Knitting at Night

Honest-to-goodness WIPs

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:24:26 -0500

There's lots on the needles these days. After ripping out the pretty red v-neck sweater I'd been working on since New Years or so, I was somewhat reluctant or sheepish or something about starting another sweater. To date, I've only finished a single wearable sweater, but I've come quite close (2...) on all but one of my failed attempts (...out of 3).

I really love Stefanie Japel's sweater-making style, so she's pretty much my inspiration. I'm not using a pattern for this piece, but it's extremely simple. There will be no fancy shaping apart from the raglan increases at the shoulders. I thought about working in some darts in the bust area, but that's a little too advanced for me right now to just wing it.

You'll notice a rich raspberry hank of Cascade 'Pastaza' lying there -- that will be for contrasting neck/arm/waist ribbing. The main yarn being a tweed has lots of little colored flecks, but more subtle are the fine, bright threads of almost fuchsia throughout. It's very pretty even though I'm not generally a pink/magenta-wearing sort of girl.

Vertical eyelet lace

Rust orange is also a bit of a departure for me color wise, but nevertheless I picked up a sweater's worth of Knit Picks' 'Gloss' in Pumpkin back in the spring to make Knitty's "Thermal".

I ended up losing interest in that pattern, so having seen a nice lace cardigan pattern named for the inimitable (try as some might) Katherine Hepburn I decided that was how I'd like to use this yarn.

Here you see the start of my lace swatch. It's called Vertical Eyelet Rows, and it's very easy. I am certainly capable of lace work, but I want to keep it basic for such a large project as this will be my first pattern that will require lots of seaming.

I will have to break down and figure out kitchener stitch it seems. I reeeeaaaallllly hate seaming, but for the look I want it is imperative that I learn. And how can I really call my self a knitter without properly knowing how to sew up seams? Of course, there will be a great many firsts for me on this project: shoulders and tubular cast-on to name a couple--both self-inflicted.

Crunchy baby hat

And to wrap up, I've begun a hat for my friend's 2-year-old son. The design is one she saw on Etsy, and since the seller had no plans to make more of the sold-out hat, my friend asked if I could make it for her.

It just so happened that I had in my stash the very yarn and colorway she wanted--seems fated, no? I love a yarn challenge, so I swatched to find the right stitch pattern (not all that visible in this pic) and the gauge for size 9 needles, sketched the basic arc of the journey, mapped out the decreases and have left the final bits to pure chance and experimentation.

It's such a pretty yarn the Noro 'Kureyon' with its various shades of peacock feathers. And with that I'll say bye-bye!

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And speaking of the yarn arts...

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:55:10 -0500

I've had quite the productive couple of weeks. I crocheted a Katamari Damacy hat for a friend who's traveling to a comic books convention in a couple weeks. I studied online pix of other people's interpretations (mainly the Mad Tea Party version) and just sort of winged it. I did lift the crown shaping from the Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet Happy Hooker book, and even then I had to start over a couple times. I'm a novice with hooks.

Dignified

All the little nobules I completed over the weekend, and then I stuffed them with polyfill. So now I have the task of attaching the nobules to the hat ahead of me. Not exactly easy -- but not terribly difficult either. I could have tackled it this weekend, but I wanted a break so I unraveled the "Madagascar" v-neck instead because it was too small.

There's a new sweater on the needles, a top-down raglan ... again. I'm determined to get it right. So far I have completed (nearly) four sweaters for all time: #1 utter sparkly disaster, #2 Bad Penny with mods to sleeve/body lengths (wearable, WARM), #3 free-form, top-down cardigan using Noro (too large, frogged), and #4 the easy v-neck raglan using Cascade 220 in the Madagascar colorway (too small, frogged). Swatching and patience are skills/virtues I am slowly accepting as necessary for creating wearable garments.

I hope to have some FO and WIP pix up soon ... that is, if I can find my camera.

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My knitting of late...

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 18:27:39 -0600

Easy V-neck Raglan

Oh have I ever been slacking. I've been working my way through all the Sudoku puzzles in Brain Age on the DS, so I've really been just too, too busy.

I started a sweater on New Year's (eve I think?) and I really should have finished it by now. It's the Easy V-neck Raglan by Stephanie Japel (glampyreknits.com). A friend helped me pick out a color that wasn't green or brown, and I am really excited about wearing something so poppy-like and bold. From the pic you can see I'm nearly half finished with the first sleeve. I've actually grown quite fond of working with DPNs, but I recently got some short-length Addi Turbos that I'm sort of itching to try out. I'll wait for the next project so that the sleeves have the same gauge. I'm thinking about lengthening the waistband ribbing by a couple of inches so it's nice and long -- and fashionable ;)

I also made a lightnin' fast Calorimetry on a snow day while working from home -- 2 hours. Exhibit A:

Calorimetry

OK that's my only exhibit ... the buttons are what you want to see, right? I asked both my sisters if they wanted one. They both himmed and hawwed for about the 2 seconds it took for me to turn my head 'round, and then they got a load of the super cuteness of this pattern.

I chose two buttons instead of one since the pattern when followed to the letter turns out pretty big (as many blogging knitters have noted). I have a big round head, so it works fine for me. My sisters will require at least 10 or 20 stitches fewer at the cast on.

The yarn I used here is some I ordered from Uruguay (handpaintedyarn.com), and it is really soft to the touch. I love the colors, too -- greens and browns, of course.

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