fo: Rolling Rock Henley

This photo is a bit dark, but it's the closest to the true colour of this sweater, which is a dark grey/charcoal shade. The rest of the photos wound up too bright, but shows the details a bit better.  Ugh photography - you are not my thing.

Anyways, here's some photos (at last) of my Rolling Rock that I knit during the Briggs and Little Spring KAL earlier this year.  I love this sweater and I wear it regularly, but there's some major issues with it.  More on that in a second.

Pattern: Rolling Rock, by Thea Colman
Yarn: Briggs & Little Sport in Dark Grey
Mods: Not much on the upper body, all the waist shaping on the lower body.  Shortened sleeves to 3/4 length.

Things I love about this sweater:

Henley neckline.  Very cleverly done and well instructed.  It makes for such a lovely neckline and one of my favourites that I've ever knit.  The buttons were some old ones I've had in my button stash for yonks, which I found for about 30 cents at a thrift shop in Manitoba.

Oh wow, nice butt photo there Heather.  If I weren't too damn lazy and wanting to go to bed, I'd go back and crop it.  OH WELL BUTTS FOR YOU.

Lace pattern on the back piece only.  It's a lovely lace, is easy to remember, and I adore that it's just in the back.  Granted, it didn't show up well in this rustic wool, but the texture is there and I love that the lace pops when I wear a bright tank top underneath!

Body shaping.  I added a ton of shaping to the body below the bust to make this sweater fit me better.  I think it turned out really well, and skims my body nicely.  Not too tight, not too loose, but just right = Goldilocks shaping!

THIS YARN.  Dear me do I ever love Briggs & Little yarn.  It's rustic for sure, rough and a bit scratchy.  But it's warm as all get out, and so long as I'm wearing a tank top to protect my lower back and tummy, I can easily wear this against the skin.  It does soften up with washing, and I'm itching to knit another sweater from it.

Things I don't like about this sweater:

The too-big upper body.  So, I wasn't thinking when I cast this sweater on.  I did choose a size that corresponded with my upper bust as I always do, but unfortunately this pattern has both that size and the one above it start with the same cast on amount, and you just add more stitches later on for the larger size (which happened to be my full bust size).  By the time I started to realize that the sweater was coming out too big, I was nearly at the sleeve divide.

MOAR BUTTS.  But (hehe) you can also see how bad the upper torso fit is at the underarm.  It's too wide across the upper back.  You know, I could probably knit this whole sweater again and simply eliminate a few lace repeats form the back.  Hmmm.

Now, I don't mind ripping out a sweater if something is going wrong with it.  Better to get it over with and redo it than to wind up with a sweater you won't wear.  But I was in that KAL and I was determined to finish on time.  I wouldn't be able to do that if I ripped it.  I convinced myself that it would be alright.  Dividing for the sleeves and knitting an inch proved me wrong.  So instead of starting over, I started to do some aggressive waist shaping to get a good fit below the bust.  Not sure what my reasoning was - probably the thought that I'd get the sleeves and lower body fitted well and maybe no one would notice the poor fit above the bust.

And you know what?  It worked!  Sort of.  I point this problem out to EVERYONE, and they all say that the sweater looks great and they don't see anything wrong.  I do, of course I do.  Between the large size and the slight bias this single ply yarn creates, the neckline is actually skewed a bit, and the henley doesn't hold itself open unless I keep the sweater tugged down.

But you know what?  I DON'T CARE.  Love love love this sweater and I'm going to keep wearing it with pride.  I'd like to reknit this pattern in another colour, and I'll try to get a better fit that time.  But there's so many more sweaters I want to knit in the mean time that there's no sense in resenting the problems in this one.  It's comfy to wear and looks great on me - what else could a knitter want?

sskal Projects

Oh jeez guys, it's been a while.  Sorry, it's been a busy summer!  As usual, I've been crafting a lot, I just haven't found time to take photos and, more importantly, write up some posts.

