FO Friday: Harvest Sweater

It took four attempts, but I finally have a sweater that I knit that fits!

I finished my Harvest Sweater at Knitting Camp and even Meg Swansen approves:

She liked the way it fits across the back:

Yep, I'm pretty proud!

This Tin Can Knits design is a great pattern. Not only is it free, but it is designed to be a first sweater so it comes with clear, detailed instructions. Even I could follow them! The yarn is Cascade 220 in a heathered pink. It took five skeins, meaning that the sweater only cost me about $45.

(The first three sweaters are in landfills somewhere.)

Have a great weekend. I'm headed to Chicago for an Urban Sketching workshop.

Mistakes!

My Swirl Yoke Sweater was coming along so beautifully. I grafted the 7 underarm stitches without a hitch. Then I tried to close the "sloppy stitches" at either end of the grafted stitches. Even following Meg's directions, you can see how awkward my attempt is.

 Here it is in all its close-up ugliness.

Clearly this is something I need to work on. I think a big part of my problem is that I don't fully understand the way the stitches are supposed to come together. Some people learn to "read" their knitting faster than others, and I'm not one of the fast ones. Lucky me, I have a second arm to practice on.

And then I have another error to report. In her gracious way, Meg pointed out that in my journaling from camp, I mixed up SSK with CDD. Here is how she explained the latter to me:

The cdd (centered double-decread\se): slip 2 tog k'wise, k1, p2sso

Barbara Walker's original ssk: slip 1 k'wise, slip 1 k'wise, insert L needle and k2tog

Dee Barrington's variation of ssk: slip 1 k'wise, slip 1 p'wise, insert L needle and k2tog.

 

Hopefully you  can learn from my mistakes!

Knitting Camp: Part II

Here she is, the lady who makes Knitting Camp so special, Meg Swansen:

And, yes, this is my handwriting:

And it couldn't happen without Amy Detjen, she who loves purple:

Here Amy is helping some campers master steeking. I had decided long ago that I would never steek, but Meg and Amy make it look perfectly do-able. So, maybe I'll change my mind.

This is what our classroom at the Holiday Inn in Marshfield looked like. (Aside: The hotel did a great job hosting us. The spaces were lovely and the food was delicious!) If you look closely, you can see Meg teaching up front.

Of course, I was knitting away, and I'll share that tomorrow for Keep Calm and Craft On.