WIP: CustomFit Pullover

 Sweater progress!

Things have been a little sparse on the personal knitting front the past couple of weeks. I was working on a large sample knitting project and only had time to knit on my own projects during my commute to and from work. I finished my sample last weekend (sans blocking) and picked up my CustomFit pullover in ToshDK. The pieces are all done and blocking and I'm super-excited to get them sewn together so I can see how well CustomFit, well, custom fits. By next weekend I'll have a finished sweater!

FO: Dimbala

 Guess what? I finished another sweater!

 It's black. And textured. And that's really hard to photograph when it's overcast outside and technically still Winter.

Pattern: Dimbala by Laura Chau 

Yarn: Cascade 220 in Blaaaaack

Needles: US #6 (4.0mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: This yarn was frogged from another Laura Chau sweater I knit ages ago and half-way through my Pomme de Pin I got a crazy urge to dig this out of my stash and knit it into a pullover. I knit one inch of twisted rib at the bottom edge, added in vertical waist shaping since the sweater is written without any shaping whatsoever, and knit the body to 16 inches. I knit the sleeves and henley neckline as written. I'm really happy with how this turned out! There's a teensy bit of floating at the hemline and I could have worked more decreases at the waist but overall I think this is quite flattering with my normal jeans and t-shirt uniform. The texture pattern took me a while to memorize but it also hides the waist shaping I added quite well. This is a win on multiple levels - I have a new black sweater, it blends seamlessly into my existing wardrobe, and I have no yarn left over to add back to the stash. Yipee!

FO: Flowing Lines

I think I posted this as a WIP last week. It's finally done!

 I look pretty pleased, don't I? Not so bad for having stayed home ill yesterday.

Pattern: Flowing Lines by Veera Valimaki

Yarn: Tosh Vintage in Saffron

Needles: US #6, US #7, US #8 Hiya Hiya Sharps

Mods: I knit the ribbed bands at the top on #6 needles since I wanted them to hold their shape for the boatneck and not turn all loosey goosey on me. The body is knit on US #8 needles since that's what I got gauge with (after several false starts) and the hem and sleeve ribbing is knit on US #7 needles. I also knit the sleeves as half-sleeves since worsted weight yarn is pretty toasty for Seattle and I want to get a lot of wear out of this pullover. Omitting the buttons at the neckline turned out to be a good thing since I feel the yarn and texture pattern are the showstoppers here. I think I ended up with about 2" negative ease which is more than I was shooting for but after blocking the yarn, which is superwash, everything relaxed a bit and I feel good about the fit. Another thing, the pattern called for 1200 yards and I ended up using approximately 840 yards after all the mods I did - some of this is probably the shorter sleeves and some of it may be the amount of negative ease I ended up with but I'm not absolutely sure about that. While I love the outcome I'm not sure I'll be knitting this one again since I had so many issues with getting it right - I'm glad I persevered though, since I absolutely love the FO!