LK Knits

So I just said that I don't do knit-alongs, which is why it's taken me two years to get around to knitting a Rogue hoodie. I am a texture knitter more than a color knitter, so I love Celtic motifs, cables, arans, ganseys, ... and this sweater was a slam-dunk-you-better-believe-I'm-making-this sweater. Problem is, between my backlogged pipeline and my stash, it took me two years to get to it!

I am making it in the discontinued Rowan Silken Tweed, in the color Plum. I bought this yarn back in 1999, and I was going to make a boxy pullover from a Rowan Tweed book. I got about 3 balls into it and frogged it, because I figured it would swallow me. Then the yarn sat in the stash for five years until I found Rogue, and that is what the Silken Tweed wanted to be.

I am up to having to sew the shoulder seams and start on the hood, which I know is the tricky part of this pattern. Up to now it's been a fun knit; just enough interest with the Celtic knots to be engaging, but enough stockinette to be compatible with relaxation and tv watching. But now I'm at the attention to detail point.

I hope to finish this by early January, because it's the perfect sweater for my winter and early spring 2007. I have a sabbatical and a book contract, so I am going to want clothing to make me cozy and to make me want to write! It also won't hurt if Rogue also makes me feel creative.

Today is the start of Arcadia's Ariann knit-along, but I was at a good resting point on the Rogue and so I started about five days ago:

Berroco Ultra Alpaca is a soothing, fun yarn to work with, and it has an elegant drape that will make this sweater look very polished. The eyelet pattern is easy to remember and fun to work. The pattern calls for two repeats of the two-row eyelet pattern after the ribbing and before beginning the waist shaping, but I did three repeats because I am long-waisted. Right now I'm halfway through the waist decreases, so haven't gotten to the buttonhole yet.

I made some progress on Rogue last evening; I sewed the shoulders and started on the hood:

I even tried it on, and it will fit well; for once I made it long enough! I have a history of making sweaters too short, a combination of ill-advised frugality in buying yarn and a longer-than-average torso. Not this time!

The hood seems like it will go quickly, and the sleeves (which I'll work in parallel) should too, with only wrist knot detail. This will be my holiday project, and I think the large amount of stockinette will mean that I can still be sociable with my in-laws while making progress on the sweater!

I've also made some Ariann progress:

I have just finished the first of the five increases after the waist shaping. Note also that I have done the first buttonhole, which leaves a bit to be desired. My first buttonhole in about seven years. I'm going in search of a buttonhole technique refresher before I do the other three! I've also got my buttons, very lovely horn buttons with a subtle green tinge.

The Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn continues to be a delight to work with.

Due to my desire to finish the Rogue hoodie in time to debut it soon after New Year's, I may not be doing any further work on the Ariann for the next week or so.

I've been working on my Ariann this week:

I think the next time I make a raglan where I attach the sleeves and knit the yoke, I'll do the two sleeves in parallel on two circulars. It's not that I think I did them differently, but I just forget little tweaks that might make a difference as I'm going. For example, I had to keep very careful notes about when I started to introduce the pattern as I was doing the increases; I did half of a pattern at each edge after the third increase (I'm making the second size, 35.5") and then the other half after the seventh increase.

I've already attached the sleeves and started knitting the yoke, but I'll leave that for next weekend ... I am going to be out of town for work, and will only have a second bamboo sock for the KP Spouse and Endpaper Mitts in leftover Jamieson's shetland that I inherited from Nancy.

I made a lot of progress on Ariann in the week after my last Ariann post, although in the past two weeks I've been focusing on a couple of other projects (more on that in a second).

I am about halfway through the raglan decreases, I have one more buttonhole to make, and then it's the collar, tie, finishing, etc.

Soon, soon ...

I finished Ariann over President's Day weekend:

I love how it looks, I love the shaping, I love the yarn. I love that I taught myself how to crochet a chain for the belt! Baby steps on the crochet front ...

It's honestly not as flattering a fit on me as I would like, although I think it's flattering enough, and it's certainly comfortable:

If I did it over I would make the armholes one inch shallower. Although I have a long back-waist length for someone who's 5'3", I am short from chest to shoulder. Shirts routinely fit better if I have an inch removed; I only ever bother to do it with strappy dresses. But that's the big lesson I am taking from this pattern: pay attention to armhole length, and consider shortening it.

But I love it!

As the Harry Potter frenzy heats up this summer, how about some HP knitting? Patterns have been circulating for years, and there's the book Charmed Knits, which I have ordered because I foresee quite a bit of child knitting over the next few years.

I've also found this HP knitting community, where people post pics of their projects. Lots of folks are making scarves as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, using this pattern. The pattern designer, Lauren Kent, is also designing more intricate HP patterns for sale, including this yummy rendition of Hermione's cable-and-bobble hat from Prisoner of Azkaban.

I think if I were to make a scarf it would be in Ravenclaw colors. Maybe something else will tickle my fancy when Charmed Knits shows up.

I love this Socks That Rock colorway, Cobblestone Country, which I bought about two years ago. Initially I made one Jaywalker sock, but the challenge I found with STR and the Jaywalker pattern is that STR has no nylon, and Jaywalker has no ribbing, so I had to fight to get it on my foot.

So I frogged it, and am in the middle of Retro Rib socks from the Favorite Socks book:

This is a very nice sock pattern; can't wait to wear them!

There's even a Favorite Socks knitalong and blog, that perhaps I should join; I think there are more patterns in here in my future!

Just at the beginning of my CeCe cardigan, which will be 3/4-sleeves, in Rowan DK Soft:

More comments on this project as it develops.

So what's a girl to do when she's bored with her 21-stitch gauge project? Give in to STARTITIS! I have had this lovely green Filatura di Crosa 127 Print in the stash for a few years; when I bought it, it told me it wanted to be a turtleneck that was a mix of stockinette and garter stitch. It lied. So I frogged it.

