I am one of those people whose most recently completed sweater is almost always the favorite.  This sweater is no exception.

Pattern:  This is the o w l s sweater (scroll down) by Kate Davies.  I enjoyed knitting this pattern immensely.

I would not hesitate to recommend this pattern for anyone who is considering it.  The pattern was free when I downloaded it but now there is a nominal fee of GBP 1.50 (today that is about $2.44) with proceeds to Médecins Sans Frontières to benefit Haiti relief efforts.

Personally, I think this price is more than reasonable for this carefully thought out and clearly presented pattern.

Yarn:  I used Cascade Eco wool in a marled colorway for my sweater.  The marling effect of the yarn makes the owls on my sweater more subtle and to the casual observer they may look just like any old cabled yoke.  I like this very much because I think really obvious owls would be a little much for me.

The yarn I chose was also thinner than the yarn called for in the pattern.  To combat this I knit a larger size.  Actually I knit three different sizes, a smaller body, x-tra large sleeves and then a large size yoke.  This seemed to work out very well but it was mostly guessing on my part after the sleeves knit according to the pattern came out ridiculously small for my lumberjack biceps.

I also skipped some of the short rows.  I didn’t plan it this way I just saw the line “Here come the o w l s!” in the pattern and started right in on said owls.  Oops.

There was supposed to be a knitalong for this pattern with some gals in the Juneau Knitters group on Ravelry and my cousin Adrienne even cast on for hers in the same week but I haven’t seen any other finished sweaters yet.

My o w l s took about 1.5 months to knit and I finished it in November.

Final Notes:  I seriously love this sweater.  The fit is fantastic and for a bulky type sweater it is quite light and not too thick.

My two favorite features of this sweater are both down to the attention to shaping in the pattern.  I am quite lazy about figuring these sort of things out so I was really happy to try some new techniques and have them mathed out for me.

The first thing that I especially loved is that the shaping all takes place on the back of the sweater.  Davies (the designer) has explained on her blog that this gives a little more room for your more curvy side.  This absolutely makes sense to me and I hope to remember to employ it in future sweaters though I also like my sweaters that have 4 sets of increases.

The other thing that I especially loved in this pattern was the short rows to raise the back of the neck.  I love this so much now that I’ve tried it that I have pledged to continue the practice in all my future sweaters.

Wish me luck as I’ve always been too chicken to math out my own short rows so far!

My o w l s on Rav

I’m so glad so many of you are still reading this blog!  It was so great to hear from you.  I’m really excited to get back on the blogging train.

Let’s start with one of my holiday gift projects!

All my dad requested for Hannukkah this year was wool socks.  I think he meant store bought wool socks like Smart Wool (he loves those) but I thought if he wanted wool socks for Hannukkah he would probably really like some handknit ones.

I originally planned on making Nancy Bush’s Easti Trail Socks from Favorite Socks but I fell in love with a thicker yarn so I substituted the chart from these legwarmers by DROPS but tried to keep the spirit of the Easti Trail Socks.

The yarn I used was Cascade Greenland and it is a very smooth, soft dense superwash yarn.  I wouldn’t neccessarily recommend it for socks since it is a pretty heavy worsted but my dad’s feet get cold easily so it worked for these socks.  It seems to be a very sturdy and soft yarn so I could see plenty of other great uses for it.

I had a lot of fun making these socks and my dad totally loved them!

The Dad-Socks on Ravelry here

…

I’m back!

For anyone who is still reading THANK YOU for being so patient while I took my outrageously long, unannounced blog break.

I still knit.  I have tons of knitting that just needs to be photographed, photo-edited and shared.  I am going to try to share some of the projects you’ve missed as Time Machine Tuesday projects and just jump right in now with current knitting.

Right this second it is all Winter Holiday knitting all the time.  My Hannukkah presents are late and my X-Mas presents are down to the wire.  So… I actually can’t share any knitting today for fear of ruining the surprise.

Instead here is my favorite picture from this summer!

7/4/09 Maggie Takes in the View

Yesterday I finally got out and took some pictures of my sweater vest before it got too dark!

Despite my blase expression I am actually quite pleased

Pattern:  Leftovers by Alison Hansel from Knitty

Yarn:  Cascade 220 about 2.5 skeins

Modifications:  Lots!  First of all I didn’t do any stripes.  Also I changed the ribbing, in the pattern you hold two strands of yarn together and do 3×3 ribbing but I just used one strand of yarn and did 2×2 ribbing.  I guess I am contrary like that.  I also did my own waist shaping although there is some in the pattern.

I am yelling at my dogs in this picture

It turns out I really did need a sweater vest.  I have worn this tons since I finished it!  I love how warm it is without being constricting.

I might even make another one if I could decide on a color and if I find a couple more collared shirts to wear them with.  I am definitely on the lookout.

Thank you all for your suggestions and support for my Snow White sweater!

My comments are not working as usual so I haven’t been able to write you back but I have been thinking about what you’ve said and how I want to proceed with Snow White.
I put a life-line in and I think I am going to go with my first instinct (half as many increase rows) and see what happens. I can always rip back if I need to.

In the meantime I have been giving a lot of attention to my Thermal Sweater. I figure that I had better knit as much as I can on it while I am feeling motivated to do so (hence the title of this post). This plan has been working very well! In fact I wrote most of this post and I kept having to re-write this section as I knit more and more of Thermal but took no pictures. I finally took pictures so here ya go!

Thermal lacking only the right front and collar

I have also started some knitting for Winter Holiday. Unfortunately I think most of the people I plan to knit for read this blog so at the risk of ruining their Winter Holiday surprises suffice to say that I have been knitting. There will be pictures on Ravelry (my name is alligator) so you can follow my progress over there if you’re not a member of my immediate friends or family.

However, I have been working on one present the recipient of which I am fairly certain does not read this blog.

Orange mohair + beads = pretty

This is an Odessa hat in some sort of laceweight orange mohair held double. This was a really fun project, what with the mohair and the beads. I don’t think I would ever wear something like this but it was so much fun to do! I was absolutely certain I would run out of yarn (but kept knitting just in case as this yarn would be impossible to rip out anyways) up until about 10 minutes ago when I got to the last row and still had a few inches of yarn left. Hooray!

I have quite a bit of Winter Holiday knitting planned and I’m taking it as an opportunity to knit exciting things that I wouldn’t bother with for myself.

I wonder if anyone else I know likes beads..