What is this?

 Ta da!  Finally joined up the arms and body on my yoke sweater.  Started on Dec 31.  Took me long enough.  The truth is that I can't knit as quickly as I used to.  But it doesn't much matter.  Color work, here I come.  (Well, after the couple of inches of grey.)

It is a darker grey.  Yoke colors will include the borders but add more deliciousness.  I just love working Fair Isle sweaters.

Yarn is Jamieson & Smith Shetland, bought at The Woolly Thistle.  

And speaking of Shetland, we're currently watching Shetland on Britbox.  I have no idea what took us so long to watch this series, but it's wonderful.  Now if they would just take a shot at all the yarny goodness. 

A new yoke sweater

Bad picture, since I cannot get the greens to come out properly.  So it goes.  Played with my camera and my phone, and this is the best.  Meh.  Much more green at the top and very dark at the bottom.  Good thing I don't make a living from photography.

This is a top-down yoke sweater, based loosely on the Spector sweater by Jo Ji.  I know that it looks impossibly skinny, but it isn't.  I'm just working on a 24" long circular needle, so the 37-38" of sweater are all gooshed together.  I'm usually a 37" sweater, but wanted this to be a bit looser.  It fits, 'cause I tried it on.

A new quilt

A new quilt is in progress.  I finished the string quilt from some previous post, forgot to photograph it, and then dropped it off at the longarm quilter.  So no pics until it's back.

Of course I started another quilt.  This one is done all in Kaffe and friends fabric, and is a variation of a log cabin.

3 different fabrics for the center square, and then playing around with all those pretty colors and fabrics for the strips.  It is such fun to do!

On the knitting front, I very happily became canon fodder for Sock Madness:  too much pain in the wrists to keep on knitting quickly with splitty yarn and very slick needles.  I had fun, and now I'm doing other things, including this sweater.

These are swatches for me to practice the pattern and figure out gauge. The color is a bit more peach than shown. 

And here is a bit of the body.  You cannot tell anything from this picture since I have a bunch of stitches on a needle, and lace is blobby and messy until blocked.  The color is accurate here.  Yay, camera.

My Spector sweater

My Spector sweater, designed by JoJi Locatelli.  I rarely use someone else's sweater pattern because I've been doing my own sweater thing for about 45 years. But every now and then, I see something that I really like, and I make it.

4 skeins of Madeline Tosh Twist Light, a basic sock yarn, plied, not a singles.  Simply Socks had a kit (and you know I rarely buy kits, but this was perfect).  This is the first time I've used sock yarn in a sweater, and now I know how to work with it.  In sock knitting, you want nice tight stitches, but not drapey like in a sweater.  I will use sock yarn again.

I love all of this sweater.  Mods for the next time:  shorter sleeves and body; this thing grew in the blocking.  I would use the basic shaping again, but put in my own patterns.  The yoke was fun, the sleeves and body, endless, but I expected that.

Me, attempting to hide my old lady tummy (with no success at all).  I'm not going on a diet.  Piffle.  

Thanks, Bishop Stone!  I love the fade very much.

A finished sweater

Finished on Saturday night, and all ends sewn in Sunday morning.  Washed and just about dried.  Took me 2 weeks and 3 days, probably the fastest I've made myself a sweater.

37" circumference with sport wt yarn, about 7.25 skeins.  Size 5 needles.  Pattern from some Japanese pattern book I own plus my usual favorite fake cable.

It's hazy, hot and humid...

So it's time to start knitting sweaters. This is the first one.  It's all lace, and not blocked, so it looks like a rag, but it will stretch out beautifully when washed.

Yarn is Knit Picks Palette in Seraphim.  Skinny stuff, and not terribly drapey.  I'm working it on sock needles, size 2.5mm.  I'm a very loose knitter, so it works out OK with those tiny needles.  256 sts in circumference.  I don't know yet what I will do with the bodice and sleeves.  My inclination is to work the sleeves in stockinette with a row of lace running down the center, but I'll see.  I'm a way off so just thinking about it at the moment.  My usual crew neck, and if I have enough yarn, maybe a cowl?  Or not.

The color is weird, sort of a grey/beige/mauve thing.  I have no idea why I bought it; it must have appealed to me.  I'll wear it over navy or deep green or something else dark.

 

Busy me

Just busy with family visits and Thanksgiving and such.  Yesterday I finished the sweater for younger DD.  I like it so much that I might just do one for me, but in a different yarn.  Took a month to do.  Easy quick knitting, just what I like. 

And I also finished the second rosette on the Millefiori quilt.  Took time off afterward to do this sweater and a scarf for a grand and also working on my sister's wall hanging.

Announcement!

