Stashbusting Goals: Sweater(ish Sort of Thing)s

Hokay, so.  I'm finding it really (really really) helpful to list out all of these things I'm hoping to knit this year.  So here's another list, for fun and profit!  (Although not actually profit.  Unless perhaps you count Money Not Spent On Yarn as profit.)

If you take a quick peek at my projects page on Ravelry, you'll notice that I'm not much of a sweater knitter.  I have knit a handful of sweaters and enjoyed it, but I have two major problems when it comes to knitting a sweater project: first, that despite loving clothes, I have very little idea of the type of sweater that is actually flattering to me, and second, I tend to buy in single skeins of things like laceweight or fingering weight, which translates to not that many sweater's worth of anything in my stash.

Which is not to say I have absolutely no sweater's quantities in my stash.  I do.  But they tend to be for little shells, short-sleeved numbers, and such.  I've found that once I have a sweater shape that works for me, I do wear it.  The best bets for me so far are little fitted shells, drapey vest-like layers, and big cozy sweaters.  These are the garments I actually reach for (on purpose!) when I'm wearing my hand-knits.  (On a slightly related tangent: The little vintagey mohair lace sweater that I knit as a shop sample was absurdly fun to make.  Why don't I do this more?)

I am hoping to keep my aspirations reasonable, though, by taking my measly sweater-knitting from last year and tacking on 1 extra sweater.

So, my goal is to knit 4 sweaters in 2012.

1.  Zelda by Joan McGowan-Michael, using 6 skeins Mirasol Tupa (822 yards) (In progress since November 2011)

2.  Dominique (2nd picture of Preview) by Mathew Gagny, from Knitting off the Axis, using 8 balls of Portland Tweed (960 yards) (In progress since December 2011)

3.  Rosamund's Cardigan by Andrea Pomerantz, from Interweave Knits Fall 2009, using 9 skeins of Elsbeth Lavold Chunky Al (738 yards)

4.  Bubble Pullover (rav link) by Norah Gaughan, from Knitting Nature, using 5 skeins of Cascade Lana Bambu (980 yards)

    

All told, that's 3,500 yards,

or

1.9886 miles.  (Can I just say holy crap, here?)

Two of these sweaters I already have on the needles and need to get cracking on.  The turquoise alpaca is deep, deep stash: I bought it when I was on leave from college for a year back in 2006/2007, which is only six months or so after I got really into knitting.  It's hipster alpaca - it was stash before being stash was cool.  I've had Rosamund's Cardigan queued for a long time and had begun to lose faith in my pattern choice, but then I saw a knitting friend's super cute version and my faith was restored.  The Lana Bambu is about the same color of a sweater I used to have and wore literally to death.  I brought it with me to Indonesia and wore it every day I was there, then an unfortunate washing accident rendered it fun-sized when I got home.

I'm really crossing my fingers that I can get myself motivated enough to knit me some sweaters.  Hopefully, the Lists will save the day!

All sweater images copyright their designers and/or publishers.

FO Post: Honeysuckle Cardigan

I finished Honeysuckle (Rav link) over break and blocked it, which was not the most fun experience ever.  This yarn sucks up water like crazy, and it took three days to dry.  Three freaking days.  The hems dried a little funny, so I might try to steam them to be a little straighter, but since the yarn is so drapey I'm hoping a few days of wearing will help it out.

Overall, the pattern was not very specific, so it's definitely more suited to someone with a little bit of garment construction and lace experience under their belt.  I went "whaaa?" at the pattern a few times, but in the end I just needed to read it a little more closely.

I also just used one button and buttonhole instead of the six recommended.  I really liked the line that it created with just one, so I left it.  I think this will be a good little sweater for extra coverage while wearing tank tops, short-sleeved t-shirts, and summer dresses.

Pattern: Honeysuckle Cardigan, from Classic Elite #9136, Meadow, by Sarah Barbour.

Yarn: Classic Elite Firefly, Color 7754 "Hyacinth", 4.5 balls at 155 yards per.

Needles: US 5 Addi Turbo Lace

Time: Approximately 2 months from start to finish, with other projects in between.  Knitting took about a month and a half.

In Which Our Hero Actually Knits a Sweater, Only to be Thwarted by Nature (and School)

It's been a while, eh?

The last two weeks have been... exciting, let's call it.  This outfit was from Valentine's Day - the shirt is a gorgeous blouse by Samuel Dong (who I have just discovered and am now a touch obsessed with) that may just be the most perfect-fitting shirt I've ever owned.  The material is a really interesting texture - a little bit rough, and holds its shape almost architecturally.  And it's hard to see here, but it's one of my favorite shades of green: olive.  It took me a long time to love the olive, but I've found that in the right shade, it looks awesome with my complexion.

