FO: Fandangle

I finished this project waaaaay back around Christmas and due to my lack of pompom-making expertise it sat in my mostly-finished-but-not-quite stack of knitting projects. With the help of a friend who lent me her pompom maker I finally put the finishing touch on my Fandangle hat. 

I'm finally coming around to pompoms on hats. This one is GIANT.

Apparently this project got me going on a colorwork kick since pretty much all the projects I have OTN have some kind of stranding or striping. It's not a bad place to be, though.

 

I'm very excited to have used new-ish stash from Knit Fit! in November and some older stash of reclaimed angora/wool yarn that sat around for several years. It's a dreamy combination and toasty warm to boot. 

Pattern: Fandangle by Andi Satterlund

Yarn: Spincycle Dyed in the Wool in Devilish Grin and reclaimed angora/wool.

Needles: US #5 (3.75 mm) Clover Circular Needles

Mods: None! I knit the medium size and followed the pattern with zero mods.

Fall Faves: Sweater Weather!

This is something of a 2-in-1 post. I love sweaters! A lot of the reason why I love fall is that the weather cools down enough that I can start wearing my fall/winter uniform of sweaters with skirts or dresses and tights with boots. Seriously. I pretty much live in that combination of clothes for about 9 months out of the year and only give up on my tights and boots when absolutely necessary. 

I recently finished Chuck after having some misfires on choosing a size and being able to knit two sleeves alike. But it all worked out! Looky there!

Pattern: Chuck by Andi Satterlund

Yarn: Cascade 220 in Palm

Needles: US # 7 (4.5 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: This is yarn frogged from Myrna so my stitches look a bit wonky but most of that will block out after repeated wear and wash. I didn't do a gauge swatch since the two sweaters call for the same gauge and thankfully that worked out just fine and dandy. I knit the size L (41) to the underarm cast on and then switched to the XL (45) for the rest of the body after knitting the entire thing in size L and deciding that I didn't like the fit of 2 inches of negative ease through my waist. The second sleeve got knit twice since the first time around I started the cap shaping in the wrong spot so the sleeve cap was off center. Phew! 

I'm so happy with this new sweater! Chuck sat in my knitting queue for a long time since I couldn't decide if a cropped pullover would suit my body type. I think it looks just smashing with my fit and flare dresses and will be a go-to piece this fall and winter. 

What's your favorite sweater? Do you have a uniform that you wear in the fall?

OAL 2015: Finished Outfit

I finished my Outfit-along outfit before the deadline! Hooray! I'm super happy with the results and I've gotten so much wear out of my dress that the pattern is going to be a sewing staple. I sewed New Look 6223 and knit Tambourine by Julia Farwell-Clay.

Let's talk about the dress first, shall we? 

I chose a dark blue eyelet cotton blend and lined it with a light blue daphne - the eyelet is a mid-weight cotton and the daphne is very lightweight so between the two I get a dress with nice weight and drape that feels very summery but won't blow up around my head at every breeze. I did my first ever full bust adjustment following this tutorial and love the result. 

This dress has pockets, soft pleats at the waist, and comes to just above my knee. I can see myself making a ton of dresses from this pattern in various fabrics - I might even try one in wool! 

 On to the knitting! Tambourine is a pattern by Julia Farwell-Clay from the Spring 2015 issue of Pom Pom Magazine. I loved this sweater at first sight and knew that it would be perfect in orange. Earlier this year I frogged a sweater that never fit quite right and while the color was perfect, French Marigold by Miss Babs, the gauge was all wrong.

I took my gauge swatch and plugged the numbers into the schematic numbers to see if I could follow another size to get the fit I wanted with my yarn. I followed the size 43, which is my full bust measurement, with my smaller DK gauge to get a nice fit through the shoulders and added extra increases for my bust. The other thing I had to factor into the row gauge was the stitch pattern along the front of the sweater but this ended up working out with my gauge - six repeats of the pattern fit perfectly into the front of the sweater without having to adjust anything. 

I knit the entire sweater on US #5 (3.75mm) needles. Besides the gauge modification, my biggest change to the pattern was to knit the sleeves from the top down following Barbara Walker's method in Knitting from the Top. You may have noticed that my sweater doesn't have buttons and that's because: 1) I haven't found the perfect match and 2) I almost never button my cardigans. As soon as the weather cools down a bit I'll be sporting my new outfit pieces together, for now I'm settling on wearing my awesome new dress.

FO: Commuter Vanilla Socks

I finished my vanilla socks! I knit these socks pretty much solely during my commutes to and from work and they took just under a month to knit. I'll be honest, I don't always knit on my way home because sometimes I'm just too tired (or the bus is incredibly full).

The yarn blocked just beautifully and I'm sure I'll be purchasing more Desert Vista Dyeworks in the future. 

