Last FO of 2014

I seem to be still lingering in the year just past - but this will be the last post about things from 2014.  I promise.  I wanted to show you  Radicchio.

This sweater was started in August and set aside for more important things, -  Hippie Blue to be precise.  Since the yarn was purchased in May at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and the knitting started in August, I thought it should be finished before another year rolled in.  So after Christmas, I got to work and knit the final touches.  Just missing  buttons, here she is.

Pattern:  Radicchio by Giovanna Vacchi. A  top-down with some basic, lace work in the yoke.

Yarn:  Cestari, Heather Collection  75% cotton, 25% wool.  Knits to 20 sts over 4 inches.  Called Knitting Worsted by we Canadians, but the US label refers to the yarn as DK weight.  I have long wanted to try a cotton/wool combo yarn.  I suspect  it will offer the best of both worlds.  The coolness of cotton for a summer's day, but the memory of wool to prevent stretch and sag.  

Needles:  4.5 mm for body and 3.75 mm for trims.

Objective:  I wanted a neutral-coloured, summer sweater with long sleeves.  I have a couple of short- sleeved summer cardis and one with 3/4 sleeves.  Fine for hot days but for cooler evenings, I wanted a colour that would go with anything and have full length sleeves.

What I Did: To begin, I started the top-down knit and did  exactly as the pattern suggested for the yoke portion.  Radicchio knits the  button-band trims at the same time as the sweater body.  The trims  were vertically-appearing ribs.  In my mind they were too bulky, not snug enough and just plain not pretty.  Check out some of the projects on ravelry to see what I mean.

On my second attempt, I subtracted a few stitches from the overall numbers given and knit just the sweater minus the trims. Those I added after completing the sweater and that gave me the same circumference as prescribed in the pattern.

Once I finished the yoke pattern, I tossed the official pattern and took out my new Need a Circular Yoke?  book.  From it, I used the numbers for total stitch count before the great divide, the bust darts and also waist and hip shaping.  That shaping was done as  the book suggests, on either side of the added underarm stitches.  This separates the increase/decrease lines by several stitches.  In my mind, they look better this way - they do not pull on each other as some side-by-side shapers do. 

In addition, I added a couple of Dowager Hump short rows into the back.  If I were to knit this again though, I would add a few stitches between lace patterns across the back.  Mine looks stretched much more tightly across the back than at the front. 

That stretching verifies the truth of what was once told to me by a customer at the yarn store where I worked. I was explaining to an elderly, little-old-lady customer  how to choose the correct  pattern size based on bust measurement.  Using myself as an example, I said
" For me, with a 38 inch bust ..."
That was as far as I got because this sweet, little old lady interrupted to exclaim
" 38 inches?  Must be all in your back!"
Radicchio proves she was right.

Radicchio fits eactly as I planned.  Not too much fabric under the arms,  defined bust, waist and hip areas and it is a perfect length.  But there  is one issue.  Having purchased only 4 skeins of yarn at 250 yards per skein, I had to get the sweater out of that 1,000 yards.  I knew it would be tight and in fact I finished with a mere 5 grams of yarn to spare. 

But, the sleeves are a bit short of perfect. 

Bracelet length some might say.  Too short I say. 

So I will divide the 5 grams into two parcels of 2.5 grams each and lengthen the sleeves.  It might just be enough. 

But of course I can't do that until I get my needles back.  Because   - I.  Forgot.  My.  Knitting.  Bag.  

Hippie Blue Twins

Happy New Year to all my readers.  Despite it being 2015 - yikes  - I have a couple of leftover 2014 knits to tell you about.

Today's story is about a baby-sized,  Hippie Blue for my Great Nephew, Jack.  As I knit Hippie Blue for my niece, Jack's Mom, I realized I was going to have some yarn left over and immediately started planning a baby size replica of Mom's sweater.  I finished Mom's in time for our big family get-together on December 13, but not Baby Jack's mini version.  I said nothing to Mom, but hoped I could surprise her with Jack's sweater by Christmas Day.  And so I did.

