Stripes?! Hmph

Taking a break from the baby sweater knitting, I cast on for one of the sleeves of the hooded pullover that I got Lang Tosca yarn for at the Webs Tent Sale. I have 20 skeins of this yarn. And look what it does:

Now, I noticed a color change in the swatch I made, but it didn't seem so abrupt. This is definitely a striping yarn. I'm annoyed that there was no indication of this on the packaging. Stripes aren't necessarily a bad thing and I could learn to live with it, but not a sweater with thick stripes on the sleeves and thin stripes on the body and who knows what on the hood.
Now, I do have 20 skeins, which is more than enough for this sweater. Do I make the body and then cut and paste the rest of the yarn to make the sleeves match? Is this a very bad idea or could it actually work? Has anyone done something like this before? Or do you have any suggestions for a pattern that would work with this yarn that isn't a very very long scarf?

Smile for the camera! (aka baby torture)

So Owen woke up and as promised, here he is modeling the sweater.

For the first picture he put up with it.











And now he's starting to get pissed off. Come on, Mom, is like a billion degrees outside and here I am wearing a sweater that isn't even for me!


Anyway, as you can see, it is a bit big on him, which is good since he'll be growing a lot between now and sweater season. The size is supposed to be for 6-12 month olds. To be on the safe side I think I'll add a bit to the length --a half inch or so since I'd like him to be able to wear it all winter long.


Then today I went to Webs with my mom and bought buttons.

Unfortunately, I found out that while Webs does carry Encore in worsted weight, it does not carry it in the bulky. I need more yarn for Owen's sweater since the first took up more than its allotted 1.5 skeins. I hate it when sweaters are greedy like that. I'm thinking of getting a contrast color (red?) since I'm unlikely to find the same dye lot and doing a stripe and edging in the new color.

This calls for some champagne

Oh my goodness! Do you know what today is? It's my blogaversary! One year of blogging. Despite the fact that I wish I blogged more often, knit faster, knit more, and had more interesting things to say, I've actually had lots of fun keeping a knitting blog. I just hope I haven't bored anyone to tears. At least I can make up for it with cute baby pictures, right?

I actually do have a finished project to show off tonight. It's the Knitting for Two baby sweater made with Encore Bulky.

It was a very quick knit. I actually finished the knitting part a few days ago but finally seamed it this evening. All it needs now are a couple of buttons. My parents arrive tomorrow so that of course means mom and I will make a trip to Webs. I'll pick up some buttons there. If you can't tell from the picture, the buttons go at the (baby's) left shoulder so that the neck opens enough to squeeze big baby heads through. Even though the sweater is for another baby (yet to be born) I do want Owen to try it on for sizing as I want to make one for him that will fit him next winter. He's asleep now and you never ever ever wake a sleeping baby, even to try on cute hand knit sweater, so we must all be patient.

I'll just leave you with a gratuitous spinach-eating shot.

June 20

Can you believe it was 3 years ago today that I got married? Time has flown by. It was probably a good thing that I got married before June or Emily otherwise I might have fooled myself into thinking it would be a good idea to knit a lace veil or shawls for the myself and the bridesmaids. Not that it wouldn't have been a wonderful thing to do, but as I remember I was stressed enough and had only been knitting for 7 months when I got married. Who am I kidding? I doubt I could pull something like that off now as it is.

As for what I am capable of knitting, the current project is the baby pullover sweater of the sweater and pants set in Knitting for Two.

I'm using the Plymouth Encore Bulky that I bought last February. It is knitting up nice and quickly. I'm already finished with the front and back and just need to do the arms so I should have another finished project soon. The catch is that I need to knit two. Poor Owen has to wait for his sweater as the first is designated for a friend's baby due to be born in a couple of weeks (she is a non-knitter so I don't think she is aware of my blog). But it's not like Owen would want to wear his sweater now anyway. In fact, he has been in favor of keeping clothes to a minimum lately.

