Tithe in Noro

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s a cardigan I just finished in Noro yarn – this yarn is called Cyochin. It’s mostly wool with some mohair and some silk. Mine is colour 07. This pattern is called Tithe, which is a design by Jane Ellison. (The pattern link goes to Ravelry.)I’d originally bought the yarn to make this poncho, Iced Blackberry, and the fingerless mitts shown with it. As much as I like the look of the poncho, I realized I probably wouldn’t wear it much, so I hunted in my pattern stash for another choice. The Cyochin is aran weight, so any of the Noro patterns calling for aran (like Silk Garden) would work. I only had five skeins, though, so thought there wasn’t enough to make a long-sleeved sweater.

There might have been enough, after all – I still have a little bit left over, and this cardigan does have a big front collar. It’s staying knitted now, though!I really like this cardigan and the wool is gorgeous. The colourway and the little threads in the wool remind me of those yarns made of recycled saris and their jewel-tones. I made some modifications to the pattern, using seed stitch on the edges, reshaping the sleeve cap and (by mistake) making the sleeves a bit longer. It turns out they’re exactly the length that I push my sleeves UP to, so that’s perfect. I had thought about adding a button, but now that it’s done, I like it just the way it is. I’ll be wearing this one a lot.

What do you think?

Grey B&L Socks

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

It’s Friday again, and time to show off some knitting.

Here’s a new pair of socks I just finished for Mr. Math. The yarn is Briggs & Little Tuffy – I bought the grey, which is called Smoke, and used up the blue (Blue Jeans) from the ends in my stash. You can see that I miscalculated a little and didn’t quite have the same amount of blue for the left sock. That’s why it has a bit more grey on the toe. There wasn’t a pattern for these – I just cast on and knit. The yarn does want to felt a little over time (because I don’t hand wash socks) so the ribbing ensures that the socks maintain some stretchiness.

Briggs & Little is an old Canadian mill, located in the Maritimes. I like their sock wool a lot. It’s tough and wears well, plus it has character. Mr. Math was pretty glad to see these come off the needles, given how cold it is here right now. They went straight onto his feet!

I’m determined to use up the bits and ends of Tuffy in my stash, so there’s another thick sock on my needles now. What do you think?

Revised Noro Cardigan

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

Sometimes knitting is a lot like writing. You embark on an adventure, follow it through to the end, then realize that there was a flaw way back at the beginning, which can’t be fixed without unraveling the whole thing and doing it again.

This sweater was like that.

First, the yarn. This is Noro Silk Garden in a colourway that I just love. (#8 Other people must love it too, because it’s one that is still in production.) I think I’ve had the yarn for about 15 years, because every time I knit it, I’m less than thrilled with the result. I frog it, returning the yarn to the wilds of the stash, then sooner or later, cast it on again.

In 2011 (Ravelry provides scary historical data.) I cast it on for Jane Ellison’s Basic Fitted Cardigan. (That’s a Rav link.) I finished (I think) in August 2011 and here’s the blog post to prove it. The problem was that the sweater didn’t fit overly well. It was too wide in the shoulders and looked sloppy. The sleeves were also long (partly because that shoulder seam wasn’t where it should be) and the cuffs were tight. I thought I’d wear it anyway, as a casual sweater, but every time I tried it on, I quickly took it off again.I hated how it looked. The yarn cost too much for that kind of whimsy, so I tossed the sweater into the knitting basket while I thought about it. In the end, I reknit the fronts and the back, then shortened the sleeves at the cuff. It has different buttons this time, too.

Here’s the result. It doesn’t look that different, but now it fits! The Silk Garden won’t be frogged this time.I took this second picture at night, so had to use the flash. It really changed the appearance of the colour – the first shot is a more accurate representation of the colours.

Balkan

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

This is a sweater I made for Mr. Math. The pattern is called Balkan and is a design by Brandon Mably for Rowan Yarns. And here’s our variation:

Mr. Math wasn’t fussed about the softness of the yarn that’s specified for this sweater—I made him a crew neck sweater of softly spun yarn once before, and his whiskers roughed up the neck ribbing. He wanted something tough this time, and he didn’t want muted colours. He picked the yarn and the colours: it’s Harrisville Highland which is a wonderful tweed yarn. I bought it on cones, which is how they put it up for weavers. The colours are Tundra and Black Cherry.

