Finished: Central Park Hoodie

I really wanted to do an outdoor photo shoot for this FO, but I couldn't wait any longer. You'll just have to deal with my parents' living room as the backdrop.

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky (Knitscene, fall 2006)
Size: 36"
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers (100% Peruvian highland wool), color 9461/Lime Heather, five skeins (including swatch and seaming)
Needles: US 8 (5 mm) and US 6 (4 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: September 5/November 6

I am absolutely in love with this sweater. I think it says a lot about a pattern that as soon as I was finished I wanted to knit it again.

There are several things I'd change if I knit this sweater again, however. The first thing would be to knit the next larger size. I knew that others who'd knit this sweater had found it to run small, but I wanted a fitted sweater, so I knit my normal size. It fits perfectly, for the most part, but as you can see in the photo below, the lower arms are a little snug. I have the pull the sleeves on, but once they're on, they're not uncomfortable. I wore this sweater all day and didn't really notice. Still, it would be nice to be able to wear a looser shirt underneath the sweater and to have a little more room.

The other thing I'd change is the decreases on the hood. It bothers me that they're not centered, and that's a little apparent because of the fact that I grafted the hood stitches instead of binding off and seaming it. Next time, I'll adjust the decreases so that they are actually in the center of the hood.

I used almost every bit of five skeins of Cascade, which was really quite amazing, in my opinion. That included a swatch (which thankfully gave me spot-on gauge on the first attempt) and yarn for seaming; there's a little left over for repairs or reinforcement if needed in the future. Once again, it proved to be the perfect yarn -- great color, great yardage, great stitch definition. I still have five more skeins of this same color in my stash, along with five skeins of a shocking pink that was in the same WEBS order.

I used six buttons, all sewn on with sewing thread and then covered with a bit of yarn (somehow I must've had the subconscious foresight to buy buttons with extra-large holes).

This sweater marks an important step in my sweater-knitting career: With this sweater, I officially conquered my fear of the set-in sleeve. These sleeves were the easiest to sew in of all the sweaters I've knit so far, but getting them in perfectly on the first try was a huge confidence boost. I swear that from this moment forward, I will not be scared of sweaters with set-in sleeves!

Now that this is finished, I will turn my attention to The Mister's sweater, which has been languishing for quite some time. It might not be as fun a knit as the CPH, but at least there will be no seaming to deal with at the end. And finishing his sweater means I'll allow myself to cast on for the next sweater for me!

'Tis Done

My Central Park Hoodie is finished! Unfortunately, it's a tad bit tight, especially in the lower arms, so I'm going to have to try some serious blocking. I'm also sorry to tell you that you're going to have to wait a couple days to see it; this sweater really deserves a proper photo shoot, and these days all the natural light is during the day when I'm at work. So I'll have to wait until Saturday for the full write-up.

For those of you who can't wait to see the finished sweater, I'll be giving a little preview of it tonight at the meeting of the Hurricane Knitters, Waterworks Barnes & Noble, 7 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Loose Ends

The saga of my Central Park Hoodie continues ...

On Saturday, I convinced The Mister to let me make a stop at Parker Button on the South Side so I could find the perfect fasteners for my sweater. I'd pretty much decided to go with toggles for my closures -- until I discovered that the only toggles to be had were pretty much hideous. So, buttons it was. Here are the ones I picked out:

They're a little on the square side, which I really like, and what you can't see from the picture is that they're pretty three-dimensional. I bought all seven buttons that were left in the box, although there will only be six on the sweater.

Last night I finished the second button band, so tonight the Adventures in Seaming begin!

In other news, I won a blog contest! Devorah and her family are avid bikers, and months ago she held a contest in which all entrants had to guess how many miles they would log on their bikes by October 31. I wound up being a mere four miles off, so she will be sending me some sock yarn and some chocolate for my lucky guess. I somehow managed to not check my e-mail at all over the weekend, so it was a nice surprise when I checked this morning.

Other knitting news? I know this will a huge shocker (can you sense the sarcasm in my voice?), but I started another sock. It's the first of a pair of Monkeys for my mother-in-law for the holidays. Not much is done other than a cuff, so I won't bore you with a picture of ribbing.

Sorry for the short post; it's been all CPH all the time here, and I am determined not to show you another picture of the darn thing until it's done! Let the seaming commence!

Alright, Already!

