Another newbie

I haven't been able to start mine yet, but I have been given the word that my yarn order is in at the store and they will be shipping today (I should receive it by next Monday). WOOHOO!!! I was actually able to get my hands on the coveted Reynolds Soft Linen. I saw it on the Knitting Sunshine blog that Black Sheep Knitting had plenty, so I emailed them right away and though they didn't have the brown in stock (they have the rest of the colors though and they were thoughtful enough to send a picture of the color card) they ordered the amount I needed last week and it hit their store today!

Yes, I'm going to do the pattern in the exact color and type of yarn that is called for. I usually don't, but I wanted to try this yarn and the color is perfect.

So, I will posting more once I get the yarn.

I'm going to try the "knitting backwards" for the reverse stockinette portions, since I am no great fan of purling. :)

It's been fun watching all of the rest of you get going on yours...and I am SO thankful that someone else already tackled the lace and can show us the "how" of it.

Blargh

Just got some bad news from Webs, my yarn order is going to be delayed. sigh. I purposely only ordered stuff that the site said was in stock, so it could be shipped posthaste. And, because I'm an international order (Canadian!) they're holding on to everything for three weeks until my other yarn arrives. Their website lies. But it's cheap, and I guess this ensures I'll finish up my other projects. :)

Speaking of being Canadian, I was thinking about exchange rates and calling this sweater something wacky. But then I realised: I (and other Canadians in this KAL) are the ones making the $1.50 Cardi, as Joni Mitchell is Canadian, and so presumably is the currency she was singing about. So you Americans out there are currently making a $1.28 Cardi, Australians a $1.64 Cardi, the British are making a 66p Cardi... I'll stop now. :)

Finally on my way

Hi all. I am very glad I found you guys.
Thanks to the tutorial for the lace pattern I am now finally on my way. I am quite enjoying it and with my slow start I was worried that you guys would all be done and onto other projects before I got my swatch done.
Anybody done yet?

I finally got it

Thanks to the photo tutorial, I am past the first lace section. Originally, I started a sleeve, but the sleeve directions don't tell you to do rows 1-6, then 3-6 2x of the lace pattern, and that is partially what was getting me confused. So, I frogged the whole thing and started on the back. I need to order more yarn, because I was only supposed to be "swatching", but now swatch=back. It's been slow going, back and forth between the pattern and my needles. I'm on my first reverse stockinette part. Luckily Cotton fleece has great yardage, so we'll see how far I get. Pics will be coming soon!

eek

Hi, I'm Heather and I lurve this sweater.
I just ordered some Classic Elite Classic Silk in cinnamon for the sweater. I agonized over yarn choice for so long! (and we're not going to mention the other things that found their way into my cart. Credit card going in freezer now, bad knitter).

I'm looking forward to starting, so I guess I better finish up my current sweater. :)

96 Cents

I am making steady progress on the Dollar and a Half Cardigan, which surprises me because I've been really busy. It's amazing how 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there adds up. I've got almost a dollar, hey hey hey hey.

Isn't it purdy?

But, oh, the counting! I followed some good advice to knit both fronts at the same time and then both sleeves at the same time, and I'm glad I did because it has kept my gauge constant and the decreases in the right places on both sides (and I'm optimistically assuming that the difference in width will go away with blocking, by the way). On the other hand, the fronts are not identical, so at this point I am trying to simultaneously keep track of all of these things:

• How many rows have I knit on the cable pattern? Is it time to cable again yet?
• How many rows until I switch from Reverse Stockinette back to the lace pattern on the other side?
• How many neck decreases have I done?
• How many sleve decreases have I done and how many do I still need to do?
• And because the decreasing with the lace pattern is finicky, have I messed it up? Do I still have the right number of stitches on both needles (which are, of course, different numbers on both sides. Of course.)? What IS the right number of stitches? Oh my.

Thank goodness for post-it notes.

Anyway, I'm so happy to see that the Knit-Along is growing nicely with lots of new participants! It's good to hear what other people are doing with this sweater. So far, from this Knit-Along, I've learned that the Left and Right fronts are indeed flipped in the picture, which was causing me great confusion once I got to the sleeve decreases, as to that point I had been paying more attention to watching American Idol than reading the pattern (I do love that big crazy poofy-haired guy, I do). My solution to the problem is that my fronts will just be flipped. I think it's somewhat fitting for me to own a backwards sweater. (Well, hopefully it will fit, anyway.)

Also, make sure you check out Al's fantastic tutorial on row 7 of the lace pattern, which it is highly possible that I have been doing wrong all this time! Oh well. No going back now for me!

somewhat slow but hopefully steady

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I just wanted to share my progress:


I have been enjoying the project so far, although clearly I'm not very far along. The lace is an interesting pattern, and very easy to get into the rhythm of. I do find the yarn (Reynolds Soft Linen) to be kind of roughly natural (very fine strands sometimes splice off, if that makes any sense), but it is made of 53% flax, so I suppose that makes some sense. That doesn't make it any less enjoyable to work with. Once you get used to the splitting it sometimes does.

I am using rather short straight needles (where the pattern calls for circulars), but except for that it's more difficult to see the pattern as it hangs, it's not been a problem for me thus far. I was just too eager to wait to get around to purchasing longer ones!

Anyway, thanks for letting me join in on the KAL! I look forward to learning from all of you as I work through this.
xo,
Arianna