FO: Brynna cardigan

I don't know how, but I finished a sweater.  This sweater pattern, Brynna, was all over Ravelry a couple of months ago, and somehow it jumped the queue.  I think it's the color.  I unconsciously chose a color very similar to the pattern sample. The yarn is Valley Yarns Longmeadow, a cotton/microfiber blend that I got during last month's sale at Webs. 

This sweater wasn't without it's stupid new-mom mess ups.  Everything went fine until I got to the collar.  I knit all rows instead of purling 3 of the rows.  I know exactly why I did that.  Baby O was asleep on my shoulder, and I didn't have my pattern in front of me.  But I thought I knew what to do, so I went ahead, trying to take advantage of the precious baby sleep knitting time.  Sixteen rows later, something didn't look quite like the pattern.  I ripped it out and did it again. 

I improvised a little frog fastener by sewing two toggle buttons together, then linking them with a crocheted chain loop.  I can pop the back button through any of the eyelets, adjusting them in or out or up or down.  This way, as I lose pregnancy weight, the sweater is really adjustable.  

I like this sweater, but I'm really anxious to get back to my pre-pregnancy proportions.  Le sigh. 

Raveled here.

FO: Windsor Cardi

I started this sweater before Baby O was born, and I started the sleeves after we brought him home.  I worked on it so long that I forgot why I started knitting it in the first place.  Once I got the buttons on, though, I started to feel pretty good about it!  It's a great sweater for this cool, wet Spring so many of us seem to be having. 

The yarn is Rowan Amy Butler Belle Organic DK.  It has unfortunately been discontinued, which fortunately meant I could get it at a great price.  It's a blend of 50% wool and 50% cotton, a blend I'd been wanting to try for quite a while.  I knit with cotton pretty sparingly because it just doesn't have any stretch or memory to it.  It makes for hard knitting on the hands, and cotton knit garments are notorious for losing their shape.  Wool has amazing bounce and memory, and it's a dream to knit, but wool is just too warm for summer knits.  A cotton/wool blend yarn takes advantage of each's best qualities.  Also, the wool and the cotton take the dye a little differently, so there's a little shimmer to it.  I really enjoyed knitting with it, and I have some more for another summer cardi. 

The lace pattern on this Windsor Cardi is very stretchy, and lots of Ravelers commented on sleeves being too long.  I added extra length to the sleeves and the body anyway, and I'm glad.  As I get back to my per-pregnancy weight, it should get a little longer! 

I'm not very impressed with my job on the buttons.  While they're all exactly 13 rows apart, they don't look like they're spaced out equally, do they?  I need to study up on button bands.  But perfect is the enemy of done, so I'm living with it.  (We took these pictures while the last two buttons were still on back order.)

Ravelry project page here

Hooray for finished sweaters!

I'm still here!

There's something about having a baby that makes me want to go outside a couple times a week and shout, "I'm still here!"  And then there are other times when I'm glad that having a new baby means I can hunker down at home and not have to worry about my normal responsibilities, and just take care of Baby O.  My knitting and sewing have fallen right between these two poles.  My knitting and sewing are still happening ("I'm still here!"), but at a slower rate (just hunkering down). 

So here's what's slowly creeping off the needles:

This is the Windsor Cardi, which I started before Baby O was born.  I started the sleeves a week or two after he was born, and I slowly started to hate the sweater, mostly because I thought it would never be done.  Now that it looks like I might not actually be working on it during the little one's high school graduation, I think I like it. 

Yesterday I took the little one out and we bought buttons.  We bought them quickly, because he started crying ferociously not long after we got there.  The thing is, Joann's only had six buttons, and I needed eight.  These were perfect buttons, so I arranged for an interstore transfer, which meant I have to pay $7 shipping on $2 buttons.  And I had to give them my address while holding a screaming, angry infant.  While shouting over his crying, I thought, This is what it means to be a knitting mom.  You pay $9 for two buttons because you have 3 minutes to finish this project, and if you don't fork over the money, you won't get your sweater finished.  I want it finished, so whatever about the money.  This sweater will be done soon!

I also started a Brynna, a sweater that I see ads for all over Ravelry.  I really like Bonne Marie Burns' patterns, and I'm thinking of knitting another Cinnie for the summer also.  You know, with all the extra knitting time I've got piling up.

I have fabric to make another McCalls 6073, but that hasn't happened yet.  Maybe tomorrow. 

