A Sweater for Me

I've been searching for the perfect sweater for me for quite a while and finally found it. I'm making Buttercup.

This sweater has been in the top 10 of my queue for a long time. I've been hesitant to cast on given the bad luck I've had the past 2 years making sweaters for me. They either turned out to be not flattering on me or I outgrew them before I was even close to finishing. I've seen this sweater on many different body types on Ravelry and for the most part it was very flattering.

I've finished with the yoke and most of the body and have started on the sleeves.


The first sleeve is finished except for the fan and feather lace trim. I really love the feel of this sweater and since I've knitted with Hempathy I know it will soften up even more when soaked.

I'm still working on beading projects but not so much lately. I've been spending a lot of my time getting my knitting machines up and running again. To that end I attending a knitting machine seminar in Raleigh, NC this past Friday and Saturday. It was hosted by the Carolinas Machine Knitting Guild and Featured four instructors from the US and Canada. I learned a lot, got some things refreshed and met a lot of new people. I really want to learn to knit circular socks on the knitting machine and I now feel more empowered to give it a try. My stash of coned yarns is as large as the handknitting stash so I really need to get busy and put it to use. I also own four electronic machines and they are being wasted so it's time to get my ducks in a row.

Time is at a premium these days. I'm on the Women's Day choir at church and we meet on Monday and Wednesday, I attend exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and most Saturday's I have something going on. I'm also test knitting another pattern so I've replaced my regular knitting with that. I'm always amazed at how things are so slow and calm during the winter time and as soon as spring arises everything picks back up.

The Happy Dance

I couldn't help but do the happy dance. I am so pleased with this project thus far.


I have until July 15th to have the back and front finished so I'm taking a brief hiatus to knit a pair of socks.

I belong to several kal's but it seems that I have a hard time completing or even starting projects for most of them. These socks are for the Solid Socks KAL on Ravelry. They are the Cubist Socks by Cookie A.


This month the color is orange so I'm using Kona Superwash Merino Fingering dyed cantaloupe from the stash. The color is really loud in person and not the lovely orange you see on the screen. I may overdye it to tone them down a little once they are finished.

It's that time of the year when I debate whether or not I'll enter anything in the fair. I have some projects in mind if I do decide to enter but they'll be stealth knitting this year. There are several baby and toddler projects that I need to make and that will have to figure in my time scheme.

I also need to decide if I'm going to do any major Christmas knitting. I really enjoyed making the fingerless gloves for my mom and in the event that I do decide to make gifts they will be at the top of the list. I plan to do some more handpaint dyeing and would like to dye specifically for these. Another project that I would like to dye for is a sweater. I have to figure out a method for making repeatable colors because this will take a lot more dye than I usually mix. I hope to have some interesting projects to show in the future.

For Madison

Yesterday we went to Aiken for a baby shower for the girlfriend of my oldest nephew. They are having a girl and will name her Madison. I knitted what may well be my favorite baby/child sweater.




Specs:
Pattern: Cardigan with Eyelets and Daisies from Baby Bamboo Knits by Sirdar
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK Sage
Needles: 3 & 6 US addi Turbo
For: Madison, size 6-12 months
Started: May 12, 2010 Finished: May 28, 2010

Modifications: The only change I made was to use iron-on appliques in place of the embroidered daisies. In the future I will change the armhole and sleeve shaping to decrease 3 stitches at the beginning of the armhole on each side and then do 1 decrease at each end of every other row for the next 6 rows. The shaping was really awkward and made the sleeve difficult to set in.