I have been attempting to upload my digital photos to flickr, and in the process am finding a lot of pictures I took of knitted things. This was the very first thing I knit. Katie is just under a year old here, and wore this sweater for a while (note the rolled up sleeves). It’s a Mission Falls pattern from the Wee knits book. The hardest thing was all the ends to weave in. I swear that took longer than actually knitting it.

Pattern: tulips sweater from Dream in Color Yarns
Yarn: Shelridge Farm Worsted weight (superwash); light blue : 1 skein, dark blue & green way less than 1/4 of a skein
finished size: Approx 6-9 months

The picture isn’t so good - the light wasn’t cooperating; but you get the idea. :)

I went to knitting last night at the local mall (where we always meet). Due to the hideous heat wave; there were tons of other people there as well. Didn’t deter us - we knit away as usual. I was planning on adding a stripe to the blue Tulip sweater - this is my first attempt:

It didn’t seem quite right to me. After a bit of consultation, I tried this:

Note the dark green rows, and then the light green. I didn’t like that either. Something about the light green didn’t quite sit right with me. So after ripping one more time, I came up with this:

Much better! (Color difference in the blue is because I took the picture at home in different lighting). I’ll do the same stripe on the bottom of the sleeves; and the border color will be the dark blue that is the center of the stripe.

Don’t forget to enter the contest! You have until Midnight on Saturday… then I’ll be drawing a winner.

How hot was it in my house? (It was 103 outside)

The new mystery project is the Tulip sweater pattern from Dream in Color Yarns. It’s a cute pattern! I didn’t buy the kit; just the pattern, since I’m on a budget and in theory I have the appropriate yarn in my stash already. I tried to layout some rainbow colorways, but decided I just didn’t like how they look in a more solid set of yarns. So I’m doing a semi solid sweater, with maybe a stripe on it at the bottom (that’s what the green is for) and I’ll edge it with the navy blue.

So far it’s a quick knit, and the construction of it is pretty interesting! I’m using Shelrdige Farm yarns in their superwash worsted weight (they are soooooooooo nice to knit with). I’m also weighing my ball of yarn after I finish each color stripe (even though I’m using a solid) so I’ll know how much yarn each color would take if I were to do it multi colored.

Here’s a look at the final product:

(click for a larger version)
I just need to get the pattern finished up, and then it will be for sale over at The Knit Foundry.  Knitting this sweater will require intermediate knitting skills: Knitting in the round on circs, dpns, picking up stitches, two different styles of cast off, reading from charts.  It calls for worsted weight yarn with a gauge of 5st/inch.  I highly recommend the worsted weight yarn from Shelridge Farms; as this is what I used to knit the sample; and it’s just really fabulous yarn.

It is finished, including ends woven in, washed, blocked and dried. I gave up on waiting for it to dry on the towel, and tossed it in the dryer for about 15 mins.  Voila! Finished sweater:

(click for full size version) Is the fit not perfect?  I’m a bit bummed because I was hoping he’d be able to wear it longer. :)  Also, it’s now my goal to get anyone who I make a sweater for to do the pose with their arms straight out from their body.  It’s just so darned funny!

Stats
Pattern: "Xander Gansey" My own, soon to be for sale through The Knit Foundry
Yarn: Shelridge Farms, Worsted Weight superwash
Size: 2T/3T (actual measurements of sweater forthcoming…)

A long wait at the eye doctor this week let me make good progress on the Xander Gansey:

(click for bigger version)
The red pearl cotton you see on the neck area was my stitch holder before I had that done. It hasn’t annoyed me enough to have to pull it out (I tend to leave all weaving of ends until the very end). Since I had to do the neck twice to get the number of stitches correct and stretchy enough to go over the boy’s head, I thought I’d just leave it there for now.

The sleeve chart is basically done, so I’m ready to start getting the pattern together and ready for sale, and hopefully will only have to wait on the final picture.

Another gansey design (this one sized for Men!) is in progress (Marta and I are collaborating on the design)

I finished this today:

The buttons are adorable little bears that are just the perfect color.  The sweater isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn cute anyway. I still need to wash and block it and then give it away! I hope to someday show you a picture of the intended recipient in it.

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting; but not a lot of posting lately.  I’ll try to fix that with a few posts for the next few days.  First, I got the sleeves sewn in on the baby sweater:

(click for bigger version)
I still have to sew down the facings inside the sleeve holes, finish putting on the button bands (I have 1.67 button bands on now, but not shown in the picture) and do the collar. Then weaving in all the ends.  I tend to leave all the ends for last; because I’m paranoid that I’ll have to rip back and if I weave in the ends, it will make ripping out/back even harder.

One small thing I need to deal with - where I cut the steek on the front I’ve managed to not fasten a strand or two. I need to redo some machine stitching after fixing a few spots with a crochet hook. *sigh*.  Next time I’ll use a super super super short stitch length on my machine instead of just ’short’.

I started the baby sweater (Setesdal, Dalegarn #124)) again, on the smallest size.  It still came out larger than it specified in the pattern, which is good.

A few days ago:

And after a serious session with the sewing machine for steeks:

I haven’t done the three needle bind off for the shoulders yet, but one shoulder is on DPNs ready for it.  I had 5 steeks total to do, and barely paused a moment before sitting down to stitch and cut them.  I don’t know how you’re supposed to do a fair isle pattern like this at the top near the necklines without doing it in the round. I almost almost decided to work back and forth, except for the problem that if I did that, I’d have to detach and reattach the proper color yarn at the other end.  No way do I want more ends to weave in, so I created steeks at both the front and back neckline.

Setesdal has knit on bands, that are folded in half with a picot edge, so they cover all bits of the neckline and front edges when you fold it over and stitch it down.  Now I need to decide if I’m going to do the front edges and necklnie next, sleeves or the matching hat.