This is a sweater I made for my niece from an old pattern booklet my grandma gave me...looks like the booklet is from the early sixties maybe. I updated it by making it in a sassy color instead of the white the pattern suggested. I also used buttons to close it, instead of a single ribbon tie. (What baby would be able to resist pulling out the bow and tangling the ribbon?)



Here is a closeup of the lace pattern, with a white thing inserted so you can see it better:



The yarn is Dale Baby Ull. Probably the thing I'm most proud of with this sweater is the finishing. You honestly can't see the sleeve seams from the outside--the lace pattern looks unbroken.

I'm going to get it sent off to my niece tomorrow before she gets too big to wear it! 

I just finished this sweater last night:



Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Silk in Sangria. I used about 11.5 balls for the 41 1/2 inch size.
Pattern mods: I knitted the body in the round up to the armholes (instead of in two pieces). It's so much faster that way! I also made the sleeves about four inches longer than the pattern to accommodate my extra-long arms.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. If I were going to make it again, I might add some waist shaping, and a person could also use set-in sleeves instead of the drop-shoulder kind for a more tailored look. Mostly, though, I'd say this is a good pattern.

I "finished" this a couple months ago, but just finally fixed it so that I'm happy with it two weeks ago (more on that in a sec.)

Pattern: Sanpoku from Berroco's Yin and Yang leaflet. It's very similar to the Origami Cardigan that will be in the summer issue of Interweave Knits--I assume that is a later version of this pattern, since it's by Norah Gaughan and she works for Berroco.

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca, just over 5 skeins. This yarn is so soft and great. I will definitely use it in the future.

Here are some picks:





The only thing I did not like about the pattern was the way the back came out looking. Here's the way it looked after I finished the sweater without any pattern mods:



I didn't like the curled up untidy look, so I picked up stitches along the inner edge of the bottom and knitted on a facing or hem. Now I think it looks much better:



(ETA: just noticed my butt looks weird in that picture, but whatever  )

Thanks for looking!

This is a shawl that I finished today. It's made out of my new favorite yarn, Malabrigo worsted merino.





The pattern I used is called Lonnie's Malabrigo Shawl of Many Colors (bought it at a LYS). It's meant to be made out of a bunch of different colors, but I only used one. I made it several inches longer than the pattern said, which I'm glad I did because the length is perfect for tying the tails. If I make another one, I'll probably make the ruffle at the bottom edge a bit less ruffly. I do really like what the weight of the ruffle does for the drape of the shawl as a whole, though. This is a good shawl for wearing at the office, since it isn't so long that you end up sitting on it.

Here's a closeup:


I just realized that the top of my head is cut off in all of the pictures. Oh well. It's not that I'm shy, I was just concentrating on getting good pictures of the shawl. 

I finished this a couple weeks ago, just didn't get around to posting it until now. I used Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight yarn. Really nice stuff.


(my little furball had to be in the picture, of course)

Here's more of a closeup:


Sorry for the blinding light there. Currently I'm using the webcam embedded in my MacBook as my digital camera. 

This is a really fun project, and not too difficult either. Highly recommended. I'm really pleased with how mine came out. It's going to be a Christmas gift for my mom.

I'm working on a dress made from some great Asian-print brocade, and it's turning out to be not so easy...the fabric frays like crazy. Here's what I've tried:
-First I used the glue-type fray check stuff (comes in a little bottle, and you drizzle or brush some on the edges of your fabric). This is what the lady at Joann's said to do. Maybe I just didn't get a good brand of it, but it's been two days and the stuff is still kind of sticky. I'm going to have to trim it off if I don't want my dress sticking to my skin...which I don't. 
-Next I tried overcasting over the edge of the fabric to keep it from fraying. The very edge of it is so delicate and fray-prone that stitching at the edge kind of distorts it and would make it hard to ensure that I'm using the correct seam allowance when I go to put the pieces of the dress together. It works a bit better if I do it a couple millimeters in from the edge, but it still doesn't completely solve the problem, especially at the corners.

Does anybody have any good solutions for this? I'm fairly new at sewing and this is my first project where the fabric itself is the biggest challenge. I'd love to hear about anything that has worked well for other people.