FO: Placed Cable Aran

Woohoo! I have just finished my second sweater! I bound off the sleeves last night and just had a few minutes to stitch them on to the body. The sweater needs to be blocked before I can document it (and harrass Mr Kiwi about using his camera) and posting here.
I never thought that I would be knitting sweaters so quickly so soon after knitting my first one. They're really not too bad!
Now I have to think about my next knitting project. ;o)

FO: Gatsby Girl Pullover

The Gatsby Girl Pullover is officially now an FO. It is 100% complete, and I don't need to thread/stitch/weave in/touch anything. Hooray! Now it can sit and wait for 4 months for it to get cold enough for me to wear it. Well, that part really sucks... But it being finished is really cool!! And since I have blabbed on enough about it in previous posts, I'll show some pictures.







So.... now what does this one project wonder knit next? Suggestions?

Gatsby Girl: Done!

The Gatsby Girl Pullover is soooo close to being finished! Right now it is laying out, slightly damp, and pinned to blocking mats. The ends on the sleeves are all woven in, and the picot edging on the neck is sewn over, and the shoulders are seamed together. The only things I have left to do is to sew over the picot edging on the bottom of the body and the bottoms of the sleeves, as well as making the loops for the buttons on the left shoulder as well as attaching them. It's just finishing that I have to do! I am so excited. This is my first sweater, and it is almost complete! Hooray! And you know that the minute it is finished I will be posting pictures of it. I am even thinking about wearing it to work the first day it is done. How can I justify this? It's always cold in the lab and I have a sweater that lives there anyway...

Cats + Yarn = Argg!!!

Sometimes my cats drive me absolutely crazy. Thus far I have been able to keep them from attacking any of my yarn that I am using for the Gatsby Girl Pullover. Until today. I got home excited to work further on my second sleeve, which is sooo close to being finished. I open the door to see my sleeve on the floor next to half of the ball, and strings stretched half across the living room next to the other half of the ball. So instead of getting to relax and instantly start working on my sleeve, I had to spend an hour untangling the mass of yarn. Damn you, cats!!! ::shakes fist::

Pictures!!

Okay! I decided to try on the Gatsby Girl Pullover to see how it fit, it its completely unfinished state. I used stitch markers to close the parts of the shoulders that need to be seamed, and slid it on. I am SO excited. This is my first sweater/top thing, and I am overjoyed with how it fits.



Please excuse the bright undergarnments shining through the lace. That will be fixed before wearing the top out in public, I swear.


I am into the beginning of sleeve one, and I sure hope it fits and works out as well as the rest of the sweater. Funny though, how cute it looks without the sleeves. I'm sure it would look better if it were actually finished properly, though.

Woo!!!

Knitting Vacation

Whew! I am finally back from my vacation (and of course I came back with a cold...) and can finally sit down and write.

First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU to my secret pal Melissa for sppoiling me in Secret Pal 10. Over the course of the exchange, she gave me an entrelac washcloth, knitting note cards, jewelry for Tibet (!!!), and the last "package" sent was gift card to kpixie (which since I *just* got home I have not had a chance to take advantage of). Thank you so much!

As for the vacation, I visited Mr Kiwi's parents in Boston (as well as attended two of his friends' wedding) and we took a few side trips. Mr Kiwi's mom and I went to a near by yarn shop where we got into trouble and had fun. I spent some time teaching her how to knit toe-up socks, which she seemed to be getting quite a kcik out of. Mr Kiwi and I took some time for ourselves and drove up to Booth Bay Harbor, Maine, coincidentally on their annual Windjammers Days. We did some train things that he enjoys, and planned on making a stop to one yarn store at the Harbor for fun for me. We ended up seriously lucking out on that end. The shop we went to was closing because the owners wanted to retire. I got so much loot on sale! Lots of interesting yarn companies that I had never heard of before. I'll have to post pictures of *everything* when I am slightly more sane.
While we were sitting on the grass waiting to watch the parade just for us, I found an ad for Winters Gone Farm; an alpaca farm nearby. Jackpot! It was the coolest farm ever. There were alpacas everywhere, and two babies; so cute! There was also a store where we could buy alapca goods; clothes, girsts, random crap, and YARN. I felt it would be.. cheap buying a premade or random manufactured item instead of yarn, so I bought 2 skeins of yarn from one of the alapcas that lived on the farm.
But is that all? Absolutely not. Driving on the way to Maine, we saw a random sign on the highway that said "YARNS". I made Mr Kiwi follow the signs up to a private home, which of course had some sheep and a small farm. On the way up, it was closed, but on the way home we were sure to try again. It turned out to be the Romney Ridge Farm, and the woman who greeted us was very nice and friendly. She had so many yarns crammed into such a teeny little hutch that she was selling from, and they were all so incredible. If you're ever driving near Woolwich Maine, be sure to stop by the Romney Farm! While we were there we picked up a map of all the yarn shops in Maine, and holy jeeze!! Even the teeniest town would have 5! I think I found my new favorite state ;o)

