Sweaterday: Masochist Edition

What kind of idiot leaves the house before 8 AM when it’s about 20° outside to take photos of knitwear? Masochists, that’s who. The thought process was “The light will be awesome and the high for tomorrow is supposed to be about 20°, so it will actually be warmer if I do this today.” And I was right. But don’t look too closely at my hands in these photos, or you’ll see how they’re BRIGHT PINK from being frozen.

(Not to fear, all of my digits are safe and sound now.)

I’ve talked about this cardigan a lot. If you want to see more about the process, click the “stonecutter’s cardigan” tag. This post is mostly going to be pretty pictures. At least, I think they’re pretty, and I’m in them. (Also, forgive the blurriness, as I was a one-woman show this morning and didn’t always manage to get my camera to focus, but in some of them I really like the way it turned out.)

Stay warm, my friends.

Sweaterday: Two for One

Happy December 1! As I mentioned on Thursday, I’m nearly done with my Stonecutter’s Cardigan. I snapped some photos yesterday while we had some sunlight.

Why yes, those are needles still holding the collar stitches and the ball of yarn that’s attached to them. Even though the collar had been finished the night before, for whatever reason I hadn’t gotten around to binding off the collar stitches before taking these photos. But since then, the collar is bound off, one of the front bands have been knit and the other is about 75% finished, I just got tired of knitting 1×1 rib.

I love the way this fits. Most cardigans or sweaters I’ve knit have been too big for me in the armholes—I don’t know why. But now both of Amy’s patterns I’ve knit, Larch and this one, fit absolutely perfectly at the arms with out any adjustments needed. In the great scheme of Sweater Knitting, armholes that are too big aren’t the end of the world, but when there’s too much fabric under the arms, it’s uncomfortable and I don’t like wearing the garment. Not going to be an issue with this cardigan.

I also mentioned Thursday that I’d started knitting another Amy Christoffers pattern, the Roam Tunic from Interweave Knits Fall 2012. I’m using some Brown Sheep Nature Spun Chunky that came home with me. I was a very bad panda and did not swatch at all. This will probably bite me in the ass, although so far, when I hold up the piece to my body, it’s looking like it will fit just fine once it’s washed and blocked.

Please feel free to mock me when this doesn’t work out in a few weeks.

I’ll be at the Holiday Handmade fair in Denver today! Looking forward to seeing what inspiring handmade works people are selling this year. Are you going to any handmade fairs this month?

Sweaterday: Almost there

Sleeves are done! And now they’re drying.

One of the reasons I’m really excited about this pattern is that I’ve never done saddles sleeves before. The long strip above the sleeve cap forms the top of the shoulder, extending the cable from the sleeve.

So… that’s really the majority of the cardigan finished! I could have finished the sleeves earlier this week, but I opted to go a bit slow and get some other things finished in the meantime.

I’ll still have to do the collar and front bands, but I expect I should have a finished, or very nearly finished, cardigan by the end of the month. Just in time for the cooler temperatures we’ve had here lately!

Happy Saturday knitting!

Sweaterday: Zipping Along

There’s been a good amount of progress on my Stoncutter’s Cardigan this week!

Why yes, that is a finished body blocking out on my kitchen floor, and almost dry.

And yes, that sleeve is roughly halfway done.

Soooo yeah. This pattern is incredibly addictive and incredibly fun to knit and once you get a few rows in, the simple cable pattern becomes second nature and you’re knitting and knitting and knitting and then it’s like “Boom! Body done.”

Or I’m a wizard. I’m a secret wizard, who is so secret I don’t even know I’m a wizard.

Because honestly, I am not sure at all how I have the body of a cardigan finished. I mean, I remember knitting it. And I remember knitting while watching Netflix (lately it’s been a mix of Teen Wolf, Chuck, and Supernatural). And then I look down and it’s there.

Or maybe there are house elves and instead of cleaning, they’ve decided to help with the knitting.

Sweaterday: Stonecutter’s Cardigan

As anyone who’s ever knit an adult garment knows, the middle part is not really worth sharing. And yet, here’s a post about just that.

As of this morning, I’m halfway through the waist increases and a handful of inches away from separating for the arms.

I really love the granite stitch side panels, in which all of the shaping occurs, and how it nicely offsets the cables. The cables are still really fun and addictive to knit.

So that’s my progress on my Stonecutter’s Cardigan! I plan to make some more headway this afternoon, as it’s snowing outside and my cat has taken over my lap and there’s really nothing better than knitting for days like these.

Sweaterday: Stonecutter’s Cardigan

As I mentioned on Thursday, one of my goals for November is to knit the Stonecutter’s Cardigan by Amy Christoffers. I’m off to a pretty good start, thanks to a three hour work meeting (yes, I am able to knit through meetings at work, as long as I pay attention, and this meeting didn’t require that much attention).

I would guess that I’m about 4″ into the body (the pattern starts with stockinette pocket linings, those are done too). This pattern is addictive. It’s taken me about an hour to write this post because I keep putting the computer down to knit one more row.

However exciting and addictive it is to knit, I’m not sure how exciting it is to read about it at the moment, so that’s it for this week’s Sweaterday post! Hope your weekend is going wonderfully.