Sweater: finished!

I should've gotten a standing shot. It fits great!

Pattern: Aidez
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool, bulky on size 10 needles. It took EXACTLY 3 hanks, I had like a gram or so left (and an entire bonus hank I don't know what to do with but can't return).

Works in progress: sweater, marjolaine

This week has been a weird juggling-of-project bits.

I'm finally wrapping up the sweater. Since I wasn't smart enough to wash and block the pieces as I finished them, and since my drying mat is only so big, I started with washing and blocking the arms on Sunday, then the back on Monday night, and the front panels on Wednesday evening.

I'm also working on a semi-complicated layered dessert called a marjolaine. On Sunday I made the praline (caramelized sugar and toasted/chopped nuts).

 On Tuesday night I made the meringue - it's more like a cake than the puffy cookies, with egg white, sugar, corn starch, and ground nuts. You bake it in a long thin sheet, so you can cut it into four sections for layering later.

Last night I made the ganache,

and the vanilla cream (some of which I used to make the praline cream for another layer, but evidently forgot to photograph it):

Then it was time to assemble:
layer of meringue/cake, layer of ganache; layer of cake, layer of vanilla cream:

And finally another layer of cake, a layer of praline cream, and a final cap of cake:

Some of the layers were a bit runny, so I had to quickly wrap it and get it in the fridge. The flavors should some together a bit, and I HOPE the creams will firm up. On Friday after work I'm supposed to frost it with the rest of the ganache and serve at room temperature.

The recipe is from David Lebovitz' excellent cook book Ready for Dessert. He had NO pictures so I relied upon the internet. My fingers are crossed it come out - though I'm fully confident it'll taste great!

Oh, and at some point I'll seam the sweater. It would be nifty to wear it to wine group on Friday but I'm not optimistic I can hold still long enough to do all the sewing tonight.

WIP: Sweater!

Yes, I'm still knitting:

Obviously the sweater is juuuuust about half done. I cast on the back last night, actually, but it's going to be a while before it's complete. It will be this sweater when it is complete. Note the trellis pattern on the back! This will take some serious focus!

WIP: alllllmost there

I probably won't get a picture in time for this post, but remember that sweater that I ripped out in March?  Yep, it's almost done. yes, this time I think it fits (though I will stretch it a leetle bit when I block it). yes, I am very excited!!!!! Then maybe I can finish the pair of socks for a friend that I started in May. And maybe do something about Halloween/Christmas...

WIP Wednesday: oh yeah, that sweater

So yeah, I started a sweater around the beginning of the year, and ripped it all out at the end of March. I got right back on the needle (or something!) and have made decent progress.

This is the body, take two:

And here are the arms, so far:

Decent progress, if I look at it objectively. I really really really want to get into new territory with this project, but that's a while away, because I'm also knitting at least two other projects, and sort of stumbled on a yarn sale recently. I love when that happens!

Before and after

The gory details on the sweater. Here is the before:

 

It was cool to finally get this far in the project. As I sorta thought, you just attach the sleeves 

and start knitting the rest of the shoulder cap along with the top of the torso. 

I think it would have worked if not for the matter of it being entirely too small! 

Here is the after: 

I didn't rip out the sleeves yet - there's a chance they may fit. Probably not really, 

but I guess I'm not ready to totally scrap this sucker. 

Even more nuts, I already cast on to start over!

EX-WIP Wednesday: Say goodbye to my little friend

Dudes, I have no idea what happened, but the sweater I've been working on for 2 months or so is a goner. Say goodbye, sayonora, arrivederci, we knew ye well. I got the arms long enough and figured out how to attach them to the body, and finally FINALLY tried it on.

Crud-ola, it does not fit.

I'm doubly frustrated because I did a gauge swatch. Then I cast on what should be the right size. And after 15 rows it seemed like it was going to be WAY too big.. so I decided to rip it out and start over, following the directions for the sweater 2 sizes smaller. And guess what? yeah, it's just about 2 sizes too small.

So now I have to rip out and wind 5 or 6 balls of yarn. Then I have to stomp my feet and tear my hair a bit. Then a good long sulk is in order, and only THEN will I consider casting on again. maybe.

WIP Wednesday: Two-fer

Still working on the sweater. I've put it down for a moment to whip out a baby hat, since I never did get around to seeing a high school friend who's been pregnant for nine months now. Oops. Well, I'm sure that baby is here and I'll make an effort to go meet it - I'm making the hat a little large to buy myself some time.

But here is where I am with the sweater.  You may recall that I got the torso done as far as it was supposed to go, and now I'm doing the sleeves. Both of 'em at once. Yep, I'm cool like that:

They're knit from the wrist up, and at some point you attach them to the torso and keep going. At some point near the end you go back and sew the sleeve-seam, turning these rectangles into arm-shaped tubes. I'm fuzzy on the details but will be sure to share!

