knitting news

Well, lots of knitting has been underway. I'm to the point where I seperate the sleeves from the body on my moms v-neck sweater. I am excited to finish this! It will be my first adult sweater! No seams, just straight knitting. The wool looks so lovely too. I just love how good wool looks knitted up. So many times I am amazed at how much I enjoy knitting!
Yesterday, as I was cleaning up our bedroom, I stumbled across the Vogue knitting magazine (fall 04) that I bought while we were in Georgia. I think I only looked through it once when I first bought it. Anyway, as I was looking at the patterns I saw this.


 



I LOVE this and want so badly to make it my next project. Here's the bad news: the yarn is cashmere and runs $45.00 a skein. You need to hold three strands of yarn together throughout the coat which amounts to 23 skeins needed. Way too out of my price range. I spent most of my internet time yesterday devoted to looking for appropriate substitute yarns with only one or two possibilities at the end. Both are wool/acrylic blends. I don't know. I have so many projects already (five unfinished, three of those not even started) going that I feel bad trying to start another. Besides Christmas is coming and I need to save our pennies for that. Sigh. Maybe in another five or six months I can start on it for next winter.
Besides that, I've also decided that I want to knit sweaters for my two kids. Brave, yes. For us, its like the curse of the love/boyfriend sweater. This undertaking will take lots of planning and good yarn. My boy does not like wool (I'm hoping he'll grow out of that) and my daughter is so rough on her clothes. So I need something durable and machine washable (please let me not resort to synthetics!). I also have a design, the problem is; its in my head! I really have no experience writing my own patterns except for one easter vest that came out a little too tight on Aaron (my son). Shaping and sizing intimidate me and I am SO bad at math. So, I am venturing out to the library to look through some knitting pattern books there to see if I can find something that will make me happy. If not, then I may have to consider giving designing another go. Even though I'm thinking my idea is brilliant, and I'm sure I'm gonna come across it or something even better somewhere in a book or mag, it has happened before!

Halloween Yarn

Well, I had to take a picture of this lovely handdyed orange wool yarn I bought at The Queen Of Hearts in Alpharetta, GA. It had a cute little tag on it but I've long since lost it. Oh well. I thought I could knit up a few festive pumpkins or something? The cone is brown boucle wool that a girlfriend gave me. She had taken a weaving class in college and this was leftover from an afghan she made as a class project.


some yarn 

I cast on my moms tweed V-neck sweater today. I got a little confused at first with the instructions, but I caught on and only frogged once. This will be my first adult sized cardigan AND it is knit in one piece from the neck down so that will be a learning experience all in itself. Well, at least no blocking or seaming! I had to finish the front left piece of the Kyoto sweater to get my 24" size 8 needle for the sweater. The pattern calls for size 7 needles, the yarn for size 6. I'm beginning to question my color combo for the Kyoto. Salmon pink and black? Hmmmm. I'll have to post some pictures of that and maybe get some comments.


mom's v neck  

My Harlot Poncho

Well, here it is: my version of the Yarn Harlot's Poncho. It is lovely and the yarn is so soft! This is the resident princess modeling it for me!



Maya modeling the yarn harlot poncho 

My cheap Harlot

So I've been working a lot on a NEW poncho. Yep thats right ANOTHER ONE. After it took me several months to finish the Cape Mod I plunge right into another one. Its not my fault though, really! You see, my mom took a trip and bought me some more yarn for my birthday. Shopping at Hobby Lobby, she purchased seven skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in a brown, yellow, blue colorway. I know what you might be thinking: "ewwwww, acrylic yarn!?" I cannot deny that that was one of my first reactions too. But I also thought it was pretty and very soft compared to the bright rough acrylic of my childhood. (BTW its and acrylic/polyester blend!) So I took it home and immediately embarked on a swatch to calculate a Yarn Harlot poncho. Everyones doin' it. I wanted one too! So I cast on and decided to change it up a little. I worked seed st in the first three rows and then working a yo, k1, move marker, k1 then yo again to form my increase rows (this is more me not reading the pattern carefully). It created a pretty ridge that sorta matches my seed st rows (the yarn is sorta boucle and is bumpy so st definition isn't very clear) and looks halfway decent! So I'm like two-thirds the way done with that. I also got a chance to take a look at my Kyoto. I frogged the piece that was wrong and rewound my balls, then started on my front right piece. I only got fourteen rows into it before I put it down and picked up the homespun poncho again. I even had to go to the lys and buy a 36" 10.5 needle to continue on the poncho. Now my knitting is being held hostage by my obsession with this poncho. I'm thinking it looks so lovely and it is going to look so cool on, then I start to wonder if it will retain its appeal once its off the needles.
There are many pictures to be taken and posted but postponing that is motivating me to finish my stuff so it will look good. So hopefully, I will be able to show off some more of my work soon!

Finished Projects!!!!!

Yeah!!! I finished two projects finally! I put the final touches on the bombshell halter and finished the fifth washcloth for sil Manon. I decided to stop with five cuz, well, I was beginning to see blue euroflax on needles whenever I closed my eyes. so these are the last three. Phew! Now I can start on my granny square shawl. Or my Kyoto sweater. Or......



linen washcloths 

Once I saw this pattern on the mlminspirations website I knew I had to make it for my best gal pal Val. She's a beach girl and loves these bikini top thingies. I hope she likes it and I hope it fits her well. I tried it on, but I don't fill it out as well as she will! ;)!


Bombshell Halter