WIP: Serif

Every January 1st I drag all of my stash out of hiding and sort through it and organize it. It takes half the day to do a proper job and put it all away, nice and tidy. Throughout the sorting process I'll cull a few yarns to destash and a few yarns to knit right away, but most of it goes back into my cedar chest or large space bags. This year, I was particularly taken with inventorying my sweater quantities of yarn and I set aside some Quince & Co Lark and Chickadee that I purchased last October.

I'm knitting Serif from Elizabeth Doherty's book, Top Down, in colors Honey and Storm. My gauge swatch was spot on for row gauge, which is super duper important for top down knitting, but off on stitch gauge. However, I really liked the fabric I got on US #8 (4.5 mm) needles and didn't want to sacrifice my perfect row gauge for a better stitch gauge. Turns out I just needed to knit one size up to get the correct width measurements while following the length measurements for the size I originally intended to knit - 42-ish for length and 45-ish for width. 

It just so happened that I was ill last weekend so I spent a lot of time laying in bed while knitting and watching movies so I got a ton of this sweater knit. A lot as in most of the body. As of last night I joined the contrast color for the skirt and am knitting merrily along in garter stitch. My goal for today is to get through the garter stitch portion of the body so I can get to the sleeves. I'm usually not too keen on Sleeve Island but I'm eager to try Elizabeth's method of top down sleeve construction again (I knit a sample for her book) and to get a real feel for the fit of the sweater. I'm almost always a bit "meh" about sweaters until they get at least one sleeve because it really changes the way they fit the body; drawing the armhole closer to where they actually sit during wearing and allowing any stockinette to unroll and lay properly.

I've also looked through my wardrobe to see if this sweater fits criteria for filling a hole in my wardrobe and it certainly does! I have two dresses that should look fantastic with this cardigan not to mention a pair of slim cut navy pants that will look super cute with this sweater and a patterned top. Not too shabby for meeting my handmade wardrobe goal for this year!

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.

WIP: Prussian Glitter Cardigan

A couple of weeks ago I was experiencing a bit of knitting ennui. I was between projects and wasn't quite sure what to start next. My Ravelry queue seemed a bit lackluster so I decided to take a different approach and start with the yarn and work the other way round. Guess what? It worked! I dug out four skeins of Malabrigo Arroyo - three in Prussian Blue and one in Glitter - and swatched my little heart out. 

I used a US #4 Hiya Hiya Interchangeable and loved my stitches! See? That little bit of knitting isn't even blocked and it's so beautiful! After washing and blocking my swatch I went back to my Ravelry queue and nothing quite fit the bill. I knew I wanted a cardigan with a contrast yoke and maybe a teeny bit of color work for interest. Could I find it? Nope. I sketched out a cardigan idea and pulled out all of my knitting reference books and decided to go rogue. 

And looky there! That's the right front of my cardigan all done and ready for the rest of the sweater. A few details about my Prussian Glitter Cardi: it's knit in pieces, has four rows of colorwork, is all in stockinette stitch, uses the same needle throughout, and has 1x1 twisted ribbing at the edges. 

I decided to knit the sweater in pieces because superwash yarns seem to behave themselves better when they're given some structure, especially in larger projects like sweaters. The sleeves are picked up around the armhole and knit down toward the cuff with a little bit of colorwork just before the ribbing starts. I'm incredibly happy with how my sweater design project is coming out and I have tentative plans to grade the sweater and release it as a published pattern. Woot! This whole working backwards from the yarn to the pattern is working out pretty well, I'll have to do it again!

WIP: Tambourine

You may have noticed that I took a little vacation from the blog for a couple of weeks. I was sorting out plans for the Summer and getting my feet back under me from a busy month, not to mention sending Little A down to my mom's for a week for some quality time with Nana. But I've been knitting my bit every evening despite the warm weather and working on writing up a few patterns for release this Fall. My WIP du jour is Tambourine. 

You might notice that my stitches look a little wonky and that's because I'm a terrible knitter and didn't wash this yarn after liberating it from the previous project - Aislinn. Aislinn was pretty but I wore it twice and was never quite happy with the fit so I decided to repurpose the yarn, which is Miss Babs Yowza! Whatta Skein in French Marigold.