FO: Birthday outfit, New Look 6205 and Miss Marple cardi

Our wonderful daughter turns 3 this weekend, and for her birthday, she asked me to make a purple dress.  She asked me this way back in January (when we made a birthday cake together for her dad, and she started getting excited about birthdays), so I'm not sure she'll remember this request, but I wanted the Mom of the Year award, so I followed through.

I used New Look 6205 again (first version here) in a Joel Dewberry print.  This time, I opted for the little strapped sleeves instead of the cap sleeves.

Again, the bodice is lined, but in a sort of weird way that still requires you to finish the neckline with bias tape.

I made a size 3, and the neckline is a bit big on our 3 year old, but at least it gives her room to grow. 

For the sweater, I used a pattern called Miss Marple.

Isn't that the best name for a little girl's cardigan?  Miss Marple was an Agatha Christie character, right?  I used two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca that I had in my stash.  They were intended for a hat/cowl set, but I didn't like those patterns in this yarn.  So much the better, because it works perfectly for this pattern. Although I'm not sure anyone needs an alpaca/wool sweater in late April. 

The knitting only took a week or so, but it took me forever to finish the cardigan (see my previous confession regarding button anxiety).  I really wanted to practice finishing the cardigan with grosgrain ribbon on the button band.  This was good practice, and came out marginally successful.  In the first place, the grosgrain ribbon is the wrong color, but this shade purple was impossible to match.

The main problem is that my knitted buttonholes were horizontal.  I really wanted them to be vertical, so I machine stitched vertical buttonholes on the ribbon.  I'm not sure why I got such a bee in my bonnet about making the buttonholes vertical, but it seemed very important at the time.  The button holes are a little tight, and actually, the bottom one won't go through at all.  I may have to fix that. 

I found these great buttons on beadfreaky on etsy.  Again, not exactly the right purple, but I think they still work. Raverly page here.

So Happy Birthday, dear daughter!  We love you.  Enjoy your purple dress and your special day!

FO: Finished, with buttons even! Wasabi Cardi

I always feel like I should knit more cardigans.  Everyone loves them and talks about how easy they are.  And then I knit one and it sits for three weeks without buttons, and I wonder, What's easy about this?  If it were a pullover, I'd be wearing it by now.  I hate picking out buttons for the same reason I hate deciding where to hang pictures on the walls.  It feels permanent, and a bad decision will ruin things and haunt me for the rest of eternity.  Perfection is the enemy of done.

I couldn't find pink buttons that I liked or were the right size, so I went with white buttons with little white embossed flowers on them.  I sewed one on and instantly knew it wasn't right.  I showed my husband, and he put his finger right on it.  The white button was almost silvery, and the rest of the cardi is golden.  "Yellow would be better," he said.  Inspired!

One trip to the fabric store later and I had perfect non-haunting buttons, and later that day had a finished cardi.  Thanks, Honey! 

Pattern: Wasabi by Amber Bertram.  It's a free pattern!

Yarn: Knitpicks Stroll Tonal.  This is a great sock yarn because it wears really well.  It's not luxurious, but for a child's sweater, it should be a good fit.  I bought two skeins, but it only took one.  I turned the second one into a Cachou cowl. 

The yarn is tonal, and the very second I stopped the front V-neck increases, I got intense pooling.  This yarn has a tiny golden streak, and it was creating a little pot of gold in the back left.  So I alternated rows working both sides of my skein, and that fixed the problem.  It's not very noticeable from the front.

Process: This one was fun to knit.  You start with a provisional cast on for the center back lace panel, and do short rows in lace to make the panel curve over the shoulders.  Short rows in lace!  Knitting is amazing.  When you knit to where the raglan increasing begins, you pick up stitches along the lace panel and start your increases.  After that, it's a normal top-down raglan cardi.  I was actually done before I knew it, and was a little sad to see it end!

The sleeves have a little cuff detail.  I don't think I followed the directions exactly, partly because I couldn't really understand them and partly because I figured out how to do it myself.  I love that little detail. 

Product: I love it, and it fits my daughter very well, with a little room to grow for the summer.  It does look like it will be a little loose around the shoulders, and other Ravelers have commented as such.  I don't think it will be a huge problem, though. 

New techniques: Mmm, none really.  Asking my husband for button advice? 