Jack's sweater,  I knit on the machine.  That should have made it a very quick knit.    But...
The struggle with   One of my struggles with machine knitting is the lack of patterns available.  I eventually found a baby-sized, raglan- sleeved pattern online and used it as a template.  There was one issue, though.  It was for a gauge of 28 sts/4 inches.  Sock yarn gauge.  I was using Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed at 22 sts/4inches.  There was math to be done.

When  the sweater was finished, the sleeves looked a bit wonky.  Additional internet research revealed that the pattern I was using gave very different sleeve directions than  a second  pattern for the same style and same gauge published by the same  designer.  I emailed her to ask which pattern would be the accurate one. Unfortunately, she replied to say she was 'slammed' with Christmas stuff and couldn't get back to me until after the new year.

Hmm.  That didn't do me any good.  More research.  A third pattern was found.  Still for sock yarn - what is it with baby sweaters out of sock yarn?  But this pattern  was for a dropped-shoulder style.  That straight, rectangular shaping, I thought, would be easier to translate to a different  gauge.  Rip effort number one and begin effort number two.

Even so, when that sweater was finished, the sleeves looked way too big around.  A 12 inch circumference at the upper arm.  Wow!  Almost adult in size.

Rip.  New sleeves reduced to a ten inch circumference were what I settled on.  Partly because the 25th was only hours away and partly because I really had no idea what circumference was best for a one year old for whom I was knitting a size two sweater.  See how things get confusing?

Anyway, the sweater was presented and  thrilled over. It fit and has been   worn.  No better thanks than that.  Take a look at my Hippie Blue Twins

The Chastain Park Shawl

In late August, some of my Ladies with Balls and  I spent an evening at  Orillia's newest yarn store, Purl 3.  The store was hosting a trunk show  with Deb Gemmell.  The show was fun, Deb's speech enlightening, but it was really the shopping that satisfied. 

On display, in the store, was the Chastain Park Shawl.  Knit in - well that is the question.  I have done what I caution knitters never to do - thrown out the ball band.   I think it was Universal Yarns, Classic Shades.

The pattern said to cast on 3 stitches then work a stockinet section, increasing at the centre and side edges only on right side rows, until 77 stitches had been achieved.  Follow that with  12 rows of lace.  At 77 stitches, my shawl would have fit Tiny Tim.  Ravelry showed that  several others seemed to  have incurred the same dilemma. There were many shawls with variations of when and where to do the lace section Encouraged to know there were no knitting police,  I improvised.  After my 77 stitches, I knit a small section of  lace, some more stockinet, a little more  lace, more stockinet and finally a bigger expanse of lace to finish off.

This is a simple triangular shawl.  Not my favourite because there is no curve at the neck. Pure triangular shawls require folding over at the neck line in order to be worn comfortably. 

 

Especially small shawls like Chastain Park.

If I were to do it a second time, I would increase at the side edges on every row, while maintaining the right side only increases at the centre line.  That would give longer and somewhat curved arms.  Those longer arms help the shawl to stay put on the shoulders, without the folded over neck line. Like my Talbot Trail Shawl.

 But I do love the colours.  It was a very quick knit and I  think it will make a perfect accessory to the little black top I intend to wear on Christmas Day.

Morgan, Meet Peter

The day after the great hat give-away where the young ones scrambled for their favourite H 2-0 Hat, Fred and I visited son #2 at his big city condo.   I presented him with his 'Morgan.'

 He liked it  and it fit.  Can't ask for more than that.  Lady of Spain liked it as well - always a good thing  -  and even recognized that it was not your ordinary knit.  "That must have been very complicated to knit," she said in her beautiful Spanish accent, which gives the word complicated an exotic rendering by placing a  strong emphasis on the middle syllable. Lovely to listen to.

Very stylish you look, Peter.  Wear it in good health.

Meet Morgan

What is this?  A plate? 

 

No, This is Morgan.  A 'newsboy' style hat from  Knitty.com.

Taking a chance that my blog is not high on the daily, must- read list of son #2, I am unveiling  Morgan before giving it to him  on Sunday.  Son #2,  Peter, was given a lovely, new winter coat for his November birthday by his Lady Of Spain.  It is a light, grey tweed.  Immediately, the knitter in me recognized that his current stash of  hand-knit, head gear wouldn't match his new coat. 