You all gave me a hard time*, so I put down the baby sweater and got back to work on the CPH. And do you know what this is?

It's a nearly complete hood. I'm hoping to finish it tonight, which will leave only button bands and seaming. There's still one major decision to make: button or toggles? What do you think?

It's still supposed to be pretty chilly tomorrow (and my office is still frigid), so guess what I'm wearing for the first time?



*You know I'm only kidding, right? I actually do appreciate the kick in the pants I needed to finish this sweater. My love for it has come back to me and I'm actually even looking forward to seaming it now.

Ooops, I Did It Again

Last night, the back and fronts of my Central Park Hoodie were all nicely blocked and ready for a bit of seaming before I could start the hood ...

But did I do that little bit of seaming so I could start the hood? Nope. Instead I cast on for something new:

This is the beginning of Trellis in Cotton Ease for a little boy who is due to arrive in mid-January (but, if he's anything like his two older sisters, is likely to arrive a month early). I think the knitty karma was working against me, though, because I had to rip and re-cast on three or four times before I was satisfied.

The good news is that my sock mojo was not affected. Look, I finished my first Lenore!

Did you know mostly black yarn is difficult to photograph accurately, especially when there's no natural light to be had?

Tonight I'm going to be brave and tackle the seaming so that I can start the hood, and I'm going to block the sleeves as well. I am so close to finishing this sweater that I have no good excuse not to work on it. I could use it to keep me warm, too, since temps have gone down to freezing the past couple of nights. Sweater weather has arrived!

How many of you, dear readers, are knitting sweaters right now? What sweaters are you knitting?

Being Good and Being Bad

We did make it to our dinner party Friday night and had a great time, but I think I overdid it a bit because I did not feel so well yesterday. So after venturing out to meet my parents for lunch and running a few errands, we came home and spent a quiet afternoon and evening that included plenty of knitting time. Although I was very tempted to work on my new STR socks (cast on Friday afternoon), I decided I would be good and work on finishing my Central Park Hoodie, which has been on the needles for nearly two months.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I did work on the CPH, but first I made some stitch markers that will be used if I ever get around to buying Cat Bordhi's new book:

These are very light, as they're made of thin coated wire. The hardest part about putting these together was trying to crimp the crimp beads; I think maybe my cheap miniature pliers are not the best for this task.

I did eventually settle down with my CPH sleeves and got as far as completing the increases and getting ready to start the sleeve cap. I'm now just a handful of rows away from finishing, so this week the CPH will see some blocking and perhaps even some seaming, if I feel brave enough to try to conquer the set-in sleeve again.

So that was my being good. As to my being bad? Let's just say I had a bit of a falling down at Michael's. For some reason, even though I was longing to get home and lie down, I felt compelled to go and buy some yarn (and, in all honesty, it did make me feel a little better!). I bought some non-yarn items as well, namely the beads and wire to make the stitch markers and some more tapestry needles (my spare package seems to have wandered off). But mostly there was yarn: three skeins of Cotton Ease to make this sweater for a new "cousin"-to-be, two skeins of Patons Classic Merino to make my father a scarf for Hannukah, and another three skeins to make this adorable little guy for ... me? a baby? We shall see. I guess the splurge wasn't that bad, considering the Patons was on sale for $4 a skein and more than half the yarn was specifically for gifts. I really really wanted to cast on for that bear right away, but as I said, I was good! I'm sure that when I have my CPH done to keep me warm (we have a frost advisory tonight!), I'll be happy I was good and stuck to my plan.

Tomorrow I go back to work, although I'll be leaving early to go to my follow-up appointment with my surgeon. I'm hoping that will be the end of the appendix story, as I'm tired of dealing with it and I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about it!

Next?

Thanks for all your compliments on the Canada socks. I'm quite pleased with my first "real" stranded colorwork, and I've certainly been bitten by that bug. I'm not sure the Soft Sea Wool was the best yarn to use; it has a rather bumpy texture, and I think because of that the colorwork portions aren't as smooth or distinct as they could be. But the socks are incredibly squishy and comfortable, and I know come winter I'll be glad to have them.

Knitting continues apace on the two sweaters. The Seamless Hybrid isn't moving very quickly; to be honest, I haven't given it much attention the past few days. The CPH is coming along faster (as you would expect for something at a larger gauge). The back was complete last Thursday night, and now I'm about halfway through the left front. Seeing as we're still experiencing highs in the 80s, I'm in no hurry to finish a hoodie at the moment.

