And the Winners Are...

I am really pleased with my State Fair results.  Though it is sometimes hard to understand just why they choose the things they do.

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Best Child's Sweater award from the Des Moines Knitting Guild -- Cabled Sweater made in River Jeans cotton yarn. 

Blue Ribbon -- Eggplant round-yoke sweater with stranded designs 

This is my favorite sweater of all that I have knit.

Red Ribbon (second place) -- Purple & Green Stripy Baby Sweater

This cute little sweater has beautiful classic lines with some fun striping.  It was very easy to make.

 

Pink Ribbon (fourth place) -- pink & white sock knitting tote
This is the one that I was most surprised about. It is a very simple project that I put in with the entries because I  had an extra tag. There were several other more complex bags that didn't place at all.

Finishing out year and starting up the new one

I finished the White Clovers pullover. It went up and down several times as I tried to get the fit right in the shoulders and neck. Here it is finished as the designer has written the pattern, with a turtle neck:

Then I ripped it back again and finished it with a crew neck. I like the looks of the crew neck much better. The Vamsegarn has softened up nicely with wearing. I am really enjoying this sweater. I can see myself making more sweaters like this. It was fast to make in this worsted(almost aran) weight yarn and it fits beautifully.

I also finished knitting the Navy Felted Mittens from the book LVS 3, well they will be felted when I find time to put them in the washer. Our washer stays really busy with laundry around here because of our big family so finding time for felting can be difficult. Last weekend we were gone for four days. When all the suitcases were empty we had a pile the size of "Mount Washmore" as a friend calls it. I always feel like I should have more than one project to felt when I do it since it takes so much water. So maybe I should make some more mittens! Here they are before felting:


Lisa came home from Alaska for Christmas and was telling us about how cold it was up there. She has been buying extra clothes for layering to keep warm. I made her a pair of rag-wool socks while she was home. They are made with Raumaragg yarn, the yarn that the Norwegians use for ski socks. Lisa says that I can make more of these!


I also had picked out a nice sock weight yarn for her birthday in early January. I started knitting those just after her birthday and have one finished so far. Lisa has returned to Alaska so I will have to mail them when they are both finished.


It has been a productive knitting year. Now on to the next year!

White Clovers pullover sweater

I have been making a sweater for myself! Not for display in the shops but for me to wear! I had been looking at what I had to keep me warm this winter and found that I really didn't have much for warm sweaters. This will be a wonderfully warm, wool sweater for these cold, cold days.

As I was thinking about what to make I ran across a pattern that a designer wanted to have tested to make sure there weren't any errors. It is a simple design with lots of stockinette and a bit of stranding to spark it up. We have found a few places where she needed to make changes in the pattern. Good to get those fixed before some unsuspecting knitter tries to make it and can't understand why it isn't working.

I am using Rauma Vamsegarn in a very dark teal with white and a lighter blue-green for the accent bands. This is one of my favorites of the Rauma yarns.

I don't have a full picture of it yet but I took some pictures as I have worked so I will see if I can put them together to give you the idea of what it will look like.


The sleeves also have the small design border at the bottom like at the hem of the sweater. I ripped back to the wider top border last night because the neckline was going to be too high. I will start the decreases just above the border instead of knitting several rows first. It should be done soon. Then I can wear it! Ahhhhh, warm!!

Iowa State Fair

I entered the fair for the first time this year. I have thought about it before but never followed through to get it done. Some of the knitters from the Ames Public Library's Knit and Crochet group were talking about entering so I thought maybe this year should be the year I finally did too. I found that there were lots of categories in knitting. I thought I might be able to enter a few things so I started making a list of what I had and which categories they would fit into. I came up with 15 items!

Click on the picture for a better look.
If you make it to the fair check out the Fiber & Threads, upstairs in the Varied Industries Building.

Start-itis

I have it bad......I started another project. No, the pink AH103 mittens are not finished yet.

These are going to be the Annemor #15 gloves from Terri Shea's book Selbuvotter. The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn colors #438 and 4705.

People have asked if they can substitute Finullgarn in these patterns for the Rauma Gammelserie that is suggested. The 2 yarns are slightly different in gauge. It is looking like the hand may be a little big for me. I think I could have knit it slightly tighter. The tension above the thumb opening seems looser than the lower part of the hand. Maybe I should start the second one and try knitting it a bit tighter before I finish all the fingers.