Sweater Pics

Here is the finished sweater drying after blocking. It is still close-fitting, but comfortable. I still wish that I had made it a little bit longer, perhaps just with short rows in the lower back. Lesson learned for next time! Overall, I am quite happy with it though.



Here's a close-up on the colorwork, just before joining in the fourth color.



Halfway thru the yoke.

Status Report

Well, the sweater is done, except for blocking! It is rather close fitting (but wearable) , and I hope it will expand a bit after a wash and some careful stretching.

What have I learned? The importance of swatching, for one thing, but more significantly, the importance of adding enough ease when designing a garment. I wound up casting on 128 stitches for the body, and probably should have cast on 135 instead and then increased up to 150. Lesson learned for the next one... which I am already dreaming about.

I want to do another seamless one with colorwork, but this time done in more earthtones with raglan shoulders. I am still not sure about what design to use. I thought about doing a Celtic frieze motif running all the way around under the armholes, but I'll play around to see what it looks like. I also have come up with some possible designs based off of the Rovaniemi mittens using the same technique. So many possibilities...!

In other knitting news, I taught myself the Mobius cast-on yesterday and did a practice piece. The cast-on is incredibly quick once you get the hang of it. I am looking forward to using it in a real project!'

My Brain Hurts

Today I had the pleasure of attending Susanna Hansson's workshop on Lapland Hand Garments over at Threadbear. My knitting buddy Cynthia was there too, and together we tried to wrap our heads around an intarsia-in-the-round technique unlike anything I'd seen before. We learned about traditional mitten designs of the Far North and worked on a class project to make wristwarmers with a traditional motif. I'll put up photos soon.

Overall, it was a good time and the 7 hours flew by. I am already thinking of ways that the special stitch used could be incorporated into other projects. I would love to do another class at Threadbear sometime soon!