Gretel
Pattern: original design
Needles: Size 3 for ribbing, Size 5 for lace
Yarn: Plymouth Happy feet fingering, just over 4 skeins
Finally finished Gretel, a lace sweater knit from one sleeve to the other, with a ribbing on the bottom. I started this in March, finished it almost exactly two months later. The sweater was inspired by several different lace pullovers, such as Helene, Boothbay Lace Pullover, Mohairneule, and Model 10 Cotton-Silk Natural. I designed the lace stitch myself, an adaptation of a stitch from one of Barbara Walker’s stitch dictionaries, I believe.
I knit a lace swatch first and chose stitch counts based on my swatch gauge. I started at the ribbing on one sleeve, knit the sleeve to the armpit in the round, and then split for knitting back & forth. I used a provisional cast on to knit two rows along the side under the armpit before switching back to the lace and knitting across the front of the sweater. Once I got to the other side, I picked up my provisional cast on and knit across the back of the sweater. I then set aside teh stitches along the second side of the body and joined the upper few inches to knit the sleeve in the round to the end of the ribbing. I sewed up the live stitches under that armpit along the side of the body using kitchener stitch for a smooth seam. Lastly, I seamed the top of the shoulders to close up the neck hole a bit, and wove in my ends!
While knitting it, the body of this sweater seemed way too short, but I forged on and I’m glad I did, because the sweater fits very well. It grew significantly when I got it wet, and I was worried that it would be too big, so I didn’t pin it or stretch it much. It turned out really well. I am really happy with this project, and I wore it as soon as it was dry after blocking!
The Happy Feet was a dream to work with. It is so soft and holds up really well. I would definitely knit socks or really anything with this yarn. I love the color also, and it looks great on me with my blue eyes (at least I like to think so!).
Unfortunately, I don’t really have the time or skills to write up this pattern. I’ve never done sweater sizing before. But if you’re interested in the stitch repeat or basic recipe-type instructions, I will gladly share!!
i decided to do another elis in some yarn that we actually sell at Yarn Harbor. I chose Elsebeth Lavold’s Twice Tweed, a summery blend of wool, polyamide, and cotton. The yarn is an aran weight (same as the other one) but I wanted a little stiffer fabric as well as a narrower cowl, so I went for a size 9 needle and cast on the same initial stitch count.
I did a little experimenting with the Indian cross stitch this time. I did three sets of the crossovers back-to-back (you can see them in the middle of the cowl). This worked fine and I like how they came out. I also staggered the crossovers by 3 stitches (half of the total 6st crossover) so they did not all line up. I like the result, but it makes the end of the row a little wonky. You end up crossing the first three stitches of the row with the last 3 stitches of the row.
Overall, I think I like this version better than the first one. If I make it again (which I probably will in my class), I will probably try to make it even narrower.
Also, speaking of the class! If you’re interested, it will be offered sometime in June, exact date TBA. You can check the schedule here, the summer classes will be out in May!
Pattern: Elis by Reiko Kuwamura
Needles: US# 9
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Twice Tweed - unfortunately discontinued, but still available at Yarn Harbor!
I’ve been planning for classes this summer. I decided to teach Elis, a pattern by Reiko Kuwamura, because I don’t know a lot of knitters who have seen or done Indian Cross Stitch before. So, I decided to knit up a sample! Of course, I am utterly incapable of knitting something exactly as the pattern directs. The directions for what I did are below, if you’re interested. You’ll still need the original pattern for the abbreviations/stitch directions, but it is a free one on Ravelry so you can just head over there to download it!
I decided to use some stashed Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Aran, the same yarn I used for these mitts. Originally it came from my friend Emily’s mother-in-law (you’ll be hearing about yarn from her forever, I tell you!). The cowl in the picture looked a little stiff, so I wanted to change the gauge a little to make it more drapey. I’m not sure if this was actually a good idea, in retorspect, because the Indian Cross stitch needs a little structure to help it hold it’s shape. The one I made ended up a little limp.
This was a super quick project. Two nights of knitting! One day to block it! I am thinking about doing another one out of some different yarn, at the recommended gauge, which might help show the class the effects of gauge changes.
