Ingenue

It's finally finished!

Pattern: Ingenue by Wendy Bernard (from Custom Knits)

Yarn: Cascade 220 in color 8401; about 3.5 skeins

Needles: US #9 for body and US # 10.5 for bottom hem and sleeves

Notes: This is one sweater that definitely benefited from a good wet blocking! I feel like there isn't much else to say about it other than I am finally happy with the bottom hem. Besides doing short sleeves instead of long, I also added about 3 or so inches to the length. I think I may have bound off too loosely because the bottom edge of the hem is not very smooth at all. At this point, I just say Whatever. It's a sort of rustic sweater anyway and I doubt anyone else will notice. It fits great and I'm just glad to have it done!

Happy Wednesday!

Hello!

Have you seen the new Twist Collective? I am totally in love with Abrazo! I just wish that I enjoyed knitting with lace weight yarn. I've started several lace projects in the past....alas, none have gotten very far. Maybe I don't have the right needles? I must give it another try.

Also, if you are in the mood for a fantastic cookie, Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies, from the current issue of Everyday Food magazine, are amazing! Sorry, I don't have any pictures but others do and have written out the recipe. They are like chocolate snickerdoodles (if you leave out the cayenne like I did), yum!

Here is the quilt I showed you a snippet of recently: And these are a few others I have listed recently as well. (see more pictures in my shop)Lastly, here is The-Sweater-That-Has-Taken-Way-Too-Long. It is blocking right now, which means I should have some FO pictures here in a few days!

slowly making up my mind

***Just a note. I have gone back to Blogger's default comment system because Haloscan was taken over by Echo and it was weird. The problem is that all the previous comments were erased BUT I still have them in my email so THANK YOU to those left comments! I enjoy reading them so much!***

Okay. I think I have decided what to do with my Ingenue.


Remember the side pooching? I've been really procrastinating on doing anything about it but I finally gave it a good blocking and it may have helped only slightly.

See, not so bad from the front:Side view, not good:Back - TERRIBLE!

I almost thought I could live with the slight pooching but when I saw the back....no way!

SO, I think I'm going to try going up a needle size and redo the bottom stitch pattern. I did decide that I'm happy with the length though. Overall I think I'm going to like this sweater once I get it finished. I'm extremely temped to give it short sleeves instead of 3/4 length sleeves. I love wearing long sleeves under short sleeves and it suites our climate so much better. I think I will try it and see how it looks. My other motivation is that I wouldn't have to rip out this to have enough yarn for the sleeves!

Here's a little sneak peek at a finished quilt top waiting to be quilted (for the shop):

P.S. Thanks for the advise to switch to Google Reader....LOVE IT!!!

problem

Actually, two problems.

First of all....is anyone else having problems with Bloglines? It's not picking up new posts. I'm not sure what to do about it. All I know is that it's driving me nuts!

Second. Side Pooching:

A closer look:

This is my Ingenue. Remember how I said that all I had left was to knit the sleeves? Well, that wasn't the whole truth. You see, I have a somewhat long torso and this sweater (as written in the book) is very short. I didn't want to end up with a crop top so I lengthened the body. The problem seems to be with the stitch pattern at the hem. It really pulls in, causing a pooch on the sides just below the waist shaping. Now, the pattern has you start the bottom stitch pattern immediately after the waist shaping. I was totally in love with how this was fitting until I started to go past the waist shaping. It has just the amount of positive ease I am wanting and the hem just ruins the whole look. I guess I want the bottom to flare out a bit more.

I've been sitting on this problem for a looooong time now and I really want to do something about it because it is bothering me so much that I cannot move on to the sleeves or anything else until I get it figured out. I keep seeing every one's beautiful Olympics projects and it's making me want to finish something!

Anybody have any ideas? Should I reknit the bottom stitch pattern in bigger needles? I think I'll definitely go an inch or two shorter than the length it is now (it looks funny to me for some reason).

I'm really late to the game but a couple of weeks ago we had the most amazing record-breaking snow ever! I know people up north are probably so sick of seeing snow but it was a real treat for us.
Jack was not impressed at all!!! He's just too little to appreciate it just yet.