well well well what have we here? oh yes, i finished my first sweater today. no i have never made a sweater before, but now i really don’t see what i was so worried about. i guess the plethora of sock knitting helped my pattern reading skillz. the sweater is extremely soft and oh so lovely to wear. i bought this pashmina yarn on a whim at a lys and then had no clue what i was going to make with it. while surfing one day i happened upon this lovely finished object and thought, oh yes my yarn wants to be that.

the yarn i used is a bit lighter than the one called for in the pattern so it took a bit of tweaking to get it to work (i ended up going up two sizes and changing some of the reduction and increase rows and i omitted the first set of purl stripes at the bottom because they weren’t flattering on me at all). i ripped and reknit sections of the sweater and probably knit the equivalent of two sweaters. what is fantastic about this sweater is that it is knit top-down in one piece and then the sleeves are knit right off of the live held stiches at the short sleeve mark. i completed this sweater and the weather has cooled down so i can even wear it. now back to my regularly scheduled programming: socks and circuitry.

details:

pattern: angelica sweater by stephanie japel

yarn: Lana Grossa Pashmina in color 18 (a deep teal), six 50g balls exactly, almost four balls for the body, one ball for each sleeve and the leftover from the body for the picked up edge on the keyhole neckline. this yarn is so incredibly soft, it is ever so slightly splitty but heck this is cashmere and baby merino, who cares about that?

size: knit per the instructions for size 42, but finished bust size of the sweater (not worn) is 35 inches due to the yarn substitution

needles: 5mm circular addi turbo, 4mm circular addi turbo for finishing

mods: tons, in the raglan shaping on the shoulders used M1R, k1, M1L instead of yarn overs because they were a bit too hole-tastic for my taste, only reduced 5 repeats on the back in the bust shaping, 7 as written for the front, omitted first set of purl stripes at the bottom of the body, increased every other row instead of every row for the hip shaping and placed the increases to line up with the bust shaping, knit the sleeves in the round (after all why knit them flat?) using magic loop, did seven reduction rounds for each sleeve and placed the reductions under the sleeves not on top as per the pattern, did not increase at the end of each sleeve and made the sleeves extra long.

[the gorgeous quilt in the background was made by my mother, photos taken by my significant other]

another pair of secret socks can come out of hiding since yesterday was mother’s day. they fit her since we share genes and our feet are almost exactly the same. she even took a self portrait with the socks on her feet!

Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina

Yarn: H.L. Miller hand dyed superwash in colorway Lily Petal — great yarn, very soft, i even grabbed more after knitting these

Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm circular (approx. US size 1)

Mods: Magic loop and ended the toe at 9 stitches per needle instead of 7, and made a mistake in the stitch pattern’s reduction stitches but i kept it consistent for the second sock.

the knitting mojo seems to have flown out the window alongside the knack for sewing i used to have. hopefully it’s just this week and not a general downward spiral, but it’s frustrating to spend hours with a seam ripper and reballing frogged knitting too. luckily switching to a new color besides blue seems to have helped get me through a crafting spree today (along with some cranberry and orange juice mixed), and hopefully all will be well with my crafting luck after a nice zip through la droguerie tomorrow. trains, planes and automobiles, and then i shall be back before you can say: why-don’t-you-write-that-driver-yourself-you-crazy-gadget-freak-with-a-penchant-for-knitting?

this past weekend i did a fair amount of [secret] knitting and the clincher is that my hands are damaged not from the clinking of needles, but from bouldering in the park on saturday. the sun was out, the smell of deep spring was in the air and it was too warm for hand-knit wool socks. after visiting two local yarn shops i had never perused, i had to sprint home and grab my rock climbing shoes and chalk bag and go plaster myself onto a rock face. i was a bit ambitious for not having clumb in, oh, three and a half years, and managed to leave a large chunk of skin from my left middle finger on the rock.

then monday came around and after work i got itchy to take advantage of the warm air again. the significant other was back in town after a hiatus and we went to kick a soccer ball around in the small park closest to our place. soon a group of teenagers came and asked if they could play a pick up game with us, and we old-sters agreed (i made a stipulation that we would play only if the girls in their group joined in). i had forgotten that teenage energy is one of those volatile, pent-up, steam engine sorts of energy. we played a mean game (the s.o. and i were on separate teams) and in the process i blocked a shot with my hand while it was my turn to be goalie and the index finger on my left hand now has a nasty blood blister hanging out under the surface. luckily when rock climbing i completely cut off all my finger nails or the injury would have been much worse. all that to say that it’s not just knitting injuries (yes that needle that stabbed into my hand last week drew blood) giving me the appearance of a tough girl.

[the photo above is of my hand in October of 2003 in the forest of Fontainebleau south of Paris, home of incredible natural bouldering, and that was probably the last time i really went rock climbing]