Directions for the Elis cowl I made: (refer to original pattern for abbreviations)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran
Needles: US#10.5
Gauge: 4sts = 1inch
Circumference: 20 inches
…
CO 78 sts
Row 1, 2: stockinette
3: purl all sts
4, 5: stockinette
6: kwp
7: icpA
8,9: stockinette
10: kwp
11: icpB
12, 13, 14, 15: stockinette
16: kwp
17: icpA
18, 19, 20, 21: stockinette
22: kwp
23: icpB
24, 25: stockinette
26: kwp
27: icpA
28, 29: stockinette
30: P all sts
31, 32: stockinette
Bind off all sts
Bee Balm Blanket
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Provence
Needles: Size 8
Pattern: No pattern. random stripes, all garter stitch
…
This is some of the yarn my friend’s mother-in-law donated to the cause that is my knitting stash. So many skeins of this! It is great to work with. Rooster, my doggy, has achy bones and needs extra padding in his bed, so I decided to knit up a blanket for him since I didn’t have any better use for this yarn. Turned out to be a great television project, with all the garter stitch. The product is nice and stretchy and keep me warm while I was knitting it.
I named it for the pinkish color of the yarn, which is the same pink of Bee Balm, a wildflower I saw a lot last summer in South Dakota.
After getting it started, I contemplated giving it as a wedding gift to a friend who’s getting married soon. After weaving in some of the ends, I decided against it. With all the thick stripes, there so many ends that I can tell will not stay woven in for long. I didn’t want to give a gift blanket with ends that will hang out all over the place. It’s a better dog blanket. Rooster doesn’t care about ends. And, since it turned out to be a dog blanket, I decided to bind off even though I have a half skein of each color left. I’m just tired of knitting on it, and it’s big enough. And I need the needles for another project.
Before
You may or may not remember Milkmaid, from last April. I finally finished this sweater back in Albuquqerque last spring. It has been a year and I don’t think I’ve worn this sweater more than once. Sure, I put it on every so often and looked at it, wishing it were not so weird, but I only wore it out of the house once. Sad, right? For a sweater that cost probably $70 in yarn?
So, after looking at pictures of this sweater the other day, I decided to fix it. Yes, sweater surgery. The problem with this sweater was the yoke. Originally, I did the increases way too fast after the cast-on, causing the top to pucker (you can see the puckering here). When I finished the rest of the sweater last year, I did a little surgery to take out the top part where it puckered. Since I took out the puckered top part where I did the increases, there were a huge number of stitches left on the needles. To try to close it up then, I added a ribbed collar. I thought that this would work, but it didn’t really do the trick. The shoulder area and front were still very drapey, as you can see in the pictures above. And that’s the reason I never wore the sweater.
…
After
In order to fix the problem, I realized I just needed to take out the entire yoke down to the arm pits. However, since there were still increases through the yoke, after I took the ribbing out, the garter stitch yoke wouldn’t unravel from the top down. Hence, sweater surgery. This involved cutting the yarn in the middle of the sweater at the row where I wanted to start re-doing the yoke. Stitch by stitch, I then un-knit the row and picked up the live stitches. This process took me between 1-2 hours, since there were ~250 stitches to pick up! Then, after picking up the stitches, I had to unravel and re-roll the yarn from the swatch of fabric I had cut off of the top of the sweater.
To re-do the yoke, I calculated based on my gauge the decreases over the number of rows I needed. That ended up being decreasing 112 sts over 45 rows. I decided to do 10 decreases a row every fourth row. After completing most of the 45 or so rows, I added extra increases at the shoulders to make it curve in more.
For interest, I also changed the striping from 2 rows blue/2 rows green to instead have a large thick green stripe bordered by thinner green stripes the top and bottom. At the very end I did four rows of stockinette to make the very top curl over. I decided since its spring now I didn’t need the ribbing around the top because I don’t want it too warm.
I really like how it turned out. It actually fits!! The tops of the sleeves are a little tight but I think with wear they will stretch. I am really happy I did this surgery. It took about 3 more days of knitting and I turned what was an expensive sweater sitting in my closet unworn into something I wanted to wear the very next day! I’m wearing it now, actually!
I am trying to decide if I want to add buttons or not. I crocheted a border along the button band for extra stability on one side and am going to do it on the other side as well but don’t want to do it until I decide about buttons. If i go for them I’ll need to make loops for button holes. I do like how it looks with no buttons but I would like something to secure it together across the front. Maybe I’ll just get a shawl pin. Hmm.