Blouse: Samuel Dong
Pleated grey skirt: Vintage purchase from Stella 
Tights: Hue, free from the Big Swap! (page down for details)
Sparkly flats: Skechers Fall 2010
Cardigan: GAP Fall 2008



I've also started another project, to be done as a knitalong at Smith's.  I'm using Classic Elite Firefly to make the Honeysuckle Cardigan (Rav link, normal link), in a really beautiful smoky, almost metallic grey.  It was really coming along until about a week ago...

When I suddenly got a flare-up of tendonitis in my left wrist, and subsequently didn't knit for five days.  And whined.  And buried my face in yarn a lot.  The wrist is on the mend, so hopefully I'll be able to keep chugging along and have more to share soon!  I will also have pictures of an amazing new coat, hopefully in the next couple of days, as long as the weather cooperates.

A little busy

My goodness. I'm getting really terrible at this whole blogging thing. The last month and a half have gone incredibly fast - between weaving, sewing, knitting, and getting started with the semester (which is now onto week 3!) life has been crazy. I have been finishing things left and right, mostly spurred by my current complete lack of project monogamy. I'm actually sort of loving having so many projects; as I may have expressed before, it means that I always have something to knit, and I finish things about once every week or two, instead of once every month.

First up? I finished Halcyon. I cast on sometime during the beginning of last semester. I remember working on the back while waiting outside my physics professor's office for help with the problem set, and then later to tell him that I would be dropping the class. The sleeves came with me to Chicago and were finished within a few days. The front lagged for a while, but I finally finished it about three weeks ago, and then picked up and knit the collar a week or so later. And, again, blocking proves its magical powers to soften yarn, even out patterns and make the fit beautiful.


All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. I would change a few small details - the cuffs are a touch short, the front a little high, and the drop shoulders are not the most flattering style on me. But the color is fantastic, and it's super warm. It's become my go-to sweater for chilly nights curled up reading for class.


Speaking of which. I'm taking exclusively East Asian Studies classes this semester, and although there's a lot of reading for each of them, I'm digging the parallels that I'm able to see when studying early Meiji-period Japan and the roles of Japan and Korea in the beginnings of the Cold War simultaneously. Even though sometimes I have to take a break to be really intensely angry at Stalin so that I can move on to the next sentence.

Fascinating, scary stuff, this history.


But you guys care about knitting! Halcyon was knit in Ella Rae classic, in almost exactly 7 skeins. I used the recommended size 5 and 7 US needles for a 40" sweater, and followed the directions from A Fine Fleece to a t. I'm so knitting more sweaters from this book.

Oh yeah, also: socks.


Unst, from Knitting on the Road, in Jitterbug Oyster Blush on size 1.5 US needles. Fast, easy, and so flippin' pretty.


And last but not least, the socks that singlehandedly changed my mind about Socks That Rock variegated colorways.


Oh socks, my first knitting love.

Ok, time for bed!

Arctic Diamonds and Hexacomb Cardigan

At the beginning of my time in Seattle, I started the Arctic Diamonds Stole in Malabrigo laceweight. I bought three skeins, as per yardage requirements... but it turned out that I only needed the better part of two. Two of the skeins matched really well, but the third was too light - which I realized almost a complete repeat into the second skein. I didn't like the sudden transition, so I ripped back four diamonds (sob) and restarted with the third skein, which was still different, but had much more in common colorwise with the first skein. After that, it was just a matter of plugging away until I finished the damn thing. Which took several weeks longer than I hoped it would.

The stole, before surgery.

Three weeks later, soaking for an ill-fated wet-block that worked abysmally because the t-pins kept on popping out of my mattress and making me use terribly offensive language.

But oh - little iron, how I love you! How you turn my tiny, wavy-edged, sort of pathetic stole into a light, airy rectangle of goodness.

Even after all these trials and errors, I have to admit that I'm pretty fond of this one.

Pattern: Arctic Diamonds Stole, Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Yarn: Malabrigo Laceweight, colorway Cognac
Yardage: 2 skeins, 940 yards
Needles: Size 3 Addi Lace Turbos
Modifications: Knitted 7 repeats of diamond pattern instead of 5. I'm glad that I did, because 5 would be far too short for my taste. I'll probably end up wearing this mostly as a scarf, because stoles aren't super practical in Ohio in the middle of winter.

And my second FO, finished for over a month.

Pattern: Hexacomb Cardigan, Interweave Knits Spring 2008
Yarn: Queensland Cotsoy, color Blue
Yardage: 7 skeins, 770 yards
Needles: Size 6
Modifications: None.
Notes: This fits all right, but I would have liked to see bust shaping, since mine flares out at the waist even though it fits in the bust.

The cow and I, we hang out.

See how relaxed we are around each other? It's magical. And she moos whenever anyone crosses the street, not just when I come by in my cute little cardigan. How considerate!

