Rowan Pure Wool Mystery Afghan

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I finished an afghan in the last couple of weeks. I was determined to get it off my needles. It was yet another bulky project that was crazy for me to knit in the summer. This was the Rowan knit-a-long mystery afghan by Martin Storey, which I started in 2014. I designed my own border for it, and had to knit it in a contrasting colour since I ran out of the variegated yarn. It’s been waiting on that border to be finished for a while.

The variegated yarn proved to be a bad choice, even though it was in my stash, since the different stitch combinations on the blocks meant that the colours pooled in different ways on different blocks. Oh well. (Interestingly enough, the pooling is much more evident in this pic than in real life.) I’m glad it’s done, and there’s 5 lbs less of Patons Decor in my stash. It’s now in the car and The New Girl loves it, so all ends well.Pure Wool Mystery Afghan by Martin Storey knit by Deborah Cooke in Paton's Decor

 

VK Bohus Inspired Pullover

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Vogue Knitting magazine winter 2015/16For a while now, I’ve been working on a pullover from Vogue Knitting’s winter 2015/2016 issue, a Bohus-inspired pullover. (If you’re on Ravelry, here’s the magazine issue and here’s the sweater.) It was on the cover, and was pretty much the reason I bought the magazine. What intrigued me about the sweater was the fit. It didn’t look like an Icelandic sweater with a round yoke, but like it had more of a straight yoke. Icelandic sweaters fit men really well IMO but often look puffy on women. This one looked sleek. It also used Bohus design elements. I have a Bohus kit (Vildapplet cardigan, right here) but am a bit daunted by it. Bohus style sweaters use multiple colours of yarn in a row (three or even four) and also purl stitches on the right side. They also are worked on tiny needles in colours that gradually shade into others, so I thought this VK sweater in a larger gauge would be good practice.

I didn’t have the yarn specified, so I dipped into my stash to look for options in that weight. I found my Rowan members’ yarn pack, which was three balls of Felted Tweed, one in Avocado, one in Bilberry and one in Watery. Hmm. The Avocado would work for the Leafy Palm: the Watery for Caspian, and I used the Bilberry for both the Oxblood and the Mecca. (I thought about adding a fourth colour, but couldn’t find one that I liked with the others.) What about the white and grey? I’ve knit Felted Tweed with Colourspun several times, which works out to be a nice squishy combination, plus Colourspun has been discontinued. (Boo.) This was a chance to make another sweater in that yarn before it’s gone forever. I bought Colourspun in Semer Water for the charcoal grey, and in Winterburn for the white. These two shades of grey are much closer together than the white and grey used in the pattern, but Bohus is known for its blending of colours so I figured I had that covered.

This is a top-down sweater, so the cast-on is at the neck. One good thing about top-down sweaters knitted in the round is that it’s easy to try them on as you go—just put the stitches on a thread and tug the sweater on.

There has been goofiness with this one, which is why you haven’t seen it yet even though I’ve been knitting since April. I’ve knit the yoke three times. The first time, I missed the purl stitches on the schematic and had just knit them, so I frogged back. The second time, I made the L size, because I wanted a nice sloppy sweater, but the yoke ended up being enormous. I tried it on, then had Mr. Math pinch back the yoke from behind me until it looked right in the mirror. Then I counted the repeats to take out. It turned out I needed to knit the smallest size in the yoke, so I knit it again. My gauge is slightly off—instead of getting 21 stitches in 4 inches, I’m getting 20. I like the fabric and don’t want it to be stiffer by using smaller needles. The thing is that over 200+ stitches, that little difference adds up.

I like the colours a lot, but it is a round yoke.Bohus inspired pullover knit by Deborah Cooke

I’d expected it to be more like a Bohus sweater yoke, which isn’t a complete circle when flat. Here’s a Bohus yoke photographed flat in the Swedish Bohus Museum, so you can see what I mean. I’ve seen other Bohus yokes that are closer to 3/4 of a circle, but they’re seldom fully round—When people photograph the pullover yokes, the knitting pulls up into a cone closer to the neck, rather than lying flat. That’s why Bohus sweaters tend to fit women well through the shoulders. We’ll talk more about Bohus sweaters when I get mine a little further along and post about it. I’d like to finish that yoke before showing it to you. (Right now, it’s about 1″ deep!)

