Coral Development

This stash yarn has been eating into my brain. I probably acquired it during an eBay yarn binge.

I don't do that anymore.

It is not quite orange, not quite pink, not quite coral and very very bright. I have about five four-ounce skeins, so not quite enough for a sweater.

 I tried it with turquoise, but that did not make me happy. The idea was to make it the main color for a Catherine Parr, but it was clear part-way up the sleeve that there was not enough of the coral for the project..

Then, I tried with white and Barbara Walker. French weave. French weave, colors reversed, Florentine.  Good exercise, but still not happy.

I cruised by a local yarn shop, and found this lovely and coordinating  beauty in the 50% off bin. Enough for 1/2 of a sweater.
I tried some slip stitch patterns first. I liked the cuff, but the rest did not interest me.  Several others were tried and ripped. ...

Time for a time out while I browsed Ravelry projects for a while.

Well, Hello, beautiful:

Canyonville Complete

This is the result of a weekend Breaking Bad binge.















And it fits.

Progress on Canyonville

Canyonville is starting to look like a real sweater. Between the beginning of April and now the body has progressed to the armhole decreases and sleeves have been attached.

This body picture was from last week.

That was a lot of stitches so vertical progress seemed slow.   I am taking out eight stitches every round now, so soon we will have a neck-sized opening.

I'm a bit puzzled about why the cables at the bottom edge want to curl. I expect they will settle down when blocked.

Canyonville Progress

Two sleeves completed. Better yet, the measure properly to actually fit.

The body is on the needles and I'm working my way through the cable edge section.

This one is slow going compared to the fast and friendly slip stitch sweater. I do like it and it not only keeps my interest, I collect complements from other knitters.

Enough for now.

Turquoise Swatches

I remember now how fussy the Canyonville pattern is. Many 1x1 cables to make those nice wavy ribs. I enjoy the result and am improving on the process as my hands learn the pattern again. After a week of work I am most of the way up the first sleeve.

While creeping up the arm, I thought a bit too much about the stash yarn I am working through. Some skeins irritate me. Too bright, too much, but not enough. I have quite a lot of turquoise in two dye lots that got under my skin. One lot started as 16 ounces and can be about a half of a sweater. The other is 8 ounces and is close, but not close enough.

So I swatched. I know this turquoise. It defeated me a few years ago when I was playing with brioche type stitches. Over the weekend, I tried again.

My first thought was to use the larger lot in a sweater like the Great Missowski. It is a fun false flame stitch zigzag. An extra bonus is that the three minor colors require a single 4 ounce skein. Great opportunity for my single skein stash items.

After some fiddling I came to this combination. The purple, magenta, and teal are single skeins and the orange was last seen in the recently completed Sunset Kiyomi.

I was happy with how the colors played with each other but I didn't see a sweater that I liked. This felt like "using up", which is not my goal.

Out came the Barbara Walker books and after some trials, I ended up with some combinations that make me happy.

The plan is to use either the honeycomb or the flame stitch for the body up to the armhole. The Swiss check will be on the sleeves and upper body. I'm still thinking about the edges, but will probably opt for a simple 2x2 rib.

The normal end game for this color exercise is that the irritating color becomes my very favorite. I want to put it everywhere. The orange here is an example of that evolution. It was an irritating color a few years ago and there was so much of it. Who wears orange?  I used it in the Hedera Jacket a few years ago, and I am happy with how it plays here and in the Kiyomi. This project will be the end of of it and I will miss my orange.

Sunset Colors Kiyomi Done

I started fiddling with Canyonville for a few days and put off finishing the Kiyomi inspired pullover.

I got to finishing Wednesday, and Thursday she was done and ready for a wash.

Final usage numbers are:
Dark Rose - 336 grams
Orange - 134 grams
Pink - 132 grams

A total of 602 grams, and about 1170 yards using the Bernat Sesame 4 measurements for all yarns.

I love the Ann Budd Grand Plan charts. As you can see, this one fits perfectly.

Canyonville Crash and Burn.

I am baffled.

