Grey Squirrellies and Knits

Oh boy, first post from Bend! We've been here about a month and there has been plenty of knitting, but we're not really feeling settled yet, so I haven't blogged about it. But I suppose now is as good as any time, so here's an update. To start, our mascot, helping himself to sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder:



Okay, knitting...

I have three new sweaters in progress, all from the latest Interweave Knits, none previously on the Wish List. Number 1 is the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and I took the cabled jacket apart to use the Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed. I really like the cabled jacket pattern, but to be honest, there wasn't quite enough yarn for it and it wasn't knitting up at the right gauge. I'll try it another time.

It's a good thing that I didn't write that post about how I have finally learned my lesson about making gauge swatches, because I violated the first rule of knitting with this sweater: I cast on 202 stitches without making a gauge swatch. I then proceeded to violate the second rule of knitting by not being honest with myself about the fact that it was turning out too big. I knit the whole sweater. Whole thing. See, here's proof:


I even tried to then convince myself that it might block out smaller. (I was in serious denial.) Fortunately, I came to my senses before I weaved in the ends and tried to block it. I did a blog search for it, to see what other people's finished sweaters looked like, and they looked really good in the proper size. So I acknowledged that it was too big, and then I took it apart. Whole thing. And I started over on size 4 needles (rather than size 5).

I now have the body up to the arms and one sleeve completed and it's looking much better this time; the fabric is firmer and more even, even though I didn't wash the yarn to remove the kinks.


Sweaters 2 and 3 are the Minimalist Cardigan and the Cobblestone Pullover (for Matthew!). I bought the yarn with the gift certificate Gail sent me for my birthday - hooray for free yarn!

The Minimalist Cardigan is made out of Baby Alpaca Brush (drool) and although the band calls for bigger needles, it knitted up just right on size 7's. It all finished, but my drying racks for blocking are in storage, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to assemble it. And then there's the question of what to seam it with - the Baby Alpaca Brush is to fuzzy, I think I'll need a smoother yarn in a similar color. (The following picture does a really awful job of representing the true color, but I was just to lazy to photoshop. It's really much darker and bolder.)


The Cobblestone Pullover is Matthew's first sweater (knit by me) ever! We are married now, after all. I was originally going to design something to his specifications and he wanted it to look like one of his Banana Republic 1/4-zip fleeces, but I'm glad we found a published patter he liked. I was worried that he would be disappointed about the sweater version of a fleece.

He chose Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in charcoal. I'm getting gauge in stitches, but not rows - about 6 rows per inch instead of 7.25 in stockinette is a big difference. I'm hoping the row gauge is really for the garter stitch yoke, garter stitch sucks the rows together to about the right gauge. I did have to change the sleeve increases to every seven rounds instead of every eight. I have the body, almost up to the arms and 1.5 sleeves so far. The body was a killer with all the boring stockinette, so I haven't finished it yet. I was hoping that completing the arms would be good motivation to finish the body.


And I suppose that brings us up to date. I'd really love to have a smaller project to work on, like socks, so maybe when I return the extra Baby Alpaca Brush, I'll get some sock yarn. I forgot what it's like to live in a climate where socks are comfortable - it's awesome! But what sock pattern to choose?