I've joined the Very Shannon Summer Sweater KAL again this year in an effort to finish up a few sweaters.  My buddy Margaret has outright forbidden me from starting any new sweaters until I finished up some of the...more than I'd like to count...sweaters I already have on needles.  And since I'm biting at the bit to start my Skogafjall, I'm focusing on some of my old wips.

I'll be knitting it out of some gorgeously rustic wool from Custom Woolen Mills in Alberta (Canadian raised sheep wool, Canadian milled, Canadian bought.  Oh yeah, go Canada!), in two undyed natural shades (grey and dark brown) and some naturally dyed wool from a woman in Atlin, BC (green).  SO EXCITED.

But first, I have to finish the second sleeve and then button band of my Amiga, shown at the top of the post.  It's probably going to be the most wearable sweater I'll ever make, but dear pete is it ever a boring knit.  Stockinette stockinette stockinette in solid black.  UGH just magically be done already.

I've had a couple of other successes in this KAL though.  I'd accidentally cast on a baby sweater right before the KAL started, and finished it within the first week of it.  It's a store sample in Diamond Luxury Fine Merino Superwash Aran and A Simple Baby Sweater.  Quick knit, though I found the instructions for joining in the round after the henley lacking.  I added some notes on my Rav project page to explain it if you're interested.  I love this little green sweater so much, and I'm tempted to swipe it and send it to my buddy who's about to have a baby!

I also tackled a really old wip.  I pulled out my old Reverb sweater to reassess the sweater.  It's so pretty, with this gorgeous yarn and lovely cables, and I was well past the arm divide when I put it down.  But I put it down literally years ago, back in 2013, and my tension has loosened up considerably since then.  There's no way I can finish this without it looking wonky, and the fabric was knit much tighter than I prefer now-a-days.

So I frogged it.  Sad in a way, but I didn't realize how much it was weighing on my mind until it was just a huge ball of yarn again, so I'm glad I did it.  SUCCESS!

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

One of the reasons I've been so busy this summer is that I'm spending a lot of time with both friends and myself.  I feel better every day, though I'm still struggling with some parts of our breakup last winter.  I can't even believe it's been nearly 7 months, but I'm relearning myself and I like the person I'm finding.  I feel like I'm finally lifting my head up after being weighed down for the last few years, so obviously this is a good change in my life.  It's taken a while to admit that, but admitting it sure helped.

So did buying myself a new toy.  Friends, meet the Little Guy.  We've gone on a few adventures already, and I can't wait to hitch him up to my little car and go camping again this weekend!

Take care of yourselves, folks.  Hopefully it won't take so long for another update!  <3

Briggs and Little kal

This post is probably a little incoherent.  It's late, I'm tired, and I just want to blog, dammit!  Also I swear I wrote a blog post about this, but obviously I just daydreamed that one. 

Back in March, Briggs and Little, one of my favourite yarn companies ever, announced a KAL/CAL for any of their sport-weight yarn.  I've been itching to knit a sweater with their B&L Sport, so obviously I needed to join.  Plus I can't resist KALs.

I'm knitting Rolling Rock by Thea Colman, and I'm loving this pattern.  It has an interesting contiguous shoulder line, which is a combination of a set in and a raglan sleeve on a top-down sweater.  I found it mostly flew off the needles, except just before and the first 6 inches after the sleeve separation, which is always ALWAYS a slog for me.  It has a gorgeous lace detail all over the back of the sweater (which I apparently don't have a picture of just yet), and it's both easy to knit and makes the sweater fun to knit.

Haha you can see exactly which section I steam blocked to see how the yarn relaxed.

Now granted, the KAL ends on in a few days on May 15th, and I'm NEARLY THERE.  I have 1.6 sleeves to knit, and I'll probably be pulling a few late nights to finish it.  Like um, tonight.  I hope I can finish, anyways.  Because I literally have 6 other sweaters on the needles and I should probably finish one or two of them before I start the sweater I plan to start this month.  On top of all of the shop knitting I need to do.  AHA yeah, I might have a problem...

Wish me luck folks!

wip Sweaters!

So I'm accidentally knitting a sweater.

