FO: The Dockhouse Sweater

Guys, this raglan is one of my absolute favorite FO's ever. Period.

It is warm, squishy and has an appealing diamond texture in a captivating heathered green colorway. The V-shaped collar has faux buttonholes, and you can't go wrong with a long-sleeved raglan construction. Plus, let's talk about green clothing...you can sport it for so many occasions, espeically St. Patty's day, Halloween AND Christmas! 

(If I were Emeril Lagasse, I'd say "BAM!")

 

 

Materials & Notes

 Pattern: The Dockhouse Sweater, by Amy Herzog

This sweater pattern is in the style of a pattern 'recipe' in Amy Herog's "Ultimate Sweater Book," plus I switched the yarn weight, so I heavily modified this sweater to the point where I practically had to design it myself off of the pictures/idea of the design.

Needles

US 2 - 2.75 mm

US 3 - 3.25 mm

US 5 - 3.75 mm

 

Gauge

US 5: 23 stitches and 34 rows = 4'' in the Diamond texture

 

Yarn

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light

9 skeins = 1296.0 yards (1185.1 meters), 450 grams

Colorway 4275 Pea Soup Mix, dye lot 701 

 

Notes:

Sport weight yarn, 216 sts

Total active days knitting it: 44
      Sleeves: 3-ish days each sleeve---plan on a week for a pair of sleeves
      Front or back sides, after armpit BO’s : 2-3 days each
      Bottom ribbing: 1-2 days
      Collar 1-2 days
      An average of 8-12 rds of 216 sts per day.

457g of yarn (1 lb 1oz) of yarn. 

MY DETAILED RECIPE NOTES

This was another project that I chipped away last August while at a family reunion near Galena, Il. Here's a little journey into my WIP stages:

 

That feeling, when you finally try it on and it fits perfectly!

 

I had to re-knit one of the sleeves due to an error on my part, so after I knit what was three sleeves, it was so satisfying throwing it in the wash.

Aw. The photo above was taken in what was my newly renovated bathroom at our last house, several months before moving. I miss those counters and mirrors...

 

As soon as it gets chilly this will be coming back on me!

Fern.

Research project. Weekend. Total "Senioritis" basket-case.
Procrastination. Knitting. Sanity.

I'm not quite sure if it's just the laziness of the weekend, or if I really do have senioritis. My brain will not buckle down long enough to let me dig into my research readings. To keep myself sane, I started a quick new project, my "Fern" hat, to protect me against the chill of Fall.

Pattern: "Fern," my own design (on Etsy!)[RAVEL-IT!]

Needles: size 8 Dpns

Yarn: Cascade Yarns: Pastaza

Fiber: 50% llama & 50% wool

Yardage: 132 yards

I'll have to leave it at that. My body feels a little shaky... I think I drank a little too much caffeine to stay awake. I just don't feel well right now to do anything, even though I know I have to get back to my books & laptop. I guess that's what happens when you mix your period with a lot of caffeine & barely eat a decent meal today. Hopefully my canned broccoli soup will do the trick.

Please read the post below, I posted the WIP of my "Infinity Cardigan."

(This one doesn't count.)

EDIT: I just made an archive of all of the FO's that predate my blog!
Feast your eyes on this!!

First off, I just want to say thank-you to everyone who has cheered me on, and shared my depression on unfair exams! You gals are awesome, and I would do a group hug if I could!! :)
It stinks that bad (exams) happen to (good) people. ha ha.

On to knitterly things:
I am really sorry about the delay, oh wonderful craftsters. I know you all have been very patient for some more eye-candy that has not been sufficiently provided. Darn you academia and non-approved weather!! Anyways, if you live in the Midwest, you probably have empathy for my woes of sticky needles and sweltering rooms this past week. I'm sick of 90 degree weather...my room does not have air-conditioning. But, that's ok, it will start cooling off tomorrow, finally.
I am knitting up the cardigan, but 6'' of 1x1 ribbing goes a little slowly when you are working in the heat, and on 180-ish stitches with size 6 needles.
However, I am almost to the more exciting part (increasing), and will post pictures as soon as the cardigan starts to resemble a snippet of a garment.

