A Quick Sweater Update

Well I made what I consider to be significant progress on my sweater knitting today so I figured I'd make a quick post with a picture!
I finished up the shoulder and split the stitches to start working on the body panels. So far I've got a start on the back panel and a small strip of front panel. I'll finish up the back panel and then work on the front panel.

Here's what I've got:

The panel on the left with the needles in it is the back panel, and the strip on the right will be the front. Hoping I can keep up the motivation to work through this project! 

Sweater Progress

Well I've been knitting steadily for the past few days, along with running and slowly unloading my car. I'm glad to say I have something to show for it. Yesterday I finished up the sleeve:

I've now started work on the shoulder/body of the sweater, and sadly this is taking much longer than the sleeve. A row with 174 stitches does in fact take about twice as long to complete as a row with 52 stitches...

Along with all of my knitting, planning for the wedding has begun. I'm glad we decided to start so early since we almost missed out on a May date for next year since all the good places are booking up fast. It's official: the wedding is set for May 26, 2012! I'm super excited. We decided the reception will be at Catamount golf club, and I'm very happy we got the date we wanted. Check out the space!

Our parents admiring the indoor trees

Along with the reception hall I called my uncle Harry and he's available for the date and the church is also available! 

Right now this is all we have planned, but knowing that we have a place to have the party and the food taken care of  is a big weight off my shoulders. Now we just have to figure out the flowers, photography, invites, guest list, a dress... I think we have enough time, and I bought a planner with a To-do list for every month to keep us on track. 

Hopefully there will be more fun pictures to come, both of my knitting and wedding plans!

Summer time = summer project

Well I'm officially home for the summer. I packed up all of my stuff, my dad and I loaded up the cars, I put my keys in the drop box and we locked up behind us, at which point I realized my car keys were on the table in the now locked apartment. Why do these things always happen to me? Luckily my dad was able to use a screwdriver to break us back into the apartment so we could head out to lunch. Being hungry is a good motivator for such things.

Anyway, I finished up my shrug on Thursday night when I went to Lindsay's apartment:

I like that this yarn made a lighter shrug that won't make me hot and sweaty the second I put it on. Hopefully this means it will be better for spring time wear than the one I made from Vanna's Choice. 

Now that I've finished another medium sized project, I've decided it's time to take it up a notch. I've been admiring sweater patterns for a while now, but I've never been brave enough to try one. Finally I decided I'll never know if I don't try so I chose a pattern out of one of the magazines Lindsay had. Hopefully by the end I'll have something like this:

That's the picture that came with the pattern so I know that's what I'm aiming for. I decided instead of using the pricey yarn suggested I'd use Lion Brand Cotton Ease, since it's also a cotton blend that's worsted weight just much more affordable for my budget. Also I lucked out and the yarn was on sale at A.C Moore, what luck! I decided to go with a nice light aqua color:

I started knitting the day before yesterday and so far I've got a sleeve cuff and some of the right sleeve knit:

I like the pattern so far and I think the eyelet pattern will keep knitting this sweater interesting. My only complaint is that this yarn combined with the bamboo needles I'm using makes decreases a huge pain. But now that I've done a few rows and gotten used to it I think it will get better as I go. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out this sweater construction, since from what I can tell it's different from normal: You knit the right half and seam it up the side, then the left half and seam that, then you graft them together in the middle. I think I can handle it and hopefully I'll have a lovely new cardigan to wear at the end! I also hope it fits... I measured myself and chose the size appropriately, but part of me is nervous I'm going to make all this effort and end up with something too big or too small. On the upside if it doesn't fit I can always give it to my mom or sister based on whether it comes out too small or too big. 

I'll be sure to post pictures of my progress as I go, so keep checking back for updates! 

Graduation, Apartments, Crocheting....Oh My!

Well life got very busy, very quickly. On Saturday I officially became a graduate of WPI. It went by so quickly. The ceremony was 2 hours long, but it took only seconds to get my diploma and walk off the stage. I think I spent the majority of those seconds trying really hard not to fall down in front of everyone. Only after I was safely off stage could I stop and smile for the camera:

Along with graduation came lots of delicious food. I think I'll be exercising for a good while to make up for a weekend of feasting. Graduating is not good for maintaining one's girlish figure. 

