FO: Tall Flower Cardi

I finished this sweater last weekend, and sewed on buttons over the ensuing several days. I only had a few minutes here and there to do it, so I got the first 4 on Tuesday--enough to wear the sweater. The buttonholes disappear into the garter stitch bands, so it didn't look weird with no buttons on the lower part of the sweater. I got the final 4 buttons sewed on today. I'm very happy with this sweater. It was a little challenging, because the yarn I used is slightly lighter than the yarn called for in the pattern (a worsted yarn held double). Another challenge was weaving in ends. Since I used a superwash merino yarn I couldn't spit splice, so I had a bunch of ends at the selvedges, plus the ones from knitting and seaming the sleeves, picking up and binding off the button bands and collar, etc. I'm saying there were a lot of ends--not the most enjoyable aspect of knitting, but worth doing right. I love this design because it's cute without being cutesy, if you know what I mean. I feel like it has both whimsy and dignity, so it's fun to wear but I don't feel like I'm dressing like a 19 year old. Now that I'm in my 40's I worry about these things. It's a long story involving a cousin of my mom's who dressed in more revealing and otherwise "younger" clothing as she got older, rather than less revealing clothing as most women seem to prefer. I still want to wear somewhat funky clothes--I'm definitely not interested in dressing like an old lady--but I also don't want to be that woman, you know? It's hard to explain. The upshot is that it's sometimes challenging to dress myself as I get older, and in ways that I didn't expect when I was younger. Plus my body is changing, so there's that. I don't have a very good sense of what's flattering and what's embarrassing.

Anyway, here's the cardi:

Pattern: Tall Flower Cardi, by Cecily Glowik MacDonald (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Cascade 128 Superwash, colorway 815 Black
Needles: Addi Turbos, US10.5
Notes: Nothing really to add about this one. I knew I wanted to knit it as soon as I saw it on Ravelry. Other than adjusting for my gauge, which was slightly tighter than the pattern gauge, I followed the pattern instructions to the letter. I love the lace panels, and that they take on an overall shape rather than simply a repeating pattern shape...if that makes sense. I also love the little button tab on the collar--it's one of my favorite details about this sweater.

A cool side note: I PM'ed Cecily on Ravelry to let her know about 2 small typos I found in the pattern, and she sent me a free pattern for her Harvest pullover (Rav link) as a thank you. I was surprised and thrilled by this--I didn't expect anything in return, but I have been admiring Harvest for awhile and now I'm excited to knit it. I'm in search of the perfect yarn for it. The pattern calls for Classic Elite Kumara, which I understand is quite delicious. I need to find a LYS that carries it so I can squish it a bit before I decide.

In other news, I got over my frustration with the swatch cap I've been making. I pulled out the disastrous first attempt at 3-color stranding, and re-knit it using an easier technique. Basically, I make 2 passes for each round. On the first pass, I knit only 2 of the colors, and slip any stitches that will be in the 3rd color; then on the second pass I slip the stitches I knit and knit the stitches I slipped on the first pass. It looks so much better. It's not perfect, but it's good enough to finish the cap, block, and move on to the actual sweater. The imperfections are as follows: 1. My tension is still too tight in places, so that the colorwork puckers more than I think blocking will correct; I will need to really focus on being loose-loose-loose! 2. On at least one row I didn't get all the stitches I was supposed to. I also found an error in the chart, which I'll need to correct--and this, of course, is exactly what a swatch cap is for! Here it is:


And a closer view:

On this view, you can see that the bottom band of red needs to continue for one more row; if you look closely, too, you can see where I think I missed stitches on the second pass (though they might just be stretched out of shape from being slipped and otherwise manhandled). Here's the sleeve detail from the original sweater--which is the chart I was following for this cap; you can see that the yellow (which translates into red in the new color scheme) encompasses one row further up into the big medallion thingy:


Aaaaaand I also have some new yarns to show off. I got a sweater's quantity of this Cascade 220 Superwash from the Fiber Gallery. It's going to become a hoodie of some kind for my niece (either Cassidy, the ubiquitous Central Park Hoodie, or perhaps I'll design something new). It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's a really pretty medium purple heather. The color reminds me of grape SweetTarts.