Pattern: 64 Stitch Vanilla Socks with the OMG heel by Megan Williams

Yarn: Desert Vista Dyeworks in Zombody It's Cold Outside 

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Hiya Hiya Fixed Circulars

I have a loose goal of knitting all of my self-striping sock yarns by the end of this year; this is a great start.

FO: Mormorio

 

Do you ever feel like your weekend flies by and you haven't done anything you really wanted to do? Like write a blog post, or do some knitting, or take some pictures? I've felt like that for weeks! But I'm here to say that I did all three of those things today and it feels fantastic! I finished Mormorio and couldn't be happier with it. 

 There are such fond memories and good feelings wrapped up in this shawl that just looking at it makes me happy. The pattern was gifted to me by Gayle of the Yarniacs podcast, the colorful yarn was a gift from Andi, and the cream yarn was picked up during my mini yarn crawl with the Stash & Burn ladies. I cast on this shawl during my California knitting retreat while engaging in some delightful conversation with new friends and the final project makes my heart sing.

Pattern: Mormorio by Heather Zoppetti

Yarns: BMFA Silkie Socks that Rock in My Wild Irish Girlie; A Verb for Keeping Warm Clover undyed (available in their brick & mortar)

Needles: US #4 (3.5 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: None.

FO: Twinkle Twinkle Baby Blanket

I'm not much of a blanket knitter. Blankets don't lure me to knitting like sweaters or socks do so I usually eschew them for smaller projects and garments. But when your friend gives you a bag of Tosh Dk in a bright cheery color and your kiddo keeps stealing your lap blanket right from your lap it's like the universe is telling you to knit a blanket. The universe talks and I listen.

Bright, right?

Pattern: Twinkle Twinkle Baby Blanket by Helen Stewart 

Yarn: Tosh DK in Grapefruit

Needles: US #7 (4.5mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: None! I may have lost track of the repeats on this since I took it to my knitting group's retreat to Port Townsend and I wasn't doing things like counting stitches and repeats. It came out slightly larger than the 34" square that the pattern lists and I didn't bother blocking it with pins or anything; just patted it flat and did a bit of straightening. This pattern also has instructions for a fingering weight version which I think would make a lovely nursing shawl for a new mom and, like a mentioned above, is excellent social knitting since the pattern repeat is easily memorizable and most of the knitting is straight stockinette. Love it!

FO: Fika

Things are a little slow on the knitting front, lately. I feel like I'm slogging along on the same projects without any progress, but in reality my projects are technically simple which makes them a little boring. But check out how pretty they turn out!

Twisted rib and stockinette never looked so good!

Simple and straightforward design. With a cheeky little twist at the toe.

Pattern: Fika by Maribeth White, from the Spring 2015 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly

Yarn: SweetGeorgia BFL Sock in Ginger (CC at toe is Stricken Smitten Smitten BFL Nylon Twist in Little Storm Cloud)

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Fixed Circulars

Mods: I knit the toe to 24 stitches (twelve on each needle) before grafting them together rather than the 32 stitches called for in the pattern. These make an excellent commute and social knitting project. These socks are a gift for a friend and I hope she likes them as much as I do!

FO: Welcome to the Flock

 

It has been a little quiet over here. I'm working diligently on two projects but also doing a fair amount of sewing. However, I did manage to finish baby sweater and it's ADORABLE.

 

See? The perfect little sweater to knit when Winter is desperately trying to become Spring. It reminds me of verdant fields and little lambs. 

Pattern: Welcome to the Flock by Julia Farwell-Clay

Yarn: Vesper Sock Yarn in Ivy League (green) and scraps of white and brown for the sheep

Needles: US #3 (3.25 mm) & US #5 (3.75mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I used larger needles than the pattern called for since my gauge was too small using the needles listed in the pattern. The pattern calls for a sport weight yarn knit at a dk gauge but I used a heavy sock yarn that knit up beautifully on size five needles. Fair warning, there are two rows of colorwork where you are knitting three colors in the same row which makes keeping even tension difficult. So worth it.

FO: Mary Mead

A short while back I wrote my first post in my American Wool Series about Toots LeBlanc and a cardigan that I was knitting that hadn't been released yet. I finished the sweater about a week and a half ago, the cardigan pattern has been released, and I sewed my buttons on today and finally took pictures!

I'm pretty jazzed by the finished sweater. 

It looks cute over a dress (top picture) or with separates (above). I'll admit that I had some reservations about knitting a cropped sweater but since the construction is top down and seamless I can totally add length if I decide I want this to be a bit longer at some point. Right now, I'm really happy with the length and how it looks over dresses and longer tops. 

 If you remember, the yarn is a sport weight alpaca/wool blend in a lovely natural charcoal; the perfect substitution for Andi's pattern which uses Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light. The sleeve construction is top-down set-in and this is the first time I knit this sleeve construction in a stitch pattern - I like it!

