WIP Wednesday: Raiun

It's cardigan-blob day! I'm knitting Raiun by Kirsten Johnstone. I feel like it is going quickly... but then I've been at it nearly a month, according to Ravelry, and I've only just divided for the sleeves. So maybe not quickly, but obviously it is keeping me interested. I'm hopeful I'll finish this in time for warmer weather since I'm using a wool-cotton blend, and will probably leave it at 3/4 sleeves.

Check out more WIPs at Stitch-Along-Wednesday.

WIP: Wethersfield Cardigan

Here is what I have on the needles at the moment, just in time for spring.

Please note: in reality, the yarn is a deep/bright teal. Not blue. Not turquoise.



Big, hulking, cozy cardigan. Since Scottish spring often requires coziness, I hope I'll get some use out of it before next year.

This is Wethersfield by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Twice now, I've seen one of her patterns pop up on my ravelry feed and felt an immediate need to knit it as soon as possible. (First time was with Idlewood). I received the pattern as a Ravelry-gift from one of my internet friends in a holiday-time pattern swap, and cast on in January with Cascade Eco + yarn.

I've been reaching for my Vivian hoodie a lot this autumn/winter/spring, which is made out of Cascade Eco +, so I thought it would be handy to have another sweater in the same yarn. Shortly after I finished knitting Vivian, there was some speedy pilling, and I was a bit disappointed. After years of wear and occasional de-pillings with a razor, it has pretty much stopped pilling - and it has otherwise held up quite well! So I forgive it, and with Wethersfield I know to give it a chance to pill a bit without giving up on it.

I'll say more about the pattern once I've finished, but I just have to say seamless set-in sleeves are magical. Magical! Also, knitting these sleeves two at a time was probably a bad idea - unlike doing socks TAAT, there is no open end, so the yarn gets trapped and wound around and around the sleeve. Ugh. I did not think that one through at all. Unwrapping it is a bit cumbersome, so these sleeves are working up very slowly. Never mind. I'll be glad of it when I finish them both at once.

Check out some more WIPs at Tami's blog for WIP Wednesday.

FO: Gavotte

Whether or not I finish my November sweater before December 1, at least I can say I completed one sweater this month. So I started it in September - minor details.



Formerly known as the Green Blob, here is my Gavotte. The pattern is by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, who probably needs no introduction. This is the second pattern of hers I've knitted, the first being Idlewood. Once I wrapped my head around (again) the weird wording for the k1-r/b increase, the pattern was easy to follow. It's probably just me, but I really have a hard time understanding that particular explanation. And I forgot how to interpret it between finishing Idlewood and starting Gavotte, so I had to go on a google expedition to figure it out again. Ah well, maybe now I will remember it! It is a really tidy increase.



Mods:
I added lots of length. I lost track, but I think it was almost 6 inches. Even for me with my long torso, that is quite a lot. I'm tired of things coming out cropped accidentally, so I may have overdone it. It blocked to a comfortably long-enough length. I intended to lengthen the sleeves as well, but ran out of yarn due to adding so much length in the body. It's fine.

The neckline rolls at the front, which is par for the course with stockinette. It was looking massively huge, so I didn't block the edge aggressively to attempt to combat rolling. The pick-up / bind-off edging did help pull the neck in so it isn't massive, but it doesn't help with the rolling. Too bad. I don't really mind.



Yarn:
I used MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino in a lovely forest-green colour. The yarn was lovely to knit with. It is very soft and sproingy, with excellent stitch definition. Thus, my uneven stockinette shows up very well. Blocking helped with that, though.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be very hard-wearing at this drapey gauge. After wearing the sweater for one whole day, I noticed some pilling under the arms. I will likely use this yarn again, but maybe for items that don't experience much friction, and definitely at tighter gauges.

Oh well. I will wear this happily and with careful de-pilling maintenance.

See more FOs at Tami's blog.

WIP: lumpy lace

Here's a WIP I haven't mentioned in a while.



The lumpy lace will one day be a Honeybee Cardigan. Don't let the crumpledness and straight needle deceive you - this cardigan is knit seamlessly. The picture shows the fronts and back up to the underarms. The reason it is so crumpled and on a straight needle is one part gauge trouble, one part metric conversion fail, one part brokeness, and three parts stubbornness. (That's right, there are six parts to this snafu. I don't know.)



