28Thirty Sweater Body and Sleeves

Shown here starting on the sleeves and trying out the Magic Loop method: using one long circular to knit a smaller circumference (in this case, a sleeve) in the round. This is my first time trying out this method. Another method would be using double circular needles. I have watched the tutorials on knittinghelp.com to see how. Basically these are done so that you don't have to do seaming at the end. Since it is knit from the top down, you can try it on as you go!
I will not be continuing with the purl ridges that are supposed to march down the sleeves past this point, as the pattern indicates. It will be straight stockinette until I get to the cuffs.

This is the body of the sweater with my modifications to the original pattern: I added several more inches of length and additonal buttonholes, as well as waist increases. I wanted it longer, rather than the cropped version. I am enjoying knitting along with other Ravelry folks and the help they provide!

Blueberry Sweater Sleeve

I am taking my cue from Busy Bea Knits and doing some summer food and knitting pairing. Check out her site! She has the most tempting raspberry salad and socks you've ever seen! You will love all her latest sock creations! She and I go way back...We met in CA many years ago. And recently discovered we are kindred knitters. She's the one who got me blogging. Thanks, Bea!
So, in honor of you, here's my version of today's colorful garden edibles paired with my second sleeve on the needles:
Looks good enough to eat! Maybe the colorway for this yarn should be called "Blueberry" instead of "Air".

First Finished Sleeve

OK, this is a weird picture, and no, this is not a big men's tie... but it is the first sleeve (TA DA!) as flat as I can lay it out. It isn't blocked yet. It is shaped up at the shoulder. Now I am beginning the second sleeve and so glad to be done with the first. Finally! I am going to try to "match" the striping beginning at the wrist as best I can so hopefully the striping will be similar on both sleeves. I can hope for it anyway. It is difficult with a pieced sweater like this to get the striping to match unless you get lucky and find where to start your yarn just at the right spot in the skein. Overcast day today, so good day to work on knitting. Remember, this is what I'm going for:


I have the back done, the two front pieces done, and one beautiful sleeve done! After the next sleeve, it will start to get exciting!

Frogging the Sleeve...Ocean Days

Oregon Coast near Otter Rock

This is the perfect bench for a romantic view of the beach. This is what "our" beach looks like looking north. It's a tradition for our family to come down here every year over the 4th of July.

This is the view of the beach looking south and taken from one of the cabin decks where we all end up gathering for our meals.

Here's one of the cabins that we usually stay in. They are rustic and simple, but have held alot of memories over the years.

Here's a shot of my sleeve before I discovered a major boo-boo and had to start "frogging" and ripping it back since I didn't do my increases correctly. It was a sad, sad thing to rip it back.
Here's a shot of it after I had to rip it back all the way to the ribbed cuff. Now I am going to be much more careful when my pattern reads: "Increase at EACH end of the 10th row"....Grrr!

SO now I am back at it ... and it looks like this again. Much wider. Probably good! Now it may actually fit my arm!In the meantime, Mom is turning out amazing socks once again!

Sandy Days at the beach...The kids decided to do a real sandcastle this year!

Here's part of the crew. Everyone pitched in! Castle was complete with moat and all sorts of sea things decorating it. The waves swept it away in the night and the kids went down to watch it go!

We were very fortunate this year to have had all of the cousins on the trip and Jeff along too. Nobody had to stay behind due to work or other commitments. It was a very special trip indeed!

Vacations are always too short...Our favorite things about our trips to the ocean are:

Playing board games, going to Pie Chalet for Marionberry pie, wearing our Keene's, fireworks on the beach, buttermilk pancakes, chef salad, Mo's chowder, and cobbler, early low tide walks, checking out Devil's Punch Bowl, sand dune rides (don't smile or you get sand in your teeth!), movies at the little theater (it's dark in here, can't they afford lights?) Laughing, reading, more games, pictures, pictures...and no matter the weather...it's still the ocean and it's awesome!

First Sleeve

I figured I should at least blog about knitting once in awhile since this is a Knitting Blog after all. I have been reading alot of knitting mysteries lately as I mentioned before. My co-worker got me hooked on them. Thanks, Carol! I started getting jealous of the characters who were knitting, since I was just reading about knitting and not actually knitting. So I started knitting again and here's my very first sleeve so far. It has a ton of ribbing at the bottom so it looks very small, however it stretches around the wrist actually. After the ribbing, you change to larger needles, which I've done, and as you go up you increase every so many rows so hopefully the thing will fit over my arm when all is said and done and it's seamed together. If not, it could be a pretty funny and grand experiment! This will be what I take with me to the ocean so when I'm not reading about knitting and actually knitting, it will be my project. And when I get stuck, Mom will be there to bail me out. Remember, this is the sweater I'm working on:

I already found jewelry to match it, seriously, I did. So I have to finish the thing now.