Over the years, I have knit Peter several 'togue' style hats.  Thinking about a new hat for his new coat, I wanted it to be more stylish than toque-like and thought a 'newsboy' hat would be great.  Most 'newsboy' style hand-knit hats though, are nothing more than a toque with a brim.  I wanted the real thing.  My ravelry search took me to knitty.com and there was Morgan. 

The  pattern was  perfect.  Mine,  made   even more so because it finished  perfectly.  Like Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket, until close to the finish line, Morgan is a shape-less blob.  There is tons of counting,  much short-rowing and head scratching, wondering what I was accomplishing with the fiddly nature of the knit. 

And for me there were also some gauge issues.  I  did not have the pattern with me when I stopped into Riverside Yarns in Owen Sound to purchase the yarn.  But how wrong could I be with Knitting Worsted for a hat?  Well, wrong enough to require a couple of rip backs to get Morgan to be the right size.  (The pattern calls for DK weight.  Always take the pattern)

Having finished one Morgan, repeat Morgans should be easier.

 

 I will know where I am in the hat and what I am doing to shape that particular  portion on future Morgans.  At least I should hope so.

I appreciate the way the designer thought through the pattern to create a fit with options. It can be worn  with the back in 'up' position, as above, for warmer days.  But with back down and ears covered, as below, for those colder, windier, winter days. 

 

And if it is really cold, the front can be unsnapped from the plastic-lined brim to come down lower over the face.  

I love it.  I think it will fit Peter and if it either matches or enhances the new coat, I will be satisfied.

Hippie Blue

 Hippie Blue is finished and ready for delivery this coming Saturday.  It is gorgeous, if I do say so myself and I am very pleased with it.

Pattern:  A Cabin Fever compilation.  I used three CF books.  Button Up Your Top Down, 

Need a Plus Size Cardigan? and the latest release, Need a Circular Yoke?

Needles:  4mm circular.  I was supposed to use a slightly smaller size for the neck ribbing.  When the sweater was complete, that ribbing seemed quite loosey goosey.  I think I used the 4mm on it too.  A bit of black elastic thread and all was well.

Yarn:  Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed.  Walnut brown for the body, Denim Blue for the trim.  An excellent choice for a new Mom who will most likely often have 'spit up' on the sweater  and who demanded  most emphatically that the sweater not be 'itchy'. Cotton Tweed can be thrown in with the regular wash and also into the dryer and still look good for years to come. 

MODS:  

There are many.  Starting at the top on this top down raglan, I'll explain them all.

Cast On and Neck Line:  The cast on number came from Button Up Your Top Down.   I like the way top downs from this book begin.  Most top down raglans begin with fewer than required stitches. Then, as one knits back and forth raising the back neck and increasing at the raglan lines,stitches are added one at a time to the centre front. This works, but I find those stitches added at centre front every right-side row are often sloppy.

The technique used in BUYTDown, approaches the neck shaping from the other way around.  All required stitches are cast on. Then,  while working back and forth raising the back neck and increasing at each raglan line, a decrease is worked at centre front. The edge-line decreases -at least when they come off my needles - are much neater than my edge-line increases sometimes are.
Once done, the back neck is higher than the front, allowing space for your chin (or chins as the case may be)  and the centre front line is neat and tidy.

Armhole Depth and Underarms: Moving down the sweater, I took my next set of numbers from the Need A Circular Yoke ? book. This is a more recent  publication and because of that (at least I think because of that) the armholes are shorter, providing a more fitted fit. A look I feel is more current and suitable for a young woman.

Before reaching the underarm and separating body from sleeves,  I added in a couple of short rows across the back. Maybe an old lady thing , thinking of a dowager's hump, but I put them in nonetheless. 

At the underarm, on both body and sleeve, I added stitches. These added stitches keep the underarm from binding - especially when the armholes are not overly deep. The number of stitches to add was taken  from the NaCYoke? book and double checked against Elizabeth Zimmermann's rule of 8% of body stitches. 

