Needlework Tuesday - Old and New

Now that winter has descended upon us, I dug out an old zippered cardigan that I made many moons ago. I rarely wear it, though, and that's mostly because of the collar. Way back when, my crochet skills were crap (they still are) and the single crochet around the collar is way too tight. You can see in the photo that it pulls in. It doesn't help that I have a short neck and the collar bothers me to no end. So, after all of these years I've decided that I'm going to remove the single crochet around the collar to see if I can fix it. I don't know if I'm going to leave it be or redo the crochet part. Even though the sweater is probably 20 years old and is pilling a little, it's worth fixing...I think. Believe it or not, I think I still have some of the yarn.   I'm quite proud of this sweater.  It has slit pockets and has some really fancy stitches that I love. 
 

Last week, I mentioned that I was going to make a scarf or cowl/hat set with Bernat Boa speciality yarn. I choose the Blue, called "Blue Bird" because it's such a pretty colour.  
 

 

I really like this yarn. It's a speciality yarn, so I wouldn't make anything big with it, but it's nice for scarves, hats, etc. I think Bernat even has a short vest pattern. Anyway, the yarn is quite thin and includes a fringe. It's not that slippery on plastic Aero needles and is pretty easy to knit with. However, it can be hard to see the stitches on the needle. I generally "feel" them rather than trying to "see" them when I'm knitting.   I wouldn't recommend it to those just learning to knit.  Here's a close-up shot to see what I mean (the needle is at the bottom):
 

 

I chose a really simple pattern, from Bernat, and changed only the stitch that I used. Instead of garter (straight knitting), I used a stocking stitch, knitting the first 3 and last 3 stitches of each row. The pattern called for two skeins and the item was supposed to end up being 50" long. So far, I knit through one skein and only got 18" worth of scarf...one skein should have been closer to 25". Any knitters know what I did wrong? Does the stocking stitch use more yarn than garter? Here's the scarf/cowl so far:

 

The other item I spent some time on was my dark rose sweater.  I finished the back after measuring the armholes 30 times to make sure I had them the right size.  Seriously, I thought I was losing my mind and had developed OCD. I measured and knit and measured and knit and measured and measured and measured.  Then knit some more.   Finally, I called it done and started a sleeve.  I'm not going to show you the back just yet.  It turned out really nice, though.  Here's the beginning of the sleeve: 

It won't be too exciting because it's all ribbing...the whole sleeve...all the way up to the shoulder.  A ribbing-lover's dream!  It should knit up fairly quickly, though. 

I think that's it for this week.   Don't forget to head over to Heather's website to see what she and everyone else is doing. 

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.