Pattern: Mary Mead by Andi Satterlund (Untangling Knots) $6.50 pdf download

Yarn: Toots Le Blanc 50/50 Jacob/Alpaca Sport

Needle: US #3 (3.25mm) and US #1.5 (2.5 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp needles

Mods: Since this was a test knit I followed the pattern exactly for the size large. I have a 43 inch bust and knitting the large gave me 2 inches of negative ease which gives me a perfect fit through the upper bust, shoulders and sleeves and the appropriate sweater fit for a vintage style cardigan. The absolutely only thing I changed was to add an extra buttonhole in the buttonband since I have a weird thing about having odd numbers of buttons on my sweaters (that's my own personal finicky thing and has nothing to do with Andi's pattern). The jacob/alpaca yarn I used was a two-ply and less round than Ultra Alpaca Light so I ended up going down to a US size three to get gauge but that is the needle size recommended on my yarn's label so I wasn't really surprised by that. All in all, I'm very pleased with this sweater and might even add more cropped sweaters into my sweater wardrobe to wear over my growing collection of dresses.

FOs: Trullo & Quynn

In January I knit two little hats out of yarn left from other projects for Stash and Burn's 15 hats in 2015 KAL. The featured designer was Woolly Wormhead so I went to my Bambeanies ebook and sorted through the patterns to find ones that would work with the little balls of yarn in my scrap bin. 

Pattern: Trullo 

Yarn: Cashsoft DK scraps in green and purple

Needle: US #5 (3.75 mm) Hiya Hiya Interchangeables

Mods: None. I thought this little guy would use up all of my cashsoft scraps but I think I have enough for another one of these.

 

Pattern: Quynn

Yarn: HiKoo by Skacel SimpliWorsted in Pretty as a Petunia

Needle: US #8 (5.0 mm) Clover Bamboo needles

Mods: None. 

All of the hats I knit for the 15 in 2015 KAL are going to the Warm for Winter project in Seattle. I should have a nice, tidy pile of hats and other accessories for donation at the end of the year.

FO: Thousand Kisses Socks

Way back in November, Little A asked me for a pair of socks and we looked at patterns on Ravelry discussing the merits of each pattern that she liked and then went stash diving. She has lots of ideas about color and how it works together so I was surprised and pleased when she chose a blue and grapefruit combination - my girl has panache!

The socks fell by the wayside as the holidays approached but I finally finished them up and gave them a nice steam. They're ready for little girl feet!

Pattern: Thousand Kisses Socks by Josie Mercier (free)

Yarns: Invictus Yarns Unafraid in Juicy (grapefruit); Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Oceana (blue)

Needles US #1 1/2 (2.5 mm) & US #1 (2.25mm) Addi Turbo

Mods: There is a discrepancy in the pattern between the Ravelry listing and the actual pattern on Petite Purls - Rav lists a 2.25mm needle and Petite Purls lists a 2.5mm needle. I was a bit worried that the colorwork band would be tough to get around Little A's heel so I split the difference and used a 2.5mm needle for the cuff and colorwork and then switched to a 2.25mm needle for the rest of the sock. I still have a ton of the Juicy color so we might end up with mother-daughter semi-matching socks at some point. And yes, you might notice a bit of sparkle in the grapefruit bits because there's stellina in the yarn! I've never knit with anything containing stellina so I was pleasantly surprised at the subtle sparkle.

FO: Tolt Hat

 I'm finally feeling the pressure of Christmas knitting. I thought I was doing alright on my knitting and then I actually looked at the calendar - not as much time left as I thought! I needed a quick pick me up gift so I went to my pattern library.

 I found the perfect pattern in my library and even had the right yarn for it in my stash.

Pattern: Tolt Hat by Andrea Rangel

Yarn: Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia in Quail and Cactus Blossom

Needles: US #8 Addi Turbo

Mods: None. I knit the size medium and it's a tad loose on me so I think it will fit the gift recipient perfectly. The pattern also includes instructions for  a pair of mitts but I don't have enough of the magenta yarn to knit them and I don't want to run out and get another skein. This hat took about one long even to complete and it would work handsomely for men in a different color combination. This would also be an excellent project for trying out colorwork.

FO: Rolling Thunder Gloves

I finally updated some of my project pictures and now I have an FO to share! Hooray!

Pattern: Rolling Thunder Gloves by Sivia Harding (free on Ravelry)

Yarn: Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stealer in Anne's Story

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Addi Turbo 

Mods: None! I knit the pattern as written and the mitts are a perfect fit. I used copper lined size 8/0 Japanese beads from Fusion Beads in Seattle that I re-purposed from a knitting project that never came to fruition. The garter rib is quite stretchy so the mitts would fit a variety of hand sizes and the details on these are just lovely: a turned hem, texture stitches, little lines of beads along the purl welts, a garter thumb gusset, and a rolled hem. The only fussy thing about knitting these was pre-stringing the beads.

