Sweater Progress and a Tribble

Happy Monday to all - I know those two things (happy + Monday) don't often go together, but today is warm and sunny here in the valley and there isn't much work to be done at the office so I am feeling a bit cheery.

I am also cheery because of my Wicked Sweater progress... are you ready for this? I cast on Friday night before going out to dinner and here it is folks - tah dah! Yes, I am so excited about this sweater that I have been knitting nearly non- stop. David was feeling especially goofy so it was difficult to get a photo. The goofiness is mostly because even though the time changed we found ourselves up at midnight last night - ridiculous.

Also I have been teaching my fellow volunteers how to knit - so far they have produced four and a half wash cloths and just cast on a hat and soon a scarf. They are doing really well and I am excited to share my addiction. David says I'm like a virus. Maw-ha-ha-ha. But because of their furious knitting I was able to try out this cool pattern with some scraps. For some reason it is called a Tribble, and I think they are very cute and a fabulous way to use up cotton rag scraps. Yes, I realize you can just make another rag with scraps, but why not have a little something else to wash dishes with.

Things to come this week... photos of my cotton scarf, leg warmer pattern with photos, and my lessons in learning to felt. Hope your Monday is sunny too!

Back at it...

Today I'm jumping back into my second leg wamer. They sorta got put on hold for this house sitting gig. I have been enjoying house sitting, but there are so many chores for the animals and so many of them to play with that I really haven't gotten any knitting done at all. So this morning I spent time surfing Ravelry for some inspiration to finish my second leg warmer. I'm doing pretty well, I'm on row 56 out of 76 - then there will be 2.5 inches of ribbing.

The reason I must be inspired is that I have ordered some beautiful Cascade 220 Heathers in deep red to begin knitting my first "real" sweater. The sweater I'll be knitting is called Wicked and I'm planning to modify it by making it long sleeved and doing the collar ribbing on the bottom as well. I will also make it longer. So that is my upcoming project that means I must complete these leg warmers.

Oh I nearly forgot, I have some serious blocking to do for Christmas and two presents that I totally forgot about... time to go pattern surf.

To Do

My yarn for the Wicked sweater arrived today so I have written up my "to-do" list that must be completed before I am allowed to start knitting....

- knit second half of cotton scarf:
this should move quickly because it is a woven knit, very fast

- complete decreases on black and white hat:
this can only happen after I complete my leg warmers because I need my double point needles

- finish last half inch of leg warmers and bind off:
I just need to DO IT

- spin for and knit the last inch of convertible mittens:
again, this would probably take a total of a half hour

My hope is to complete this list before Saturday so I can begin knitting my sweater - yay! Also, I can then list the cotton scarf, the black and white hat, and the convertible mittens in my Esty shop for November. All very exciting - I'll keep you updated.

My First Winter Sweater - DONE!

Can you believe it? Finally finished! I'm really glad that the generous knitter from New Hampshire sent me 25 yards instead of 20 because I was then able to lengthen both sleeves another inch or so, which I like much better. This picture is a little funny, but I think it nicely shows the fit of the sweater.

For those of you who are just joining me for this sweater journey here are the previous posts about the knitting and planning. And for those of you not on Ravelry, I'll post my knitting notes and modifications to the Wicked pattern at the end of this post.








The picture of all the little strings is all the left over yarn, ha ha.






My Knitting Notes - can also be found on my Project Page

11/3 - I tried it on last night and decided not to do the increases after the waist. I really thought I would, but hopefully it was the right choice - we’ll see.

11/5 - not doing the increasing was the right choice it fits great.
The pattern said to knit till it measured 11 inches, well I didn’t like how short that was so I knit till it measured 13 inches then I added my pocket, and then I knit the same ribbing as the collar for just over two inches and used the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bind off.
Now I’m starting my sleeves - yay! Oh and I did the seaming on my pocket cause I knew otherwise I would dred it when my sleeves were done

11/6 - measuring from the under arm I decrease 1 stitch when it measured 5.5 inches, 7.5 inches, 9.5 inches, 10.5 inches, 12 inches, and one last decrease before beginning the cuff at 16.5 inches - total sleeve decrease 6 stitches… total sleeve length 18 inches (2.5 rounds of 4 round ribbing repeat= 1.5 inches)

11/7 - for some reason my mind tells me that the faster I knit the more likely it is I’ll have enough yarn to finish the sleeve, weird, not true, still weird.

Yup - I have all my ends woven in, the entire sweater looks lovely, but I am out of yarn with 2.5 inches to complete on one sleeve - see bad photo. But a kind soul here on Ravelry, raggedknitter, has a bit extra of this color and is mail it off to me - hooray! I can’t wait!

11/18 finished, finished, finished. I even added length to both sleeves with the extra 25 yards that raggedknitter mailed to me, and I’m glad I did - I’ll have to check, but I believe my sleeves ended up being approx 19.5 inches.