I got smart

I always blog in the evening (night owl, you know) and pictures don't come out well in dim, compact fluorescent lighting. But I was home today and had the novel idea to take the picture THEN and blog LATER. Genius.

Here's the progress on the lacy sweater. The color is still a little off, but I don't have time to photoshop it. You get the idea.


Let's hope my new-found brilliance last for at least the rest of the evening - I have lots of hoity-toity papers to digest.

On the needles

I have 3 projects on the needles now. I'm such a wild woman. The first is the other blue sock, and it's couple of inches long right now. I found the 5th needle hiding in the Interweave magazine that contains the pattern, marking the page.

The other 2 are sweaters from a new pattern book I bought on Friday (yes, I cast on two sweaters on the weekend before the big move). It's the Fall 2003 Adrienne Vittadini book and it has a lot of nice stuff in it. The first is this beauty in an eggplant colored cotton:


I got the yarn from ripping apart a JCrew sweater that Matthew had been given and never cared for.

The second is this sweater:


I have been looking for a good sweater pattern for some time for the Jaeger Luxury Tweed I bought from Elann. It's a strand of sage green and a strand of pale yellow twisted together. I'd give you a picture of the yarn, but the lighting is no good right now. The gauge on this one is substantially different from the pattern, so I'm making some modifications as I go along.

While socks are fun to knit, nothing beats knitting a sweater as far as I'm concerned. It's much more meditative than sock knitting; a casual stroll in the park as opposed to a jog around the track.

I did it

I signed up for Sockapaloooza (go ahead, commence jokes about how I'm a Sockapa-Looozer). This will be my first knit-along, and I hope it will be a good experience. Not nearly as cool as Elaine signing up for a killer triathalon, but you've gotta work up to these things slowly.

In other sock news, I am happy to report I have finished the mystery pair of socks and they are super cool. I would start on the second blue sock now, but I have lost one of the needles for my size 1 set, and I need all 5 to really do it correctly. I think it is hiding somewhere in the couch. Maybe I'll find it when we move.

I may not have time for the Olympics...

...but I think I may have time for Sockapalooza. I'll let you know later this week.

Finished object #3 for the year:



Details:
Yarn: Cascade Pima Tencel in black, 2 balls
Pattern: Wavy Pattern Scarf from Vogue Knitting Sp/Su 2005
Needles: US size 5 (bamboo!)
Comments: Pima Tencel is really soft and really heavy. The two balls made a scarf that is about 6" wide by 40". The pattern looks almost the same on both side - yay for reversibility. (Top pic is back side, bottom pic is front side.)

Knitting olympics

I don't have time to participate in this, so one of you should. :-)

Ever notice how much time it takes to blog?

Especially when you want to add pictures? I've been meaning to do this for a week. First off, let me apologize for the poor photos. It is impossible to get enough light in this place, and it has been particularly overcast lately. Anywho...

Finished object (or FO, as they are called in the knit blogging culture) #2 for 2006 was actually an FO more than a year ago. While living in Virginia, I bought the most beautiful skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Multi in Black Purl. This yarn is so unbelievable awesome. If you haven't seen it before, track it down. It's worth $17.00 a hank (225 yards is pretty good, and it's machine washable wool - so soft). Anyway, I always knew it was only enough for a skinny scarf, but the varigated color made it difficult to come up with a stitch pattern that did it justice. Originally, I just knit it in stockinette. And of course, it curled like crazy, so I could never bring myself to wear it. So last week, I frogged it and knitted it back up. I chose a mistaken rib because I thought the pebble-iness would show the colors off well. I also managed to get the colors to pool in a manner that I think is flattering, which was something that didn't happen on the first knitting.


Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Black Purl, 1 skein.
Pattern: 20 sts in mistaken rib.
Needles: US size 7
Comments: It's really long, probably about 6 feet. Second time is a charm!

And here's an unfinished item:



Okay, so this sock is finished, but the pair isn't. But I can't wait, I love them! These are the first pair of fingering weight socks I've made for myself. Details coming when the other one is finished, which will be a while, because I'm forcing myself to finish the second sock of another pair that is a gift for someone. (Not telling who yet!)