Finally, my Gatsby Girl Pullover is going fantastically. I only have the sleeves left to do, blocking and then minimal seaming. Of course, those pictures will come when I am more settled.

Happy Knitting, and for those in the states, a preemptive Happy 4th of July!

Pictureless Update

Has it really been a week since I last posted? What have I been doing? Well, too much. Friday night Mr Kiwi and I took a red eye out to his hometown on the opposite coast. The plane left at 1:30am (which was 30 minutes later than scheduled) and the doors to our connecting flight were closing as we ran off of our plane. So we got to wait 1.5 hours for the next flight. I didn't sleep too much on either flight, so there was a mix of watching Apollo13 on the laptop and knitting. It must have been amusing to see the two of us sharing ear buds watching a movie and swapping out batteries when we thought one was dead.

I have been knitting a heck of a lot as flights (especially long ones) will do that. I am still chugging away at the Gatsby Girl Pullover... would you expect anything less? As of last night, I am done with the main body and am working on the lace pattern. This is where things are going to start getting interesting, since I haven't exactly figured out where, when, and how I am going to break my knitting in the round so I can leave space for the arm holes. I'll get it figured out though. I never knew sweaters could go so fast! Almost 2 weeks of knitting this, and I feel like I have done so much!

Mr Kiwi's mom also knits, and it has been a blast talking about knitting with her. She wanted to learn how to knit socks, so before I left I bought and balled some sock yarn for her. Today we are going to a new yarn shop to get her some small needles and on we will go! Last night Mr Kiwi took pictures of the two of us sitting on the couch knitting our sweaters.

Of course since I am not at home I don't have everything I need to be able to post pictures. I have the camera, but no way to move the pictures onto the computer. There will be a picture ridden post when I get back though!

Gatsby Love

After frogging the Gatsby Girl Pullover on Tuesday, I cast on for it again on Wednesday night. I convinced myself that attempt #1 was practice, and for the real thing I would change the pattern to knit in the round. The front and back peices are exactly the same, so why not? The only thing I have to do is remember that even rounds are what they call "wrong side" and pay attention when it comes to the arm holes. I spent a heck of a time knitting this weekend, and have gotten pretty far. I am using RYC Cashsoft DK, and it is incredible. This yarn even makes my hands feel soft! No need for mosturizer, I just knit a while and my hands feel silky smooth. I am leaving for vacation Friday night and am trying to calculate how many balls of yarn I should bring. I was thinking 3, but since in one weekend I plowed through an entire ball of the yarn, I may have to bring a few more.

I've also been in organization heaven. Maybe a week or two ago I received my ravelry invite, and I cannot express how cool this site is. I can post my pictures, list everything about what it is I am making, add the books I have, list my to-do projects. It's fabulous!! Not nearly everything is up yet, but I'm having fun organizing and making notes for the time being. I'm gypsyknitter on ravelry.com, if you find me, say hi!

Ribbit

Last night I was beginning to wonder if the Gatsby Girl Pullover was really going to fit properly. Even after making a gauge swatch it seemed as though the top might end up being a bit too small. A few hours ago I ripped it all out (after being one row short of finishing the waist shaping) and decided to take a different approach. The pattern is written so that the back and front are knit in sections and seamed later. I am not so much a fan of seaming, so I decided to convert the pattern to the round. So far so good. Let's hope that's the only time I have to rip it out. :o) Also making the top in the round gives me a perfect opportunity to use a bunch of the stitch markers I made for myself. ;o)