Twisted Rib Pullover II - Finished

I didn't get very much knitting done during my Bead & Button trip, but I did manage to finish this sweater, just in time for summer.  I only had 15 rows left to do on the second sleeve, and some ends to weave in, so it was pretty quick.  Now back to my Wind in the Willows shawl.  I've come up with an additional chart to use up more of my yarn, and I really need to finish it before I start anything else.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino in Malachite
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Twisted Rib Pullover - Finished!

This one took knitting twice to get right.  It all started when, after knitting the sleeves, I decided that they were too tight and too short, so I decided to reknit them and make them larger, but then I was worried about running out of yarn.  As an experiment, when I started knitting the sleeves a second time I did the ribbing in the gold yarn that I had leftover from the Goldenrod Pullover.  That looked good, so I did the second sleeve the same way.  Then I faced the fact that I had not done contrast ribbing on the body.  I let that idea percolate a little while in my mind while I worked on other projects, and then decided to reknit the body with the contrast ribbing.  The only problem with doing that was then I ran the risk of running out when it came to doing the collar.  I decided to press on and see where I ended up, knowing that I could always do some modifications to the pattern when I got there.

As I started knitting the collar I knew that I would not have enough of the gold to finish the collar.  I searched on Ravelry and found a couple of people that had the same yarn in the same dyelot, but of the two people that I contacted, one wasn't willing to part with her ball, and the other one never replied.  Then yesterday I did another search on the internet and found a shop in the UK that was selling bags of 10 balls, and they had the gold color listed.  I almost ordered it, but stopped myself at the last minute.  Really?  Pay $80 for a bag of yarn when all I really needed was just one?  Obviously I needed to rethink things.  I tried the top on to see how the collar was looking and decided that it looked fine, so I finished knitting as much as I could with the yarn that I had, and raveled my swatches to get as much yarn as possible.  While that yarn was drying I sewed in the sleeves, and this morning I finished up the collar.

I did end up ordering more yarn from the shop in the UK (Claire's Yarns).  I tried to order the Eggplant, but they were out, so I got Malachite instead.  Turns out they were out of almost all of the colors, including the Mustard, so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.  What can I say?  I really like this yarn, and I love the top with the lace sleeves.  Now I can make three more.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino in Petrol and Mustard
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Twisted Rib Pullover - Body Done

Finished up this morning and now blocking before I pick up stitches for the collar.  I was thinking of making a second pullover, and even have the yarn, but I'm not so sure - those little strips of 3 stitches at the shoulders were a bit of a pain and don't really block well, they just curl up imitating i-cord.


Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Twisted Rib Pullover - Body Almost Done

I have been focused on finishing my Twisted Rib Pullover.  Last weekend I restarted the body, knitting the ribbing in the yellow and began knitting the body by raveling the original work.  I made it almost to the underarm last weekend, knitting while reading the ninth Inspector Alleyn mystery (Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh).  Last weekend I also picked up a small spiral notebook to keep my pattern notes in.  I have been using those lined Post-It Pads, sticking the notes in magazines and pattern books, but they get creased and lose their stick and I really wanted something a bit more organized.

The notebook is 7 inches by 4 3/8 inches (17.7 cm by 11.1 cm), a really nice size and has 140 pages - lined.  I am always re-writing patterns, mostly changing them to knit them in the round.  I also have a larger notebook that I am using for the Tudor Roses adventure.

I bought this at Bead & Button several years ago when my sister and I went to the local office supply store for some booth supplies.  It has been sitting around waiting for a purpose ever since.  The patterns in Tudor Roses are fairly detailed, and so are my pattern notes, so I needed a larger format.  I have been re-writing the first pattern, and playing with gauge and once I get everything sorted I'll pick that project back up.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Twisted Rib Pullover - Second Sleeve Done (for the second time)

As usual, the second sleeve went pretty quickly.  I had two partial balls of the yellow yarn left over from the Goldenrod pullover, so I used one of them to re-knit the bottom band of the body, just to see how much yarn it used and try to gauge if I had enough to do both the bottom edge and the top band.  I think I do, so I've started frogging the body and re-knitting it.  When I re-knit the sleeves I made them a bit longer.  The original pattern had them ending just below the elbow, but I prefer a three-quarter length, if I'm going for less than a full length sleeve.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Twisted Rib Pullover

I started this pullover on November 23, knowing that I would soon be finishing up the body of the Crimson Lake pullover and would be needing some more simple knitting.  I didn't get to the simple part until yesterday having been distracted by the Tea Rose Shawlette.  What can I say, Unique Sheep Yarns are to me as squirrels are to dogs.  I pulled this out yesterday because I was home from work with a migraine.  Now lest you think I was lying in a dark room in agony, my migraines have thankfully gotten a lot less severe and less frequent over the years.  This one manifested itself as some pain behind my right eye, a slightly upset tummy and a very fuzzy brain.  So fuzzy that I did not trust myself to operate heavy machinery (as in driving a car to work) or knit lace.

When I picked this up yesterday I had one more row of the twisted rib to work - the pattern calls for cabling, but I could not face the prospect of that so I just did a twisted stitch - knit two together, then knit into the first stitch again before dropping both stitches off the left needle.  When I got to the first knitted row I had to count stitches to place my side markers and had trouble doing even that simple task.  Fuzzy brain, remember?  But once the stitch markers were in place I was all set for some soothing mindless knitting.

The pattern is another one from SMC Select Moments No. 005, worked in SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino.  This pullover features the twisted/cabled rib around the body and the 3/4 length set-in sleeves and adeep collar that features lovely cables.  It is design number 1835.  I do wish they would come up with more imaginative names for their patterns.  I modified it to knit in the round, which is something I always try to do.  I love the endless rows of stockinette stitch going round and round and round.  No flipping the work around, no purl stitches, just continuous knitting.  Meditative bliss.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)