my first sweater....oh and other ramblings apparantly....

that's right, i'm currently working on my first sweater.....my first real sweater.....ya know, it meets in the front...not like a shrug where its open and put on like a jacket....this is something that needs be pulled over a head and arms put through like a normal sweater that's purchased at a store...
wtf am i doing???

not only am i knitting a sweater, but i'm knitting it for my boyfriend!!!

omg i have a boyfriend! (ok that's a topic for another day and another type of blog...ya'll don't really need to know my personal business...just know that after just about a year, i still get giddy when i realize i have a boyfriend....)

anywho....i don't believe in the boyfriend sweater curse...and neither does he....i told him about it and he was like "oh posh" (he doesn't talk like that, but i don't remember what he said, and that's the first thing that popped into my head) i knitted him quite a few things before we were an "official" couple....i first knit him a hat with some left over yarn i had from an afghan...i was bored and i was telling him how my ex asked me to knit him a hat (after we had broken up) and he never wears it, so he said if i knit him one, he'd wear it...so...i did...and he loved it (still does over a year later)....we went to a diner that night (yeah nj and their 24 hour diners) and he was showing it off to our waiter...

i don't have a picture of it :(

the next thing i knit him was an ipod cozy with the green lantern logo on it...he's a big comic book nut and loves the green lantern....it was kind of tricky...i had knit myself an ipod cozy, but he has a video one which is considerably thinner than mine, so i really had to do some creative adjustments to the pattern and it was my first attempt at intarsia or fair isle, or whatever (see? i'm such an excellent knitter i have full grasp of all the terms!) and ya know, it came out pretty damn good! it came out a little wonky on the one corner there, but, still, not bad at all i must say...i rock! well, he was impressed

then i knit for him a batman hat...which is currently coming apart...i'm not the best at weaving in ends....and the top has come apart...but then again, i think he pulled on it alot...

again i impressed him and myself....but i hate this picture cuz it makes my nose look huge!!!

anywho....

so...now that brings me to today.....he asked me once to knit him a sweater....i told him about the curse...oh now i remember what he said....well, not verbatim....he said something along the lines that the knitting is what kept me around (when we first met, he was dating around...apparently the knitting gave me bonus points, hence i beat out the hoes and landed me a man!) *ahem* i digress....so yeah....i know he'll love it....even if its not perfect, and i know it won't be perfect...but he won't know...

now i go into the story of the sweater....i'm not even near 25% done with it....the pattern is the adirondack pullover from thegarterbelt.com....which i found from ravelry.com....which this site is fucking awesome! i had purchased the yarn (19 skeins of the merlot heather swish superwash and 2 skeins of the camel heather for stripe from knitpicks.com) and i was going to use that random raglan sweater generator pattern thing, but i don't know the exact measurements for what size he'd wear...and his sweaters are put away for the summer...so i bought one from old navy because i know the clothes there fit him....but then i found this pattern searching ravelry for patterns people have used with the knitpicks swish superwash...and that pattern came up (this information comes in handy later on as well)
so....i cast on what i needed to cast on for the largest size (what can i say, i like 'em big 'n beefy....) and so, i did the first 2 rows, and then when it came to the 3rd row, i got all sorts of confused....i had increased on the 2nd row, and the 3rd row had to go back to the pattern stitch...what? how was i supposed to do that! so i sent a message to a couple of people that had already made it on ravelry and i was stupid super anxious and no one was writing back! i mean, how dare they! i have time to spend all day on it (instead of doing work) why doesn't anyone else?? :P so my sister's friend is a knitter and i emailed her, and i even posted on craftster.org...finally i got a response from a raveler and she was such a help! my mom and i had already kind of figured it out, but she definitely helped it make more sense....especially to when i got to joining the work and realized i had 2 extra stitches! can i get a wtf mate? ugh!!
so fellow raveler and i have been going back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out the math of this thing...and wow...its kind of confusing.....right now i'm still doing increases and i don't have much left to do before separating the sleeves and knitting the body....i just hope its wide enough....anyways....here are some progress pics:

this would be after a few more rows of increasing...and joining in the round.....i'm on good pace i think....

and here's some more progress of still increasing....so far so good seriously....i took care of the extra 2 sts and noone would be the wiser (well, unless you're a knitter and scrutinized...i think when i p/u sts to do the collar it'll be ok)

and here's a closer up of one of the raglan seems and the shoulder...yay! and its a little closer to the color? i don't know, its supposed to be merlot heather, but its kinda brownish...either way i love it

now i just need to work on it! which is hard because i spend almost allllllllllllll my time with him...and ya know, its a surprise......but i do have 5 scarves to knit, which i can get done when i'm at his house and he's playing halo 3...and knit the sweater on the rare occasion i'm not at his house....or on lunch break at work....i mean, i can do it, right? just over a month?
yeah...its also for our anniversary.....i hope that doesn't tempt the curse.....

alright, i reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally should get some work done....like work work, not knit work done on the sweater...but i have to do that too....

tee hee...like my sheets? they're disney cuties...got them from target....so what i'm a grown woman with a twin bed buying sheets in the kid section....