Planning and Progress

I am long overdue to make another sweater. My first, Mariah-



-was completed about five months ago. It was fairly successful, but it's rather big on me. I would have liked more shaping and a closer fit, as well as different neckline.

For a while, I've been considering making Tubey in a solid color and edging the neckline and sleeves in knit lace in a contrasting color. However, today, this gorgeous pattern caught my eye:



It's an Adrienne Vittadini pattern from the Fall 2004 Collection. I ordered the book today, and hopefully it will arrive in the mail soon.

The lovely ladies of my knitting group and I are slated to make a field trip to Flying Fingers next week. I'm very excited (the company is the best part!), but if I don't find something perfect for the sweater, I'll save my money and order yarn online. The sweater originally calls for Martina, which is a little too luxe for my college student bank account at $15/109 yards. It's also a wool/silk blend, which doesn't sit well with the vegetarian in me. I'm thinking of subbing in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, possibly in Blackberry. Still a bit steep, but do-able. A work-intensive sweater deserves a nice yarn. I hope it's knit in the round.

Of course, I'll probably buy some some more hat yarn for D who wants, needs, has demanded, has politely asked for several hats in Manos and Noro. Girl's got good taste. I think I've made her a yarn snob by association.


As for the water bottle sling:


Another three or four cable repeats should do it for the body before I begin the strap. I'm quite happy with this project now, particularly with how the bottom came out.



The original pattern called for me to knit the bottom in garter stitch and pick up 81 stitches around the edge, which I painstakingly did for the original. Being that I absolutely abhor picking up stitches, this time, I knit a flat circle in the round until I reached the desired number of stitches, and then I knit straight up from there. In case you're curious, the formula for knitting a flat circle is to increase by eight stitches every second round. Not by four stitches, which is what I did the first time. I wound up with a conical shape of sorts, which I desperately tried to convince myself would block out to a flat circle. Finally I admitted I was wrong and frogged once again, actually looking up the technique this time.

Time to knit!