I gotter done

I am so proud of myself. I finished a knitting project. It was an interesting project because it was not a "traditional pattern" nor was it a charted pattern. A friend of mine subscribes to a "Hobby Farm Home" magazine, January/February 2009 issue and it had an article entitled "The Purposeful Knitter".

It was six pages of the author talking about growing up and learning to knit and intertwined was the instructions on how to intuitively knit a top down sweater. I was intrigued and decided to give it a try.

I had some rather nubby yarn in the stash that I thought would work up nicely. I usually stay away from real "wool" because it makes me itch. This yarn didn't bother me until I slipped the turtleneck and top section over my head. That's when I realized we may have a problem.

Although I am pleased with how it turned out, if I were to make another one there are several things I would do different. It would be for me and I would choose the softest yarn in a pale color that I could find that was consistent in structure. The yarn I used was probably hand spun and went from very thin to very fluffy.

Since I am tall, I would make the body longer and may make the sleeves less tapered. The thought process on the color scheme was a Neopolitan Ice cream theme. Next time I would make sure I had 1200 plus yards of maybe a cashmere or even a faux seude.

All in all it was a good experiment and I really enjoyed it. I am very thankful my dear sweet sister always agrees to be my model. She said the sweater is very warm. Thanks hon. If you look real close at the picture, in the background you will see the beginning of a tileboard project. I can multitask. lol

The friend that gave me the pattern will be the recipient of the sweater. AND, if she doesn't like it for whatever reason, no prob. I will rip it out and use the yarn over in a felting project and say "dang that was fun and I actually learned something new".

See DK, told you I would finish something. Not as pretty and flashy as your shawls but that's coming ;)

RRR

Happy New Year 2009

We all had a wonderful holiday and look forward to a prosperous and rewarding New Year.
I didn't get as many hand crafted gifts done as I would have liked, but plan on doing better next year.

At the moment, I have three crochet afghans that are each about 1/6 of the way done....ok, maybe they will be ready by next Christmas. I have one pair of knitted socks on a 40 in circular needle and just recently started a top down knit sweater that used more of a blueprint than a pattern. Once my friend Jenny taught me the CORRECT way to use stitch markers on this pattern, it started shaping up nicely. I started out using those split stitch markers and moved it within my knitting rather than from one needle to the next. Bless Jennie as she is the most patient and wonderful teacher and friend.

There are several projects that I have put on the back burner for the time being. Don't tell DK the Nautical Knitter that I put the Estes Park Stole down for awhile, but if you do, let her know I do plan on finishing it. :)

The original shawl that got me started on this path, dang that Debbie Macomber, Alix's Shawl is also on the back burner. I started reading the pattern and then switched to reading the chart and ..............sigh. I was even reluctant to have Jennie help me with this one again. Maybe now that the holidays are over I can get back to them. I am very close to finishing the top down sweater and then I am going to work on one project at a time until I get them all done. Famous last words.

Blessings to you and yours and until next time
RRR