Queen Anne's Lace

Finally!  I know a lot of you have been waiting to see this finished!  And so have I!  Thanks to being stuck in the house the week before last to wait for my HVAC guys, I powered through and finished it up, spending a whopping 5 hours that day finishing the second sleeve, weaving in all the ends, cutting the neck steek and picking up the neckband stitches, and finally knitting and tacking down the neck.  By the time I finished, I was too tired to be elated!

As you can see, while it is a gorgeous piece of knitting, it's not the most flattering of garments.  I knew that going in - I mean, it's square dropped shoulders!  I did reduce the sizing from the smallest size by one pattern repeat (I worked 7 repeats around rather than 8).  This shaved about 5" off the circumference of the sweater - one pattern repeat is the width of one of those diamonds you see.

What with all the progress posts and videos along the way, I don't think I need to say much else!  If you want to look back on any of it, you can click the Starmore button in the category cloud at right.  My Ravelry notes are minimal, as the only change I made was to the stitch count on the body.  I used all the original yarns and colors used by Alice Starmore - you don't mess with perfection!

You can see here how wide the sleeves are.  The 40" final bust measurement fits me perfectly in the hips.  Ahem.  If I were to do it again, I'd make the sleeves narrower, but that's really the only other change I'd make.

Here are two photos that show the patterning well, although you've seen it ad nauseum by now.  I decided after seeing these photos that super pale lipstick does me no favors ;-)  It looks like I have no lips!  So I switched back to red for the last few.

Yes, the sweater makes me look a lot heavier than I am.  But that's OK; you can't believe how cosy this thing is.  Scratchy, yes.  But so lightweight and WARM!  Toward the end, working on it was the same as having a snuggly blanket on my lap, which is why no knitting on this happened over the summer.  I'll likely be wearing a chambray shirt under this, but for these pics I just tossed it on, as I was doing a marathon photo session that day.  You can probably tell that by the time I got to this sweater, the light was gone.  But I think you get the idea.

I have a good idea what my next Starmore will be - oh yes, there will be more in my future!  Take a gander at some of her newer designs on her website.  I'm thinking of giving myself a kit for my next birthday :-)

Sugar Maple Pullover

This fall, all I really wanted to knit was pullovers.  This one was a holdover from last year's to-knit list.  Last fall I intended to knit the original cardigan version, but this fall . . . it had to be a pullover.  Easy enough - just get rid of the front steek stitches!

I used the yarn and colors of the original pattern - Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport in a heathered green, with contrasting patterns in shades of wine, pale grey and white.  I don't remember the exact date I cast on, but I'd say that the actual knitting only took 2 weeks at most.  That was stretched out over about a month though, because of travel and blazer-making.

This sweater is worked in the round - body and sleeves worked separately, then joined at the armhole.  Which means that once you get to that point, it is a LOT of fabric to shift around.  Still, it's easy knitting - all stockinette, and the Fair Isle patterns are traditional in that no row uses more than 2 colors.

To change things up a bit, I decided to use a tubular cast-on.  The one I used here is used in many Brooklyn Tweed patterns, and I think it will become my go-to tubular cast on for working in the round.   It has a beautifully rounded edge and is nice and stretchy.

Once I had the tubular edges at the hem and cuffs, it didn't feel right to have a normal bind-off for the neckband.  Years ago I knew one that was sewn; I'd learned it from a Katia knitting magazine.  I still have the magazine . . . somewhere in the depths of my garage.  So I did some googling and found the very same one!  This one has the benefit of having photographs of each step too.

You can see the fold line in the top picture, going right across my stomach.  This one was in the drawer when I got it out for photos, but rest assured that it's already been worn.  I was worried that the wool might be too scratchy against my bare skin, but I wore it that way for an entire day and it was scratchy, but not unbearably so.

I really enjoyed this pattern.  The charts in particular I thought were very well done.  I have always loved yoke sweaters, so I think I'll be knitting this one again at some point in a different color scheme.


Ravelry notes here.

Nurmilintu

This year for Thanksgiving, we went to Austin,TX to visit some very dear friends whom we hadn't seen for several years.  Inspired by Marrie at Purls and Pleats, I decided that my travel project would be a Nurmilintu scarf.  I had one skein of charcoal grey Cascade Heritage sock yarn sitting in my stash that I thought would be just perfect for this pattern.

And what a pattern it is!  Simple enough that I could knit away on it while visiting with friends (and drinking lots of wine), but engaging enough that I never felt bored.  The combination of increases and decreases that form this asymmetrical scarf (an obtuse-angle scalene triangle, in case you're interested in that sort of thing - as a Montessorian I know stuff like that) is so clever.  And I love the lace edge.

