Blue Beauty Sweater, FINISHED!!!

I finally bound off the finished Blue Beauty sweater this morning in the wee hours! Now to get DH to help me photograph it. I wanted a pic outside in the snow, but overnight the temperature has dropped and the winds picked up, so not real sure that's gonna happen today :)

Mostly because DH doesn't want to go outside today. I told him to take the photos from the window...we'll see!

I am so gung-ho right now! My first finished knitted sweater, and I designed it as I went! Pardon me while I toot my own horn for a minute :D

I had been laboring over the sleeves for a few weeks, mentally if not actually. Was pretty sure I wanted a fitted sleeve at the cuff, with about a 2 inch excess length to roll up. However, the first sleeve accidentally became a bell sleeve. I got so many comments on it though, I thought I'd just leave it and work the other sleeve like I had originally intended, and then decide when I could see both sleeve types on the sweater.

That worked well, I was able to try it on at knitting night, and it was a consensus that the bell sleeve looked better with the overall design. So I frogged back the second sleeve to mid-forearm, and knitted it like the first. I LOVE THIS SWEATER. So cushy and thick, and the rib pattern I knit it in is forgiving so I can stretch it as much as I require :) There is no buttonhole--I will be using a pin or brooch to close it. Yay, I finished a sweater!

Now next to concentrate on, while my knitting ADD is pulling me in all kinds of directions, I will try to concentrate on:

1. my Hanne Falkenberg kit as my sweater project.
2. I may begin the Great American Aran Afghan, so that, square by square, I will have it grow over time. Kinda like a bunch of washcloths :)
3. I have to finish my Kittyville hat and mail it to my girlfriend. I started that in 2006, and all it needs is an ear. Geez.
4. Baby Bobbi Bear. I will probably work on that today, it looks so cute :)
5. I'm going to start my first pair of socks. Not sure which pattern I will start with, but obviously something easy. And I will be using Trekking XXL yarn that looks lovely but tiny in gauge!
6. I owe Krochet Krystal at least one afghan block. I asked her to send me her cute flower granny pattern last summer, and in return we send her a finished square. I haven't even made mine yet (I had to go out and buy acrylic, because that is what she stipulated).
7. I owe the Hello Kitty KAL group on Ravelry a hat. Yikes, I was supposed to make that last month. It's time to step it up.
8. I want to start an entrelac project, and probably will try a Quant from knitty.com . I had found a cool tutorial for step by step walk-through of entrelac.....

I also found some cool sites with instructions for making stitch markers. Here's one, heres another with more detailed photos, and another with detailed instructions for using rattail or jump rings. So this project may be #9 on my list above :)

Superbowl Sunday, I had taken a break from the sweater project, and got started making red-white-and blue washcloths! I got some fun cotton yarn from Sugar 'n Cream called American Stripes, and it knits up fun into washcloths. Only thing bad is, the red in it runs horribly. You can tell the process of dying was a sprayed-on dye in segments. It's not fun to see your red dye running into the white that is next to it. Don't know if that will actually wash out though--keep your fingers crossed.

Pics later, people. It's early yet :)