Ava

Next up in the FO Parade is Ava, a grandpa-style sweater in angora, designed by Kim Hargreaves.  For a long time I'd thought I wouldn't post this FO, but I decided to go ahead with it after all, because I really like the sweater.

Ava is one of the many lovely patterns in Kim Hargreaves' book Smoulder, published in September 2013.  (The Holt coat I made last fall is also in this book.)  Shortly after I got the book, I ordered the yarn to make this sweater, and cast on in December of 2013.  And shortly after that, there was a kerfuffle about angora yarns and mistreatment of rabbits.  There were LOTS of discussions on Ravelry forums about it, and although Rowan issued a statement that their angora was ethically sourced, a lot of knitters started to boycott angora across the board, and shortly thereafter Rowan discontinued the yarn.

By the time I became aware of all this (I don't actually read any of the forums on Ravelry!), I'd half finished the sweater.  And I had really mixed feelings about it - of course I don't want to support unethical and cruel treatment of animals, and yet Rowan claims this yarn does not fall in that category.  I slowly continued to knit on it, and finally finished all the pieces around April.  Just in time for warm weather! 

So it sat, in pieces, all summer long and through the early fall.  Around mid-October, I got it out again and slowly started to seam the pieces together.  I felt embarrassed to share about it because of all the anti-angora sentiment.

I finally decided that I would go ahead with it - I'd already purchased the yarn; any cruelty I'd unwittingly participated in had already been done.  But I hope that the statement Rowan made was true, and that this angora yarn is "clean."  It's a lovely sweater, despite my mixed feelings about it.

 

Ravelry notes here.

Holt

A few months ago, when Kim Hargreaves came out with her first fall book, Smoulder, there were two items I felt I had to have.  One was the faux-leopard coat her model wears in a few of the shots.   The other was the Holt coat, knit in Rowan Big Wool.

Big Wool is not one of my favorite yarns to knit with.  I'm used to knitting with fine yarns on small needles, so knitting with this super bulky yarn on massive needles is quite straining to my hands, wrists and elbows.  Thus, I have to be over the moon about something done in this yarn to actually knit it up, and I am about this coat.

This design is classic Kim:  deep raglans, collar, wide turned-back sleeves, and two different types of moss stitch.  Perfection.  I chose to knit up my coat in the same color as was shown in the book:  Smoky.  It's a super deep, almost black, midnight blue.  The photos of me wearing the coat are closer to the true color than the one above.  Of course, you can't really see any details in those!  So I included  a couple of the photos that were overexposed.

The cuff turn-back is stitched to the sleeve at the sleeve seam to help it stay in place.  I used a long-tail cast-on throughout the sweater, being careful to keep it loose so that the cuff wouldn't pull in on the sleeve in an unattractive way.

I'm not 100% in love with these buttons, and may change them in the future.  They'll do for now though, and they were the best option I was able to find.

I tend to fall between the first and second sizes on Kim's patterns, so I chose the second size (34" bust) to ensure that my coat wasn't too tight.  Because I knit loosely, I got gauge with a size US11 needle rather than US 13.  Of the 12 balls of Big Wool called for, I only used 10.

It took me a while after finishing the pieces to decide how I wanted to block them.  The instructions recommend pressing with a damp press cloth, but I was leery of flattening the pattern too much with that method.  However, this fabric is so thick that my normal steaming doesn't have much effect.  I finally knit up a swatch and tried both methods to see which I liked better, and went with the damp press cloth, pressing ever so lightly on the body of the pieces and just a little more on the edges where I'd be seaming.  Big Wool is both too bulky and too soft for seaming, so I used some black Cascade 220.

As you can see, these are yet more photos from Monday's big photo shoot!  Against these black pants you can see how dark this blue is.  I think it's lovely.

And there are the sequins peeking out!

Here are the overexposed photos:

Posing like a model from the 1960s.

The nice shape at the shoulder is thanks to a faster decrease rate in the raglan there.  Little details like that are one reason why Kim is my favorite knitwear designer.


Now . . . I've got to figure out how I can get or make a faux leopard coat!

Shimmer Blue

Remember that sweater I was working on?  I finished it almost two weeks ago!  It was one of the things I worked on while I was procrastinating about making Hubby's shirt, LOL!  You know it's bad when you'd rather sew the pieces of a sweater together than make a shirt!

