Thanks, everybody!

Eliea, the yarn is actually 70 % merino and 30 % opossum. It is not bristly at all, it's very soft and nice (though I don't know yet how well it wears), but I suspect this part has to do with the sheep. I think the possum fur are the darker hair that give the knit sort of a halo and also are responsible for the absolutely beautiful deep hue. Sadly, this was way too hard to capture in a photo. But the yarn is beautiful indeed. I just feel sorry for the animals...

I understand that most knitters have moved to Ravelry, but I hope it's okay to promote a good pattern here as well: I knit Trilo from Stolen Stitches (http://www.stolenstitches.com/2009/07/trilo/) and it was great!

The most important aspect is the back, I think:





The front:



As you can see, the armpit does pucker a little:





The collar is also so-so. But I think this is as good as a sideways-knit sweater can be. (Or my breasts are way too small. Which is not an option. Ha.) There must be a reason they usually knit sweaters otherwise.

Anyway, it was a great pattern to follow and a fun sweater to knit. Recommended. (For reference, my sweater is bit longer than the original.)

As for the yarn, I used mixed merino and opossum yarn a friend brought me from New Zealand. I later learnt that this is a rather sad case: the opossums are thought to be a pest, so they are probably first killed and only then their fur is used for making yarn. Well, of course I'd rather have the hair combed from baby opossums comfortably cuddled on somebody's lap, but this time, I already had the yarn and thought it better to make some use of it.

For the first second I really thought it was a photo of someone posing as a fairy. Of course I have very little experience with clay and ceramics, but still... Absolutely beautiful.

Must be my favourite quilt.

Thanks, all!

Yes, cold water and gentle handling - that's what is in my mind. Can't eliminate the user error, though

...or kolkhoznica? Well, never mind, because it really isn't. It's just that the floral pattern reminds me of slavic folk patterns on old ladies' headscarves:



I've been attemtping to sew for literally years, but this is, I believe, about the second wearable item I've made (the first one was a pretty plain skirt). I didn't follow a pattern, just, you know, cut some fabric and tweaked my way through it. A closer look:



It won't fall off of me or expose any private body parts, it is comfortable and looks fine. See, I'm psyched:



Given all that, I'm pretty sure it will shrink when I first wash it, melt when I first iron it or something like that. (I already managed to pull out a thread during the photo shoot.) So, let's have one more look at the random pleats and the mesmerizing flowers:

Forget about keeping your stash organized.

Hehe, well, yes, that's what I'm probably going to do.

Thanks, everybody.

This is Stitch Diva's Silken Scabbard (http://www.stitchdiva.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=SDS-048) in wool and very homemade-looking (as opposed to handcrafted).

I decided to use some beautiful mustard-coloured yarn from a thrift store sweater. Half into the Scabbard, I saw that I was running out of yarn, so I thought I would throw in some stripes. Having finished the sweater, I found another huge ball of the mustard-coloured yarn. The moral: keep your stash organised!

The sweater also stretched a lot after blocking, because being the lazy person that I am, I didn't treat the "recycled" yarn at all, just ripped and reknit.

Well, I still like it.

Just to let you know: this is really very, very beautiful. I can't imagine the work needed to accomplish this.

I hate trying the FO on and discovering it makes me look ugly. Maybe it's not actually a part of knitting - but knitting something wearable inevitably ends with trying it on, no? It so sucks that you do all this hard work casting on and knitting and seaming and weaving in ends and what not, and then you finally have it all done, and no, it looks bad, you wouldn't buy something like that at the store.