Afghan-apolooza
So I finished my godson's sweater. I'll post the pics when I get back to work next week, but it turned out rather well. I made the torso longer than the pattern called for, but Koby's pretty tall so I wanted to add in the extra length.
Now I'm working on two afghans. One is hot pink and from a pattern on the label. The other is three different shades of blue in a block pattern that I designed myself. The design was inspired by the bathroom tile pattern at a department store I used to work at. Unfortunately, I am not very far along with either.
My grandmother's sweater is still in the UFO holding pattern that it's been in for quite some time. The back is completely done and the right front is almost done. The place that I'm stopped at is the part of the armhole where the decreases are finished and the length of the armhole needs to done and then the shoulder shaped. But the instructions say that I should work the armhole until it equals the length of the back. That's easy enough in principle, but I hate measuring. Unbelievably hate it. I'll get over it, but probably not for a week or two.
Ferile Knitting
So I went to Smiley's on Saturday and bought a WHOLE bunch of yarn. There was this one particular deal that I was very happy about. It was a bag of 10 50 gram balls of wool/acrylic/alpaca blend. It's quite soft and very nice.
I als
o found yarn for my godson's sweater (left). It's not the Lion Brand yarn that the pattern calls for, but it is a nice chunky yarn that's quite plush. It's by Patons and it's called Melody. It cost more than I would have liked, but results have been wonderful.
The pattern is from the Summer 2005 issue of Knit.1. I was a bit scared of the fair isle aspect of the pattern, but I didn't think that the pattern big enough to justify intarsia.
I think that it turned out well, though, considering the bulkiness of the yarn. I even like the peakaboo aspect of the black under the white.
On a different note, I am in love with a new (to me) cast-on method. I learned to knit using the long-tail method and it was always a pain in the keester to determine how much yarn I needed for the tail. But this new method is great! Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of it, but here's the description: Make a slipknot, then knit one stitch and place the new stitch on the left needle. Then knit a new stitch and place it on the left needle and continue this way until you have the number of stitches needed.
Some of the other yarn I got over the weekend is going to be used in felting and afghan projects for my sitting room. The theme is Punk Princess. Hopefully, pictures will be on the way soon.
Christmastime is Here Again?!
So, I'm making my list of what I'm going to make my family for Christmas. So far I am in the middle of a cardigan for my grandmother. It's the Sienna Cardigan from Interweave Knits' Fall 2006 Issue. (As a side note: the other day I got the Winter issue of Interweave Knits and can I just say how happy I am to see them going back to the way they used to be. I was getting frightened by all of the fair isle they were showing!)
But I like this pattern; it seems like it will suit my grandma. Although, I am a little scared of the sizing. I'm making the medium size, but I'm using sport/fingering wieght alpaca yarn. Now, even though my swatch tells me that I'm working at the correct guage, I can't help but think that it's a bit on the small side. Hopefully, the magic of blocking will get it looking right.
For my dad I'm making the flip-top mittens that Debbie Stoller designed for Interweave Knits' subscriber-only website. Here's the picture, though:
I'm going to make them for him because he's a smoker (even though he should stop) and I want him to be able to keep his hands warm while smoking this winter. I think I'm going to exclude the snowflake, though. my dad isn't a snowflake kind of guy. I'm going to make a matching hat, too, because he lost the one that I made for him last year.
I'm also thinking about giving him the red and black sweater I designed in the early summer. Although I think it will end up being passed around the family men because I didn't use standard male measurements. So, we'll see who it looks best on.
For my aunt I am STILL trying to finsh the green, Amelie- like pullover from Vintage Knits. Everything is knitted now, I just have to attach everything. Boy do I hate finishing.
For my godson I am going to make a skull and bones sweater -- either from an old issue of Knit.1 or Stitch-n-Bitch. I'm not sure yet. I'm going to buy the yarn this weekend, hopefully at Smiley's. For those knitters that don't live in New York or have visited for the yarn stores: I say hopefully because Smiley's -- while being a WONDERFUL discount yarn store -- does not have regular stock. So it'll be a shot in the dark as to what I can find, yarn wise. I'd really love to use Lion Brand wool chucky, but P&S (my other discount yarn source) doesn't carry a large quantity of that style, so it's also a shot in the dark as to what colors and quantities they'll have.
