what the snowman learned

You probably can't tell from this picture but its snowing a bit here. Honestly, I love the snow and can never understand why everyone moans and groans when a snow storm comes this way. I think they're beautiful and could sit around watching the snow fall for hours if I didn't have a mountain of homework to do. Maybe its because I spent a good part of my childhood down south where I think it snowed about twice before we moved northward that I love it so much. Having grown up without snow makes it seem so much more special and magical to me when it happens. Or maybe I just love the opportunity to cuddle up in warm woolen knitwear that snow provides. If its the later then the snow has perfect timing because I now have some new FOs to keep warm in.

This shot shows both my new foliage and wicked. As so many have already discovered Wicked is a super cute and easy pattern. I made the second smallest size, though I probably could have made it the smallest since the sweater came out a little roomy. Yet its exactly what I wanted: cute, warm, and cozy. This is partially thanks to the Nashua Creative Focus I used which is 25% aplaca. The yarn is a touch itchy but with a cami underneath its fine.

I would recommend that for this this size you do one less increase round before separating the sleeves. The number of stitches I had for the sleeves and body were what they were suppose to be. However, these numbers didn't work as nicely they should have for the crossover rib at the end. Its a minor problem so I didn't go back and rib everything out just to fix this. But if I make another one I'll keep in mind that the math might not work out exactly as I like and will have to double check it.

Foliage though came out great. I do have one word of caution and have adopted a new rule: do not drink and knit. Especially if working on lace. Thursday night I went out, had a couple beers and somehow convinced myself that a shot of tequila was a good idea, possibly because a cute boy was buying. Another good rule would be to not let cute boys influence my alcohol intake but I doubt I'd actually pay attention to that one. Rather than crawling into bed and hoping for the best in the morning I decided to stay up, knit, and drink water. I'm too embarrassed to show what I did, but when I picked up my knitting the next day I was rather confused. I had to rip out a couple of rows to avoid some wonky looking lace.

And now I'm going to steal an idea from Green Apples, a blog that I just love and read all the time. Recently, Jess was explaining that one of the advantages of always posting about her swatches is that she can easily look up the information later on, which is truly an excellent point. So here goes...Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran
Colorway: 146
Needle: 7
Gauge: 4.5 sts/ 1in

I feel in love with this yarn when I made a hat with it for my mom. Its very soft and squishy, not the least bit itchy or scratchy. My mom reports that her hat is super warm and wearing well. So really this stuff is pretty much awesome, which is why I had to snatch some up when WEBs was having a sale on it recently. The swatch did grow a bit when I washed it. I believe it had originally knit up to 5sts/1in so it expanded just a bit. I purchased enough to make a sweater so I think I'm going to make the Central Park Hoodie. I've always loved the pattern but was just waiting for the perfect yarn to come my way and now here it is!