Rip it...Rip it Good!

Yes, I am going to have to frog back about 2 to 3" of knitting. This is supposed to be fitted. As you can see, it is not. So two choices: 1. put some ribbing around the waist area or some darts to pull the torso area of the sweater in. 2. Frog it back and make it right. I choose #2. If not I would not be happy with it and would not wear it. I wanted it fitted, I need to make it fitted. Not sure what is going wrong with my top-down sweaters, they are either too small or too loose. When I tried it on before removing the sleeves from the needles and placing them on scrap yarn, it was actually feeling a bit tight. So, I am going to rip it back into the sleeves a couple of rows, then join sweater under arms and this time I am not going to add stitches under arm. This sweater is a difficult one. You know...So far I suck at sweaters. Out of the 4 I have made, I only wear 1. The others have had bad issues. I would like to add this to the sweaters I wear.

WIP

Quick update...AC is working!Good thing for everyone around me...I don't deal with heat well!

WIP. Top-Down sweater. This is the first v-neck top-down sweater that I have knit. I need to come up with a name for this sweater. I love seed stitch, so I am using it on all the edges. The sleeves have been taken off the needles and body has been joined under the arms. Continuing with the v-neck, with hopes that it will be a fairly deep v-neck before having to join. The fabric that the yarn is creating is very soft. Yarn from knitpicks...can't remember which yarn, it is one of my post below.

1 of 6 has been sewn up. I still have to do some hand stitching, but that can wait. I treating this like an assembly line, and with all the lines of the pattern being straight I can use a rotary cutter which makes cutting very quick. I am able to cut through 6 layers of fabric at once. Once these are done I think I am going to make some stuff to go on etsy with the remaining fabric.

No AC

I am sitting here hot as hell and pissed off. The AC guy was supposed to come this afternoon and fix some part, but this afternoon he called and said he could not make it until tomorrow afternoon. It is sooo fucking hot!!!!!! It rained this afternoon and cooled it off some, but it is 83 degrees in here for fuck sake. I was in a sewing mood, but who would want to sew when it is hot as hell.

In my pissed off state, there was no way Paul was going to stop me from shopping. I bought 3 skeins of STR. Two for a chevron scarf and one for a pair of socks. You just try telling me "no" right now!

So...here is a pic of my finished purse.

Pattern: Amy Butler Handbag.

Fabric: Sale fabric from Joann's Craft store. It is nice and thick. Some sort of upholstery fabric. It is $3 a yard. Super Sweet!

A friend of mine from work liked the purse so much that she wants 6 for her granddaughters. So, another trip to Joann's and got 7 purses worth of fabric. Again only $3 a yard. And since each purse uses only 1/2 yard for lining and 1/2 yard for outside... thats just $3 per purse. Perfect. I have a lot of sewing ahead of me. Thank God DH cleaned out my project room so I can move around in there.

Yeah!

I made my first sale. I am like soooo excited! I sold the Frequent Lighting sock yarn from my 1,000 petals estsy store.

Here is a pic of the outgoing package, to be mailed out tomorrow as promised.

Also, got back from our 30 year Celebration for work. The company sent the employees and a guest to the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. OMG...Paul and I walked into the room and just screamed. It was a SUITE! We felt like total rock stars. Here is a panoramic view of our room. We had a very fun weekend.

Feeling the need to sew

I am in the mood to sew. I finally found an Amy Butler pattern and found some fabric (not Amy's) to make a couple handbags. Above is some beautiful fabric that I would like to make a Madison bag. And, below is some really thick fabric that I am going to use for another handbag pattern from Amy. I also found some iron on vinyl. I had seen this used on another blog for the inside of a cosmetic bag and thought it was a great idea. So, I will line my bags with this vinyl stuff and then the inside of the bag can be wiped clean. I am waiting for my local fabric store to get in some more of Amy's fabrics and patterns. Can't wait. In the meantime, I have the handbag pattern and will start it with the fabric below. I also want to make the stash & dash bags, weekend traveler bag, and several other of Amy's patterns.

new book

Got this wonderful new book, Favorite Socks from Interweave. I am really looking forward to knitting up these lovely sock patterns. Especially the one on the front cover.


Also...

I am planning to design a sweater. I am using the minisweater pattern from Glampyre Knits as a guide. I am planning on modifying it by making it into a complete sweater and instead of garter stitch edging I am going to use seed stitch, which I like better. I am using the recycled yarn from another pattern by Stefanie in her Fitted Knits book that didn't work out for me.

Oh...I found the best straight pins for blocking. I got them at the local craft store, there are about 200 for about $7 bucks. They are very long and the flat head makes them easy to see.

Happy knitting to all!

Argosy Scarf

Wanted to show a blocked version of the Argosy Scarf. If I didn't say it before I really did enjoy knitting this scarf. Once I figured out the repeat...It was smooth going.

progress

This is my first photo post using Photoshop Elements 5. I had to buy a tutorial program from Scrap Girls a digital scrapbook store. I don't actually do scrapbooking, but I use alot of there stamps and templates for other projects. I got the Polaroid template seen above from this site.

Okay, so current projects. Secret afghan project. Moving along with this project, I still have a lot more squares to go and I have to buy more noro. Oh Darn, buying more yarn!

I have finished the Argosy scarf from Knitty. I think this is first time I have every used the yarn called for in the pattern. The pic above shows the scarf unblocked. I blocked it this morning and it is drying now.

Late pic. I actually finished the Clapotis about a month ago, but just go around to taking a pic of it. It is so hard to take a pic of black yarn. But here it is. It is also being blocked right now.

So there you have it. I am hungry, going to get something to eat.