Mother's Day

My mom brought me a pic of a flowy low cut cardigan and asked me to make one like it. We went to the A Mano sale and got a bag of Heirloom Breeze in pink – so cute. I did the Barbara Walker method using the Picovoli darts (Grumperina knows her darts!). I didn’t do any increasing on the way down the front (besides the darts). Then I did 2 lace panels that decreased as they got up around the neck line and finishes everything off with a single crochet edge in Crystal Palace Pink. The above pic is at our favorite place for Sunday brunch - Zabies on Ocean Park on Mother's Day. She loved it. She was leaving the next day to model on Alaskan Cruislines and she took it as one of her “favorite pieces”. They actually took photos of her in it on deck, so my sweater might be in a Cruiseline catalogue. Keep your eyes peeled!

Pattern: my own (based on the Barbara Walker info)
Yarn: Heirloom Breeze (12 balls)
Needle: Size 6 (then after increasing with darts I switched to size 7, then 8 around the bottom)

I did another one of those ribbed beanies (in my free pattern section). This time I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Charcoal. Flower pin found elsewhere.
Pattern: my own (in my free pattern section)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease
Needle: size 8

Silk! I went to Sandy, Utah with Tim on a business trip and spent most of the time at an adorable Yarn shop called The Naked Sheep. I bought 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and made a beret. I had a whole skein left. Then I found the random “Lacy Thong” pattern in the Interweave free patterns online. I was over making practical things. It took me 2 days!
Pattern: http://www.interweaveknits.com/freepatterns/lingerie.asp
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk
Needle: Size 5

And here's the "matching" beret. These items are not meant to be worn as an ensemble :)
Pattern: Interweave Knits (Winter 2006)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk
Needle: Size 5

Tax Season is Over

This hat is quick and easy (just like the boy modeling it). The hat is for my husband, but we decided that our mocha-skinned friend, Baracuda, should model it. This is the park where my work friends and I eat lunch every weekday. Funny story: my friend Marc is obsessed with the long grass at the edges of this park. I said that he talks about the grass too much, to which he countered with the deadly “you talk about knitting too much.” That is when he threatened to start a blog about the grass, which, as boring as that sounds, is now in existence at http://onethingalways.blogspot.com/

Pattern: Mine - I would share it with you, but can't find the darn thing
Yarn: Lion Brand Micro Spun
Needle: CO w/ size 7, K w/size 4 dpns

My 2nd job as a tax preparer for H&R Block didn't leave much time for knitting this year. But I made it through and somehow eeked this sweater and the above hat. The sweater pattern is my own- seamless, from the top down- culled from the Barbara Walker book. The yarn is Malabrigo, which has needed a few shaves so far with a Bic razor - but I believe won't need many in the future. I did some ribbing on the outside of the sleeve and on the sides of the body - I thought it was a nice tie-in for the ribbed shawl collar. I did 5 hook and eye closures. The only thing I would do differently is to add in some darts in the way that Grumperina did for the Picovoli Tee - that's my new favorite dart method.

Pattern: My own form the Barbara Walker Top Down parameters
Yarn: Malabrigo
Needle: Body uses size 7 Denise, all edgings use size 9 Denise (arms with dpns)

Felted Tote

Yae! This took me no time at all. I designed it using my present everyday bag as my muse. My friend Marc got me the Cascade 220 yarn for Xmas - and the purse feet. My only issue was losing the purse feet in my washing machine - 2 of them fell out while felting. My dh took the middle of the washer out and there they were. I felted my gauge swatch so the size came out perfect.

Pattern: mine - soon to be posted in my free pattern section

Yarn: Cascade 220 (I'll list the exact colors tomorrow)

Needles: size 8

Purse Form: I bought some plastic mesh in the cross stich section of JoAnns for 89 cents and sewed one row to the next row over to shape it.

Lining: Did a lining with pockets for cell phone, blue tooth and my lip liner!

Handles: Bought a length of suede, cut it into 2 sections of 21 inches and took it to the shoe guy in my building to sew the handles on - making sure he knew to grab the purse form in his stitching - I don't want anything stretching out over time.

