Another study in "zen knitting"

It took me a few weeks to come to terms with this project and post it. I've been working on the Vogue Knitting "High Neck Lace Top" from their Holiday 2005 magazine. It was a great challenge...forced me to learn bobbles, proper seaming, and practice lace-making. Unfortunately, it did not lead to a garment that i liked.

On the positive side I made my own pattern for cap sleeves and I thought they turned out very well. However, the shirt was too short, or I just don't have much of a hip/waist ratio, because there were these funny looking "wings" on either bottom side. Also, it pulled too much across the chest. Either issue might have been forgivable alone but together it was too much. I frogged the whole thing. I've since been playing around with my own interpretation of Glampyre's Orangina pattern. Maybe I'll have something by summer.

"Fetching" wristwarmers are done!

During winter break I used another yarn store gift certificate to try out a wristwarmer pattern from knitty. The woman in the yarn shop recommended an alpaca blend because, she explained, "everyone says you can get through the pattern with just one skein". I'm glad she was right. This was my first time knitting cables...they always looked so intimidating but I would've tried them earlier if I knew they could be this simple.

One thing I did change in the pattern though...it calls for casting on 45 stitches at the wrist, which was too loose for me. I have decent-sized wrists too. I don't see how 45 would work for anyone with tinier hands. So I casted on 40 stitches, then increased 5 right after finishing the series of cables around the wrist. The mitt fits a lot better this way. Otherwise it was a good pattern. I would like to do it again, only keep going at the top and thumb to make actual mittens.

Noro "Myrtle" sweater

Before I left Ohio I had to use a gift certificate for this great little yarn shop north of Cincinnati. After plenty of agonizing, I went with Noro Kureyon yarn #170 and a Noro pattern for a simple hooded cardigan. No buttons, no frills, no cables...just the basics.

I ended up shortening the length to where it hits just below my butt. I ran out of the Noro yarn, but had enough Lamb's Pride in royal blue to finish out the hood. The hood is my favorite part...it's roomy and extends out past your forehead. But I didn't seam the pieces together properly and I've been thinking about taking it apart and re-doing them. The sleeves are too long in an annoying way, and they don't look right rolled up. Since this was my first sweater, I continually toy with the idea of frogging the entire thing and doing it again...either by making changes to this pattern, or choosing a completely different one.

If I do keep this pattern and just end up improving the fit, I will still need some sort of closure for the front. Any ideas? Right now there's a big silver safety pin on there...I can do better.

Let's see if this works...

This is a test!