Finished! Fad Classic

This was another relatively quick knit (though I guess not compared to the Twinkle knits). I really love how it turned out. This is probably the most wearable thing I've knitted yet and I'm actually really excited to wear it. It's a little bigger than I would like, but I think that may be ok.



The pattern was really interesting--worked in one piece from the top down. The lack of seams is great, because I suck at seaming. Unfortunately there's a lot of picking up stitches. Which I also suck at. But I think it turned out ok on this one.

Onto the Phildar cardigan (#13 from this winter's issue)...I'm almost done with the back, but I'm now wishing I had done the front pieces and the back together instead of seaming all the pieces. I guess practice makes perfect.

Finished! Diamond Scarf

This is another FO from a few weeks ago. I made it after using the leftover yarn from my Best Friend Cardigan to make this and the aspen hat for a friend. I ended up loving them both and had just enough yarn to make the scarf for myself. I wasn't sure about it at first. I thought the size 35 (!) needles would make it so holy that it would be strange looking or not really that warm. Both are quite untrue. The pattern is so lovely and after some steam blocking it really looked nice and defined.
And it's so cozy and warm.

We had our first snow in DC today.

Biking through all the falling ice was nothing, as I was toasty warm, wrapped in my soft Diamond Scarf.

That's my catalogue caption.

I do want to say that after living in NYC for the past two years I forgot what babies Washingtonians (mostly the DC suburbanites) are about the snow. People couldn't make it to meetings, there were alerts and alarms and warnings, yet even now, at 6pm there remains to be any actual accumulation on the streets. Maybe in the suburbs there's an inch.

All I know is I'm not going to work tomorrow.
I could break my neck in all that snow.

Finished! Twinkle Biker Vest

This was another quick knit...about a week and half even with several rip-outs and re-dos.
There are a few screw-ups, but I don't think they're that noticeable, so overall I love it.
The pattern says to pick up 140 stitches around the edges for the garter stitch border, which caused me the most trouble. First I didn't pick up enough stitches so it turned into a balloon-like piece. So I ripped it out and picked up more....it was not longer a balloon, but my picking up of stitches was a little messy so again I ripped it out and redid it. It looks much better, but picking up stitches and seaming fabric that isn't in simple stockinette seem to be my biggest weaknesses.
I do really like the lace pattern and I love the fit.
Onto the other vests in my queue.

This last statement is interestingly enough quite the annoyance to my "roommate." It seems knitting has diverted my obsession away from him..."you'd rather be knitting," he says just every once in a while.
But I don't feel guilty.
If only he knew the meditative satisfaction, the visual and tactile stimulation.
Ah, yes.
But I think involving him may mollify his frustrations. He's becoming my photographer and perhaps with time he'll embrace this role and attack it with artful intent.

Finished! Best Friend Cardigan

I've been pretty anxious to post about some stuff I've actually finished. It's like a virtual trophy case...and it's so nice to have trophies I'm happy with! and I have to say, I love Twinkle for this reason. I had never made anything complicated, just scarves and hats and when I discovered this book (which was one those moments of realization when you know the obsession will now take over your life because it's just too good...) I jumped on the Best Friend Cardigan. I finished it in about 4 days in early November and save some issues with setting the sleeves in (mainly making the seams look seamless, which never happened), it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be and it turned out pretty damn good...I mean, it's chunky. And therefore I look chunky. But it's like my first baby...I'll love her no matter what she does to me. Plus, the soft chunky is just beautiful (as is the color, urchin).



I feel like this is a cheesy Twinkle testimonial, but Wenlan is right (in her intro to the book)...now I feel like I can knit anything!
No really...it's a nice feeling to be able to examine things in stores and know how they were put together--and feel like I could do it just as well myself. Hey, I'm as good as some factory in China.

One more note, for the small size, this only took 2 1/2 - 3 skeins of the soft chunky, though the pattern called for 4. But I think this follows the consensus with Twinkle patterns...they seem to take less than the pattern calls for. I was pretty excited to learn from Knitlit that the Shopping Tunic only takes 3 skeins....rather than 7.

In other news, the Biker Vest is almost finished...I had some trouble picking up all the stitches around the edges for the garter stitch border and had to rip it out a couple of times. But I think this time may be it.