On the Needles, Jan. 3, 2014

I'm back to working on my Pinery Sweater. I am really enjoying this particular project. The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted, and the colour in this picture is pretty much bang on for accuracy. What it doesn't show, though, is the occasional splash of a subtle pink in with the rust. I am really liking the way the cables are forming. This is a top down knit. There will be ribbing on the top, once it is done, which will help the beginning of the cables lay a little bit better. Right now, they keep curling to the front. I think I'm one round away from splitting off the arms, at which point it should start to go much faster.

I just realized that I didn't show a picture of the finished Truck Sweater that I did for Avery for Christmas. I didn't manage to get a picture of him wearing it, though, so I'm not sure if it fit. I modified the truck design in the pattern considerably, in order to make it easier, and also because his Daddy has a white pick up truck. I actually didn't get this finished until 30 minutes before they got here. I sewed it up the day before, but still had to do the ribbing around the neck. That's what I get for procrastinating. LOL!
I'm linking up with Judy's On the Needles.

On the needles

Wow, two posts in one day! I'm just a writing machine today, on top of being a finishing machine. LOL! I had hopes of showing a new knitting project today that I had started yesterday. However, the tension was all wrong, so I ended up ripping it all out, and ordering the appropriate sized needles. I got a bit confused, since the pattern specified one size needles to get the right size, and the yarn specified another. I made the mistake of going with the pattern recommendation, and ended up with the stitches being way too small. Note to self, when using very expensive alpaca yarn, do a gauge swatch first. However, all this means that I will be finishing Avery's truck sweater instead of starting something new.

I'm almost at the neck and shoulder decrease stage. I simplified the truck considerably, and changed it from a tow truck to a white pick up truck. His daddy has a white pick up truck, so I thought it was a good choice. I'm linking this post up to Judy's On the Needles

On my needles, Nov. 1, 2013

 I'm working away at the Truck Sweater for Avery for Christmas. The back is finished and blocked.

 One of the sleeves is finished and blocked.

And the second sleeve will be done by the end of the evening, and then I can cast on and start working on the front. I left the fun part til last. I've been rummaging around in all my drawers of yarn, and have found some that I think will work for the truck. Some of them are a bit of a smaller gauge, so I hope it doesn't cause a problem, but I won't know for sure until I get there. I went looking for other yarns of the same gauge as this yarn, but there weren't any small enough balls in the store, and I really didn't want to be buying a large ball, just to do the colours in the truck, so I'll make do with what I have. I'll know more by this time tomorrow. I'm linking up with Judy's On the Needles.

On the needles, Oct. 25, 2013

Well, I just finished my second cup of coffee, and am now into my third, which means my brain is at least partially functioning. I thought I'd write this now, while I'm thinking about it, rather than leaving it until later, since I have a bad habit of leaving things until later, and then they never get done. I'm trying to correct that habit.
Much as I want to continue knitting on my sweater for myself, it's that time of year to start knitting for others. I have all kinds of stuff I want to do, so I thought I'd better get started.

So, this is the back of the sweater. It doesn't look too interesting, so far. I have 2 of these big balls of this green, and 2 more of them in red. I must have been thinking of Christmas knitting at the time, in the rather distant past, that I bought them. But they are good for kids sweaters that will get lots of wear and lots of washing. This has knitted up in the past 2 evenings while watching TV, so it shouldn't take too long to do. I'm doing the back first, and then the sleeves, before doing the front. Oh right, I forgot to say that this is the Truck Sweater that I found on Ravelry, which I'm doing for Avery. I might need to purchase some smaller balls of yarn for the graphic on the front of the sweater, but at least I can get the rest of it done ahead of those purchases. I have some scraps of other worsted weight yarns here, though, that might work. And thinking about it now, his Daddy has a white pick up truck, so maybe I can change the graphic to look like that. Hmmmm...... have to think about that. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles. And then I really need to get this day started. I'm going to do some more quilting on the Road to Brenham quilt, and I really hope that all the thread shredding issues I had yesterday, that I talked about here, don't continue today. I ended up having to switch cones of thread. After that, I got 1 1/2 passes done with no problems.