A new lace project

On Tuesday I sent off 3 designs and as I've got nothing that has to get onto the needles for a deadline I started thinking about what I wanted to knit next. I decided i needed another design for the Easy Lace E-book. I looked at the patterns I already have ear-marked and decided a cowl and handwarmer set would do nicely.

I loved this skein of BFL Twist  I dyed last week and decided I would keep one for myself.

 I considered several stitch patterns and when I started swatching I decided I wanted to add beads. I rummaged through my bead stash and decided on some lovely lilac seed beads. This is the swatch I did on Tuesday.

Tuesday evening I cast on but then yesterday morning I decided it was too big and ripped out and cast on again. I went out yesterday to do some shopping with the girls. Then I left the girls in Plymouth to do some shopping on their own while I went on to meet a friend for lunch a few hours of knitting before I headed back into Plymouth to pick the girls up. I got quite a lot of knitting done and this morning I took my cowl to knitting group to cast off. As soon as I got home I soaked it and pinned it out.

These pics are not the best. Light wasn't good in the middle of the lounge floor.

You may wonder why this cowl is knitted flat when they're usually knitted in the round. I decided this one would be closed with buttons. The problem with cowls is that you can make your hair all nice before you go out and pull a cowl on and mess your hair up - this does not apply to me as my hair is always a mess. So I decided to use buttons for this one. I know the buttons I want to use and I may have some upstairs but i'm not sure.

At lunch time I cast on for some matching handwarmers & it's progressing nicely. I've also started dreaming of my next project. I have a skein of very dark purple Merino Plus Twist which is the perfect match to BFL Twist. The bright pink/purple and the dark black purple look so good together:

I will hopefully have nearly half a skein left of the pink and I'm planning to do a different size of this cowl and handwarmers with the dark purple skein. Then with the left over of the two skeins i'm planning a new design. I've got it all planned out in my head and I'm so keen to get started on it but it probably won't happen until this weekend or next week.

Right, I'd better get on and do some pattern writing. An hour of work then I'm rewarding myself with some machine knitting. I've got half a sleeve to finish. This morning I set in one sleeve cap and seamed the underarm and side seam on a machine knit cardi on my linker and it all took about 20 mins. I've done lots of machine knitting lately. I will get some modelled pics and do a machine knitting post in a few days. I've got a couple of things in progress I want to finish first. I took my shrugs, a scarf and my half-finished cardi to knit group to day to show off and my shrugs got very good reception. I'm planning to make some for a craft fair at our church in August and I may make some to sell through my website too. I showed them to a friend this afternoon and she loved them and wants one.