Knitting FOs

I finished a sweater that had been dragging on for years!  And wore it Fri--soft and cuddly :)

It's knit with a fuzzy silk yarn that is very stretchy and drapey, but the drape caused problems.  The first back piece I knit was 3-4" too wide.  Now I know to start on a sleeve, where gauge issues are less problematic and it's a smaller area to rip out.  Then I was not so wise.  

The sleeves, which I made sure to knit nice and long, turned out to have monkey arms.  I snipped off the extra 3" and conveniently was able to add it to the sweater's lower edge, thus making it plenty long enough to cover my tummy and keep out drafts.

And some socks for my mom.  They kept getting pushed aside for other projects, until recently when I was in the mood for a simple project.  I also wanted to finish them.  They're my 13th pair of socks, in about as many years.

I was excited to have finished two projects in quick succession, until I realized that I have nothing to knit!  Time to start a couple new projects...

We Interrupt This Migraine...

To quickly bang out a blog post. I have been productive with knitting, though. I'm almost done knitting a sweater, finished mending another sweater and am 3/4 done with a pair of socks.

*Picasa ate my photos.  I can't find them to replace them.  I'm sorry.

I have no idea how but one of my sweaters got a tear (or bite?) on the sleeve. I didn't knit this one but it's worth saving for the yoke pattern, echoed at the cuffs. It took me a couple years to find yarn close enough to mend it--sock reinforcing yarn in fact.  Fine black yarn is hard to come by!  Then more time to learn and try a few mending techniques, wait for summer and enough light to mend by, and finally now it's finished.  The fix is pretty invisible when worn, on the underside of the lower sleeve.


Because multiple stitches and rows were destroyed I couldn't just sew over a couple stitches and be done.  I picked up loops of mending yarn above the start of the tear and knit a rectangular patch over the damaged area, sewing the sides of the patch to the sweater at the end of every row.  I accidentally moved over half a column on the left side but it's hardly noticeable.  At the bottom I sewed the patch to the sweater, then wove all the ends in from the back.  The tear was tacked to the patch from the back for stability.

The mend: 1"w x 1 ¼"h  

Inside: tear is diagonal

Baby Knits

Babies aren't my thing, but I can get as excited about a teeny tiny (quick to knit!) baby sweater as the next person.  And booties.  This project started out poorly, when the pattern I chose was toddler sized despite being titled Baby Sweater on Two Needles.  However, 75% of the original values creates a baby sized version.

With most of the remaining yarn I knit itty bitty booties.  They're 2.5"/6.5cm long.  All this from less than 220yd!  Now I'm back to working on adult sized projects.