So, this pullover going to fit a lot like a round yoke Icelandic sweater, when all is said and done. It looks like an Icelandic sweater in most of the finished projects on Ravelry, too. I’m resigned to the good chance of it being puffy, but because I do like the colours and the yarn, I’m carrying on.Bohus inspired pullover knit by Deborah CookeThe purl stitches look quite neat, and they blur the transitions between the colours in true Bohus style. I also like the slight variegation in the Colourspun. There are little bits of colour in the dark grey as well that don’t show up in the photo—a bit of blue, a bit of purple—and they pull it all together very well. Now that I’m into the plain knitting, it’s going much more quickly. I’ve divided for the arms and am working down the body, and will show you more soon.

I’m already thinking about the hems and the neck—the pattern has ribbing on the hems, but I might just let them roll. It also has the ribbed neck knitted separately and sewn on, which is unusual. I had thought about casting on with the ribbing at the neck (at the very top!), but I’m not sure I want it as tall as in the pattern. It’s good to be able to try it on to decide, but I’m concerned about the join showing. I’ll probably pick up the stitches, knit up and hope for the best.

I have no idea how I ended up knitting this warm fuzzy beast in the hottest summer I can remember, but there you go.

Another Undine

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I started this stripey shawl almost a year ago. It’s my own Undine pattern, but with a modification (and a correction). I blogged several times already about this one: Knitting for a Mermaid, Progress on the Mermaid Shawl, More Progress on the Mermaid Shawl, and The Mermaid Shawl Puzzle. It’s been a bit of a process, and I won’t review all my revelations and corrections again today.

It’s done!

variation of Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

It’s knit of Crazy Zauberball, which is a self-striping sock yarn, and I started with two balls. I alternated two rows from each ball. I thought I did some clever calculations to finish the shawl with two balls, but there was an error in my calculations. I needed 2.7 balls to finish.

variation of Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

I love how the stripes came out, and the ruffled edge. I’m not going to block this one – I don’t usually block shawls knit in garter stitch because I like the springiness of them – so once the ends are sewn in, it’s ready to wear!

My Ravelry project page for this one is right here.

What do you think?

Finished Celestarium Shawl

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You might remember that I was knitting a shawl that was a map of the heavens. The pattern is Celestarium, which shows the stars overhead in the northern hemisphere—each star’s position is marked by a bead and an eyelet.

I finished the shawl last week. At first I was disappointed in the size, because it seemed small, and I thought it was a bit stripey. Then I blocked it and the magic happened. Here it is:Celestarium by Audry Nicklin knit in the Unique Sheep Luxe (Earthfaire kit) by Deborah Cooke

The yarn is a Gradiance colourway from The Unique Sheep on their Luxe base yarn called Celestial Twilight. Luxe is a 50/50 blend of merino and silk, and quite a luscious yarn. Earthfaire offered this yarn with the beads as a kit, and I chose to have the lighter colour in the middle and the darkest at the outer edge.

I wasted a lot of energy worrying that I’d run out of the yarn for the border, even though that skein was larger to ensure there was plenty. I chose a narrower border than I’d originally planned to use, and (of course) had almost half the skein left over when I was done. Now that it’s blocked, though, I wouldn’t have wanted the border to be any wider.

What do you think?

Market Bag

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I’ve finished one project this week. It was a plain knit, but done in a self-striping yarn, which always jazzes things up a bit.French Market bag knit in Patons SWS by Deborah CookeThis is a round-based market bag knit out of Patons SWS. This yarn is discontinued. It’s a soy and wool blend that felts really well. I also used some Patons SWS in solid green as an accent. There isn’t a pattern for this bag – I started at the center of the bottom and increased every second row until it looked big enough. Then I knit up the sides, around and around, until it looked deep enough. I knit a handle from one side that looked wide enough, then decided the length by making the colours symmetrical. That looked long enough. 🙂 I knit I-cord around the edges of the handle and the top of the bag, and also at the outer edge of the base. I had tried some fair isle bands just above the base but they came out a bit less clear than I’d hoped.

