Flamingo in Progress

Update! I've been calling the cardigan project for mom The Flamingo Cardi, not just because of the yarn color, but because the sweater itself actually reminds me of a flamingo. The long lines, the graceful sweep of the upper back, and the broad, folded back "wings" that make up the sides and lower back - all it needs is some black leggings! :)

I finally finished the shawl collar late last night and set it to block this morning. I wound up using just barely over 3 skeins, and it will be about 53" long and 13" wide when it dries. On mom's petite figure (same as mine), it should hit just at hip level.

Blocking

I knit from both ends up, so that the slip stitch columns would go the same direction, and kitchenered them together at the center. Looking at the photo, the original sweater clearly just has a regular seam there, but I wanted something with a lower profile that would lay comfortably on the back of the neck, and not add bulk to an already considerably bunched collar. The graft isn't completely invisible, since I couldn't mimic the slipped stitches, but it is neat, smooth, and will be largely hidden when worn anyway.

 Of course, these were the easy sections. The sleeves only present a challenge in finding the right measurements for the sleeve cap. Once I work that out, actually knitting them will be quick since they are just stockinette. The real challenge is the side/lower back panels, what I've been calling the "wings." These pieces have extensive, asymmetrical shaping. Each wing needs to reach from the front shoulder, all the way down along the shawl collar and past it to hit at mid-thigh, and then wrap around the side, shaping the arm hole as it goes, to join with the bottom edge of the back panel along its curve.

The photos of the original sweater were a great place to start for some of the basic shaping needs, but there were two major problems - 1) Mom didn't move the sleeve, so several columns of stitches were completely obstructed, including the underarm shaping; and 2) it's a 3D shape, and as neatly as she had it spread out, I still can't see the shape of the flat knitted piece without actually ripping some seams out.

So, I turned to draping to help me work it out. Draping, in sewing and garment making, is the process of ruining a cheap piece of fabric by pinning it to a dressform where you need the final garment to hang, making sure to pin down where you need folds, darts, etc, marking the armholes and so forth, and then using that as a mock-up or pattern for cutting your nice fabric. It can also be useful in knit designing, because once you get all your outlines marked while the fabric is on the dressform, you can then take it off, lay it flat, and use the measurements to math out exactly what you need to do with your needles to make that odd shape.

I do not have much experience with draping. I am a lazy costume maker and I usually just dive right into my nice fabric. However, I recently acquired a very large lace dust ruffle at Goodwill, and the center of it (the part that usually gets hidden under your mattress) is a perfect source of throwaway material. Still, my first attempt at creating a draped mock-up for the wings was very Frankenstein:

I am terrible at draping. 

I completely misjudged the angle of the bottom hem with my initial piece and had to hack it up and pin the scraps all over each other to jigsaw it back into something that hung right. But! Once I had that monster held together just so, I was able to carefully remove it from the dressform, lay it down on a fresh section of my cheap fabric, and trace the outline to give me something whole and clean that I could extensively mark up with measurements, stitch and row counts, and shaping instructions. Et voila:

Sadly, based on the size of this panel and the fact that I have already consumed more than 40% of my yarn, I know now for sure that I do not have enough yarn to do the sleeves. I will contact Knit Picks to see if they even have any left in this dye lot, and then figure out what I'm going to do from there. 

Spring is Coming!

The sun is shining more often than not, the flowers are starting to peek out - 'tis the season for knit lace!

Chloe is wearing the Esme pullover knit from Patons Beehive Baby Fingering in the color Vintage Lace - I just love it when the color matches the project so well. :)

Silicon Forest Tunic - Now Available!

The Silicon Forest Tunic is now available for sale in my Ravelry Store!

Here's a preview!

I'm so excited! My beta knitters were all incredibly helpful, and their finished sweaters all look amazing. I've made some pretty serious revisions to the wording and chart layouts and I think I've got a really beautiful, polished product on my hands - soon to be in your hands! Knitter hands! So many hands!

I think I'll take a breather before I break my exclamation point key.

PS - I plan to look into how to sell directly from my blog as well, for those not on Ravelry (silly people), but for now I'm out of nap time and have to go rescue my little model from her crib.

Yarn Kisses

The last time I posted here, I had just found out that I was pregnant.  Finally pregnant, after nine months of trying. After knitting for other people's babies. After stocking up on baby pattern books, baby yarns, and baby buttons in anticipation.  I was finally pregnant.