FO: Maternity Nanook sweater

Are you ready for pictures of the tiredest pregnant woman ever?  I could hardly summon the energy to open my eyes.  It's getting to that point in the pregnancy where I wish someone would just order me on bed rest.  And I still have eight weeks to go.  Wah, wah, wah.  

So I may be feeling a little sorry for myself, but my whiny state has provided an excellent opportunity for wool to display its magical, healing properties.  When I put it on for the first time, I think I actually, physically, felt better.  It was so comforting and squishy and welcoming.

I'm not sure I would have knit this one if it weren't for a baby belly the size of Pluto.  I've liked this design for a while, but I usually knit things with a little more structure.  I'm glad I did, though, because it's incredibly comforting, and I think it will be fun once my girth is less ... girthy. 

As we were taking these pictures, I realized my husband hadn't said anything about whether or not he liked it, and he usually is quick to volunteer compliments on my makes.  So I asked him what he thought, and he said, "It's a little floppy at the top.  I'm not sure what it's supposed to be doing."  I'm not sure either, but right now I don't care.  I just like that I can wrap it around myself and snuggle up. 

Laughing at my "floppy top" sweater.

Pattern: Nanook by Heidi Kirrmaire.  Super well-written and clear.  I still need to add a button, but I might wait until I'm not pregnant anymore and add it then. 

Process: Once I got past the arms, it was a bit boring.  Despite feeling like this knit was unending, it actually took me less than two weeks, a sweater record by a long shot.  I think it felt like forever because it just got so heavy and bulky on the needles. 

Yarn: Northampton by Valley Yarns.  A worsted weight wool.  Very comparable to Cascade 220 or Wool of the Andes.  Not a luxury yarn, but still very nice.  I'd happily use it again, especially if I can get it on sale.  I think I paid $4.19 a ball, so at 5 balls, this sweater cost $21.  You can't beat that. 

New techniques: The pattern called for lifted increases, which were new to me.  I loved them!  The left and right versions were easier for me to remember than the typical M1L and M1R.  I can never remember which one is which. 

Instead of binding off the sleeves in the K1, P1 ribbing, I used the Kitchner stitch.  I put the knit stitches on one needle, the purl stitches on another level, and then grafted them together.  This makes for a very neat edge where the stitches look like they just curl around to the other side.  Binding off in binding can sometimes fan out, and I wanted a tighter, neater look.  

sloggggggg

When I was 25, I hiked Half Dome in Yosemite with a friend.  He was on a crusade to make the hike 50 times before his 50th birthday, and he always needed willing hiking companions.  My sister and my dad had both done it, so I signed up, too.

Unless you are crazy wilderness survival person, the hike is pretty intense.  It's 16 miles round trip, and you gain almost a mile in elevation.  And here's the crazy part: the last 500 feet or so are straight up the back of the granite dome, with iron hand cables and wood planks bolted to the rock for foot holds.

The hike was pretty gruelling on the way up, but it was during those last 500 feet when I suddenly realized that my life, my actual life, depended on the strength in my arms.  This is when I realized that I am a regular person who enjoys walks in the outdoors, not crazy wilderness survival person.  But what was I going to do?  I kept going, did not under any circumstances look around and definitely not down, and told myself my arms were in great shape.

We had lunch at the top, and then headed back down for an eight mile hike home.  After going down a lot, the last two miles are nice and flat, but they're also very sandy.  FYI, hiking in sand after your muscles already feel like rubber bands is not enjoyable.  I think the 15 miles I'd already hiked, the mile up and down I'd gone, and the fact that I'd confronted death really hit me during this sandy stretch, and I knew there was no way I was going to make it.  My friend was going to have to call Yosemite search and rescue, and I'd be on the news, and I might never see my mother again.  Why had I done this to myself?  What was I trying to prove?  I lost all sense of decorum, and my friend, who had done this about 47 times already, was getting a little impatient with me, and I'm sure my hysterics weren't helping.

I did make it, without calling search and rescue, but the slog through that flat, sandy part remains in my memory as bad as clinging to the side of a granite mountain a mile in the air.

Something about my current knitting project reminds me of that sandy two mile stretch.

I'm over the fun part, I'm done with the tricky part, and now it just feels the garter stitch will never end.

FO: Vitamin D

Knitting is really the perfect pregnancy past-time.  Knitting almost necessitates that you sit, and sitting is high on my list of preferred positions at the moment.  I've never felt so lazy in my life, but I just keep telling myself that it won't always be like this, and I should try to relax. 

