So, i'm making a sweater! Finally! I've been knitting for probably 5 years now (yea, OMG, that many already? Wow.) and have yet to knit a project as big as a sweater. I started a blanket... it's about a foot and a couple inches long now. Considering i started it for a friend's sister's wedding present, and it's been at least 3 years since then, it's probably going to take me 12 years to finish, at this rate!!! Lol. It's just boring to knit the same 4 row patten over and over again for about 4 feet of knitting. I'll knit about 4" and get sick of the darn thing, put it away and forget it for a few months to a year. The last i worked on it was when i moved out here to vegas, which was a year ago last week. Time is funny; a year seems so long, until it's over, and then it seems like no time at all.
Well, i digress. Some project details:
Pattern: Janda from Knitty
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft. Black.
Guage: 18sts/24 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch
If i went straight with the pattern and used the recommended yarn (Mission Falls Cotton), the guage is 18/24 on size 7 needles. Caron Simply Soft uses the same gauge, but with size 8 needles. It worked out perfectly actually, i got to use a MUCH cheaper yarn and didn't need to change the gauge or do any math to get the pattern to work with the substituted yarn! Talk about a perfect project for a beginning sweater knitter. Not to mention it has taken maybe 3/4 of a skein of yarn to do the back, so it'll probably take 3 skeins to do the whole sweater. Should cost me about $9! Could have been even less if i used Michael's 40% off coupons for the yarn, but why bother making 3 trips to save maybe $3.
Anyways, I already finished the back. I can't beleive how quickly this is actually going; i bought the yarn on the 19th, but i probably didn't start it till a few days later, tho i can't really say for sure. Either way, the back peice is already done, and i started the ribbing on the front peice. Everything has knit up really well, and although i wasn't 100% certain on the pattern directions, the back peice has come out frikkin' awesome. The measurements are right on and things even look pretty good. The ribbing is knit in a K3-P2 patten, and on the one row i knit a few purls by mistake, but you really can't tell unless you're looking for flaws. Well, here's a pic of the back!
The Janda pattern has racing stripes crochetted up the side; my original plan was to crochet some bright yellow stripes and make a Steelers sweater, but i think i might end up just leaving them black/uncrocheted and just have a really cool black sweater. I'll have to put it all together and decide at the end what it is meant to be.
As much as i love the knittin' tho, my wrists and elbows really kill me after a knit session. Not really good news for a server / computer dork, where all i do is put stress on my wrist/elbow joints in one form or another. Guess i should just take some aleve and give it a rest more often... but it's so exciting to be kicking butt on this lil project here, i just want to knit till 4 am and do as much as i can and get it done! i'll keep sending updates as i make my super awesome progress. I think i might be addicted to sweater knitting now :)
Oh, and i did a little redesigning here on the yarn-blog. It looks like a St. Patrick's day leprechaun threw up all over the place, but i'm working on an alternative to blogger. Frankly, the templates are way too complicated for me to have the patience to try to edit directly, and the template editor in blogger doesn't give me much freedom to edit what i want to edit. So leprechaun puke it is, for now.
Well, i digress. Some project details:
Pattern: Janda from Knitty
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft. Black.
Guage: 18sts/24 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch
If i went straight with the pattern and used the recommended yarn (Mission Falls Cotton), the guage is 18/24 on size 7 needles. Caron Simply Soft uses the same gauge, but with size 8 needles. It worked out perfectly actually, i got to use a MUCH cheaper yarn and didn't need to change the gauge or do any math to get the pattern to work with the substituted yarn! Talk about a perfect project for a beginning sweater knitter. Not to mention it has taken maybe 3/4 of a skein of yarn to do the back, so it'll probably take 3 skeins to do the whole sweater. Should cost me about $9! Could have been even less if i used Michael's 40% off coupons for the yarn, but why bother making 3 trips to save maybe $3.
Anyways, I already finished the back. I can't beleive how quickly this is actually going; i bought the yarn on the 19th, but i probably didn't start it till a few days later, tho i can't really say for sure. Either way, the back peice is already done, and i started the ribbing on the front peice. Everything has knit up really well, and although i wasn't 100% certain on the pattern directions, the back peice has come out frikkin' awesome. The measurements are right on and things even look pretty good. The ribbing is knit in a K3-P2 patten, and on the one row i knit a few purls by mistake, but you really can't tell unless you're looking for flaws. Well, here's a pic of the back!
The Janda pattern has racing stripes crochetted up the side; my original plan was to crochet some bright yellow stripes and make a Steelers sweater, but i think i might end up just leaving them black/uncrocheted and just have a really cool black sweater. I'll have to put it all together and decide at the end what it is meant to be.
As much as i love the knittin' tho, my wrists and elbows really kill me after a knit session. Not really good news for a server / computer dork, where all i do is put stress on my wrist/elbow joints in one form or another. Guess i should just take some aleve and give it a rest more often... but it's so exciting to be kicking butt on this lil project here, i just want to knit till 4 am and do as much as i can and get it done! i'll keep sending updates as i make my super awesome progress. I think i might be addicted to sweater knitting now :)
Oh, and i did a little redesigning here on the yarn-blog. It looks like a St. Patrick's day leprechaun threw up all over the place, but i'm working on an alternative to blogger. Frankly, the templates are way too complicated for me to have the patience to try to edit directly, and the template editor in blogger doesn't give me much freedom to edit what i want to edit. So leprechaun puke it is, for now.
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