FO: Pas de Valse

Things have been a little crazed around here as I prepare for a whole lot of stuff. Right now, I am focusing on trying to wrap up and summarize work projects from the past 6 1/2 years. Cleaning out my hard drive was a pretty sobering experience. It's almost over now and I'm begging my co-workers to throw me a party already.

This weekend was busy, but we made time to go to the Louis Armstrong house in Queens. I'll have more on that later as it was a blog-worthy experience in itself.

Louis and his wife Lucille settled in what could be called a modest house, in a real neighborhood...except they had a triple lot in which they had landscaped a beautiful Japanese garden to entertain in. I just happened to be wearing my latest sweater, and the day was sunny and warm enough for a little photoshoot.



I half excepted Louis to come out of his house and yell at me to get off his lawn.





The sweater is the Pas de Valse by Marnie MacLean from Twist Collective.



I used 4 skeins of The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Adonis Butterfly. I love this color blue. Since handpainted yarn tends to be a bit inconsistent color-wise I alternated skeins to make the color more even. I still ended up with an odd color splotch of green on one front though, but I'm not going to let that bother me right now. Aside from that, the yarn was a champion of loveliness- soft with cashmere and merino and it didn't stretch out when blocked (as superwash yarns tend to do sometimes). It's meant to be worn large and drapey, with a pin to fasten it whichever way you want. I personally like it low to give a more hourglass waist shape.



I do have a few gripes about the pattern. The collar extension was a bit sloppy to finish up in the back neck. The sample pictures seem to gloss over that fact that it's not quite perfect, and the instructions are a little vague when it comes to piecing that section together. I think the sleeves could be a little neater as well- they connect to the sweater by picking up stitches from the body and knitting down from the sleeve cap, and I don't like that look as much as sewn-in sleeves. I also think the sleeves as written taper too narrow, so I cast off when I had 50 stitches left on the needles (she has you decrease down to 34). I don't think that the sleeves would fit over my wrist otherwise- they are very narrow, fitted sleeves to begin with. I like the look of that as it is a nice contrast to the rest of the garment, but I think if you did it as written, you'll end up cutting the circulation off to your hands. I loved the lettuce crochet edging- it really finished the sweater off nicely.



I also love the drape and the shaping of the rest of the sweater- and there is a whole lot of shaping instructions to pay attention to. This is definitely making the cut and ending up in my suitcase. It's very flattering and wearable as far as a larger sweater goes. I kind of want to be the graceful and elegant person who would wear this on a regular basis. It wants me to go out and get my ears pierces so I can wear dangly earrings with it.



This did take a quite a while to make, and because I always had two skeins of yarn attached, it didn't leave the house. This is the 39" size. I used about 1550 yards of sport weight yarn- a lot of yarn goes into a long-ish oversized sweater knit at a fine gauge with a huge drapey collar. Aside from my pattern gripes, I enjoyed knitting this and I watched some good classic movies in the process.

Some Works in Progress

Two weeks in to 2012 and I've not cast on for a pair of socks. This means, despite having limited knitting time, I've gotten some real progress done on sweaters. Multiple sweaters.

First up is the Pas de Valse from Twist Collective.

It calls for fingering weight yarn but it works up pretty quickly at a loose gauge. I'm using Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in the Adonis Butterfly colorway. I can't wait for this sweater to be done and it's not because I'm sick of knitting it- I just love the way it drapes and I can't wait to wear it. It's almost like putting something on layaway. I keep plugging away at it, and one day it will be mine, all mine!



Because it is hand-dyed yarn and there are variations that can't be helped, I'm alternating every couple rows with another skein. That way, when I change skeins there won't be an obvious color change striping its way across my sweater.

Next up is a manly man sweater. It's the Lattice Sweater from Interweave Knits.

These are the sleeves and they only have a few more inches to go. You can't tell from the sample photo, but the sleeves have a line of rib in the center. The whole sweater is kind of boring to knit, but comforting on the commute. It seems really exciting at this point to do that cable detail around the collar. That's going to be like Christmas and my Birthday all wrapped into one when I finally get there. I am on the road for a business trip next week (that I'm seriously dreading) and I'm going to work on the body then. Flights and late nights mean that there is a chance I'll get a great deal of this knocked out without much effort. I'm using Cascade 220 Heathers in the color "Sparrow". We can't really make a man's sweater in an exciting flashy color now, can we? I'd rather it be brown or gray or a combination of the two and have the sweater get a lot of use. Maybe it can be dark green or navy if we're feeling particularly adventurous.

I actually finished this sweater a couple days ago but I haven't had a chance to get pictures yet. So here is what it looked like a couple weeks ago:



It's the Leyfi pullover by Romi Hill. It's a top-down seamless sweater with a great lace collar and a pretty leafy lace pattern that continues down the sleeves. I'll have more on it later, but I love it and it fits and it's flattering. The yarn is Cascade Eco, which knit up in no time at all once I got over the intricate lace.

An Amazon giftcard from a co-worker went to good use:

Squeeee! My quest to find comfy pumps that don't look frump resulted in these cute Mary Janes from John Fluevog. They have a nice round toe and a sturdy heel, so I've had no complaints at all. I walk quite a bit during my day- not only am I on my feet a great deal at work (well, not a waitress amount, but quite a bit) and then I'll usually have to qualms about walking a mile or so after work to run errands or avoid taking the subway at rush hour. I don't like to carry an extra pair of shoes around, so I'd rather just get something I can walk all day in without crippling myself.

I'll be out of commission for a bit as I go rah rah rah for corporate life and put on my serious face and powerpoint present my ass off. Let us all hope that it does not permanently steal my soul.