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.

FO: Icing Swirl Hat

The bumper crop of hats I have made are threatening to burst out of my winter woollies drawer. Some people in colder climates better have some birthdays coming up soon or this could get dire.

This one started out as a couple of wee braids of Capistrano Fiber Arts superfine merino.



I'm not sure what the color was called. Sometimes they aren't labeled. I pulled the braids apart and meticulously separated the different colors into piles- brown, tan and red. I carded each color into a separate batt, and then alternated when I was spinning so the yarn would stripe up when plied.





I spun it woolen and ended up with a worsted-weight 2 ply. I had about 280 yards total. After my last slightly bummer of a beret (now beanie) I decided to be brave and go for a slouchy big hat once again.



The pattern is the Icing Swirl Hat from Whimsical Little Knits. It's fairly simple to make. You start with an I-cord and it grows from there. There are some short rows in the back to give it a slouch shape. I like having a hat where you can pile all your hair underneath and hide it there rather than try to neatly arrange it while trying to fight static. Just hide it. It's easier that way.

On hindsight, I probably could have been a bit more aggressive blocking this out to a baggier shape. I'm always a little careful when I block anything handspun- I consider it just a little more fragile than a commercial yarn and I usually slowly block it out in stages rather than have a cartoonish struggle involving pins and upturned mixing bowls and wet wool.



A good blocking will also open up the lace a bit more, making the swirl more visible. I'm quite thrilled with the striping. It's also so soft, and really warm without being incredibly heavy. I love merino- I forget I love it as much as I do, and then I spend some touch time with it and it wiggles its way to the top of my love list again. The whole hat only used about 100 yards, so I have enough yardage leftover to, uh, make another hat I guess. Maybe I'll shake things up and make a cowl.

FO: Star-Crossed Hat

Oh, surprise, I made another hand spun hat. Giftmas will be easy and breezy affair for me this year. I hope.

This started out as two equally beautiful bits of fiber- a bump of baby camel and silk blend, plus some AVFKW club fiber of dyed Polworth.



The color was called "Rosemary".



I carded both of these together and ended up with 3 oz of soft, silky fiber. I pulled out the colors into sections so it would get muddy, but would have a more tweedy effect. I spun it up as a 2-ply worsted weight.





The blended color has really gentle shifts of purple and green. I loved it- it was soft and drapes nicely and it's very warm. I only ended up with 120 yards.

I choose the Star Crossed Slouchy beret as a pattern. I started running scarce on yardage, so I skipped six rows of the pattern before I ran out...this means I don't have a slouchy beret. I have a beanie.



Which is fine by me- I like the giant undulating cables and sometimes you have to just go with it until you run out. It's a pretty hat and I could always make another one when I feel like yardage won't be such an issue. I think it would be quite stunning in a blend that includes a little angora- something with a soft halo.



It seems like a ridiculously warm hat by summer standards. The thought crosses my mind on hot and muggy days that no one will ever need a hat this warm again in the history of the planet. However, the days are starting to grow noticeably shorter, and early mornings now call for an urgent scramble to find a long-abandoned and heavily wrinkled sweater from the depths of the wardrobe.

History

Yesterday was a sad day for New York and the rest of the world. Personally, I feel like I do not need fresh reminding of the events of 10 years ago- living it once was horrible enough, and being in New York means I'm reminded of it every day as I pass the site or look out at the skyline or walk past a fire station. I think the event got enough media coverage and everything that needs to be said has been said much more eloquently than I could ever craft.

I did find that StoryCorps had a most touching series of animated stories about the event, told by friends and families of the victims. They are hearbreakingly sad, but hopeful and sweet and worth checking out.

Fire Island

It seems that at the tail-end of summertime, people party it up extra hard. All those weeks of ultrahot weather that made it impossible to roll out of bed without losing half your body weight in sweat are well behind us now. The prospect of it getting chilly soon inspires everyone to get out and do the things you won't be able to comfortably do in another month or two, and the people who they've been promising to get together with all summer long. Nothing motivates like a deadline.

A gorgeous day out on the water was called for. We headed out to eastern Long Island to play on Fire Island for the day. We are lucky to have our good friends and neighbors to facilitate. They are truly the most hospitable people that I the privilege of knowing. Also, they are the only people that I know that I was able to find a google map of where they keep their boat. Surprise! You can't get rid of me once I have the information.

After a false start because of a sinking jet ski, we were off across the bay to a remote beach.



Fire Island is a long barrier island. Most of it is a part of the National Seashore, so it's a long stretch of dunes and sand that isn't accessible unless you have a boat (or willing to walk for a couple miles). It all adds up to having a big empty stretch of near-private beach practically empty. It's wonderful, and a rarity to have a beach to yourself anyplace this close to the Hamptons.



Being on the water makes me super relaxed and happy. Growing up, most summery days were either spent on the beach or on the boat, so I always feel a little nostalgic motoring around the coastline.



After a long hard day of playing in the waves, it's nice to swim back to your boat and grill up some burgers.



This is Tom. Not only does he captain a seaworthy vessel and chef it up out to sea, he is a handyman extraordinaire who fixes my roof and faucet when it leaks.



And this is Cheryl, who took all these awesome pictures because I'm too afraid of what the sand and salt will do to my camera:



But she also does a much better job than I do getting good shots, so I'm happy to leave the photographs to her. I was really happy to find the place we currently reside in Brooklyn because she lives right next door. She's all sorts of crazy fun.



I also got to sit back and get a bit of work done on my Broadripple socks.





If you took summertime and distilled it down to its essence, this day would be a pretty perfect representation of what it's all about.

FO: Rivendell Socks

I made a pair of socks. They are fancy.



So fancy, they took me forever to make. They weren't particularly hard to make but I did feel like they were time consuming. I have a hard time finding a spare moment to sit down and focus on charts and fiddly stitch re-arrangements, so I would work on them for 10 minutes and then not touch them again for a week.

I cast on for them last May when I was in Arizona and I didn't get so much done on them all summer long. Finally, I just decided to sit down and do this and knocked them out pretty quickly. Once you get past the wrapped stitches and the lace charts on the cuff, these weren't all that bad. The rest of the sock is just twisted rib stitch.



I guess they have something to do with Lord of the Rings, but I just liked the lace leaf and twining vine pattern. It's kind of graceful. You can find the pattern Here.



I used a skein of Holiday Yarn's Flock Sock in the "Burnt Orange" colorway. I'm not normally all that into oranges, but I liked this one. I made another pair of socks from this sock yarn a couple years ago, and it really wears like iron- it's thin and has a high twist and a 25% nylon content. It's also a little rough on your hands to work with. I think I probably used a gallon of lotion to keep my hands from drying up into scales when I was working these. I would rather suffer a little bit and have a pair of socks that aren't delicate little snowflakes that pill and felt and fall apart after a couple wears though.



I might just keep these for myself.

Adorn Yourself!

I just updated my Etsy store with more baubles and finery for your nape. All the foul weather meant I was the queen of TCB and morphed into a whirlwind of productivity. Enjoy!













Plus lots more pretty jewelry. There's still some yarn and roving hidden in the depths of the listings as well.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob