Winter is Finished … in Cardigan Form

Back, oh so long ago…March, i finished the cardigan i have been toting around since the end of the summer from place to place doing knit knit knit knit knit knit.  Yep Just knitting the sleeves in the round somehow took me forever.  But alas i have finally finished the Tea Leaves Cardigan!

Thank you Inder for the FANTABALOUS pictures of my Purple bundle of warmth!

   

Next … onto a re-do of my first sweater.  You remember the one, where i was wider than tall.  Yea, it’s been ripped out and i am nearly 50% done with the body!

Sylvar is DONE!!!

I've finished my latest and definitely greatest sweater.  I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.  I did a lot of shaping to me work on the front and back panels and it fits of so fantastically!  I can't wait to start the next major project ... the Turtle Skirt ... in between my crocheting of wash washers mania.

So far the sweater has been worn twice to work and i truly would be wearing it more if the weather didn't turn to sunny and 70's the minute i finished it.  Sylvar is a perfect Berkeley sweater.  It has a tons of breathe-ability with the open knit leafy design on the body and sleeves letting me get the perfect amount of air while out riding my bike around town and along the bay.  The bands at the bottom and sleeve openings are just knit and purl opposite rows so it went super fast and they stay where they're put.  So no soaked sleeves while washing the dishes!

Lastly it is a tank top sweater, meaning that it needs one of my 500 different tank tops to be worn under it thus giving me an excuse to put on a tank top in the middle of January or any time it's raining without feeling like a So Cal freak!  I love my tank tops and can't wait to be able to cycle through them all year with the help of my new sweater.

Progress continues on Sylvar

Progress continues on the new sweater Sylvar and in less than a week I am around 45% done! It's knitting up super fast as it's mostly basic knit an purl stitches. I only have a few more rows on the body before I get to the garter stitch band at the bottom. The band is suppose to be 6" tall, but I'm thinking I may knit more body before starting the band to add some waist definition to the sweater. Then it's onto the sleeves and my arch enemy ... double pointed needles. I may do these magic loop style on a singular circular needle. Actually that's a great idea! I'll do both at the same time on a circular needle to avoid "second sleeve syndrome" where you put off finishing a sweater because all you have left is the same damn sleeve as the one you just finished (barley escaping with your life). Oooooo! Now I'm excited and can't wait for the sleeves! With any luck the sleeves will be started this weekend and the entire sweater ready for it's debut in 2 weeks!

New Year, meet new Sweater - Sylvar

The first project of the new year is something i've been eyeing for nearly a year...sweater #2.  I've no made one sweater and one cardigan and am ready for the next challenge.  I found this fantastic pattern at Stitches West 2009 while helping Tactile in the booth and being a good yarn whore.  I bought the pattern as a top down all knit together sweater is a beautiful thing.  You can try it on while you go and make adjustments as necessary.  THIs is super critical for me with having no back and a fair amount of front to account for in the sweater shaping.  I also really liked the yarn over eyelet's that ran up the body of the sweater in a leaf like pattern.  Lastly it looked easy!

While digging around in the back room clearance section of Article Pract i managed to find 1100 yards of a black Cotton/Linnen in a medium weight that screamed sweater at me.  Partly it screamed as the price for all of this lovelyness was only $67.  Damn cheap for an entire sweaters worn of yarn.  So purchased and brought home without a particular project it was, and happily.  I leafed through some things and came across Sylvan and decided to give it a go.  So far so happy!  It's super cute and i can't wait to finish it.  It is flying off the needles as i cast on New Years Day and have already finished over 25%.  I think this one is a keeper ; )

Completed Sweater!!!

Completed Sweater!!!
Originally uploaded by dre_ah

It's finished! My VERY FIRST SWEATER!!! I'd super excited. I still could block it to help give it a more slender shape to reduce some of the boxiness. I'm wearing it right now..and it's only a tid bit itchy. Nothing i can't handle for my first beautiful sweater. YEA!!!

One down, one more to go!

I finished the first sleeve for the sweater. It's amazing how much i draw on my pattern making skills when thinking about knitting. It's more amazing that i'm just starting to put together that sewing and knitting are the same ends to a means. Oh well, i get slack since i'm still recovering from the crazy moth spraying/allergy attack.

No! I don't want to get out of bed!

Stupid allergies from hell! Today was not a day for "time to get up" to encourage me to do anything but fall back asleep...multiple times. I'm going through allergy painfulness and am super glad that i have my cute blue scarf and matching headband to save the day and keep me cozy while i sit at work for th next few hours trying disparately to escape.

