Sneak Peek & A Meme

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the Leafy Lace Cardi. I've worn it twice so far and love it!

The knitting for the Cloud Bolero is done. It's drying right now, and all it needs are buttons sewn on and ends woven in. Here's a sneak peek:

I've also been making some progress on Orangina. I made a couple of mistakes and have had to rip out some rows, but I've got about 12" of one side done. It's slow going mainly because of the yarn. I'm using Elann Lara, and although the fabric is very nice, it's the splittiest yarn I've ever worked with.

Claudia recently tagged me to fill out this meme. It's a fun one, so if you're interested in knowing more about me, here goes.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago? I had just returned home to my parents' house after my freshman year of college. I spent the summer working at Talbots, where I had started working three years earlier in 1995. I was finally allowed to ring customers on the register, but my main job was to fold sweaters, clean up the fitting rooms, re-stock the shelves and answer phones. I learned a lot about what a mix of nice and not-so-nice shoppers are out there!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today? Besides work-related stuff: 1) Go to the gym, 2) Go to the grocery store (may not happen), 3) Watch 2 more episodes of 'The Wire' from Netflix, 4) Upload pictures from my vacation last year to be printed out, 5) Clean my bathroom.

3) Snacks I enjoy: Little cheese square crackers from Trader Joe's, cashews, any kind of cheese, peanut butter cookies, snowballs with marshmallow from my favorite local snowball stand.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Buy Bill a new car, pay off our house, pay off my parents' and in-laws' houses, take a few extravagant vacations, and donate a good chunk to two causes important to me: cancer research and animal welfare. I've always been a supporter of adopting pets instead of purchasing them. If you missed Oprah's eye-opening episode on puppy mills, try and catch it in a rebroadcast and see why.

5) Places I have lived: I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD; During my college years, I spent time living in Boston, MA, Villanova, PA, and London, England. I am now back in Baltimore.

6) Jobs I have had: I told you about Talbots; I also spent a summer selling Cutco knives, and another summer as a temp at Blue Cross Insurance. Once I was in graduate school, I worked as a tutor and statistical consultant before I started my "real" job as a biostatistician five years ago.

7) Bloggers I am tagging who you will enjoy getting to know better: The meme has been around for a while, so if you'd like to participate, consider yourself tagged!

FO: Leafy Lacy Cardi

A nice start to the long holiday weekend - an FO!

Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace, color 809, 8 1/2 balls. Bought on sale while on vacation in Los Angeles for $30/bag.

Pattern: Leafy Lace Cardigan by Susan.

Modifications: I made the ribbing longer and knit the body until it was 13.5" inches long. I also did the eyelet row a little differently. Instead of working the garter ridges, I just did a simple k2tog, yo row. I also made the sleeves a little bit shorter so I can wear it in the summer.

I have to say, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. Susan wrote a wonderful pattern that was easy to follow and perfect for this yarn. Lacy knits are the perfect summer knitting for me. They are tolerable in the heat and can have really nice results. So look for some more lacy knits from me this summer!

Enjoy your weekend!

MD Sheep & Wool Report

I've started a new project with some Rowan Summer Tweed I picked up 50% off at Maryland Sheep & Wool. It's the Cloud Bolero, and it's knitting up very fast!

I really like the color and texture of the Summer Tweed, although it's not the easiest to knit with. It sticks to the needles a bit.

I also picked up some Cashmerino Chunky 50% off:

and some Brooks Farms Solo:

I stopped into the Brooks Farms tent on my way out of the festival, and I spotted frecklegirl Jess, aka Mama Ravelry. I felt like I was a fan approaching a celebrity, but I had to say hello and thank her for creating Ravelry. I did have my camera, but I felt like a nerd asking for a picture, so I didn't. After seeing how much fun everyone had at MDS&W, I think I'll have to participate in the Ravelry events next year. It would be fun to meet everyone!

When I bought my yarn and found my group - Bill, my knitter friend Elizabeth and her husband and kids - they could not believe I had met Jess. Of course the husbands know about Ravelry, and even they thought it was totally cool!

Besides buying yarn, I've also added to my stash in the form of frogging. I had knit a sweater a few years ago using Colinette Skye. It's great yarn and beautifully dyed, but I just never wore it. I've got close to 1000 yards here and no idea what to do with it. For now, it's just going to sit on my Ravelry trade page!

PS. Leafy Lacy is finished and fabulous! FO post coming soon.

Post #101: The Winners

Thanks to all for entering my 100th post contest. It was nice to see some new names in the comments! Sorry I didn't personally respond to you all this time - there were just too many.

