WIP Wednesday: Sweaters and Birthdays

So, I actually have something different to show you this week for my wip - I didn't say new, lol, but it is different. I finished my Marion for the knit along on Sunday :) And when I say finished, I mean blocked, buttons, and all. I even got to wear it this week. I just have to take pictures so I can put it up here to show off (hopefully pics will happen tomorrow). Anyway, this left me with no project (gasp!) and I had the General Conference of my church for 4 hours that day. We all know by now that I can't just sit and watch something without my hands doing something, so I pulled out my poor Emelie Cardigan.

I managed to add about 2 inches to this on Sunday alone :) I'm pretty pleased about that. I think knitting the Marion got me more mentally prepared for this sweater. The Marion uses a chart and a key for the cable design (and the design changes every single row), so I got used to looking at multiple sheets of paper over the course of making that sweater. The Emelie uses a lace chart, but it's only 6 rows long that repeat - much easier to memorize! So I managed to get through that 2 inches on Sunday without having to go back and fix mistakes at all. The sweater itself measures 9" right now and I'm on the last set of increases for the bust.

And here is what the lace looks like thus far :) I am really excited about how this cardigan is turning out :) Too bad fingering weight yarn takes so long to knit!

I did also finally buckle down and start my nephew's birthday present. I've known what I wanted to make for months, but it kept getting delayed for other more pertinent projects. Now I have less than a month so I need to get cracking. I am not going to reveal what it is yet since my sister may read this blog (and really when it's a 2 year old, the present is just as much for the parents as it is for the kid). As you can see, I have made a head. That's all you get to see, lol. I got this far on Monday night only to realize I don't have the right size eyes the pattern calls for. I've never encountered this before - I mean really ... 7.5 mm eyes? Give me a nice even number increment and no problem, between Hobby Lobby and Joann's I can find it. This pattern should have just said,"Oh, by the way you will have to pay 3 times the price for the eyes to make this project." Anyway, annoyance with eye size aside, I have examined all my options for buying safety eyes and I've decided to go with homemade felt eyes. I didn't want to end up spending $20 just on the eyes to make this when the whole point of me making him a gift is so that I can save money. So, felt it shall be. Plus I didn't want to have to wait for any ordered eyes to arrive since I really have to stop at this same point on each head so that I can still attach the eyes before moving on. So, I will plug on with this and you probably won't get to see it again until after Luke's birthday :)

And just as a little side note - this is what my yarn bag looks like right now for this project. That's a lot of yarn! I think there are like 10 skeins in there since it takes lots of different colors for the little details. And this isn't all that I will need, just for the record. This is only the yarn for the first part. Thank heavens for a large yarn stash :)

So, that's it around here this week :) I've also had a bit of my sewing mojo back, so we'll see where that goes. Check back soon for a big finished project!