I am also excited to announce that I have finally came up with the: suspect, a couple of awesome "big events" that happen in my plot, and some dynamics to my main characters in my "knitting mystery" book. I definitely don't want to wimp on the suspense & hair-raising moments (that some "cozy" books miss), so I came up with something good for now. However, I still don't have an outline on the plot, so this whole preliminary work will take time. Then, I have to figure out the "guidelines" of some mystery publishers. (Most people don't realize that the biggest reason that people get rejected is that they didn't think to get the official "guidelines" for certain sub-genres.) Mystery books have many genres, and you have to be ultra-careful while writing that you meet the criteria of whatever sub-genre you choose. Yikes.

The two skeins of lace and the Victorian Lace Today book was from a distant cousin in Seattle Washington, that just found out that I knit! The short story was that my dad visited Seattle on a business trip, somehow got on the topic about me, told her about me knitting, and she grabbed this pile out of her own house to give to me!! Wasn't that amazing?!? Thank-you Cindy! You're amazing!

On the left is a mystery skein of lace-weight in a almost light royal blue & dark brown. The other skeins is from Prism yarns, in the gorgeous colorway: Ginger.
I love awesome surprises like this! I've always drooled over this book at Borders.

This was from last Saturday, at Wilson's Apple Orchard.

The funny part (sad, really) was that we couldn't pick apples, because of the early frost. Ironic, really, since it's soo hot here.


This snap-shot was intriguing.
We did take a walk around the orchard.

This lovely gentlemen offered our huge group a ride! We rode for at least a half an hour around the orchard, and finally over a creek! Luckily there was enough room for our large group of 15. It was really nice to relax while the tractor did all the work. It was a lovely day. The air was a bit chilly and we had a picture-perfect sunset view above the orchard.



In the meantime, I will leave you with a paradox to answer:
Q: How is it that sometimes, you can feel soo comfy/lazy not leaving your house (ex: just feeling like watching tv) that the mear thought of going outside seems...."blah," yet feel so wonderful being outside that you don't want to come back, once you finally get that nudge to the "world" outside? Do you catch my drift?
This question was hard to formulate, since it's based off of those feelings you get, and I apologize now, because it might only sound clear in my head.


Ok, time to find air-conditioning somewhere in this residence to knit and play some more "catch-up" on my readings:
Luther, Botany & Christian Science.

Current pleasure reading:
Knit Fast, Die Young, by Mary Kruger
The Cairo Diary, by Maxim Chattham.

The Dells & 2 New FO's

I APOLOGISE NOW FOR THIS BEING A LONG POST & HEAVY WITH IMAGES!! I HAVE MUCH TO SAY & SHOW, BUT NOT ENOUGH BLOG WIDTH TO DO IT ON! :)

Last night, I just got back from a wonderful vacation at the Dells! We lodged at the Kalahari Resort from Monday to Wednesday. Everyone had a blast! There is an outdoor waterpark by our rooms, and an indoor one jam-packed with dozens of water rides, hottubes, mini pools (for the kids), and a lazy river for slow tubing. Ahhhhh. Everything was in an African theme, so It almost looked like we were in Hawaii, because they also had fake palm trees surrounding the premises.



The outdoor water park:


The indoor water park:




Unfortunately, I decided that I would never surf for real, and so a "padded" surf machine would sufice for me do something "out there." I stood on the surf board for about 2 seconds, before I fell head first on what felt like "metal," not "padding." The hight powered jets contorted me all over the place, and pushed me up the hill on what felt like metal draining vents... still pushing me all around so I couldn't get up. My migraine dwindled, but later that night, my right side of my neck started hurting. The next day, the swelling and pain spreaded to the front of my neck too.

Nevertheless, I've been putting up with the whiplash pain, and have been knitting.


And the first sock is now officially done.
I love them soo much! The fakie fair-isle pattern worked perfectly on size 1's. However, They are a little snug. I'll try size 2's next time, and hope that the pattern still looks as cool!
I call them "Arctic" socks. Don't they look fridgid?


And I finished my "(Cover Your) Beach Bum" Skirt I just designed:

It's still blocking. I'll have real pictures soon.
I never did get to wear them at the Dells. Oh well. I'll use it to go tanning outside, or whatever.