The other day I was walking home from the U-District after teaching, and decided to stop by Bad Woman Yarn. I was mainly hoping they would carry the CEY Kumara, so I could cop a feel, but alas they did not. I did, however, find some Plymouth Mushishi in a colorway that I like. I first became fascinated by this yarn when I saw Aimeeisknitting making a cardigan with it at Purlygirls, several months ago now. A couple of weeks ago, erinb was working with it, and that reminded me of it. I've seen it around in various LYS's, but always either in colorways I don't like, or only a single skein of colorways I do like. Well, Bad Woman had a bunch of it in a colorway I love (I think it might be the same colorway Aimee was using), so I got 2 skeins--hopefully enough to make some kind of cardigan for myself.


That's it for today--what are you working on?

NaKniSweMoDo09 Wrapup

I guess I earned my patch. I thought it would be fun to make a mosaic of all of my NaKniSweMoDo projects:


Here's a quick rundown on the projects--sort of a "where they are now" review:
1. Arwen-esque: (based on Kate Gilbert's design, but heavily modified) I wear this one a lot. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I typically wear it pinned closed, as pictured. At some point, I may add buttons and loop closures, but I'm not sure yet.
2. EZ Fairisle Yoke sweater: (Elizabeth Zimmerman's design) I adore this one. I'm particularly proud of how my color choices played out in the yoke. I also like the garter rib that I used for the cuffs and hem, and the overall fit. The buttons are a little meh, and I may switch those out if I find some I like better.
3. die Federspitze (a.k.a. Liesl): (Ysolda Teague's design) I wore this one a lot last summer and into the fall, but for some reason haven't been wearing it much lately. Perhaps it's time to bust it out again. I really like it. I'm glad I knit this in gray--though I recently saw a really nice version of this on Ravelry that was knit with Noro Kureyon, and I love how the Noro striping looks in the Old Shale lace pattern. I might knit another one at some point.
4. Ariann: (Bonne Marie Burns' design) Sigh. I love this design, but it looked terrible on me so I frogged it and re-knit the yarn into a Bernhardt. See below.
5. Viridis: (my own design) I made this one for my boyfriend, Chris, and he loves it. It looks terrific on him, and it makes me really happy to see it on him.
6. Mossidy/Cassidy: (Bonne Marie Burns' design) I am quite happy with this one, though the hood is a little heavy and tends to pull the sweater down in back and, thus, up in front, which can be a somewhat unattractive look. I still wear it a fair amount, though.
7. Patronus: (my own design) This one is OK. I like it...it fits well...but for some reason I don't wear it very much. I may end up frogging it and making something else with the yarn, which I love.
8. Metro: (my own design--based on EPS) I love this sweater, even though it's a little weird looking. I probably should have alternated skeins, but I didn't feel like it. It fits great.
9. Vaila: (Gudrun Johnston's design) OMG LOVE! I wear this one all the frakking time. It is the perfect turtleneck, and I love everything about it. Except...how much Malabrigo pills. Right now this is out of rotation because it needs a thorough de-fuzzing.
10. Granny's a Wino (a.k.a. Granny Smith Cardigan): (Melissa Wehrle's design) I adore this sweater, and wear it a lot. I like wearing it to teach. I was afraid that the loosely-plied alpaca yarn would pill up or pull out of shape, but it still looks like new.
11. Bernhardt: (Allison Green Will's design) This one is another favorite--I'm very glad that I frogged Ariann and used the yarn for this instead. I wear it a lot, and I typically wear it as pictured--closed with a kilt pin. I like that it is a relatively simple sweater, with clean lines, but the lacy rib gives it just enough visual interest. It looks a little weird around the shoulders if I wear it open, but I don't usually like wearing sweaters that way anyway.
12. Starsky: (Jordana Paige's design) I was surprised by how much I love this sweater. I knit it kind of for fun, and thought it would just be a sitting-around-the-house sweater, but it is almost too good for that. It fits beautifully, and I love the open line of the lapels--it's good for showing off a cool top while still keeping warm. The yarn (Cascade Ecological Wool) is to die for.
13. Margot: (Linden Heflin's design) Again, a big thumb's up for this one. This was my first time knitting with Berroco's Ultra Alpaca Light (a DK/sport yarn), which is now a favorite. This sweater is wonderful--simple, classic, and black. It makes me very happy.
14. Gitchigumi (a.k.a. Kerrera): (Gudrun Johnston's design) Sigh. This one makes me a little sad. I love the design. I love the yarn. But...the FO is just too big for me. I was aiming for a 38" and ended up with a 40". I'm not sure why--I did the math, and it seemed on track to fit before I picked up for the front band. My gauge didn't grow in the wash, even though the yarn bloomed. I'm afraid I'm going to have to frog and re-knit, which I'm not looking forward to because of all that double garter stitch. I'm so disheartened by the prospect that I don't even want to take an FO picture. I really do want the sweater, though, and I want it in this yarn. I'm not willing to risk trying to give it a strategic shrinking in the dryer. I don't want to ruin the yarn. Sigh, again. I know what I have to do, I just don't wanna.

