Front finished of Michael Kors cabled tunic

Finished the front of the Michael Kors Cabled Tunic (VK Fall 06) last night at 11:30pm. I wasn't going to bed until it was cast off! I have reached the "I'm tired of this project I want to cast on something else" stage. I am going to cast on both sleeves together on the same circ so that I don't end up on different pattern rows. I kept detailed notes on the back so that the front would match exactly.

FO: Wonderful Wallaby

Everyone should knit at least one Wonderful Wallaby. They are fun to knit because there are many detailed (but easy) steps to follow, so you never get bored or face miles of stockinette while waiting to get to the armscye. I bought my pattern from Lionbrand.com, but it's published by Cottage Creations. Yarn used was Plymouth Encore in a denim colorway, bought at The Gourmet Yarn Company.

This was my first attempt at grafting, I think it turned out pretty well and it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared. Of course, the mottled colorway hides a multitude of sins. I wouldn't want my first attempt to have been on solid cotton yarn!

Celtic sweater for Cael from the Stash!

Finally finished Cael's Celtic Sweater. I used Ann Budd's Book of Sweater Patterns for the basic raglan in the round design, then used a K5P3 stitch pattern and added a celtic motif from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knits Collection book (Absolutely love the patterns, HATE the yarn). Yarn used was Dale of Norway Sisik that I caught on sale at SWAK a few years back.

Rambling Rows Afghan - finished!

I finally finished the Rambling Rows Afghan last night. I really enjoyed knitting it because you get to change yarn colors and block sizes often.
By the time you get to the last row, it does get a little tedious, though. In the second pic you can see the decrease lines, which is what keeps it interesting, you're not just knitting squares and rectangles, you're starting out with a multiple of 12 stitches and decreasing down to 2 or 4 stitches to create the shapes. I added an I-cord edging to neaten up the garter stitch edges.
I was trying to do the EZ I-cord out of Opinionated Knitter, but just couldn't get it started, so I switched back to an I-cord pattern I did in the past, the pattern was Seamus from Knitty.com. (The sweater failed miserably because I was unhappy with the way my picked-up stitches looked along the celtic cable edge at the bottom.) I have gotten really fast at picking up stitches now, so it was a good skill improving pattern.

Rambling Rows Afghan - half finished!

The Rambling Rows Afghan from Cottage Creations is half finished! Like every piece I've knit, it's taken longer than I anticipated. However, I feel like I've really gained more mastery over picking up stitches and now I think my necklines are going to look much neater. The garter stitch has been great mindless knitting during football games, soccer practice...etc. I'm using Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in hopes that it will be low maintenance for my Dad (or, more realistically, for his wife! ;) ).

Finished Object: EZ's Garter Stitch Blanket

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Garter Stitch Blanket (Opinionated Knitter and another magazine) is knit in four mitered pieces and then sewn together. I decided to update the colors to chocolate brown and robin's egg blue for a stylish little boy's blanket. Lion Brand Woolease fit the bill on color, easy care, and price. I took these pieces with me on a trip to California last fall thinking that the pieces would be very portable. They ended up being very portable, since I didn't get much done on them!

This blanket has been staring at me reproachfully for a year now. Or should I say the PIECES have been staring at me. I knit this for a special baby thinking "oh, a garter stitch blanket, I can finish that in no time!" Needless to say, I had to hurriedly switch to something else at the last minute to make the deadline. In my defense, I did go ahead and finish the knitting, but the seaming looked hard, so there was always time for that another day...One year later...Now I have two things on the needles, the beautiful white Michael Kors sweater from last year's Vogue Knitting Fall 2006 cover, and a little sweater for my 8-year old who claims I never knit anything for him. So with all of this going on, I find out my father has cancer and will need chemo. Having just gone through this with my mother, I know he will need something warm to cover up with during the chemo treatments. Of course, he needs an afghan, and I just bought the Rambling Rows pattern from LionBrand the other day.


But I've got 2 sweaters on the needles and blanket pieces that I keep having to shake the dust off of. Now I'm stressed and guilty. So, I divide and conquer (I originally typed 'concur', I think my brain is making fun of me). I hurriedly finish the last 10 rows on the back piece of the Michael Kors sweater and bind off. Good stopping point.


Then, I send the kids outside to play, lay out the pieces of the EZ blanket on the living room floor and start seaming. Hmm, this wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but it still took two hours. There. Done. But wait, I'm actually ahead! I have a baby gift and no baby to give it to! Woo hoo!

Woo hoo! First pair of socks

These are the Rhiannon sock pattern from Cookie A.'s website. I knit them in cream for kilt hose for my other obsession, er, hobby, piping. I used Jawoll sock yarn which
handily comes with a little spool of matching reinforcing thread in every ball. This was my first pair of socks that I've ever knit, discounting a quickie set of elf booties for my son's Christmas play last year.

The pattern has two awkward rows that take up to an hour to do because you're purling TBL through 4 stitches then purling them again on the front. With tiny little needles. Save up your curse words for those rows, you'll need them! Also, I started the cuff 3 different times because it ended up enormous and eventually threw the tape measure in the trash and made the smallest size cuff and the medium-ish size calf and ankle. The cuff is still a little big, but I'll be wearing flashes (like sock garters) with them, anyway.

It's finished and I hate it

Well, I finished my Debbie Bliss Sleeveless Crossover. Although I made gauge and followed the pattern exactly, it does not fit like the picture shows. It is way too short to be tied at the waist (it needs to be another 2-3" long to look like the picture), and the ribbed collar which took me 3 evenings to complete is so heavy that it pulls the sweater down my back. Looking back, I should have done the extra step of laying the measurements down on a sweater that I liked to see what the result would be. Also, I guess I should have figured that a ribbed collar in cotton yarn was going to be really heavy. Oh well, it's a learning experience and the yarn was on sale, so I'm not completely devastated.

Went and dunnit

Well, here I am with a knitting blog. Writing my own raw html for http://www.brennanfamily.info/michelle/knitting.html became so time consuming that I stopped documenting my knitted items. Time to ride on someone else's code now.

OTN: Debblie Bliss Sleeveless Crossover from Wish You Were Here pamphlet in red DB Cotton Cashmere that I scored on sale at Herrshner's a few months back. It calls for a suede belt, not sure what I'm going to do about that yet, probably depends on how much yarn I have leftover (grin). Also, I'm anticipating the installation of lots of little plastic snaps to keep everything where it needs to be!