FO: Ella Funt

 Aren't tiny sweaters wonderful? And tiny sweaters with tiny elephants are maybe the best kind of tiny sweater. After a lengthy period of time where no one in my world was having a baby now there seems to be a spate of them, isn't that the way?

 All of the expected babies are boys so I had to do a little digging into Ravelry and my knitting library to find something appropriately adorable yet masculine for the little guys.

I think this is perfect.

Pattern: Ella Funt by Pamela Wynne

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in various colors

Needles: US #4 (3.5 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeable

Mods: I knit the ribbing and button bands in a contrasting color rather than the main color of the sweater. I had an odd amount of the gray yarn in my stash which I knew would not be enough to knit the pattern as written (turns out it wasn't enough for my mod either. I had to run out and buy another skein, oops!). I also didn't think that the gray/beige color of the yarn would be great up close to a baby's face so I wanted to use a brighter color for the ribbing. It turns out that I really like this modification and will use it on the next one (coming soon). One thing about baby cashmerino is that it does show every little inconsistency so there are some bits of knitting that aren't quite smooth even after blocking. I'll sacrifice perfectly consistent fabric on the altar of machine washability, though. 

Do you have a favorite pattern for baby boys? Patterns for baby girls are everywhere but I've found it difficult to find cute things for little guys.

FO: Trillian

 Sometimes I feel way ahead of the curve. For instance, last month I decided to cast on a Christmas gift to knit during my commute time.

 I'm not a huge fan of knitting garter stitch but it's so easy to knit that I decided it would be the perfect project for my early morning and afternoon bus times. Several weeks later I have a finished object for my gift box that I barely noticed I was knitting. Normally, I would complain about the endless garter stitch but at 5:30am I didn't really have the energy to contribute to bemoaning garter stitch, I just picked it up and knit.

Pattern: Trillian by Martina Behm

Yarn: Tosh Merino Light in Robin Red Breast

Needles: US #2 1/2 (3.0 mm) Addi Turbo

Mods: None. I just knit knit knit and have about 6 yards of yarn left. I'm going to use it to tie up the package before I send it off to the recipient. 

Do you knit gifts for the holidays? Do you have a plan or do you just dive in?

FO: Teal Glacier Socks

 A couple of weeks ago I was quite ill and stayed home from work for several days. As part of my lay on the sofa and watch trashy television shows until I'm better cure I needed a really simple knitting project. None of my current projects quite fit the bill so I dug through my stash and came up with a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot.

 I let the color do all the work on this pair of socks. They're for Mr. B for Christmas and they're more flamboyant than he would usually wear but I think they'll be fine for non-work days.

Pattern: Improvised 64 stitch vanilla sock

Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Teal Glacier

Needles: US #2 (2.75 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharps

Mods: I knit these two at a time on a long circular needle. Bearfoot is a heavier weight sock yarn and my tag said to use a US #3 or #4 needle so I figured a #2 would give me a nice sturdy sock fabric. The mohair, wool, nylon composition of the yarn washes up beautifully and will make for fantastic feet-warming socks this Winter.

FO: Twisted Flower Socks

 Back in April I cast on a pair of complicated socks. I worked my way through the leg of the first sock pretty quickly and then something happened, I don't really know what, but Something. I put the socks down half-way through the heel flap and there they languished for several months. Last month I decided I was tired of looking at them and picked them up again to decide to finish or frog. I guess you can tell that I finished the dang things! They're beautiful. They're also the most complicated pair of socks I've knit to date.

Pattern: Twisted Flower by Cookie A (from knit.sock.love)

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Heartthrob

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Fixed Circulars

Mods: None.

FO: Simple Skyp Socks

 I finally have a photographed finished object to share! I finished knitting these socks waaay back on September 10th and it took me almost a month just to wash them and snap a picture. That timeframe might tell you how busy we've been with the Mr. starting a new job and Little A starting kindergarten. Very!

Pattern: Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in December Ribbon Candy gifted to me by my friend, Jeanne

Needles: US #1 (2.25mm) Hiya Hiya Sharps

Mods: None! Actually, the pattern calls for sport weight yarn but I just subbed in sock yarn and chose a stitch count (64) that I knew would fit. The leg is five inches long instead of my usual six inches. This pattern makes for great commute knitting since the pattern is easy to memorize and there's very little counting involved in the stitch pattern.

FO: Zombie Hello Kitty Socks

Pattern: Basic Vanilla Sock on 64sts (outta my noggin')

Yarn: Canon Hand Dyes Charles Self Striping Sock in Zombie Hello Kitty

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Circulars

Mods: I made the leg slightly shorter than my normal six inches. I love the pink flecks in the minty green color!