Bust Shaping:  I have knit a few sweaters now with bust darts.  The Need a Plus Size Cardigan? book was where I first learned of the advantage of bust darts.  For my niece's sweater,  through the use of bust darts, I wanted  the front of the sweater two inches wider than the back.  After knitting the neck ribbing, I switched to stockinet,  increasing  along the raglan lines until I was two inches shy of desired circumference.  I separated the sleeves from the body as mentioned above.  Then, knowing that my gauge was 5point5 sts per inch, I decided to put 6 extra stitches at each front side.  I placed a marker and made the increases at those markers on both the left and right sides.  Doing this on the right sides only meant it took 12 rows to achieve these 6 increases.

 
Waist Shaping: Knitting south towards the waist, I added some shaping. My niece is a new Mom and from the front it might be argued that no shaping is required. But at one of Deb Gemmell's recent seminars  I learned that while our front waists might disappear through child birth or age, the back waist often remains. For the knitter,  this means that while  shaping might not be needed  at the front, shaping should still be done at the back. 

Some designers have  knitters shape at the side seamlines. NACYoke? has the waist shaping done on either side of the 8% stitches that were added under the arms. While these separated decrease lines are  improved styling, I  think,  I nonetheless took it one step further. One quarter of the way into the back from each side,  I placed a marker and did all decreases at the markers. This created a  vertical dart that while  on this dark brown sweater is  too dark to be seen on camera, trust me in knowing that those lines are very slimming.

Hip Increases:  Once at the waist, the decreases became increases. Most were done along the same vertical dart lines as the above-waist decreases. But, because I wanted to give my niece some extra hip room in the sweater, there had to be lots of increases  -  more  than could be accommodated  on those two vertical lines alone. 

So,  while on most right side rows, there were only two increases - at those two vertical lines - on other increase rows, there were 4 increases and on still others,   6 increases. Two at the back dart lines, two more at the back underarm markers and still two more at the front underarm markers. Six increases in total on occasional rows. This allowed the hip area  to grow quickly enough to be at the required measurement  before time to do the ribbing.

Ribbing:  Speaking of ribbing,  I realized my work to provide room for the hips would be  for naught if I knit regular 2x2 ribbing. Ribbing pulls in. That would definitely work against the roomy hip style I had worked for my niece.

Instead I worked  garter ribbing. K2,  P2 on the front. Purl across the row on the wrong side.  It was a good match for the button bands. Taken from the BUYTDown book, the button bands  are knit at the same time as the sweater. Although they look like  regular ribbing, they are in fact a type of garter ribbing.

Sleeves:  Sleeves were quite normally knit.  I did them on a circular needle using the 'loop' method when the circumference became too small for the cable. They too were finished off with the garter ribbing, which when done in the round is K2, P2 on Round 1, then Knit all stitches on Round 2. Easy.

My Opinion:  The sweater fits beautifully. I do not mean that it fits me, but in trying it on, I can see that the extra  tailoring features I  incorporated  give it a custom look.  It is not an 'off the rack' sweater for sure.  I gave the tailoring of this sweater much thought and if it fits my niece it will be a great coup for knitters everywhere.  

My one last step before giving the sweater to my niece is to approximate  the number of stitches in the garment. I know the number of stitches per inch, I know the number of rows per inch and I know the sweater dimensions. With those numbers, I should be able to approximate the total number of stitches in the sweater.  (Grade three math - if there are two apples in each basket, how many apples are there in all ten baskets?)
Then, as yarnharlot once advised knitters to do,  in the accompanying card, I  will write - "All xxx number of stitches in this sweater were knit with loving thoughts of you". 

Hats-a-Plenty

My family  Christmas get-together takes place this coming Saturday.  The   My plan is to take a box of hats and let the young ladies - and men  - or old folks -  go at it.

This is the pile so far.  All the same pattern - the H2O Hat from Chicknits.  A great little pattern with only 40 stitches and about 23 rows. 

 Some of mine are knit with bulky yarn and some with three strands of knitting worsted weight held together.  I am aiming for a variety of colours - something to please everyone.


And here is me wearing one.

  

Vera commented, when I last posted about these little hats, asking  to see one modelled.  She wondered about the fit.  Here you are, Vera.



