Cables and Progress

 

I've been working along on my Norderney pullover.  It's moving along nicely and I love the cabled/textured section in the center.  I'm going to keep working on it and I'll pop in here at the blog periodically when there is progress to show.

Today is Caleb's last day of school before the new year, so we're both looking forward to the break.  In addition to knitting on this, I'm hoping to get some sewing done as well, but I haven't decided quite what I want to sew.  I should probably figure that out soon!

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back sometime next week with something!

Finally, Completely Finished

 

I finished the knitting on my Bentley Cardigan ages ago, but I hadn't blocked it and finished the button and buttonhole bands.  Now I have!  I used some leftover Liberty of London Tana Lawn scraps for the facings and I love how they look!

For the button band I just sewed in the facing and then sewed the buttons through all the layers.  For the buttonhole band, I sewed in buttonholes to match where the knitted ones were and then sewed in the facing.  I used gray thread so it wouldn't show through a buttonhole from the front (it's not as dark as it looks in the photo).  I'm not completely sure it was necessary, I might have been able to use white.

I'm thrilled with how my finished cardigan looks and I love the little floral surprise on the inside!  Next time I might be brave enough to do machine stitched buttonholes through both the facing and the knitted band.  I'm definitely going to be doing this again!

So I Started Something New

 

Instead of being responsible and working on my poor, neglected Meditative Blanket, I cast on for a new sweater.  This is Norderney, a loose pullover with a cable pattern down the middle front.  I'm using Valley Yarns Northfield in Tranquil Blue (it's a robin's egg blue, not as bright as it photographed).  I've knit the back down to the underarm level and I'm almost there on the front, then they'll be joined and the body will be knit in the round.  I've already woven in a bunch of ends because they (and the provisional cast on tails) were driving me nuts.  I'm through the worst of the chaos at this point - it isn't a hard pattern, there's just a lot going on at the very first, but New Project Momentum helps in getting past that.

At this stage of the year, with everything that's going on, I'll be blogging sporadically.  I just don't have blog fodder for four or five posts a week, so I'll pop in when I have something to show.  I'll resume regular blogging at some point after New Year's Day.  I know everyone else is super busy at this time of year as well, so just pop by and say hi when you can!

Lightweight Pullover - Finished!

 

I finished my Lightweight Pullover this past weekend and I even had time to block it!  I really only blocked the neck and the lower hem.  I think I finished it just in time because except for today (which might involve wearing shorts), it's supposed to get cold this week.

I knit this in Squoosh Fiberarts Rapture in Planet 9.  The yarn is soft and feels great.  It reminds me of Madelinetosh Pashmina and Dream in Color Smooshy With Cashmere.  It will feel great in this design, even up against my neck.  (I'm funny about things close to my neck.)  I cast on for a bigger size neck, worked it in ribbing instead of stockinette, and used larger needles to make it loose and slouchy.  I adjusted the stitch count during the raglan increase section to get back on track for my size and I didn't increase the sleeve stitches to where the pattern said because I wanted a narrower sleeve.  Other than that, I knit it exactly as the pattern directed.  Once I was through making all my changes (thank heavens I took good notes), it was easy and straight forward knitting.

The question now is what do I knit next?  It's December and I kind of like having everything wrapped up and starting fresh on new projects next year, so the most sensible thing for me to do is to work on my poor neglected Meditative Blanket.  Obviously that's not getting finished this year but I bet I could get a lot done on it if I work on it exclusively for the rest of this month.

I'm thinking about casting on another sweater.