

From vests, I did transition to jumpers. I used this clever pattern where the jumper is knitted top-down on circular needles and thus is completely seamless.

Hubby’s jumper was the first cab off the rank. Even though it’s plain, plain, plain, I certainly learned a lot knitting it. And I got the sizing right with him.

My jumper is a lot looser, so I guess I won’t be wearing it to ‘formal’ occasions. That said, it is very comfortable and nice on the skin. Not too bad for some first efforts.