Eleven Stitches

Pomme de Pin Cardigan

Let me show you one of my favorite sweaters ever.

Pattern: Pomme de pin Cardigan by Amy Cristoffers
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in 1946, 8 skeins
Needles: US 5 and US 6
Time to Knit: August 23 - October 31

I knit a large portion of this sweater while riding the bus to and from classes I'm taking at city college. (By the way, I'm applying to masters programs for occupational therapy, and right now I'm taking a couple of prerequisite courses. They are challenging and fun.)  I thought knitting a sweater would be unweildy on the bus, but it wasn't too bad. Once I had body and sleeves combined, though, I saved it for at-home knitting. 

It's been fun to wear this sweater on the bus where it was knit while knitting my next sweater! This is currently very seasonally appropriate, as the weather has cooled and my lighter-weight cardigans are not warm enough. This sweater is warm without being too warm. It's cosy and one that I feel effortlessly looks nice.

I did make some modifications. First of all, I was a little between sizes, so I knit the smaller size and added one inch to each side of the front only. That worked out quite well, fit wise. I also made the body a little longer than was recommended, so I added a fifth button. Aren't those buttons great? They're heavy and sometimes clink together when unbuttoned, which I think only adds to the appeal.

I did have to figure out the back collar. It's wide and scrunched strangely at the back of my neck. If you look at the original pattern picture, you can see a little bit of that going on too. Part of the problem with mine is those two extra inches added to the front-- I should have decreased them out along the neckline somewhere. But to control thte situation, I permanently scrunched the collar in a few places by threading yarn through and tying it tightly.

I'm toying with the idea of adding elbow patches. I think the style of the sweater lends itself to elbow patches, and it may be a good idea since the arms are all lace. What do you think?

I've been wearing this cardigan practically every day since I finished it. It is exactly what I need for my current wardrobe and weather, and I love it.

I'm sorry for the silence for the past few weeks. My phone (and therefore camera) was stolen at the beginning of September, and I had to wait a long time for a replacement phone. But it's here now, and I'm happy to be able to blog wtih ease again! See you soon.

Frisson

After I moved to San Francisco at the beginning of July, I needed a new knitting project. I went to my now local yarn store, Imagiknit, and I picked up some MadelineTosh tosh sock in Farmhouse White. It isn't a color that I would normally pick, as I usually like a lot of color, but at the time I needed something soothing, I guess, after all the stress of packing and moving.

I started out making a sock, the very lovely Roger Ackroyd.

Alas, it was too small, so I started it again on larger needles. And alas, it was too small again! Rather than face re-starting a second time, I decided to put the project aside for other things. As one does.

A few weeks later I realized that a garter-stitch shawl would be great for this climate. I found Frisson, and realized that the yarn from my (doomed) sock project would be a nice match to use for the shawl. And it was.

As you can see, each wedge gets bigger as you go, which made the shawl a fun knit, and also a fun shape to wear. I left off the very last (largest) wedge as I had an incomplete skein of yarn. (I might have thrown away some of the yarn in anger. As one does.) 

The pattern was easy to memorize and keep track, and I knit the last couple of wedges on the bus.

I think the shawl will be great for that little bit of warmth when I need it. August can be so chilly sometimes. :) And it will pack away nicely when it isn't needed.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the knitting and the finished project. I think this would make a nice gift, so maybe there willl be more Frissons in my future.

Oh, and speaking of living in San Francisco, I experienced my first earthquake at 3:20am today. It injured a lot of people north of me, but here nothing was harmed, and we only found one thing that was knocked open by the shaking. I woke up to my bed creaking back and forth, realized what was happening, and took a few quick steps to get under a door frame. It was quite an experience, and I'm glad that there wasn't worse damage done and that I was able to react quickly and calmly. 

A Big Move, and Pants!

Hello, thanks for forgiving the blog break. We went to Paris in March*, and then a few weeks after that decided that we were going to move from New Jersey to San Francisco. Much packing and very little crafting ensued, and I finally became a Californian in July! 

I then had this mental block that I couldn't tell you about it until I had a picture of me with the Golden Gate Bridge, because that's what one does when in SF, right? Well, here it is, although the bridge is a little small in this picture, I have to admit.

In sewing news, I made pants! I have three pairs (in different colors) of the same pants from Gap. They fit me just right. I decided to take apart the black pair since I don't wear them very much and they have a bleach stain on the cuff. I ripped them entirely apart with a seam ripper, traced them onto pattern fabric, and then widened the pattern a little to allow for a larger seam allowance.

