More sweaters

I continued to knit on the Henley sweater (perfect TV knitting, by the way, lots of stockinette), and got to where the lace pattern starts:

That was all good, until this showed up:

It's Berroco Foliage in color walnut. I just couldn't resist casting on! I already had a project in mind, or I actually ordered it specifically for this:

The free pattern is in Finnish, but Gedifra has also published it somewhere in English. I found it on Ravelry as "Entrelac sweater". Anyhow, I saw this pattern and just HAD TO try it. It has a very interesting construction, starting with the entrelac in the back, then you add stitches for the sleeves, make a neck opening like a buttohole, knit over the shoulders, cast off the sleeve stitches, and finish in the front at the bottom of the entrelac portion. After you sew the seems together, you add the ribbing, and are done.

Very cool, if it just turns out like the picture. ;) I'm at the point where you cast off the sleeve stitches:

I've also been working on a sweater for my friend's daughter. I'm using a one-piece raglan sleeve construction:

It's from the make-it-up-as-you-go collection again. After finishing the body, I took it off the needles to block it and check the measurements.

Everything was right on, so now it just needs the collar and sleeves and a couple of finishing touches, and is ready to wear. Hopefully finished and maybe even modeled pics next time!

Trying to keep warm

I had a lot of incentive to finish this one fast. It has been about -10 F, or -25 C here for a while already, and I'm running out of warm sweaters to wear, unless I want to wear the same clothes for weeks on end. So, enter new soft and warm cardi:

Like I said, this was a fast knit. Possibly even the fastest sweater I ever put together, right around two weeks from start to finish. I used my own pattern - raglan sleeves, pieces knit flat, with garter stitch details in the hem, collar and sleeves. I wanted to keep it simple, because the yarn was so smooth, and every small little detail really stands out. Plus I like simple cardigans with one or two interesting but subtle details.
I ended up re-knitting the collar and button bands once, because the first try was just too bulky and not nearly as neat as I wanted. The second time I used a smaller needle and knit less rows for both, and ended up with a much more satisfying result.

I happened to have the perfect buttons in my stash. I think the warm wood color adds just enough interest so that the cardigan doesn't look dull.


Technical details:
Yarn: Adrianne Vittadini Trina, 16 x 50 g
Needles: 5.0 mm Clover bamboo circular, 3.5 mm Inox aluminum circular for collar and button bands

New year, new FO

Since my last post, I knit like mad on the Oblique, and did get it finished.


I absolutely adore this sweater! It must be the warmest thing I own. I wore it to work one day, and I was actually hot! Now that hasn't happened for a while! :D And the yarn is sooo soft, and the fit is great. It is fairly lose, but that how it's supposed to be. I don't have any picture of actually wearing the sweater -maybe another time.


Notes on the pattern: I very much enjoyed knitting this sweater, and only could find one minor error in the pattern. (I've already forgotten what it was...) I had to change a couple of things mainly, because I was running out of yarn. I adjusted the front so that it doesn't overlap as much. Only the button band overlaps. And I left the extra length off the sleeves that you would fold over, when wearing it. Otherwise, the only thing I think I may need to change yet is the collar. There aren't quite enough stitches (you decrease half the stitches after picking up), and it puckers just ever so slightly. So what I would have to do is to rip out the collar, and leave a few more stitches on there than what the pattern calls for.

The next thing I started was another sweater with some Adrianne Vittadini "Trina" that I got on a clearance from the Needlework Unlimited Outlet in Minneapolis.

It is also a super soft yarn, feels almost like a very soft cotton, although it is a merino/micro fiber/cashmere blend. The yarn is a little splitty, but a very quick knit on 5 mm needles.


The pattern is my own, just a basic raglan sweater with a couple of simple details, like the waist increases that are 10 stitches in from the side seam:


I also started on the Zephyr scarf, but I think I may rip it back, and start over. I'm only 20 or so rows in, although it starts with 300 some stitches. But I'm not entirely satisfied with the color changes, so I'll have to think that over one more time.

Last bits of 2007

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and had a chance to relax, and maybe even get some knitting done. I sure had a good time, but the knitting part, well I didn't have much time for that. I did, however, get a nice gift card to my LYS from my coworkers. I was so surprised that they had thought of that! Not that there's anything wrong with getting a bottle of wine, or something like that, but yarn... for me that is a much more personal gift. I went to spend it yesterday, and here's what I got:
Zephyr silk/wool lace weight in three colors, for a scarf from the Icelandic Three Cornered and Long Shawls. I had to get started last night already, but I don't have a progress shot. Not that it looks like much, yet, as you start with 329 stitches, and it takes a while to get just 4-5 rows done...

Another new (to me) yarn I thought I'd try was Reynold's Soft Seawool:I'm going to use it for a pair of socks. It's a little thicker than what I usually use, but really squishy! Can't wait to get started with this one, too.