Here's what happened. I couldn't get gauge on the suggested needles, so I moved down a size, which I only have in straight needles, dpns, and a very short circular. I got gauge, and started the thing on straight needles before my trip home in April, planning to buy some longer circular needles of the right size at the LYS in Ottawa, since they carry circulars with flexible cables that I like. (Hiya Hiyas, in case anyone is wondering). I went to the yarn store, bought several circular needles to round out my collection, left, eventually flew back to the UK, and took stock.

Oops. I needed 3.0 mm circular needles. I bought US size 3s. Now I have a 3.25 mm circular, which isn't a problem and I know will come in handy eventually, but it doesn't help me for this sweater. Never mind! As to why I haven't gone out and bought the right size circular needle, it's mostly stubborness at this point. Now that I'm at the underarms and working on the sleeves, I'll have to come up with a proper needle, I guess. Sigh. What, ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away? ;)

More wips at Tami's Amis!

FO: Textured Yoke Cardigan With a Long Undescriptive Name

The brown blob / devil's tower is now a brown cardigan!



Pattern: 113-17 jacket with raglan sleeve and pattern on yoke etc etc etc by DROPS design

Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran

Mods:
-Cast on 11 fewer stitches and omitted garter stitch button bands
-Picked up 98 stitches each side for 2x2 rib button bands afterwards
-Replaced seed stitch edges, neckline, and cuffs with 2x2 ribbing
-Replaced p3tog section in the yoke with seed stitch
-Added some length in the torso
-Did 3-needle-bind-off to join live underarm stitches, rather than seaming
-Changed the top lace motif to be stockinette instead of garter stitch

Notes:
I ran out of yarn as I neared the top of the yoke. Alas, the new yarn I bought was a different dye lot. I alternated skeins for the rest of the yoke, but the button bands are done entirely in the new dye-lot, and it is noticeable if you look closely. (But not so in the photos.) I don't really mind, though.



This pattern rewards determination. Basically, I love the finished product, but I didn't enjoy deciphering the instructions. This was my first attempt at a DROPS pattern, so that may be why I had some difficulty. Lots of people on ravelry have mentioned this pattern's idiosyncracies in their notes, so I was sort of prepared for it, but I'm glad the lazy side of me didn't win.

The chart makes sense in its own crazy way, but it wasn't written following the chart standards I'm familiar with. Since I am pretty used to reading charts by this point, I had a hard time wrapping my head around this one at the beginning. That makes me sound really set in my ways and a slave to the knitting establishment! Oops. What have I become?? Maybe I should be congratulating DROPS on their innovative approach to chart design. Anyway. There are also some weird terminology/translation issues, but with some thinking and trial-and-error it all worked out. In a way, it's good that this pattern made me think. I need to knit more things that require my brain!



This would probably look better with waist or maybe back shaping. I suspect it's rumply in the back because there isn't any. Since I can't see myself from the back, I don't really mind - it fits really well otherwise.

There was a button mishap. I made the mistake of not watching when the clerk at the store counted out ten buttons for me. One of them was cracked and splitting, which I found out when I got home. Frustrated as I was, I considered taking them back, but laziness triumphed. I got over it by deciding I only needed nine buttons instead of ten. Problem solved.



More FOs at Tami's Amis

FO: Idlewood

Say hello to my first FO of 2011.

Pattern: Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

Yarn: Texere yarns Troon Tweed in the Donkey Tweed colourway



Mods: I went down to 5.5 mm needle and used a 6.0 mm needle for the cowl. I made the 36 3/4 in size at a smaller gauge, hoping to end up with about 34 in. It seems to have worked - the finished sweater has some negative ease, but not so much that the loose gauge stretches out.

I added extra rounds of garter stitch on the sleeves and bottom edge since the garter stitch edge of the cowl was rolling like crazy. In the end, I like how the cowl rolls, so that part isn't an issue, but I'm glad the sleeves and bottom edge don't.

I made the pockets as swatches, but in the end decided to leave them off the sweater. I couldn't get them to look right, and although they look adorable on some people, I didn't think they were working for me.



