August 2008

In the Woods

Sunday, August 31, 2008

As you might've guessed, I got my buttons for Buttony on Thursday. Really simple, understated buttons but they're a yummy chocolate color that goes so well with the striping. Yesterday I took the sweater for an outing in the woods.

I love how this turned out! I'm really happy with the shaping -- it feels like it was made for me. :)

Although it was pretty warm outside yesterday, as much as I hate to admit it, fall is coming.

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Buttons!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Buttons!

For Cinnamony.

And for other stuff (doesn't hurt to have a stash).

From Polinka.

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More Summer FOs: Cabled Cardigan

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Now that Ravelympics is over and done with, it's time to go back to projects I finished earlier in the summer. This cabled cardigan was a long, slow project. I started it in Summer 2007 with the overly optimistic (it turns out) idea of getting to wear it in the fall. Yeah, right. ;)

I was working on the project on and off -- mostly off -- all through the fall and winter. It got cast aside every time I found something more interesting, like socks. When Sockdown: Ravelry started to wind down for a breather, I picked up the cardigan again in, uhh, May-ish? With 1.5 sleeves to go it was a pretty quick finish.

And then there was the zipper. First of all, I couldn't find one that was both the right color and the right length. The one I picked is a dark navy but it's not too much of a difference.

And then there was the sewing of the zipper. That I had to do twice. By hand. The first time for what ever reason I didn't bother to check whether I could open and close the zipper with ease. I was working on the last inch of sewing when I noticed that the zipper wouldn't budge cause I'd sewn too close to the teeth. Rip rip rip! The second time worked much better and faster, though. Lesson learned. :)

I'd neglected to wash my gauge swatch so of course the cardigan grew when I wet-blocked it (hello, superwash). This wasn't actually a bad thing because it was too snug before blocking. The fit is great now but the fabric is a bit too loose and drapey. And the sleeves are already starting to pill. But I've been wearing this a lot. :)

Project: MacPalmikkoneule Cardigan (Ravelry), cast-on: July 31 2007, cast-off: June 20, 2008
Pattern: MacPalmikkoneule by Sanna of tupasvillaa.blogspot.com
Yarn: 12 skeins (600g/1776 yd/1624 m) of Novita Wool in colorway #192 (dark teal)
Needles: 3.5 and 4.0 mm circular
Mods: Added waist + shoulder shaping and 3-needle bind of for shoulders; folder rib hem; zipper; top-down set-in seamless sleeves with Barbara Walker-esque short-row shaping

While I was still knitting up the sleeves, I noticed one day that the pattern had disappeared from where I printed it. Sanna, who had designed the cardi and kindly posted the pattern on her blog, had decided to quit blogging and her blog vanished. :( Am I glad I had the files saved on my laptop! I have a vague recollection of her posting that she'd be on Ravelry but I can't remember her Ravelry nick. So, if anyone knows Sanna, could you ask if she could offer the pattern as a Ravelry download? It's too great a pattern to vanish into thin air.

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Buttony = Finito

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Woo, I made it! :) Buttony/Cinnamony is finished and it's looking pretty good. A bit baggy under the arms but noting too bad. This will be a super warm and cozy cardigan for the winter. Speaking of cozy, I like the yarn so much that I'm toying with the idea of making the Cozy V-neck Pullover from Fitted Knits using the Fusion yarn. The gauge doesn't quite match but I think I could make it work.

Anyway, project notes for Cinnamony now:

Project: Cinnamony, cast-on: August 8 2008, cast-off: August 22, 2008 (2 weeks!)
Pattern: Buttony (Ravelry) by Katie Marcus
Yarn: Wendy Fusion (50% wool/50% acrylic), colorway #157 Cinnamon, about 6.5 balls (330g/635yd/581m)
Needles: 6.5 mm
Mods: Cast-on 84 sts (7 garter edge + 10 sleeve + 26 back + 10 sleeve + 24 front + 7 edge); slipped last two sts of every row with yarn in front; 12 button holes.

Did I say warm? Try sweltering. :) Late summer + indoor photo shoot in a bulky sweater = a little too hot. I'm glad this has a built-in air vent.

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First Sleeve Done

Saturday, August 16, 2008

A week of *lympics behind. First sleeve done, down one third of the second. Yarn situation is looking good: I've used 4 out of 8 balls and I think I have plenty to finish. Still no buttons. Off to knit more. :)

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Some Progress on Buttony

Monday, August 11, 2008

Four days into Ravelympics, here's my progress.

