Friday, January 25, 2008

Raglan Turtleneck

The turtleneck is really coming along. I finished the whole back panel, and I'm 6" into the front panel. I'm a little worried though, that I'm going to run out of yarn. I have enough that if I use the second color, but I'm afraid it'll ruin the styling. Now I'm going to have to look around for another hank of the same dye lot. Hmm....

Oh, I didn't end up using the pattern from the Knitting Fiend. Instead, I converted the gauge from the Bell Rock Turtleneck from Berroco. It took me quite a while since there's a lot of shaping, and the tops of the raglan sleeves are a little complicated. Pics later tonight...

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Holy Update Batman!

Okay, a LOT of updating to do.
1. The pentagram kufi was too big by a smidge, so I had to shrink it. It's still a lil smidge too big, so I'm considering sewing in some black elastic thread to tighten it up around the forehead.

2. I've had two hanks of Cascade Eco wool in a beautiful natural tan and one hank in a soft medium brown in my stash since at least last Halloween. I REALLY want to make a raglan sleeve pullover out of it, and I'm excited to use it because it's very soft and feels great to knit with. I had to make a few trips to the knitpicks website and to my LYS: Knit Pickings (ironic huh?) for two sets of #9 circular needles, and a set of dpns. Now that all my materials are together....

2.5. I have been spending a lot of time on the website of The Knitting Fiend. She has a bunch of patterns and the best gauge and pattern converters! I found her raglan pullover pattern called "Take me out the ballgame," and I think I'll use that for my sweater. However, I think I'm going to tweak it a bit to make it into a turtleneck.

3. Christmas Knitting: I made the mini sweater pattern from Last Minute Hand Knitted Gifts. One sweater for ever family member. For some people I put their initial on the front. I also made about 100 dozen cookies and made everyone a box of cookies. The idea was to tie their sweater onto the cookie boxes. However, I forgot to attach the sweaters to the boxes, and now I have a pile of mini sweaters. Oh well...I'll just save them for next year.

4. Monique came to me today with a store-bought sweater. It has a kangaroo pocket on the front, and it's coming apart, so I agreed to fix it for her. I went through my giant tub of stash and tools (I left my everyday knitting toolbox at my mother's house, so I didn't have a darning needle on me) and I could NOT find a darning needle. Darn. She's going to the store to get me one.

4.5 In the process of looking for the darning needle, I ended up cleaning up my stash quite a bit. Frogging a few WIPs that were only a few rows in, tidying up some skeins that had come updone, and cutting away a HUGE knot and chucking it. Boy that felt good! New stash management tip: Use lingerie laundry bags to store skeins that keep coming undone. At least they won't get tangled up into your other yarn.

Okay! No pictures this time people, but Once that sweater is going... I'll try to post some up!