Bazoom

Tubey for moi

I finished it!



This is a great design. It's clever, fast to make and makes my weeny little mammaries (small even when milk-filled as they are these days) look like big honking gazongas:



And here it is from the back:


And the side:

(this one actually displays the most accurate rendition of the colour of the yarn)

As previously mentioned, I did have to alter the instructions a bit to make it fit me. I cast on ten fewer stitches than the XS size said to so that my arms wouldn't swim in the sleeves. And in order to avoid flashing the world, I sewed the body further up the front about two additional inches on each side. Finally, I shortened up the sleeves by about two inches so the cuffs didn't cover up my hands. It is a lovely sweater and I expect to enjoy wearing it.

Like, totally top

After numerous visits to the yarn shop hunting for a good replacement for the yarn I originally swatched with, I abandoned my attempts at finding something with some natural fibre content, and instead decided to try Nobile, from On Line Yarn.



The top is going to be very teenager-y anyway, and let's face it, teens probably just want to dump their garments in the machine rather than carefully handwashing them, so practically speaking, this is probably the better choice. The gauge looks a bit bigger than what I was using before, but it looks like it's got the kind of drape and sparkle that I'm looking for, so I'm hoping it will work - I just need to swatch it up. Mercedes, who works at the shop, let me take the ball with me without deducting it from my store credit. She said if I can't use it for the top, the shop will just take my swatch to use as a display to show clients how the yarn knits up. Hooray!

The only problem is that the Nobile is $12.95 a ball (50g, 90m), which is a pretty painful price, considering that I'd be asking people to make an entire top out of it. But I just haven't been able to find anything else that looks like what I want. Although...Mercedes did have the brilliant idea of getting a plain, solid yarn that I like and joining it with metallic thread. Unfortunately, although this idea would give me scads more scope for the yarn I can use, it doesn't solve the problem of high cost. I've checked out the cost of metallic thread, and it'd be about $4 for every 100m of yarn I need. Still...now that I think about it...I could get a plain yarn for as much as $7 for a 50g ball and still be $2 per ball ahead of the Nobile price. Hmmm. Well, I'll swatch the Nobile up anyway and see what I get.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

I am motoring along on this pretty fast, whenever DH goes to work or golf. So much so that the second iteration of the back of the sweater is now complete:


I think it's a much better width than my last try. Here's a comparison shot:


Notice that the new back is more-or-less the same height as the old one (actually, it's a bit shorter), even though it's wider. I've decided to follow the large-size instructions for width and the medium-size instructions for height, because that looks like it will give me the best-fitting results for my husband.

I'm now a few inches into the front, and have started on (I think) the sixth skein. It's all going well and I'm pretty confident of having enough yarn, especially with the plan to do navy stripes on the sleeves and a navy rim around the neck.

In the meantime, I've been getting dribs and drabs done on other projects that I'm using for "cover" as I knit on DH's Christmas sweater:

A Very Harlot Poncho for moi

I actually should have mentioned working on this in my last entry, but forgot. It's moved ahead by a few rows in the past two weeks or so.

Foot-pamering socks for moi

Absolutely no major progress has occurred, just a row or two done in front of my husband as a ruse, since I can't knit his sweater in front of him.

Sleep socks for moi

Last night I switched to this about five minutes before I expected my husband to get home, and got a decent amount done. I've now finished the leg and am working on the heel flap.

Ravelry update

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