GOLD!

Medal on the Yarn Harlot's blog

Made it to the finishing line ...

So, 15 and a bit days, approx 375 grams of mohair (or about 1125 metres - as far as I could estimate it - if you prefer), it's all done!


Finished at 9 am UK time this morning (and no, I wasn't up all night, even if my hair and pale face look like it!).


Daughter Emily took the pictures for me, some of them are a little blurred (she's only 10)


and it's pretty windy this morning in the south east of England


but here I am looking smug (despite DOH's comment "Do you realise it's see-through" - tsk, MEN!) ...


... if a little wind-swept.

In the time-honoured words of Muttley, "M-m-m medal?"

Olympic Update

I have half a sleeve, and the neckband/front edging left to do, but I have to finish tonight, as tomorrow I must finish an OU assignment, which has to be sent in on Monday.

Hope to have a proper photo of the finished coat sometime tomorrow morning, but in the meantime here are some slightly better photos all about steeks:

1. Before cutting, the ‘hole’ at the top is the bottom of the armhole, and you can see the moss stitch steek area below it


2. An improved (and corrected) diagram


3. And finally, some cut edges … (if you’re really scared, apparently you can use Fray Check or similar - I didn’t bother, but that’s because the mohair yarn’s so ‘grippy’, and pretty difficult to frog at the best of times)

Scary!

Made it to the shoulders, so the main part is now all done. Next job is to stitch the armhole lines, and then cut the steeks - I'm going to use the chain stitch method show in Sally Melcille's latest "Knit Experience" book ... and then I can pick up for the sleeves. Photos to follow as soon as I've done this bit.

(btw, anyone from the TeamGB blog reading this, I'm having trouble with posting to it at the moment - is this a general thing, or is it just me being incompetent?)

Here's a quick 'diagram' to keep you going for the moment

Just a quickie ...

Because I'm supposed to be organising us for going to France for a couple of days, and not messing about with my blog, just a very quick update and link to the TeamGB blog here, and an even quicker link to Time Magazine here, thanks to Vicki Knitorious

Olympic Knitting

One of the 10 balls of yarn for my Olympic entry - it will be a mohair coat/long cardigan to my design (working on the principle of 'work out the design as you go along'), so far I've knitted up one ball and have reached about 8 inches in length times 52 inches width in feather and fan pattern. I'm knitting it in one piece up to the armholes, and I plan to steek the armholes, because of the long shading in the yarn (from bright red through to dark purply red), and that will be (sort of!) a new technique for me to do proper steeking ...

The yarn itself is Sirdar 'She' - a very 80's yarn indeed, bought for about £6 on eBay some months back - it's 55% Acrylic/45% Mohair, and I'm estimating a yardage of approx 150 yards to the 50g ball (based on what I've knitted so far, and since it isn't given on the ball band - this should also give you some idea of how old the yarn is!).

Cure for Insomnia

Open book, read page 1, turn over pa ... zzzzzzz

A moment of madness ...?

After much umm-ing and ahh-ing, have decided to join in the Knitting Olympics. I am going to knit either a mohair coat (I have 500g sitting in the stash that says it would like to be a coat) to my own design, or if the ggh Soft Kid I ordered arrives in time, I will knit the Tweedy Jacket (finally!). The challenge for me will be in getting it done, whichever of the 2 it finally turns out to be, as the final course for the Honours part of my degree also starts this week, so no pressure there, then ...!