Eleven Stitches

Cherry Cardigan and a Patchwork Skirt

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of my American readers!  I was planning to blog over my break, but obviously I did not.  David and were in San Francisco to visit his family, and we had a great time. 

I have a finished sweater to show you today! 

Pattern: Cherry by Anna Bell
Yarn: Foxhill Farm Millspun Cormo Cross, 2 skeins 
Needles: US 6
Modifications: I didn't make the belt that is strung through the eyelet rows.

This was a fun knit.  The knitting of it went pretty quickly, and the cable pattern was easy enough to memorize.  It was a little difficult figuring out how to start the cable pattern, but the designer has since updated the pattern to make that easier.

I bought another skein of this yarn at Rhinebeck this year because I thought I was going to run out on the button bands and collar.  It turned out that I had just enough!  I'll have to figure out something else to do with the extra skein.

I used a mismatched set of vegetable ivory buttons I got from the button lady.  They might be a little bit too small-- they sometimes pop out of their buttonholes. 

I also wanted to show you my patchwork corduroy skirt.

I had originally bought this corduroy for a quilt many years ago.  I've lost interest in the quilt, but I thought it would be fun to use some of it for a skirt.  I got out my crayons and make a sketch of how I wanted it to work, and then I used the Simplicity 2411 pattern (again) to make it. I pieced the fabric for each pattern piece before I cut it out.

I think it's especially fun to wear this skirt with the brown and purple shirt I made last year.  It's a patchwork outfit! 

This is the last of the photos from the big photoshoot that I asked David to help me with several weeks ago.  Now I have another big list of things to photograph, and David has promised to help me today.  More soon!

Finishing out 2010

I had a hard time putting this post together because I had a couple of unblogged items to show you.  I really wanted them included in the final mosaic (these things are important), so that means I needed to take some photos. 

So let's start with sewing 2010.

I finished up the year with a couple of skirts.  They're both Simplicity 2410, which I've made before.  The first is made with quilting flannel.

I really adore the print.

The second one is made from brown corduroy.  I wear it all the time!

I've made these skirts so many times now that it's really easy to put them together.  And they're so easy to wear as well.  Love.

And that rounds out my sewing for 2010.

  

The final tally is

• 2 e-reader cozies 
• 7 dresses (3 woven, 4 knit-- 1 woven not shown)
• 2 shirts
• 6 skirts (3, not shown, were made for a friend)

I'm really happy with what I made last year, and I'm happy that I've finally managed to make some cold-weather sewn clothes!  I can definitely see an improvement with fit and style over what I've made in previous years, and I know I still have some room to improve :)

And my final unblogged sweater of 2010 is this striped one, also pictured above.

It was made with sock yarn in an attempt to knit down my stash a little bit.  The pattern is my own, although the striping was based on the idea of Tempest.

These are my knits of 2010.

I made:

• 8 pairs of socks
• 2 pairs of mittens
• 6 cowls (one not pictured)
• 5 hats
• 3 sweaters
• 1 skirt
• 1 dress
• many tiny things / christmas ornaments

I think my knitting might not have been as prolific as the previous year?  I wasn't so sharply focused on knitting last year as I had a lot of sewing and reading (!) that I did as well. 

So, I'm happy to now say goodbye to 2010.  And as for 2011... my plan is to enjoy it!  I'm going to make what I want and appreciate it once it's made :)  Happy New Year!

Kirigami

I finished knitting Kirigami about a week ago. 

Pattern: Kirigami by Kate Gilbert, in the Winter 2009 Twist Collective
Yarn: Maple Creek Farm Omaha in Berry and Emerald
Needles: US 7
Time to Knit:  October 18 to November 6, 2010
Modifications: I shortened the sleeves, and allowed some of the purple trim to show on the hemmed edge.

This sweater was fun to knit.  The sweater construction on the yoke was interesting with afterthought shoulders.  The sweater is in reverse stockinette, but the pattern suggests turning the sweater inside out when knitting the body so that it's all knit stitches instead of all purl.

I also got to use some of my vintage buttons on this sweater.  They're mismatched (I love this), and I like how they look with the stripes.

I made this sweater short-sleeved because long-sleeved worsted sweaters just tend to be too hot to wear to work.   It's also nice because then I don't have to knit sleeves :)  I wore this to work last week when the temperature was in the 60s outside and I wasn't too hot. 

