Finished Project: Eastwood Cardigan

SHE IS FINISHED!

Although sadly for the wrong season.  Seriously, have you ever seen a sweater that screams FALL!!! half as much as this one does?  I doubt you have!

That's okay, I love it anyways.  Even if I have no idea what to wear with it.  Might need to experiment with my closet when I get out of camp!  Perfect timing too, because hello spring cleaning!

The pattern is Eastwood Cardigan by Allison Dykhuizen, knit up in size 40" (based on bust size) using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in Autumn Heather and Prussian Heather colourways.

I didn't make any changes to the design, although I might consider lengthening the body a bit more if I were to make it again.  It was frighteningly short in the back before I blocked it, and while it's much longer now, I think I'd like it another inch longer.  But this is a knit, so it'll probably still lengthen with wear.

It's kind of hard to see the striping in some of these pics because my camera is a utter prick, but they were fun to do.  You knit both front panels first, the pick up stitches along one side of a panel and knit side-to-side in stripes, and then pick up stitches for the pockets and sleeves.  It only started to get boring when I got to the sleeves, and that's only because...well, sleeves.  The only difficult part was detangling the two balls of yarn in use at all times!  Oh, and seaming, because I had a heck of a time getting the second panel seamed onto the body.  GRRRR!  Need to practice that more.

But look at those nearly-jogless stripes!  Seriously, I didn't do anything special to get that.  AHA so proud!

Probably the best part is the pockets.  And also the ribbing, which just makes me happy to look at. 

Love the neckline, especially at the back!

I don't know if it's the most flattering garment on me that I've ever made.  Those panels add bulk to my hips and draws you eyes right to them, making me look even hippier than I am (and I'm happily hippy to begin with).  Even when I wrap up the front, the pockets add a lot of bulk to the high hips and makes me look wider.  But you know what?   

I don't care one bit!  This sweater is the best fitting one I've made to date, looks fantastic, and is so comfy it's like wearing a blanket with pockets!  And I managed to knit it in 12 weeks, thanks to the Holla Knits KAL I've mentioned a few times before.  I even won a free pattern of my choice from the Holla Knits line-up.  I picked Just Beachy by Emma Welford.

Which, of course, I cast on immediately.

And I thought two balls of yarn was annoying to work with.  Let's try three balls at once!  ::headdesk::

Holla Knits KAL

I keep trying to write this post, but it's been like pulling teeth.  There are 3 other drafts saved in blogger.  Oops.  SHALL WE TRY AGAIN.

So a while back, I came across Holla Knits, a site dedicated to providing fun, stylish and very wearable knit and crochet patterns.  I enjoyed cruising through their patterns, but none really called to me.  Well, maybe the Henri.  But in general, they didn't really seem to be my style.

But I kept coming across them, on Ravelry and on various knitting blogs.  And every time I came across their patterns, my eye would linger longer and longer.

Then the Holla Knits KAL (knit-along) was announced, and I looked through the patterns again.  And all of a sudden, I could see it. I could see these patterns in my wardrobe.  I loved the Henri, but as I said last post, I'm a cardigan girl.  But then I looked closer at the Eastwood Cardigan.

Hello there, tweedy stripy cozy drappy front cardigan with POCKETS, you're gorgeous.  And I happened to have some yarn already in stash that was destined for something stripy anyways.

Yessir!  KAL project is a go!

I'm knitting a size 40 using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed.  I picked up the brown during KP's sale a while back (I think I paid about $1.70/ball), and the blue a month or so later to pair with the brown.  I love the colours together, but I sort of wish I'd used the blue for the front panels.  Oh well.

The KAL started on Feb 3rd, and I cast on that morning.  Got the first panel done in time to leave for camp on the 6th, and managed to knit the second panel while in camp.

Yesterday, I picked up all the 50 bajillion stitches along the side to start the stripes, and I'm about to separate out the right armhole.  Between the textured panels and the stripes, this pattern is just flying off the needles!  I think I'm going to be done this cardigan well within the 3 month KAL.  Heck, maybe I'll have time to make up a bunch of the accessories included in the KAL!

Possibly Some Over-Medicated Babbling

I have a hidious cold that Dr. Google has me convinced is either my imminent doom or possible bronchitis.  Regardless, I've been cooped up in the house, sunk miserably in the couch coughing my lungs out.  Or so it feels.  I'm going to apologize right off the bat, because this post is going to meander like the Red River.  Actually, I'm not really sorry.  It will involve a lot of knit talk, because that's all I've been doing lately.  Although I do have one sewing project down at the bottom!

My boyfriend has abandoned me for a hockey tourniment out of town.  Well, to be fair, I was supposed to go, but THIS COUGH.  I've spent the majority of today doing a Project Runway Season 5 marathon on youtube and knitting away at my Reverb cardigan I started back in November.