Florian Sweater:
Well i'm back onto the sweater after MUCH too long of a break if i'm going to meet my "finished in April" time line. I've got the front and back done, and started the first sleeve last night. I'd forgotten how much i LOVED this yarn. I never would have thought i'd like ribbon yarn so much. Well it's a small pain to knot with, but it makes up for it in style ; )

The BROWN scarf:
Almost done with Jason's matching scarf. Too bad i didn't start it like 3 months ago when he could have used it, but oh well! It's almost done and will wait for him until it gets cold again. I'm going to try and "soften" the scarf and hat. This will be a first and an experiment. Wish me luck!

Socks anyone???:
Well i ordered a book, needles, and some yarn for a sock pattern i fell in love with. This will be the first pair of socks and i'm SUPER excited!!! The goal is to start making socks as fast as i was turning out hats for everyone a few years ago so i've got GREAT hand knit christmas presents for all. Wish me LOTS of luck ; )

Doom!

Sorry for all the posts, trying to catch up from the crazy busy week, which included a ready to be forgotten horrible High School reunion...but back to fun and pretty things - SWEATER~NESS. Progress is still being made, damn do sweaters take a long time to complete and they are totally not BART friendly. Luckily I've had plenty of tv episodes to watch sitting in front of my computer (Breaking Bad and Sarah Conner Chronicles are the enablers) while i knit my sweater up.

I've hit a road block. I need more stitch holders to keep the top of the sweater front together while i work on the sleeves. The dilemma isn't getting more, it's how. I was all set to go out and purchase some, until i came across this post about how to make them. Of course i read this 2 days after i went on a outing to the Daiso in Union City. I show take it as a sign that i need to go back and enjoy the land of plastic boxes once again, this time walking out with some wire for stitch holders ; )

Back is Done ;p

So here it is. I finished the back panel last night. I was totally confused at first on how they were asking me to shape the neck, thought the armhole was going to come out too small...but it all worked out!

... progress realised!!!

Here are pic's of the current sweater progress. For the very first sweater i've EVAR made...i'm pretty stoked ; )

My sweaters FIRST closeup!



The progress i've made so far over the beautiful quilt my grandma made me for me 16th b-day.

I think i'm about 10% done, so far so good! This is totally awesome and inspiring of hope that i could make other pretty thing in the future.

Progress!

Making progress on the sweater, pictures to follow. So far so kay. My tension is a little un-even, but nothing that will kill me. It's a super pretty color of green. Also found out that I was supposedly to change back to smaller needles after a few rows...and haven't. Oh well! The sweater will be a tiny bit larger on me.

Sweater Woes

This will be the first attempt at a sweater ... patience young padawon learner.

I started with the right size...all ripped out. This pattern is about 1-1/2 sizes big. So down i've gone down and am recasting on using the smallest size. This should be interesting as i'm definitely not that size, but from the gauge test i'm on and i did the match against it = Smallest size.

What to do with the extra yarn...

Adorable Headbandedness

Here is me modeling the wonderful~ness that is my first knitted headband. I've had this yarn for over 2 years, have knit countless things with it...and just never had enought yarn to finish a whole project. It was seriously getting considered for Goodwill or the trash. But poof! Headbands! I'd have never guessed it. Well i love it and have already worn it to work. It's SOOO cute.

It was totally a light over the weekend here and there knitting project. This went super fast. Nice change before i get into ... da da da daaaaaaaaaa ... the sweater of doom!

Arrived!

The yarn to start my sweater has arrived!!! This is super exiting! I'm going to make this damn thing if it kills me. So be forewarned all you knitters i know out there ... i'll probably have called all of you multiple time by the end of next week because i'll be so confused. Positive thoughts! It will be beautiful, well at least the yarn is. This is the first time i've worked with something more ribbon like and less spun strands. I hope i can keep it on the needles as easily.

The present to me of interchangeable knitting needles should arrive next week. I'm thinking they will make things a lot better, and less dis-organized.

Ravelry | Konichiwa!!!

Got my Ravelry invite this morning and couldn't wait to get home and start checking everything out. AWESOME!!! I've been camped out in front of my computer for over an hour now just browsing patterns, people, and signing up with groups.

Finally found the "right" (meaning cute) sweater book to get me to actually sit down and start a big project Louisa Harding ~ Venezia: Felice Mai Dopo. I'm going to start with "Florian", which is a beautiful plain pull over sweater with a lacy pattern along the sweep and sleeve openings. It's shown in the book in green and i love the color, so after a few hours of searching on the internet i finally found the one person left on this planet that had the color and enough skeins to let me keep the dream alive ; ) All should be arriving from the UK by end of next week. It's so exciting!!!

Also decided i deserved some nice inter-changeable circular needles. Ordered these from Knitpicks.com ... another item to soon arrive in the mail. I love presents. Back to the search for the right pattern for the scarf - Ravelry is addictive.