It's almost done!

I have been sitting and watching Bones for... an embarrassingly large amount of time. I'm on season 5... and I'm almost done this shawl! Slightly less crappy iPhone photos (because I have slightly less crappy iPhone now) Hope you enjoy! 

Here's the pattern! Damask!

The colours are waaay wrong, but the photos are nice still :)

Leave a Comment 4mm lace, crappy iphone photo, Damask, damask shawl, dk, madeline tosh dk, madelinetosh dk, shawl

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Crazy bottom-up shawl

I started knitting Damask, a really beautiful bottom-up shawl, here I stole a picture off the internet of it for you. Here's a link to the pattern on ravelry.

I have never knit a bottom-up shawl. The premise of this shawl is that you cast on a huge number of stitches, something between two hundred and three hundred depending on which size you decide to knit... You're casting on the frilly bottom of the shawl instead of starting with a small amount of stitches and working downwards. 

Mine looks like this... 

I'm knitting it out of madelinetosh DK in Toasted Pecan. It's lovely yarn. Let's hope I don' fuck this shawl up! 

Leave a Comment bottom-up, circular needles, Damask, dk, knitting, madeline tosh dk, madelinetosh, malabrigo sock, ochre, shawl, sock

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I finished that damn Goodale sweater

My 2012 new years resolution is to never knit sweaters out of anything smaller than a worsted-weight yarn ever again. I knit something like 1300 meters of DK weight yarn in 7 days. Granted. I didn't do anything else. Other than watch Bones on Netflix.

I made the sleeves longer and I extended the body. If I knit this again I will for sure drop down a size or two as this one got much bigger with blocking. I did swatching for this project, and I even blocked the swatches to see how much the sweater would grow... but I didn't stretch them. I just lied them down flat to dry. My logic was that I wouldn't stretch-block my sweater so why would I stretch-block my swatch? Well, let me tell you, you need to stretch-block your swatches because when you're done knitting your sweater and you get it wet - the weight of the wet fabric will automatically weigh it down enough so that it stretches... A lot. It all makes sense now. Too bad it took me two sock-weight sweaters knit to figure that out.

I'm planning on keeping this one though. No frogging for this sweater - even if it is bigger than I wanted it to be.

I didn't have anyone to help me take photos so here are some myspace-styled photographs to show the lovely yarn and fabric. 

I used Madeline Tosh DK in the colourway called Cousteau 

The pattern is Goodale by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

The colour in this photo is way off. It's darker and is more blue-y green.

Awkward timer shot. You can see the drape a bit better in this shot though.

Leave a Comment blocking, cecily glowik macdonald, cousteau, dk, for a sweater, goodale, how to block, how to swatch, knit, knitting, madeline tosh dk, ravelry, softsweater, swatching, sweater, yarn

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Oh my god it's growing!

What knitting this sweater has made me realize is that I am totally traumatized by the last sweater I tried to knit myself. I am having flashbacks, night sweats, trying it on obsessively to test if it's too big. It's so hard to tell because there are these little flap things that need to be sewn down and they take up fabric and they make it look huge but I'm pretty sure it's not but I'm also pretty sure it. Oh god, why do I decide to do things out of sock weight/dk weight anyway - they always take forever and they, apparently, scar me for life. 

If this thing doesn't turn out I might have to quit knitting for good. 

The front is supposed to look like this (photo stolen from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/goodale)

I can't tell... is it too big? I think I'm going to put it on some scrap yarn and tack down the "pockets" and then try it on. I'll post non-crappy iphone photos then... unless I lose my mind and throw this project in the freezer (with all the other projects I'm never going to finish) 

Leave a Comment crappy iphone photo, dk weight, goodale, knit, knitting, madeline tosh dk, ravelry, softsweater, sweater, sweater PTSD

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...sorry for the lapse in posting

Here, I'll do a tiny update on what I'm knitting right now!

I started a sweater for myself out of Madeline Tosh DK. I'm using Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Goodale  pattern. Which is nice - although I only bought four skeins (about 900 yards) and I'm doing the 49ish inch version - so it's probably going to be quite short. Oh well. I love the yarn so much I almost threw up when I saw it.

Also, here is the darkest/least attractive photo of it that I possibly could have taken. You're welcome.

It's a top-down pattern - which I appreciate quite a bit. I'm not especially fond of the weird knit-in-pieces methods. Or the bottom up ones. I like to try my stuff on while I'm making it. It makes it an interactive process - maybe one day I'll post all the photos I took of Cody wearing his Berroco Vintage sweater in various stages of knitted. (Maybe I'll do that right now actually...They are also all crappy iphone photos - so there.)

I had to step down a WHOLE needle size. From the recommended 4.5mm to 3.5mm Three gauge swatches later I was pretty pissed. I hate swatching. I can only hope that this thing turns out better than the last sweater I tried to knit myself... I might post photos of that mess later too... as a warning for those arrogant non-swatchers.

Anyway, I'm back to posting! Christmas didn't kill me this year!

Leave a Comment crappy iphone photo, knit, knitted sweater, knitting, madeline tosh dk

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