More FOs

Yikes! I have fallen behind in my FO posting...

Anyway, on Friday, December 7th (I think that is the date) I went to work wearing one of my favorite FOs, my "boyfriend jacket" that isn't really the name, the name is Zippered Jacket, can you guess from the name that it is a VK pattern? The pattern comes from the Winter 2004/05 Issue and was another early FO. The sweater is loose and comfy. This sweater should have a zipper installed in it, but at the time I finished the jacket I didn't know how to put a zipper in, I was going to take it to a tailor to have one installed, but I was too anxious to wear the sweater, so I took a length of yarn and sewed it partially closed. Now, I know how to install a zipper, but somehow I never quite think of doing it until I am ready to put the sweater on. The pattern called for Anny Blatt's "Merinos" but instead I used Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK. I love,LOVE, this yarn. The sweater has been in a washing machine on at least 2 occassions and has stayed in good shape. The sweater gets worn very regularly each fall/winter and there is NO pilling to be seen. The sweater is soft and cozy and everything I want an FO to be.

On Saturday, December 8th, I didn't actually ever get dressed. I have a cold and the cold was beating me up. I was exhausted and, worse yet, had a screaming pounding headache. My head hurt when I moved, hurt when I coughed, and hurt when the sun shined in my apartment. Despite all that though, I did wear an FO. I wore my Thuja socks which were made from Artyarns Supermerino. I was gifted this yarn from a former N.End knitter last year after I was involved in an auto accident (I blogged about the accident before, so I am not going to go into it again here). The socks are a bit loose on me, and, as you can tell from the photo, are worn, but they are great to wear around the house, perfect for a sick day at home.

Sunday, December 9th, I did get dressed and actually left the apartment (I needed food). To go grocery shopping I put on Rogue. This is another one of my favorite sweaters, not because of the yarn though. I made this sweater using Elann Peruvian Highland yarn. Detail shots of the sweater when new can be found here. This yarn pills, unfortunately, which is a detraction from the sweater. I also did not do such a good job installing the zipper, so if I ever zip the sweater completely closed it would become obvious that the collar cables don't line up. A final problem with the FO is that there is a whole near the wrist of the right sleeve. It looks like the yarn broke (or God forbid, the M word attacked it). I have absolutely none of the yarn left over, so a repair has not happened.

Monday, December 10th, the first of 3 back to back suit events for work. Under my suit jacket I wore one piece of a 3 piece knit outfit. The pattern came from Holiday 2004 VK, and from a Filatura DiCrosa pattern. The part I wore was a tube top. This was probably the third garment I knit and my first departure from ponchos. I was working my way to sweaters. The ensemble consists of a tube top, a shrug, and a ribbed scarf. Not much shapping involved for any of them. The yarn used was Zara (dk weight merino I think I have the name, right, but then again, maybe I am not). The shrug and scarf are hardly ever worn. I did wear the scarf today as well, but no photo of it. I bought the yarn in San Diego, perhaps even at Common Threads, but perhaps not. I started knitting this on the plane ride home from SD but then started to doubt the sizing. I hadn't previously taken any measurements of myself and wasn't positive of my bust size. Nevertheless, I tore out the original and started a larger size. When I finished knitting the tube top, I seamed it up and tried it on. It immediately fell to my waist, it was a bit too big. Instead of tearing and starting again, I just seamed it differently. I made the sweater overlap at the back. I tried it on again, and it STILL didn't stay up. This time instead of re-seaming (again) I crocheted myself a couple of spagetti straps, and now the piece stays up. It works very well under a suit, particularly under the suit I am wearing in the above photo. I do wear my suit jacket closed, but avoided it for the photo.

December 11th. 2nd of 3 suit events for work. Today I was in court (for 10 minutes & not in front of a judge, but hey, still needed to wear a suit) so it was time to pull out another tank type knit. This one is knit using discontinued Linen Drape yarn that I found on a yarn crawl in LA (I think K & I hit 15ish yarn stores from SD to LA in one week's time). This yarn was found at La Knitterie Parisienne. The pattern comes from a Rowan Mag, though I don't remember the number and is a simple Kim Hargreaves pattern. The bottom of the tank is knit in a one by one rib for a distance, then you bind off then you pick up stitches for the top and knit along, doing some shaping and following the pattern. After finishing with this sweater I decided that I don't like boat neck sweaters on me. Another problem is that I got bored with stockinette and fearful of running out of yarn, so the top is a little short, which is ok if I am wearing something that falls at my true waist, otherwise, I am flashing my belly button ring.

New knitting progress: I received my additional skein of Old Gold for Autum Rose yesterday (Two Swans was great!), you can imagine what happened last night here in the North End :-) I also started to make a mini-Jeannie though honestly, not much knitting happened this weekend.

This is knitzalot, now

I have two really boring unflattering FO shots to show you. Perhaps if I do it quickly, no one will notice.

Yesterday I wore a cotton/linen shell underneath a twill jacket:



The pattern is from Interweave and it is available for free on their website. I got the yarn for 50% off at the Grove in South Park. It is a Tahki yarn that is a blend of cotton and linen (can't remember the name at the moment). I believe that it is discontinued, which is unfortunate because it produces a lovely hardwearing fabric. The other good thing about it is that it is good to wear on hot days. Well, it wasn't exactly hot here yesterday. In fact, it was one of the coldest days we've had in a while. So, I spent all day freezing to death. I had to have soup fro lunch and coffee in the afternoon just to keep from shivering. SO, this FO will not get much wear except in warmer weather.

Today, I'm wearing the sweater I knitted for the Knitting Olympics a couple of years ago.



I knitted it out of Cotton-Ease in Ice Blue. The pattern comes from Debbie Bliss' cotton angora pattern book. This FO turned out OK, but it has some issues. It's larger than I would like. This leads to the sweater falling off the shoulders because of the wide v-neck. However, I really like the design, it's comfortable and it's machine washable, so I'm more apt to wear it than something I have to handwash. If I had it to do over again, I would make it one size smaller, and I think that would fix a lot of the issues. Looking at this photo, it actually doesn't look that big, so maybe I'm making too much of it. One benefit? I'm a whole lot warmer today! Yay!