Lovely Lace

It's done!


Pattern: Surplice Lace by Gayle Bunn from Nashua North American Collection Book 4.
Yarn: Nashua Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton in Curcuma (green). I used every inch (minus about 1 yd) of 7 balls for the 36" size.
Needles: Sz US 4 Susan Bates and US 6 Clover bamboo.
Dates: Early April to May 26 (on and off - it would have gone much faster if I didn't have a slew of gifts to knit in early May)
Mods: none!

Thoughts: The yarn is delightful, if terribly splitty. I especially had to pay attention on my purling rows. However, I love the colors, and the subtle varigation. It is very soft for 100% cotton, and I would use it again. It also drapes beautifully. If I knit this again, I would probably knit a 38" - the 36" is a little low cut for me, but it's not too racy.


I'll be sure not to wear a blue bra under it next time too!

Final answer? One of my most favorite knits ever. I will wear the heck out of this, and I can't wait to knit up some more short sleeved sweaters!

Under the blogdar

All of a sudden I have a nearly finished sweater.

Some seams and a neckband and it'll be done.

I don't know why this damn photo won't rotate. It shows it rotated in my iphoto, but every time I upload it it is sideways. Argh.


Where did it come from? I'd like to thank the wonderful folks at the SciFi channel, who saw fit to rerun the entire season of Heroes this weekend, a show hubbo and I had been meaning to catch on DVD this summer, which provided way too many hours of knitting time. Excellent for stockinette progress, resulting in a finished back, two fronts and two sleeves.

I've been slow going on this project until recently - I couldn't concentrate on the lace part for a bit, and then I had a whack of gift knitting to plow through, so it was put aside.

I'm so looking forward to this finished sweater, and casting on for a new one! (Oh, and that pink thing from a while back that was not a sweater? Yeah, it might be too small, so I'll probably rip and restart in the next few days. More details on it then.)

Project monogamy

I'm in deep. I can't stop thinking about it. I run to it when I get home. I nearly cried tonight when I had to put it down to finish up my grades that are due tomorrow.




Ahhhh, Surplice Lace. My sweet sweet love. I've completed the 8 repeats the pattern calls for, and my row gauge must be way off, since I'm at 20.5 cm and I'm supposed to be at 25 cm. So, one or two more repeats, just to ensure that my belly doesn't hang out. I know y'all don't wanna see that. It's a good thing I'm loving the lace pattern, as I still have to finish the front piece.
I don't mind the row gauge thing, but my gauge on this project has been frustrating overall. The pattern calls for a gauge over larger (US 6 4mm) needles in stockinette. But you never knit with the larger needles in stockinette. They are used only for the lace part of the sweater, and you switch to smaller needles (US 4 3.5 mm) for the top. So why did I swatch on 6s? And, of course, I didn't get gauge, so I did the maths to knit a larger size (to get a smaller size), and four repeats into the lace, confirmed what my gut had been telling me since the cast on - it was hyoooooooooouge. Rip - out it all came. It did give me a chance to re-do the cast on edge - long tail cast on with garter stitch immediately following ain't so pretty. Cable cast on is much better.

I wish I could stay home and knit on this all day.

Better

Thank you all for your good thoughts - it's so nice to be able to get it off your chest, and receive wonderful words of encouragement in return. Though Friday my work life got a bit worse, my weekend was wonderful and surprisingly restful. One of the main reasons? I started a new job.

No, I didn't quit teaching - I added a part-time job. Before you think I'm nuts, you should know that it's at my LYS. Yep - I get to hang out with yarn once a week, for a whole day! I'm excited, but the job is bittersweet - my dear friend, and fellow knitter Jen is moving to Boise, and I'm sort of taking her job. I wish it were under different circumstances.

Combine a crappy week with a day at the yarn store, and what do you get? Purchases, of course!


Enough Nashua Ecologie Cotton to make the Surplice Lace Top (the one I blogged about here),


and a yummy new Lexi Barnes bag.

Expect more purchases to follow soon......

In other news, my ball of orange Andean Silk arrived today - off to try to finish up Hourglass!

Oh - and it did snow Saturday! Nothing stuck, but there were big fat flakes falling from the sky on and off for a few hours - very bizarre!