Victory!

November 3, 2008 at 6:12 pm | In Crafts | Leave a Comment
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I have finished the back part of my Gathering of Cypress sweater. I’m super excited about this because I was afraid I would end up being sick of the pattern before I got it done, and it would end up in a paper bag somewhere with a lot of yarn and never ever get finished. But no, I am a knitting machine! The cable pattern is interesting enough that I could probably just crank that out for hours upon hours without complaint. The color in the picture below isn’t quite right. The picture on the project page is a much more accurate shade of green, but this is the only finished picture I have.

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My only frustration with the pattern thus far is that I knit the rows for the shoulder-shaping THREE TIMES before I finally got it right. Somehow, since earlier shaping had had only one set of numbers, I got it into my head that the later shaping’s numbers applied to all sizes as well. Fun fact: They do not! I used the small size the first time, ripped it, re-read the section, reknit, then realized I’d mixed up the small sections numbers, and not actually even used the medium size. Third try I finally got it right only by virtue of sitting there with the book in my lap and staring at it so hard I thought it was going to burst into flames. Arrrrgh.

Either way, I have conquered the back half of the sweater. I feel very accomplished because there’s only the front half (with lots of fiddly stuff—expect swearing) and two small-sized sleeves to do! Woohoo!

A little math—it took three and a half balls for the back half. So seven for the front and back pieces, let’s say two for each sleeve, and another for the collar, i-cord, and finishing. That’s twelve of the fifteen balls I ordered, so I may have to come up with some small stashbusting projects to get rid of that extra or give it to someone who didn’t buy enough.

My goal is to knit my entire stash before I go off to basic in almost exactly four months. Whether or not I can do it is anyone’s guess, but I plan on trying REALLY HARD. Wish me luck!

I <3 the 80s.

October 16, 2008 at 4:01 am | In Crafts | 1 Comment
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Say what you will, the eighties gave us some amazing music.

Folks, I have an announcement! I will be shipping out to basic training on February twenty-fifth! In the meantime, I will be doing my best to exercise as much as possible, knit as much of my stash as I can, and live it up before they send me off.

Right now I’ve got I think four or five projects on my needles. My mom’s Gathering of Cypress sweater (Gathering Intentions, from Inspired Cable Knits [errata]); my own First Sweater (Tubey, from Knitty.com); the Blankie (basic log cabin blanket in eye-searing colors); a pair of socks with an original design I’m trying; and Brian’s hat that I must re-knit so it actually fits him.

Let’s talk about the Gathering of Cypress sweater for a minute. I LOVE this pattern. Love it. The cable pattern is easy to memorize, interesting without being tiresome, and it looks SO GOOD knit up. There’s only one issue I’ve noticed with the way the pattern is written. There are two setup rows you’re supposed to do before starting the cable pattern itself; the instructions for it are included in the section on the back portion of the sweater, but not anywhere else. If you’re not paying attention, your cables might be two rows off between the front and the back.

I first heard about the pattern from the Knit Picks catalogue. That catalogue is probably my favorite thing to receive in the mail besides packages and money. In it, they show Gathering Intentions knit up in Knit Picks Comfy in ivory; it looked gorgeous and I fell in love with it. I knew my mom would love to wear it—she’s big in to the big, cozy sweaters.

Of course, in the course of falling in love with the sweater as it appeared in the magazine, I didn’t bother to read any reviews of the book, check for errata, note the fiber content of the yarn, or do any of the other things people should do before shelling out for a hardcover book and a sweater’s worth of yarn. Oops!

I lucked out though and the book and yarn are both great. I’ll write up a more comprehensive review of it later, but thus far I haven’t found any errors in the patterns I’ve looked at. The yarn turned out to be seventy-five percent Pima cotton, twenty-five percent acrylic, and so soft! It almost feels like it should fall apart in your hands or turn to dust because it’s so smooth and soft. I really do love Knit Picks yarn and I feel a little guilty when I buy it because it’s just so inexpensive! Mmmm.

The color is a pretty dark green that my mom picked out, and I really like it. My only issue with it is that it comes up a dark grey (or lighter grey, depending) in my photos, unless I take the time to take pictures while the sun is out and make sure they come out nice, so really the only issue is that I suck at taking good pictures.

Okay, this has gotten long enough. I’m thrilled with this pattern thus far, and have knit about ten inches of the back panel. More on the book and the other patterns in it later!

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