Saturday, October 31, 2009

sweater week madness

Chris is leaving for two weeks..I am going to knit like mad and finish his sweater!! wHOO..so excited!
Anyone want to kal with me and see how far we can go in two weeks?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I FINISHED THE SLEEVES!!!

I finished my CPH Sleeves while at Rhinebeck this weekend.
Pictures after I block the sleeves and body and seam them all together.
:)

Monday, October 19, 2009

Speaking of March

I have been looking at this sweater



which has been obviously stolen from Drops on this page.

It has a nice gauge (worsted weight yarn) with enough detail to keep a knitter entertained but should not take forever.

It might just be my March Sweater since it looks like something that could even be finished (and is not knit on size 3.00 mm needles

Friday, October 16, 2009

not done either...

but I will have a bunch of time to work on the sweater this weekend so I will be back with progress shots early this week.

Thank you all so much for participating...I am looking forward to march!

Not Done..

Congrats to all of you who have finished on time!

I finished my Faery Ring, but that was already in progress. (enough stitches left for two socks)
I finished my Pagode, but that was already in progress. (enough stitches left for six socks)
Fafner went hiding for two weeks in the middle and then I decided I really didn't like the way it looked so it is destined for the frog pond.

The best I can offer is Drops 108-1 (Fabel on 3.00 m needles. takes a while) and it currently looks rather strange...



ah well. It is mindless...

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Done!

I have some really poor pictures of the cabled duffle coat which is done but still not blocked. I decided to pass on the hood for the time being because the coat is so heavy. Definitely cuddly and warm, though.
Pandora testing the buttons to make sure I sewed them on well.

OK, don't laugh....

I made my sleeves too long. WAAAAAY TOOOO LONG! Waaaaaah! I don't want to rip - I'm off to the bathroom mirror to see just how bad the mistake is...
Ha hah aaaa CRap. They're too long. sigh. Well, I'll just roll up the cuff. There's no way in hell I'm ripping back. I can live with the mistake.

I'm onto the hood. How is everyone else doing? I see more CPHoodies! WHOOHOOOO!

Almost There

Today being the last day of the KAL, I am making that final push to get my duffle coat finished. The neck is done, the back hem is done, the cables are fixed on both sleeves. The front hems remain to be sewn up, the sleeves set in and sides seamed, plus the buttons attached. I hope to have all that done before the night is finished, at which point I'll post pictures.

Remember me?

Hi there! Remember me? I was all fired up to join this KAL and then didn't post on the blog for the entire month? Remember? Well I'm back! And posting once again, as today marks the official end of the KAL, right?

Honestly, I don't know why I join these things, I never participate as I should. But in my defense, there has been a LOT going on chez DearKnits over the past month. For instance, the only reason I have time to post this morning is because I'm home from work, waiting to accompany my husband to the hospital where he'll be having plastic surgery on his hand for the second time in 3 weeks. Fun!

Be that as it may, I have been participating in spirit, and I have a finished object to share!

Yup, I went with the Garter Yoke Cardigan after all, knit with Shelridge Farm Soft Touch W4 in the Cranberry colourway. I bought this yarn at Rhinebeck last year, and I figured it'd be a good idea to use it before buying more this year. Sadly, I won't be going after all (see above mention of husband's surgery - *sigh*), but I'll still have a lovely cardigan! (you know, once it's done blocking and I sew on the buttons).

I think I might be addicted to this knitting cardigans thing. I've already got the yarn and pattern lined up for the next one: it'll be the Honeybee Cardigan using Malabrigo Sock. Yum! But before I can get to that, there's the impendingness of Christmas to deal with...

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Rrrrrip!

It didn't take long to get to the bottom. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Throwing Caution to the Wind

I finished knitting both fronts of my sweater and it's been languishing around while I debated the pros and cons of not blocking before assembly. I know there is a possibility that this won't end well, but I plan to sew it all up without blocking, that is, after I tackle the sleeve cables. I just want to get it done. I realize that knitting a big sweater doesn't exactly fall under the instant gratification label, but I really can't visualize myself waiting for the pieces to dry on the blocking boards. After the seaming, I'll tackle the neck band and hood (possibly removable).

To see what else I've been knitting skip over to my blog.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Impressive!

I am so impressed by your progress Sarah, Holly and Barb! I am working on the front...about 3 inches in...looks EXACTLY like the back did at the beginning...no idea why this sweater is moving at a snails pace, but I am plugging away.

Real Progress!


I finished the body of my CPH, and I'm on to the sleeves.
I am still hoping to finish all the main pieces before Rhinebeck...
Then I can just do the hood and button bands after.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Thanks Michelle and Holly

You two hit the nail on the head. I suspect that the sleeves as they are now would bother me to no end, but not until the whole thing was sewn up. And yes, I would grumble and carry on endlessly.

It just occurred to me, however, that I don't have to rip the whole sleeves. That is the path to madness. I have the skill to fix this problem in a rather simple and much faster way. Duh! I had one of those 'slap my forehead' moments as I read your comments. Fix it, you said. Easy! Since there is only one cable per sleeve, I plan on tinking the bind off edge and dropping the cable stitches and simply re-knitting those! Why didn't I think of this before?!?

Thanks Michelle for providing this forum for airing out knitting issues. You have saved me going down the path to madness. Seriously!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Not the KAL but

my Faery Ring is done (well ok, I will block it this weekend. Once I take it off).



one more thing off the needles -

which reminds me, I know what I want to knit next march. Look at the new Drops catalog. There is a fabulous cardigan with just the right amount of cabling....

Cabled Duffle Coat Update

Back. Left front almost to armpit decreases.Two sleeves. Can you figure out my oops? Since I knit the sleeves first, I didn't realized that I made a mistake until I was knitting the back, at which point I chose to ignore my screw up. But now that the coat is getting rather close to finishing, I am starting to wonder if there will be more ripping in my future. The problem is that I crossed the cables every 8th row on the sleeves instead of every 6th. Now it's starting to bother me. Maybe that's what has been causing my right eye to twitch in that most annoying way. Grrrrr.
What would you guys do if this was yours to deal with??

One Front Done!


I finished the left front of my CPH! I'm hoping to finish at least one more piece of it tonight, because I'm hoping to block the body before the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fafner Update

and a few other things while I am at it.

Returned from a conference in Munich last Sat so late that it was Sunday before I arrived home. Or maybe it wasn't, but I was too tired to know the difference.

I did make some progress on Fafner while I was gone - this is the back because the front on the right looks the same and the left is plain for adding the dragon.



Then there are another couple projects that have just been hanging on forever. Wed night I managed to finally finish up Pagode. It is a Hanne Falkenberg pattern. So think 3.00 mm needles and endless garter stitch. Since I did not want to knit it in 3 pieces, but instead essentially turned it into EZ like origami - that first row was almost 1000 stitches long.




and this is where I am on Faery Ring - no so far, but have made more progress from here and have only 16 rows to go on the second sleeve... After that - it will only be the hood to go. Argh!

CPH III Update


Knitting continues, somewhat slowly on my Central Park Hoodie. I had the chance to work on it first at knit night, then at a blues concert last evening. I don't think the glass of wine I had while I was knitting even caused me to mess anything up!

I love the way this yarn is knitting into a really soft heather-y fabric, and think my sister is really going to enjoy getting it as a christmas gift.

So far, I have knit the first 12 inches of the body. Thats only 2.5 inches to go before I split to knit the fronts and back separately. I cant wait, cause I am sure progress will seem much quicker then.