The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

Librarian HOTT

I promised a Style Your Knits was coming really soon and here I am to deliver!

Even more than just a regular Style Your Knits, though, this is a Style Your Knits: Brother’s Wedding Edition.

(And yes, it is perfectly acceptable to dress like a sexy librarian when your brother gives you a one week notice he is getting married.)

I’ve got to give myself some credit for rocking this look as hard as I am. These pictures were taken at about 2:30 EST. After I drove 4 hours (traffic getting out of Chicago was nuts and added over an hour to the normally manageable drive). After I trained up to O’Hare to rent the car. After I woke up at 7 CST to finish unpacking from Portland and packing for Michigan.

Not that I’m complaining. I’m just stating facts. It’s not every day your little brother gets married and I would have driven a lot farther, CTAed a lot longer, and woken up a lot earlier, to be there.

LOVE That Sweater!

I’m just saying that I pulled it together in the clutch. Just like Kirk Gibson during the 1984 World Series, commemorated on the wall behind me.

Sexy Lean

My mom’s house is a pretty great background for these pictures. She weaves all the baskets hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. The wood walls make everything look better. There are books on every wall and hand made things sticking out of every corner.

That pile of red on the table is my Mrs Darcy Cardigan.

And full disclosure: I haven’t taken Dollar and a Half off since I’ve finished it. This is officially the fifth day in a row I could have shaped a Style Your Knits around this sweater.

It. Is. Perfect.

Sweater: Dollar and a Half Cardigan

Top: Target, a million years old

Skirt: Old Navy

Tights: Meijer

Shoes: Ann Marino, and yes I wear them any time I have to dress up

Bag: Estate sale in Portland

Dollar and a Half Cardigan

It feels like this sweater has taken me forever, but I started it on January 30th, intending it to be my February Sweater. I put it aside for two weeks for the ravelympics or I would have been finished with it much sooner.

Couldn't Fit Any Better!

We’ve been through a lot, Dollar and a Half and I. The cable band side should not at all be striped, and the front shaping should have started much lower.

Stupid Cabled Stripes!

It kinda looks like it should be striped, right? When I look at the original sweater, the way it should be, it looks… wrong.

STRIPES!

I’m in love with the stripes! And could I look skinnier in this sweater? So much for horizontal stripes making you look fat.

Fabric Buttons and Stripes Galore

I messed this sweater up royally and it still turned out great. This is a great example of going with the flow! The cable looks great against the mistake-striped background.

I love how the reverse stockinette stitch isn’t bubbly because I used size 4s for those sections and size 6s for the lace sections.

And I love my buttons! I used the plaid fabric I found at the estate sale in Portland to cover my buttons and it couldn’t be better. I had plaid fabric in mind the entire time and it came together beautifully. The buttons are so small, 5/8 inch, that it wouldn’t have mattered what I covered them with, but I love the plaid pop.

I’m still standing by my statement that I will never use normal buttons ever again. I should take out stock in fabric covered buttons right now.

The yarn is perfect, too. Knit Picks CotLin knits up really well. It’s nice and light and the color is beautiful. I will use this yarn again really soon.

I Love You!

I can’t wait to show the girls tonight in Sweater Club! And get ready for a Style Your Knits starring Dollar and a Half REALLY soon.

Pattern: Dollar and a Half Cardigan, Interweave Knits Spring 2007

Yarn: Knit Picks CotLin in Planetarium

Needles: Size 6s and 4s, both circulars

Ravelry Page Here

1. Look at lots of yarn.

Twisted - http://twistedpdx.com/

Happy Lady!

2. Shop for records.

PT in Mississippi Records

3. Cause trouble in the Portland Children’s Museum.

Lucas and PT Disregarding the Wobble Warning

4. Drink a lot of wine and eat a lot of food at the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival.

Crunk!

PT Loves the Sushi

Look at that Hot Cowl!

5. Touch a tsunami!

Oregon Coast

Lucas, PT, and Random Dog

What Tsunami Advisory?