There's also another FO in the above pictures.  Let me give you a better view of it.

I liked that green Jalie top so much that I made another one.  It only takes a couple of hours to sew it up, and it's a great shirt.  This time I made the bands around the neckline about twice as wide. Oh, and since several people have asked, I don't have a serger.  I sew all of my knits on my standard sewing machine.  Jalies suggests using a zigzag and a straight stitch on each seam, and this is what I do. 

Knit fabric is pretty forgiving to sew, and if you're thinking about trying it, you really should.

The fabric for this shirt is left over from the brown dress I made this summer.  And since I didn't have quite enough of it, I used a different fabric in the back.  It's left over from my purple dress, and I really didn't have much of it.  I put a seam up the back of the shirt to make it work.

I like the two colors in this shirt.  It's just a regular brown shirt when worn under cardigans or vests, but it's got something special when worn on its own.

Since my sweater is finished I was able to start my skirt for KriKnitSkiMo.  More on that soon!

Knitting Gold

I finished my Olympic sweater yesterday!

Pattern: Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Impulse of Delight Bluefaced Bliss in Red Tulip
Needles: US 4, 5, and 3
Time to Knit: February 12 - 25
Modifications: I added 12 rows before the waist shaping to lengthen the sweater a little.  Other than that, I knit it as written!

I love this sweater!  It fits really well, and I think it will get a lot of use.  The pattern was probably the most well-written sweater pattern I've ever used.  It was clear, clever, and included a lot of nice little details.

I love the yarn I used as well!  It reads red, but if you look closely you can see hints of orange and pink.  The dyer, who lives in Whistler, has been putting local Olympic updates on her blog, and it's been fun to knit with her yarn while reading her posts!

I wanted to use some of the vintage buttons I bought last fall, but I didn't have enough of any one type.  Instead, I alternated two sets of buttons.  I'm not completely sold on the look, but I'll give a try for a while.  Buttons are easy to change if I find something better.

Oh, and congratulations to (blogless) Kelly!  She was the random winner on my blogiversary post.  Some pretty yarn will make its way to you soon.  Thanks Kelly (and everyone else!) for stopping in here.

3 Years Later: Silk Sweater

I hear there was some type of snow event on the East Coast?  Well, this is what it was like yesterday in San Francisco :)

 

Actually, I was very aware of the predicted snow storm last weekend.  We flew out of Newark on Saturday morning, and I felt like the blizzard was right on our heels! But back to the lovely sweater in the photo above.....

I bought the yarn for this sweater at Art Fibers almost exactly three years ago.  I was a newish knitter, and I didn't know how to make my own pattern up for a sweater.  They wrote a pattern for me, based on this bloused dress they had on display in the store.  I got started on it right away, I believe, and I even talk about the sweater in my third post of my blog. 

The Art Fibers pattern started out pretty well. I didn't have circulars of the correct size to start the collar, so I knit it flat and joined to work in the round after a couple of inches.  This worked out well in the end.  I just added a button and a loop to the top and voila, the sweater has a keyhole opening in the back. 

As I was knitting the body of the sweater I realized that the blousing effect from the pattern would not work. The silk was too heavy, and it wouldn't have enough memory to do the ribbing to pull it in at the bottom.  This is, I believe, when the sweater went unknit for over a year.

Eventually I came back to it, and I finished the sweater with the same lacy ribbing that I had used at the collar. Then the sweater sat, armless, for another very long time.  

In November, I came across the sweater again and tried it on.  It fit.  I liked the color.  I liked the way it felt.  Why the heck did I never finish it?  After a few evenings, it was all finished up. I made the sleeves 3/4 length, and I finished them off with some deep lacy ribbing like you see in the rest of the sweater.  Since I hadn't knit that lace pattern in over a year, I had to re-construct it.  It's a good thing it was pretty simple!

It's so nice to have finished something that long in the making!

Pattern: Started out as an Art Fibers custom pattern, but then it became my own custom pattern
Yarn: Art Fibers Hana, 5 skeins
Needles: US 1.5 for the ribbing, US 3 for the stockinette
Time to Knit: January 2007 - November 2009

Featherweight in Amsterdam

We had a great time in Amsterdam.

 

This was such an easy place to visit!  There was a lot to see and do, but it was a manageable amount, not overwhelming.  Everyone there spoke English.  And when we got tired (or footsore), we could just stop at a place along the nearest canal and get some food and a beer.

