knitting school dropout

a few posts ago, i hinted at starting a new sweater. i actually started it the same day i finished my last sweater, but aside from the mention, i neglected to blog about it at all. well, here it is, just in time for a drop in temperature!

the details
pattern: none. i was heavily inspired by this baby sweater that i knit in march. i didn't use the pattern at all, but i loved the garter yoke so much that i knew i had to make something similar for myself.
yarn: rowan scottish tweed aran in "lewis grey", 4.5 skeins
needles: one us8 5mm 40" circular for everything, even magic-looping the sleeves
time to knit: march 21- april 29, with some socks and a shawl in there somewhere
more info: i knit this top-down, working 3 increase rows within the garter yoke. after that, i switched to raglan increases for the stockinette portion. i knit the button band as i went, adding buttonholes every 8 rows eta: i meant every 16 rows. sorry!. i tried it on throughout the whole process, adding waist shaping, and after that, a few extra increases for a "booty allowance". heh. the sleeves were knit using magic loop, without any shaping.

i really wanted yellow or red buttons, but after sewing on a few different ones, the orange won out. they're just cheap plastic buttons from a fabric store, but i really like them.

i am so happy with this sweater. i'm planning on squeaking out a few wears this spring by using it instead of a jacket on cold mornings. cross your fingers for some cool days for me, will ya?

Posted by melissa at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (75) | TrackBacks (0)

my age, in rows.

today is my 33rd birthday, and by sheer luck, my new sweater is finally dry.

last month, i decided to knit myself a simple sweater. it seems that those plain pullovers get the most use in my wardrobe, so why not make one in a beautiful yarn.

although it was an easy knit, the miles of stockinette got old pretty quick.

anyway, it's done now, and i love it.

the facts:
pattern: nope. this is a plain top-down raglan. i tried it on constantly to figure out where to put the waist shaping, figure out the decreasing on the arms, etc.
yarn: the fibre company's savannah dk in persimmon. i originally purchased 6 skeins, but started running out 3/4 of the way into both sleeves, so i had to buy a 7th. i only used a bit of it though. this yarn is beautiful. the combination of wool, linen, cotton and soysilk give it a very organic feel. the subtle variations in color are really pretty.
needles:us5 knitpicks options circulars. they kept unscrewing the whole time. it was a little annoying.

i'm so happy with this one. it's simple and light, and i just love the color. as always, it was great to knit it top-down. i love trying it on as i go and getting the perfect fit. yessss. the color also fits in perfectly with project spectrum's fire theme!

thanks for all the lovely comments about my baby sweater. it definitely stood out in the sea of pastels at the baby shower, but it was well received. i kind of want to make one for me.

Posted by melissa at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (57) | TrackBacks (1)

so, i mentioned before that our first ever niece is due in april. this is the first baby to be born in either of our immediate families in roughly 30 years. a few months ago, i picked out a bunch of patterns, bought all the yarn, then, figuring that those tiny little things would practically knit themselves, i waited until the baby shower was only a few weeks away. bad idea.

every single thing i've started in the last week or two has caused me major knitting distress.i don't really know any babies in real life, so i have no point of reference. i knit a hat, it looks too big. i knit another, it seems sooo small. is it just me, or does every baby cardigan seem to have a ridiculously small neck opening? i want to warm this baby with a sweater, not cut off her circulation. needless to say, there has been much ripping out of baby sweaters. the next one i make should be ok, because i do tend to learn from my mistakes.

there is one sweater that i'm totally thrilled with. i do worry though, that my taste, is not necessarily the same as everyone else's. i fear the horrified looks of on-lookers at the upcoming baby shower.

pattern: february baby sweater from the knitter's almanac, which, in my opinion, is the best 8 bucks you could ever spend on something knitting-related.
yarn: roughly 230 yards of handspun superwash wool from this etsy shop
needles:4.5mm/us7 32" circular
knitting time: just over 1 day
mods: i omitted the lace, because it wouldn't have worked with this yarn. i knit the sleeves in the round, using magic loop, because i wanted to. i didn't do any decreases at the bottom.

because of my previously mentioned paranoia about small neck openings, i stretched the neck a bit and pinned it during blocking to widen it slightly. when i knit this one again, i'll just use the backwards loop cast on, which creates a looser cast on edge, and thus a wider neck. this time i used my standard long tail cast on.

well there you go. a stinkin' cute little baby sweater. i am still freaking out that they'll hate it.

