A Finished Cables and O's

After a last big concentrated knitting effort (nothing but knitting for the last 4 days) I'm finally finished my Cables and Os sweater and one week before my deadline for the special event (Wicked in L.A) I wanted to wear it to. I loved this pattern, it was the first time I had knitted the entire body in one piece and the first time that I knitted both sleeves at the same time. I chose the exact same yarn and the same color that the pattern called for because I really liked the way it looked. Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of cotton but this yarn (60% cotton 40% linen) was great to work with and I would highly recommend knitting this pattern with this yarn. If you want to read more about it please come on by the blog or if you are on Ravelry I'm CraftyCupcake. It has been great to see everyones projects, they have all been very beautiful, happy knitting and KAL-ing to all!

River Rock Scarf!

Knitted in Pewter and Peridot colourways, one at a time more or less. Pattern by Sivia Harding.

Peridot


Pewter


More info on the blog.

River on a grey day...

I had to post a progress pic of this one - loving the colourway (Handmaiden Silken "pewter"). ;-)

Everyone should make one of these - amazingly simple knit - I'm even liking working with the beads, more or less.

;-)

Blue Tomato finished (finally)

Sorry about the photo (took it myself!)... But you get the idea. I started this waaaaayyy back in July! Or was it June? I used just over 3 skeins of Cotton-Ease in Lake, and a small amount of 1 skein of Maize. The cotton-ease is actually quite nice, but I do wish they had more vibrant colors. This was my first try at stranded knitting, and I think I need a bit more practice! I can see the areas where I pulled the yarn too tightly (I'm a thrower, but I tried continental for the last few rows to speed things up). I could also use some practice picking up stitches, which I did rather inconsistently around the collar. All in all....it did go quickly, considering the time I put in. And I'm ready for another sweater!

Sweet

The Sweet Indulgence Robe is finished. Behold it reclining artistically in its pre-button-and-button-loop stage on top of the unsorted (clean) laundry.


I am not a fast knitter. This has been going on for weeks, maybe months if I add in all the geeking/research, but it's beautiful. Thanks to Deb White's clever design, there was no post-knitting assembly to do, so I finished it in time to accompany my daughter to the UK for her year of study abroad.

To college-student-proof it, I used Cascade Pima Tencel, double stranding throughout, except for the bottom edge and the cuffs, where I triple stranded.

For the record, despite the washing instruction on the label, the robe is machine washable and dryable and doesn't shrink. Which translates to: work the robe to the post-blocking gauge and measurements.

More detail than you would ever want to know is scattered through my blog.

intoxicating in progress

I said I wouldn't, but here are progress pics.




If interested in the whole (somewhat sorry) story, check out the blog. Bonus feature in today's post: Felting (or not, as the case may be) with mohair/acrylic blend. Serves me right for trying to go all sheepy on you!

Cheers,
Kristina

PS. The stripe effect on the back is, I know, rather - ahem - interesting. Oh well. ;-)

Tuscany content?

I just acquired this yesterday (for more specs on this, if you're bored, check out the whole sorry story).

I do seem to recall one or more people posting here that they used only two skeins of Silken to make the Tuscany. For the life of me, I can't find those posts now, though.

Any thoughts? Stitch-ay Woman thinks it's a go. :-)

Cheers,

Kristina

PS Hopefully will have some FO Intoxicating pics within the week. I've been slacking off planning future projects and working on what I hope will be the world's biggest log cabin blankie made from scrap and swatches. It certainly may well be the most colourful. ;-)

Cable and O's Progress

The last time I posted about a month ago my Cable and O's sweater wasn't very far along, I had just started and had only completed 4 repeats, but at 288 stitches per row that was still a mighty fine accomplishment. However after a month of dedicated knitting I finished the entire body tonight, it's off the needles and I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

As you can see the pattern calls for you to knit the back and the two fronts together in one piece. Towards the end it was a bit cumbersome but the pay-off is less seaming and the entire of the body of the sweater is done.



I decided to use the exact same yarn in the same color as in the book, Queensland Cotolino in fuchsia. I'm not a pink person, but I really do like the color, and I;m really glad I'm not sick of it yet. Here is a close-up:


All I have left is two sleeves, one button band (the side with the button holes is already on the sweater, you use the eyelets, smart huh?), and the neck band. Hopefully I will be able to power through and finish it up because I would love to wear it to a special event we have in the first week of October, hopefully grad-school work won't get in the way to much. It's been great to see everyone's projects, keep up the good work!

Chubster and PROUD:)

I got the rest of the back done on the Cables and Os sweater: and yes, I am using the Magic Loop method to knit the sleeves one at a time in the round! I also couldn't resist sewing the shoulder seams together, so I could do a quick fit test. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. But boy, do I look FAT in these horizontal stripes, LOL. Actually, the cable is vertical, so next one of these I make (oh yes, there will be another one) will be in one color so the vertical is more apparent, LOL! Note the dark band in the middle, LOL! Think it'll do me any good?

yarn substitution advice

Hi All,
I have a question, and I figured that you lovely people would probably be the best source for the answer.

I'm looking for a good laceweight or fingering yarn that is non-wool and non-silk. (I'm allergic to everything.) It needs to be something fairly inexpensive. Any favorites?


Thanks in advance!

intoxicating update...

I've finished the front! (after a brief hiatus into the world of lace...)
(pre blocking)

I'm posting this in progress as I wanted to show a colour modification I made within the front of the top:


I'm not sure how clearly it comes out in the photos. However, I reversed the colour patterning midway through the top, so that colour A (brown) became colour B (teal) and vice versa. This was borne out of practical necessity because otherwise I was going to end up running out of the brown!

(crossposted to my blog)

A Funny Story

This weekend I visited the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival with my 6 year old daughter.
It was our first time there. I mainly wanted to shop, but we also enjoyed the herding and shearing demos; and my daughter took a "Teach Ewe To Knit" class - and she actually learned. I'm so proud of her. But while shopping, I came across something puzzling.

One of the vendors (a larg-ish yarn shop) had No Sheep For You prominently displayed on the table. Hmm, that's not something you should see at the Sheep and Wool Festival, is it?

Morrigan ramblings...if you dare to look

For those of you who are interested in the errors and non-errors in Morrigan, I wrote a very long rambly post about it on my blog. Normally, I would simply cross-post here, but it is very, very long and I don't want to put off anyone who isn't knitting Morrigan.

So if you are knitting Morrigan, click here and enjoy (or at least let your eyes glaze over).

thoroughly intoxicating!

I must confess that this is NOT the geeky swatch... but the beginning of the sweater (which I started tonight). Colour choice due in large part to (and inspired by) the lovely "extra" in a recent swap package from our very own Stitchay Woman! The two yarns pictures are SWTC, one soysilk, one bamboo.

Has anyone else started this top? It's a great knit so far, and makes me feel so clever! ;-)

More info on the blog