FO Friday: Bucket List Review

It's pretty much the middle of the year and after finishing my Salacia I decided to take a look at my 2013 goals, since I know the Salacia was on it. Turns out that I actually have more done from that list then I thought.

First of all, I was able to finish the very first thing on my list, knit an in-the-round pullover, Dragonflies. I am not going to go into detail here, but if you want more information, you can read my post about it.

What I really wanted to talk about was my recent completed project.

SALACIA.

(huge thanks to my amazing sister for the photos!)

I successfully finished her up last Saturday and proudly walked into my LYS wearing her, only to be met with great enthusiasm. Kennita and all my knitting friends were so proud of me and all agree this pattern was definitely made for me. :)

When I first saw this pattern in the Spring issue of Knitscene I knew it was going to be the first of many that I knitted out of it. I quickly rushed off to Wildflower where I had some amazing help picking the perfect yarn -- Nashua Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton.  A lovely 100% Cotton worsted weight yarn, I fell in love the second I started knitting. It's so easy to hand and so easy to wash that I wish it wasn't going to be discontinued.

Starting out I was a bit worried. This pattern is intense lace and also in parts, which meant SEAMING. I have never seamed anything before so the idea scared me. The lace did too, but I quickly had the pattern memorized and ended up with very few mistakes on all 3 body pieces. (And the ones I do have you can't notice.) The sleeves however are loaded. There is something about the cellular lace stitch that always messes me up (See - Make up your mind tank).

Well I quickly worked through all the parts and was ready to seam. Once again, I am eternally grateful to have such an amazing LYS and people there to help me. Kennita walked me through the basic seaming process at knit night last week and before I knew it I was seaming like crazy. And you know what? It wasn't even that hard! That's right, seaming will no longer scare me when it comes to knitting. That's something I never thought I'd say!

Overall, this will be my favorite summer cardigan, I seriously think it is going to get it's money's worth and then some in wear. Besides my friend's wedding next week, I just see myself wearing it over any and everything. I am just too proud of it not to :)

And with that, another item is crossed off my bucket list:

Last year I wanted to conquer lace and I feel like I did. Well this year I want to FINISH something lace, with very few mistakes. I have some amazing bison blend yarn that would make a lovely lace scarf! - Although the lace scarf didn't happen, this is even better! (And as a bonus I can add seaming to that list!)

Finally, I wanted to do a quick recap of my knitting progression on tops. When I started 4 years ago I never thought I'd be knitting sweaters, and now it's all I want to knit!

Date refers to finishing date :)

I hope everyone had a great week! I sure have. I spent all day yesterday at the cutest little coffee and book shop knitting away. It was amazing!

~Lisa

And its FO Friday over at Tami's Amis!

I wish...