I finally wore it for the first time on Saturday, and got Hubby to snap a couple of pics.

I really love it.  I'm glad I decided to make a second one in blue.  This color is called "Calm" and that's the effect it has on me!  Saturday was warm but breezy, especially where we were by the lake, so this was the perfect layer to wear!

And it took me so long to post this, I'm already half way done with my next sweater!!

My New Kim

The day after I finished my Cameo sweater, I started a new sweater - another Kim Hargreaves design, of course!  This time it's Shimmer, from her book Misty.

This is a pattern I've knit before - it's one of my favorite sweaters.  Here are a couple pictures of my old one, from three years ago:

As you can see, it's got my favorite things:  deep raglans, 3/4 length sleeves and a slouchy shape.

I decided a couple years ago that I needed a second one, preferably in blue, so when Jannette's Rare Yarns had a deal going on bags of Calmer last fall, I picked up a bag in Calm.  It's a pale greyish blue rather than a clear blue, and one of those colors that changes with the light.

a rare unblocked photo!

When I knit anything, I always make myself a shorthand instruction sheet, and I keep these in case I decide to knit the item again, as I often do.  This time I decided not to do a gauge swatch but just to follow my old notes.  Interestingly, when compared to my original sweater the lace pattern on this one is much more open - and yet the measurements are on track!  It's possible that I used a metal needle last time rather than a bamboo, but I doubt it since I very rarely use metal needles.  I think it may have more to do with the way different colors of dye affect the loft of the yarn.

Honestly, I'm not as crazy about this fabric as the one on the original, but I'm going ahead with it anyway.

The stitch pattern is mindless and a little tedious - lots of double yarnovers which are later accounted for by P2togs.  So, slow going.  That's OK though - lately I'm not feeling a drive to finish things quickly.  I'm just kind of enjoying the ride.

White :: Turquoise :: Coral

Here's the last outfit with my new Hazel dress, as mentioned in my last post:

Yes, I finished my Cameo sweater yesterday!  Gosh, it felt like it took forever to knit this, but according to my Ravelry page, it only took about 5 weeks.   Considering that I was using big yarn and big needles compared to what I'm used to, that seems slow.  But I wasn't able to work on this sweater for very long at any one time - the stiffness of the yarn was really hard on my hands and elbows.  Still, I love how this yarn wears - I wore one of my old sweaters knit from the same yarn every single day in San Francisco.  When I got home, I tossed it in the washer and dryer (delicate cycle on both) and it was good as new!

This is another fantastic pattern from Kim Hargreaves.  Aside from the sore hands and elbows thing, I really enjoyed working on this, and it was mostly knitting I didn't have to think about too much, so plenty of Netflix was watched during the making  of this garment.  I think the shape is amazing:  the wide sleeves are the same length as the body up to the armhole and slightly wider than the back piece, giving it a wonderful cape-like look when worn:

Here's how it looks spread out, to give an idea of the shape:

So boxy!  I love it!

I steam blocked my pieces like I always do, and then sewed the whole thing together using mattress stitch.  You can't even see the joins - it's my favorite way of joining pieces.

Here's a look from the back:

I am such a sucker for a deep raglan!  And by the way - white is very, VERY hard to photograph I discovered, so I'm sorry for the amateurish quality of these photos.  But you get the idea:  new sweater!

I'm also wearing a vintage necklace and bracelet, both plastic, both purchased a year or two ago on Etsy.  The bracelet is large on me, as you can see in the first photo, but I love it anyway.  And I've got Mac's Vegas Volt on my lips - my new favorite lipstick.

I'm thinking of wearing this outfit when we go out for dinner this weekend to celebrate our anniversary!

Cameo

So here's what I started after I frogged the ill-fated Pip:

Of course, it's another Kim Hargreaves design!  This one is from Whisper, the spring book released in 2011.  It's called Cameo, and it's a short open jacket with deep raglans.   Here it is on Kim's lovely model:

I've wanted to make this sweater since the book came out, and just before getting this spring's book, I ordered the yarn to make it.  Then I got distracted with the new release!  But since Pip didn't work out for me with the yarn I had on hand, I came back to this.

