Even though I finished it in mid-April, we had a couple of days cool enough that I got to wear my new sweater, and I continue to love it SO MUCH. If the cardigan in progress also turns out to be a winner, I will have scored a trifecta on Lett-Lopi sweaters.
The designer who came up with my current favorite sweater designed two more sweaters using the same gauge-shifting of Léttlopi. Gauge-shifting means that she knits the yarn on much bigger needles than the yarn usually calls for, resulting in a lightweight-but-still-warm, drapey fabric. I went through my Léttlopi stash, ordered one single color (restraint!), bought the patterns, and cast on the first sweater.
Needles: US 9 (5.5mm) and 10.5 (6mm)
Yarn: Ístex Léttlopi in Dark Gray, Apricot, and White
Pattern: Mary Jane Mucklestone's Destination Pullover, from Modern Daily Knitting's Field Guide No. 17
Mods: I made the optional pockets (pockets!), I used a motif from my pattern stash, and I made symmetrical colors on the sleeves
I chose a motif that I found when packing up my patterns, from a Malabrigo sweater pattern. It reminded me of waves, but also of Janney couplings, and since I had just recently discovered a family connection to Eli Janney, I decided to use that instead of any of the many perfectly nice motifs offered by the pattern. I did put a little bead motif inside the pockets, for fun.
As expected, it fits perfectly. Fortuitously, the weather turned cold again and I got to wear it today. I love it so much! It took me less than a month to knit, and I've already cast on the next sweater.
This pattern and this yarn are such a good match that I've made the combination five times. Sadly, the second pair were for KD, so I only have four pairs.
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm)
Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock FX, this time in Cameo
Pattern: Erica Lueder's Hermione's Everyday Socks
This was legacy yarn, and my sister had used some of the yarn, I think, because I played yarn chicken on each sock, and that's not something I usually have to worry about.
Here's my array. I've just noticed that the colorways are named in a pattern: Cameo, Copper, Cascade, and Clover. (I made Camelot for KD.)
There's Camel, Camo, Clay, and Cowboy, which are too bland for me. That leaves Cadet, Calla Lily, Canyon, Casual, and Celestial, none of which I own, but I will keep an eye out for. Celestial, especially!
I do have some plain old Kroy Socks, which are more regularly variegated in color. I'll probably cast on the blue (Singin' n the Blues) come fall. It's a constant surprise to me, given my love of symmetry, that I love this yarn and these socks even though it's flatly impossible to make two exactly matching socks. They match enough, it seems.
I made a hat. Not the hat I intended. I learned that "super bulky" is a really loosely-defined term in yarn weights. Also, that no one with arthritis (and possibly without) should try to knit three stitches together in super bulky yarn. But once I gave up on that dream, it was the matter of a few hours to knit up a hat that would fit the recipient.
Needles: US 13 (9 mm)
Yarn: one skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Stripes in City Lights
Pattern: made it up as I went along
That left me with two skeins of the same yarn. Since I didn't feel like making three hats, I posited that it was enough for a child's sweater, and Ravelry did not disappoint.
Needles: US 13 (9 mm)
Yarn: two skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Stripes in City Lights
Pattern: Ashley Lillis's Cozy Kiddo Cardigan, size 2
I am really grateful to the knitter who pointed out a good method for attaching buttons to super-bulky knits: backer buttons! Each of those buttons is sewn to a smaller button of the same color (KD suggested mixing them up, but that hurt my brain), and the knit fabric is just sandwiched between.
I was wrong about which project I'd finish next.
Despite my intention to use up all the yarn on this project, there was a skein of grey and a skein of black left when I was done. I fed the amounts into Ravelry's search engine, and out popped a pattern that had been in my favorites for nearly a decade! So of course I chose that.
Needles: US 8 (5.5 mm)
Yarn: one skein of Lang's Jawoll Magic in black/grey, one skein of something else in black, but the same weight
Pattern: AnneM's Revontuli -huivi/Northern Lights
There's a mistake in the pattern early on, but other Ravelers had commented on it, so I was able to figure out what had happened and start over. I just kept plugging away at it - it took me less than a month. I wasn't overly impressed with the result. It was just a bumpy mess of grey and black, and looked too small, maybe shawlette size.
Then I blocked it. Part of my surprise at the transformation was that at no point did I think of this as lace. There's just the occasional row of yarn overs, the antithesis of fancy. But man, do I love this! Also, it's huge.
So many things on the needles, all chugging quietly along, but none of them ready for the spotlight.
I spent entirely too much time on this heel flap this week. It's the second sock of a pair, my fifth pair of socks in this pattern, a favorite, and I cannot account for my inability to keep the pattern straight. I'd lose it halfway through the row, and then not notice until a couple of rows later. For hard-to-express reasons, it's not something you can just drop down and fix; entire rows must be torn out. It was maddening, and I stopped counting do-overs after seven. At least it's behind me now. The heel is turned, and I'm chugging through gusset-land.
