A Fabulous FO!

I finished my Tai Chi Cardigan! This sweater features mitred squares, stockinette squares and seed stitch squares, is knit in strips and then put together with 3-needle bind off. I fell in love with it at Stitches East in November and purchased the kit from Great Yarns! booth.

I absolutely adore how this sweater turned out! I made it a bit longer than the stated measurements and narrowed and shortened the sleeves to fit my short arms. It required some math, but I did it! I am really gratified in how I have learned to alter sweater patterns to FIT, a skill I really believe I've mastered in the past year. After all, isn't this what knitting your own garments is all about? I am really going to enjoy this sweater, I think.

Another skill I'm still working on mastering--and doing better--is finishing. My mom had made the Easy Basket-weave Cardigan from the January issue of Creative Knitting in a soft acrylic, and she asked me to put it together for her. Although I'm not fond of acrylic, it was somewhat easy to manage for sewing together. I had a bit of struggle with the set-in sleeves, but otherwise, I did a pretty good finishing job, if I do say so myself. I think I am getting to that next level, which feels terrific.

Next up in terms of my "main" projects: another Talia vest, this one for my daughter, in black Cascade 220. Progress and details to follow!

A Fabulous FO!

I finished my Tai Chi Cardigan! This sweater features mitred squares, stockinette squares and seed stitch squares, is knit in strips and then put together with 3-needle bind off. I fell in love with it at Stitches East in November and purchased the kit from Great Yarns! booth.

I absolutely adore how this sweater turned out! I made it a bit longer than the stated measurements and narrowed and shortened the sleeves to fit my short arms. It required some math, but I did it! I am really gratified in how I have learned to alter sweater patterns to FIT, a skill I really believe I've mastered in the past year. After all, isn't this what knitting your own garments is all about? I am really going to enjoy this sweater, I think.

Another skill I'm still working on mastering--and doing better--is finishing. My mom had made the Easy Basket-weave Cardigan from the January issue of Creative Knitting in a soft acrylic, and she asked me to put it together for her. Although I'm not fond of acrylic, it was somewhat easy to manage for sewing together. I had a bit of struggle with the set-in sleeves, but otherwise, I did a pretty good finishing job, if I do say so myself. I think I am getting to that next level, which feels terrific.

Next up in terms of my "main" projects: another Talia vest, this one for my daughter, in black Cascade 220. Progress and details to follow!

Happy New Year!

As 2009 begins, I am thankful for good health, a steady job and a wonderful family, even though the health of some of our older family members is failing. We'll hope for the best on all fronts as we turn the calendar page for a fresh, new 12 months.

On the knitting front, I counted 17 finished objects on my blog sidebar for 2008, although I know there were others that I just didn't document on the blog. I have to say that if there was one trend in my knitting last year, it was knitting ADD--the inability to focus on one project. I attribute this most likely to the fact that I am reading more blogs, listening to more Podcasts, bought more books and certainly because of my fondness for Ravelry--I just can't seem to refrain from starting new projects.

I have also built up the biggest stash I've ever had, and hope to keep it at its present state and start to whittle it down this year. So what did I do to ring out 2008? Yesterday morning I bought 3 skeins of Lion Wool Prints to make a scarf for ISE7 Scarf Pal! Nothing in my stash seemed to match my Pal's preferences, so I bought something new and hope to use all 3 skeins for the scarf.
I tried two different patterns and settled on the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf and have already knit over a foot. I should have no problem finishing this easy and enjoyable scarf on time.

Yesterday I also couldn't resist a great new book, Knitting Noro, which I got at Borders with a 30% off coupon. I am in love with Noro yarns, but I fear that this book is going to cause me to buy more of them....we'll see. For now I'm just enjoying looking at the pictures and reading about this amazing yarn company.

While on vacation last week, I made great progress on the Tai Chi Cardigan while on vacation and I am now in the home stretch of that lovely project. This sweater, with its collection of bright and unusual colors and patterns, will always remind me fondly of our trip to Mexico--it almost has a feel of the Mexican textiles we saw throughout the week.


So now for a few knitting resolutions:
1. Try to contain my stash and work through my Ravelry queue
2. On a related note, knit more socks--I have so much stashed sock yarn and I usually have a pair of socks going as a secondary project at all times. The problem is, I'm now working on so many things at once that the socks continue to fall to the end of the line (the socks on my needles now were the only project I didn't work on out of 4 things I took on vacation, for example).
3. Learn some new techniques--last year I learned entrelac and mitred squares; maybe this year I'll work on colorwork.

That's probably enough for now--back to knitting while I have the day off!

Happy New Year!

As 2009 begins, I am thankful for good health, a steady job and a wonderful family, even though the health of some of our older family members is failing. We'll hope for the best on all fronts as we turn the calendar page for a fresh, new 12 months.

On the knitting front, I counted 17 finished objects on my blog sidebar for 2008, although I know there were others that I just didn't document on the blog. I have to say that if there was one trend in my knitting last year, it was knitting ADD--the inability to focus on one project. I attribute this most likely to the fact that I am reading more blogs, listening to more Podcasts, bought more books and certainly because of my fondness for Ravelry--I just can't seem to refrain from starting new projects.

I have also built up the biggest stash I've ever had, and hope to keep it at its present state and start to whittle it down this year. So what did I do to ring out 2008? Yesterday morning I bought 3 skeins of Lion Wool Prints to make a scarf for ISE7 Scarf Pal! Nothing in my stash seemed to match my Pal's preferences, so I bought something new and hope to use all 3 skeins for the scarf.
I tried two different patterns and settled on the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf and have already knit over a foot. I should have no problem finishing this easy and enjoyable scarf on time.

Yesterday I also couldn't resist a great new book, Knitting Noro, which I got at Borders with a 30% off coupon. I am in love with Noro yarns, but I fear that this book is going to cause me to buy more of them....we'll see. For now I'm just enjoying looking at the pictures and reading about this amazing yarn company.

While on vacation last week, I made great progress on the Tai Chi Cardigan while on vacation and I am now in the home stretch of that lovely project. This sweater, with its collection of bright and unusual colors and patterns, will always remind me fondly of our trip to Mexico--it almost has a feel of the Mexican textiles we saw throughout the week.


So now for a few knitting resolutions:
1. Try to contain my stash and work through my Ravelry queue
2. On a related note, knit more socks--I have so much stashed sock yarn and I usually have a pair of socks going as a secondary project at all times. The problem is, I'm now working on so many things at once that the socks continue to fall to the end of the line (the socks on my needles now were the only project I didn't work on out of 4 things I took on vacation, for example).
3. Learn some new techniques--last year I learned entrelac and mitred squares; maybe this year I'll work on colorwork.

That's probably enough for now--back to knitting while I have the day off!