Coming Up Roses

You'll be swell! You'll be great!

Gonna have the whole world on the plate!

Starting here, starting now, honey,

Everything's coming up roses!

-from Gypsy

It's Tuesday again, and we're back for another trip in the time machine!

I love this sweater. I do not love self-portraits, although my sister gave me a little flexible tripod for Christmas, so this may get better if I experiment more with the self-timer. But I digress.

Rosedale
Pattern: Rosedale from Knitty
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, color unknown, 1 more skein than the pattern called for in my size
Needles: don't remember - US 7, maybe?
Notes: I only made one modification, which was to work the intarsia panels on both fronts rather than just on the left front. Call me square, but I like symmetry.
Wearing Notes: The yarn has pilled a bit, but nothing that can't be picked off. The only real signs of wear are around the edges of my first-ever sewn-in zipper, which I really should tack down one of these days. If I were to make it again, I might mess with the collar. It takes some fuss (and steam) to make it lie right. Overall, wears very well.
Best Thing About This Project: Five years old and still going strong . . . and spanning coasts. It was a great sweater for a January trip to Nantucket (brrr . . .) and it's my favorite sweater for a night in Old Town eating Mexican food. This may just be my favorite sweater. (Do I say that about them all? I really mean it this time. Really, I do.)

I made this sweater my first semester of medical school. It's knit in one piece with the two front panels of longer stripes knit intarsia style. The edgings are corrugated ribbing, which - as you all know - looks cool but is not terribly fun to do. Overall, it was a great easy knit that I still wear a lot 5 years later. It probably sees more action than most of my more complicated sweaters, and periodically I toy with the idea of knitting it again, this time in Kureyon Color 40. I already have 3 skeins of it, so I'd only need another 6 or 7 skeins . . .

And here's a better photo of that hat, which I wore to work this morning (it was 39 degrees and my hair was wet). This is a simple garter stitch hat in leftover Lion Brand Homespun. No pattern, just knitting and decreasing. Very versatile. More important - very stretchy to go over my bun and not mess it up.

Coming soon - you guessed it - more mittens!