Sunday, April 24, 2011

A Somewhat Quiet Knitting Weekend


I'm finally getting over a week-long cold. I thought I had the allergies and couldn't figure out why the allergy meds weren't working. That's because I had a head cold. Makes more sense as I haven't had a Spring allergy for years. After being duped up for two nights on NyQuil, I'm feeling better. Feeling like my ole knitting self.

The weather here is going back and forth between 60 to 80 degrees during the day. I'm starting to wear my sandals and starting to feel like knitting for summer weather...like sleeveless tops.

Sometime last week, I started knitting Prosperous Plum Tank which I renamed "Sierra Prosperous Tank" because I'm using Cascade Sierra yarn. BTW, this is a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is moss colored and a joy to knit with. It's 80% Pima cotton with 20% wool.

This Prosperous Tank is an interesting knit for me. First, it's knit in the round (way cool). Second, I did my first provisional cast on. Third, I learned to knit a hem (e.g. picot hem). Really, way cool! I had way too much fun at the beginning of this project.

The instructions includes two charts (A and B) for the pattern which has a bit of a cable pattern along with a squiggly lace pattern. As I was looking at what others knitted on Ravelry, I noticed I disliked the dominant continuous squiggly line which is in chart A. I ended up modifying the pattern a bit by reversing one of the cables in the pattern. In chart A, instead of doing a C6F, I changed it to a C6B.

Here's what I have done so far for the front with the pattern going up the center:



One thing is for sure, I'm having a blast knitting this top. Here's the back with the pattern going up along each side:



My Sofia is still waiting to be finished. I spent a few minutes here and there sewing up the seams of my cardi. It didn't take too long and I actually enjoyed my quiet moments joining the pieces. Taking the refresher class late last year probably helped with the overall enjoyment process. I confirmed I was doing the seaming process correct and I learned to take my time and just enjoy it. It worked.

I'm still knitting the eyelet border to go around the fronts, sides, and back. I'm past the halfway point, but still have a few inches to go.




I'll be back later this week to post (with pictures) about my provisional cast on method and the picot hem I learned.

Happy Easter!