Whee!

If you'll forgive kind of shoddy picture quality (I had to catch the last shreds of daylight), I'll go ahead and post the pictures of my freshly finished Rogue!

Project Specs: Pattern: Rogue, by Jenna Wilson
Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Collection Highland Wool, a little less than 14 skeins


Wanna see another shot of the hood?





I can't believe that I started this sweater in September! No wonder I feel like I've been working on it forever! The pattern is fun, so I do plan to make another someday, though only after I knit down my stash a little bit. I don't have any yarn at present that I'd like to use. I would love to see this sweater in Peace Fleece (especially if it were hanging in my closet). As for the yarn, I like it. I'm not scrambling to pick up more, but it was very nice to knit. It felt soft under my fingers, and behaved very well. Zero splitting, tangling or pilling. The finished sweater still makes me feel a little itchy, but hell, everything does. I'm just cursed like that.

I went to take pictures of the pre-felted hat I made, but when I picked it up I realized I haven't woven in the ends yet. So I'll do that tonight, and you'll have pictures soon.

Well...

I managed to seam both sleeves and get half of one sewn onto the body, but that was all my knitting action this weekend. Saturday was spent furniture shopping and family visiting, and yesterday was all about cleaning and getting our current kitchen packed up to compensate for all the disgusting water dripping from the ceiling. I am resolved tonight to get those sleeves set, and then give the whole thing a good bath. Perhaps I'll take it to the new apartment to dry.

In other news, Knitty surprises are up. I am totally in love with Starsky!

The Rogue Sweater in Captivity

All pieces of Rogue have been completed, and it's been steam blocked. Do I have to confess that I smiled when I realized I'd have to launder it because it has little white hairs all over it? I didn't think so.

As you can see, the sleeves are not yet attached. I decided to seam them up before attaching them, and I'm about halfway through the first sleeve. The end is in sight! The big question now is, what do I work on next? I'm still pretty into the Astrakhan Cardigan, but at the same time I like the idea of making something very simple that I can pick and up and do a few rows on now and then without messing with notes. We sign the lease on Friday, and then all hell is going to break loose around here!

Back in the Saddle

Sorry about that extended break, there. I had some things to get sorted out and stuff to do. Today I'm without a camera, so I can't show you pictures of my work, but I can give a update, just the same.

I finished the hood on Rogue, and am now on the decrease section of sleeve number two. That's right, people, I am thisclose to being finished with Rogue! I've been thinking a lot about blocking and have decided to steam block it, because having stuff on the floor right now is kind of dangerous. See, we added another girl to the group:

She doesn't care much for yarn, but loves the rice basket where I keep my projects. She also enjoys nibbling on pattern pages and playing hide and seek with a blanket. Her name is Mrs. Cooper (a.k.a: Mrs. Pooper, Pooper Scooper, and Koopa Trooper), and we got her from a girl at work who was moving and couldn't take her. She's generally a very good rabbit, box trained and rarely chews on stuff she's not supposed to. I find she usually chews when she wants attention, hence her chewing on my knitting stuff. It's hard to pet a bunny and knit at the same time!

I also finished a hat that's to be felted It looks pretty cute so far! I'll take a pre-felting picture as soon as I have the camera.

Oh, and just one more thing: we found a new apartment and will be moving soon! As I go through my stash, I might decide to put some stuff up on eBay. If I do, I'll post links here.

Oh, bother....

*New and improved... now with pictures!*

So I finally got my act together yesterday and took some pictures for ye olde blog, and now I'm having issues getting the pictures off the card. Long story short, my card reader doesn't seem to work with the brand spankin' new iBook I just got (I love it though!), and my PC is refusing to find the card reader now, as well. I am ready to pull my hair out. As soon as I get my act together and am able to retrieve pictures, I'll be sure to post some, until then, a pictureless post.

