Livingstone Cardigan and Julia Child

I am finally knitting a sweater for me. My project notes are getting much too long on Ravelry, so off to the blog I go! I'm knitting the Livingstone Cardigan in Rowan British Sheep Breeds in mid-brown Jacob.

I chose this pattern because it reminds my of a cardigan my Aunt Carol gave me in 3rd or 4th grade. I outgrew it very quickly and have wanted a replacement ever since. I've finally found something close to what I remember.

Now that Amazon has all 10 seasons of The French Chef with Julia Child, I'm slowly working my way through the episodes. I'm still in season one, in black and white, so it's hard to tell what she's doing and most food doesn't look terribly appetizing in shades of gray. I just missed how to make mayonnaise by hand, since I was fixing cables.

What I've learned with this project so far: Swatches lie. I need to look at my knitting after every single row. I have every size DPN, except 10. It's not as scary to drop down and fix cables as I thought.

Sigh

It came this way. Maybe I should stick to already wound yarn.

Multnomah is finished

The colors have a wonderful glow. This really was mood knitting and it shows. My tension was back to normal by the end. I'm ready to go back and tackle my other WIPs now.

WIPs

Here's a bag of WIPs:





















The blue is Gaenor and I haven't made much progress on it. Pink is Bitterroot and I'm on the D chart now. Orange is Multnomah. I have 5 more repeats until it's finished.
















I started on the Multnomah the day after I put Skunk to sleep. I made 10 mistakes on one row of Bitterroot, so I decided something simpler would be better. I'm finding it slow going now, just because it's such a simple pattern. It's my first project without a single white cat hair.


RIP Skunk

In progress

My original goal for 2010 was to complete 12 projects, of any size, by the end of the year. I think I should have been more ambitious!


Completed:
Very Large Scarf in Noro Yoroi on 35 needles. This took me a year to finish.





















Abstract Leaves Cowl in WM Twin
















In progress:
Gaenor in Wool Candy BFL Lollipop. I love working with BFL. The lace is fun, but the garter stitch is a bit tedious.

















Indigo Dandy in numma numma panna. I went for ruffles instead of the tailored look.

















Bitterroot in numma numma stretto. This is extremely pink. It's just a touch darker than Barbie pink.

Blocking

The Abstract Leaves cowl is blocking. Again. I managed to block it wider than it is long and while it was pretty, it didn't exactly fit. So I took extra care to block it long this time.

I'm working on Gaenor in a blue BFL from a local indie dyer. It's a quick knit with lace on both sides to keep interest. It seems to have a distinct bias, though, which I'm hoping will block out.

I'm still looking for an appropriate yarn for the Dragon. The Yarn Chef had some red merino/tussah that was almost perfect. But I will find the right yarn. I'm going to use the WM lace for the Magic Carpet Ride scarf. I'm just waiting for the beads to get here. The scarf will only use half the skein, but I'm sure someone will be willing to take it off my hands if I don't find a use for it.

Milkweed pic

Next time, I'll block the points more. There was a mistake I didn't notice until I was unpinning it - a yarn over moved over one stitch and all the YOs after are out of alignment. Since I'm going to be wearing it as a scarf, it's really not a big deal. I'm just pleased that I finished it instead of changing my mind halfway through and ripping it out. I'm either getting to be a better knitter or I'm more accepting of my mistakes. Either or both is good.