She speaks!

Hello again! As promised, more photos of the mystery cliffhanger sweater. I figured I owed everyone (the sweater included) some decent online recognition. Careful followers will note that this is my first wearable sweater. True, I made a vest that was gifted and a sweater that makes my skin crawl, but this is my first piece of clothing that I can actually wear. Three cheers to that!

Let's get to the goods, shall we?

Pattern: Juliet (rav link)
Designer: Zephyr Gals: Sarah & Rachel
Yarn: 4 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (held double) in Provincial Rose
Needles: US #10 Addi Turbos
Dates: 8/1- 9/17 (yes...3 months ago)
Level of love: are we serious?

Mods: The largest modification I made was choosing a different lace pattern for the bodice. The pattern I went with was borrowed from the Vintage Shoulderette pattern. Other than that, I decided to do a single faux button front closure instead of the two separated ones as directed. Originally when I started finishing, the button was going to be functional-- good thing I'm flexible.

(Click to enlarge)

I enjoy this top very much, especially the A-line shape. I have already worn it out several times which I believe makes it feel loved and happy. Often I wonder if I'm the only one that imagines knit items having feelings. Knit items that are shoved into drawers would naturally be sad, and conversely happy if worn frequently. More finished goodness to come soon!

**Special thanks to my fantastic photographer friend that agreed to take the time to shoot [and edit] these photos just because he's awesome. Won't you pay him a visit?

How on Earth?

So here's something knitters don't exactly love to do-- showing everyone our mistakes. I was knitting along on Tree Jacket when I realized I'd made a mistake...or two...or three. I was definitely in denial about the back of this sweater. Keeping in mind that this was primarily football knitting, so it's possible that some of the mistakes came when an interception was thrown or an opposing team threw a touchdown. Yeah. That's where the mistakes came from...

So first, here is the front of the sweater (aka what it's supposed to look like):See how the rows all go straight back and the stitches between the lace portions all match? The front, minus the wrinkles from being stored in a Ziploc, is looking good.

Now, to show you the [misbehaving] side in question:Most of the problem has been contained in that middle column. I have no idea how, but I've slowly been losing stitches (which means I've added them somewhere else since my stitch count is still dead-on).

It has gotten to the point where I can no longer deny that this is a problem. What's even worse is that I've started to strongly dislike working on this sweater because of the mistakes--I know I wouldn't wear it often either. As a result, I've decided to frog back to the start of the lace pattern. Do I have the support of the masses on this one? Am I making the correct choice to remove my Treebeardy from the needles to make it right again?

Regardless of my decision, I'm staying positive on this one. The lace pattern on this one knits up so quickly it won't really be a setback. I do hate ripping out afternoons of work though-- It's a good thing it's in my favorite color...

Ethel struts her stuff

Check it OUT! I got to try my Tree Jacket onto Ethel, my mom's dress making form over Thanksgiving break. It's so nice to see this thing looking like an actual sweater now!

I just wanted to give an update on progress, but there is much more I have to share soon!

A tree that's growing, Fancy that!

Progress on Tree Jacket has been made! I was starting to think I wasn't going to make it past that garter stitch portion on the yoke (BOR-ING), but now it's finished and I'm on to the lace bodice! After separating the sleeves the first time, I discovered that the "small" size was way too big. I ripped out 8 rows and now am working the XS size. I would be confused (I am by no means an extra small), but I've read that Zephyr patterns tend to run on the large side. Whew. Here's a look at what I've got photos of so far!

"Pull over!" "No, it's a cardigan, but thanks for noticing!"

WARNING. This is an abnormally long post--continue with caution and remember to blink!

October 6th? really? I feel like it hasn't been 10 days since my last post. I guess that's what comes of starting a knitting blog while simultaneously going to college full time. (What was I thinking?)

