FO: The Alpaca Silk Shrug

finished objects
Hot damn--I finally finished!

shrugside3

Alpaca Silk Shrug
Pattern: Silk Shrug designed by Bobbi Intveld for Blue Sky Alpacas
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk in the Ginger Colorway
Purchased from: kpixie.com
Needles: Addi turbo US size 3 (3.25 mm) for body
Knitpicks Options US size 9 (5.5 mm) for ruffle

I'm quite happy with how this turned out. As always, I apologize for the less than ideal pictures and the less than ideal model, but, hey--I figured out how to use the timer on my camera! Cool, huh?

shrugside2


shrugback


It's not blocked yet. But I really wanted to wear it today--look how excited I am!

shrug


This is my first grown-up sweater. I've knit a couple of baby ones, but never a full-sized, adult garment. The pattern was simple...occasionally boring...but finishes in a very elegant garment.

Thank you for your comments on the sock. I think I'm going to use Marianne's suggestion and start a sock on larger needles just to see what happens instead of ripping back blindly. If I like the modified version, I can always rip the first and start over, but if I hate the new sock, I haven't lost any ground. In all honesty, I was astounded by this suggestion. It's absolutely brilliant. Simple, elegant, practical...I wish I had thought of it. I knew there was a reason I always separate skeins of sock yarn into portions. And here it is.

What I Did With My Days Off

family
Yeah, I know it's not over yet. Exciting things could still happen in the next two days. But, I gotta tell you, I've got time to write right now and if it doesn't get done now, I can't guarantee it will happen before it's time to go back to work!

So, first up, some knitting. I've been working on the Alpaca Silk Shrug. The Alpaca & Silk Yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas is absolutely divine. Which is a good thing. Particularly since the miles and miles and miles of plain stockinette is becoming mind-numbing. There's not even any shaping to break up the monotony now that I'm past the first sleeve. Just 29 inches of knit the RS. Purl the WS. Repeat.

It's funny. I love knitting. So I thought, even if it's boring knitting I'll like it. This will be great for watching TV because I won't need to think too much. But, you know, I would just about kill for a yarn over. Or a cable somewhere. Even some shaping. Anything. I tell you, it's a good thing the yarn is so yummy, because I've still got miles to go before I sleep.

Alpaca Silk Shrug 5

Alpaca Silk Shrug 4

Alpaca Silk Shrug 2


Looks good, though, doesn't it? In spite of all my whinging? I have vain hopes that it will be finished in time for me to wear on Christmas Eve. Which means that no one gets handknit gifts this year. Whoops! And there's no way The Beloved's sweater will be done. Particularly since I haven't even started it yet. And we won't even talk about my Romantic Hand Knit. I knit a swatch for that one....but....

So, yeah. If you choose to knit a sweater (or a sweater-like garment) from sportweight yarn on US size 3 needles, consider it the knitting equivalent of a marathon. Even The Beloved has noticed the slow-going. I think his comment other than "What do you want me to say? It looks exactly the same as when you showed it to me yesterday!" was "That's going to take you forever with all those itty-bitty stitches. Think of the millions of loops!" He did, however, comment that I did good work, so I suppose he's being supportive in his own way.

Next up, the Great Day of Eating. I love Thanksgiving. I love all the tasty food. I love that no one cares how much you eat. And I love seeing my extended family. I mean, my mother and my aunt do family dinner every Sunday, so we see a lot of my family, anyway, but, well, they're fun. We got a call from my sister at 2:00--the traditional family eating time--and so we all got to sing grace together. (We sing the song "The Lord's Been Good to Me" from "Johnny Appleseed.") PFC Sibling (formerly known as Resident Sibling) said she was so happy to get to sing over the phone with us because that was not the grace the Chaplain used at their Thanksgiving Dinner at Basic.

Anyhow. I, personally, have a lot to be thankful for. Not just this weekend, but always. I am thankful for The Beloved, for my home, for my family and for the wonderful relationship I have with them, for my friends, who have got to be among the most awesome human beings on the planet. I'm thankful for my job and for The Beloved's job. I'm thankful that my cats appear to be in good health. I'm thankful that all of us are in good health. Though I can whinge with the best of them, I really have nothing to complain about. And, you know, I'm thankful for that, too.

