I'm a happy hooker

Don't know if you remember the alpaca sweater I made Kevin last Christmas, but it was frought with problems. First and foremost...it sheds. I know Kevin well enough to know that alone puts it off the "I'll actually wear this" list. Second, there were design issues and the sleeves are just way to long (and grow more when on) and would need re-making anyway.

So...I decided that the yarn was just too expensive and yummy feeling to not just frog the whole thing and do something with it. I started looking for a pattern for myself with the following criteria:

*bulky yarn pattern
*pullover sweater I could wear alone (so I don't have to de-shed a shirt underneath every time I wear it)
*trendy (hard to find in a bulky pattern)
*close fitting (my personal style, I just hate things that are baggy)

I about fell out of my chair when I found this pattern:

It's even in the exact same color as my yarn!

I rock.

Plain and simple.

From my previous experience with this yarn, I'm counting on this working up pretty quickly. So maybe I'll even have it done over Christmas break.






Which is cool, because here's what my mom's getting me for x-mas (including the yarn!) that I want to get started on very soon:

I'm making it in dark lilac alpaca/silk elegance. Yummy.

O.K. so.... (drum roll, please!)....here's my two ACTUAL FINISHED OBJECTS!!!!
That's me trying to figure out how to take a picture of a something on my person. This is about the best picture that came out. The lighting in my studio is horrible and I couldn't quite figure out how to angle the camera right in the mirror, but I think you get a good idea of the sweater. (someone do a tutorial on self picture taking, please!)

It's a mock rib and I really like how the design came out. Also, it's just super soft to wear. The sleeves, which I frogged in the first place because they were too small around, actually came out bigger around than I meant for them to be, but I'm leaving them as is (and, um...don't tell anybody, one sleeve is 1/2 inch longer than the other one!)

And here's the lace shrug. I'm thinking about turning this in to Knitty.com as it is entirely my own design. We'll see if I get around to figuring out how to do that. You can't see the lace really well in these pictures, but there's a ruffle lace that goes all the way around the neck and back and a different lace at the sleeve openings, more of a flat leave patterned lace.


Ooo, with the poor picture quality, you can't even see how bad my eye looks! It's my right eye where the shingles are (yes...still) and the inner part of the "white" is really all red. Oh, and I think I need a haircut.