SOS :: soldotna & pavement

Today I wanted to highlight some techniques that I used to cobble together enough stash yarn to make two very different sweaters. The first one is my most recent finish:

It’s the Soldotna Crop (by the fabulous Caitlin Hunter) which is a super fun all over colorwork sweater knit with dk weight yarn. Unfortunately, my stash is on the light side when it comes to dk weight. But being a sock knitting fiend, I have tons of fingering weight yarn. The pattern calls for a small amount of four different colors so I decided to double strand the fingering weight yarns together in order to achieve the called for gauge. It worked like a charm, although I wished that I had a little bit more yardage left of the main body color to make the top less cropped. In order to compensate, I knitted the bottom ribbing a little longer and the sweater hits just at the top of my high waisted jeans. It is surprisingly wearable with both jeans and dresses/skirts. I am thinking of making a second more neutral version with varying shades of grays.

Summer of Stash sweater number two is one of my favorite finished sweaters ever. It’s the Pavement sweater by the ultra talented Veera Valimaki.

Simple designs such as this one lends itself well to color fading don’t you think? I had bought these three skeins of Hedgehog Fibres several years ago for a Stephen West mkal but ended up going with a different color scheme. Now I’m kinda glad that they were stashed because I am so thrilled with how they knitted up into this sweater! It’s a wonderfully comfy lightweight pullover.

So there you have it! Two new sweaters made entirely from The Stash! I am planning on shopping the stash for some baby knits. A good friend is expecting her first child (a boy) in September & I would love to make some special hand knits for the kiddo. Do you guys have any suggestions for baby pullovers or cardigans? Also hats & booties too :)

sweater swagger

You guys! I don’t know how it’s happened but I am on a sweater finishing roll right now. The Weekender was such a joy to knit. Although I have to admit that when I first read the pattern and saw that it began with a tubular cast-on, my enthusiasm level was dialed down quite a bit. But there was a link in the pattern to a very helpful tutorial which has me now completely in love with the technique. The rest of the pattern was just as fun to knit and I love the cozy, relaxed style of the finished sweater. I honestly would be wearing this 24/7 if the darn weather here in Maryland would cooperate. At least it’s cool enough in the mornings to wear a wool sweater. The tweedy yarn is from Peace Fleece. It is very rustic and woolly but softened up a lot after a good soak. I am already dreaming of a marled version. Maybe I’ll splurge on some special farm yarn at Maryland Sheep and Wool next month.

madewell fade

Happy last day of January! Are you looking forward to Spring as much as I am? I’ve been flipping through my botanical books and sketching little flowers into my journal all while dreaming of the season ahead. It seems so far away when the chilly wind is howling outside and there are grey days upon grey days. Makes me ever grateful for all of the woolly projects in my basket. I’ve been making good progress finishing some of them so a cast-on party is sure to happen soon :) The latest one off the needles is my Madewell Fade. The pattern is a great basic cardigan by Joji Locatelli. All of the yarns used are from Hue Loco. This was quite a quick knit for a fingering weight cardigan. The body only took me a couple of weeks to knit up, but the project stalled when I reached the sleeves. It’s a mystery to me why sleeves take so long to knit but socks fly off the needles. Does anyone else have this problem? Oh well I am just happy to finish a sweater after going a whole year without any completed garments. I can feel my sweater knitting mojo finally returning. Have a great rest of the week!

sweater weather

Yay! It's finally cold enough to comfortably wear a woolly sweater and flannel shirt! To celebrate sweater weather, I wrapped up the finishing touches on my fringe and friends improvised top-down kal sweater. So pleased and truthfully, surprised at how well this turned out, considering that it has been quite awhile since I made anything with sleeves. Here's a visual rundown of the process:

dreaming and planning

(mis)calculating

suspenseful knitting

randomly adding another design element

the part that gave me a migraine

sleeve island

plotting woolly tattoos (hmmm flowers, unicorns, donuts...finally settled for trees)

happy sweater dance!

