Finished Object- Something Orange

A short lapse since my last post- this is due to my intense desire to post a finished object. I thought this would have been several days ago with my orange Something Red. I had one sleeve to go and one row left on the button band. I quickly finished off the button band over lunch at work when, alas, roadblock. In picking up the stitches for the button band around the front edge of the sweater, I picked up around 170 rather than the required 184. I'm not exactly sure why, but as I did that I thought to myself, oh that won't matter. Wrong! When I finished the button band it pulled up incredibly at the bottom and looked very strange (I don't have a photo because as soon as I realized this problem I ripped that band right out). Ugh.

I finished the second sleeve and went back to that drat buttonband. I decided to pick up more than the required 184 stitches (got this idea from Stitchywitch.) A few people have written about how even with the 184, the band still pulls up a bit. Plus, I think a number divisible by 2, not 4, would be better, as then you'd wind up with two knit stitches at either end, rather than 2 knits on one side and 2 purls on the other. I wasn't really happy with my buttonhole either, so maybe this is a good thing. It just deleyed my "wearing gratification" slightly.

So, with further ado, here is the finished Something Red (in orange).

Pattern: Something Red by Wendy Bernard

Needles: Size 7

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Dyed Cotton in Pumpkin

Started: April 16, 2008

Finished: May 23, 2008

Modifications: Picked up stitches for the buttonband with a ratio of around 3 out of every 4 rows, instead of 184 as specified in the pattern. Made two buttonholes instead of one.

Modifications I wish I'd made: A different increase for the ribbing section at the bottom. I'm not that happy with how you can sort of see the increase row. Plus I would have done the increases in the middle of the ribs, not at the end. Also, I would have done smaller raglan increases as I feel like the sleeves are pretty large. In fact, next time I might do the whole thing on smaller needles to get a smaller, more fitted sweater

Cast on for Something Red (Orange)

A few days ago I cast on for my next project- Something Red by Wendy Bernard. I am using the yarn recommended, Blue Sky Alpcas Organic Cotton, but in orange (actually "pumpkin") rather than red. I really enjoyed the process of making Baby M's striped sweater with a fun top-down raglan pattern, and this short sleeve women's cardigan with the same kind of construction really appealed to me. The raglan increases are done using yarn overs which creates a really cool sort of lacy effect. Although I haven't knit much with cotton, so far its going well and I love the color. I hope this project will go quickly so I can wear it this spring!

In Like a Lion- Sigh

On Monday I took a much needed mental health break (aka vacation day) from work to stay home with the kiddies. I was really hoping for a nice, early spring day, maybe a run or walk outside...alas, this is what it looked like. Needless to say, we stayed in all day, I did get some knitting done though, so that was a bonus. Here's my progress on round two of the Urban Aran sleeves, going much better this time. Can't wait until these puppies are done! Can anyone say "sick of gray!"?

To feed my need for spring (sunshine, flowers, bright colors, etc.), I purchased the yarn (from Webs) for my next project- Knit and Tonic's Something Red (a nice sassy spring/summer sweater), a welcome change from the gray, wintry, wool cardigan. Mine will be something orange though, with this nice, upbeat Blue Sky Alpacas dyed cotton in pumpkin- it looks like sunshine!