The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Why knit a sweater a month, you ask?

Honestly, I have no idea. Because I can? Because I want to be a good example for knitters everywhere afraid to take the plunge into knitting sweaters? Because I want 12 new sweaters?

Yeah. I think the best answer is because I can. I can knit a sweater a month for a year, and so can you. It just takes a little dedication, motivation, and creativity.

I’ve started planning out my sweaters for the year in my Ravelry queue. I see a sweater I love and change my queue up constantly. I’m trying to pick sweaters that fit the season each month, which is forcing me to answer the existential question, What is a sweater?

(I’m also planning on alternating between intense knits and easier knits so I don’t get burnt out and so I get to knit other things between these sweaters. Foresight!)

Want to join me in this challenge? I’ll be posting Sweater a Month updates every Tuesday all year with my own thoughts and progress and links to the other participating knitter’s sweaters they are working on monthly, too.

Sound fun?! Send me an email at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com to get on my Sweater a Month email list. I’ll be emailing sweater pattern and yarn ideas, answering questions, and sending little motivational tid-bits to help you stay on track and get your sweaters finished.

And if I’m the only one on board with this crazy scheme, that is ok. It sounds like a lot. Maybe after I knock a couple out, by May you will want to try it yourself.

Last night was A Sweatshop Holiday Party and we had a blast!

Lori, Ana, Laura, and Lucinda

I’m always so torn about using a flash. I hate the flash, but clearly everyone’s blurry heads should have indicated that I need to use the flash while in the bar. Ohh, Allyson.

Cayo's New Hat!

Cayo is much more handsome than this blurry picture indicates. He is showing off the hat Lucinda made him!

Lots of Yarn and Presents!

The party was part yarn swap, part secret Santa knitting gift exchange, and mostly a bunch of people causing a ruckus at Streetside.

Lucinda and Brijeet

Yarn is hilarious!

Gil Grabbing Swap Yarn

Gil with her fast hands!

Tara Rockin her Bib

Look familiar? Tara wore the crocheted bib necklace for the rest of the night so I’m taking that as a good sign! And it’s official: I seriously need one of my own.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night and made A Sweatshop Holiday Party a huge success.

Live in the Chicago area and want to get in on the fun? Be sure to email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com to get on my mailing list.

So I started knitting a sweater. You knew I couldn’t hold off until January. I knew I couldn’t hold off until January. It was bound to happen.

King of Confidence

I started this sweater from the new winter 2009 knitty. The idea behind the sweater was to use yarn you spun yourself in a sweater without having to spin yarn for an entire sweater. I’ve never spun before, but it did make me think of that Kitchen Sink Dyeworks yarn I won a few months ago that I haven’t used yet.

Kitchen Sink, Patons

I bought a bunch of Paton’s Merino when it was on sale around Thanksgiving that I’ve got on my mind grapes for a sweater, so I thought if I knit the sweater in the red and used the yellow around the yoke it would be a great way to use that fancy yarn on something I would wear all the time, having only one skeins worth.

About 7 Inches

But the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t get McDonald’s out of my head. Yellow and red? I would kill someone if I knit a sweater and got a McDonald’s comment. And I was bored. The sweater felt bulky, I pictured it looking bulky on me, and it had no wow factor.

So I ripped it out.

Ball Winder+Swift=Happiness

To make myself feel better I opened my new swift, attached it, along with my ball winder, to my work table, and balled all the yarn I had laying around. It was kind of awesome. Look how cool my table looks with a freaking swift attached to it! And it took about 30 minutes to ball that Knit Picks Gloss, where before I wanted to kill something even thinking about balling them by hand.

… yeah. I said Knit Picks Gloss. I might have something in mind. I might be a big fat cheater who can’t wait until January to start the Sweater a Month 2010 Challenge.

Yeah, that totally sounds like me.

Slouchy Beret, Try #2

Words can not describe how happy I am to be finished knitting this hat.

It probably has some ill will knit into it, along with the few kitty hairs, but it is done and cute, if I do say so myself.

