I Had A Dream...

Of finishing my first sweater. It all started last year when Necia proposed an I have a Dream Knit-along in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. Since I have tackled many a baby sweater, I figured it was high time I made something wearable for myself. In fact 2007 turned into the year of knitting for me. Well the project started off great but I quickly lost steam after finishing most of the back piece.
Oh, in case I forgot to mention, the pattern is from the Vogue Knitting Unltimate knitting book. They have a bunch of patterns created by some well known designers way in the back of the book. I chose a wrap cardigan designed by Oscar De La Renta. Moving right along, the sweater sat in limbo for a good 6 months before I picked it back up. I'm still surprised I remembered the pattern and all. Well it took me most of the fall to complete the two front pieces and the sleeves. Actually it went more like, sleeve, left front, sleeve, right front. I was so ecstatic to finally have my dream sweater almost complete but then I don't know what happened.
I don't know if its the daunting task of seaming the gargantuan pile of fabric or if I just lost interest but this has been the sweaters state for a while.
By the way, none of these pictures actually show the true color. The pattern includes knitting two belts 30" and 40" to use as ties but I just don't like knitting them. I've contemplated just crocheting the darn things but I don't think I'll get the same effect. I'm thinking about just scrapping the belts and use a big 'ol shawl pin as a closure. Hopefully talking about it here will help get me motivated to just seam the thing. Well a girl can dream...

Speaking of sweaters, I have recently fallen head over heels in love with a sweater pattern. It's the cover cardigan in my favorite British knitting magazine, Simply Knitting. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The only discouraging factor was that the sweater used about 8 balls of Rowan Big Wool which aint cheap, let me tell ya. Thanks to WEBS, I have my yarn (at like half the price) and I'm itching to cast on. I've read on Ravelry that a bunch of people have finished it in a weekend which is just my kind of pattern. I'll keep you posted.

Well thats about it for my sweater post. See you next time.

P.S. You can see me on camera for like a second bugging Kat for a picture at Rhinebeck over on her videocast. Thanks Glenna for giving me the heads up about it.

Yes, I'm still alive thanks for asking :-)

Well no one really asked but yes I am still alive, just been extremely busy. Happy New Year and all that jazz. You won't see any resolutions posted here just because... I just don't wanna. My holiday season was pretty low key just spent at home chilling with the family.Not a lot of knitting or spinning going on. I'm not going to recap my knits for 2007 either for the same reason stated previously. With all of that said, why did I start this post? Oh yeah, I just want to bring my blog up to date for '08 (I like the way that sounds).

I'm currently working on a secret project which will be revealed once it's finished. All I can say is that its super cute and way out of my comfort zone. I don't know what was in the water this summer but the preggers people are coming out in full force. I made my first Baby surprise jacket and I am now officially in love with the pattern. I made it for one of my coworkers that attends our purls of hope knitting sessions there. She is so incredibly sweet so I knew I had to make something extra special for her impending bundle of joy.
The yarn is Red Heart baby soft and I can honestly say that I enjoyed knitting with it. I mean its acrylic thats soft, doesn't squeak or hurt your hands, what more could you ask for? It took me about a week to make and I used the pattern from EZ's Opinionated Knitter book. I tried to make the bonnet that has sort of the same mitered lines as the sweater but it looked rather odd to me. I ended up seaming of the side of it and turning it into a hat. I'm planning on knitting another one but with some handspun yarn with a lot of color. Speaking of, have you seen the one in the new Spin Off magazine? Yeah, I know!

As far as my wip's from my previous project, I ditched the sock (just wasn't feeling it) and I lost the chart I made for the vest. Once I get the energy to try and remember what patterns I used and where I left off then I'll resume knitting it. Hopefully I'll have it done before winter is over.

I know I keep making reference to a spinning project that I'm working on but I haven't actually given any details. That's because I don't feel as though I have enough content to show as of yet. Plus I don't really know where I'm headed with it so I want to wait until I have it a little more planned out. But I will take you through my steps so far.

I took some White scoured New Zealand Romney wool that I purchased from RH Lindsay and dyed the locs in shades of purple, green and salmon. I then carded the colors separately into nice fluffy batts. I then added specs of the other colors into each main color (i.e specs of green & salmon in the purple batt etc).

I feel stumped right now because I'm not sure of how I want to spin it and what I want the end product to be. I think I may want to make a fair isle hat being that I only have a little over an ounce and a half of each color or I may make fair isle mittens. So once I know what I want to make, then I can spin and the whole process will be posted here for you all to see.

I think I'm done for now so I'll try not to make myself so much of a stranger. Later.