For review:
Pattern - original (for better or worse)
Yarn - Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (love it)
Needles - Size US 2
Nevado Parinacota Wrap
Needles: US 5- 3.75 mm
Yarns: Berroco Ultra Alpaca, 1 skeins (215.0 yards), beige - hand dyed by me with black walnut. Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted, 2 skeins (210 yards each), dark coral and coffee brown (not sure of the actual names of colorways, i made these up)
This is an original design. It is named for one of the largest potentially active volcanoes in chile, because the design & colors in this wrap are very Andean. If there is demand/I feel like it later, I may write up this pattern and share the color charts. Let me know if you’d like this to happen!
So, I bought this beautiful Malabrigo worsted yarn at Yarn Harbor because I had never knit with Malabrigo before, and I just couldn’t wait any longer. My original plan was to make slipper booties with a colorwork pattern in them, but the contrast was not great enough to use just the two colors. So, I switched to a fair-isle type scarf, which then turned into a wrap when I ran out of the hand-dyed ultra alpaca contrast color. I decided to switch to a scarf because it allowed me to make a bigger piece by incorporating another color. I was inspired by all the beautiful colorwork that has become popular in clothing lately, and I was especially inspired by these: ablaze, cedarwood, this and this especially. The southwestern/tribal/Navajo/Andes-inspired sort of geometrical shapes have also been everywhere (for example here and here and here and here and here and here) lately, and I wanted to do a design with them. Plus, memorizing patterns with squares and triangles is way easier than memorizing snowflakes and other complicated shapes.
So, the project turned into a scarf/wrap. I chose to use some ultra alpaca that I had on hand that I had dyed last fall with black walnuts. It is slightly lighter weight than the Malabrigo, but it still worked well together. It ended up long enough to wrap around my neck once. I am planning on buying buttons to secure it around the neck. I’ll then take some decent pictures, which I will post later. Since it is knit in the round and knit with three colors, it is basically three times thicker than your typical worsted weight knit fabric, so I’m not too upset about it not being longer. Any longer and the thing would be too warm!
Apologies for the terrible bathroom-mirror-cell-phone picture. Its the only one I have of the garment in use right now! In this picture, the wrap had not yet been blocked.
My notes are below. Feel free to use them and your own charted designs (or ones from a book) to make your own!
- Cast on 50 sts. Picked up the loop on the other side of each stitch I cast on to have 100 sts on needles. Joined for knitting in the round. This was a pain in the butt at first, but got easier as the work grew.
- Charted my own designs as I went to keep it interesting. Tried to keep it loose enough to stretch a little. Knitted 2-4 rows of solid color in between each fair isle design. No need to weave in ends because they’re just going to be on the inside of the scarf!
- Used kitchener stitch to close the ends together, weave in last end.
- Blocked, will add buttons and loops.
Lavender Poppy
pattern: Poppy by Justine Turner
size: ended up with a hat that loosely fits a head with circumference 56.25 inches
needles: size 6 for cap, size 3 for ribbing
yarn: LondonDairy Alpaca DK - Alpaca/bamboo
I had wanted to make a cloche type hat. I had seen a bunch of cute patterns on ravelry and in books, such as these: toorie, piper, side slip, escargot, regina, and sideways grande. But when in my perusing I came across Poppy, I knew I had found the one. First, the pattern is free! Second, the pattern gives sizes all the way from newborn to adult. Awesome. Third, the pattern gives instructions for not one, not two, but THREE different weights of yarn: Sport, DK, and Worsted. Wowza. And last, the instructions are super clear and easy to follow, and simple!! Can you tell I liked the pattern? The hat is knit from the back to the front using short rows. The cast on is provisional so that after you finish with the cap part, you can pick up your live stitches and knit the ribbing.
I chose to use leftovers from the Parnassus mitts I made, London Dairy DK Alpaca. The yarn runs a little heavier than DK, so my gauge was quite a bit off. So, I decided to knit the instructions for the 12-month old size in DK weight. My gauge was 20 sts = 4 inches. I stuck with the size 6 needles (they were handy) until I got to the ribbing. I was afraid the hat would be way to big if I knit the ribbing in the bigger needles so I went all the way down to size 3 for the ribbing. I knit the ribbing flat and at the end where it overlaps the other end, I added a few short rows to make the bottom flair out. I added some little metal buttons I had laying around and seamed the flap down. It fits perfectly and is very snazzy! I’m really happy with how it turned out. Oh, and I finished it in a single day of Sunday knitting!
