FO: Green vest

It's been busy chez yoel. Just 8 more days until the big bad board exam! I did manage to finish--4 days early and 2.5 balls of yarn to spare (never heard-of for a gift project!)--a green vest for DH for his birthday. Woot woot! Celebrations have been rather subdued, what with the studying and all, but he did get to wear his vest on his birthday, like a day-long hug.

Isn't he a cutie, even in the harsh hurried light of dawn before work? The directions are from the sleeveless sweater in Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top. This book is awesome. The yarn is Lambswool and Cashmere, by Simply Shetland, and I used about 4.5 balls. Yes, it pays to have a svelte SO--they make for faster and cheaper FO's. This is the best v-neck band I've done so far...I think I've cracked the secret. If I can replicate it I'll let you all in on it.

I think my armhole ribbing was pretty nice too. At the very end, when I was doing the bottom hem ribbing and endlessly bitching about how much I hate knitting ribbing, DH commented, "Ribbing, not for her pleasure." This should be this blog's motto!

DH now has vests in blue, gray, and green. He still wants a vest each in mustard yellow, choc brown, rust/orange, and sky blue. Oh, and some with stripes too! Anyone have a knitting machine they want to donate?

WIP: green vest

Due to DH's impending birthday, the market cardi has been put on hold to make him a green vest. It's top-down, following the general instructions from Barbara Walker's Knitting from the top. All the thought-requiring parts (shoulder short rows, neck, armholes) are done, and now it's just stockinette-smooth sailing til the end. (Well, except for the neck and armhole edging, which for now is out of sight, out of mind.)

He picked out the yarn, Simply Shetland Lambswool & Cashmere. It has an odd crunchy feel, but it blooms nicely with blocking and gets soft. I love the multiple green tones. I'm not quite sure what to call this kind of dyeing--there are four plys and each one has all the different shades of green, so that the yarn/fabric looks slightly mottled.

Hopefully this vest will be done in time. It has been a busy weekend, including attending a wedding at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. (No, I did not take knitting to the wedding). After the ceremony we saw some more of the gardens. This orange/purple leafy plant, whose name I can never remember, was so pretty!

There was an archway with squash vines growing on top, with comical fruit hanging down.
Now it's time to get back to work, namely studying my butt off, and the knitting will have to wait. Boo. Oh to be done with deadlines and exams!

A slight creepy but useful friend

Meet my new dress form! I haven't named her yet, mainly because it's so funny and creepy to call her "My Double," which is her real name, embroidered onto her chest and all. All those strange gaping body parts remind me a lot of the robots at the garbage dump in A.I. (terrible movie, do not watch! unless it's for Jude Law, then it's A-ok).

This is so exciting! I am envisioning all sorts of sewing projects, which are going to magically make themselves, now that I have My Double. Also, better knitwear photos, without random cats in the frame. I just need to pad out her boobage, wrap her with batting so she's not so robotic, and make a nice cloth cover for the whole thing.

WIP: market cardi

As every knitter who subscribes to knitting magazines knows, the fall issue for pretty much every magazine this year hit it out of the park. They are full of patterns that people want to knit and wear--amazing! I've never actually knitted any big projects from a magazine pattern before. In fact, the only magazine projects I can think of are these plain socks, and these other not-so-plain socks. So it's a really big deal that there is not one, but several patterns I want to knit this season out of IK and VK, which I subscribe to, and also Knitscene, which I've so far avoided because the projects were a bit juvenile, but it seemes to have matured. This is the first one.

It's the Farmer's Market Cardigan, by Connie Chang Chinchio. Look at the cute little pockets! With the ribbed edge at the top of the pockets that then turns to line the collar! It is a bit long and tunic-y for my usual tastes, but tunics seem to be a big thing these days, and I'm hoping that with some waist shaping/belt my legs will not look so stumpy. I've done the main torso so far. I'm not using the recommended yarn (Lorna's Laces), mainly b/c it wasn't available at the LYS where I returned all the unused balls of yarn from the truncated dress. Instead, I'm using Cascade 220 tweed. Gauge was bang on, even the row gauge after 80 rows. Hooray!

Now just the sleeves, pockets, and ginorm ribbed edging left! Hopefully it'll be done soon enough to wear to a farmer's market before they close down for the year.