I zipped along happily on Rogue, finishing the body and back in short order. The yarn is wonderful to work with, and the pattern is excellent for movie or reading knitting. Or so I thought.


I got about, oh, 12 rows into the throat chart on the front, when I stopped to look at my work. "Hmm, that doesn't seem quite right," I thought. It looked very... flat, and... ugly. Kind of like a mishmash of garter and seed stitches. Obviously, I did my increases incorrectly somehow (that's the only explanation I can come up with), though when those same increases were called for before, I did fine. I thought of dropping down stitches and picking them back up correctly, but I think with all the increasing in that tiny area, it would be more trouble than it's worth. I will have to rip out what I've done for the front so far. Since I am loathe to do it, enter new project #1.



I'm making a sweater for my youngest nephew, who turns two on Wednesday. Just a simple rollneck in this beautiful alpaca yarn, Artful Yarns Jazz. I have the same yarn in a blue color that I plan to use to make a sweater for my five year-old nephew (he turns six on November 30). My sister is okay with handwashing, so I don't feel the least bit guilty about giving her sweaters that require it. I have to use up my alpaca somehow, anyway. I get about three rows into this sweater before I start sneezing. Such a shame.

Yesterday was the annual sale at one of my LYSs, and my favorite knitting buddy, Amy, and I went. This year, I knew exactly what I was buying. You know that Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan cardigan in the new Vogue Knitting? I am all over it. I planned to make mine in black, but they didn't have any black when we got there. I like the way the brown looks in the photo shown in the magazine, but I wasn't crazy about it in real life. It wasn't as dark as I would have liked. I was beginning to despair when Amy pointed out a beautiful shade of blue toward the bottom shelf. It didn't take me long to decide that the cardigan would work in blue. And blue is my favorite color, after all. I have a dearth of it in my wardrobe. I made a swatch, and couldn't wait to cast on for the sweater when I was done.


Due to the nature of the yarn, I did my swatch a little differently. I casted on for the numbers of stitches I should have in four inches, and measured the entire piece. As for casting on, the pattern has you do just two rows of garter stitch in the beginning before switching to stockinette. I didn't feel this would be enough, so I did about a half inch of garter stitch instead.

I'll come back and edit this post when I can get my pictures off of the memory card. Maybe by the time I do that, I'll have the damn cardigan finished!

***Now that I'm a couple of rows into the Astrakhan cardigan, I can see that it's way too big. Now, granted, the smallest size says that it's 41", but what I have looks even bigger than that. Since I have a 34" bust, I'm thinking I'm going to have to do a little creative math. Maybe I'll wait and see what Becky does, since she's a skinny minny and she's making the same sweater.

Also! I totally forgot to post pictures of my completed Branching Out. Here goes:



The GGH Mystic I used for the scarf is quite slinky, so the scarf is not so full anymore. I don't mind though, it's the look I was going for. Kind of a touselled, casual elegance kinda thing. You know.

Not Knitting, but Still Crafty

I made a bag for my BFF for her birthday. I couldn't find a pattern that I liked, so I made this up myself. It's basically two squares held together by an extra long strap. To make the bag sturdier, I used double thicknesses of all fabric pieces, including the lining. I also did double zigzag seams. The zipper gave me some grief, but mostly because after I had the whole zipper set and sewn, I discovered it would not open. I finally got it to open, but it's still not as smooth as I would like. It gets better with every tug, though.

This is Evelyn's first modeling job. Isn't she doing a great job?





Lining and blasted zipper.


In other news, I went to the fair today to check out how my sweaters fared in the exhibition. I got a red ribbon (2nd) for my lamb all-in-one, and a white ribbon (3rd) for my Round Trip cardigan! Best in Show went to a lovely aran sweater. What they say is true: once you enter in a fair, you'll be hooked! I already can't wait until next year, and actually find myself thinking of stuff to make just for the exhibition! I also plan to perfect my pie crust so I can enter into the big apple pie contest (it's one of the highlights of the fair). My filling, if I do say so myself, is pretty dynomite, but my crust tends to be a little hit or miss.

