I got a new camera for Christmas! So now I’ll have some halfway decent pictures again, no more blurry camera phone shots. I got a Canon PowerShot SX230HS and I really like it. It’s small, pocket sized, and it takes great pictures. I need to play around with it some more.

I’ve also been doing a bit of knitting. My cold went away and then two days later decided to stage a comeback, so I spent a couple days doing nothing but sitting in bed and reading and then I decided to knit. I found this old thick and thin black yarn and knit a Dorflinger Tee from the Fall 2010 Knitscene. I washed this up Wednesday and it’s still drying, it will probably take a few days since it’s cold. I made this in a size 47 so it has a little over an inch of ease and I should be able to wear a shirt under it comfortably and I’m blocking it pretty aggressively so the lace shows better. I almost didn’t have the yarn to finish, I have about five yards left, it was close, but I made it.

Then today I buckled down and finished my BSJ that I started in June. This is such a neat little sweater, I can’t believe I waited so long to knit one. All I had left to do was seam up the sleeves and knit the I cord around the neck and it took all of 30 minutes to do. So this is done but I think it’s still a bit big for the baby I made it for, oh well. Next time I’ll know to use thinner yarn, this is worsted weight. Now I just need a couple little buttons.

Here’s another picture from my new camera. It has a toy camera setting which changes the colors and puts a vignette on the edges. This is picture hasn’t been retouched at all. It’s nice having a real camera again.

I am officially on my winter break from school and now I have time to catch up on things that I actually want to do, instead of rushing to do all the things I have to do. Yesterday I sat down and finished the book (The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter) that I’ve been reading since freaking October and today I’m going to knit and make cookies.

But my biggest thing right now is trying to decide what to knit next. I have a little money, I’m trying very hard to keep this under $75 since I’m basically broke. I really need a black cardigan. I have a couple that are gray, one blue, and a really heavy bulky black, but I need a black sweater that I can just throw on over a shirt when it’s chilly. I want it to be either solid or slightly heathery, no tweeds, and I’d prefer a v-neck with cables and maybe a shawl collar. And I don’t want to have to pay extra for a pattern, so it either needs to be free or in my library. So I’ve been scouring Ravelry and I found five that I like and that fit all my criteria and one that doesn’t fit but that I think could work.

Here’s the candidates and I’ll link to them on Ravelry.

First up is the Dollar and Half Cardigan by Veronik Avery from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. The pattern calls for a linen yarn but a lot of people have used wool and it seems to work fine. I like the closer fit of this and the low v-neck with the mix of cables and lace.

Next is the Central Park Hoodie. It seems like everyone but me has knit one of these, it really made the rounds of the knitting blogs a few years ago. I like that this is open but I’d probably put some buttons on it anyway and it’s nice and simple and looks very comfy.

The last on the top row is the Montview Cardigan from the Fall 2011 Knitscene. I keep wavering on this. I like it but there’s something about it that keeps making me change my mind. I like the fit and the slight shawl collar. Maybe it needs more complex cables? I don’t know.

Down to the bottom row. First is the Livingstone Cardigan from the Winter 2011 Interweave Knits. This is the one I’m leaning towards. I like the pretzel cables and I love the collar, the deep front ribbing, and the loop and toggle buttons. I could definitely see this in a heathery black or very dark gray over a t-shirt and jeans.

The next sweater is probably my second choice, it’s Breezy Cables, and it’s been on my to knit list since 2006. This cardigan just looks so easy to wear, I love the collar and the open front and the pockets and the long fold up sleeves. This looks so snuggly and warm.

The last is the outlier, Takoma from the deep fall 2011 Knitty. This is more of a jacket than an easy cardigan, it meets none of my criteria, but can you just imagine it done all monochrome in a black, white and gray?

So, there’s my choices. I guess it all comes down to me deciding if I want something like a cardigan or something more like a jacket. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I’ll just scrap the whole idea and make a St. Brigid.

I think I picked the worst day possible to do my blocking (but this time yesterday it was almost 100° and now it’s 57°). It’s cold outside, it’s humid and raining and it’s so dark that this is the best picture I could get. So this is all the stuff I’ve knit lately and I haven’t even blogged most of it. Starting with the sweater we have my Hampton Cardigan (from New England Knits), the brown hat is Ripley, the blue hat is Ishbel (both hats are from Whimsical Little Knits 2) and the scarf is the Raha scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia. It’s supposed to be warmer and more sunny next week so I’ll get some FO pictures then.

Since I finished my cardigan (and that’s really been a while ago, three weeks or so) I’ve been going crazy with accessories. I knit those two hats and the scarf and now I’m knitting some fingerless gloves and starting to look at patterns for gloves. And I finished a couple little things for KnitPicks, too. There are a couple cardigans I’m looking at and trying to settle on some yarn for them. I think I’ve been so crazy and busy with school that I just can’t stand to not knit constantly when I’m home. I haven’t tried yet to knit during class, I’m usually too busy taking notes.

Now I need to do some homework. I’m so tired.

Hey! I’m testing out the WordPress app for my iPod. It’s pretty cool. I’ve started a new cardi for me, Tempest, from an old Knitty in two shades of orange KnitPicks Pallet. The back is zooming right along, I’m almost to the arm hole shaping and I just started this on Tuesday.

I’m making my first batch of home made ice cream of the year. It’s made with coffee, chocolate, and peanut butter and I’m going to mix in some chocolate chips. It’s based on a coffee drink that my mom bought me last weekend and the base is really tasty, I just have to wait for it to cool down so I can freeze it. Making ice cream is my favorite part of summer.

Well, not much to talk about this week. Have a great weekend!

Today was a day for finishing.  I decided this morning that I was going to bite the bullet and finish up all of my almost finished projects.  To start, I bound off Bitterroot, which I finished last night.  The bind off itself took about an hour and half, there were over 300 stitches and the instructions had you work two stitches in pattern then put them back on the left needle and knitting the two stitches together through the back loop.  It made a nice, stretchy bind off edge and it should work out great when I go to block the shawl.  As for the blocking, I’ll do it sometime next week, probably Monday or Tuesday.

After the shawl was done, I decided to go ahead and sew the buttons on Calluna and give it a nice steam block.  Of course my camera batteries died after I took this picture so I couldn’t get a better shot, I’ll get some next week.  But this is all done and only a month after I had planned on finishing it.  This gave me so much trouble while I was knitting, I had pain in my shoulders after knitting a couple rows, I almost ran out of yarn (I have a tiny little ball of maybe 25yds left) and the button bands would not stop rolling, I think they’ll be ok after I being steamed, though.  Despite all the little problems I had, I still really like this sweater and I think my mom will, too.  The yarn is amazing, so soft, the buttons are perfect with the sweater (I used the KnitPicks Harmony wood buttons, I really like them), and even though it wasn’t hard to knit, all the texture and different stitch patterns and the cables make it look more difficult.  The pattern is really well written, there were a couple parts I had problems on but it was just because I wasn’t paying attention, and the cable charts are very clear.  Plus the end result is pretty and that makes all the work worth it.

The Details:

• Pattern:  Calluna Sweater by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence
• Yarn:  KnitPicks City Tweed HW in Jacquard
• Needles:  US9/5.25mm
• Modifications:  none that I can think of
• See it on Ravelry.