Thursday, May 27, 2010

Happy Holiday Weekend!


Our little family is off to Cape Cod for the long Memorial Day weekend and I am so excited! I am looking forward to some R & R at the beach. I can't wait to build a sandcastle with my little guy. I'm also hoping to get a good amount of knitting done on my cardigan (our cottage doesn't have a t.v.)! I hope you all have great plans for the weekend too!

Friday, May 21, 2010

The Never Ending Sweater

I have a major case of the sads over one of the sweaters I knit recently. Remember this one:

I wanted this sweater for so long. The first time I wore it, I loved it. I wore it again and the yarn grew. I wore it again and it grew even more. And more. Pretty soon this sweater was so wide on me it looked ridiculous. I thought I could solve the problem by washing it again. I even threw it in the dryer. It didn't shrink one bit - superwash yarn. This sweater was so big on me I couldn't wear it any more. Luckily, it got a good home. I hope I am not embarrassing my mother by saying that she took it (gladly) and it fits her perfectly. She gave me money to buy more yarn to knit it again. I just really dislike knitting things twice, especially a sweater, but I really, really want it. So I went on the hunt for yarn. I wanted something chunkier than the original yarn I used. I found some Valley Yarn at Webs that I thought would fit the bill. When I got my order I was disappointed. The yarn was not at all what I wanted for this sweater. I swatched it anyway just to see if I would like it when it was knit up. I didn't like it any better and my gauge was off. The yarn is too chunky - and too scratchy.

Then I remembered that I had some chunky yarn stashed away somewhere. Why didn't I think of this in the first place? I was saving some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky for something I saw a couple of years back and never knit it. I went ahead and swatched that - and it is perfect! I got gauge, the yarn is soft, it is the right color, and I know from experience using Debbie Bliss yarn that it doesn't grow.

I just don't have enough for the sweater. I decided to order some more just to be on the safe side. Well, it is discontinued. Luckily, I found some at a yarn store online, oh about six pages into Google after finding out everyone else is sold out. They had 7 balls left and I took all of them. Phew! I am crossing my fingers that will be enough.

On a much happier note, I just got the new St. Denis Magazine for Spring/Summer 2010.

Love. Love. Love. There are some really beautiful pieces in here that I cannot wait to knit up!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Lilac





My newest project (a cardigan). Knitting up in such a lovely spring color. This was the color my husband and I chose for our wedding which was by the seashore. I have very fond memories of this color.