Here are our big winners (to whom I've already sent emails):

1000 Sweaters Book: Tanya of Turtles Lake Knitting
Rowan Treasury Book: Jackie (non-blogger)
Knitted Scarves... Book: Christy of Having a Hissyknit
Gedifra Topas: Andi of Wound Too Tight
Lion Brand Incredible: Heatherly of Yarn Yenta

I went to MD Sheep & Wool yesterday and got some goodies. I'll show you that and some knitting progress soon; there were two big set backs last week - one with the Leafy Lacy Cardi and the other with the Seamless Hybrid. The Leafy Lacy Cardi is back on track, but the Seamless Hybrid had to be completely frogged!

100th Post Contest!

It's been almost 2 years since I started this ol' blog, and here I am at my 100th post. I've been doing some spring cleaning, and I have a few books and yarns that I am willing to part with.

Left to right: A Treasury of Rowan Knits, 1000 Sweaters, Knitted Shawls, Stoles and Scarves.

Gedifra Topas. This is a discontinued yarn that I started a sweater with a few summers ago. I frogged what I had used and haven't thought of using it since. I'd rather the yarn be loved by someone who will knit with it! There are about 8 balls here. Ravelry link.

Lion Brand Incredible. I got this two summers ago to make a tank top, but I used 2 balls and then frogged it. There are about 5 balls here. Ravelry link.

Instead of giving all this to one person, I think it will be fun to have 5 winners. So, if you want to enter, just leave a comment and tell me which prizes you want to be considered for. If you don't specify, I'll put your name in all 5 hats. You must comment by Friday, May 2 at 10PM EST.

Now, if you came here to see some knitting . . .

The Leafy Lacy Cardi is coming along splendidly. I am almost finished the 2nd sleeve and hope to do some seaming this weekend. I can't wait to wear this!!!

I've also been working on the Seamless Hybrid for Bill. I'm using Rowan 4ply Tweed, so this is probably going to take a very long time to knit, but it's looking very nice. I got a contrasting color for the underside of the folded hem and am almost ready to turn the hem.

Enjoy your weekend!

FO: Cape Collar Jacket

This sweater was quite a saga for me, and may be the reason why I was unmotivated to knit new things in February and March. But, it's done, and here are the details.

Pattern: Cape Collar Jacket, Vogue Knitting, Winter 2007/08. Pattern #16.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL. Aged Wine, color 05. 14 1/2 skeins.

Modifications: Too many for my liking! To spare those who aren't interested in the details, I'm posting my mods at the bottom of this post.

Verdict: Considering how much aggravation went into deciphering the pattern and figuring out all the errors, I am actually pleased with how this turned out. I'm not super crazy about the way it buttons. Because of the collar, it needs to stay buttoned for the jacket to maintain its shape, otherwise it just flops open. The collar has trouble staying put, so I might also tack it down with a few stitches. I didn't bother with the collar support, mainly because it didn't make sense to me and at that point, I was done with trying to figure out the pattern instructions.

The irony of this sweater is that it was supposed to save Vogue and make me want to renew my subscription. It expires this year, and when I received this winter issue, I realized that I hadn't even queued anything from the stack of magazines I had collected. I decided that if I didn't see anything I wanted to knit, I was going to let go of it. Then I saw this pattern and loved it. Then I started knitting it.

I'd like to think that I am relatively experienced knitter, but the way this pattern was written in many areas was just incomprehensible. I sent a note to Vogue back in early February, but haven't heard back. I've decided not to renew my subscription, not only because they have been unresponsive, but many important details the pattern needed were not printed for what looks like (to me) lack of space and/or editorial reasons. I'd rather they sell a few less ads, charge a little more and print better patterns.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm on to other knits!

I had to show this last photo. Our dog Toby seems to think that FO-photo-shot time is also play time (which it usually is). He loves his red bone and doesn't hesitate in letting us know it. You'll notice he appears in many of these photos with his beloved toy.

Expanded Modifications

Raveled here.

Back
Waistband chart begins with a RS row, but the last row worked before the waistband chart is also a RS row. I did one extra row of garter st on the WS to get back to a RS row before row 1 of the waistband chart.

