Photos, as promised

I promised photos of some actual knitting, and I happen to have some. I wore Bristow to school yesterday and I have to say that I'm very pleased with it. For the first time, I altered the pattern to fit better. I used my row gauge to recalculate lengths on the sleeves and in the body. In fact, I completely redesigned the sleeves. I also used the row/stitch gauge ratio to pick up stitches evenly around the buttonbands and neckline. I also did calculations to make sure the buttonholes were evenly spaced. It was an enormous pain, but since the sweater fits, I guess it's necessary. I didn't have to fiddle with it all day, I didn't feel uncomfortable in it - it felt more like a store-bought sweater. There's no one here to take my photo in it this morning, and I completely forgot yesterday, so I present this really bad photo that I took quickly before my camera battery died. Depending upon the weather, I'll probably wear it on Saturday.

Here are the stats:

Pattern: Bristow from the winter 2005 knitty
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8, 12 balls plus a little from the 13th
Size: Small, 40" bust
Needles: Size 5 addi turbos and size 7 addi naturals
Dated started: 9/14/06
Date completed: 11/14/06
Modifications: mentioned above
Overall thoughts: I really like this pattern. The cable pattern got really tedious by the time I did the second sleeve, but other than that, it was fun. The sleeves are way too big as written. I removed one inch from the width, but if I could do it over again, I'd remove at least 2 inches.

Next up is Joe's sweater. Since it's been a while since this project has made an appearance on this blog, I'll give some of the facts about it. The pattern is Avast from knitty, and I'm knitting it out of Naturespun in Ash, with the contrasting hem facings in Plumberry. On Sunday night, I joined all of the pieces together on one needle and began the yoke. To start with, each row had 340 stitches. I've decreased that number by 88 so far, but each row is still really long and it's sucking up yarn like crazy. It's nice TV knitting, though, and it's good for unwinding, so I'm not too bothered by it. Since I'm on a dealine, though, I'm sensitive to how long it's taking. So far, the raglan seam is about 3 inches long, so I have a ways to go, but the rows will keep getting shorter and shorter.

Yesterday, I took advantage of WEBS' sale on Ella Rae Classic Wool and bought enough in contrasting colors to make Ribby Cardi. Since I'm so easily amused by color, I may make this my next project.