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!!

February Lady Sweater Complete!

Ta-daa! There she is in all her finery....my red hot February lady sweater. I did enjoy knitting this sweater, my first by the way. There were a few scary moments, such as when I forgot to count, or when I forgot what the multiples of seven were. But all in all, I enjoyed this project. Think I will make one for my mom after the holidays. I can't do this pattern back to back, too boring. So here are the dirty details.

Project: February Lady sweater

Yarn: Caron Simply soft, about 3.25 skeins (which I liked knitting with, plus easy maintenance)

Needle size: 8 bamboo for the most part

Size: large

Now on to my next sweater! Have a great week chickees!

TTFN!

The Gods have spoken

I wanted to blog last night, but was too tired. Tonight I was going to work from home for a couple of hours, but lo and behold, my password to get in wouldn't work. The IS person only works 8 am-4 pm so I'm SOL until tomorrow. The Gods have spoken! I was meant to blog tonight! YEA!

Not that I have that much to say. Oh well maybe. I have one sleeve finished on the FBL, and I started the other one. Pictures when I'm done. I am making progress on my mittens, see:

I really haven't been working on these too much. A little bit the past week or so, since my FBL is too cumbersome to lug around. Okay, just realized I have been calling that FBL, when it should be FLS = February Lady Sweater. DUH! Oh well! It's stuck as FBL now.

Otherwise not much going on. Oh yeah the hubby, JB, is on a Hawaii diet now. So we have been trying to eat better at night. Last night I made asparagus sauteed in a wee bit of butter and olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and a scosh of Parmesan cheese, once drained.

They were okay, but probably would have been better hot. By the time I sat down to eat they were a little cold. JB loves asparagus, and would eat them just plain steamed, but I need a little somethin' somethin' on them. We had grilled chicken to go with the asparagus. Tonight it's grilled chicken and broccoli and maybe some corn. Not sure about the corn yet.

After it's some T.V., some knitting, and some more book perusing.

I have read so much about Hawaii that I could write a travel book about it. Now I just have to write some stuff down that I want to see and do, in my hardcore Hawaii book, formerly known as my hardcore knitting book. (Skull and cross bones = hardcore) It only had 2 pages of notes for knitting, so I figured it would be better used for travel notes.

TTFN! Enjoy your evening and happy knitting :)

FBL Update

So this is my 80% finished February Lady Sweater. I have both sleeves to do and I'm hoping to get them finished by next weekend. I would like to say by the end of the holiday weekend, but I'm not sure. Why should I pressure myself anyway.

I really like this pattern. It makes me pay attention a little bit, but it can be sort of mindless too. Unless I'm counting stitches. Jenny can't count and talk at the same time. Sorry :( Just not going to happen. I think I might make my mom an FBL after the holidays. I don't want to do the same pattern back to back. And let me just tell you how much I love knitting in the round. No seams to sew. Bind off and you're almost done. Much easier and better sense of accomplishment. I know some garments must be pieced together, but I think those should be few and far between. Now I am always looking for knit in the round patterns.

Speaking of which, what's up with the new IK? Gotta say I'm not very impressed. I have looked through it twice, and I can't say there are is anything in there I just have to make. Seamed or not. I saw some of the gallery pictures on the web before I got the issue, and was not blown away. But I just figured, there would be other things I would like. Not everything can be a gem.

Look, don't get me wrong I usually like and drool over IK. It just seems the last couple of issues have been eh. Especially when compared to some other mags I have paged through. Maybe they are just having a bad couple of months or something. It could be me too. I would never rule out that possibility. I'm just saying its something to think about. What do you think?

Well, until I get my sleeves finished, take care and have a great day.

TTFN!

Slowly but surely

I have been slowly but surely working on my February Lady Sweater (FBL). Why slowly? Well this week I had some stuff going on at night. Watched the Green Mile over two nights. Too long to do it one sitting. What a great movie! No I never saw it before, and was quite surprised I waited so long. Mr. Jingles really kicked butt too!

