No Sheep KAL - First FO - Tomato

Here is my first finished project of 2008. It's Tomato by Wendy Bernard from the No Sheep for You book. Details of project modifications on my Knitters-Delight.

Tomato FO - sort of...

Here is my finished Tomato. Overall I'm very happy with it, except that I am planning to redo the neckline, making it in corrugated ribbing. I knit the 35 1/2" taking into account the cotton and negative ease. I moved the herringbone pattern below my bust taking the cue from Sandi Wiseheart from Knitting Daily. I also use the CC on the very bottom of Tomato, for the ribbing on the arms, and then use the MC after the CC on the arms. A modeled version of my final Tomato to come soon....
Knitters-Delight

Congrats to Wendy Bernard! Tomato is the #4 most popular pattern of 2007 on Knitting Daily!

Manly Maze

Hello! I'm new to the KAL and am looking for anyone who has knit the Manly Maze in the called for yarn (Lanaknits Allhemp6). I ran across one other post on the internet from someone who said they did not like knitting with the hemp yarn (hurt their hands, difficulty getting gague, poor knitting fabric quality). Any advice or insight anyone might have about knitting with this yarn would be greatly appreciated.

Tomato Progress

I have now removed the sleeves and am about to join the body to work in the round. I plan on knitting with the main color until just past the bust before doing the design.

Knitters-Delight

Color Theory on Knitty

You guys, you've GOT to see this article from knitty.com - especially if you've wanted to do Bacardi in another colorway as I have. Oooohhhh aaaaahhhh....

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/FEATcolortheory.html

Amy doesn't usually shamelessly advertise knitty.com here, so I will do it for her - terrific article - especially for the color-challenged such as moi...

Happy Holidays, everyone:)
Joan a/k/a fuguestateknits

Eileen in the round

I decided to knit Eileen in the round, rather than on straight needles. I knitted in the round until the armpits, then switched to straight needles for the front and back. It helped to break up the monotony of knitting only lace or only stockinette, as I had to knit both for each round. My plan was perfect, until I realized that I had been knitting the lace pattern in one direction only - so I had to learn to do it backward when I switched to the straight needles! A few attempts got ripped out before I finally got it right.

I used Rosarios 4 Bio Bamboo (100% bamboo) and I must say, I am extremely pleased with the result. It is so soft, and a bit drapey, though I think it turned out lovely! I used 4 mm needles to get anything near the gauge recommended for the pattern.

Bio Bamboo is wonderful stuff, but I think they were out to lunch when they printed the label. The yarn label's gauge is 27 sts and 32 rows = 4 inches with 5 mm needles, but I couldn't even get that gauge with2.75 mm needles (I got 25 sts and 30 rows). And I always knit to gauge. So I wouldn't trust the label, and recommend ALWAYS knitting a gauge swatch with this one.

Network

I finished Network, but I didn't get the same result as the photo in the book. Instead of the yarnovers alternating every 8 rows, they alternated every 16 rows. Still looks cool, and didn't warrant trashing the project, but I wonder why it happened?? I had some confusion when it came to the rows which required moving the marker, so perhaps I did an extra pattern repeat before ending the round and offset the lace pattern by just enough to cause the problem?

I knitted it in a lovely soft pink Rowan Classic Cashcotton 4 ply yarn, which was a bit finer than the recommended yarns, but worked OK.

I finished Tuscany! I started this project in June with some stash yarn, Bernat Satin in Bordeaux (a worsted weight yarn) and used size 6 needles. Because it's worsted, I ended up doing 8 repeats instead of 11.







It's still drying, though inside now. It was unseasonably warm today (23C, 75F), great for laying it out on the porch.

Finally finished Cables and Os

After sitting down in the same chair and knitting for about 12 hours almost non-stop. (Moi, not eat, mais non!)

It actually looks better up close and personal. It fits and I'm glad. The O's part kind of give a little "air conditioning" - perfect for a lightweight sweater. I used cotton and linen and besides the striping, also made a change by crocheting a band around the neck and the button/buttonhole bands.

Now, on to the next:)
Thanks for hanging in there with me, fellow blogsters!
Joan
in Ellicott City, Merlin
http://fuguestateknits.blogspot.com

Intro and Bob

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking here for awhile. I signed up for the KAL shortly after I got the book because I knew I would knit several patterns from it. I had plans to post about my progress on my Tomato sweater (which I am calling Bob because of Bob the Tomato on Veggietales). But I knit it and was almost finished other than the ribbing on the neck and sleeves and realized I didn't have a square neck I had a V neck because I hadn't added in the stitches for the bottom of the neck before joining in the round. So obviously it didn't fit either. :) So I had to rip way back and am not just past the color work again. So frustrating. But this is my first piece of color work so my second time around I learned to do it with a color in each hand and I love it. Here are my pics. Go check out my blog for more info or to comment if you would like. I can't post pictures right now so you will have to go to my blog for pics too. :) Happy knitting everyone!

OK You guys have truly inspired me

to keep on with the Cables and Os sweater! Here's where I was as of Friday night:

Last night, while out and waiting for a concert to begin, I started the second sleeve and continued to work on it during down times at church this a.m. - I WILL get this thing done. I'm going to do some sort of striped edging band/collar combo thing - I know I'm supposed to use the "Os" for buttonholes on one side, but it's just that eentsy weentsy bit small and an extra couple of inches will be just the ticket to the ease I needs! OK women (and men, sorry!) I'm goin' in....... If I'm not back in two weeks, send a search party (or any kind - I like parties)......

Tuscany

I just wanted to pop in and say that I am over half-way through my Tuscany shawl, 8 (or 16 markers) repeats so far. I ended up going to my LYS and getting 3 skiens of Sea Silk on purple. YUM! I love working with this yarn! I also bought some more of the other silk that I blogged about earlier. Turns out it is Regia Silk in a lovely green. Now I can also finish the first shawl. Yay!

Tuscany!

More pics and specs on the blog.

Morrigan is finished!

More photos and lots of words about it can be found on my blog. I shall not torture the non-Morrigan knitters will my rambling words.

SLOWWWW SLEEVES....

This is as far as I've gotten on the cables and os first sleeve, no less! That's what I get for starting up a bunch of new projects. Bad knitter, bad knitter!
I'm not giving up! I'm going to a conference this weekend - maybe I'll take it with me and make a dent in the sleeves. I have short arms, but fortunately not this short!




So near and yet so far!!!

Mint Tomato

Here's my version of Tomato:


I used Cotton Ease in the discontinued colors Mint and Blueberry.


This was my first sweater, and my first attempt at 2-color knitting! Although this wasn't a hard pattern, I started this back in July! I'm glad I finally finished it :) I think I should have added a bit more ribbing to the sleeves, and bound-off the sleeves and body directly from the ribbing rather than adding the extra row of plain knitting.

I love what everyone is making! I really like Tuscany and the River Rock Scarf, so one of those may be my next project from the book :)

Intoxicating - done!!

Yarns: Sea Silk, SWTC Soysilk, SWTC Oasis and Ella Rae Silkience

And I'll throw in a photo of my Tuscany in progress - with Silken (of course!)


More info/specs at my blog:
Intoxicating and
Tuscany (near the bottom)

More Morrigan Errors

I found two more errors in the pattern.

1) After completing the sleeve increases, the pattern says to repeat rows 19–24 or 7–12 (depending on size) of charts R3 and L3 until the sleeve is the right length. You should repeat rows 17–24 or 5–12 to keep the pattern correct.

2) Row 23 of chart L3 is missing a cable crossing. The position and type of the cable crossing should be obvious to anyone who has gotten that far on the sleeve.

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!