There is also one cowl in the mix.  The cowl yarn was a gift from Bag Lady Sue and I thought - not hat material.   But perfect for a cowl.  This one has 80 stitches joined in the round.  I worked  one round knit, one round purl, one round knit, all in the fuzzy yarn.  Switching to the main yarn I  knit stockinet until running  out of yarn.  The other side ends with the same three row pattern knit with the fuzzy yarn, then the cast off. 


Seeing all these non Hippie Blue knits, must have you asking  " Is Hippie Blue finished?"  Why yes it is, thanks for asking. 

Tomorrow I will give you all the details and mods of that knit.

Storm Productivity

It has been a long time since I have had  as high a knitting productivity level as I had last week.  It seems that stormy weather can greatly heighten my  knitting output.  In addition to the two and a half hats I mentioned in yesterday 's post, I also knit two scarves.

Washed out colour due to no flash.

 

Machine knit them,  mind you.  But machine knitting, for me at least, happens so infrequently that I begin from the beginning each time I use the machine.  Remind me again how  I cast on/ short row/ create lace.

 Last week, I decided to resurrect my machine and spend a couple of stormy afternoons using  some stash yarn and knitting  a few scarves. I had managed to acquire several patterns for machine knit scarves and wanted to try them out. In the end, I discarded all the new patterns as being too much work. I can't see the point of fussing for hours/days with a machine knit piece.    Isn't it the object of machine knitting  to be able to complete pieces faster  and with less frustration than hand knitting? 

Instead I returned to a lace, scarf pattern that I have knit previously.

 

 It is easy and fast.  I knit two of them last week with each one taking  about an hour to knit.  I made one slightly wider and experimented with a different bind off.  That new bind off  isn't as nice as it could be,  so that one is mine.  The other one, narrower but more perfectly knit,  will be gifted.  I know just the red head to wear this colour. 

Fun For $2.

A knitter can only stand so much  same same.  Last week during the storm and the flu, I took a break from knitting  the Blue Hippie and turned my attention instead to hats. Inspiration for this switch, came from its usual source - ravelry  - where I came across this $2.00 pattern  from CHICknits. 

Why it is called the H2O Hat, I do not know.  I think I would have called it the One Hour hat.  Or the Pie Hat, as in easy-as-pie.  Knit with either bulky yarn or three stands of KW held together and only 23 rows,  it knits up fast!  

Waiting for the storm to pass and the headache to subside, I knit two hats and started a third.

The first two are knit with three stands of bits & bobs of stash stuff  held together while the one on the needles is Knitca Wool Slub.  Such fun.  While the pattern calls for knitting this flat and sewing a seam up the back, I couldn't  see the point of that.  Mine are knit in the round.  Even more fun.

My goal now is to have a box full of these in various colour combinations to take to the family Chirstmas get together and let the young ladies go at it.

Fall Means Rhinebeck

Knitters know Rhinebeck.  Precisely,  those connected to the 'net' at least know of Rhinebeck. Long on my bucket list, this year at last,  I am headed there.  

My time will mostly be spent working, helping Lyn Gemmell of Shelridge Farms with her booth as I did for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May.  Work may be the first order of business, but  Lyn, generous, fun 'boss' that she is, makes sure  that  I have shopping time. I have the American cash ready and have alerted my credit card company about the possible overload.

But  unlike most other Canadian knitters on their way to Rhinebeck, I have not knit a 'fair' sweater.    Instead I have knit  'fair'  mittlets.  Who is the clever knitter I ask you?

Shirl the Purl's Mittlets, knit with Shelridge Yarns - of course.  Lyn tells me that the booth, close to  great, wide  barn doors, can become windy and cool.  Mittlets should let my fingers stay warm while I  tap in credit card numbers :)

I am travelling with my phone and tablet so pictures and blog postings will be possible. As long as the yarn fumes and excitement of accomplishing a bucket list item doesn't fog my memory.

Monkey Business

Miss Abigail and I stopped into  the Napa Wool Tool Store in downtown Hearst last week. Sadly  for me, my friend Ruby and her hubby retired leaving the yarn store  under new management. Management- who perhaps knows it's market - has stocked the shelves with the likes of Red Heart and Canadiana

Appealing to a 12 year old it seemed, as Abi picked Canadiana in  variegated pinks and a pattern for a monkey hat.

