FO: Lucky Red...

Pattern: My own for Chinese New Year, so I'm calling it Lucky Red.
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in cranberry (5 skeins) and Patons Decor in burgandy (less than 0.5 skein)
Needles: US7/4.5mm and US8/5mm KnitPicks Options
Time: 10 days

Notes:

I may have mentioned before that I originally bought a bunch of Wool-Ease for another project that I never got around to making. I was able to use up three skeins on the vest for my mom but that still left 11. Now I'm down to three, which I'll probably use for charity knitting. The buttons on the front were from an old duvet cover. They had fallen off and, when the cover had worn out, I just never bothered to sew them back on (I probably should have taken the other buttons off for future use before getting rid of the cover, though). They worked out quite well for Lucky Red.

I had envisioned this as a wrap cardi with a cowl-like neck. My inspiration was a cabled cardi I saw while living in England that cost nearly £100. I think H&M had a similar one in all stockinette. I've spent the last year, on and off, trying to figure out how to replicate it. I'm not quite there although making this has given me a much better idea of what I need to do. The wrap cardi I was hoping for can wait a little longer.

This turned out to be more like a jacket than intended, but I like it. I think later on, when I have more time, I'll add a few more buttons for two rows of three on the front to take it all the way to jacket status. Speaking of buttons, I had a bit of trouble with the fabric pulling where the buttons were sewn. I ended up scrounging for a couple more to sew to the other side of the fabric (back-to-back), which more or less took care of it.

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The Ballet Wrap has finally been re-done and blocking. It really shouldn't have taken me this long since I was only shortening the sash. Speaking of which, I had over five balls of KnitPicks Andean Silk leftover from it that I couldn't figure out what to use it for. Now, 13 months later, I saw this post at KnitLit and thought, "I can make that!" I just hope I have enough yarn. I'm pretty sure I will since I'm not planning on making that sleeves that puffy.



I'm going to call it "Gacci" (gah-chee) because "gah" (or however you spell it) means fake in Cantonese. It will be knit sideways and shaping is minimal due to the ribbing. I think the only hard part is the neck shaping for the front pieces.