Final FLS Update!

After making the sleeves longer, I spent an hour this morning making the sleeves back to their original length and sewing on the buttons.  Of course, I failed to take any photos at all before packaging up the sweater and shipping it off to my sister.  The good news is that it will arrive on Friday and her birthday is Saturday.  I told her I was shipping her a quart of ice cream in a plain cardboard box.  She's very excited to be expecting a sticky, leaky box of goo.

Of course, I completely forgot to get her a birthday card. DOH!

Now I'll have to work on the blue Serpentine Socks and see how far I can get between now and the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on Sunday.

February Lady Sweater Finished, But....

I think the sleeves are going to be too long.  And they have a decided tendency to stretch out even longer while wearing them.  So after re-knitting the first sleeve last night to make it a bit longer, I will now be ripping out the cuffs plus an inch of actual sleeve in order to re-knit the cuffs at the original sleeve length.  On the other hand, I think the armscye depth thing will be ok, so that's good.

I picked up some buttons on the way home from work that I think will work ok. I'm not 100% certain about them being exactly right, but I think they'll do for now. Sis is perfectly capable of replacing the buttons if she chooses to do so.

Overall, I think I'm pleased with the sweater design though I'm not terribly pleased with the hand of the fabric. It's a bit limp and stretchy for my tastes though I did meet the gauge that the pattern requested.  If I make another one, I'll go down a needle size or two with this particular yarn (Cascade 220) to get a firmer hand.  I'll give Sis an option to have a less stretchy sweater if she's not so keen on the hand of her birthday present too. (If I do re-knit, I'll carry the raglan increases down a bit further too so as to avoid the armpit tightness concern I had.)

Knitting Pics At Last!

After agonizing over the February Lady Sweater and whether or not it will fit properly*, I decided to go ahead and finish it.  I'm just a few inches from finishing the second sleeve.  It seems like it's been like that for the past few nights of knitting.  Perhaps today I'll get it done and then I can get it blocked, wrapped and shipped to my sister.  Her birthday is next Saturday, so the package needs to be in the mail on Wednesday.

*I suspect that the armscye may not be deep enough to be comfortable.  The only way to fix this, however, is to rip back the entire body and sleeves and knit the yoke deeper.  I'm ok with doing that, just wanted to give the directions as written a try first. Perhaps it's just me agonizing and overthinking things too much.  It may fit my sister just fine too. She's smaller through the arms and chest than I am.  If it doesn't fit, I'll have her ship it back to me and I'll re-knit it. I think I can solve the problem by carrying the raglan increases to the end of the garter stitch yoke.

Also on the needles are the Crabby Socks for me.  I'm nearly to the gusset on the first sock.

I started another pair of Serpentine Socks for my sister for my Knitting Olympics project.  I don't think I'll get them done before the closing ceremonies. Not with the final push for finishing Sis's sweater.  The yarn is Mirasol Hacho in the color Deep Blue Ocean.  It's a bit heftier than STR Mediumweight so I'm making a smaller size than for the Crabby Socks.  It's a nice squishy yarn though.  Should be comfy on the feet. Hopefully it won't be too thick for Sis' work shoes.

More February Lady Sweater! (Still No Pics)

It's really hard to take a picture of a one-armed sweater when you're wearing it.  I'm just not coordinated enough to hold out one arm while taking a photo with the other. At least not unless I'm hoping to take a photo of the wall or ceiling.  Yes, I could have just lay the sweater on the floor for the photo, but that isn't half the fun or challenge of taking action photos. :o)

Anyway, the February Lady Sweater for my Sis now has one completed sleeve.  That leaves me with approximately 15 days to finish sleeve number two, which is completely doable.  And find buttons, which may be a bit trickier. Finding buttons for things I wear is hard enough. Finding buttons for something for someone else to wear is harder.  I'm tempted to not put buttons on it and let Sis pick out and sew on her own. She's got a whole lot more choices for button shopping than I do.

I am pretty certain that the sweater is still a surprise.  Last week, when I was agonizing over what airplane knitting to pack, she did mention that I could always knit her more socks. (It was really cute because she specifically said she didn't mean to be pushy and I had just mentioned re-discovering the sock yarn she purchased just after Christmas.)  I did mention that I couldn't work on her socks just yet because I had one project in the queue ahead of them, but that I'd get to them very soon.  I made no mention at all of the sweater.  I think we're good.

Now I just need to figure out if a) I have enough yarn left to make the February Fitted Pullover too and b) if I'll make it for her or for me! I should have enough yarn for the 3/4 length sleeve version. The long-sleeve version might be a bit dicey.  She might wear the 3/4 length sleeve version once she tries it on.  If she doesn't, I may just have to claim it as my own.


New Job Prospects
I've got a decent chance of getting a new job in the next few weeks.  If things go well, I'll be moving most of the way across the country, which means packing up the stash.  I'm giving serious consideration to sending most of the fleeces off to be processed before the move and then have them shipped to my new address after they've been turned into roving.  That would greatly diminish the volume of stuff to pack in the fiber room.  It would also do wonders toward getting me to actually DO SOMETHING with the multitude of fleeces.  Let's face it, I've not managed to process a single one yet and some of them I've had for probably seven years.

The other cool thing about my potential new job is that the dress code is more relaxed.  Of course what's odd about that is that I suddenly feel the urge to knit a bunch of nice sweaters (cardis, jackets) so that I can dress nicely and professionally.  Making a point of knitting a little bit each day, I've figured out that I can actually accomplish larger projects, like sweaters.  I used to think they took far too long (1-2 years), but now I can see that isn't the case.  Heck, the February Lady Sweater is just one sleeve shy of completion and I only started it a month ago.  If I work on worsted weight projects that are mostly seamless, I should be able to manage 4-6 sweaters in a year without giving up my sock knitting or the occasional shawl project.

Speaking of shawl projects....I've promised myself that I can buy the two skeins of Silk Thread II for the Evenstar Shawl just as soon as I get an official job offer.  Hopefully things will progress fairly quickly on the job front since the KAL starts on the 12th and I don't want to end up hopelessly behind.