Recent Finished Objects

Lately, my knitting obsession has taken hold again after a knitting slump of sorts. I have always knit regularly, but in the last few years my progress was slow and nights would go by where I would just feel too tired to do much of anything. I missed my knitting, but I couldn't manage to do more than an hour or so a week, spread out over the entire week. This was mainly because of a job change and the active lives of two teenaged children. Luckily, I am out of the knitting slump and have been inspired to put the finishing touches on three sweaters that had been hibernating. Here they are -- all finished within the last month or so:

Must-Have Cardigan

This is a great pattern, and you can see on Ravelry how many knitters have loved making it. Mine is just one of many! This is a good Aran sweater to begin with if you haven't tried one before. New knitters should be able to learn how to manage multiple cable panels fairly easily since none of these cable panels are challenging. Since the cable crossings fall on rows that are multiples of one another, the pattern provides an interesting yet smooth-going knitting experience. I used the cabling without a cable needle method, which I learned from wendyknits years ago, as I do on almost all of my cable projects.  For more details, check out my Ravelry Project page under the Ravelry username, suzknittyspinner.

Ravensong

This is one of Lisa Lloyd's fabulous designs from a favorite knitting book of mine, A Fine Fleece. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in knitting Aran sweaters, spinning yarn, or even if you are just looking for beautiful sweaters and garments of all types. I had the pleasure of working as a test-knitter for Lisa years ago when she wrote this book. She is a wonderful designer and writes excellent patterns. If you check out the book, be sure to look at the sweaters I test-knitted: Espresso (pink), Harriet (black), St. Patrick (natural), and Gaelic Mist (purple). I also knitted one of the Road Not Taken scarves. 

I am so pleased with Ravensong since it is beautiful, fits well, and is the kind of garment you can wear to work, out for an evening, or even with a pair of jeans. For more details, check out Ravelry (suzknittyspinner's project page).

Trinity Vest

Another great design by Lisa Lloyd from A Fine Fleece. I have read about knitters who are dedicated to knitting their way through the whole book, and I am on my way to doing so. Lisa has such a great eye for combining stitch patterns that one might not think about, yet they look awesome together. This is just one such example with the combination of another traditional Aran stitch, trinity stitch (sometimes called blackberry stitch) and braided cables. I especially liked her use of three braided cables on the back of the vest to compliment the trinity stitch motif. When I wore this vest to work, I received so many compliments. It is a great piece to add to any wardrobe, and it was easy to knit. I encourage you to try this vest if you are new to cable knitting and would like to make something that will knit up quickly and fairly easily. Another bonus to the design is that it does not require much finishing work (except picking up for the button bands and neck, which might be challenging for a new knitter but is something that one should learn how to do since it opens up so many possibilities).

That is it for show and tell, everyone. This might be the most show and tell I will do for a while, but let's hope my knitting progress speeds up again this year. I am currently finishing up some socks for my son, an infinity scarf for my daughter, and another pair of socks for her, too. I will show those off soon, but then I look forward to beginning two more Lisa Lloyd designs that should be a lot of fun to discuss.

Have any of you knitted a Lisa Lloyd design or another cabled sweater? If so, please share your experiences in the comments.