HSADTFFFO*

So, it's March. What do you say to the first FO post of 2008 here at LK? I know, right? Crazy talk.







The Phildar Asymmetrical Sweater is finally finished. Alert the press.

Pattern: Asymmetrical Sweater from Phildar Tendances 456 Fall 2006 (Ravelink)
Yarn: RYC Silk Wool DK (13 or 14 skeins) (Ravelink)
Needles: US size 4 Inox circs and size 2 Addi Lace circs
Buttons: from Britex. I love that place.
Started: February 14, 2007
Finished: March 22, 2008

What I learned: ribbing sucks. No really. In a lot of ways. All ribbing = no waist shaping, and really it's the waist shaping that keeps me going when I'm knitting a sweater. It's something to look forward to. Something to pay attention to.

And really, the freakin ribbing is the only reason this sweater took more than a year to finish. Ok, so, imagine if you will. You're knitting along on the back, you pull out your measuring tape and think, "Wow, what great progress I'm making. I'm almost ready to start the armhole shaping." And then you streeeetch it out and pin it down and think, "Oh, I actually have about eleventy billion more centimeters to go before I start the armhole shaping. Awesome!" Because, logically, this thing loses height when you stretch out the width. Right? So eventually you start counting rows going, "Ok, so if a train leaves Philadelphia at approximately 3.4 rows per centimeter, and it's already traveled 29 centimeteres, how many rows until we get to New York?" Rangsiwan might not remember, since it was about six months ago, but she saw some of this algebra in action. She was sitting nicely knitting on her sock, and I was mumbling and cursing to myself and frantically working out math equations on the back of the pattern. Nice first impression.

Anyway, I also learned how to graft live stitches to a cast off edge. The button bands are grafted onto the edge of the sweater fronts, which was a bit mind-bending for a while. I can graft the toes of socks closed, but I just could not make it work in this case. Then Montse Stanley walked into my life and made it all better. For some reason the up/down description she uses (as opposed to the knit-/purl-wise directions I had been using) made so much more sense.

And, I guess since it's now officially spring, this little friend joined us momentarily during our photoshoot.

So precious.

Right, so hopefully there will be more FOs around here soon.

*Holy Shit, About Damn Time Freakin' Finally Finished Object