I’ve been putting off blogging a bit because I haven’t been too great about taking pictures of things I’ve been working on. With the daylight going away earlier and the weather just not being so great, I find it harder to get pictures I’m happy with indoors. I was also waiting to get some finished pictures of my latest finished knit. Took a while for me to wash it because it was so cold in our house that I knew it would take forever to dry, but we caved and turned on the heat recently, so I finally got around to washing my finished sweater last week.
Climbing Vines Pullover
Pattern: Climbing Vines Pullover (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: October 11, 2010
Completed: October 27, 2010
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, color 9489, approximately 4.5 skeins
Needles: US 6 and 7 bamboo circular needles
Notes: I knit the 42″ bust size and it fits well. I did add an inch in length to the body and I’m glad I did. It would have been just a bit too short on me otherwise. I do wish I would have shortened the length of the sleeves to be 3/4 length. As written they aren’t quite long enough to be long sleeves and not quite short enough to be 3/4 length. If I were to knit this again, I may pick up less stitches around the collar, or go down to a US 5 needle to make it a little bit more snug. The way that the pattern is written for the arm/shoulder shaping on the front was a bit of a pain to follow and get right because of the vine pattern, so it took a lot of tweaking and re-knitting. This also makes it so that the left side of the sweater falls open and off my shoulder just a bit so I feel like I have to adjust that side a lot. I think knitting with less collar stitches or at a tighter gauge would fix the issue and I may go back and re-knit it at some point. I think I’d knit the armholes to a shorter length for a better fit. For me, they’re just a bit too deep. The other sort of complaint I have about the pattern is the tightness of the sleeves. They don’t seem to be designed to wear something under it – they’re pretty snug. I suppose that’s fine in the end for me since I likely won’t wear much other then a cami under it, but that could be an issue for others or if I decide to wear a short or long sleeve top under it in the future. Happy with the overall sweater, though, and I think I’ll definitely get some wear out of it this fall and winter.
Climbing Vines Pullover – Side
Climbing Vines Pullover – Back
I wore this on Saturday when I went to the new LYS that just opened. The sweater was pretty comfortable, though just a bit on the itchy side for me since my skin is fairly sensitive to wool (and alpaca). I was wearing a cami underneath, so my upper back and arms were against the sweater. Not nearly as bad as some yarns have been for me, but it is making me think about getting something different to wear underneath it.
About that new LYS! Yarns & Fabrications in West Chester closed in October. I was quite sad to see the shop go since it’s the closest one to me, but was happy to find out that the store was purchased, however it was to move and change names. The new shop is Main Street Yarns and is located in Mason. They have a Ravelry group here. The shop is a bit further from me then Yarns & Fabrications was, but not by too much. Most of the staff is still the same and they are a lovely group of people. The shop is cozy, with seating area and a table in the front of the shop. My understanding is they’re still waiting on a lot of their yarns to come in, but they already have a nice selection in stock. I look forward to visiting again soon!
I’ve been working on my Featherweight out of handspun. I’m up to where the arms have been split off, which is making the rows much easier to knit. They were taking so long for a while there! It’s been set to the side just a bit since I’ve been working on some other projects this month, but it makes for great TV and social knitting, so I’ve been trying to work on it when I can’t pay attention to something more difficult.
Handspun Featherweight
It’s the time of year when a lot of folks are working on Christmas/Giftmas knitting. I still haven’t decided if I’ll knit anything for people this year, but I have a small group of people that I gift to, so there’s still time if I decide I want to. Are you knitting for people in your life for the holidays? If so, what are you working on?
Ms Lindz - My little corner of the internet 
Great photos, as usual. That pullover has been in my queue for ages, I really need to knit it up. And knitting such a large project with handspun is a dream of mine! Maybe I’ll add that to the “resolutions” list for 2011.
Very inspiring entry for me!
Your climbing vines pullover looks so fabulous! I cannot hardly wait to see your featherweight knit up in that beautiful colorway!
Looks great! I love the color!
Well, I wasn’t planning on knitting anything for anyone this year, but it looks like one of my sisters and my niece will be getting handknits since they’re already done (a scarf & mitts for sis, a hat for niece)! I might be knitting something for my BIL as well, if I can come up with something that’s fairly fast to knit since I’ll be visiting them for Thanksgiving (and thus giving their presents then).
The handspun cardi looks gorgeous!