cutting it close...as usual

It seems several of my projects of late have been of the last minute variety - sadly, I didn't manage to finish a single pair of socks during Socktober...mostly because I was distracted knitting something else. The above curl of yarn is all that was left after I bound off. The project in question was finished and blocked the night before I packed it up and took it to a fantastic wedding...this seems to be developing into a theme...Have a look here to see how the frantic knitting turned out :)

Oh and yes, those would be a string of bacon and egg lights - they are in my BIL's kitchen, and I have no idea where he got them, but I really like em a lot :)

and now...

...something wee.

Knitting for babies is great for instant gratification :) especially if you go and use big-ish yarn :) have a look at what recently came off the needles in a bout of stealth gift knitting!

Flashy

Front side shot can be seen, along with way more information about this sweater over here on the finished objects blog.

In a nutshell: knit from the bottom up, seamless - unless you count a wee bit of grafting at the underarms and on the back. I think I really like this fine gauge knitting business :)

Now Blocking...

little tiny snippets of my koigu sweater...which, I am happy to say, enjoyed a nice bath in some Aquae SOAK before being spun dry and laid out flat to block. Clockwise from the top: the v-neck with applied i-cord trim, notch on the back of one of the cuffs (I have 1/2 length sleeves on this sweater and the notch accomodates my elbow quite nicely) and finally, a closeup of the applied i-cord over the epaulet.

Now I need to pick back up my Venezia and hope I haven't changed gauge drastically or I might be facing some serious issues with the knitting!

Patience is a Virtue

Seriously. Because it might save you from having to do what I did...

...which would be picking out the hem of a sweater by snipping one stitch and unraveling it, stitch by stitch in order to get access to live stitches (as in a provisional cast on) to add length to the body. Above in the photo you can see that I have just finished liberating the hem :)

I measured and measured, and still it seems it wasn't quite long enough (I really should have kept on knitting instead of splitting for the v-neck and going after the yoke) - I don't know if it was because when I measured it, I was stretching the fabric a little bit or perhaps I failed to accomodate my not so bountiful bustline - all I know is where it was, it was hitting me at about belly-button level.

I'm glad to say the picking out of stitches and adding length has gone quite well - I'm half way through binding off all the hem stitches so I can whip stitch it up in place (I opted to do this instead of binding off to the purl bumps in an attempt to prevent the hem from kinda flipping outwards). Once I have the hem in place, I'll have one skein of koigu left to finish the edging on the neckline (I'll be opting for applied i-cord) and the finishing of the sleeves. It's looking like this will be a short sleeved sweater :) Unless I order in another skein or so of this colorway and dyelot.

Don't forget, there are a few more days left before I fire up yon Random Number Generator to pick a winner in the contest!

Size Matters!

Look at the difference in the way the yarn behaves with 2 different needle sizes! I think it's pretty neat myself - and it's a great illustration that you can indeed "control" or manipulate a yarn if you are afraid of pooling or flashing.

That there is a swatch for a Seamless Saddle Shoulder Sweater (I'm way behind - rumor has it that Erika "won" the KAL and finished her sweater this weekend - Illanna was not far behind with only the underarms to sew up as of yesterday...and Kiki has recently frogged the yoke of her sweater to redo it due to an excess of fabric at the underarms. Rumor is the best version of the "pattern" to follow is out of Elizabeth Zimmermann's The Opinionated Knitter (and not Knitting Workshop - which is what I am currently knitting out of....). Ah well, I've got miles of knitting to go before I get there - and tempted as I am to just knit one ball of koigu after the next, I will be juggling and mixing the balls of yarn, just in case the colors don't quite match.

By the way, I opted to go with US2s if you were wondering. But only because the math was easier ;)

Stranded.

This is the weekend of Maryland Sheep and Wool. I really wish I was there - instead, I feel a little stranded ;) tho I will be having a little yarn fun myself this weekend - the plan is to have a little field trip up to Jerome to visit Knit1 Bead 2 and then spend the rest of the weekend up to my elbows in yarn... Those of you going, please don't forget to stop by the Cloverhill Yarn booth and pat my yarn!

In the meantime, it looks like I will finally get some steek action going at some point in the not too distant future!

I've cast on for Venezia - a fine gauge fair isle sweater. I plan on knitting it with the 3/4 length sleeves plus a v-neck modification. Of course, I didn't select the best yarn to steek with - I'm knitting this sweater from my very own Spritely Goods Fey - since the yarn itself has subtle variegations, I've decided to go with a simple bi-color version.

Since the yarn is indeed superwash, I will be using reinforced steeks. Be sure to wish me luck when the time comes ;)

I'm loving the colorwork - though I was not so happy trying to get gauge - turns out I'm a loose knitter when knitting single stranded with this yarn, so the solid portion is on US0s...and I'm a tight knitter when it comes to colorwork - so the fair isle is being knit on US4s! Once I got gauge*, things were progressing smoothly - see?

In case you are wondering how I opted to do my gauge swatch, I actually cast on for a pair of sleeves - I quickly discovered my loose knitting on the hems, but it took several changes of needles and a 2 frogging sessions to eventually get it right completely. While I would have preferred to have cast on for the body, allowing myself a bit more latitude with figuring out how much yarn I had available for the sleeves, I am knitting the sleeves first because I actually used them for my gauge swatches. Because the swatch had to be knit in the round and I didn't want to waste the limited yarn that I have for this project (8 oz / ~980 yards each color), I cast on for the sleeves to save myself some ripping. As for why I'm knitting both sleeves at the same time, it's an attempt to keep the gauge as even as possible on both sleeves - that way I don't wind up with one somehow longer than the other...it also prevents me from having second sleeve syndrome :)

It only took 9 months....

avastfinished
Originally uploaded by WoodlandSprite

No, it wasn't a baby!

Avast is done :) and it only took me 9 months to finish! Due to the color of the yarn, it is very difficult to see the cable on the bottom hem, though it did indeed come out quite nicely.

All the fine details are here on the finished goods blog.