FO: February Lady Sweater

To continue in the vein of not-so-original knits, I have my February Lady Sweater to share. I was seduced by this sweater. Maybe it was the popularity. Maybe it was free pattern. After perusing the various projects on Ravelry, I was convinced that I could make a well-fitting sweater. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow-especially for a novice sweater knitter.

Pattern: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynn
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Spruce
Needles: No. 8s

Many, many of the finished sweaters on Ravelry had sleeves that were loose and baggy like wrinkly elephant legs. This offends some basic knitter pride of mine. One of the fundamentals to knitting is the ability to customize your product to fit to your own body. Is it too big? Make it smaller! Is it too short? Make it longer. As a knitter, you have the ability to change, alter, reject whatever you don't like. If your sleeves come out all loose and baggy, you don't have to accept it.



The major modifications that I made were to the sleeves to avoid all the nasty looseness that all the other knitters were having. I dropped a needle size to no. 7s and decreased in the underarm over one pattern repeat of the lace to get rid of 7 stitches. All in all, I am pleased with the outcome of the sweater. It was my first "every day wear" sweater. I had to get up the courage to wear it, but I didn't get any "did you make take" responses--just "I like your sweater" compliments.

FO: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Ok, so I finished this over a year ago and never got around to snapping any pictures of it. Even worst, I purchased the yarn at a stopover at WEBS on my way to Rhinebeck in 2007. I purchased 5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk in a very lovely peach. I cast on an extra repeat of the pattern so that the scarf would be wide enough to drape on my shoulders.



And then I started to knit. And knit. And knit. I used up all of the 5 skeins. After binding off, I had a 3 inch tail to weave in and that was the end of the fifth skein. So I blocked and started wearing it. It was so long. I never got around to measuring it, but it was obscenely long. That would not have been such an issue if it would drape and wind around my neck neatly. It didn't. No matter which way I a tied and coiled, it always looked weird and awkward.

Awkward! Right? (Plus too many hand knits!)

Finally, after wearing it all winter, I went to wash it and pack it away with my other seasonal woolens. I came to my senses and ripped out about 1-2 feet of the scarf and then reblocked it with my new lace wires. I stretched the width to compensate for the length.

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk in Peach
Needles: No. 5

The result is a much more graceful scarf.

FO: O W L Sweater

When I saw Kate Davies' Owl Sweater pattern, I knew that I just had to make it. Apparently, so did everyone else who happens to knit.

Pattern: O W L by Kate Davies (I really like her blog, Needled.)
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool in Grey
Needles: Nos. 10 and 10.5

I really enjoyed knitting the pattern. It is easy to follow and quick off the needles. I did run into some trouble with ladders on the sleeves. I knit them in the round on dpns, but I could not eliminate the ladders. I tried all sorts of tricks to no avail. I don't want to reknit them. I think I may try blocking again but this time making a better effort to readjust the slack with a crochet hook.



Just the other day, I finally decided to put some eyes on the poor birdies. Here they are blind and in Stockholm.



Ok, you can barely even see that I'm wearing a sweater. As the heaviest garment I brought with me, it got some use. I even slept in it some nights.

FO: Noro Stripe Scarf

I started this scarf in January and finished it within the week, which was a good thing because the thermometer didn't get above freezing until almost late March. I was just fascinated with the color combinations and transitions. The hardest part was to "trust" the noro stripe and let the colors come together on their own instead of splicing in better combinations. No genetic engineering here.

Pattern: Generic and ubiquitous (craze started here)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, 2 skeins each of numbers 208 and 234
Needle: No. 6

I cast on 39 stitches with a slipped stitch selvage. Scarf was a good-type of knitting magic when you become completely tickled that you made something fascinating and useful from something so mundane and ordinary.

Playing Catchup

I have a list. It resides on a post-it note that has long since lost its "post-itness." This particular list is of all the FOs that I have finished and have yet to get proper photos of. Additionally, I have not shared them on the blog.

And so after a quick jaunt to Jamaica Pond, I got some decent photos. Natural light! Scenery! However, I didn't get too creative. Photographing yourself in the park wearing sweaters in 80 degree weather is courageous thing to do. Or at least, I felt like I had to be a bit brave to do so.

Between Ravelry, Flickr, and here, there may be some redundancy. I apologize, but I hope to at least expand a bit more on my process (if I can remember it) and my knitting experience with each FO.

Parade of FOs to come. Stay tuned...

Photographic proof

Scout on top of 19 squares of the psychedelic bedspread.