Really!  Uh so I started knitting the Daelyn Pullover months ago, but the short rows at the neck back defeated me.  Seriously, I tried it 3 times and by the end of it my pride had gotten involved, there was tears, and a rage-filled scream when I threw the last attempt into a corner and literally stomped on it.

But I don't think I'm good at failure when it comes to knitting.  It nagged at me at the back of my mind, and I didn't understand why I couldn't get the short-rows to work.

So while packing for my trip to Vancouver at the beginning of March, I stuck a ball of yarn, needles, and the Daelyn pattern in my suitcase.  After finishing my toque, it was the only project I had on-hand for the trip back home.  I pulled it out while waiting for my flight and worked my way through the short rows.

I was SO PROUD when I finished that section!  I happily continued knitting on the flight home.  Then continued to knit it at home.  And then before I knew it, I was separating the sleeves and continuing down the body.

You may not believe me, but it only hit me then that I was actually knitting another sweater.  Hehe, oops.

I only have...erm, 3 other sweaters on the needles?  But one of them is being ripped up because I don't like the fabric, so lets say only 2 others.

Granted, I stuck my Daelyn aside while I worked on Christmas in April gifts.  Plus I wanted to rip back about 4 inches or so to put in some shaping in the back, since I didn't do any of the modifications I normally would (narrowing the back, for one) when I plan to knit a garment.  The night before leaving for Manitoba though, I picked it up again, ripped out those 4 inches, then knit an additional 6 inches of the body.

See how far I got?  FULL BUST COVERAGE OH YEAH.

And then on the planes back to Manitoba, I got most of the rest of the body done.  Back short rows and the ribbing was finished while visiting relatives.  And I picked up the sleeve above on the way home.  I've only spend a couple hours on it since, but I've got most of the first sleeve done.  Shouldn't take too long to finish this one up!

Or it wouldn't, if I didn't just cast on a neon red short-sleeved cardigan for the Tops Tees and Tanks KAL over at Very Shannon.  Erm, sweater number 4 (5?) anyone?  :D

Amiga kal: Planning and Swatching

Happy Canada Day!!

Sorry, I felt the need to say that.  :)  Hope you all are having a lovely day, Canadian or no!

So my good buddy Heather is a wonderful person and an overall good friend (as most knitters are).  And despite knitting for AGES, has never knit a sweater before.  Shocked?  I AM. 

I've been hounding her for years to start one, because I am a good knitty friend.  And yes, she does actually want to knit one - she owns how many sweaters worth of yarn for the purpose - but for one reason or another, has never gotten around to it.  So as the filthy enabler that I am, have finally talked her into doing a sweater KAL with me!  This way she has the motivation to do it, and I can help her if she runs into any issues.

The extra fun part has been trying to pick a pattern that we both want to knit.  See Heather and I, despite having the same name, have completely opposite tastes in everything clothing.  In spite of this, we both agree that Amiga is an amazingly versatile pattern, and easy enough for a beginners sweater.  So problem solved.

I'm knitting mine using a cheaper alternative to the scrumptious recommended yarn (which is Americo Cotton Flamme, if you're interested) - Valley Yarns Noho Cotton Flake.  Which...I see is now discontinued and on closeout at Webs for about $16.  Hmm, I might order another cone of this, because it's nice to work with...

Anywho, Heather will be using an alpaca/wool version of the recommended yarn, Winter Flamme.  Which looks scrumptious and I have a little bit of fibre envy (but whatever my yarn is cool).

I did a bit of swatching to see how my cotton yarn would behave.  I knit one swatch on 5 mm needles, and got 19 st/24 rows in 4" off the needles.  This was close to gauge, at 17 sts/24 rows in 4".  I wasn't really concerned about it being 2 sts off, since a small tug makes this loosely knit fabric at gauge.  I want this snugly fitted across the shoulders, so I wasn't worried too much.

Then I blocked it in my usual way, which involved dumping it in a giant bowl with luke warm water and some mild soap, letting it soak for a while, then squeezing out the water, rolling it in a towel and stomping on it to get out most of the water, and then laying to dry.