stopover

2 weeks from cast on to bind off! Talk about fast. And totally unplanned for. The fun idea to #BangOutASweater was the brainchild of Kay & Ann from the always witty Mason-Dixon Knitting blog. The beautifully written pattern is from the ever stylish Mary Jane Mucklestone. I mainly posted about my progress on Instagram, where you can also see lots of inspiring Stopovers-in-progress as well as #bangfinishers (gosh how did we ever live without hashtags?!?). The yarn is lettlopi & all three of the main colors (oatmeal, brown & rose) are from deep stash. It has been many years since I have knitted with lettlopi. I had forgotten how beautiful and unusual a yarn it is. Rustic but blooms like a flower after blocking. Warm but light as air. This was my first time knitting a lopapeysa and I highly recommend Stopover for Icelandic sweater newbies like me. Very clear instructions and easy colorwork. I also love how Mary Jane included waist shaping so that the sweater has a very modern look to it. She also went rogue with the gauge which she explains here. I can't wait to try this same easy gauge technique on Dalur. Another 2 week sweater perhaps? I could easily get addicted to that!

I couldn't decide on a single pop color so I used three!

morning mist

The name of this pattern fits it to a tee: quiet peaceful serene. Knitted in one of my favorite summer yarns, Hempathy, it was the perfect beach take along project. The only thing that caused just a tiny bit of angst was my decision to pass on the fun color block effect. Even now, I can't believe that I let a chance to play with colors slip by! Oh well, there's always the next one. I would totally knit this well-written pattern again.

Have you ever regretted a color choice for a project? What did you end up doing? Although the off-white color is ho-hum boring, it does show off that pretty lace pattern rather well.
 

I think that this simple top will get worn quite a bit during the warmer months.

coming up roses

Some random things that are making me smile:

L'Arbre. The stitch pattern was so much fun to knit and is a lot easier than it looks. I've decided to indulge in new-to-me yarn for each of the hats in the fringe hatalong. This pretty rose colorway is one of my favorite colors and the softness of the Malabrigo Twist did not disappoint.

Hitofude. It's funny how the sight of two sleeves can suddenly make a drawn out project interesting. It only took me a little less than a year to get to this point but now I can finally see the finish line. Boy, once you get past the scarf-like beginnings this knit turns into a fun but still easy ride. Too bad that it's a little snug. Nothing a little heavy blocking can't fix (hopefully, fingers crossed!)

Impulse Shawl. I rarely knit a pattern more than once, but when I saw this yarn (Spun Right Round SW Sock graffiti colorway ... click on that link at your own risk) on the Woollen Wilderness blog, there was no doubt that it was going to be another slipped stitch shawl. This is my mindless summer travel project since I am in no rush to get it done. Just savoring all the beautiful colors of the yarn.

Flowers and Herbs. I planted a whole bunch of flowers (mainly marigolds for dyeing) and herbs. It has been very peaceful to sit in the garden with a cup of tea and my knitting. The strawberries are so plentiful right now that we have been treating ourselves to a bowlful of strawberries and ice cream topped with whipped cream almost every night this week. Love this time of year in the garden.

A New Toy. More on this later.


What are some of the things making you happy lately?

lila

Simple brown pullovers aren't the most exciting things to knit or blog about, but they do go with pretty much everything in the closet. What makes Lila special is the short row shaping happening at the lower body and the exaggerated garter stitch hems. This was made as part of the Lila KAL hosted by the drea renee knits group. Unfortunately, I had to take a short break from it while traveling to Vietnam and so missed the KAL deadline. Quite happy with how it turned out despite a little scare towards the end when I thought that I had overestimated the amount of positive ease intended. It was looking huge and several drastic measures to shrink it were running around in my head (dryer, hot scalding water and blowtorch just to name a few). But the final fit isn't too bad and I like that it's roomy enough to layer over flannel shirts for the colder months. We've been in a cold spell the last few weeks here so this sweater has been seeing a lot of wear. Hopefully the cooler spring weather will last through this weekend for Maryland Sheep and Wool (yay! so excited!) because I love seeing all the handknits on display. But just in case it gets too warm to wear a wooly sweater, I'll have my sheep heid at the ready. Here's what it looked like last week when the cherry blossoms were still in bloom:

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

amanda cardigan

I can't believe that I am wearing my Amanda cardigan not in the sweltering heat of July but on an overcast snowy winter's day. It's my first finished knit of 2015 and I absolutely love it.