Left Front
* The cable increase row as written will leave you with too few sts on the needle. I did the same cable increase row as for the back. This left me with the 75 sts called for on the needle.
* Same issue with row before beginning waistband chart. Worked extra row of garter st.
* Pattern does not say to keep the 3 sts for the button bands as you’re working the waistband chart, but I think you should do this since there is no picking up of stitches later.
* Cape collar section is written horribly. I worked a size small, so I needed to have 16 sts remaining for the shoulder after armhole shaping was done. Do to the armhole shaping, an extra 14 sts are required (these are the stitches you bind off in the armhole shaping). This leaves 30 sts needed in the body section. So, I did the collar section as written, displacing 1 sts from the body to the collar until I had 30 stitches left in the body section. Since there are 61 sts on the needle, this left 31 sts in the collar. At this point, I stopped displacing stitches and started ONLY increasing in the collar section, 1 st every 4 rows until I had 45 sts in the collar. At the same time, I began shaping the armhole when it matched the length of the back.
* To complete the collar, I worked short rows as written (though if I were to do over, I would work more), but where it says to work even for 32 rows, I only worked 2 rows. Otherwise, the collar and back neck sections would not match up in length to seam together.

Right Front
Worked same changes as for left, reversing shaping.

Sleeves
As written, these sleeves would be big enough for me to stuff both arms in them! At the end of the cable section, I did the cable decrease row to bring it back down to 49 sts. I then evenly increased up to 69 sts (I think every 8 or 10 rows). Then I worked the sleeve as written.

I did not do the collar support.
I worked the outer cable as written and had no problems with this.

Spring Fever

Hi! I hope you all are still with me. I know I've been really bad about blogging lately. I do have lots to show and tell, so I should get started.

Good news - knitting mojo has returned! I've been clearing through my stash and starting lots of new projects. The only one worth showing photos of today is the Leafy Lacy Cardi, by Susan:

I'm knitting this with Cotton Glace that I picked up on sale at Black Sheep Knittery in Hollywood during my vacation out west last year. I like the pattern and it's fool-proof for me. I usually screw up lace patterns, but this is really easy to follow and is going really fast.

I also started another Orangina and Seamless Hybrid for Bill, but I won't bore you with photos here. They're on Ravelry if you're interested, but I've really just started them.

Yesterday we enjoyed the great weather with a much needed day off from work and traveled to Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. I've lived in Baltimore my whole life (almost) and had never seen these trees in the springtime. They're beautiful!

This is near the FDR memorial.

Walking along the Tidal Basin.

We also visited the National Botanic Gardens which had a stunning orchid exhibit. I love orchids and really want to try having one of my own.

I know back in November I showed you all of the before pictures of our two upstairs bathrooms before we had them redone. Believe it or not, they have been finished since mid-January! I finally found a shower curtain and some cool prints from Ikea that I loved, so it's now really all put together.

My bathroom. Mostly neutral with splashes of green and dark browns.

Bill's bathroom - not a peach nightmare anymore!

Ah, that felt good. The fact that I have not been blogging or catching up on my blog reading is really stressing me out! The Cape Collar Jacket is finished, so I hope to get pictures and an FO post soon. Hope you're all enjoying the first days of spring!

Sewing, A Meme and A Plea

I've been plugging away at my Cape Collar Jacket. I've got the back, both sleeves, and most of both fronts done. My goal is to have it completed by next Friday. I hope I can make it! Vogue hasn't responded to my message about the errors in the pattern, so I may need to improvise. But, I've also been feeling spring fever and have been doing some sewing. Last weekend I made this, using a combination of several sewing tutorials:

It's a wristlet that can hold the essentials - cell phone, keys, credit card and sunglasses. The fabric is leftover from the needle cases I made a while ago. Instead of a strap for the wrist, I found these big rings at Joann's and used one of them instead.

I've got some other sewing projects up my sleeve, but I'll share those later. In the meantime, Claudia has tagged me for a meme. I am supposed to share six quirks/habits/things about myself. Here goes!

1) I am a TV series addict. I faithfully watch lots of shows (Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, 24, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Men in Trees, Numb3rs (yes, I'm a dork), House, American Idol, The Closer...)

2) I don't like my food to touch. I've never owned one of those plates that has sections for each side dish, but I should.

3) I am obsessed with getting 8 hours of sleep at night. I've never been a night-owl and was always the first girl to fall asleep at a sleep-over.

4) I hate bugs, especially crickets. They scare me, even though I know they are harmless.

5) I had my tonsils out when I was 17. My doctor said they were some of the most infected tonsils he had ever seen.

6) I hate basements. I always run up the stairs when I leave one, and I'm glad my house doesn't have one!

Anyone who would like to do this, please do! It's fun to learn some new things about bloggers.

Onto knitting . . .

