FO Friday

This week's entry should be titled "FO Fail" but I decided to cut myself some slack and take a voyage into the FO Vault!



These socks are one of my favorite pairs to date. I made them this past spring, and the bulk of the knitting was done at two professional development conferences that I attended. The pattern, Hermione's Everyday Socks, is available for free and is perfect "autopilot" knitting for when you need to split your attention between your knitting and something else. The yarn is Liberty's Yarn Jabbersocky, which I got from a fellow Raveler's destash.

I don't know why the picture is upside-down. I really don't.

WIP Wednesday

My February Baby Sweater: Coming Soon to a FO Friday near you!

I was hoping to put the finishing touches on my FBS this past weekend, but to paraphrase Robert Burns, "the best laid schemes of mice and knitters oft go awry." On Saturday, I was altogether cranky (TMG informed me that I was, in fact, a "sourpuss"). Our new sofa got delivered (albeit half an hour past the end of our "delivery window") and my family came over to see it. I have to admit that I don't even remember Sunday at all! Ergo, the FBS is returning for what I hope will be it's last WIP Wednesday appearance!
Despite my setbacks, I did manage to finish the body and most of the first sleeve (all but about 2 rows of garter stitch) this week. I haven't gotten the buttons for it yet, because I like to save that part as sort of a "prize" for finishing the knitting and weaving in of ends.
Here it is in all of it's unfinished glory...

FO Friday

I am riding high on the finishitis wave, and milking it for all it's worth. This is the item that started the finishing mojo going: my Simple Knitted Bodice by Stephanie Japel. I started it last September and abandoned it in January with just a sleeve and a half to go - not much work considering that I made the short-sleeved version! I was able to complete it in just a few evenings and now I'm looking forward to wearing it if we can just get some cool fall weather already!

I just committed a major knitting sin/crime by posting a picture of an item before blocking it.

I made several modifications to the pattern as I went. After initially following the pattern instructions regarding the length (even binding off), I decided that it was too short, so I ultimately frogged the bind-off and lengthened the body by about three inches. I picked up for the collar and finished it before starting the sleeves. I omitted the sparkly contrast yarn and just let the heathered raspberry color speak for itself. I ended up using just over 3 skeins of Cascade 220 (about 715 yards) which is amazing considering I added the extra length. I have almost 2 full skeins left over which will make another nice project or two.

WIP Wednesday

Recently I have been working through a bout of "finishitis" (the extremely rare condition that occasionally presents in knitters who have numerous unfinished projects-in-progress, with symptoms mirroring those of it's much more common counterpart, "startitis"). During my recent move it occurred to me how many WIPs I had in various stages of completion, and I was motivated to finally finish some of the languishing items.
This week, I have been working on my neglected February Baby Sweater, which was originally intended as a gift for either of two babies who are each now approaching 6 months of age (fail). The wonderful thing about being in the phase of life that I'm currently enjoying (read: my mid-twenties), is that hardly a day goes by without an announcement from one friend or another that a new baby is on the way. So, I have knit on with renewed resolve to finish this adorable garment for whichever baby happens to come along at the right time.
Here's the sweater in its current state of noncompletion:

MOM Monday

Things are finally starting to return to normal after the chaos of our move and starting our new jobs. The Labor Day holiday gave me a chance to really clean and organize our new home, and unpack a LOT of boxes. I even managed to finish the September installment for my mom's club, only a week behind schedule.

This project was very special because I not only knitted the project, but I also spun the yarn. I used 100% alpaca roving from my friend Deb's animals. The yarn is about a sport weight (13 wpi) and I held it double on size 4 needles to make the finished product nice and sturdy.


          From roving....                              To spinning...                                 To yarn!

Without further ado, meet Zeke!

Zeke is made from Rebecca Danger's pattern called Zeke the Aloof Alpaca. I have made several of her other patterns before, including a set of Bunny Nuggets and Cecil the Computer Monster. Zeke has a big personality and is already making himself right at home amongst my mom's other critters!