I blocked the Heaven Scent shawl last weekend, and the lace opened up beautifully!
I still have to sew in the ends, but it was a good day for pictures.
It blocked out to a really nice size. It’s about 20″ deep at the middle back, and that long curved edge is about 84″ long.
And one last detail shot. 🙂
There are three more shawls in this pattern bundle. One is rectangular, so less interesting to me, but I’ll have a hunt through my stash for candidates to knit the other two crescent shawls.
I showed you this scarf and mittens in progress last month in this post about Comfort Knitting. The project started with a bag of mill ends from Spinrite of Patons Rumor, a long discontinued yarn. Here it is on Ravelry. It’s a bulky weight yarn that’s mostly acrylic but also is 15% alpaca, which makes it very soft and a bit fuzzy.
This colourway, which is a light purple, is called Hibiscus Heather. This was the picture I showed you last month of the mittens and part of the scarf.
The mittens are from the Tin Can Knits’ World’s Simplest Mittens pattern. (That’s a Ravelry link.) If you don’t have a basic mitten pattern, this is a really good one – and it’s free! It includes instructions for four sizes of mitten, each in four different weights of yarn. I used the chunky instructions for an adult small.
The scarf is a design I made up as I worked. It ended up with nine diamonds – mostly because I mucked up the fifth one and made it a bit smaller by accident. It thus became a midpoint design element. 🙂
Here’s the completed scarf.
I think it could do with a blocking. The edges are very curly.
I have enough yarn left for a hat, but I tend to dislike knitted hats. I had a sift through my library on Ravelry (I love that search engine!) and found a possibility – it’s Gypsy from Rowan 48, a seed stitch hat with a cable trim. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I like the brim on this one. The pattern specifies Rowan Cocoon, which is similar in weight to Patons Rumor, so I’ll give it a try. It’s a hat, though, so I’ll probably have to knit, frog and reknit at least once.
Of course, now I’m flipping through Rowan 48 and being distracted by other designs. 🙂
I haven’t knit a shawl in a while, lace or otherwise – well, I’m still plugging along on my Water shawl, but it’s not a very fun knit at this point. I don’t think it counts anymore. 🙂
A LYS had Freia Handpaints yarns on sale, and I simply can’t resist gradient dyed yarns. I ordered some and cast on.
I chose a pattern by BooKnits. I wanted to knit a lace shawl with some beads and I had The Close to You Collection of patterns already. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I had knit Snow Angel from this pattern collection, also in Freia Handpaints yarn, but in their Wool/Nylon Lace which is discontinued. The colourway was Autumn Rose.
Here’s my Ravelry project page for the project.
And here’s that Snow Angel shawl:
There’s a blog post for it, which is right here.
This time, I’ve chosen the pattern Heaven Scent, which is in that same collection but also available on its own. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m knitting the smallest size, with the stockinette stitch top.
This yarn is Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball Merino. The colourway is Vamp. Here’s the Ravelry yarn page.
Here’s my progress so far:
The camera is really emphasizing that hot pink. The colourway ends in a bright red.
Of course, it’s curled on the circular needle in the opposite direction of its shape – the shawl will be a crescent curved the other way when it’s off the needles and blocked. (Much like Snow Angel, shown above.)
The yarn is a loose single ply. It’s very soft but tougher than expected – there is the usual thick-and-thin of single ply yarns but it hasn’t been splitty to knit and it hasn’t broken.
And here’s a detail view. I’m using 6/0 purple Czech glass beads in dark purple, which match the beginning of the gradient pretty well.
I did make a slight change to the pattern. The shawl grows quickly in width because you add four stitches on every right side row and two on every wrong side row. The additions are at the beginning and the end of each row, and the pattern uses make-one (slanting left or right). I found that two M1s with just a knit stitch between them, then another M1 on the purl side pretty close by made for a tight edge. I switched out the two M1s on the purl side for YO’s, then the outer M1 on the right side rows to YO’s as well. I’m curious to see how this blocks out. It feels better to me.
I’m almost halfway through the second repeat of the main chart, then have the border chart to knit. I’m thinking I might run out of yarn (the pattern notes that 400m is close) so if I do, I’ll have to find something matchy to finish.
As mentioned last week, I’ve been doing some comfort knitting. Besides making clothes for the girls, this usually means knitting socks and/or mittens. I also sorted some stash and rehomed a bunch of it, which meant I rediscovered some goodies, too.
