The semester just finsihed last Friday~~once I finish the last paper, I can knit as much as I want ~~ Haha~~ Yesterday my friend showed me this cute yarn store in South Pasadena -- Skein (Address: 1101 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91106). The owners (I think) are Chinese couples, which is very good cos I can speak Cantonese to them =P. There are tons of patterns that you can sit down and browse around. I promised my friend to knit him a sweater, that's why we were there to look for yarn. At the begining, I was just asking him what color he like and found certain pattern from internet to let him chose. It turn out that he became sooooooo involve ..... taking me to a yarn store and spending long time to look for the right pattern and color of yarn at the store. However, I really enjoy the process cos it's really nice of him to take me there. Otherwise, a person like me who do not have either car nor driving license, it's so difficult for me to look for good yarn stores~~ After a long discussion, here's our pick -- Louis!

The yarn indicated on the pattern is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran/ Matchmaker Merino Aran. Turn out that both of these yarns are too expensive (a skein of Extra Fine is $10.25, 50gm/95 yards, 16 skines needed, i.e. $164+tax!! no way.....) so we found a cheaper alternative instead -- Nature Spun Color 133 Blue Fog ($7.25/skein, 100gm/245 ards, 7 skines)...mmm....not really cheap cos the internet price is just $5/skein on average....but since I'm not paying for the yarn anyway, so it's not a big problem =P

Do you think I can finish the whole piece in 10 days?? We'll see....

I found this free pattern from knitty.com and think that it will be a good Christmas present for my boyfriend (the guy in the picture is my housemate, who's my volunteer model~). Basically it is a very easy to knit project. Since my gauge is always tight, so I use the # of stitches for M-size to acheive a S-size finishing.

The most challenging part is to pick up stichese for the armholes and neckround 2x2 ribs. This is my first finished-to-wear project (I've tried to make a sweater before but gave up in the middle =P) and the result is suprisingly good (at least that's what I think~haha~). The neckround look a bit too small and weired, but my mode said 'it's tight but not uncomfortable'.

Here's the link for the original pattern: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTpetrol.html

Time spent:
3 days, 5 hours on average each day, i.e. 15 hours in total to finish


Materials I used:
MC = Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease (Worsted Weight; 80% acrylic + 20% Wool) Color # Black 153 (4 skiens)
CC = Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Color # Grey Heather 151 (1/4 skiens);

#6 and #8 interchangable circular needles

Notes and Adjustments made from pattern:

1. I don't like the armhole ribs look too long and too lose, so I changed to size 6 needles when I make the 2x2 ribs. Also I just knit it until 1.25 inches, not 1.5 inches as stated in the pattern. For the neckround, I think 1 inch is just right.
2. I made a mistake when I was banding off the armhole ribs because it's too tight. So I used size 8 needles to band-off instead.
3. Picking-up stitches is kind of tricky. When I was making the armhole and neckround, I didn't knit the first stitch so that the edge look more regular. But when I try to pick up stitches from the edge, it's too lose, so I have to pick up from the inner-row. For the neckround, I have no problem to pick up right on the edge.
4. Pay attention when working on the front. Except the part where you need to shape the armhole as well as the neckround at the same time, also pay attention to the ribs. When I tried to seam the shoulder together, I found that the rib pattern of the front and back didn't match so I have to re-do the front all over again =( At the end I didn't follow all the decreasing for armhole as stated on the pattern, just stop decreasing when the pattern match with the back (but still follow the instruction for shaping neckround).