With the model at a friend's house, Grandma got to try it on.

Knitting News From The North.

Despite July's 'stay inside  -  good for knitting weather  -  there seems to be a lack of trailer  knitting production this year.  But  this week, I did finish my little Talbot Trail Shawl.

Both yarn and pattern were purchased last summer in St. Thomas at Little Red Mitten.  Only a year on the shelf!   Not the longest shelf life!

This pattern is one of a three shawl series designed by http://littleredmitten.ca/ Little Red Mitten's owner, Joan Janes.

  I chose Berroco's Mettalic Sox yarn for mine and it has produced a bright and cheerful piece.

  The shape is crescent shaped.
Achieved by an outer edge increase on every row and a centre increase on every other row.

This should brighten a dark winter coat or nicely accesorize  a winter sweater. In fact I wear it as I write this -another cool summer's day. Happy summer everyone.

Move Nuggets From The North.

Dismal would be a good word to describe the weather this last week. Daily highs of 14 or so with grey skies and days of drizzly rain.

And what are rainy trailer days good for? Besides movies and card games with Grandkids? Knitting of course.
I finished a pair of socks.

Started from stash yarn then in hibernation for awhile as the stash ran out. Luckily, a good friend has similar taste in sock yarn and gave me a ball. Now complete, they are great socks. Kroy FX yarn  and 2.50mm needles. 2 X2 ribbing that I morphed into a 7x1 pattern all down the leg and foot.

I like them a lot. My colours of course. 

Having finished these socks, I'm into another sock yarn project. A scarfette. An easy simple knit I hope to have finished before my next Wifi day. In the meantime Happy Knitting All.

Home Again

The Tour De La Gaspesie is complete, ashes are scattered and we are home again.  I will  -  soon  -   fill you in on the wonderful trip we had, but right now, my head is still spinning.  The most I can do today is show you the sum total of the knitting I did in the car.

This little, summer, eternity scarf. The yarn?  Can't remember.  A thick and thin, chunky-weight cotton purchased at Riverside Yarns in Owen Sound.   I used only one ball.   Colleen at Riverside told me that if I cast on 165 stitches, joined in the round, knit garter stitch  - that is one round knit, one round purl  -  I could make a great summer scarf with only one ball.  And that is exactly what I did.

Niece Katie, Montreal dweller, lover of fashion and all things purple will get a postal delivery of this scarf one day soon. 

Summer Cowl

I am sure you all noticed the bright, cheerful, green cowl worn with the Miss Lacey Tee in yesterday's post. 

 

Of course you did.

White is not the best colour for me.  I knew that when I started Lacey but  had intentions of buying some great, chunky, colourful jewellery  to accent the tee in a colour that suits me better.  Then Wilma made her great summery cowl and I thought

 

 "Now that's a good idea."

At Riverside Yarns on Saturday when St. Mary's did Thornbury, I spotted some bright and cheerful dishcloth cotton by Estelle in shades of green - my favourite colour.  I bought 3 balls for a grand total of $6.

Sunday evening, knowing that my white Lacey was having her debut on Monday, I cast on for  the cowl.  Making up the pattern as I went along, I cast on 112 stitches with a 5 mm needle.  Joining in the round, next came  5 rounds knit in  garter st.  The body of the scarf was a three round repeat  -one   round of YO K2tog, one round of knit, one of purl.  Repeat the three rounds until cowl width suits.  Work 5 rows of garter, then cast off.  Mine took one ball and a bit of the cheap and cheerful yarn.

I know the cowl was effective in distracting viewers from the not so complimentary white because  of the comments received during Lacey's debut.  I was told how summery the cowl was, what a lovely touch it added and was asked if I had knit it.  Not once was I asked if I knit Lacey.

That either says something very good or very 'bleh' about Lacey.

Lacey Tee

Finally, my month-long knit is finished.  A tiny, lacey tee - one month to knit!!! 

But it is finished and had its first trial run yesterday. 

Details:  

Pattern: Scoop Neck Pullover from the Summer 2014 issue of Vogue.

