teal-erton.

My future sister-in-law was thrown a bridal shower yesterday from us bridesmaids so I had saved showing this to you until after the event. I knit her a wedding shawl this isn’t for the wedding or anything, but something for her to remember this time by and to think of our family when she wears it out. Susan Dittrich’s Pinkerton Shawl fit the bill perfectly. Simple and elegant (and not too fussy for post-school/summer knitting!). Katy’s favourite colours include teal, sea-foam green and Tiffany’s blue.

Since there’s an obvious pattern there, I chose Sweet Fiber Yarn’s Super Sweet Sock in Teal Feather. Perfect. I love Melissa’s yarns. She choses beautiful colours to work with and results are always fabulous.

Once I had the hang of the pattern, which was easy to memorize, I paid no attention to stitch counts or number of short rows worked … I just kept knitting until I felt it was time to move onto the lace. Again, I paid no attention to counting and cast off the lace when it looked big enough and I felt it was the right time. I didn’t want any leftover yarn from this project other than what I would give her for weaving if it is ever damaged so I just knit until the skein was gone!

The result is a perfectly sized shawl!

Prior to my saying goodnight to you all, I wanted to share a link with you:

trainingabear.blogspot.com

I have mentioned our dogs in previous posts but after some reflection, I have decided to start a blog about the process of “training” Charlie, our male. Our trainer placed him and I together after seeing us interact (I had prior been working with Charlotte) and the journey since has been tumultuous, frustrating and fabulously rewarding. Following some research, as well as conversations with friends, I have decided to journal my experiences. It can be an incredible thing to have animals in our lives but learning to live alongside them when we speak such different languages can be difficult – this blog is dedicated to that experience. I hope I see some of you over there as well!

construction.

We camped this weekend in the rain that often plagues the Upper Fraser Valley of Southern British Columbia. It was wonderful to get outside, have some time to take the dogs on long walks, and visit with family and good friends. I have been working on a couple of projects recently – one that is drying and I’ll photograph/share it once it is gifted, and another that I wanted to show you prematurely. It isn’t finished but the construction has been a delight. I am not so afraid of seaming anymore so I have started taking on some projects I would never have considered last year or the year prior. Solaris is one of those projects that I have been wanting to make for some time.

I had some Cascade Eco+ in my stash that I have used in colour 4010 Straw. I swatched up on 5.00mm and recalculated the stitches based on my gauge (which was very different – of course) and removed about 5 inches from the bulk of the collar. The construction of the back piece was very interesting:

Rather than knit the back piece to the usual arm depth, you stop at about 5 1/2 inches (or whatever your size is), which as you can see on my dress form leaves you about 3 inches “short” – or so you would think.

The left front is then cast on and worked back and forth to the underarms. From there, armhole shaping is worked as well as the complete arm hole, then the piece is worked across the back. The right front is worked completely in reverse of the left front.

The result is interesting and incredibly satisfying. I haven’t washed the sweater yet and I have only just cast on the arms but I am looking forward to the finished results. There’s part of me that doesn’t even want to do full arms but rather sleeve caps to leave it as a vest but I know I would regret that later. So finish it, I will.

I hope you are working on something interesting and equally satisfying this evening.

sorting.

From sorting out emotions to frustration to cleaning out for Spring, it has been a tumultuous June over here. June is my favourite month of the year for many reasons but this year has been a little difficult. My plan is to start fresh today by unpacking the rest of the boxes left from the move: All 4 of them. I know it doesn’t sound like much but these are the crafting boxes that need a lot of sorting out.

So from a very dear friend’s awful news and hope/faith in the future (as well as modern medicine):

http://jabrode.com/

To crying last night at dog school (in front of everyone – very embarrassing) due to earth-shattering (it felt that way at the time) frustration with an adolescent puppy:

He looks so innocent, doesn’t he? Herumph.

But feeling a completely silly sense of relief that things are coming together slowly:

They are organized! Finally!

And stumbling on memories long since past while stuck in the back of our family’s van on long summer road trips throughout the West (who knew I packed this in one of my crafting boxes!):

“The Adventures of Mr. Man” by my brother and me.

And lastly, taking a moment to appreciate the back of a sweater that I am loving so much:

This is what it’s all about, isn’t it? The small moments that we often miss is our busy lives – here’s to appreciating them a little more. xo

vintaged.

Last time I shared with you my experience of setting in my first pair of sleeves. This time I want to share with you Vintage. It’s finished and I am really happy with the cardigan. There are a few things I would change if I were to be starting over. In truth, though, I am content and know this will get worn a huge amount.

The yarn is what makes this cardigan special. Berroco Vintage DK is a new yarn that is 50% acrylic, 40% wool and 10% nylon. Generally, I stay away from acrylic yarns but I have to admit the weight, price point and colours are what caused me to take a change and buy/try the new yarn. I must say, the yardage alone made me look twice. This sweater only took 3 hanks of the Oats colourway and about 0.5 hanks of the Sour Cherry. Amazing. That made it a $30 cardigan – I can’t argue with that! I knit the cardigan up on 4.00mm needles and love the drape of the finished object.

