Tag Archives: sweaters

Organizing my to-knit list

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Organizing my to-knit list

I’ve decided to try something new this year — a little thing called planning. Remember when we talked about this? Most of the things I noted in that August 2013 post are still on my wish list! And I’ve been especially itchy lately because there are so many things I want to be knitting and so many yarns in my stash I want to be knitting with, and yet I keep casting on totally other things. Monday night I sat down and made a list of the sweaters I currently think A) I want to knit and B) will contribute to improving my wardrobe situation (as opposed to impromptu knitting projects making matters worse). They are as follows:

1.) I’m thinking about a worsted-weight version of the aforementioned Perkins Cove Pullover by Pam Allen, and am thinking it could be lovely and immensely useful in the navy blue Worsted Twist that my friends at Purl Soho sent me. Definitely a three-season, go-everywhere sweater for me.

2.) There’s a simple top-down sweater in my head that I really want in my closet and that I think would be perfect in Shibui’s Pebble (held double), which I’ve been dying to find the right project for. Would be a workhorse in one of the lighter greys — not sure which one yet. (Swatching with the Abyss I have handy.)

3.) I am absolutely knitting Jared Flood’s Channel cardigan, as noted before, and ordered a skein of O-Wool Balance (organic cotton and wool) to see if that might be the right year-round yarn for it. Thanks so much to Hagen and Vanessa for the recommendation. The skein arrived Monday eve and it’s marvelous — before I’ve even swatched with it, I ordered a sweater’s worth … and then some. If it doesn’t prove to be perfect for Channel (although I think it will), there’s no harm in having a pile of luscious charcoal yarn on hand, am I right?

4.) I also plan to finish my army-green Slade, which will be another wardrobe staple, but since it’s the warmest sweater on the list, knitted in Shibui Merino Alpaca, I’ll chip away at it between now and next winter. Also since it’s stockinette and worked in pieces, it’s easy to squeeze into gaps.

?.) And last but not least, I’m going to sleep-away camp not once but twice this year! (So excited — one trip with my whole family, plus I’m finally going to Squam!!) And I like the idea of knitting a little tee or tank of some sort for that and other purposes. I’m thinking maybe a scaled-down version of Bristol Ivy’s Kit Camisole, or something like the Purl Bee Cap Sleeve Lattice Top or the Riverine Pullover from last summer’s Pom Pom. But I’m probably better off sewing for this scenario, which I need and want to do anyway. So this one’s a maybe. (I’m also working on rounding up the latest great summer patterns since there’s been a flood of them recently. Here’s last year’s roundup if you missed it.)

Them’s the sweaters. There are nine months left in the year, and I have to estimate an average of six to nine weeks per sweater, since I’ve sworn off monogamy. One thing I learned from working on nothing but Trillium for five straight weeks (still ongoing) is that monogamy makes me batty — and a little resentful of whatever it is I’m being faithful to. Plus there are also these items on the list:

• Bob and I have settled on Fort for the first sweater I’ll knit him — I’ve just been waiting to find the right yarn. For him, it absolutely cannot be 100% wool, and ideally it will be washable, but I’m not wild about superwash yarns. After getting that Balance in the mail on Monday, though, we’re both thinking it might be just the ticket and have ordered two more colors to test for him. That’s one more sweater on the list.

• I’m still committed to making some kind of shawl for my mom … just as soon as I can figure out which one!

• There’s another pattern in my head that has to get out — a wrap that I’d love to publish through someone else. I’ve swatched this (right idea; wrong yarn), have extensive notes, and might enlist a sample knitter for it once I swatch with what I think will be the right yarn. But this is a must happen, one way or another. It’s just too good.

And I still want to crochet and weave and macramé and knit footie socks, and allow myself to squeeze in other satisfying little quick-finish projects along the way — to pick up new skills, work with some of the single-skein beauties in my stash, act on whatever new patterns come along that demand to be knitted, etc.

So that’s a whole lot of knitting for the year (nine months), especially if you’re me! I have to be realistic and flexible about this list: If I’m a slave to it, the things on it will feel like obligations instead of desires, which will take the fun out of it. But if I don’t at least write this all down and post it publicly, I’ll get to the end of 2014 with a bunch of random FOs and none of this accomplished. So there you have it.

