Spring Pullover

Although I made this in the spring, I plan on wearing this as the weather cools off. In the spirit of school starting, I thought I would post my "school clothes."  This is the Split Neck T shirt for Women #257 by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure & Simple.  I made it out of Universal Yarn's Vanessa.  Vanessa is a synthetic yarn that drapes so lovely.

I made a medium size, but my gauge was slightly less stitches per inch than the pattern so it turned out slightly bigger and not as fitted as the pattern.

Did I tell you how much I love green?

Lacy Ribbed Tee

This is the Lacy Ribbed Tee by Kristin Omdahl found in Creative Knitting Magazine, July 2009.  The yarn is Schulana Sojabama.  It is a bamboo blend and the yarn is very stretchy.  I started by making a medium according to the pattern, but after I made the armhole, I tried it on. The neck opening barely went over my head. So I've casted on (using a tubular cast on) 104 stitches on a US Size 7 needle, and then switched to the size 6 needle after the set up rounds.  I didn't increase in the set up rounds so I've been following the directions for a medium.

I tried it on after these changes, and it seems to be going well. I've stopped doing swatches (horrors!)  because I never knit the same gauge over a swatch that I do in the project.  So I've resigned myself to knitting a project a couple of times before it turns out how I like it. This works out well because I enjoy the process of knitting, and it is very important that a garment fits well.  I think this means that I'm am both a process and a product knitter.

The armholes made as instructed in the pattern turned out too big so I only cast on 5 stitches instead of 23.  This made the armholes just great.  Also since I have a shorter torso, I only made the center section 8 inches instead of 10. I really like how the tee fits and yarn is soft and slinky.  

After I took this picture, somehow this tee ended up in the washing machine with a black tee shirt and miracle of miracles, it over-dyed evenly.  The tee still fits and looks good, but it is a deeper, more muted color which works well in my wardrobe.  

Faux Cable Tee ... Finished!!!

Finally, I finished my tee. This was knitted from the bottom up, and since I didn't have enough of the Brown Merino Cotton, I added the aqua stripes. It has raglan sleeves and it did go fairly quickly once it was the right size. I really like the Merino Cotton because it can be both the warmer and cooler than you think, making it the perfect Spring and Fall sweater.

Faux Cable Tee

When I can't stand the cotton candy pink anymore, I am working on this tee. I am making it out of a beautiful merino cotton. I just love this stitch, and I think I am really going to love the way this fits. No shaping is really necessary because this stitch is basically a rib so it has lots of stretch. I have really been love with the contrast of chocolate brown and aqua. It is so easy on the eyes, and since I have autumn coloring, these colors just make me look great. At first, I was going to make the top a yoke, but I've changed my mind, and now I'm going to make it a raglan.

Knitting Impatience

I have been experiencing a little bit of knitting impatience. I would like to be finished with some of the projects that I've had going for a while, and start something new. The problem is my life has been interfering with my knitting. Yes, I know how spoiled I am to be able to say this. More than likely, I am frustrated with my life and taking it out on my knitting. Sometimes I just don't have the words to express my thoughts and feelings. It is like my creativity has been bottled up. Could this be a form of knitter's block / writer's block? When I started this blog, I thought I had all of these things to share, but now I am not so sure. I haven't given up yet. I know that I have something in there somewhere to share, and I plan on keep trying.

I have been knitting on the brown and aqua tee sweater. I do like the fabric that I'm creating, but I can't seem to picture it finished. I have a loose plan, and I'm just not sure what to do with the sleeves. It is a bottom up sweater, and in a couple of inches, I will need to deal with the sleeves. Do I want to do a raglan or a yoke? I'm leaning towards a yoke. I'll keep you posted.

Faux Cable T-Sweater

Designing a sweater is often a process of trial and error. I have started this sweater several times, and although each time it gets better, it just isn't right. I've started it yet again, and so far so good. I don't have enough yarn to do the whole sweater so I plan on adding some stripes of turquoise.

Not enough yarn

What do you do when you don't have quite enough yarn & you can't get anymore of that dye lot?

Whenever I buy yarn before I pick a pattern, then I take a chance that I may get myself into this position. Learning the fundamentals of knitting can sometimes be haphazard because there is no standard of what you should learn about knitting. You can learn how to cast on and how to knit and then how to cast off, but all of the simple guidelines sometimes have to be picked up as you go.

For example, when you buy yarn, all of the yarn of a single color should be in the same dye lot. If you buy yarn from a local yarn shop, most of the time they will only put out same dye lots on the shelf. If you buy yarn from a chain craft store, it can be very difficult at times to find enough yarn in the same dye lot for your project.

Another issue I had in the beginning is when I found a yarn that I really liked, I had a difficult time knowing how much yarn to buy. Now I understand that there are yarn requirement guides that help with this, and as a general rule, I know to buy about 1200 yards of yarn for a woman's sweater. So what do I do with the 750 yards of Merino Cotton that I bought a year or so ago? I would like to make a sweater, but I don't have enough and there is little chance that I could find the same dye lot. Of course, I could find some kind of lacy summer short sleeved pattern or I could buy a complimentary yarn and make some stripes. Since this summer I made a lacy short sleeved cardigan, I've decide to do the stripes.

Stripes is a great way to play with color design. Some great designers can pick up to 20 colors or more in a single piece. One of these days, I want to take all of my scraps from other projects and make a striped moebius scarf, but for this sweater, I am just going to have 2 colors: chocolate brown & turquoise. I would like to start with a wide stripe of turquoise and then get narrower. I am designing this as a I go along so I will see how it turns out. One thing I've learned is that in order to make a piece fit perfectly, there are times that you have to rip it out and reknit it until it is just the way you need it to be.

With knitting knowledge being passed around so organically, it is a good thing that knitters are just the nicest people I've ever met, and they share so well.