Comic cardie

Some time ago, I knitted the most disastrous cardigan in the history of knitting.  Worse, I had struggled with the awful wool for about two years since buying it, so it was a double disaster.  Recently, while clearing out and rearranging my wooden box, I came across the remnants of this yarn and starting knitting a jumper I really fancied in a very old knitting magazine.  I had enough to complete the back and since it seems to be turning out all right, I think it's time to pull out the comic cardie and start reknitting.  Before I do that, I got my daughter to take a picture of me wearing the cardie - sorry, it turned out rather dark and blurred, but then it is the winter's solstice today with no light in the sky at all - very gloomy and dull (though the gloom does seem to have turned a strange shade of pink now that it's 4pm and time for tea...)

What you can't see in the picture are the sleeves which hang about a six inches below my fingertips and the fact that the cardie as about three times wider than I am.  Also, the hood is somehow too short in front.  The knitting itself is crap beyond belief - honestly, I followed the pattern down to the letter.  I used the correct needles and tension, followed the sizing and THIS is what I ended up with - a gigantic saggy brown monstrosity.  

If it wasn't so funny, I might cry....though I think I might have cried at the time and then shoved it at the back of the Disaster Drawer for two years.  Since then, I've concentrated on knitting things well, using lovely yarn in lovely colours and feel much more confident.  But this really knocked me for six at the time....

Oh, look, it's a brown penguin

Previous posts about this cardigan can be found here:

http://www.badknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/joke-jersey.html

http://www.badknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-eternal-bad-knitter.html

The yarn used is Sirdar Tweedy Chunky, thankfully discontinued (as far as I know)

Other people seem to have had success with this awful yarn - have a look at these gorgeous sweaters at Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/poppleton/textured-tunic-with-side-buttons
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MsGidgetty/design-d---cabled-tank-with-polo-neck

Obviously it's just my bad knitting.

An Acorn Hat for Spring

I was tidying up my knitting magazines a few weeks ago and discovered the first ever Simply Knitting I'd bought was May 2008.  Have I been knitting for that long?!  It's full of lovely patterns I've always meant to make and haven't, so promptly set about making a pixie hat for Spring (although it looks just like the cup of an acorn to me) which was so successful, I made two!

You're supposed to use Rowan Scottish Tweed DK for this, striped, but I happened to have quite a large stash of Sirdar Escape DK which self-stripes quite effectively.  I knitted the flower instead of crocheting it (still have no idea how to crochet).  It makes a lovely hat for Spring - great for those days when you know it's getting warmer and don't want to wear a thick woolly hat, but still cold enough to want your ears covered up!  The hat was designed by Liz Baxter - check out her designs on Ravelry:  http://www.ravelry.com/designers/liz-baxter

This hat is called "May Blossom."  I can't find a website for her but her designs have appeared in Simply Knitting several times.