Looks good with Jeans

Not that she actually owns any.

I have more of this yarn left over than I thought, and I was getting tired of hexi-puffs, so I made a doll sweater.

I'm rather pleased, because it actually goes over her head, and I'd been pretty sure - dolls heads being what they are - that I was doomed to make only cardigans.

I try to take notes when I make up patterns, in case I want to do it again, but despite also using fingering weight, this one worked up to a completely different gauge than the last one I tried. But it fits, so what else matters?

Rolling Along

I was hypnotically churning out motifs on my shawl, and thrilled to have finished the penultimate row, when it dawned on me that perhaps I should check the pattern, which I had not looked at since memorizing the motif pattern weeks ago. I couldn't be going to do the same thing on the last row, because the top of the shawl is a straight line, not a series of spikes. Sure enough, it's time to switch to a lower gear and do something completely different for the last row. Short rows. Not my favorite, but I'll be excited to have this done.

Stasis

It is 82°F and 70% humidity. Everything I am knitting looks pretty much the same as it did the last time I took a picture of it. The exception would be these two newly-created hexipuffs, which aren't much to look at, but at least they aren't melting.

Hats are such quick knits

All done. Two days. Only after I finished it did I learn the recipient's opinion of lace hats - how they are too prone to sliding up off the top of one's head - but I'm done with it, it's her problem now.

Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Findley (silk/wool) in Tiger Lily, much less than 144 yds
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)
Pattern: Kat Archer's Horseshoe Lace Hat
Mods: I replaced the (sl1, k2tog, psso) throughout with centered double decreases (sl 2 sts together as if to knit, k1, psso) because I felt like it; I don't think it improved the pattern in any way.

A Hat, a Brooch, a Pterodactyl

I've been trying since forever - okay, about 8 weeks - to use up the leftover yarn from my Forest Lily shawl, 144 yards of lace weight silk/wool in a lovely shade of orange. It's entirely too much to trash, and not quite enough for a whole lot of things, including two different scarves and a pair of mitts. Last try will be a hat, and if that doesn't fly... it's still too pretty to throw away.

So far, so good.

Waves of Grey

I've begun the fifth and last color of my Aranami shawl. I love this pattern so much. You do the same small thing, over and over. I memorized the pattern long ago. I'm really looking forward to washing and blocking this yarn, as I expect it to soften and bloom amazingly.

Sibling Sweaters

All done. A cute little cardigan for a 2-year-old.

Yarn: Berroco Sox (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in colorway Lidores (discontinued), just over 1 skein
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Pattern: Tanis Lavallee's Sunnyside
Mods: I really love the cables that run down the raglan increases. They are divided exactly in half when you split off the sleeves, so I decided to reunite them after the armhole and continue them down the sides of the sweater, which of course you can't see in any of the photos.

This was a fast, easy knit, and results in a great sweater for a little kid. I love that I had enough yarn for two sibling sweaters!

Disappointment

I had gotten just so far, knitting a scarf out of Juniper Moon Findley lace leftovers, when it dawned on me, after a little over one pattern repeat, that it was in no way possible that I was going to get another 16 pattern repeats out of the yarn. I checked other people's projects -- they used 3-5 times the yardage I have. Sure, I could have made a cowl, but I don't wear cowls. It's a nice pattern. I'll make it sometime when I have more yarn. I need to get better about checking the pattern page's yardage against actually completed projects.

In the meantime, I suppose I could make mitts. Who would wear lace-weight orange mitts?

We Have a One-Swan-Wing Situation Here

I miss making that joke with my mom, who knew that The Six Swans was my favorite fairy tale (collected by Grimm but accessed by me via Andrew Lang's Yellow Fairy Book).

I was surprised that the pattern doesn't call for ribbing at the end of the sleeve, but since I only wear loose sleeves myself these days, I can appreciate the choice.

The next sweater endeavors will involve UFOs!

Coming Along

Nearly there. I'll use the same buttons as the larger sweater. All I have to do is the sleeves, and since I don't have to set them in, this should go fast!

