Lent 2011 - Days #4-6

So I took a bunch of photos of my outfit on Saturday (Day #4) (122 to be exact), but as I was wearing a sweater design I'm planning to submit for publication, I can't show any of them to you. But if it helps at all, I wore the same denim skirt all weekend. No Pants Tip #1: If you're not going to wear pants, you're going to need more than one weekend casual skirt-wear.

Day #5 (it was late - so I didn't feel like taking a real photo): Denim Skirt Black Wool Tights: WarmLegWear.com Slippers: French Press Slippers, made by me. Sweater: Vivian, made by me.

Early last week I finally felted the slippers I knit in October. They are super cozy and I've been wearing them non-stop when at home. It was worth all the spit-splicing I had to do to finish them!

No Pants Tip #2: Superman had it right after all. Do your tights have a tendency to migrate downward during the day? An extra pair of underwear on top of the tights helps keep them in place. (Yeah, I just wrote about underwear on the internet - that deserves a superhero pose)

Sweater:FLOGS jacket, made by me

Skirt: Anne Taylor Loft (gift from Grandparents)

Wool Tights: WarmLegWear.com

Boots: Naturalizers, Macy's

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Unrelated to pants, I've been watching the news coverage on Japan, and have been really struck by the devastation, perhaps moreso than usual because I have friends in Japan. If you'd like to donate to something other than the usual Red Cross/Doctors without Borders, may I suggest joining my friend Carlo (and myself) in his donation to Shelterbox?

Finished Object Roundup

I finished a couple of knitting projects last week, just in time to show them off this weekend. The first one, which which I wore to the NETA SPA- knit & spin retreat on Saturday was the FLOGS jacket I've been showing progress on over the past few weeks.

I love the finished sweater. It's super cozy (though it weighs a ton!). It's knit in Quince & Co. Puffin in Nasturtium, which is the smoothest bulky yarn I've ever worked with. I think the shape is great and rather flattering. If I made one change, it would be to knit the collar a needle size down, as it lost some of it's stand-up-ness during blocking.

These socks I started knitting in the fall last year as my travel project. I worked on them on my trips to Rhinebeck, Chicago, and Southern California that seemed to happen in ridiculously rapid succession and then didn't pick them up until about a week ago. The pattern is the Paul Atwell Socks, which I really enjoyed knitting (when I got around to it). The stitch pattern is easy to memorize, but it has a great effect for so little effort. The story behind the pattern (and the Family Trunk Project in general) is worth a read.

I've already got a new spring-weight sweater on the needles and yesterday I cast on a new pair of socks. Can't have those needles empty, can I?

Sweater Update

I'm going to call it a case of hubris. I was knitting my bulky sweater and going through about 1½ balls of yarn a day and I'll admit it, I was thinking - you know, I might be able to knit this sweater in a week!! When last I showed this sweater (on 1/28) it looked like this:

January 29:

January 31:

February 2 (Morning):

February 2 (Evening):

Cue trombone sounds: "Wha-wha-wha-waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

I took the whole thing apart.

I had  swatched, washed and blocked and measured my swatch, but then on a larger scale, my gauge grew and the sweater was just too big. So I frogged it and started again the evening of the 2nd in the next size down.

The good news is, it fits great now, and I'm right back to where I left off the first time yarn usage-wise and a little further ahead pattern-wise.

February 9:

On the Wires, On the Needles

Wednesday night I finished my lace project and put it on the blocking wires. Getting a project like this wet is awesome and terrifying, awesome because the lace really opens up and becomes truly lovely, terrifying because I had no idea how big it might get. (I generally only do gauge swatches for sweaters).

Fortunately this "scarf on steroids" project, as I've come to call it, ended up wider, but not substantially longer than the pattern. Not to say it isn't huge anyway - for a sense of scale, the orange strip on the ground is a yard stick.

This weekend I'll pull it off the wires and do some wearing demo photos and then it'll be packed up and shipped off to my mother in Northern California.

My long-neglected second sock not piquing my interest enough, I immediately cast on a new project (after swatching!) yesterday morning and I've already knit through a ball and a half. Lord love bulky yarn!!

Here's what I've done so far.

Must knit more!!