Now I've decided that it wants to be a Sitcom Chic Cardi. I've made one before, in just about the same hue of pink that Bonne Marie's is in the picture, and it's a great pattern. Just the antidote to the frustratingly tedious Fife.

And I've bought a selection of interesting silver buttons from M&J Trimming for the single closure. Yay! Quick gratification! And in my favorite color!

Last week my friend Nancy was in from out of town, and we went on our annual yarn crawl. This time we went to Chix With Stix in Forest Park. I love it there, and don't make it there as often as I'd like since Forest Park is kind of out of the way for me. Sadly, though, Howie the dog was taking the day off and was not there ...

They were unpacking a big box of Colinette Jitterbug, which I bought in a very yummy color called "Velvet Leaf". It's shades of subtly variegated olive green, and the sheen of the yarn was just amazing.

I've never bought Jitterbug before, but I am really looking forward to a nifty pair of socks out of this. Perhaps a pair of Monkey Socks?

I should knit down my WIPs before I start thinking about another pair of socks, though, no matter how tempting the yarn is!

Haven't touched either Fife or Cece since November.

Have made some progress on the sleeves and yoke of the Sitcom Chic cardi:

Have frogged my old Lobster Pot cashmere beanie and am in the middle of turning it into a neckwarmer:

And, have finally cast on for a Central Park hoodie, for a knitalong with Knitress:

The yarn is Beaverslide 90% merino 10% mohair in Huckleberry Heather. This yarn choice is a shameless copy of Cara at January one. Like Cara, I'll knit fronts and back all at once, but I'm leaving in the seam stitches and knitting the smallest size, because the second smallest size is a little big for me. Interestingly, she got gauge on size 9 needles and I got it on size 10 needles, which just shows how tight a knitter I am (and I don't pull on my stitches or anything!). Unlike Cara, I didn't necessarily plan out how the ribbing will flow into the cables at the end of the ribbing band, so I may have some futzing to do in a couple of inches ...

I also think that I will not bother to put on buttonholes and buttons; I never bother to button cardigans anyway, generally, and this is meant to be a kicky casual hoodie. So why bother?

Knit on!

Finally, the Sitcom chic cardi in Filatura di Crosa 127. It's blocking:

Can't wait to wear it!

I have not kept up with Knitress in the CPH knit along; she is almost done, and I'm just at the beginning of the first sleeve. Oh well! But I like how it's coming along, even if the progress is slow.

As soon as I got off the plane from Maryland Sheep & Wool I wound the Brooks Farm Willow and cast on for Fifi:

It's a cabled yarn, wool/bamboo blend, in variegated gray-blue and lilac. The bamboo and the cable construction give the yarn good structure, and I am really enjoying working with it. It's also going to make for a lighter feeling garment that breathes, which is good for this project because it's a short-sleeved summery sweater.

And then there's the pattern ... I'm such a sucker for the combination of top-down construction and cables. This is my second French Girl pattern; I liked the Fantine (which I strangely forgot to blog about ... will have to remedy that!), which also has that top-down construction. Fifi, though, is in a smaller gauge (worsted) and has cables.

So far, so good; it's going pretty quickly, so I hope to be able to wear it before long!

I don't know who started it, but within the past five days five different people in my Ravelry friend list have queued the Flint Knits February Lady Sweater. My goodness, this sweater is just spectacular! Based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's February baby sweater, this lace cardigan is the same adorable sweater in adult size. And in Sundara worsted merino in green, it's just fabulous.

I love how quickly this pattern spread (thanks to blogs and Ravelry). Pam only posted it on 6 June, and it spread like wildfire. I think I saw one person with it in my friend list, then I queued it, and then I saw four others in my friend list queue it. 88 people have already started it, and over 2,000 folks have queued it.

Very cool!

But I have to finish a couple of other WIPs first ... and then remake my Coachella, which I did not make with negative ease, to my great detriment.

And she's going to the Bay Area with me this weekend!

Great pattern, great yarn, great sweater. The colors are doing a strange pooling in the torso, but it doesn't really bother me. The top-down construction meant that I had only four ends to weave in, so it's ready to wear!

So ... I got sucked in to the frenzy over this pattern that I discussed back in June, when the February Lady Sweater pattern was posted at Flint Knits. My frogged Coachella's gonna hafta wait ...

The pictures don't do the yarn or the pattern justice. The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Flammé, a wool-alpaca-silk blend that has a little bit of a thick-and-thin thing going on. I think it will show well in both the garter stitch and the lace.

I've just started the lace portion, and am about to split off the sleeve stitches. Now, to pick out buttons ...

OK, so for some inexplicable reason I felt the need to take a mental health afternoon ... so I made a lot of progress on the lace bodice portion of my February Lady Sweater:

The gull lace pattern is intuitive, pretty, and fun. Elizabeth Zimmerman, you totally rock!

Jiminy, I am sure loving working on this one!

It's coming along; the gull lace pattern is easy to remember but engaging enough to keep my attention. I haven't decided how many repeats to do before doing the garter stitch edge, though ... and I haven't given a single thought to the sleeves yet!

I've returned to my CPH this week, and just finished the right sleeve:

One sleeve, one hood, one border with buttonholes left! I look forward to wearing it as the weather cools in October.

My Brooks Farm Solana that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool has decided what it wants to be: Wisteria, by Kate Gilbert, in the first issue of Twist Collective. It's a lovely, organic, top-down cable yoke turtleneck, just the thing that I crave. I've got about 16 more rows to finish in the cable yoke pattern:

Love, love, love the pattern and the yarn. I am a little nervous that I won't have enough yarn, but so far, so good.