I didn't do any knitting yesterday. I made this baseball themed charm bracelet though. It's my first charm bracelet. It's the first time I've made the little beaded dangle things. I used beading head pins and needle nosed plyers. It was tricky for me at first but then I got my technique down. I'd like to make another charm style bracelet in the future with different colors of the beaded dangle things.
I also added a bunch of my old finished knits photos to my flicker pages. I've got a section there for my rose photos also. I plan on eventually having photos of each of my rose bushes there. And I've spotted another sweater I'd like to knit. It's Aguave from Knitter's Summer 2005. I'm considering joining the Tour de France knit a long and going for the green jersey by speed knitting this. I'd have to buy yarn for it thought. I like the color of the one from the magazine and would like to do it in the same yarn and color. I'd have to set aside my Vogue Bell Sleeve Jacket for awhile though. Meanwhile, my additional skein of yarn arrived yesterday so now I will be able to finish up my apricot jacket.
Here is my progress on the Bell Sleeve Jacket. I finished a sleeve and am partway up the back.
Also, this goodie arrived in the mail yesterday:
I'm so pleased. It's a color card for Cascade 220 yarns. I've been trying to get my hands on one of these for a long long time. I have such a hard time trying to decide colors, especially from a computer screen since I don't really have a local yarn store, so I like sample cards to be able to see the colors first hand to really know what they look like.
Also, I came across this cute tank top pattern at the Berocco web site. I think it would be nice knit in the newly re-released Lion Brand Cotton Ease. I've never used Cotton Ease before but I've read a lot of good comments about it. I like the pattern and of course have added it to my collection of possible future knits.
I started knitting on the Vogue Bell Sleeve Jacket. It's actually a sweater. I don't know why they called it a jacket (probably due to the way it closes with a knitted belt instead of buttons). Anyways, I started on the sleeve and worked quite a bit on it today. Here is my progress. I think my increases are a bit sloppy on the left side. I experimented as I went and got it to where they were better and not as noticeable but I didn't rip back and redo the earlier ones. I just want to keep going at this point. When I'm all done if it bothers me too much I guess I'll re knit the sleeve but for now I'm continuing on. The third knit rib at the cuff doesn't seem to line up in the center with the wide k6 rib and I don't think this is a mistake but I'm not sure. I wish there were more FO pics of this project on the web to look at. I doesn't seem like too many knitting bloggers made this sweater. I like the k3p3 edge and plan on using this on the lower edges of the front and back also instead of the edge the pattern calls for.
Also, I came across this cute cardigan sweater pattern at the garnstudio site. It's Drops design number 88 pattern 4. I like it enough to consider it for a potential future knit. And, I still need to block and assemble my apricot jacket. It also has some sort of crochet edging which I'm a little worried about. My history with crochet is pretty bad. I've checked out more crochet books from the library but when I actually go to do the crochet I get confused and am very clumsy with holding the hook and yarn. I wish someone would publish a good crochet edging for knitters instructional book.
I finished the sleeves for my apricot jacket. The little ends of yarn in this photo are all the yarn I have left. I completely used all four skeins to knit this sweater. The sleeves look like they are going to be about two inches too long. I realized this after knitting the first sleeve. I considered ripping back to before the cap shaping and deleting some rows there but decided to just leave it and knit the other sleeve the same. I plan on blocking it and seaming the sleeve to the body then cutting the ends of the sleeves at the appropriate spot. I'll have to be careful to do both sleeves the same way. Then I'll have to unravel and then bind off the edge. The photo of the model wearing this sweater with the pattern shows the sleeves coming down past her wrists and covering part of her hands also and this is how mine is. I don't think I will like long sleeves like that but I hate the thought of getting rid of any of the ribbing section. I don't think its long enough as it is to go along with the ribbing section of the body of the sweater. Maybe I'll leave it as is with the too long sleeves. I don't know yet for sure. I would probably need to use some of the unraveled yarn I get from the sleeve ends to do some of the seaming because I really don't have any more yarn left.
I've also started knitting gauge swatches for my next project. It's not the Nantucket Jacket like I had planned to do next. When the time comes for me to start new projects I always seem to go for something else from what I had been planning. I've decided to do the Bell Sleeve Jacket from the Holiday 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting. I bought some Cascade 220 from Webs when they had their big sale last month. I have yet to successfully knit anything from Vogue. I'm a little concerned about the sizing for this sweater especially of the sleeves. At this point I'm considering making the size small but knitting the next size larger armhole and sleeves. I'm quite thin but I like a fair amount of room around my upper arms for comfort. It seems like this should work although I've never changed a pattern that way before.
I didn't do any knitting yesterday. I made this baseball themed charm bracelet though. It's my first charm bracelet. It's the first time I've made the little beaded dangle things. I used beading head pins and needle nosed plyers. It was tricky for me at first but then I got my technique down. I'd like to make another charm style bracelet in the future with different colors of the beaded dangle things.
