My Sewing Space

I was quite taken with Joji Locatelli's Lemongrass when I first saw it. I liked the split sides, the simple cable down the front and the turtleneck. The heavier gauge appealed to me also - faster to knit and a warm, cozy sweater in the end. I went with one of the yarns recommended in the pattern; Malabrigo Yarn Twist in black. I loved this yarn and would like to knit another sweater with it. It is soft and squishy and not at all itchy. Sometimes even soft wool yarns in a scarf or turtleneck start to really bother my neck by the end of the day, but this one doesn't bother me at all. So good. The only modifications I made to the pattern were very simple ones. Length was added to the front and back, but not equally - the back is longer than the front. Since I think loose sleeves on a sweater easily look sloppy, I went down a needle size for the sleeves. I like a substantial turtleneck and I have a long neck, so I added a whole lot to the neck, knitting the first half o...

Bummer.

I finished my Owls sweater and I am so happy with it.  I mentioned before that I've never knit myself a whole sweater before, but after this I think I'll do it again and again and again. I'm happy with the fit.  The right sleeve looks shorter in the picture above, but they are actually the same length.  Knitting in the round does have some disadvantages, but for this project I really liked being able to try it on to check the length both in the body and the sleeves. Blocking really helped with the shaping in the back.  The increases and decreases created some strange lumps and bumps that flattened out nicely.  Blocking also helped smooth out the owls a lot.  I have been frustrated before by yarn that relaxes a lot during blocking - enough to even change the gauge.  This yarn ( Cascade Ecological Wool ) didn't do that at all.  I kind of held my breath during blocking really hoping it would come out the same size.  I was r...

I'm having a great time knitting the owls sweater .  I'm not a fast knitter, but this is coming together quickly and it's encouraging to see progress each time I work on it. It's a lot of stockinette stitch, which many find boring, but I don't.  And most of the sweaters that I really like are mostly stockinette stitch, so that's what I'm doing. The shaping is all at the back, rather than along the sides. The yarn is Cascade Ecological Wool and I love it.  I needed to double the strand to get the right gauge (I'm a tight knitter, I guess). I just have to finish the second sleeve, the join the sleeves to the body and then come the owls.  Hoot!

These are the first socks that I have knit for someone other than me!  I think my daughter was a good choice.  She's as excited about these socks as I am. I used the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns for these.  My daughter's feet were in between the sizes offered, so I figured out how many stitches to cast on using the gauge that I was knitting at and the number of inches that I wanted.  So, I needed the sock to be 6" in circumference and was knitting at 8sts/inch - that means I needed 48 stitches.  I was still able to use the charts in the book since one of the size/gauge combinations was for a 48 st sock.  I just followed those numbers, and used my own inch measurements when those were needed. I like how the 2 x 2 rib continues down the foot of the sock, but I'm not happy with how it looks where the rib meets the smooth sole stitches.  Before starting the heel flap, I divided the ribs on the edges so that the stitches for the top of the foot h...

I'm really liking this sock. I like the yarn, I like the pattern, I like how it feels on. Too bad that those few loops of yarn on the right is all that is left. Boo. As you can see, the sock is not nearly long enough. I do have another skein, but that should be for the other sock. I could start on that skein to finish this sock, but then the second sock would just barely cover my heel with this yarn. I think I'll probably finish this sock with some other yarn (ideally from stash) and then do the same for the second one. At least they will match then, even though they won't really look great. The different part will be covered up by my shoe most of the time, anyway. This experience makes me want to try knitting socks starting at the toe. This is some interesting yarn. My MIL gave it to me. I love the color and it is wonderfully soft. It is a bit fuzzy, so stitch definition is pretty poor, but I'm still liking how it is turning out. If you can read the ball band, you...

I really like handknit socks. I like making them and I like wearing them. I've probably only made six pair or so, but the first couple of pairs that I made are starting to get holes in them. I suppose now I need to start looking into darning socks. That doesn't sound like something I'll like. Anyway... My MIL gave me this kit. It had three skeins of yarn, a sock pattern, and this note: It says: "This kit contains handspun yarn that is a blend of wool, mohair, nylon, silk, alpaca and camel made just for socks!" The yarn is much bulkier than any I have used for socks in the past. I didn't think I would like heavy guage socks, so I let this yarn sit in my stash for awhile. I considered using it for mittens instead of socks. But, after thinking about it I concluded that bulky socks might be something I could really like. I spend a lot of time at home and during the cooler months I always have socks on. After a day of walking around in thin socks, my feet really h...

A couple of weeks ago my older daughter told me that she needed a new sweater and that I should knit her one. Well, okay - I can do that! She was pretty certain that it should have a hood and just to make sure I caught that, this is a picture of her playing outside pretending her too-small sweater has a hood. Crazy girl... After giving her a few choices about what she wanted the sweater to look like (cardigan vs. pull-over, pocket styles, cables/patterning, etc) it was clear that she wanted a sweater just like the Wallaby that I just finished. I was kind of pushing for some cables or some interesting pockets or something, but she's hard to convince. It's good that I like the Wonderful Wallaby pattern because I'm doing it again now. I'm combining two yarns to get the proper guage. The Cascade Quatro is from stash (thanks again to my MIL!) and the other is an acrylic yarn that I found at Zeller's. I have to admit that I am a yarn snob and I rarely knit with acrylic ...

Last week I mentioned that I didn’t have any knitting project at all in the works. Yesterday I dug my yarn stash out of a very dusty and dirty corner of the storage room (so excited about getting settled at home again soon) along with some pattern books and ideas. I spent too much time today trying to match yarn to pattern and found this to be a pretty frustrating pursuit. Compared my level of sewing experience, I am quite a newbie knitter. But it seems to me that unless you choose the pattern first and then buy the yarn specified in the amount specified it is really complicated to find something more involved than a scarf to knit. The issue of guage is the biggest hurdle. I have a lot of yarn (thanks to my MIL!) and a lot of patterns, but when I find a yarn that matches the gauge in the pattern I find that I don’t have enough of the yarn, or it is the wrong color (“boy colors” vs. “girl colors” are a big deal for my little kids) or the pattern requires circular needles and I only...