Finished Blueberry

The blueberry sweater is finished!!!!



I really like it. I've been told it's a very girly choice for me, which I hadn't even realised, but that's right. When I saw the magazine at first, I didn't think I was going to make that particular pattern, but then months later I looked at it again, and immediately thought of some yarn I had in my stash. And so I made it. The charts in the magazine were quite wrong, with problems in the cables and in the shaping at the top - it said to cast off 6 stitches at the beginning and end of a row. Is that actually possible? I don't know of any way to do it, so I just spread it over 2 rows. I also made it a little longer than the pattern called for.

I had problems at the beginning with the sizing, but that was my fault, my inability to tell what size I actually am. This one had to be made a size bigger, THEN I started thinking it was going to be too big, but it's actually just right.

This took 3 and a half weeks to make. It would have been less time if I'd made the correct size in the first place and didn't have to rip an entire section of it. Also if I'd been monogamous and not run off to play with Rogue. It was supposed to be a stash-buster, to use up all of this type of yarn that I had - this is what is left:


Almost enough to make another one! I guess I'll be making a t-shirt or something with the rest, or putting it together with some black I've got in the same yarn. But for now, it's going back in the stash, till I work on Rogue - I'm back up to where I was before on that one, and it looks like it's the right size this time!

Stupid Me!

I just realised that I've been blathering on for ages about this sweater I'm knitting, and I haven't posted any pictures of what it's supposed to look like. D'oh! You can tell I'm new at this blogging thing, can't you? Anyway, here's a pic




The pattern info is on Jean Moss's site at http://www.jeanmoss.com/In_the_pink.html. You can order it there, but I got it from a magazine. Mine is navy blue, that's why I call it blueberry, instead of blackcurrant.

You can also see the nipple-tastic bobble in this picture that I've decided to leave out on the front!

I'm still working on the 'collar' (well, round the shoulder bit). It's to be 6.5 inches long so it folds over. I've managed to get to 4.75 inches, so not long to go now. Maybe it'll be finished by Sunday or Monday.

Ug

Did I say it was only going to take a few hours to finish the blueberry sweater? I was wrong. Somehow, I forgot to take into account the fact that the collar uses smaller needles, so I'm getting about 13 rows to the inch, with about 250 stitches on each row. In uninterrupted K2,P2 rib.

This may take some time.

Payback from the Knitting Gods

Oh knitting gods, I have been unfaithful! And I accept your smiting. The lesson is learned. One big project at a time, thou shalt not be adulterous. Please accept my humble offerings of yarn and bless this humble WIP.

I have been smited. I started Rogue before finishing Blueberry, got halfway up the kangaroo pocket, held the sweater up against me, and realised it was too big. Huge. Boatlike-like is not the word, more starship-like. There was no way I could ever wear it like that, I'd be swamped.

My fault, of course. I don't seem to know what size I am. It happens with just about every project, I either start it too small, or too big. Very rarely have I started a sweater, and picked the right size - in fact, right now I can't think of any that have been the right size first time off.

So I have decided this is payback for not finishing the blueberry sweater when I KNEW I should. It's been at the back of my mind bugging me for days. All that it needs is to be sewed together and a collar put on, how difficult can that be? I know that if I start it now, I can be finished by tonight. Yet I hang back, not wanting to sew up a few lousy inches. But, knitting gods, I heed your warning. See, a photo of Rogue in mid-rip:



And tomorrow I shall post a picture of a finished Blueberry sweater. Please accept my humble apologies, and believe I'll be a more monogamous knitter in future.

(P.S) I'm not really insane, honest!

Blueberry not Blackcurrant

No progress on Rogue - it's not even cast on yet. The pattern isn't even printed out yet. I've been trying to get on with the Blackcurrant Ice Cream top. I keep making mistakes with the cables and not noticing for ages, then having to rip back. I had to rip out 3 inches yesterday! But that's nothing, the day before I knit about 7 inches altogether (not in one day, right enough), realised I'd made a mistake, ripped back and got thoroughly confused trying to put the stitches back on the needles. So I got annoyed and ripped the entire thing. This must be the fourth or fifth time I've started this top. At least it's my fault the past few times. I was so gutted when I found the error in the chart the first time, then when I couldn't fix it quite right the second time. Now I've got my head round it though, and mostly I'm working from a chart in my head, rather than the one in the magazine. It's a shame about the error cos it's a really nice pattern. Here's a photo of the progress so far:


This is going to be the back. For the front, I'm not going to make those bobbles on either side - they look a bit too nipple-tastic when it's held up against me. Oh, and I've also made it a bit longer by continuing the cables for a few rows more than they were meant to. It seemed very short for me, it's better for me to have it too long than too short - I'm more likely to like it that way. It seems like it'll turn out to be a suitable length now.

I like the way this yarn is knitting up, even though I've no clue what it is. The ebay listing said it was wool, but in the UK that's often used just as a way of saying yarn. It doesn't feel like wool or cotton, but it doesn't feel like acrylic either, at least not 100% acrylic. It's plied kind of like a bit of string, and I'm not really sure how to describe the feel of it. Not as rough as wool or acrylic, but definitely not as soft as cotton. I think I'll have to take it somewhere, maybe a yarn store or something, and see if anyone else knows what it is. I never wash my hand knits in the machine anyway, or rub them, so it would never get a chance to felt, but it's bugging me that I don't know what it is. Oh well, I like it anyway. But I'm going to have to rename the top to Blueberry Ice Cream - the color is just not blackcurranty at all.