joyousknits

How one thing led to another

I started new socks over the weekend. Just some simple st st ones with the Opal zebra print yarn.  They're almost done, but first I want to tell you about some other knitting I did in September.

Let's go waaay back to the end of August, when another colleague left.  On her last day at work, I had the brilliant idea of giving her my Icarus shawl, which I hadn't used since finishing it back in May. BUT!  The pale lemony lime wasn't a color I saw her wearing, so I decided to dye it with some Koolaid.  (Are you shaking your head already?)  Now, June had told me of dangers in dyeing finished knits, but I was desperate enough to give it a try.

What I wanted was a pink, or at most a light coral color.  I only had two packs of pink lemonade, and added two packs of watermelon as that was the next lightest color. When I tried dyeing a small bundle, it came out a light coral, which was fine. When I put in the shawl, there wasn't enough dye and it came out a light sickly orange color.  Three packs cherry, and one pack black cherry later, the shawl wasn't taking up any more dye.

This picture doesn't do the color justice; it's worse in real life, and is more like radioactive persimmon/salmon mixed with pepto-bismol.  But for some reason, it doesn't digust me like it did when I first saw it, probably because back then it was so different from what I'd envisioned.

Anyway, I remember this colleague liked Marianne, and since I had one ball of KSH leftover, why not buy another ball and do what I should have done in the beginning, which was to knit something from scratch. So, I went to Filo Kilo and bought another ball.

That's when I saw that they had their remaining stock of Rowan RYC Cashsoft on sale!  Wouldn't the grey look great with the two balls of pink angora I bought ages ago to make baby booties?  Except I don't want to make angora booties any more.

So that's how I've got the Masquerade cardi, from Louisa Harding's Winter Muse Portraits, on the needles.  The angora's a bit thinner than the Cashsoft, so I'm knitting it along with a strand of KSH, and I'm knitting the fronts and back in one piece so I'll have fewer ends to weave in at the end. I'm up to the armhole shaping now, and as soon as I'm done socking, I'm going to pick this up again.

Saltwater

Pattern Source: Saltwater, from Rowan RYC CLassic Beach

Yarn: 500g Noro Cash Iroha, shade 22

Modifications: Body knit in the round. I really can't remember if I made other mods. I'm just terrible  about not writing notes, and since I started this ages ago...

I'm glad I got one project done before going on vacation!  When I come back, the wip pile will be just a teeny bit smaller. :-)   I'd used this yarn when I first started knitting, and fell in love with the way it glides on the needles, and the way the thick and thin texture hides uneven stitches and untidy finishing.  Indeed, being an obsessive hoarder, I had at one point enough of this stuff for eight or nine projects!!  But I'd destashed all of it except for this favorite color. I'm no longer fond of the texture, as the thin parts look very snappable and makes that part of the knit weaker, nor the way it stretches a lot after washing.  The fit on this sweater is a bit tight right now, but I'll wash it when winter rolls around, and I know it'll stretch, but hopefully not overly so with all that cabling going on. Here're the ropes on those cables:

I just love the way they pop out! Unlike Noro's Kureyon and Silk Garden, whose stripes I really like, I can wear the Cash Iroha next to the skin.

And what do you do when you wear a fisherman sweater?

I'm obviously holding that thing all wrong, aren't I? :D  Well, I wasn't going to take any more shots because I nearly melted wearing this thing, even with the air con on full blast!! Seeing as I'm on a finishing roll, I should/could have tackled another wip (or started packing), but today, I cut some fabric for this top (New Look 6344).

In the Nic-ole time

Whew! I finished this little knit literally a half hour before gifting it to my niece.

 

Pattern source: Nicole, size 34 (Rowan 39)

Yarn: 4 balls of Rowan 4-ply cotton (Fresh)

After declaring this a straightforward pattern a couple of posts ago, I got stuck.

Scallopy lace straps knit as written for the left front.  There were no instructions for the right front, only 'reverse shaping'.   Aargh!  I wanted the scallops to mirror each other, and I wouldn't get that if I followed the lace pattern as written.  Indeed, from the Rowan picture, it looks as if all six straps face the same direction. Anyhow, it took me a while to figure out mirroring the lace by knitting one more row before starting the lace pattern, and changed all the k's to p's and vice versa.

After the straps were done, it was time for buttons. (I like to bring the knit to the shop with me so I can 'try on the buttons'.) Can you tell I'm a pearl button fan? ;-)

And the straps sewn up:

The only modifications I made, besides the straps, were fewer decreases for the waist shaping, and slightly shorter straps.  My niece has already worn Nicole. It fits, and is mother-approved! Yay!

BTW, thanks for all your votes on the stripy sock colors. Interestingly, the green/purple combo that I was originally going to do got just one vote, and most of the votes were for combos where green and pink were the major colors. My own favorites are # 6, 8, and 10. Since #8 requires winding longer hanks and messing with one more color, I'll probably dye up either #6 or 10. But before I do that, I want to finish the little top I'd started sewing today. More on that later!

wannabe

Thirteen. Or twenty. Something.

