Friday, August 18, 2006

Get outta Here

Finally, this one's done! In the photo you'll noticed a unwoven end dangling, but she's done now. Steak Knife also made sure to get the Spidey Head in the photo. His own touch on the blog.





Here are the Spec on this gal (yes, my knits have genders):
Pattern: Demi from Vintage Knits (link below)
Needle Size: US 7 for body and US 6 for ribbing. Denises, of course!
Yarn: Cascade 220 in some mushroom brown color
Verdict: Not sure yet. Here's why...

I love the cables and even the bobbles.

I was real afraid that I was going to look like a (quoting our mother) "Two Ton Annie" wearing this come fall. When I first starting knitting, people warned me about sweaters with lots of cables. I think because the sweater is very fitted, that kind of eliminates this fear. However, do you think that I need to increase the length? It hits right at my belt. I was in it for just a short period, but nothing was popping out. So I don't think that I'll spend the entire time pulling it down, but I wasn't sure if it looked funny. I've got an entire hank leftover, so I could always fix it later.

Here's what Demi has eliminated from my Knitting routine:

1). Using a cable needle! I swatched this without a needle and with a needle. The cables looked the same on both swatches. Since this sweater had an all over pattern, fiddling with an extra needle would have been an enormous pain in my ass.

2). Knitting one sleeve at a time. I know that knitting them at once doesn't save time, but it felt like it did. That's all that matters.

3). Trusting a photograph. I knit gauge with the recommended needle size. But after looking at a couple of Demis in blogland, I noticed that the fabric wasn't that dense with a US 8. I can't stand sweaters that show the undershirt through the stitches. Another blogger started the sweater and then went down a needle size for a tighter swatch. I did the same and thought that it would take care of the nasty peek-a-boo. Nope. I tried the sweater on with a white shirt underneath and was pissed! Good thing Target is selling a thin long sleeve brown shirt for fall. Ahh, Target.

And finally, my money shot:

This was the entire reason I wanted to make the sweater. I loved the button detail. Purely detail, I don't have to unbutton them to squeeze my fat head through.

We'll see how much this sweater makes it into the rotation. I'll probably wear it just so people will "ooh" & "ahh". Cables seem to make people do that. Kind of like Ashlee Simpson's new nose.

So let's check my WIP list:

1). 3.5 blocks on my miter square afghan
2). Betty from Rowan #38

Not bad. Only 2, but I've got another baby blanket that needs to be done by Christmas.