FO: Aidez of Uncertainty

For me, gauge is not a science. I'm apt to knit a swatch and call it "close enough." So when I decided to knit Aidez, I wasn't sure I had enough yarn. I had seven hanks of Wool of the Andes Bulky, and I just wasn't sure. But I went for it.

And it worked.


For a bulky weight sweater, this design has a lightness and an ease. Which is probably why it has 2500+ projects on Ravelry.


The cables are great. I went with a popular modification to the lattice cables, so it was a true lattice.


I knit the sleeves two at a time, but without a stitch marker, so I ended up knitting one sleeve more than another. At one point, I discovered that I had crossed the cable to early, so a repeat was short about 5 inches back. I fudged it. So one arm has a short repeat and a long repeat, while the other stayed nice and even.


The only thing I'm not really happy with is my seaming. I tend to tug on the fronts and it exposes gaps in the side seaming. It doesn't drive me crazy, but I'll be a bit more careful with seamed projects in the future.

This sweater will get a lot of wear. I've worn it twice already and it's only been finished for about a week and a half.  Hooray for successful projects!

Button troubles

Buttons are hard. I have trouble picking out buttons and it takes me forever to get around to sewing them on. Like for this vest:


I finished knitting the vest in, like, February, and didn't put buttons on it until June. And didn't do photos until today. This is the Grandfather Vest by Veronik Avery. I knit it from cashmere. Because I could. It's so soft.



The buttons are from my horde of vintage buttons. I love vintage buttons. I think they go together quite nicely and I think I'll get a lot of wear from this vest.

The other buttons which gave me a little headache are these:



Bright yellow little things. Don't let the photo color deceive you, that green is a green apple green. Bright! and Green! and Bright! So there's some contrast there.

Those buttons found their home, just today, on my Safire cardigan. The Safire cardigan is a cropped cardigan which is not entirely my style, but will be okay for certain occasions nonetheless. It's knit from Cascade 220 superwash. I was worried about running out of green, so I used the brown to ease my mind about yardage.



So, that's the recent button troubles. Not troubles really, so much as avoidance of sewing them on. Funny how the odds and ends of finishing can take so much more mental effort than the knitting.

FO: Liesl Cardigan

Vital Stats
Pattern: Liesl Cardigan
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Tape, just under 9 balls or just over 600 yards
Needles: US 11
Size knit: 46", but I went up a size because my gauge was tight
Time to Completion: A month or so.

I finished up my Liesl cardigan more than a week ago, but hadn't gotten around to asking Mr. Husband to take some photos of me. In a fit of productivity this morning I went out on the porch and took some photos in the full length mirror there. Yes. We have a mirror on the porch.

This is not a mirror shot - this is a kitchen table shot.


I received this yarn in a secret pal swap. It's lovely yarn, but cotton is not usually my thing. So it hung around for a little while before I decided to put it to use in the Liesl cardigan.



I was pretty skeptical about this pattern. I know it's wildly popular and all, but to me it looked a little bit, well, like a baby cardigan. Plus it does that 3 button thing at the top that I'm not a fan of. Why am I not a fan? Because if you've got a belly, I feel it can look a bit maternity.


But it turns out that I quite like this sweater. I found the yarn a little tricky to use - it has a tendency to catch on things, and it's difficult to effectively weave in ends. But the pattern is lovely. My only confusion came from trying to understand the buttonhole instructions, which I couldn't seem to grasp. I did something and ended up with three button holes, though.


The buttons I choose are really too heavy for this sweater. I should probably buy some cheap plastic ones to replace these. But I did happen to have thread that matches the yarn nearly exactly!

And there it is! It must be a summer of cardigans. I'm not sure what I'll cast on next. I will keep you appraised of the situation.

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Running is going smoothly. I attacked the only hill in town on Thursday. Twice. Hills are hard. What possessed me to sign up for a hilly first half marathon? Lack of reason, I guess.

My long run for Saturday is scheduled to be 6 miles. I'm planning on hitting 6.2 for a nice even 10K. Last Saturday I carried a water bottle for the first time. It was the 20 oz bottle that came free with my cheap-o bike (which has had a flat read tire for over a year. Anyone wanna fix that for me?). I chose it because I wouldn't be sad to abandon it. I didn't, but it was annoying to carry, and heavy too. Also my hand got wet and gross from leakage. So I was on the lookout for an alternative.



