Chamonix :: Cascade de Bérard + Val Tré les Eaux

On our fourth day the weather started to get cloudy and rainy. We decided to take an easier path, and so went hiking towards the Cascade de Bérard and the nearby Valley of Tré les Eaux. Next to the cascade there is this quaint and cosy café, famous for its tart aux myrtilles. Sadly, none was to be had that morning so we settled for some delicious homemade chocolate cake instead.

Chamonix :: Argentière

(resuming the posts from our week in Chamonix during the summer... )
Our third day was spent hiking in Argentiére, towards the huge Glacier of the same name. We took the cable car to Lognan, and then hiked to the start of the glacier (route 16 below). A very easy and quick hike, ideal for hiking with kids.

After lunch we decided to take the Grands Montets cable car to the highest point (3275 m) where there's an excellent viewpoint. It was windy and cold, but the views were amazing.

Later that evening, we decided to try one of the local restaurants in Vallorcine, L'Arret Bougnête, located next to the train station and our hotel. It offers a lot of savoyarde specialties and the ones we tried were quite good (the desserts were equally nice).

muda-fraldas :: baby diaper mat

Uma prenda para uma amiga e o seu bebé recém-nascido. Demorei algum tempo a decidir o que iria fazer para oferecer, mas depois lembrei-me que das coisas que fiz para a Sara, o muda-fraldas foi sem dúvida um dos itens mais utilizados.

A gift for a friend and her newborn baby. It took me a while to decide what to make, but then I remembered that of all the things I made before Sara was born, the diaper change mat was undoubtedly one of the most used items.

steeking for beginners :: the Ursula Cardigan

In the beginning of August I started knitting this cardigan. It's the Ursula Cardigan by Kate Davies, one of my favorite designers, and it's featured on her recent book Colours of Shetland. I've been knitting it almost non stop since then  (with a little break to work on some Christmas ornaments ...) and finally I was done with the main body and it was time to steek.

Now, I've never steeked before so this scared the hell out of me, and I wasn' exactly looking forward to it. I mean, who in their right senses would make holes into their knitting, especially something that took me almost 2 months to finish ? But it had to be done, so I gathered my courage and decided to go for it. I followed Kate's wonderful tutorial which really explains everything beautifully.
I decided to start with the collar, since it was the smallest steek and therefore less chances of getting it wrong. I first made my crochet  reinforcements using a sock yarn that was similar to the main color of my cardigan, as you can see here:

All the tutorials I read usually say that before your first cut you should have a glass of wine. I don't drink much wine so I decided to have this instead ...

And voilá ... it actually works !

Then I did the armholes and left the front opening till last

This is how the crochet reinforcements look after they're done

See how it's easy to see where to cut ?

After you cut your first steek, the rest don't seem so daunting...

And this is how it looks on the right side - quite neat looking

And even the reverse side doesn't look very bad.

So I did it, my first steeking project. And it was definitely worth it ! This cardigan is now blocking and I still need to sew the buttons, snaps and trims, but I should be able to post some photos this next weekend. And I very much think it's going to become a favorite :-)

banksia top

Como primeiro projecto para estrear a máquina nova decidi finalmente terminar este top que tinha começado o ano passado. O modelo é o top Banksia, da australiana Megan Nielsen. Adoro golas Peter Pan, pelo que assim que vi este top decidi que o teria de fazer.  A construção é bastante simples, sendo que a parte mais complicada é a abertura onde são colocados os botões. Para este efeito, a designer inclui 2 métodos alternativos nas instruções, um mais simples e outro mais complexo mas com resultados melhores. Optei por este 2º e apesar de ter desfeito 2 ou 3 vezes as costuras para obter um alinhamento melhor, o resultado final ficou quase perfeito.

Alterações: fiz a gola um pouco mais pequena (a original era demasiado funda para o meu gosto) e acrescentei umas pinças na parte de trás.

As a first project to use on my new machine I chose to finish this top I'd started last year. The pattern is the Banksia top, by australian designer Megan Nielsen. I love Peter Pan collars, so as soon as I saw this I knew I'd have to make it.Construction is fairly straightforward, and the most complicated bit is the button placket on front. The instructions on the pattern include 2 alternative methods to make it, one a bit more simple and another one more complex but with better results. I chose the second method, and although I ripped the placket 2 or 3 times to achieve a better alignment the final result is almost perfect.

Changes: I made the collar a bit smaller (it was just a tiny  bit deep for my taste) and I added some darts to the back.