Weekend Wrap-Up

I did a fair bit of knitting this weekend, most of it at Rebecca's on Saturday. I managed to finish the back of Bristow, which involved knitting straight stockinette for about 7 inches - perfect for a knitting get-together. I also did some more on Somewhat Cowl, finishing the ribbing on the body and casting it off. When I got home, I did the short row shaping on one sleeve and 2 out of 3 inches on the ribbing. I still have one more sleeve to go and then the cowl, which is about 200 stitches of 2 x 2 ribbing for 6 inches. Yikes!

Last night, I cast on for the left front of Bristow, which I'm enjoying working on a lot. I just finished the waist shaping portion, and now I have to knit a few even rows before I start the armhole shaping. I've got the pattern memorized now, so it should go even faster. I really like the way this is turning out so far, although it's going to be a VERY warm sweater. In fact, the designer made the arms really big so it would be easy to layer stuff underneath, but since I will definitely never be doing that, I'm going to reduce the size of the arms by about 2 inches at their widest point. This will mean a redesign of the sleeve cap for which I'll consult The Girl From Auntie's article in knitty.

I also thought about another project that I've been meaning to try. I got really fired up about it last night, so I'll probably be starting on this soon. I'd like you meet my favorite store-bought sweater:

It's sort of a plain wool pullover with deep ribbing on the body and sleeves and a crew neck. It's always been a very flattering sweater because the ribbing causes it to draw in around the waist and create a flattering line. This sweater is from J. Crew and isn't made out of the softest yarn. In fact, it feels very rough against my skin. It's also been loved to death, being worn and dry cleaned so much that's it's felting and last night, I noticed a hole where the neckline joins to the body. SO, I'd like to see if I can copy this sweater. Last night, I used my gauge checker to determine that it's knit with sportweight yarn, 6 sts/in and it looks like they went down one needle size for the ribbing, where they are getting 7 sts/in. I think Nature Spun sport would be one good choice for this. Also, the sportweight wool that elann recently got in would also be lovely. I'm going to get started on this project in the next couple of weeks in the hope of trying to immortalize this winter staple. I'll keep ya posted.