FO Friday: A Big One!

Ta-dah! I finished my February Lady Sweater! Since I only had one sleeve to go on Wednesday, I knew I was going to finish it, but I did not meet my goal of having it done by 8 o'clock Thursday night. Fortunately I did finish it exactly six hours later and blocked it overnight.

KNITTING: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne
YARN: Knitpicks Swish Worsted in Amethyst Heather (8 balls)
And yes, I am using a DPN to hold my hair up

If you did the math correctly, you'll know that I was up until about 2am last night. I was exhausted, but happy to have the sweater off the needles and all of the ends woven in. I thought, I really don't want to block this tonight, I'll just do photos tomorrow with it unblocked. I'm sure it won't change that much. (I don't know why I thought this, because I've done lace knitting before and I definitely know how much better it makes the knitting look. I guess I was too tired to think straight.)

But, I went ahead and soaked it, put it down on the floor to pin it out... and it stretched. The body stretched down about 6 inches, going from just at my hips to just below my hips. So that's why I used 880 yards of yarn instead of 750! I guess that's why people block their gauge swatches. When I tried it on this morning, I was delighted with the length and I'm so glad this is how it turned out. The sleeves also lengthened a bit, which is great because I was a little worried about their length. 

One of my favorite things about this sweater is that it only took me one day less than three weeks to knit it. My last sweater, Oh My Bear! , took almost four months to complete. Granted, I knit several things in between, but February Lady was put on pause a few times to knit a pair and a half of socks, a gnome and part of a shawlette.

The only problem is I only made two buttonholes (completely by accident) and I don't have enough buttons for even those yet. But that isn't stopping me from wearing my sweater (inside with the AC- it's too hot outside!) and I doubt anybody will notice.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out Tami's Amis for more FO Friday posts! x  

WIPs and Books: IT'S GETTING THERE!

blame the bad picture on the time of day!

I just finished the hood of Oh My Bear!. Literally, I finished it about ten minutes ago. Do you guys know what this means? It means that I only have the arms left! (and the seams, and a million and one ends to weave in...)

When I finished the hood and tried the sweater on, I was the happiest person in the Universe. It just looked so awesome. Not that it's that great a  sweater- considering it's my first, it would be almost sinful for it to turn out perfectly. But it actually looked like a garment! With an actualy hood! I just felt so incredibly talented.

Of course, I except this euphoria won't last long- but I'm hoping it'll last long enough to carry me through a good portion of the arms tomorrow afternoon.

On the topic of books, I've been reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis. It's Young Adult Fiction, which I've decided really isn't my thing. I'm almost done with the book, and very few parts of it have impressed me. I'll do a full book review on it when I'm done- but don't expect me to say many good things about it.

I'm linking with Tami's Amis today.

Like Bears to Honey ( 4KCBWDAY2 )

Today we're supposed to choose a 'mascot project' for this week, something that has to do with our House. If you missed yesterday's post, I sorted myself into the House of Bee. My first thought was to make my Beekeerper's Quilt my mascot project. But then I thought, something so obvious will be used by other people. Tons. So I'm doing a different, though still bee-related, Tiny Owl Knits project.

Guessed it yet? Probably, considering the rather giveaway title. I'm making my mascot project Oh My Bear!, which is convenient because I'll be working on it a lot this week. I showed you a progress photo yesterday and honestly it doesn't look all that different now, so I made a cross between a hexipuff and Oh My  Bear! to show off.

Look! I embroidered a bear on a hexipuff! I'm so happy. And goodness, look at that picture. It's terrible. You can't even see the bear's eyes. Not that they're anything great- my duplicate stitch skills are nothing to brag about.

So, you guys will all bear  (haha) with me throughout the rest of this week, and listen to me rave on about my sweater? Good. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Life Just Got Buzzier ( 4KCBWDAY1 )

That is such a good pun up there. Dad would be proud.

For the KCBW, I was sorted- rather, I sorted myself - into the House of Bee. After all, the description fits me (and almost every other knitter in the Universe) perfectly:

Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest.

Pretty much a perfect fit! But, why? Today I'm meant to talk about why I'm in the House of Bee, what brought me to that busy hive, what made me make this decision? Well, would you like to have a look at all of my WIPs?


Yesterday, I put every single WIP I had, excepting 3, into my Hibernation Can. This was to help me finish my Oh My Bear! sweater more quickly, because I have a goal to get it done by the end of May and that wasn't happening with a billion other projects waiting to snag my attention. But even yesterday, I made good progress on the sweater and I've now finished the back and started the hood.

What can I say? I'm extremely proud of that bear.

The other two WIPs I left out of the Hibernation Can were my Thor Scarf and my Beekeeper's Quilt. The Thor Scarf just came out of the Hibernation Can, and it seemed cruel to put it back in again, and I'm trying to make one Hexipuff a day for my Beekeeper's Quilt and I can't reach that goal if the project is in hibernation.

Thus ends my first post of KCBW. Thank you for stopping by- if it's your first time here, follow, leave a comment, etcetera etcetera. If you'd like me to see your KCBW posts, leave me a comment and I'll drop you a visit!