It took three whole days to dry without the help of the radiator. I kept this little guy very far away from any heat after the disaster last time.

But, it is in the mail to Heather, completing my blog giveaway knitting and my holiday knitting at the same time!

No Burning!

I’m not frantically knitting at all hours of the night to finish anything. So, August 1st is a completely acceptable time to start your holiday knitting.

Maybe it is because all the snow that fell in Chicago last week has melted, and it is about 40 degrees out, but I am not reveling in this accomplishment because I don’t feel like Christmas is next week. I’m sitting about 2 feet away from my Christmas tree, sure, but that is the only evidence I’ve got that Christmas is looming.

Cookies!

Not even the baking I’m doing is triggering Christmasy feelings, since I kind of bake a lot.

Cookie Logs

You know when you see a recipe that combines two things you don’t think should go together, dismiss, but then can’t get out of your mind?

Ok, yes, that sounds a little extreme. But if I said that about a pair of shoes it might not sound so wacky. And cookie baking is a much less expensive thing to get obsessive about.

Ready to Bake!

I saw the recipe for Earl Grey Cookies on Food Loves Writing and Kate in the Kitchen before I was sold. I love cookies. I love Earl Grey. But together?

Together they work. These cookies are light and buttery. I followed the recipe almost exactly, too, which never happens. I traded oranges for tangerines, and I wish I would have given it a squeeze into the batter before I ate it because a little more citrus would be welcome.

Roasted Eggplant Pasta

I love to eat them after meals like this; roasted eggplant, broccoli, and carrot pasta with white wine sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Roast the veggies in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, meanwhile cook the pasta as directed, heat garlic and seasonings in oil, add white wine, add drained pasta and veggies, toss. Cover in cheese. Eat.

How fancy do I sound? Following up a meal like that with Earl Grey cookies. This is one fancy girl over here. One with no more presents to knit and a whole house full of yarn.

Look out.

My only real goal this past weekend was to finish my second Slouchy Beret for the Heather, the second blog giveaway winner. I mailed the first one out Saturday morning, well ahead of schedule, so I was confident I could knock the other one out.

I got some Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick N Quick and knit it all afternoon. I blocked it on a plate, put it on the radiator so it would dry faster, and in the morning I had a cute pink hat!

Pink Slouchy Beret

Or, that was how it was supposed to go. Sunday morning I checked on it and about died.

BURNED!

It got torched on the radiator!

My Poor Hat!

I have put projects on the radiator to dry since the beginning of time and this has never happened before! I throw my wet mittens, socks, hats, and scarves on the radiator when I come in from a snow storm. So what the hell happened?!

I told my mom, who said, ‘Oh man, the woman you are sending it to is going to be so disappointed to see that.’

New Hat

Don’t think I didn’t think of it! But of course I can’t send someone a hat that looks like I used it to clean up cat puke. The second hat, however, is going a little slower. Once you finish a project it is hard to get the motivation to start the same exact thing over again.

Have you ever had a similar knitting disaster?

But I’ll finish it this afternoon, NOT block it on the radiator, and hopefully it will be dry by Thursday.

Breakfast Makes it Better

I always turn to pancakes when I’m feeling sad/sick/like I want to kill someone, and these pancakes with my mom’s apple  butter and potatoes made me feel better.

Homemade Tuna Helper

So does Homemade Tuna Helper. I don’t know what it is about shell shaped pasta. It just makes me feel so good. And I love when my food pictures have yarn in them.

Cabled Belt

The yarn next to dinner is from the Cabled Belt from the 2008 Winter issue of Vogue Knitting.

Picture in the Magazine

I have been lazily knitting it because I don’t plan on wearing it until New Years Eve. How fun is it to plan an outfit around a belt?!

The only people on Ravelry to knit it have used gold or grey yarn, but when I saw the picture I knew it had to be in a bright color. The cable pattern is very intuitive and it is knitting up quickly despite the size 5 needles I’m using.

And yes, I’m keeping this belt as far away from the radiator as I possibly can!