So I can wear Nicole, from Rowan 39.

 

I have long ago given up the idea of wearing strappy belly bearing tops, even in the privacy of my own home. But this one is just too cute to not make. The cute pattern stitch bands, the cute little straps, and cute little buttons.  Cue in the cute niece.  She's been the unwitting recipient of all the cute things I want to make, but can't pull off wearing/carrying. Things like Thelma, or the felted pink Kureyon bag.  And this year for her thirteenth birthday, it'll be Nicole.

And a close-up of the pattern stitch:

This is a very light celery green for Project Spectrum month of May.  Despite this being 4-ply, it's coming along fast. The pattern is quite straightforward, and with all that stocking stitch, makes me wonder why this has a difficult rating.  I'm at the armhole shaping for the front piece, so I'm fairly confident it can be gifted in a few days. Then I can start tackling my little mountain of UFOs!

Joy and Marianne

Almost always before a long-ish vacation, I have an immense urge to tie up loose ends at work (impossible), clean up my room (insane), and finish my wips (hahaha).  I end up doing things I've been putting off forever, like buying a tripod for blog photos (which I did yesterday), and organizing   my sewing patterns.

The only wip I finished was Joy.

Pattern: Kim Hargreave's Joy

Yarn: 11 and a half balls of Rowan Handknit Cotton (Zing)

The body was done in one piece, with short rows at the shoulders, which were three needle bound off.  Hehe, the waist shaping and darts in the fronts and back would have made a wavy blanket.  ;-) The row by row instructions were not so fun to do, but after knitting the forty-odd row repeat once, it was easy to see the pattern.  I  changed the buttonholes by doing a k2tog, 2yo, k2tbl on the first row and then k2, ktbl, k1 on those four stitches on the next row so that the buttonholes are not so gapey. Because  the alternating sections of stocking and reverse stocking stitch made the fabric stretchy lengthwise, it was hard determining the gauge. In the end, I let it dangle a bit before laying it down to measure.  I haven't blocked this; I figure it'll block better on me! ;-) My only compaint is that it's already too hot to wear this cardi! Here 's a flat view if you're interested.

And here's a long overdue modeled picture of Marianne:

Pattern: Marianne from Rowan 37

Yarn: 3 ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze (Blushes)

I found some pearl buttons with a dark pink tint and thought them better than the ones I used before. (There was a yellow tint to the pearl buttons for Joy. The colors were hard to capture, but you can see the difference here.) The beads  for the sleeves ties are a very pale translucent pink which let the yarn color show through.  I knit the size 36, with the body lengthened by about an inch, and still used only three balls of Kidsilk Haze. (Pattern called for four, but then I didn't make the crochet edge as ruffly as stated in the pattern.  I'm sure if the pattern had been written with more explicit instructions for addition and subtracting stitches at the edge of the lace pattern, this would not get a 'difficult' rating, as the lace pattern itself is very simple. I figured the increases out by the time I got to the sleeves, but there're a couple of mutant motifs at the side seams. Just don't look there!

So I'm off to Australia! Have a good Easter holiday! :-)

Is there such a thing as too much red?

Maybe. After three months of reds and pinks, all I've been thinking about lately is everything but red. And not just thinking about it, but acting on it:

 

Orange and yellow for Project Spectrum's month of April.  The orange swatch is for Norah Gaughan's Syncopated Ribs, which is found in IK Fall 2004.  The yellow is the beginning of Kim Hargreaves' Joy cardi, knit in Rowan Handknit cotton DK.  I'm doing the fronts and back in one piece;  I don't think I mind seaming the sides as much as having to read the row by row instructions. The down side, if you can call it that,  is having to estimate the buttonhole placement beforehand, and casting on a gazillion stitches for the scallopy edge. This is really taking off, in part because I want to finish this so I can wear it when I go to Cairns in a couple of weeks.  Some deadlines are good.  :-) 

I had to scrape the stash for yellow, and there's very little in the stash that's green for Project Spectrum May, so I spent some green to get some green. (Twist my arm, already.) Oh look, some Liberty cotton lawn from ebay! I see all these pretty skirts in blogland, and I want one too. Time to put that sewing machine into action. Okay, so most of this lot is not green, but it's pretty just for looking.  Really, I'm saving so much money by not having to go to London myself that I could buy some more!  ;-)

Ssh, but that's not all. Some blue for June...

It's pretty rare that I  pay full price for yarn. That's how much I like this Kim kit. And the box that the kit came in fits perfectly under the bed! :-)

And for the purple month of July?

