Georgia Peach Review and Pattern Giveaway

 

Welcome Sweatshop of Love readers!! The Georgia Peach is one of the most amazing knitted sweaters I have ever seen for a man. I have searched high and low for a pattern for a sweater that my husband would actually wear if I were to knit one for him. There wasn't a single one that he said he thought looked cool.

When I knit this sweater, he was the model for the finished product. He looked great in it and he actually said he would want one! I was shocked. This pattern was amazing to knit, but what's even more amazing is that my macho man husband likes it too. I knit this sweater using Knit Picks Swish bulky weight in  Planetarium and Red. It was such gorgeous yarn to work with (but then again, what Knit Picks yarn isn' amazing). I also knit this before Allyson had a chance to create the duplicate stitch templates for the teams, which she added later for me

The construction if this sweater was really well thought out. Allyson thought of every design aspect while creating this pattern. The collar was the funnest part for me. At first I was confused with the construction and why I was being directed to do certain things. At this point I didn't have Allyson's pictures to guide me. Once I saw her pictures, it made more sense. Then once I was finished it completely made sense. Seeing as this sweater followed the vintage look from baseball past, you will see some of the inside of the sweater when the collar was opened. Being the professional she is, Allyson thought of this. It made sense to make this portion look as good as the outside. And that it did!

WIP Mom's Christmas Gift

My mom has never specifically asked me for anything. So when she does, I know that she REALLY likes it. When I wore my Summer Lace sweater over to her house one day, she told me a few times how much she liked it. Then one day on the phone, she told me if I wanted to knit her something, she would buy me the yarn and everything. When she told me it was a sweater like mine, but with long sleeves, I knew right then what I would be knitting her for Christmas.

Unblocked lace

FO Vintage Knitting

I finished it!!! Don's sweater, it's finished! Granted the project isn't quite complete yet. Allyson is in the process of writing up duplicate stitch charts for team logos so she is using this sweater as a guide. I mailed it off to her to complete that and add the custom leather buttons.

Love this neckline!

WIP Vintage Knitting

As of today, knitting is taking over my life. This is a good sign for business, but a bad sign for my projected time frames. Nonetheless, I am almost finished with the vintage baseball sweater for Don. I started the sleeves Tuesday night (after I skipped that portion to work on the button bands). I don't have much done on the sleeves yet (or at least the pictures don't show the progress), but I thought I would share the gorgeous contrast of the colors. Wouldn't you know it, they are blue and red!

 

WIP Vintage Knitting

Although baseball season has come to a painful and sad end, I am lucky enough to get my baseball on with some vintage baseball sweater knitting. Allyson, my amazing promoter, got an email wanting to know if she could knit a vintage baseball sweater. With her busy schedule, she is not able to take on other projects. So instead, she sends them to me.

Two Boyfriends with Split Personalities

Allyson, knitting pattern guru, designed a cardigan pattern a few years back that I have already knit a few times. The second thing I ever knit was this pattern during one of her knit-alongs. I joined the knit-along two weeks late with my first version and then joined two weeks after that (so four weeks in) with my second version. That's two sweaters in less than eight weeks.

FO Summer Sweater

I finished the Work+Shelter Summer Lace Sweater on Friday. It was fun knitting a sweater using the colors I did. I knit it a little too big, but thought it would be nicer with more room to breathe.

I wanted to knit the whole thing in the mint green, but as I was knitting it up, I felt that it would not look as good fully green. So instead, I used a color scheme I found on a sweater from Target a while ago.

I struggled a bit with joining the sleeves. This was mainly due to the fact that I was trying when I had had very little sleep.

Once I stopped over thinking it and just followed directions, rather than skip ahead, I found it to be fairly easy.

Sexy Summer Knitting

There aren't that many sweaters that you can knit in the summer that are fashion forward. That's where Allyson stepped in to change that. She has been designing patters for a great cause, Work+Shelter. This is a project that helps provide women in India a safe place to live and a means to sustain their own life. She has created some beautiful pieces.

There was one pattern I completely fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The Lace Sweaters pattern was gorgeous, to say the least. 8 days ago, I decided to cast on my very own summer lace sweater. I did do things a bit differently, though. I decided to use up some of the yarn that is collecting in my basement. The yarn I had in mind wasn't quite the weight the pattern called for. It's left over from a baby blanket I knit back in January of 2010, for Caitlin's son. I was actually really bored with the color when knitting the blanket/bootie set, but thought that it would go great with my hair color. The color is called Mint Charm from Baby Bee yarn, which I bought from Hobby Lobby.

When casting on the 20th, I followed the directions to the letter, including the part about being careful not to twist when joining in the round. It was perfect, until I thought it was twisted and "untwisted" when moving on to round number 2. However, much to my dismay, I actually twisted it! I studied it for about 20 minutes, trying to figure out a way to avoid tearing out the 1+ inches of knitted sweater. After deciding there was no way to fix it, and knowing this before studying it in the first place, I sadly tore it out. I then started casting on again and misjudged my length and didn't leave enough yarn for the stitches. Not once, but twice. Defeated, I headed to bed and decided to try again in the morning.

After some much needed, but very little, sleep, I cast on the stitches needed to start my sweater. I am happy to report that there isn't any twisting going on this time around and I am past where I was before all the deconstruction commensed. It's knitting up quite beautifully but I am afraid that I may run out of the mint yarn before I finish. This got me thinking on color blocking (much like Allyson did with her own Summer Lace Sweater). We may be playing around with some additional colors (I'm thinking a middle set of white and then finishing in a Navy).