Then I put it in a pillow case and washed it with a load of towels.

Now it looks like this:
French Market bag knit in Patons SWS by Deborah CookeThe I-cord is easier to see, although it didn’t felt as well as the body of the bag in some places (especially along the edge of the handles). I might fuss with it, but I might not. I’ll have to line it, but I like how it looks already. It’s soft and thick, and if I put a drawstring top on it, I’ll use it a lot.

Celestarium Shawl

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This year, I’m trying to finish up all the knitting I have in progress, before casting on anything new. I have a LOT on the go, so this is going to take a while. (I also have very little discipline when it comes to knitting and keep casting on more projects, but that’s another challenge. The rationale is that I’m stash-busting.)

My current focus is a circular shawl in gradient-dyed yarn. Let’s talk about that today.

Once upon a time (way back in 2012), a designer created a circular knitted shawl that was essentially a map of the heavens. For every star visible above in the northern hemisphere, there’s a hole and a bead in the shawl. The pattern is called Celestarium. (Subsequently, she did one for the southern hemisphere called Southern Skies.) This is a pretty cool pattern, IMO, and qualifies as geek knitting. There are over 1000 Celestarium shawl projects on Ravelry, if you have some time to browse. Almost 600 of them are completed.

Some time after that, Earthfaire created a kit for the shawl, featuring gradient-dyed yarn from the Unique Sheep and crystal beads. Here’s the product page for the kit, although they don’t have any more.

I did get a kit when they were available, although it’s been waiting on me for a while. (Stash must age before use, you know.) The colourway is called Twilight. Mine shades from purple through to deep blue black. (You could choose to have it shade the other way – the last shade is the biggest skein and is for the border.) This is the same yarn base as my BitterBlue shawl – it’s a merino and tussah silk blend called Luxe. I really like this yarn, probably because I really like raw silk. It also doesn’t have the seracin smell that some silk yarn has, which I really really really dislike.

I’ve been knitting on my Celestarium for quite a while now. It has a lot of plain knitting, with the occasional star – which stands to reason. Even on a starry night, there’s more sky than stars! The charts are huge because there are no repeats: the final chart prints on eight sheets of paper, which then are taped together lengthwise to show the rows.

This is not TV knitting.

Here’s a star:Celestarium by Audry Nicklin knit in the Unique Sheep Luxe (Earthfaire kit) by Deborah CookeSee the little hole to the left of that middle bead? This is from the part closer to the middle of the shawl, where it’s more purple.

(Mr. Math has found a pun for this one, btw. When I drop a bead, he calls it a falling star. When I find it, he asks if I’ve caught a fallen star. Of course, he then advises me to put it in my pocket and save it for a rainy day.)

Round shawls that increase in diameter at a regular rate are called pi-shawls, and are based upon a design by Elizabeth Zimmerman. (My Urdr shawl was another of these.) What happens is that the number of stitches doubles at set intervals, which creates circular bands of the same stitch count. Clever designers make magic happen in these bands. When knitting a pi-shawl, I find that the first few charts are done really quickly, then the stitch count gets high enough to slow me down. The Celestarium shawl is knitted with fingering weight yarn, so the final chart has 576 stitches in each round. (The Urdr shawl was knit in lace weight, so the stitch count doubled one more time on that one.)

I’ve finished the body of the shawl, knit some extra rounds around the outside and am now knitting the border. I chose a traditional Shetland border called Wave Lace. It’ll look much better blocked, but here it is, still bunched up on the needles, but stretched out a little bit on the rug.Celestarium by Audry Nicklin knit in the Unique Sheep Luxe (Earthfaire kit) by Deborah CookeI actually pulled two stitches off the needle accidentally when taking this shot. =8-o

800 rows of border to go, then it’ll get a good block. I’m looking forward to seeing it then – blocking lace is magical.

What do you think?

