I spent some time figuring out how to cast-on in the round and tons of time figuring out how to make increases in seed stitch without messing up the pattern. (They said it couldn’t be done – but when you spend enough time on it, I assure you, IT CAN!)

And then, after all that, I started messing up the cables left and right.

So far so good, no mistakes.

See the mistake I made in the bottom left of the center section?

And then I made the mistake AGAIN on the back.

And then I made the mistake on the FRONT.

So here I go again - Baby Aran Take Two

• Pattern: Sweetheart Pullover
• Needles: Size 5 and Size 3
• Yarn: Worsted weight
• MC: Baby Bees, Sweet Delight Twist, Teddybear colorway
• CC: Brown Acrylic

This pattern came from a booklet called  Time For Baby. I used Baby Bees, Sweet Delight Twist yarn in Teddybear. It’s a white, beige, and light blue colorway that I bought before I knew the sex of the baby because I knew if the pattern was frilly enough it would work for a girl too. It’s worsted weight and very soft. It has a “warm” feel even though it’s acrylic. Who knows if it will fit or be comfortable, but it’s just adorable.

Plus, it’s my first try at Intarsia! The funny thing is that the Intarsia heart went faster than any other part of the sweater. I always do better and knit faster when I’m doing something I find interesting. Too much stockinette stitch puts me to sleep, and makes me put the knitting down.

The thing I liked least about this pattern was sewing the seams. I loathed this part and it brought made the perfectionist in me scream! If I do this pattern again, I will knit it seamlessly in the round. It made me realize I need to be more picky about choosing patterns and be more proactive about modifying them if need be. But all this comes with experience, and the great thing about knitting for babies and children is that you can finish entire garments much more quickly, whether they are practical knits or not.

The pattern is Snow White, by Ysolda, and it is beautiful, but not working out for several reasons:

1) I think I need to knit the next size up.

2) I don’t think that Knit Picks Shine worsted is the right yarn for this project – at least not in this size. I should have used a wool yarn, I just fell in love with this yarn and color.

3) I didn’t buy enough yarn for the project anyway!!!

So, because I’m not ready to tear it out just yet, I’ve started knitting a new project with the unused balls. Once that is going well, I won’t mind unraveling this for the new sweater.

I’m currently working on Stephanie Japel’s Textured Circle Shrug from Glam Knits, which is available for free from Lionbrand.com.

Here is the current progress:

Want to know what I’ve been working on for the past several weeks? A scarf which is supposed to be simple, easy! You all know the pattern: Old Shale, also known as Feather and Fan…. Simple right?

Except, I’m a perfectionist. Except, I wanted to make it just perfect, exactly what I was seeing in my head. For instance, this is the classic, basic pattern for Feather and Fan:

• R1: Knit edge stitches [K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times] repeat, knit edge stitches
• R2: Knit
• R3: Knit
• R4: Knit edge stitches, Purl, Knit edge stitches

Except, I decided I didn’t want the waves to be so deep or so wide because I was using this crinkly yarn with a lot of elastic, which I had been having trouble finding a suitable pattern for (I had been dying to make Veronik Avery’s Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty: Spring 2008, but it simply did not work with the amount of elasticity in this partly nylon yarn). So I decided to make the pattern be a repeat of 12 stitches instead of the usual 18.

But that wasn’t enough. I had seen somewhere a pattern where the purl rows didn’t continue all the way across. Laurie Osborne calls it Waves & Shells and it’s really pretty, she got a lot of compliments on it.

And here is my version, modified with the 12 stitch repeat:

But something didn’t seem right. I had a hunch that the shells would look better if they were wider, as in the original 18 stitch repeat pattern. So I tried the original Feather and Fan with 12 stitches:

Go ahead and click on the pics to see the pattern up close.

Again, I thought it would look better with the original 18 stitch repeat (which I tried, but then frogged before photographing – didn’t like it at all for this particular project). One last experiment. I found this really pretty pattern on Ravelry, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

Well, unfortunately, i just didn’t think this pretty pattern was suitable for the scarf I envisioned. It’s a neat pattern because the edges are all included in the pattern and the project does not require finishing. But it really looks better as a blanket with many, many repeats.

So in the end, after all that, I am back to this! 

Except….I can’t even use the many inches that I’ve already knitted because I’ve decided I want a scalloped edge as in the Feather and Fan version above. Well, I’ve cast-on again and it’s going along fine. It certainly won’t be done in time for Christmas though, which was the original plan! Why was I born this way? Please tell me I’m not the only knitter who is this neurotic!

I couldn’t resist posting another, better, picture of the most pleasurable knitting I’ve done in months:

I’ll make it brighter so that you can see the details I am so proud of!

And, darn, it’s hard to get the color from turning out too wonky, as in Figure B above. The green is pretty bright, but not quite that bright.

As a result of all this swatch knitting, as I mentioned before, I really, really improved in my knitting. Because I’ve become more fearless, I tackled a sweater in the Stephanie Japel mini-sweater/Julia Allen anthropologie-inspired tradition, incorporating patterns and elements that I really love. Following is a sneak peak.

And photographing this made me wonder, Am I the only one who can take 50 pictures of the same sweater in the blink of an eye and then spend 45 minutes trying to choose photos for her blog? My perfectionism really comes out here. It would be grand if I could just snap a couple of photos and be done with it. But no, you see, I love the two photos above because the light shines through the pattern on the back so prettily, and you can still see the stitch patterns very well.

Check out the following photos. Which one is the true color? GRRRR!

Anyway, I can’t wait to model the finished product for you, but the finishing is taking a little while because I’m terrified of running out of yarn and have been unraveling swatches in an attempt to get enough to finish. I haven’t yet checked to see if I can get this same yarn, but in the end, I might have to.