nautical
Pattern: Cable Socks by Margaret Testa
Size: Men’s Medium
Needle: US 2 - 2.75 mm
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK, 2 skeins = 382.0 yards (349.3m)
It has been ages since I’ve posted, but i have actually been knitting! These were the first pair of socks I’ve ever made. I used a pattern called Cable Socks, available free on ravelry. Loved working with the Rowan Felted Tweed, and I love the product. I anticipated getting a little bored with the single cable in the original pattern, so I altered the pattern to add running cables throughout the ankle and top of foot. I knitted the cuffs and turned the heel on one, then started the second sock before finishing the feet to make sure I actually got both socks done. To be honest, I still got bored with these, but it may have bee due in part to my usual late January/early February knitting lull. It seems like every year after Christmas I just get knitted-out and I can’t take any more. I take a few weeks off from knitting, and then I re-gain my motivation after a little break. After I finally finished these, I tackled a few other projects, which i will post about soon!!
I updated the Parnassus pattern! I have corrected errors in stitch counts for during and after the thumb increases. If you downloaded your pattern before Feb 2, 2012, you can download an updated version using the link below! Please let me know if anyone finds any other errors or problems with the pattern. I greatly appreciate help testing the pattern from birgit1501!
After more thought about my patterns, I have also decided to keep my current available patterns free on ravelry. Since I am just a beginning designer, I am not making a lot of money from pattern sales. In order to encourage people to try my patterns and spread the word, I think it is best to offer them for free. Once I am more established and a better designer, I may decide to offer patterns for sale again, but for now, download away!
Speaking of fingerless mittens, I forgot to post about these. I made these for Christmas for my sister. I was planning on making a set of fingerless gloves with the flap, but I messed up a couple times, and the flap just didn’t look right with the cable motif on the back of these. So I decided to just finish them off with a ribbing and call it good. They are quite warm and soft. I used Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Aran that was in my stash. The yarn was originally given to my by my friend who’s mother in law had an enormous stash of leftovers. I knit these on a size one needle, so they are super tight and cozy. I made up the pattern as I was going. The cables don’t show up as much as I’d have liked, since the texture of the yarn is pretty complex. Was planning on writing the pattern up, but I was so sick of working on these after attempting the flap and the glove finger halves and then ripping them out that its just not happening. But I am happy with the way these turned out and I think that my sister likes them too (she’s the one wearing them in the picture)!
Since I’m in such a good mood after writing up that parnassus pattern, I got the idea of offering all of my available patterns on ravelry for FREE until Feb 15th. Why not give away the good stuff to get the word out a little bit?? Help yourself and spread the word! Only til Feb 15th!
the link above brings you to my pattern page, and you can click on the patterns to download them for free.
Parnassus
new pattern available for free on ravelry now!
I finished these in two days! I got this gorgeous DK weight alpaca yarn from LondonDairy Alpacas, a farm on the outskirts of the town where I grew up in Wisconsin. An old family dairy farm was converted to an alpaca farm a few years ago (my sister worked at the farm store selling fresh milk and ice cream when she was in high school!), and over Thanksgiving my mom and I went and checked out their new farm store, full of the softest most heavenly alpaca goodies. I wish there were a better word to describe this stuff besides soft, because that just doesnt go far enough. Its like walking on a cloud. And not only is it soft, but it is also beautiful. The yarn I bought has a little bit of hemp spun in with it, giving it’s mostly gray alpaca fibers hints of lavender. Yes. Its tweedy, purple and gray heaven. Sigh.
My mom and I both got skeins of it with the intention of making cabled fingerless mitts. I looked around for patterns on ravelry, but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. So, naturally, I came up with my own. And it was surprisingly simple! These fit like a dream. I couldn’t think of ANYTHING I’d do differently. And as you may have noticed from all of my previous posts, that’s not common for me. And so, it would be a shame if I didn’t write up the pattern.
Oh, and you might wonder why I named the pattern Parnassus. Well, it seemed to fit for a couple of reasons. First, grass of parnassus was one of the species I was hunting for last summer when I was working in the calcareous fens on the Prairie Couteau in South Dakota, and it just seemed right to pay that experience some knitting homage. Grass of parnassus is this tiny little delicate white flower that grow in fens. These mitts aren’t white, but the little white bits of tweediness in the yarn, along with the soft delicate gray alpaca, reminded me of the perfect little flowers. The word Parnassus also reminds me of a fairy tale, ever since I saw the movie the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (it was Heath Ledger’s last film!). I liked the movie a lot. I love fairy tales. And these mitts, with their magical cables and ungodly softness, seem to fit perfectly with this delicate fairy tale name, Parnassus.