It fits!

Dave arrived home today and was very tired.

But he roused himself up enough to take a couple shots of me modeling the sweater.



In general, I'm happy with how it came out. I'm really glad that I added the waist shaping. In retrospect, I think I could have gone in another inch or so and maybe a size smaller to make it more form fitting. But I think the looser fit works too. I loved knitting the neck line and I'm very pleased with how it looks. It is a high neckline though and I'm wondering how it would work with a deeper V... This was my first pullover (for myself) so I'm really happy that it fits at all.

As for the Saucy Sport yarn, I liked it okay, but not enough that I'd run out and buy more. As it is a cabled cotton, it was a stiffer yarn and sometimes it was hard to maintain a consistent tension. I did find it to be somewhat unforgiving to the lapses in tension, but soaking it and putting it through the spin cycle on my washer sorted most of that out (but it still looks better from further away I think). It also is a heavy yarn, so you'd probably have to make adjustments if you made the sweater with a lighter, drapier yarn.

V is for Victory

over the Lace V-Neck sweater!

And here's a close-up of the V:

Pattern: Open V-Neck Pullover by Reynolds
Yarn: Reynolds Saucy Sport (I actually used the yarn the pattern calls for)
Mods: I added waist shaping and lengthened the sweater about an inch

As for how it looks on me, you'll have to wait. Dave is away (back tomorrow) and Owen, clever as he is, hasn't mastered the camera yet.

Can I just say...

... that the number of knotted breaks that have been turning up in the skeins of Reynolds Saucy Sport are driving me crazy! I've had at least 11 in the 9 skeins I've used up so far. That seems excessive to me.

I might finish the lace v-neck one of these days if I didn't have to keep cutting these little bastards out.

Almost exciting

As soon as I finished the baby wrap sweater, it was time to get going again on the lace v-neck sweater. I'm excited to report that after hours and hours of non-stop stockinette, we are fast approaching the lace v-neck!! I even thoughtfully took careful notes on how to do the waist shaping so I could duplicate it for the front of the sweater.

Stay tuned for more exciting photos in the near future.

I also have been slowly reading through the Yarn Harlot's latest book in order to prolong the enjoyment of it (and the fact that I don't get much reading time these days either). Last night I got to the section on the gauge swatch and was immediately inspired to take a quick break from the sweater and swatch the Encore bulky (baby sweater) and the Lang Tosca (pullover hoodie), which are the next projects to be started. This way once I finish the lace v-neck, I can start in on those projects right away without having to swatch first. The Yarn Harlot's book came in useful again when the Tosca yarn called for size 7 needles in order to get 12 stitches over 4 inches. Impossible! But wait! Turn to page 56 of Knitting Rules and it all becomes clear. It must be European sizing (which makes sense since the yarn is made in Italy for a Swiss company). Heh, and there is no US equivalent to Metric size 7. 10.5 is closest, but size 10 got me the gauge I need.

Well, since there aren't any exciting photos for this blog entry, I'll leave you with some pretty photos of irises I took over Memorial Day Weekend while I was in NJ. These are from the Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Montclair, NJ. We've been going there since I was quite young. There are beds and beds of irises with all sorts of variety and color. Truly spectacular!

It's a wrap!

Today I can finally reveal my secret project! I've been working a present for Little Miss L. Bestitched, who recently joined the Bestitched household. As soon as I saw the Frilled Edge Crossover Jacket from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss, I knew it would be perfect for Ms. Bestitched's little girl. I especially like the frilled collar. It was a well-designed project and I really enjoyed knitting it.


The yarn I used was Tatamy Tweed (a favorite of Ms. Bestitched) in the Loganberry color .
Today we paid a visit to the Bestitched household and met Little Miss L, who fit into the sweater nicely (with some room to grow). And "luckily" it was miserably cold and rainy today so she could actually wear it. What a cutie!