Spring's A Comin'!

I finished this yesterday:


















Yippee! The first of six Momogus Knits Summer Shell samples I need. This is the Scoopneck, optional-waist-shaped, waist-length, ribbed-edging version. Yeah, that's a lot of variations! I had my doubts about it, never having designed an adult-sized garment, and never having done this particular neckline, but I tried it on yesterday, and it looked okay! It's a couple inches smaller than I would make for myself (smaller samples mean quicker knitting), but it turned out pretty much exactly the way I wanted. The neckline turned out exactly like I wanted - not too U-shaped, more of a graceful swath of neckline.

Here is the (exciting!) armhole-edging (pick up stitches around armhole, then immediately bind off):


















I originally tried 2 rows of ribbing like around the collar, but it looked stupid.


Now I've got to track down some mannequin torsos to model it for the pictures.....

Back From Baltimore

I spent the past several days in Baltimore with my lovely sister Laura. We watched many hours of reality tv, and I made great strides with my Momogus Knits sample knitting.

Done:

Adorable little ES2 Easy Baby Pullover in delicious Rowan Cashsoft DK yarn. I may make a matching hat (ES1 Easy Baby Hat) but there's other stuff on the cooker right now.

Done:

Another adorable little ES2 Easy Baby Pullover in not-as-delicious Little Lehigh Pebbles from Kraemer. I love the color of this sweater and how the fabric feels knit up, but I did not love knitting with the yarn. It was quite stringy. Here is a close-up of the very cute sheep buttons.

In other sample news, here are 2 Easy Summer Shells started up:

(yawn....)

I also started this sock (NS5 Easy Toe-Up Socks):

which is using yarn that Gus dyed last summer. I'm thinking of teaching a workshop on this process, which comes courtesy of our friends at Kalamazoo Knits. We used Wilton Cake Icing Dye, which as you can see produces strong and ker-AZY colors.

Sunday Progress Report

I'm coming down the home stretch on the two baby pullovers - on the sleeves for both. Oh sleeves, how I dislike knitting you!! Well, at least they're baby sleeves, which are not so bad.

I have been kicking around ideas for adult-size sweaters and decided that I'm going to put the pullovers and cardigans on hold for now and concentrate on (drumroll please) Summer Shells! Shells are the most popular warm-weather pattern at the Tangled Web, and we only have one really basic pattern. So now I've been knocking out numbers and throwing around ideas in my mind. Now is the time for test-knitting!! 

Fortunately, shells don't have sleeves, so even though these are adult-size garments, that's a sizeable chunk of knitting I don't have to do. Unfortunately, they need to be knit in cotton which kills my poor arm. But what can I do? They've got to get done, and I have to knit the first sample. Here is a blob of shell:

But it feels good to have some organization to this next stage!

Wednesday

(My webmaster has instructed me to include titles in my blog posts, which taxes my creative energies, so please bear with the perfunctory titles until my muse visits again....)

Here is the progress I'm making on the pink ES2:

Finished the front and back and the button/buttonhole plackets. Just sleeves left and then the delightful task of picking out to-die-for-adorable buttons.

I started the rollneck companion ES2 pullover in Rowan Cashsoft DK (which is like butter, baby!):

Front and back done. Starting the neck now.

My Fingerless Gloves class at the Tangled Web on Sunday was fun, though it made me realize that I could clarify a few things in the pattern as written. Nothing like a lively group of passionate curious smart knitters to keep a pattern-writer on her toes!!