I don't have any photos of two of my favorite destinations, the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum, because cameras were not permitted.  The Van Gogh museum had a lot of really recognizable paintings, and many others as well.  There was one still life painting of some flowers in a vase, and right next to it was the actual vase. I thought that was especially interesting to see.  The Anne Frank House was very moving.  We got to tour inside the apartment where she stayed in hiding. Amazing.

We went to Leiden for the day, and we rented bikes there to visit Maria Montessori's grave in a town about 9K away.  I had a lot of ideas for the pictures I would take along the way of the countryside and of us riding our bikes.  But in actuality, it was raining on our way up there and the trip took longer than we thought, so I only had a few minutes at the cemetery before we had to turn back.

 

I was glad I was able to visit.  I wish I had brought flowers.

I'm pretty certain that there are more bicycles than cars in Amsterdam. There are dedicated bike lanes on all of the streets, and WATCH OUT before you cross them! 

 

Amsterdam also had a lot of cats.  This one, whom our bartender called Vodka, came in and had a seat at the counter.

 

Another cat (I didn't catch her name) jumped up on my lap when I sat down on a bench.  She didn't even mind that I handed my camera to David to take a picture.

 

I finished knitting my Featherweight cardigan right before our trip.  It's so lightweight that it was easy to keep in my bag just in case I got chilly.

 

Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr
Needles: US 5s
Modifications: I knitted the collar and edgings in garter stitch instead of ribbing, mainly because I was tired of purling.

 

David and I realized on the last night that we didn't get any pictures of us together. We took this one on the way to the train station.

 

It was a great trip, and I'm glad to be back home.

Whisper

This is my newest cardigan, and I love it!

Pattern: Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig, from Interweave Knits 2009
Yarn: Newton's Yarn Country Cashmere
Needles: US 7, US 4, and US 2
Time to Knit: April 20 (ish?) - May 5
Modifications: Um, none.  That's kind of weird for me.

A few years ago, I accidentally won a blog contest and acquired a cone of hot pink laceweight yarn.  It's cashmere and soft, but I wasn't sure what to do with it.  I'm not very into lace or shawls, and I didn't think that if I did want to knit a lace shawl, I would want it to be hot pink!  I'm happy to see that there are a lot of laceweight sweater patterns now available, because laceweight sweaters are so very nice.

The pattern is mainly knit on size US 7 needles.  The US 4's are used for ribbing, and the US 2's are used for only 3 rows to create a gather across the back.  I think some people are intimidated by this pattern because they see laceweight and they assume it's mostly on size 2s.  It's not, and the knitting is airy and quick!

You can read a little more about the construction of the sweater here.  One thing I didn't realize before I knit the sweater was the bottom front kind of wings out with increases every other row.  I wasn't a big fan of this detail before the sweater was blocked, but now I kind of like how the sweater curls up at the sides.  I wonder if the front was knit straight (without the increases) if the sweater would curl up towards the back instead of having a small curl right at the side.

I wore this sweater today with a skirt in 70-degree weather, and it wasn't too hot.  I love how lightweight it is, and the drape makes it feel pretty and fancy. 

I love this sweater!  If you've thought about making one, I hope this post pushes you over the edge.

Owls!

At long last, my Owls cardigan!  I've had it finished for several days, but I couldn't stand the thought of wearing it during the recent heat wave. Fortunately, today was a breezy, beautiful day that is ideal for blog photographs.

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery's Green Mountain Green, 5 skeins exactly (funny that: I thought I was going to run out, not realizing that I had a whole 'nother skein left)
Needles: US 10
Time to Knit: April 3 - April 10
Time to Put on 56 Buttons: An entire sick day's worth of chair sitting, after two weeks of procrastination
Modifications: Modified for gauge, cardiganized, short-sleeved

I think this sweater is so cute!  I decided to play up the cuteness factor by adding some mismatched buttons to the mix. I love the look of mismatched (but similar) buttons, and I plan on doing it again sometime soon! I think the purple and blue are such a nice contrast to the yellow. 

I think that, perhaps, this is the last time I knit a sweater with this yarn.  I do love it, but it is rather thick, and sweaters knit with thinner yarn tend to work better for me.  The short sleeves do alleviate some of the thick (and warm!) yarn problems on this particular piece.

