A Bitter Knitter

Today's drive by blog post features a project that took me over two years to make.  While I blame a good portion of that gap on having a baby, it also was one of the fiddliest projects I've done.   The pattern is " Aster Vest " by Cassie Castillo and I fell in love with it when I saw it because of the beautiful lace and the medallion in the back: Aster I swatched for two weeks and tried two different yarns... I ended up using NaturallyCaron.com Spa (now discontinued).  The yarn was excruciatingly splitty (splity?) but ended up blocking beautifully. Before: After: You really do block the living daylights out of this pattern.  Here's what the fronts looked like before: And after: I changed the back from what was written. I thought it was too narrow and would have required stretching the stockinette more than what would have been attractive in order to meet the pattern measurements. Then I had to assemble.  I'm actually rather pleased wit...

No, this post isn't about how long it's been since I last blogged (which actually wasn't that long ago...)  It's about how long a couple of my projects have been on the needles...  Since 2010, that's how long.  And when you consider that I only took up knitting in September of 2009, that's a long time!  Well, I finally finished two of those long standing UFOs (UnFinished Objects) this month! Confession: I started both of these projects with the intent of making them for my niece back when she was a toddler.  Uh huh... that was four years ago... I didn't finish them as quickly as I wanted to, and then she got too big for them, and then I had no one else to give them to.  Then I had a little girl of my own and finally got them finished! Project 1: Little Red Riding Hood Cape I started this in May of 2010.  I started the two-year-old size, because I was knitting it for my toddler niece.  Then I put it into hibernation mode because I heard of a ...

Take some yarn... (well, not just some yarn.  Lots of yarn.  About 1200 yards in this particular instance.) Add some knitting needles, a few stitch markers, a handful of blocking pins, and an emergency crochet hook.  Wait 125 days (who knows how many hours... I'm not sure I really want to know that number...) and then, if the Knitting Fates have smiled upon you... ...your yarn will grow up to become a sweater. My NaKniSweMo sweater is finally all grown up.  *sniff*   More photos when I can get some one to take them for me--I'm just ecstatic with the fact that these sleeves are LONG ENOUGH for my abnormally long arms . Also, since my last post, I've finished another pair of socks: These are the first pair of socks I created without a specific pattern--they are knit straight from my brain.  They are also my first socks with afterthought heels.  I love the colours, especially of the variegated yarn.  The LYS I ...