Notes:
According to my Ravelry notes, this took me exactly 2 months. Since I spent much of that time knitting gifts, this actually felt like a much quicker knit. One of my quickest sweaters, really, despite the fact that the cowl itself almost counts as another body of a sweater. No sleeves, but it does have two bodies.



The photo above shows the colour a little better: it is brown-gray, not just gray. (Next time I will choose a more contrasting backdrop and not get photos in front of something the same colour.)

I had a hard time figuring out the increases - the videos and photo-tutorials out there for k1 b/r or equivalent mostly just confused me more. Maybe I was being especially dense. In the end, I THINK I did them right with a little coaching over the phone from a knitting expert; anyway, they look fine, so whatever I did worked.


I can use it as a hood, but I probably won't.

Idlewood is really warm and comfortable. I know I will wear this a lot. I was a little worried that the yarn would be too scratchy - it is hearty and sheepy and not particularly soft. However, it doesn't irritate my neck at all. (Maybe I'm tough? Heh). I am convinced this yarn will be durable as well, despite loose gauge, which is awesome. No pilling please! It does shed woolly hairs a bit, but I don't really mind.


Told you it eats my head!

Wanted: a replacement cardigan

I looked in my sweater drawer and realized with shock that I no longer possess any pullovers. How strange. I left a few behind when I moved, and I haven't missed them until now. Maybe it isn't that strange; I am a big fan of cardigans, and I find them much more versatile than pullovers. (Though I still plan to make more pullovers in future!)



The issue at hand today is my standard go-to cardigan, Basic Black by Glenna C.

I finished this in July 2009. It was my most standard, useful cardigan, and I've worn it a lot. Surprisingly, the yarn hasn't pilled at all. Alas, I have to relegate this cardigan to the bottom of the drawer. The neckline is sagging terribly and falls off my shoulders, and it's generally shapeless and unflattering. It is no longer suitable for wear outside the house. Too bad! To be honest, it never fit as well as it should have: the waist-shaping was a bit wonky, the seams were badly executed in spots, and the sleeves were an awkward length - too long to be 3/4 sleeves, but too short to be long sleeves. But it was super useful and warm and wonderful, so I want to replace it with something equally versatile and simple.



Since I love cardigans, I have many in my queue already, but I have specific criteria for this cardigan.

1. Worsted or Aran weight yarn
2. Buttons all the way down, or modifiable to do so
3. Fitted, with waist shaping, or at least easy enough to add waist shaping
4. Simple, not too many cables or lace or whatever, but not TOO boring.
5. Full-length, not cropped
6. Readily available, i.e. online

Here's the shortlist:

1. Amelia by Laura Chau
2. Garter Yoke Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre
3. Monday Morning Cardigan by Laura Chau
4. Emerald Isle Cardigan by Melissa Wehrle

I'm leaning towards Amelia, because I love twisted stitches, and many people have modified it to button all the way down with great success.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

FO: Vivian

A final catch-up post before university resumes. I saved the most exciting for last -I finally finished Vivian! I sewed the zipper on in 2010, but all the knitting was finished in 2009, so I count this as my last 2009 FO. Please excuse the picspam. I love it so much I can't contain my excitement!



Yarn: Cascade Eco+
Mods: Added a full cable repeat on the hood, and it turned out to be a perfect size. I also attempted to shorten the sleeves a little by starting the sleeve on row 7 of the cuff chart. The sleeves still came out quite long, but they are manageable.



Another brilliant Ysolda pattern, although I was inattentive at times, and occasionally couldn't understand the logic of the instructions. This resulted in me unintentionally modifying some bits, or else just misunderstanding, but ultimately it worked out fine. Except don't look too closely at the sleeve joins / yoke decreases, because they are the dog's breakfast. And my hood grafting isn't so great either. Ditto my hand-sewn zipper. But hey. I had reached the point where I needed to finish the sweater at all costs, and any designs on perfection fell away.



The back is a little rumpled in this photo, but I think that's due to my awkward posture. The sweater was a little small before I blocked it, but now it fits perfectly. This is easily my favourite 2009 FO, and possibly one of my favourites ever! I've been wearing it almost constantly since I finished it, and unfortunately, the yarn is already starting to pill. I hope it will stop that nonsense soon enough, but if not Vivian will just look more lived in a little sooner.