So all this sitting and knitting has finally produced a sweater!  When I found out we were expecting, I searched Ravelry to find some maternity-friendly patterns, and this one was high on my list. 

Pattern: Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier.  It's had rave reviews, and I agree with the general consensus: this pattern is graceful, both in the way it's written and in the final product.  It's a waterfall open cardigan with slightly unusual construction: top-down raglan, but sleeves are knit flat and seamed; lots and lots and lots of short rows; eyelets as decorative increases (the rays of sunshine, or little windows to let your skin soak up that vitamin D).  The pattern has several tables full of numbers and stitch counts for all the different sizes, so as long as you can read a table, you'll always know exactly where you are in the pattern. I made size 39, M2. 

Process: I knit one sleeve back in November, then put the sweater aside for some Christmas knitting.  When I picked it up again after Christmas, I knit the second sleeve ... without rereading the directions.  I forgot to cast on 4 stitches on either side of the sleeve stitches.  I didn't discover this until I'd already seamed both sleeves and was picking up stitches for the body.  I debated moving on for about 3 minutes, and decided it would be ridiculous to have a sweater with one sleeve two inches narrower than the other one, so I unseamed it and ripped it out. 

I had a big sigh when I finished the arms and started looking at more than 300 stitches on each row, but then I discovered that the main part of the body is constructed with short rows.  I love short rows.  Even if you're turning just a few stitches before the end of the row, it makes the knitting time seem, well, shorter. 

Yarn: What can I say?  Madelinetosh is amazing.  The colors in this Tosh Merino Light are just right for this sweater.  They're perfectly variegated without any pooling or striping.  The yarn was a gift from my mom, and it's made one of the nicest sweaters I have.  Even though the pattern was written for a sport weight, this fingering weight worked perfectly. 

What I learned: I learned a new technique for doing short rows: shadow short rows.  They are brilliant, and I can't see any reason to ever go back to the standard wrap and turn. 

Final thoughts: I put this sweater on, and I immediately felt several degrees less maternity-frumpy.  I'm starting to get bored with my limited wardrobe, and this feels classy, effortless and unique.  I love the way it fits around my baby belly, and I think when the baby belly is no more, it will be another kind of beautiful.  I'm completely happy with it! 

I immediately cast on the second sweater in my maternity queue, and was surprised-but-not to discover it's another Heidi Kirrmaier pattern, Nanook.  This one's in aran weight, so it should go much more quickly. 

Ravellenic FO: Wood Hollow Vest

So while some of the world's best athletes were finishing up a leisurely 26.2 mile run this morning, I was binding off my Wood Hollow Vest!

I wouldn't have reknit this from the bottom up if it weren't for the challenge of the Ravellenic Games.  There was one night of knitting where I thought I would n e v e r reach the armhole shaping decreases, but every Olympic event has that moment where you hit the wall and just have to keep going.

And I'm so glad I did, because I love this vest and I will sport it proudly!

The specs:

Pattern: Wood Hollow Vest by Kirsten Kapur, of Through The Loops
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes
Started: July 27, Opening Ceremonies
Finished: August 12, 9:00 am
Ravelry page here!

Congrats to all the Ravellenic athletes, and, of course, to the real Olympic athletes who inspired us and united us for two amazing weeks!

Good as new!

After a very simple and enjoyable ripping, winding, washing and hanging, here is the yarn from my Wood Hollow Vest, all ready to be wound into cakes and cast on!

Just a few hands on minutes, plus two days of drying time took this:

to this:

Isn't wool amazing?  I love it.

I'm all ready to cast on!  Bring on the opening ceremonies!

Reclaiming yarn: Easier than it looks!

Have you ever put something off because you thought it would (a) take forever, or (b) be really difficult, or (c) both?  And then finally talked yourself into finishing the task and found that it was (d) no big deal at all?  That was me and frogging this vest.  I've been thinking about that thing for two years.  Two years, people!  And the whole thing took about half an hour, and was really pretty fun.  Two years of thinking about something that took 30 minutes.  Why do we do that to ourselves?

Here's what I did.

I used a yarn swift to hold the yarn and wind it into a hank.  I pulled about 3 yards off the sweater, then wound it on to the hank.  Trying to wind it directly from the sweater would make the yarn too taut, and would also be very fiddly. 

