I finished this last week, but I just haven’t found Honor, the sweater and the camera in the same room together.

I’m really happy with how this sweater turned out. Although, I did have a few issues with carrying the yarn (really, who wants to weave in all those ends?), I seem to have pulled it off. My favorite part was making the skull applique. I’m not convinced that the cheap-o felt will hold up, but I figure that at 20 cents a sheet I can just make him a new one when it wears out. I’m also toying with the idea of ironing interfacing to the back of tee shirt material and making an applique from that.

Stats:
Yarn: GGH Samoa – 2 balls of brown (I think?) and 3 balls of blue
Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Child’s Pullover
Needles: US size 9 denise and addi turbos

I’ve been knitting up a storm. I knit up a Calorimetry that ended up way too big. But I wore it any way sledding on Sunday. I just ended up tying it in a knot in the back.

I finished the cable eight top awhile back, but I’ve yet to take a pic of it. And I knit myself a Ruffles and Ridges Scarf (PDF) adding another repeat to make it wider and I used two balls of the Misti Alpaca in Cream to match my cabled hat.

In other knitting news, I found this great free knitting graph paper. And I just got in a big shipment of the favorite Malabrigo colors at Tangle. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier this week that there are a few things on sale at Tangle too, including the Very Best Sock Kits.

I’m still working on my Sweater Workshop Sweater after putting it down for several months. Mostly I’m motivated because I want my 32″ size 8 Addi Turbos out of it to knit Jim a pair of alpaca fingerless mitts and I’m too lazy to move the sweater onto waste yarn. Plus, I’d love to have another sweater to wear in these freezing temperatures. It’s a balmy 8 degrees right now with a slight hope that by Saturday our high will rise above freezing.

I’m off to boot the dog out of my seat, snuggle under a blanket, see what my TiVo has to offer me and work on my sweater.

I started knitting these socks at my mom’s house during Christmas. They only took me a couple days to finish. Gotta love that worsted weight yarn!

I knit these two at a time on a size 6 32″ Addi Turbo, toe up, magic loop. It took two balls of Big Mexiko, a worsted weight, self patterning superwash wool. I know that a lot of people don’t like knitting worsted weight socks because they’re too thick to wear with shoes, but I LOVE to come home from work and put these on my cold feet. They are SO comfortable! And if you do wear clogs (or God forbid, crocs) these would work great.

Super Cute Cabled Bag

Twinkletoes from the new Knitty

Still deciding if Glampyre’s new pattern will make me look preggo. I carry the yarn in the store. hmmm…

I’ll possibly add more later…

I finished this hat over the weekend.

The pattern is from “One Skein” and I used Misti Alpaca Chunky. I can’t say enough how much I love this yarn. I did make some mods to the pattern. I wasn’t so sure how my pointy head would look in a hat that was purposefully pointy, so I decided to incorporate decreases into the top of the hat.

At a certain point (I don’t remember how far in, maybe 6″?) I began decreases as follows:

k5 in pattern, k2tog (or p2tog depending on the pattern), to the end
knit one round in pattern
k4 in pattern, k2tog (or p2tog depending on the pattern), to the end

so on and so forth. I tried my best to incorporate my decreases into the pattern. If I came to a spot where I needed to knit a purl together with a knit stitch, I turned that stitch into a knit.

Anyway, I’m just in love with the yarn and now I’m deciding which color I should make my new scarf. hmmm… I’m thinking chartreuse.

edit: Two corrections to the pattern too. The big cable should be twisted on the 8th row and then every 12th thereafter (according to the photo.) And I think it’s near impossible to get the gauge on 11’s, I’d start swatching with 10’s and that’s what I used.

She wore it yesterday and I forgot to take a picture. Of course it’s not nearly as cute lying on the table, but…

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I used two colors of GGH Samoa and threw in a couple rows of GGH Esprit.

The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple. The thing I really like about the Knitting Pure and Simple patterns is that once you make one of them, you can make any of them – it’s top down, seamless and quick!

I made Eden the size 2-4 and I wish I would have made the 24 months – they’re sized that big! But she’ll be wearing this sweater until she’s 10, I can just add to the length.

