FO: Cadence Pullover

Well that was fast.



I decided rather cleverly that everyone who would normally get knitted gifts around the holidays from me would get them very unseasonably this year. The logistics of having to pack up a sweater, keep it around for months in a yet-to-be-determined location and then ship it from overseas seems a bit silly to me. And expensive. And dicey. As our pseudo-winter breaks into buds and crocuses and birdsongs, heavy woolens will be gifted.

This sweater is a Xmas present for someone a tad bit smaller than me. As in, someone I have several cup sizes over, several inches in height and about ah, I don't even want to discuss weight. Let's just say I got the curves in the family. I could bench press the giftee without it being a big deal. Despite the fact that I could squeeze into the sweater like Lana Turner, this was intended to have some ease and be less form-fitting. So use your imagination.



It's the Cadance Pullover from Jordana Paige from the Fall 2010 issue of Knitty.com. It's a simple, top down design with the only embellishment being a set of lace diamonds around the collar. This is the 35" size.
It's a simple pattern and the heavier gauge yarn meant it was done before I knew it. I usually labor away on sleeves for ages, but I had both of them done in 3 days.



Once again, UPS Brown is my go-to yarn color. I used 1.5 skeins of Cascade Eco. I did a bit more waist shaping then called for, but otherwise, it's the same front and back. I would usually add some short-row shaping or darts to accommodate womanliness, but in this case I didn't have exact measurements so I let it be.



I'm sending this out today, cheerily wrapped with ribbons and tinsel, wishing everyone a great holiday and Happy New Year 2013.

FO: Leyfi Pullover

Fa-la-la... I finished something....



Actually, I finished it a couple weeks ago, but their isn't enough daylight in my week to get a decent shot of it. I think if you are going to spend hours and hours handknitting something you really need to do your work justice with a nice well-lit outdoors or studio photographs. This usually isn't a problem from May to September, but wintertime can be a challenge.





The pattern is called Leyfi by Romi Hill. It's from Interweave Knits Fall 2010.



I used 2 skeins of Cascade Eco Wool. The way the sweater is constructed makes it fun- you start with the crazy open lace turtleneck, work your way down to the shoulders, and then split for the lace sleeves. It flows together seamlessly.

I might have made a mistake in interpreting the pattern- I think the sleeves are meant to be more of an open lace pattern. I knit all the yarn overs through the back loop like the pattern said, and now that I look at other people's finished project, I see that they didn't. It doesn't effect the fit per say, but it just makes it less lacy.



The only thing I did to modify was a few short rows in the front for boob-shaping. Otherwise, this sweater would be the same front and back. Also, I added some garter stitch to the bottom hem to keep it from curling up. This is my first completed sweater for 2012. I can only hope that I can order up some cold, snowy weather in time for this to get more wear before spring.

It knit up fairly quickly- once the sleeves were done, it only took me a few days to complete the body. It was hard to haul it around to work on the acres of stockinette stitch that made up the body, so I watched a few movies to get through it at home. Specifically:

In a Lonely Place:

The great Hitchcock film, "Shadow of a Doubt":

And, what might be my new favorite movie ever, "Le Trou".

I guess I've always been a sucker for great iconic acting and the suspense that these old movies had to rely on instead of CGI and pyrotechnics. I knew how this sweater would end anyway. Happily, and with a warm heroine.

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.

FO- The Importance of Being Ernest Shackleton

Finally! I can start to show off a few of the things I've been quietly working on in hopes of actually surprising people.

First up, a sweater I designed myself. A men's sweater, inspired by the great Ernest Shackleton.

I've been completely fascinated by the Man and the Adventure for ages. Here we have a captain and crew of 27, sailing for Antarctica for a chance to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent. The year was 1914.

Very close to reaching land in February 1915, their ship, the Endurance, was trapped in sea ice. The hope was that upon springtime in September, the ice would release the ship and they would continue their journey to the Continent. However, the melting and shifting ice pack shredded the ship to pieces in October, leaving the men to scavenge the ship for supplies before the Endurance was swallowed by the icy sea.

For two months, they camped out on an ice floe, hoping the drifting currents would get them close to land. They had lifeboats and supplies, and they survived by eating their sled dogs (gasp!) and whatever seals and penguins they could kill.

Eventually, the ice floes broke up and the crew spent five harrowing days in their life boats, trying to reach land. The reached the tiny, uninhabited Elephant Island. There, Shackleton decided that the majority of his crew needed to stay behind and took his five healthiest men to try to get to a whaling station on South Georgia Island, which was 800 miles away across open ocean. On the 24th of April 1916, they launched the tiny boat, promising to come back to rescue the rest of his crew.

The tiny lifeboat and crew were tossed around in hurricane-force winds and high seas for 15 days. With only rudimentary navigation tools and very little chance to use them properly with all the tossing seas, they actually made it to South Georgia Island. Except they were on the WRONG SIDE from the whaling station there and they had to cross the mountainous interior on foot for 32 miles, which had never been attempted before.

Upon his return, Shackleton borrowed a boat and had to wait for months before the weather cleared enough to make the journey back into the Antarctic. He went and picked up the rest of his crew from Elephant Island, who had been eating penguin and living in the overturned lifeboat for more than 4 months, waiting for their captain to come and get them, not knowing if he was even alive, all of humanity ignorant of their whereabouts.