The other in-progress project is still Oblique:

I've got a good start on the second sleeve, but I'm running out of yarn... The yarn requirement in the pattern seemed low to begin with, but I thought I'd go with it. Now Webs is of course all sold out of this yarn, and I had to order 2 more balls from somewhere else for twice as high a price, and a different dye lot. Grr... Fortunately it's a variegated yarn, so I'm not terribly concerned about the dye lot issue. Just seems like such a waste to spend almost half as much for two balls as for the rest of the sweater together. But I'm still in love with the pattern, and I've got high hopes for it! I've read several people's comments about Veronik's patterns, and how they thought they were confusing and hard to follow. I haven't had any problems with this pattern and I think it is extremely clear and well written. I'm very tempted to buy her recent book.

As far as getting help with my knitting projects goes, I'm still doing good. Suzy is training to knit socks:

And I didn't even have to ask her...

Happines is...

This new little gadget moved to our house last week:

It is of course Ashford Joy! The perfect little spinning wheel:

I started by practicing with some yellow corriedale I had in the stash. Not the prettiest wool ever, but very suitable for the purpose.


And of course I had some help:

My creation, 100 % novelty ;)


And in the knitting bag:

Veronik's Oblique from the fall Knitty:

I'm in love with both the pattern and the yarn. The pattern is very carefully written, I haven't found any errors or illogical solutions, and it is a pleasure to knit. The yarn, Maldi Fusion, is super soft, and makes the project even better. The only problem I'm having is that I don't think I have quite enough, and Webs, where I ordered this yarn from, sold out in no time. For that reason only, I'm changing the front of the sweater a little, and crossing my fingers that I'll have enough.

New skills

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a chance to try my mother-in-law's spinning wheel. I've only spun once before, and it was with flax (home grown, mind you), and I couldn't remember a thing about how to do it. I had some kind of an idea from tutorials on-line, and she (MIL) had some kind of an idea from taking a class, and so we tried to put everything we knew together, and gave it a shot. Her wheel is one on those made after and antique spinning wheel, and doesn't have a lot of adjustments one way or the other, so it wasn't the easiest thing to use. But nevertheless, I had a blast, and even ended up with some yarn!



The wool I was spinning was very nice and soft, but there were no details available about it, where I bought it. I got two half pound balls in two shades of dark red, which I was mixing as I was spinning.


I of course had to try to knit with my "fun novelty yarn" (my favorite quote from a tutorial: don't worry, if your yarn has thick and thin spots, you're making a fun novelty yarn!") My yarn had a little too much novelty in it at times, but at the end, I actually ended up with something you could call a thick-and-thin yarn, instead of the hard and snarly over-spun wire I made first. The hat is grownup size, but I asked the kids to model so I could get some pictures:



I also finished the socks for E:


A basic sock with 2x2 rib cuff and a heel flap. The yarn is Trekking XXL. I first attempted to make the socks symmetrical, but then noticed that the stripes just don't repeat the same at all, and I gave up. That's fine though, I think this is a real fun colorway for kids!

Progress...

Long time, no see, eh? I apologize for not posting... I don't really even have a good excuse, except that I've been too distracted, and too busy (read: lazy) to take proper pictures to post. I still have a whole bunch of polymer clay projects that I'd like to share, but haven't taken any pictures of, so that'll have to wait. As far as knitting goes -well, remember this cardi from a while back?
I actually did finish it. And it actually turned out absolutely horrible. I was thinking all along that the instructions weren't too good. The design is really pretty, but to get form the instructions to something that looks like garment in the photo is another matter. The construction is terrible, just a plain bad design. I'd look up the designer, if I hadn't lost the magazine, so I'd know to avoid them next time. It's not that there were too many errors, but the whole thing just wasn't going to work out. And I was wondering how it could, but thought I'd just knit all the way to the end and see. And it didn't. And I'm pissed. So I ripped the pieces apart, and I'm redoing the shoulders and the tops of the sleeves, as well as the collar. We'll see, if I'll be able to salvage it, or if I'll have to rip out the whole thing and start over. With a different pattern.

On the other hand, I've made progress on the black alpaca cardi, and I was actually determined to piece it together this weekend, so I could wear it to work tomorrow. My office is getting increasingly cold as the fall progresses, and I need to wear WOOL every day, or I'm not going to make it.

Here are the pieces taking a bath: Blocking went smoothly, since I had help again, as usual:

So much nicer, when you don't have to face a big job like this all alone! Now all I got to do, is piece it together and add a button band and a couple of buttons.

That was my plan until last night, when both the kids came down with The Flu. A nasty stomach virus that changed my schedule and made laundry and cleaning my first priority, and forced me to put the cardi on the back burner. Bummer. But I'll get there, should only take a couple of hours now.

