Finished With Winter!

Next I finished up this beautiful wool sweater just in time for--spring! It's really too heavy for me to wear now, but I'm sure it'll be great next winter. I think I finished this up just as our weather turned flukey in March and reached 90 degrees for a few days. The color in the picture doesn't do this justice--it's a really fabulous dark teal. The yarn I used is Berroco Peruvia, which is a nice, long-staple wool yarn from what must be some of the softest sheep in the Andes. I had originally started with Peruvia in another color on another sweater, and discovered that I like the yarn a lot, but not the sweater I was working on. So I bought some of the teal for this sweater. Originally my gauge was waaaaaaay off and I didn't realize it until I had almost completed the entire back of this. Not one to settle for what I don't want, I unraveled the whole mess and started again with smaller needles. It DOES pay to make a swatch first, but even that isn't entirely fool proof. I also customized the band that goes around the front edges & neck of this sweater. The first sweater that I didn't like had this seed stitch pattern on it, which I did like. The front band of this sweater was suppose to be just a plain stockinette stitch, but that seemed too boring to me. So I worked it in the seed stitch instead. I want to use this yarn again next winter, it was really great to work with.

Hats & Hats & Hats

Next from the Berroco pattern book was a spiffy-looking hat in the Blackstone Tweed. I had sweater yarn left over in the Plum Island, so I knitted a hat. Took a while again to master the pattern, but once I did, things went well. So well, that I decided I wanted a light gray one. So I gave the Plum one to my neighbor, and I made myself the gray one in Wintery Mix. It came out really good. So good, in fact, my teenage daughter told me she liked it and wanted one. She couldn't decide on the color, so I bought enough yarn in each of the two browns colors. She chose Ancient Mariner, so I made her hat. Having the two extra balls of Limerick, I proceeded to make hat #4. I love these hats! I may make more next winter! And with leftovers from all of the colors, I made a nice scarf that used the same pattern stitch as on the hats.

Second

Next up was a sweater I liked that was a Berroco pattern I saw at my local knitting shop. It was labeled an 'easy' pattern, while still having some interesting ribbing on the bottom. So much for 'easy', I must've started the thing 10 times before I could master the pattern. What I learned: do not be afraid of unravelling what you've done to try again to make the thing better or right. The sweater came out pretty good, but I really had to work to finish the neckline with single crochet--I am NOT a crocheter! And I had to block the sleeves pretty heavily--since when does a size 2X pattern have the same number of stitches at the sleeve bottom as a size S ?!?! More I learned: watch for instructions that you need to alter to make a better fit. Trust your gut on this. USE the damn tape measure. The sweater was made from Berroco Blackstone Tweed in a great cabernet color called Plum Island. The yarn was so nice, I then got hooked on other things in the pattern book...

Keeping Track

I really don't need the blog, I just need a place to park my thoughts on my knitting projects. And keep track of it. With pictures. I started knitting again last year in a very stressful time during a very stress-filled year. After the first project, I was hooked. I just feel better if I do some knitting every day. I especially love trying out yarns & colors, knitting samples to see if I like the color or to practice a pattern stitch.

The first project was the Alpaca Poncho. I wanted a simple project to start, but one that would be practical. I really wanted to make a soft, warm poncho in a neutral color. So I used Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande. I started the project in September 09 and finished it in October 09. The finished project was exactly as I'd wanted. On to more projects...