Gosh, its been a long time.....

I have been a poor blogger of late for which I apologise.  I haven't fallen off the face of the planet but life has got in the way of my sewing life.  I am job searching and this has turned out to be more time consuming than working ever was.  :)  I was very lucky though and got a short term temporary assignment in the run up to Christmas. Since its six days a week and I've chosen to take extra hours this week time has been limited and sewing has suffered. 

There has been no progress at all on the Marfy coat.  The pinned dart is still pinned, the lining isn't drawn out, nothing has happened at all.  However, I did get to the Knitting and Stitching Show in November, where I did  manage to source both some fur trim and some buttons.  I've washed and pressed the lining, have all the notions required, and I plan to work on the coat over Christmas. 

I've cast on a new cardigan.  I dyed the yarn in the summer and the yarn has been sat behind the sofa ever since waiting for me to cast it on.  The yarn is blue faced Leicester super chunky and should be a reasonably quick knit.  Knitting a big thick cardigan in the depths of winter also seemed like a very good plan.  I'm not using a pattern as such, just the contiguous recipe, a bit of maths and a scratty diagram that I came up with at the weekend to show roughly what I'm planning to do.  Cardigan length will be dependent on how much yarn I have, but the ideal is a hip length or just below.   It has a stand up collar and button bands in seed/moss stitch and will have seed/moss stitch cuffs and hem.  Here you can see it at the latest stage, I've completed the collar and shoulder seams, got two button holes in the band (you can just see the orange marker for the top one, I think the other marker must have slid to the back) and the sleeve caps are under construction.  I cast on Sunday night so you can see just how thick the yarn is and how quick a knit it should be.  Its on hold for now as I need to check my maths and am too tired for that tonight but I hope to progress this over Christmas as well since I'm keen to be wearing it as soon as possible. 

The new Marfy catalogue is available for pre-order from today, and of course I've ordered mine.  There is reduced price shipping, which I've taken advantage of, and my new catalogue is due to arrive toward the end of January.  Travelling with it will be six of the new(ish) Marfy woven labels.  One is destined for my coat, one for my black hand tailored jacket, and the other four will go into the various jackets I plan to make over the coming year.