FO: Chic Lace Cardigan

Did you know that you pronounce "chic" as "sheek"? It's true - I looked it up on dictionary.com. For some reason with all of my "education" that information never reached me. I guess that tells you a little something about how important being chic is to me! Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with my "chick" (as I was pronouncing it) little cardigan.This was a pattern that my friend from knitting group found at Patternfish. She is my ultimate source for the best and most up to date knitting info. For example, have you checked out Twist Collective yet? Goes online Aug 1. Very exciting stuff! And what about Planet Purl? A friend like her can get you in trouble - that much is for sure.
So, she found this pattern and convinced me to do a KAL with her -- just the two of us. Mind you, this woman churns out at least one sweater per WEEK. She is the most prolific knitter that I know. Also, keep in mind that I am fairly competitive (and so is she). Therefore, this sweater came together very quickly. I CO the Wednesday before fourth of July and finished up last week.
Pattern: Chic Lace Cardigan by Lanaknits Designs (Ravelink)(Patternfish link)
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca - 5 skeins in Chianti
Needles: US Size 7 and US Size 5 dpn (for the front and neck edges)

Notes: This pattern was fantastic! We had our doubts in the beginning. My friend didn't like the lace pattern so she modified it to something similar (see her version here) but mainly we were skeptical about the front and neck on smaller needles. This sweater has very interesting construction. You start at the bottom with the larger needles for the body stitches and then you have two smaller dpns holding the edge stitches. It eliminates have to pick up the button band at the end, because you're knitting it at the same time as the sweater. It's very clean and convenient.
I also love the construction of working the two sleeves in the round and joining them at the armpit with a yoked top. Neither of us had ever seen this construction with a V-neck cardigan before. It fits perfectly in the shoulders. I'm very pleased. So pleased that I wore it to knitting last night in the middle of summer humidity and nastiness!

I have two projects actively on the needles right now Baby Lady E (ravelink) and Alpaca Baby Shawl (ravelink):

They're coming along pretty quickly, but I'm going to have to put them down where they are starting next Friday. I have signed up to compete in Ravelympics and I will be attempting not one but two knits! We'll see how that goes....

FOs: Claire Bear & Baby Kimono

Pattern: Baby Bobbi Bear designed by Bobbi Intveld (Ravelink)
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton, 1 skein beige, 1 skein tan
Needles: 16" US 8 needles and 4 US 8 dpn
Notes: I am so pleased with the way this turned out. The pattern is easy to follow and eliminates almost all seaming. You mainly pick up stitches and increase and decrease to create the shaping for the head. (As a side note, before I stuffed the bear and added his ears he greatly resembled Stewie from Family Guy.) The only modifications I made were using US 8 needles, mainly because I had those in 16" circulars, and going directly from the front and back sections to the head. Then I went back to pick up stitches for the legs. I didn't have any problems stuffing the bear after the head was already on. I also added a little "C" on the chest for "Claire," my niece's name. Oh, and I decided to do this to his backside ........charming, no? I'd highly recommend this and the Organic Cotton is the SOFTEST, SQUEEZIEST yarn. I basically used exactly one skein of the lighter yarn. There was enough left to seam and to do the duplicate stitch around his neck. However, I got about an inch into the "tight duplicate stitch" and decided that I liked the way his neck looked without it. So, I didn't do the duplicate stitch.

One more FO that's going in the package to my new niece is this:
Pattern: Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting (Ravelink)
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport -- less than 1 skein
Needles: US Size 6 straights (bleh)
Notes: I enjoyed this, but eh? I mean, it's cute, but it's not the most darling thing ever. Quick and easy? Yes. The thing I'm most proud of making? No. But I guess I don't have to be "open mouth smiley face" with everything .... then what would be the point of the smiley face rankings in Ravelry? Yeah.Staci at Very Pink suggested that I might want to think about participating in the 365 day photo taking self-portrait thing. Several people whose blogs I read have participated in this and I do enjoy looking at their pictures. I also know though that half the reason I don't post on my blog is the agony of taking the pics, downloading them to my computer, uploading them to the blog, etc, etc, etc. Someone give me food for thought. Would it be fun and worthwhile to play in this game? Would you enjoy seeing my smiling (or not smiling) face in posts?