A Sweater...Finally!

The saga of this sweater began a long, long, long time ago. My first post about the sweater was January 16, 2012! I wrote a number of other posts about it (here, here, here) so I'm not going to rehash all the details here, but it was definitely quite a ride. Looking back at those old posts, I  realized it sat for over a year just waiting for blocking and buttons. That's cray cray! But there were also legitimate setbacks like ripping out the nearly complete body to improve the fit in the waist and hips.

 

But now it's finally finished! And it was even warm enough for me to wear it out running errands the other day. 

 

A few thoughts about it:

1) I love this yarn. It's Rowan Renew (sadly discontinued) and I thought it was going to be scratchy, but it blocked up nicely and is quite soft.

2) I kind of look like an old lady/librarian when I wear it, but I don't care.

3) I added WAY too many buttons. Which is extra worse since I despise buttons in the first place.

4) I don't overall hate these wooden buttons though. Still not a button fan, but these are tolerable.

5) I can't believe I made a freaking sweater!

6) I might add some patch pockets.  Maybe next year...

7) Clearly I am not a model!

More knits

For Hanukkah I gave my Mom and her husband IOUs for one hand knit item each. I must admit, I'm pleasantly surprised I was able to fulfill those so soon after the holiday! I figured the actual items would turn in to their Hanukkah gifts this year. And Mr. T happened to be in Georgia for a conference so he was able to deliver these in person.

For Eddie, I made a scarf using Manos del Uruguay and this pattern. So, the yarn. I LOVE THIS YARN! I picked it up on a whim during my LYS's holiday yarn sale and it is nothing short of glorious. It was amazing to work with; it's ridiculously soft, and the mission of the company is inspiring. I have about half a skein left and I really want to do something special with it.

 

I haven't knitted many man items, so I wasn't sure if Eddie would like this. Plus they live in Georgia so it doesn't get horribly cold and this scarf is pretty warm. Then I received a text from him the other day that said: "I am wearing my wonder scarf today. It's 30 degrees, but I am warm as toast!" So I think he's enjoying it.

Now for Mom. I love my mother dearly, but if every there was a difficult woman to please, it is she. I've been wanting to make her something for a very long time, but every time I float an idea by her she doesn't seem to care for it. Then during her wedding weekend we just happened by (read: I forced the entire family to visit) a yarn shop and found this great skein of locally dyed yarn from The Copper Corgi.  

Mom (aka Goldilocks) gave me clear instructions that she wanted a short cowl - not too loose, but not too tight either. Also not too tall. And I wanted to include some lacework since that is a technique I haven't used much. After countless hours of scouring, I settled on the Tyrian Loop pattern from Knitscene Magazine's Winter 2013 issue. The pattern provides instructions for both a long and short cowl - I made the shorter one but added one repeat.

This cowl definitely challenged me. I had to restart three times because I kept miscounting and am not familiar enough with lace to figure out where I made the mistake. By the end, though, I could read that pattern like the back of my hand and had no problem finding my errors. This was also my first experience with an i-cord cast on and bind off. While tedious, I do like the clean edges they bring to the final product. Mom says she likes it too, but it's always hard to tell with moms...

P.S. Thanks to Julia and Erin for modeling for me!

do. Good Stitches - February and March 2014

Time for a do. Good Stitches update.  I'm late on February and early on March - it all balances out in the end right!  I actually finished both of these during my snow day last Monday, but then I was sick all week so I didn't feel like taking photographs or writing even a brief post.

February
Swirly Dresdens for Barb using this tutorial. The template is for a 10 inch finish Dresden, but Barb asked for a variety of sizes, so I made two 5 inch Dresdens and appliqued them to a 13ish inch background so she'd have plenty of room for trimming when she pieces the top.

March
Deb requested these simple Rugby Stripes blocks based on this tutorial by Teaginny Designs, only resized to be 6.5x12.5 inches unfinished. This is going to be one awesome quilt!

AND for both months I managed to work solely from my scrap bin!