Shamrock Knits

No Medal, but Cash!

Well, I didn't get Tomato done in time to win a medal. This is where I'm at now.

It's all wrinkled from being shoved in my knitting bag. I'm almost done with the body. Then, I just need to do the neckband and the short sleeves. I'm pretty happy with my progress. I haven't had to rip out and restart, so that's a huge improvement for me.

As far as cash goes, I won one of the door prizes at Stitches! I've never won anything like that before. I won $400, which really helps with the hotel and purchases. Woo hoo!!!!!!!! Here's what I bought:

The first picture are a gansey pattern, drop stitch cable pullover, and multiple ornament patterns. The second picture are my glorious yarn and pin purchases. I bought 2 shawl pins, which are both in the tan alpaca yarn on the left. I bought 4 skeins of the alpaca, 4 skeins green Riata, 1 cone Merlot Coltrain lace, 1 skein variegated green/yellow Graceful Lace, 2 bags blue Araucania, 3 skeins grey Super Sock & Baby, and 2 skeins Shepherd Sock.

The Lorna's Laces sock yarn is for my secret pal. I need to wash the scarf I made for her and get the final package together. I haven't received anything from my secret pal yet, but we been in contact. I'm anxiously waiting my goodies. I haven't said patiently waiting, because who would believe that? :)

Still Competing

I'm still trying to compete. I'm almost finished with the waist shaping. I have about a couple more rows to go before I start increasing for the hips. I don't know if I'll finish in time though. I'm attending morning classes at Stitches every day. I still have homework swatches to do for Saturday and Sunday classes. There's a Ravelry meetup on Thursday night and a KIB Saturday night.

It's scary to say this, but so far, I've only had to rip back a few rows a couple of times on this project. This is a vast improvement over restarting several times. Even if I don't finish in time for the closing ceremony (which is during my Sunday Stitches class), I'm happy with the effort. Any time I can complete a project thr first time around is medal-worthy in my book. Here's the latest photo. I won't be able to post anything until Sunday night because I won't have an internet connection.

For those attending Stitches, I'll try to save some yarn for you. :)

The race has begun

I have started my blue Tomato. I swatched twice and decided to knit on size 5 needles. I would normally knit the 40", but I hear it runs big and to go down a size, so I'm doing the 35.5". I knit 2 rows after joining and tried it on. Sorry for the bad bathroom lighting picture

The additional stitches cast on in the front seem fine when flat, but when I tried it on, they were really loose and saggy. I've ripped back the 2 rows to that point. I'm going to cast on again, but with a tighter cast on. The first cast on was the backward loop ,since the pattern said to do this for the additional underarm stitches. It didn't mention anything for the front, so I did the same thing.

All in all, this is a pretty good start for me. It didn't seem too big, so I'm going to continue on. I didn't get a chance to knit much last weekend, so hopefully I can catch up.

Ravelympics

As if I don't have enough going on, I decided to compete in the Ravelympics. This is the summer version of the Knitting Olmpics. I was originally going to do Something Red by Wendy Bernard's Knit and Tonic, but I don't have enough yarn. I'm going to do her Tomato pattern instead. I know this is a quick knit for many, but I am the guage and pattern reading challenged, remember? I haven't decided yet, whether I'll be doing the fair isle pattern or not. If I do, I'll need to get yarn for that.

I have swatched with a size 7, but my gauge was a little too loose. The pattern calls for 18 stitches to 4 inches and I'm getting 16 stitches. I've heard that I should do a size smaller due to negative ease. I'm going to try swatching again with a size 6 needle and then decide from there. See, this may be more difficult than it seems. :)