After a frenzy of photographing and wrapping earlier today, all the knitted gifts have had their pictures taken (as well as a group shot), and are wrapped up and waiting for their recipients. I was a little nervous that they weren't all going to be done before the first one had to go out, which is why I stayed up half the night weaving in ends, since I knew the first gift would go out today.

And that gift was...Tubey!

I'm not putting all the pictures of Tubey right onto the blog, because some of the photos have little bits of other gifts on them. So if you know me in real life (unless you're Jamie, because he was here when I was taking photos so obviously none of them are for him), don't go click over to flickr, okay? It doesn't give much away, but still. You can enjoy the pictures here on the page - there's only a little hint of one other gift, and it's for someone I'm pretty sure doesn't read my blog anyway.

Here's a shot of the neckline.



A closeup of the colours:



And here's Erin wearing it! (She has a shirt on underneath that got a little bunched up, but you get the idea and you can see that it fits really well.



One of the crucial elements of Tubey is the cross-back measurement. This pattern is knit in two tubes (hence the name), with the sleeves in one big long section, which means there's not a ton of stretch across the back. I was quite nervous about this, because if it doesn't fit well it's (a) uncomfortable, and (b) looks crappy. Before Erin moved into our basement suite, a bunch of her clothes were stored in the garage, so I snuck out one of her shirts (I knew she wouldn't think it was creepy - we lived together for a year so I frequently handled her laundry and not in a creepy stalker way) and measured it across the back. After that I basically just had to hope for the best.



It fits perfectly. Yay! Even better, Erin really likes the design, as I thought she would. It suits her, she likes the colours, and the fit is excellent. Woohoo!

I started Tubey on, I believe, August 11th, and finished September 22nd. (I didn't, however, weave in the ends until yesterday, because there were a million and I HATE doing that.) It was a fast and pleasant knit, and a very well written and easy to follow.

Tubey was knit in Knit Picks Swish, which I HIGHLY recommend using for this sweater. It's not too expensive, it's soft which is great for a next-to-the-skin sweater such as this one, and the colours are very nice. It's also washable, although we haven't washed it yet. (Since Erin and I share washing facilities, I decided not to attempt to wash it without her seeing it. She almost busted me several times as it was!) The colours are black, ballerina, bordeaux, and I think the other one is capri. (I didn't take very good notes, clearly.) It was knit entirely on a KP Options needle size 7, with magic loop for the sleeves.

It was a great knit, and I am so freaking happy that Erin liked it so much (she totally squealed, as predicted), and it fits so well. Here's hoping the other gifts are equally successful!

(Even better? Currently in my lap is a mitten. A mitten for ME! Which is already well past the cuff. Yayyyy! I'm even using DPNs, which I haven't done in about six months. I decided to go old school for my first mitten. And after making a million socks, it is just speeding by! I'm using Socks that Rock heavyweight, and it is looks awesome.)