Work continues unabated on Rogue. I'm almost done with the first chart, and am getting ready to split for the arms. Now that it's getting colder, I just want to be knitting all the time.

Woo-hoo!!!

Lookie what finally arrived yesterday!

It's my dress form! They were on sale at Joann's a couple of weeks ago, and my boyfriend bought one for me. I spent last night putting her together and adjusting for my measurements, and now I just can't wait to put her into action. I think the first thing I'll do is finally take in some of the shirts I've been meaning to. I feel like I have a me-sized doll to play with!

Progress continues on Rogue:



I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line I became a one project girl. I used to always have at least five projects going, and now it's as though I can't even force myself to work on more than one at a time. No worries, though, Rogue is plenty fun to work on, and I'm still not lacking for projects.

The big county fair is next week, and I have to get my entries in for the exhibition tomorrow! Tonight I will steam block my entries and send them off with fingers crossed!

PS: I found the perfect zipper for the Zippy cardigan! Once I have it set and sewn, I'll take a photo.

Slow Going

I've spent this whole last week coughing my lungs out and generally being ill. I also chose last week (Wednesday, my first ever sick day from my job), to begin work on Rogue. Maybe not such a great idea, that.

While I managed not to botch it up too badly, I nicely crossed a cable wrong, way down at the end portion. Fortunately, I did it to both cable panels, so it is now a design element. I thought it looked a little strange. I also have to bring a question to the knitalong ladies regarding repeats. I don't know if my feeble brain is adding wrong, or if the pattern is incorrect.

Branching Out looks much the same as it did in the last entry. I did some more repeats, but I've been working on Rogue pretty much exclusively since the sickness hit. It's perfect really, almost mindless stockinette with just enough cabling action to make you pay attention. I think it's going to be a beautiful sweater.

Thanks for the advice on the Zippy cardigan. Piogga, thank you for bringing up the difficulty in fastening toggles on a squirmy baby, and Cheryl, thank you so much for that link! I'm going to order some zippers, stat. Have you ever ordered from them before?

Back to the sofa for me.

Snap Happy

Yipee! Let's kick this entry off right with some FO photos, shall we?

The finished Suede Tank from the front...

from the back...

and from the table.


You might notice a small flag of yarn sticking up out of the back. I didn't notice it until my back was photographed. Just an end that needs a little weaving in. I used Berroco Suede in color #3717 (Wild Bill Hickcock... yee haw!). I used just about every last scrap of three balls, which leaves me with one complete ball. I tried out my first pair of Addi-Turbos knitting this tank (US7), and wasn't that impressed. I think part of the problem was that this was a difficult yarn to knit with, so I will give the Addis a try with some wool before I pass final judgement.

But what of the lamb all-in-one? Still cooking:



One wee sleeve and another on the way. How cute!


Thank you Parikha for your suggestion on getting a good picture of this thing. I tried setting the exposure in a dark spot, and the picture improved, but was still dark. I was moaning about it to my boyfriend who suggested putting a white towel underneath it. Of course that works perfectly well, and I feel a little dim for not thinking of it myself. I plan to continue working on the second sleeve tonight.

But wait! There's more!



Come on! I had brand new, never tested yarn in my possession. How could I possibly resist its siren song? I'm only human, after all.

I went ahead and swatched for Rogue last night, you know, just to see if the yarn works. It does. It was nice to knit with, it felt soft and was easy on the hands (especially after the Suede), but it is a little coarse. Fortunately, Rogue should be big enough for my BFF to wear something underneath. I can't wait to cast on, but I'm forcing myself to finish the lamb first.

This summer has been all about slow knitting. It seemed like last summer I finished a ton of stuff. I blame softball and the Hades-like heat and humidity of this summer for my slow knitting progress. Here's looking forward to fall!