Part of the reason I have not been blogging much recently is that I have been very excited about my various knitting projects. Check it out: this is my very first sweater! It was pretty easy (not a lot of shaping or sizing involved), but I'm still proud. I have worn it several times and have gotten several compliments on it, which is pretty cool when you made something yourself.
There is actually no clasp or button built into the sweater; you just hold it together with a pretty pin/brooch of your choice. If anyone is interested, I found the pattern here.
I also recently finished a scarf that I'm really excited to wear. I saw this yarn and really loved it, but couldn't find a cool enough pattern to use it on for quite a while. Then I happened upon this pattern that someone used for the same brand of yarn and voila! I was set. Here is my completed version. I added tassels because I just think it's more fun that way...but looking at the pictures maybe I need to trim them to be all the same length. Hmm....
Please also note the dog in this picture (and all of the following pictures). It was a fine art to tell him "No! Leave it!" and then snap the picture before his self-control entirely melted away under the temptation of yummy, fuzzy, chewable yarn.
I also finished a dog (um, I mean, cat, a cat sweater) for Crazy Aunt Purl's Druken Cat Sweater Sweepstakes. Newton was nice enough to model my dog (oops, I mean CAT) sweater for me.
How cute is that? Michael says it makes him look like a little old man (Is it cold in here? Turn up the heat! *waves cane in the air*) I adapted the pattern from this one using more dignified colors since the poor doggie in that picture looks like an ad for his local gay pride parade, and he doesn't seem particularly happy about it. This was kind of a cool intro to knitting with different colors, which led me to try this pattern, which was featured in my latest Craft magazine that came in the mail.
I'll give you three guesses as to what it's supposed to say when it's done. I'm doing this one a little at a time because what I have now learned from doing the striped pattern and then moving on to this one is that knitting in large blocks of colors (like stripes) is kind of fun and interesting, but knitting detailed color patterns where you switch colors often (like letters) is a major pain in the ass. I think I'll be working on this one a little at a time for a while....and then I may not do a lot of color stuff for some time.
Meanwhile, I have also started working on this pattern for a knitting bag. I plan to give this one to a fellow knitter for Christmas. Here is half of the bag...
That is one side of the bag plus one handle. The pattern is kind of cool because, as you can see if you click on the link above, the finished bag leaves the needles in at the end (as you can see I have done here) to form some structure at the top. That needle is just one of a cheap pair I have that I'm using as a place-holder. Once I block the bag (which involves getting it wet, hence the cheap plastic needles) I'll find a pretty pair of decorative needles to use instead.
So, there you have it! That's what I have been up to lately. Um, ok, fine, that and playing Scrabble on the computer. Oh, and working. I swear I have gotten some work done in there somewhere, too! Now,if it would just hurry up and get cooler outside I could start to wear all of my fun new knitted items! Hear that Mother Nature? Hurry up with the fall already! I can just see myself in my new scarf sipping hot apple cider and eating some kind of baked good containing pumpkin....mmm...
That's some nice knitting, dear. I'm quite proud of you. Your sweater is quite cute, as is Newton's old-man jumper. I'm quite excited to wear the police-tape scarf. And to read it in its entirety.
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