Another lesson learned after knitting a sweater

I'm done with the Tilted Duster with the exception of button placement. It's blocked and the sleeves were a bit damp but I tried it on anyway with the anticipation of loving everything about it.

Before blocking, the ribbing was ridiculously tight and I was concerned. There was a lot of "butt hugging" going on. Last thing I need is attention in that area of my body. Fortunately I found other Ravelry TD knitters who gave tips to assure others that the hugging will become drapey after blocking and they were right. The back turned out great. It's the front and sides of the skirt that came out too big. *pout*

The sides of the skirt. Oh man. Where do I begin? They look like wings. OK, I'm being way to critical but it's just not how I expected this sweater to turn out. I wasn't expecting so much positive ease when I thought I was going to have too much negative ease. There must be a way to re-plump the wool without fucking it up. I swear there's an article somewhere...


So my hard lesson learned this time? Wet block swatches before casting on and be patient. No matter what. I read this tip all the time regarding swatching but I never do. Now I know why. I could've gone down a needle size or gone down one sweater size.

Once I move my buttons to a better spot on the collar I'll take some pics. For now, I need some time to grow to like my TD because I'm not sure if I want to take her out in public.

One more TD sleeve to go and an addition to my stash

Seaming sleeves = NO fun

It's not difficult but it took me HOURS to figure it out on my own. I researched online, asked around in Ravelry, and looked for tutorials in my knitting books. Jeezus! If I drove over to my favorite yarn store and asked for help I would've had it down in minutes. Unfortunately any yarn store is out of the way for me around here. It sucks. The Antioch/Brentwood area needs a yarn store BAD. It would do very well out here considering this area has grown quite rapidly and there are crafty people out here. There's no competition except Michael's and Walmart but us snobby yarn enthusiasts prefer premium yarn stores with great customer service. Know what I mean?

What was I was talking about before my rant? Oh yes, my finishing. So yeah, I need to sign up for a finishing class (too late now to sign up for anything at Stitches West). My shotty job is ok for now but with future projects I would like to make my finishing much nicer. I still need to block and re-do the placement of the buttons. This isn't a great pic, but here it is:

On Ravelry I'm part of a fan group for Showtime's series, Dexter. I LOVE that show and have seen every episode. Carrie, of Socks in the City created Dexter themed colorways available for purchase that are sooo cool. Some of the colorway names are Dexter, Dexter's Canvas, "103", Lila, Hawaiian Shirts, Ice Truck Killer, Dark Defender, Bay Harbor Butcher, Beneath the Bay, and Hooker's Fingernails. If you watch the show then you can only the imagine the colorways. Carrie is so right on with the dyes. The one I had to have is Ice Truck Killer, pictured below. It's a basic superwash sock yarn. I can't wait to knit myself up a pair of socks! I found a little red splatter on the skein. I find it kinda funny, like a little blood splatter that the ITK missed. Not that blood splatter is funny, but if you watch the show...OH nevermind.

I gotta get back to seaming now.

No more gift knitting till next year

The Red Sox Socks I'm giving to my friend are finito.I'm over my sock anxiety. This is a good thing since I have some sock stash yarn waiting for me. But that will have to wait. I'm off and running on the Tilted Duster from IK's Fall 07 issue. I'm using Berroco Peruvia in Sea Turtle. I swatched it up last night and got the correct gauge on the first try on Size 10 needles.
I casted on this morning and mid-way through finishing the upper back. A pretty quick knit so far and it's looking good.
If I didn't knit up my last cardigan in gray I probably would've chosen a gray shade for this one. I love green, but not sure about this green. There's a bit of gold in it that I didn't catch before and not sure if this will suit me. On the other hand, how can I go wrong with Oakland Athletics colors?