Crafty Thursday

Well, I finished the project I was doing and sent it off, so I can finally post a photo!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo with my camera instead of just with my iPad, so the picture quality isn't the best, but it gives you a pretty good idea.  I found the pattern in the book Warm Knits, Cool Gifts and used some Mission Falls 1824 Cotton.  I love the way it turned out.  I did alter the pattern a little bit, though.  Instead of knitting the button band with the body, I picked up stitches and added that later.  I think it ties it together better that way, since otherwise I'd have had to sew the button bands from the lower body and upper body together.  While I'm usually good at making seams fairly invisible, the fewer seams, the better, in my opinion.  I found the buttons at Joann's Fabrics, and I just love them.  They have a little bit of orange in them, so they matched perfectly with the yarn.

You may remember the sweater I was making for my husband before Christmas.  After completing the back and half of the front, I'd discovered that I didn't have enough yarn to complete it.  The yarn, Wildflower DK, has been discontinued, but a local yarn shop had looked to see if they could find any more.  They couldn't.  I then turned to eBay, where I found someone selling 20 skeins of the navy yarn.  It was a different dye lot, but I figured I'd try it anyway, and if it was too different, I could always start over, since 20 skeins would be enough for the sweater.  The part on the needles is the new yarn, and the other is the old.  Quite a bit different, I'd say.  Good thing I got all 20 skeins of the new dye lot.  I've finished the garter stitch and ribbed edge for the back, so now I just need to put it on the knitting machine.

 I also picked Charlotte's cardigan back up.  That pattern comes from Cute and Easy Baby Knits by Susie Johns.  What's pictured here is the lower back.  I'm not quite halfway through with the back.  I love the bamboo yarn, too.