Still waiting for buttons...

Hellooo! I'm here and my Forecast is finished and beautiful however I had to special order my buttons (I had my heart set on something very specific) and they still haven't arrived! I'm planning on posting a FO picture soon though! I do love the sweater--I think it's beautiful!

More is More

As I just posted on my blog, I am in love with Cascade 220 if for no other reason than the yardage! I got this far before having to join a new skein- almost to the underarm! Fabulous. I'm so happy with the way it looks so far that I'm trying to come up with a way to modify it enough so that I can make two for myself. It's such a distinctive knit that I think two of the same sweater would be overkill. Ideas?

Progress

I'm a bit ashamed that this is my first photo of my mother's Forecast... I guess my excuse is that my initial progress was so quick, I didn't want to stop knitting for long enough to take a photo!


As you can kind of see from the photo, I'm well on my way to finishing this. The endless ribbing with the tiny needles bugs me a bit, but Mum's birthday is fast approaching and spurring me on.

Although you can't really see it, this is a lovely dark navy wool - Cleckheaton Country 8-ply, and surprisingly soft for a run-of-the-mill Australian wool.

The only parts I truly hate are the beginnings of the sleeves, since they're too firm to just use my circular needle, and require me to use lots of needles (which I find messy and annoying); and the picking up of the stitches for the button bands, just because I hate picking up stitches.

I'm sure my progress would be better if I could do these parts first somehow, and the rest of the knitting afterwards!

Whilst awaiting the yarn for the next Zimmermania project in the queue, it seemed I ought to be tying up some loose ends. This included my long-languishing Forecast, whose extended vacay was undeserved. So I picked her up last night and made a good deal of progress - including the last bobble-cable motif on down through what you see of the ribbing.

(sorry for the poor photo - I'm losing daylight here!)



So there you go. Long stalled progress!

Sunny Skies Ahead?

Hey there! This is mostly a post to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions. First of all, just to prove I'm serious, here's the beginning of what I hope will be a very clear Forecast. I am loving this pattern and the yarn. It's amazing how much sweater you can get out of one hank of Cascade 220! Today I saw this great photo tutorial about doing bobbles without turning your work, and I think that'll speed things up considerably.
I'm doing the 36.5" size with the only modification so far being 3-stitch bobbles and going up one needle size. Of course, going up a needle size, even though I seem to be getting gauge, makes me nervous. I really want this thing to fit well, and not be baggy in the least. I read that many of you are doing a size "between" the first and second. Any hints on how to do that?
So glad to be here! If you've got a minute, you can come check out my blog, Fricknits, to get to know me. I'll be stopping by yours, too!

So close!

But the last bit of sleeves are just going so so SO SLOW!
Also, I'm very worried about the size. I think it's going to be a bit too small across my chest. Has anyone had to add extra rows onto the button band??
I do like how it looks so far and have decided that this will be my holiday sweater this year. So I better be invited to lots and lots of parties! Because I do think that if I can make this fit it's going to look GREAT!