A happy 2 years blogging!

It's been a whole 2 years since I first started blogging and although I haven't blogged nearly as much as I wanted, nor knitted as much as I would have loved to - I'm still pleased to see I've got some staying power and made some knittery friends along the way. ;-)

So today seems a good time to say "look how far I've come" - from knitting scarves and beanies, I've gone to baby clothes and now I am knitting adult projects too:

The Smoothie DK Cardi No. 9

• Pattern from the Patons Smoothie DK book.

• Started mid-Feb 2009 and finished end of July 2009 - 6 months!! (but that includes 2 full frogging episodes - does that mean I knitted it 3 times??)

• 5 balls of DK Smoothie acrylic yarn in Blue 1089 by Patons = a NZD30 cardi

A really easy lace pattern for a beginner but continuing the lace pattern while increasing and decreasing for the shape was difficult. I spent ages not understanding why my gauge was out either until I figured out I wasn't putting the yarn forward - see in the picture above - the left-hand side is yarn up, over and then to the front!! Right-hand side is the correct lace pattern.

Complaints: unfortunately there are a few. As I said in my last post, there's some trouble with the neckline stretching. I don't like the button spacing either - unless I managed to miscount my rows (mmm likely) they are not spaced right and button-hole 2 is miles away from 1. The arm holes are also a bit tighter than I thought - but there's not much i can do about that!

Best bits: I'm very happy with my neckline and sleeve cuffs - picking up stitches is not something I seem to worry about. The lace pattern - which was easy and really graphic looking - not so "pretty". And it's not too heavy - I guess that's the benefit of an acrylic yarn.

Wow - finishing a whole garment is pretty cool and I really learnt a lot and my skill level has certainly improved. Am dead keen to have a bit of rekkie around my stash and line up some new but smaller projects for the rest of this year - there are a few new bubbs on the horizon so a few wee knits needed.

Oh yeah and I've got that other adult knit to show you - 2 years, 2 cardis - what an effort :)