This sweater is a very trim fit, and doesn’t have much ease in the body. I had some troubles with the sleeves: they were too tight in the forearm, then too full in the upper arm, then too long overall. When I reknit them to be wider on the lower arm and narrower on the upper arm, the sleeve cap ended up too short to fit into the sweater. I knit them either three or four times, but finally, they’re right. (Lots of notes on my Ravelry project page.) I was so fed up that the pieces sat in my knitting basket for more than a month before I decided to sew it together for Christmas.

The Harrisville Highland on cones isn’t washed, so it hasn’t been fulled. I gave the finished sweater a good soak in the tub and even walked on it to full the yarn, then blocked it to size to dry. The yarn blossomed in a wonderful way, and softened as well. Because it’s a tweed yarn, it has many other colours and subtle gradations, which don’t show up in the picture above. Mr. Math loves it. He wore the sweater on Christmas Day and has worn it a lot since then because it’s been so chilly here. He says the trim fit makes it great for layering and that it’s really warm.

Christmas Ornaments

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

This week, I was seduced by a quick holiday project: knitting Christmas ornaments. Actually, you knit a covering for a styrofoam ball. The results look like this:The pattern is called Balls Up! and it’s available as a free Ravelry download. It calls fro a 7cm polystyrene or styrofoam ball, but I found some at the dollar store that were 6.3 cm. I went down a needle size and everything worked out just fine.

Mine are in the order they were knitted, from left to right. The first one is leftovers of a handpainted Collinette Jitterbug sock yarn and is just plain. There’s something about this colorway that just looks festive to me—I knit Celestine out of it a few years ago.The second is in a loose ball of yarn which I think might be Rowan Tapestry (it has a slow graduation). I added a snowflake in purl stitches to the middle band of this one and some beads—the truth is that I should have used one or the other. The beads were hard to put on the yarn, because it’s a loosely spun single ply, although they are pretty.

The third is from ends of another color of handpainted Collinette Jitterbug sock yarn—I have a feeling this colour was called Monet—and I knit seed stitch on the central band of that one.

The fourth is in sock yarn and my only fair isle attempt with snowflakes in the middle band. My plan was to put a bead in the middle of each one, but I forgot that the bead ends up on the row below when you use the crochet hook method. Next time I’ll get it right.

I would have knit more, because they are fun, but I got distracted. I’d picked up some Crazy Zauberball sock yarn to try it in ornaments and decided I just liked it too much. The colorway is the green, #2136 Lenz (scroll down.) I cast on a pair of socks on those same needles, so they’ll be tucked into that project for a while. I think I’m going to knit knee socks with it, so I’ll need a second ball.

I’m convinced that, one of these days, I’ll knit some of the mini sweaters that are Chrismas ornaments. Here is one set of free patterns on the Berroco site and here’s another set of teeny sweaters. I think they’re so cute!

Have you ever knitted any Christmas ornaments?

French Cancan

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

This is a small shawl that I just finished. It was all together in a kit that I bought from one of the vendors at the Knitters’ Fair in September, and so pretty that I had to cast on right away (even though I had lots of things on the needles to finish). The pattern is French Cancan, and the yarn is Zen Yarn Garden‘s Serenity DK. Wow, what a scrumptuous, squishy yarn! It’s a merino and cashmere blend, and the colour is simply gorgeous.

Here’s the finished shawl, although I haven’t blocked it.I don’t really like blocking garter stitch, but prefer to let it do its own thing. The braid doesn’t really need blocking as the points already sit out nicely, so I’ll probably leave it be.