For making up the pants, I used the instructions from Sewaholic's Thurlow. I had made an (unblogged) pair of Thurlows last fall that didn't fit me very well, partly because I think I picked the wrong size. But I thought the instructions were great, and they helped me put these pants together easily.

I did make some changes from my original pattern. I had to let out the side seams a little to keep it from being too tight across the back, and I also drafted some front pockets to look like Thurlow's front pockets. (The original pair had single-welt pockets in the front and I didn't want to tackle that.) One problem with my front pockets? They were a little small.

Not big enough for a hand to fit inside! Next time I'll change the angle and lower the pocket line. Otherwise, the fit feels great, and I'm so pleased to have a fitting pair of pants that I made myself.

I used some fabric left over from my polka-dot quilt (more on that soon) for the lining. I think it's fun.

I didn't finish off the inside seams as neatly as I usually do because my serger is currently in storage! 

These pants were a practice pair. The fabric is basic quilting cotton I got from a local store. I have a couple of fabrics saved for when I had the pattern ironed out, and I will hopefully start on one of those pairs of pants soon. 

In the meantime, i'll try to figure out what other super-bright clothes combinations I can make with these cheerful, comfortable pants!

 

 

*I started another sporadically-updated blog, Kristy Isn't Home, to chronicle my travels. You can find my posts about Paris here, here, and here.

Sweet

I wanted to make a little something for my husband for Valentine's Day this year. He loves hedgehogs, so when I came across the Hedgehog Love Scarf, I tried to think of a way to use it.  This is the result.

This is just a little pouch with a single button closure. I continued the hearts pattern on the back.

I found trying to knit with 3 colors on a single row challenging, in that it was hard to tension the yarns carried behind the stitches. If I tried this again, I might have done more with duplicate stitch instead.

The inside is lined with some red and pink polka dot fabric, so that those yarn floats don't catch on anything.

This was a fun little project!

Olympic Update

I've shown you one of my finished Olympic projects. Let me show you another.

These are Mongolfiera Socks, knit in some Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, in a delightful bright pink.  I got this yarn with a gift card to Imagiknit that a friend gave me for Christmas.  I'm happy that I was able to use this yarn so quickly!  

This pattern was fun to knit. It was originally a mystery sock pattern, written in four pieces. Even though I knew ahead of time what the sock looked like, the four sections made it easy to segment the work. I actually left off the last clue, and just contined the purl lines to the toe. 

And as for the sweater, it is done except for the neck edging, which I am working on now.

As it turns out, I didn't work on any more (older) WIPs, but instead decided to make a couple of new things. More on those soon.

Very Warm Mittens

David bought me some cross-country skis a few years ago, but we didn't have very much snow for me to use them often.  This year has been a big change, as New Jersey has had one major snowstorm after the other!

When we go skiing, I am bundled up in various knitted and fleece things, and since this is a hard workout for me, I usually get so warm that I have to un-bundle a little bit to stay comfortable. David, super athlete that he is, does not get so much of a workout and has been complaining of his hands getting cold even while wearing his glittens. 

Something had to be done.

These are a pair of RAGBRAI Mittens. I didn't take a long time choosing a pattern this time because I just wanted to have the mittens done by the next snow!  I like the bicycles on the pattern, though, since David usually bikes to work when the weather is nice. I added a braid because I love braids, and I changed the thumb to come off the side of the hand (as it actually does) instead of off the palm.

I used a variety of worsted weight yarns.  The constant color is some Ella Rae in brown, and the other colors are short leftover bits from different projects.  I divided them in half when I knit the first mitten, and followed the same pattern for the second.

These are a lot warmer than the glittens, as there is two layers of worsted weight yarn instead of two layers of fingering weight yarn. (Worsted is about twice as thick as fingering.) We went on one ski before both mittens were done, so David wore just one mitten and reported that his left hand felt much warmer.

Yesterday we went skiing again, and this time he got to wear both.

By the time we got back to the car, David admitted that his hands were actually a little bit sweaty, and I consider that to be a success.

Oh, and last Tuesday was my seventh blogiversary! I dropped out of blogging for several months at a time along the way, but I'm happy to be back posting regularly again. I can't believe it's been seven years!  See you again here soon.