when life gets in the way of knitting

Things have been a bit slow in the knitting front lately. I've been focusing the majority of my efforts on decorating the house. The Living Room is for all practical purposes complete, and the Bedroom is well on it's way. I'm also painting a faux wallpaper on the Powder Room wall, which I'm unsure about at this time. I'll just need to complete it and live with it for a few days before making a final judgement. I'm also getting busier with my Master Gardener training and will be volunteering for the program by the end of this month.

My sweater has been set aside as of late because I can't make the neck look decent. It looks more like a tall boat neck which is so not the look I'm going for. I've already taken it back once and although this version looks better, it's still not wearable for me. I may need to research some patterns and see how the neck of a sweater is normally done. I should have knit my first sweater from a pattern instead of the recipe from Elizabeth Zimmerman, so that I had the basics down. Oh well, it's all a learning experience.

Most recently I've begun to knit a pair of basic socks for myself out of Koigu KPPPM 537. It's the perfect colorway for spring socks.

crochet placemats

My latest crochet project is a set of placemats inspired by a bedspread pattern on the Antique Pattern Library website. I've been working on this for several weeks, doing picking it up only occasionally. I've almost completed one placemat. In order to get the size I wanted I had to change the size and quantity of the crochet stitches. My original idea was to make a contemporary, solid border around the flower motif. However, now that I have a few flowers joined, I'm thinking that I will just make more and leave the edges unfinished and organic. While I love this pattern, I certainly don't live in a "doily" house, so whatever I decide it has to have a modern twist to it.


My sweater has really been coming along. I've attached the sleeves and I'm decreasing my way to the neck. I can barely put it down. I seem to want to go faster in the final stretch!

rick's first sweater

I've just started my first sweater! It's the Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I've had this in queue for a couple of months now and I've been contemplating what stitch patterns to use, the color, the style, etc. I've finally decided that I want a very basic sweater in stockinette. This will allow me to focus on construction and form as opposed to pattern, and I will get a lot of wear out of it as it will be a versatile garment.

I'm using Paton's Classic Wool Merino "Worn Denim" on size 8 needles. At this point the plan is to create a hem in a contrasting color (to be decided), and create a crew, or possibly v-neck. I think I have some time to figure that out.

kyan's sweater

Although we don't haven't had much snow here in Illinois, it has gotten quite cold. The temperature reached down to 21F last night, not so bad for this time of the year. However, my poor little Kyan shivers every time he has to go outside (this is why I feel fortunate for indoor plumbing). I've wanted to make myself a sweater, but I thought it would be great to try out such a garment on my dog first. He gets a warm sweater to wear outdoors and I get to experiment with a few new techniques. Let's just say it's a good thing I experimented on a dog sweater first.

I found this pattern and began with a left-over ball of Patons Classic Wool Merino "Natural Mix" on size 8 circulars. I had only used 10% or so of the yarn, surely the remainder would be enough for a dog sweater, he was small after all. Well, no. I had to go out and buy another ball, luckily I found the same dyelot that I was using. Once I was able to bind off for the belly, I felt it was time to try it on before I got myself into too much trouble. The arm holes were way too big! This in turn made the overall sweater too long. I put the sweater down and walked away from it for a few days.

Now, I really didn't want to rip the whole thing back. I had worked diligently on cabling, seed stitch, and ribbing and the thought of redoing it seemed daunting. My solution, rip back slightly to make it the correct length and "patch" the arm holes with stockinette stitch. Which I did, and added ribbed sleeves.

All in all, it didn't turn out as ghetto as I expected it too. It's slightly too large in width for him, but he can wear it. I think that next time I should gauge my swatch in a ribbing pattern instead of stockinette, which may help with the fit. I chalk it up to a learning experience.