I am in the long, dark night of the soul on this pretty shawl. Each row is longer than the next, each row is making the next row longer, I still have an inch to go, and it.will.never.end.
This, on the other hand, is coming along swimmingly, and my bet is that this will be the next finished object.
I found a sweater I started for myself on 2011, and finished it.
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)
Yarn: 359 g of fingering weight
Pattern: Svetlana Avrakh's Cut-Away Cardigan
I have no idea what the yarn is, other than a nicely kettle-dyed taupe in fingering weight acrylic. I know what the pattern was, because it was carved on a stone tablet printed out from a now-defunct website. I only had to sew on the sleeves -- no surprise I stopped there, not my favorite task, although I've gotten better at it --
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sew up the side seams, and make the edging. That had the nice, and probably intended, effect of stopping the edges from curling.
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I even found a nice matching button, which I am just poking through the edging, as there is no buttonhole in the piece. Here's the thing though: I don't like it. I'm not sure why. The color is good, and good on me. The edging makes it a bit on the frilly side, but I could put up with that. I think it's the fit. I just feel dumpy in it. Like I'm wearing someone else's sweater. This probably has a lot to do with the size being from BC (before cancer) - it is miles too big. I like loose-fitting clothes, but this is ridiculous.
So I probably won't keep it. But who knows, maybe someone else will love it.
I found a lacy pink cotton vest I had made and barely ever wore, because cotton stretches. I frogged it, wound the yarn, and weighed it. Surprisingly, I had enough for a cute little sweater for a four-year-old. Not that I know any four-year-olds in need of cotton sweaters, but that's what the Box is for.
The re-used yarn was a little lumpy in the final product, but blocking helped, and the first time it gets tossed in the washer and dryer will help even more.
I went through my button stash, not really thinking I'd find anything, and turned up these two delightful buttons. No idea where they came from, but the pink matches, and I only needed two buttons, so I'm happy.
Needles: US 2 1/2 (3.00mm) and US 6 (4.00mm)
Yarn: Patons Grace, 218 grams in Pink
Pattern: Helena, published in Knitty, Summer 2008
Someone was cold, so I found out their favorite colors and whipped up a hat and scarf.
The hat pattern was one I had recently purchased and was eager to try out. It is in no way the fault of the pattern, but rather the evils of long distance knitting, that resulted in the hat being too big. Still, better than too small, where hats are concerned.
Needles: US 8 (5.00mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in 1.25 skeins of Eggplant, 0.35 skein of Honey
Pattern: Hunter Hammersen's Entrapment
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| The pattern is the same on both fronts, I just wanted to show what the back of the pattern looks like |
I got confused between the number of grams I needed and the number of yards I needed, and wound up with twice the amount of purple I needed, with about half the one skein of gold left after the hat. So I needed a scarf pattern that called for two colors, but not equal amounts. Boy was I happy to find this one! I used the pattern for the beginning and end of the scarf, but chose to work the center in fisherman's rib for its unparalleled squishy warmth.
Needles: US 8 (5.00mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in 2.75 skeins of Eggplant, 0.65 skeins of Honey
Pattern: Sarah Burton's Fluted Rib Scarf (I only used the Fluted Rib pattern)
Sometimes you solve a problem and promptly forget all about it, because now everything is ticking along smoothly. I looked around the room a recently on a cold winter's night, and noted with surprise that everyone was wearing a pair of slippers that I had knit and felted.
When I made NKD's and KD's slippers, I left them with felted soles, at their request.
But for DH's and mine, I wanted leather soles. I wrote about how a full length leather sole changed the shape of the slipper and made it hard for me to keep on my foot. After that post, I removed the leather soles from my slippers and felted the slippers down a little smaller. Then I cut the used leather soles in half. DH used an awl to add sewing holes to the cut halves, and I sewed them to our slippers.
And everyone had warm feet all winter.
I inherited from my sister an unopened (and discontinued) kit made by the Tsarina of Tsocks, Lisa Grossman, who died in 2015. It contained her pattern for Willow Ware socks, and two skeins of her wool/silk Tsilk Tstocking, one in Blue Willow and one in Natural.
I knew right away that I would make it into something for my youngest sister, who is taking my collection of our grandmother's willow ware off my hands when I move, and loves things blue-and-white. But she does not wear wool socks, even when deliciously mixed with silk. We decided on a pillow instead.
We went out for lunch, in the Before Time, and spread the charted patterns across the table, slowly rearranging them into a rough approximation of a square, which we then sketched in time-honored fashion on the back of a napkin.
