Citrus yoke pullover

I have finally finished this sweater. It really didn't take that long, it's just that I got side tracked by other projects, and then took vacation, and slightly side tracked again.

So here are the particulars:

Yarn: Wool of the Andes Bulky in Sky from Knitpicks

Needle Size: 11

Pattern: Citrus Yoke Sweater by Katie Himmelburg (Ravelry link)

Size: large?

Mods: Only 2 repeats on the neck, added a ribbed/yarn over border on bottom and sleeves,

I did a gauge swatch and fell in between needle sizes 10.5 and 11. Yes, I measured and so did Suzy, so I decided to go with 11. I didn't want the neck too tight. I followed the pattern for the most part. I started out following one size, but as I was doing the yoke, I realized I couldn't do all the repeats for that size. The yoke would have been down to my waist. So I think I eliminated one yoke repeat. Sorry it was a while ago.

From then on, it's straight knitting, so I just did what worked for me. I didn't want the hems to roll, so I added the ribbing/yarn over border. Which I think looks cute and goes with the flow.

I loved working with the yarn and the color. I am just not crazy with the pattern. Cattywampus told me that I will eventually figure out what sweaters work for me, and I can tell you already that yokes like this don't. I want the arm holes to be more fitted. These kind of hang down a wee bit. But since the pattern kind of continues onto the arms....well I didn't realize this was going to happen. Maybe I should have made a smaller size?? I don't want to look like a sausage either. Come on, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, my dear friend told me to add a single crochet chain around the neckline in the inside. This should help with the arm hole thing. I have yet to tackle this. I'm thinking raglan increase sweaters work best for me so far. And I think I will definitely attempt a set in sleeve sweater too.

{I apologize for the blurry pictures, but you don't even want to know how many pictures Suzy and I took. They just didn't look good.}

TTFN!

Jenny Girl's Bella's mittens

Are you thinking, "Who is Bella and why does she have mittens?"

Well, if you are familiar with the Twilight series, you know the answer to the above question. If not, then: Bella is the main female character in the wildly popular book series and now movie Twilight. She lives outside of Portland, Oregon, so she needs some mittens for that cold damp weather up there. Even though I absolutely loved both the book and movie, these mittens rock. See:I love the horseshoe cable and the gaunt like length, which comes in handy in windy weather. Stops the draft going up the sleeves of your coat. So here are the particulars:

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool in Dark Grey Mix (held double)

Needle size: 8 dns

Pattern: Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault at http://www.subliminalrabbit.com/

(Marielle has a cute sweater pattern too, so check her out)

TTFN and happy knitting!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Susan and I wish you all a very merry Christmas. We hope you all have a wonderful day, whether with family and friends, or just hanging by yourself.
Enjoy and happy knitting too :)

TTFN!

Jenny Girl is....

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you're the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Bitten by the bug

I'm woefully behind on posting some of my FO's this fall so I'm going to try to catch up before the end of the year. Yikes, that's less than 2 weeks away isn't it!!
First up... my "End of October" sweater.

Shortly after Jen cast on the February Lady Sweater I realized that I wanted to make one too. Yup, Jennygirl, me and 3000+ other ravelers have been bitten by the FLS bug.
So I cast on sometime in September and finished it the end of October. I really wanted to come up with some nice, natural light pictures with some pretty fall scenery as a backdrop but I never found the right time. Finally one evening when I got home from work I coerced my son into taking a couple of quick shots. Not exactly our best work but you get the idea... and Winston looked good anyway. He's very photogenic though he didn't make the cut here on the blog. Sorry Winston. I'll have to be sure to give kitty some blog time next post.



Pattern: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman baby sweater
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool Merino in a dark heather gray. I used about 4 1/2 skeins.
Needles: US 8

I really enjoyed knitting this sweater. And I love wearing it!! I’ve gotten several compliments on it. The Paton's merino is very soft and cozy to wear. And it took several froggings and held up well.

I got off to a slow start. I had to rip back a few times; for some reason I had trouble with my stitch count on the yoke and then once I got that under control I decided to make some sizing modifications as well.
Now I had read some of the comments on ravelry about sizing, most of the knitters seem to feel the sweater ran a little large. So when choosing the size to knit I debated between the medium and the large. But this was not long after the green cardigan denial disaster so I went with the large.
The first time I tried it on I thought it was a little big but I kept knitting. Then about 4-5 inches into the lace pattern I tried it on again and this time I was really worried that after blocking the lace was going to widen up the body of the sweater more than I wanted. So I decided to rip back, again. This was probably rip #3 or 4. I took it back to a point in the yoke where I had the correct number of stitches for a medium and just continued knitting. And I’m glad I did. It fits just about how I wanted it to after blocking.