So.... even thought I'm not completely sure how much I love the fit, I do know that I love the color and the buttons. And I love love love love how it looks with the color pink, but not because I am biased in favor of the color pink paired with as many objects as possible.

.....'cause, um, that would be wrong.

Finished Object: Hexacomb Cardigan

One of my goals for the summer was to finish as many wips as possible, and I am happy to say that I have been dutifully (read: obsessively) plugging away at that very goal. After New York, Emily's family was kind enough to send a few boxes home for me. In my excitement to get back to the west coast, I forgot to keep any major projects with me. Which, of course, caused an irrational desire to buttonband, sew, block, and button the shit out of anything I could get my hands on... complicated only by the small fact that my boxes and works in progress were in a UPS facility somewhere in North Dakota. After receiving my boxes a few weeks ago, I warily eyed the crumpled pile of Cotsoy Hexacomby goodness that was shoved in a big canvas Knitty bag in the bottom of a box that was mostly occupied by rice cooker, boots, and an EMT book.

My poor little cardigan, so diligently completed except for finishing before leaving New York, was cast aside for the finishing of scandalous underwear, a scarf, another sweater, and (gasp) a newer, younger lace project. No wonder little Hexacomb sobbed and wrinkled in her box for weeks.

So, as a form of apology, I brought her out into the sun today. We took a field trip to Cultured Purls out in Issaquah, where I have been spending many hours petting yarn and working on my lace project lately. All of the people I've met there have been super nice, and Hexacomb was only too happy to be caressed with a new, slick pair of Addi Turbos and fawned over by interested customers. In return for my renewed interest in her soft hand, simple but beautiful stitch pattern, and drooly amounts of drape, she was very cooperative. I finished her button bands, sewed up her sleeves, and wove in her ends this afternoon; tonight I gave her a bath, tried to shape her with pins (which she did not like) and finally gave up and just put her on damp, shrugged her off, and shaped her with my fingers.
As you can probably tell, the yarn didn't like absorbing water. The discoloration was the result of an impatient soaking, because I wanted her shoulders to lay flat. I can't wait to get buttons, because Hexi... oh, she is damn cute.

Hopefully I can coerce my mother or one of my friends to take some real FO pictures. Stay tuned to see Hexacomb in all of her blue cotton/soy sassiness!

Finishing extravanganza!

This week was uch - I had two exams on Friday, which went half-well. I felt pretty good about my chemistry exam, but not so much the calculus one. Damn you, infinite series!! But I did finish two projects, one of which had been in progress for over a year. Behold, pink sweater:

I wasn't really able to get a full picture of it, due to my ridiculous lack of Skills of a Photographer. But you can see the button band, which actually turned out pretty well, and which was the reason I dropped this project last June and never picked it up again. I happened to have the perfect color of thread to attach the buttons, so I wove in the ends and sewed on the buttons on Tuesday and wore it on Wednesday. I saw a couple of my knitting friends around campus, and they all smiled at me knowingly and asked if I had made my sweater, to which I could finally say, "Heck yes I did!"

The boy person approved. We went out for a walk and some whole wheat donuts at the little memorial park right off campus, and while we were sitting on a park bench, he petted my shoulder and made faces at the sweater. Hahah.


The weather in Ohio has gotten absolutely amazing in the last week or so. The magnolias are blooming everywhere, and the apple and cherry blossoms are starting to come out, too. I spent a lot of time outside this week, studying calculus on the porch of the student union, underneath the massive amounts of bee-filled magnolias. And the only reason that the above picture isn't full of hippies is because it was 8 in the morning, way too early for them to be awake!

Oh yeah, and - big surprise! - I finished more socks.

Weekend knitting....

Friday, I started My So-Called Scarf with the Malabrigo worsted I bought in Santa Cruz. I'm finding it impossible to photograph the color of this yarn - it's absolutely luminous, so deeply saturated with color that the camera can't figure out to do with the excess. This blue makes all other blues look anemic in comparison. The pattern is perfect for this yarn, and so far it's a fast knit.


I haven't done anything snazzy except to add a slipped stitch at each edge. I was worried that the color wasn't interesting enough for a scarf, since most people tend to use Manos or Malabrigo in handpainted colorways, but no, everything about this scarf - texture, stitch definition, color, softness - is perfect. I love it when that happens!

This yarn makes me tempted to buy enough for a sweater. Mmmmm.

I have been productive on old projects, too. The pink sweater has been languishing on the needles since April of last year, so I figured it was time to sew it up. I forgot how much I enjoy the yarn - it's mostly cotton, but it has a soft halo because of the cashmere. I have some buttons for it already, and all that's left is sewing up the other sleeve and picking up the button band. I know I probably should have done that first. Oh well!