I put this project aside because I knew there was a problem with the width of the sleeve. About a 6" problem as it turns out. Looking at the cuff, I find that it is 6" wide. Usually cuffs for adults are about 9.5 to 10 inches.

What was I thinking, then, when I continued on and knit on the second sleeve for about 9"?

This knitting cannot be salvaged, and all must be torn out.



I still want to work the project, so I will begin again with a new sleeve. Casting on 10" will go a long way towards having enough width at the end. The plan is still to modify the construction to make a knit-in-one-piece raglan.

Time to recalculate and cast on again.

Kiyomi Body Done

I've been a bit obsessed. I cast on this project last weekend and a week later I have this.

Perhaps I was a bit concerned about having enough of the pink. There was less of it than the other colors ~180 grams. I weighed the remaining skein and find I used just about half for the body. I have 94 grams left. Thus, I have plenty for the sleeves and collar.

Silk Shell

Pictures of the newly finished silk shell.

I started with the pattern for the Purl Soho Pebble tank using a two color brioche stockinette stitch. I went rogue around the arm decreases. After some trial and error I decided to go with the slanted two stitch brioche decreases.

I used a braided edging that looks more complicated than it really is. I like how it worked out.

The original measurements for the body looked odd before I blocked the piece. I probably should have taken a picture, as it looked like a crop top. We know that silk and cotton will stretch lengthwise, so I counted on that to make the proportions work.

After a wash, I hung it on a skirt hanger by the shoulder seams and let gravity do the blocking job for me.

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.

Hues Progresses

The body is finished, so time to strap in for some end weaving.

I am pleased with the two substitutions I used to cover for running out of yarn. In this picture you can see the original blue on the left and the substitute yarn on the right.

The original lighter green is in the two stripes on the left, and the substitute color is on the right.

I ended up with about 6" of the yellow yarn.

So, stash-busting success.

Hues in Horizontal

Hues in Horizontal from Knitters Magazine, Fall 2000 seemed to be an interesting stash buster. As I remember, I had two four ounce skeins of the dark green and magenta that make the main colors and single four ounce skeins of the rest. These were vintage worsted wool skeins that I had aquired during my eBay yarn rampage days.

I worked most of the first sleeve on a road trip to somewhere. Probably a Christmas or Thanksgiving to North Carolina to see the FIL. Then, I went into a several year knitting funk.

Finishing something is my attempt at crawling out, and I suppose I'm doing reasonably well. Both sleeves are complete and the body to the front is done.

I recognized that I was running low on the light green and blue mid-way up the body. I had been considering a V neck rather than the round neck in the model and making a deep V seemed to be a choice that allows at least the front to complete before running out of yarn. I've finished one side and here is what is left:

:I have managed to find another 2 ounces of the light green. This ball had been set aside as it had serious sun damage, but it will do for the back.

I also managed to find some contemporary yarns, which, in combination look quite like the light blue.

It would be a shame to get this far and not be able to finish, so I am mushing along.  Wishing myself luck.

Canyonville Sleeve

New project - Canyonville from Alice Starmore, American Portraits.  I bought the booklet when I saw one made up in a knitting shop over twenty years ago.  I think I swatched it several times, but could not get the gauge.

This time, I just decided to rework the pattern to the gauge I got.  I also prefer the raglan sleeve treatment that several of the people on Ravelry have used.

I'm using very vintage Bear Brand Deluxe Knitting Worsted that was purchased on eBay.  eBay purchases are of course why I have way too much yarn upstairs.

Hedera is done

So, here we are.  I spent Thursday working on it so that she could be washed and dried before needlework Monday.

The sweater fits nicely, however the sleeves are way too long.  They were meant to be turned back, but as pictured, they are double cuffed.

I wanted to put a closure on this, but I am reconsidering.  It looks great open, and seems to settle properly as well.

If I was to make it again, I would shorten the sleeves.  Other than that, a nice knit.

It is January 2013 now.

My yarn stash is all over the guest room, and has been for several months now.  I would like to have less yarn around, but when I go to thin out the stash, I end up loving it again.  Even the bright yellow worsted.

