Yup, still a sweater knitter...

Taking a little break from commenting on student drafts... My sweater obsession continues, but for some reason I've been having bad luck recently in the realm of actually knitting sweaters. I've completed a few...three...since summer that turned out wonderfully. I need to photograph them and put the project pages up on Ravelry. Actually, now that I think about it, one of them isn't quite finished yet. I still need to purchase and install a zipper. It will be my first time sewing in a zipper! I'm excited about it, but haven't done it yet because I have been so busy with work this quarter that I haven't had a chance to go out zipper shopping. But, I have also finished a cardigan (Amy Christoffers' "White Pine") and a pullover (Leila Raabe's "Peabody"), both of which are FAB. I think I love the White Pine cardigan just a little bit more because it's soft and cuddly (knit with Ultra Alpaca in the cream colorway--so gorgeous in those cables!) Peabody is knit with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, which I actually like more than I expected, particularly after washing. This is the third sweater that I tried knitting with this yarn...and I'm happy that I finally found something workable and wearable to make with it. Still, it's not the best yarn for a sweater, IMO--it's not terribly resilient (unlike the Ultra Alpaca, which is almost ridiculously so), so the deep ribbing in the body of this sweater gets a little bit stretched out with wearing, and doesn't fit as nicely as it did when freshly washed/blocked. Not a huge deal.

Anyway (now we're getting to the bad luck part), since completing White Pine (and also Pignoli, also by Christoffers), I have worked on two different sweaters: I made a Girl Friday (Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark, published on knitty.com) in a dark green Ultra Alpaca, and...it turned out just a leeeeetle bit too tight. Which could have been OK, but it wasn't what I was going for with the sweater. I wanted it to be a little slouchy, like the model sweaters pictured on knitty.com. I want to make this sweater again, but I think I will use a different kind of yarn for it, or at least a lighter color so as to better show off the lace pattern. I'm actually thinking of using Ultra Alpaca again, only in one of the orange colorways (maybe Candied Yam Mix?). What could be nicer than a nice, slouchy, warm sweater in a sunny orange color? :-D

So, I'm going to frog the completed (but for buttons) Girl Friday, recondition the yarn (since I blocked the pieces before seaming it up), and make something else out of it. I have my eyes on a couple of pullovers that would be nice. So far the front runner is Jadis, a wonderfully simple design by Nathania Apple, published by the Twist Collective. I remember seeing this design when that issue of Twist was first published way back in Winter 2008, and didn't really think much of it. But today, I was scanning through all of the patterns on the Twist site, and it really jumped out at me. It just looks like a nice use for this dark green, peat-y yarn: simple and tailored so as to highlight the deep, complex heathering of the yarn. I'm definitely going to make the sweater longer. The design schematic calls for a 12" body from armpit-to-hem, which is not flattering on me. I prefer my sweaters more around 15".

Then, I knit the entire body, from hem to armpit, of a design called "Tinder" by Jared Flood (I modified it for knitting seamlessly, because I see no reason to knit this in pieces). I am using heather gray Cascade 220, which looks great in the textured stitch pattern...but I typically knit this yarn at 5 st/in rather than the 4.5 st/in called for in the pattern. I thought the stretchy fabric produced by this stitch pattern would make the fit OK...but I was wrong. I think it would have looked OK, but again--I am not going for a close fitting sweater, I want this to be a little slouchy. Serves me right for not swatching--for either of these sweaters! On the plus side, after knitting an 18" deep body piece, I had a nice big swatch for measuring...and sure enough, I'm getting 5 st/in. After crunching the numbers, I decided to follow the instructions for a size 2-up from the one I was originally aiming at. And then I RIPPED IT ALL OUT. Ouch! I have started re-knitting, though, and so far it's going well--I'm almost done with the bottom ribbing.

So today I spent a little break-time scanning through sweaters (as I mentioned above) on the Twist Collective site, and I purchased 5 different patterns. FIVE! The funny thing is that I never really considered knitting any of these when they first came out, but today they all just really jumped out at me as good matches with various yarns in my stash. Always a happy thing.... And that's it for me right now. Hopefully I'll have time over the holiday break to take pictures of my many as yet un-photographed FO's, and get my Ravelry project pages updated. What I'm really looking forward to, now that the current quarter is done: being able to attend Monday night Purlygirls meetings again!