Next up I’m going to make one for Honor. I’ll substitute ribbing for the roll edges and I think I’m going to make it lime green and brown… but he’s really asking for blue so maybe blue and brown. We’ll see who wins.

Here it is, my finished Hourglass Sweater! I’m very proud of this one, so you’ll have to endure lots photos. Eden took all the photos for me and I’m modeling it at tangle.

Neck detail

I used 5.5 skeins of Malabrigo worsted. I love this yarn and I have to say that my only complaint is that it’s hard to get continuity between the skeins even if they are in the same dye lot. I should have alternated skeins every couple rows, but chose not to and you can tell at the top where I joined the new skein. Overall, I’m still really happy – that’s just the joy of handdyed yarn.

I used size 7 addi turbos – 32″ for the body and 40″ for the sleeves. I worked them at the the same time on magic loop. I really think that knitting the sleeves at the same time is the ONLY way to go, I’ll never do them individually again.

Mods to the pattern:
I chose to knit the sleeves much tighter than the original pattern (Last Minute Knitted Gifts). I think I cast on half as many stitches to start. Because I was knitting the sleeves at the same time, I was able to sort of “wing” the increases, trying the sleeves on as I went. I made sure to increase up to the specified number in the pattern, but I think I would have been better off having a few less stitches at the top as far as fit goes.

I also made changes to the neckline. I think this is by far the most common modified portion of this pattern. Most people aren’t fans of their bra straps hanging out of a boat neck, as trendy as it’s becoming again. Joelene suggested that I knit the back of the neck higher than the front, so I knit 12 rows of the back, back and forth, continuing the raglan decreases. Then I picked up stitches along the back edge (6 each side – this was easy because I slipped the 1st stitch of every row) to join up with the front. After that I worked in the folded hem, sewed it down and was done! Blocking really helped the folded hems lay nice and flat. One thing I’m constantly reminded: Never underestimate the power of blocking.

I think I would definitely make this sweater again. It’s such a classic and the simplicity of the design lends itself to many yarn and embellishment options. And I have to say, it’s SO comfortable. I’m very warm and snugly today!

Things have been really busy/crazy around here. I owe so many emails, it’s not even funny. So, please, if I do owe you an email, don’t take it personally, I’m just behind on everything.

I did manage to capture a few photos of my most recent store models on my phone. I really like them both. A lot. (And hopefully, hopefully, hopefully kits for both of these will be available very soon at tangleonline.com – cross your fingers!)

The softest baby blanket ever
Yarn: GGH Esprit
Size 13 needles

I loved knitting this baby blanket! I wish I would have made one for every baby I know, and now they’re not babies any more! My crappy photo doesn’t do it justice.

Mistake rib scarf
Yarn: SWTC Karaoke 50% soysilk 50% wool
Size 9 needles
Pattern from SWTC

This one was really fun to make too. I loved watching the colors change. I’m fairly certain that this pattern is very similar to the on in Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but the soy silk is SO much softer than Noro.

I’ve got one more thing finished that I’m really excited about, but I’m going to wait until I can get a proper photo to do it justice.

It snowed today. It just goes to show that you never know what you’ll get in Colorado. Poor Joelene is flying her California self over here tomorrow and I think she’s going to be in for a sensory shock!

I’ve finally managed to take a couple photos of some things I finished for the store over the past month.

Cabled Fingerless Mittens out of Misti Alpaca. Oh is this Alpaca wonderful!!

Herringbone scarf out of Cascade Magnum.

And a little ruffled scarf (pdf) out of Misti Alpaca.

There’s lots more knitting going on and but everything is still in progress. More to come!

Well, I finally finished these socks! I’ve got so many things in progress that it’s nice to have finished something.

yarn is Regia, I’m not sure what colorway.
Knit two at a time, top down on a US2 addi turbo 32″

Other things on my plate:
I’m still working on the Hourglass sweater, I ripped out 4 inches of the sleeves last night because I decided that I want them tighter fitting.

I’m also still working on two shawls for the store.

And I’m going to start the Sweater Workshop on Thursday and make a sweater out of some of my stash yarn – Rowan Felted Tweed.

Oh and I’m half way done with the Cable Eight Top, I’m just waiting on a phone call from a friend who has my pattern right now.

Lots to do… always!