Sunday Sweater & Socks (Final UFOlympics Update)

I kept working on my UFOlympics projects right down to the wire. I ended up finishing two more Works In Progress by Sunday morning.

**Project Specs**
**Yarn:** 3 skeins of Cascade Sierra yarn as part of my efforts at Stashdown 2008
**Needles:** Addi Turbo sized 8 & 9 (US)
**Pattern:** Lutea Lace Shell from Interweave Knits

**Finished:** August 23 2008
Originally started June 29th, 2008. I set this sweater aside after easy-KIP-Stockinette-in-the-Round was completed, in favor of working on my Green Mirage sweater earlier this summer. I added this to my WIPs wrestling just in case I managed to finish my other UFOlympics sweaters, since I wanted to be able to wear this sweater at least once or twice before summer is over.


**Project Specs**
**Yarn:** 1 skein of Lime & Violet Shuanmi Squared yarnin colorway Agate
**Needles:** Metal DPN's sized 0 & 1 (US)
**Pattern:** My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 80 stitches around.


**Finished:** August 24 2008 (Finished knitting toes while watching the men's basketball gold-medal match live in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning US Central time. Kitchenered Sunday morning.)

These socks were originally started back in December of 2007. The socks are my eighth and final Finished Object for this Olympics!

I'm thrilled with how many mostly-done projects I managed to clear off my needles in the past 16 days. I guess I just needed some motivation.

Sky, Socks, and Sweater

I haven't much time to write today; I'm still madly trying to see how many more Finished Objects I can get done before the Olympics are over.

In the mean time, here are some pictures for today:

Sunday Socks

It's not often that I have Sunday Socks to follow Saturday Socks, but sitting around watching the Olympics is giving me all sorts of knitting time. I'm sure I'll pay for that later, given the state of my house, but at least I still feel like I'm accomplishing something!

Project Specs
Yarn: 2 skeins of AppleLaine Apple Pie from the Loopy Ewe
Needles: Metal DPN's sized 0 & 2 (US)
Pattern: My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 72 stitches around.

Finished: August 17 2008 Finished knitting toes while watching swimming Saturday night. (Which was Sunday morning in China.) Kitchenered Sunday morning after watching interview with Micheal Phelps & his family. I think I'll call these my "Water Cube" socks.

These socks were originally started back on May 11th 2008. This is my fourth Finished Object for this Olympics!

Saturday Socks

No Saturday Sky for this week, but I do have a pair of Saturday Socks.



Yarn: 1 skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Moondance colorway purchased at Knitorious
Needles: Metal DPN's sized 00 & 1 (US)
Pattern: My standard plain-vanilla, with eye-of-partridge heel & 80 stitches around.




Finished: August 16 2008 (Finished knitting toes while watching men’s tennis doubles gold medal match between Switzerland & Sweden. Kitchenered after match was over.)

These socks were originally started back in Feb 10th 2008. This is my third Finished Object for this Olympics. The "UFOlympics" has been very good for my neglected projects, & for my sock wardrobe come Autumn.

Finished Objects Friday; UFOlympics Post #2

The Olympics have been good for my knitting this time around. It's hard for me to imagine that I hadn't even picked knitting back up again at the time of the last Olympics, in Winter 2006.

These socks were originally started back in October of 2007. This is my first completed FO for this Olympics!

Project Specs
Yarn: 2.1 skeins of Panda Wool
Needles: DPNs in size 00 for cuff, size 0 for basketweave, & size 1 for plain remainder of sock.
Pattern: My standard Plain-Vanilla, with basketweave on the leg. 80 stitches around for Ladies size 9 foot.

Finished: August 13 2008 (Knitting was finished during the Women’s Gymnastics Team Competition August 12th, & Kitchenered early morning of August 13th.)


Project Specs
Yarn: 6-7 skeins of Zitron Prisma Mohair blend (started multiple skeins to match stripes -- have about 2 full & 2 partial balls left, plus some odds & ends.)
Needles: Bamboo sized 8 & 9 (US)
Pattern: Women’s Side to Side Cardigan #202 by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure & Simple


Finished: August 14 2008 (Knitting was completed & bound off during the Women’s Gymnastics All Around Competition August 14th, shown live in the USA on Thursday evening.)