I know a lot of you aren't big knitting fans, but you have to admit, you can make some gorgeous garments doing it!

I'm actually about an inch further down from this pic.  It's a slow knit because of all the cables, but it's hard to put down once you get going.  Especially when you can't really do much else without epic coughing fits.  Again though, colour is off in this picture.  Stupid camera.

Fit check!  It's not too bad - I'm worried about the sleeves and the width, but I need to trust my math. Despite the fact that Geologist don't do math.  Eeep.  The colour in this pic is more true, but a little dark still.  ARGH CAMERA I HATE YOU.

No, I didn't get very far in NaKniSweMo.  Well, I got as far as the armhole divide, and then everything stalled out for Christmas knitting.  Which I should still be working on because I'm not actually done, but screw it.  I'm sick and I can knit what I want to!

I'm pleased with what I got done for Christmas though.  Aside from the out-of-no-where owl hat for a coworker's daughter, I also finished off two toques for the couple who hosted us for Christmas eve/morning. (They also got most of the salted caramels too.)  I thought it was very kind of them to open their home for two people with no local family, and wanted to do something extra for them.  I made The Natural Hat (which I made last year as well for a friend) and the Lace Vine Hat.  The latter is a new pattern and the first one the creator has released.  It's a pretty well-written and a beautiful pattern - my right-before-wrapping-them-up pictures don't do the hat justice.

Love the textures in this pattern, and it was a quick knit. So fun to watch the lace pattern develop!  Colour's off here though.

The toque was more of a teal shade, like in this photo, but...deeper, if that makes sense.

This toque turned out a little bit too short. The recipient immediately put it on and wouldn't take it off all morning, so I assume he liked it, but it didn't quite go down far enough. Think my tension was a little tighter than normal.

Let's not talk about what I didn't get done.  Like the fornicating beaver's hat I promised to design for my boyfriend, nor the other NSFW knit he asked for.  And the fornicating deer hat a good friend requested that's been nearly done for months now but I'm too lazy to pull back 4 rows to start the top decreases sooner.  (I have interesting friends.)  And then there's the hat my brother asked me for about 2 weeks before Christmas when I had all the above (including the two pictured) to complete.  Brat.

The Boyfriend and I went out and cut down our own Christmas Tree from the middle of the bush.  It was my first time doing that and was so much fun!!  Poor thing looks a little scraggly, but honestly it was one of the fullest ones out there.  I might've added too many lights to the poor thing - looks sort of like the centre of a galaxy, but at least he's a bright little tree!  I made some of the ornaments for it too.  Mostly brass bells with ribbons tied on, but I also made this little guy:

I love it!  Entirely hand sewn using felt, some lace I had on-hand and a bit of woven fabric for the noel part, some embroidery thread, some ribbon and beads, and a button.  I can't take credit for it though, I totally copied was inspired by this brilliantly talented person. 

I also made a bunch of crocheted snowflakes, but I didn't get them starched in time, and frankly, I forgot about them until just now.  Whoops.  Oh well, next year.

AND I should probably stop babbling.  I will say, though, that I'm stoked to get back into my sewing room (as soon as I dig it out of the Christmas Cleaning Explosion that happened in there AKA where everything that I didn't know what to do with got tossed).  I'm forcing myself to cull my wardrobe drastically, and that's made me think about the gaping holes in my closet.

Not the least of all is pants.  Might be time to dig these suckers out again.

Hope you all are healthier than me and knitting/crocheting/sewing up a storm this holiday season!  Or at least are enjoying your alcohol and merriment with friends and family.  Lucky buggers.  I'll just be here on my couch, coughing and pouting.

NaKniSweMo

Yeah I know, there's approximately 8 jillion of these National ____  ____ Month things.  Apparently there's one for knitting sweaters!

I don't actually think that I can succeed at National Knit [a] Sweater Month, since it involves knitting a 50 000 stitch sweater in just a month.  I not only started 3 days late, but I head back to camp this Thursday and I don't have much time to knit while there. 

But I thought it'd be fun to knit along!  I'd be happy if I could get the body done this month.

Collar and first pattern repeat complete today.

I'm making the Reverb by Tanis Lavallee, a cardigan pattern I've been oogling for about 6 months now.  I've even pictured it in this yarn, although I've attempted it on two other knitting projects.  I think this will be the best marriage between yarn and pattern!

And the best part is that I'm not the one who picked it!  I narrowed down my sweater choices to three patterns and the yarn to four colours, and asked my boyfriend for his opinion.  He picked this pattern and this yarn, and I'm so happy with his choices!

Obviously it's meant to be!*


* Yarn/pattern and him/me.