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!

Something wicked this way comes...

I'm guessing this title has been somewhat overused on knitting blogs recently, but I couldn't resist! In addition to continuing work on my clapotis (see below), I started wicked from Zephyrstyle.





Wicked is knit in the round from the top down. As you can see, I have not yet divided for the sleeves. I'll be making the short sleeved version. I'm really enjoying the yarn -- Artyarns Supermerino (which I got at a discount before Sarah's Yarns stopped carrying it). It's very soft and has a gentle sheen to it that is really lovely.



This is actually the suggested yarn in the colorway (234/132) they show in the pattern. For some reason I'm usually loathe to use the original pattern color (maybe I feel too much like I'm copying??), but I thought this colorway was just gorgeous, and when I saw sknitty's version, I was hooked. Hopefully I'll be able to knit this up pretty quickly and get some use out of it before it becomes too warm for a short sleeved wool sweater.

Clapotis is still coming along. Since I'm using finer yarn than is called for in the pattern, I've knit more straight rows than the pattern suggests, but I still need more to make it a reasonable length. Luckily my yarn is holding out well -- I don't expect to need to use it all (I could have made my clapotis wider, but, alas, I didn't realize that while it still would have been possible).

For fun, I scanned my clapotis. Here is the official "front" side (it looks a little squished as you might expect from being pinched beneath a scanner lid):


...and here is the back:


(If you want to see larger versions of the pictures, feel free to click on them -- just don't complain if you suddenly notice a lot of cat hairs!)