Saturday, April 19, 2008

Seamless hybrid













I finally finished the sweater for husband. On the left is a shot of him trying it on before hemming; I ended up adding about an inch and a half to the hem, but the rest fit really well. The photo below is the wrong side before weaving in ends. I put a message into the hem facing - sorry for the naughty language, we somehow gave each other these nicknames a long time ago and they just stuck. He thought that was a nice touch. The top right-hand photo is the finished sweater after its first washing.
I really enjoyed knitting this pattern, the Seamless Hybrid from Knitting Without Tears. The shoulder construction is ingenious! I learned a lot from this project and tried a few things for the first time with an acceptable level of success, enough to give me the confidence to keep trying new stuff. This was the first time I made a swatch and laundered it to check for shrinkage; the first time I ripped a cast-on edge and knit down from it; the first time I used a "percentages" pattern; and the first time I successfully grafted (thanks to the amazing TechKnitter's non-Kitchener tutorial). All in all, I'm happy with this sweater and so is the man.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The big reveal!

I finished my Tangled Yolk Cardigan! I've been waiting for a good time to take an action shot though. Despite it being April on the calendar, Wisconsin still is in the midst of winter; yes, we had snow and a high of 38 this weekend. Yeah....needless to say, the lighting has been less than spectacular for taking detailed shots of tangled yolks. I don't think this picture does it justice, but I can't wait any longer!


This sweater is everything I started knitting for. It is SO amazing. I blocked it to the right size and it fits me so well. It is such a wonderful color!

One small story to go along with this post:
I was showing my non-knitting mother my sweater and I mentioned what a pain the pattern was. I had a hard time keeping track of 200+ stitches, where I was in the pattern, etc. She responded with "Don't you use markers when you knit?" DUH! As much as this sweater really shows off all that I've learned, I still think the knitting police should take away my needles. It never even crossed my mind to mark the repeating sections of the pattern. Oh, the nights of ripped out knitting....I guess I learned another valuable lesson!

Yeah! And since it's still so cold out, I can wear it before summer. I think my co-workers will think I'm crazy for wearing it everyday!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

A very mild (thoroughly polite?) finished project

Here are the socks for my Dad - a nice neutral, practical gift for the man who, if pressed, will request only white handkerchiefs for his Christmas present. He's someone who appreciates both the little things and the handmade, so I think these will be just the thing. I started them a little over two weeks ago but only had a few inches knit, until I took a trip this weekend and had to wait for 5 hours in an airport for a delayed flight, during which time I finished the pair (well, I did a little work on them on the buses to/from airports, too).