Beau & Cables in Chamonix Finished!

Believe it or not, I finished these suckers over a week ago. I've been dying to post them, but getting pictures of me and Bill in our respective sweaters has been a challenge. During the week, daylight is basically gone by 7 pm and the weekends have been crazy (or rainy). Yesterday we finally got some shots, so here they are.

Pattern: Inspired by Beau from Rowan Vintage Style. Ironically, I ended up borrowing the Beau pattern from Magknits and used the shape of a basic crewneck. I used pics of the Rowan Beau online to help me figure out how the striping and box effect worked.

Yarn: Tahki Donegal Tweed in a burnt orange color, a little over 5 skeins. Brown 'leather' buttons from Joann's.

Verdict: Bill really likes it! When I still had 1 sleeve to sew in, he said to me, "Are you going to sew that thing in so I can actually wear it tonight?"
I'm happy with how the pattern came out and glad that I managed to improv it. A successful knock-off!

Here's a close-up of the neckline.

*************************************************************************

Pattern: Cables in Chamonix from Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond Basics

Yarn: GGH Savanna in a raspberry color, 8 balls.

Modifications: I decided to do this from the top down instead of in pieces. Since the pattern said to pick up 64 stitches for the neckline, I cast on that many and increased until I had the number of body and sleeve stitches. I ended up frogging several times because it was just too BIG. I added some darts in the back, since I didn't do the cables in the back and added a lot of waist shaping. My gauge was spot on - I knit and blocked a swatch and everything - but I realized that I also only did 3 cables down the front instead of 4 which may explain it.

Verdict: OK. It's a little big around the bust and under the sleeves, but overall it's a cozy winter sweater. I did wear it once to work when it was chilly last week, and I think next winter it will get more wear.

Right now, I have lots of progress on spring projects to show you, but I'll wait a few days. Happy Monday!

A Race to the FO Line

I am expecting to get 3 of my WIPs to cross the finish line here within the next 2 weeks or so. Here are the leaders:

Currently leading the pack is the February Baby Sweater from EZ's Knitter's Almanac. This is for a co-worker who is expecting a baby girl in April. I can't show you exactly how much is done, but let's say the odds for this to win are pretty darn good (ok, I just have buttons to sew on).

Next up in second place is Beau, for my hubby. I'm not using the 'real' pattern for this sweater, but instead trying to mimic the stitch pattern using a basic crewneck pattern. Beau is a sleeve and some seaming away from being the champ.

But don't count out Cables in Chamonix, who has had a remarkable run lately. There was a minor setback last week when about 10" of the body had to be frogged (it was way too big). Although progress doesn't look great, expect this knit to get some extra attention in the coming week.

A few other WIPs are struggling as they made it just on the needles, but we should expect some progress and improvement on them once these top three are out of the race.

PS. I mentioned a while ago that we are going out west in early May. Well, I just realized that we will be gone during Maryland Sheep & Wool. Clearly I had a major brain fart in scheduling. I live 30 minutes from the Howard County Fairgrounds. Doh!

Starting off slow

Thanks for the advice on the whole top-down-seamless-EZ-can-I-knit-a-collar-on debacle. I've decided to start off with an easy seamless project before delving into a complicated one. Since I've never knit my husband a sweater (or anything for that matter), I don't think it would be fair to have his first knitted object from me be a complete experiment and possibly a disaster. So, I am going to use the real pattern for Beau and save the experimentation and/or disaster for myself.

Starting off slowly, I am using some GGH Savanna to knit the Yarn Girls' Cables in Chamonix.

The pattern calls for picking up 64 stitches around the neck line for the turtleneck, so I cast on that many onto a circular needle. I used a provisional cast on so I can knit the turtleneck last with some short row shaping. The pattern says that before armhole shaping, the sleeves end up with 48 stitches each and the front and back with 64 each, which yields 224 stitches all around (before yoke shaping). Subtracting out the 64 stitches I already cast on leaves 160, which is how many I would have to increase to get from the neck down to the yoke. So, I split up my 64 stitches into 24 each for the front and back and 8 for each sleeve. I incorporated the cable pattern and am now just increasing every other round until I get to my 224 stitches. We'll see how it goes! If I am able to get a decent looking sweater, I might tackle the Karabella one. But I am prepared to buy the pattern too!

In other news, I ordered some Jaggerspun Zephyr to knit either the Simple Knitted Bodice or Sahara or something from Stefanie's book Fitted Knits (which is on my Christmas list, even though it doesn't come out til spring). I also asked for 1 skein of Tilli Tomas disco lights from Santa to match the wool/silk I bought in Elderberry:

I've noticed that I have color phases with my knitting. Over the summer and into fall, it was a pink phase with 2 pink tank tops (Prosperous Plum and Eyelet V-Neck) and Arisaig. Now, I'm in a purply phase with Forecast, the Cables in Chamonix and this purple stuff in Zephyr. Hmm, I'm thinking green or blue next . . .