Progress on the coral seed stitch sweater

I'm at the first set of decreases for the waist. I'm taking the measurements off of a Jones New York sweater I have that I love. It starts at 41" around and goes to 39" at about 7.5". The rh seam shows in this view, but it doesn't look too bad. The real thing I'm concerned about is weaving in all the yarn ends.

Lace Attempt

After reading all kinds of information on knitting lace on KR, I thought I would try some. (hristina from London posted a great site with links to tons of patterns. I picked a cool swirl leaf doily.
OK, so the knitting was cool, but I remembered that I didn't like knitting with pure cotton, especially on bamboo needles. I was adding a few rows at a time while at my computer, but I finally got so confused and lost that I just pulled the needles out. I decided to take a picture before I pull out the whole thing. Maybe I should have bound off? It is pretty cool, and I can't see the errors now.

Back to the sweater: how I'm doing the hem

I finally figured out where my DH stuck the pictures I made of the swatch where I worked out the hem.
Here's a view of the back. See how it's pretty tidy. No stitching required but it does take a little bit to unzip while you knit.

Here's a view of the front.

It looks a little more refined in the cotton fleece. I'll take more pictures this weekend.

I also kind of made this up but was inspired by Stoller's SnB

I saw something that looked like this in Stitch n' Bitch by Stoller, but I revised it so it's done from the top. This is easier for me. Someone asked me how so here is what I told her (btw, I think I changed it enough so that it's ok to print):
Cast on 9 stitches onto one DPN
Transfer stitches to 3 DPN
Knit first round, increasing every stitch by knitting into front and back of each stitch (bar increase) until you get to the last stitch
Knit last stitch together with first stitch on next needle to join round(16 stitches total).
Knit one round even
Next row, inc 1, k1, inc1, k1 all the way around
Knit one round even
inc 1 k2, inc 1 k2 all the way around
Knit one round even.
Keep going like this increasing around until the hat is the desired circumference to fit the baby in question.
Knit even until long enough to cover the ears + 1-2" for the roll and cast off. It's stockinette, it'll roll on its own.
Go back to hole at top where you started with 8 stitches.
Pick up and knit 4 stitches evenly around. Do an I-cord for about 4" or until it's long enough to knot. Break the yarn and draw through the stitches to fasten off.
Ta-da!

Kind-of self-designed hat for a little boy

So I sort of made this up. I knitted in the round big enough for his head. Several rows ribbing, then several stockinette, then one reverse stockinette, then the pattern, back to the reverse, then to the top where I actually kitchnered (sp?) the top. Added tassles and voila! I have a picture of it on said kid but not sure if Mom's ok with publishing on the net... hm. looks better on, actually.

The bear is just a purl instead of a knit in the following pattern. Someone told me they thought it looked like a frog, someone else said Christmas tree... but hey, my first try, ok?
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Fixation Gloves

I had what I thought was a terrific idea -- homemade isotoners by using stretchy yarn. Well, it was a PITA to knit with and isn't that warm, and seems to be showing wear fairly quickly. Makes me wonder about socks from this yarn? Pattern is the basic one from Vogue Knitting on the Go Gloves. Amazingly easy but pretty tedious to weave in all the ends, especially with a cotton.

Cable Mittens

These were actually easier than they looked. I worked off the chart and it went pretty well. The pattern is from Vogue Knitting on the Go Gloves. I used cascade 220 instead of what it called for so as I posted earlier, they're a bit long but nice and warm.

Uploading like a champ

I made these pictures kinda small so that they would upload from home. I'll post each separately so if you want to ohh and ahh in the new comments feature, you can. ;)

Lace Socks from Yahoo Sockknitters SAM (Advanced 2)

I think I mentioned that I knitted socks with this group. I finally finished last month's lace this month, so I added sherman heels. Here's a picture showing the heels and another showing the lace in detail.

My next project....

I'm trying to design a sweater that looks like this:

So I've got some cotton/wool blend from lamb's pride in coral sunset (see card at http://www.fiber2yarn.com/custom/brown_sheep/cottonfleece.htm)
My sweater is going to be more fitted.
I already figured out the hem... and did a swatch (photo to follow). Provisional cast on, 6 rows stockinette, 1 row reverse (purled), 6 rows seed stitch, then pull out provisional cast on and knit one from bottom together with each one from current row. (doing this in the round from the bottom up.)
I'll keep you posted.

Trying to show a picture of the big green monster

Outcast Elf told me about this... let's see if it works.
Here's the big green monster about 90% done:


It works, it works!!!

Finished the Big Green Monster....and it's too long

(look in the sweaters directory)
AAAARGH! Why is it too long? I measured, and made him try it on .... argh. But that's ok. He likes it anyway.

Some New Pictures Posted

I finally took the 10 minutes and uploaded a few pictures to my yahoo photos. See the socks there and the gloves and mittens.

What I'm working on now...

I just hate the lack of bandwidth at home :( I've finished and photographed a bunch of things but haven't been able to post the pictures. I finished the mittens out of cascade, the fixation gloves, the 2s2c socks (my dear niece loves them), a pair of lace socks from sport weight woolease (from the advanced class). I finally cast on the second sockotta sock so that's going. The big green sweater is about 14 rows from the neckline shaping (it's 60" around so a lot goes into each row).

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

Coming up the first full weekend in May. Sounds like fun. I'm going to try to catch up with a bunch from Knitters Review. Maybe I'll also take a class.

A New Pattern in Knitting (washingtonpost.com)

By Amy Brecount White
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, March 9, 2004; Page C09
"Forget the knitting stereotype: grandma in the rocker, slaving away on warm woolies to clad the feet and backs of the unappreciative men in her life. That's sooo last century. And forget the demure knitting guild. " Cool.

Two very long mittens on two circs

From Vogue on the go.... the really cool light blue cable mittens. I'm using cascade 220. It's bigger, but that's ok, because I measured my gauge and it was right to use the same number of stitches and have the mittens big enough around for my paws. But oh, no... they're like really, really long. I'll take a picture soon!

Finished and mailed off the 2 socks on 2 circs. They came out pretty well. Take a peek at them on my yahoo photo site
I also forgot to mention below that I'm still working on the big green sweater for Mark.

Here's what I'm currently working on:

• second sockotta sock


• second fixation glove


• 2 socks on 2 circs gray woolease with green heels and toes with SAM class


• yellow hat for "peaches"

I would like to be working on the lace socks from the Advanced Class, but I need yarn :(

Here's what I've finished since last post:

• Hat, light blue, for Nicholas, with cool tassles and teddy bears that I designed


• Hat, yellow, for William, roll brim knotted top


• one sock, plymouth sockotta blue variegated, size 1 needles, tons of stitches (not excited about this one)


• one glove, cascade fixation denim blue, pretty cool