Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Mario Sweater, It Begins....

I've started on the sweater!

I have modified the pattern a bit by shortening the rib at the bottom to 1.25" rather than 1.75" per Henry's request.  I'm knitting it on size 2, 14" needles.  I went to Michael's Sunday to find a long, size 2 circular, but the smallest size they had was a 6.  It made me sad/mad.  I was going to try Hobby Lobby on Monday, but the outside world turned into a winter wonderland.  So far it's working out and I'll probably keep it on the straight needles.

For the bright green bush, I dyed some of the cream yarn with Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid.  It was pretty fun and was not very hard at all.  The yarn got a tiny bit felted, but I've knitted the bush already and it still looks good.  It was a nice, inexpensive way to dye yarn.  It takes one package of Kool-Aid which only costs 20 cents.  Of course, I forgot to pick some up when I went grocery shopping so I had to go to Kroger right when the after church crowd went shopping and a few hours before the Super Bowl.  It was totally worth it though.  I'd rather spend 40 cents (got two packets in case I messed up) than over three dollars for a jar of dye.

The color work is going alright.  It's instaria work on the bushes and a combination of instaria and fair isle on Mario.  I'm worried about how these sections are going to look when I finish, but I'm sure I can fix it up during the blocking process.  I also don't have the black yarn yet (knit picks was sold out) and will have to do duplicate stitch over the sweater when they get some in.

I have also had a bit of trouble in trying to see exactly what color is supposed to be used.  There are more shades in the color chart than listed for yarn.  It's been one big guessing game.  I just hope Mario doesn't look strange.

Note:  I wrote this post a long time ago and was going to add on, but never did.  I've finished the front half already and will write up a new post about that process.

No comments:

Post a Comment