Finished! Chevron Baby Sweater

I'm sure you will agree, it turned out even better than I imagined!!!


The buttons are not the exact yellow, but it was the best I could do with the local resources available.

The pattern was loosely based on the Last Minute Knitted Gifts Placket-Neck Baby Sweater. Very loosely based... I had to adjust stitch counts for the color-work and steeks, and obviously, do the button bands and whatnot. While it took me almost exactly 2 months to knit this project, it was fun. I love watching a color-work pattern develop. I used the Classic Elite Liberty Wool, a superwash, that I used on the Toy-Box monster finished in October. I really really like that yarn! It's smooshy and soft and the colors are nice. I used 7803 Slate and 7850 Gold.

Front:


Back:


Raglan Detail:


Inside Floats:


This was the worst part- tacking down the steek along the button-band.


And since I was feeling like an over-achiever, I made a card to go with it.

Steeking Show-Off

Last week I had to send off the video card from my desktop computer to be repaired under warranty. Of course, it's the week where Mr. TEK finally finished classes and we were going to play so much Civ 5 and Diablo 2. My laptop couldn't handle Civ, so I didn't bother with the install, I tried D2, but it was too jumpy and laggy, and that can cause problems in game. So no video games for me. Instead I knit, and steeked, and knit some more.

Let's start with the steek. 

Here is the sweater after all the knitting was done, before starting the steek: 

I'm sewing! 

Sewing is done, getting ready for the hard part! 

Cutting! (this is the sweaty part)

Whew! Done!


Now the sleeves. I didn't know the right way do do the raglan sleeves in grey, while continuing the pattern, so I just made it up. Since I knew I'd be sewing anyway, I just sewed 2 rows up the raglan line, anchoring the loose yellow carries so I could cut them out and have an open sleeve. It looks okay, hopefully it will hold up on an infant or two! 

And for the final WIP photo I've got one side of the button-band done and I'm working on the second. Currently, I've got all that knitting and weaving in done, I'm just working on tacking down the flap from the steek along the button-band. It's slow and frustrating. I couldn't seem to find a good tutorial of how to do a blanket stitch (as I had seen on other projects) without having it show in the front. So I made something up. It isn't likely to be pretty on the inside, but it won't show on the outside. 

Since I've started showing my different photography set-ups, I had a rather interesting one for the final WIP shoot. 

This was taken in our bedroom because we have heavy shades that block most light. I clamped my background fabric to the headboard of the bed, and propped up a piece of white foamboard to act as a reflector. I have these two shoplights that are awesome, but I needed to diffuse their harsh brightness. I just used a couple of strips of white cotton fabric and some safety pins. Easy-peasy! 

The reason I needed to block any daylight from the room is that it can make the white balance on my camera act kinda wonky, and I'm not great at figuring out how to adjust it properly. Too many options! 

I am a Curly Girl

And I am darned proud of it! I had a DevaCut and I LOVE it. Seriously. It is the best thing that has ever happened to my hair. It's soft and not crunchy, curly without frizz, and it just feels good. I've gone low-poo, using CurlyGirl Low-Poo shampoo twice a week. It's kinda weird not shampooing. The best part is that the stylist (Marni is amazing!) showed me how to style it so I could recreate her genius at home. And guess what- It works!!!!!!!



I can't tell you how happy I am with this cut!

Charting

I love to knit by chart. It's just cleaner and I really get a feel for what my project is supposed to look like. However, last night I gave myself a headache creating a chart for the raglan decreases for the Chevron Baby Sweater. The chart turned out well, but that was a LOT of excel, even for me!

Want to see it? Flickr smooshed it, but you can still get the idea.

If you want to get a copy of this chart, just drop me a line, either email or comments, and I'll see what I can do. I do not want to violate copyright law, and while I think my version is different enough from the pattern it is based on, I am not 100% certain.

The knitting is going well. I think I might have made a "mistake" that will make the steeking and picking up for the button band a little more difficult. It's not really a mistake, but I'm not sure what else to call it. I should have knit the 7 stitch section where the steek is going to be in stockinette in the seed stitch hem. I don't think it's a huge deal, and I am not about to start it over to change it.