After a weekend of celebration I still had things left to do. Mainly, drive back to Danbury and Fishkill to look at mine and Meghan's top 4 apartment choices. We spent the morning riding around with the agents and hearing about/visiting our options, then we went to lunch at Panera and chose our home for the next year. It ended up working out really well since we both liked the same place and agreed that it was in fact the best option for us. The complex is called Crown Point at the Reserve. Check out this link to get an idea of  where we'll be living: http://www.whitecoresidential.com/crownpoint.htm

We chose an apartment in one of the brand new buildings just put up this spring, so we get to be the first people to live in the apartment. That's right, we get to live in a place that is shiny and new! This is definitely an upgrade from college apartment living. Looks like engineering was a good major choice, it pays off right away in the form of a way nicer apartment. 

Along with all of this business, I decided to take on the Lace Tea gloves I've been wanting to make for Martina so she can wear them during our spring/summer tea parties. This was definitely a challenge for my crochet skills, but it ended up being worth it! 

Last night I finished crocheting the left glove. Now all I have left to do is attach the little pearl buttons that will be on the inside of the wrist of the glove. I think I might have made a small mistake on the right glove (Picture above) But I don't think it's too noticeable so I'm not going to worry about it. I just hope they fit and she likes them! 

Now I just have to finish up the second shrug I started and then choose a new project! I can't even believe how quickly projects go by when you don't have any work to do and you're almost all packed up to move already. I'm excited for the summer and more free time. I'm hoping to make some light lacy projects so that I can continue knitting without having to deal with overheating hands. Good thing I have some sock yarn in my stash!

Shrug-cess!

Well this has been a productive couple of days for knitting! I took the pins out of the centerpiece and coasters I blocked and I think I did it right since they stayed the size I wanted:

I'm glad they worked out well! Now all that's left is to block the other 3 coasters and then wrap them up for my mom. 

After working on a complicated lace pattern for the last two weeks, I decided I wanted to take a break with an easy pattern that would let me knit while taking a mental break. So I started on the shrug I mentioned in my last post. I dug out a skein of silver grey Vanna's Choice yarn and cast on.  I was pretty excited at how quickly this pattern knitted up :

By the evening I finished knitting the shrug and sewed the sleeves:

                                                 

I was glad this pattern was as easy as I expected. And I think it helped give me confidence to work on other more complicated shrug patterns and eventually work up to full sweaters. I'm so proud of how this came out I decided to wear it this morning:

I might also try to make this pattern again in other colors. It fits great, and it's really comfy/cute! I'll have to see how the acrylic washes before I try to make it again with this yarn. I might also attempt it with a cotton yarn so it will be nice for the spring weather we've been having. 

After a nice break from complicated stuff I think I'll start on the lace tea gloves I've been wanting to start for a few weeks now. Hopefully those will crochet up quickly, and now I know if they get too hard I can take a break and make a quick shrug :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! And to my mom in particular here's a picture of your present so far (The centerpiece and 2 coasters):

They still have to be blocked (Stretched out) so you will be able to see the lace pattern better once I do that. Hopefully you'll have your other 4 coasters by the time you come to visit Worcester on Friday! 

Also, while I had my camera out I went and took a picture of the beautiful sock yarn I got from the Stitch n Bitch on Wednesday:

Yay for green yarn! woo! Now I just have to decide what to make with it... 

Also I've decided what my next project will be once I'm done with the rest of my mom's coasters. I've decided to try and make  the Everyone's Doing it Shrug since it takes less than a skein of yarn (I have plenty of Vanna's choice on hand) and it says it's easy and quick, all of the qualities I like in a pattern. I also don't want to start with a sweater that's too difficult or I might get overwhelmed, so this seemed like a good starting point. Hopefully I'll have time to make that this week as well. 

Anyway that's it for now, if I finish up the coasters I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished product!

So Many Fun Things in So Little Time

Knitting:
Well this has been an eventful week to say the least! On Wednesday I went to the Taunton Stitch n Bitch, and it was so much fun! I definitely like knitting with other people instead of all by myself  all the time. I now know for future that I should pick a less complicated pattern for socializing, I spent most of the time just listening and trying not to make too many mistakes on my lace centerpiece I'm making for mother's day. I even got a ball of sock yarn! I'll have to post a picture of that next time since the ball of yarn and my camera aren't currently conveniently located near me.

Speaking of the lace centerpiece, it is more than halfway done and then I can make the coasters. The pattern is knitting up nicely with the yarn I chose, it just takes a lot of concentration on my part not to mess it up... No pictures of that yet since I want to wait until mother's day to post pictures so my mom can know what's coming when she visits.

