Tangerine Calmer Pullover
A few weeks ago I decided to finish old projects instead of start a bunch of new ones. I'm sure this is obvious to most people, but it wasn't to me until I just thought of it. Whenever I do so much as swatch for a new project, I end up abandoning whatever I was working on. My new plan is just to pick up an unfinished project, finish it (including weaving ends and blocking) and only then can I pick up another unfinished project.
SO, this sweater is the fruit of my new idea to finish things! The pattern is free, so if you want to make it, you are in luck! Here's the link to the pdf, from the Tahki site. I first saw the picture of the pattern in the Tahki ads in Knit.1 magazine and I fell in love with it. Then, the Spring Summer Vogue Knitting arrived, and whoopdeedoo the pattern is free! It worked out really well for me.
The yarn is Rowan Calmer, and the color is Tangerine. I ordered it on super sale for 6 bucks a ball from The Knitting Garden. They have a lot of good sales. The color was only current for one season, last summer, and then it was immediately discontinued. As soon as I saw Tangerine last year, I thought it didn't really fit in with the rest of the colors. It's so bright! But, I love it. The sweater took about 7 balls.
One modification that I made was to convert the sweater to the round. I made the sleeves and the body in the round up to the arm holes, then I began working back and forth. Overall, it worked very well. The other modification was on the collar. Right before I bound off, I did K3 K2tog to bring in the collar a little. I hate when my sweaters fall off my shoulders, so this mod makes it stay on me.
That's the close-up of the cable. It kept things interesting when I was otherwise working stockinette.
Now I'm working on an abandoned pair of Socks that Rock:
The color is Watermelon Tourmaline in the mediumweight. I'm just doing stockinette because I love the colors so much and I just want the colors to shine through.
I have so many projects to blog about, and I just need to find the words to describe them. See you soon!
Hila's Purse
I used the fabric from my last post to make this tote bag. Like I said last time, she picked the spotted fabric from Reprodepot and I promised to make her whatever she wanted. The fabric is really cool because of the texture. It's a double gauze fabric and it looks like a really thin thermal material:
For the body of the tote, I used the pattern for
Amy Butler's Chelsea Bags as a guide, but I changed the size. I made the handles out of the lining fabric:
I lined the bag with Peltex, which is a very very very thick interfacing. That stuff does NOT want to be turned inside out! I had to improvise the pattern because I couldn't sew the lining to the bag on the wrong side. I ended up pressing the edges under and just top stitching around the top.
I've been knitting too, of course. Sewing can never replace knitting for me. I have been working on the
Cabled Bolero from Vogue Knitting that I am making out of Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran. I'm almost done and I'm pretty sure it's going to fit. The first sleeve is done, and the second sleeve is almost done. I'm also 3/4 of the way through the collar!
I'm doing this new thing where I pick up an old project, knit it til it's done, then pick up another project and knit it til it's done, etc. I was skipping around for a while and now I have about a million unfinished projects. The cool thing about finishing old projects is that half the work is done already. Thanks to
Ravelry, which I finally got invited to, I am going to get very organized. I think Ravelry is inspiring me to post to this blog, which is another good thing!
Abeille Fabrics for Tote Bag
Did I ever mention that I sew?
I bought these Abeille fabrics from Reprodepot, which is a store I really like a lot. They have a great selection of retro fabrics, japanese fabrics, and sewing patterns. I am making a tote bag for my friend Hila.
Hila picked out the fabric from the circles, and I promised her I'd make her something out of it. It's very thin. I guess it has a waffle weave texture. I'm going to line it with Heavyweight Fusible Pellon to make it nice and sturdy.
The striped fabric is canvas, and that's the lining. I'll post pictures when I'm done!
About the sweater in the last post, the pattern is free from Tahki. I downloaded the pdf here. The pattern calls for Cotton Classic, but I substituted Rowan Calmer in the now discontinued Tangerine color. I finished the sweater yesterday, including weaving in the ends and blocking. I'll take a picture soon, I promise!
Monsoon Grasshopper Socks
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Colorway: Monsoon (the Rockin Sock Club February 2007 color) Here's a close-up of the color on the sole
Pattern: Knee High to a Grasshopper (the Rockin Sock Club April 2007 pattern)
Size: Small
Needles: Size 2.75 mm dpns for the foot, size 2.5 mm 12" circulars for the leg, size 2mm 12" circulars for the ribbing on top
Shoes: I know they are Born but that's about it.
I love these socks! They were so fast to make, they are perfect for warm weather, and they are nice and lacy. I can't wait to try this pattern for all different yarns, and I also want to try the knee socks version.
The Back
I made a few modifications to the way I worked the pattern. I had a big problem figuring out how to do the yarnovers at the beginning or end of a needle. The yarnovers kept flying away! Here's what I did differently:
1) On the foot, I put a knit stitch from the sole onto the needle that had the lace, on either side of the lace stitches. That way, I started and ended the needle with a knit stitch, and not a yarn over.
2) On the leg, I had to change my method because the whole thing is lace. I switched to an addi 12" circular size 1 needle so I could just work round and round. The size change didn't change my gauge, and I had no problem with the stitches stretching.
3) I went down to size 0 needles for the ribbing so it would be a little tighter.
4) I used a regular ribbing bind off instead of the one called for in the pattern.
When I make these socks next time, I think I'll twist the knit stitch on either side of the lace on the foot. That stitch was a little loose for me on my socks, and I think the twisting will tighten that up. Here's a close-up of that loose stitch:
I substituted the color because I love the colors of the Silkie Wild Tide so much that I wanted to save it for something more stockinettey that will show off the color. I like this pattern with the monsoon a LOT.
And here's my current project:
