Some recent knitting projects

It's been a while since I shared any knitting and I've recently finished a couple of projects so I thought I'd pop in to show them to you.

I'll start with the one I finished most recently and that's taken the longest time - this is a top that I knitted for myself using a pattern called "Peaceful" from a King Cole pattern booklet that was included with issue 125 of Knit Now magazine. 

It's the kind of pattern that could look a little intimidating due to the all-over lace texture, but it was actually relatively simple to knit. It's only a four row pattern, and the pattern repeats over just six stitches so I had it memorised relatively quickly. I also found that once I had the pattern established it was fairly easy to read my knitting to see what I should be doing and fix any mistakes quickly. All of that combined meant that it was a more relaxing pattern to knit than I was initially expecting it to be.

I used the yarn recommended for the pattern - King Cole Cotton Top and chose the teal colourway. It's a DK acrylic and cotton blend and was nice to knit with. I haven't worn it that much yet because it's been too warm, but it felt good to wear on the walk when we took these photos.

One thing to mention if you happen to be thinking of knitting this pattern is that I actually ran out of yarn and needed to buy an extra ball, whereas I usually always have more yarn than I need. Thankfully I was able to get a ball from the same dye lot as the rest of my yarn so it wasn't too much of an issue, but you might want to be a bit generous when buying yarn.

My second project is actually also from the same King Cole pattern booklet from Knit Now - essentially I couldn't decide which I'd rather knit when I got the booklet and the yarn for both was very affordable so the obvious choice (?!) seemed to be to knit them both!

This one is called "Time Out" in the booklet and is a sweet and simple pattern which is knit in pieces and seamed (like all of the patterns in the booklet) and is just a lot of stocking stitch with rib at the waist, sleeve cuffs and neckband. It was definitely good mindless knitting, and that combined with the colour changes in the yarn meant that it seemed to grow quite quickly as I worked on it.

For this one I again used the recommended yarn - King Cole Drifter 4-ply in the colourway Bluebell. It's an acrylic, cotton and wool blend. I would say this felt a little more plastic-y to work with than the Cotton Top did, but it knits up fairly nicely and feels fine to wear. 

I'm quite pleased that I managed to get both of these finished within the appropriate season for wearing them! I think they'll both work well with layers as well as on their own though, so hopefully I'll be able to enjoy showing them off on into the autumn as well. And now I need to get planning my next garment knitting project! Have you knitted anything recently?