I've got my sweater knitting mojo back.  It vanished last March, but arrived yesterday with a vengeance.  This is a swatch for a sweater for DD#2, she who lives in the frozen northland.  The color of the second pic is closer to the actual yarn.  Sport wt yarn with a #5 needle.  As usual, it will be knit in the round and will be a bit tighter in gauge than the swatch since I knit tighter in the round.  I can still extrapolate the number of stitches needed because I'm very experienced in this.  I don't think I'll use ribbing because I love that wavy edge.  Maybe a couple of rounds of garter to stabilize it.  Neck?  Way too soon to decide.  Long sleeves picked up and knitted from the armholes, with the pattern turned upside down (if I need to do that.)

Socks, of course, are always on needles.  I don't even bother to show them since I just do them automatically.  Total mindless knitting.
And, because the EPP mojo is also still with me, here is the central hexie of rosette #2.

And the first hexie of round 2.  This one will repeat all the way around the central hexie.

And how they will look sewn together.

What's on my needles Fri, June 27

Socks in progress.  I'm almost at the back or the heel moment.  My very favorite part of sock knitting, other than the leg, is that little short row turn of the heel.  I just love doing this.  Not there yet, but will be shortly.

The short row scarf is progressing nicely.  This is such a delight to do.

Almost at the end of the 2nd ball.  This is not going to be very long, but it will be wide and squooshy, so very comfy to cuddle up around my neck.  I can't wait to see how it blocks out.  All those garter raised portions will smooth out, I hope.

My charity scarf for Chabad House is getting there.  I'm using the same technique on both this and the mitered scarf above, but look how different they look.  This one is all garter stitch; the one above has a stockinette and garter pattern.

And a sweater that I didn't show last week.  It's just mindless stockinette at this point.  Yawn.  The sleeves will be worked up in stockinette also, and then joined to work the yoke.  The yoke will have stranded color work on it.  I haven't knitted an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater (other than the Baby Surprise Jacket) in a very long time.  It does look small, but it's the right size (36" in circumference) for me.

And that's it.  Well there are a couple more WIPs, but I'm not working on any of them, and may frog them. 

Designing and knitting a fisherman's sweater - part 5

So, now the body is done up until about an inch or so from the armhole.  Here's where I like to put in a pattern that separates the body from the bodice, and that is that cute little diamond pattern.  I use this one a lot because it works very well.

Now I'm ready for the bodice.  This is the sweater from the beginning of the armhole to the shoulder.  I always work the back first so that I can see where I want to place the neck opening.  I like to put in a number of patterns here, just for the fun of it.  Typically I use a lace pattern, my favorite fake cable, a knit/purl pattern, and lately I toss in a twist stitch pattern.  This is where I veer away from traditional gansey patterns, and here is where I have the most fun.

 

These patterns are mostly from Japanese books, with the exception of the ladder one (the one on the far right and left. I usually pick out the lace pattern first, and then add the rest.  My one caveat is that there is no patterning on the wrong side.  All I want to do is knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches.  Life is too short for me to pattern on the wrong side, and I will completely modify a pattern so that I can do this.  So, when I have a bunch of purl stitches on the right side (look at the lace pattern), I know that I can just follow along on the wrong side.  Makes it easy and very pleasurable to knit.  (On the body and sleeves, however, because they are knit in the round, I will use any stitch at all since all the work is done right in front of me on the right side.)

That fake cable appears in everything these days; I love it that much.  The twist stitch pattern is between 2 of the fake cables.  No cable hook here; these guys are just twisted, and only on the right side.  What I love is that the outer edge of this pattern looks as if I'm manipulating something or other.  It's just a trick of the eye; you want to see it look like an outside edge, and it's not.  Just knitted along.

I'll work the back until I have approx 8-8.5", place the stitches on a piece of yarn and then work on the front. 

Finshed sweater

Here she is, the latest and greatest.  A pretty heather cranberry basket-weave pattern in my usual round neck.

I can't get the pictures right.  It's hard for me to take selfies.  I look ridiculous from that selfie angle, but you can get the idea.

The real color is somewhere the top pic and the bottom one, leaning more toward the bottom pic.  36" in circumference, knitted bottom up, 3-needle shoulder join, pick-up-and-knit sleeves downward.  The surprise of this sweater is that it is essentially a rib pattern, so when I finished it, I had this very narrow sweater with skinny-minny sleeves.  A good blocking helped, and of course, the minute you put it on, those ribs mold themselves to your body.  I'm very happy with it.   The same gorgeous yarn as the previous sweater, only worked with a size 4 needle because I wanted a sweater with some substance.

Rating:  A - A+, I'm that happy with it.  Cozy and comfy  and perfect for a drab, misty chilly winter day.

2014 seems to be the year of the sweater.  The last time I did this was 22 years ago!  Younger DD wanted to go to college with 17 sweaters, and so I obliged her.  That just about did me in, and I haven't done much sweater knitting since, only a few here and there.  But now I have that mojo, so lots more in the planning stage.

Wednesday's Book and Tea

Wednesday is somewhat of an odd day for me.  All the energy I've expended on Mon and Tues has dissipated, and all I want to do is snuggle down, read a book, drink tea, and knit a bit.

