FO Friday: Ravellenics edition

Uniform! -

So I was pretty amped to finish this up on time to win a gold - i.e. complete my knitting goal (in this case, starting and finishing this sweater) while the Olympics were running. I didn't do a whole lot of Olympics watching while I worked (we don't have cable, so it was NBC coverage or nothing).

I was pretty uncertain about yardage up until I'd worked about half of the yoke. To stretch my 9.5 skeins of O-Wool Legacy DK in the main color, Clay, I added two-tone green stripes in the same base. I saved my sleeve cuffs for the very end for yardage insurance, but that was about it for changes. Oh - I also knit the garter hem and sleeves one needle size down from specified. Even so, I think the hem could stand to draw in a little more - it's got a couple inches of positive ease at the hip which I find unflattering. To be clear, I knit a size larger than I usually would for positive ease everywhere else - this was my own problem/mistake and nothing to do with the pattern. My excessive height exacerbates the issue, as it hits me at a higher/narrower place on the hip than it would on a more average sized person.

Anyway, I found the pattern to be generally excellent. I did find a small error which was promptly addressed and I don't feel made much of an impact on the finished garment. It includes different options for body shaping and length, sleeve shaping, patch/inset pockets, a belt, and a plain vs shawl collar. Here's my longer body, fitted waist, no-pocket/no belt, straight sleeve, plain button-band version:

...Aaaaand, you can't see it at all, right? Sorry - didn't have time for proper self-portraiture... the closing ceremonies were mere hours away when I photographed it.

FO Friday: (very little) Ease

Oh, the joy of knitting from someone else's pattern!
Of course I couldn't resist making several tweaks, but my compulsive need to be smarter than every pattern is beside the point.

...It went mostly well. One of my mods was ill-conceived but later surgically amended.

Pattern: Ease by Alicia Plummer
Yarn: Miss Babs Yowza in Beachglass (this sweater being its third and final incarnation)
Mods:

• Smaller needles = tighter gauge, less ease, hopefully less pilling.
• Shortened the body slightly. This was the poor decision that resulted in an unflattering poofy situation just above the hem ribbing. Snipped, pulled out a row, knit a few more rounds even and grafted the whole damn thing back together. In hindsight it might have been easier to just rip out and reknit from the bindoff...Anyway, eagle-eyed readers will note that it still needs a re-block, but the worst is over.
• Tightened/neatened up the neck opening by finishing with even smaller needles (US 4/3.5mm), doing a round of decreases before binding off (k3, k2tog around), and after some trial and error, using a suspended bind off. 

Also:

I'll be recruiting testers for the above hat shortly, which looks less stupid when worn correctly. I may have gotten a little carried away with the fancy new camera and remote this morning.

a matter of scale

It's blocking day round these parts.

On the docket:
1 baby sweater
1 baby hat
1 pair of baby booties
1 pair of gigantic man socks

Nothing much to say about it; just thought the juxtaposition was kind of cute and hilarious:

Also a good reminder that I should enjoy knitting stuff for the kid (aka Cletus the fetus) now; he's got a good chance of eventually fitting into the larger pair. Also, there will be no griping about the lameness of Mom's knitwear from a newborn.