wip: first sweater

Alright, now if it were any other project I'd spend a little time blogging about the yarn I chose or other project preparation details before getting into the meat of the knit piece, but 1. I wanted to devote my time to the inevitable beginning mess-ups/frogs/re-cast-ons that come with embarking on such a large project before telling anyone online about it and 2. I was just too damn excited to work on and eventually wear this thing!

So here it is, after 5 hours of shopping yarn colorways and prices, and at least 3 repeated cast-on attempts, my first hand knit sweater in progress. Thanks to Jane Richmond for her so-far wonderfully simple and easy to follow pattern.

I went with the fisherman's wool in natural brown because I thought it went pretty well with my skin tone and wardrobe. Also because, for three skeins on the day I decided to head out and buy, it cost about $16, as opposed to the cost of $45 for the 7 skeins of the recommended Patons Classic Wool (right now, I'm having so much fun with this sweater so far that I just might make a second for myself in Patons, just because I can).

It also turns out that my three skeins of yarn bought for this sweater are of two different dye lots--one is labeled with 001, and the other two with 002. I...think I'm okay with this. Maybe I'll try some super subtle striping along the sleeves or wherever the first skein looks like it's beginning to run out. If I don't do it and it looks like I knit this with two loudly different shades of brown, I think I'll love the sweater anyway. <3

One big worry I have while working on this thing is the annoying itching I get on my nose and lap. I'm hoping so hard that it isn't me discovering that I'm actually allergic to wool (which would be the most tragic thing), and that I'm probably just reacting to the little bits of grass that I occasionally pull out of the yarn fed into the wip. I've never had this reaction while working with wool before, so maaaaybe whatever's making my skin itch will come out in the wash.

All of my fingers are crossed on this hope here. If that doesn't work out, I'll happily take allergy medication as gifts, cos I'm not planning to give up wool any time soon.

Expect my next update of this sweater to be an FO one! Or...one that's full of curse words.. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

a socktober indeed

I've made some slow but steady progress on my Angler's Loop Socks this month. Whenever I felt a little impatient I would try the finished sock on and admire the cabling, that's been enough to keep knitting for another 10 rounds or so.

Doing that didn't always work. At one point late one night I just needed some instant knitting gratification, so I did some digging in the queue and found John's Short Footies, a skein of about the right weight, and just got started.

Between these two projects in progress, one semi-secret gift pair in the works, and a super ambitious piece casted on yesterday, I can say there's a lot to look forward to on the knitting front this month.

wip: charcoal angler's loop socks

I've spent so much of my time working on my day job or on shop knits that I've neglected my own personal projects! After my first craft show at St. Cornelius in Long Beach (which went very well, btw!) I decided to get back to knitting an old wip I took on in July. I don't think I blogged about it yet but here's my try at Andrea Mules's Angler's Loop pattern.

I've never really taken on a real cabling pattern so this was daunting at first but quickly became very fun to do. I decided to go for two pattern repeats instead of the three shown in the pattern photos, but other than that I was true to the instructions. Can't wait to see this finished. I'm in love with how the yarn looks and feels and just need them on my feet asap.

yarn-along v

On the reading front: I finished Franz Molnar's Prisoners last week. It was a little slow at first but wasn't hard by the midpoint to get hooked. I'd like to believe that a bit might be lost in the translation from its original written language, but even then the imagery is beautiful. When I have to put down the book for a bit to sigh and say ..wow, you know it's a good sign.

Hagakure's made quite a few appearances over the last couple of yarn-along posts, and it's for that same reason. That little book's full of really deep words and passages. It would be unfair to not sit and ponder what's been said every few pages, and that's why this little book is still in the currently-reading pile by my bed.

Lord of the Rings is a slightly different story. I'm looking at at least a thousand pages of book to get through, and the size of the thing makes it a home-only type of reading deal. Because it's the kind of story that requires that I set at least an hour aside to focus on it, this book hasn't had very much attention from me.

As for knitting, I'm about 65% done with my Hermione's Everyday Socks!

 Might have said this before but I'd love to work this project once more in the future with a more solid colored yarn. This self striping yarn looks really lovely in this pattern, but the texture looks like it needs a chance to hog the spotlight in a pair of its own.

I'm also working on a number of lovely knit pieces for Bapsicrafts--my hope is to build enough stock to  take part in a craft show or farmer's market, which will take a real while to do!

This post is made alongside many others in Gsheller's Wednesday Yarn-along!

Click-through the image for more information on this yarn-along,

and let me know if you decide to join!