The winter of socks

Socks! A number of family members got socks this winter. They're so easy to carry in my bag and they could be worked on during tax class.
Pattern: Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick
Yarn: KnitPicks Andean Treasure in Granite
Needle: size 4 dpns

Pattern: http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/socks.html
Yarn: Online (thats the company name) from http://www.littleknits.com/
Needles: size 2 dpnsPattern: http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/socks.html

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes

Needles: size 2 dpns

Fast, Easy Felted Hat

Pattern: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/iceland-splash-feltedhat.html - without the novelty yarn. Cast on a few extra stitches and decreased them evenly for bigger brim.

Yarn: Knit Picks Sierra in Pool

Needles: size 10 round and dpns

This hat was , once again, a joy to make. I made it for my sister, Candice, for her birthday. This time I was more vigilant during the felting; looking at it in 2 minute intervals. So there was no crazy stretching to do when it came out, just a little shaping. I think the bow was a cute addition - its blowing in the wind - how wintery of it!

I have found the Holy Grail of Sweater Construction

Seriously people, I’m not sure what to do with myself. After trials and tribulations with set-in sleeves ( see previous posts), I have seen the light and I am saved! Its all about Barbara Walker. She is a genius along the lines of EZ, a knitter who urges others to take control of the finished object from the very beginning. Why shouldn’t we be able to try sweaters on as we go? Why would we waste the 3 dimensionality of knitting on flat patterns? Why can’t we have a fool proof way of doing a set-in sleeve so that you know if you do one simple calculation you will end up with a perfect shoulder cap?

Finally I am able to finish the sweaters that have been sitting in the back of the closet frustrating me when I think about them. I purchased “Top Down Sweaters” by Barbara Walker from Schoolhouse Press and my life will never be the same. I have already skipped to the chapter on Top Down seamless set-in sleeve sweaters (mouthful) and have made perfect size sleeve caps for my dh’s sweater – with one simple calculation! I never thought I would reading a knitting theory book. I wanted to be spoon-fed beautiful patterns and just follow them to paradise. Well, I’ve realized that taking sweater construction into your own hands (haha) is much easier than you think if you have the theories of a genius as the basis from which to work. Oh, and don’t be scared of the front cover of the book. It is straight out of the early eighties. Also there are no pics or patterns in the book just diagrams. Trust me, you’ll understand why and then you’ll never again want to see a model carefully showing off the best angle of a flat pattern sweater that is never going to look like that on you.

So here’s the sweater – started ages ago. The first time it was “finished” the sleeves were puffy with oversized sleeve caps, the second time the sleeve was too tight with no room for the armpit and the third bowl of porridge was just perfect!

Pattern: A mixture of Ann Bud's Set-in-Sleeve pattern and Barbara Walker's info

Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay

Needle: size 9

On the same tip, here's the other sweater that I had thrown into the back of the closet until I could redo the sleeve caps.

Pattern: Rowan Magazine 37? with Barbara Walker style sleeves

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Needle: size 5 for garter edging and size 6 for body

Top Down baby sweater and Better Ugg Booties

Pattern: Mod from the below link
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky in Brown and Bernat Baby Soft in pink for the i-cord
Needles: size 7 for body, size 5 dpns for i-cord edging
I found a great pattern online for a top down raglan cardigan(http://www.geocities.com/lindaslists/babysweaterfront.htm) that I modified for chunky Alpaca and to which I added a knit an i-cord border; totally fast project. Actually, if you plan to do this sweater I would replace the i-cord with a crochet border. The i-cord literally took me more time than the whole body of the sweater – no joke. You’d save time and it would be just as cute with a single or double crochet. The basic design was inspired by Megan Mills of Aukland whose intelligent bootie patterns are published in the Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar.

Bootie Expose

The time has come to expose the bad bootie pattern writers that are out there making life difficult for knitters. I have never been a great pattern-theorist. I just followed patterns and hoped for the best. But now I’m pissed. I bought Zoe Mellor’s “Adorable Knits for Tots” book for the Mary Jane Booties. Here’s the problem. The pattern is completely unintelligent. After knitting for an hour or two, not knowing what shape you are striving for(because she has no schematic or explanation), you end up with a flat, strangely shaped piece of fabric that you are left to piece together and try to make decent. If I wanted to take a flat piece of fabric and put it together I would take up sewing.
Secondly, the seam is on one side of the sole, making the final product uneven looking if a baby foot is not already in it. Convenient that all of her shots of this bootie have a cute little sausage foot already in them. I was so upset with this stage of the bootie that I didn’t even photograph it before frogging.
I went online to see if the pattern had errors and found a plethora of negative reviews of her patterns, so I decided to see what else was out there. Lo and behold, there is almost the exact same pattern, but without the strap, in the Debbie Bliss Baby Book. Bad pattern writing is a virus! Lucky for me, my sister came upon a small, $3.99 book at the supermarket in Omaha by the cash register. Gotta love the Midwest for having knitting accessible, even in the most mundane places. The book, "Knitting for Babies", a special pub. from fbnr.com, had a Mary Jane bootie pattern that is totally adorable.