Noro Braided Cowl

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There’s a great cowl in the newest Noro magazine, which I’ve just knitted. The technique is so clever!.

The newest Noro magazine is issue 7 – you can see a preview of the designs on the NoroMagazine website, right here. The pattern is #16 and is called Braided Scarf (that’s a Ravelry link.) It’s supposed to be knit in Noro Silk Garden, but I’ve used Noro Kureopatora – since my yarn is a little lighter, I’ve also dropped the needle size. Mine came out a bit narrower than the one in the magazine – it’s 6 inches wide – but that’s okay by me.

The scarf is knitted with a picot edge on either side and crosswise slits – every so many rows, you cast off the middle stitches, then cast them on again in the next row. Like this, it reminds me of spinach pastries a local bakery made in our old neighbourhood – they slit the top of the pastry like this so it vented. 🙂

Braided Scarf by Jacqueline van Dillen knit in Noro Kureopatera by Deborah CookeBut then, here’s the cool bit. You pull the piece together a bit, turning those strips into loops, and link them together to make a braid down the middle of the cowl. Here it is after it’s braided:Braided Scarf by Jacqueline van Dillen knit in Noro Kureopatera by Deborah CookeIsn’t that brilliant? I keep braiding it and unbraiding it, just to see the magic happen.

I did a provisional cast on, and grafted the cowl into a loop when it was completed to avoid having a seam. I also wanted the braid to be continuous. The instructions say to braid the middle of the finished cowl, then tack down the last loop. I wanted it to hook around the first loop. The only way to do that (which I could see) was to break the loop, like this:

Braided Scarf by Jacqueline van Dillen knit in Noro Kureopatera by Deborah CookeThis is the cowl grafted together – you can see that the colours didn’t match up. (Boo. I had a knot in the ball, otherwise it might have come out perfectly.) I ended with the bright turquoise and had started with the ultramarine blue. The line where they meet is the line of the graft. The first loop, then, is turquoise on the bottom half and ultramarine on the top half. The loop before that, though, is broken. I did this by casting on the stitches in Row 5 of the pattern, then turning, leaving the last 15 stitches of that row on the other needle, unworked. I worked on the front part of the row through Row 11, then left it on the right needle after the cast-on stitches. I worked the intervening rows on those left stitches that had been waiting on me, then finished Row 11. At the end of that repeat (Row 12) I grafted the two edges together.

So, I had a broken loop. When I braided it all up, I tucked that loop around the first loop, then sewed it down from the back, as if it had been joined up all along. The finished braid looks like this:

Braided Scarf by Jacqueline van Dillen knit in Noro Kureopatera by Deborah CookeNo one can ever unbraid it again. 🙂

I’m very happy with this one. What do you think?

Knitting Audrey

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My big plan was to finish up the projects that are already on my needles this year, and I am making progress on that. I’m in the midst of knitting the last square for the ugliest afghan in the world, for example, which will then just need to be sewn together (ugh. The sewing is about half done) and have the border knit onto it. The border is about 1/3 done. It is, though, the ugliest afghan in the world, and not a project that fosters a lot of enthusiasm. It might be warm when it’s done. It’s destined to go in the car to keep the dog claws off the upholstery, which again, isn’t very inspiring.

So, I needed another project to keep me from losing hope completely. The winner was Audrey, a lace and cables cardigan knit in Rowan Angora Haze and included in the Rowan Angora Haze pattern book. This yarn was discontinued and replaced by Rowan Mohair Haze, so I bought two sweater lots of AH when it was discounted to clear. It was time to get one fuzzy sweater on the needles. Here, btw, is the Ravelry link for Audrey, and also the one for Angora Haze. It’s still out there in discount bins all over the world.

The yarn is really soft and fuzzy. It does shed a bit but not as much as I expected. It’ll be interesting to see whether it sheds more or less once the garment is completed. My nose does tickle a bit after I’ve been knitting on it, but again, it’s not too bad. I did try a suggestion I saw on a Ravelry forum – I put a white linen tea towel on my lap when knitting this sweater. It gives nice contrast for those dark stitches and also catches any shedding hairs. I wrap the knitting in the tea towel when I’m not working on it.

