Vanilla Beans

So, I have been wanting a few "plain vanilla" projects to work on in between my more complicated and demanding cable or other projects. Perversely, with a white and orange cat, I still attempt to maintain my preference for black clothing. Yeah, Sisyphus has nothing on me. At least I haven't (yet) developed allergies. Yet. {knocks wood; throws salt over shoulder, etc.}

I've been repeatedly admiring the Everybody Knows cardigan on the recent edition of Knitty, but I don't particularly care for doing *all garter stitch all the time* either, so I decided I'd model my sweater on that pattern, but do seed (a.k.a. moss) stitch to stabilize the curl at the bottom, and then just continue thereafter with stockinette stitch. I left out here nifty stripes of yarn-overs, as I just didn't desire them, and concentrated my efforts on planning my darts (which I will have to make a little more complicated than hers in order to match my body type, oh joy). So far, so good. Since I couldn't make up my mind which yarn to select, I opted for the charcoal grey Pastaza yarn, and for another in the black Eco + bulky, both from Cascade yarns. Happily that bulky comes in 478 yard skeins, which makes it *way* cheaper - huzzah. Given my color choices, and the simple but absurd fact that I chose to make two cardigans... well, it's become my Vanilla Bean project (right color scheme, at least). My BFE (big fat excuse / justification) for this project this late in the season of cold is that by the time I get anywhere close to finishing one of them it'll be camping and beach-walking season, and it's very breezy and chilly at night in Maine, especially on an island, so I think I'm justified. So there.

Now if only I had the time and patience for color work, I'd make the hilarious, crazy fish hats in this month's edition. Dang.

So close...

So close to finishing the little baby hooded cardigan that originally started out as a guernsey sweater - ha ha ha, therein lies a story. I start these projects and just keep improvising, it's a thing I have. Nonetheless, this is exciting. I love the cranberry color and the feel of the yarn, so although the first time I knitted the sleeves, I was wondering if it was just that I'm unfamiliar with the relative size and proportions appropriate to knitting a baby sweater, but I had in fact picked up too many stitches for the armscye. I went back afterwards, frogged out, and started again with a better number and now they match. Much better. Now I'm just knitting the hood; I was considering doing just a little collar but since the cardigan seems large enough to use as a little "coat" then a hood seems appropriate given that winter is just about upon us. I've got some really cute little buttons, and I'm going to make some i-cord loops to go around the buttons for the closures. Very excited to be approaching the finish, so I can move on to making the little booties from a pattern I saw. *eek!*

sweaters...at last!

So, my ravelry queue of projects is laughably long - and seriously, it's true I'm working on most of them all the time - which is why none are finished! Obviously, there are only so many hours in the day.

I don't know about anyone else, but I switch projects depending on whether I just want to cruise along with stockinette stitch, or follow a more complex pattern, or what. That of course means that I've made sporadic and uneven progress with each project. Which is alright, I guess, because they all seem to change in priority anyway.

Currently, with the onset of cold weather (heat's been on a couple nights in my building) the wool is more appealing than it had been previously. I finally cruised through and finished my red and brown striped hiking sweater, very thrilling! I've christened it by wearing it to the office a couple times now, so it's officially a garment. I still have to take the final pictures though to post on ravelry.

I'm also making progress on several baby projects, now that that due date is upon us...I'm just psyched to have a niece now, hee hee! Then I'm hoping to finish off my cotton jacket for the office (I do enjoy doing cables) and then I think the rest of my time will be taken up working on the cardigan for dad.

Cinnamon-colored summer cotton sweater

cinnamon sublime sweater, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

So instead of the wool projects, I've been racing along, working on this one instead. And a baby sweater as well, but I'm keeping that one under wraps until it's time to send it to the new parents. Then I'll post final photos for that project. In the meantime, presuming I don't knit decreases where I should have increases...I hope to finish this little short-sleeved summer cotton/soy sweater (shirt?) done while the warm weather lasts. The yarn is "Sublime" - which the hand of the fabric is, but the yarn...is not so much. It's worth pointing out that inasmuch as it's wonderful to knit, it is also highly prone to splitting, and it has knot(s) in each and every skein. I'm composing a grumbly letter to the manufacturer on this one. Still, the fabric has a great drape, once you figure out what to do with all those knots.