FO: Buchanan Tee

I finished a fantastic little summery top a couple weeks ago.

It's the Buchanan sweater from Kate Davie's wonderful little book appropriately titled "Yokes".   The last sweater I made of hers was the whimsical Owls pullover.  Sadly, I left it in storage and I want it back (along with that denim pencil skirt, ugh, sometimes I just miss my stuff).

There are several winners in the Yokes book.  Loads of simple, creative designs that would be flattering to most- there is quite a bit of waist shaping worked into these patterns, which, hello, I can't do without.

This was designed with a heavier wool in mind- a mohair blend!- but I couldn't do a short-sleeved top in wool.  In my mind, it called for cotton, specifically some of my jealously hoarded long-discontinued Rowan Calmer.  It behaves like wool but it's nice and light weight, making it perfect for summery little tops that you dream of wearing.  Lately, I've been in a "suns out, why am I freezing?" sort of place so it hasn't gotten any real use yet.  I can't wait.  Tomorrow is a warmer day according to the Met office.

I loved the colorwork on the Yoke of this.  It's much bolder and graphic than traditional fair-isle yokes.

All-round, a winner.

Making Ugly Knits Pretty

I'm not a huge fan of dyeing or over-dyeing entire garments. It presents too many challenges that apartment dwellers find hard to overcome. Usually, you need a pretty big dyepot in order to get the dye evenly distributed. Like a vat. I have a stockpot that is at least a 12 quart, and it's not really big enough to do a sweater. The second issue is the seams. Any place where the garment has a seam, it will be harder for the dye to get to. You'll end up with really funky strips of the original color any place you have stitching.

Saying that, I thought this garment was a good candidate for the dye pot:



Oh, the horror.



Someone (a non-knitter, specifically) had given me 4 different colored skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in rather Easterish colors. This was waaay back in 2004. I found a pattern that called for 2 skeins, with two strands of yarn held together. So I picked out the two skeins that were the most complimentary and used those together- a pale blue-green and a carnation pink. That is how this monster was born.

I never wore it because of the hideousness and awfulness. Plus, because the yarn was mostly cotton, I needed special Procion dyes.

Finally, over the summer, I took it out and decided to dye it. Procion dyes need no heat to set- just a day or two to cure. Running the stove for hours in summertime is never a valid option. After soaking the tee in washing soda, I mixed the dyes and got a pretty bright raspberry pink that was saturated enough to cover the existing color. I laid the wet garment out on layers of saran wrap and hand-painted the dye on using an application sponge. Once it was saturated with dye, I wrapped it up in the saran wrap and let it sit for a day.



The results were nothing but sweet.



The dye covered the former heinous color evenly and with no hint of the monster that lurks beneath. It's cheery and summery and wonderful.



Because there were no seems at all on this garment, I didn't have any trouble at all getting the dye where it needed to be. It was almost too easy, really.



The specs:

The pattern is the Ballet Tee from Teva Durham's book Loop-d-Loop. I used 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece held together. I don't remember the needle size, but it was probably whatever she recommended in the pattern. It was a super simple pattern worked completely in the round.

FO- Liesl

Oh, cotton. How I love/loathe you.

I acquired 4 skeins of the prettiest light green cotton yarn when the Suss store went out of business back in 2006. They were $1 a skein, and although I had no plans for in the works, I couldn't resist. This is what happens when I get yarn with no master plan for it...it sits around in a bin for a half a decade before I can muster up the will to make something out of it.



In my vicious stash policy of "be used or begone", I knew I had to dig this up and turn this into something.

It was tricky to find a project that would make do with 470 yards of Aran-weight cotton yarn. I finally settled on the Liesl. Pretty much everyone I know had made one. Its top-down design meant I could knit until I ran out of yarn. The feather-and-fan stitch pattern is easy as can be, and it just flew along and was done in no time.



Not exactly high fashion, but it's a cute functional layering piece.



A couple of vintage buttons from my button bin and voila! My yarn stash is 4 skeins less of ropey slubby cotton.

I gifted this as soon as it was blocked. It wasn't enough that I turned it into something nice. I couldn't have that yarn in my house any longer in any shape or form.

The specs:

I used nearly all 4 skeins of Suss Cotton, which comes in 118 yards a piece. It's Aran weight and hard to work with- it's like knitting with rope and can really tire your hands out. The color is "Stone".
I didn't modify the Leisl pattern at all except for only making two button holes. I made the medium size.

I can't decide if this counts as a sweater or not. If it does, then it's number 12 of my 12 Sweaters project. I still have 3 months, and I finished another sweater this week (it's blocking and in need of buttons). I'll go pop the cork on some bubbly.

FO: Phyllo Yoked Pullover

I had to get my eyes dilated at the ophthalmologist on Friday, which left me looking freakishly stoned.



Part of me wanted to just sit in a dark room and wait for it to wear off, but I had much too much to do. So everything I saw that afternoon was blurred and accompanied by a bright glare, which made me start to think I was stoned.



Anyway. The gin and tonics probably didn't help.

I finished the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.



I love sweaters like this- you go on for almost forever in plain stockinette stitch, and then BAM there's a pretty and unique design element that pulls it all together. It's based on the Phyllotaxis Spiral found in plants- sunflowers, pinecones, daisy, asters and mums- they all have a spiral pattern that runs both clockwise and counterclockwise to form a lattice.



It's a fairly simple lace pattern with the decreases built in so the spiral is uninterrupted. When I get cooking on something like that, I can't put it down. It's addictive.





I didn't do any major modifications except for the sleeves. The way they were written, they were going to be hourglass shaped. Big belled cuffs that taper to the elbow. I'm a big fan of rolling up my sleeves (or at least having the option to) so I nixed the sleeve design and just did a plain sleeve with decreases every 10 rows until I hit the number I needed to get them to fit in with the yoke.



It's really just a lovely sweater. And the yarn...Rowan Calmer almost makes me feel silly for all the smack I've talked about hating cotton and how it hurts my hands. It's made up of 75% cotton, 25% acrylic microfiber. The Microfiber makes it silky soft and gives it a bit of drape. It is elastic enough hide stitch inconsistencies better than 100% cotton. Love. Love. Love. It's lightweight and comfortable to wear as well.

The specs: I used 8 skeins of Rowan Calmer in "Refresh"- about 1400 yards- for the 40" size. I used US size 6 needles. It is knit and pieces and seemed up before you attach everything on one long circular needle for the yoke. It could have been modified to knit in the round, but the front is shorter than the back to make the neck dip lower in the front, so you would have to plan on that.