Just 9 more sleeve inches to go!

I'm almost done with this Lettuce Coat from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I'm calling mine a "brown lettuce sweater" because it's about 5 inches shorter than the pattern's length, and it's brown. I have about 9 more inches to go on one sleeve. Everything else has been done, finishing wise. I'm one of those odd knitters who believes that finishing work is an integral part of the garment-knitting process and I do it as much as possible as I go along. That also allows me to get a much better idea of the final product as I go, and it spurs me onward.
My biggest customization is the front button bands. The patttern has an I-cord that covers the entire front length, with slits for the button holes, but that would cause way too much "gaposis" on the button front for me. With a cardigan, I always seem to get button gaposis unless I knit it with a lot of positive ease or use a sturdy button band. I don't like positive ease because the garment ends up looking too loose overall. In this case, the button band is double-knitted with a much finer gauge than the garment and it's sewn on. The double-knitting and the tight gauge makes it nice and sturdy and there is no gaposis whatsover. I used a tubular cast-one and an invisible bind-off for the button band.
I also did my I-cord a little simpler than the pattern's -- I just did a SSK before picking up the next attachment stitch instead of the YO p2sso. It is also 4 stitches wide instead of 3.

FO: Xmas gift

I made this hat as a gift for the other half. The pattern is Thorpe, from Through the Loops. I love this hat -- it looks dorky, but in a good way. The body yarn is South West Trading Co. Gianna, and the trim is Plymouth Yarn Encore Chunky. I did not do the braids as shown in the pattern -- I just did a crochet chain stitch on each of the ear flaps on the front. With that style and color combo, he looks like Darth Vader dressed as a USC fan.
I have lots of leftover yarn, so I'm thinking of making a hat for myself. We'd be dressed so matchy-matchy -- yeesh.

Another blog contest prize -- woohoo!

I've been doing well with blog contests this year. Maryanne, a.k.a. Knittymuggins, recently had a bloggyversary contest, and I won! My prize arrived this past weekend, and it consisted of two chocolate bars (one can never go wrong with chocolate!) and a lovely hand knitted cowl.

The cowl pattern is the Darkside Cowl pattern from Ravelry, and the yarn is a very soft and lightweight Malabrigo Silky Merino. I've never worn a cowl before, and I must admit it's quite nice -- it's warm without the bulk of a scarf. This particular yarn is also very comfortable to wear. Thanks, Maryanne, for holding your contest, and for knitting such a nice prize!

GINORMOUS handicrafts giveaway!

There's a huge handmade goods giveaway going on over at Modish. The prize package is worth $724. Hurry over there and enter -- it ends soon!

Knitting is just everywhere

Clearly, knitting must be trendy. It's made it to the comics.

Cat ornament, sort of

I have a friend who LOVES cats. As part of that love of cats, she collects cat ornaments. For a gift, I knitted this tank top ornament with a cat silhouette done with duplicate stitching. This is my second attempt. My first attempt used multi-colored sock yarn, and I knitted a top-down raglan sweater, but the multi-coloring did not allow for a good contrasting cat pattern, and the top-down sweater made it too difficult to do the duplicate knitting afterwards. For this second attempt, I used sport yarn, knit the two pieces separately, then sewed them together. That way, I could do the cat motif on a flat piece. The edgings are single crochet and don't look as clean as I'd like, but what heck -- it's just an ornament. I made a little hanger from some wire.

FO -- tweedy sweater

This is a tweedy pullover from my own improvised pattern. The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold silky tweed, in an olive green. I also used a little bit of pinky-dirty-beige for the trim. The ruched shell from Interweave Knits winter 2007 was the inspiration for the top part. I really liked the gathering, and this pullover uses the same yarn, but at a tighter gauge. The bottom half is knit horizontally. I wanted to try a horizontal knit because I think they drape better and stretch in length more than in width after being worn.

Details: The bottom has short row shaping. It was cast provisionally and three-needle bind off was used to join the last row to the start. Stitches were picked up for the top part and knit in the round until the armholes. The sleeves were cast on using tubular cast-on and knit with cap shaping and then sewn on.
A double strand was used for the crochet edging. The bow is purely decorative.

The neckline came out a little wider and lower than I'd like, especially after a day's wear, but it looks great with a layering piece underneath, so I'm happy with it. I thought about using a wide ribbed border to close up the neckline, but I really like the look of the crochet edging.

I'd like one of these

I'd like one of these pouf/ottomans, but I don't want to pay $1360 for one! I would really like to know what size diameter needles were used to make them.