I am back to blogging! I have been working on a top-down sweater called Mary Jane, that was published originally in Twist Collective but was designed by the ladies at Zephyr Style (always known for their fun, top-down knitting candy!) Here are pics I was able to take before work. The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh DK. More later, I'm starting slow :)
Long time no post - I finished Rocky Coast, but the sleeves came out freakishly small, even after blocking, so I have to reknit those or find someone with very skinny arms to give it to!
Here is my latest project - Mary Jane, designed by the Zephyr Style gals.
I'm using Madelinetosh Tosh TK in "Oxblood" for this and making the 32" size. Usually I'm not a big fan of puffy sleeves but they aren't too extreme, and I think they will be cute on this.
close-up of the "snakeskin" stitch pattern
I started this the day before Thanksgiving (a few days before we went to Cancun) and separated the sleeves off on the plane trip home last Wednesday. So it's moving fairly fast, considering that I haven't been seriously knitting on it. I gave up on finishing the Sampler Afghan before Christmas, but I have all of it knit and about 75% of it sewn together. There's a huge border that has to be done around the entire blanket, though, and it's become a very un-portable project, so I can't really work on it much.
I finished the body (without the ribbing for the collar, which comes last) of my Rocky Coast Cardigan. Now I have to work on the sleeves. Here it is so far. I used a pale green shade of Rowan Kid Classic for it, a somewhat unconventional choice but I wanted it to be somewhat light and airy like the pattern pictures show. I've never seen the original yarn, The Fibre Company Organik, that they used for it, but I thought Kid Classic was a good fit.
I recently started Cardigan Bay Jacket from the new Fall issue of Interweave Knits. I'm using Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool held double with size 15s to get the chunky gauge, which is working out really nicely with the moss stitch as it has a silky sheen to it.
I love that it's knit seamlessly from the top down - always a great attribute in a pattern! I plan to skip the buttons but make the belt and belt loops to make it an opening layering piece.
I decided I needed to get my knitting mojo back as it has been sadly missing for a long time. I had previously thought that I needed to work on "mindless" projects that didn't need much concentration, wrongly thinking that this was all I could handle. This didn't work very well because I didn't get the benefit of "unwinding" and focusing on nothing else for awhile but the project at hand. Also I've been making (starting) a lot of things with cotton yarns and they're just not that inspiring.
So I decided to depart from my usual MO in a number of ways. First, I decided to give myself permission to go shop in my yarn closet and find something that really inspired me. For me it was my Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool in a beautiful Caribbean-sea turquoise. Next, I decided to make something that didn't need to be monitored constantly for fit, and was just "pretty" for its own sake. I decided on the Frost Diamonds Shawl by one of my favorite designers, Stefanie Japel.
Here it is, in process! I've had a lot of fun working on this for the past few days. I started it last Saturday and worked on it by the pool over the long holiday weekend, as we had great weather.
As promised, here is a progress pic of my latest knitting project that I started about a week ago.
The pattern is "Elphaba" by Mary Annarella (marymealittle on Ravelry) and the yarn is RYC Silk Wool DK in "Sorrell", a sort of olivish-brownish-goldish color that doesn't photograph really accurately.
I'm using a DK weight yarn instead of fingering weight, so I'm knitting the 29" size to yield about 33". I just didn't have the strength for a fingering weight sweater right now, but I really wanted to make this. It will be good airplane and train knitting for my trip to Germany next week. Our offices are about 2 hours from Frankfurt on the train so there will be planes, trains and automobiles involved!
2nd finished sweater for August - Alexandria!
Front
Close-Up
Side
Back - I think it needs pressing or something!
Pattern: Alexandria Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft Baby DK
Size: 34.75" (about 1/2" positive ease)
Mods: none except sleeve length
Verdict: great layering piece to transition between seasons - could work with jeans as well as over a dress or top/skirt combo! If I could do it over again, although the Cashsoft Baby DK was ohsosoft to work with, I'd have picked a crisper, probably cotton blend yarn for it to better show the great stitch pattern and have it lay flatter. Maybe I need to block it more aggressively, though.
I finally wove in the ends on Jordan and blocked it after at least a month and a half of languishing (it, not me!)
Front
Side (probably not so smart to wear it with a skort as it makes it pooch out a little in the front. I swear, no buns in the oven.)
Back
Close-Up from the Side (in a bit of a surly pose)
Pattern: Jordan by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Louet MerLin Sport (merino/linen) in "Goldilocks"
Size: 2nd smallest
Verdict: Really liked knitting this! The construction was really different - you knit each of the neck/sleeve pieces separately, then knit the bottom in the round, and seam the two together in the front and back. Usually I wouldn't care for that "fast-and-loose" type of seaming where you sort of ease one thing into another and hope it fits together, but it was fine - everything came together well! I picked the right size too - the linen blend yarn has zero stretch but lots of drape and opens up well when blocked. If I went with the smallest size it would be too tight, and any bigger and it would be too baggy.
I said this was 1 of ? as I am done with Alexandria (it's drying off now from its bath) and I may soon be done with Goose Rocks (got my yarn and it was perfectperfectperfect so I've been working on it like crazy.)
I also am working on another B5147 with a real woven (no stretch wovens anymore for this project) and should have that done soon. Vacay is going well, Jim is golfing today so I'm on my own for the day! Up next...sushi!
I just got my Fall (sorry Debby) Interweave Knits issue and I really like a lot of the projects this time. My favorite, though, was this one - designed by the lovely and talented Rosemary (Romi) Hill of jewelry-design-and-creation fame.
It has all of the elements that make a pattern "knitting candy" for me:
1.) It's knit seamlessly from the top down.
2.) It's knit at a gauge of 4 stitches to the inch or less (3.5, in this case.)
3.) It incorporates some larger scale lacework.
I cast on the day I got the magazine (Monday) with some Queensland Uruguay Chunky in reddish-orange that I had in stash. The original combines two different weight yarns, but I had a yarn that knit to the gauge without doubling so I used it. I won't have quite the heathery effect that Romi achieves by layering yarns, but I will use up some yarn in my stash that's been languishing for a long time (a littleknits.com closeout special) and have a lovely reddish-orange fall sweater in the process.
Here's a progress pic - I just finished round 17 of the lace pattern after doing the inch of stockinette at the beginning.
BTW, I have stopped updating Facebook with my knitting/sewing updates and am only tweeting them at RobinMCPA instead. Just FYI.
