sweaters – Page 2 – Behind the Smile

February 23, 2010June 24, 2010

Up To (No Good)

I’ve spent a good portion of these first two months of 2010 doing nothing but knitting on sweaters and listening to zombies on book-on-CD while I work on some jewelry designs. My place is pretty trashed due to my tragic housekeeping skills, though I did clean my bathroom recently (the other bathroom is my de-facto paper-towel storage center and knit-wear cleaning station). And one of my new years resolutions was to keep more on top of things, and I certainly have in the kitchen, which is where things were most dire. Other places in the house it’s just full of craft-related clutter. The one thing in the kitchen that is throwing me is recycling, like where do I keep that stuff? I don’t even know. Argh.

I’m trying to be a better housekeeper, but…

Honestly, I have better things to do. 😛

So anyway, I have been knitting, and I totally knit this sweater in January:

(hard to take a decent picture of yourself, let alone knitwear by yourself at 10 pm in the middle of winter, you know? oy.)

I like it.

PATTERN: Gathered Pullover, Interweave
YARN: Dream in Color Classy, Happy Forest
MODS: Well, the whole thing is a mod except for the bustline cable. The original pattern has you knit from the bottom up with no ribbings. But that is not how I roll, so I knit it as a top down raglan with 2×2 ribbings. I hate the curly look of stockinette edging. Also, I made 3/4 sleeves instead of long sleeve. I had enough yarn to make long sleeves but I wasn’t feeling it.

IN CONCLUSION:

Here is a picture of the zombie box I made that I found on my harddrive.

Hard to believe that I actually made that like six or seven years ago now! Oh, zombie box. It only lost two of the Barbie arms in my travels.

…I hated sculpture class. I have no aptitude for three dimensional thinking (hence making illustration/drawing my main focus), though I did enjoy ceramics. If I ever find my grotesques I’ll post pictures of those. I have no idea what happened to them – I remember packing them, and then they are just not here anywhere post-Texas. I’ll have to check the shed.

November 22, 2009June 24, 2010

Stuff I Made That Is Awesome

The end of year crafting extravaganza has begun. I love making presents for people. “People” also includes myself. Okay, mostly myself, haha. Seriously though, I have started two of the three knitting gifts I plan on giving this year, one of which is about 75% completed. So I’m way ahead of my “OMG it’s December 15th??? I should get started on the present making!!” I usually wind up with.

So no pics on those till after Christmas. They’re awesome, though.

Hey, so I finished Liesl and I love her.

You can also get a nice view of my sassy wood paneling up in there.

She fits nice. Here is a crappy picture I took of myself in my “vanity” area, and it is a mess so ignore the laundry all over the place.

Not only is that a fairly crappy picture, but it’s an “in the mirror” picture, haha! But as you can see, Liesl looks super cute on.

Though I will fess up to the fact that even though there are six buttons they don’t all close. I should have stopped making button holes after four, but, whatever.

Basically I knit the 46″ size, but didn’t, you know, swatch, or use the right needle or anything, so it’s a miracle that I like it and it fits! And I did the picot bind off, which is kinda twee but I think works for this highly girly knit. The buttons are from the La Mode vintage reproduction line. I found them at JoAnn’s. They cost more than the Vanna yarn, heh.

The other thing I made is this awesome beret:

I made this out of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, which is an awesome fingering weight yarn. Very silky feeling. I used a #3 US needle. I should have used a smaller needle for the ribbing because it blocked completely ridiculous. Like, too huge to fit. So, annoyed that all my hard work had been negated by a very necessary block, I bought some red elastic thread and sewed it into the cast on edge. You can’t even see it, but it salvaged the knit spectacularly! I noticed that a lot of store-bought berets have elastic in the edge, so it must not be that uncommon for the edge to be a little too big. But that would be my recommendation on this pattern (#24 lace beret in the latest Vogue Knitting Holiday mag) to not be lazy and actually knit the edge on smaller needles. I think the pattern actually tells you to do this, but, whatever. Now it fits great.

Anyway, so aside from the Christmas projects, I have also cast on for a sweater out of some gray wool-ease I had lying around. Much like the Liesl yarn, I suspect that I bought this way on sale. Here’s the initial design for the sweater:

graysweater

I’m winging it, as usual, so we’ll see A) how long it keeps my interest and B) if it even does what I want it to. Basically I want it to have a yoke of some sort, whether garter stitch or cabled I haven’t yet decided, sort of blousey sleeves with a narrow cuff and a sewn hem for neatness. Worked top down. I already have the top rib started and need to look in my stitch books for the yoke part.

November 10, 2009June 24, 2010

What I’m Working On

I’ve inexplicably been compelled to knit a sweater, which honestly doesn’t happen that often. I don’t like purling that much, I really only like cardigans (in which purling is pretty much a must) and I just REALLY REALLY love making socks and shawls more than anything else!

So, EXHIBIT A that I’ve lost my mind a wee bit:

Is it not super pretty? I realize that I’ve already added the buttons, but that was to try it on. I still need to sew on 2 more but I don’t really need them. And I’ve knit another three or so inches on it since I took this picture last weekend. The inside is finished as well – I’m weaving in ends as I go. (Since this picture was taken I’ve finished the body of the sweater and started on the sleeves.)

It’s an extremely painless process, I am amazed to report. That Ysolda really knows how to write a pattern, and Liesl is no exception. The Vanna White yarn is nice to work with and seems to have a nice drape. Also, *ahem* only cost me $10.81 for four skeins, which will be the perfect amount. IN FACT, the yarn was the cheapest thing, the notions and the US 10.5 circular needles (a small circular for the sleeves and a large one for the body) will have cost about $16, hah – and I used a coupon at JoAnn’s for the larger needle.

I am enjoying the knitting and I do like sweaters, so I may make an attempt to make another one, but the construction would have to be interesting and not too purly (I’m thinking Manon from Norah Gaughan, maybe). On the other hand, I would also like to try a yoked sweater, so I dunno.

I must be out of my mind, wanting to knit sweaters. But I did go through my closet and pulled out a bunch of yarn for various projects. I apparently really like kelly green Vanna yarn because I counted fifteen (15!!!!1) skeins in the closet, so I would just like say WTF about that. And also: ugh.

Anyway, I also finished a pair of socks, like, a month ago. Six weeks ago even.

Another pair of Lacunae Socks from Anne Hanson/Knitspot. I really love this pattern. I think it might be my new “Monkey” or vanilla-type sock. Quick, easy, interesting and super comfortable.

Next time: I’ve been obsessively crocheting snowflakes for a Christmas themed decoration that I am planning on affixing to my ceiling. Good times at my house.