A very big thank you to Agnes!  It was a total surprise to be gifted with such pretty yarn; it's Claudia Hand Painted in the Plumlicious colorway.  I'll admit I'm VERY picky about variegated yarn, but I really love these colors, and so looking forward to knitting this up!

Oh, I should mention I've finished knitting the pieces of Saltwater, and it just needs seaming up.

Sorry for the lack of  posts lately.  I'm under house arrest, preparing for midterms  spending lots of quality time with the boys. Things will be back to normal soon!

You know you really want it

When there's a crack in the spine, and the book opens automatically to that page.

This is Saltwater, from the latest RYC Classic Beach. Just a few simple cables for me. :-)  I'm knitting the body up to the armholes in the round, in an effort to reduce seaming seed stitch, which I have trouble making look good.  There is a down side to knitting in the round, though, when there's a mistake, and you have to rip out double the number of stitches...or do you have to?

Once upon a time, I would have either ignored the mistake or ripped out the four rows, but when you read so many blog accounts of people just dropping the stitches that need fixing, well, it makes me think that I can do it too! Lots of cable needles, a crochet hook and some good tangly twisting later...

No mistakes here! :-)

Great ball of fire!

Pattern source: Adrienne Vittadini fall 2003

Yarn: 7.5 hanks Classic Elite Lush (50% wool/ 50% angora)

Plenty of minor modifications include: not making bell sleeves, shortening the armhole by a half inch, shortening the sleeves and body a bit, making a less shaped waist and front, and slip stitching the first stitch on the fronts because there's no front band. I used one hook to close the cardi, which latches to the outermost eyelet instead of fixing three hooks and eyes. It's knit at 4.5 st/inch instead of 4 as stated in the pattern so the final measurement is 36" when I followed the instructions for the smallest (40") size fronts and back.

This is perhaps one of my most fetching eye-catching red sweaters, and I'm rather pleased with the fit, especially the sleeve caps. However, as with most love stories, there's a glitch, in this case, the yarn. After three wears:

My auspicious CNY sweater has been rubbing off on everyone, and it permeates in strange ways (I found some red fluff stuck on my bra!) And areas where there is a lot of friction, like the armpit, are really matted down, and felted looking. Maybe a bath or razor would help? 

Countdown to CNY

With the Christmas pudding barely digested, it's time to start thinking about THE holiday of the year around here.  Chinese New Year, which is steeped with traditions that are as adaptable as the person who adopts them, falls on the 29th of January this year. One of the traditions that I picked a number of years ago is having something new to wear, and preferably something red (a supposedly auspicious color). It could be a t-shirt, a pair of socks or a jacket, or sweaters such as...

 

The red sweaters that have made it through the years: thick or thin, cotton or cashmere, old or new. One of these has been with me since before I was married almost twelve years ago. Not that I needed an excuse to buy (now knit) something new and red. I love wearing red in the winter to offset my nearly all black wardrobe. The fiery color is warmth itself. (Hehe, I'd like to say it's hot! but that's so not me, at least not by appearances.)

I've restrained from buying sweaters since I started knitting, partly from stash guilt, and partly because I'd like to think I could make something (somewhat) unique. Well, well.

An Adrienne Vittadini cardi from Fall 2003. The original was done in cashmere at 4 st/ inch. I started mine a few days ago in Classic Elite Lush (coincidentally named 'Chinese red') that's been sitting in the stash, knit at 4.5 st/inch. I'm following the instructions for the smallest size, which has a finished bust of 40", so mine should end up to be 36". The back piece, which is all stocking stitch, is done, but I've left the top edge unfinished in case I need to fiddle with it to match the sleeve cap. The yarn is delish. What a lovely way to start a new year of knitting!

The truth about Electra

Truth is, I love it! The tweediness of the tweeds, the fuzziness of the kidsilk haze, the colors.

I had to wait a couple of days after I finished the vest front before I could face weaving in the ends, of which there were about sixty (!) for the back and ten for the front because I knit in most of the ends as I went. The stitches evened out a lot after I wet blocked it. (The Yorkshire Tweed DK in Revel bled a bit in the Eucalan wash.) However, the sides are still a little lumpy bumpy because the yarn weights are so different.

I wonder what other color combos would work for Electra. If my to- knit list isn't so long I might consider knitting another, especially since I won't be wearing this one. Yep. Electra is close fitting. I knew that, but irrationally went ahead and knit the usual size 34. Remember Hamish, which I knit for Yu, my six year old? Well...

What was I thinking?   hehe.  I suspect Electra is going to look cuter on my twelve year old niece than on me. 

Specs:

Pattern source: Rowan 38, size 34

Yarn: 2 balls of Yorkshire Tweed DK in Revel (almost all used up, with my ends being 6-8 inches long), 1 ball each of Felted Tweed in Melody and Midnight, and Kidsilk Haze in Dewberry

No modifications to the pattern were made but if I ever knit this again, it'll be in the round to reduce the number of ends.