What will it become?

I think it was a day after I received "Knitting Workshop" by Elizabeth Zimmermann for Christmas I was knitting in the round. I had this wonderful wool from Australia so I set off a knitting. I thought I had a good gauge going about half way it felt small so I did add some stitches. Finished the sleeves, loved EZ's way of adding stitches, no holes! Got the sewing machine out, sewed and cut. Sewed the sleeves in. I tried it on and that was it, it was on with no room to spare. I had just lost 10 pounds and planned on losing another 10 so I left it unfinished in a bag. Ten months later I run in to the bag. Well the 10 pounds really didn't happen, but in EZ fashion I am not discouraged. The sleeves are off for an additional inch in length and width. The hem was finished last night. The sewing machine is ready to cut the front open to make it a cardigan with a little more room. I still need to decide on collar and buttons. I think I will dig through the quart jar of buttons my grandmother has saved, nothing went to waste in her world, once you out grew your cloths or the hole is in the wrong place the fabric was quilted and buttons put in a jar. Stay tuned.

EZ Fairisle Vest

This vest has been done for months. I just needed to neaten up the cut steek edges inside. This was from a Spun out pattern that is also in the Knitting Workshop book. I used Paton's Merino wool, it came out thicker than I expected. I used broken rib for the ribbing. This was my first project with steeks and was fun to knit. Thanks to Gabrielle for the great pictures.

Sunday Walk

What a great weekend in Wisconsin! I gave up some knitting time to bike and walk this weekend, about 40 miles over the two days. Here are a couple pictures of the scenery.

Blue Norwegian Sweater

Finally got pictures of this project. It has been done for awhile, finding a zipper long enough was a challenge. This is a wearable practice sweater, I wanted to work on my two color knitting and pattern design before I worked on a full size wool project. The yarn for this sweater was a reasonable cotton acrylic blend I have had forever. The collar took a couple tries to get the roll and decrease right. I used all the techniques from EZ's book. I even knitted a lining over the sleeve seams. One I-cord finished the front cut line then I sewed the zipper in between the I-cord and the sweater, then another I- cord attached to the original I-cord to cover the zipper, it worked out well. It is keeping me warm today with the weather finally changing in Wisconsin.

Warm Hat and Mittens

Here are the mittens I made with my new Turbo 12" circular needles, each one only took a day. I designed the patterns from Fairisle knitting. The warm hat idea is from EZ, the brown side is looser since it is only one layer of yarn, but it fits inside without bunching.

A Surpise is coming

Just a little teaser about an up coming photo. It has to do with Elizabeth Zimmermann and my aunt and uncle in Babcock WI.

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I am actually busy knitting, but my current projects are Christmas gifts. I always like to be done early. I do have some relatives that take a look at my blog and I don't want the ruin the surprise. Secondly, I spent the best $15.00 of my life. Reading EZ's books I realized there are 12" circular needles out there. So I went to my favorite yarn and notions store and found a size 4 12" needle, well many of the smaller sizes were there. I wanted 4 for EZ's Norwegian mittens instead of dealing with double pointed needles. WOW, I am sold I got the first mitten done in about a day and the second is half way done (work gets in the way). I think I may even enjoy knitting socks now.