It's Been Awhile!

It's been awhile since I last posted.  Think I fell asleep on the job here.  Actually, I had good intentions practically everyday, just that real life thing kept interrupting.  So anyway, back to business!

This one is more of a "good" effort in my designing trials & tribulations.  Made with a white cotton with pastel colored "slubs" throughout.  Again, it is in the round to the arm & neck openings, worked back & forth to the top. 

I chose a lovely lacy stitch for this.  I tried to highlight the openness by putting a dark towel inside so you can see the stitches.  I believe this stitch is called Lace Vines.  Very pretty & feminine, I think. 

Anyway, the sweater was working out wonderfully, I finished & tried it on.  Hmmmm...because of the openness of the lacy stitch, the neckline was a lot wider than I anticipated.  So, to solve that without having to frog, I ran an elastic thread through the neck ribbing.  Perfect! 

Other than the neckline issue, this sweater was a success.  I still wear it, I love it, it gets lots of compliments, especially when folks find out I made it myself!  While the stitch appears very open in the pictures, it is really not too revealing while being worn.  Due to the elastic nature of the stitch, it acts like a ribbing so the eyelets don't expose too much.  Which is a good thing! 

 

Another Sorta Sorta

This is another sorta sorta sweater.  I found this lovely black yarn with purple & green running through it.  It was soft & cuddly, so I thought it would make a great winter sweater.  Another of my own design, I decided on a basic sweater made in Stockinette stitch. 

After starting the ribbing, I decided it might be too plain, so I added some cables to the ribbing.  When I reached the raglan decreases for the sleeves, I added some cables there too, & on the collar ribbing. 

It really worked out nicely, & I really liked the effect. It fit great, was soft & warm & worked great dressed up or down.  I still wear this sweater in the wintertime.  So what's the problem?

It is so dark, you really can't see the lovely cables.  Especially the ones on the raglan decreases.  They look so cool, & my calculations were right on.  You just can't see them. So much for my fancy "dramatic element".

The pictures here don't do the color justice.  Because the sweater is so dark, I used the flash.  It makes it look grey & faded.  I took a close up of the lovely cables in natural light.  Can you see them?  Yeah, I can hardly see them either.  Sigh.

 

In The Meantime

While I'm deciding which flop to show next, here is an update on our backyard birds! 

There was some action in the birdhouse, but it stopped.  Not sure why, so we don't have any tennants in there right now.  But it did inspire me to put out more yarn scraps. I'm glad the neighbors didn't see me standing in the window, cheering the birds on as they started picking up the pieces. 

One little guy had so many pieces sticking out of his beak, I don't know how they all fit.  And he kept trying to go back for more!  It was really making me laugh at how thrilled they were to find it. 

But so far I haven't had any luck finding a nest made with bright blue yarn.  I may hack up a few more scraps today, maybe I can snap a picture of a bird with his beak full!  Simple pleasures for the simple minded! ;)