FO: Wedding Dolls

Ooooo look at their utter cuteness!

As you will see from What's on my needles: March 2012 these wedding dolls were created for my big brothers wedding! Which took place yesterday :)




This piece took quite a few months to complete, mainly because I kept getting distracted by other pieces! Its been finished for over a week but i wasn't allowed to publish anything about it as they wanted it as a surprise for them and for the other guests. All in all it didn't take that many hours, the pattern just covers the figures and uses a different dress and includes a veil was used as the basis for the piece. Although it is an expensive pattern, it is worth it if you are a beginner crocheter as half of the pattern is instructional pictures explaining different steps and the way the pieces are assembled.






So my little additions include:
Paul
-A rock climbing harness that Paul is wearing,
-Lime climbing shoes
-Blue and red climbing rope (handspun)
-Climbing helmet, smaller than head, but a helmet that would have fit just looked stupid
Rachael
-Exercise books
-Rachael's wedding planning book
-SLR camera
-The colours of the bouquet were the colours of her sisters bridesmaids dresses.
The Base
The base consisted of 11 white rings, one for each year they were together, then the sisters colours in age order, Michelle the next eldest in blue, then Juliette in green and Alison in the dusky pink.

The materials used were various bits and bats of 4ply acrylic but also scraps of stash yarn. I bought a 10" cake drum for the base and cut it down for the base ;).

On another note the wedding was amazing, it was so beautiful and the weather turned out brilliantly for it! Unfortunately 60 of my 94 chocolates got misplaced! And we're left upstairs overnight and do ended up melted, but they all still tasted lovely. Unsurprisingly I wasn't impressed! But what can you do! Silly people moving things!

WIP: "Stonor" by Belinda Boden

I had an acute uncontrollable case of startitis this week as I finished off the wedding shawl and my shrug for my brothers wedding, for more info see Whats on my Needles: March 2012, although I have yet to post about them as FO's. And even though I haven't finished the little dolls for the cake I just needed to start something else (bad me :( ). However, its involved me using up a cardigans worth of stash so GO ME! 

 
Introducing Stonor by Belinda Boden ;) she is a beautiful long sleeved cardigan with a deep rib at the waist and an incredibly addictive lace pattern. The lace pattern is a really simple 4 row repeat which although the cardigan only uses 4ply, its going to knit up nice and quick I think.                                                              

The other aspect I found really attractive about this cardigan is the way that it just has buttons at the top and due to the deep ribbing it opens up beautifully at the waist but in doing so really emphasises your body shape. Whereas some cardigans that open like this can just leave you looking a little bit pregnant.       
      
The pattern is only available in Fyberspates Scrumptious Collection Vol 1, which offers 20 patterns and retails at £12.50, to be honest I bought the book primarily for this pattern although I have spied a few other projects in there that I will be making, such as "Challow", "Hinksey",  and "Tirrold".                       

The book is lovely, very well set out and all the patterns are presented really well with the inclusion of graphs and some of them are seamless. This cardigan is meant to be knit in separate pieces but I have chosen to knit the back and fronts together up to the arm hole where I will split them and start to work the sections separately, I have included a faux purl seam though to split the sides a little bit visually.                          

Now, the yarn that I'm using isn't the suggested yarn. If I had the money I would definitely have splashed out on some of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply, that merino and silk blend is SO SQUISHY! Not the mention the beautiful colours its available in. However, when I'm still on a bit of a yarn diet, and I had just the right about of Cygnet 4ply in my yarn cave I had to behave myself and satisfy myself with this.

I love how its turning out and even though its not going to have quite the same amount of sheen that it would have with the suggested yarn, I love the colour and its going to be lovely and just the right amount of warm. The lace detailing on it will make it cool enough for the summer cardigan its designed to be whereas the wool will make it just right for a Scottish Summer, or its attempt at it at least! I can't wait till its finished!I love the colour and think it will go well with alot of the things I wear :)