Friday, February 26, 2010

Nailed the landing!

I finished seaming up the sweater tonight.

Then I tried to take a picture of myself wearing it.

Then I gave up and took a picture of it all by itself.

Because the bedspread doesn’t reflect stuff behind it, like, say, the result of the primary housekeeper not keeping house for two weeks because she was busy with something else.

Like the knitting Olympics, for example.

Ahem. ANYWAY! Ta da!!




This was a pleasant knit with a nice result; no errors in the pattern. I went for the small size, because it seemed to me that the medium was going to be too big on me – I think I was right. The small is a touch snug, especially for something that is so form fitting; but if I hadn’t messed with the measurements, it would have been way too long in the sleeve and the overall length. This hits right above mid-thigh on me, and the sleeves are long enough to be doing that flare-thing as shown in the pattern, but not so long that I’m constantly having to twitch at them.

I’ll just have to remember to stand up straight and suck in my gut a bit. That ‘silhouette’ shaping on it is pretty unforgiving to those of us who slouch.

Now, my husband doesn’t think it goes with jeans, though. Humph. What does he know, everything has to go with jeans, they’re about all I own goes with jeans.

The yarn (Rowan Cashsoft) is nice and soft, moderate in warmth (which is nice for California)… but I have a sinking feeling it’s going to pill like the very devil. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but I’ve already had to shave a few little jewels off of it, before it was even finished or washed – shoot, before I’d even soaked it for the blocking! BUT, according to the label, it can be machine washed…which, mind you, I do with just about all my hand knits including the ‘hand wash only’ ones, trusting my fancy front loader’s ‘hand wash / silk’ setting for even my alpaca lace shawls.

Hasn’t failed me yet (she said confidently, thus ensuing that the next thing she tries to wash that way comes out feeling like an Army surplus blanket).

Well, I’d better get to bed. Thanks to the rain, I’m heading to Stitches market tomorrow; can’t pull weeds, might as well go fishing for wool!

Rainy days are perfect for wool-fishery. I hear they really bite when the rain is coming down good and hard. Probably have five, six big old skeins jump right into my market bag, you wait and see…

11 comments:

PipneyJane said...

Wow! That's lovely. Congratulations on getting your "Olympic Gold" too. Two weeks of hard knitting and you've got a great sweater to show for it.

- Pam (enjoy the yarn fishing. Please show off the results.)

PipneyJane said...

PS: How about wearing the sweater over leggings or skinny jeans? It'd look lovely.

- Pam (child of the '80s, dontcha know?)

amanda said...

Gorgeous! Congratulations!

ccr in MA said...

It looks wonderful: congratulations!

And of course it goes with jeans, everything goes with jeans!

Kali said...

That is one seriously awesome sweater and the perfect length, too! Congratulations!

(formerly) no-blog-rachel said...

I hope I see you at Stitches! Though I have no idea what you look like so I'm not sure how I'd figure out who you are. I'll have my vendor name tag on - if you see me please say Hi!

corinne said...

Pretty, pretty! That looks amazing!

I'm resigning myself to the fact that I'm not going to finish in time. I had a few major setbacks, that resulted in a lot of ripping out. I might also have been slightly overconfident in my abilities (a lace dress in 2 weeks! ha!) On the plus side, what I currently have looks lovely (or will as soon as I fix a small mistake I made 2 rows earlier).

I'll just have to console myself with my first ever Stitches visit on Sunday!

Louiz said...

Congratulations, it looks fabulous!

And yes, everything has to go with jeans.

Hope the skeins are biting:)

Kate said...

Looks great! Congratulations :-)

21stCenturyMom said...

That is bee-yoo-ti-ful!!

Michelle H. said...

Beautiful! I think it'd look great with black leggings and knee high boots!