Some Progress

Well, there are still eight UFO's surrounding me but I have made some progress.

Here's the Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl:


I worked on it at knitting group yesterday and during the FUSP service this morning. It's difficult to get a good idea of how it will look because it now has hundreds of stitches per row and it's bunched up on the circular needle. I plan to do about ten more rows and then add a chevron border using more of the Berroco Geode. I'm very happy with the color combination. I'm blatantly copying Patrice's Bunchberry Field interpretation of this shawl which is just beautiful. I've always thought that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I hope Patrice thinks so too.

On the way home from FUSP this morning I had DH drop me off about 1.5 miles from the house so I could have a walk. I left my knitting bag in the car. He stopped at the store for groceries so I was home for a time without the shawl. I didn't want to lose my knitting momentum, so I picked up the Kauni sweater and resumed work on it. I finished the body and did a three needle bind off on the shoulders.


I wish this were a better photo. It's dark out and I had to use flash. I didn't realize I was supposed to cast on extra stitches to steek the neck opening. I've decided to wing it. I'm picking up stitches to make the neck band and once I have them all on the needle, I plan to cut away the excess fabric. It's unorthodox, but I think it will work. Here's a close up of the stitches I've picked up so far.


Once I've knitted a few rows of ribbing for the neck opening, I'll cut off a semi-circle of fabric, turn the rest under and tack it down.

I had a lovely thank you note from Gizmo's expectant parents who have received the little yoked sweater and like it. They tell me he'll wear it home from the hospital and promise to send photos. I'll post them in November which is when he is due to arrive.

Works in Progress

Kauni 2
Originally uploaded by rallaronson

I haven't blogged in a while because I haven't had much to say. I thought I would update everyone (the three or four people who check in here from time to time) on the progress on my knitting projects.
The photo is of the Kauni sweater for DH. The body is nearly complete. I've done 12 pattern repeats and have about five more to do before I bind off for the shoulders. I've cast on extra stitches at the arm pits and I intend to steek them (this is a bit scary and I will do it at a knitting group meeting where there will be fellow knitters to hold my hand). Once the steeks are cut, I can pick up stitches for the sleeves.
At first I wasn't sure I liked the way the red Kauni shifted to maroon, but now that it's gone to red again, and back to maroon, I'm liking it. I'm undecided about manipulating the color changes on the sleeves. I want both to be the same and to have some red and some maroon. The challenge will be the smaller circumferences on the sleeves which will make the color shifts occur further apart. When I get there, I may cut the yarn to force a color change.
So far, I'm satisfied with the quality of the knitting in terms of evenness and the yarn carries on the wrong side. I think DH will really enjoy this sweater once it's finished.

Digression

I had been plugging along on Decimal for almost two weeks and making a goodly amount of progress when I suddenly grew bored and restless. I needed to start another project!! I've written before about my knitting ADD. I need to have more than one project going at a time so I can switch back and forth. Usually it's a big project and one or two small projects but this time I had an itch to start something complicated, with color work.

In November, at Stitches East, I bought two large balls of Kauni EM (scarlet, crimson and red-violet) thinking they would make a nice sweater for DH. I knew I would need to combine a second color but I didn't want to do the standard rainbow effect--couldn't see how that would work in a man's sweater. On my first visit to the Lion Brand Studio in NYC I saw just the thing. A large cone of charcoal gray, very fine wool. I grabbed it.

I'm doing my own modification of both the Kauni design pattern and the sweater pattern. The classic Kauni rainbow pattern has stripes and small squares. The color changes in Kauni are very long making it possible to use two skeins, started at opposite ends of the rainbow, and achieve a moving color pattern. I'm using one mostly red skein juxtaposed against the solid charcoal.

The original pattern is done in the round, all in one piece (a very large tube) and then, horrors!, cut or steeked to make openings for the sleeves and the button front. I'm just not ready to cut my knitting so I've widened the stripes and plan to approach this as a standard man's sweater with dropped sleeves. I'll knit in a tube until I get to the arm holes, divide the front and back and knit them separately until I get to the neck. I'll join the shoulders, pick up stitches and knit the sleeves.

Here's a photo of my progress so far:


In the next section, the squares will be red and the background will be gray. This pattern will alternate up the sweater--red with gray squares followed by gray with red squares. I think it's going to be quite handsome.