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New Favorites: Helga does it again

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New Favorites: Helga does it again

My lack of Pinterest time is showing. How else to explain that Helga Isager released a new collection of knitting patterns in December and I’m just now seeing it? The Map Collection doesn’t quite leave me feeling faint like some of her previous designs have, but it’s great stuff nonetheless. It’s very ’80s — some of it maybe a little too ’80s for my comfort — but I am in want with these four pieces.

Top to bottom: The Normandy Sweater, Shetland Cowl, Siberia Anorak (love those pockets, not sure about the funnel neck), and Himalaya Sweater.

You can browse through the whole collection on her site. Doesn’t look like it’s been printed in English yet, but there’s cause for hope.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: A bit of mesh

This is not a pretty picture

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Sampling the Channel Cardigan

It’s grainy, it’s a little blurry, it had to be converted to black and white because the carpet and walls are just too horrifying for me to inflict on you, but I wanted to show you this picture anyway. It’s me at VKLive last Sunday, wearing the sample of Jared Flood’s Channel Cardigan. Talk about feeding an obsession — is it awesome or what?! I liked it before — thought it looked like a ton of fun to knit — but now that I’ve had it on, I can’t stop thinking about it. There is no question I’m knitting it (and probably before or concurrent with poor old Slade). The only question is what yarn. I want it to be something with outstanding stitch definition, obviously, but not quite as hot as the BT Shelter. I’d like to be able to wear it for most of the year, so I need some kind of wool-cotton blend or something. Not pure cotton, preferably a tweed or heather. If you have suggestions, I’m all ears!

Also, FYI, I got to spend a couple of hours knitting with the illustrious and adorable Ann Shayne (of Mason-Dixon Knitting) this week, and she posted a tiny video of me knitting Portuguese style. I don’t know how helpful it is, but for everyone who was left curious after my inadequate description of the process …

New at Fringe Supply Co: Bookhou!

In other news, there are some thrilling new things in the webshop today, which some of you will have seen at Stitches West and/or VKLive. Carrying Bookhou goods has been a goal for me since the launch of Fringe Supply Co. Maker Arounna Khounnoraj is sort of an idol of mine — I’m stunned at the amount of talent and taste and hard work in this one person. And her sewn goods are not only beautiful but imminently useful and attainably priced. So I’m thrilled to finally have her storage box and assorted pouches in store.

Also, by popular demand, the “high-fiber diet” design is now available as a letterpress print! The perfect companion to the Yarn Pyramid. I hope you love all of it!

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Happy Friday, everyone. Please do tell me what you’re working on this weekend!

New Favorites: A bit of mesh

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New Favorites: A bit of mesh

I’m aware that it’s still snowing in some parts of the US, but it’s been spring here for 3 or 4 months and I know everyone else is ready for fewer layers and lighter clothes. This “winter” has actually been warmer than our “summer” typically is, so I have no idea what we’re in for this year. But with global weather no longer following traditional patterns, I’m into the idea of flex-weather sweaters such as these little mesh-patterned beauties. Above is the Zigzag Mesh Pullover by Carolyn Noyes for the new issue of Knit.Wear. I know: Purple chevrons, what is up? But I’d prefer this one in a neutral. Below is the Perkins Cove Pullover by Pam Allen, which is the same basic idea as that drop-stitch sweater of Iz’s that Meg made me a sleeveless version of, and that many of you have been clamoring for a pattern for! Here it’s done raglan-style in a finer gauge, in linen, and it is lovely lovely lovely.

New Favorites: A bit of mesh

PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Colorwork without the work

Sleeveless in Seattle

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Tag Team Sweater Project update

If you were tooling past the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue WA on Saturday evening, on whatever highway that is, you may have seen some strange women jumping up and down on the 4th-floor terrace — in the rain. That would have been Anna and me. As I mentioned, Kathy Cadigan did us the great honor of shooting these photos of us in our Tag Team Sweater Project sweaters. The sweaters themselves left a little bit to be desired. As you can see, my Trillium is currently a cap-sleeved number with no button bands or neck edging, while Anna’s Lila is a sultry, off-the-shoulder sort of thing. Very Flashdance. Still, we were wearing them, so they are technically sweaters. And although we didn’t finish them in time for the shoot, we had a ton of fun.