That just amazing, right? If any manly-man story could give me the warm fuzzies, this would be it.

Sadly, it did not end well for old Ernie Shack. He returned to a different world in England in 1917 largely forgotten- World War I had broken out, and he considered a failure for losing a ship and not making his intended journey. Several books and films later, and his character has been largely restored to his rightful place as pretty much a super hero.

Back to the knitwear.

Looking through the old pictures of Shackleton and his crew made me jealous of their insanely warm knitwear. These are the days before synthetics- everything was wool or skin or fur.

Look at those pimp fur mittens. Seeing that sweater made my heart go pitter-pat a bit, so I set out to make one. It's pretty simple- just a drop-shoulder shapeless man sweater with a basketweave stitch pattern up top.



I used a little over two skeins of Cascade Eco.



It's designed for a man, so therefore, it had no shaping. It makes me look bulkier than I need to look, but I was the only available model that the sweater would fit so I'll have to make do.



I did take my liberties from the original photo and did away with the turtleneck. In my experience, most men are loathe to wear one. A simple roll neck worked just fine.



It's cozy and warm and functional, which is perfect for the Maine winters that the recipient endures, which by the sounds of the whining I hear are just as bad as spending an entire winter out on the Antarctic ice. I did block the sleeves out again- they were a little funky and bunched up at the shoulders, and a good second blocking was exactly what it needed.



I used size 8 needles and got 14 stitches and 22 rows to 4 inches, and figured out the math from there for a 40" chest size.

The recipient loves it apparently. Being nice to me gets you places, or, at the very least, it gets you knitwear.

FO: Starsky

After a rather soul-destroying past couple of weeks at work, I was really looking forward to a cozy weekend filled with all the comforts: warm (and warming) beverages, strolls in the fresh autumnal air, slow-cooked dinners with mashed potatoes, and digging through bins of gorgeous apples at the farmer's market. When I wake up in the morning now the street lights are still on (which is shocking and a bit disheartening) and I really have to make an effort to get outdoor time in daylight during the week.

The thing I was looking forward to the most was finishing the most bad-ass sweater I've had the pleasure of making.



I started this way back in February using Cascade Eco in my favorite drab grey-brown sheep color. I didn't get very far before the weather warmed up and I made the switch to linen and cotton and this got tucked away unseen until touching it became bearable again. The pattern, while well written, was a bit complicated. The asymmetrical banana tree cable pattern was not difficult but required a lot of pay-attention time. The cables were crossed on both sides of the work, and it changed every row. Therefore, I couldn't seem to memorize the pattern despite repeating it dozens of times over the course of the sweater. Also...if I had to tink back due to an error, I found it hard to figure out what row I would be on. It took some time, but I'm so happy with the sweater I can say it was completely worth it.



I wasn't getting gauge no matter how many swatches I made, so I ended up crunching the numbers and making the small size to fit me. I made quite a few mods from the original pattern. I knit the body and the front panels in one piece up to the armpits in stead of in pieces. I usually do cardigans like this if I can- less seeming and you can knock out rows of patterns a bit quicker. I also left out the belt as I think that is kind of frumpy. It's oversize to begin with, and the belt is just too bathrobey looking to me, and I already get plenty of that in my neighborhood [shudder].



I added a couple more short rows to the collar (I love big, dramatic collars) and added buttonholes. I was thinking of getting some wood or antler buttons and go for rustic, but I found these shiny slabs of mother or pearl at Beverley Trimming and pounced. That store is legendary for having an amazing selection, but you have to dig for everything and squeeze yourself into a claustrophobic corner and crane your neck at a weird angle to see the buttons. It's well worth hunting for the perfect piece though- you can find gorgeous vintage buttons for whatever the store owner priced them at 20 years ago. I originally sewed the buttons on so the fronts lined up symmetrically, but then decided to bump them over a little bit and have the fronts meet a little off center. It's such a traditional-looking cable sweater, I felt like I need to do something slightly unexpected to give it a mod-ish twist.



I also made it a bit shorter than the original pattern. I like sweaters to hit just below my hip. Any longer and I feel like it's creating an undesirable tent effect over my derriere with all that thick fabric. The lace tunic I'm wearing is very long indeed and gives the sweater the illusion of being shorter than it is, but it hits right below my hip and that's exactly where I like it.

By the way, the necklace can be found on my Etsy shop. It's a perfect black pearl in a silver wire cage. Very delicate and unique.

I used a few yards shy of two full skeins of Cascade Eco- about 956.0 yards of bulky-weight yarn. This is the second sweater I've made from this stuff and it's great. It's woolen-spun so it's a much lighter weight finished garment than expected. It's not the softest yarn, but it's a great workhorse of non-pilling, uncomplicated warm wool. I used size 8 needles for the majority of the sweater and size 9 for the ribbing. I reinforced the buttonholes with a bit of crochet- the buttons were slipping out too easily with just a regular buttonhole, so I tightened them up until the problem went away.

I love it and I will wear this until it's a tattered rag. It's perfect.