Tweed is the new black

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Originally uploaded by thebookstoregirl

My last post found me making excuses for starting another knitting project. I had a table full of WIPs, but I cast on some sleeves anyway. The excuses were worth it.

In about two weeks, I had a cardigan. Not just any cardigan, but exactly the cardigan that I wanted. I used Ann Budd's indispensible book, choosing the raglan V-neck cardi option. I knit the sleeves first to check my gauge, then went with 36" size at 6 sts/inch. I started the V at about an inch before the pattern, but adjusted the neck shaping to accommodate (switched to every 4th row sooner than the pattern called for). The neck shaping met the raglan shaping perfectly. I was going to add a ribbed edge with button holes, but thought the slipped stitch edge looked pretty tidy. So, I broke out the crochet hook, made a button loop and sewed on a single button.

The yarn is City Tweed in Plum Wine. You may remember city tweed from here, or here. I loved it so much that I immediately ordered another sweater's worth but it's taken this long for me to decide what to do with it.

The sweater weighs in at 382g, which is 940 yds. Finally getting somewhere in the yardage thing.

P.S. I'm testing a new Flickr blogging tool, to try to minimize all the photo size errors I get through Blogger. Please bear with any technical difficulties.

Counting my WIPs before they hatch

Life has been nuts. I will spare you all the details, but here's my favorite picture from the past few weeks. It's me and the Little Dude gathering nuts in our backyard. These nuts drop out of trees, onto our roof at all hours and it's a little like trying to sleep through the Blitz. Aside from that, it's my favorite picture because I'm on the phone with Will, letting him know that my biopsy was negative and I do not, in fact, have melanoma. And this is just one of the things that's been going on!

As you might imagine, all of the knitting has been stockinette and soothing, a support role and coping mechanism.

What's this picture? The UFOs that have been piling up. Two of them require more yarn, one requires more time for reading lace charts, the other two require more enthusiasm. So, despite an entire table full of UFOs...

I cast on a new sweater. Those are the sleeves, two at a time, so I don't have to worry about matching increases on the 2nd one. The sweater is the raglan from Ann Budd's wonderful Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater patterns. The yarn is City Tweed from knit picks in Plum Wine. I ordered a sweater's worth a few months ago, within hours of finishing this. Now that the weather has cooled, I've been wearing the grey one nearly every day. So, it's time for a back up.

I still haven't decided on cardi or pullover. A pullover might be more wearable at work, but a cardi more versatile. Thus, I started the sleeves first.