Placed Cable Aran- FO

This is the Placed Cable Aran knit from EXACTLY 9 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto on US 7 needles. And when I say exactly 9 balls... well I had to go into my wastebasket (no worries, pretty much only paper and yarn scraps go into this particular wastebasket) to get some of the ends I had trimmed off after I'd weaved them in so that I could finish seaming the last arm in. All that, and then I put the sweater on and realized it needed to be longer. Not a difficult prospect, since it is a stockinette hem, but still annoying since I was scrounging in the trash for seaming yarn. I ended up modifying this sweater to make it a set-in shoulder sweater instead of a drop sweater. Otherwise everything is the same!

Tree Jacket- FO

Tree Jacket by Zephyr Style, knit with 15.5 balls of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk and US 7 needles.

Overall, I like the way this sweater turned out. I had to follow the instructions of someone on Ravelry because when I knit the first sleeve it was HUGE! The sleeves are still a bit long, I may rip an inch or so out of them at some point.

Joni Mitchell Cardigan- FO (and surgery pics!)

My feelings about this cardigan have been quite roller coaster-esque. First, I loved it. Despite being knit on US 5 needles, it is a very fast knit. Until it came time for the decreases in the lace section. Oy! I don't know that I will ever knit a lace cardigan again. It is a miracle that this one fit together fine and didn't come out all wonky (haha, spell check on Blogger doesn't like it when I type "wonky." WONKY WONKY WONKY. oh, hrm, apparently WONKY is okay but wonky is not. wonky wonky wonky! The word has now lost all meaning. Moving on.). Then I started to like the cardigan again as I finished all of the pieces, and then I decided I didn't like it anymore because I didn't want to seam it. Reverse stockinette and lace? Ick. Enter Frek. Frek likes to seam things. Frek also likes marmite. And nori with mustard on top. We don't question the things Frek likes. So off the cardigan pieces went, all the way to St. Louis, to be seamed. And shortly thereafter I received a pieced together cardigan. One button band (I don't detest button bands the way that some people do. However, I try to knit them on along with the sweater fronts whenever possible) and a good blocking later and it looked... just okay. Not fabulous, but just okay. Enter the iron. Yes, I ironed the cardigan. This would have sounded scary to me, but a while back I read this post and decided to try it today. I loved the results so much that I grabbed another sweater (to be revealed in this post as well) that I had recently surgerized and ironed the "new" parts!

Behold, the Joni Mitchell Cardigan (sounds less silly than "Dollar and a Half Cardigan ):





Knit with less than 11 balls of Reynolds Soft Linen and US 5 needles (I knit the 36 1/4" bust). Now I just need buttons!

Here are the promised surgery pictures (well, these are all post-op, not surgery action shots).

Grumperina's Pentagon Pullover, sleeves and body lengthened, 2x2 ribbed cuffs replaced with a very slightly flared stst cuff and a single purl row. (This is the other ironed knit)



Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (aka Lace Leaf Pullover) with a rollneck:



Simply Marilyn, sans bib-neck, neck redone and unexpectedly shorter (knit to what I thought was the same length as the original. Oh well):


Foliage and Rogue look pretty much the same post-op, so I didn't take pictures. I still think I can eek out one more sweater before the end of my 12 months (for a grand total of 14 sweaters in 12 months, holy crap).

Surgeries are going well

I'm happy to report that the surgeries are going well. Dead Leaves is now a rollneck sweater. It went way better than I thought it would. Yay!
Marilyn's cowl has been re-knit on US 9 needles (the rest was done on 10.5 needles). Somehow the neck looks drastically different. Like, way shorter. Hmmm...
Rogue now has arms that are about an inch longer than before. And she got a good shaving too. Wow, so Malabrigo does pill a lot, like they all say. Good thing I got razors for Christmas! Its still worth it, the pilling, for the lovely Malabrigo. Sigh!
Foliage is still too big, even after being re-knit on US 6 needles. It is a bit better, and more wearable, but really should have just had one less lace repeat. However, I'm not going to knit it again. It is fine the way it is.
I have decided that the gloves in this post are fine the way they are, as are the buttons on Wicked in the same post.
Buttony has not been re-knit, and will not be re-knit until later, as that is more of a "new sweater" and less of a "repair." I will re-knit it when I have less WIPs.
And the Pentagon Pullover has a longer trunk and one longer sleeve, so far. The other sleeve *should* be finished today. Weee! Pictures to come at a later date for all of this.

Here are some hats I have knit recently but not blogged about


Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in less than one skein of Cashmerino Superchunky, US 10.5 needles.

Utopia Hat by Smariek in less than 2 skeins of GGH Davos, US 8 needles.

Earflap Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts in less than 1 skein of Manos del Uruguay. US 9 needles.

Odessa by Grumperina in Rowan Cashsoft DK on US 6 needles.

Ahead of the Game

Two finished sweaters, and my self-imposed sweater deadline is still weeks away! I decided that I needed to finish two more sweaters by the end of this month in order to meet my goal of knitting 12 sweaters in 12 months. So here are the final two (although I think it might be a baker's dozen by the time my deadline comes).

Meet Wicked in White



Knit with 7.2 x 50g balls of Indiecita Suri Merino in a color that is just barely off-white, size 7 needles, and 82 stitches cast on. Mother-of-pearl buttons from M&J Trimmings.

Meet Mr. Ziggs





Mr. Ziggs was knit with a little less than 4 1/2 skeins of Malabrigo in Burgundy, size 7 needles. I loosely used the Hourglass sweater pattern, with some changes. Instead of a sewn-down hem for the body and cuffs and neckline, I just purled the first row (or, the last row, in the case of the neckline). It blocked out and doesn't curl. The sleeves I cast on 52 stitches and knit plain for 12" before starting the bicep increases. I didn't do any waist shaping with increases and decreases, but rather put a cable panel in for shaping instead. I used the Mr. Ziggs cable pattern from Vogue Stitchionary vol. 2.

And finally, some socks. Not worth posting on their own. They're sort of like how politicians sometimes throw some crazy, secret line about a new tax for cigarettes into a bill that is otherwise entirely about making canadian geese droppings illegal to sell. They throw a semi-controversial line into a bill that they know will easily pass without being read much just to get it through. That's like my socks. My socks are the cigarette tax in this geese droppings blog post. Enjoy :)