Spring Sweater Knitting Frenzy

I am on a Spring Sweater Knitting Frenzy.  I want to cast on and knit all the Spring Sweaters and it would seem I am.  

I absolutely could not pass up buying this yarn after seeing my local yarn shop owner, Erin knitting on it in this yarn.  There were a couple of color ways left to choose, but I forewent the one with turquoise in it, because it had a gold that just was not shrinking my fancy.  The yarn is Hikoo Concentric Cotton.  

It is slow going, but it is one of those that I cannot wait to see the colors as they emerge.  I was totally surprised last night when the white started showing up.

The pattern I am using is Sugar Maple.  Cori from Irocknits has it in her sweater class that I have taken a couple of times.  I have wanted to knit it, but didn't think the sleeves would be flattering until I saw a couple of pics of others who have knitted it and added sleeves, so that is what I will be doing as well.

 The knit is fairly easy to knit, and I want to knit it in public, so I have used my new Cocoknit stitch markers to mark for the increases.  I have developed a bit of a method for not having to look at the pattern to see where the increases should be by the color coded marker technique.

Because there are increases on one side of some spots,  increases on the other side in some spots and increases on both sides,  I have developed a method that works for me to remember just by looking at the color of the marker as I knit to it.

A red marker because it has an r in red, means that I increase on the right side of the marker.
A yellow marker means increase on the left side of the marker, because it has a l in its name.
A orange marker means increase on both the left side and the right side of the marker, because, well, red and yellow makes orange.

My other Spring Sweater knit, Sunshine Coast has increases all over the place, and this is really where I developed my method for using my color coded markers and color coiless pins.

Since there is so many different increases going on, I am using the coiless pins in much the same way.  Except on this sweater, there are not any places where there are increases on both sides of the markers, so I have used the pins in the knit to keep me on track.

Red and yellow pins are the only ones being used and as I knit up to them, I know exactly what I need to do and where.

The markers themselves are used to signify what sets off the front, back and sleeve stitches.

I am totally enjoying these Spring knits and have several more that are just itching to be cast on!  Stay tuned for more!