The one where I show a WIP

Still here, still a housewife. It's not that bad, though I'm getting bored with it. Oh well.

Here is the super-cute baby sweater I'm working on. It's based on the Last Minute Knitted Gifts Placket Neck Baby Sweater.



I'm using a simple chevron pattern, and I am going to steek the front to make it a cardigan. I am thinking about how to do the sleeves though. I don't think I want them to be color-work since little fingers can easily get snagged in the floats. So I was thinking of doing the sleeves in gray, and having the raglan part be gray too. But how would I handle the color work? That's the question of the day. I'm thinking I might just have to break the yarn and sew down the ends along the raglan line. we will see how it goes. I am to the point where I need start the sleeves, I'll probably do that once I finish this post and Duke stops kneeding my stomach. I can't see the keyboard right now, good thing I am a proficient typist!

The lighting isn't quite as good as I would have liked, I had to use a different set up since it was cloudy. Click the photo for more information.



I did a little sewing over the weekend and made a bib to go with Basil the Monster baby gift. I'll be photographing that soon, hopefully we will have a sunny day. It's been raining since early evening yesterday, and my yard is quite flooded.

Duke's been keeping warm by sleeping more of late. He does not care for the flash.

Cupcakes make everyone feel better

After my last pity-party post I got my stuff together. Much like when, earlier this year, I decided that I was spending waaayyy too much time playing stupid facebook games and quit all but 1 (desktop defender- love that game) cold turkey. Granted I can't just get a job like that, but I can bake.

I spent all day on Wednesday getting the house cleaned so that I could spend all day Thursday baking. I need to bake a batch of sourdough bread, a double-batch of coconut macaroons for a potluck at Mr. TEKs office, and a batch of cupcakes for my Mom's birthday.

The bread and cookies were kinda boring, and it was too cloudy for good photography in my house on Thursday. But Friday, it was sunny and beautiful as I grabbed a paring knife, a bowl of cherry filling, and whipped cream.


The recipe for the Black Forest Cupcakes is HERE. I love love love love love this recipe. The chocolate cupcakes are yummy, the cherry filling is sturdy, and everyone loves fresh whipped cream, right? But how does one get that sturdy, yummy, cherry filling into the middle of a cupcake when it has full cherries in it? Glad you asked, because I took photos of each step.

Step 1. Grab a cupcake, preferably cooled.


Step 2. Cut a circle with the knife at an angle towards the center in the top of the cupcake.


Step 3. Carefully remove the part you cut, lop off the point of the pyramidish shape, then use the point of the knife to hallow out more space in the middle of the cupcake. I used a large plate to keep the crumbs from going everywhere.


Step 4. Plop in a good amount of filling


Step 5. Place the cut-out lid back on the top of the cupcake.


Step 6. Frost, garnish, and eat!


Next time I'd better iron my backdrop--- here's the photography set up today.

I left the table away from the window because it was around 10:00 a.m. and the window is one the east side of the house, so plenty of strong sun streaming in. Duke enjoyed that part!

Feeling Low

This isn't an easy post to write. I've been avoiding it for a week now, but I need to let the past be the past, and hopefully my creative spirit will return.

Last week I was laid off from my job. This is the second layoff I've had, and it just had to come at the part of the year when companies pull back on the hiring because of the upcoming holidays. Since this has happened, I've been feeling 0 creativity. I have the time, I have the energy, I do not have the interest.  I have a baby sweater that I need to knit in the next 6 weeks or so, and I am so excited about it, because it is going to be freaking adorable. I just can't bring myself to get it out of the bag and cast on.

I can feel myself coming back slowly. Yesterday I baked an apple pie. Instead of the typical slashes to vent the top crust, I got out a cookie cutter that my Grandma and Papa bought me from King Arthur Flour. I was going to buy it for myself, but they beat me too it. That's just how Papa was.Fortunately, I took pictures.



It took the better part of a week for me to stop thinking about my former workplace, and I'm sure it will take a little longer for me to get back to where I was. I will say I hated working where I was, and I am going to use this as an opportunity to put myself in a much better position. Financially, we don't have a lot of expenses so living on unemployment for a month or two shouldn't be too bad.

I am hoping that this abundance of free time will set me up with significant blog fodder. I'm always looking on the bright side.