Done: Hourglass Sweater

Thanks for the comments on the Birdie Mittens! I finally added Haloscan to my blog, so replying to comments will be SO much easier now. I feel like this blog is quickly becoming a collection of FO reports, but I still have a pile to get through, so let's keep it moving...

Hourglass

can you find all the pets in this picture?

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater, Last Minute Knitted Gifts

I don't know what I love more, the sweater or the wall

Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha from Webs (I have no idea how many skeins). Knitting with Cash Iroha was a bit "eh" for me. Sure it's soft, but the silk content eliminates all flex and the weight ranges from fingering to chunky in places. Wearing Cash Iroha? Totally different story. I still haven't blocked this sweater because I can't bear to think of it wet and unwearable for a few days. While it feels like a sweatshirt, it's almost work appropriate and I slipped it into my daytime wardrobe for a bit. It's rustic look makes it more of a weekend staple.

Needles: Size 7 Addis (I hope the set I lost on the train found their way to another knitter and not a trash heap-see below for details)

Dates Knitted: March 07 - October 07
Mods: Just added five extra decrease rows to the neckline.

The knitting of this sweater was marked by starts and stops, trials and tribulations - the most notable when I left it on a train and had to start over! It's pretty sad it took me so long to finish this. I knit nearly the whole body of the sweater in a week, but let it languish in a bag at the bottom of my closet until September or so. I love knitting sweaters in the round, but the turning motion gets cumbersome as the sweater grows. Poor excuse, but enough for me to let it collect dust.

Comments

Box Bag Tutorial

A couple of you inquired whether I made this pouch based on a tutorial or pattern and if not, if I could provide one. Ask and you shall receive! I've learned so much from tutorials out on the internets, I'm happy I can give back for once. Bear with me, though. This is my first tutorial and creating one is much tougher than I imagined. I give anyone who's created a tutorial tons of credit! I feel obligated to preface this by admitting I'm a trial and error sewer. I make things up as I go along and test things during the sewing process to see if I'm achieving my desired results. Also, I taught myself to sew just playing around on a sewing machine, so I don't always use text book methods. Just wanted come clean before you all jump into this and so you have a little understanding if I did something in a backass way. The pattern works, which is all that matters to me! Because of the versatility of this pattern, my instructions can be used more as guidelines. You can

Done: Weekender Bag

Happy 2007! I hope you all had a good time ringing in the new year. I have some lofty goals for this upcoming year and some musings on last year, but that's for another post because-- Finally! (the top looks kind of bumpy. I think it looks crisper when I'm holding it.) Pattern. Weekender Bag by Amy Butler Exterior Fabric. Amy Butler, Sunbloom Collection Cording Fabric. Amy Bulter, Charm Collection Lining. Khaki Fabric from Joann's I relied a lot on the tips from other bloggers who made this bag and wanted to give something back to the blogging community, so here are my.... 10 THOUGHTS & TIPS ON THE WEEKENDER 1. Dominating the cording. As the layers increased in the sewing, keeping the cording sandwiched in place became challenging. I had the best luck pinning the fabric together parallel to the fabric edge, rather than perpendicular. Stopping so often to remove pins got a little annoying, but was better than ripping and resewing. 2. Topstitching = Enemy number 1. I d

Granola.

In all my years of baking, I don’t think there’s any one food I’ve tinkered with more than granola. Actually, that’s a lie. Let me try again. Besides chocolate chip cookies, there's no food I've tinkered with more than granola. But granola! The goal: delicious, crunchy yet chunky enough to eat on its own, and not just dessert masquerading as a healthy snack. Doesn’t sound too hard. But… the best tasting is inevitably the worst for you (not to name names...Panera copycat recipe). Consistency should not be a trail mix of sugared oats and nuts and fruit. There should be chunks you can hold without crumbling. So, when I stumbled upon a granola so good the restaurant sends guests home with their own little prepackaged personal sized portion, I had to give it a try. And to document my trials so when I inevitably forget the recipe, I'm writing this post so it’s here waiting and ready. (And maybe, you, too, have been seeking that perfect granola recipe??)

Drago[knit]fly

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