still on the seamless hybrid

That Elizabeth Zimmermann. I really dig her writing voice and how her 'patterns' are witty explanations. Reading the pattern is like reading a good story. The only downside to her style is that she'll often refer to a previous passage in the book so there's a lot of flipping back and forth to be done--bookmarks come in handy.




I'm really digging the idea of a seamless sweater... I HATE sewing seams.
So, that's the body on the top and one sleeve on the bottom. I'm moving along surprisingly fast. I'm having a slight dilemma though. I CO for the body a bit too tightly... and then I was having the hardest time comprehending EZ's directions for adding a hem so I went ahead and did a 2x2 rib in order to stop curl-age. Now that I'm done with the body I hate the rib and my CO edge just doesn't stretch enough.

I feel like cutting will be involved. o_O I've never undone the bottom of my work, so, it's looking a bit scary.




I'm imagining that I'll have to insert a life line or a needle in a row above the ribbing... and then take my scissors to the CO edge and hope for good unraveling... does that sound about right?
I re-read her section on hems and now it makes much more sense.
I hope to finish the first sleeve tonight... and then maybe make an attempt at fixing the body tomorrow. Everything is moving pretty fast. =) I thought it would take me months to finish a sweater.

I have a few snapshots of my Anthropologie-inspired Capelet and circular shrug. I had my friends Lora and Anne try them on the other day. Sorry about the crappy quality... it was night time and I had to use the dreaded, unflattering flash. ^_^




Ahh, circular shrug. I guess the "hypothetical" size I made was a nice choice because it fit Lora nicely as well as a handful of my other friends and cousins. I think I'll have to knit another one as a Christmas gift... and allow it to suck out more life from me.




This capelet ended up pretty crappily. Mainly regarding the YOs. I missed a few and ... misplaced a few. o_O It fits though, and it looks halfway decent. I originally aimed to give it to Lora, but, it's such crap that I'd rather knit her a new one. For now Anne is modeling it. =)

That's all for now. Wish me luck on my CO edge cutting adventure.
Knit hard!

my stash my stash my stash, my lovely yarny stash

check it out.

Stitches Midwest turned out to be... interesting. SO many stores and SO MUCH YARN. Quite overwhelming. Luckily, with the help of ravelry.com I was able to create a list of projects I wanted to knit in the future. My list included the pattern-suggested yarn as well as alternative yarns that other knitters used. Oh ravelry, so helpful.
I brought my friend Danielle along. Out of the 3 people I've taught to knit she's the only one who stuck with it. She already conquered cables and knitting in the round... it took me over 6 months to get that far... I guess she's a really good student... or I'm just an awesome teacher. LoL.

Tangent. ... So... here's what I managed to find:





Mmm, silky wool. I brought my Branching Out scarf as my WIP to Stitches... I was really enjoying knitting it at the time (right now it's been waiting for me to finish my circular shrug--see below). I had already decided it would make an awesome gift so I decided to grab another ball so I could make another. I think the second one will be for my mom.





This yarn is a long story. =)
At the end of last winter I was at Coach with my best friend Lora. They had these beautiful cashmere blend scarves for sale. Sale to them was still over $200. x_X I decided, that I would find similar colors and a similar cashmere yarn and knit them for myself.
Finding both the same colors and yarn proved to be difficult... it wasn't until Stitches that I saw 3 of the almost perfect color ways. They weren't cashmere though... they happened to be 100% alpaca. We passed up the table and I kept them in the back of my mind. Finally, on our semi-second round of the market I decided to buy them. 100% alpaca is cRaZy soft... of course, not as orgasmic as cashmere, but, would definitely make a great scarf. So, here's to my Coach knock-off.





Mmm, sock yarn. ... I hate knitting socks. =( After my 3 separate attempts I still don't have a pair of socks that fit or match. Luckily, this skein of Lorna's Lace is for Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts. I've been eye-ing them ever since I fell into the world of knitting blogs. It'll be my first color work project, and, I'm quite excited. I, strangely, ended up with a very similar color choice to her original pair...





I just love the blue-brown combo.
Well, those were my purchases from this year's Stitches Midwest. I'm already looking forward to next year. Sadly, we didn't win any prizes, but, Danielle got a free mini-hank of Malabrigo lace weight. mmmm. I ended up getting my picture taken for The Panopticon's 1000 Knitter's Project--and I'm knitter 100!
We also felt some buttery soft cashmere... sadly the small skein was $46. Definitely out of my budget. It was so soft we went back after our initial round through the market to get a second touch. ^_^

I'll leave you with one last picture.
Danielle and I decided to do our own mini knit-along. We chose the Circular Shrug pattern, and, we've been working hardcore on it since we started. So hardcore, in fact, that we both claim the project is sucking the life out of us. Hopefully it'll be done soon so she can wear it and I can take pictures and gift it.



Knit hard!