If you don't have a yarn swift, you can use the back of a chair.  Just make sure that the sides of the back of the chair are parallel, or angled in towards each other.  If the sides are angled away from each other, if the chair back gets wider as it goes up, it will be nearly impossible to remove the yarn after you've wound hundreds of yards.  I know of which I speak. 

When I'd wound about 100 grams (about two balls of the Wool of the Andes), I tied it up in four places using some scrap cotton yarn.  I'd just started a fifth ball of this yarn, so I wound the sweater into two hanks.  

You sort of make a figure 8 with the cotton through the yarn.  Well, a figure 8 with another loop on top.  So really, more of a figure snowman. 

Look how crinkly the yarn is!  You can't knit with that!  Not without driving yourself mad. 

It does look sort of awesome though, doesn't it?

 

To get all the crinkle out, you have to wash it.  Washing unknit yarn sounded like a scary prospect to me--oh! the tangles!--but since I'd tied it well, it was not a crisis.  It was as easy as washing a sweater.

After squeezing--not wringing!-- the yarn and wrapping it up in a towel and stepping on it, I hung it to dry, using a couple of skirts on hangers as weights to pull out the crimping.  I think I'll wear the vest with this khaki skirt this fall!  Ooh, with boots and tights.  And the sky will be blue and the leaves will be beautiful and it will be a delicious 55 degrees and not 194 and sticky and terrible like it is now. 

I let it hang about 24 hours, rotating the hank so it dried evenly and didn't get re-crimped from the two hangers.  Then I let the hank rest on my ironing board for another day or so to rest.  The yarn really plumped up again, and looks like no one ever even thought about knitting a gigantic sweater with it. 

I'll show you the finished hanks tomorrow! 

Revving up for the Ravellenic Games

The world's biggest Knit-a-long is less than two weeks away!  It's time to get ready. 

My challenge for the Ravellenic Games is to reknit a UFO that I put aside because it was miserably huge.  Like, would have had 8 inches of positive ease huge!  The pattern is the Wood Hollow Vest by Kirsten Kapur, one of my favorite designers. 

I started this about six months after my daughter was born, so I hadn't quite returned to pre-baby measurements yet.  That was problem number one.  Problem number two is that the pattern runs large to begin with.  You might expect me to say that problem number three is that I wasn't getting gauge, but here's the crazy thing.  My gauge was spot on.  I was making the size 40, and the front of my vest was exactly 20 inches.  With all the cabling, though, that 20 inches stretches to about 26 inches.  

Based on the portion that I've already knit, I'm thinking that I'll reknit it in a 32.  A 32!  I usually make between a 37 and 39.  This thing is so stretchy that I don't think a 32 will be a problem.  Other Ravelers have had problems with the vest coming out too big, and Kirsten does say that she intended the vest to be worn with positive ease.  I just like my vests to be a bit snug. 

The first step is to frog!  I should really wash the yarn, too, and hang it to get rid of the crimp.  After that, it will need a few days to rest and get some of the sproingyness back.  I better get busy!

FO: Caeles top

Pattern:  Caeles by Hilary Smith Callis, published in Twist Collective Spring/Summer 2012.  It's a basic top down tank made special by the dramatic Snow White's Evil Stepmother collar.  The collar and sleeve caps make use of short rows.  There's no seaming, but there is a lot of finishing work, as the collar, sleeves and hems all require sewing live stitches to the fabric.

Process: I love short rows!  So fun.  This was a breeze to knit, since it's mostly stockinette in the round. I knit it as part of a KAL hosted by Webs yarn store.  I also love finishing work, so that was fun. 

Product: I'm really happy with this FO.  I was a little dubious about a worsted weight top for summer, but I think it will be okay.  It will definitely be great for spring.  And I love love love this color. 

Yarn: Valley Yarns Goshen.  I am not a fan of cotton and I always swear I'm never going to use it.  But when May comes around, I lose motivation to knit wool things that I won't wear for 5 months, and I start wondering about knitting some summer patterns.  Goshen was on sale, so I took a chance.  I think I might have had a change of heart about cotton!  I think this yarn looks a little sophisticated, and it didn't hurt my hands at all.  It was very pleasant to knit with--I didn't have any splitting issues.  I'd use it again. 

What I learned: I learned how to do a turned hem and sew live stitches to the back of the knitted fabric.  The videos on the Webs blog helped a ton and made it easy peasy. 

Ravelry page: here