Shalom!

It's been snowing like crazy here and we've gotten at least 10" in the past day or so. Soooo the BF and I took a snow day today. It's irresponsible and I'll be getting an occurrence at job #2 but it feels so right! ;-) I'm getting pretty burnt out on the 2 job thing and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing it.

Anywho, I took advantage of the both of us being together in the daylight and had the BF take some FO pictures of my Shalom! Complete with Buttons!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Needles: US Size 10
Pattern: Shalom Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Meghan McFarlane
Mods: Lots...

• Different Gauge so I had to account for that. I cast on 97 sts for the neckline and I changed the increases to: 1st round of increases [kfb, k1, kfb] all the way around on the WS. 2nd round of increases [kfb, k2] all the way around on the WS. 3rd round of increades [kfb, k6] all the way around. If they didn't line up exactly so the ribbing ended on a ktbl I used a m1 at the end of the round.
• I also ended up thinking that the neck line was too big/it felt like it was sliding off my shoulders so I crocheted a chain around the neckline for some added stability.
  
• After the last tier of the yoke I knit 3 rows of garter and then 3 rows of stockinette before splitting for the sleeves. Sleeves go as follows: 42 sts on each front and 40 sts on waste yarn for the sleeves. I cast on 10 sts after putting the 40 sleeve stitches on waste yarn for the under arms.*
• I did short row shaping for the bust.**
• I added button holes on every 14th garter ridge. (I would put them closer together it I knit this again.)
• For the long sleeves I did 14 rows of twisted rib for the cuffs and then bound off knit wise to give it a ridge similar to the yoke.
• I slipped the stitches on the garter button band as follows: slip the last st of the row p wise with yarn in front. Knit this stitch on the next row.
  

Thoughts: Lovely pattern, ingenious really. I would definitely recommend it!

Things I would do differently if I knit it again:
1) I would cast on fewer stitches, which would mean I would need more increases so for the 3rd tier I would probably do [kfb, k5] all the way around.
2) Knit 2 more rows of garter stitch at the neckline (I only did 6 before the 1st increase)
3) For the ribbing on the sleeves I would purl one round, knit one round before the ribbing and then maybe knit one round, purl one round, and bind off to make it match the yoke a more.
4) Make the button bands maybe 1 stitch bigger so the button holes would have 3 stitches to the end of the row instead of 2.

*When I went to knit the sleeves I picked up a total of 14 stitches for the underarms. 2 before the 10 cast on stitches and 2 after.
**For the Short row shaping I did the same shaping on both of the fronts:
1) Knit 40 sts, wrap and turn
2) All even rows purl to last 6 sts, knit 5 sts, bring yarn to the front, slip last st
3) Knit 38 sts, wrap and turn
5) Knit 36 sts, wrap and turn
7) Knit to button band, picking up wrapped stitches

For the left front you have to wrap on the purl side. You pick up these wraps and then ptbl to get rid of the holes.

Waiting Game

It snowed about a foot on Friday. It didn't stop snowing until Saturday around noon. It almost hurts to look outside because everything is white. That in mind, it's the perfect weather for sitting and knitting. =) I finished my Shalom sweater yesterday. Now I'm just waiting for the buttons to arrive so I can attach them and wear it.

I decided the neck line is a bit too wide. When I tried it on it felt like it was going to slide off my shoulders a little. I'm going to see how it wears with buttons. If it's not much better I'm going to crochet around the neckline (like this) for some added stability.

Also on my last post I talked about working on a design idea for the Ravelympics. HOWEVER! My friend is getting married on the 26th and I need a shawl to wear. Does that seem like more of a challenge? Of course it does. I'm thinking I'm going to know the smallest size of the Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight yarn without the beads (Beads are annoying and time consuming.) I figure if I knit the smallest size it will give me a good chance of being done in time (I'll actually need to be finished on the 25th, not the 28th so it will be blocked and ready to go on Friday night) and the fingering weight (Probably on size 3 needles) will give me a decent sized shawl and not just a shawlette.

I have a black dress picked out with some blue accents, so I'm thinking I need some blue yarn! Of course nothing I have in the stash will fit my needs so unfortunately (HA!) I'll need to buy something to suit my purposes!

To the Finish Line!

I've been diligently working on my Shalom Cardigan. This morning I finished the first sleeve and I am currently ready to pick up stitches for the second. It is nearly impossible to get a good shot of this thing indoors, and it's cold outside so I wasn't exactly in the mood for an outside photo shoot...

In any case I will definitely be finished with it this weekend! I'm so excited! I love it already. I purchased some hand made wooden buttons on Etsy yesterday for the sweater. I think this will be my new favorite clothing item. =D


In other knitting related news, the Winter Knitting Olympics are coming up! I sort of decided to do this again. I participated in the Ravelympics last summer (I think it was last summer, anyway). This time I'm going to do something a little bit more challenging! I have a design in the works with the blue Malabrigo that I purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. I'll be attempting to finish that during the Winter Olympics. It actually shouldn't be too hard to finish in the time allotted, but that's only assuming I don't have to rip anything out!

Shalom!

So remember like ages ago I got some brown Casacde Ecologial wool? It started out as the Windowpane Coat, as a sleeve of an O.W.L.S. sweater, and then at a loss about what to do with it I had a survey.

After the survey nothing really happened with it. Until this past Sunday. I gave up on Velia for a while. She's in time out. I was knitting Velia because I wanted a heavier sweater that I could knit quickly and wear while it was still cold outside. So the answer to that is the Shalom Cardigan.

I cast on on Sunday and last night I finished the yolk. My gauge was a bit smaller so I did have to cast on some extra stitches and also change the increases, but I'm loving it so far. I'm fairly sure I want it to be long sleeved which I thought might be complicated to do but the whole thing is really simple and ingenious! Plus I love a good twisted rib.

I did a bit of a photo shoot today, but Photobucket wasn't cooperating and I only got one picture uploaded...

Hopefully this will go quickly and I'll have a finished product within the next week or so!