holiday knitting

Over the holidays the knitting continued, even more so because during these rainy days all I felt like doing was to stay home on the couch with my cats, my BBC series ... and my knitting, of course.

So I watched Daniel Deronda (good), He knew he was right (not bad), the latest Northanger Abbey (it's Austen so of course I enjoyed it), and two movies I've been wanting to watch ever since I found out there was a movie version of these favorite books of mine, The woman in white and The moonstone (I'm a Wilkie Collins fan, yes)

With so much time on the couch I finished Zillah. I don't think I even posted about knitting this piece before, but I started it in early December, and finished half of it during the short trip in Spain. I had planned to use some beautiful Silk Garden on this, but then I found another Noro pattern I fell in love with (waiting on some needles to start that one) so I decided to use some stash yarn instead (always a good thing).




Pattern: Zillah, from Simply Noro by Jane Ellison
Size: XS
Needles: 5mm and 4.5mm circular needles
Yarn: Rosários 4 Solstício (rib and neck) and Gedifra Fashion Trend (body)




I had just two skeins of the Gedifra yarn and I was almost sure it wouldn't be enough but in the end it was, just barely so. The XS size looked a bit too big, so I cast on less 4 sts than mentioned in the pattern, and I also used 4.5mm needles on the body instead of the suggested 5mm. Even so, it came out just a little to loose under the arms, so if I was to do it again I would probably cast on even less stitches.

That said, the pattern is very easy and a quick knit. The Rosários 4 yarn which felt a bit too coarse is actually quite soft after knitting. However, this yarn is a bit uneven so it has a tendency to break easily, which happened to me a few times. And the Gedifra is a pleasure to work with, although it pills like crazy ...

On the rest of the wips, the counterpane pullover is almost done, just lacking a sleeve and half of the seaming. I'll have to redo the collar though, because I discovered a huge error I made on it, but I should be done with it in a few days.



The front part of the scoop neck vest is also done, and I've started on the back now



And because I can never have too many hats, I started on both Odessa and Koolhaas, which seem to be the must have hats for this season.