biker boy, Cascade 220, Gray Flannel Purse, red sox, Snow White, wheel on fire

Because I Don’t Have Enough UFO’s

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I have ventured into starting two new projects at once.  One of them, I am almost finished with.

Promptly after finishing the Emma Jacket aka most hellacious pattern to follow ever…I started Snow White.  Firstly, I love this pattern, despite the mountains of 2X2 rib.  It is cleverly designed and the pattern gets an A+ in the easy to follow / presentation area.  Consequently, I’ve had no room to bitch about it on this blog…because it is a delightful pattern to follow.  Even better, she adds these little comments into the pattern, so when you get finished with a part…say binding off…where you are wondering if that last stitch on your right needle is to be bound off or knit in pattern with the four stitches on the left needle…she explains exactly what to do, so there is no question on what is to be done.  A designer that writes patterns answering knitterly questions on the way!   Hooray!  Seriously, this was just the break I needed after the jacket.

Continue reading Because I Don’t Have Enough UFO’s →

Emma Jacket, shamrock

Emma Jacket is Finished!

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Pattern: Emma Jacket
Yarn: 11.5 skeins of Knit Picks Shamrock in Doyle
Gauge: 4 sts = 1 inch stockinette stitch
Needles: US 9 29″ circular, five US 9 double pointed
Modifications: None
Techniques Used: Steeking and Double Knitting (purely optional)

So, this pattern gave me a headache in the beginning of the knitting and it generally gave me a few more headaches before I finished it. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the jacket. I’ve already worn it out once, soon after I finished it…about 2 weeks ago. I have not had an opportunity with getting an action shot, but soon I will and that will be on display for all to see. This jacket is really warm and it is long enough that I don’t have issues of it hiking up my back (I totally can’t stand that about most jackets and sweaters). To sum it up, the pattern sucked, but I like the end result and I learned a lot of techniques as well as lessons on jacket construction. I really like the way the jacket was constructed. It kept my interest constantly…I struggle with boring knit things. The finishing was soooo very minimal, because, you don’t know it while you are knitting, but the finishing is done while you are knitting it. All I had to do after all the knitting was graft the underarms and block the garment. The I-cord edging really finishes this jacket and makes it a clean looking knit. When my mom saw the jacket on me, she couldn’t believe I knitted it…if that gives you an idea of how great the end result is.

This is not a jacket where someone will ask you if you knit it. So, 2 thumbs down on the pattern presentation, 2 thumbs up on the finished product!

Cascade 220, Emma Jacket, Gray Flannel Purse, Snow White, Tubey

The Neverending Emma Jacket and the Gray Flannel Purse

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OK, this jacket is taking forever! This might be because I had to take a break from it for a few days…I was at the SWE conference (Society of Women Engineers), so the little time I had to knit on the plane to and from Nashville, TN…I picked a small project that I could knit a good deal of, The Gray Flannel Purse from Pursenalities.

Anyhow, I survived the steeking stage of this pattern and now I am on to finishing the seed stitch lapels. The seed stitch isn’t going as slowly as I thought, but the lapels are taking up about just as much knitting as the body section of the pattern, which I really didn’t think about before starting this project.

Remember how I said that I reread each section 10 times so I could get it right….well, I still didn’t get it right on the lapels and had to rip back and start all over. Apparently, my I-cord detail before the seed stitch was inside out because I started on the opposite side I was supposed to start on…so after I ripped back, I just decided to purl instead of knit for that part. All is well now. I have started the increasing on the second lapel, so hopefully that part will be done by the weekend and I’ll be able to add the final I-cord accent to it and I can wash and block the damn jacket. It seems like it has taken forever to knit. Quite possibly because I had to visit the frog pond on more than a few occassions, which is not entirely my fault.

I also plan to finish up the Gray Flannel purse…why I stopped the production on that is because simply, I ran out of yarn. It seems that you need two balls of Cascade 220, not one, like the pattern calls for. Although I did a bit of substituting for the yarns I was to carry with the Cascade 220 so, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. I’m hoping I can stop by the LYS sometime tomorrow so I can get that last ball, so I can finish this project this weekend as well. I am eager to finish my first felting project.

Then I think I will be on to knit Snow White. That pattern has been calling me for months! Its time to give it a go…eventhough I should probably start on Tubey first, since that yarn has been sitting in my stash longer than the Snow White yarn and is not packaged as tightly and neatly as the Snow White yarn is. At any rate, I’ve got atleast a week to him and haw about it until I have to make my decision on what to knit next. Maybe I will attempt to knit them simultaneously. Then my couch would erupt in yarn twice as much as it has been…which would make the hubby batty…it could be fun, it could be disasterous!

Shocker, Isn't it?!

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