Posts filed under ‘Finished!’
Poetry In Stitches page 166
aka “Leaf Stripe Cardigan with Velvet Trim (Page 166)“
Poetry In Stitches by Solveig Hisdal
Sweater kit with Hifa 2 yarn.
The sweater knit up (no buttons or lining) weighs 546 grams.
I made two 8″x8″ swatches and had plenty of yarn leftover, enough for a hat, maybe mittens.
Hifa 2 is light and springy. The colors are rich, colorfast and very very little stray vegetation. It blocks wonderfully, the yarn blooms and stitches become more uniform and smooth.
KEEPING YARN COLOR IN ORDER
The orientation of the two yarns affects the knitted pattern. It is important to keep the colors in the same order (or in the same hands).
I chose the lower row.
BLOCKING: curling eliminated, yarn blooms, stitches even out and relax to a gentle drape.
Before blocking
After blocking
FLOATS
There are long carries in this pattern, up to 11 stitches. I kept my floats to 4 stitches or less by catching them.
Reverse side
Buttons from much missed, The Button Emporium & Ribbonry in Portland.
Ravelry is always a great resource. Comparing the photos in the book with examples people had knit provided clues on sizing/fit and what I wanted to modify.
Another clue: The Poetry In Stitches photo shows the sweater body is carefully folded at the sides hiding a lot of armpit bulk commonly seen on drop sleeve sweaters with no body shaping.
MODIFICATIONS:
1) Worked back and forth, knit and purled.
Because I can.
Steeking has ZERO appeal to me.
Reference: The knitting experience, book 3 COLOR by Sally Melville
2) Neckline is knitted in, instead of cutting the fabric.
3) Reduce bulkiness of drop shoulder style.
Reference: Knitting Pattern Essentials by Sally Melville
– shoulder shaping for better shape and less bulk down the sides
– modified drop shoulder for better fit and reduced bulk
– reduced the sleeve increases for a less bulky sleeve
4) Knitted hem – Provisional Cast On + K2tog hem closure
– provisional cast on
– continue 18 rows of pattern
– fold the hem
– Row 19 (first burgundy row) K2tog using one provisional cast on stitch with one main body stitch
5) Knitted trim instead of velvet ribbon.
6) Added grosgrain ribbon around the fronts and neck instead of a fabric lining.
7) Decorative seaming using Catherine Lowe’s Couture Method Joinery Bind Off 
Mountain Goat Wool Happiness
Goat Hat
Handspun Enchantment Lakes mountain goat wool
on Brooklyn Tweed Altair hat
The Enchantments are enchanting.
A beautiful place.
With mountain goats.
Lots of them.
They are kinda scary.
And their wool.
I started collecting bits I found on plants and rocks, my husband and brother, joined in. We had to keep moving or I would have spent all day gathering wool. I ended up with two handfuls of goat wool.
On the grueling hike out, I thought and thought about my little bit of goat wool…
not enough to knit a project…a bit of trim…
A MOUNTAIN GOAT EMBROIDERED ON A KNIT HAT!
and I knew just the hat:
Brooklyn Tweed Altair
Photo by Brooklyn Tweed
The arches remind me of mountains and Loft colors Sweatshirt, the color of the granite, and Button Jar, the foliage in The Enchantments.
The goat wool was pretty dirty (I worried abouts pests and poo, but kept stuffing it into a ziplock bag inside my pocket).
I went online and researched how to clean fleece…
and worried.
I resolved to wash it in hot water…
and hoped to avoid felting it…
…and resigned myself to a felt goat sewn onto a hat if it came to that.
Success! Clean goat. No felt.
Second finer cleaning, picking out the hairs, and stuff I call “goat funk” – vegetation, skin, poo, whatever; I washed my hands a lot.
In the end I had 2 grams of fluffy fluffy goat down. As soft as any fiber I’ve ever touched.
Sigh.
I don’t spin.
On to Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat 2017 with goat fluff in hand, to ask the experts for advice. At a demonstration booth, the spinning expert described my goat down as “finer than cashmere” and declared,
“Judith MacKenzie could spin this”.
…
…
Well, that was discouraging,
until I spoke to Judith.