Dumb question. I know what I was thinking! I was thinking about how cool it was that this sort of thing existed--blogs I mean. I love getting feedback on my projects and seeing what everyone else is doing too. How fantastic. Okay, knitting update:

Forecast = finished sans buttons. Do I like the result? Errrr Yes?. I mean I do....maybe? I'm certainly not shouting from the rooftops about it. Why? Gauge. I hate the word, and I hate to admit it, but yes; it does make a difference. Here's a photo:

What's that you say? What happened to the notion of this being a cardigan? Wellllllllllll that kind of got nixed after a trip to my favorite yarn shop of all time (Iris Fine Yarns) and some consultations from my mother, who's opinion on such matters I value quite highly. So that's that. Done. Finito. I feel like it's a successful first sweater, and I can't help but feel a certain sense of accomplishment knowing that it's finished. That sense of accomplishment also comes from showing the people who accuse me of never finishing anything that I did indeed finish something. ahem.

Whey else haven't I posted lately? Well, I've found that it's hard to knit and post blog messages at the same time. Very hard. When I tried doing both at once I either ended up dropping a stitch or typing an expletive by accident when my fingers slipped. So, instead of blogging, I was knitting, working, and going to classes. Mind you those are in no particular order.....again, ahem.

SO, here's what I've been up to:

Pattern: The Back to School U-Neck vest from Fitted Knits
Designer: Stefanie Japel
Yarn of Choice: Cascade 220 in Plum #9474
Cast on: 10/6


Top:A photo my boyfriend graciously took while he sat [bored] on the couch watching me knit.
Middle:I always think it's exciting when knitted things begin to look like actual garments...huzzah for a gauge check this time....
Bottom: I'm not exactly sure why I chose to do a closeup on this particular spot. It happens to be the location of a major, but livable, knitting error on my part.




I do like knitting this vest so far, I find for the amount of time put into it (not much as far as knitted things go), it has a high return on investment. Return on investment?? Gah I hate my financial accounting course for pervading other areas of my life--especially my hobbies! Those should be off limits! Anyway, I alluded to it in my caption above, but the only mistake on this one so far is the increases I did for the bust shaping. Apparently I can't read well. More so that I like to read what I want to see. This vest would have been finished twice now if I hadn't had to rip out the waffle stitch portion twice--it was almost enough to turn me off to the whole idea of making this vest. Luckily, I gave it another shot and even though the increases still aren't right, they work and my stitch counts are right on now. This vest still has to be put on time-out on occasion, but that's just because row counting doesn't work when you knit on the go between classes. Now onto the next project

Pattern: Tree Jacket
Designers: the super trendy Zephyr girls from www.zephyrstyle.com
Yarn of Choice: Cascade 220 in Azure #8892
Cast on: 10/15



Left: The neck of Tree Jacket modeled on one of the vases my talented boyfriend whipped up on the wheel.



Below: Another angle of the super fun yarn-overs. I mean who doesn't love fun yarn overs?

Tree Jacket is really fun to knit so far. Granted it's only been one day and I'm only about 4 inches into it, but I have a good feeling about this one. On a non-knitting related note, I'll bet I'm the only one who thinks this, but I laugh every time I read the title "Tree Jacket". For some reason, that name conjures up the image of this thing which is actually Treebeard from the LOTR trilogy. Why the strong connection? I have no idea. Hopefully my sweater will come out looking better than that when I'm finished.

Okay, back to knitting information: I love working with Cascade 220, which is a comment I forgot to mention about my vest too. Before I go any further, I want to apologize to my mom since I sortof told her I was going to send this yarn back to Indiana where it came from. **Mom, I'm sorry...the color and I bonded since I got back to school--you know how I am with turquoise! **Anyhoo, I started this one because it was voted as the SKC Knitalong project for this fall and I obviously had to participate. How exciting! There will be more pictures to come as it grows bigger, but for now, this is what I have going on my needles.

This concludes my obscenely long post. I did warn you that this would be long--feel free to administer eye drops at this time.