And I didn't stop knitting.  Oh, far from it.  Between last October and today, I've completed two dozen projects.  Several were gifts or commissions, a few were just for me, but ten of them have been for my precious, beautiful, amazing, perfect little girl.  I just can't stop knitting for her.   Even knowing that she'll grow out of any and all of it much faster than I'd like.  Even though one of the projects never properly fit her at all.

In the beginning, before we knew if we'd be getting a prince or a princess, it was gender neutral accessories:

Then, once we knew we were having a girl, I started in on the lovely sweaters - and who says powder blue isn't a gorgeous color for a girl's winter ensemble?

Then, with a book of toy patterns received at the baby shower, I suddenly went nuts for knitted plushies!

Most recently I completed a lace pullover that will hopefully fit her next spring.  This project was the one that bridged the great divide between pregnancy and motherhood. Cast on in June, just a week before my due date, and finally finished a little over a week ago.

And a house-elf hat for her costume for our upcoming Harry Potter cosparty:

And this kid is only ten and a half weeks old! By the time she starts kindergarten, she won't leave the house but sporting at least one thing handmade for her.

In June 2011, I posted a letter from Eunny Jang entitled "Living a Handmade Life," in which she describes the thoughtfulness and care that goes into a handmade project, how crafts like knitting teach us to appreciate quality and sincere effort, and to be better problem solvers and risk takers, and that ultimately, knitters are a positive, creative force in the world.  We add, rather than subtract.

And that is a lesson that I look forward to teaching my daughter, while I'm wrapping her up in yarn kisses.

Cobblestone Pullover

Working on a sweater for Bucky - the first sweater I've ever knit him!  Working from Jared Flood's Cobblestone Pullover, which is an easy knit but texturally interesting, and I think it'll look great on my guy.  The yarn is Valley Yarns Amherst in soft brown, and I'm working on size 8's.  I'm up to the yoke, so nearly done - check it out:

 

The yoke will continue in garter stitch until the end.  There's no ribbed neckline, so it'll be a bit of a roll-neck.  The underarms will be kitchenered.  I'm following the directions for the small size with a few stitches extra at cast on to account for a slightly small gauge.  It's about 37" around the chest, so it'll have about 2-3" of positive ease.  Of course I had to mod the math for the decrease rows in the yoke, but it worked out very nicely!  Can't wait to see it on him!

The Cardigan Challenge

This week, my mom asked me to make her a cardigan for the workplace, something to ward off the chill when the heater isn't working properly, or the AC is working a little too well.  Now, I absolutely love requests.  Especially with an accompanying offer of pay!  But to knit something for mom presents a few unique challenges, first and most important of which is:

1. I can't use wool.  From any kind of animal.  This means not just regular sheep's wool, which comprises a huge chunk of the yarn market, but also alpaca, merino, cashmere, bison, vicuna, etc.  Therefore, I'll have to use plant fibers, silk, synthetics, or some combination thereof.  Synthetic fibers don't block AT ALL, and the majority of them feel like cheap crap against the skin.  Plant fibers are generally stiff and heavy.  Silk is prohibitively pricey, and not particularly warm.  So the first mission is to find a vegan yarn (silk excepted) that is lightweight, springy, soft, and affordable.

Then there are the less difficult challenges:

2. Sizing.  Even if she takes the time to send me all her measurements, I can't try it on her as I go, and she's a couple sizes smaller than me.  I'll have to be very, very careful.

3. Color.  This cardigan has to go with everything, almost literally.  It will live at the office and must coordinate with anything she might choose to wear in a professional environment.  This may not be a real challenge at all, actually, if she picks the color herself.

So here's what I've chosen so far:

The Brompton Cardigan: It's lovely, simple, and the waffle stitch borders will help prevent curling.

Berroco Comfort Yarn: I have one or two other yarns in mind as well, but according to Berocco, this yarn is one of their most popular, and is soft, springy, and warm.  Of course, being a nylon/acrylic blend, it won't block, but hopefully those waffle stitch borders will eliminate or at least greatly reduce the need.

As soon as we figure out a color, I'll order the yarn and cast on.  So excited!

Last Five Months

Just an update to let you know what I've gotten up to in the five months and change since my last post. I've made a few hats, a couple pairs of socks, most of a vest, and the most adorable teeny tiny sweaters I've ever seen.

I've gotten MUCH better at stranded knitting - come a long way since the pillow I made for my brother's wedding. I mean, that turned out very nicely and all, but the two and four strand work on these teensy sweaters was far more complicated.