Yesterday was my parent's 33rd wedding anniversary. So, The Beloved and I took them out for Day After Thanksgiving festivities. No, we did not go shopping. But we did go to Boston. We had dinner at the Silvertone Bar & Grill, which is just off of Tremont Street about a block past the Common. Dad had some of the best Jerk Chicken ever, Mom had Steak Tips, and The Beloved and I had a couple of tasty burgers. Then, we got into the holiday spirit with the help of the Brian Setzer Orchestra and their 6th Annual Holiday Tour. They were playing at The Orpheum. OK--so, if you EVER have the chance to see these guys play, GO. They are so. Much. Fun. Even The Beloved had fun. My parents had fun. Totally great show. They played arrangements of Christmas songs, they played Stray Cats tunes, they played swing tunes, they played rockabilly. Fun for all!

And now, well, those were my plans for the weekend. I should probably do some laundry so that The Beloved and I have clothes to wear to work next week. We're talking about going to see No Country for Old Men, but The Beloved, I think, has had enough people and would rather order Chinese takeout and build a fire in the fireplace. Both are tempting, I tell you.

As a final note, y'all who are doing NaBloPoMo, hats off! I have a hard time posting once a week. And you guys have been at it every day. Good for you! And those excellent posts--well, just one more thing to be thankful for.

Third Time's a Charm

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No pictures yet of the shrug, mostly because I started it for the third freaking time last night. Gauge, you are a cruel mistress. (Note: I did knit a gauge swatch and got gauge with a US 4 Addi Turbo when I decided to knit this thing--but that was a couple of weeks ago.)

So, when I started it the first time, I thought I chose the wrong sized needles. Pattern called for a US 4 and the stitches looked too loose. I was knitting on an Addi Turbo, and it was dark so I couldn't read the numbers on the cord. When I looked in my needle drawer, I found an empty package for a US 6 circular, so I assumed (stupid me) that's what I was using. Fortunately, I hadn't gone too far, so the ripping wasn't all that traumatic.

I pulled out a US 4 circular needle and cast on again. Knit some more. Last night I looked at my partial sleeve and thought two things: 1) I don't like how I've done my increases; and 2) This still looks kind of loose. So, out came the tape measure and, dammit, my gauge was off. Now, it's a shrug, and a loose-fitting one at that, so while gauge is important, I wasn't so far off that the sweater would have fit Tom Brady at the end. But it just didn't look quite right. So, out it came and I moved down to an Addi Turbo US 3. Where I finally got gauge. Again.

I'm wondering when my tension loosened up so much? How did this happen? It's certainly not because I'm relaxed. Especially after ripping out the damned sleeve two times. And why does knitting the same sweater on a US 3 circular needle seem so much more daunting than if I was using the recommended US 4? And why do I bother knitting swatches at all if they're just going to lie to me anyway!

In other news... Once you turn in your resignation, your desire and ability to be productive at work take a marked turn for the worse. Does this happen to other people, or is it just me? I now feel bad about giving so much notice, because I have another three weeks of just not caring ahead of me. I mean, I'll gladly help people if they have questions--it's more a question of motivation. Library work is not steady. Sometimes you have patrons with questions, often you don't. Today is a no-questions sort of day, which means I need to take care of other administrative sorts of things. Or catalog. Or do something. So I photocopied some more ILL and Equipment Usage handouts earlier in the day as an attempt to be a good worker bee, but now...I'm literally counting down till I can leave. Or at least take a 15 minute break and work on my sock. So pathetic.

On a happier note, I think I've decided what I'm going to knit for the Romantic Hand Knits-Along. I'm planning on making A Room with a View, which is a "lace peplum surplice design...excellent for all body types, especially a short-waisted figure." Sign me up. If the short-waisted part wasn't enough to make me want to knit this, the fact that surplice-styled tops flatter my ever-expanding upper-body doesn't hurt. I have no idea why they've decided to grow. I'm over 30. I'm not pregnant. This is driving me nuts and making clothes-shopping (and the concept of knitting a sweater) an absolute nightmare. Hence the shrug. If I can ever get past the lower half of the first sleeve. < /rant >

OH, and I can't believe I've forgotten to write about this last piece of big news that's now a week old! Resident Sibling is out of the house! She's joined the Army and is happily settled at Boot Camp. OK--so I can't be sure she's happy, but this is what she's wanted, and more importantly, she's no longer in the next room over! Unfortunately, she left so quickly that she failed to get her things out of the room she occupied. So, she may be gone, but I'm still stuck with her crap. The Beloved and I are hoping to start in on a massive basement project so that her items may be moved out of what will be my fiber studio. (HA--Is that not the craziest thing you ever heard?) With the possible exception of her stash. Now, there's actually quite a bit in her stash that doesn't interest me at all. But she's got about a metric ton of Lopi that is just begging to be knit into felted bags. And maybe felted slippers. Laura reminds me that I really should be a good person and ask her what she would like done with her stash.... but being good is just so darned hard when my little brain starts making plans!

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