I have been so torn of late between my knitting projects!  I am trying to be true to my knitting, but it is so hard!Â
Here is my Mitered Felted Tote in progress — I’m rounding the bend:
There is a LOT of knitting to this bag! It takes 6 skeins of yarn (I bought 7 because I added the lighter color). It will take quite a while to get this baby done.
I also finished finishing the baby sweater for my friend:
Other than the sewing in of the sleeves, the major work involved knitting the top part from the green up, including the neckband. That was where the pattern got screwy. They did not have the neck centered on the pattern, so I had to make adjustments.Â
They never show a good picture of how the shoulders are put together so here is a shoulder shot:
The left shoulder is faced and just comes together on the fold line. The right shoulder is finished in the traditional Dale way. I did the neckband a little different: knitting the first row (from the WS so it looks like a purl row) to separate it from the blue stripe on the body and then I did a picot turning row (k1, *YO, k2tog*).Â
Here’s a close up of the button hole loops. Aren’t the lady bug buttons perfect??
Anyway, that’s done!
I have also been working a bit on the silk top — now I’m at 11-12 inches. 15″ gets you to the armhole shaping.Â
On a non-knitting note: Did anyone watch American Idol last night? I have not been following it at all this year but wanted to see Josh Groban. Did any of you see it when Celine Dionne sang with Elvis? It was unbelieveable! It really looked like he was there! I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but I found it thrilling to see him singing like he was alive and young and so talented. Wow, what a show. It was unnerving to see Simon so human, too!
PS from Susan — a couple of you asked about the buttonhole loops. I do use a tapestry needle and buttonhole stitch. I sew on the button first and then wrap the yarn around the button to determine the correct length. I used 3 strands of yarn for the base. I count the number of buttonhole sts I do so they are all the same length. I anchor each end of the loop so that they don’t pull too much when buttoned.
This is a close up of the BH loop I did on my Sunrise Circle:
The difference is that I made a square st by doing the BH sts in 2 parts: the first half is done as above and the second half is done in the opposite direction.
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That is one lucky baby! The buttons are to-die-for! How did you do your button loops?! They are amazing.
Comment by Michelle — April 26, 2007 @ 11:09 am
Too cute! Like Michelle, I’m very impressed with the loops. Was it done with sewing needle and yarn?
Comment by Marina — April 26, 2007 @ 11:25 am
Wow- that looks so professional. And the ladybug buttons are perfection.
I adore that little sweater. Having hosted the Dales of North America KAL, I
know what you mean about the patterns. There’s alot in there they don’t tell you.
I think it has something to do with the literal translation from Norwegian to English.
Comment by Lorraine — April 26, 2007 @ 11:37 am
*gasp* Your loops are utter *perfection*, my dear! You are inspiring me to get my Tokyo out again and fix the twisted yucky loop. Oh yeah, and sweater is pretty cute, too! *g* I love those Dalegarn baby patterns.
Comment by Romi — April 26, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
The baby sweater is amazing and absolutely adorable. The ladybug buttons are perfect. I really like the colors of your bag, too.
Comment by Brenda — April 26, 2007 @ 12:28 pm
Dude! We *are* separated at birth! No wonder I never got along all that well with my family. 😉 So, since you are a fellow Tokyo lover, would you like to test knit the hat I designed using the leftover yarn? It’s called “Toque, Yo!” *g* – I’m wearing it in my blog profile picture and people keep asking about it. Email me! rosemary at rosemint dot com
Mwah!
Comment by Romi — April 26, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
You don’t want to ask me about last night’s Idol show. I’ll just say that Elvis (I see dead people) was the best thing on it (except for Groban; he’s got a great voice but he just doesn’t do it for me).
The sweater looks cute.
Comment by surly — April 26, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
I think most of the Dale patterns contain some sort of major error. I recently knit Sapporo and the cast off for the zipper steek was completely misplaced (which I thankfully figured out not too far past that – but it still took me an hour with a tiny crochet hook to fix it). Another woman who goes to my LYS has the 125th Anniversary book and the chart for her pattern is missing an entire row. A woman in my knitting group last night was talking about the errors she finds in her Dale patterns and she has one of the baby books. They have such beautiful designs and tiny stitches – fixing an error can take a long time.
I’m a sucker for the perfect button. I knit a sweater for my 2 year-old neice for Christmas last year and found the cutest cat buttons in two different colors that exactly matched colors in the sweater. She could have cared less about the sweater, but she opened the box – pulled it out and screamed “Kitties on my sweater!” At least the buttons were a hit.
Comment by Jennifer — April 26, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Lovely bag and sweater! I must remember that buttonhole loop technique. And I must ask — can we see the back of the part of the bag you are knitting? How did you pick up the stitches for the 4th square?
Comment by AuntieAnn — April 26, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
I love the ladybugs. I just got some of those for a sweater I made. Too cute!
Comment by Kim — April 26, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
Oh, cute! The buttons are perfect.
Comment by Carrie K — April 27, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
That is one heck-of-a-cute ladybug baby sweater. And, ditto from me regarding the buttons, button-hole loops, and the fantastic bag.
Comment by Knitting Granny — April 27, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
So, I don’t know what a buttonhole stitch is and I love those button hole loops on the baby Dale. Could you be more specific of tell me where I can go to learn how to make these perfect loops. Thanks, vk
Comment by Valarie — April 27, 2007 @ 10:10 pm