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.

FO: Baby Poonam

This little sweater, Baby Poonam, was easy and fun to knit. I've never picked up stitches to knit the arms top to bottom before, but it looks nice and was easy to sew up. My LYS, The Gourmet Yarn Co., didn't carry the Berroco Comfort DK, so I used Plymouth Dream Baby DK instead. I ended up making another in Berroco Touche, which turned out nice although I had to go down 2 needle sizes to get gauge.

Top left sweater and beanie is Berroco Touche, bottom right is in Plymouth Dreambaby.

Hat pattern is #57 Baby Cable Beanie by SweaterBabe.

Easy and fun to knit, turns out really cute! I changed the front ribbing band, I like for cables to flow out of the ribbing rather than do a purl row and then start the cables from nowhere. I also changed the button band ribbing, if you start with P1, then K2,P2 across and end with P1, then when you pick up sts on either side the P column goes away and you’re left with nice neat columns of ribbing next to the pickup. Here’s how I changed the bottom cable start next to the ribbing:

WS Increase Row (knit onto larger needle)
Textured Pattern Panel P next 11 st while incr 3 st evenly P-wise, PM (14 sts)(3 added)
Cable A inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, (P2,K2)twice, PM (10 sts)(1 added)
Cable B P2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, P4, K1, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K3, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K5, P2, PM (32 sts)(6 added)
Cable A (K2,P2) 2 times, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, PM (10 sts) (1 added)
Textured Pattern Panel inc P-wise in all 7 sts (14 sts)(7 added)

FO: Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell

Knit on the way to/from Grand Lake Colorado over the 4th of July week, this tank was pretty easy until I got to the lace shoulders. Finally went into the town of Grand Lake to the coffee shop and used their free wi-fi to search for errata. I knew I wasn't crazy! The lace pattern is printed wrong in the magazine (IK Summer 2007), here's the correction. I used Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, which is 100% cotton instead of the cotton/micro blend called for in the pattern. It's a little heavy, but the lace looks great! I also wish I'd made one size smaller so that it would not be quite so big at the waist.

FO Bejewelled Tank

Finally finished the Bejewelled Tank. It was worth the frogging and cursing, it's now one of my favorite summer sweaters. I designed this tank myself, I may post the pattern someday if anyone is interested. It's knit in Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a cotton/bamboo blend, so it's nice and soft.