In other news, it looks like Dad's sleeves are too long, so when he comes to visit in a few weeks I will be ripping them back. I even measured them against his arm when I was there for Christmas, but the weight of the fabric must be pulling them down. Oh well, should be a quick fix.

First finished object of the new year - and other stuff

Boy oh boy, 2005 was a hard year for knitting in my house. Not that I didn't do plenty of it, I did. But I ended up with a lot of unfinished projects at the end of the year, many of which were supposed to be presents for Christmas.

New Year's Knitting Resolution #1: Be less ambitious/more realistic about the knitting queue.

I managed to make 3 pairs of socks for Christmas presents (several pair are as yet unfinished), but this sweater for my Dad (Christmas/birthday present) that finished blocking this morning is officially the first finished object of the year.


Details:
Yarn: Austermann Mayfair in Midnight Navy, slightly less than 11 balls (from Elann.com)
Pattern: Adapted from the Men's Cabled Sweater in Naturally New Zealand's Living 38 Degrees South, Issue 1, 42" finished chest
Needles: US size 7 and 6 (for cast on)
Comments: Adjustments to pattern are the crew neck (as opposed to a zippered mock turtleneck) and the splitting of the 22 stitch horseshoe cables into 2 mirrored 10 stitch cables. The Mayfair yarn is a really great quality 100% acrylic.

I love this sweater. If Dad wasn't expecting it and if the sleeves weren't so long, I'd consider keeping it. But god knows I have enough things to knit for myself at this point. Which brings me to...

New Year's Knitting Resolution #2: Pare down the list of things that need to be finished/fixed.

There are a lot of things on this list (yes I made an actual list and it's loooooong). I even coded the projects by about how much time would be required for each one, like quick fixes or a couple of weeks. At the end of the it is the list of stuff I'd like to start, but only after I finish the other stuff. This is long also. I got some energy last night and finished a hat I was working on and almost got a sweater finished up.

New Year's Knitting Resolution #3: Keep a running tally of finished objects on the sidebar. (This one should actually be fun.)

And this one I really have to stick to:
New Year's Knitting Resolution #4: I will only make sweaters out of washable yarn.

I am so sick of hand washing. That's it for now. Happy Knitting in the New Year, folks!

Back by popular, or rather Bridget's, demand

All right, all right, so I've mostly been working on Christmas present (that includes you, Bridge), but I have finished something recently. I delayed posting picures a) because I haven't had much time to get a picture, and b) because I've been thinking I might want to try to get the design published. But I don't really have any time to do that, and besides, not many people really read this, so it's not like I'm giving away my secrets.


Specs:
Yarn: Plymouth Suri Merino in the perfect salmon color*, about 7 balls. (That's only $37!)
Design: mine!
Needles: Size 7
Comments: I knit this damn sweater so many times. The first time, I made it to big and I had to go with serious negative ease the second time. Then I wanted to make it a turtleneck, but after many tries, it never looked right. Hence the round neck. I single crocheted around all edges.

* Nighttime photo=funky color. But Matthew worked a little photoshop magic, so the sweater color, if not my face, is pretty close. I like it actually, it's kinda arty.

I'm a bad knit blogger

I don't have any picture to show you. I have a couple of things that are almost finished, but I don't have time to get pictures. And then there are the Christmas presents I'm working on that are top secret. Heh heh heh.

Sock pics

Here are the finished socks:

Details:
Yarn: Cascade Fixation Color 9843, less than 2 balls
Pattern: Made it up
Needles: 4mm double points (the package said US size 6, but that would be 4.25mm, so they must be from the UK)
Comments: My first pair of big socks! Not bad. Stretchy yarn takes some getting used to, but working with the merino stretch first helped.

With the leftovers, I made some baby socks:

Pattern:
Cast on 20 sts on US size 5 double pointed needles and join. Work 16 rounds in moss stitch (Round 1: [K1, P1] repeat to end. Every following round: K the P sts and P the K sts). Work the short row heel shaping over 10 sts, until you have 5 sts between yarn overs, then back to 10 sts and rejoin the round. Work another 9 rounds in moss stitch, then repeat heel shaping for toe. Graft toe sts to instep sts. Should fit a 0-3 month old, maybe older since they are stretchy.