There she is. The FuelBelt Sprint Palm Holder 10z. I got it from the place I linked. I like them because of the free two day shipping, even on little things. Also, the price is good. I think it'll be a good solution. Pretty light, and the doohickey keeps it stuck to my hand.


I bought some powerade to stick in it. POWER! I'll let you know how it goes.

FO: Featherweight Cardigan

Oh, my Featherweight cardigan. I love it. I love it like I've never knit any sweater I've knit. It's light, it's breezy, it's easy to wear.

Vital Stats
Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan
Yarn: Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk, a little more than half a cone, maybe?
Needles: 6? Whatever the pattern asked for.
Size knit: 42", I think
Time to Completion: 3 or 4 months



Did I mention that I love this cardigan? I do.



The arm holes are actually enormous. That would bother me on some sweaters, but it's perfect for this one. Knit in an 80% alpaca yarn, I wouldn't want the arm holes too tight in summer. It weighs practically nothing.



After knitting the sleeves, I noticed that one was about a half inch longer than the other. I didn't fix it. I tried to make them the same during blocking. I think it was successful, although it's hard to tell due to the loose way this cardigan sits on the body.



Picking up stitches for the band was the hardest part. The pattern is a ton of stockinette, so that actually slowed me up some. I didn't have the inertia to finish for the longest time. But I'm glad I finally did!


See that shoe box on the floor? Those are my new running shoes. I'm training for a half marathon in October. I'm thinking about blogging my training here. Any strong feelings about that?

FO: Acer Cardigan

What? I didn't blog my completed Acer Cardigan? Well! I'll have to remedy that.

Vital stats:
Pattern: Acer Cardigan
Yarn: Cascade Lana D'Oro, color 1052. About 6 skeins. Maybe 5.
Needles: Size 6
Time to completion: About 5 months.



I finished this cardigan at the beginning of May. Just in time for warm weather! Nothing like a wool/alpaca blend to welcome the sun. I was mostly just glad to finish this cardigan. It was a long knit. It wouldn't have even taken that long if I'd been committed to it, but I wasn't.



I do really like this sweater. I hope it gets a lot of wear next season. The pattern is really a very flattering style. As I knit it, the arms are a bit tight, which seems to be a pattern with me. I've historically had very large upper arms.



The buttons are some inexpensive plastic ones from the tiny sewing shop in town. I like the sort of retro look they have.


And that's that cardigan. I think I'll queue up a post about my exciting new Featherweight cardigan.

Weekending!

It's after 5pm on Friday, so that means it's the weekend. Yahoo!

Yesterday, after work, I ran down to the Dancing Ewe, because they're having a sale! 25% off everything. And there's this vest that I want to knit. And I didn't have yarn for it. But I do now. 6 hanks of Cascade 220 in Forest Green.


The vest, though, is a couple projects down the line. At the moment, I'm working on my alpaca pullover and my Laminaria shawl. I finished the body of the alpaca pullover last week.


Brown on beige. Very dull photo. But the yarn is Oh. So. Soft. I'm taking a little break from it for now. I'll start the sleeves... later. At the moment, I've picked up some steam on Laminaria. I'm halfway through the first edging chart, and thrilled that I'm done with all the 3-into-9 increases! I'm hoping to finish Laminaria before next Friday. I think I should be able to accomplish that.

On Monday, the cable company is coming by, and we're getting TV. We haven't had tv since we moved at the end of October. I don't mind not having it, but I really wanted to watch the Olypmpics. So we're getting it. And I've decided to play the Knitting Olympics. I'm not really a team player, so it's just a private challenge. My goal?
Knit the Rose of England design from the Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. I'm thinking size 5 needles and see how far I get until I run out of yarn. That's the plan, anyway. Quite an undertaking for two weeks. Eeee!

FO: Cat sweater

Yes. I knit a sweater for my cat. Why? I don't know. Because I think it's funny.

Anyway, a couple of months ago I got the idea into my head that a cat sweater was a must. And I searched Ravelry for a pattern. Turns out, there's more than one. I picked the Cats Love Sweaters recipe mostly, I think, because of the cat in the pink sweater, which looks quite dashing and happy for a cat in a sweater.

I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about the sweater. Eventually, I chose an oddball of Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton in a gorgeous pearly grey, on the idea that the cat wouldn't try to destroy a plant fiber. Not as much anyway. I knit it hastily, wrangled the cat in it, and snapped some photos.









The cat didn't try to get the sweater off, but she did sort of scoot around like she was walking under something the whole time it was on her. I don't think she took to it.

... at least it's out of my system now.