The mittens are from one of these rediscoveries. They started with a bag of mill ends from Spinrite of Patons Rumor, a long discontinued yarn. Here it is on Ravelry. It’s a bulky weight yarn that’s mostly acrylic but also is 15% alpaca, which makes it very soft and a bit fuzzy.
This colourway, which is a light purple, is called Hibiscus Heather.
I first made a pair of mittens for myself, using the Tin Can Knits’ World’s Simplest Mittens pattern. (That’s a Ravelry link.) If you don’t have a basic mitten pattern, this is a really good one – and it’s free! It includes instructions for four sizes of mitten, each in four different weights of yarn. I used the chunky instructions for an adult small.
I also cast on a scarf for myself to match and am just making it up as I go. I’m really enjoying this knitting – it’s the combination of the yarn, which feels nice, and the Brittany birch needles, which I always love to use. This is about the midpoint. I’ll make nine diamonds, then taper down to the other point. Will it need a tassel on each end? Possibly…
The Quintessential Cardigan is a jewel-necked long-sleeved cardigan that is just a wardrobe staple. I bought it as a kit in two colourways, green and purple, with a tweedy yarn. Here’s the green one, which I finished almost a year ago:
I cast on the purple after finishing the Which Way Shawl. This time, I decided to knit the button bands in moss stitch instead of ribbing. I’ll also add a few more stitches to the cuffs to make the wrist a little wider. The sleeves on the green one fit, but I often push up my sleeves and that’s a big snug with wrists like this. I like how the tweed is knitting up.
This style of cardigan is one I wear a lot, so I also got out two others of a similar shape to compare the fit. On the left is one of my Hebrides cardigans, knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. This is my favourite cardigan – light, warm, pretty and a perfect fit. The hems and button bands are in moss stitch on this one. On the right is my Lunenberg cardigan, knit in Koigu KPPPM. This one is a little wide in the shoulders and the sleeves are a bit long, but that’s okay since I push them up. I also wear this one a lot. The hems and button bands are in garter stitch on this one.
Comparing them all, I decided to make the body of the Quintessential cardigan slimmer as well as longer, turning it to more of box shape. I did lengthen the pattern last time by 2″ but still had yarn leftover, so it can be even longer than that (esp if it’s narrower). The moss stitch hems will help with that change of shape, too.
Onward with a thousand miles of stockinette!
Around the beginning of the pandemic, I planned to get several of my tops quilted at the shop with the long-arm quilting machine. Since they were closed because of Covid-19, I popped this one onto the frame and began to hand quilt it. I don’t know if I’ve shown this one to you before.
I love pineapple quilts and picked up this book some time ago – Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. It was published in 2005 and I’m not sure when I bought it, probably at least ten years ago. (I’m also not positive that I know where it is now.) I remember that it has clear instructions and lots of inspiration, although I could have read more about contrast and fabric selection before diving into the creation of mine. 🙂
This is the central medallion of mine:
I squared off the corners and added a border. It’s very bright and I love it.
That floral print is a Kaffe Fassett design called Kimono. By the time I realized I needed big squares of it for the corners, it had been discontinued, so I pieced those blocks. You can see the diagonal line in one big peony this corner where I seamed the two triangles. It’s not an absolute match.
I started to quilt in the center with lime embroidery thread and worked my way out past that lime hexagon. There are still two corner squares that need their quilting finished.
This past week, I bound the outside edge with self-made bias. I was amazed that I managed to find the dark pink from the middle of the star in my stash.
Here’s how it looks now:
It’s interesting how the contrast looks different in the photo than in real life. The green star tips don’t fade out of view as much IRL, probably because the lime is more vibrant than it appears here, more like the octagon in the middle.
As I was taking this picture, my dog decided to lie down in that bit of sunbeam. She didn’t settle in, though, so I didn’t get a pic of her there – even with the quilt, the floor is harder than her bed on the other side of the room, but her opportunism made me laugh.
I apologize for the quiet here. A month has slipped away from me, and I’m not entirely sure where it went. Of course, there were things to do in the garden this time of year and some canning to finish up. I also treated myself to a lot of reading on the porch, which was just wonderful. (I might not give up on that anytime soon. I’ll be out there in my fuzzies when the first snowflakes fall! LOL!)