I finished this up a few days after we returned from our trip - actually on the same day I finished my blazer!  Of course, this one is steam blocked like the vast majority of my knits.  I thought about wet-blocking it, but it's quite large - I didn't have enough space to pin it out!

This gets worn wound around my neck, but here I draped it just so, in order to show off the lace.

But even when I wear it in my usual way, up close you can clearly see the lace pattern among the garter stitch sections.  I highly recommend this pattern if you like the look of it - it's well-written, including charts AND stitch counts for each section to keep you on track.  And on top of all this, it's a free pattern! 

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.

Color Affection

Wowzers, it's been a long time!  I've been stricken with a lack of motivation to write, and an increase in motivation to finish things up.  In the last couple months, I've finished up 3 sweaters, 2 scarves, a quilt and my blazer!  Most of these have been finished for some time, and just waiting for that rare combination of me having time to take photos and the sky not being grey.  It's that season again :-)

I decided to post them in order of completion.  So first up is my Color Affection scarf.  I guess it's really more like a shawl - it's enormous!  But I generally wear all my shawls as scarves, wrapping them several times around my neck.  Here I draped it in a more shawl-like way, so you could see the stripes.

This project was started last November, and had been languishing for a while.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't have finished it as quickly as I did if it hadn't been for Jen - she and some other friends started a knit-along in October on Instagram, and the camaraderie was just the push I needed.  I even finished it on time to show it to her in person when I visited Asheville in October!

I love the finished scarf, but I have to admit, I didn't love knitting it.  I like the pattern quite a bit - like most of Veera's patterns, it's an innovative and interesting knit.  But my yarn was a bear to knit with:  very splitty.  Thank goodness it's a joy to wear though - it's a lovely mix of silk, alpaca and merino.  Yes, it is THAT soft.

I guess I should have steamed it before taking these pix - you can see the fold lines!  I'm a bit ashamed to admit that aside from the day I met Jen in Asheville, this scarf has not been worn.  It's just been sitting in my drawer.  I love the colors but they don't actually go with a whole lot in my closet other than grey.  Also, I haven't been going out much - I've been staying home and finishing up projects!

Ravelry notes here.

Starmore Sweater: Cutting Open a Steek

The weather has turned cooler, and that means I've gotten back to working on my Starmore sweater.  I spent a fair amount of time on it yesterday and managed to finish the first sleeve. 

This morning I cut open the steek for the second sleeve, and took a video while I did so.  It looks like the last video update I did on this sweater was a year ago, and there were some comments in between asking to show how the steek is cut.

I apologize for the poor focus - I had the camera to my left side, which meant I couldn't always see the screen to see if I was in focus!  But I think it's clear enough to give you the general idea.

So you see - nothing to fear!  If fear of steeks has kept you from working a Fair Isle sweater, fear no more!  If it's the massive amount of work involved though - well, I'm afraid there's no way around that. 

A Sinister Mitten

Sinister, because I started with the left mitten.  Anybody else take Latin in high school?  Super useful in daily life.  I took two years and enjoyed it immensely.  None of this is sarcasm - I really did, and I really do find it useful!

Also sinister because this design is not approved for all audiences:

I'm making these as a little KAL with my friend Alicia.  We meant to do these last year, but didn't get started soon enough for the cold weather, so we shoved it off to this year.  We cast on together on Friday via a Google Hangout since we weren't able to get together in real life.

I've finished the corrugated rib on this first mitten, and am ready to move on to the chart.  Having fun so far, although these needles are a little slippery.  I'm using two skeins from my stash:  one of Starmore Campion (blue) and one of Fortissima Socka (magenta - which matches my winter coat). 

I didn't do a gauge swatch, and cast on with the recommended needle.  There's a chance they may end up being a tad big on me, but if they are that's OK - I'd rather have them too big than too small, because I can always knit an inner lining or felt them slightly.  Both fixes would give added warmth, and that's always a good thing.

One of these days I need to sit down and wrangle all my knitting WIPs into one place and make myself a list.  I have a lot more going on than I've documented on Ravelry . . .  oops!

I'm done with Relax(ing).