So...that was my big 2009 knitting accomplishment. I knit other things, but last year was mainly about the sweaters. So far this year has been, too--I've already completed 2 sweaters this year (one hasn't been blogged yet), and I'm hard at work on the 3rd. I'll be slowing down, though. I want to do knit more things from my own designs, which takes time. I also really need to spend more time on my dissertation this year....

Knitting in the meantime...

While sorting out how to do the 3-color stranding on the big sweater project I posted about last time, I needed some other projects to keep me busy, and to take with me on the bus or in the car. One of them was this, which I completed yesterday:

Pattern: Layered Skater's Top (Undertop) from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style.
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, colorway 4213 Blue Glasynys (:::LOVE:::)
Needles: US4's (for hem facings) and US5's
Mods/notes: I love Veronik's sense of style, and really want to knit several different patterns from this book (so far I've knit one other). I basically followed the pattern instructions for this sweater, but had to modify slightly for gauge (my gauge was 5.5 st/in, whereas the pattern calls for 5.75 st/in). I also knit it as a standalone sweater rather than a layering piece, and as such I wanted it to have a bit more length in both the body and sleeves. I made full-length sleeves, and lengthened the body by about 3"--I have a long torso and long arms for my size anyway, but I wanted this sweater to hit at the hip. I made a deeper interface for the body hem, working 11 rows instead of the 7 called for in the pattern to prevent curling. I also made it slightly bigger around at the hips than at the bust, so it wouldn't hug me too tightly at the midsection. The pattern might have an error in it, or perhaps I read it wrong--it instructs you to do the short row shaping for the neck/saddles 1 stitch sooner than the decreases for the saddle shaping--it's hard to explain, but following the instructions results in a glaringly obvious decrease stitch in the saddle edge about halfway between the shoulder point and the neck opening. In other words, instead of the saddle edge stitches following a single, clean line from the shoulder to the neck edge, it gives you a little bump or jog where the short row shaping starts. I didn't like the effect so I just moved the turning point out by 1 stitch, basically widening short row shaping band by 1 stitch on either side. I am very happy with how it turned out. I'm also delighted to have another sweater knit with this yarn (i.e. in addition to Margot, pictured here--scroll down).

I love the cable up the sleeves:


And the way the sleeve cap decreases look "feathery" and then flow into the shoulder saddles:


It's still damp, so I haven't taken a modeled shot yet, but the fit reminds me of a classic Milano ski sweater--close and sporty, yet elegant. I'm very happy with it.

I started this shawl the other day, as well. I'm knitting the Medallion Shawl from Evelyn Clark's book, Knitting Lace Triangles. It will be my bus knitting project. I have about 100 yards more yarn than the pattern calls for, so I may end up with a fairly large shawl. OTOH, I'm also a fairly tight knitter, so it may not be that large after all. We'll see....


I'm using Frog Tree Alpaca Sportweight. It's a 2-ply yarn with a beautiful luster and nice, rich color, and I'm delighted with how it's working up. I've had this yarn in my stash for a few months--I bought it on sale at the Whippletree Yarn Store in Hudsonville, MI. They had it on sale for 20% off that day, so I bought all 4 balls that they had in this colorway. I woke up from a power nap last Thursday and just had to knit with this yarn, so I dug it out of my stash and cast on immediately. It's a little odd, because I've been planning to knit this shawl for awhile, and I had pretty much decided to use some Dream in Color Smooshy that I have in my stash (colorway: Cinnamon Girl), but...when something feels so right, you just have to go with it.

3-Color Stranding

I am currently working on a knock-off (using completely different colors) of this sweater for a friend of mine:

It's hard to tell at this distance, but the colorwork on the yoke and sleeves contains 3 colors per row for about half of the chart. Here's a close-up:

So here you can see that there are two shades of cream/tan--a darker and a lighter. My friend selected the colors pictured here:

The body of the sweater will be charcoal; where the original sweater is yellow, the knock-off will be red; tan will become gull gray; and cream will still be cream.

