Two FO's

Well! That was a little longer than I intended to go between posts. I had some excitement with Wicked, as I relate below, and then it took a while to dry (it's still slightly damp in these photos).


Wicked
Artyarns Supermerino (104 yds per skein) almost 5 skeins
US 6 Denise circular needle, US 6 dpn's

I'm pretty happy with the way Wicked turned out. I really loved working with the Supermerino -- it's sooo soft and the color is lovely. However, I did have some fit problems, which I think were related to the Denise circular needle cords I used to hold the live stitches while I tried the sweater on.

I was too lazy to put the stitches on waste yarn every time I wanted to check the fit, but the stiffness and semi-permanent bends of the needle cord (which don't bug me at all while knitting) made it difficult to tell how well Wicked was fitting. This resulted in lots of extra knitting/reknitting for me. It's still not quite right, but I can live with it, I think.

If I had it to do over, I'd probably essentially use the directions for the smallest size. I'd also knit the crossover pattern on a smaller needle (at least on the collar and sleeves), as it's pretty darn stretchy. After blocking, the neckline grew quite a bit, changing the fit of the sleeves, the chest, and how my shaping aligned with my body.



Modifications, etc.:
I knit the short sleeved, worsted weight version without a pocket. I cast on for the second size (32-35") and followed the instructions as written until three inches into the body, when I began the decreases a bit early.

After starting the optional hip increases, I decided that I needed to rip back a few inches and add more decreases. I did this, then knit the top down to the point where I was about to start the border.

At this point I re-evaluated and decided it was still too roomy. I ripped back to the armpits (I really should have ripped back further, but alas), K2tog 4 times in each armpit, knit two rounds straight, then started the decrease rounds. I repeated these three rounds 12 times total. Then I started the hip increases and did 8 repeats.

Instead of the called for 1x1 ribbing, I used 2 inches of the crossover collar pattern to finish off the bottom, then bound off in 2x2 rib.



My other finished object was a Mother's Day gift, so I had to wait for confirmation that my mom had received it before posting about it here.






Washcloth (my own design)
Katia Jamaica, color #4000 (219 yds per ball) ~0.3 balls
US 6

I used moss/seed stitch for the borders of the cloth and to create a box in the center of it. Then I wove a length of blue yarn through the stitches bounding the seed stitch box for added contrast. I thought the yarn was lovely, but a little wild, when I picked up the single ball on sale last year. I think it works well as a small object.



The colors are so fun!