I saw Judith at an evening event,and told her my goat wool story; she invited me to come by her classroom the next day with my goat fluff, she would show me how it is done.
After feeling so discouraged earlier, I was walking on air (Judith does that to people!).
Next day at noon, I showed up with goat fluff in hand.
I was mesmerized, Judith produced a strand a yarn out of the fluff, like water pouring out of a pitcher. Beautiful.
I wondered how long it would take me to learn to do that.
I must have looked like a lost puppy. Judith took my goat fluff home with her.
Three weeks later, this beauty arrived in the mail, along with photos Judith had taken during the spinning process.
Judith’s photos:
ready to begin, goat down, tea, and cookies
skill
mountain goat single
beautiful 2-ply mountain goat yarn
Also at Madrona, I took Franklin Habit’s “Embroider Your Knitting – Level One” class on Friday. He suggested couching as a method for my goat. Couching keeps the precious fiber on top of the fabric, it avoids using up a lot of yarn on the reverse side and avoids the wear and tear of pulling the yarn through the fabric.
Couched embroidery of handspun mountain goat on handknit hat
I started by drawing a goat on paper and tracing it onto some interfacing, then basted the outline onto the hat with orange sewing thread.
Next, embroidered the outline through the interfacing (and basting) with laceweight cashmere.
I verrrry carefully cut away the interfacing, then I just winged it on the couching, lots of trial and error. I did those horns at least five times each!
Churchmouse Swingy Linen Skirt
Great pattern.
Great yarn.
Great skirt.
Churchmouse Swingy Linen Skirt in Euroflax Sport
Swingy Skirt is swingy
It feels a bit risky while knitting the skirt and hoping the prepared swatch will prove true; the final gauge is achieved after machine washing and drying.
The skirt knits up HUGE, but the trip through the washer and dryer really works, the knitted fabric comes out much smoother, the stitches more even, and it softens.
BEFORE wash & dry (Left) and AFTER wash & dry (Right) swatches
ANEMOI Again
and another pair for another daughter:
ANEMOI by Eunny Jang in
Hazel Knits Artisan Sock 234 Hoppy Blonde and 208 Plum Glace
I bought this pattern for me, but I just can’t seem to get around to knitting my own pair…
ANEMOI Mittens To Match
UDATE on this hat:
Colinette JitterBug in Morello Mash
After five years of wear by a college student, getting stuffed into backpacks and pockets, this hat looks as good as the day it was knit.
I have knit socks that look worse by the time I’m finished knitting them.
Even the ties, which have been tied, knotted, tightened, and re-tied a few thousand times, do not have a single pill:
With yarn leftover from the hat, I knit these mittens to match:
ANEMOI Mittens by Eunny Jang in Colinette JitterBug color Morello Mash and Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in color Hoppy Blonde
Hiking Socks Regia Crazy Color 5262 Pinocchio
1. Knit.
2. Try on.
3. Rip.
4. Repeat until sock fits.
Fourth attempt 🙂
I finally put on a sock that fits just right, measured for the height, figured out where I wanted decreases to begin and end, then re-knit to match:
Decreases from calf measurement down to ankle measurement (-16 sts) over a length of 4 1/2″, that was 2 sts every 6 rows (9/16″).
Yarn: Regia 6-Ply Crazy Color 5262 Pinocchio, 120g (2.4 balls)
Pattern: made up while knitting
Claudia Evilla Skirt in Kauni Effektgarn W-ES
Claudia Evilla skirt by Ruth Sørensen
in Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn color W-ES
I think skirts are my latest favorite thing to knit.
Knit with two balls of yarn in alternating rows to extend (double) the long color repeat of Kauni Effektgarn.
This pattern was pretty easy and fun to knit…
Once I got the color repeats lined up.
Seriously, that was the hardest part.
I was lucky, I happened to be at Knit Purl when the yarn had just arrived and I was able to pick two 150g balls from a full (10 balls) bag.
Kauni Effektgarn, is sold by the gram, the balls are somewhere around 150g (+/-30g), it has long color repeats and there are no dyelots.
I picked two of the larger balls that were dark at the center so my skirt would be dark at the top transitioning to light at the hem (skirt is knit top down).
