Newbie and the Knitter Knit Along: Finished!

 Here is my finished Cadence sweater!

Tada!

And the back.

The lace came out really nice too.

I learned a lot knitting this sweater and it came out really nice! I love the color too. It's pretty baggy on me but still wearable. I know the pattern is meant to be loose but there's a bit much ease for me. Reblocking helped but it streatched out again after just a few wears. If I knitted this pattern again, I'd probably knit the ribbing on the collar on smaller needles to make it tighter. I'd also knit the back a size smaller. I've read that that's kind of how you do a knitting FBA and the back is pretty baggy.

Ok, so now on to the good bits of the sweater. I learned how to knit with circular needles, read a lace chart, use double pointed needles, modify a knitting pattern, blocking, starting a new skein of yarn mid-project, and finishing techniques. The body of the sweater is very even and pretty. I didn't have to rip out hardly any of the sweater and it didn't become a UFO. Yay!

Hopefully there will be more lovely knits in my future!

More tid bits

There have been loads of things going on chez Star-Spangled Heart and most of them really aren't exciting enough to warrant their own post so I've just collected them together to share with you.

The hubby and I have finally gotten around to framing the gobs of art we have lying around. There two are mine and I'm terribly excited about the girly-ness of them. Instead of mats, I just used pretty scrapbooking paper as a background. So cute! And I also have another print being framed but it was a weird size so I had to get it custom framed.

I've also gotten this lovely Audrey poster right above wear I like to sit on the couch.

I've been working on a better way to store my hats and requisitioned this shelf from the living room to help organize them. I've also got some on hat stands on the top.

My sewing stuff was moved from the living room to the bedroom (much to my husbands glee) and I also added this white set of drawers to hold my expanding stash! The pink drawers are full of fabric plus I've got a single drawer full of "to sew soon" fabric and a whole shelf in the closet! Egads!

I've been knitting loads on the Cadence sweater and have made some progress. I think I'm a pretty slow knitter though. It takes me about 12 minutes to get through one knit round.

Wearing History Beach pjs! I need to get some nice shots of these but they are so cozy.

SSS and Shopping!

Here's a round up of the start of Self Stitched September.

Day 1: A Chic Work Ensemble

I teach general chemistry laboratory and have to be in appropriate lab apparel three days a week. I stuck with simple straight legged rtw jeans and my Sorbetto top.

Day 2: Feeling Hot Hot Hot

It was 90F this day and I was all about comfort after being in pants all day the day before. Pendrell blouse with rtw shorts. Alas, I wore a hole in the seat of these shorts and they have to be retired. :(

Day 3: Sewing and Shopping

It was hot again today and I was going to be sewing so no big poofy skirts for me. I wore a rtw top and bolero with my Wearing History Sailor shorts. Tres comfy for all of the hand sewing I had to do to finis up my Ren. dress. It is done though! Woot! Which means I can wear it when I go on Monday!

I also stopped by Jo-Ann's for yarn, some last minute Ren. dress supplies and fabric and patterns for my husband's costume. Last night he decided that he wanted to be a monk. So I'm whipping up a monk costume for him. He's not coming on Monday so I do have a few weeks to finish it. Of course, none of the big three had a monk costume pattern so I'm kind of throwing a few together and drafting some bits myself.

Yarn! I choose a bamboo wool blend in a lovely purple color called Twilight. It's not exactly the same shade as in my color palette but I loved it so I bought it.

Vogue patterns were on sale so I snatched up these two vintage hat patterns that I've been eyeing for a while. One's 40s and the other's 50s. Should be loads of fun!

The weather is supposed to cool off by Monday, which means I will be in a much better mood for knitting and fall sewing. Yay!

Stuff going on in September

Look a head to the rest of the month and it's a lot! So here's a round up of things you can expect to see on my blog this month. (The aka abbreviation corresponds to the tag for this event on my blog posts.)

I missed out on MMJune but I'm all geared up for Self-Stitched September! (aka SSS). I won't be posting outfits daily, but rather in groups every 3-4 days. If I'm a good blogger, there will be a picture of me in what I actually wore. If not, they'll be an old picture of whatever I wore.

'I, Stephanie Lynn, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear at least 1 handmade or refashioned item of clothing or accessory every day for the duration of September 2010'.

The Fall Essentials Sew-Along is going on too! (aka FESA) Hopefully this will help out with SSS!

In addition, I'm joining in Colette Patterns Fall Palette Challenge! (aka FPC) I think these two are going to work really well together. I already posted a fall palette and some sewing plans, but I'll do an updated post of FESA and FPC soon.

Casey's Circle Skirt Sew Along (aka CSSA) is also going on. Again, will fit in with FESA and FPC.

Yummy knitting! The Newbie and the Knitter knit along (aka NandK) is also just starting! I'm also planning on having some other knitting projects to go along with FESA and FPC.

Plus, the Renaissance festival starts this weekend! So I'll be finishing up my dress! I still have a lot of little details to finish up, like hemming and closures, and some fitting issues to address.