How its coming along...

Last time I talked about how excited I was for baby knits. I managed to finish 2 very cute baby sweaters and then that idea was kinda abandoned temporarily while I got excited for many other knits and yarns. So I've been working on other things...

Well the super secret sunset sweater is coming along though I did come across a set back. I missed one very important instruction at the bottom of the first page of the pattern in the Son of a Stitch n' Bitch book which I think should have been on the top of the other page or bolded, highlighted and with big arrows pointing to it. *sigh* I did not cast off 7 stitches on either side of the back before going ahead with the raglan shaping (instructions for which begin at the top of the second page....why these weren't with the rest of the raglan shaping or right above it on the second page I don't know). I realized this when I was about to do the shaping for the front. The front has been done correctly...I started the first sleeve today, hopefully I'll finish that tomorrow and then I will rip out the back to the start of the shaping and re-do it properly. I'm coming up to when I can do the duplicate stitch on the front (very exciting!).

OH and also exciting is I got a birthday present from my parents today (not my birthday but its the first time I'm seeing them since my birthday). I got one of the kits that I really really wanted since laying eyes on it ... Cleopatra sock kit. I can't start it right now because I'm at their house without the proper needles but I'm very exciting. Its also probably good that I don't have the needles because I would have just jumped right into it and lost my super secret knitting time tomorrow haha. Very excited to start this on Thursday :D

Meet Vivian!

This is Vivian. The product of 2 months worth of work but it was totally worth it! As of Friday morning I was finished the shoulders and then I moved on to the hood, which felt like it took forever. I knit the rest of the day Friday, Saturday and the majority of Sunday until I was done. Today I sewed in the zipper (and badly). I harvested the zipper from a sweater that I don't wear anymore. There weren't any places near me that sold zippers, not within walking distance anyway.

The pattern was great. Only two mistakes but I believe those are fixed in the newer version of the pattern and the Vivian KAL really helped (THANKS GUYS!)! My only complaint would be that once I got to the hood it got kind of confusing because the odd rows became the right side and even rows became the wrong side. I missed a row of cables at one point and had to rip back two rows :(

Next project: something small... no more sweaters for a while

I love Vivian

My new project is Vivian. I was looking at the pattern for a while and decided I had to make it. It shall be my first sweater :) I checked all the current projects to see what kind of yarn everyone was using, and keeping that in mind I searched the internets for deals on some yarn. I ended up settling on Cascade Eco+ from Kit Knit. I was really lucky I got it. Stupid Canada Post left it in the front door of the apartment building by the buzzer, blarg. 

Rolling the hanks into balls was interesting. At some point I'd really like to get a ball winder and swift. I did 2/3 swatches, which were exactly the gauge I needed so I didn't do the third one (but hey, at least I swatched :P). 

I just finished row 22 and things are going well for the most part. It is certainly giving me lots of practice correcting mistakes vertically with a crochet hook. There's been a couple of times purls have shown up where knits should be, and one instance where I missed crossing a cable and only noticed 3 rows later *sigh*! The Knit Fix book my mom got me for Christmas has really come in handy. I've been focusing all my knitting attention on this sweater, so really it's my fault for not having something easy for tv-watching or Sip n' Stitch nights. Ah well, I am a sucker for punishment.