Since I’m not totally confident yet in my pattern writing skills, I am going to offer this pattern for free on Ravelry for a while in hopes that some ambitious knitters will try out the pattern and give me some feedback on it. Really, they don’t even have to be ambitions, because the pattern is very straightforward. So, the pattern is available on ravelry for FREE until February 15th, 2012!! Please go grab it and knit up a pair of these! After I’m confident there are no mistakes, I’m planning on offering the pattern for around $5.
details:
yarn: DK weight alpaca blend to give gauge of 20sts = 4 inches, some ideas are:
o Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino
o Rowan RYC Baby Alpaca DK
o Mirasol Yarns K’acha
needles: size 3 dpns
size: one size - its very stretchy, and designed to fit a women’s medium-sized hand.
liesl redux
Liesl. One of the most popular patterns on ravelry, i’m sure. It’s a great pattern for many reasons: The simplicity of the lace, the versatility of the pattern to knit so many different versions, the speed with which one can knit the thing, to name a few. But I do have a complaint: The pattern isn’t great for big-busted women, or even medium-busted women. It provides very little accommodation for a chest at all in fact. And, because of the way the pattern repeats fall, it would be difficult to modify the pattern to accommodate a slightly larger chest. If you look through the finished projects, You can see that the front of the sweater pulls open at the chest for many knitters. This is fine for women with smaller chests, and in fact, probably exactly what the designer wanted I’d imagine. But, it kind of looks bad on women with substantial chests. To me at least. I am self conscious of my chest and drawing attention to it. I know, I shouldn’t be, and that’s the subject for someone else’s blog.
The fact is, after I finished my first Liesl, I never wore it because the front didn’t close enough. The top pulled open. The button holes gaped. I hated it.
So, since I knew the pattern goes so very quickly, and since I was ever so inspired by this beautiful specimen that I saw on tumblr, I decided to re-knit it. I had about the first third done with leftover yarn. This time I used Size 10.5 needles on the lace portions, and size 10 needles on the ribbing. The previous version was done entirely on size 10’s, so I went up to 10.5 to make it a little roomier. The body is knit exactly according to the directions (size 36”) albeit for the garter stitch button band. I instead knit 2 stitches in stockinette along the button band where the garter stitch edge was. And of course, I knit a thick edge of ribbing along the bottom. In retrospect, I think I’d have liked to have that ribbing done on a size 9 needle instead, it is a hair loose. Also knit cuffs in 2k p2 ribbing, and picked up stitches along the front for a button band. Last, I added a collar. I’d also increase the stitch count after picking up stitches for the collar a little larger collar that came around to the front a little more. 
Yarn, again, is Cascade Eco +. Lovely to work with. The color is still great. Even though the sweater is quite lacy, it is still very very warm. The buttons are simple and wooden and quite perfect. Found at Hobby Lobby for quite cheap. Haven’t blocked it yet… Not sure if I will. I am sure that I will get lots of wear out of this sweater though. I like it much better than the original one I knit.
Koozie Pattern
Tested the pattern I wrote for a bottle koozie and made this one for Aaron. I made a few minor corrections in the directions but it should be all good now. The pattern gives directions for the shaping only, not for the colorwork pattern (I don’t really have the tools to make a chart!). If you want to include a colorwork pattern, you can easily come up with and chart your own, or look one up in a book. Just use a repeat of 4, 5, 8, or 10 stitches. Would look equally great with a simple checkered colorwork pattern or vertical or horizontal stripes, and would be even simpler! This is a quick project and is sure to make the beer-loving man in your life happy! Let me know if you try the pattern!
another octopus
This time, my dad asked for a brewtopus, to match his packtopus. For those of you that are unfamiliar with wisconsin sports teams, those refer to the milwaukee brewers and the green bay packers. Since I got my dad’s name for christmas, I figured I had to knit him one.
For those of you just tuning in now, the pattern is from the amigurumi knits book. The pattern is super easy and very very cute, but requires a lot of putsy assembly, including seaming up each of the legs individually around pipe cleaners, seaming the top and bottom together, and picking up lots of sitches. And, if you want the fabric to be tight enough not to see any of the filling through it, you need to use itty bitty needles. My fingers were so sore during and after knitting these! I swear, this is my last one! I’m really tired of knitting these, as cute as they are.