Pattern: Knitting for Babies, special pub. from fbnr.com (847-329-5657)

Yarn:KnitPicks Andean Treasure in Wild Rose Heather

Needles: size 3

The pattern starts at the bottom of the sole, goes up through the toe with minimal, but well-placed shaping and binds off at the ankle, ending with grafting the two sides of the cast-on sole together with kitchener stitch. Thank you Lucie Sinkler! Whoever you are, I love that you used your brain while writing this pattern. The beauty of knitting is that you can do it in 3 dimensions. Don’t take that away from us you over-published template monkeys!

After the Lull

OMG! So the Lull of 2006 finally ended! Here's what happened. The set-in-sleeve dysfunctions were piling up - a sweater for my dh gone awry and a sweaterlette for me: both with puffy shoulders and looking hideous. So I threw them into the corner and just stopped knitting. Keep reading... its going to get better. This knitting boycott went on for 3 months until I attended the Midwest Stitches Convention, which I had signed up for when I was a happy, prolific knitter. I was dreading even doing the swatches for this event, let alone going, but my dh and I had a whole family trip planned around it.

Then came Judy Pascale and Margaret Fisher- sent-from-heaven. (sidenote - took a terribly disorganized and lame class from Debbie New who I highly do not recommend!) Anyway - Margaret's class - called "The Long and Short of Knitting Alterations" was life-altering - I'm not even joking. She taught how to take apart an item into an upper and lower section; basically, darn a scrap yarn through the row above and the row below your chosen cutting place. After cutting, you can lenthen, shorten, reattach, etc. So all I could think about was this scarf gone bad from last summer. My mistake was using cotton for a scarf that was a stockinette based lace. It rolled like a mother and no matter how much starching and ironing and blocking I did, there was no hope.

So I got home and took the scarf apart in 6 sections, then seamed them to eachother width-wise to make the bottom half of a shirt. Let me add now the wierd part of the story. During the Lull I went to Goodwill and bought for $3.99 a knitted top that someone made - it's gorgeous. I later discovered that the mystery knitter used a popular pattern called Lelah. Here's a gallery of them: http://knittingforboozehags.com/gallery/lelah-top-gallery The one I bought looks exactly like the grey one with the green ribbon. Anyway - after making the scarf into the bottom of the shirt I knitted the top in stockinette and voila!

Pattern: Mine, inspired by Lelah (above link). The leaf lace pattern was from Vogue Spring/Summer 2005 - the scarf patterns at the end of the editorials

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine in Blush

Needles: 7 for lace, 5 for yarnovers and midsection, 3 for bust and straps

Pattern: Nautilus Hat http://marniemaclean.com/patterns/Nautilus/ This girl has really cute patterns. I've now done this hat in 3 colors - same yarn. I have since added ribbing in last 5 rows.
Yarn: Royal Cashmere by Plymouth Yarns
Needles: size 7 dpns

If you're in the mood for a really easy project that is adorable this Baby Kimono is a winner. It's knit in one piece yae! and the only "wierd" thing you have to do is the cable cast-on.

Pattern: Baby Kimono - Interweave Knits Summer 2005?
Yarn: Knit Picks Ambrosia - 3 balls of Grass
Needles: size 5

Here's a booty close-up.

Pattern: Family Circle Easy Knitting Publication Holiday 2002
Yarn: Knit Picks Ambrosia in Grass
Needle: size 5

So, then I yearned to do more socks. Here's one of the pairs. Regia 6 - delightful yarn. Got it at Little Knits - online store.