Finally

The slowest part of a raglan is the inch or two above the bottom of the arm hole. It makes sense -- this is when the maximum number of stitches are on the needle, and there is considerable suspense involved. If you're knitting from the top down, you're just about to put the sleeve stitches on hold and continue on the body of the sweater, considerably speeding up your progress. If you're knitting from the bottom up, you're going to decrease stitches much more gradually, but you're likely about to start something really interesting for the yoke of the sweater.

In just. a. few. more. inches. Which have taken me an entire week, thanks to my heretofore unsuspected ability to make every knitting mistake possible right when the maximum number of stitches are in play. But I stuck with it, and today, finally, the sleeves are off the needle.

The cables marking the raglan shaping were divided exactly in half by the removal of the sleeve stitches, leaving me toying with the idea of continuing one cable down each side of the sweater. Others have done it. I don't think it adds anything to the sweater, since they're mostly out of sight (and will probably be rubbed by the sleeves), but it's oddly satisfying to contemplate.

What's Black and White and White and Black All Over?

Ages ago I acquired some yarn that was leftover from a friend's project. I get to try out so many interesting fibers that way! This is Ístex's Einband, a lace weight Icelandic single-ply Z-twist yarn in a gradient of colors from black to white.

Having recently finished two sweaters, it was time for something new, and I cast on for the Aranami shawl, reversing the colorway as another Raveler had done, so that my shawl goes from black on the bottom, where the shawl begins, to white on top.

Following the directions, I soon realized I was going to have leftover leftovers (the HORROR!), so I immediately cast on another shawl, this time reversing the gradient from black to white, since this shawl starts at the top. It also begins with an 88-ridge garter tab, which completely astonished me, but it's done and I've moved on. The pattern does not call for multiple colors or a gradient, so I will just add the new shades where they fall and see what develops.

 

The yarn is not as fuzzy as my photography skills; I will do better as it grows. In fact, this yarn is so "crunchy" that I am comforted by the Ístex reassurance that it becomes soft and manageable after washing. That was certainly true of my lopapeysa, done in Léttlopi, their Aran weight yarn!

Lopapeysa

Finished! Aside from the first 4", started and put down in early 2016, it only took me a couple of months to make.

Yarn: Ístex Léttlopi in 1407/Pine Green Heather, 0085/Oatmeal Heather, 0086/Light Beige Heather, and 0867/Dark Brown
Needles: US 9 (5.5mm), US 10 (6.0 mm), US 10 1/2 (6.5 mm)
Pattern: Mary Jane Mucklestone's Stopover
Mods: Cap sleeves, obviously. And the neck ribbing was done on a US 10 circular because my US 9 dpns kept dropping stitches off the ends, and I figured it couldn't make that much difference.

It is now safely packed away for next winter, when I will discover it anew and see just how warm it is.

2019 MDS&W Haul

I went to the festival this year with the single goal of acquiring more Yankee Dyer Yarn. Mission accomplished.

Yankee Dyer Yankee Breeze in Sangria

Yankee Dyer Solo II in Dragonfly

Yankee Dyer Doodlers

I was thinking that I would use the leftover Sangria in the Dragonfly heels and toes, but then realized that the Yankee Breeze is half cotton. The owner was completely blasé about "mixing my bases." I have never done that. But I'm willing to give it a try when the color match is so nice.

My mini-skeins so far have been gradients, which this set definitely is not, but I am intrigued to try something a little more colorful.

In addition, I found an artist who makes custom buttons, an artist who paints pictures with thread, and learned - from touching the real thing - that my cashmere yarn from a long ago MDS&W purchase is probably not actually cashmere.

Finish Line

I pay attention and sweat the small stuff when finishing a project. After all the care to make the knitting look nice, I don't want sloppy seams, wonky necklines, or the wrong buttons. I chose a sweater pattern made of pieces, since I wanted the structural stability that seams give, so I was careful to put all the shaping increases and decreases a stitch in from the edge.

I have a deep and abiding love for the magic of mattress stitch. If only all hand sewing were this magical and invisible.

