Pullovers!

The ribbings for a purple pullover had been finished for several months, and I had the back already hanging from the machine, but then came the holidays and I forgot it.  The poor ribbing got all stretched out of shape so I took it off the machine and knit a new one. Now the basic knitting of the sweater pieces is almost finished.

 Above is the back hanging from the LK150.  I am really loving this machine.  It knits the worsted weight yarn like a champ and is so easy to use.

This is a dark and overcast day here in sunny California, so the above picture is pretty bad, but you can see that the front, back and one sleeve are done.  I have already put in a book-on-tape of Sense and Sensibility so will shortly go into the sewing room and finish up the second sleeve. 

I got distracted from the light blue empire pullover because it is a little too dark in the sewing room for dropping stitches and picking them back up to create the pattern I want on the yoke portions, so I am knitting plain sweaters for now until the sun comes back.  Also started are a pink pullover and a delft blue pullover.

Lots of leftover yarn is starting to accumulate here and there in the sewing room, so I'll have to think of some project to use it up.  Not an afghan, though, because I am all crocheted out for the time being.

Four New Sweaters

This was UFO week.  I sewed on so many buttons this week that I will be making pullovers for awhile until I can face a button again.  However, I now have 4 more sweaters. 

The first cardigan I decided to finish off was the navy jacket.  While I was on a roll, I finished the green cardigan jacket with the eyelet borders:

 

 

Then it was the raglan variegated cardigan:

 It seemed at first that it would be hard to find buttons that would go with this busy yarn, but I found some excellent ones at Beverly's.

I always thought that raglans didn't look good on me, but now I have changed my mind.  If the sleeves are 3/4 length and the seams are slightly fitted, the sweater looks very good.  It certainly is easier to sew in raglan sleeves than set-in sleeves.

The last sweater was the fair isle cardigan.  It's nice that this is finally done, but I don't think I'll make any more round yoke sweaters because I don't like the fit on me and how the yoke feels.  I'd like to try more fair isle though.

I'm almost ready to hang the light blue pullover on the machine.  It will be great to finish off a sweater without buttons.

Midwinter Knitting

Well, time has been flying along and here it is a new year already.  Here in California, we are having a very cold but dry winter so far.  Those completely sewn-together sweaters have been making me feel guilty, so one of the first things I am going to try to finish up this January is getting the buttons sewn onto the three cardigans.  I even wore the navy cardigan jacket once with a fancy pin holding the top together, so that is the one I decided to work on first.

 

I think I will get a lot of use out of this sweater because it has a classic shape and 3/4 sleeves.

 

 

The emerald green sweater jacket is the same pattern but has eyelets in the borders just like the pink jacket I made last year (which I happen to be wearing right this minute).  I didn't get the button positions marked  yet, but at least it is out of the stack of unfinished items and ready to work on.  Both of these colors will be very useful.  I have been making an effort this winter to wear my sweaters more often instead of just finishing them and putting them in a drawer.

The current project is a pullover sweater (will not languish unfinished waiting for its buttons) from this book:

I am using the stitch pattern and my TNT sweater pattern, and the finished pullover will have 3/4-length sleeves.  One thing I have discovered is that it is very hard to knit a lace pattern and watch some of my favorite Korean dramas at the same time, because I lose my place in the pattern when I look up to read the subtitles.

The lace portions will be knitted by hand and then hung on the machine for the rest of the bodices and sleeves.

Sock Knitting Again

I like to try different sock yarns, so this time I was using some Kroy that was in the stash.  I was a little alarmed when I read that the yardage was only 166 yards for each ball of yarn since I thought that around 400 yards was needed to make two socks.  This was a very stressful sock knit because it looked like there would not be enough yarn.  I barely had enough yarn, and there is not that extra little bit left to do any major mending needed in the future, so I think I will stick with other brands from now on.  My daughter is rather petite with a small foot, so I don't think you could have enough yarn to make a man's sock at all without using more than one skein per sock and having to weave in ends in the body of the sock.  It also seemed like the yarn in one of the skeins was thicker than the yarn in the second skein.  Anyway, I did manage to get two nice socks out of it:

Here's all the yarn I had left from the second sock with a dime beside it for reference:

It's finally getting cooler now, at least in the mornings and evenings though the days can climb to the 90's.  Time to start finishing up my sweaters and making new ones.

Finally, A Finished Object

Too bad the color of this afghan doesn't seem to photograph very well because it looks so  much better in person.  There are several shades of pink and one variegated yarn with a pop of orange.  It is a nice lap-sized blanket.  I was really really tired of working on it by the end, though. The mint green yarn was a little hard to crochet, but it did wash up nicely.

 I finally went with a simple shell edging which looks pretty good.  This was the first time I have used the 'crochet-it-together-as-you-go' method, and it sure is better than hand sewing all the motifs together.

My unfinished sweater inventory is getting bigger since it is still too hot to have a lap full of sweater, so at present I have three sweaters that need buttons and one sweater to sew together, and about three sets of ribbings ready to be made into sweaters.

July Knitting

If the temperature hadn't spiked to 111 degrees for two days and stayed in the 90's until now, there would be a lot more knitting going on.  As it is, my projects are languishing until the temperature goes down.  In the meantime, all the fruit ripened and had to be put up (and the extras taken to the Food Bank), and the first batches of pesto were made and frozen.  My basil crop is fabulous this year, so lush and plentiful.  I buy souffle cups from the restaurant supply store, little 2 oz. plastic cups with lids in size P325, and freeze the pesto in them.  So far I have made over 75 cups full, and it's only July.  I like to supply my daughters with enough pesto for their freezers, too.

There are several sweaters in the works.  A lovely yellow cardigan just needs assembly:

 

There are only two more rows to add to the afghan:

The ribbings are hand knit for a purple pullover, and the first one is hung on the machine:

 I want to try something I've never done before with this pullover.  I am going to add lace panels up the center front and have them curve along the V-neck with the decreases on the outside of the panel.

There's also a new cardigan draft to test out in red yarn for my daughter, and some teal ribbings being knit.  All the unassembled sweaters shown in my last post have been sewn together and just need their buttons sewn on.  It's too hot to have a lap full of sweater though, so that will have to wait.

Today will not involve any knitting since the 4th of July is tomorrow and we are celebrating my daughter's birthday, too.  I have some macaroni salad to make today and some cucumbers to marinate.

Three New Sweaters in the Works

I've never grown Amaryllis before, but since we grow Resurrection Lilies, which are really a kind of amaryllis, I think, I decided to give it a try.  Here they are, blooming away by the birdbath.  I don't know if they will live through next winter, but this is an experiment.

There are three sweaters in various degrees of completion at the moment.

These two cardigans will be jackets like my pink one.  The emerald green one has the same garter/eyelet borders, but the navy blue one has plain garter borders.

This cardigan is just for fun, to try out a variegated yarn.  This colorway looks pretty layered over an aqua tank I have which tones down the flashy nature of the yarn.

This is what happens when you produce sweaters so quickly -  you end up with several to sew together and do all the finishing.  We'll see how fast I am able to get them done.  The variegated cardigan is the latest draft of my raglan sweater with a few extra stitches added to the sleeve top.  It seems to fit nicely but you can't really tell until after the first washing.

The leftovers afghan is stalled at the moment though, and the gray and gold sweater is still waiting for its buttons.