So, uh, yeah, WOW! In researching all the links for my massive knitting fantasy life entry (massive only in the amount of time I spent chasing links) (ok, it ended up relatively massive in length too!) I discovered that, well, first of all, if you design a pattern you should give it a weird name to aid in google and flickr searches, but secondly, if you're going to knit something remotely descript, search online for it first to see pictures and get tips.
I experienced this first hand with... Molly's cardigan!
So yeah, after finishing the hat, I knew I had to keep knitting with the yarn (ok, I'll tell you what it is, it's Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria in Coral 222 - there is an indepth review of the yarn here). Did I mention that I love this yarn?! I feel like I'm knitting a beautiful frothy summer dessert.
Anyway, I decided a cardigan would be the thing, and after a little (but in retrospect not much) searching online, I had pretty much settled on the Cashsoft Baby DK Chick Cardigan. Then I came across this project in the Stash and Burn flickr pool and was intrigued to find that the pattern was a) free and b) knit in one piece (and by the way, how cute is this hat from Lu's latest post? Pretty pretty yarn!). And then I did more research on the Cashsoft pattern and read that it required a lot of finishing. I'm not sure if that means it is not knit in one piece (does finishing refer only to seaming or to everything?) but I decided that I may as well go with the Jimmy Bean pattern.
So far, it's been a breeze! I do wish I had taken photos prior to splitting for the sleeves though. I didn't think it would transform quite the way it did but it was very exciting! Now I'm onto a long stretch of stockinette for the main body of the piece which means I can kind of relax. Prior to splitting I was impatient to see how it was going to come out so I was knitting a litle manically..
I did go a little crazy with the photos, especially after the sun came up and I got some natural light. Here are a few:
The whole set is here (although I edited out a great deal). I've been trying to mess with the color balancing but because they're taken under varying lighting conditions it's tough (and frustrating).
One thing I'm already finding about knitting is that it's so enjoyable that a knitted gift is really a gift for me, even if I give away the end result. The only thing is it's so addictive that some other things seem to have fallen off my schedule, namely reading the paper and working out. This is not a good long term situation! In fact, I should go read the paper right now!
PS Look what I found from the Fondle My Sweaters link - instructions on how to make custom labels!
originally written March 28th
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