Apartment Hunt:

Yesterday I spent the day looking at apartments in CT and NY near IBM in Fishkill. I saw about 10 buildings and boy am I excited, this will definitely be an upgrade for me as far as apartment living is concerned. Check out this kitchen!

This quality of kitchen was pretty standard for all of the units, they just differed in color of cabinets and such. I also took pictures of the rooms and closets, but pictures of empty rooms really aren't that representative so you'll just have to guess how nice the rest of the apartments are based on the kitchen. I'm hoping we can pick a good balance between price and distance to work. But have no fear! There will be pictures posted once Meghan and I choose a place to live.

Winery Tour:

Today the excitement continued with a winery tour of the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, MA. 

Here's me and Lane sitting excitedly on the bus on the way there:

And also Dan, Silvia, and Alex sitting across from us:

The winery was so pretty! I wish we had more time to walk around the grounds and enjoy the nice weather. 

Once inside we got to check out the gift shop before we went on the tour. Once on the tour we sampled 4 different wines which I think were all delicious and we got to learn about the wine making process. It was really interesting since Nashoba valley specializes in fruit wines, but have recently also started making classic grape wines. Luckily today they were fermenting 1,000 gallons of Riesling, my favorite wine.Naturally I got a picture of me taken with the fermenting tank:

After learning about fermenting we got to learn about wine aging. White wines and fruit wines generally age in stainless steel tanks while reds and chardonnays get cask aged. We even got to check out the oak cask room:

It was so cool! A winery tour is definitely something I'm willing to go on again. After we checked out the oak barrels we learned that the old used up barrels get used to make whiskey, which I think explains why whiskey is so nasty, but hey some people like it. Then right at the end of the tour we got to check out the giant still they have to make spirits:

Anyway that was pretty much it. And we got to taste some delicious wine, which they conveniently gave us before ushering us into the gift shop. Luckily I'm so broke they couldn't get too much money out of me. But really, look at these grounds:

This is definitely worth a visit. Even if you don't like wine, it's lots of fun and you can always just walk around and check everything out. They also have a nice restaurant here that I'm hoping to check out in the future. 

Anyway I think that's enough from me for now, but hopefully I'll have more knitting/ crocheting updates by the end of the week since I should have plenty of time for crafting!

UPDATES!

So many updates from the weekend, and they're all knitting related! Woo!

Tent filled with yarn goodies!

First things first, I got to go to a wool and fiber festival with Lindsay and Wendy who's from Lindsay's Stitch n' Bitch group in Taunton, MA. This was my first ever fiber festival, and it was just as good as I hoped it would be! After seeing other people blog about going to them I've been itching to find one in the area for a while. Lucky for me this one was right over the border in CT and was only about an hour away.

Inside booths

So fuzzy!

Also, there was a whole area with drop spindles and spinning wheels. Lindsay said she's thinking of learning how to spin and it inspired me. Maybe I'll take up attempting to spin next fall when it starts to cool down again. That way I can have fancy yarn that I make myself! 

As it is, I currently don't know how to make my own yarn, and being surrounded by such awesome hand spun/dyed yarn was hard to resist, so I ended up picking up 2 skeins of sock yarn.

This gray yarn in the color "Storm" is going to be used for my mom's mother's day gift. She knows it's coming so I figure it's ok to post pictures. 

I also picked up a purple and green yarn I just couldn't resist:

I'm not sure what I'm going to make out of this one yet, but I'm thinking something along the lines of a lacy scarf or shawl so that it won't get worn out too quickly like socks might. 

After the yarn festival I was even more inspired to work on my lacy socks, and..... they're finished! Hooray!

They came out great! I even wore them to class today, but then I took them off later once it got hot outside. Still, it was nice to wear them for even an hour.

Now that those socks are done, time to move on to bigger and better things. Aka, my mom's present that she asked for specifically, a lace center piece and coasters to be used on the coffee table. 

Being all motivated I got right to work on winding my new hank of sock yarn into a ball. Sadly... I tried to do this solo, and I have short legs so the hank didn't really sit well around my knees. After 2 hours of untangling I still had this:

But, now it's all wound pretty and I've started work on the centerpiece. Hopefully I'll have pictures of that to post soon. (mom, this is so you have proof that even if your gift is late, I've been working on it vigorously). 

Well, I think that's pretty much it. A very busy, but very productive weekend. I'm hoping to make it to the Taunton Stitch n' Bitch this Wednesday, so for once I can knit with other people instead of all by myself. I'm sure I'll have fun things to share about that later this week!