Always check your gauge

Every knitter's nightmare - you spend hours, weeks, months knitting away at a garment with a vision of how the finished jumper/vest/sweater will look. You take it off the needles and - voila! - it's too big or small. This just happened to me. I even knitted a gauge swatch and everything was fine. Must be a problem with the pattern. I've decided to try to wash it a bit and see if it will shrink rather than frogging and starting again. The worst thing is that I've run out of yarn. So now have to wait for Mr postman before I can finish.

The vest is beautiful though. It's from the Debbie Bliss premiere magazine and is knitted up in Debbie Bliss Como yarn. It's a nice bulky weight so knits up fast. I just added an extra cable repeat to make it into more of a tunic than shorter vest.

In other knitting news, I took a workshop with the infamous (if you're a knitter and addicted to Ravelry) Jared aka Brooklyn Tweed. Jared is the most incredible knitter and pattern designer. And because he's a photographer by trade the photos on his blog will inspire you to pick up the needles even if you're never before had the urge.

The workshop was on Jared's Hemlock Ring blanket. My blanket, when I finally get it finished, it going to look great thrown over one of my leather chairs in the lounge room next to the fireplace. Nice and snuggly for winter. Although it will probably be next winter!

To console myself that my vest is too big it's time for a cuppa and a couple of home made choc chip cookies. These are better than most cookies because they're made with oats and coconut. The coconut makes them really moist while the oats make them, ahh, umm, healthy?