FO: Vogue Knitting #05 Criss-Cross Front Top

It's finished and I really like it, except the armholes are a little snug, even after blocking. I used Ella Rae Silkience yarn in a kind of raspberry color. This is a clever pattern that you knit in pieces. You knit the back, the left front (with a hole in it), and then you knit the right front up to the same level as the hole, pass a few stitches through, and then finish knitting them together. However, I wanted to be sure that the neck decreases on both sides matched, so I knit them simultaneously on one long circular needle. All was well until I got to the finishing. I failed to anticipate the problem of crocheting an edging consisting of one pass around doing sc, and then another pass around doing 5 dc, when said edging has to squeeze through the same 1" hole 4 times! I finally unwound a ball into a long hank so that I could pull it through the hole on each pass around.

In Progress: #05 Twist Top

Making good progress on the #05 Short Sleeve Top from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005. The back is finished, and I'm knitting the fronts simultaneously since you have to slip one side through the other and it would be heavy to have a finished side hanging from the pass-through hole while you're knitting the other side. I'm using Ella Rae Silkience from Webbs, the gauge is too small for this pattern so I'm knitting a larger size and planning for the silk to "grow" after washing. Hopefully I haven't overplanned it!

Finished: #03 Cabled Tank

Wow! A new sweater to wear made in one week! I've obviously spent A LOT of time at the hockey rink this past week. My boys tried out and were accepted on the hockey travel team, I am now the official hockey mom of two of the cutest OKC Junior Blazers. Since they are both going to be practicing twice a week at different times, Mom is going to get some serious quality knitting time at the rink.

Made some changes to this pattern, because Vogue Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2007 listed this pattern as having two cables on reverse stockinette background. However, the back is done in wide ribbing, and the front was all in stockinette. So, I added a purl stitch on either side of the cables and moved the two cables away from the center by 2 stitches so that the purl stitches didn't interfere with the neck shaping. The single-crochet edging really helps to keep the piece from curling, however, my crocheting skills are not good and I'm unhappy with how wiggly the edges look. The yarn is Needful Yarns Kim, which is a cotton chain yarn. It's still a little stiff and scratchy after washing, but I still like the sweater.

Finished the last baby gift! Best Baby Sweater and Petal Hat

Whew! My friends are officially on notice to quit procreating so that I can get back to my regularly scheduled knitting.

Finished the Best Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in Vogue Knitting American Collection and other books, and my old standby, the Petal Hat. Notes on the sweater, use a row gauge to keep track of buttonholes, when you do the math they occur on rows 3, 19,35,51,67 and 83. The arm length is a little short, so instead do 9 pattern repeats before the garter edging, and I also did 9 repeats for the body and ended up with pretty even buttonhole spacing.