Lately I've felt like I've been in a knitting funk. I haven't been motivated to start projects that are in my queue, and I've been having mixed feelings on spring and summer knits. Usually by the time warm weather arrives, it gets too hot to wear a knitted garment, or even if it's not too hot, the humidity makes a handknit unbearable. With that in mind, I have plans to make just a few warm weather items this year. The first is the Flutter Sleeve cardigan from Interweave. The pattern calls for Classic Elite Classic Silk, which I happen to have in my stash! But, I only have 5 balls, and the pattern calls for 7. Anyone have some Classic Silk in Paris Green (color 6935) and dyelot 30 that they aren't going to use? After my dyelot challenge with Bea, I am hesitant to mix dyelots again. I've checked Ravelry and some online sellers, but no luck. Thanks in advance!

FO: Gretel

Hi there! So it's been over 3 weeks since I've posted. Work has been really busy lately, but I'm finally starting to come up for air, so hopefully I won't be so quiet anymore. First, thank you for all the wonderful comments on Starsky! I think that is a record number of comments for me - you all are so nice.

I have been knitting, I promise. Gretel is finally finished - after 3 months, nearly.

Pattern: Gretel, by Ysolda.
Yarn: I used an alpaca yarn that I purchased at a farm stand and had just the right amount for this hat. It's a sport weight yarn, so I cast on more stitches (120, I think) than the pattern called for. I thought that my row gauge would be off, too, so I planned to make the slouchy version. After finishing, it was WAY too big. I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy or something. I ripped back and re-did it for the regular version. Perfect!
Modifications: Besides the extra stitches I cast on, none.
Verdict: It's really cute and doesn't give me as much hat head as other hats I have do. So that's a good thing.

Right now, I only have 1 project on the needles. Remember all that red yarn I bought? 19 balls of Classic Al in Aged Wine (on sale at Webs), to be exact. When I received the winter issue of Vogue Knitting, I thought to myself, "You've never knit anything out of the VK magazines, so if you don't see anything in this issue, don't renew the subscription." I was flipping through and saw the photo of the Cape Collar Jacket. Wow. It had everything I loved all in one pattern: cardigan style, fitted waistband, cables, seed stitch and a dramatic collar! After checking out the yarn required, I realized the Classic Al was a perfect substitution for the King George the pattern used. Since I needed 19 balls, and Classic Al was on sale for $3.49, it was an obvious choice. I've knit through the back, most of the left front and have started a sleeve.

I'm going to save you the details of my frustrations with this pattern and the general editing of the Vogue knitting patterns for my next post, but I wanted to show you what all that darn yarn was for!!!

In the three weeks since I've posted, I was tagged again for the "Make My Day" Award by Elizabeth, Lisa, Heather, and Larkin. Thank you! I listed my choices in my last post, but really, I read of the blogs I do because they have all made my day and inspired me.

FO: Starsky

Here's my first finished sweater of 2008: Starsky.

Pattern: Starsky, by Jordana Paige. Knitty Winter 2005 issue. Size small (40.5").
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL, Color 002, just under 12 balls.
Modifications:
1) I knit the back and fronts as written, except I added some waist shaping. Some other finished projects of this I've seen on Ravelry have looked on the large side so I wanted to make sure it had some shaping, even if it came out big (which it didn't).
2) I knit the sleeves as directed, but when it came time to sew them into the caps, they didn't fit. My row gauge must have been off (didn't check), so I ripped back the sleeve caps and did decreases every 4 rows instead of every other row. This worked well and the sleeve fits nicely.
3) For the collar, I knew ahead of time that I wanted buttons instead of the belt. I did short rows, but I did more of them and wrapped/turned in intervals of 6 stitches instead of 8. I also knit the collar until it was about 5.5" wide at the bottom instead of 3.5".

Verdict: Wonderful! As much as I loved Juno, Starsky is a much more practical knit. The collar fits under a coat easily and I like that it's wide enough that I can button it all the way up and wrap the collar around my neck (as demonstrated, above right). The Classic AL is one of my favorite yarns EVER. It's soft but really warm and hasn't shown signs of pilling. I am usually very sensitive to itchy knits, but I wore just a cami underneath this one.

I received another award! Monica at Rubys N Purls gave me the You Make My Day award. Thanks, Monica! [ETA: Jillian over at sknitty also gave me this award. You all know what a big fan I am of Jillian's work.]