Sigh.  It's true - there's a lot going on around here at the moment, so I've had much less crafting time than usual, and even less time to write about crafting.  But I did manage last weekend to finish the Relax sweater I'd been working on for two months.  And I love it!  It was cool this morning when I went out to do the grocery shopping, so I took the opportunity to put it on:

I wrote a lot about the knitting details in this post, so I won't go over it all again.  But just as a quick recap:  in order to get the knitted fabric I liked, I had to go down from the recommended 3.6mm needle to a 3mm.  Of course, that threw off my gauge, but I still stuck with the size XS.  So instead of a finished bust measurement of 55" I have a closer fit of 50.5", and I'm very happy with it.

One of my favorite details of this design is the row of eyelets going up the sides:

I did make a couple tiny changes to the construction:  the entire sweater was knit in the round to the armhole, then front and back were split and knit flat.  The shoulder shaping is done with short rows.  On my back piece, I worked 2 extra rows of stockinette stitch after the short rows before doing the three-needle bind-off, in an effort to give myself a tiny forward-shoulder adjustment.  I do think it helped a bit with how the sweater sits on my shoulders.

A shape like this is perfect with slim jeans, but I also really like it over a maxi dress:

(And for the shoe-curious:  here are my sandals, several years old, from Boden.  Also, please to note my leopard-print accents on my big toes.)

Here are some flat shots of the sweater;  sadly the weather heated up so as I write this I'm back in a t-shirt!  The crazy wide shape:

That nifty row of eyelets:

After the eyelets are finished, there are a few rows of paired increases to widen the sweater at the bust.

I chose to steam the heck out of my collar to get it to roll less.  I also knit it a few rows longer than the pattern recommended, to bring the neckline in a bit.

And here's that three-needle bind-off at the shoulder:

All in all, a very lovely pattern once I got the fabric worked out.  I would certainly knit this again.  I ended up using less yarn than recommended - 1097 yards rather than the 1260 listed.  I would probably make the sleeve opening a few rows longer - these sleeves are quite close-fitting on me, although not uncomfortable.  But you know I have bigger arms.

Anybody tempted by this pattern?

I've been knitting . . .

Well, my solution to the Drape Top Conundrum of my last post was to put that project aside and work on some familiar, easy projects.  So over the weekend, I made another Archer and a Renfrew - two staples that I've been wanting in my closet.  I'm hoping to get some pictures this weekend for future posts.  Thanks to all who chipped in with advice on the Drape Top.  I'll be re-reading those comments when I'm ready to get back to it!

This week has been spent preparing for some visiting family who will be arriving later today.  Because our guest room has become my sewing catch-all, I had to clean the place up and put everything away so my guests would have some room to spread out.  So that meant no sewing this week.  Instead, I've been focusing on a project that's been a long time coming:  the Relax pullover by Ririko.

this color is pretty true

I first became aware of this pattern through Linda of Kettle Yarn Co.  She made this sweater last summer, just before opening her hand-dyed yarn shop.  I loved hers so much that as soon as her yarn was available, I bought enough to make my own.

The yarn in question is Islington, a fingering-weight blend of 55% wool (BFL) and 45% silk.  Now, I'll be honest - I'm not having the most fun knitting with this.  It's super soft, but because of the high silk content, it doesn't have a lot of spring.  However, the drape and sheen of the finished fabric make it worth the effort.  And just look at that color!  It took me a long time to actually start the sweater once my yarn arrived - I spent ages just gazing at it and petting it.

this washed-out photo shows the very subtle color variation produced by kettle dying

There have been some bumps in the road with this project.  When I first started it last fall, I used the recommended needle and gauge for the pattern - a 3.5mm for 23 stitches to the inch.  But I just didn't love the fabric, and ended up ripping it out.  Then I got the bright idea to work up a similar pattern with the yarn.  It took me until I'd finished 2/3 of the back before I decided I didn't like that one either.  So I ripped it out again and last month decided to give Relax another go.

This time I did several swatches until I landed on a fabric I liked.  For me this was using a 3mm needle for a gauge of 25 stitches to the inch.  The design is extremely oversized - the XS has a finished bust measurement of 55".  With my slightly smaller gauge, I should end up at about 52.5".  So no need to alter the pattern; I'm just following along with the size XS instructions.  The only thing I've changed from my first attempt is to work the whole body in the round.  I'd say I'm about 2/3 of the way to where I need to split for front and back.  Oh, and I miscounted rows on my first eyelet, so mine are spaced at 11 rows apart instead of 10.

The day before yesterday I got to the point where my first ball was almost gone, so I've been alternating with my new hank, one row each, for the last couple inches.

 The edges on this sweater are done in mock rib.  Seems to be "my" stitch this year!