6. See bald eagles!

Eagles We Haven't Killed!

7. Find a new place to live.

Cape Foulweather

8. Admire very large rainbows.

Whoa!

9. Finish your Dollar and a Half Cardigan!

Dollar and a Half, Pre-Block

10. Start your March Sweater, Mrs Darcy Cardigan.

Mrs Darcy!

Sleeves, Kinda

When we last checked in with my Dollar and a Half Cardigan I had just discovered two major errors. I was finished with the body and one side. Since then I’ve finished the second side and have got a good 8 inches of two sleeves finished.

Will I finish this sweater before the Ravelympics start during the opening ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow night? No way in hell. I’m saying it right now. There is no way I can finish those sleeves, attach everything, and knit the front button bands, by tomorrow night.

I know what you are saying. ‘Allyson, you should have figured that out a long time ago.’ And you are exactly right. What was I thinking? I am one woman! Frantically knitting a lot a sweater!

Geez, Allyson. Geez.

So what is the plan? I want to start my Hoodie Devoted! But I lent out the needles I need for that pattern. Which sucks because I need this hood!

Hoodie Devoted

I mean, come on. Everyone needs this hood. So I don’t really have a plan. WHY AM I SO UNPREPARED?! It’s really unlike me. I’m blaming Dollar and a Half. She has been zapping up all of my energy.

What do you have planned for the Ravelympics?! And I hope you are more prepared than I am!

I’ve been scrambling to finish my February sweater before the Ravelympics start on Friday. Could I have chosen a more challenging sweater to knit in two weeks?

Dollar and a Half Body

I’ve finished the back and one side. I’ve got to finish that other side, knit two sleeves, and knit the button hole bands around the collar.

But do you notice something funky?

Cabled Front WRONG!

I’m blaming y’all for this because someone should have caught this mistake in last week’s post. The front panel with the cable is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE STRIPED! It is supposed to be the cable with just the lace pattern behind it.

CORRECT!

As clearly pictured. When knitting sides and body at the same time goes wrong? More like, when Allyson is under emotional duress, trying to knit a complicated sweater in two weeks, she messes up a lot.

Whats a lot?

DOH!

Not paying attention when the fronts say knit to 16 1/2 inches and start front shaping, instead of just following the back instructions that say knit to 18 1/2 inches  before working armhole decreases. **shakes head**

Lace and Rev St st Stripes

Are these mistakes critical? Well, yeah, they are. This sweater isn’t going to look like it is supposed to. Why am I talking about it like I’m not going to frog the crap out of it? Because I’m not. These mistakes aren’t holes. They aren’t going to make a sweater fit for a robot or dog. They are going to make a sweater slightly different than it is supposed to be. Stripes all around! Not so deep of a V-neck. Who cares? Did I pick this sweater for it’s lace only cabled front? Clearly not, or I wouldn’t have messed up like this.

So I’m going to keep going! If I finish it and hate it I can deal with it then. Right now I kinda like it! This sweater has been knit so many times, 225 projects currently on ravelry, that it is kind of nice to know that I don’t have the same sweater as all those people. Or as anyone. Because of my inability to correctly read a pattern.

Also, I didn’t get the memo that it was Red Sweater Week at Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge!

Coffee Tunic

Gloria knit this beautiful sweater in a truly stunning red. The cable details are out of control! And it looks really beautiful on, too!

Simple Pullover

Continuing in color, Rita (rav) finished this simple and adorable pullover for her January sweater. The color is lovely and I just want to snuggle up in it so bad!

Tunika

Red is the color of the week for sure! Yet another beautiful and seriously flattering red pullover.

Those are the only finished sweaters this week! Short Sweater a Month Challenge update, but I’m thinking week two will always be a little slow. Slow but sweet!

How is your sweater knitting coming? I know a lot of knitters have been able snowed in the past few days and have been knitting up a *cough* storm. Sorry. I should stop now. It’s the glaring mistakes in my sweater talking. They are taking over my mind.