Tambourine is a cardigan by Julia Farwell-Clay from the Spring 2015 issue of Pompom Quarterly. The construction is bottom up in one piece and has little circles of nupps along the fronts. The buttonbands are knit concurrently with the body of the sweater and there's quite a bit of twisted ribbing at the hem of the sweater and the cuffs of the sleeves. You can see that I've made pretty good progress even though I'm knitting this at a dk gauge (22x32 over 4 inches) which is different than the pattern. This gauge change means that I'm getting an extra little circle of nupps along the fronts but I'm okay with that. This is the sweater I'm knitting as part of my OAL goal with Andi of Untangling Knots and Lauren of Lladybird. I hope to have the body finished by the end of the weekend and sleeves started this week.

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.

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.

WIP: Russet Owl Sweater

It's true. I did it. I started another cardigan. Last weekend I went on a mini Twin Peaks road trip with my friends Monica and Andi that also brought us to Tolt Yarn and Wool (no TP affiliation). Imagine my delight when I remembered that they were getting their Quince and Co shipment that very weekend! I fell in love with Owl Tweet in the Russet color and decided that, yep, I needed a sweater out of it. 10 skeins later and a good sized swatch and I'm plugging away on a CustomFit cardigan. The yarn is so beautifully nubby and tweedy that I wanted a super simple cardigan with some squishy garter stitch edges to show off the texture. Owl Tweet is a 50/50 wool alpaca blend and it's a dream to knit. It has a very different feel to Berroco Ultra Alpaca - rather than being drapey and soft it's lofty and soft so that the sweater will feel light and warm. If you've ever knit with woolen spun yarns like Brooklyn Tweed Shelter you can imagine the lightness I'm talking about and it's going to be a gloriously warm, soft, and light cardigan for this Fall and Winter.

FO: Waterlily

 This is Waterlily. It's been sitting around waiting for me to feel better so I can take pictures.

 Cloooose up.

Seriously, I don't know what's going on with some of the graininess in my pictures - sometimes everything is coolio and sometimes they look like I've put through some kind of weird filter. Ack! In any case, here are the details:

Pattern: Waterlily by Meghan Fernandes (Issue 8 of Pom Pom Quarterly)

Yarn: Valley Yarns Charlemont in Whipple Blue

Needles: US #5 & 6 (3.75 &4.0 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: The body is longer by about 3 inches. What happens when you knit the body 3 inches longer? You run out of yarn and have to order more which is, surprisingly, an exact match for your current dye lot and you have a lot of yarn left over. That's a yay on one front and a boo on the other. I also did a three needle bind-off at the shoulder seams instead of grafting that business together. This shape of top is totally new to me. There's absolutely no shaping in the body and sleeves are formed by casting on extra stitches after knitting to a point above the fullest part of the bust. I'm surprised at how much I like it since I'm usually all about shaping in my knitted garments. Once I pick up a nude cami this little top will be totally work appropriate (the top of my bra peeks out as-is) and will be a great multi-season piece for Seattle. Yay!

FO: Ravellenic Acer (finally)

 I finally got around to taking pictures of my second Acer Cardigan (sorry about the graininess of the pictures - not sure what happened there).

Cabley back.

Pattern: Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers

Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort in Navy

Needles: US #5 & US #6 Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I knit the 42 (just like last time) but ended up making the body slightly longer and increased the sleeves up to the number for the next size since the sleeves were quite snug on my other Acer. These sleeves fit perfectly even with a t-shirt underneath. I opted not to put buttonholes on the front bands since I never wear my other Acer closed. This yarn is kind of amazing - it's an 80/20 wool/cotton blend that feels light and lofty and has wonderful bits of lighter blue tweed. In fact, when I was at Stitches West I contemplated getting another sweater quantity in red but wanted to plan my project more. The ladies who work at Green Mountain Spinnery are a hoot and a half and give great customer service. What else can I say? I love this cardigan and get tons of wear out of it.

WIP: CustomFit Pullover

 Sweater progress!

Things have been a little sparse on the personal knitting front the past couple of weeks. I was working on a large sample knitting project and only had time to knit on my own projects during my commute to and from work. I finished my sample last weekend (sans blocking) and picked up my CustomFit pullover in ToshDK. The pieces are all done and blocking and I'm super-excited to get them sewn together so I can see how well CustomFit, well, custom fits. By next weekend I'll have a finished sweater!