And What was most fun on the last day (Wednesday) was going to the knitter's "candy store," Wool Warp & Wheel in Illinois, on our way home. They are known for the fiber arts, selling fiber, lots of spinning wheels and of course, some yarn. Quite the cute shop!! The owners are a husband-wife team, and were extremely nice and helpful. They guided me through what to look for in wheels and drop-spindles, and books they had on the arts. Sorry about the dark pictures.

I bought myself my first drop-spindle, and the "beginners fiber choice," some pre-cut fiber for easy drafting. I still have to dye the fiber before I jump into it. Well, ok, I still have to read that book about the "art of spinning." I can't wait!! I just love the African look to the spindle. A touch of exoticism, huh?

Of course, I bought some Opal sock yarn in my school color ("Hawkeyes") when I saw the sock yarn. Ok, I splurged... I got another one too!

When you sit back & let the colorway do all your "dirty work"

Without further ado, my Etsy shop is finally running!! I'm selling my "All Twisted Up" designer bag pattern now.It's in a Word format document, with written out instructions for the cable pattern, and is sent via email upon payment (to save on shipping costs and time).


On Saturday, my friend Liz visited me in Illinois, and we drove together to a knitting shop that I just found out about is only 20 minutes away. The "Keweenaw Shepherd" is a very small, but a cute shop. It is loaded with wonderful hanks of wool, alpaca, and such. Plus, the owner graciously let us stay a little over closing, since I was a goofball and thought that it closed at 5pm, not 2pm. I got some goodies:

2 skeins of Lana Grossa's Meilenweit Inca & Magico (100g each). They are beautiful skeins, with really nice colorways. I've already started a pair of socks. They are made with 80% virgin wool and 20% polyamide.

This scrumptious foresty goodness is hand painted Schaefer Yarn in "Anne." This will be used for a leaf shawl I plan to make in the near future. It's really hard to notice in the picture, but there are different shades of green mixed in with an olive-y brown and almost teal looking green.

Although I'd hate to show off the side with the line running through the work from the dpns, it was the best side to show off the perfect stripes. Isn't she purdy? No muss or fuss... just one strand (and a magnifying glass to see the stitches while knitting).

Yarn: Lana Gross in Inca; 100g

Needles: Size ONE

Stitches: 64 (although it does fit my feet, I would like to cast on about 70-74 on 1's next time)

I casted on yesterday evening, and have been knitting on and off, inbetween performance acts from my mom's charity show, car rides, watching a Smallville Episode, and such. It's getting there. My sock preference is anklets, so this one already feels like knee-highs to me, but you've gotta let those colors shine... go for the extra legnth. (shhh... i'm only doing another inch or so, before I work the heel.)

(*breathe*) Lastly, Joe and I went to Borders today (to "window shop") and I couldn't help but splurgin on Maggie Stefton's 4th book in the Knitting Mystery series--"A Killer Stitch." If you haven't read these books, you should check it out in your library/buy the books cheap on Amazon.com, because they are really great reads (and fast!). You really can "cozy up" to these books! They really make me want to move to Colorado, and sip coffee everyday at the knitting shop and knit at a large table with friends. Unfortunately, after 3 books, the author decided to turn to hardcover... I'll let you finish my thoughts about that. Poor bookshelve and its inconsistancies....

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I'M SUCH A SLOW-POKE! I'VE BEEN TAGGED AGAIN!

(this time from Silver Ilix )

Rules: if you've been tagged, you have to write 7 random facts about yourself (usually fun and interesting ones) on your blog, tag 7 others and write to the original tagger to read your posted facts on your blog.

p.s-- you need to post these rules on your blog as well, to let others know how to play the game.

1. I hoard too many books... probably because I buy too many of them

2. I'm a neat freak. Sometimes I get really OCD about cleaning my room and organizing my schoolwork... even late at night (if i'm on a lot of caffeine).

3. I was raised Catholic, but since college, I have been finding out what being "Christian" trully means to me.

4. I take a lot of progress pics of my knitting, and most of the pictures I take are in fact of knitting, not people. (don't laugh, it's sad...)

5. When I was young, I would blare my music really loudly in my room so no one would hear me sing, and I would dress up and pretend I was singing on stage.

