Nightshift

I was burning the midnight oil yesterday night to finish this.

It had been blocking away for nearly 2 weeks. Sewing up and tidying up ends requires patience and perserveance. Well, I am a tenacious sort, but patience isn't one of my virtues. However, I am really pleased with my results. I did the 3-4 yo size and only made a few subtle changes.

Not sure why, but I can't seem to get this sweater to photograph well, I might have to shove it under the scanner to get a good shot of the flower. Red just never seems to photograph well.

(1) I did the body in stocking stitch and boxed the flower in reverse stocking stitch as opposed to doing the whole front and back in stocking stitch. Let's be completely honest, my tension just isn't up to it and it would had looked awful.

(2) I added a few extra repeats to the lace border, since there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to pick up the number of stitches required without some serious bunching

Here's a quick rundown on all the Lacy Knit-alongers.

Finished

Rowanette Jill R. - Upsized to fit a 7 year old, in a Barbie pink colour. Thanks to Jill, many of us are using the boxing the flower motif in a reverse stocking stitch box to get the crispness of the motif without the sloppiness of uneven reversed stocking stitch.
Kerrie's Place Kerrie - It's got lacy sleeves, picot edging and an applique butterfly, also in a lovely pink. Modelled by the gorgeous Brooke, who rather have a butterfly than a flower.
Rowanette Lesley P - It came out lovely despite a bad batch of lilac cotton, that gave it a blotchy effect. Modelled by the gorgeous Ruby.
MDK Kay - in a sugary pink for daughter Carrie. No lacy edging, but rather a few rows of eyelet lace, echoing the sleeves. Kay did show very many pictures on her site, but she's upsized it to fit her slim 7 yo daughter and finished it, inspite of all her square knitting. (That's in squares for the Afghans for Afghans, not casting aspersions on her knitting).
What Katie Did .. Katie is done. Her version is a medium purple.
Polly - It's for a 3-4 yo in Red.

In Progress

Princess Knits Tiffany is up to the flower motif. Her version is in a lovely sage green. Tiffany is doing it with the reverse stocking stick and it looks great, but that's because her reverse stocking stitch tension is fabulous.
Rowanette Louise B - got confident, then frogged and now back on the saddle again. Rumour has it, that she's very close to finishing ...
Knitting Narrations Laura - It's her first sweater and she's done a bang up job on the lace. Now, trying to navigate that pesky, picking up stitches, that's given a lot of very experienced knitters anxiety attacks.
Garn, Te & Sjokolade Karine is all done and ready to start sewing. Her version is in yellow.
Louknits Louise A has got a sleeve going int a limey yellow cotton. It's coming out a bit bigger than expected but that's OK since Chloe is getting bigger and is now wearing a 4yo size.

Moved on from this Cursed Sweater
Rowanette Dawn - Life's too short and the recipient isn't going to like it, so have decided to put this project aside.

Last words on the GSRP ...

Not wishing for anyone to think me, a 'no good, yarn grubbing kind of a gal, taking the good stuff and putting in some Red Heart or Lion Brand acrylic', I've dug in my stash and found a few other interesting things to contribute. (I was going to put in 8 oz of Red Heart as a joke, but given the weight of the box, shipping around 250g of Red Heart which no one would had wanted would had been an expensive joke for everyone!.)

So in addition to this

I'm also adding this:

Two Rowan patterns, one for ladies and one for men. Both size up generously to 50+ in chest (that's about 130cm). The ladies pattern is in aran weight wool which is pretty easy to substitute and the men's pattern is in a chunky wool, also easy to substitute. There are 2 balls of the Debbie Bliss wool/cotton. One in a khaki and the other in a subtle golden yellow. They were left over from an intarsia project and are both untouched, full skeins. The burgundy ball, that's been skein up to a centre pull ball, is 50g of Rowan Summer Tweed in smoulder . It was the mutant ball that caused me to get a striped sweater. I've knit it up twice and frogged it, since the colours were so different, it is a full ball and I never want to see it again. The purple center pull ball is 100g of Rowan Polar. It's enough to do a hat. I bought it about 2 years ago to help someone with decreases on a hat. I needed some yarn in the same weight to try it out. It's a full skein , that I wound back up after the experiment. The last bit a skein of Noro Kabuto. It's lovely, soft and 50% wool, 30% silk, 10% alpaca, and 10% cashmere.

And out comes ...
6 oz of the motomo cotton cashmere
1 4.5 mm flexi needle

I hope that the next recipient finds something to tempt them...

P.S. I'm going to get myself a copy of the Lady and the Unicorn. 2 recommendations makes it a worthwhile read for me

Posted by atu at April 5, 2004 08:15 PM