Tuesday went to the Police concert with my hubby, JB. They looked good sounded great, but the only played about an 1 1/2 hours. What's up with that? They played, left the stage for 30 seconds, came back, played a few more songs, and the house lights came up. I didn't realize it was the end of the show. Usually you get a feel for these things. Not this concert. Glad I saw them, but certainly would not go again.

Watched another movie, Stargate Continuum. I really enjoyed it. I was a huge fan of the show, Stargate SG-1, and watch the spin off Atlantis. Being the sci-fi half geek I am, I was very sad to see SG-1 cancelled. But hey, we got two movies out of it. Anyway, I thought the movie was good, and there is an extra on there about filming in the Arctic, which was very interesting and informative. Maybe there will be a third movie.

So last night I finally got to put my FBL on waste yarn for a try on. First I must preface these pictures with the fact they were taken last night about 10:00 pm. Jenny Girl was beat and in her pj's.

Let me just tell you ,that it is not easy to take pictures of yourself, especially when your are trying not to get yourself in the photo. The bottom line is I am ready to move on the lace pattern and separation of sleeves. Yea! So some progress is being made. I can usually knit while I watch TV, but with movies or certain TV shows I just can't. Such as life.

Hope you all have a very lovely weekend! Oh and happy August. Yes, it's August already. Goodness.

TTFN!

Ahoy thar Mateys! I'm back on the reservation.

I'm back. Yeah, I know it's been almost a month since my last post. But you know how life can be. I thought I would have all this extra time now that I was done school, but I haven't been able to take advantage of it yet. Suzy Girl and I have been slaving away on this big project at work, and when we get home, we are wiped out. This hellmouth project must and will be over by July 31. Then maybe life will finally be back to some semblance of normal.

In the meantime, I have an FO. Yea!

Name: Small boy's pirate hat

Needle size: 6

Yarn: Red Hart soft acrylic in black and white

Pattern source: combo of two. The skull graph cam from Adrian Bizilia's We call them pirates and the pattern mod comes from Knitspaz.

Sorry people, Jenny just does not know how to modify patterns yet. Anyway, I made this hat for my girlfriend's son in about a week. The worsted weight yarn helped with the quickness of the project. I dropped it off over the weekend, and she'll let me know how it works out, whether it fits him or not. I'm sure wool, like Cascade 220, would have been a softer and maybe cooler choice, but I wanted her to able to just throw the hat in the washer. She doesn't have time for hand wash at the moment. This hat went so fast, that I told her I would make an adult size for herself if she so desired.

This was my first color work/ stranded project, and it went okay. I am an English knitter, so I'm sure if I was a continental knitter it may have been easier. As it was, it was alright. Next time, however, I will work some white stitches in between the skulls so the yarn doesn't have to be carried so far.

Continuing with the Pirate theme, my mom and I went to the Franklin Institute last week. There is special exhibition about pirates that is running through November. It's called Real Pirates and it gives you the history of piracy and one ship in particular, the Whydah. This was a slave ship that was converted into a pirate ship, and had a pretty prolific history. That's all I will say, in case you want to go see it for yourself, or read up on it. Although there was a great deal of reading involved, it was very interesting.


I have also finished one Monkey sock, and have just started the second. That's my lunch time knitting project, however, as vacation approaches, I may have to start walking again. Or step away from the ice cream. Such tough choices!

I have also CO and been knitting the February Lady Sweater from Flint Knits that is absolutely viral on Ravelry. Gnat from BarknKnit started an FLS KAL on her forum in Ravelry so I decided to join along. Not that I have been the best contributor, but I am there in spirit :)

Suzy Girl told me there was another KAL on the net somewhere, so I'll probably join that too. I have been reading through the pattern and have some questions. Anyway, not much else going on. The Phillies have been stinking it up lately. Way to blow that division lead boys! Good books have been a little hard to find, like every other one pretty much. But T.V. has been decent. A few of my favorite shows have come back.

Well, that's all I have for now folks. Take care until next time, and I hope your days are well.

P.S.

I will be catching up on all your blogs this week, so watch out!

TTFN!