Knitting two at a time is not that hard - you use a different ball of yarn for each piece and have to make sure you don't forget and use it across the whole row! It doesn't save any time of course - it really is six of one, half-dozen of the other - but the efficiency pleases me. Here's a closeup:

Just about 9 inches done and about 5 more to go. I might go a bit longer; we'll see! You're supposed to increase every 8th row and I use that green string to the left of the tape measure to help me track my rows. I learned that trick from some clever knit-bloggers I read, called The Rainey Sisters. 

WIP Wednesday: body!

Confession: I've been posting my WIP pictures about a week after they're taken. This one is actually a couple of weeks old! I've been working on the sleeves (both at once) for a little while but still have quite a way to go.

Most of the torso is finished. I put in a lifeline (dental floss, actually!) in case I decide I need to rip back and make the body shorter, or add short rows, or make any changes at all. I devoutly hope I won't need to do that!

WIP Wednesday: more sweater!

I'm cruising along and enjoying this sweater. I like the way the stitches line up in an interesting column - it's definitely an added bonus that I can memorize at least a row at a time so I'm not constantly looking at the chart.

I've only made one little mistake so far (not pictured!) - I messed up one of the cable-ish twists and fixed it, but one row higher than it should have been. Right, well, I'm not perfect. No problem there.

This will likely be finished sometime this summer, unless other (shiny!) projects distract me. Could happen.

WIP Wednesday: sweater!

I happened to be perusing Knitty looking for sock patterns, but came upon a lovely sweater pattern instead! I am the proud possessor of a sweater's worth of yarn (purchased at a discount as they've discontinued the oh-so-me color).

After the six months I spent knitting a sweater last year, I wasn't at all convinced I'd do another. But perhaps knitting is like childbirth, and you just forget the pain (I hear..but do not believe) and remember only the nice bits. At any rate, I've cast on a sweater.

This one is a cardigan knit from the bottom up. I've only skimmed the directions (bad knitter!) but it looks like you do most of the body, then go make the sleeves, then join the body and sleeves as you knit the top bit. If that's true, I may quite like this project!

Right now I just have a few inches of waistband, so I'm a long way off from worrying about arms and stuff.

(Thanks to AnotherYarn for reminding me about the WIP series!

WIP Wednesday: Yes, the sweater

Almost done, readers. I have completed all the parts of the sweater, and now have to get them together. You can almost see the finished product if you squint!

First problem: I think I mentioned that I don't have a perfect match on the shoulder fronts & backs. You can see the extent of the problem here:

The directions have me knitting just the neck band as a separate strip & then sewing it to the body but ideally I'd pick up the stitches and knit extra fabric + neckband. I'm not sure it's possible so I'm going to have to consult with Wiser Heads. Fortunately I have pretty broad shoulders, so the extra fabric won't be a problem.. if I can finagle it into place!

WIP Wednesday: More sweater!

Reader, my enthusiasm for this project wanes.

Yeah, I've (only?) been working on it for four months. Yes, I'm nearly done with the two sleeves, knit in tandem as long rectangles which shall then be seamed; yes, I've started on the shoulder caps, meaning only about 54 rows separate me from near-completion! But still.. I am weary.

Perhaps that's why I'm suddenly interested in making jams again. Really my subconcious is screaming:

No more knitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WIP Wednesday: Sweater!

Warning - lots of knit-talk ahead. If you're not a knitter, please feel free to just leave a comment saying "oooooh pretty."

I've gotten to a rather exciting point in knitting my sweater: it's actually taking shape! I finished the other front-half last week, and when I actually laid the pieces out, I can see it's actually going to really be a (gorgeous) sweater.

Right now I'm working on the sleeves, which are essentially two loooong rectangles that I'll then sew into tubes. Thanks to a chance passing question from a knitting coworker, I'm doing both sleeves at the same time, starting from the wrists and working up to the shoulder. It's essentially knitting the two rectangles side-by-side, being careful to use the correct ball of yarn for each one (otherwise they'd be hopelessly linked and I would cry).

It's a little fiddly, but it got better when the same coworker passed on a tip from another knitting buddy - connect the sleeves on one side so that you can easily tell which way you should be knitting across the project. Otherwise you quickly get confused about how many rows you've knit on each one, where you should be going next, etc. You'd probably have to be a knitter contemplating doing something like this to realize, but trust me when I say it made my life SO much easier.

Of course when I lined up the project so far, I realized that I screwed up in the shoulder area a little bit - I decreased the fronts more slowly than the pattern called for, meaning at the front of the shoulder I have about 20 stitches, but on the back part of the shoulder I only have about 11. They're supposed to line up perfectly, so there shall be some fudging. It's salvageable for sure, it's just a question of how I do it.

WIP Wednesday: sweater!

I've been knitting a wrap sweater for a while now - I started it March 26. So far I've finished the back and the left-front side. I've cast on the right-front side and have knit about an inch.

I love the color and the yarn. I'm not 100% sure I'll love the finished product, but at this rate, I won't know for months!

A knitting-friend advised me to think of this as knitting five scarves, then sewing them all together. I admit it helps to think of this as 2 projects done and 3 to go, but I'm still estimating that I'll be lucky to be done by Labor Day!