FO: Uncommon Vasa

   

This past June, while on working holiday with Mr Blake, I took a stroll down Camden Passage to visit the famous Loop London. He was in company meetings all day, so after sleeping off my jetlag and devouring a ham croissant in the lobby of the hotel, I set off on the train to check out the sights. It had rained the day before on my visit to the V&A, but the sky hadn't been too threatening that morning, so I skipped the umbrella and went on my merry way to Islington.

Loop, as promised, was like a fairy cottage stuffed with wool. I spent over an hour there, growing a little collection of yarn that I carried around like a puppy in my arms. (Gift yarn for friends! Gift yarn for me! When in London, amirite?!) Then, as I poked around in the laceweight section downstairs, an afternoon rainstorm rolled in, and I had to stay a little longer than I had planned. So I stood there with an armload of yarn as the rain tapped its knuckles across the glass, and I breathed in the smell of wool and wet cobblestone from the open door and thought: this must be what heaven feels like.

When the rain finally let up, I left, carrying two precious skeins of Viola Merino Fingering in Speckled Mist (a special colorway just for Loop's 10th anniversary) and a skein of The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock, all part of the devious plan that was a-brewin' in my noggin:

My friend Sara and I had been kicking around the idea of a little seasonal sweater knitalong, as a way to keep accountable on our sweater knitting and have some fun along the way. Vasa was our first pattern choice: a drapey, universally flattering top, designed by Dianna Walla, a talented designer and delightful human to boot.

The only problem with the whole thing was my lack of suitable yarn, which is hilarious considering how much yarn I actually own. (Hint: it's a lot.) But then, with a well-timed trip to Loop, and the exciting possibilities of knitting with gorgeous UK (and hard-to-find Canadian) yarns, my problem was solved!

A month or so later, I cast on, and it became my at-home movie knitting until recently, when I finally bound off and blocked the darn thing.

Did I make it in time for the season, friends? I did not. Did I end up with a beautiful and wearable garment that will always remind me of walking around London on a rainy afternoon? Yes indeed.

     

Good enough for me.

All the details, including my modifications, are on Ravelry here.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

<3

Cory

 

WIP: Sweet Valentine

  

A few months back, I was chatting with Susan from Abstract Fiber, and we started talking about the F/W Collection - and then we both got excited about the idea of working up some of the patterns in her gorgeous yarns! (For those who haven't squished it before, Abstract Fiber is a Portland-based luxury yarn and fiber brand with incredible, saturated tones. And, full disclosure, I miiiiight have picked up an obsession with it lately.)

We settled on Rothko, a 85/15 Polwarth/Silk blend, to knit up another Sweet Root, and Susan generously sent me two skeins in the colorway Red. And oh my gosh, this yarn is amazing. It has a wonderfully crisp, wooly backbone, and just a touch of polish and drape from the silk. Nom!

I've been plugging away on it since the beginning of January in anticipation of Madrona - you'll be able to come visit the sweater at the Abstract Fiber booth, along with my Indigo Lingon - and as of last night, I'm finally in the home stretch! I seamed the back neckline and picked up for the first sleeve, and I'm hoping to have the sleeves done and the whole shebang blocking by this Sunday.

Think I can do it?

The Very Halpful Corglet thinks I can.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

<3

Cory

F / W 2015: Sweet Root

The first piece in the F / W Collection is a familiar one: the Sweet Root cardigan. As with the other items in the collection, it will be available for download this Friday, November 13th.

Sweet Root is knit in Imperial Yarn Tracie Too, a beautiful worsted-spun sport weight wool with a light, crisp hand. Additional details on the yarn and pattern can be found on Ravelry.

  

There is a particular spot that I return to in my memory, when I think of the woods: a clearing in the back woods of Saint Edward Park, a place that I first went when I was nine or ten. There is a loamy path, covered in pine needles and rotten leaves; there is a canopy of cedar and maple overhead, and the chattering of birds, and the smell of wet earth; and there is a young man climbing a tree to pick a licorice fern.

There are four or five of us huddled at the base of the tree - me, my brother, and two or three other children - and when the young man returns to the ground, hands covered in dirt, he snaps the root from the stalk of each tightly furled leaf and hands them to us, exclaiming: they taste like licorice. You should eat them.

It's a memory many times replayed since then: the feeling of unknowing excitement, my cold fingers, the mud on my boots. The taste of the fern root, woody and green; the faint taste of spice and dirt. And from that moment, the unfolding of a corner of some unknown mystery; the internal knitting-together of some thread which connected my small being to the tall green world around me.

