Slip Stitch Swatches

If I adhere to my goals list, Canyonville should be the next up. But, I don't feel like cables right now. I did go find a cable needle, so I will count that as progress. 

Instead, I did a stash dive. 

I struggle with the notion of doing a project to use up yarn stash versus creating a project that I enjoy and want to make.

I first looked at some blue yarns. I have about 300 grams of two colors and figured I could add a brown or tan sort of like Jeanie on the Berroco free pattern site. After looking at the yarns for a few days I concluded they were nice but I wasn't excited enough about the pattern. It felt like a "use up" project instead of something I really wanted to do. 

I tried a slip stitch pattern with the chosen yarns to see how they played together. I was surprised how bright the two blues read. The tan was meh, and made me think about orange. I liked the nubby texture. I liked slip stitch.

This is the next try. It is the Kiyomi pattern which I have admired. The light orange was OK, but the choices in the model worked because they were closer in shade and tone.

Well, hello, this works.  

Oh, and the color is more representative of the true color than the previous picture.

The Kiyomi model features a wide center welt of the main color yarn. I do not think I have enough yarn for that and I don't wear cardigans much anyway. So, a pullover, probably using the Ann Budd Grand Plan pattern. 

I like the slip stitch pattern from the failed blue/tan swatch for the bottom, wrist and neck edging but I will fiddle with the color order.

For the record, I am starting with 434 grams of the dark rose, 324 grams of the orange and 178 grams of the pink.

Done and Done

I'm so pleased that the Winter garden sweater is finished. She waited so long for me to find the patience to pick out the flubs and put her together. The knitting part was entertaining, and I may try the design again.

I finished the knitting on Dream bird over the weekend. I fiddled with the edge finishing as I did not always remember to carry the feather yarn down the cast of edge. I ended up with an I-cord that covers up the boo-boos. I encountered a suggestion to old the interior cast off stitches for an I-chord edging too late to implement, but I think that is an outstanding idea. I don't wear shawls much, so this will likely be a one and done design.

So, this project is next up. When visiting yarn shops I have a habit of picking up luxury yarn from the bargain bin with no idea what I will do with it. This is Urban Silk. I have four skeins of the tan and the chocolate. I tried a number of projects, but the aran weight and slippery nature did not comply.

Some research indicated that I have enough yardage for a sleeveless top. I'm using a brioche stitch, and am pleased with the way the yarn is holding together. It is a little heavy, and I'm expecting it to stretch lengthwise. I started with the Pebble Tank as a guide, but brioche stitch needs double decreases to keep in pattern for the shaping. I'm pretty sure that I can work out the rest.

So far, I've used 2 1/2 skeins of each color. I'm feeling confident that there will be plenty of yarn to complete the project.

Wintergarden - Forever Finishing

Well, we are coming along with this project. The second sleeve is now 8 1/2 repeats and attached.

I pulled out the hem and we spent some quality time with the steam iron. It seems better now.

The sleeve edges need to be redone, as one has a broken thread right at the picot, and I do not see a lot of value fixing over picking it out and knitting the edge again. This time I will work from the edge out, and try to bind off back where I picked up the stitches. We will see how well that goes.

So edges, and some ends to work in on the inside, and this one is done.

Wintergarden, What Happened?

Oh dear. I started this project in 2011, I believe. It has been sitting about since late 2012, almost done. I remember that I was in a funk about the picot edge around the hem. It was too flippy. So I cut it, knit it again, and was planning to graft it back to the body.

I picked up the project last week and discovered what must have tipped. First, I started grafting in blue, and about a quarter way around realized it should be a white stripe. Then I really looked at the piece being grafted and discovered that the last row of the pattern was missing two rows below.

URG. So, more picking than a banjo player, and not a lot of smiling.







Then, I redid the picot hem and it still curls. I'm not sure there is enough steam in the world to make it lie flat. I'm puzzled because I've done this sort of hem before with no problem whatsoever.


Check out the chevrons. Can you see the graft?  At least that went well.

Then, I looked at the sleeves. Picot edges there too. One sleeve had 8 1/2 pattern repeats and the other had 6 1/2 pattern repeats. Some knitting to be done to finish then. The body already had the steeks sewn up, and the longer sleeve seemed ready to go, so on it went.

So, here we are.

I'm not so happy with the way the collar sits either. Maybe I will remove all the picot edges and the collar and replacing them all with a rolled hem.

Dreambird

So, we find Dreambird almost done. There are 19 feather repeats. I think I have enough of the multicolored yarn for one or two more. I started this a while ago and have picked it up and put it down several times. Not sure why it gets put down, as I enjoy working on it.

I think that many on Ravelry have suggested that the pattern could be improved. I certainly agree but I am feeling far to lazy and uninterested to do so.

Between finishing Hues in Horizontal, this happened. I purchased these yarns for hat projects. Neither project worked out. The skeins popped out during a recent stash review. I'm not really sure why. I needed a quick hat during a cold snap in January so I made one with the brighter color. It is some sort of micro-fiber like polar fleece. It was OK, but not really great. So, Monday, I pulled it apart and over Monday and Tuesday did this. It is brioche for the body until I ran out of the black/green novelty yarn. Then I went to ribbing until I ran out of the fleece. I like it much better.

Hues Complete

Hues in Horizontal is Complete

After several sessions dedicated to weaving in the ends, resulting in a pile of ends. Then setting in sleeves and sewing the seams. Last, ribbing around the "V" neck. Great fit, great project.

To recap, the stitch/texture pattern followed "Hues in Horizontal" from Knitters Fall 2000. The yarns were vintage worsted gathered during a many year eBay yarn binge. The patter/shape used the "Grand Plan Pullover" published in Interweave Knits in 2002.

Next up is DreamBird.