The pattern itself is a rather easy cable pattern. I really love how the center braid looks. Our yarn used for the pattern came out a lot fuzzier than Shiri's sample had, even though it was the same line of yarn. I don't mind though because it's just so soft and cuddly. The yarn is Suri Merino by Blue Sky Alpaca.
This is where I was early in the month with it...
Not too long into the pattern, I can't help but notice mistakes I made at the very beginning of the cables. I try to ignore it, continuing to the knit knowing no one but myself will ever see them.
Can I leave it alone though? Of course not. My knitting OCD took over and I dropped 3 different cables down to pretty much the first couple rows just to fix it.
But now I'm happy I did because I know it's perfect and I can't let myself have anything but when I know I am capable of doing it.
The XO's are so adorable and you can see the mitred border that I started on the bottom. The wrap is much longer now but no new pictures yet.
I started to get bored with this recently actually so I've been looking for some other patterns to do. At the second class for the Hugs n Kisses Wrap I bought lots of yarn to make the Favorite Cardigan from Custom Knits. I love Wendy's blog....it's definitely one of my favorites out there...and I love her book. The yarn I bought for the project is Karabella Margrite...soooo soft I'm in love with it. I spent all of last night knitting the swatch. Usually I'm a loose knitter so I just automatically go with a needle size smaller than the pattern recommends. That didn't work for me so I tried the recommended size...still no luck. I'm actually using a size larger than recommended...something that has NEVER happened to me before. I guess there really is a first for everything!
Now for my little "innovation" update. At the Hugs and Kisses class, Shiri commented that it looked a little weird the way I was wrapping my yarn. She had me do it slowly so she could watch closely and discovere that I knit wrong. Not a first, but it's been so long that I've done it this way! Luckily, it's not a big deal, I'm just wrapping the yarn over the right needle instead of from the underside to go over it. All it does is twist my stitches a little bit and really it doesn't bother me (this actually helps me count rows a lot easier in stockingette stitch). She said it would affect my gauge but I've never had a problem with it so I have no intentions of changing my ways now. I just need to note if I'm ever teaching someone to knit (again) to show them the right way to wrap the yarn instead of my way. I think this is partially why I'm such a fast knitter...it definitely takes noticeably less time to wrap my way. Maybe this is also why I'm such a loose knitter? Either way, it works for me.