I have been sorting and organizing, too, which seems to be a fall impulse for me. The girls are getting some new accommodations, so they won’t be standing on the bookshelves all the time (getting dusty). I’m doing some sewing for myself again (yay for fun clothes that fit) while I continue to knit on the endless black sweater in Kidsilk Haze. I may never take this one off once it’s done.
I’ve been thinking, also, about my Noro Mitred Jacket. (le sigh) The colour is pooling, each square taking repeatable increments of the colour gradation. I’ve reached the end of the I-cord, which is a bit tighter than would be ideal, and am debating the merit of taking it all back, then reknitting it, planning the placement of the squares.
And yes, the pattern does display an order of working the squares, but I never read that bit until now. I’ll guess the designer noticed the same thing, so my result is entirely user error. Those two leftish ones that start with fuschia and end with green, in the second row from the bottom, really irk me, as do the four mirroring each other on the other sleeve opening. (Pink through purple to pink, with pink through green to blue immediately below.) Still thinking on that. On the upside, it looks as if it will fit which wasn’t at all a sure thing.
Finally I’ve been knitting myself a pair of fuzzy socks. (Hmm. I cast them on before I even realized the reading-on-the-porch plan.) This may be my fave way to make socks right now, so let’s talk about that today.
A few years ago, I made a number of pairs of the Snowshoe Socks from Knits about Winter. (The first link goes to Ravelry and the pattern. The second is a link to the publisher’s website and wow, the book is really on sale right now.) Essentially, you carry two strands of Kidsilk Haze or a similar yarn along with your sock yarn. The three strands held together make for a thick fuzzy and warm sock. Here are those pair – I made three for myself and one pair for the mister. I think there was a fourth ladies’ pair in teal that went to my SIL.
Here’s my original blog post about them from 2020.
You can see that the orange and the purple pair for me are quite generous through the ankle. I find them a bit sloppy to wear. The first pair, OTOH, which I knit from a smaller size, are a bit snug. The mister finds his too hot so doesn’t wear them much.
While two strands of silky mohair make for a cushy sock, my current experiment is a pair with just one strand of the fuzzy stuff. That makes two strands overall. I’m also using my regular sock pattern, but I dropped the stitch count to 64 stitches instead of 72. Still knitting on 2.5mm needles but the socks come out a little bigger with the two strands and so, they’re going to fit me perfectly. Ha. No baggy ankles this time. Having just the one strand doesn’t influence the final gauge as much, but you still get a fuzzy sock.
Here’s where I’m at, just after turning the heel on the first sock.
These yarns include alpaca fibre, so the socks are going to be really soft. Both are from The Alpaca Yarn Co. – the sock yarn is Paca-Peds in Purple Rain and the fuzzy one is Halo Watercolors in Picasso. Those are Ravelry links but The Alpaca Yarn Co has an online store right here. Here is Paca-Peds on their site, and here is Halo Watercolors.
I love how the colours become muted when the two yarns are held together. The sock yarn is space-dyed so I knew it would want to pool, probably in a swirl, so the fuzzy yarn softens that a bit, too.
The project bag is one I made from quilting cotton in my stqash. This is the free pattern. It’s a very easy sew, and you can subsequently play with the size of the bag. I’ve added a zipper into the seam between the two colours, too.
If you’ve never knit socks with two strands – and your feet get cold – then give this a try. Your usual sock pattern should work out just fine, but use two strands of yarn instead of just one. Like me, you may want to go down a few stitches in circumference. It depends how tight you like your socks.
As promised, here’s a post about a sweater knit a while ago. First, let’s talk about the pattern. I used The Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan. I think it appeared in Threads magazine once upon a time and you can find it online now. It’s less of a pattern than a formula, so it can be used for any size of person and any yarn. Here it is on Ravelry with links to the Wayback Machine. It looks like you can download it from Rav, too.
I used this formula a couple of times to make sweaters for Mr. Math, including the Elrond Sweater. That’s the link to my Ravelry project page, and here’s my blog post. Below is the sweater. Ha. I knit it in 2009 and he still loves it. 🙂
The sweater I wanted to write about today, though, is this one, which was knit so long ago that it doesn’t even have a Ravelry project page.
My No. 9 sweater reminded me of it, so I dug it out. This sweater was knit from a huge ball of yarn that I bought at Lewiscraft, probably in the 1970’s. It was called A Pound of Mohair or something similar. (How fun. I found an article on Knitty about Lewiscraft upon its demise in 2006.) As you can see, it was gradient-dyed.