Keep knitting and keep updating our Ravelry Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge page or emailing me at allyson[at]thesweatshopoflove[dot]com with your updates so I can include them and your sweater progress can help motivate other knitters. It’s been working for me!

Now go get knitting!

Hi February! Can you believe we are one month down already?

Congratulations to everyone who finished their January Sweaters! Not quite finished? Don’t worry! Just keep knitting and catch up in February.

Haven’t joined our Knit a Sweater a Month Challenge yet? Jump in now and knit up a sweater in February! It’s only the 2nd. Here is the ravelry group page, now up to 137 members, or send me an email to get on my mailing list.

Dollar and a Half Cardigan

I had a lot of travel knitting time this weekend so I got a little head start on my February Sweater: Dollar and a Half Cardigan! I’ve been planning this bad boy since October and I’m so happy to be working on it. Yes, I jumped the gun on it by two days. Progress!

Cable, Lace, Rev St St

There is a lot going on in this pattern. I cast on three times before this one stuck. I gauged it three times before I trusted myself to get the sizing right.

I decided to use size 6s for the lace, ribbing, and cable parts, and size 4s for the rev st st, based on the ravelry comments about the stripes being a little bulky. So far so good! The pattern is fun, the yarn, Knit Picks CotLin in Planetarium, is beautiful and is knitting up well (besides attracting a lot of cat hair!), and the sizing looks good. Knock on wood.

Ditto

Vicki (rav) finished up her Ditto Sweater (Vicki’s rav) which just looks so wearable! Couldn’t you just throw that over anything? And I love the  shiny buttons!

Shalom Cardi

And we shouldn’t be surprised that there is another Shalom Cardigan in the mix for January; this is one popular pattern! Kris (rav) finished this up in like 4 days or something insane. It looks like it took her the entire month!

Ginny's Boheme

Vintage Baby Cardigan

Bobby's Bright Green V-Neck

Leah (rav) finished these three baby sweaters! I was just as happy as Bobby is in his pull over to see all three of these adorable sweaters. So, clearly I couldn’t have been any happier.

Blue Mal

Andrea (rav) finished this beautiful sweater, Silken Scabbard, up in January after stalling on it last year. And I’m so glad she did! I’m in love with those cable details and the color! So pretty.

Liesl

Rachel-Marie knit up Liesl, kind of an in between January/February sweater, since Rachel-Marie is clearly a knitting super ultra star! I love that stitch pattern and colorway.

Peter's Vest

And another super crazy over achiever! Alexandra finished this adorable little vest as her second January sweater! Or, maybe first February sweater? Who cares! This vest turned out great, no matter what month it counts for!

Congratulations to all of the January sweater finishers! And it is never too late to start this challenge, so get out there and get knitting for February!

Big Box o' Yarn!

I wish I was a tiny person, like Thimbelina, so I could swim in this box I just got from Knit Picks!

Woodland Sage Gloss

I ordered this pile of fingering weight Gloss to knit this sweater:

Minimalist Cardigan

Only I have to make it hard on myself. The cardigan calls for worsted weight yarn. But I’m going to wait to worry about that.

CotLin Planetarium

I ordered this pile of cotton linen blend in Planetarium to knit this sweater:

Dollar and a Half Cardigan

Which is actually close to the correct gauge! So that is exciting. You can see that half of the cardigan is cabled, and the other half is a stitch pattern rib.

So what am I doing lining up all these sweaters to knit for myself? 2010 is going to be The Year of the Sweater! I’m going to knit a sweater a month.

(plus that will keep me from starting any of these sweaters once I finish Girl Friday)

Want to knit a sweater a month with me next year?! I know you want to. Think about it. You’ve got some time to plan. I’ve got three sweaters already picked out! Three down, nine to go.

… might have to knit a sweater or two for other people. But, can you really ever have enough sweaters? I guess I’ll find out!