I arbitrarily decided the number of stitches I needed for the sleeves after knitting the written 91 stitches for the sleeves and seeing how humongously poofy it was. I did about an inch of garter stitches for the cuff and then switched to stockinette. I spaced out a bunch of increases to give the sleeve a little poofyness but not as much as the pattern called for. Some straight rows were knit before decreasing the sleeve to the written number of stitches.

The fronts and back were knit together up to the sleeves and then I did raglan decreases until I got it down to the number of stitches being picked up in the pattern. I then did a bunch of garter rows, added a button hole, decreased some more, knitted a few more garter rows, decreased again before casting off. And voila, a perfectly fitting sweater that I put minimal brain effort into (all my brain effort went into studying.)

This has to be my most nonchalantly knitted sweater. All my other sweaters I worried about getting the sleeve decreases correct. Constantly counting the stitches. This one was very different. I was confident that this will turn out alright, no worries that it won’t fit me properly. I guess that has a lot to do with having knitted a SWATCH! *gasp*. I was all anti swatching in my last few sweaters which caused me to constantly worry that it won’t fit me. So from now on, I’m gonna swatch!

Pattern : Olivia by Kim Hargraves
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, 6 skeins
Needles: Size 3
Time to Knit: about a month
Gripes: I may have to move the placement of the button, its a bit wonky.
Ravelry Page for this

I’m still dyeing yarn in my spare time on the weekends. Its expanding. I’ve got 12lbs of yarn in my possession waiting to be dyed when I get the chance.

My dog has gone to live with my mom until winter break. I don’t like walking her in the morning, in the dark, in the cold. I am missing our afternoon long walks looking for cats in the neighborhood and chasing squirrels. In the meantime I haven’t done any dog torture for a while. She has either forgotten how muzzle stacking works or that the cheezeits are so yummy that she just can’t help herself, she was horrible at muzzle stacking. I only managed to stack one for maybe 2 seconds before she knocked it down and ate it.

I actually wrote a majority of this post last week but never posted it. I am only doing it now cause I have a huge 4 hour exam tomorrow and so I am procrastinating it (the weekend before the last 4 hour exam I was procrastinating by dyeing yarn). No dyeing this weekend however I am doing more knitting in between cramming information on the heart.

I’m knitting my own version of Conwy from Knitting on the Road. My version meaning after an inch in the leg, I can’t find where I placed the pattern so I did the heel flap and turn and stuff on a whim. I’m using my own handdyed Mumbi II yarn on size 0 needles. I am knitting this for my self but I am getting close to two dozen working pairs of socks in my possession. Is it too much? I am already getting overwhelmed by yarn yarn collection. I fully realized that I have more yarn than I can possibly knit in the next few yarns at the rate that I am going. Maybe I’ll get overwhelmed by socks once I reach a point in which I have enough handknit socks to last a winter without repeating!

I’m done with my first year of med school. In the process I’ve also knitted 10 pairs of socks. Socks are really the only things that I can easily knit during the school year.

A week after classes ended I left for Kenya for four weeks. About 4 hours after we arrived in Nairobi, my classmate and I went on a 3 day/2 night safari to Masai Mara. We had a great driver who took us all over the park. I took so many photos that I ran out of batteries after the second day, so I’m still awaiting for the photos from the third day from my friend.

A week later we went up north of Nairobi to place called Shalom City where we had no running water, no flush toilets and only occasional electricity. If you ever watched those telethons for Africa, they show people fetching dirty brown water, guess what? I had to drink, bathe, wash in that water! Our water though was treated and boiled for drinking. But still that water was nasty!

So why did I got to Kenya to drink dirty brown water? Medical volunteering with two of my classmates. We saw a lot of interesting cases, got some house calls (more like tent calls since they all lived in tents), and a couple of emergency cases.

There were many people knitting and crocheting but many of them were so poor especially the kids they were crocheting using matchsticks. It really shows the creativity and resourcefulness of the people. I wish I took a picture of the balls they make out of plastic bags and string.

About a week before we left, I decided to make a hat a day for the kids after finding some really cheap acrylic yarn in a supermarket. I ended up finishing 5 hats and gave them all away to the kids.

I have a couple of weeks left before classes begin again. In the meantime, I’ve been dyeing up yarn to sell on my etsy store. So come and take a look, I want to make enough money to get a used digital SLR.

I looked over my last year’s recap post and I have failed at three of the four resolutions. The only one I didn’t fail was knitting while standing up on the subway, I’ve done that a few times. My stash has grown even faster than I can knit considering I haven’t stopped buying but my knitting output has dramatically decreased. Colorwork? Um not so much, I tried making the bird in hand mitts, only half successful, I think I’ll just keep that one mitt and use it as an oven mitt. I haven’t really learned any new techniques but I have grown a lot more comfortable with my knitting techniques.

As for next years resolutions. I have my last official summer holiday ever coming up, I don’t have any plans yet except to do a lot of knitting! So here is my resolutions for this year, better late than never!
1. One more big lace project (not counting Sarcelle that is 2/3 done)
2. Be less selfish, I’ve come to a point to which I have realized that I don’t need so many hats and scarves. And I have several requests from my classmates for knitted items and one of them is very persistent.
3. Stop buying yarn because its on sale

Totals from last year:
9 pairs of socks, 8 were for me and one for my sock exchange partner (no photo of the finished sock)
6 sweaters/cardigans
34 total items plus or minus a few small things not listed on Ravelry

Ravelry Linky

Ravelry Linky