Return of the Blogger

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole year since my last post. I started keeping my 2 year old son at home with me and he took pretty much all of my attention!  He's a little older now and is a bit more independent, so I'm back!

Since it's been a while and I can't talk about some of my current projects right now, I'm going to spend some time catching up on the last year. 

First up, I finished the Basket Weave Scarf for my husband.

I still don't think he's worn it.  Looking back I should have used a much larger needle for this one. It's a bit stiff. But considering this was only my second knitted project, it looks pretty good!

After completing this one I moved on to my first sweater. I know, I know, what was I thinking?  It was a big project for a newbie knitter, but nonetheless I felt like I was up to the challenge. 

I had purchased the yarn at JoAnn's previously with the intention of crocheting myself a sweater. 

It's JoAnn Sensations Lustrous Lamb, 80% acrylic, 20% wool, int the Wine color way. 

Then I learned that crochet uses 2 to 3 times more yarn than knitting. This is what prompted me to learn to knit in the first place.  It would be cheaper (and lighter) to knit myself a garment than to crochet one. 

Here's the finished sweater. 

It took me a little over 2 months to complete and it had several issues, but I learned a lot from the process. I changed the pattern in several places to fit my measurements at the time I started it. As I'm sure you can tell from the finished object, it was too big when I finished it. This was not because of gauge issues or math problems. It ended up being the exact size I had planned. The problem was me. I lost a bunch of weight in the interim that I was working on it. I also realized about 1 inch from the end of the main body that I had somehow started wrapping my purl stitches in the wrong direction at some point during the process. So every other row has twisted stitches. It's a "design feature."  

 I also realize in retrospect that the buttons I got are too small. I measured the button holes, but didn't realize how much stretch they had. I should have taken the sweater with me when I bought them. Oh well, lesson learned. All in all I still love this sweater. I just mainly wear it around the house, since its way too big now. 

Check back soon for more on the last year. Glad to be back!