Any progress is good progress, right?

Good news! The Fusion in Paris top is going well. I've done the body (there was a slight mishap with the shaping on one side but I don't think it'll be too noticeable) and have just started the bottom ribbing. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of it for the next post - I didn't take one last time I tried it on. Just the bottom ribbing and sleeves to do, then weaving in all of the ends. Luckily there's not too many ends!

I did get a little bit bored of knitting, so picked up the Epic Pokemon Gen 1 cross stitch. I keep meaning to get more done on it, but it's so bulky that I only want to do it when I know I have a few hours at a time that I can dedicate to it and that doesn't happen very often. Still, progress is progress, and I managed to get some more of it done. Here's a pic of before I started:

And here it is after I finished for the night:

I know it doesn't look like much, but it's an evening's work. There's a few large blocks of single colours coming up soon so once I get cracking on those it'll look like lots of progress is being made. It's always tricky to see progress when you're just filling in the odd gap here and there! I've got quite a lot going on at the moment so I'm not sure when I'll next pick it up. The beauty of the Fusion in Paris top is that it was a very simple knit and I could pick it up and do a few rows, or even a few stitches here and there when I had a bit of spare time.


More pics and updates soon - hopefully with a finished top! 

Fusion in Paris - the beginning

After my mad finishing skills this year I decided it was time to start something new. (side note - I've atted the border around Snape, but I still don't have a good photo. Soon I'll post something, honest!) I'd bought a bag of Wendy Fusion wool from a shop that was closing down a while ago and spent ages browsing Ravelry trying to find the perfect pattern. Something that looked exciting but not too tricky. I narrowed it down to a couple of choices and in the end I went for $5 in Paris as lots of people said it was a great pattern to follow for a first sweater. It's a top down raglan sweater, which means you can try it on as you go - sounded like a good plan to reduce errors.

I jumped in. Measured myself and started making the larger size. Had just come to the end of the ribbing when I tried it on.... and it was far too large. I undid all of the knitting and started again, on a smaller size. I read through lots of comments and it seemed that having a large neck (well, the cardigan having a large neck anyway) was a common problem, and elastic was a good solution. I've since been out and bougth some elastic, just in case.

After dropping a stitch relatively early on (about halfway through the top ribbing) and being unable to work out where, I restarted. 3rd time's the charm, right?

It seems to be. I really hope I don't have to restart it again as I'm much further along now. I'm really happy with how it's turning out, and I knew that a sweater would be quite a big project but this is coming along a little bit quicker than I thought it would. Yay for bulky wool!

A red top underneath is perhaps not the best thing to wear when the wool is red/orange, but it was what I was wearing at the time. Hopefully I'll have another update soon!