Sunday, January 21, 2007

It's all in the finishing

So many finished objects so little time! Mostly I have so many finished objects because living above the 45th parallel, as I do, I work during all hours of daylight in the winter. Since my photography skills leave a little to be desired anyway I like to wait until the weekend to take my pictures with the added benefit of natural light. So let us begin!
Sienna Cardigan from Interweave Fall 2006.
Cascade Pastaza 50% llama/50%wool. This is very fuzzy and a lot itchier than I was expecting. I have a pretty high tolerance for itchiness and this one almost surpasses it. It got better after I blocked it though, and it will probably get better with time. We'll see.
Size 9 needles. I inherited a lot of my needles from my aunt who in turn inherited them from some old lady down the street and age ago. The moral of the story is that I don't know what brand of needles they are. They're blue.

Alterations: As I hate seaming and will do much to avoid it I knit all the pieces together. I didn't do a steek in the middle because it would have interupted the faggotting that I like so much about this cardigan. When I go to the armholes I divided the pieces and knit them separately, and since I had done the whole thing flat my gauge didn't change here. I did a three needle bind-off for the shoulders and did the sleeves in the round.
I'm still thinking about the buttons. I can't decide if the blue takes all the glory from the other things I love so much about the cardigan (like the collar) or if they are okay. I think I will probably just leave them on there until I come up with something better.

The best part is that I took everyone's, including my own, best advice and spent an extra five minutes learning how to properly sew a sleeve into an armhole. Man was that a 5 minutes well spent! Let's observe the bonk method I used to sew a sleeve into a cardigan I made a couple years ago and this cardigan.


The green one is a cardigan I made awhile ago, love dearly, and wear all the time. However when I made it I couldn't be bothered to learn how to seam properly, thus ending up with this monstrosity. The best part is that I remember when I finished it I thought it looked pretty good. Now the glorious orange is where I spent the time to do it right. I could't be more pleased with the outcome. It looks like I magically knit the sleeves right there with the sweater. Those technique books really know what they are talking about.

And my second finished object. The smallest size of the Adventure Hobo Bag by Noni.
I thought I had a whole series of photos from unfelted to felted to completely finished, but turns out I either didn't actually click the button on the camera or they are lost in the void somewhere. Anyway...
Cascade 220 in Mystic Purple, it's one of the heathers. Less than 3 skeins. I haven't used Cascade 220 in a long time, I forgot how delightfully soft this stuff is. I enjoyed every single stitch of this bad and I want to make more. I love this color, this yarn, everything.
This bag also contains my very first zipper in the whole world, and I gotta say I think my hats might not fit anymore my head is getting so big. I couldn't be happier with my zipper.
That and I don't know why needle felting embelleshment hasn't taken over the world of felting, cause I think it is fabulous to no end. For some reason recently I have taken a liking to moose. I have always liked moose, but this summer I really got attached. So what purple felted Noni bag is complete without a moose you ask? Well none of them, which is why:


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