Yarn:  Mission Falls Cotton for the stockinet portions and a crochet cotton called Helena for the lace portions.  Mission Falls has been discontinued for quite some time but a year ago I picked up 5 balls at $1. per ball at Spinrite in  Listowel.  The Helena I picked up a few years ago for $1 per ball from a sale bin at London Yarns.

Needles:  4mm. I started with 5mm as per the ball band on Mission Falls but the lace portions - already more stretchy than the stockinet portions were almost out of control  I tried a 4.5mm but finally settled on a 4mm.

Mods:  Many.  

     The yarn called for in the pattern was fine and required the stockinet portions to be knit with yarn doubled.  MF is thicker than the suggested yarn so I knit with one stand throughout.

     I didn't knit the sleeves. Why?? A yarn shortage and more summery look.

     The neck trim - I did my own thing.  A few rows of ribbing and then two rows of stockinet before cast off.

      Two rows of stockinet inserted in the centre of the lace portion to prevent lace looseness.

Comments.  

*I did not like the pattern at all.  It was vague and confusing.  For example, you can see that the tee has a shirt tail hem - longer in the centre front/back than at the sides. This is done by working a series of short rows soon after the cast on.  At one point  the  pattern  said to knit for xx inches from cast on.  Would that be xx inches from the cast on as it presents itself at the sides or at the centre? There is about two inches difference.  No help from Vogue on that point.  Figure it out.

*The shoulder shaping was done by casting off rather than short rowing.   I should have known better.  Even though this casting off was accomplished in a new-to-me method of shaped casting off, it did  not, IMO,  produce the nicest shoulder..

*The bottom edge curls - despite being knit in garter stitch.

*The worse problem for me though was the contrast in loosy-goosy-nees between the  stockinet and lace.  Without the two rows of stockinet, centre-lace, the lace flared so much as to appear gathered when reined in by the   stockinet portions  above and below. 

*I am also not pleased with the 'wings' at the side bottoms,  I see a renovation happening there.

The knitting of this pattern reminded me once again that I do my best knitting when I use the pattern as inspiration only.  The design details  should come from my own brain.

      

    

Fauxnel

Not Chanel, but Fauxnel.  Fake Chanel.  Truly not a Chanel, but truly a better fit for my budget and social strata, I present to you, my faux Chanel.  My Fauxnel.

Pattern:  This one. 

 

This is the free ravelry download that I used  for inspiration.  The gauge on the French Riviera is 20 sts /4in whereas mine was 16 sts/4in.  So I combined the inspiration of French Riviera with the cast-on numbers from  Ann Budd's Handy Book of Top Down Sweaters.  Following the cast on, I simply knit to fit.

Needles:  4.5mm for everything. Trim and body.

Yarn:  For the sweater - Facination,  Desina. 

 

An Italian yarn consisting of a  60% Cotton, 30%Viscose 10% Nylon blend in a beautiful black, ivory and taupe boucle.  This yarn was donated to our stash swap at knit group.   I grabbed all of it  -   15 balls  in total   -  and  used about 7 for the cardi.  The black trim is Super 10 Egyptian Cotton.  Super 10 is great value because of the 230 yards per skein.  In my case however, I probably didn't use 2% of that.  I now have lots of black cotton as a starting point for another summer topper.

Mods:  The trim on my cardi is reverse stockinet. The lazy kitters' I-Cord.  I picked up and knit the stitches from the right side,   purled one row (WS), then cast off in purl stitch from the right side.  It gives a nice, cord-like trim, prevents rolling and with this boucle yarn was much easier to accomplish than I-Cord.

French Riveria shows the cardi with two different coloured bands of   trim.  The first, a plain, co-ordinating colour while    the outside trim repeats  the main yarn.  I have stopped at one trim.  I will wear it that way for awhile then decide if I want the second.  That decision was forced on me  because as yet, I have not been able to find a taupe yarn that matched the  pinkish-toned taupe in the main yarn.

