Cloud Bolero: SO much better!

I ripped out that silly picot edging and did garter stitch instead:



I think garter was what I was originally planning when I started this 8 million years ago, but some Ravelers had such cute picot-edged versions that I guess I forgot. Anyway, yesterday a very helpful commenter suggested that garter would help tone down the flaring at the bottom without me needing to do any shaping (thanks!). It definitely did help. The loose fit still bothers me a little, but only a little. Overall I really like this!

I'll probably make another someday, with sleeves, but this one is really great for throwing over tank tops or sundresses. I'd love to find a nice brooch to fasten it at the top, but for now wearing it open is fine too.

The pattern is pretty great but I hated the way it was written & had some real trouble following it -- of course, a lot of that was probably just the fact that it was my first lace project. The thing that bothered me the most was that she has you cast on extra stitches to fill the gap created by binding off the sleeve stitches. Maybe it's just the way I did it, but it makes the underarm area of my sweater look horrible and just sort of adds unnecessary bulk to an already loose-fitting garment. So, next time around I'll be skipping that part. Still, I think the designer is a genius and I want to make more of her stuff soon! She has some great hats and I'm developing a slight hat obsession right now. :)

Cloud Bolero: Kinda Finished.

So I'm done with the Cloud Bolero & my feelings are very mixed:


(Try to ignore all those ends I haven't yet woven in!)
Don't get me wrong, I think it might be the prettiest thing I've ever knit! But I am much less than thrilled with the picot edging (translation: all those silly little triangles at the bottom) and also with the way it fits. It's perfect around my neck & shoulders, but it really flares out at the bottom. Soooooooo I think I have to rip out the picot edging (which I suspect will be a hellish endeavor) & maaaybe even go back farther to add shaping (which I am probably too lazy to do). I am totally not excited to do those things, which of course is why I am taking & posting pictures rather than doing them. :)

NOT DEAD! (+ my first pair of socks!)

Hi, blog, remember me? No? That's ok, it's been a million years and I don't really have a very good excuse. I know there were final exams in there somewhere, & then my wonderful friend Linn visited for a week, but really I could've taken the time to put up a post or two even in the middle of those things.

Sorry. I'll be better from here on out, I promise!*

The upside of me having abandoned you for nearly a whole month is that now I have lots of cool things to show you. I won't cram them all into one post, but for now I will show you my completed pair of socks:

Aren't they lovely? I finished the second one while my friend Linn was visiting from Toronto. We took a trip down to Illinois to visit my beloved Aunt Deb while she was here, & on the way we knit & knit & knit. Here's the trippiest sock-in-progress photo you ever will see, taken in Chicago's famous "bean" sculpture:


And here we are knitting in Millennium Park:


A busload of senior citizens happened to arrive while we were doing that, and of course many of the women told us how happy they were to see us knitting, and one old man asked to take that picture. Cute! (Yes, Linn is borrowing a Calorimetry I made.)

When I finally did finish that sock, it might've attacked Linn:

Ahahahaha! Best sock photo EVER!

You can see the rest of the pictures from Linn's visit here.

So, I think S. succeeded in her mission & got me a little bit addicted to sock-knitting. There will definitely be more in my future! For these I used the provisional cast-on, short row toe, & short row heel. I hated the provisional cast-on the first time around, but the second time I used a smoother cotton yarn for the crocheted part & found I didn't mind it at all. Also, the short row heel on my first sock is a little holey but on the second one I just picked up some stitches where the holes were threatening to form & it looks perfect. I definitely liked the toe-up method overall, but I am interested to learn some more toe & heel methods in the future!

Since then I've been working on a pair of legwarmers adapted from a sock pattern -- more on those soon. Cherie Amour is on hiatus still, but yesterday I finally picked the Cloud Bolero back up. It had been lying neglected & untouched for longer than this blog had, if you can believe that. Now I'm in the middle of binding off the body (woohoo!) & I need to hurry up & decide what I want to do about sleeves. The original pattern doesn't really have any & I keep waffling on whether I want to stick with that or not, and then of course if I am going to do sleeves I need to figure out how I want to approach them. Hmmm...

Anyway, I promise it won't be a month until next time!


* Maybe.