So whenever I see those little ferns growing on the slope of some mossy tree, I always think of that place in the woods and the memory they conjure: the licorice ferns; the sweet root.

Happy Monday, friends.

<3

Cory

Model & Styling: Nicole Hood

Designer, Photographer & Styling: Cory Ellen Boberg

FO: Custom Fit Blouse

  

Oh, this one. I started this Custom Fit blouse a long time ago, probably back in November or so? Knit in Ultra Pima on small needles, this was a physically difficult fabric to create, so it took me quite a while to finish this sweater.

Overall, I'm glad that I went through the process, but the final product isn't quite what I'd hoped. As I've mentioned to many of our Custom Fit customers at the shop, it can take a sweater or two to tweak the pattern to your exact specifications, and my own experience was no different.

As far as my own fit issues go, here's a couple of things I would change, if the thought of tearing out this sweater didn't make me immediately curl up into a ball, pill-bug style:

- The width of the shoulders is very good, but the depth of the armhole is a little bit too much - I can feel the shoulder seams raising up every time I lift my arms. (I also like the armholes on my blouses high and tight, so that's a personal preference thing too.) Easy fix there.

- I did the Close Fitting silhouette, and it's just not fitted enough for my taste. The cotton yarn I used also stretched past my schematic measurements by about an inch total, so that can account for some of it. But even so, the schematic called for 2.5 inches of positive ease in the waist, which is way more than I'd usually prefer. I would have liked to see a very fitted option. As a busty person who can easily look 10-20 pounds heavier with less fitted silhouettes, I prefer to have a skosh of negative ease in the waist in knit blouses, which doesn't seem to be possible with Custom Fit given the sweater templates available. (Other Custom Fit folks, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that!)

- Holy cats, the sweep of the hip is huge on this thing! There is so much extra fabric at the hip that it is unwearable with anything but a very full skirt. This is probably a gauge problem, and probably would have been fine if I hadn't gone up a needle size on the Daisy Stitch edging.

Overall, I think Custom Fit is a powerful product for knitters interested in garment construction, particularly prolific sweater knitters. The measuring process is a bit more in-depth, but well worth it for the detailed fit information it provides. I think it's worth it for any knitter to give it a whirl.

For me personally, I'm such a control freak, and I have such specific tastes in silhouettes and fit, that I don't think Custom Fit is the right program for me, and that's okay! I love understanding the nitty gritty details of design and construction, and now I know that I really do want to get my hands dirty with some math to get the fit I want.

And in the meantime, my Custom Fit sweater is gonna go chill at The Fiber Gallery with its Custom Fit sweater buddies.

More details on Ravelry here.

Happy Friday!

<3

Cory

FO: Ondrea Prototype

  

The moment that I cast off the sleeve for this sweater last week, I had the harebrained notion that I could finish it in time for my fashion school graduation ceremony (around NYFA it is simply called "going to tea") this last weekend. This sweater was one of the first pieces that I started for my senior collection in 2013, and around week 6 of preparing for the runway show, I dropped it after completing everything but the second sleeve and button band, thinking I could finish it really quickly afterwards.

That, my friends, did not happen. Although I haven't talked about it much here before, the months after the fashion show were pretty rough for me: there's this post-creative depression thing that seems to happen to a lot of people who work on big, overwhelming long-term projects, and I got hit with a pretty nasty case of it. And because of it, I could barely look at my sewing machine, much less this sweater, for almost a year.

But time heals many things - or at least, makes them seem less catastrophically exhausting - and after a long time, I began to entertain the idea of making things again at all. Which turned into a ballgown, and a tailored jacket, and finally, this sweater.

So it feels very fitting that I should finish the last loose end of my official fashion eduction, just hours before going to my final send-off. I'm very proud of this piece, and I'm very proud how far I've come as a designer and as a person in the years since I cast on for it. 

And with that - tally-ho, fashion degree! Let us advance into the world with winged eyeliner, fabulous shoes, and the best damn buttons a girl could ask for!

All the details are on Ravelry here, and I'll be posting a little about our ceremony on Wednesday.

Happy Monday, friends!

<3

Cory

WIP: Alpenglühen - A Body

 

It always blows my mind a little, how terrifically hilarious a well-fitting garment looks on the hanger. Absent a 3-dimensional figure, shape-skimming darts fold awkwardly; ribbing throws great poofs of fabric into the body at the point where they meet; armholes & necklines gape and roll unattractively.