This is not the mohair of KSH but the older variant, which is more prickly and thicker, blended with a bit of synthetic. Hayfield 80 (80% mohair, 10% nylon 10% acrylic) which is an aran weight is more similar to this one. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The scary thing is that I have another 1 lb. cone of similar mohair in graduated tones in my stash, which I bought in NYC, but that’s another story.
So, this cardigan was knit maybe 40 years ago. I was so proud of myself for getting the gradient on the sleeves to match! That was only possible because I used a contrasting yarn for the ribbing, although I don’t remember what it was. It doesn’t have any detail on the ribbing increases – like the one for the mister, the increases are just made on either side of two stitches that define the raglan line. It would be easy to increase the stitch count there and do a little cable, or the P2K2P2 of the No. 9 sweater.
The other cool thing about this sweater are the buttons. They’re clear with bugle beads inside. They’re very sparkly and special – I bought them from a little button shop on Queen Street West in Toronto, which was gone the last time I went looking for it. It was one of those places with all the boxes of buttons, and you bought buttons individually. (Yes, I have a button stash. Don’t you?)
I used similar gold buttons that have metallic threads inside, bought at the same time, on my felted Stripey Noro messenger bag. (That link goes to the pattern page at Ravelry. This design of mine is a free pattern download.)
This button place reminded me of excursions with my mom when I was a kid – she would make the trek from suburbia on public transit to Dressmakers’ Supply on Avenue Road for notions like buttons. I thought it was an amazing place – all those boxes of buttons, sorted by colour! I also thought it was about six million miles north of Bloor St., but really it was maybe three blocks. We always walked that bit. Dressmakers’ Supply moved down to Queen St. West at some point and has since closed down.
There is another button store on Queen St. West now called Trillium Button – or maybe it’s the same place but on the other side of the street now – which I’ll have to check out the next time I’m downtown. Ha! I found a blog post from 2012 about the button store and it IS the same store, but moved west and to the north side of the street. Definitely worth a trip. (Here’s that blog post, which has some pix.)
And hmm. Now I’m wondering what to do with all that mohair in the stash…
Last summer, I showed you a top-down cardigan I’d designed and knit for the girls in many sizes, from Monster High to Barbie and finally to Tyler.
I’ve also showed you this Tyler-size version. It’s knit of Koigu KPPPM in colourway 513P – KPPPM is 175m for 50g. I knit this one a little longer and also did some back neck shaping to make the front of the collar sit better. It’s modelled by RTW Rouge Sydney Chase, with a matching dress.
For the dress, I used the free pattern T-Shirt Dress for Tonner Dolls by Samira Jessica (that’s a Ravelry link) but divided the color. It’s a top-down knit with cap sleeves that are created when you cast off for the arms. I started with Sugar Bush Drizzle, held double, in Pink Puddle. At the waist, I changed to the Koigu KPPPM. I didn’t rib the skirt (as the pattern instructs) but just knit it in stockinette, then purled one row and cast off purlwise. I thought that might keep it from curling at the hem, but the hem still wants to roll up, even after blocking. I also added a little kickpleat at the center back. 🙂
I quite like this little dress, so I made a variation of it for Tyler in a different colourway. Here are the two of them together – Sydney is still wearing the first one – the light isn’t as good in my office this time of year as it was on the steps in the summer, but you can see the little kick-pleat on Sydney’s dress. Tyler has one, too. (Don’t you love Tyler’s shoes? They’re sling=backs, too. I want a pair myself.)
The top of Tyler’s dress is Sugar Bush Drizzle held double – the colourway is Monsoon Mauve – and the skirt is a fingering weight yarn leftover from a sweater knit for me, The Loving Path Fibre Arts High Twist Sock. It came with a dyed-to-match Kidsilk Haze type yarn, The Loving Path Fibre Arts Aura Lace. I held the two together to knit a Felix for myself. (Those are Ravelry links., the last one going to my project page.) The colourway is Bewitched, a glorious mix of greys and blacks with flicks of purple and green. No photograph can do it justice.
I wasn’t so fussed about the way the top-down cardigan looked on Sydney. It makes her shoulders look quite broad, which wasn’t the feminine look I was after. So, for this one, I knit a side-to-side cardigan in the Aura Lace to coordinate with Tyler’s new dress.
Here’s the sweater laid flat.