It has a lovely crescent shape and drapes nicely over the shoulders. It takes 2 skeins – one for the garter stitch body and one for the border. I was (of course) worried about running out for the border, but I had some of the second skein left over. The finished shawl is smaller than I’d hoped, more of a scarf than a shawlette. This is funny because I saw a sample when I bought the kit, so my expectations should have been in line with reality. OTOH I’ll probably wear it more than I would have worn a shawl, because it’s just the right size for wrapping around my neck under a winter coat. I suspect I’ll be making another of these – I quite liked the pattern, and the edging pattern was easy to memorize – and maybe I’ll make a larger one.

What do you think?

Skye Finished

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

You might remember me talking about a vest I was knitting for Mr. Math a few weeks ago – if not, that post is right here. The pattern is called Skye, designed by Brandon Mably, from Rowan 52. I actually knitted it without substituting the yarns (a strange and incredible thing). It uses four colours of Rowan Colourspun. I finished it last week and really like it. As a bonus, Mr. Math also really likes it (!) and it fits perfectly!

Here it is:This picture is more true to the colours than the last one. What do you think?

Audiobook Socks

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

This past month, I’ve needed to listen to audio editions of my books to “proof” them. Taking a book to audio is a pretty interesting process, and one I hadn’t really thought about until I was already on the adventure. The narrator has to manage so many voices (especially in my books, which I’ve realized have lots of characters!) and keep them distinct from each other. He or she also has to show the emotional journey of the character, and pronounce all the words properly.

It turned out that I needed to follow along with the book on the first review of the audio files, just to make sure that no clauses or phrases were missing. This is a pretty intense process – the audio file for my first book taken to audio, The Rogue, is 13.5 hours long.

For the second listening, however, after the changes were all made and I was just checking the final version, I knit as I listened. I needed plain knitting, as I had to pay attention to the audio, so socks were the obvious choice. I don’t follow a pattern to knit socks anymore, since I’ve made so many pairs. I had some Patons Kroy FX in a yummy purple and blue set aside for new socks for myself, so I cast them on. I knit all but the second toe while “proofing” The Rogue, and here they are:

Colourspun Skye

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

A few years ago, I saw a men’s vest pattern in a Rowan Magazine and really liked it. I didn’t rush out to order the yarn, and by the time I thought I might knit it, two of the colours required for the pattern had been discontinued. I figured that vest wasn’t meant to be. But a little while ago, I noticed that there were a few balls of those very same discontinued colours available at an online store. I ordered them up, and because I really like this yarn, I cast on the vest despite having so many other projects on my needles.

Here’s the completed back:The pattern is called Skye and it was designed by Brandon Mably. I seem to knit a lot of Brandon Mably designs for Mr. Math. The yarn is called Colourspun, and it’s a very soft yarn. It’s the same yarn used in my Icicle Mitts. The discontinued colours are the red and the brown – all of the colours have long variegations, so it looks as if there are more than four colours used. (Red, brown, green, then beige for the grid.) They also shade into each other at some points, which I like a lot. I think it’s going to be pretty warm, giving that the beige wool is carried across the back of each square. (You can see that at the top, where it’s curled back a bit.) Mr. Math likes it a lot, though, so I’m sure he’ll wear it.

What do you think?

Roan in Kauni

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Deborah Cooke

I haven’t posted much about knitting lately, for two reasons: first, there’s been a lot of book news and I know you’re more interested in that, and secondly, I haven’t finished many projects this summer. I’ve been knitting a lot of stranded colourwork and fair isle, and that’s time consuming – though I love the results.

Here’s one that’s on my needles right now:This pattern is from the latest Rowan magazine, #56, and is called Roan. It’s a kimono style sweater and is knit in heavier yarn than the one I’m using. This yarn is Kauni Effektgarn, a yarn I love because of the way it gradually changes colour. This is the teal colourway and the pink/purple colourway. I had to recalculate things to ensure that the sweater fits – I’ll be getting more stitches per inch in both directions – so I’m knitting by the directions for the large size to get a sweater slightly smaller than a medium. I’ll need to add more repeats of the Celtic knot to get the length, too.

What do you think? I just love it!

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

Tithe in Noro

Grey B&L Socks

Revised Noro Cardigan

Balkan

Christmas Ornaments

French Cancan

Skye Finished

Audiobook Socks

Colourspun Skye

Roan in Kauni