FO: Dimbala

 Guess what? I finished another sweater!

 It's black. And textured. And that's really hard to photograph when it's overcast outside and technically still Winter.

Pattern: Dimbala by Laura Chau 

Yarn: Cascade 220 in Blaaaaack

Needles: US #6 (4.0mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: This yarn was frogged from another Laura Chau sweater I knit ages ago and half-way through my Pomme de Pin I got a crazy urge to dig this out of my stash and knit it into a pullover. I knit one inch of twisted rib at the bottom edge, added in vertical waist shaping since the sweater is written without any shaping whatsoever, and knit the body to 16 inches. I knit the sleeves and henley neckline as written. I'm really happy with how this turned out! There's a teensy bit of floating at the hemline and I could have worked more decreases at the waist but overall I think this is quite flattering with my normal jeans and t-shirt uniform. The texture pattern took me a while to memorize but it also hides the waist shaping I added quite well. This is a win on multiple levels - I have a new black sweater, it blends seamlessly into my existing wardrobe, and I have no yarn left over to add back to the stash. Yipee!

Start to Finish: Pomme de Pin

 My Pomme de Pin cardigan is finished!!! Yesterday morning I bound off the buttonband and yesterday afternoon I sewed on buttons. This cardigan turned out better than I imagined it would - the length is perfect, the sleeves hit just where I want them, and I'm absolutely positive I'll get a ton of wear out of it. 

Let's talk stats!

I started this project January 5th and bound off February 1st. Three weeks for a sport weight sweater isn't too shabby and I used stash yarn and library pattern stash to knit this up -that meets two of my goals for 2014. I was a little worried about having a couple of inches of positive ease built into the sweater but I don't feel like it necessarily translated into the finished garment. My yarn isn't superwash so it didn't do that melty opening-up thing that superwash yarns usually do, but it's totally fine with me. I did a slightly rough block on the sweater after setting in the sleeves and before picking up the button band - a more thorough block after the first wear will open up the lace a little more and smooth out the button band.

Pattern: Pomme de Pin by Amy Christoffers

Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton Sport in Ocean Heather

Needles: US #6 (4 mm) & US #5 (3.75 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I knit the sleeves two at a time until the sleeve caps and then knit them one at a time. The sleeves are shorter - only 17 inches instead of 19 - and I did 20 rounds of ribbing at the cuff. I used 1394 yards and the pattern called for 1400 yards. I think if I had decided to knit the sleeves as long as the pattern indicated I would have run out of yarn instead of having about half a skein left over. Phew! 

I hope you liked my Start to Finish series! I found it pretty rewarding to think more in-depth about my decision-making process regarding sweater knitting and how that translates to a finished garment that I'm happy with. In fact, I liked it so much that I'm planning on doing another one later in the year. Thank you for following along!

Start to Finish: Pomme de Pin

Are you all tired of my sweater posts? Let me tell you, I had an incredible urge to set it down while knitting the body and start knitting something else (in fact, I cast on another sweater) but after a day-long break I picked my cardigan back up and powered through. 

It helps that I was sick on Tuesday of last week and was able to spend almost the entire day recovering on the sofa while knitting and watching Dawson's Creek (guilty pleasure!). I finished the bulk of the knitting, sewed in the sleeves, and blocked the body of the sweater before picking up the button band. 

Now all I have is 300+ stitches to knit back and forth before I'm ready to sew on buttons!

Start to Finish: Pomme de Pin

I didn't post any progress on this sweater last week since I was knitting my way through the body. I made a couple of decisions about this sweater after reading through the pattern and referring to the schematic that I'd like to share.

If you've knit lace you'll know that something magical happens when it hits the water - it grows! Those crumpled stitches relax and the finished piece grows and opens up during the blocking process. This sweater is knit in an allover lace pattern so it makes sense that it will grow during the blocking process - both vertically and horizontally. The instructions for the body say to knit until it measures 17 inches but the schematic for the sweater also says 17 inches. If the lace pattern is going to grow lengthwise then I know that I need to knit less than 17 inches for the blocked measurement to match the schematic. 

