Sweater Update Number Two

It's been a while since I provided any kind of sweater update.  I now have a front and a back.  These pictures are both of the same side, but the two sides look as identical as I am capable of making them.  I'm pretty happy with how they have come out.  Now I need to knit some sleeves.  I'm sure I'll be done by the hot part of the summer.  Oh well.

Sweater Update Number One

My progress on the sweater has been a little sporadic.  It's been a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of process (heck, once or twice it was more like two steps back).  I had been accidentally dropping stitches off the edge, so I was unable to pick them back up with a crochet hook.  Several inches of this sweater have been knit at least twice.  

But I have got nearly nine inches worth of sweater and I'm a little less than three inches short of starting to make the armholes.  I'm also only two rows away from getting to start the stripe pattern again.  I'm still a little worried about it being too small, but from the measurement I made of it tonight, I'm slightly less worried than I was before.

With regards to my M1's I have to say that I don't think I ever knew how to do that before and I am totally hooked.  I love seeing the stitches appear out of nowhere and look like nothing happened at all.  Magnifique!

Starting a sweater

On Saturday, I bought the yarn for my newest knitting project (most recently, I made three hats and finished a scarf that I had started in early 2002): a sweater from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch which is a lovely stripey thing with raglan sleeves.  

This is the second sweater I've ever attempted.  The first was a disaster (although it was obviously a sweater when I finished, so I suppose it wasn't an unmitigated disaster).  I knit it in France in late 2001 and early 2002.  The biggest problems with it (amongst them a horribly pointy shoulder) were basically caused by the fact that I didn't know what I was doing.  I think I might now (with the help of the aforementioned book).  

With a little help from the ladies at the Village Yarn and Fiber Shop in East Rochester, I picked out the yarns I'll be using for this sweater.  It's a 75% acrylic/25% wool mix.  There were more interesting fibers available in the correct gauge, but not in such pretty colors. I picked out the colors of the sunset: dark red, fuschia, orange and yellow. 

I'm using size 2 (american) needles.  They are the smallest needles with which I have ever knit. I also made my first swatch ever (I told you I didn't know what I was doing as I made the other sweater).  I used the yellow since that's the color that appears least in the sweater.

I even got started knitting and now have a stripe of every color (sorry the close up is dark, but the flash makes it look extremly strange).  I am coming up on my first row where I have to increase pretty soon, so we'll see how well I understand her description of the make one increase (M1) in a little bit.