FO: Salem Hooded Jacket

IT'S DONE!  It's done it's done it's done! Somehow, when you actually knit on something it magically gets finished.

My Salem Hooded Jacket, pattern written by Melissa LaBarre, published in New England Knits and knit in Berroco Remix.  Ok, where do I start?  The pattern?  I love it.  I knit the 37.5 size with no modifications.  I can't tell you how happy I am with the results.  I was worried that the sleeves would be too short, but it all worked out in blocking.  I'm not sure what this sleeve construction is called.  It's not raglan, like I thought it would be, so maybe it's set-in sleeves?  In any case, they're long enough!  I also put the snaps closer to the edge to give the sweater a little more room because I wanted to be sure to avoid putting too much strain on the snaps.

The yarn was also a ton of fun to work with.  It's made out of recycled fibers, but it knits up like a well worn tshirt.  It is a little on the splitty side, and I did have to be careful that my stitches sat next to each other on the needles, but the results are well worth it.  If you have the opportunity to knit with this yarn, do it.  Just know that it does yeild a warm fabric.  I put it on in our air conditioned apartment before going to take pictures and I immediately started to overheat.

There are a few things I would change if I were to reknit this.  I'd probably eliminate the pockets.  They're about the size of my four year old ipod nano, just a tiny little square.  I'd also cast off the neck and then pick up the stitches for the hood.  I know I read about this in Little Red in the City, but when I started the hood while in a  hospital waiting room I failed to remember that.

Ok, I'm ready for it to be cold now!

For more exciting FO's, check out the lovely Tami's Amis!

WIP Wednesday: Red Sleeve on Faith

All of my qualms about the Berroco Remix that I am using for the Salem Hooded Jacket have fled.  I finished the first sleeve on Monday, immediately cast on the second.  The yarn is soft, and has just enough drape, and has these cool little moments of plant-like fiber bits that give it that tweedy look.  I really could go on about it forever.

I'm very thankful that my first 18.5 inch sleeve is knit in worsted weight on US 9s.  Of course, the weather here was 80 over the weekend, so I'm not sure how much I am going to love it for much longer.

And before you say anything, no, it is not too short.  Have you ever tried to take a picture of a lone sleeve on your arm in decent lighting with a cell phone?  It's hard enough just getting the whole sleeve in the picture.  And then there's the whole, what do you do with your arm?  It bunched and slid and then I remeasured it just to be sure.  I'm sure.  Now it will magically be too short after I've finished and woven in all my ends.

If I haven't scared you off from knitters all together, you should check out the other, much more interesting WIP Wednesday posts over on Tami's blog.

WIP Wednesday: Seeing Red

The yarn shop I frequent when I go home does this really cool thing.  Every week a certain kind of yarn is on sale.  It could be a brand, a fiber, a color, or whatever theme the owner decides on.  The week after Christmas it was green yarn (when I purchased the yarn for my Jaded Milkmaid, which was completed on Monday! I hope to get some pictures this weekend), back in January it was Cascade, and the week before Valentine's Day it was all red and pink yarn.  Obviously, I can't drive six hours to the yarn shop, but my mom was able to snag some yarn for me.

The lighting here has been really bad as of late, so this is the only picture I have.  Sorry.

Last week I went to the mailbox to discover six beautiful skeins of Berroco Remix in this awesome dark red colorway (for some reason I'm knitting a lot of red recently, which is odd because it is not one of my normal colors).  If you have not heard of this yarn, you should really check it out.  It's made out of repurposed fibers including nylon, cotton, acrylic, and silk.  I had looked at the yarn the last time I was in the shop, but decided against it because it was a little out of my price range.  Twenty-five percent off brings the price tag down enough that I'll be able to pay my mom back out of my next paycheck.

The gauge swatch pictured is for the Salem Hooded Jacket from New England Knits (yet another of my Christmas books).  I was originally worried that the yarn would be too stiff or course for a hooded garment, but knit up it has a surprising amount of drape and softness to it.  I knit the swatch on US size 10s and got what I thought was close to gauge.  I then cast on a sleeve on Sunday to have travel knitting, only to discover on Tuesday that what looked to big a gapey was.  I had misread the recommended gauge at least three times. I have since frogged the sleeve and cast on again using size 9, which makes me a little apprehensive because I'm a naturally tight knitter and usually have to go up needle sizes not down.

I'm hoping, obviously, that the yarn and pattern will still work well together.  I love the idea of knitting this sweater in such a soft tweedy red and am planning to put in a black ribbon for the neck accent.  It reminds me of a Buffy EU story in which the gang has  to deal with a former slayer who was involved in the Salem witch trials (obviously not cannon, but the story is from the late 90s and the show was hardly making cannon).  The current plan is to knit the sleeve and then see how I feel about it.  Wish me luck!

Also, check out other WIP Wednesday posts here.