I charted this all out, and bought a little plastic device called a "Norwegian knitting thimble" or "strickfingerhut." The one I bought is pictured and discussed in this blog post. Another version is pictured (and sold) here. Expecting a somewhat steep learning curve, I decided to knit what Elizabeth Zimmerman calls a "swatch cap," i.e. a hat that is made primarily to test for gauge--and also to see how a colorwork chart works up in real life. Her philosophy is that it's better to use more yarn and end up with a useful item, rather than to save yarn but produce just another square to toss on a useless pile of gauge swatches. Also, if you're planning to knit your project in the round, you'll get a better sense of gauge if you also knit your swatch in the round.

But Elizabeth Zimmerman also says you should never knit a stranded colorwork project that requires more than 2 colors per row. I am here to tell you: she is right. I expect that really experienced knitters can make it work--and to be fair, the cap that I'm knitting doesn't look terrible, per se--but I am having a bitch of a time. I have figured out a procedure that works for me, for carrying all 3 colors at once. By "works for me," I mean that I am able to get through a round of knitting without having my hands cramp up or throwing the project across the room in frustration. What I don't mean is that the result is pretty. It's not. I can't for the life of me keep the tension even. Some stitches are all blurped out, saggy and lazy; while others are pinched tighter than Felix Unger's you know what. Here is a picture:

I love how it's turning out, in terms of the color, but the stitches are just all over the place. (Keep in mind, I photographed the prettiest section, and my hand is inside of the hat stretching the stitches out.)

Anyway, the TECHknitting blog has an exhaustive and helpful tutorial on knitting with 2 colors held in the same hand, and also 3-color knitting, here. As usual, she has pinpointed the problem: tension! The wonky tension that I'm getting is the result of trying to hold 2 colors in the same hand, when they are getting eaten up by the pattern at different rates. What happens is that the "floating" color gets extremely slack (hence the bloated stitches), while the other color gets tighter (hence the anal-retentive stitches). This is complicated by the fact that the design I'm trying to knit doesn't have a clear main color that predominates, with 2 contrasting colors that occur in similar proportions throughout the row: every color has long-ish floats on almost every row.

The upshot: I think I'm going to have to abandon the attempt at carrying 3 colors per row. The other options are either to knit with 2 colors and then add the 3rd color afterward by duplicate stitching; or to knit with 2 colors while slipping all stitches that are meant to be in the 3rd color, and then to go back over the row knitting only with the 3rd color and slipping all of the stitches in colors 1 and 2. Because the 3 colors occur in roughly equal proportions in all rows, thus rendering duplicate stitch a major impracticality, I'm going to try the latter method. I think it will turn out a lot more evenly, and will be a lot less frustrating for me even though it means that each 3-color round will require two full passes to complete. With tons of practice, I could probably get some semblance of "the hang" of the 3-color stranding technique, but it's too frustrating. I knit for pleasure. I love doing colorwork, and I love knitting with Heilo, but I'm really not enjoying this. I will enjoy it a lot more if I change how I'm doing it.

New Stash

I finished my Kerrera Hoodie. The knitting is all done, and it has been washed and wet blocked, but it still needs buttons and button loops. It turned out a little on the large size for me, which is fine. I think it's more of an outerwear piece anyway, so I'll just layer it over other stuff. I love the yarn, and I think this was the exact right project for it. I'll take pics as soon as I get the buttons and sew them on, etc. Here's a pic from when it was still a WIP--a close-up of one of the sleeve cuffs that shows off the color of the yarn very nicely. What it doesn't show is how wonderfully Peace Fleece blooms when it's washed. The sweater has a lovely fullness, sheen, and halo now, and it's really snuggly. (Yes, I'm wearing it right now!)


And here are some pretty new stash sock yarns that I have acquired over the last couple of weeks--all purchased at The Fiber Gallery.

This one is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, in the Cedar colorway. I think it's going to end up as a shawlette, but I haven't picked a pattern yet. It needs to be something relatively simple, since the yarn has so much going on.


This one is Dream in Color Smooshy in Cinnamon Girl. I think this one is going to be a shawlette as well. I'm thinking of Damson, but I'm not sure. It might be a little frilly for me. All I know is that this yarn sings to my weird fondness for certain shades of orange, and as such it begs to be made into an item that will enjoy high visibility.


And finally, another skein of Smooshy, this time in Cocoa Kiss. This yarn is definitely going to end up as a pair of socks. Not sure which pattern. I have several in my Ravelry queue that would look nice.

