WELCOME to Lee's (almost) Finished Projects of 2006...
Sometime in December, 2006
I forgot to post this at the end of the year. Here's Mitch's beautiful cascade
sweater vest. It fits him well. He likes it. Success!
October 8th, 2006
I'm working on a sweater vest for Mitch (shamefully, it's taken
me this long to actually make something for my husband). I'm using the Anne
Budd Handy Book of Patterns to make a simple vest. It's going great, and I know
I'm going to finish it soon. Again, I'm using Cascade 220 and I love it just
as much as I did making Faith's sweater (see March 8th entry below). It's soft,
inexpensive, and knits up quickly.
Kyoto, on the other hand, is the bane of my existence. I'm sick of it. Now I'm finally blocking the pieces. I'm almost certain that the finished garment won't fit me or won't look good on me (no problem, I'll give it to Faith like I always do!), and I don't understand why this pattern was designed this way! Maybe when I'm done with it I will have learned something new. I still need to knit the collar for this sweater, but at least the end is near. It's been over a year with this one.
Making Faith's little purse was inspiring. So I went out to Jo-Ann and bought a bunch of Lion Landscapes yarn (and a ball of Lion Wool) to felt. I quickly found a felted tote pattern on the internet, and although I'm not using exactly the same yarn it called for, and I didn't gauge first...well, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. We'll see! It's pretty yarn though isn't it?!
October 1st, 2006
I finally
finished Faith's felted purse! It's sooo cute! Here are the before and afters...
After a long summer hiatus, I picked
up the needles again and finally finished Klaralund. It's beautiful, for sure,
the pattern is genius. I love Noro's colorways and it knits up quickly. However,
I would suggest using Silk Garden by Noro for other projects, such as purses,
cardigans or coats that are not meant to be worn directly against
skin, because this yarn is just a little bit...itchy.
I've noticed that while sewing pieces together with it, it breaks because of
the friction caused by running it through its own fabric, so beware!
Currently, I've finished the back piece for Ethan's Hero sweater, and have started the front. I've also finished my 2nd sleeve of Kyoto and will do the finishing on that sweater. I'm also hurrying through Faith's felted purse, using the beautiful malabrigo. It's inspiring me to make a tote of my own actually.
Live and learn. Live and learn. Live and learn.
April 12th, 2006
Oh did I not mention that the baby blanket was for Faith's
baby??? Uh huh, so I'm finally done with it, yeah...
Below is the Dale Ara mobius tube scarf (to replace the Lion Brand Landscapes one that I accidentally felted.) I've been lusting after Dale Ara for a long time now and found it for cheapo on Little Knits. I've never knitted with anything like this before! It's bulky in some places, but super thin in others...to make a wonderfully textured and colorful fabric! It took me a day to make this project.
Below is a scarf I made with some leftover suri dream alpaca and dale baby ull. It made a wonderfully warm and soft scarf. So...I think I'm done with scarves...at least for myself.
Now I'm back to the real stuff: Hero sweater, Kyoto sweater, the mini-tote, and...some other stuff!
April 3rd, 2006
In Progress:
Malabrigo mini-tote
Kyoto still working on it...down to the last sleeve.
Hero sweater...all in encore, excellent for washing and as I work with it, I can tell that it's durable too--perfect for little boys. This yarn works better with metal needles rather than bamboo.
Baby Blanket...why did I ever start this thing? I'll be knitting this for the rest of my LIFE!
Arcadia Knitting had a huge sale so I bought some nice Cascade Tweed for Mitch. I feel a sweater vest calling me!
March 8, 2006
The cascade sweater is finally finished! I love it! The knitted fabric is much
softer than the yarn itself, and it wears beautifully. I think this is my fastest
big project to date, and probably my best work so far. I'm thrilled.
My Silk Garden swatch is once again in that "in-between" guage. I think I'll be using #9 needles again. It's supposed to be 4sts/" w/#8s, but of course my guage came out too tight. So I switched to #9s, and now my guage is like, 4.5"sts. Ugh...this always happens to me.
But enough of that. It's time to put my shoulder to the grindstone and finish that blasted baby blanket and my kyoto sweater.
March 2nd, 2006
I love my Noro yarn! This is Silk Garden--so pretty!! So...multicolored! Surprisingly
soft too. I cannot WAIT to start my sweater, but *sigh*...I will wait until
my other projects are done. I must add that I found this at woolneedleworks.com
for $7.80/ball, which is much less than most places. It's part silk, part kid
mohair and part lambswool. Beautiful!
I shouldn't forget this one too...
This is "Elegance, part baby alpaca, part silk, by KnitPicks. I'm going to do a crazy cabled, kimono-styled sweater in this. This yarn is also wonderfully soft and comes in lovely colors too.
Ahh...finally...a finished sweater for Faith. This was made with Knitpicks Suri Dream (mostly suri alpaca, and some other stuff) and it was really a dream to work with...based loosely on the Stitch n' Bitch "To Dye For" pattern. I added some garter stitch for the trim and changed the neckline a bit. I meant for this to be a loose-fitting, carefree, light sweater, to wear over a camisole or something. Thank God Faith approves!
THE DRESS: Looks
good on the hanger, but what about on the girl?
(Thank God...) A friend showed me this pattern from an issue of Knitter's
Magazine (Fall 2005). I used the recommended Mission Falls 100% merino
superwash yarn. I think I started this in October of 2005. Far from perfect,
but I learned so much making this; blocking pieces, seaming (ugh--I had to redo
the sleeve seams at least twice). Lining up stripes and doing "set-in"
sleeves is a TRICKY business! And...I think the front is actually longer than
the back...I might have miscounted a few rows (oops). Oh well. It's still cute,
(a little short)--wow she grew so much in six months! More good news: She doesn't
want to take it off--success!.
Still in progress . . .
This is the sleeve from a new sweater I'm knitting for Faith, a very simple raglan pattern from the Debbie Bliss book for Juniors. I LOVE this yarn (Cascade 220 Quatro). It knits up so well, and feels very soft when made into fabric, and I'm so excited--it's going to be a beautiful sweater. I'm jealous actually! Faith picked out the color. I think I'll finish this one next.
Baby Blanket...I found this wonderful yarn called Fleece (by Knit One Crotchet Too), and it's 100% polyester, and therefore machine washable/dryable...perfect for the harried mom. And it is oh so soft! It's a blanket, so I used no pattern. I'm waiting for my addi turbo needles to come in the mail as this yarn sticks to the bamboo kind too much.
Kyoto Not much to say about this, just still working on it! It's for me so of course it will come last. This is knit on #5 needles so it's taking forever. I still need to knit up the sleeves, but it's coming along slowly.
Thinking Ahead . . .
My next project(s) include: A sweater for Mitch...it
will be a raglan based on a general pattern outlined in Ann Budd's sweater book.
I want to use a chunky yarn, about 3-4 sts/inch. Still deciding on which one,
but it looks like it's going to be either Knitpicks
Sierra or Plymouth
Encore Chunky. A new sweater for Ethan, which will be made
from Plymouth
Encore yarn--cheap and machine washable, based on the "Hero"
pattern by Kim Hargreaves--but with a red star on grey--cool! And for me,
I've bought a yarn that I've been craving for about a year...Noro
Silk Garden yarn--and I'm going to make the Klaralund sweater for myself.
Other project ideas: Lace cap with koigu yarn. I think it's
time that I learn how to knit lace. However--I PROMISED myself that I would
finish all current projects before embarking on these! We shall see how strong
my will is...