I went home and made gauge swatches, settling on a US 0 (2.00 mm). I had decided that I wanted a smaller pillow than the last one I made for her. I did math, converted our notes and the separate charts into one single chart, and decided to convert the cuff patterns into a frame for the picture. Fans of willow ware will note that the configuration is missing one bird, which messes with the associated fable, but it's easy to find similar examples:
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| Tallrik, 1770 CC by SA 3.0 |
I decided on a simple two-color envelope back, fastened by five buttons. I found the perfect buttons in the Etsy shop GingerMintCollection. Since they came from Australia, they did not make it in time for Christmas, but have since arrived and been attached.
It was not until I was knitting the back that I realized how gently variegated the blue was. When I went back and added the embroidered detail to the front, it was fun to see the color shift on the willow leaves.
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| before embroidery |
Years ago, KD presented me with some yarn she had spun herself, which incorporated the family's favorite colors. It took a bit of time to figure out the best use of two fuzzy, multi-colored, thick-and-thin yarns, one grey and one black. I settled on a rectangular shawl in Old Shale (also known as Feather-and-Fan). I'm really pleased with the result.
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| This one shows all the colors best |
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| This one shows the pattern best |
Needles: US 9 (5.5mm)
Yarn: 448 yards of KD's handspun in Night and Fog
Pattern: Mary Turley's Feather and Fan Scarf [Ravelry link]
I had just enough of Night left over to knit up two baby balls
to add to my collection.
I finished the Camp Blanket! This was just exactly the right year for miles and miles of mindless garter stitch. Thanks to a recently stumbled-upon youtube video, I have mastered the art of invisible garter stitch seams. I deliberately left the edges as is, for maximum stretch when curling up under it.
Needles: US 8 (5mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Black, Ivy, Navy, Ash, and Bark
Pattern: Kate McLaughlin's 220 Garter Blanket Recipe [Ravelry link]
There was enough yarn left to make a matching pillow, so I tried my hand at the popular log cabin knitting pattern. It took me a couple of tries to get the hang of. Not having enough left to knit a pillow back, I sewed up a pillow cover (with an overlap back; I'm not up to zippers yet), and then sewed the log cabin square to the front of it.
And then I STILL had some yarn left, so I made two little baby hats for The Box.
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Ash and Navy, Ivy and Bark
Pattern: Lisa Seifert*'s 1-2-3 Baby Beanie
*Huh. Wonder if we're related.
Another pattern that, as soon as I discovered it, knew I would have to make. What else do you give a fellow fan of Hilda?
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| Nothing for scale! He's about a hand high. |
Yarn: Berroco Vintage DK in Oats, about 15 grams/44 yards, black scraps
Hook: E (3.5 mm)
Pattern: Transatlantic Crochet's Woodman [Ravelry link]
Mods: as is my practice with such figures, I inserted (in this case, folded over) chenille sticks through the body for his arms and legs so that he would be posable
This was a deeply satisfying project. I've had the pattern bookmarked for quite a while, and when I realized I had a Christmas recipient all lined up, I ordered the yarn. I made it with worsted weight instead of DK, and on 5s instead of 3s (the yarn is held double throughout). I had 6s on hand when I cast on, in case the fabric turned out too stiff, but it was perfect on 5s, soft but dense, so that no stuffing shows through. I sewed it up with the yarn held double as well.
I nearly gave up on the project when I read the first line of the instructions: cast on 10 stitches. That doesn't sound alarming, does it? I knew I was starting with a leg, and not the body, but I was imagining that this piece would be folded in half, and I could see for myself in the photos that there were more stitches than that in the leg. I took a look at other people's efforts on Ravelry, and was alarmed that there were so few of them. And of those, hardly any looked like the original pattern. Now deeply alarmed, I read through everyone's notes. One photo cleared up the mystery of how the thing is constructed, and a quick re-read of the instructions showed what I had missed. You start at the front of the legs, knit up the body, over the top of the head, and back down to the legs again. Arms happen by magic at some point. And the whole thing is sewed together at the sides. I could see where others had strayed from the designer's intent, and I thought I could avoid the pitfalls. First and foremost, NKD's earliest doll was knit in garter stitch, and she delighted in giving him "growing lessons" until he was quite a lanky fellow. So I knew that I had to stuff carefully so that the tiger filled out instead of just growing taller.
Getting the face right on toys and dolls is immensely important. The face in the original pattern was perfect, so I zoomed in and counted stitches and placed markers, all to make sure it had the personality it deserved.
I nearly forgot the tail, but the entire household kept reminding me.
Needles: US 5 (3.5 mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Satsuma, White, and Black
Pattern: Lyn Livingston's Tiger in Garter Stitch
How much did I love this pattern? So much that without pausing, I cast on the leftover black and white yarn for another friend (who didn't need a tail):
