A bit o' pron

So apparently, it IS all about blogging more. As soon as I blogged about how much I really wanted my Ravelry account, I got my invitation to join. So. freaking. psyched. It's amazing of course that I'm actually posting because all I really want to do is surf Ravelry all night long and upload all of my projects and find people to stalk and be a general groupie. Anyway, if you're already on Ravelry, come find me and be my friend! I'm of course, the Knittingspaz.

So DH and I have been partaking of the Santa Monica Farmer's market the past two weekends after listening to a lot of the Good Food podcast. Something about shopping directly from the people who grow your food makes me feel that much better. Anyway, we've discovered Camarosa strawberries, and they are well worth the $2.50 per pint price tag. So YUM.

And after blogging 4 FO last week, I suddenly found myself without anything significant on the needles. So what's a yarn ho to do? Why go and check out the anniversary sale over at A Mano of course! I picked up an obscenely lovely hank of Socks that Rock in the Purple Rain colorway (at 25% off!) and started swatching over the weekend. I think I've found the perfect stitch pattern for variegated socks in the Vogue Stitchionary volume one. I already cast on, but decided to rip out the cuffs and start them toe-up so I can use up as much of this loveliness as I can.

And of course, since I promised to make DH sweat for my craft...

Not Quite Seamless Hybrid Shirt Yoke Sweater
Pattern: Based on recipe by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting Without Tears
Materials: Fare Baruffa Settembre (100% wool. About 130yd per 50g ball) 375g in a navy/English tan heathered color - sorry, I don't have the ball band in front of me. Size 6 and 7 Addi Turbo needles.
Gauge: 5.25 spi on US6 in the round, 5 spi on US7 in the round, 4.75 spi on US7 flat, and 5 spi on US6 flat
Finished size: DH sized! about 42" chest

Started: April 29, 2007
Finished: June 8, 2007

Modifications:
Well, since EZ doesn't exactly see fit to tell you exactly what to do, I say the whole thing is a mod. Maybe even an original pattern!

Discussion:
This one was NOT a labor of love. In fact, I'd say that there was almost no drama at all in the knitting of this sweater. At the time that I purchased this yarn - at the Yarn Lady bag sale eons ago - I had already envisioned a polo shirt style. I then decided to add in the graduated ribbing at the side seams to fake side seam shaping and also emulate DH's favorite variable ribbed Capilene shirts. So before I started knitting, I had already sketched out what I wanted and used EZ's recipe as a guide and voila, a finished object.

The good: I like the shirt yoke back, the easy collar and split neck and the wonderful heathery hue.

The bad: the construction of the shoulders - think turning a heel - leaves a proportion of 2 rows at the saddle to 1 stitch for the front and back. That's way more rows per stitch than one normally would use if say picking up stitches, so the first time I knit the back neck according to EZ's instructions, it puckered like mad. I changed the back neck so that it was just a flap and then seamed this to the held stitches for the back. I know this doesn't really make sense, but if you really want to know, I'll draw you a diagram.

The take-home: Seamless sweaters have definite advantages - like weaving in the ends and calling it done after casting off. But seamed sweaters I find just lay better. If feels like you have more control over how the parts fit together even though I find the seaming process time-consuming and a bit of a pain in the ass. So for now, I like both. I can go either way. I guess that makes me bi-seam-ual.

OMG - sorry for the bad pun. I am most definitely my father's daughter.