FO: Var

My obsession with all thing Icelandic continues.  While I won't be stocking deliciously fragrant Hakarl any time soon, I am loving lopapeysa sweaters.  Casual, functional, warm colorwork pullovers and cardigans were my go-to this winter.  Now that it is springtime, I still wanted to wear one, so I decided to fight my fear of zippers once again and make a jacket that is still warm and weatherproof without being too swampy-pits on.

The great thing about Icelandic sweater patterns is they all follow a very basic formula for men and women alike- a tube for the body, two tubes for the sleeves, then you join the whole mess when it hits the yoke and decrease down to the neck.  They are perfectly unisex, and while you can add waste shaping for a more flattering fit, I opted not to.  I found a yoke pattern that I loved but it didn't match my gauge (Var), so I mashed it up with another sweater that did (Frost) and added a steek in the front so I could install a zipper.  Both patterns are found in the Istex Lopi 29 book, which is full of patterns that you can just adapt and run with your own creation.

I wanted a longer sweater, a bit oversized, so I know this isn't the most flattering length on someone with curves.  I wanted function over fashion this time around though, and having something that reaches you hip makes for a really warm jumper.  I also added a hood.  It just felt right to be able to have a built-in hat on something that I would wear in such changeable spring weather.  Plus, I've never made anything with a hood before and was long overdue.

I am also getting so much better at installing zippers.  This one I got right on only the second try!  It's practically bulge-free, and the whole process went so smoothly that I have conquered my fear and I'm zipper-ready for anything.

The pattern for the hood also said that you should roll the edge of the hood under and seem it in place, but it does that naturally without any help from me, so I left the edge unfinished.  If you were really inspired, you could do an i-cord edging on it, or extend the button band up and around it, but I think it was fine as it is.

I used up almost all of the Rowan British Sheep Breeds that I had in my stash.  The colors:
White= BFL
Black-Brown= Black Welsh
Brown-Grey= Jacob
I also used small amounts of Grey Suffolk and Moorit Shetland, as I was just down to scraps with those and still wanted to put them to use.  

It's just fascinating to feel the different wool characteristics in this way.  The BFL is by far the softest and silkiest and I want to buy all of it in the world and live in a house made of it.  

I am quite pleased with it.  It's just suck a simple design and only took a few weeks to whip up with no real intense effort needed.  I'm quite sad to see it done, as this is the very last of the instant gratification projects for a while.  On to sock-yarn pullovers!

The Butcher of Sheepy things

Like I said in a previous post, I somewhat lost my knitting mojo after then holidays.  Once I got all the gifties sent out to the four corners of the globe, I sat down and looked around and just couldn't find the inspiration to do diddly.

I dislike unfinished projects in general, which is why I was disgusted with myself for having a hat brim sitting on the shelf for more than a month.

A long stretch of simple knitting in the round was abandoned in favor of just not wanting to deal with it for 14 inches.  

I did chip away at a crochet blanket for a while:

The Babette, the best way I could think of to use up all the scraps of sock yarn that I've accumulated the past few years.  A memory of socks and shawls and sweaters, slowly being pieced together in a colorful spread of clown barf.  However...I now need to create more scraps as I'm running out of yarn for it.  

Part of this big stall was the fault of this jumper:

An incredibly warm men's Icelandic lopi sweater called Riddari, knit in the natural colors of sheep of the Birtish Isles: Black Wesh, moorit Shetland, white BFL, and steel gray Suffolk.  It was lovely to knit- the wool was rustic and had a lovely sheepy smell, and it was comforting and joyful to make.

Once I was done and blocked, I decided I didn't want it to be a pullover- a zipper install to let it be worn open would be a good idea since it was extraordinarily warm. So I crocheted steeks, slicked it from nave to throat, and basted in a lovely vintage brass zipper.

Hours later, I was in a mass of ripped seems and bits of thread.

No matter how carefully I install a zipper, no matter how many tutorials I read and follow step-by step, I can not get the stupid giant bulge out.

 Really?

I'm at a loss as to what to do- after picking it out and re-sewing it, trying to keep the fabric loose and the tension even, the bulges would not go away.

Should I try again, send it off to a pro to pic, or try to sew it back up and call it a pullover?

FO- Republic Hat

My A-Z stashdown continues! Now with even more Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky!

Anyway.

I had what I thought was a full skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in a pretty light gray. This yarn was re-claimed from my most fantastically ugly fair isle skirt:



Then I skeined up the yarn and gave most of it away. Half of it was Renyold's Lopi Icelandic yarn, which matches the brown sheep perfectly when it comes to gauge.

I cast on for the Republic hat. Just as I was decreasing for crown, my yarn ran out.



I had to make some emergency calls, but a friend who I gave some of the skirt scraps to still had some on hand. I finished the hat in Lopi, which matched color-wise perfectly. The only thing is that the lopi has a lot of dark black wiry guard hairs that bloomed up, while the Lamb's Pride has more of a silver mohair halo. I trimmed up the guard hairs with a pair of sharp scissors and I can't even tell where one begins and the other ends.



I got the giant button at M&J trimming.





This got wrapped up and shipped up to Northern Maine for my Grandma's birthday. She's a pretty classy lady, and her mother used to own a hat store in Rochester, NY. She still loves hats.

The Specs:
The Republic Hat, which is a knock-off of a Banana Republic design. It's also a free pattern on this blog. I used about 100 yards of bulky weight yarn on a size 10.5 needles.

Ugly Knits. They Happen to the Best of Us.

A Biggy McLargeHuge snowstorm is being forecasted for the weekend. This can only mean one thing...it's time for me to sit inside by my faux fireplace and frog what might be the ugliest knit ever:



It's the Incredible Skirt by Wenlan, who, quite obviously is NOT a real knitter. Neither is the pattern editors apparently as it used up about twice as much yarn as the pattern called for, which is why my stripes are just about everywhere and the stripes did not transition with grace and dignity. The pattern was just all wrong.



I have a hard time walking around with my arms attached going the wrong way, which is why this skirt is much more Unflattering Earth Mother then Elegant Heroin Chic on me. Also, I weigh a bit over 83 pounds and my neck isn't freakishly giraffe-like.

Another issue is the bulky yarn. This will never flatter or hang right, but continue obeying gravity and end up pooling around my ankles like so many tears that I have cried in frustration over this. It's made of Lopi, which is a terribly scratchy yarn, but because I kept running out before the stranded transitions were through, I used some scraps and odd skeins of Brown Sheep as well. I knew as I was knitting along that this was a whole barrel full of wrong. I continued to knit feverishly, round and round and round until VOILA! An ill-fitting, nonsensically striped, scratchy long-ass skirt Incredibly materialized. I would have to wear jeans under this if I wanted to go the day without having a constant case of Itchybutt.



The fact that this has been done with for more than a year and the ends have still not been woven end is one clue that I would never ever wear this. I had great luck with the Hip in Hemp skirt, and I thought I could repeat my success in a very heavy bulky yarn.



Anyway. I have learned my lesson. Frogging this will be cathartic. I will enjoy every ripped stitch of it.