I've also been knitting on some on-the-go projects, namely sock in sizes 3-years and 8-years:
This is the "hurts-your-eyes" colorway of some unknown sock yarn (not really unknown, but one of my helpers likes to remove the bands from balls of yarn, as you might recall.) The next ones weren't quite as bad, as far as colorful yarns go:

I actually started to like this colorway of Trekking XXL a lot, as I kept knitting. The color changes are slow, and there's always more than one color going on at once. Even when it looks like it's just one color, there are speckles of other colors in it. The socks are actually already finished, but I just don't have a picture yet.

Now back to knitting... got to finish that cardi!

Weekend fun

Oh, the crazyness that is polymer clay...

This is a technique called "Cutting Edge" by Dan Cormier. He doesn't have a web site that I could find, but he gives a lot of classes, and has published some instructions in the Polymer Cafe magazine. The beads are made with a silver (or alternatively gold) clay mixed with a color clay. Those tiny little silver mica particles reflect light differently from different angles, which is what makes the beads interesting. (Carissa Nichols gives a pretty good explanation on mica shift here.) Also the lines are sort of under the surface, and all the beads are polished to a fine silky smooth finish.

This is a crazy curly-swirly bead that I made with the left over clay from the cutting-edge-beads:

Black sheep -no, black alpaca!

I'm trying to post a little more often than once a month, so tonight I had to practically force myself to post something. The issue isn't that there would be a lack of crafts or knitting, not at all. I've just been way too lazy to take pictures and edit them to have something to show. But since my goal is to get back to posting once a week, I thought I really should do something about it tonight!

I have the pieces to the sweater from the last post just about finished, but I still have to put them all together and knit quite a bit of border to finish it. Not a very good mindless project, so I had to start something new. I wound the black alpaca I bought in Seattle into balls, and oh, my goodness, it is sooo soft! I just can't get over how this yarn feels! So even though most of the yarns in my stash have been waiting for much longer to be turned into something wearable, I started a sweater with this yarn. Modeled after my current favorite cardigan, it is going to be very plain, with a slightly shaped waist and a V-neck, button-down front and possibly small pockets (I haven't quite made up my mind about those, yet). It is a very true black, and therefore quite impossible to photograph, as you can see:


It has a bit of a sheen, and looks wonderful in a moss stitch, so I decided to do an inch of moss stitch in the cuffs and the hem:

If you can only see a black square, don't worry. That's pretty much what it is...

I also started a pair of socks to have a small portable project. I let the boys pick their own sock yarn from the stash, and this is what Mr S. picked:

And I thought I'd never get rid of that yarn... ;) I'm not sure how it ended up in my stash, but it certainly isn't something I'd pick now, so it must have been there for a while.

SSS

That is Second Sleeve Syndrome. A major case of it, to say the least... This is where I'm today, after finally picking up and starting yesterday:

I have not as much as touched it all summer, although I have to admit that knitting has been slow over all. But I know that with a few days of knitting, I can have this thing done, and can feel better about moving on to other things. The pattern (in the picture) is from last winter's Vogue. Surprisingly the pattern is written for Cascade 220, which is an unusual choice of yarn for Vogue, since the cost of the sweater only ends up being around $ 50, instead of at least double that. I'm enjoying the pattern, but there are a couple of weird things about it. In the front pieces, the stitch count is reduced in an odd way before binding off for the shoulders. Not sure how it will work when I'll piece it together -I may end up having to re-do the shoulders. The other thing is that in the pattern they don't mention any other closure than the belt, but obviously in the picture there's something holding the front together at least at the tip of the shawl collar. I think I'll just add a couple of buttons but that would mean I also have to add a button band. Or maybe I'll use some hooks instead.

The way I was able to overcome SSS was to compile a list of unfinished projects, and projects on my to-do list. I don't have a ton of things on my unfinished list, but there are 4 sweaters that are only a couple of days worth of knitting away from finishing. So I thought I should pick up the slack and stop feeling guilty about them. Here's the list:

1) Petrol blue cardigan, I have to re-do the shawl collar
2) Oxblood sweater, needs second sleeve and collar
3) A sweater for E, needs the collar finished and sleeves lengthened (I've piddled around long enough on it that the sleeves are already too short...)
4) A light blue cotton sweater, needs 1 1/2 sleeves
5) A hat for E
6) Socks for S

The things on my to-do list are all projects that I already have yarn for. I actually don't have any yarn (at least not in large quantities) that doesn't have a project planned for it.
1) Cable sweater from moss green wool
2) Cowl neck sweater from brown boucle
3) Mohair sweater
4) V-neck sweater from Art Yarn's light green wool/silk
5) Christmas scarf
6) Christmas scarf 2
7) Sweater from black alpaca
8) Sweater from blue wool
9) E socks
10) lace scarf from blue-green wool
11) lace scarf from purple silk (could be a gift)
12) lace scarf from Art Yarns silk
13) Sweater from brown/tan wool

Obviously, I don't have to go buying any more yarn for a while, at least until most of these are finished...