My personal goal was to knit through 3 balls of the yarn during the weekend (one ball per day) and I almost made it. Late Sunday night I noticed that one of the button holes was looking wayyy too loose so I had to tink back a few rows. As soft and lofty the yarn is, it's not a joy to frog. :) Still, I managed about 2.5 balls all in all.

You can't really tell from the picture but I've finished the decrease part of waist shaping. The amount of yarn I have left is looking a bit worrisome so I figure I'll put the body on hold for a while and finish the sleeves first. Then I can cruise through the rest of the body and just stop when I run out of yarn... unless it's looking really cropped. Fingers crossed. :)

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Ravelympics Are On!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Finally! I've been itching to cast on all week. :) Haven't made much progress yet but here goes anyways.

Project: Cinnamony (Cinnamon + Buttony), cast-on: August 8 2008 at 8 pm Beijing time... 08-08-08 :)
Pattern: Buttony (Ravelry) by Katie Marcus
Yarn: Wendy Fusion (50% wool/50% acrylic), colorway #157 Cinnamon
Needles: 6.5 mm
Mods: I'm copying Tania Ho (her version is gorgeous!) and cast on 82 sts, plus 2 extra. Why 2 extra? Instead of slipping the first stitch of every row (as in the original), I'm slipping the last two sts of every row with yarn in front. This creates a very neat knitted-on i-cord edge. I may also fudge with the increases -- will see how it goes.

Must find buttons for this, too! Otherwise it wouldn't be very Buttony, now would it? :P

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Planning for Ravelympics

Friday, August 08, 2008

The first ever Ravelympics (and I guess some big sporting event, too) start in just a few days. In the spirit of the games, I've been trying to think of projects that would be challenging but still doable in 17 days.

My main event is in sweatersprint: Buttony cardigan (Ravelry) by Katie Marcus in Wendy Fusion (wool/acrylic blend), colorway "Cinnamon". An entire cardigan in 17 days? And I'm going back to work on the 11th? Even thought it's in bulky weight yarn, that's definitely a challenge!

The Wendy Fusion yarn looks really interesting. Although it's a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend, I was pleasantly surprised by the softness. The yarn is self-striping with really, really long color repeats and subtle changes. Believe it or not, those two balls are actually of the same colorway. That's how long the repeats are! Should be fairly interesting to see how it knits up. :)

The next two ideas are my back-up events that I may or may not get to, depending on the time I have.

I popped by the LYS the other day and, on a whim, bought two balls of Marks & Kattens Sarek. This is a very Noro-ish yarn, 100% feltable wool with long color repeats and subtle variations... hey, I'm sensing a pattern here. ;) I don't have a specific pattern in mind but maybe a mug cozy? Or teapot cozy? That could work. (event tags feltedfreestyle and homestuffhammerthrow)

I still have some leftovers of that merino/cashmere yarn I used for mom's shawl. That might just be enough for a lacy cowl or scarflette. I may even throw in some beads, never mind that I've never used beads in knitting... Challenge, right? :) (event tags cowljump and laceweightlongjump) OK, who came up with these event names? They're hilarious!

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More FOs: Carolina

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Yes, more FOs! I posted these on Ravelry in late June when I finished them but now I took them outside to get better photos. These socks were the May 2008 challenge in Sockdown: Ravelry. The first round of Sockdown continued in June and July as well, but after finishing this pair I got sucked into Sweater Land. I haven't checked back with the group in a long while but I guess the plan was to start round #2 in September 2008. To tell you the truth, I'm a little over the sock thing for the time being. I'm pretty sure I'll join the second round at some point but for now, I'm happy with my sweater (or, mostly cardi) projects).

Project: Carolina's Cottage (Ravelry), cast-on: May 9 2008, cast-off: June 30 2008
Pattern: Carolina by Gigi Silva/Momma Monkey (available as a free Ravelry download)
Yarn: sKNITches Limited Edition sock yarn (60% superwash merino / 30% bamboo / 10% nylon), colorway "Cottage" (creamy white/petal pink/fresh green & chocolaty brown)
Needles: 2.5 mm circular
Mods: Toe-up, two-at-a-time on one circular, replaced the k3tog's with a centered double decrease, eye-of-partridge-heel (see below), added calf-shaping.

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