Wool weather?

One sure way to bring on colder, winter weather... mention in a blog that it's too warm to wear wool!  So, here it goes... lately, I've been slowly knitting away on two UFO's in wool.  And I've been wondering when I would wear them... Every day we go from nighttime freezing temps to daytime 20º+ C.  

Here's my proud moment of finishing Boardwalk Vest in a colorway that I created last summer.

I've admired Pattie's Boardwalk, and then I admired the same pattern a year ago when my path crossed another woman in the Shetland Islands.  Now here's mine!  

As with all hand-dyed yarns, there are subtle differences, if not blatant, in-your-face differences... two skeins used for the body, then the third one, which was the fraternal sister of the other two, was used just as I came to the interesting mitered front detail. It worked out... I can see that the colors got a bit more bold from whatever, but I accept that.

I love it, but I couldn't model it for long---too warm!

Pattern: Boardwalk by Heidi Kirrmaier from Wool People Vol. 3

Yarn: Bare Paragon by Knit Picks, Sport,
50% Merino, 25% Bombyx, 25% Alpaca
246 yards / 100 grams

Then there's this:  Maple No. 2,  for me.  

It may get finished today, if I would just put my feet up and sew in the sleeves...

At 5,400 ft altitude. we call it High Desert...

My daughter proudly wearing her "Maple No. 1", and then finding the model at a yarn shop at a "knitting festival", Bergen, Norway.  SHOCKING!!

Pattern: Maple by Marie Wallin from Rowan 50
Yarn:  Felted Tweed DK by RowanDK
50% Merino, 25% Rayon, 25% Alpaca
191 yards / 50 grams

Vest Selfie

Not MYselfie, but my VEST selfie...

Fake laced up front:  See Previous Post.

Laced Vest

Yay!  My daughter approves!  However, tweaking required.
Years ago...5?  I bought Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino with the intention of  knitting something for baby...  Baby no more, but the feel---yumminess, and ever so pale faded rose, had to be something girly for sure.  One day, last year, I was intent on stash busting and I found this pattern in my library that would be the right weight for this yarn, and I'm so glad I did.

The faux lacing up the front makes it look feminine.  Reading other comments on Ravelry, many said it was too short.  Oddly, the pattern has the lower ribbing knitted as an after-thought, which made it easy to lengthen.  I added inches once I had my recipient nearby.  The original indeed was well above belly-button.

 Correction in the pattern:  The eyelets on the front were not symmetrical.  I had to drop stitches and knit up one column of eyelets to make them the same distance from the centre as the opposite side.  I made a note of it on my Raveley page.

Pattern:  #09 Laced Tank by Karen Garlinghouse from Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2009 Yarn:  Baby Cashmerino by Debbie Bliss Sport / 5 ply
55% Wool, 33% Microfiber, 12% Cashmere
137 yards / 50 grams

Time flies

No excuses... Everyone seems busy, and I've been least busy. I sure do enjoy a good Audiobook and a knit on the sofa!
And many hours are spent there! It isn't that I knit incredibly fast, but that I enjoy it, and spend my time knitting especially when I feel I'm multi-tasking.
In the past month I've completed the 4 year old size pullover with crazy colors, and a vest for myself in jewel-tone colors.
Both of those pieces are going to the Fair next week along with a few other projects from the past year. I have been nagging adamant that others enter knitting so it doesn't look like my show, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

So, first to the knitting:

1. My striped VEST!  I can't believe it myself... Those hours on the sofa, with the fan blowing, and wool in my lap... I love it.  Someday it will be chilly enough to wear!  A simple pattern from Creative Knitting Magazine.  See my Ravelry page, and I "only" used a month...  I wanted to use up some colors/yarns I've had for awhile, and used two different blacks.  I didn't mean to, since I have lots of both left.  I wouldn't have noticed except when I entered the yarn usage into the Ravelry page, I found two bands for the black.  I guess they can be used interchangeably for most discerning eyes!  I didn't notice it, and it was in my hands...
2. I'm working on my Suki poncho, that is really a shawl pattern.  Using Casbah Sock yarn which is so yummy to my hands.
3. Was I trying to reduce my stash?  Why yes, I WAS, until I saw a sweater that might hopefully will be a perfect gift for the SIL in Norway.  And rather than mess with the altering of pattern to accommodate my stash, I went to the web and purchased:

   

   Cascade Eco Wool

That's worth a blog, someday...

Effect Vest

I would like to say I'm finished with another project, but let's face it:  It probably has some work to be done, and yet I'm SO excited because it really seems to be "my" creation with borrowed ideas ...blocked...

And tried on:

and found it's a bit TOO minimal for me.  No closures/ties/loops... yet.  So, I've decided to pass this on to a smaller body and do a requested closure method.  (Maybe nothing, maybe "Knot Closure", ...loop and button... too many to choose.)
The pattern is a combination of Sandi Rosner's Vest from a book called Not Just Socks, with a pattern around the middle from cookie a's Bex sock pattern (found in Sock innovation).  It was fun, even though it has seen many Atlantic Ocean flights.  That's the problem when you don't have a clear destination for the project.  LOVE the yarn:

 Hand-dye Effect by RegiaLight Fingering / 3 ply
70% Wool, 25% Nylon, 5% Acrylic
459 yards / 100 grams (used 2 skeins)

The colors in that series are beautiful, but with such long color repeats, I find it isn't suitable for the kinds of socks I knit.  

The edging is attached I-cord per Rosner's instructions.  Makes a nice finish, yet I'm wondering if it will stay blocked, and not roll... It may need an iron touch-up.

Yesterday, April Fool!