The cardigan was a joy to knit, mainly because I was in such excellent company. It was also a pretty easy and straight forward project. The only difficult part was towards the end with the vertical seamed-in button bands. It was my first time working up this type of button band and I was a little clueless at first but am very happy with the finished results. Probably the best looking button band that I have ever made. Just don't look too closely at where I sewed on the buttons....must look into how to properly do this one day!

You can find my original post with all of the project details here. Also, check out the lovely finished and in-progress knits from this KAL using #fringeandfriendsknitalong on Instagram. I am finding knitalongs to be quite contagiously fun and have already started on my next one (Ysolda's follow your arrow 2)! What was your most recent KAL and was it a good experience?

favorite fall sweater in my #projectsweaterchest

I think that the weather is finally cooperating with my fall sweater knitting plans because there was a decided nip in the air this morning. Finally an opportunity to throw on some of my wool sweaters! Here are a couple in the #projectsweaterchest that bring to mind spiced pumpkin lattes, apple pies and trick-or-treating.

The outrageous autumn leaf-like colors of Noro Kureyon...the slightly scratchy reassuring feeling of rustic wool against my skin...some of my very favorite wooden buttons...is it any wonder that I dream about my Spoked Cardigan in the dark cold days of winter? In fact, as soon as the fall weather arrives, this is the first sweater that I reach for.

This next sweater will always remind me of Halloween because the little guy used to call it my bat sweater everytime I wore it. I guess the gull-lace looks like little bats, especially in this darkish black/brown/blue colorway.

It's one of those annoying sweaters that is kind of hard to wear since one can easily be mistaken for wearing a baby garment. But I do enjoy looking at the many many FLS projects on Ravelry in order to get styling ideas. So far, I love seeing it worn over a pretty dress...definitely need more dresses in the wardrobe!

Do you have a favorite fall handknit? Or one that is difficult to style?

the battle of the brights in my #projectsweaterchest

It's all about color today on this second installment of #projectsweaterchest. The brighter the better...or is it? Usually when I think of sweaters that get worn a lot, I think of ones knitted in more neutral colors like grey or tan or grey or black or grey.

But surprisingly, this loud green cardigan is in heavy rotation year round. My favorite way to wear it is with one of the many grey or navy tops in my closet. It adds a much needed pop of color during the winter months, yet also feels just right during those early chilly days of Spring. The vibrant green also pairs well with purple or royal blue for an added burst of color and fun. I have always been tempted to knit another version in...you guessed it...grey. The pattern is Nanook by Heidi Kirrmaier, knitted in Quince & Co. Lark in the snap pea colorway. It's a good one.

 

Sadly, not all brightly colored sweaters get as much attention or admiration. I can count on 2 fingers the number of yellow items in my closet. The above sweater was a classic case of not thinking before casting on. Granted the yellow looked more like a vivid gold in the skein, but still, what on earth was I thinking to knit a retro looking sweater which would have been adorable in black or grey (like this example) but instead I chose to go with yellow resulting in a giant lemon of a sweater? The only thing preventing me from frogging this one is the fantasy that one day many many years from now, a little girl, possibly one of my great great granddaughters or grand nieces, will discover this sweater buried deep in the chest, exclaim with delight and use it for playing dress-up. So back in the sweater chest it will go.

you know it's time to...

...try on your Amanda when people start complimenting you on that baby sweater you are knitting.

