Stripe on!

So there is a bit of a theme running through my recent project. Having finished my spotted retro dress (I'm really looking forward to giving it an outing this weekend), I've now got a bit of a stripe vibe going on.

First off, I've finished my second t-shirt using Sewaholics' Renfrew pattern (details of my first attempt here). I bought this fabric and started sewing the pattern within 24 hours, which I reckon counts as 'zero-stashing' (as in zero-emission), and as a result no stash related guilt! Although, the turn around was so quick I forgot to pre-wash the fabric, fingers crossed it won't shrink!

This time I used some lighter jersey fabric, which works well with the cowl neckline, although a bit more elasticity around the sleeve cuffs would be better. Its a personal thing, I like to role my sleeves up about the elbow, or pull them down over my hands (see below) - depending on the length of the sleeve of course.

I managed to get all the pieces out of just a meter of fabric, it was quite wide, with some clever juggling of the pattern pieces. Plus, I got my stripes to match, all the way up the seams and (mostly) at the sleeve cap. Its a great basic t-shirt pattern, and I can certainly see myself making it again ... and again.

I also just finished my Hannah jumper. As I mentioned before, the electric blue Drops Vivaldi (mohair) has been lingering in my stash for years, and I finally found a pattern and bought some lilac mohair to go with it for this project. As a stash reducing project it has been a total failure - I started with 2 balls of blue and bought two more of purple, but I didn't even finish one of each ball, so I've ended up with more yarn than I started with! However, this did mean I could spend a happy afternoon search ravelry for a new pattern - I'm thinking of some kind of mobius cowl. I don't get how mobius works but I'm fascinated to find out!

Aside from that I'm pretty pleased with my Hannah jumper - this picture probably doesn't show it to its best advantage but I was in a rush. The neck is quite wide, as it is in the pattern and if I was to knit again I probably would put in a few more rows at the neck and some additional decreases. But mohair is a nightmare to rip and I'm not going back now. This is the third item I've made from Kim Hargreaves' Thrown Together book, the others are here, making it is probably one of my most used pattern books. Plus, there are a couple of other projects in the book I'm planning to try out.

Once the needles started flying they just didn't want to stop, so I rushed straight into another project, again aimed at stash busting ... and including stripes.

Its the cladonia shawl, which has been in my Ravelry queue for some while, every since I saw the beautiful examples in the Constant Knitter. I'm using some purple 4ply alpaca, left over from this cardigan I made three years ago, and an odd ball of Drops Delight. So far I'm loving the colour change pattern, but I'm still not entirely sure if I will ever wear the finished outcome - I'm just not sure I'm the shawl kind of person.