Knitting and dining (not at the same time)

First, on the knitting front, I've made good progress on Ingenue from Custom Knits. I'm doing the sleeves now, which shouldn't take much longer. I'm doing skinny tapered sleeves because I'm not a big fan of flared sleeves. Also, I changed the sleeve/body ratio of stitches so that my sleeves are narrower at the top than the pattern's sleeves for the smallest size.

On the dining front, we traveled to Las Vega$ this last weekend and enjoyed some great dining. The photos here are from Japonais, in the Mirage. I mention this restaurant because I first heard about it via Robin's Yarn Crawl blog. She blogged about the Chicago restaurant, I clicked on the link, saw that it had a Las Vegas branch, and the menu seemed very interesting. There were three of us dining and we ordered everything to share. Some of the smaller plates were just barely big enough for three, but the larger plates were fine. Here's a photo of some Kobe beef and a rock on which you cook it. The beef was wonderfully marinated.

This is "Le Quack", one of the house specialties.

Here we have one of the sashimi appetizers.

And for dessert, we shared some sorbets in watermelon soup.

The waitress told us that the Las Vegas menu is about 70% of the Chicago one. It's a bit pricey, but it's definitely a special occasion kind of place.

A finished object!

This pullover is my own pattern. The yarn is Debbie Bliss cashmerino DK, which is very light yet warm. I’m very happy with this. I got what I set out to achieve, which is a simple top-down raglan t-shirt-like sweater with a little cable detailing.
I put the small cables down the raglan sleeve. I did fuss with a swatch a bit to get the concentric diamond pattern correct.
The neckline finishing is just a few purl rows rolled under. The neckline does have a small amount of scooping in the front, so it was not knit and joined in the round immediately – there were a few rows of castings on in front to get the scoop.
The only thing I would do differently would be to add about 1" more to the length, but I can wear it as is.

WIPs

It's time to review my works-in-progress. First up, I'm almost done with this top-down pullover that's not knit from any pattern. I wanted a pullover with some simple cables. The concentric diamonds in the front keeps it from being totally plain. The yarn is Debbie Bliss cashmerino DK, which is lovely to knit with. I fussed with the neckline a bit. I'm happy with this second attempt, which is just a simple purl border that rolls to the inside. My first attempt was a garter stitch collar that was supposed to fold to the outside, but it just didn't come out as envisioned. I'm going to just do some short sleeves. Long sleeves would be too warm.

Next, I've cast on for Ingenue, from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. Just for ducks, I folded the collar and knitted it it along with the last row instead of sewing it down later. It looks good enough for me, although I probably would not like it if I were an absolute perfectionist because it does lead to some looser stitches at the junction. I included a collar stitch with the main stitch only on every other stitch.

I won a prize -- woohoo!

Kim, over at hand eye crafts, holds this yearly Knitters' Hunk contest. The idea is, you nominate one or two candidates for knitters' hunk, and votes are gathered over some period of time, and if your nominee wins, you win a prize. Well, I nominated Hugh Jackman, and he somehow won the votes at every round, and ended up as the 2008 knitters' hunk! I was pleasantly surprised to receive this big box in the mail the other day.


Inside, were all these lovely items, including 4 balls of Knit Picks yarn, a big ball of sock yarn, some sock patterns, some hand cream, and some stitch markers made with tiny photos of the ever-hunky Hugh himself. This was all contained in a lovely tote bag made with cotton imported from Japan. Thanks, Kim, for organizing the contest, and thanks to all who contributed items to the prize package!

FO: A little bit of glitz

The pattern: Gathered pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2007
The yarn: Blue Heron cotton/rayon/metallic
The small amount of metallic gives this sweater little bits of glitz, although it's hard to see in the photo. I omitted the gathering tucks at the bust line, and also placed the cables about 1/2" lower than called for in the pattern. Even so, the sweater is still a smidgen too snug at the bust line. I knitted the 32" size which would normally result in the perfect amount of negative ease, but the cables reduce the stretchiness. I started the neckline about 1/2" higher and made each shoulder 2 stitches wider. I wanted to be sure that I could wear this without a layering piece underneath. The sweater is so close-fitting that another layer would make me look like an over-stuffed yet lumpy sausage. With luck, the cotton in the yarn will make it stretch out with wear.
Other customizations: I made 3/4 length sleeves and put in some waist shaping. On the knitting technique front, I used 3-needle bind-off for the shoulder seams, and I actually knit the sleeves flat and sewed up the seam because it's faster for me to do it that way. Oh, and I also knit the neckline finishing in the round, starting at a shoulder, and increased a stitch at the V on each of the last two rows, figuring this would make it roll nicer.

WIP and reading material

I'm almost done with the gathered pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2007. I have just one sleeve and the neck finishing to do. I had to re-do a little bit of the sleeve cap on the one completed sleeve because the cap was a bit too small for the armhole. I slowed the decrease rate at the top to add about 6 rows to the cap height and I'm much happier with it. The sleeves are 2/3 length.

I recently bought a new knitting magazine that I'd never seen before. It's a Debbie Bliss magazine, but presented by Vogue Knitting. This is the premiere issue. I bought it because the photos look lovely and the knitwear looks lovely. I sort of like a few of the patterns, and I say "sort of" because each has some feature that I don't like. I probably won't be knitting any of them.

The last LYS of the road trip

The last LYS visited on the great 2008 road trip was Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, NV. This shop has a fun website because it features many photos of her dogs modeling various pieces of knitwear. It used to have a satellite shop in Truckee, CA, which is where I first discovered it. I'd never seen the Reno store before. Amazingly, I did not buy anything. Perhaps I was just all shopped out from the other LYS visits. The store had many hanks of variegated lightweight yarns in the center displays.