The sweater, it is finished. Well, not officially finished, there is no ribbon on the inside. But I think that’s alright, because after wearing the sweater I realized that you can’t see the inside of the zipper most of the time, so it’s not ugly. I was expecting for it to stick out like a sore thumb, not so much.

Can't see the inside of the zipper!

Installation itself was surprisingly easy. I was expecting some horrible horrible thing to happen from all the accounts I’ve heard and strong warnings telling me to make sure the zipper is in straight and etc. Basically, I pinned the zipper in where I thought it was straight, basted it in with lovely red thread and tried it on, and decided it was still straight, then consulted my mother who agreed with me, and then sewed it in. And it was straight.

Note the awesome red thread that you probably won't be able to see unless you are so inclined to make this bigger

I sewed it in by hand, quite honestly I don’t trust a sewing machine with my hand knit objects. Nor do I see how that would actually work – wouldn’t it stretch out the fabric (thus making it not straight)? I don’t know, people keep claiming that it works.

In other news:

My bag is going alright. Lots of basting. I’ve discovered that basting makes me hate the sewing machine less – less time involved in front of it, as I can baste somewhere else and then quick sew up what I need to. But it’s going slowly, and now that school is back in session don’t be expecting this to go very speedily.

using yellow thread this time instead of red thread.

I managed to break my first sewing machine needle last night (aww, significant events in a sewer’s life, we should scrapbook this). I couldn’t exactly ask mom how to fix this situation since it was quite late and she was asleep, so I’m proud to announce that I replaced the needle all by myself! Of course in the process I managed to do something (I have no idea what) that makes the thread break while sewing. This I could not figure out how to fix by myself, and will need to consult mom about tonight.

I’d also like to apologize for the sad looking pictures I post on here. I look at other people’s blogs and they take awesome pictures of their knitting. I can’t seem to create artful knitting photos so I apologize if they’re rather uninspiring.

various....

No! I have not been knitting. But I miss you all so I thought I’d tell you about how I’ve not been knitting.
I believe I have chosen a zipper for my sweater. Actually, I have chosen two.

First, I bought the dark one. It is 18”, which is a slight problem because the sweater opening is 17”. But, quite honestly, I know nothing about zippers. When I got there I discovered that they only make them in even inches (or at least that’s the trend that I saw), so 17” was not an option. Interesting. I also have no idea if you should lean towards too long or too short if you come across this kind of problem. My gut says “too short” but they didn’t have any zippers I liked in 16”, and I am sometimes an impatient person and I wanted my sweater done right then, so I bought the 17” zipper that is a color that doesn’t really go with my sweater to being with. But then school started, and although I really wanted to finish my sweater, that was no longer an option.
So then a few weeks later I went to a different craft store, and they had the perfect zipper, right size and right color, but it’s reversible. I decided that I don’t care. So now if I really want to, I’ll be able to reverse my green sweater. I don’t think I’ll want to.

I also bought two ribbons to line the inside, one on each trip. I really like the plaid one, but I don’t think I want it for my sweater. I think it would be a bit too flashy.Not that the ribbon in itself is flashy, I just think that if someone sees it they will be more likely to look at the ribbon than the sweater. The second one is a bit more toned down, it should work alright.
I hope to install it over spring break. I have never installed a zipper before – this should be interesting!


And now since I’ve neglected you for so long and this is a rather boring entry anyway, I’ll post some random pictures:
You know what I really like? Candid pictures of people with no explanation as to why or what situation they were taken in. I don’t know why. I love looking through other people’s photo albums. Posed shots I find boring, predictable. It’s the pictures that are taken when no one realizes their picture is being taken that are the good ones. They don’t need to be amusing or really interesting in any way, I just like them. So here are some candid shots of my friends, I hope you enjoy them. Or at least are not incredibly bored by them.

…. It’s a sweater!

That’s right, a fully completed sweater appears, seemingly out of thin air – how does she do it?

Usually a knitting blog is used to document your knitting; that is, your knitting adventures and misadventures, not just completed works. But I didn’t really want to share this project with you until it was completed because I was making it up as I went along – that’s right, no pattern. And the last time I tried to wing it I made this ugly thing, that although was definitely a sweater, was definitely really, really ugly. I didn’t want to share with you my progress and then have the end result be something so hideous I didn’t want to share it – that would just be mean.

But actually, it turned out just as I expected it!

Why didn’t I use a pattern? I couldn’t find one I liked, quite honestly. I like plain things- I don’t really like the look of cables, I didn’t want colorwork, by no means did I want something lacey, I wasn’t interested in ribbing, or stripes or fluff or frill. I also wanted it to fit, nothing baggy or box-like. I just wanted your normal, everyday sweater. Patterns for them are really hard to find. Actually, stuff like that is really hard to find in clothing stores too (i.e. non-stretch jeans).

I love this yarn! Moda Dea Washable Wool. I highly recommend it. I have nothing bad to say about it. It knits nice, it washes nice, I have no idea what it does in the dryer since I haven’t put it in the dryer, but I’m sure it’s nice in there too!

After washing I followed my mom around the house trying to find a flat place to lie the sweater down to dry. Because my mother is brilliant, she came up with this idea – it’s two (clean) window screens on the sides of the bathtub! So ingenious! Since air could get to it from all sides, it only took a few hours to dry!

It still needs a zipper, and when I get to that I’ll be sure to keep you posted. I’m thinking that I want a big, fat, metal zipper – we’ll see if I can actually find one.

Oh yes, and Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a rather snowed in day here, or more like iced in day as there was heavy sleet all night. Did not make for a good time shoveling. Classes were cancelled until 10:00, but I still couldn’t get out of my driveway by then (our road hadn't been plowed yet), so I had a very good excuse for skipping chemistry….