The sweater is knit in Rowan's All Seasons Cotton, a cotton/acrylic mix.  It's a yarn I've used before, and while I don't especially enjoy knitting with it, I do love the final result - it's a great weight for spring and summer and quite easy to care for.  One of my all-time favorite sweaters was made with this yarn.  It's a little more tedious this time because I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, so it's all quite stiff.  But I love this fabric:

I've been having a lot of missteps lately with my knitting, so I'm really hoping I can stay on track with this and actually finish it!

Pip, Pip, Cheerio!

Well, I've done it again!  The new Kim Hargreaves sweater I started a couple weeks ago is no more.

Things were going pretty well - I got gauge with my yarn substitution and was liking the fabric.  But as I got close to finishing the back, I realized that the fabric I was creating really had too much drape for this design and it wasn't going to hang the way the original did.

So now it looks like this:

I'm starting to think this yarn is a little doomed.  This was my third try with it.  I originally bought it to make Chicago, but when I did my gauge swatch I just wasn't digging the fabric.  And you already know about my recent attempt at Lou, and now this one.  I feel a certain pressure to make just the right sweater with this yarn, because it is my favorite color and one of my all-time favorite yarns, which has now been discontinued.  So I may revisit the Chicago sweater - there are so many lovely versions on Ravelry.

And I'm hoping I'll eventually do the Pip sweater, because I think it's such a great design.  The yarn it calls for, Rowan Handknit Cotton, is one I've used before and liked, so I'll go that route in future.  I should have known to trust Kim!

Meanwhile, I've turned my knitting attention elsewhere . . .

Lou becomes Pip

Remember last week when I showed you the sweater I'd just started?  I did a fair amount of knitting over the following days, and just about finished the back . . . and really felt kind of meh about it.  All that stockinette . . .

Couple that with a serious lack of both knitting and sewing mojo the last couple weeks, and you've got the perfect set-up for a great big 'ol frog.  And frog I did.


BUT!  All is not lost!  Because on Thursday, Kim Hargreaves released her new book, which of course I ordered immediately.  And Kim just as immediately sent it to me - I received it on Monday!  I always order my books directly from Kim's website for just this reason.

The book is so spanking new I haven't even been able to add it to my Ravelry library yet!  I love all Kim's books, but this one:  ZOMG.  She has really outdone herself.  Of the 21 designs, there is only one I wouldn't consider making.

One of the members of the Kim Hargreaves group on Ravelry very obligingly posted the gauges of many of the sweaters before I'd gotten my book, and I had a notion that my yellow Calmer might work for the cover sweater, Pip. 

(BTW:  pretty sure I need those exact pants.)

Yesterday I had some time in the afternoon to sit down and swatch.  The pattern is written for Rowan Handknit Cotton DK using a size 6 (4mm) needle.  Knowing that I get about the same gauge with Calmer on a size 7 (4.5mm) I tried it out, and  . . .  perfect!  I got started right away:

I'm enjoying this so much more than the plain stockinette of Lou, and I think this texture really suits the sunny yellow color.

Any other Kim fans out there?  Have you gotten the new book yet?  This one is a later than usual release and has been highly anticipated in the group.  It did not disappoint!

Lou

Thank you all for your lovely compliments on my sweater yesterday!  As soon as I'd finished that one, I got started on something I don't have to think much at all about:  I can watch TV while I work on this one!  Yay!

My new sweater is a rather old Kim Hargreaves design, from Rowan 33 way back in 2002:

Lou by Kim Hargreaves, Rowan 33

I've wanted to make this sweater ever since the magazine was published, but could never find a combination of colors I thought would be versatile enough for me.  Last week it dawned on me that this design would work equally well in a solid color; I could really see it in a sunny yellow.  And I just happened to have seven balls of Calmer in Freesia:

So yesterday afternoon, with Doctor Who to entertain me, I got started:

I'm surprised that until I cast this on, there were no projects on Ravelry for this pattern - in fact, the pattern itself wasn't even in the database until I added it yesterday!  I think it's a very cute and wearable design.

I haven't shown nails in quite a while, but I couldn't resist today.  I just bought the Misa Fresh and Fruity collection based on these swatches, and was excited to try out Peach Passion.  The color wasn't what I was expecting based on those swatches, but I really love it - it's the perfect shade of melon:

It's quite a bit brighter in real life - it was still pretty cloudy when I took this picture.  I've only recently started using Misa polishes, and I really love them.  I haven't come across one wonky brush or icky formula.  Win!