Saturday, January 19, 2008

Ode to my Central Park Hoodie

Oh Central Park Hoodie
Dear purple, lilac, sweet soft
blue sky cotton weaved and
twisted in delight
you know how I love thee
you promised to be good to me
your promised a walk in the park
SO GET OF THE BENCH!
Ah, forgive me for the yell
But to ponder makes
my eyes swell
Will I ever know your smooth fibers
running across my skin
Us frolicking in the wind
enjoying the sun
WHY THE TORTURE
ARE WE THERE YET!?
I will finish you central park
hoodie. One day. One day.
My dear purple, lilac sweet soft
blue sky cotton sweater of love.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Green Gable Completed!




Here she is! My Green Gable Sweater! This was knit in Malabrigo, merino worsted. I have to say I'm very pleased with it. All in all, it was easy to knit, especially since it is knit in the round! But beyond the pattern, knitting with Malabrigo was a dream. I even used my cheapy needles and it was still fun! Very soft. The yarn is also very wearable, it feels like butter on the skin! Mmmmmmm, buttah! I've also used Manos before, which in contrast, is a little itchy.

The color is amazing, the pictures don't do this colorway justice. But I must admit, after doing the swatch, I didn't think I'd like the color variation, inherent in kettle-dyed yarn. I took the yarn back! Tricia, my LYS owner and Tim Gunn coach told me to "carry on!" and sent me marching home...with the yarn in hand! And tada! I'm glad she did. This baby has personality.

I started the sweater around Thanksgiving, but have picked it up and down through the holidays and such. If I had worked straight through, I think it could have been finished in one week, knitting at night.

Pattern note: The total stitch count is off for the medium size when you get to the underarm. Which explains why I initially thought I did something wrong. I also knitted a few extra rows at the underarm for better ease. I did make two hiccups in the raglan shaping but the yarn and pattern held up and hid it well.

Here's the story on how I found the pattern. I wandered into Nana's Knitting Shop, my LYS to get some help from Tricia on the the Matador sweater in Knitscene's 2006 magazine. By the way, this magazine has great patterns including the Central Park Hoodie. Anyway, when I get there, it is Saturday, Tricia's off day, so Cory, was giving me some advice and showed me her Zephyr style Wicked pattern since the Matador was also knit raglan, but unfortunately from the bottom up? Weird. In comes Lauren wearing this lovely short sleeved sweater in golden heathered brown. "Did you knit that?! Where's the pattern!" was pretty much all I could utter. It fit Lauren very well, tailored around the hip and waist and the lace top was attractive. Needless to say, I bought the pattern but still no yarn. I came back a few days later to see Tricia and remarked about Lauren's sweater. "Cascade 220." "No way!" Of course as Vanna, I mean Tricia, the hostess with the mostess does, she took me on tour of the all yarn that was made just for me and my pattern. Of the choices, the Malabrigo was calling my name. A very seductive experience as the other enablers in the shop added their background melody, cheering me to take three skeins home, even though I was supposed to be working on something else! I have a little ball left for a scarf or maybe a hat for my toddler. I love Nana's!

One More Green Gable Photo


greengable_malabrigo2
Originally uploaded by k_purls2
OK, I'm not good at blogging and I couldn't figure out how to attractively post two pictures, so here is a close-up of the sweater.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Loving Yarn

Well it's a New Year and my goal is going to be to post once a week. Blogging is new to me and I've been slow about getting into the blogging spirit. Part of the problem is that my knitting has been sporadic. It's tough to get focused time while trying to keep my precious little one out of my stash! I am very excited about some upcoming posts. I'm blocking my Green Gable sweater, knitted in Malabrigo and almost finished with my Central Park Hoodie.

But until next time, I thought I'd share some cute pictures and example of my hampered knitting. This was taken while my friends from Shepherd's Pride, my church crochet circle, were working in my living room on our holiday project. My son got into my mom's stash. He's hilarious!