Blueberry Wine (I mean Vine).

I am knitting the Vine Yoke Cardigan for my Ravelympics 2010 project. It is a pattern by Ysolda Teague.

The Vine Yoke Cardigan has a very unique construction. It’s a real joy knitting something so different and watching how it becomes a garment. However, because of the odd shape that it takes, I find it kind of bulky and in the way when I am knitting back on the short rows. It kind of pushes up on the cable of my circular needle.

I have completed the right front & sleeve and have just begun the back. The thought of knitting 102 rows is kind of putting me off, right now, but I will persevere & knit on, although last night, I only knit about 8 rows….




The cabled yoke is getting very puffy, but hopefully, I can smooth that out in the blocking.


I think the biggest issue I have encountered so far is that my wrapped stitches are turning out really loose. I may have to run some yarn through them “creatively” when it is all said & done to hide the looseness.

Cables, garter and yarn - oh my!

Progress pictures of my Baby Cables and Big Ones Too sweater.

Love is a many splendid stitches

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this sweater I am knitting. It's a pattern by Suvi Simola and it's called Baby Cables and Big Ones Too. It was love at first sight. As soon as I saw this, I knew I just had to knit it. It's so unusual and so stunning and so design savvy. This is the first time I have ever come across a pattern in which I was struck so profoundly.

And it is such a joy to knit. The pattern is very easy to follow, although I have to admit it was daunting at first. But, I wrote out the charts and aligned them in the correct order and am having no difficulty at all knitting this little gem. I'm using Filatora di Crosa Zara in Oatmeal and it is very soft. And with garter stitch, it is extra squishy.

I love the pattern; I love the design; I love the cables; I love the garter stitch; I love the yarn; I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS PROJECT!!!

I had thought about knitting this for the Ravelympics 2010, rather than the Vine Yoke Cardigan, but I wanted to start on this right away, and as you know, anything knit for the Ravelympics cannot be cast on until opening ceremonies on February 12. So my beautiful, wonderful Baby Cables and Big Ones Too will forego olympic fame...

Block Party

Miss Honeychurch is soaking....



Miss Honeychurch's block party location....



Miss Honeychurch is blocking....

PERFECT NUMBER COMBINATION: 09.09.09...

...and oh yea, it's my birthday! Couldn't get better numbers than that!

I cast off Miss Honeychurch at lunch today. I just need to block her & then I'll post pictures.

Back to where I was...

...before my swim in the frog pond.

Miss Honeychurch - 2nd time around

Here's the first version:



There's not a whole lot of difference, but I'm happy with my 2nd attempt. I'm going to add about 2 more inches to the length and then complete the sleeves.

Here we go again

Frogged Miss Honeychurch last night and re-cast on. I'm about 20 rounds in.

Goodbye, Honey

I have decided to frog & start over. I LOVE the drape of the hemp fabric so I want my Miss Honeychurch to have a little more drape when worn. Right now, there is too much negative ease so I am going to go up a size and hopefully gain some more drape. My gauge swatch turned out to be a whole lot looser than my actual knitting (I didn't intend to have any negative ease) so to the frog pond I go...

Honeychurch progress

Honey Bunches of Crunch!!!

Ahhh - Miss Honeychurch.....

This is from the Summer 2009 issue of Knitty. I was inspired to knit this from Chrissy from the Manic Purl podcast. I am using Allhemp6 in the Sprout colorway. I really love using this yarn - the texture, the feel, the spongie-ness. I've heard some people say that this yarn hurts their hands as they knit with this, but I have not had a problem. My biggest issue with this yarn is that so far, all of my skeins have had a knot in them. In addition, one skein had about 2 feet of a broken ply. For the price, I would think the yarn would have a little better quality control.

frayed ply

Progress

It's Good To Be King!

As the great Mel Brooks once said, "Ahhh, it's good to be king," or at least, in my case - it's good to be knitting socks again. After a VERY long hiatus from sock knitting I'm back at it again, only this time it's not for me. It's for a friend of mine from work. I actually tried to teach her to knit socks last summer--she still has the yarn, but no socks. She asked me last week if I'd make her a pair of socks, so I've got her unused yarn and I cast on last night.

I'm going to knit the Knotty or Knice socks from Interweave Knits, Fall 2008. I was originally going to make Pomatomus, but when I saw these, I just had to knit them up. I think this will be only my 3rd toe-up pair and the first time I've ever knit socks for anyone other than myself. I'm a little worried about the fit since I've never knit socks for anyone else (& she lives about 2 hours away - so she can't try them on in progress), but hopefully it will all work out.

Photo courtesy of Interweave Knits, Fall 2008

I used Judy's Magic Cast On with a lot of difficulty (in fact one toe was cast on using the Magic CO and the other toe was cast on with the Figure 8 Cast On since the Magic CO did not work out the 2nd time around). It's the first time I tried the Magic Cast On and it is just not clicking yet. BUT - I just went to YouTube and lo & behold, what did I find, but Cat Bordhi's video of the Magic Cast On!. Hooray!!! Wish I had seen this last night...Oh well. The toes look OK, so I'll just keep on going.

THE STATS
Pattern: Knotty or Knice by Chrissy Gardiner
Source: Interweave Knits, Fall 2008
Date: Cast On 09.22.08
Yarn: Sandnes Mandarin Petit, 2 skeins; Pink; 100% Cotton
Needles #1: Size 1 US (2.25mm); KnitPicks Harmony Options, 40"
Method: Magic Loop; 2 Socks at Once