Knitting Louisa Harding’s Sofia

My knitting plans that I laid out back in January are no longer valid.  My vision has gone from cold weather to warm weather knitting.  I’ve shifted gears and decided to start knitting lightweight/short sleeved garments.  This includes knitting Sofia by Louisa Harding. 

So far, Sofia is knitting up nicely.  The instructions are very good and are given line by line.  I’m knitting the back section working my way up along the armholes.  There are front left and right sections to knit. The front edges are knit as a separate piece and then hand stitched along the fronts, bottoms and back edges.  This will be time consuming for me, but I’m sure it will be worth my efforts. 

I’m using a beautiful teal yarn called Revue by Reynolds.  The yarn has a bit more green than the picture shows.  It’s 100% merino and it’s soooo soft and squishy.  I got gauge with 20 sts using size 7 needles.  The twist in this yarn is exceptional.  I anticipate using less than half a bag of this yarn…somewhere around 500-600 yards.  Did I say bag?  Yes, I ended up buying 3 bags of this yarn in 3 different colors.  The other two bags contains aubergine and navy.  The bags were on sale and I couldn’t pass up the potential of making future  cardigans from this lovely yarn. 

The Sofia cardigan is from the Cardigans by Louisa Harding book I purchased last year.  This book was a wonderful find as there were many cardis that caught my attention and would love to knit. 

Kitty is beautiful lace and cable cardi design.  I think this would be a fun knitting project that would definitely keep my attention. 

Here’s Minnie also from the Cardigan book.  This cardigan can be knit with short or long sleeves and with lace or cable trims. 

I’m back to knitting garments in pieces versus in the round.  That means more seams and keeping my knitting skills in check. 

If you get a chance, check out the this wonderful book by Louisa Harding. 

Back From the Caribbean (pics) and in the Knitting Groove

I actually lost my knitting mojo, like for 5 weeks.  I went on vacation for two weeks and took a small knitting project with me.  I ended up knitting two rows, that was it.  I finally finished my project this weekend.  It’s my “single skein lace cowl”:

This was knitted using Plymouth Happy Feet DK yarn in beautiful variegated blue colors.  Kind of reminds me of being in the Caribbean.  From the picture above, my cowl is drying after being hand washed in J&J baby shampoo.  The lace fabric really loosened up and softened.  Prior to hand washing, the fabric had lots of bumps and ripples.  I didn’t do much stretching to the cowl in length nor width and I’m just letting it dry naturally.  I can’t wait to wear it and see how well it drapes.  Will post a modeled picture later this week.

Here’s a few pictures from our vacation in the Caribbean:

-Bonaire-

-Aruba-

-Dominica-

-Grenada-

-St Thomas-

Now, that I’m back to reality and it’s halfway through February…I’ve decided to focus on knitting warm weather garments.  My knitting books and magazines are scattered around me and I’m thinking about bright colors and sleeveless tops.  I think the warm Caribbean waters has affected my thinking.  Ahhhhhh….