Watershed and Scalloped Potholders

Most of this week I’ve been trying to get this post together and it just kept not happening, so it’s FO Friday again! This week I have two finished projects.

The first thing that I finished, which I mentioned on my last blog post, is Watershed. This one has some mods, so there are some long notes below. This is my first sweater for the International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathon in 2011.

Watershed

Pattern: Watershed (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: January 18, 2011
Completed: January 30, 2011
Yarn: Malabrigo in Pearl, 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 8 Addi Turbo Lace circular
Notes: I made changes to the sleeves. I didn’t really care for the original way they were done (a lot of extra ends!). Instead of knitting the 3 sections separately to create the bottom of the armhole, I knit the whole thing for 2.5 additional repeats (per the pattern had I done the separate sections), then instead of casting on for the sleeve stitches per pattern, I provisionally cast on a total of 60 stitches (amount it tells you to cast on, plus the 14 sts I would have picked up on each side had I followed the pattern), then put 10 stitches of the body on waste yarn (per the pattern for the underarm of the sleeve). Because I changed the sleeve construction, I also had to change the decreases. Instead of only decreasing on the right side row, I decreased the sleeve stitches every row (and only the sleeve stitches). I did this with ssk and k2tog on the RS rows, p2tog and p2togtbl on the WS rows. I didn’t like the decrease stitches as purls on the RS rows. This made the final stitch count come out the same as if I had followed the pattern. After completing the body and picking up the sleeves stitches, I did the following: Knit 9 rows, 10 row, decreased 10 sts evenly across. I switched to garter stitch for 3 garter ridges, then did the bind off in purl (rows would be as follows: purl, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, bind off in purl). If I were to do this again, while I LOVE how it turned out, I’d cast on fewer stitches for the sleeve. Maybe 50 instead of 60. I’d do the math to figure out the size first, but guessing 10-15 less stitches for my size. I’d still do the decreases because otherwise the garter stitch flared out. Of course you could just go down a needle size, but I didn’t think of that until I was finished!

Watershed – Side

Watershed – Back

The second thing I finished was the second Scalloped Potholder. The second one ended up a little bigger then the first, but I used up two skeins of cotton making the two and now I have some new hot pads.

Scalloped Potholders

Pattern: Scalloped Potholders (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: January 24, 2011
Completed: February 1, 2011
Yarn: Lily Sugar’n Cream, one skein Hot Green, one skein Hot Pink
Needles: G/4.25 mm hook and H/5.00 mm hook
Notes: On the first one (green center), I only used the G/4.25 mm hook. On the second one, I used the G/4.25 mm hook for the center, then the H/5.00 mm hook for the shells, sc row and sc’ing them together. I think they worked out a lot better going up a hook from the shells on because it ended up laying a lot more flat. When I make another set, I’ll likely go up another hook size to sc them together (possibly for the sc row after the shells and sc’ing together). The first one really didn’t lay flat at all until I blocked it and even then it wants to curl a bit when you pick it up. I love the colors and they were quick to crochet, so I think I’ll be making more of them in the future. I just wish I had more solid cotton to use!

Since I finished my first sweater of the 12 I plan on knitting this year, I’ve moved on to the next one! I debated on what I wanted to do next, so I picked out a few and swatched. One didn’t work out at all and I knew right away I wasn’t going to get proper gauge, so I quickly gave up on that. The second one was for Watershed, which you see above, and the third one was for Seneca. This one has been in my queue and since Sheri of The Loopy Ewe is doing a Cable Challenge this quarter, I bought Madeleine Tosh DK in Lepidoptra from TLE specifically for the challenge to knit Seneca. After the sweater fail that was Bel Air, I wanted to start on this, but when I had gauge issues that required me to buy another needle size, I ended up going with Watershed instead.

I’ve finished the first cable chart, on to the second skein of yarn, and I’ve finished the waist decreases. I only have a picture of when I was about halfway through the cable chart and it’s a crappy one. Sorry about that! The color is fairly accurate, though.

Seneca

This project has been getting all of my attention since I started it! I’m 2 repeats of the 16 rows stockinette/16 rows textured stitch pattern (for a 32 row repeat) of my Textured Stitch shawl, but I don’t have any new pictures of it. No real progress on Matt’s socks lately, but I do want to get them finished soon, so I’m thinking I may focus on knitting them this weekend.

Speaking of weekend, I hear something called the Superbowl is happening on Sunday. I don’t follow sports at all, but we are planning on going to a party a friend of ours is hosting. I’m possibly more excited about the food that will be there then the game, but that’s because I know nothing about football and can only barely follow what’s going on in the game. 😉 Whatever your plans are, I hope you all have a good weekend!