6. I cannot stand pretezls with flavors. Once I ate some mustard pretzles at a bowling alley, and regretted that later.... let's just say my senses can't stand the smell or taste of them again. Any other flavors is just border-line sickening to me, because of the bad memories.

7. When I go to restaurants, I usually don't order any drinks, besides water, because i'm a cheapo. $1.30 is just to expensive for me, for a can of pop.

I'm tagging:

-Silver Ilix-- ha ha, tag-backs!

-Knitting Hawkeye (Liz)

-Laural

-Knitlit (Kate)

-Knit Creations of a Curious Mind (Olga)

-Dawn

-and how about Faith.

$14 Thrift Shop Bill. Yeah, I'm serious.

Having nothing to do today after watching tv at the bo's house, we decided to take a trip to the thrift shop, because I heard on craftster that someone found a bag of yarn with alpaca and other things for $4! Well, I didn't find alpaca, but I found a bag with shetland wool (50g), 8 skeins of what looks like the Berroco Suede yarn in a variety of colors, 1 1/2 skeins of what looks to be chunky purple wool, blue & white wool, and tweedy wool (80-100g??), a skein of that black lacey blocks yarn on the right, and a questionable tweedy blue skein of yarn. My cost for this whole bag?? $4!! If I bought this at the normal craftstore, that wouldn't even buy me one skein of theses things.

We then looked around at the book selection. I was amazed to find books in my own collection (eh hem!! *library*) at home that was going for only a couple of bucks... paperback and also hardcover! They had quite the selection of stuff. I piced up an interesting find: Snow Falling on Cedars, which supposedly is a #1 bestseller book, and the great price of $1.21 and The Alchemist, which is only 150 pages, and if it isn't good, I won't cry over 88 cents.

Also... I've been looking for ages for a bargain-priced serving tea pot! For 7 bucks, I found an amazing pot in brand-new condition just waiting for me. I looked on the bottom, and I know why I recognize it. I saw it at Target last season, when I was initially searching for the teapot.


Amazing, or what? 14 bucks is pretty good for all that!
Let's hope more people donate yarn, and the cashiers never find out the retail prices of the yarn!!

Playing with fire

...When you know you are on the threshold of insanity, or entering the "darkside."
It all started with a lovely walk down Walmart lanes. I had the whole idea of learning how to do granny squares and knitting a really cool looking afghan. This isn't your orange-white-red combo, mind you; something simple, pleasant, and appealling to the common eyes.

So ok. Maybe this first go wasn't so sucessful. I wasn't even sure I was double crocheting correctly.
The second go was a lot more sucessful. If it weren't for the wonky black and light blue center, this square would look actually quite nicely.
The third go was even more sucessful, but yet the second tier is again a little loose. I decided to do only 3 tiers, since the object started to get more and more circular as you go. Instead of the black double crochet stitch like the second go, this one has single crochet for the border. it looks a lot better. I was thinking that the other color for the borders would alternate with teal and seagreen, in the afghan. Nice idea, yeah?
The fourth, fifth, sixth (didn't even really get past this point)... the guage is considerably tighter! I hesitated to go looser, because I didn't want the wonky-tonky business going on. Mistake? Yup.
Result??? Let's knit the damn afghan, shall we? I'm going to alternate with the foggotting stitch blocks, picking stitches up along the sides and top and such. I almost considered the trinity stitch for it, instead.

When I was at Micheals, I picked up some awesome ribbon, that I plan to use as my wedding theme. I will put it on the invitations and such, since i'm doing it all by myself. You'll see later on... it will look good once it's all put together. On the right side picture, we are looking at 5 skiens of Sugar & Cream cotton, for washcloths. Colorful and happy-looking... I think so!


Oh my! A book that i'm reading that isn't required for school? You can see that I only got 11 pages through, but i'll pick it up again tomorrow. Bruce Feiler is such an exellent writer/storyteller! I recomment his books to anyone that happens to be Jewish or Christian (or Muslim-- for the book "Abraham")

DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT SCHOOL'S DONE?!?! I had a great semester, and i'm sure all of my grades will show for it. :)

My FH and I went to Caribou Coffee yesturday, after a couple of months of Starbucks and such, I read some of my book and sipped on their mocha coffee. Now that's mocha!!