Whew, it fits!

knitting along

shhhhh.....I know that I already have a million things on the needles, but the Amanda knitalong over at Fringe Association is too tempting to resist. The energy and enthusiasm that Karen has put into this is infectious and I am looking forward to learning so many things from the most excellent panel of experts that are also knitting along. Here are the deets on my Amanda so far:

yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in the dove heather colorway. A terrific workhorse yarn at a budget friendly price point.

swatch: US size 6 & 5. I was initially dreading swatching for this project but this detailed post by Kate Gagnon Osborn really helped to guide me through the process of knitting & measuring a cable swatch. 

cast-on: the easy, fast & reliable long-tail.

size/ease: size 35 medium since I want a little positive ease. 

concerns/trepidations: keeping the knitting energy flowing smoothly...and getting this knitted before the season is over, since the last heavily cabled sweater I made (Aidez) took nearly a year to finish!

body construction: using the same approach as for my Aidez: knitting the body in one piece & the sleeves flat two-at-a-time. Also plan on incorporating faux seams for the body.

button bands: really excited to try out the button band as written. It looks lovely in the project photo so fingers crossed!

other mods: none so far, but who knows? That's half the fun! Here's a close-up of how I am keeping things from going haywire:

color coordinated highlighter tape + talking stitch markers = scary organizational skillz or just plain scary?

uniform

Uniform is such an appropriate name for this cardigan. Simple, relaxed, classic and oh so easy to wear with my daily uniform of jeans + t + sneakers. I love how modern the exaggerated garter stitch borders look. The inset pockets add a sporty touch to an otherwise simple design. What makes this pattern so fun is that there are many options for creating the cardigan of your dreams, just by changing up the length, sweater shaping, fit of the sleeves, pockets, neckbands, etc. I could easily knit a dozen sweaters with just this one pattern. Plus, how cool would it be to switch out the garter stitch borders for something a little bit more fancy or maybe add some colorwork? I am looking forward to revisiting this pattern in the future. For this version, I chose to knit the shorter body length, straight waist shaping, fitted sleeves, simple neckband and inset pockets. I also added some positive ease in order to achieve a relaxed fit, which will come in handy when the weather gets cooler and the hula halter top gets traded in for a flannel shirt.

The cardigan is designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge, whose work I am pretty much in love with at the moment. Every one of her sweaters would be a welcome addition to my #projectsweaterchest.

#projectsweaterchest

Never in a million years could I own a drawerful of hand knitted socks (seeing that it takes me three years and counting to finish a pair), but a cedar chest filled to the brim with hand knitted sweaters? Yes, please. You know what they say about the everlasting memories of first love? In terms of knitting, my first love will always be sweaters. Knitting a sweater is like reading a good novel. In the beginning, there's the excitement and anticipation of entering a new world filled with interesting characters and settings. Then, as the storyline unfolds and the plot thickens, you become invested in the characters and their struggles, joys and outcomes. Sometimes the story meanders along, allowing you to savor the experience. Other times, the book thunders ahead at a rapid pace, your heart racing towards the conclusion. Will it be the happy predictable ending? Or will you have encountered so many unexpected twists and turns along the way that the ending leaves you at a loss, flustered and ready to throw the book across the room? Or maybe it made for some self-reflection and yearning for more. In my sweater knitting experience, all of the above have occurred at one point or another. And that's why I love it so.

Last week, Susan B. Anderson posted about her new #projectsweaterchest. I was immediately hooked and thought it would be fun to join in here and on Instagram. She is starting by listing ten of her favorites, two in each post. I am not sure if I have ten favorites so I am showing a few of my duds for fun.

First of the favorites: You have probably seen me wearing my Vitamin D in past knit.where posts. Talk about an easy sweater to throw on over a simple tank or tee. The yarn is Frog Tree Picoboo, a cotton & bamboo blend with amazing drape and softness. This cardigan makes for a wonderful layering piece and I wear it year round. I especially love the radial eyelet increases and teal color. It is also designed by one of my all-time favorite designers, Heidi Kirrmaier.

And now for the dud: Oh 28thirty, how I loved you in 2009! But fashion is fickle and there is just no place for a midriff-baring sweater with armadillo-like sleeves in my 2014 life right now. 'Tis a shame really, since you rose from the ashes of a once-frogged dud yourself. Maybe the third time's the charm? I would dearly love to reuse the lovely Peace Fleece tweed yarn and those gorgeous wooden buttons.