Posted by melissa at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (49) | TrackBacks (1)

first finished object of 2008:

pattern:anais by norah gaughan
yarn: berroco comfort dk , less than 4 balls in dusk
needles: us3 addi turbos
size knit: 38", but knitting it on the smaller than recommended needles worked out perfectly for my 36" bust
the story: this is my second anais. my first now lives with my friend who wears it all the time and is not allergic to alpaca. after telling my alpaca allergy story in the lovely forums of ravelry, norah contacted me. she offered to send me some yet to be released, alpaca -free yarn to knit another.
the comfort dk is super soft and has great stitch definition, but the biggest bonus is that i can actually wear this to work, get it dirty, and MACHINE WASH it. never happens.

i'm so happy to have a finished knit that i love to start off the new year. now i can focus my attention on the half finished knits that taunt me from the coffee table.

my norwegian snail mittens from the knitter's book of yarn. this picture is a few days old, i'm almost done with the first mitten now.

the girlfriend's 35th birthday socks. just plain stockinette socks in the new noro kureyon sock yarn. i finished the first and am halfway through the second. her birthday was 9 days ago, but she knows me well, and she hasn't been holding her breath or anything. :)

i'm also knitting ysolda's garter mitts. they're a quick little project and just perfect for this handspun i've had in my stash.

i'm itching to start a new sweater. i just purchased knitknit, so bridie, is definitely in the queue.

have a great week!

Posted by melissa at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (0)

hooray! it's done!

i'll let the pictures do the talking first:

pattern: bubble pullover by norah gaughan from knitting nature
yarn: rowan yorkshire tweed aran (discontinued), less than 6 balls. color is named "muffin"
needles: 4.0mm (us6) for all the ribbing, 4.5mm (us7) for the pentagons and the stockinette portion of the sleeves
modifications: i knit the smallest size on smaller needles and totally different yarn. this resulted in a lot less ease than the original 10 inches called for in the pattern, but still plenty for my now 36" bust. i shortened the sleeves by 1 inch and eliminated the button band in the bottom ribbing.
my biggest mod was to the collar. i stalled for several days, knitting a few rows, trying it on, knitting a few more rows, etc. i started to really like the way the collar was standing up after a few inches. i ended up decreasing by 4 stitches, adding a bunch of short rows to the back of the neck and binding off once i was happy.
i think it's funny that the collar was one of those design elements that drew me to this pattern in the first place. i really do love big flopped over collars that button up the side. i think i just prefer them in a finer gauge and a yarn with more drape.

edited to add: i've been getting a lot of questions through email and ravelry as to the finished size. each pentagon ended up being approx 10 inches across and the finished bust size was approx 40" . i'm pretty sure the smallest size in the book called for 46", so i lost 6 inches of positive ease with my mods. this resulted in 4 inches of positive ease for my bust size, which i think was just right for me.

Posted by melissa at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (45) | TrackBacks (1)

:( (insert more dramatic sad face here)

anais is officially finished and although i absolutely love her, she'll be banished to the ziploc bag until i give her away. i was only able to wear this sweater for about 20 minutes total before i ended up with a rash and could no longer breathe out of the left side of my face. benadryl was administered, sad faces were made, but peeps, i had to face it, i am totally allergic to alpaca.

here are the first and last pictures you will ever see of it on my body:

the details:

pattern: anais, by norah gaughan from norah gaughan vol.1

yarn: berroco ultra alpaca light, almost exactly 4 skeins for the 34" size

needles: u.s. 10 bamboo straights (for inserts), u.s.4s for ribbing and u.s. 5s for the body

mods: i added 1.5 inches to the ribbing and another inch to the body because the pattern called for a much shorter garment than i wanted. i also ended up taking off the little webby capped sleeves because when i saw myself in the mirror after they were sewn in, the word "husky" kept popping into my head. i guess i felt like a wooly little football player. so i took them off and then all was well in my world. other than those little changes, i knit the pattern as written.

if i were to knit this pattern again, which i am determined to do (in an alpaca-free yarn), i would knit the body in the round up to the armholes, instead of having to seam the sides later. i re-seamed this baby 3 times. 3. times. that makes me cry a little. i'm just a perfectionist when it comes to the seaming and i make myself crazy for no good reason at all, because my seams were fine the first time, according to everyone else. this was also the first sweater that i've knit in pieces in over 2 years, ever since top-down raglans came into my life.

so yes, yes, go knit this sweater vest. i love it. the yarn is gorgeous stuff too and i'm very sad that i won't get to wear it.

the post title was inspired by joan jett. i just got back from seeing her play, it was awesome.

