FO: Oceanic Sweater

Tah dah!
So any of you who look at my Ravelry or my Flickr have already seen this finished sweater, but I thought I'd blog about it anyhow.

I am super happy with how this turned out. The original pattern from Madelinetosh is a cardigan called Tea Leaves. Cute enough cardigan, but the fit just wasn't for me.

After browsing through many finished cardigans I came across one finished sweater that was modified into a pullover, and I thought, that's it!
So I went about making my own modifications, which you can find on my project page. There was some frogging, but not too much. I actually has the sleeves already knit up from a sweater I started in October, but didn't really like.
The yarn is Berroco Ultral Alpaca. I am a fan of this yarn for its affordability and all the great colors.
So that is the low down on this new sweater. If you have any questions ask away!

Awards Ceremony

Last night at knit night we had our Ravelympics awards ceremony. Quite a few folks donated prizes for awards, so many in fact that we had extra and did some bonus drawing! (here's a refresher of my project) So here's what I scored...

1. I won our team category of "Best Use of Color" and my prize was this awesome necklaceI'm pretty excited about it cause I think it will be perfect and versatile for work. Even more importantly it was handmade by Kate, who you can find here at kstarr.etsy.com.

2. We also each got a participation prize - yeah, pretty sweet right? I received these two squishy skeins of Telemark 100% Peruvian Wool.With these two skeins I am envisioning some type of color work, cause navy and cream look awesome together - maybe a hat. But there is also the possibility of felting.

3. Lastly, I was SHOCKED to be drawn for one of the four "just cause" extra prizes. If you know me, you know that I NEVER win drawings, period. Let me just say this, I was once in a drawing for sock yarn. There were five other people, there were three prizes, and I did not win. So here was my extra prize of the night, Yarn Pirate Sock yarn.
This was a great prize because I was just saying that I wanted to make my next pair of socks dark blue! How perfect is that?

I am super stoked about all of my prizes, and we had a fun knit night too (of course). Up next, completed sweater awesomeness (I may be in love.).

The Sweater

I have been sucked in by this sweater. Here is a progress photo from Sunday, things have changed since then. There is a chance I'll have it done this evening - I knit the sleeves back in the fall (for a different sweater) but I am going to be able to make them work for this one - yay! No time to type, must knit (well, actually work, but knitting will directly follow).

I have a Potholder

Albeit a very large potholder, a potholder just the same.

I finished the last hexagon attachment on Sunday afternoon. I feel pretty good about my result. It is definitely larger than I anticipated, but not useless. It will be better for setting things on, rather then taking them out of the oven.

I did attempt to do some shrinking which got me down to 11 inches in diameter from 12 inches. Also, the washing revealed virtually every mistake I made, haha.

I have started another one, but this time I'm gonna leave out the third ring of the hexagon and see how much smaller that makes my potholder. I'd also like to try one with DK weight yarn. So the crochet adventures continue, but.....

... I am EXTREMELY excited about this beauty. I'm gonna go check my gauge for Manu, what project is getting you excited these days?