Mistakes I Made:  Initially, I  got the gauge wrong.  Seriously wrong.  Somehow, gauge measured 12 sts/4in.  in the swatch.  Not only in the swatch but in my blind knitting until I reached the underarm.  Or so it seemed.  At that point I tried on the cardi  and it was small.  Seriously small.  I re-measured the gauge and the true count was 16sts/4in.   Quite a difference.  Certainly enough to make the knit on my needles too small and to require a re-start.  It fits well now.

Initially picturing this little cardi as a topper for a black tee and skirt, I now think it will also look good over white.  Perhaps even taupe. 

A great addition to my summer wardrobe.  Fauxnel and I are off to Baltimore tomorrow.  - where I am hoping the weather will be more summer-like than here at home.

The Flood Vest

Despite the rip-back, despite our basement flood, my super chunky vest is finished.  The last, I think, of the winter knitting.  Time to start thinking of summer.  I think I can, I think I can - makesummer happen.

Details:
Pattern:  Sirdar pattern called Waistcoats in Faroe Super Chunky
Yarn:  Wool Slub by Knitca.  Colour - Rainbow
Needles:  8mm
Mods: 
-- The pattern suggests two lengths.  One quite long, the other quite short.  I knit mine somewhere in between.  In between enough to give me my normal 23 inch length.
None of the edges were to have any kind of trim according to the pattern.  I put 2 rows of K1 P1 at the bottom to prevent curling.  The 10 stitch cable at the front edges I found difficult to do without a stitch or two at the edge to 'hold' the work.  So I changed the 10 stitch cable to an 8 stitch cable and put 2 garter stitches along the edge from the point where the cable begins  to the centre back, where the cable stops.
- I knit it in one piece to the underarms and then separated to knit the upper body.

I am very happy with the yarn - soft, lightweight, almost roving like, bulky yarn.
I am not so happy about the gaping armholes. 

But nothing a bit of elastic thread won't cure.

A very cute, easy and with such bulky yarn, very  fast knit.  A good way to end the winter knitting.

My 198 Yards Of Heaven

With thanks to the Lady With Balls whose struggles with this shawl challenged me to try it for myself, I give you my finished 198 Yards Of Heaven.

 It's airy lightness,  pointy points

 

 and near perfect knitting give me giddy giggles  of self satisfaction.

I say near perfect, because there is one mistake already noted.  Seen clearly here, with 198 Yards laid flat on my bed, is that extra  (not to mention extra large) hole at the top of an also not-so-perfect section of yarn over 'Vees'.   Lace though is nothing more than holey knitting  and here's hoping that once bunched up around my neck, a few wonky yarn overs  will disappear in the mix.  WOuld you - or I - correct this mistake?  If I had noticed it early on, maybe.  But having noticed it only once the shawl was complete and blocked, my answer is 'No'.

Pattern:  198 Yards Of Heaven.  I found the pattern instructions confusing.  While the pattern in terms of knit stitches was not difficult, the wording of the instructions  was.  My pattern was labelled 'version 3' and therefore was probably different from other versions but I definitely found it could have been clearer.  To that end and for my 'LWB', I wrote  a page of 'tips' and suggestions for (IMO) a better understanding.  If anyone is interested,  email  me and I'll send a copy.


Yarn:  Cabin Fever Sterling  Although the pattern calls for Worsted Weight, I used this much lighter, stash, fingering weight yarn.  Due to the  finer yarn, I had to knit 4 full repeats of the lace pattern rather than the two and a half suggested in the pattern to get a scarf of sufficient size. 

Needles:  4mm.  Smaller than called for but a size that gave me a nice fabric with my finer yarn.

Mods:  Yarn weight. needle size and number of pattern repeats as described above.

What I Learned:  At times,  no amount of pattern reading/studying  will help with understanding.  Sometimes you gotta' knit it to get it.
When you end the pattern repeat on a row different that the one the designer suggests, chances are the border won't line up properly. At least that is what happened to me.  I had to study each row of border  instructions  until I came to one that  would line up properly.     The lining up was important because  - as you see here -

 the series of 'V'-shaped yarn overs in the pattern morph directly into  the yarn overs that form the points of the border.  Things would have looked severely out of whack if they had not lined up.

Would I knit It Again?  Yes.  With Worsted Weight yarn, it would be a quick  knit.  Great for a gift that impresses.