Wicked: Finished

Voila! My first sweater. Finished March 25, 2007.


This project was quite a learning experience. I'm pretty satisfied with it but also not totally loving the way it's fitting on me. It's definitely better than last time. The sleeves and the neckline didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted. They're huge!!!! I'm still a novice at this so I wasn't sure where I could've tweaked the pattern to make it work for my odd body shape. I probably would've used one less skein of yarn too.

I like it. I'll get a lot of use out of it when I attend the evening A's games. I'll be the one in the obnoxious green sweater.

Now on to my next project....fingerless gloves. In green of course.

Wicked: The second time around

Here it is...3/4 of the way done. It seems like it's fitting better. It doesn't feel big and baggy like last time. This sweater is meant to be a bit fitted.
I'm am just past the waist and on my 8th row of increase rounds. I really hope it'll fit over my hips by the time I'm done. I am determined to finish it up this weekend. I hope I can figure out how to finish up the sleeves. Time to get a move on so I can move on!

And we have sleeves!!!

Two days ago:

WOOOOOO!!! That was scary getting the stitches on scrap yarn to separate the sleeves. I didn't want to screw it up when I've been doing so well on it. I tried it on to check if the sleeves were up too high and they weren't. I'm concerned that this sweater might be a size too big though and I was so worried it would be too fitted. Oh well, lesson learned. At least there will be room for layering. It'll be a nice sweater to wear keep me warm at the A's games (perfect color too!). Ok...now on with knitting the body. It feels like I'm taking forever to finish this. I just want to wear it already!

Today:

It's progressing slowly. Finally got to the torso part. I'm still iffy about the size. It feels really "roomy".

I've been bad

I've been so addicted to getting through the endless amount of boring knitting rounds of Wicked that I've been knitting when I shouldn't be. It's really bad. I broke it out during my commute to and from work. During my 45 min-1 hr commute each way, my car doesn't move much - at least 20 min of idling. I'm not proud of it but I put my time to good use. Then at work I have Wicked out on my desk or I hide it in my lap and I start knitting as soon as my co-worker across the way leaves her area...normally for a smoke. That gives me 10-15 minutes to get through a round. I know. Bad. It hasn't been so busy at work so it's ok. Right? Shut up. I don't have a problem.

In between my knitting spurts and pretending to work, I found a site that had this pattern:

Isn't that totally adorable? I want to nibble on those little legs cuz these booties make them so cute!!! They almost look like Uggs...but for indoor use. I have to make these, but in adult size. I Googled for the adult size pattern and BAM! I found it:

Another project to add to my list of things to knit.

And for giggles, I found this too:

Don't you knitters agree?

Wicked Progress and Stitches West

I took this picture of my Wicked sweater 2 days ago. I've knitted a bit more since then, maybe 15 rows away from forming the sleeves. I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll have that done. It's a bit monotonous knitting in the round repeatedly right now so that's why I'm excited about the sleeves. I can't help but be excited, it's my first sweater. I still wasn't sure about my gauge and I didn't want to invest more time in such a big project if I'm using the wrong needles size so I went to the yarn shop to ask for help. The lady who looked at my swatches confirmed I had the right size. YAY! You have no idea how relieved I was. I would be in a shit mood right now if I had to start over. I'm still anxious about how it's going to fit though.

Erin and I attended Stitches West, a huge knitting expo. I think my eyes popped out of my head the moment I saw all the yarn. I was like a kid in a candy store! My grocery list didn't have any yarn though. I wanted other things: knitting bag, metal interchangeable needle kit, and ball winder. I found them but not exacatly what I wanted it. What's funny is that I did end up buying some yarn. I can never pass up a good deal. Imagiknit, my favorite yarn store located in San Francisco (parking is a bitch!) participated at the expo and I'm so glad they did. Everything was 10% off and they carried Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the colors I like. I bought 2 skeins of the Mineshaft colorway. I think I'm going to make a mini-version of Clapotis out of it. We'll see. I'm sorta over Clapotis but the Lion and Lamb is what I really wanted to make out of it. It's sooo freakin' soft and would feel so nice wrapped around my neck. Considering it'll be a small version it wouldn't take too long to make.

Wicked is effing right

Wicked is officially cast on successfully. This project is seriously kicking my ass. It shouldn't be but it is. I'll have a lot of knitting "firsts" making my first sweater. I was having a hell of a time measuring out how much yarn was needed for the long tail cast on - another first. After the 3rd or 4th try I finally got it. About 3 rounds into the pattern I notice that the part where I joined the round is separating. WTF?! I couldn't figure out what happened but I decided to frog and start fresh. Bad vibes out...good vibes in. *breathe*

I re-cast and by the 2nd round in I see it loosening up and separating again. At this point I wanted to scream. I was sick of casting on, I didn't know how to prevent the stupid part that joins from separating, and all this frogging and re-casting was taking it's toll on the yarn strands. I put it down, walked away and did a little research online for tips. I even contemplated going to the yarn shop for help but didn't want to because it's so out of my way and too much of a drive from home. I'm also a bit stubborn and like to figure things out on my own. I don't like to ask for help until I admit defeat.

In better spirits last night I picked up Wicked again keeping those tips in mind. The big tip was to tighten the first stitch really well at the join so it won't loosen while knitting. It worked and so far so good. Phew. Can't wait till my next work break so I can work on it some more.

Swatching frustration

Knitting up swatches is painless. Yes, a little tedious when all you want to do is dive in and start knitting your project, but look at these two swatches:

I made these two swatches with the same amount of rows and the same amount of stitches. Only difference is the top swatch was made with size 7 addi circulars and the bottom swatch is with size 8 addi circulars. There's a HUGE difference!!!

My pattern calls for 18 stitches & 26 rows in St st = 4" on size 7's. The swatches totally tell me I'm a tight knitter. My gauge was pretty off. I had too many stitches/inch using 7's so I felt that going up to size 8's would be better. I'm still a little off but it's better than 7's. I dunno...I think I know what I'm doing and maybe I'm figuring my gauge wrong. I'm going to start knitting Wicked and my gut feeling is telling me it's ok to use size 8's and not have an anxiety attack if it doesn't work. I also like how the size 8 swatch feels...it's drapey just like the sweater should be. I can always start over, get some help at an LYS, and get on with it. I know it's only yarn, but it's my first sweater. I'd like to do it right the first time without crying. Uh oh. Maybe this is a bad week to start this. PMS is going to hit soon.

It's like Christmas!

Lookie what I got in the mail today!! 7 skeins of ArtYarns Supermerino and 2 new circular Addis. Now I have everything to get started on my sweater but I don't want to start it until I finish my Argosy scarf. :( I must fight the urge... I can't give in...