Time for an update

It's been a while since I have posted...

I have finished my asymmetrical cardigan:
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and have received many compliments on it. After wearing it once, where the buttons were sewn on got stretched out a little, so I moved them over another 2" or so toward the side, and it seems to be working out better.


I also finished the Hemlock Ring Throw for my friend's wedding, which was last weekend:
I had 4 blocking mats that I received as a set for Christmas, but someone seemed to think I would not need all 4 and I think he used one of them to lay on while he changed his car's oil outside...so I now have 3 blocking mats. Luckily, I'm not anticipating making another blanket that will require blocking anytime soon. It was a fun project, and I used all but ~30g of the 7th skein of the Cascade 220 Superwash. So close to 1500 yards! It's about 62" in diameter. It was still somewhat wavy after blocking, but I think that's ok.

I did a modified 3 row bind off, with only 3 stitches in each yarn over, instead of the 5 called for in the pattern. This used less yarn, and seemed to be much less time consuming than the original bind off.

I also recently started a garter yoke cardigan with 7 balls of plymouth tweed yarn. I finally tracked down the Knit.1 magazine in early February, which has the pattern in it. I bought the yarn around then too, but the blanket took priority for the past couple weeks.

mine:
(I've actually since knitted down to the waist shaping, but haven't taken a more recent picture)

from knitting school dropout's blog:

The pattern is really well written. And I like the Plymouth Tweed, but one of my skeins had FIVE knotty joins in it. that's right, 5. When there are only 109 yards per ball, I expect FAR fewer knots. A little disappointed about that.

I started and restarted my Cotton Bamboo Smock top (Classic Elite pattern - Ravelry link here) using Cotton Bamboo in Toasted Almond.

mine:

It calls for US 3 and 5. I got gauge, but after knitting about 9" of the stockinette body on US5, it appeared to be stretching out a bit. So I ripped back to the bottom and restarted the stockinette with US4. And to make sure it's not too big, I'm doing the cabled part with US2 instead of US3.

from Classic Elite:

Then.... from Flying Fingers Warehouse Wednesday a couple weeks ago, I picked up 5 - 200 yd skeins of Farmhouse Yarns Silk Spun Cotton yarn in grey (for only $2.50/each!!). It's a tweedy looking 60% cotton, 32% wool, 8% silk worsted yarn. I'm debating using it to make a Sunrise Circle Jacket (and the ravelry link here)
I think it would work out to be a good substitute... the gauge is 5st/in on US 8, so I could probably get the called for 18st/4in with US9. I found a list of common substitutes here and people have used things like Rowan Summer Tweed which is a silk/cotton blend.

This will be on the back burner since I want to finish some other more summer-y projects (and the garter yoke cardigan) and hopefully won't be needing long sleeved sweaters too much in a couple weeks.

from Interweave Knits:

Meanwhile, I've been busy with my internship & grad assistantship & looking for a job for the fall. There seems to be a decent number of positions in the area, and the school budget vote hasn't even happened yet, so I'm hoping more become available in the next month. Not too many of my classmates are looking in this immediate area, so I'm optimistic about it. Wish me luck!