Alouette progress!

I've made it through two complete striping repeats on Alouette's front (or back) and things are going as they should. The entire time I've been knitting, I've been trying to dream up ways to wear it this spring. I tried on a black pencil skirt today at one of my favorite stores, but it didn't fit me properly in the waist (as usual). Any styling ideas for this one? My version is going to end up a little more fitted and cropped than shown in the photo for the book.

I've also started on a pair of mittens for myself from Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch with some of the Knitpicks Palette that I ordered a while back.



If you look closely at the photo, you can see that they're still needed here in Toronto. I'm not really that upset about it - the snow gives me an excuse to sit in and knit!

Distraction technique

I'm going to distract everyone from the promise I made of showing action shots of my new cardi with a picture of some socks I finished for the dude. Made with Online Supersockke 100, a basic top down pattern and lots of love!!!

And those action shots are coming, I promise...

[Edit: I don't know what is happening with my photos. This "new blogger" thing is not really cooperating with me!]

Lust for Fitted Knits

After reading this post by Zeitgeist, I know I must have Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. It looks like it's everything I could want in a knitting book. I hope I get to see it sometime in person soon!

I really, really need to pick this book up quickly, mainly because I'm stuck on what to knit next. I don't really want to start zipping along on Demi, because it'll be too warm to wear it by the time it's done. Ditto with respect to the Alexander McQueen Knockoff, or the bulkier version of Licorice Whip that I have planned. Maybe I should get back on track with Alouette. Now there's an idea!

Finally, success!!!

The third time was indeed the charm. This simple black cardigan was knit from the top down using less than 4 balls of the wonderful Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (75% wool, 25% alpaca) that I picked up at the Boxing Day sale at Romni Wool. I knit the body three times before it fit, but after I managed to conquer that, it was smooth sailing. This baby's features include: 1) a seed stitch collar, cuffs and bottom edging; 2) a tiny little bit of waist shaping; and 3) ten 3/4" buttons that have a little gray stripe running through them. I was going to add a seed stitch belt, but now I'm not sure I need it. Any opinions? I might have a better idea as to whether or not it's needed if I get the chance to take some action photos with some natural light in the next few days. I'm glad to finally have a plain black cardigan in my wardrobe in order to wear some of my brightly coloured tank tops during the winter. I just couldn't bring myself to buy one of those yucky cardigans from H&M or Old Navy so I did without this wardrobe staple for the longest time. Does anyone else out there do that? Refuse to buy something just because you could knit it, but more often than not, never get around to it? I'm glad I finally got around to this one.