Update on Victoria: doesn't look like much, but let's just say that the cabled border took a little while! Then, I had to sew it all around the border-- eeek!! I'm now entering the trinity stitch zone, and am playing with the stitch variation numbers in my head right now. I'll have to figure out how many knit stitches should be in between, or yo's and such.

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--->I've been tagged!
(by She'sa crafty one)

Rules: if you've been tagged, you have to write 7 random facts about yourself (usually fun and interesting ones) on your blog, tag 7 others and write to the original tagger to read your facts, so they know you've done your part.

1. )I hate beer. I'll go straight for the hard mixed stuff.

2.) I don't watch sports, nor do I know any trivia about them, or care much about it

3.) As a child, I took eleven(ish) years of piano, played flute (without instruction, but still very sucessfully) for six years--before I decided not to play in band anymore, and I sing a lot!

4.) I hate all forms of seafood! And I don't care for steak (bloody and red... yuck)-- I'm a cheap dinner date, aren't I?

5.) I live in the Chicagoland, but I rarely visit the city

6.) Rap, alternative and techno music doesn't do it for me-- I listen to classical, contemporary Christitan/gospel, broadway musicals, baroque, some new age and pop music

7.) I really enjoy cooking. I watch a lot of foodnetwork. However, whenever my FH is supposed to help me cook, I usually hog the cooking!

8.) I'm one of the lightest sleepers in the world, and it's almost always a struggle to fall asleep. My creativity kicks in-as well as songs in my head-around the time when I should be sleeping!

9.) I love to read! I mostly read fantasy novels, some Christianity books, Knitting stuff, Harry Potter... etc. You can look up my list on "library thing" under my profile.

10.) I'm engaged to the most loving, caring and wonderful man in the world. We will tie the knot September 19, 2009 (a million years away still).

...11.) I only have one more year left of college... whoohoo!

Boy do I have a lot of news...

First of all, yahoo! My yarn arrived today! That was fast. It's such a wonderful feeling when you get a little white slip of paper telling you that you have a package, in the mailbox! I unwrapped one of the skeins from the package, and the yarn indeed is stretchy, like elastic. These should make one heck of a tanktop. The colors are "African Violet" and "Jade" from Elann.com. It's made out of 98% cotton and 2% elastic. Let's just say that there is enough elastic!


I was also experimenting today with some cabled leaves with knitpick's cotton shine yarn. What do you think? I like it, but I would modify a few things. I was thinking about adding a trunk and taking out the botton left leaf. This isn't the same one as the "leaves and branches" tanktop idea I had.


Also.... do you remember this guy? Well, I dragged him out of his little WIP pile, and finished it up! He's 100% simple and 100% generic and 100% plain. I love it though! For my next socks, i'm planning on doing something totally not plain.

Yarn: wool-ease in turqouis. Half a skein or less per sock
Needles: Size 4 DPNS
CO: 48 stitches
Ribbing: 2x2

Now on to the second one, right?


Lastly, I just wrote up "grafting 101" just a minute ago. It's posted just below this one. Have fun. :)

Don't Look...Just Click!

Ok, so I splurged! I bought 4 balls EACH of African Violet & Jade.
Link:
http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=elann%2Ecom+Esprit&Season=&Company=&Cat=ALLY&ProductType=5&OrderBy=&Count=30

It's made from 98% percent cotton and 2% elastic. I'm planning on making two summery knits out of it. I just found Elann.com, and they have a lot of good cheap yarn. Yay. They have a lot of different yarns in the 3 dollar zone, for 50g (100+ yards). Next time, i'll get some sock yarn (which is only $1.98 per ball).
http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=elann%2Ecom+Sonata&Season=&Company=&Cat=ALLY&ProductType=5&OrderBy=&Count=45
Or colors for 25 cents more!:
http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=elann%2Ecom+Sonata+Print&Season=&Company=&Cat=ALLY&ProductType=5&OrderBy=&Count=46

The Clapoltis can be knitted cheaper with this yarn:
http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=elann%2Ecom+Adara&Season=&Company=&Cat=ALLY&ProductType=5&OrderBy=&Count=26
They come in pretty colors!