This is where your swatch comes in handy! Your unblocked swatch measurement and your blocked swatch measurement will give you the magical number of rows or inches you'll need to knit the sweater to the correct length to match the schematic. My swatch is still MIA but I know that my swatch grew about an inch after blocking. Based on that information I decided to knit my sweater body to 15 inches and I'll rely on the blocking process to eke out that extra two inches. I'll use this information for knitting the sleeves since I don't want them to be too long. I've made a lot of progress since last week - I split for the fronts and back, knit the rest of one front, and am most of the way through the back. If all goes well I may have a finished cardigan by the end of January!

Then and Now: Yarn Repurposing

In 2011 I purchased some Imperial Yarn Columbia and knit the Hollyhock pullover. This sweater was short-lived because I had multiple issues with my yarn and pattern choice. Let's talk about them, shall we?

The pattern is well-written and I actually really like how the giant cowl stands up in this yarn. But Columbia is definitely a heavy worsted to Aran weight yarn and is not happy about being squished down on the US size #7 needle I used. You can see that the fabric is really firm and almost stands on its own. Columbia blooms A LOT after blocking and I didn't take that into account when I chose to forge ahead. Oi. Also, Raglans don't do a whole lot for my shape, which is proportional, so the blueprint of the sweater coupled with my poor yarn choice doesn't really do a whole lot for me (I still like that giant cowl, though). I think I ended up frogging this pullover late in 2011 since I almost never wore it.

Fast forward to now-ish.

Meet Wethersfield by Cecily Glowik Macdonald. She's the same designer as Hollyhock but I think this design works much better for my yarn and my body. 

As I've progressed as a knitter I've begun to shy away from heavier gauge yarns. Even though my body is proportionate (my bust and hips are the exact same measurement) I'm not exactly what you would call svelte. This cardigan is meant to be worn like a jacket since there is no body shaping and the entire thing is knit on a US #8 needle. But the lines work better for me - the cardigan creates vertical lines that break up my (ahem) substantial bust and the set-in sleeves make a nice line at my shoulders. My yarn is waaaay more happy in this little cardigan than it was in Hollyhock. I knit this at 4 stitches to the inch on a US #8 needle and the fabric is just the right density and the cables look squishy rather than strangled. I ran out of yarn half-way through the edging and picked up another skein in a different dye lot to finish off the sweater. There you have it, yarn repurposed. I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear out of my cardigan this Fall since it's a cozy, throw on, weekend around the house kind of sweater; perfect for knitting on the sofa while sipping my coffee.

FO: Cameron Hoodie

Pattern: Cameron Hoodie by Bobbi IntVeld

Yarn: Columbia Minerva Knitting Worsted (vintage)

Needles: US #7, US #8 Addi Turbo 

Mods: I knit wide pink stripes since I didn't have enough of each color to knit the tunic in a solid color. I ran out of the dark pink (the tag states that it is "luscious" pink) at the neck so I finished the hood in light pink. The remaining tiny ball of dark pink was enough to knit the ribbing around the hood but not enough to do ribbing around the armhole. I ended up picking up stitches around each armhole and binding off on the next round to keep the fabric from curling inward. This is a great layering piece - the wool is lightweight and warm and the tunic can be worn over t-shirts or long sleeves this Fall. She loves it!

On a roll...

You may or may not know that I've been doing sample knitting for a couple of different designers lately. This is exciting because I get to try out new yarns and patterns at absolutely no monetary cost to me, just my knitting time. But my knitting time? It never seems long enough! As of Tuesday evening I finished up a large-ish sample and will be sending it off to the designer and that means that I'll soon be finishing up my own large project - Aislinn. 

Half a sleeve down and one sleeve to go! Minimal finishing and a good wash and block and I'll have a spankin' new sweater to wear. 

Mr. B's socks are finally finished after a long-ago failed May 6th deadline. Can you believe how fast this year is flying by? That may be why I don't feel like these socks were on the needles for so long - I also happened to lose them for a week and then run out of yarn. Oops.

Aaaaand, I'm plugging away on my stripey socks during lunch time and short breaks between any, and every, day-time activity that requires my attention.