A Cardigan For Arwen

Yet another sweater has been completed during my finishing frenzy. Pattern: A Cardigan for Arwen, Interweave Knits Winter '06 Yarn: Knitpicks Salishan in Red Clay I've been sporadically working on this shortly after the issue came out. Yesterday I took advantage of nasty grey and wet weather and set about to finish it. Boy am I glad it's done (as are the boys and the housework). The seaming kicked my a**! Grafting cables is a pain. I must have ripped my work out at least seven times. Now? It's not perfect, but I'm DONE. Even just the mattress stitch on the sleeves about killed me. I'm not sure why, but it just kept looking crappy. I made several modifications based on my body type and the yarn used. I had had a hard time trying to decide which size to knit, since one gave me no ease but the next size up gave me five. Although I knew that this was suppose to be loose fitting, I don't like to wear really big sweaters. I opted to knit the smaller and add a total of four stitches to the total circumference to give me another inch. I also knew that I wanted it longer so I added about an inch and a half to the total length. On the flip side since the yarn is a cotton and wool blend, stretching out is to be expected. I took this into consideration when I was adding. Since I knit the first sleeve twice, I saw that it was way too long and took out two inches. One for actual length and another for stretching. In wearing it all day today, I see that my modifications were pretty right on. Final verdict? Um, it's nice, warm and practical. However it is probably not the most flattering design for my body type. It makes me look bigger than I am. So not what I'm going for. I couldn't decide if I should even show you a modeled shot since I couldn't get a really good one. Finally I settled on one that only added about 10 pounds instead of the 30 I was getting. Although there are two more sweaters that need some work, I'm done with this finishing frenzy. I still haven't decided on my next project. When I figure it out, I'll be sure to let y'all know.

Lucy in the Sky

My favorite sweater to date! Pattern: Lucy in the Sky Yarn: Cascade 220, color 4007 Just as I suspected, I love this sweater! In all it only took me about two weeks to knit and then another two to finish. The finishing wasn't procrastinated as usual, but I had been waiting on the buttons in the mail. On Friday I got them and then set about weaving ends and attaching the neck band. I do need to reblock it though. If you look at the neck, you can see that where the front meets the sleeves, it's a bit distorted. I couldn't find a good way to block the entire thing altogether without it doing that. Once that's done, it'll be perfect. For now, it's fine for me. The color is also off in both pictures. The best representation is in this post. I spent most of my free time this weekend working on the Entrelac Scarf and it is now about 3/4s of the way done. I'm still debating on fringing it. I'll probably play around with it and see how it looks. The rest of the weekend I poured over patterns trying to decide on my next big project. It seems that I either have the pattern and not the yarn, or the yarn and not the pattern. True, I do have two sweaters that are all set to be cast on for, but I really don't feel like either of them. I'm thinking I'd like to save Saffy for summer knitting when it gets hot and I just can't get excited over a sweater for the hubby right now. Hopefully I'll make up my mind soon. Oh, the decisions!

Something Old, Something New

Yup, I finally sucked it up and finished Reilly's sweater. Pattern: Hero from Pipsqueaks Yarn: Den-M-Nit Oh, it's only been about, um... since August. My, I've been bad! For the past two months, all it's needed is a seaming. It feels so good to have it done though. I've been in a bit of a finishing mood lately. Currently there are two sweaters that are slowly getting put together, two pairs of socks that are almost done and I've been contemplating finishing two more sweaters. If you couldn't tell, I have serious issues with this last step. It's so much more fun to just cast on for something new. In fact, so much fun that I did just that last night. In defense, I needed something new to get me excited. These entrelac scarves have been on my mind all winter long. I hadn't ordered the yarn earlier since I was scoffing the idea of a forty dollar scarf. This is brand new Boku from Plymouth and has a much nicer price tag. Especially when you get that sweet discount from Webs. Can I just say that they have become my favorite store lately?!! This was casted on for last night and I'm having a hard time putting it down. I had forgotten how much fun entrelac could be. Now I've got this crazy idea of an afghan. Don't hold me to that, I'm likely to change my mind in a day or two. I also finished up half of the Plum Honey roving from The Yarn Wench. I've got another three ounces and with how much time I get to spin, it might be another month before that's done.

The Shortest Two Weeks Ever

Well hello out there! I'm back! Royd flew out on Tuesday morning, marking the end of a wonderful and amazingly short two weeks. We didn't go anywhere, didn't do much but we had the greatest time. Well, except for the various illnesses that made us scrap weekend plans twice. I know alot of people use these R&Rs to travel, especially here in Europe. With three small children, we opted to have the main focus on family time and do anything else as it came up. Since everyone got sick, I'm glad that we didn't shell out a ton of money and end up sitting in a hotel room. I didn't get to the yarn store while he was home and I didn't get as much quality time with my spinning wheel as I had hoped, but I did work on various knitting projects. I expect that in the next couple weeks, I should have a bunch of stuff finished. That is if I can keep up with the current momentum. There is one project that got all done and I can show today. Pattern: Lusekofte Cap from Hats On! Yarn: Elann Highland Wool in Dark Indigo Heather and Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Natural The top is a bit pointy, but it's not so bad. In all it took me only two days to get this knocked out. I worked on it as Marc slept off sickness and the other boys were out and about getting into mischief around town. There are two mistakes in the very center of the panel, but it's consistent throughout the entire row, so I'm not worried at all. Well, time to get back to the laundry and get some little ones into beds for naptime. See you next week with something else!