FO: Nespelem

I've finished Nespelem by Norah Gaughan. I really love the look of the cabled collar. I think the design is just brilliant and I wish I had enough of a right brain to dream up stuff like that. The rest of the cardi is pretty straightforward, with some ribbing on the sleeves. There's also some ribbing on the back center and waist which I did not show in a photo. My yarn is Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool. It's only 50% merino wool, so I'm hoping it won't be too warm to wear for spring. I made mine a smidgen longer than the pattern's length and changed the side shaping a bit to suit me. For the ribbed fronts and collar, I slipped the first stitch on each row on the front opening side to give it a slightly cleaner looking edge.

The yarn feels soft and comfy when worn and looks nice enough, but I didn't love knitting with it. A new ball has a nice shine, but it's one of these slightly fuzzy yarns that gets fuzzier as you knit, and it's sticky. Also, some parts get thicker than others as you knit, so you end up with a slightly thick-and-thin look.

Baby hat FO from a few years ago

I knitted a hat for a former co-worker's newborn named Henry a few years ago. I never saw a modeled photo of the hat until recently. Henry is now nearly four years old, but his mom was feeling nostalgic and posted this photo, which shows Henry wearing his hat.
The pattern is from Charmed Knits - Projects for Fans of Harry Potter. The pattern is the Tea Cozy Crown Elf hat. I did not use the red and gold Harry Potter colors -- I just used some purple acrylic yarn with a yellowish-white trim band.

WIP

At last, I feel like I've made progress on my current works in progress. This one is Nespelem, and I've finished the body and the front band and collar. That front ribbed collar took quite a time to knit, and it actually makes up a good portion of the upper fronts of the sweater. It's also the main feature of this cardigan, and I had to take my time getting the length right and sewing it on just so. Now that I've sewn everything together and woven in most of the ends, I'm on the dash to the finish line, which is just doing the sleeves. Sleeves go pretty fast for me -- I think of them as long swatches.

There's some contrast yarn running through the arm holes. Arm holes and fronts of sweaters (especially the slanted upper fronts) tend to stretch out. I used some contrast yarn to just run some hand stitches through the sweater edge and then pull on the yarn to gather everything in a bit. This was especially useful for the fronts because the slight gathering kept it held together at the correct length and made it easier to attach the ribbing.