Daily Craft - All done!

Remember that cardigan I was knitting in sock yarn that I thought would take me 6 months to make?  I'm proud to say that one month and six days later, I am DONE!  I think I surprised myself a little bit with this one, especially considering I didn't actually spend every day knitting obsessively and giving myself carpel tunnel.

The verdict?  I'm actually very happy with it and my only complaint would be that it's perhaps 2 inches shorter than I'd like it to be.  I should have trusted my instinct on that when I was knitting it up and gone a little longer.  Hopefully it'll stretch out a little bit with some love and washing.

Knitting a garment with sock yarn wasn't as painful as I thought it might be, and I find that lighter yarns are better for me anyway - both more flattering and better for my internal temperature control (I run warm).  I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy the DROPS pattern was to follow.  When I was a less confident knitter, I remember looking at a couple of DROPS patterns and being completely intimidated/confused.  Apart from anything, the way the patterns are laid out in a clump of text makes it all look far worse than it actually is.  I ended up cutting and pasting into a word document, which I formatted to my liking and made it much easier to follow.  They have a truly extensive database of good patterns though so I'm glad I'm over my mental block when it comes to their patterns!

I've dubbed it the "Year Round Cardi" as I suspect this will be getting lots of use.  I've got the cardigan bug now though and I'm contemplating what I may make next.  Hopefully I can finish another in a similar time frame!

Daily Craft - Tiny Little Stitches

I am excited to say that I got a decent start on my cardigan over the weekend.  I could have gone on a search for the perfect yarn online, but to be honest I'm too impatient for that.  That's several days of knitting time that I would have lost while waiting for delivery!  I ended up buying Lion Brand Sock-Ease from Michaels, which is a wool/nylon blend and also states that it's machine washable, and can even be put in the dryer.  Caution says I'll likely be using my trusty hand-wash setting on the front-loader then line drying, lest I end up with a cardigan better suited for a toddler.  The materials cost about $25, which is not unreasonable (yay coupons!)  I will admit to originally being attracted to the pretty variegated sock yarn colors and spent quite a bit of time musing over the potential to avoid bad color pooling or inconsistent stripes.  In the end I decided I'd be better off with a plain color and chose this green (which is actually much more olive in person). 

As much as I enjoy working lace and cables, I'm actually really happy that this is a nice plain stitch because it feels like it's working up pretty quickly, despite the tiny little stitches.  I've done 5.5" so far, and feeling like I'm getting somewhere at least.  Wishful thinking says I really will be done by the holidays...