Fall Frenzy

Fall is definitely great knitting time for me. For a while now I was waiting to blog until I could take some good pictures, but it turns out that my camera is on the fritz. I thought at first that it was the rechargeable batteries being wimpy, but it isn't. Fortunately the camera is still under warranty, and the husband is a techie-guy, so that will sort itself out. Meanwhile, a picture-less update.

The LYS, Lambikin's Hideaway, had a great yarn tasting and fashion show on Hallowe'en. It was a lot of fun to spend several hours with so many knitters, checking out so many great new yarns, snacking, and learning a few new techniques. The whole staff did a great job putting on a pretty intense and seriously fun afternoon. My entries for the fashion show were the Marjorie sweater I made my mom for Christmas last year and my new Clessidra socks. The socks won the prize for difficulty/technique. I'm still very enamored of these socks and have worn them several times.

I came home with one of the $1 old magazines and a whole bunch of one of the featured yarns of day, Portland Tweed from Classic Elite Yarns in a blue jean color (#5047). This yarn is going to become the Wrap Cardigan (Ravelry link) from Contemporary Knitting by Jo Sharp, my first sweater for myself! Lambikin's will be offering a class on this sweater in early 2010, and the book comes with the class. I'm really looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, I'm still knitting on the 2009 Secret Christmas Project, although the second half is going a little more slowly than the first half. I'm also knitting some amigurumi from a book I was given for my birthday. I've almost finished a fish and have started a jackalope. I'll write more about those in a while, because there's something else that has taken most of my knitting energy recently.

More Washcloths!
I've been sick, kinda sick, recuperating, and trying not to get sick again for large portions of the last two months. Washcloths seem to be the greatest project for knitting when I don't have a lot of mental or physical energy and need something comforting to do. Also on Hallowe'en I restocked my stash of Sugar 'n Cream cotton and have been churning out washcloths at the rate of nearly one a day. I've also recently borrowed the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book from the local public library, so perhaps that has influenced me. My total tally of washcloths for the year stands at twenty. Twenty. I hope my family isn't tired of getting washcloths for Christmas yet.

Sweater Pictures

For your viewing pleasure, a few pictures of the sweater I made for my mom for Christmas. This was my first grown-up sized sweater. Marjorie pattern from Knitty.



And a close up of the cabled parts:


This sweater turned out so well. I managed to completely surprise my mom, which is very unusual. She and I started an exercise program last year that has you record your measurements, so that weight loss isn't the only only way to see progress. So I took her measurements from that and double-checked them against a sweater that fits her well, and is of a similar style.

I love the Frog Tree 100% alpaca yarn I used for this. A small yarn miracle occurred during this project. I bought the yarn back in about May when my LYS was having a big sale. There was a lot of math and probably a little too much estimation used to determine how many balls to buy. So in November I was about to run out with about 1/3 of a sleeve and the collar left to go. I was at a Knit Night at the LYS when it finally became clear that there was no way I had enough, and one of the employees found another ball not only of the same color, but from the same dye lot! A definite little yarn miracle for this sweater. I'll be more careful next time I buy yarn for a big project, that's for sure!

This sweater came out SO well and was a thoroughly encouraging project. I'm looking forward to getting through this spring's baby knitting so I can start on next Christmas' sweater.