Posted by melissa at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

i guess i've avoided blogging this one for long enough:
my arrowhead spring cardigan is finished. i cast off quite some time ago. it was only then that i discovered that the neckline was way too big. i love wide necklines, but if i were to button this all the way down, it would fall off both shoulders.

so i ripped out the cast on edge, knit a few rows, decreased 4 stitches on each row and bound off a little tighter than usual.

it's better, but it's still not right. i'm being a little picky because i was really disappointed with the yarn, brown sheep cotton fleece. after the first time i cast off, i soaked and rinsed it three times and the water was still dark green. i eventually gave up on rinsing, because the color just never stopped running. it even stained the towels that it was drying on. so now i'm afraid to wear it, lest i get caught in a rainstorm and stain all the other clothes i'm wearing.

lace/ button detail shot:

so i've started re-knitting it in some silky wool from the stash. this photo doesn't show much because it's from several days ago, but at least you'll see the color. it's yellow now and i'm switching to ribbing for the edges.

i had to switch it around a bit. it's hard to turn around and knit the same thing all over again. i'm just keeping it interesting.

i've been in the mood for a smaller project lately and after swatching this floral chart for a future sweater, i decided to use it to knit a hat instead, since i'm not really up for another sweater yet. i've only just started, but already i'm in love with the brown and blue tweeds together. the chart is from here. i had to cut out a few columns to make it work for the hat.

the hat is a perfect little project to carry around as i work on my goal of reading more. these are some of the books i'll be reading in july:

next up, i'm reading miranda july's no one belongs here more than you, which i've really been looking forward to. the david sedaris is a re-read. i've already read all of his books, but his stories are so great, i have to read them again every so often. a thousand splendid suns is being read after my mother's insistence that it is better than the kite runner. i'll let you know.

have a great sunday!

Posted by melissa at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (1)

thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes!
after waiting 2 long days for it to dry, my finished puff-sleeved cardigan is ready!

details:

pattern: puff-sleeved feminine cardigan from stefanie japel's fitted knits

yarn: cascade 220 heathers, uh, in pink? just over 3 hanks

needles:inox circulars, us6

buttons: vintage, from my stash(i knew all that hoarding would pay off someday)

mods: i made the 34 inch size, but did fewer raglan increases for a tighter fit. i cast on an extra 7 stitches at each side after the collar and knit the button bands as i went, inserting a buttonhole ever 15 rows. i changed the peplum to just make it plain, and separated it into 4 sections increasing on each side of the 4 markers on 4 right side rows, so it would still flare out a bit. i also lengthened the body, trying it on as i went to get it just as long as i wanted. whew! sounds like a lot of changes, but really not.

thoughts: top down! top down! rah! rah! rah! obviously i cannot resist the lure of a top down sweater. i love running to the mirror and trying it on as i go! i hate seaming! this pattern is super cute, kind of a cross between a little jacket and cardigan. nice.

Posted by melissa at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (36)

it's finished!

this photo gives the best representation of the color:

if the first 2 pictures seem awkward, that's because i was freezing to death while trying to get a picture outside. i only made it through 5 photos, then gave up.

my search for a plain wooly pullover with just a hint of cute is over. i have lots of cute sweaters (mostly store bought), in fine gauges but really nothing that i can throw on to really keep me warm, that's cute enough to still wear out of the house. i usually dislike bulky sweaters, but this one is heavier without feeling bulky.

this is a pretty standard top-down raglan. i didn't use any specific pattern. a few people asked me how i made the collar, so i'll try my best to explain it. i cast on wayyy fewer stitches for the front, and worked back and forth. on the rows where i was increasing on either side of the raglan markers i also increased one at each side of the neck. i kept doing this until the fronts had the angle i was going for. i then counted how many stitches i now had for the back section and when i came back to the front, i knit the stitches on one side, cast on the stitch difference between the front and back, joined and knit the second half of the front stitches, and continued knitting in the round.
later, i picked up the stitches around the neck, except for the cast on stitches. i knit them in 2x2 rib until the length of the collar matched the width of the cast on area. the fronts were then sewn down.
i'm planning on knitting a similar sweater out of some gorgeous malabrigo soon, so i'll try to take some progress photos to make the collar more clear.

the buttons are vintage. i was gifted them last year and had so few that i just had to knit something that would show them off. they have carved flower designs that are completely lost in these photos.

here are the details:

pattern: standard top down raglan with collar adjustments and minimal waist shaping
yarn: less than 5 balls of rowan scottish tweed aran.
needles: addi turbo us9 and us7 in 32" length

this sweater was super easy, just tons of stockinette, some ribbing, and a few buttons. unfortunately that made it a little boring and i kept abandoning it for other projects, like colorwork hats and mittens. i took a tremendous amount of effort to just finish the last sleeve, but i'm glad i did. this sweater will see lots of use this winter and i'm pretty happy with it.

now, back to the colorwork. i've charted out a hat and mittens using some designs from 1000 knitting motifs and i'm ready to start. i'm trying to really increase my comfort level so i can eventually tackle a fair-isle yoked sweater from the opinionated knitter.

speaking of sweaters, please go check out kate's amazing herringbone sweater, it's gorgeous. she also just posted a great tutorial on custom fitting a sweater.

have great week!

Posted by melissa at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)