That was my plan.
I ended up rewinding both 150g balls to get all the dark yarn at the beginning and lining up the color repeats.
The two balls appeared to be different dylelots, if they had dyelots, one was brighter, the other grayer, but not noticeable when knit up.
I used 250g of the 300g I started with.
The lace pattern is quick to memorize and gives the skirt a nice drape in a light springy wool.
I love this color, kind of a grayish denim blue.
modifications:
inserted increases earlier than pattern (cuz that’s how I’m shaped)
added 5 repeats of the last pattern section
finished with one row of purl to coax the bind off row to curl under
this bind off method
instead of knitting a drawstring (DH thought that was pretty funny when I told him that was in the pattern!) I used a grosgrain ribbon.
I used the cardboard centers from a couple of rolls of wrapping paper covered with plastic wrap for blocking.
Another Husky Hat
Apparently my DH cannot have too many Husky hats:
malabrigo SOCK in Violeta Africana and Ochre
Pattern?
cast on enough stitches
2×2 ribbing for a while
stockinette for a while
decrease down to nuthin
striping along the way.
Sheilavig Vest in Shibui Sock Midnight
Finally.
I’ve had this pattern for…
…since before it went out of print a few years ago.
I’ve had the yarn for…a while.
As well as the buttons. sheesh.
and I love this color. So much. Too much for just socks.
Shibui Sock in Midnight
Yarn Conversion
Compare gauge and yardage:
Scottish Fleet_________Shibui Sock
100 g________________50 g
28-36 sts/ 4inches_____30 sts/4 inches
245 yds______________191 yds
Since the gauges were similar, I aimed for comparable yardage.
For the pattern requirement of 7 balls of Scottish Fleet I would need about 9 hanks of Shibui Sock:
7 skeins x 245 yds/skein (Fleet) = 1715 yds
1715 yds ÷ 191 yds/hank(Shibui) ~ 9 hanks
So, I bought 11 hanks of Shibui sock. Because that’s how I think.
I ended up using 8 hanks + 3.7g of Shibui Sock.
And now I have enough leftover yarn for socks and mittens
or mittens and a hat!
Pewter buttons from
Button Emporium & Ribbonry
in Portland.
Modifications:
Shortened overall about 1 inch.
For button band, pick-up 3 stitches every 4 rows, instead of pattern specific stitch number.
Dropped the front neckline about 1-1/2 inches; pattern is crewneck.
Added back neck shaping (white dashed curve) for a better fit; the pattern is straight across.
Skipped the picot cast on, too fiddly and frilly for me.
Fiddly cast on, I never could get the points to look consistent
Of course, I also omitted the additional picot trim around the front.
My new hat & cowl – Simple Couture design & yarn by Catherine Lowe
I took a class with Catherine Lowe. It made me believe I could design all my dream sweaters to fit perfectly.
If I could just find some time.
Some LOT of time…
Meanwhile, I’ll just knit something Catherine Lowe designed with her beautiful yarn.
CL IV alpaca silk yarn in black violet –
one big ball of yarn for both the hat & cowl custom wound for my order!
This CL IV is 4 alpaca strands and 4 silk strands put together, not twisted together.
It knit up incredibly soft and springy.
Simple Couture 4.01 cowl
Habu Textiles Kit A-84 skirt
I love this skirt!
Habu Textiles Kit A-84
It drapes and moves beautifully and feels fantastic.
border knit with a single of mohair/silk
The pattern calls for a drawstring at the waist, but I added a studded skinny belt instead.
The skirt is knit with two yarns held together; it comes on one cone of a-1 tsumugi silk and one cone of a-32 silk mohair, with no knots.
TIPS:
I met squiffyknits at Madrona and she gave me The Best Advice:
Mark every decrease as you knit.
I would have LOST MY MIND if I had had to try to find and count the 47 decreases on each panel of this tweedy mohairy knit!
I ran a light colored thread through the edges before soaking so it would be easier to put in the blocking wires when it was all dark wet silk and mohair.
I made a template for the pieces to simplify blocking.
I used two blocking wires at the hem, one through the main fabric (two yarns held together) and a second wire through the mohair/silk single border.
Knitting In Mind 