Start-itis

I have a bunch of things going, including 2 sweaters, 2 socks, and a stole. Crazy! Here are photos and some details:


This is the Print o' the Wave stole, by Eunny Jang, in Curious Creek Meru, colorway Dorothy. I bought this yarn at Madrona last year. She seemed to have a Wizard of Oz theme going on in her booth. Hopefully I'll get to go this year--definitely can't afford to take any classes, alas--and hopefully, if I go, I'll get more pretty yarn.


This sock, along with its mate, will eventually be a pair of Bayerische Socks, also by Eunny Jang. I'm using Louet Gems in Fern Green. So pretty! Very nice stitch definition. I love the twisted stitches in this pattern. It's super fiddly to get the leg charts started after knitting the cuffs, but I love the result so far.


This is a pair of Boot Sox I'm making for my boyfriend, without a pattern--I'm making it up as I go along. Your basic 2x2 rib, flap heel with slipped stitches for thickness, on size 3 needles, socks. I'm using Cascade 220 Superwash in a lovely olive/bottle green color that doesn't photograph well. It is the same colorway that I used (except in regular Cascade 220) for my Cassidy hoodie awhile back. Hopefully Chris will like them.


This is the hem of a sweater I'm making for my friend Le'a--I'm knocking off a vintage sweater that she got in a thrift store, I believe it was in the 1980's. The tag says it was handknit in Norway--it has a colorwork yoke with raglan sleeves, and more colorwork right above the sleeve cuffs. The original was, oddly, knit flat in pieces and seamed together (ugh--stranded colorwork flat!). Because the seams are coming apart at the armpits, I can also see that the raglan decreases were done right at the edges rather than a stitch or two in. I'm doing the whole thing seamless, bottom-up. I have the colorwork all charted out. Right now I'm only worried about 2 things: 1. The waist ribbing seems to pull in more than I wanted it to; and 2. The ribbing has a very strong bias to it. I hope that blocking will solve both of these problems. I am going to put the project on hold briefly while I knit a quick gauge cap to test this principle.

As if that weren't enough, I got bit by a new pattern bug the other day:

This is Kerrara, by Gudrun Johnston. I saw the pattern and immediately imagined it knit up in this Peace Fleece that has been in my stash for awhile, in the Superior/Baikal Green colorway. I can't photograph this yarn properly. It is a deep, steel, greenish blue. I have been on a rather small boat out in the middle of Lake Superior, so I can attest that they got this color right, at least concerning Lake Superior. I can't speak for Lake Baikal. It is an oddly welcoming and intimidating, formidable color. It beckons while it warns. It makes me think of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It makes me think of home.

Consolidated FO's

I took a bunch of FO pictures yesterday, so I'm just going to post them all at once, in the order of their completion.

First:


Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in "Aguas"
Needle: Addi Turbo Lace, US6
Mods: I knit the small stockinette and the large lace instructions, and I had just a small amount of yarn left over.

Second:


Pattern: Starsky by Jordana Paige
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool, colorway 8016 (I call it "Oatmeal"), approximately 2.5 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US10 + Knit Picks DPN's (the nickel-plated ones), US9
Mods: I added waist shaping. I changed one little thing in the chart that seemed wrong: stitches 7 and 8 in row 1--counting from right to left; I changed it to the 1/1 RPC on RS (see chart key) to match all of the other leaf-top stitches. Finally, I altered the ribbing so that it would flow into the banana leaf pattern more smoothly.

And third:

The pictures of this turned out rather blurry, but this one shows the fit OK.
Pattern: Margot by Linden Heflin
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, colorway 4245 "Pitch Black"
Needles: Addi Turbos, US6
Mods: I started out following instructions for the size 36, but my gauge in this yarn was a full stitch/inch smaller than called for in the pattern, so I did more raglan increases to get to the correct chest size. I also changed the frequency of the increases as I got closer to the armpit, doing them every 4 rows rather than every 2--I like the look of this shaping better than a perfectly straight angled raglan seam. I cast on 14 stitches at the underarms rather than simply joining the raglan seams together--again, I just prefer this kind of shaping. Finally, I added length to both the body and sleeves, prior to the split garter stitch trim. I am seriously considering adding even more length to the sleeves, but I like the length of the body as-is.

I really enjoyed all of these projects. Good patterns all around, and fun to knit. I ended up knitting Margot in 5 days, which I think is my personal record for completing a whole sweater. I think I probably knit the Liesl sweater faster, if you only count the stitches that actually ended up in the FO. But I had to rip that one out twice and re-knit because of gauge issues, and both times it was after I had completed the yoke.