Eastburn Adventures

I can't believe it - I have officially finished knitting my first adult-sized sweater! This was one of those projects that was never ending. I bought a pattern shortly after I learned to knit from Knitting Pure & Simple for a short-sleeved v-neck tee because it looked easy, and I really didn't have any guidance from anyone with regard to sweater knitting. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought the pattern because 1) it's your basic plain vanilla top-down raglan which you can find free all over the web, and 2) it didn't look like what I really wanted in the first place. Again, it was just because I thought I needed an "easy" pattern to learn how to make a sweater - wrong. The endless stockinette of the body nearly killed me, and indeed, this sweater spent months, months, and more months in time out. Officially, it took me 13 months to finish, but once I was seriously working on it, it probably only took a total of 3-4 weeks. My recommendation for a newbie knitter who's never made a sweater: 1) Get support from your local knit group or Ravelry, and 2) knit a pattern in pieces rather than in the round. Anyway, I'm glad it's finally finished, and now that I've conquered an adult sweater, I know I can make any number of patterns. It's kind of like when I learned to make socks - I didn't understand how someone could knit socks without a pattern and make them it a short period of time, and now I'm cranking them out with the best of them! (Oh, and the sweater is knit using the now discontinued Elsbeth Lavold's Silky Tweed, and the lace pattern is from WendyKnits' Vince Sweater.)

Speaking of socks, I'm on track with my first pair for Summer of Socks 2008. I'm making the Tidal Wave pattern in Hand Maiden Cashbah in Amethyst. I cast on using my trusty Addi Turbos size 1 1/2 (2.5mm) and drat it if my gauge wasn't off. Rather than move down to 0's again, I moved up to a size 2 1/2 and cut the total stitches down from 64 to 48, which will make these go very fast! I finished the heel tonight while at my great-niece's and great-nephew's birthday party. Another reason this is going so fast, the foot is all stockinette - the pattern is only on the leg.

And how cool is this? The Springfield Knitters ordered t-shirts for the WWKIP Day on June 14, where everyone (except me, because I was in Hilton Head) was going to the Springfield Cardinals game for a Stitch 'n Pitch to celebrate. Zarah worked with a knitter on Ravelry to get us all t-shirts with our Rav-names on them, and although they didn't come in time for the game, they're too cute!