September 27, 2007
Ketchup?
I realized that I hadn't posted the pictures of a couple of projects that were finished during my extended break from blogging, so I thought I'd go ahead and prewrite a post to share them while I'm out of town on my honeymoon. Dual purpose, you know - show the projects off, and try to keep on my roll of actually posting again!
Raspberry Mocha Swirl socks:
Made with Socks that Rock lightweight, in the Rare Gems colorway (where they take the skeins that didn't work out right the first time, overdye them, and turn them in to beautiful one-of-a-kinds).
It was fun seeing how similarly the spiral striping worked out on the two socks... finished these back in May or thereabouts.
BlueCedar Socks:
Made to replace the Thuja socks I made for Sean last fall, which ended up with holes in the bottom by this spring. I used Debblie Bliss Rialto, and the Thuja pattern from knitty again, and added reinforcing thread to the heels, toes, and soles. Hopefully these will last a bit longer.
Calypso Clapotis:
Not exactly a Finished Object, but a Finished As It's Gonna Get Object (FAIGGO?) - I didn't like how the finished fabric felt, and the drab mustardy/greeny color ended up taking a far more prominent role than I had expected, so it got this far:
And then decided to let it sit in stash until I'm ready to frog it or something...
Anyway, now you're pretty well caught up. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week - myself included!
Posted by Shannon at 03:56 PM | Comments (1)
September 21, 2007
What I'm doing today
These are the fronts of our reception invitations, which I designed myself... today is the big legal day (not only tying the knot, but also signing closing papers for our new home). Tomorrow, we party - in a low key way. Then, it's off to the San Juan Islands, and home to move!
(This post was written ahead of time... you think I'm taking time today amongst everything else to blog?!)
Posted by Shannon at 08:49 AM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2007
The end of the charade (for now)
Life is funny.
I haven't knit anything quickly in a long long time... then Charade came along. I was inspired, I had an event deadline, and I busted my ass (doing almost no reading, gaming, etc for the last few weeks) to get it done by this week. This weekend, I got the fronts finished and the shoulders seamed, leaving only the 7 inches or so of front edging to continue around the back of the sweater, seaming the bottoms of the sleeves, and weaving in all of the yarn ends to be completely done. I ended up breaking into 14 balls of yarn, when the pattern called for less than 9 balls worth of yardage, and that's with dropping about 5 inches of length. But, it was almost done, and it looked good!
Then I tried it on. And discovered that I needed to make other plans for my wedding/reception outfit.
I love the drape of the yarn I picked, but apparently it isn't a good match for the pattern as written, at least on my body. When I wrap it, one side has the wrap on top (of course), and that side shows my waist. The other side, however, is pulled straight down from my bust - no waist at all. It makes me look lopsided, and I think it makes me look heavier than I am. *sigh*
So, it's getting set aside until after we move. At that point, I'm going to rip it out and do it over with the fronts going only to the 'side seam' and sew ribbon on to wrap all the way around and tie, giving me a waistline on both sides. Something constructed more like this:
Since I still love the color, drape, and sheen of the yarn, and the stitch pattern and basic idea of the sweater, hopefully this will meld them in a way that works when I put it on. And, given how much less yarn it will use to only go to the side seam, I may decide to put longer sleeves on so that I can wear it this fall/winter. We shall see.
Posted by Shannon at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2007
Playing Charades
I'm working on my first real impulse knitting in quite some time... A few weeks ago Crazy Aunt Purl posted a review of Annie Modesitt's new book, Romantic Hand Knits, and I fell deeply in love with Charade - a lacy wrap sweater. In fact, I fell so in love with it that although I've almost exclusively been knitting from stash and patterns that I either already had or were free online for the last 9 months (a.k.a. when I put nearly everything I own into storage and moved into Sean's one bedroom apartment) I went to Border's that night and bought the book with a coupon I had in my email.
The next day, I decided to check out a newish yarn store that's only about 10 blocks from my work - Twisted. Loved the store, and bought a great yarn for the sweater. The book calls for Berocco Zen, which I've used before and found fairly unpleasant to knit with, or any worsted ribbon... and at Twisted, I found this:
Sirdar Just Bamboo in the Bluegrass colorway, 100% bamboo with a really lovely sheen and drape. I started a swatch (a rarity in and of itself) that night, and the sweater soon after. I've been making pretty good progress, too.
I have this crazy idea in my head of getting it done to wear for my wedding on the 21st, and reception on the 22nd, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get there... especially with all the time that 's going into the house-buying, needing to pack, etc. But I'm going to try, while still lining up a backup option in case it isn't done.
I also finally have the Mango drop-stitch sweater done... I picked it up yesterday from the alteration shop that I had put in the zipper. I'm really pleased with it, too -
Posted by Shannon at 08:45 AM | Comments (3)
