just a bit of rest

Thanks for the Gathered Pullover love, y'all! We're having a warm week (high 60's) but cooling off in a few days - I should be able to wear it soon and enjoy the cozy soft goodness. Yay for handknit weather!

I'm chugging right along on my Potter, but don't have any new pictures to share. (Perhaps tomorrow!) For tonight, a moment of rest with cutie-pie Charlie, taken during the last minutes of light on our walk. We stopped at a park near our house on the very edge of town. I like living so close to such a great expanse of nature and sky. We could hear the coyotes out there tonight - they've been especially loud lately. Time of day? Time of year?

gathered pullover

I took some pictures of my happy lovey heartbubbles sweater today - the more I wear it, the happier I am with the finished sweater! The pattern name isn't really happy lovey heartbubbles, of course... this is the Gathered Pullover (with quite a few mods) and the yarn is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca (I love this stuff). Cozy, warm, and cute!

I had to refigure the numbers of the pattern because I wanted to knit an in-between size. I also added some lengths to the body before shaping and to the sleeves (these are standard modifications for me - I pretty much always add an inch or two to the body and sleeves). Finally, like many other folks in Ravelry, I omitted the line of decreases/increases across the bust. I prefer the smoother look of the projects that had just left those out (particularly on curvier women like myself), plus the cable stands out nicely on its own without them.

The yarn is wonderful! I've used it before - it was a staple alpaca at Knit Cafe and I knit several hats using it in my pre-Ravelry days. This is a very soft alpaca with a nice halo. So far I’ve worn the sweater over camisoles and it is soft next to my bare skin and not itchy at all! It's obviously very warm and cozy since it’s knit in alpaca, but the Inca Alpaca is slightly loose and open at this gauge so it doesn’t feel heavy or overly hot. I also think that this neckline is a good fit for an alpaca pullover since it’s so open; on very colder days I’ll wear layers underneath to cover up a bit more.

All in all, I'm really happy with this! I love the bright color, love the fit, love the soft, warm yarn. I can see myself wearing this one pretty much constantly this winter. Yay!

Potter beginnings

It took a couple of swatches but I'm now getting gauge using size 5 needles. This means that I'm a looser knitter than Norah Gaughan. I kind of love knowing this little bit of trivia!

The sweater is Potter, from Berroco: Norah Gaughan Volume 5. Cirilia wore it at TNNA in the great model-off, and I fell in love with it.

It is an essentially simple, wearable cardigan, but there are some very lovely Norah design details (a really cool color, some nice shaping) that make it pretty awesome, I think!

The Pure Merino is SO SQUISHY. I haven't used this yarn before, and I really like it. My swatches grew and softened a bit when I washed them (about 1.5 stitches over 4" bigger - enough to make quite a difference in final fit!) but they remained very squeezable - lots of body to the yarn. This is the Regatta colorway, a really lovely rich blue.

I have some Jennie the Potter buttons that might be perfect for this sweater! If they aren't quite big enough when it's finished, I'll go hunting for some Bakelite or celluloid ones. I do think that some big goldenrod or burnt orange Bakelite buttons would be amazing against this color. We'll see what I think when I'm done!

and now it's time for a shameless plug

This weekend is a pretty exciting weekend here at our house: my guy Jacob is appearing in a great big movie that opens tonight! He's an actor, and he worked on The Men Who Stare at Goats here in New Mexico last year and again in LA earlier this year. He plays Lieutenant Boone and I must say, from the pictures I've seen he looks mighty good in uniform. We understand that not all of the scenes he shot ended up in the final movie, but he's definitely in the very first scene to kick the movie off! The experience was a really great one for Jacob - he had a terrific time on set, met a lot of the stars of the picture (Clooney, people! Clooney!) and I can't help but be quite beam-y and proud.

I obviously doctored up the image to add two important characters. :) Along with Jacob on the bottom right; the guy on the bottom left is our friend Arron. He's another CalArts graduate from our era at the school living here in New Mexico (up in Taos; we probably wouldn't have moved out here if it weren't for him - he really encouraged Jacob to try out the film scene here). He has a really memorable part in this film and we're quite excited for him, as well!

You can see both of them in the trailer on the movie's website. If you're planning on seeing the movie and want to see Jacob, don't be late - he's in the first scene! We're gonna go on a date tomorrow night to check it out and I'm totally going all out and getting the big popcorn AND some hot tamales and will try to refrain from making a scene whooping it up when I see his name in the credits. I make no promises that I'll be able to keep from whooping at least a little bit though!

happy lovey heartbubbles

I finished a sweater this morning before breakfast and this is how I feel about it:

It's the Gathered Pullover and I love it so much already. It fits me perfectly, it's made from supersoft Inca Alpaca, and we're going to get along swimmingly! Better pictures to come; it's currently drying after a nice lukewarm bath. I'd blocked the body before Rhinebeck, because I was just a sleevecap away from finishing the knitting and thought maybe I'd be able to finish the sweater during my trip. That definitely did not happen and next year I will plan more realistic Rhinebeck knitting. Better late than never, though - I'm happy to say I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this!

On to the next sweater! Swatch swatch swatch...