It has been blocked but those fronts want to roll. This was a bit of a surprise as I’d thought they might drape – sweaters knit like this in human size have cascading fronts. But on these needles, the fabric ends up too stiff to cascade, thus it rolls.
I knit the sweater from front to front – casting on at the front edge, knitting to the side seam, putting the sleeve stitches on a holder, knitting across the back, putting the other sleeve stitches on a holder, knitting to the front edge and casting off. I then sewed the shoulder seams, picked up the stitches for one sleeve in the round and knit down to the cuff, then repeated for the other sleeve. The only seams were the teeny ones at the shoulder.
Here’s the sweater on Tyler – I had to cover her hands to get it on, btw:
I put a pin in it because I’m still thinking about the fastening, since it won’t cascade. It wants to be a double-breasted sweater jacket. With a pin at the waist, the fronts curl back like lapels. I put a clear snap at one side and three little black beads on the outside. The other side will stay tucked under when it’s closed. It’s a little more formal look than I expected, but this Tyler seems to like it.
I’m going to knit another version, but from cuff to cuff and without the extended fronts. I may pick up a collar afterward, and am thinking of adding a cable, too.
I have a sweater for myself to show you next week. 🙂
I’ve been making a lot lately for my girls instead of for myself, so my count of finished projects for myself is pretty low this year. I lost a bit of my making mojo this year, thanks to a lot of projects that made me say “hmmm”. The girls have helped me to recover a bit of that, so over the next few posts, we’ll have a look at a few of those stalled projects. Coming back to them with a fresh eye has given me some ideas.
First up, the knee socks.
I’m not sure why knee socks intrigue me so much. They’re a lot (a LOT) of knitting and I seldom wear them once they’re done. All the same, I can’t resist them. It’s inexplicable.
For example, I made these in 2009 and have never worn them. Not even once. I take them out of the drawer and look at them sometimes, though. I do like that they exist.
The current choice of knee socks is Quail, designed by Martin Storey to be knit in Rowan Fine Art. Those are Ravelry links, as the yarn is (naturally) discontinued. I’ve been eyeballing these since I bought the book when it was first released in 2013.
The pattern is in this book for Rowan Fine Art: Fine Art Collection. It should be available for sale individually, but Rowan’s buy links from Ravelry are a trainwreck since they updated their website (and didn’t update the links.)
Here’s Rowan’s pic of the socks from the book. Of course, it’s a lovely photograph as is always the case with Rowan, but one that doesn’t let you see the detail in the socks very well.
It turns out that they have bobbles, which I’m leaving out since I hate bobbles. I hate knitting them and I hate that they look like warts when they’re done. No bobbles for me.
This should mean that I need less yarn and I hope that’s true. The pattern calls for three skeins of Fine Art, which has 400m per skein. That’s a lot of yardage for socks, even for knee socks – usually you need 350 – 400m for socks and double that for knee socks, with lots leftover for knitting for the girls – even with a light fingering like this one. I have two skeins of Fine Art in a plummy colour, so right from my cast-on, I’m playing yarn chicken.
The colourway is called Rowan. (That’s a Ravelry stash link, because I think it’s fun to see pictures of a specific yarn in a whole bunch of knitters’ stashes.)
I’m knitting them in the round on 2.0mm needles. Here’s where I stalled:
The top looks huge, which is always the way with knee socks. What made me go “hmmm” was the pooling. On the cuff, it made a nice little stripe, but once the stitches were added for the cables, it made a big moving pool. I’ve started the decreases and you can see that the width of the pool is decreasing. It’ll spiral down to a narrow stripe again by the ankle. I’d rather have stripes or cables, but not both at the same time.
I made another pair of socks in this yarn, in another colourway, and they did a similar striping, just in short plain socks. Here they are:
I’m not wildly in love with this pooling, but I can live with it since the socks are just in plain rib.
Here’s the shawl I made in this same yarn, which also pooled:
The thing is that I like the pattern of the pooling in the shawl, even with the lace stitch. I think it’s because it falls into a regular stripe that doesn’t vary over the length of the shawl. It’s the changing width of the stripes that I find distracting in the socks.
So, these socks are going to Frog Pond, and the yarn is returning to the stash. I’ll use it on a shawl, I guess, or another project that has the same number of stitches per row.
Maybe one pair of knee socks to admire is enough. 🙂
Alive & Knitting 