February Lady Sweater

I've been taking a class at Stitches With Style on the February Lady Sweater... and this will be my first sweater. I took pictures a while ago, but then I frogged the sweater because I misunderstood directions and ended up with 9 extra stitches. I'm probably about 30% done... the yoke is finished (MAN THAT YOKE TOO FOREVER!) and I've been working on the body in the gull-lace pattern. It's really beautiful, and I LOVE the yarn that I picked! Brown Sheep superwash worsted weight in this bright blue called Bon Vivant Blue. I'll have to take pictures again to post.

I'm really glad that I picked this pattern up because it's a lot of fun, and I love the baby pattern that it's based on. Maybe one of these days I'll knit that for someone I know who's having a baby. But I'm also definitely happy that I am taking a class for this. The extra support is much needed and much appreciated. I've never picked up stitches IN MY LIFE so I'm terrified of the sleeves. Right now they're just hanging out on their waste yarn, waiting for me to finish the body and knit away. I think that once I'm finished and I have a sweater that *I* made that's just for me, I'll be really happy.

My little knit-group and I are also organizing a NYC Yarn Crawl for April, which I'm really excited about. I can't wait to review and see all of these yarn stores in Manhattan. I'm most excited about Purl Soho. Last Minute Knitted Gifts is one of my fave books, and I'm very excited to see the store that produced that book. We're actually hiring a limo service to take us up there. That way we won't have to deal with any taxis or subways... and it's actually less per person to rent a limo than to take a train! I think it'll be about the same price if we took a bus, because we'd have to deal with taxi or subway service all day.

New Challenges

I made a resolution this year to challenge myself. I've already listed some things that I'm going to try. Some of them I've completed, some I'm still working on. I've starting the International Scarf Exchange 7... and so far it's going well. I'm doing my first lace-ish project, I'm working with a new fiber, and I bought far too much of it... so when I'm finished with this project I'm going to make a camisole for myself out of my left over 3 skeins (I bought far too much... I got a little excited because it was 100% merino for $5 a skein.)

I also bought SOCK YARN. I'm all kinds of excited. When I finish the ISE scarf, Olivia's scarf (which I'm almost done, actually... except I'm not crazy about this yarn. I will never buy it again. Lion Brand Microspun. It's DK weight and very stretchy for acrylic, but no matter what my gauge is or what stitch I use IT CURLS LIKE ITS LIFE DEPENDS ON IT and that upsets me), and Brian's scarf if he ever gives me yarn for it I will make socks for myself. Oh boy!!

I also bought a crapton of yarn from knitpicks... lots of bare superwash merino for a baby blanket... and 10 skeins of this wool blend that was on clearance for $1.99 for my first sweater! If only the book I needed to buy (Last Minute Knitted Gifts) wasn't sold out of every Barnes & Noble and Borders in Delaware. Balls.

Technique Checklist

Lately I've been trying to challenge myself with my knitting. I did my first ribbed scarf (still waiting for pics on that... I shipped it to Ireland before getting a good picture) and tackled a few other techniques as well.

Cables-check! I tried it with a scarf for a 2 yr old... still working on it (it's only like 3 inches long right now). I'm also doing a purse for my sister that I'm kind of winging, and the back panel is this cute adorable cable pattern that I yoinked from a scarf pattern I found on google called plaited cable scarf I just added five stitches on each end to the garter border since my purse is 55 stitches.

Fair Isle-check! That purse? The front is a quote done in fair isle.

Long-tail CO-check! LOVE this cast on! Super easy... super fast.. very neat looking. Much neater looking than the single knit cast on. In love with this. Must show my sister, because it's so much easier than anything else I've tried.

Reading charts-check! When I tried the fair isle, it was just easier to have a chart, so Sara taught me how to do that. Much less scary than it looks.

Still on my list of techniques:

• intarsia

• sweaters... I have a little baby sweater I might CO for my boss.

• magic loop. everyone on ravelry raves about it.. i'm curious

Anything else I should tackle?

Knitting Newbie

Ok, not really. I've been knitting for about five or six years. My 12 year old sister taught me how to knit... and she's almost 18 now. I've only ever knit glorified squares. Scarves. Baby blankets. That's it. My first blanket attempt (which is pretty sad...) I made a bunch of scarves basically and mattress-stitched them together. Maybe one of these days I'll do another afghan that's an actual afghan and not a bunch of scarf rejects sewn together.

I have a few confessions to make. Even though I've been knitting for five years... I've only ever done a garter stitch. I know HOW to do other stitches... I've just been scared of purling. and TERRIFIED of cabling. Oh my god it frightens me. But... I'm trying. I've also never ever knitted in the round... nor have I used double ended needles, let alone multipe sized needles on one project. Currently... I'm making my first ribbed scarf. It's coming out all right so far.. I messed up the first few rows... I accidentally did a seed stitch... but i'm making it like a border. It's actually giving it a bit of stability, so I didn't feel the need to start over. I'm using Lion Brand (my absolute fave yarn brand!) Micro-spun in this bright coral pink. And when it's all finished... I'm shipping it out to Ireland where my best friend now lives.

This blog is basically going to be my attempts at knitting bigger projects. My hope is by blogging about it... I'll stay motivated. Things on my list so far: a cabled bag (yikes!), a pretty lace-y scarf for my friend's daughter, and my first sweater (possibly involving knitting in the round...we'll see how ambitious I feel).

I've already taken the first two steps in adventurous projects: I subscribed to a fun knitting mag I like (2 years... big commitment, I know.. but that's a lot of patterns!), and I requested to join ravelry! Once I get that all set up... I might MAYBE possibly post my name for other ravlery users.