Of course, my yarn is deep purple. 🙂 Here’s the left front so far:Audrey by Martin Storey knit in Rowan Angora Haze by Deborah Cooke

This shot was taken with the flash – the colour isn’t as rich as it is in real life, but you can see the cables better.

The cable pattern is actually easy to memorize, which surprised me. It’s certainly not a television knit, but it’s not that complicated. I knit the left front first, because I’ve had sizing issues lately with Rowan patterns. A lot of them turn out big, and I didn’t want to knit these cables over and over again. I knit a size smaller than I thought I should, and it’s coming out perfectly. The fabric is a little bit stretchy, and I guess it’s acting like a rib. Although the left front laid flat is 10″ wide, as it should be, I can easily smooth it to be 12″ wide. I’m glad I didn’t knit a bigger size, as it might get sloppy in the wearing. I doubt this yarn has a lot of elasticity – it’s just too soft for that.

I’ve made the front 2″ longer because I don’t want it to be as cropped. Also, I’ve eliminated the increases between waist and bust, and just knit it straight. That means I had to modify the decreases for the armscye (since I had fewer stitches overall) but that wasn’t a big deal. I won’t make the rolled collar but just a regular one with a buttonhole, and it seems to me that the sleeves are a bit too wide. I’ll double check those counts and measurements before knitting them.

Naturally, knitting one of the fronts first has left me with a dilemma. I’m going to have to put it aside unfinished and knit the back before I can continue. Rowan patterns often have an instruction like the one in the pattern “knit the front until it is 26 rows shorter than the finished back”. Aha. (I have another sweater on the needles that’s in time-out because of this. I have knit the back on that one, but since I substituted a different yarn, my row gauge is off. I need to figure out whether the specified number of rows will make the collar too deep or not. Knitting math tends not to get done, so that sweater front has been waiting patiently in my basket since November.) This weekend, the left front of Audrey is going onto a stitch holder and I’ll cast on the back.

What do you think?

Stripey Noro Scarf

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I also finished a Stripey Noro scarf. It doesn’t really have a pattern: I just cast on in Noro Silk Garden, knit alternating rows in garter stitch. Mr. Math has grabbed his one. I just love it, so I might grab it back once in a while.Stripey scarf knit in Noro Silk Garden by Deborah CookeHere’s a shot in different lighting while it was still on the needles:
Stripey scarf knit in Noro Silk Garden by Deborah CookeI cast on in the corner, then added a stitch at each end of each right side row until I decided it was wide enough. From that point onward, I increased a stitch on the right side row at one edge and decreased a stitch on the right side row at the other edge. I kept knitting until it looked long enough, then decreased one stitch at both the beginning and the end of each right side row until there were no stitches left. Presto! The gradient stripe of the Noro Silk Garden makes the magic happen.

Finished Snow Angel Shawl

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You might remember that I was knitting a lace shawl. The pattern is called Snow Angel and it’s by BooKnits – here’s the Ravelry link for the pattern. I knit it in a gradient dyed yarn called Freia Ombré Lace in the colourway Autumn Rose. I actually ran out of yarn, so used some Elann Silken Kydd from my stash. I think the colourway is Baked Apple, and I worried it might be a bit dark, but I like it. I also used green glass beads with copper linings, in the positions specified in the pattern.

Here’s the finished and blocked shawl on the back of the couch. I’m not sure why I’m so surprised by the size of it but I am. I had in mind that it was going to be a scarfy little thing, but it’s a shawl. The colour is the most true to life in this first picture.Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace

Here’s the whole thing spread on a rug so you can see the crescent shape of it, and the gradation in the colour. And yes, it’s too big for this rug!Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace And here’s a detail of the middle of the shawl, though it’s a bit blurry. It’s always amazing to see how the lace opens up when it’s blocked. It was hard to discern the pattern in those photographs taken while the shawl was on the needles, but not it’s obvious.Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon LaceI’m very happy with this one. What do you think?