I even found buttons I love!! You can't really tell from the picture but they are really nice buttons, they pick up whatever color they're paired with. But who would have guessed... the buttons cost almost as much as the wool.

Happy knitting!!

Finally some pictures

It has taken me a while, but I have finally whittled down my pictures and added some captions. There are over 250 pictures. Whew that's a lot! Each one has meaning to me, but I'm sure they won't for you. There are a lot of rocks and sunsets in there. I think I took pics every night of the sunset. Those are all from standing on my lanai. I just didn't want to forget it.

Hawaii November 2008

As far as Volcano National Park, it was a very awe-inspiring experience for us. You're driving along enjoying the rain forest, and then wham! you come across a cooled lava flow with total devastation. Then a little later, the rain forest picks up again. Being the city folks we are, we were blown away by mother nature. The day we went it was pouring rain most of the time, and some places had poor visibility due to fog. We never made it to the active lava flow either, but with the rain, we probably wouldn't have really seen it.

The landscape changed in every quadrant of the island, and I really tried to capture that. There were some places we didn't get to visit due to some unforeseen issues, so pictures of flowers are virtually nil. Sorry about that.

I hope you enjoy these pictures. I will leave this link active until the holidays, and then after that I'm going to close it. Also, if you have any questions about the Big Island, please feel free to ask. It is a wonderful place, with awesome people, whose motto is "no worries".

TTFN and knitting photos next time. I mean it :)

How could I?

I had a dilemma this week with regards to holiday decorating. As most of you may know, I ususally have my tree up and decorated by now. Well this year, we have a complication:

You see this couch is huge. There is no other place to put the couch or the tree. So I would have to evict this poor puppy's couch just for my Crhistmas tree, for only about three weeks. I can't do that! What a shame! We are planning on re-decorating the living room some time next year, and getting her a "new" couch/loveseat at that time.

I think one year without my tree is acceptable. I sort of decorated the blog and put some knick knacks around the house. In the meantime, keep posting those lovely pictures and posts of your holiday decorations and things. I am living vicariously through you all.

Knitting Update:

I am thisclose to finishing my blue yoke sweater. The bottom was too short (yes I measured), so I had to un-bind off and frogg my modified rib hem. I plan on finishing and washing today. Model pictures sometime this week. If I don't wear it to work this week, Suzy is going to kick my butt!

Vacation Picture Update:

Uploaded them to Picassa web Albums. Now I'm workin on the captions. There are 295 pictures and that number was whittled down. They need captions because otherwise, you and I will have no idea what some of these things are. Even then they may be hard to figure out. :)

TTFN!

Jenny Girl is

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Why am I not surprised?

First things first

Well, it's been quite some time since I shared some knitting related news. I don't really have a good reason for my lack of attention to the blog. Let's just say I was a bit distracted throughout the summer and fall.

But I have been knitting so I thought I try to catch up a little. Last time I blogged about knitting I think I was working on my "sock blank gone bad" neckwarmer. Well, I've finished that and have gone on to knit a couple of more. And have queued a dozen more on ravelry. In fact, I'm quite taken with the whole neckwarmer/cowl/smokering genre. I've found them to be the solution to a few problems... 1) quick knit, unlike a scarf which can go on forever 2) stash buster for those single skeins and most important 3) they do the job, keeping my neck warm. And when my neck is warm... I'm warm all over. So you'd think I'd share some photos of these FO's, right? Wrong.

First I'm going to share a project I began way back in February. My first sweater!!!


Which doesn't fit me!! So, #2 DD, biggest fan of my knitting, has graciously offered to give the sweater a home until I get my ass back to the gym and take off the extra pounds that are preventing me from modeling it. She wore it Thanksgiving and I took the opportunity to snap a picture of her and Grandmom (who declined to be blogged, especially since she was not wearing a hand knit sweater). Actually #2DD didn't agree to appear on the blog but I thought since I cropped the photo she'd be ok with it. And she does owe me for the sweater.


So the details of denial:

Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Neck Down Scoop Neck Cardigan #278 by Diane Soucy
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic Wool in Light Green Heather
Needles: US 4 and 6
Size: a smaller version of me

I had heard the KPS patterns were great basic patterns and I'd have to agree. It was an easy knit and I'll definitely knit another.

On a happier note, I also finished a February Lady Sweater this fall, (it fits me) that I wear quite often and I'm working on a Mr. Greenjeans (finally) that I also plan to wear.
And just for the record I did try this on while I was knitting it but kept hoping that blocking would miraculously take care of the gap between the buttons.