FO Friday -- Sophisticated Edition

I know you've all been biting your nails in anticipation, so I'll come right out with it:

My Baby Sophisticate is finished!  Proof:

Thank you all so much for your suggestions about ways to make the sleeves work.  In the end, I had a very specific picture in my head, so I got myself another skein of yarn, then pulled out the sleeve and started again, alternating skeins every other row to better blend the colors. 

You can sort of almost see it if you look very, very closely but I'm willing to live with that.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out, though.  And I'm hoping it will be well loved in its new home. 

Since that's all that's really going on this week, you get a gratuitous puppy shot.  She's growing like a WEED, and while she's definitely not an FO, she is making progress (thank God!).  I think we'll keep her.

Even if she did eat my phone charger.

Have a lovely weekend, guys!  And consider kicking it off with visits to FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  I'll see you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.129

Greetings from Puppy Land, where everything is snuggles and puddles and please-for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-don't-chew-on-THAT, and where there is only precious little time for knitting these days.  The culprit:

Lucky for her, she's ridiculously cute.

But!  I did manage to knit a bit.

For instance, I managed to knit enough of my Baby Sophisticate sweater to realize that I have not enough yarn to finish.  Boo!  Looks like I'm about 12 yards short on sleeve #2, so I'm currently trying to decide how to remedy the situation.

Cute sweater though, eh?  Think the recipient would notice if it had only one sleeve?  Design element?  No?  Yeah, me either.  Sigh.  Stash busting is hard, man.

In other news, I'm nearly done with the back of my Austin Hoodie, and loving how it's looking, especially the woven section and the ribbing (Is it weird that I desperately want to block it RIGHT NOW?)...

I'm hoping to finish up the back and get started on the fronts in the next couple of days because I expect the sleeves and hood to take a soul-suckingly long time.

For now, I have a question if anyone's game.  I'm working on a row where I knit X number of stitches across the back, then put Y number of stitches on a holder for the neck, then work X number of stitches on the other side, and begin working up the left shoulder.  The pattern doesn't say to break the yarn here, or to join new yarn on the other side of the held stitches, but that's what I need to do, right?  I'm sure it is, I'm the sort who obsessively follows directions, and it's not in there.  Anyone care to nod at me before take the leap?

Then, after you solve all my problems, go check out the rest of the Work in Progress Wednesday posts.  I'll see you there!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.127

The weeks just keep flying by, don't they? A blink and it's already (WIP)Wednesday again!  Craziness.  Things are cracking along over here.  I've made some (seemingly invisible) progress on the Austin Hoodie...

I swear it looks nearly like it did last week, but I finished another 3" of body, then started the cool woven section -- linen stitch, I think -- and divided the back from the fronts.  I'm currently marching up the back of the sweater, determined to wear this thing at Stitches West.  That's 35 days from now, but who's counting?  Right. 

And, as promised, those two partial skeins of yarn got some attention this week, and have morphed into this:

Actually, that's what it looked like on Saturday when I decided that I'd better take a picture in case I accidentally finished before I had time to take a proper WIP photo.  No such luck, as I've slowed down considerably over the last few days, strategizing.  You see, this is how much charcoal yarn is left:

24 grams.  And I still have one shawl collar/ button band and two striped sleeves to make.  It's gonna be a squeaker, my friends.  I decided to knit the collar/band first, since I know I want that to be grey, then weighing my yarn as I go to determine how much striping the sleeves will require.  So cross some fingers for me, please.  You can check back in a week or so to see how it all turned out.  You're all biting your respective nails, right? 

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to the task at hand.  Mr. Right is leaving for a business trip today (boo!), so I expect to have lots of uninterrupted knitting time and silly girly movies to keep me going for the next few days.  Could be worse, right?

Work in Progress Wednesday v.126

Happy WIPWednesday, peeps!  I'm still here, and while I don't have anything even remotely exciting to share with you, I can promise that I really have been knitting my fingers off of late.  Evidence:

That right there is a solid 12.5" of Austin Hoodie body.  I know it doesn't look like much, but really it's a megaton of knitting in frustratingly skinny yarn.  I really, really, really want to have this finished to wear to Stitches West next month, but I'm not sure I'll make it.  Cross y'er fingers for me?

The most annoying thing about this is that it's a New Year, and I've survived the holidays, and I have some time finally, and I want to knit ALL THE THINGS.  Right now, please.  And so I'm knitting like a crazy person and making not much visible progress since I'm working at such an itsy gauge.

Only one thing to do:  Cast on Something Else!  Of course, that's the answer to all manner of knitting dilemmas, right?  So by next week, this little pile of yarn...

Should look a little more like a Baby Sophisticate.  Yay for instant gratification projects!*


*Yes.  I'm well aware that this will actually slow my hoodie pace, thus actually preventing me from achieving my goal.  But don't bother me with details right now, there is a shiny new pattern to be conquered!  Woot!

PS.  You can feel free to pull out the I-told-ya-so's next week when I'm crying about my snail's pace.  I think that's fair.  Until then, go check out all the other (slightly more sane) WIPW entries over at Tami's.  They're sort of universally awesome.

Cheers!