You would never know that this misshapen blob of yarn is actually a lovely, hourglass-shaped cardigan until you throw it on a person - and there the magic happens. All of these confounding shapes and crevices stretch and snuggle into place, gently hugging concave and convex curves alike. Something that was ugly comes alive, and in doing so becomes beautiful.

Although I've been shy of knitting sweaters for the last few years, watching this cardigan come together has reignited my love for the knitted garment. It's easy to get intimidated by the prospect of a badly-fitting sweater, and I think that's where I've been for a long time - but unlike so many other things in life, yarn has such give. You can knit it up all wrong, and still it has potential; all you have to do is unravel and begin again.

And that is pretty damn cool.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

<3

Cory

WIP: Minty Fresh Alpenglühen

 

On Christmas day, while we ate aebleskivers and drank mimosas at home in our pajamas - which is, in my opinion, the best way to spend a holiday - I cast on for a new cardigan, a pattern called Alpenglühen. Because I like to live dangerously, I didn't swatch, and just went ahead and cast on for the 40" size. I also decided to throw in some extra shaping in the front, and change up the cable detail at the center front... needless to say, I am a paragon of immorality and bad sweater-knitting habits.

(I swear I will do better next time. Maybe.)

And on the subject of immorality, the yarn is some Malabrigo Worsted I've had sitting in my stash for about five years. I have a bad habit of getting sweater quantities of yarn and never knitting them because I'm afraid of screwing them up, when really, the best way to learn how to do things well is to screw up. I tell my students this exact thing every week - how failure is an opportunity, how it builds skills and confidence to fix or adapt your mistakes - and yet I can't take my own advice, because... well, because I am a paragon of immorality and bad sweater-knitting habits.

On the other hand, my sweater does look pretty good so far. I guess yarn crime does pay, after all.

WIP: Provence

In the midst of all of my finishing, I tried to remember that I needed to start some new projects at some point too.  About three years ago, I found myself in a place where I had finished all of my works in progress, and I didn't have a single project to work on!  I had to frantically dig through my stash and start something new.  And that's when I knew I was a deeply non-monogamous knitter.

I started this sweater, which I'm calling Provence - actually the "Lace Scarf" Cardi, from Classic Elite's booklet #9112 Gallery - yesterday afternoon, and happily knit away on it while watching Dawson's Creek for what was somehow the first time in my life.  I swear, I did grow up in the '90s!

I'm using a different yarn than the pattern calls for - still Classic Elite, but instead an alpaca-linen blend called Soft Linen in a gorgeous shade of lavender.  There aren't very many versions of this cardigan on Ravelry, but I really love the shape of it, and I'm interested to see how this fabric ends up draping.  I've been planning this project for months, but it wasn't until yesterday that I finally worked up the nerve to cast one 350-odd stitches.  It's going pretty quickly now, and I'm hoping that maybe I can break my curse of ill-fitting and/or long-languishing sweaters!

WIP: Zelda Blouse

It's sort of silly that I actually hadn't taken a picture of this blouse-in-progress until this morning.  I started it in November or December, plugged away and finished a big chunk of it.  I've already run into a lot of really frustrating problems with the pattern, the largest of which was that there were two extra decreases added in where there should be none.  The stitch counts were still correct, so I had to look through all the projects on Ravelry and the pictures of the actual garment to puzzle out where those decreases should be removed.

The other problem was mostly my fault, but also a little bit the pattern's: there was no indication that the decreases that I had merrily been doing for the last eight inches of fabric would be changing, so that there were paired increases and decreases that would make the net change in stitch count 0.  I almost threw it against the wall in frustration when I realized that I would have to rip back 4 inches of work.

These issues ordinarily wouldn't be a problem - jump on the errata page and off you go! - but the magazine that initially published this pattern changed hands, and the errata is gone.  I don't mind doing a little thinking with my knits, but it's frustrating to have to rip out over and over because of mistakes or oversights in the pattern.

On a happier note, the yarn I'm using is wonderful.  It's Mirasol Yarns Tupa, a merino/silk blend with a lovely sheen and drape. It really is eye-searingly pink in the light, although these pictures are a little too pink/orange and not enough deep fuchsia.  Ah well.

Now I'm off to make a sandwich and go to work.  Happy Friday!

Pattern: Zelda by Joan McGowan-Michael