hoodie update

That blob of purple stockinette from a couple posts ago finally looks like a sweater!

The Austin Hoodie, which I’ve been working on pretty consistently since I started it earlier this month, is – well, it’s not really almost done, since I still have both sleeves and the hood to finish. But it feels like it’s almost done, because the body is finally complete.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up, and then the sleeves are picked up from the completed armholes and knit from the top down, which isn’t really a construction I’m used to. I’m not sure how I feel about it (it’s a really big blob of knitting to carry around) but the sleeves are coming along really nicely.

(Of course, the fact that the sleeves are coming along well is due in large part to how many hours of lecture I’ve had in the past week. It’s a lot. I’m very proud. )

I feel a little bit like I’m racing against the weather with this sweater. I know it’ll be perfect for early fall, when things are just starting to cool off, but it’s too warm for coats. Right now, the temperature is still unbearably summery (I wilt in the humidity, it’s a thing), and I’m hoping I can get this done before fall really begins to hit.

but what does it mean?

Finally, the purple stockinette I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks isn’t just purple stockinette! Now there’s another stitch pattern, too.

This is the beginning of an Austin Hoodie, which I am very, very excited to finish, as I think it’d be a really perfect fall hoodie. I’m knitting it in sweetgeorgia sock, in Mist. Everything about this yarn is amazing. I have been trying and trying to take colour-true photos, but it’s incredibly difficult – it’s purple, and that always comes through, but there are lovely almost-blue undertones and subtle variegation that I have such trouble with. This is the closest I’ve come to getting an accurate photo so far:

I crack jokes, but I actually have been enjoying the mostly-plain stockinette of this sweater. I have a secret love for completely mindless knitting projects, and this fulfills that perfectly. There are a few little details here and there (the turned down hem, the slipped-stitch ‘seams’) but mostly it’s a nice, easy project that I can pick up without thinking, and knit away while I watching TV (now playing: Season 2 of Fringe).

Also, I just really, really want a purple handknit hoodie.

fo post: bellevue!

Even though I’ve been knitting for close to six years, I still get such a sense of awed surprise when I finish a sweater and it actually turns out the way I hoped it would. In other words, my Bellevue is done. And I bought a remote for my camera, so that I can take pictures of myself in it!

This is the fingering-weight version, made with Malabrigo Sock in “Impressionist Sky.” It’s the first fingering weight sweater I’ve knit, and I’ve got to say, I’m pretty well sold. I think this will hold up a lot better than my Featherweight did, but it’s still got that light, drapey feel that I think means I’ll be able to wear it in warmer fall and spring weather.

The one change I made to the pattern was to include full-length sleeves, because I really like sleeves. (I was one of those kids in high school who stuck their thumbs through the sleeves of their hoodies, okay? It’s a thing.) This was dead simple to do, since the pattern already has directions for cropped sleeves, but for the interested, I’ve written out notes in my Ravelry entry for this project.

But, overall? This sweater is awesome. It makes me really happy. I’m thrilled that it turned out the way I hoped it would, and someday – when it’s not summer anymore – I will wear it lots and lots.