Tag Team Sweater Project update

But let’s talk about this yoke for a minute. The true brilliance of the whole project became clear the moment I was knitting a yoke without having had to knit the whole big rectangle that precedes it. And I’m sort of glad I botched that first sleeve and skipped ahead, because this method of working the yoke upwards from provisionally cast-on sleeve stitches is brilliant. Apart from that little trick, the only modification I made to the yoke was with regard to the number of nupps involved. The pattern calls for basically a solid stream of them in the center of the chevrons. I decided to cut that in half and knitted only the ones at the peaks and valleys, omitting the ones in between. I’m in love with the circular yoke approach — in love with how well this fits my shoulders! — but am a little puzzled by the multiple sets of short rows worked in stages up the back, rather than just at the neckline. All that extra fabric is giving the sweater a little bit of a hunchback, but I’m trusting that it will work out in the blocking.

Tag Team Sweater Project update

We had joked at the beginning of all this about whether we’d be great friends or arch enemies in the end. It’s not the end, of course, but it’s definitely been a great bonding experience between knitters. If we’ve learned a lesson, it’s that tag-team knitting is a fantastic idea, just as long as you don’t saddle it with an unrealistic deadline.

For the rest, stay tuned here and to @karentempler and @toltyarnandwool. And there are more photos and thoughts on Anna’s blog today as well.

Tag Team Sweater Project update

p.s. There are a few more copies of the new Taproot in the shop — the one with the gorgeous Carrie Bostick Hoge shawl pattern. And you’ll also find a handful of XL bentos in red ticking. Assuming you act fast.

p.p.s. Those poor old ballet flats are officially OUT of the closet — so shabby!

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All photos by Kathy Cadigan

Someday vs. Right Away: Deluxe knit-purl combos

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Someday vs Right Away: Deluxe knit-purl combos

When I finish my Tag Team sweater, I know I’m supposed to get back to my Slade shawl-collar cardigan, but I’m having so much fun with the simple knits-purls-and-nupps combos in the Trillium yoke that I can’t stop wishing I was knitting something really complex next — namely Jared Flood’s Channel Cardigan. It would be super slow going for me, so it may be someday or it may be never, we’ll see. But I could certainly satisfy that knits+purls craving more readily with Jared’s beloved  Guernsey Triangle or with the new Keirnan scarf by Shannon Cook.

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PREVIOUSLY in Someday vs. Right Away: Bobbles (Hey, that last Someday is today!)

Turning a sweater into an adventure

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Tag Team Sweater Project update

To no one’s surprise, I’m not in the best shape on my Tag Team Sweater Project sweater. One week from today, I’ll be in Seattle, where I’m supposed to have a finished sweater. What I should have had by Monday, when my beautiful sweater body arrived from Anna (thank you, Anna!), was two sleeves to attach it to. Instead, I had one sleeve. One very wretched sleeve, plagued with ladders, which is a problem I’ve never struggled with before. (Except for that one time I attempted to knit a hat on four DPN’s, but that was sheer foolishness.) So instead of having one more sleeve to knit, I have two more sleeves to knit. And I also have a total loss of patience for knitting sleeves. The last thing I knitted before we started all this was Casey’s mitts, so I’ve been knitting nothing but stockinette tubes for as long as I can remember.

I can’t take it anymore!

I had originally envisioned being done with my four sleeves well before the appointed parts exchange date and had daydreamed about starting the yoke as a separate piece, with the completed sleeves and body grafted onto it later. So that idea was lingering in my mind, even as the sleeve due dates came and went. Since I can’t deal with the sleeves right now and am desperate to move on with the FUN PART — and after consulting Instagram and Michele Wang — I’ve decided to take the approach Felicia describes on her Craft Sessions blog. To wit: I separated the body into fronts and back and, as of last night, am working the phantom arms upwards from provisionally cast-on stitches. And just like that, this sweater went from feeling like a chore to an adventure! Wish me luck as I try to make great progress on it this weekend.

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Speaking of Seattle next week, I don’t think I’ve officially announced this: I won’t just be at VK Live taking classes and making the rounds. Instead I’ve taken Brooke up on her offer to share her booth again, so the Cabinet of Curiosities is going to Seattle! What this means, most significantly, is lots of drive time to work on my sweater.

New at Fringe Supply Co

In shop news for the weekend, two new things have arrived: Taproot 9, which includes a Carrie Bostick Hoge shawl pattern, Lola, that made me gasp out loud, and … cookies! My favorite cookies (to put it mildly), which you can read all about on the cookie page. Also, great news, the wildly popular repair hooks are back in stock in all sizes, in both bone and ebony. So you can find all that and more at Fringe Supply Co.!

Have a great weekend, everyone! As always, I’d love to hear what you’re working on—