Apart from the world of knitting, I've gotten married. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. I've started up the new school year and been through some pretty dramatic ups and downs where that's concerned. I've taken two big scary licensure exams and have another one scheduled for this weekend.

I was a princess for Halloween (fit into my old prom dress, whee!) and got to give out lots of candy. Had Thanksgiving with friends and got to experience some of the tastiest turkey ever, though I miss mom's mashed potatoes. Looking forward to Christmas, though as of yet we don't have very specific plans for the tree or the gifts or where on earth we're going to put the stockings now that we live in a place with no mantle...

So, here's a look-see at what I've knitted since June. Enjoy!

March Madness

Remember how I promised pictures of the finished crocheted alpaca top? Well, it's a ball of yarn, now. I frogged the entire thing. I had to admit to myself that no matter what I did to it, it would be a waste of yarn because it was highly likely that I would never, ever wear it. Like that ten-ton boxy acrylic dress, or the summery brightly-colored lacy bolero that I made entirely out of wool. Granted, those were newbie mistakes, mostly due to total inexperience with different types of fibers, and this top would have been quite nice if I hadn't simply run out of yarn. Still, I read somewhere that if you know at any point during the process that you're going to hate it, you simply have to suck it up and frog it, right then and there.

So that's what I did. I also applied that philosophy to the summer hat I'm making with Mirasol T'ikka. It was in hibernation because I loathed doing the linen stitch part. When I picked it back up again, I realized that hating those tightly bound little slip stitches was not the first of my problems. Somehow, I had managed to use a 5 mm needle instead of a size 5 needle like I was supposed to, and the hat (which was only a brim at the time) was HUGE. How did I not notice this? I mean, I know I'm lazy when it comes to gauge swatching and I honestly can't recall if I did one for this hat, but a needle choice mistake of three whole sizes? I held up the circulars to my head and without any stretching at all, that thing went around my noggin with about four inches to spare. All sorts of pleas went through my head, foremost among them being: just switch to the right size needle now! This is only the brim! So it'll be a little floppy! It's a summer hat, who cares? I actually got a few rows in with the size 5 before I realized that not only was this not shrinking the hat quickly enough, but it was going to look stupid when all was said and done.

So, with a heavy heart, but at least some measure of the thrill of yanking those ripply little stitches free, I went all the way back to the slip knot, and started over.

By the time I got back up to where the linen stitch band should be, the hat was already a wee bit on the tight side, but I'm not worried, because it'll stretch a bit. I decided to try and tackle the linen stitch again. So brave. But, to my relief, I could tell after only a couple rows that no amount of stretching and blocking would cram that around my skull, so I happily yanked it back out and started in with the much more hand-friendly moss stitch. It'll give me the same textural effect without the shrinkage, although of course, it won't have the same stiffness that it's supposed to for shaping and all. Oh well!

Oh, by the way, I finished that Cabled Boatneck Pullover. The sleeves are a teensy bit too short and they tend to get baggy kind of easily, but overall it's lovely, fits me well, and got lots of compliments!

Alpaca Snag

I picked up the charcoal grey crocheted alpaca sweater I'd been working on, which I had lazily titled "Another Alpaca Top," since I made it with the leftovers from the top I made for my mom a couple Christmases ago. I had bought ten skeins for her sweater, but somehow drastically miscalculated, and I wound up only needing five. I had assumed I would have plenty to work with, since I was making a top of basically the same size, with the same tiny sleeves, a much lower neckline (hers was a mock turtleneck, mine is a scoop), and even mostly in the same dc-blo used for hers as well. Perfect, right?

I ran out of yarn (almost) with about ten rows left to go on the back of the sweater - the front was done ages ago. I have a partial skein left, probably enough to do the cap sleeves. So, decision time: the design of the pattern makes it very stretchy. I could seam it up as is, missing those couple inches, and it would probably fit. However, this means that, once it's sitting even, the seams will be rotated just a little towards the back, which means the sleeves will also be attached a bit further in along my shoulder blades. I have no idea how noticeable it will be, but I feel like I have little choice! I can't even rip out a few rows from the bottom hem to shorten it and add it to the back width, because the rows are vertical! Well. It's either seam it and see how it sits, or frog the entire thing and stash the yarn for some future use, which I am really loathe to do.

On the plus side, if it comes out well, it really is such a lovely color and texture. It would probably be nice enough to pair it with a pretty, floaty skirt and wear it to my brother's wedding next month. Heck knows I'm having trouble finding a dress that's either weather-appropriate or affordable.

I promise pix when it's done, no matter what the final verdict!