Look what I made today!....(and then un-made later on)

So I am as guilty as guilty comes when knitting multiple projects is concerned. I can't help myself. I like to have variety and sometimes that means working on more than one thing at one time. Okay, more than 3 things. Or 5 things. Or..well...we won't get into it. Regardless, since I haven't come to a decision about the sleeve length of my Forecast, I decided to start something else I had yarn stashed away for. What I whipped up was this; the Bold and Bulky mini Cardi from Fitted Knits. It started well enough, but when the time came for the collar and edging, I just decided to scrap it. It's not that I won't remake it again someday in a larger size, but for right now, it just wasn't working. Granted it's only about 3-4 hours of actual work put into this thing (aka the time it took me to have quick conversations in the UHP office and to watch Meet Joe Black) here is what I had at the end of that time.




















And this is what I have now that I've ripped it all apart.....



















There is an indescribable feeling of catharsis as one rips out a knitted garment....I had this feeling tonight as my cardigan was reduced to 3 balls of yarn. Possibilities are endless though--I intend to not let them go to waste.

Thoughts on sleeve length?

So, originally I was going to make this bad boy full sleeved. Then as I got knitting and trying on, I realized that I kind of like them where they are right now. One of the next sweaters I'm planning on knitting, however, will be short sleeved for sure. I have enough yarn right now to do either length and I need help deciding. Thoughts?

Yeah. It's Called an Obsession

I have a full fledged knitting addiction and I don't care who knows it. It is 2:05 in the A.M. and I just finished the torso of my sweater.

(and there was great rejoicing)

Here she is....

I Hate Ribbing....

So there has been some definite progress on this thing since last week--but there's actually been more than this picture shows...



















Despite me not wanting to do so, I had to rip out about 6" of my sweater after an unsuccessful attempt at a waistband. So, just to show my sweater who's boss, I got rid of the waistband all together! hah! Oh, and I switched to size 5 needles so there'd actually be some shaping to this darn thing! Now there will just be straight ribbing down the torso. And now, after much thought, I've grown to like it. I've almost knit back to where I started dismantling, and the sweater and I are now back on speaking terms.

Progress can be fun

Progress! I have been able to knit a few rows here, cable a few there, and as a result have gotten another inch or so onto my sweater! I actually have made it to the waistband portion of Forecast! I've switched to my size 8's to give it a more fitted look--overall I'm pleased with the way it's coming out. Hooray!


















Today I had a professor of mine talk about the "crazy" niche markets that there are in the tourism industry. He included groups like the ghost chasers, civil war re-enacters, and of course, the KNITTERS. what?! When did we get lumped with the crazies? Not saying that the others are, but are we really that strange? Really? He went on to tell me that when I'm not busy knitting (in class) that I should make pilgrimage to "The World's Largest Ball of Twine" to contemplate knitting the world's largest sweater.














Intriguing. Yes?

Are those arm holes I see?

An updated progress photo--

We've got arms!

Even though I love the original pattern, I've made several adaptations to the original design. Many of the changes were after seeing the finished product on Pinku.
The pictures and descriptions from that blog inspired me to start knitting this sweater at 2:30 in the morning last week Monday. Please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to...



The biggest alteration I've made is that I'm doing a 9 stitch braided panel instead of the original bobble cable pattern. It's not that I don't like bobbles...it's just that...okay, I just don't like bobbles. This sweater is being knit out of Nashua Handknits in Evergreen which is a fantastic Wool/Alpaca blend. Because it's a chunky weight yarn, my gauge for this sweater was considerably larger than the pattern. This hasn't been a problem, its just required some extra trying on throughout stages. Once I finish the body portion of this sweater, I'm going to begin the ribbing on the sleeves much higher up. I'm hoping that this will give the sweater a puffy-sleeved look at the top similar to the Elizabeth Bennet cardigan in Stefanie Japel's book Fitted Knits.

A Day's Worth of Coffee

First post, how exciting.

Sooooo apparently I'm blogging...? I'm not quite sure what even means, but I'm okay with it!

I created this monstrosity to share with you (not sure who "you" is exactly) the knitting projects I'm working on and everything else that seems relevant. My apologies ahead of time. The current project consuming my free time is this




This is the beginning of the sweater "Forecast". Which I started this past Monday. It's actually a little further than that--after spending the bulk of my afternoon at a Dunn Bros, I was able to divide the sleeves and continue with the body portion. More pictures to come soon.