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Sunday, February 25, 2024

Elephants Tails and a new Collar

 There's been plenty of hand work happening here lately.  One of my goals was to hand stitch tails and eyes on to my three families of elephants.   There is Mother elephant, her older calves and the two babies in each family.  A couple of afternoons spent sitting quietly and the job was done.

Elephants tails and eyes

Once that job was done, it shouldn't take me too long to assemble the rows.  This is my number two project in the Chookshed Challenge for February and I would really like to get this top assembled by the end of the month.

Last month I had finally finished knitting and sewing up my navy blue cardigan (number 6 for January in the Chookshed Challenge) but...........I was not at all happy with the collar.  Silly me, I thought I knew better than the pattern and knitted a ribbed collar instead of garter stitch.  After thinking about it for a while, I decided that if I didn't like it now, I never would in the future, so there was only one thing for it.  The collar was unravelled, and reknitted, according to the pattern.  The colour is darker than shown, the pic was taken outside in the sunshine.

THis looks better

This cardigan has been a very long winded project indeed, and was started last year during our 10 week South Island caravan holiday.  It was a nice easy design to knit while sightseeing in the car, not much thinking to do at all.  But once I started on the back shoulder increases I realised that I had the incorrect number of stitches - bother.  So that was unravelled and knitted again.  And now the collar has  been redone too.  You would think at my age I would be better at following instructions!

But it is finally completed, and I'm happy with my efforts.  It will be tucked away till the winter weather arrives.

16 comments:

Maria said...

Those Elephants ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ are so cute, be great to see the finished quilt.
Always good to fix something you’re not happy with. Nice cosy cardigan.
Hmm! Like you I often don’t follow or read intrusions properly. ๐Ÿค”

Nancy J said...

Lovely knitwear, and all done for the winter. We have our first load of firewood all in the shed, second load coming tomorrow.

Joanne in Massachusetts said...

A lovely sweater.
I'm sometimes impetuous enough to "do it my way" when sewing purses or clothing...generally it just doubles the amount of time to finish the project...and it's quite likely not an improvement over the pattern anyway.

Michelle Ridgway said...

Very cute Ellies. Your cardigan.has turned put beautifully despite the collar setback x

Gretchen Weaver said...

The elephants are so cute! Love your sweater, beautiful!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

your sweater looks so good I think You did a really good job on it.

The Cozy Quilter said...

Love the elephant’s tails!!! Your new sweater is going to be warm and cozy on chilly winter days. Beautiful colour too.

Julierose said...

Hahaha--following directions seems to be the tough part for us all...love how your cardi came out--so pretty...
The elephants are so sweet--nice hand work on them, too. Hugs, Julierose

Berkshire Tatter said...

There is nothing, in my opinion, that is nicer than a handknit sweater. Yours is just gorgeous. Love your elephants.

Marthanne

CathieJ said...

The elephants look adorable. I like the new collar you knitted for your cardigan. Such a pretty sweater.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Your elephants are so cute, Jenny! I bet they feel much better with their tails and eyes sewn on. :) The cardigan looks lovely - fixing a problem so it is the way you want is always a good idea!

Sarah said...

Sweet little elephants. Great finish on your cardigan, especially the contrast top part.

loulee said...

Cute wee elephants.
That cardi looks very cosy.

Jackie said...

Such cute elephants.

Love the cardigan.

God bless.

Lyndsey said...

The collar looks good . My knitting was causing all sorts of problems over the weekend and that was with me really concentrating hard on it. I eventually got it right. I love your cardigan and those elephants are just so cute with eyes and tails.

nestki said...

What a beautiful sweater! You are going to look great in that. Congratulations on finishing it and putting the tails on the sweet Ellie’s.