ack!

Ok so I forgot my camera cord at home so I'll have to post a pic later but...

I finished knitting the body!!!! I'm so happy! I might actually be able to get this done by Christmas.

Anyone else...

have the Samus on hold? Maybe because of holiday presents? Or something else?

Mine is on hold because I need to finish a charity blanket that's due November 28th. I really want to finish it before Christmas so I can wear it on Christmas day.

As promised...here are pics of my finished Samus

I sewed in the zipper last night. It really wasn't too hard...my sewing machine was acting up so only one side is sewn in by machine,the other side I sewed by hand, which wasn't as horrible as it sounds. In fact, when I am ready to put my zipper in Ribby, I will probably hand sew it in. The picture of the zipper looks a little wonky but it real life it fits together nicely. I think it was the way I was standing, because I don't notice the teeth of the zipper sticking out towards the bottom the way the picture shows it.

I am finished

Well, 99% finished. I finished up the I cord and pinned in the zipper. Off to my LYS for a show and tell night and then I will sew the zipper in tomorrow night or Saturday. I will have pics for you all by the end of the weekend.

My zipper came in today from Zipperstop and it is a perfect match. Couldn't have gotten any closer if I had picked it out in person. I was worried about the colors on the monitor but I think I made a good choice.

Still Going

So I’m into the miles and miles of endless stockinette. I went on a bit of a knitting hiatus because of having a murder mystery party (those things are a lot of work but so very much fun!) and now I’m back to it in force. Hopefully I can crank out the body, knit the cables for the arms, and be working on the arms during all of the Thanksgiving travel…. I can do it all in a week Right? Riiiiight.
Here’s where I’m at so far…

Second try at I cord is turning out better.

I frogged the I cord I had done and started over. I had intentionally put it on the wrong side but it made the waist band flip up like a duck's tail! The second time, I only cast on 3 stitches and instead of S1, K1, psso, I am doing K2tog. And I went down 2 needle sizes. It is turing out much better:



One section around the color looks a little funky but I think some blocking or some creative duplicate stitching will take care of that.

Anybody like the wrong side of the I-Cord better?

Here is a picture of the right side of the applied I cord. It is OK, but I am not thrilled with it.

Here is a picture of the wrong side of the I cord (the side that is on the inside of the sweater)

I like the wrong side better, it just looks neater. I am considering taking it off and applying it with the WS facing. Any thoughts?? Would it be to big and bumpy on the inside??

One more waistband

I love this cable ... it could be turning up as a headband in my future. But first, onto picking up all those stitches and the boring (but easy) stockinet stitch.

Sleeve trouble

I have finished the body and one sleeve and have blocked both pieces. Last night I decided to sew the shoulder seams together and then put in the one sleeve that is finished. It fit together perfectly! And , if I do say so myself,it looks really good.

So you ask, what is the trouble? The sleeve is too long by at least 2 inches! I am going to take the sleeve off the body and then frog back to where the increases ended and begin my decreases for the sleeve cap there...do you think that will look ok? I am at the end of the increases on the second sleeve and am going to begin the decreases there and see what happens.

Also, I have been reading about the i cord issues and have been doing a little experimenting. I think I may go down 2 needles sizes to do the I cord edge and see how that look. Maybe it will look neater at a tighter gauge...

Finally Started

I finally got started. Talk about holding up the rear! I joined back when it first started and finally got moving on some sleeves. My travel schedule has been taking me coast to coast lately and I am beat...but we do have some progress here. This is all I have done so far because I have spent time finishing my mom's Debbie Bliss Bolero for her birthday. Came out really cute.

another finished Samus

I finished my Samus a couple of days ago, but forgot to post here. First, here are a couple of pictures:





The zipper isn't perfect, but I'm a wreck with sewing anything other than seams, so it's fine for now.

I used Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool, which worked very nicely. It expanded a tiny bit more than I expected when I washed it, but since the size I made would have only had 2" of ease, the sweater still fits just fine. (I think it ended up only being 1"-2" wider than I expected, based on my post-washing swatch. Not bad, over an entire sweater.)

I posted a few days ago about the alternate icord method I used. That method creates a rather wide ridge on the wrong side, making it hard to really sew a 7/8" ribbon in. I just left out the ribbon and sewed the zipper directly on to that ridge. Also, I left out the icord edging on the sleeves, because I didn't want the sleeves any longer. I think they look okay without any edging, but I may decide to add a crochet chain stitch edging at some point, if I change my mind about that.

Body is finished

Not a very good picture (are they ever?). maybe I should learn how to use my digital camera instead of just pointing and shooting :-)

I have started on the cuffs and hope to finish them today. I really want to be able to wear this for Thanksgiving...

different icord method

I'm up to the icord edging on my Samus. I decided to do it a little differently than the pattern says, and thought I'd share my changes, in case anybody else is interested.

I actually started with the method described in the pattern, but didn't like how it turned out. I don't know if it's the nature of that method or my technique, but it looked a bit sloppy. I've done attached icord before, and decided to look up that method, since I know I like how that one turned out.

I started the edging again yesterday, using the method described at this link. Here's a picture of my edging so far, from the inside of the work, as it was hard to get a good photo from the right side where the icord was really clear:

sleeve and edging

I thought I'd post a whimsical Samus picture here, since we all know what sleeves and fields of stockinette look like already, anyway.



That's the sleeve that hasn't yet been attached to the body. The rest of the seaming (including seaming that sleeve into a tube) is done. It went very smoothly. My yarn (Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool) expanded a little bit more than I expected when I washed it, but everything was still in proportion, so setting in the first sleeve was easy as pie.

Any thoughts on the icord edging? I've actually done it for a sweater before, but it was knit top-down, so I got to work with live stitches, instead of picking up stitches. I anticipate it will take a lot longer for Samus, since I have to pick up stitches, which for me means I need to use a crochet hook in addition to my DPNs. (I've just never been able to pick up stitches with just a knitting needle. A hook is a necessity for me.) I had plans to do all the edging tonight, but I don't think that's going to happen. :-/