This resulted in a swatch that was about the same width, but that had shrunk from 6.5" long to 6" long at a row gauge of 26st/4 inches.  Hmm.  I expected this though since it's cotton.  And I sort of expect that the fabric will actually stretch a bit with wear.  But this is definitely something I'll have to keep in mind around places like the armholes and raglan increases.

For kicks and curiosity, I tossed the swatch in with a load a laundry.  You can see the result at the bottom of the photo above.  It shrunk a further 1/2" with a row gauge of about 28 st/4 inch.  And it's still holding strong at 19 st/4 inch width wise.  Except now it's far less stretchy width-wise since the fabric if firmer, somehow.

Despite this, I actually like the fabric more after it's trip though the wash cycle.  The yarn bloomed wonderfully from a tightly woven string, and the whole thing is softer and drapier.  So I think I'm going to send it through the cycle at least once.  I'll have to deal with the bias that the dryer emphasized (see how the swatch skews to the left in each of the photos, and gets worse at the bottom?), but I'm sure I can fix this by pulling it out of the dryer before it's completely dry and tugging on it a bit.  Despite having cast this on already on 5 mm needles (haha I was excited leave me alone), I think I'll rip it back and restart with 5.5 mms to help with the gauge a bit.

And so concludes my most extensive swatching experiment ever.  Yeah I'm normally pretty lack-luster at this part, but it was kind of fun!

Next update on this Amiga KAL will probably deal with some of the fitting adjustments and mods planned for this pattern for both Heather and I.

Although the next blog post might actually include some sewing for once!

Yarny Prizes from the hkkal

So I was one of the lucky winners of a Grand Prize during the Holla Knits KAL earlier this month, and that prize arrived at my door today!

I picked the Lion Brand gift prize, which included a couple of balls each of four of their yarns.  I've never used Lion Brand before, so I was excited about this package.  I did a bit of research, shot off an email with my colour choices, and then promptly forgot about it.

Until today.

I chose white gold for the LB Gold Leaf after stalking the projects made from this yarn.  The silver grey was decent looking, but I thought that the lighter colour would look nicer.  I admit, it's a bit ugly - the gold leaf is pretty gaudy, more so in person than in the photos (it actually looks pretty good in the photos).

I suspect it'll look better knit up, and I think I'm going to knit up the Vermonter, a chunky hat pattern I've been eyeing up for ages now.  And I'll probably knit it up pretty soon too, because I'm curious if this yarn will look nicer in a project than in the ball.

I chose two colours for the LB Baby Alpaca with the intention to reknit a hat for a friend.

I'd knit yet another version of the fornicating deer toque for her a couple of years ago, but the colourwork was too tight making the hat too small, and the wool in the original hat was too itchy for her.  I'll have to adjust the pattern a bit to account for the finer yarn, but this stuff is beyond soft and fluffy, and the cream should pair well with the cowl I knit her this Christmas.

For the LB Merino Superwash, I decided on a bright read with the intention to knit more red accessories for next winter.  I'm loving red right now for winter things - my favourite winter boots are red felted wool, my car is red, and I'm itching to knit a pretty hat from this gorgeous tonal red a friend sent me for my birthday.  So maybe a pair of mitts and a matching scarf/cowl?  Something fun, anyways.  This yarn is quite soft and cozy, if much brighter than I expected.

The last yarn was the LB Silk Chiffon Ribbon yarn.  This stuff is a little weird, and is made up of shredded strips of chiffon.  Though despite the 100% silk label, I really suspect this is polyester.  (ETA: Silk it is!  It didn't feel like what I think of as silk, more like poly or rayon - but as Karlie mentioned below, it's illegal to misrepresent the fibre content, and a burn test suggested by MrsC confirmed it.  Thanks ladies!)  The odd part is that this 'yarn' doesn't have any colourways.  That means that what they have is what you get, and I don't think you get any say in the matter (not in ordering online anyways).  I requested whatever they decided to send me!  It's odd, but like the gold leaf, I'm itching to knit it up and see how it looks.