 

I mattress seamed the bound off shoulders as well, and learned to be careful not to pull the stitches as tight as I usually do -- the size of the surrounding stitches -- because it squished the bound off edges too tightly together on the other side.

 

 It took me three tries to get the neckline right -- I was overthinking it.

 The brown buttons were just right.

I am very pleased with the finished object. And it only took me a month!

Yarn: Berroco Sox (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in colorway Lidores (discontinued), just under 2 skeins
Needles: US 1 1/2 (2.5 mm) and US 2 1/2 (3.0 mm)
Pattern: Berroco Design Team's Johnny Boy, in size 6
Mods: Like most people on Ravelry who have made this sweater, I added an extra button and hole in the neckband.

Cap Sleeves Done

I am now in the infinitely long, timeless slog of the mere three and a half inches of stockinette before I can start the decreases and color-work portion of the yoke of my lopapeysa. Unlike some of the really stunning examples in that article and elsewhere, this pattern is very simple, and I chose to do it in colors of the forest, so temper your expectations.

Thank goodness for books, podcasts, and television to pass the time. Although some things (I'm looking at you, GOT) are too intense even for mindless rounds of stockinette.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Look! A sleeve!

I'd be all, "This puppy is nearly done!" if I hadn't just realized that I knit the entire sleeve on the smaller sized needle meant for just the cuff. Sigh.

What on earth was I thinking? Oh.

I started a lopapeysa KAL back in 2016 under the completely mistaken notion that I would need something to knit while doing chemo. To be fair, that was completely within my worldview at the time. I couldn't imagine sitting in a chair for 3-6 hours without something to knit. But that was not what chemo had in store for me, particularly when I turned out to be allergic to one of the (plant-based!) ingredients.

Alpsdake / CC-BY-SA-3.0

So I got about four inches into it, and set it aside. I recently worked my way back to it in the knitting pile, just about the time I was bemoaning not ever finishing a sweater, and picked it up again. I wasn't in a hurry to blog about it. An adult-sized raglan sweater knit from the bottom up, even in a loose gauge over big needles, is not particularly photogenic until you start the yoke pattern.

Over the last week it slowly dawned on me that I did not have enough yarn for the sweater. What's more, I knew that at the time -- the yarn required for my size is clearly highlighted in the pattern, the amount of yarn I had is recorded in its project page on Ravelry, and even pre-chemo I still knew that 5 ≠ 8. What was I thinking? I demanded of my family. And KD knew. "You hate making sleeves. You were probably planning to start the sleeves at the yoke."

Yep. That's exactly what I would have been planning, and even though I would totally make sleeves for it now, I don't have the yarn, so cap sleeves it shall be.

Forest Lily Unveiled

I am deeply in love with this little shawl, which I started in 2015. It was definitely worth the wait. We are into springtime weather locally, which means I don't need a coat or jacket to go out for a walk, but just a little bit of warmth, and this shawl was more than adequate. And so pretty!

Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Findley in Tiger Lily, a discontinued color. Findley is a fingering/lace weight -- depending on who you ask -- 50/50 silk merino, and I have loved everything I have ever made from it
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) circular
Pattern: Cath Ward's Lost in the Forest. Easy to understand directions and a stunningly beautiful result, says the knitter with an admitted fondness for spiderweb and leaves as design motifs.

It was a little bigger than my blocking board, which made it difficult to block into the curved shape I wanted, but surprisingly, incorporating a fold made little difference, and it came out nicely blocked.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

It was suggested that I gradually introduce the team that enables me to get so much knitting done for this blog. That seems only fair. Most recently, Pooh Bear stepped up during my recent trip when it seemed I was getting a bit bored with sweater knitting -

- with the result that the back of the sweater is now completely finished. Note that Pooh Bear also listens to podcasts to get through long slogs of stockinette.

Next, this little guy made sure I got a good start on the front of the sweater, and thanks to his help and a long car drive, I am up to the armsyce on the front now.

Where would we be without our support teams?