Christmas knitting in August

Several weeks ago, I made my very first trip out to Webs. Being without a car here in Boston can be really inconvenient sometimes, especially when it comes to missing out on visiting great yarn stores! I have ordered from the Webs website several times, mostly taking advantage of the great closeouts that they often have (who could resist Noro Silk Garden on sale? Or Rowan? Or Alchemy? Or....any of a million other wonderful yarns?), but had never seen the store in person.

Boy do I ever wish that it was my LYS. Not only do they have a wonderful and varied selection of yarns, but their WAREHOUSE in the back was just amazing. We spent about 2 hours there, but could easily have spent several more! One of the many things that I came away with (sorry, I was lazy about photographing the haul, but when I get around to knitting them up I will make a note) was this pattern for a Fair Isle sweater that will become my mom's Christmas present. She tried on a sample in the store and fell in love, and of course I have to knit it since she "can't follow a pattern". Never mind that she's designed and knit several of her own sweaters, as well as clothes for both my sister and I during our childhoods! But really I'm more than happy to do it for her, one of the ways I like to show my love is through knitting. Let's hope that this knit (my first Fair Isle) will be fairly painless! =)

Here is a photo of the pattern. It is a Valley Yarns pattern, and the yarn is Lenox, a lovely alpaca/merino blend.



I've knit part of a sleeve so far:



My gauge is a bit off at this point, it's a bit small even though I went up a needle size and am traditionally a loose knitter (I usually have to go DOWN needle sizes....). The original sweater seemed a bit loose, so we will stick with this gauge for now (although I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass =P). I don't want my mom to be swimming in this sweater!

Tulip finished!

Hooray! Another baby sweater done! This was a really fun knit. Easy pattern, great yarn. I ended up calling Lettuce Knit to ask them if they had any more of that blue that I ran out of, and sure enough I was in luck! They're so nice over there; all I had to do was drop by and they just gave me another little ball.

I took the picture a few days ago, so by now all the ends have been woven in, and it's all set to be given away.

Details:
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy (superwash merino)
Needles: Knit Picks Options - size 5 and 7; bamboo dpns size 5 and 7

Now, on to the next thing! I think I might take a break from baby stuff since my other friends who preggers aren't due for another 5-6 months.