I have found that I prefer working in the smaller gauges.  I have also found that working outside of my likes increases my feeling of creativity.  If reducing volume is my goal, then this is the year of worsted weight.

To kick off, I offer the swatch for an almost finished Hedera jacket.  Hedera is from the Nancy Marchant Knitting Brioche book.  All the pieces are knit, and I started sewing it together on Monday. 

We are up to the armpits here, and looking good.

Vegan girl was on a field trip last week, and took her orange sweater. Now kids are uploading their pictures, and I can see that she really did wear it. It looks good, but maybe that is just me being proud.

I also took the orange sweater to my knitting group to show off. That was fun too. It was turned it inside out to examine the stranding, and to search for the seams that were not there. The other knitters in the group don't seem to do a lot of mulit color work. I bask in the admiration.

All done, and it fits. There is still enough cool weather, that vegan girl may wear it before the spring really happens here.

You can see, if you look that the body is tapered a bit.

I messed up the yoke a bit. Stupid, really. It was important to craft a decrease method to line the pattern up along the raglan lines. That meant three decreases every five rows. Like a moron, I just started out doing the every other row decrease that seems to magically work on raglan shapes. The little spots were growing farther apart. So, I ripped it out, and did it again.

I started my next sweater yesterday during the final games of 6 Nations rugby. We were in a pub with some friendly pub regulars, who all wore kilts to watch Scotland lose to England. Then we stayed for the Wales/Ireland game. Many beers later, we were escorted to a very nice restaurant by a friendly kilt guy - I had mentioned that I was craving French Fries. This restaurant had the best steak I have eaten in France. Then we returned to the pub for another cocktail, and then off to the train before service ended for the evening.

Oh, back to the knitting, I completed the 5 cm of ribbing, but it is just 5 cm of black ribbing. I will photograph it when there is something real to see.

Happy March

The orange sweater is comming right along. The sleeves are finished, and the body needs a little over one more patter repeat before I'm at the armholes. This is to be a raglan, so everyone becomes attached at that point.

I was in a panic when I finished the arms. Each one took just under a ball of orange to complete. I calculated that I had to be two balls short. Turns out, I was wrong, and I should have just enough.

I spent today weaving in the ends for the arms and body, in anticipation of putting the pieces together. For some reason, I had it in my head that I wanted the sleeves cleaned up before I attached them to the body. Since I don't really like doing this job, I feel very good about the project now.

This is what happens when you let a teenager choose colors. I like it.

This is the yarn I purchased in Germany. I've been able to get a tighter gauge than the ball band indicates, which suits me just fine.

I've had some not so successful experiences with cotton/cotton blends. With a sleeve finished, I think that this one will work out well.

Whew

The Flying Geese gansey is done. It fits. It looks great on my husband.

Almost a year for this one. It is not a hard or tedious pattern. I may even make it again.

I have started on a wild one. My daughter has become vegan. Thus all the wool, alpaca, silk, and mixes of these are off limits to her sensibility. I'm still her mother, and I'm still a knitter, and I still melt when I hear "Mommy, will you knit a sweater for me???"

She wanted cables or color. This tells me I need an acrylic or microfiber blend. Rowan designers may be able to pull off fair isle or cables with 100% cotton, but I'm not going there.

I'm not pleased with the selection or price of yarn here in Paris. Since we were planning a long weekend in Germany, I used Ravelry to look up a yarn store.

We ended up in the Maschenkunst store. Wonderful experience, and a very nice shop. We didn't get off the the best start, as their delicious selection of yarn was mostly 100% natural stuff, and that stuff wasn't vegan. It was January, so their summer cotton stock had not come in. So selection for vegan girl was limited. We all fussed around, and finally found some selection we could work with.

Now, what to do with it?

Daughter and I sat on their comfy sofa to look at some books, and for further negociations. We were offered coffee - very sweet. Eventually we were shown the new Isenberger book and daughter loved the Somer i Toyko design. Well, that's a start - we can change out the colors, adjust the gauge. We agreed that she would like it, and I would be happy knitting it.

So, the swatch is above, most of the calculations have been worked, and I've got about half of a sleeve on the needles.