Out in the non-knitting world, I needed to explain that the motifs on the sweater were owls.  But it is a rather attractive decoration even without having that bit of information! 

This sweater puts all of the waist shaping in the back of the sweater.  I knit it as specified because I was curious about how this would turn out.  I probably won't choose to do this placement of shaping again.  The sweater seems to have extra fabric in the back, especially after the increases for the bust. It could be that I needed a little less ease in general!

I think that this will be a very wearable sweater next fall.  It will add warmth (but not too much), and the yellow and the cuteness will be a guarantee to cheer up my day!

Amelia

Do I think my new cardigan looks great?  Yes, I do!

Pattern: Amelia by Laura Chau from Knitty
Yarn: Brooks Farm Mas Acero, 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 7 for the main body, US 8 for garter stitch areas
Time to Knit: March 19 - April 2
Modifications: I decided to lengthen the body by 1 inch, and I did that by adding an inch in the waist ribbing area.  I put the top button in the collar.  (I was due for another buttonhole when I bound off for the collar shaping. )  I also shortened the sleeves to 3/4 length (sort of-- see below).

I didn't pay this cardigan much attention when it first came out on Knitty.  But as pretty versions kept popping up on Ravelry, I gave it a few more looks.  I think it's a great, simple cardigan pattern.  The waist "shaping" is accomplished by some 1x1 twisted ribbing, which is both simple and smart.  On the day I wore it to work, I got no "That's pretty, did you knit that?" comments, which is I assume because no one realized it was hand made.  It looks like a store sweater.  Sometimes, that's not a good thing, but in this case, I think it's just right.

I do love the buttons I chose.  When I bought this yarn, I knew I wanted to pair it with silver buttons.

The yarn is a wool, silk, rayon blend.  It feels good in my hands, although it was splitty.  I forgave it.  I think the blend makes this sweater a little lighter-weight.

My plan was to make the sleeves 3/4 length.  It seems like they are perhaps more 7/8 length.  I am considering just rolling up the (reversible) garter stitch cuff and seaming it that way.  It appears that in the picture below, the right sleeve is unrolled and the left is rolled up.

This is my April NaKnitSweMoDo sweater, which is pretty sweet since I finished it on April 2nd!

I really, really like this sweater.  I think it will be a great, simple addition to my wardrobe! 

Violette-le-duc

I finished Violette a while ago now, and I wasn't sure about how much I liked it.  So it sat in a laundry basket for a long time, until Jeannine sent me a very nice note yesterday asking me if I could share any more pictures.  A little sheepishly I tried it on again, and I discovered that I think I do like the sweater after all.

Pattern: Violette-le-duc from Norah Gaughan Vol. 3
Yarn: Berroco Inca Gold in Rojo, 8 skeins  and Briar Rose Abundance, a small quantity
Needles: US 4 and US 7
Time to Knit: January 4 - February 16
Modifications: None

I think the big ribbed collar is what has me unsure about the fit.  One one hand, big ribbed collars are awesome.  On the other, this collar can sometimes flop around funny.  I also don't really like the way the sweater looks fastened-- there's too much obvious stretching going on. 

I'm not sure why my sweater has short sleeves.  It looks like other finished sweaters have longer sleeves, but I also feel like I followed the directions and the schematics in the pattern.  I also have two more skeins than I needed.... 'tis a mystery.  Fortunately, I think short-sleeved sweaters are great for my work (long sleeved ones are often too hot), so I'm happy.

I do like the silhouette this sweater gives.  I think it's flattering on me.  I adore the yarn. Seriously, I really love it and I think you should try it!  It's soft and springy like a superwash, but it doesn't have some of those annoying qualities of superwash yarn (more on that another day). It's got a vibrarnt color, and the silk gives it just a small amount of sheen. 

I like the substitution I made on the edging yarn as well.  I looked at some of the Berroco Lumina colors, but I am just not a shimmery yarn kind of girl.  Even for edging.

And finally, for those of you who are curious about wearing the sweater like it is pictured in the booklet, I have to say that's a solid no.  I have no idea why they left it styled that way.  It's totally misleading for how the sweater actually looks (which is cute) and I feel certain that the model would have looked silly wearing it upside down if she moved at all.  In fact, you can see a big fold of fabric if you look closely at the pattern picture.

It's a wearable and cute sweater, but just not as advertised.