Glenora Throw progress

I finally found some time where I was at home in the daylight to take some pictures of progress on my version of the Glenora throw, so here it is. What do you think? I'm quite pleased with it so far. The yarn feels beautifully soft and I love the colours and the effect of combining them. The only thing I wish I'd done differently was knit it on circs instead of the straight needles that the pattern recommends. They make my wrists ache, and my work feels so heavy on them. Circs all the way for me from now onward.



And look at my Fairisle swirls! I'm quite pleased with those, although I think I could do with some more practice in order to get the tension right when carrying yarn across the back of my work. It's not bad, but some vigorous blocking is going to be required in order to get that checkered part to lie flat, in particular. But I managed to follow my first chart without too much trouble, so that's got to be a good thing :)



The only trouble with this sort of multi-coloured design is all the ends that need dealing with after the fun knitting part is over. Look at this!


Arrgh - too many ends

I've woven them in as I've gone along though, so in principle I can just trim them without any further sewing. I've just never been able to bring myself to do that before. I might be brave about it this time though as it's not like it's a jumper where the pieces are going to get pulled out from being worn. Plus the fact that if I decide I need to sew these ends in I will never ever wear this garment due to my finishing aversion. It will languish in my wardrobe for ever, and that would be a great shame.

Two more knitting related things occur to me:

First, I think I can see one of my squares in the Noro afghan on Mason Dixon Knitting. Eee! A tiny little bit of knitting fame and glory comes my way.

Secondly, for all you felters out there, what temperature do you set your washing machine at when you felt? I am felting RLBF's Booga Bag at the moment, and the choices I have are 40, 60 and 95 Celcius. I have been using 60, but it seems to be taking a very long time so I was wondering if hotter would be better. But 95C is pretty hot! All the instructions I have just helpfully say 'set your machine to hot'. Fabulous. But I bet someone out there in knitblog land knows the answer. Any other tips on how to achieve the perffect felt also gratefully received.

Finally, thanks to eyeleen for the link to the nifty percentage bars. You will see that my super special IT skillz have not yet proved sufficient for me to get them working but I will persevere. Look for versions with actual text on them here soon (as soon as I work out what I'm doing wrong. Wahh!)