This sweater was originally started back in January of 2007. This is my second completed FO for this Olympics!

UFOlympics, Post Number 1

I've made quite a bit of progress on my UFOlympics knitting so far. The first two pictures are show the status as of midday August 9th.

While watching the opening ceremonies, I more than double the amount of knitting I had done on the brown body of the lacy sleeved sweater. The following morning I got tired of the "talking heads" & muted thme out. I continued watching but also listened to Lime & Violet's latest podcast while finishing the heel flaps & turning the heels on both of my sea-blue Apple Laine socks. I didn't want to be trying to figure out where I was on the striped sweater while listening to Lime & Violet.


It turned out to be a good thing that I waited to tackle the striped sweater until I could concentrate better.

The third picture shows the status of my striped sweater sleeves, before I resumed knitting on them this morning, August 10th. It took a quite bit of wrestling with them to get to this stage, though.

They were a bit frustrating to start with, & it quickly became apparent why this project had been a UFO for so long. On Saturday, I ended up frogging to fix problems I didn’t realize were there when the UFO stalled originally. Prior to the UFOlympics, I had picked up the stitches & knit two inches of sleeve in the wrong size needle. (I had originally meant to pick up the stitches with one size smaller of needle & then switch to the same size I used for the body.) The first thing I had to do was go hunting for the right size needles. It took me a while to remember where I had put them. Sigh… So much for having done “proper training” prior to the start of the Olympics.

I ripped that sleeve down to one row above the picked up stitches, switched to the right size needle, & picked up stitches on the other sleeve so that I could work them together. I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was to pick up stitches on the second sleeve as compared to how I recall the first one, back before it became a UFO.

After getting about 3 inches into both sleeves, I realized there was a problem with the stitches I’d picked up a year ago. “Saving” the picked up stitches & the first row actually ended up costing me time! ARGH! Because I’d picked up half the sleeve’s worth of stitches through the middle of the bindoff, the join of the sleeve to the body wasn't a solid as I'd like. I decided I couldn’t just let it be. Yet more ripping of mohair… Double sigh… I'm very happy to have that behind me now & have made good progress on this sweater since then.

In Under the Wire

I signed up for the UFOlympics this year, because I have a couple sweaters which I started early last year that I haven't touched in months.


In order to have a relatively clean slate for resuming work on UFOs, I managed to finish the last row & bind off on my Green Mirage sweater early Friday morning.

I was glad that I decided on 3/4th sleeves, because I ran fairly short on yarn by the end.




I LOVE how it turned out. I definitely plan to knit this sweater again in a completely different yarn -- perhaps a silk/wool blend that I can wear in the wintertime.

It's kind of awkward trying to take my own sweater-modeling pictures, so this is the best I can do for now. The yarn hanging down the front is because I didn't want to cut the last piece until after I'd checked the fit of the neckline.

A Tale of Two Sweaters, Part 2

Although I've done a lot of knitting since taking up the needles again two and a half years ago, it wasn't until this year that I finally finished a complete sweater. As I mentioned earlier, this summer I finished my first complete adult-sized sweaters since 1985. (Though I'm not sure that sleeveless *quite* counts.) Both sweaters took about 2.5 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

The first one I finished was Soleil, from Knitty.com Spring 2005. It was a very enjoyable knit, but I'm not happy with how it fits. As you can see from this picture, there is quite a bit of extra fabric under the arms. The pattern suggests a second row of single crochet to tighten up the armholes, but it isn't enough to compensate for the amount of fabric. I do plan on making this pattern again, but I will probably add short row shaping to the front instead of quite as many increases on the side.


The other sweater I finished this summer is as much of a joy to wear as it was to knit. It's the Lutea Lace Shoulder Shell from Interweave Knits, Summer 2007.

I started this sweater as my Stitch N Pitch project for this year. The body of the sweater is perfect Knitting-In-Public mindless-type knitting. The top part is very cleverly designed & fun to knit. The only thing I have to complain about with knitting this sweater is finding a knot in two of the skeins of Cotton Fleece, which was really only a minor annoyance.




In fact, I love this sweater so much, I decided to start another one. This one is with Cascade Sierra, purchased the same time as I bought the Cotton Fleece at the same Going-Out-Of-Business sale.