Knitting on the go

Being away from home for a month involves planning. Not just an itinerary but for me, my hobbies tag along. My knitting was carefully chosen for air travel. It has to be only one skein and complicated enough to make boring hours pass quickly, and yet easy enough to be followed in a cramped space. My solution, was to start something just before I left: A vest where each row has a complicated border along one edge which needs a chart, followed by stockinette for the remaining 7/8 of the row.

The vest is knitted starting at the front edge opening (left) and around the back ending with the other front edge. Each row is vertical instead of the expected horizontal bottom to top. The pattern is really more complicated than I remembered. It's from a sock pattern, asymmetrical, and a long repeat that uses an A B pattern repeated as B A and repeats over and over until...it reaches around my girth. The pattern is further complicated by knitting it flat instead of circular for the sock. Cables, twisted stitches, one 2-cable-needles cross-over, and well, I can't memorize it. I love the colors. I got the idea from the Not Just Socks book which uses self-striping yarns. It's very low on my priority list but perfect for now. You may not see this finished until I take another trip!

Saving the World

Isn't that what "Eco" friendly is all about?  I did my part... I finished the Eco Vest.  Somehow, I don't think that's what the designer had in mind, but it's my story and...
It's lovely:

Totally re-cycled yarn!  The light lavender is the infamous Mongolian Cashmere that has crossed the Atlantic 4 times, and will make one more crossing to arrive "home".  It's doubled in this pattern, and super cuddly! (I, ahem, wore it last night to an outdoor concert - toasty!)  The darker color is Angora, and very cuddly, except when it's right-next-to-cashmere.  This yarn used to be the sleeve of a sweater.  Now a vest, because the sweater was too warm.

It wasn't a problem... nothing to tell, moving along...
Started a "mystery shawl"!  First two rows look great!  I mean, who knows?  I like the yarn and the beads.

Pattern:  Eco Vest by Katie Himmelberg from Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects

Yarn:  Angora by Elsebeth Lavold

Aran / 10 ply, 60% Angora, 20% Wool, 20% Nylon  91 yards 

AND Mongolian Cashmere 4-ply by Jade Sapphire

Fingering / 4 ply, 100% Cashmere  200 yards  

 

Re-useable Yarn!

One of the nicest things about creating with yarn is its resiliency.  I'm a thrifty daughter-of-a-scot, and my father had quite the reputation for being able to assemble workable farm equipment from parts.  Very ... thrifty!  I'm sure he kept many tractors from the salvage/landfill yards, just as I'm keeping wool from the compactor!

 It started last June as my daughter pointed out that she didn't need another purple scarf and I was involved in the fascinating pattern of reverse (or two-sided) cables, and knitting up her yummy cashmere.  

I 'know' I have a picture, but the only one I can find is here, on Ravelry.

It was a lovely scarf;  errr... Two scarves!  I had one almost complete, and my daughter had made one of the same yarn years earlier. 

Using the yarn doubled, it makes a nice squishy cashmere vest:  (unfinished)

The pattern is "Eco Vest" and the next step is to add front panels and collar.  Alas, it will be an 'alternative' yarn, because I don't have any more cashmere...  Even though this sounds very familiar (see yesterday's blog), I fully was aware of this.  When I started it in June, I knew I wouldn't have enough and bought an alternative yarn.
Almost as yummy and squishy:

That was purchased 2 months ago, and almost immediately I found myself taking the sleeves off another purple sweater, making it a vest, and the sleeves... well, here's another re-useable yarn.  I have unraveled one sleeve since I'm not sure I'll need both.  This is the third or thirteenth most yummy of yarns:  Elsebeth Lavold's Angora.

By using once knitted cashmere and once knitted angora, I'll have taken "Eco Vest" to the next level of Ecology!  N'est ce pas?


Link to My previous Blog on this project!

 

What keeps me busy these days?

I'm wrapping up my month in Norway, visiting my daughter and granddaughter.  Sometimes I wonder what I'll do today, and then the day is over!  There's some frustration living 8 time zones away from "grandpa", knowing he'd love to be sharing the experiences.  Yet, when I call him at midnight, he doesn't always seem enthusiastic.
The plan from before I packed for this trip was to bring back beautiful cashmere yarn that my daughter had purchased but was languishing in my stash.  I started a scarf, and meant for it to remain in Norway.  I revamped the scarf idea, and here it is, two weeks later...  looking like life with a toddler strikes again.  Of course, the yarn is coming home with me... I'm almost up to the armhole split, and I've purchased another yarn to complete the project because I'm quite sure I won't have enough of the cashmere. I'm using it doubled.
Here's the updated picture for today:

But wait, what's this?  The finished sweater?

 Why, yes!  It is finished... and surprisingly like the one I'm currently working on, only the one I'm making is a vest.  YET.... it's been requested I remove the sleeves of this sweater because it wishes to be a vest...  notice the lovely cabling on the sleeves. hmmm....errrrr.

 I knitted this many years ago, before I was a Ravelry member.  It's an Elsebeth Lavold design/pattern made in Elsebeth Lavold Angora.
Future blog vote, please:
A:  Title:  Third Time's A Charm.  Above vest is frogged, and revisited yet again as... something in single weight yarn.
B:  Title:  Twins!  A finished garment during toddler visit.
C:  Title:  ______;  Well, maybe there's no blog about it again.

Month of June: I have knitted and finished a hat and a mouse and sewn a cover for a clothes drying rack to convert it into a playhouse.  Under construction are some quilt blocks, and frankly, I'm not sure what else!  They just seem to crop up, and there I am-- making something I've never done before!  That's toddler progress!