As you can imagine, this one is pretty slow going.  But it's enabled me to watch a lot of TV :-)  The yarn is so gorgeous, it just makes me happy to look at it.   So I'm really in no big rush to finish this up.   If you haven't checked out Linda's shop, go on over and do that - her yarns are stunning, and she puts them all through rigorous testing.  And if you sign up for her email list, you get 10% off your first order!

Sweet Home Chicago

Wow, what a trip! 

Before going, I wasn't 100% sure if I would like NYC - I'm a gal who (despite a love of architecture) generally prefers the country.  But I LOVED it!  What a varied and vibrant city!  I will say this though - having experienced Manhattan for a week made me feel like I live in a small town again!  Not a bad feeling to have!

My trip was made all the better by a whole lot of bloggy get-togethers and some very nice fabric acquisitions.  It took me a while to narrow my pictures down, but even so, this is going to be a mega-post.   Let's take things chronologically.  For the sake of brevity, I'm only mentioning the bloggy stuff!

Saturday:
I attended the Workroom Social Pop-Up Party!  I met so many lovely people, some of whom I "knew" and some who were new to me.  You can find a lot of great pictures on Jennifer's blog here.  They even had a table with nail art going on!  Gah!

I wore the Scout Tee I'd made the week before.  I felt sparkly and glamorous, but HOT!  It was hot in the venue, and my tee was very heavy with 2 layers of fabric.  Plus, I'm an old lady ;-)

Sunday:
I finally got to meet Shar!  She and her family drove in to the city from their home about 2 hours away to spend part of the day with me.  What an honor!  Of course, we used the occasion to model our brand-spanking-new Robson coats.  Shar's was SO new it didn't even have buttons on it yet, LOL!  But look how gorgeous it is!  It made me wish I'd also chosen a floral instead of a solid, although I do love mine too.

We got some funny looks from the concierge when we modeled our contrasting bias tape:

I'm also wearing a new, unblogged Hemlock tee that I made literally days before the trip.  I love my cream floral one so much, and always wished I had a similar black one.  So when I found the fabric at JoAnn's, I snapped it up.  And I'm so glad I did.

Shar presented me with a beautiful and generous gift of fabric:  two and a half yards of this amazing stretch sateen she'd ordered from Mood!

I keep going back and forth between making a floral blazer, or a dress.  Or another coat?  Gah!  Can't decide!  In the meanwhile, I just keep stroking it:

Monday:
Evelyn was able to take a day off and we spent the entire day together, chatting away while she showed me her city.  We started out walking the length of the High Line park - so lovely:

Had a fantastic lunch, and then worked our way back north and into Central Park.  It was a gorgeous day - we really lucked out!

Tuesday & Wednesday:
Hubby was between meetings, so we explored the city together.  I took a LOT of pictures, but I'll spare you :-)

Thursday:
A rainy day, but brightened because I spent it with Sonja!   This lady knows the Garment District, so she took me around to some of her favorite shops.  We started out at Mood.  I was completely unprepared for how huge and overwhelming this place is!  I came with some ideas of what I wanted, but couldn't find what I had in mind.  So I "settled" for this beautiful piece of silk twill, which will likely become an Archer:

After that, I had the presence of mind to ask her if any of the shops carry Liberty, so she took me off to B & J.   This was my favorite of the fabric stores I visited, and not just because they sell Liberty!  It was smaller, quieter, and less of a sensory overload because everything is nicely organized.

I was astounded at the wide selection of Liberty they had in stock.  This is just a small part of the bolts:

The fabrics are cut from these bolts, but they have a very nice system of hanging samples which make it a lot easier to look through all the different prints.

I ended up with two cuts of Tana Lawn, each enough for a shirt:

Friday:
At the party on Saturday, I met Carolyn and we chatted for a while.  We ended up connecting later in the week and decided to have a lunch date on Friday.   It was so nice to talk to her one on one, in a quieter venue!

On my way there, I stopped by B & J again - I just couldn't get a particular fabric out of my mind.  So I ended up buying this as well:

This is also Liberty; it's listed as "textured cotton print."  You can't really see the texture from the right side, but you can from the wrong side:

I really see this as a dress - an Emery if my muslin works out - so I bought 3 yards of it.

Hubby had a fair number of meetings in the evenings, so I took advantage of my alone time and knit up a pair of socks with the yarn I bought last month in Toronto!  You can't tell, because my camera can't handle it, but the colors are NEON!  Such a cool yarn.

So that was my week!  I had such a great trip, and as I said, it was made all the better by getting to hang out in real life with so many of my bloggy friends.  Isn't the internet swell?  These are all people I never would have met otherwise, but I'm so thankful they're in my life!