While I'm far from completing either of the two sweaters on the needles, I'm already thinking of what's next -- the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I bought the yarn for it back in July, and last night I swatched on US 5 needles. I bought the yarn primarily because it was so incredibly soft (although it's being on sale didn't hurt!) and I suspected it would work well with the cables. I was very pleased at the remarkable stitch definition that resulted, even after blocking:


Unfortunately, my gauge is way off. I'm getting about five stitches to the inch, and I need to be getting six. So tonight I'm knitting another swatch (going down a size) and hoping for the best. I'll be okay if I'm off by a stitch or two, as I'm between the sizes given in the pattern and can use it to my advantage, but being this far off makes my head hurt to even begin to think of the math involved!

I tried to come up with a clever title for this post ...

but I couldn't. Will you settle for some knitting content instead?

Last night I decided on my Central Park Hoodie for my Hurricane Knitters knit night project. I felt like I'd been neglecting it; I hadn't touched it in a week, not since I cast on for the Seamless Hybrid. After knitting Cascade 220 on US 5s, I realized how much faster the knitting grows when you knit Cascade 220 on US 8s. Here's the back, approximately 3/4 complete:

I just love this yarn. It's a heathered shade, so there are subtle color changes that in no way approach pooling:

Knit night was a blast. I think Roaming Tigger (or, as we're now calling him, Taliban Tigger) had the best time. We had a big crowd -- so big that we added a table not once but twice to our original grouping. So big that those of us at one end didn't really get to talk to the people at the other end because they were too far away. We're all hoping the newcomers join us again.

I am anxious to finish the back to the CPH, but first Kenny tagged me for a meme. It's the Eight Random Things About Me meme (stop me if you've heard this one):

1. For a period of about six years (middle and high school), I refused to wear pink. My mother was shocked when I came home for Thanksgiving my freshman year of college with a pink sweater.
2. For many years, when I was sick or couldn't sleep, I'd watch Little Women -- on VHS.
3. I have a birthmark on the inside of my right calf. It's a little red rectangle.
4. I minored in art history and classics in college; my last class for the classics minor was an introductory course in ancient Greek.
5. I've had two articles published in scholarly journals.
6. I'm still bitter than I never had a sister.
7. I love Indian food, but The Mister won't go near it.
8. The one book I can read over and over again? Pride and Prejudice.

Technically I'm supposed to tag eight people for this meme, but I'm going to buck the trend. Instead, why not leave me a comment with a random fact about you?

Return of the Wool

The Mister and I would like to thank all of you who have congratulated us on our marriage. You kind words mean a lot to us!

I am now going to stop hijacking my knitting blog with talk of the wedding and get back to the actual knitting content. Some of you have asked to see more wedding pictures, so I'll post some to my Flickr stream for those of you who care to have a gander. For those of you who are here for the knitting, read on -- wool is ahead!

In the past couple of days, it's suddenly hit me that it's September -- meaning fall is right around the corner and the holidays aren't far behind. Thus, it's about time for me to get a move on with the fall projects that have long been in the queue.

First up is finishing the socks currently on the needles -- or, more specifically, finishing the first socks that are on the needles. I feel like I have been knitting these forever, but I think it's only been about two weeks. As of today, both first socks are to the beginning of the toe decreases:

I am anxious to finish these so that I can start on the August STR club socks, which some people finished within a few days of receiving their shipment. I have no such ambitions; I'll be happy if I can get them done before the next shipment arrives.

The coming of fall also means the beginning of sweater-knitting season for me. Last night I cast on for my Central Park Hoodie at knit night and managed to get a good chunk of the ribbing done for the back before I left:

I am absolutely in love with this colorway. The yarn is my old standby, Cascade 220; this shade is a heathered limey green with flecks of yellow and blue. Just gorgeous. Although ideally I would have finished up a WIP before casting on for this sweater (such as my French Market Bag), a certain someone -- with whom I'm doing a mini-KAL -- started her sweater, and I couldn't be left behind in her dust.

Next on the needles? The Mister's Seamless Hybrid -- but that really will have to wait until I finish up the French Market Bag. I've heard of startitis, but this is getting ridiculous! What has gotten into me, do you think?