OK, I've been trying to remember what all I've knit since last I blogged. First, I finished my clapotis. Here it is modeled by my lovely, if somewhat disheveled, daughter. Of course it's adult size (for me!) but unfortunately I had no adult volunteers.
And a close up:
I absolutely LOVE this. It's my favorite thing I've ever knit. I made it with classic elite imagine. I bought the yarn for a tank sweater class but ended up really disliking that project. I frogged it and used the yarn for this and am thrilled w/it.
I'm planning to make another one, but I want to try to hold out for the lorna's laces that the pattern calls for. I think it's worthy.
Then I decided I couldn't go any further without actually knitting a sweater. Both my daughters were begging so we flipped a coin for who could go first. Carley won. I had a nice stach of merino wool in her favorite color, so we went through what few patterns I have, and she choose "To Dye For" out of SnB or SnB Nation. SnB I think. I had to shrink the entire pattern down for her, or at least I tried to. I'd heard warnings that the sleeves were a problem for many so I measured carefully and ended up with this:
I wasn't completely unhappy with this, as it was my first attempt. It's a little too big, but that's just because I wanted to leave growing room. (Actually it's because I had trouble shrinking the pattern and substituting a yarn with a different gauge, but shhhhhhhh.)
So then it was time to knit Jorden a sweater. I thought this would be so much better, but I now affectionately refer to this sweater as "the monstrosity." I hated the yarn she choose from the get go, but I figured that I'd like the sweater if I could just imagine it in another color.
But no, it ended up waaaayyyy too big. It's basically hideous, but the poor child thinks it's wonderful. She took it to a sleepover to show off to her friends the other day. I tried so hard to talk her out of it because frankly, I'm embarrassed for the other girls' moms to see it. But none of them knit so they really don't have room to think anything negative anyway. The only upside to the sweater is that I got to do a hood. I like to do something new anytime I can.
I couldn't figure out why both sweaters had such huge shoulders. I told my husband, it doesn't make sense to knit a sweater in a square or basically square. I don't understand. But then yesterday I was reading SnB nation and I discovered that their are three kinds of sleeves (mentioned in that book, anyway) and I was knitting drop sleeves or something. It's the beginner's way but if I ever knit another sweater, it will not be drop sleeved.
When I finished the sweater knitting, I was desperate to move on to something different and NOT stockinette stitch. So, I began knitting a lace scarf. Here's what I've gotten done so far:
I'm not sure I'll actually want to wear this. It may end up being unloaded as a Christmas gift. But I am having so much fun knitting it. I'm knitting it with a yarn from knit-picks, it's a wool/alpaca/silk blend. I wouldn't call it a luxury yarn by any means, but it's nice especially after using the awful blue lion brand homestyle on Jorden's sweater.
I'm sure I've knit other things I can't think of right now. I made some dish cloths but already gave those out as gifts. I knit a deco ribbon purse but still haven't put the liner in it. I don't really know how to do liners.
Thanks Kristin and Gina for the welcome back! My goal is to post a lot more regularly now that school's in. I have a lot of stuff going on in my life to blog about, but I may as well save something for later.