Here’s how it works:
Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about Blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

This is tough. I subscribe to 113 blogs, so how can I pick just 10? Well, here goes.
1) Lynne at I was knit together in my mother's womb. This is one funny gal who knits great stuff and is currently designing her own sweater.
2) Claudia at Mr Puffy. Claudia makes beautiful knits, my favorite lately being the Pufflet.
3) Wanda at WandaWomanKnits. She is always making something beautiful and always reflects on her knitting.
4) Silvia at silverknits. Silvia knocks out projects quickly and always keep me inspired with her marathon training and home remodeling.
5) Ginnie at Windy Knitty. She always makes beautiful stuff - check out her Buttony sweater.
6) She beat me to it, but Emily from MLE Knits. I just went over to her blog and saw that she gave me the same award. Great minds, I guess! Emily knits really great stuff - check out her Buttony sweater.
7) Anna at Anna's Flying Needles. This gal is the best darn wrap/lace/scarf knitter I've seen. She has tons of them - go check them out!
8) Faith at No More Sweaters!. She is truly hilarious. If she weren't into knitting, I would tell Faith to do stand-up.
9) Rachael at Catty Wampus. I always have a new post of hers to read and besides knitting, she always has yarn porn or something else to show you.
10) Kara at knitting lemonade. She is freakin' hilarious and knits fabulous stuff, too!

FO Roundup

My friend's baby was baptized over the weekend, and as part of his gift, I made some knitted goodies. I'll warn you: what you are about to see is high on the cute-meter.

Pattern: My own, using a simple top down raglan calculator and measurements for a 1-2 year old.
Yarn: Leftovers! I ended up with not an inch to spare of any color, so I really think the knitting gods were looking out for me on this one. I used Knit Picks Swish Superwash in Charcoal, Dublin, Ocean and Capri Blue. The stripes were random and the buttons are little tractors from Joann's - they made the sweater!

Bill got me the book Itty Bitty Nursery for Christmas, and in it are the most adorable little pacifier clips. I knit up the elephant and froggie for this little boy. I wanted to keep the frog for myself - they are so cute! I bought the clips at Target. They took about 2 days to complete - lots of sewing and cutting, but well worth it. I used some Di Ve Zenith (which is very splitty but soft) and some leftovers from other projects. Another great stash buster.

I posted more pictures on Ravelry. I couldn't stop taking photos of these guys!

I know I promised WAY back to give reports on the Christmas scarves I knit this year. Well, here goes:

Pattern: One row handspun by the Yarn Harlot. I added a reversible cable to the center.
Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran in hunter green, 4 skeins.

He likes it!

Pattern: Farrow Rib Scarf for my brother
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed, 3 balls in charcoal.

He's not smiling, but he likes it!

I know I also promised to tell you what all that red yarn is for. Well, I want to get some knitting on it started, but before I divulge the whole story, I can tell you it's a sweater (surprise) and it's in my Ravelry queue, if you really want to know. Starsky is almost finished (the collar is taking forever) and will debut in the next post.

Settling in to 2008

Hi there! I'm finally back into the swing of things work-wise, house-wise and knit-wise, and I have lots to show you. I've been knitting away at Starsky, and have completed the seaming and am working on the collar now. Here's a pre-seaming progress shot:

It fits OK so far - the sleeves are a little snug, but I think some more blocking will relax it. Let's hope!
I've also put in a little more time on Gretel. I'm through the fitted section and am now into the regular/slouchy section. I think I'm going to make the slouchy version, since I should have enough yarn. I'm using this nice, fluffy alpaca I bought at a farm stand in October.

I also started a stash-busting, really easy top down raglan for my friend's baby. He's a big boy and has already outgrown a hat and booties I made him. This is a 1-2 year old size and should be plenty big for a while (he's only 9 weeks old!)

I'm using some leftover Knit Picks Swish Superwash and just making up stripes as I go.

There's also been some stash enhancement . . .
First, I won a skein of Sundara sock yarn in Lenten Rose from Lara over at Yarn It! Thanks, Lara!! Most of you know that I have never knit socks before, but this soft stuff might be enough to entice me to make some socks out of it. If not socks, it might become some nice gloves or a scarf.

I also succumbed to some Webs' closeouts. I bought several colors of Di Ve Zenith, which is on closeout for #3.99 a ball. It was rumored to be as soft and have similar consistency to Karabella Aurora 8. I have to say, it is really soft and does remind me of the Aurora. It's lighter and a little splitty, but I'm excited to try it out. I bought enough brown for a sweater and a few balls of the green, blue and orange to make some toys/baby items for friends.

And, last but not least, I bought 19 (yes, that's 2071 yards!) of Classic AL in Aged Wine (a nice, pure red) to make what will likely be my BIG BIG project of winter '08. But, I'll have to keep you in suspense about that until the next post.

That's alotta yarn!