To decide how many stitches to cast on, I laid out my favourite cardigan (bought at Jacob last Christmas in a Large for lots of room and length) and measured it. Casting on enough stitches for the 40” busted cardigan, I just knit and knit and knit … until I was so bored I decided that was enough and divided for the fronts and back.

The buttons are from my button stash and the garter button band matches the original sweater from Jacob.

I have been toying with writing this up and if I do, I will work on that this summer while camping – I will keep you posted. I have 5 sweaters on the go at the moment … 6 if you count the secret sweater. Two of them only need sleeves so I am going to work on them this week and hopefully finish at least one before the end of the month … I hope. Wish me luck!

set-in.

Ever since I started knitting, I have had a mental block about set-in sleeves. If I am completely honest with myself, it is because my first project was the Tilted Duster (which still isn’t finished) and I had a hell-of-a-time figuring out how the sleeves were to be sewn into the armscye. Having sewed much in the past (and continue to), I was annoyed with myself that I couldn’t do it and have basically avoided them ever since. Until now. I decided that 2011 was the year to conquer my fears and learn how to not only seam but set-in sleeves. No more avoiding patterns or modifying them so that I won’t have to set-in a sleeve.

For those of you who are afraid of set-in sleeves just like I was, I used this tutorial from Berroco that was excellent at demonstrating the sewing technique. From Knitty, since I didn’t have a pattern (I have been designing this from the get-go and will share more later), I used these articles (Part I, Part II and Part III) from Jenna Wilson to figure out the math and ensure my stripes would match-up.

This was my armscye prior to sewing up. You can see that I have stripes (6 in total) to match up.

Once I had pinned it and matched up the stripes, I put it on my lovely dress form to ensure the sleeve cap would fit appropriately.

Since this is a granny sweater and meant to be loose fitting (I added 4 inches of positive ease to be body), I decided to use the 3rd method described by Jenna to design my sleeves. I cast off 10 stitches once my sleeve was the adequate length and on every RS row thereafter, I decreased a stitch at either side. The reason why I chose this method (since the others tend to fit better) is because this is a loose fitting sweater and I don’t need a close fitting sleeve to finish it off. For my first foray into sleeves, I didn’t think I needed anything more complicated.

In the final 12 rows, I decreased every row 3 times then skipped a row and repeated 3 times in total (4 rows, 3 times = 12 rows).

Taking the time and practicing a few times, I am really happy with the results. I even took the time to sew on the buttons since this baby is almost finished.

If you are still with me after this longer-than-intended post, I bought a shirt in Vegas back in April that I am knitting this sweater for. I don’t wear any red but I saw this t-shirt and had to have it – but of course I needed to knit something to go with it! My good friend helped to chose the yarn and here I am: Almost done!

Photos are coming once it is dried from washing it this morning.

Onions.

It’s been a while.

I haven’t found my knitting mojo yet but I am steadily working on some projects that have been very gratifying. With the weather finally changing, warming up and long walks through my favourite parks, I’m not sure my mojo will return for a while. There is a sense of peace about that, though. Slowly the yard is being cleaned up and things are coming together in the house. Luckily, no spring cleaning this year since we moved and cleaned out in January. Whew!

Amazingly, I have a finished project to share with you. Before we moved, I was working on this like mad. For a while, I had nothing else to work on since all yarn and notions were packed but I really burned out on it when I started the second sleeve. I felt like there was no end in sight.

I pulled it out on Sunday evening and decided: Win or lose, we were watching the Canucks game (thank goodness we won) and that would give me 3 hours of solid knitting/weaving in ends time. I was not going to quit till it was done! As the third period came to an end, I was washing and laying it out to dry. Awesome, huh?

Amy Christoffers’ Larch Cardigan.

In some ways I modified this a lot and in other ways, I did nothing. Having trialed some different construction methods in other sweaters (namely, Audrey in Unst), I decided to do short-row sleeves from the cap down. This worked really well but I had major decreasing to do through the arms. The result is perfectly fitting sleeves but I’m not sure it was the best technique to use – I would knit set-in sleeves next time.

The detail in this cardigan is what makes it special. The miles of St st for the body with a small amount of shaping for the A-line cardigan is a little tedious but I kept thinking “This is for the greater good of this cardi – it’s just so cute!”

The collar alone makes this sweater-jacket special.

The buttons and crocheted toggles create a classic look (that I absolutely love).

And while tedious, my absolute favourite thing is the picked up hem and twisted rob combo. Absolutely perfect – kudos Amy, well done.

I bought this dress from H&M in Vegas back in April for $20US and loved it. It has a paisley pattern that is difficult to see from the sun’s exposure but the colours in the cardigan are a perfect match so my yarn choice was reinforced again (I had bought the yarn to go with the above t-shirt and scarf). I chose (from Dressew for $1.99) Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds DK Wool in Onion. The yarn I bought has been discontinued but I saw that they are bringing this yarn back in a different form, same great organic yarn.

Thank you for sticking with my through my hiatus – have a lovely Spring and happy knitting!

ps. Yes, that’s Charlie in the first photos – he is fully grown now at 17 months. And so much fun :)

vintage.

My knitting mojo was left somewhere in the Nevada desert at the beginning of the month while we had a good time in Las Vegas. I bought some Berroco Vintage DK yesterday with some good friends, did some math and cast on a very simple sweater. Maybe my mojo is slowly returning?