Here's what I'm reading at the moment:  The winter sea by Susanna Kearsley.  I've not read anything by her before, and she has a large body of work.

Here's a summary from Baker & Taylor: 

Carrie settles into the shadow of Slains Castle in Scotland, creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors, and starts to write about the Jacobite invasion of 1708. When she can no longer tell the difference between today and centuries ago, is she dealing with an ancestral memory-- a memory that might destroy her?


I'm only on page 110, and it's holding my interest. I love finding a new author, one with a nice oeuvre of work.

Today's book-reading tea is Elyse's Blend from Harney's, a glorious honey-flavored black tea.  It is one of my favorites.

On the needles is that lace sweater that I showed last week. Please understand that this is lace, and it looks pretty much like an old rag.  After a good washing and blocking, it will all straighten out and look lovely, especially that goofy-looking bottom of the sweater.

The top pic is closest to the actual color.  Don't you just love the mess at the bottom?  There are a total of 5 different lace patterns.  I'll put ribbing around the neck and at the end of the sleeves.  If the bottom doesn't lay flat, I'll pick up and knit a narrow lace edging.

What's on my needles Friday

I started a new sweater.  This one is going to be a lacy jobbie.  I have about 3" done on the body.

I know; it doesn't look like much of anything. But it will get better, I promise you.

See how I've stretched it out?  That's going to be the lace for the body up until a couple of inches before the armholes.  Then I'll switch to a band pattern, take off my armhole sts, and then do a different lace on the bodice.

Knit shoulders off together, pick up and knit sleeve sts with yet another lace pattern or maybe using the bodice pattern.  I'm so far away from that that I don't know what I'll do, but it'll all work out.

Then, to finish that edge that wants to turn up, I'll pick up and knit a small lacy border on the bottom of the sweater.  There, I'm done.

The yarn is Filatura di Crosa Sportwool which I bought from The Stitching Bee in Chatham, NJ.  It comes in tons of colors, each one prettier than the next.  100% wool.  50 g.  approx 136 yards.  It's so soft and woolly.  I'm going to use it again and again.

I'm using a #5 needle.  Ordinarily I'd use a 4 because I knit loosely, but I want drape on this; so that's why the 5 needle.

And speaking of wool, here's what's newly listed in my Etsy shop:

New Lili Lace yarn.  I cannot tell you just how gorgeous this yarn is.  It's a superwash lace yarn, which means that it just soaks up the dye.  No, I'd never wash in the machin when I'm making lace shawls, so the superwash is what I want for the dyeing.

In order:  Abigail,  Bella, and Elegant!  875 yards of a slightly heavier lace weight yarn.  Very easy to work with, soft and with gorgeous drape. 

 

Plus, there are lots of sale sock yarns, and more Lili Lace Yarn.  I have a festival of yarn going on!

A Sweater Journey

 Green Penny yarn

Would you like to go on a sweater journey with me?   I thought I'd take you along, and give you my thought processes. Who knows?  Maybe you'll want to take the plunge with me.

So first decision:  What yarn and what color?  I do my best work on skinny yarns.  I want to use my Penny sock yarn.  Lots of yardage, wears very well, is soft but strong, nice stitch definition.  Perfect.

Color:  the trouble with being a dyer is that I can make any color I want, so the choice is endless.  However, I've been doing a bunch of greens for Sock Madness Forever, and loving them, so GREEN it is!
Needles:  size 3.  Why?  Good gauge and I like working on them. (plus they were handy at the moment.)
Gauge:  approx 6 sts/inch on stockinette.  Not terribly important at the moment because I want to do some patterns, but will become important if I decide to do the sleeves and bodice in stockinette.

Pattern:  At first I wanted to do cables, but lace is so my thing these days and very easy on the hands, so I'm off to play with lace patterns.

Shape:  a cardigan with a somewhat flared bottom, not ruffly, just a wider A-line shape.  Sleeves:  3/4 and also gently flared.  Armhole:  my usual dropped T. 

Size:  38" or 39" at the bodice and ? at the bottom.  I want this to go over a turtleneck so I don't want it fitted, but neither do I want it oversized.  When I get to the armhole, I'll decide whether to make it 38 or a bit larger on the bodice.  I can easily do that by taking off less stitches at the underarm.  I have a Coldwater Creek sweater that I love, and I'll get my measurements from it.

Neck:  Maybe scoop or square.  Don't have to decide until I get to the bodice.

Buttonholes:  No.  I hate making buttonholes and sewing on buttons, so I'll close it with a pretty shawl pin, or maybe I'll bite the bullet and put in one buttonhole at the top and find a gorgeous button.  At any rate, I don't have to decide this now since it would go at the top of the garment.

Trim:  no ribbing.   A few rows of garter and then start the lace.  I may do seed stitch or garter on the bands.  Have to decide this before I start knitting, of course.

A really bad way to take a gauge over my knee.

Off to measure my CC sweater, and then start playing with lace patterns.