Pattern: http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/socks.html

Yarn: Regia 6 from http://www.littleknits.com/

Needles: size 3 dpns

So, then one day I became fascinated with Fair Isle. I got a few books and was enthralled by its rich history. Of course I couldn't just start with a hat of gloves. I went straight in for the vest with traditional steeks and all. Luckily, Eunny Jang, in her infinite wisdom, has created a detailed pattern with steeking instructions for like $5. So I got it. You do the entire thing in the round and then cut the armholes and v-neck that have been steeked.

After about 4 inches I reaized my argysle wasn't working, so I made up a simple Fair Isle stitch pattern with a colorway of 4 colors.

Here's a close-up of the contrasting color steek that I cut between.

It all went well until it was all done. Because I used Cascade 220 and a size 7 needle instead of a thinner yarn and the size 4 that she used my seams turned out really bulky. So I machine steeked it with 2 rows of stitching and cut off the seems. Then I sprayed them with water, manually agitated them (just scrumpling them around) and ironed them down. I think it created a felting effect, because everything stays where it is supposed to. Its a really fun item to wear. I wear another shirt under it because I don't like to feel wool on me, but its not scratchy at all - and not too warm.

The only other mod that I did was decreased stitches in the arm and neck bands and used a size 5 needle. When I didn't do that it was totally Mad Max vest.

Pattern: http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/01/deep_v_argyle_vest.html

Yarn: Cascade 220

Needle: size 7 round

The following is a 2 color Brioche that didn't make the final cut. I frogged it and am currently using the Misti Alpaca for a baby jacket with matching Uggs. Going to be seriously cute.

Pattern: Brioche Scarf from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky in light pink and Brown ( I do not recommend this yarn for this project. It is too bulky, barely stays on the short dpn, and is scratchy by the face.)

Needles: size 10

Before the Lull

Pattern: http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/socks.html - I used the lightweight pattern and adjusted for heavier yarn
Yarn: Knit Picks Parade - no longer available - but similar to Regia 6 in weight and feel
needles: size 3 dpns
Loved doing these socks in the thicker yarn - they practically knit themselves! So cozy too.

Decided to try felting. I found the following hat pattern online and since you knit it bigger, because it shrinks, while you're working on it it looks like a rasta hat that will have room for a bunch of dreads. I left it in the water maybe a minute or two longer than I should have. When I pulled it out I had to put it on my head and my dh and I had to pull on it vigorously to shape it. The worst part, besides the wet hair, was the smell of wet dog that came off of the wool - seriously gnarly. Next time I will knit a bit bigger brim and leave it in a few minutes less.

Pattern: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/iceland-splash-feltedhat.html - without the novelty yarn
Yarn: Knit Picks Sierra in Leaf
needles: size 10 round and dpns

So in love with fingerless gloves! I never thought of wearing these until I started freezing while working on the computer - BTW if you live in LA for more than a year you completely lose touch with real temperatures and 60 feels absolutely arctic. Found a great online pattern and did a shorter cuff and only 8 rows from end of cuff to thumb gusset - its the perfect fit and doesn't look to big and bulky for work.

Pattern: mod from this PDF: thegivingflower.de/patterns/Cabled_Fingerless2.1_20060304.pdf

Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Treasure in Granite

Needles: size 4 dpns

I'm having major stress from set-in-sleeve dysfunction! They just rarely seem to fit right! I now have 2 sweaters that I've set aside because they have puffy shoulders; one is for my husband and he's simply not going to go for that look. So I decided to do some items that are flat. Maybe just one item - I could get bored of it. I had some alpaca so I started making a baby blanket. I made it up as I went along - I've heard that babies enjoy poking their fingers through lace and playing with bobbles. It was relaxing and took my mind off the horrid set-in-sleeve monstrosities.

BTW - that's my 34 year old Snoopy on the left - I got him at birth and he's had 2 arm surgeries and a neck procedure. On his right is Belle - his girlffriend since my 12th birthday. Her fur looks a little fresher.

Pattern: Mine

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Cloud, Misti Alpaca Chunky, and some random cashmere

Time for a stuffed animal! I saw the "Kate" pattern in knitty and there was no turning back; although a friend did rename her Bubar - I find it fitting. She's a wonderful addition to the living room, she keeps Ardvark company and always looks happy, whether she's playing, reading or just relaxing.

Pattern: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTkate.html

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andeas in Pumpkin, Violet and Hollyberry

Needle: size 10 ( I would recommend a 7 as the seems are visible and in areas she's a bit holy)