FO: Lodi Cardi

It's finally here!  My Lodi Cardigan is finally done!  Actually, it was done on Sunday but I wanted to save it for Friday to share with the Tami's Amis group because you were there for all the WIP posts (see what I did there. Excellent insertion of blog linkage!)

Lodi Cardigan from Knitscene Summer 2011 in Cascade Sierra

I finally got the yarn to photograph in the bright red it truly is.  Isn't it a lovely color?  Just made me feel like a superhero or something.

In all seriousness though I am enjoying this.  It may be obscenely hot outside but this is quickly becoming my go-to cardigan for overly air-conditioned buildings.  I highly recommend the pattern which is very well written.  This was my first sweater with a button band and the instructions actually made a lot of sense.  I chose these awesome sparkly buttons that seemed just wild enough to fit the bold personality of the yarn.  They're sewn on with navy thread that matches the grosgrain ribbon that I used per the Knitmore Girls' Couture Button Tutorial (took me two nights but the results are totally worth it).

While I honestly am enjoying this cardigan it did provide some learning moments.  When it was all finished and the buttons were sewn on I ran into my bathroom to try it on.  It looked great until I buttoned it and found that while it buttoned the fabric gaped.  It seems I had a momentary loss of brain function and made the same size as my bust measurements.  In a cotton yarn.  I blame the fact that I generally knit with a bit of negative ease and that I'm still new to this whole sweater knitting thing.  I seemed to forget that cotton yarn does not stretch the way wool and wool blends do.

But it looks great unbuttoned, and it was from my early knitting stash so overall I'm happy.

"My target is misbehavior"

Last week was really really rough.  There was a lot of bad news dolled out throughout the family, but it's a new week and this week only good news is allowed.

One of the most exciting things to happen recently is the arrival of Ysolda Teague's new book Little Red in the City.

I preordered this bad boy as soon as I had the opportunity, so sometime around January?  In any case, I am so excited to finally have this book.  Only down side is that I'm currently knitting solely from stash and I have nothing that could do these gorgeous patterns justice.  My favorite is Melia.

I've since fallen in love with all of the other patterns, but it's the technical stuff that's truly awesome.  If you have any interest at all in knitting sweaters, I suggest you check it out.  I'll do a more in depth review after I finish reading it and actually knit one of the patterns.

The other big exciting thing was my first ever Can't Stop the Serenity.  This was the sixth year and was tons of fun.  Plus I finished a sleeve on the Lodi Cardigan!

If you are unfamiliar with Can't Stop the Serenity I suggest you check it out.  It is the annual screening of the film Serenity held across the world every summer in honor of Joss  Whedon's birthday.  Funds raised from each event go to benefit Equality Now, an organization that fights some of the most brutal forms of gender discrimination around the world.

Now I need to try to get some work done before tonight's final installment of Lord of the Rings!

WIP Wednesday: Knitting Disasters in Middle Earth

For more WIP Wednesday fun check out Tami's Amis.

I can't remember the last time I did not knit when at a movie theater. It just does not work for me any more. I've always loved movies but the need to sit still in a dark theater for 2+ hours is not something I particularly relish if I can't have my knitting. Let's face it. Sitting still at all is not something I'm good at. Anyway, for the past two weeks Andrea and I have been putting ourselves to one of the most extreme tests of fan loyalty. We have gone to see the first two Lord of the Rings Extended Editions in theaters. Last night was The Two Towers -- three hours and fifty-five minutes, no intermission. So naturally I've been knitting. A lot.

This growing monstrosity (the Lodi Cardigan from Knitscene Summer 2011) is my current movie theater knitting, though I predict that by the end of Return of the King it will have at least one partial sleeve. I'm a bit afraid of having to pick up any stitches in a dark theater even if I do know every line of the film by heart.

Last night, while the battle raged for Middle Earth I was fighting my own battle. Against my needles. Evidently my knitting life is not exciting enough. We had just reached the Dead Swamp when I realized my yarn was not moving from the cord up to the tip of the needle. Now the yarn is a cotton blend so it is freakishly stiff a bit on the uncooperative side. I soon realized, however, that it wasn't the yarn that was the problem. My needles were splintering at the join.

I don't remember what brand of needles these are. They're a pair of US5s that I picked up at a yarn store last year. As the movie wore on, more and more pieces of the needle were snagging parts of the yarn, creating an epic battle that I ultimately won right as Aragorn fell off the cliff. Fortunately I was close to the part of the pattern in which I needed to change needle size, so I quickly grabbed my nice Clover bamboo circs out of my bag (much to the dramatic sighing of the woman next to me) and changed needle sizes early.

Only to drop a stitch at the beginning of the Battle of Helms Deep.