Friday, August 24, 2007

Newly on the Needles

Well, now that my son's hoodie is complete I am moving on to two new projects.

As I mentioned before, Branching Out is my very first lace project. I have completed two pattern repeats and now that school has started again I'm hoping to have a quiet house where I can concentrate! I understand now the benefits of knitting from the chart but it requires my full concentration - at least this early into the project. So here is what I've done so far...



It's hard to tell from the photo but if I stretch it out I can see the pattern forming.

My other current project is a top-down cardigan for my daughter. I'm using the Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Neckdown Cardigan pattern and Filatura di Crosa Primo yarn. It's a heavy worsted superwash wool. Here's the start of that sweater...



My daughter is pretty excited about it especially since it's "puhple" her favorite color. And this time around the sweater should have buttons and buttonholes unlike my last attempt at a sweater for this child.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Top-Down Sweater - DONE!

Yippee! The topdown sweater I was knitting for DS is finished! I love topdown design - it is just genius the way the directions are almost like a magic trick. I did end up frogging that first sleeve where the pooling occurred so it does look better now although I see some spots where there is slight pooling. But my son is happy and it's done well before the cold weather will hit!

So here it is...



Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Tunic #232
Yarn: 2 3/4 hanks Lorna's Laces in Seaside
Size: 6-8

So next up is another Knitting Pure and Simple pattern for my daughter. It's the Children's Neckdown Cardigan and I've got Filatura di Crosa Primo in a lavender shade for it.

I also started my very first lace project. I decided to give Branching Out a try. So far it's been a little frustrating. First I cast on the wrong number of stitches and didn't notice til I finished the garter stitch border. Then I ended up with the wrong stitch count on row 7 and ended up starting over. But now I've got one pattern repeat down and I put a lifeline in. I'm going to move the lifeline every time I finish a pattern repeat. But the good news is I'm getting better at chart reading!