Tomorrow!

Pictures of Emily will come tomorrow, hopefully. I’m off work, so if Marc gets home before dark (it happens at 5:30 now) we should be able to snap some!

In the meantime, I’ve started what will hopefully be an easy sweater.

This is the Gathered pullover from the current (Winter 07) IK. Yes, I am knitting a sweater in the round. Emily has killed my will to purl for a bit. I’m enjoying the fact that this sweater is knit at a loose gauge, which is different for me, and of course I love the color (I cannot get away from teals!) I’m knitting the smallest size, which should have a small amount of negative ease in the bust area, which may be important here as the sweater has a bit of an empire waist. I’m still deciding if I will knit the sleeves in the round – I don’t really want to knit them on dpns, since I hate large dpns, but I think since this sweater has rolled hems I don’t want a seam. Maybe I will use magic loop… I’m not a huge fan of ML, but it won’t kill me. I’m also not sure if I will add length or not. I plan to wear this over a long camisole, so I might rather have it shorter.

I have yet to finish Marc’s scarf, mostly because I get tired of the pattern, but I need to finish – I want to make myself a cowl out of this Etsy yarn.

I have never knit with cashmere, so I am excited!

I love the feature knitting daily is doing, where they have lots of different sized people show how the same size sweater looks on them. Today they did the Colette pullover, which I am planning to make soon. I haven’t done much colorwork, but it looks simple to me (famous last words, right?) They recommend some positive ease, and I agree that an inch or so looks good… but unfortunately I am just above the smallest size, but almost 4 inches smaller than the 2nd. I do not need that much ease, so hopefully I can fiddle with my gauge to get a size in the middle.

I almost never knit sweaters with any positive ease. I usually aim for 1/2-1″ of negative ease. This is not because I want tight sweaters (in fact, none of mine are tight at all) but because I find most patterns are not shaped the way that I am. My waist is a whole lot smaller than my bust, so any positive ease in the bust usually looks like I’m wearing a sack around my waist… and while I can add extra shaping, I have just found that negative ease is easier. Besides, knits almost always stretch out when you wear them.

Fashion seems to be heading towards less fitted waters, and while I do enjoy an empire waist or an occasional A-line , I am afraid of a return to boxiness. After all, they are already trying to convince me that high waisted pants are a good idea (um… no they aren’t) or that tapered skinny jeans will look great on me (they don’t) so all we need now are giant sweaters like sacks to wear over them.

Ok… I will step off my fashion soapbox, and mention that the Winter Knitty is up. I didn’t like anything from the last 2 issues (until the fall surprise patterns, which I love) and I think this is a nicer issue. I like Ice Queen, Azure (I have jitterbug to use up, although I’ve never made toe-up socks,) Stardust (in a different yarn… I don’t like the hairy look of that one,) and Dahlia (but either not for winter or with longer sleeves… seriously, I don’t get the short sleeved sweater over a long sleeved shirt thing… my arms are my coldest part!)

Will any of them make my queue? Well… not right away. I like them, but I’m not feeling inspired. Still, I think it’s a solid issue!