This is my own design, a variation on the top-down raglan that's saved so many knitters from the perils of stitching together millions of pieces. I added decorative eyelet increases on the chest and hem and trimmed the whole thing with moss / seed stitch (hence the name). Since it was my first knit without a pattern, I only used a cheap yarn - Stylecraft Special With Wool Aran in Wild Rose. It's about £5 for a 400g ball, and I'd say I used just short of of 300g by the end.

Having finished it there are lots of changes I want to make, so I'll be knitting it again in a yarn that'll block correctly, with different shaping, and then perhaps I'll write my very first pattern.

More info on my blog if you want it: http://17percentgeek.blogspot.com/2006/08/fo-gathering-moss-raglan-tee.html

I know it's almost Summer, and that ponchos are over as far as the fashion pack are concerned, but I couldn't resist the hooded capelet.





Knit with the recommended Rowan Big Wool (thank you eBay). It's beautiful, really soft and warm. The pattern calls for 3 balls but I think you could just about get away with using two. My capelet is 3 inches longer than the pattern suggests (and the hood 1 inch longer) and I only changed to the last ball of yarn for the last 3 or 4 rows.

Bring on the 'little red riding hood' jokes...

I'm finally getting somewhere. I can now knit the lace pattern without paying too much attention to what I'm doing (important for vital tv/knitting time management combo). Still a long way to go though...



Knit in the recommended Rowan 4-ply cotton, which is a dream to work with.

I love how quick these top-down, one-piece raglans are. This is my favourite FO so far...

Done! A Spring / Summer capelet Using my modified pattern for a smaller gauge yarn. Took me three nights of lazy knitting. The only error was forgetting to expand the garter stitch sections on the edges so the stockinette doesn't roll back. It's not that bad (can probably be blocked / ironed out though I'm a bit cautious about messing with it as it's a 20% wool / 80% acrylic yarn). Here it is stockinette side out with the pin at the top...



However, when trying it on to see how bad the rolled edges were on the reverse stockinette side, I discovered it made a really sweet rolled collar. So, pinned at the bottom to make the most of it...



I think it looks much nicer pinned like this, don't you? Even if it is a bit like the minisweater and all the other shrug type patterns out there.

A prize for the first person to spot the accidentally-on-purpose cable mistake! Durrr, you'd never guess I'm blonde, would you (and at least I spotted it in time to mirror it at the top and make it look like a design detail).



This is the medium, and I stuck to the pattern rigidly. Looking back, I wish I'd knit the front and back about 4" longer as it's a bit short and boxy for my liking. It was my first sweater though, so I don't think I've done too badly. The yarn is a cheap chunky acrylic. I wasn't going to spend lots on a project I thought would go horribly wrong. But I think I might even wear this one out the house! I'm now confident I can attempt something a bit more complicated.

Sticking my oar in with my two versions of this, my first cable project. The first was knit using a 100% wool taken from my nan's stash (she knit the matching scarf). I only did one extra cable repeat, and it ended up still being too small for my taste. Looks a bit like a tea cosy on my head!


(cheesy grin!!)

And the second attempt, with an extra 4 cable repeats and a teensy bit more ribbing. I love this!



The wool is wendy double knit courtelle prints in rainbow, knit on slightly larger needles than the pattern calls for to compensate for it being a bit thin.