I'm thinking a small cowl or something.  Maybe the Three-Turn cowl?  It has to be a small project, because I only have one skein of this yarn.  I want something simple to let the 'yarn' shine, but I don't want just plain stockinette.  

I think, as of now, I am on a yarn diet.  I don't actually have any more places to stash all of the astronomical amount of yarn I've acquired lately.  I am working on it - I've started two projects lately that is using yarn that's been in the stash for over a year now.

Are any of you on a fabric/yarn/craft supply diet?  If so, do you count prizes/giveaways/presents in that diet?  I think those should be exempt, eh?

fo: tttkal Avana Shrug

This might just be my fastest garment knit ever.  I started it on May 13th (well, other than getting the provisional cast on - an annoyingly tedious but immensely useful start to knitting - over with the night before), and finished blocking it on the 25th.  Twelve days?  Not to shabby Heather!

Pattern: Avana, by Annie Rowden
Yarn: Juniper Moon Farms - Zooey, a lovely cotton/linen blend in dk weight
Mods: Knit the initial section at 11.5" instead of 10" to increase the armholes.  10" would've been too narrow.

Things I liked about this pattern:

• simple and unique construction
• easy fit
• icelandic bindoff made a really clean finish!
• the beautiful drape of the finished fabric

Things I didn't like about this pattern:

• the lace stitch

Things I didn't like about this pattern, but dealt with because it was worth it:

• the lace stitch

I did not enjoy doing the lace section, and considered swapping it out for something else.  I'm glad I plugged on though, because it turned out really lovely and was worth the headache that was the k3tog (knit three stitches together) and YOs (yarn overs).  Ugh.

I really loved working with this yarn.  It has a slight thick/thin texture, and while I had a hard time keeping my tension and gauge consistent, I love how much texture it added to the knit.  In fact, I knew this was the perfect pattern for the yarn, since the stockinette would let the yarn shine!

I hand-washed this before blocking, because after two weekends of knitting this next to camp fires, it smelled of smoke and sunscreen.  But uh, the fabric didn't soften up as much as the swatch did.  I know that linen does with use and washings though, so I think the garment will only get softer and drapier with time!  Plus this yarn is machine washable, which will probably help.

I've been wearing this sucker all day, and let me tell you, it's incredibly comfortable and wearable!  It dresses up a plain t-shirt without making it over-dressy (a bit faux-pas here in the Yukon), and makes a cool and comfortable layer for the summer.  This is going to be wonderful for Mexico!

And because I was sick of the stiff photos and I had a few kids laugh at me, here's some fun photos!

NOM.

Startitis and the tttkal15

Ever since I finished my Cardboard Cafe, I've had a hard time focusing on one project.  I've started so many projects, both knitting and sewing, that I've sort of lost count.  I think I'm so indecisive because there are projects I need to finish by June 6th*, so of course I'll start anything and everything else.

So when Michelle at My So-Called Handmade Life invited me to join the Tops Tees and Tanks (TTT) KAL, of course I said yes!  And I had to start a new project.  Of course.

Source

I'm knitting up Avana, by Annie Rowden.  And since I've been itching for an excuse to try out Juniper Moon Farm's Zooey, a wonderfully soft and cozy cotton/linen blend, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I swatched yesterday and managed to get the loose gauge (sort of - the loose fabric it makes means it likes to stretch) on 6 mm needles.  And truth be told, I cast on last night as well, despite the KAL starting today.  BUT I HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR THAT.  I had to do an invisible provisional cast on, a tricky technique and something I've only done once before, and since I knew I wanted something simple to knit at my appointment, I figured I'd get it out of the way last night.

Glad I did, because I've gotten some good progress on it, about 3.5 inches!  And I should get some more, because it is gorgeous outside - the sun is shining, there's bright new leaves growing on the trees, and a lawn chair in the yard just calling my name.

Hope you all have/have had as nice of an afternoon as I'm going to!



*I'll tell you about what's happening on June 6th later.  :D