Pattern: my own design, presently being proofread and test knit. Designed specifically to work with the skein length and colour intervals of my BFL.
Yarn: Bluefaced Bliss in Forest Floor.
Notes: Simple to knit, and works up very quickly - would be a fabulous last minute gift. I plan to provide the PDF free (on request) with any purchase of Bluefaced Bliss.
(My son immediately dubbed them the Redbeard Socks. I prefer the tulip analogy, personally...)
It is astoundingly difficult to photograph a saturated red knit - I would say the yarn photo is slightly more accurate.
I knit the heel flap and the turned portion of the heel (what is the term for that bit, anyway?), as well as the toe, with both ends of the yarn, alternating strands each stitch. On the heel flap, I worked the last stitch of each row with both strands (held double), and when turning the heel, I worked the SSK (instead of K2tog) and P2tog with the yarn held double to avoid holes and loose bits. It made for a sturdy, cushioned, and tidy heel:
These are deliciously warm and comfy socks - all that remains to be seen is whether the double thickness will improve their projected longevity. Since there is plenty more chilly damp weather in the forecast, I shouldn't have any difficulty field testing them!
Pattern: My own basic top-down sock formula, with a bit of knit/purl patterning at the cuff, and the heel and toe worked in 1x1 two-stranded fashion for extra thickness.
Yarn: My own hand-painted Bluefaced Leceister wool; fingering weight, in the Red Tulip colourway.
This was a lovely little diversion that I finished up over the weekend. Ysolda's pattern is clear, error free, and well organized, and the design is clean and mathematically elegant - no awkward contrivances, just a sweet little showpiece of short row shaping.
Plus it is actually reasonably flattering on my face, which most hats are not. (Though I might be excessively self-critical - you'd have to ask my husband to be sure.)
Pattern: Urchin by Ysolda Teague, a free pattern which you can download from Knitty, or Ysolda herself.
Yarn: Wool Slub by Fleece Artist, which I have been hoarding for years and years. I still have about half a skein left, so I think I might try for a very basic pair of fingerless mitts.
Modifications: none whatsoever (this may be a first for me!)
I was calling this the Breathing In and Out Cardigan, and I suppose it did fill the function of an easy, soothing knit.... but I am not sufficiently enamoured with the final result to give it a proper name for keeps.
Lest that sound overly negative, I should say that I am very pleased with the fit, particularly the shoulders, which I finally had the courage to make roomy enough for my real life body, meaning that I can layer it over something besides a tissue thin T-shirt. I'm also very pleased with all the cool little design features....
The ones you can't really see because of the yarn I chose.
There are consolations, however:
Pattern: my own - a basic long cardigan with waist shaping and a heavily textured yoke. (Not that you can really tell....)
Yarn: Jaeger Natural Fleece - now discontinued, bought on clearance sale at Webs. Nice enough stuff, perhaps a wee bit soft for any sort of hard wear.
Model's hair styling courtesy of my 7 year old daughter who has just learned how to braid.
Blocked, tidied up and pronounced satisfactory for the performance of brave deeds:
I will tweak the proportions just a bit for the final pattern, though: I think the body needs to be a couple of inches longer and the sleeves an inch or two shorter. Though the detail was washed out by the flash, you can see here a comparison of the fit on 4 year old Liam and his 6 year old cousin:
On Liam, the sweater length is just right, but the cuffs had to be rolled over twice. His cousin only had to fold the cuff back once (thus showing off the basketweave pattern) but the length was a little skimpy. It fits both boys nicely through the body and shoulders though, which is the tricky bit. The length mods should be simple to incorporate and will allow true wearability from ages 4-6.
Pattern: my own, soon to be released.
Yarn: Sirdar Denim Sport Aran (3 x 100 gm (259 yds) balls) - 60% acrylic, 15% wool and 25% cotton. It is a decent wearing, machine washable yarn that I happened to have in stash, but I think this would be quite nice in a superwash wool, or perhaps a wool / cotton blend. As is becoming my norm, the gauge was nice and firm: 5 st/inch in aran weight.
This project was started on impulse (how else?) last summer. It stalled for a while waiting for extra yarn(which miraculously matched the former dye lot precisely despite a year's interval and the renaming of that line of yarn). It then sat for over a month after the knitting was complete, waiting for the perfect buttons to arrive (and I would like to say that Camilla Valley Farm was lovely to deal with, but they were on holidays when I finally made up my mind, and being an inexpensive order, it was sent by the cheapest mail option, which Canada Post took its own sweet time delivering.) But it was all worth the wait.
I love the end result, and this will join my(happily) growing list of FO's that actually qualify as Attractive Clothing I Will Wear In Public.
Pattern: my own - an experiment in garter stitch, modular construction, short row shaping, and incorporating handpainted yarn into a sweater that fit my fashion esthetic. This is the FO that really dispelled any lingering doubts I had about garter stitch being tacky or unrefined. (Though I was definitely inspired by designers like Jared Flood, Hanne Falkenberg, and of course, Elizabeth Zimmerman.) Honestly though, I would never have dreamed that garter stitch in bulky weight wool would move and drape like this. The key, I think, is the very dense gauge, which makes a fabric with a refined surface appearance and well behaved elasticity in all directions.
Yarn: KnitPicks Sierra (now Cadena) in Tide. The handpainted yarn is Fleece Artist Big Blue. The cardigan was knit on 5mm (US8) needles to a gauge of 4.5 stitches and 9 rows to the inch.
First though, let me say thank-you for all the lovely and complimentary comments on Friday's post. I haven't managed to respond to each of you personally yet, but they were each savoured, chuckled over, and greatly appreciated. Rob may be slightly insufferable for some time though, especially since Lee Ann referred to him as a "beefcake".
I haven't forgotten about the January mittens, but since a new nephew arrived late last week, I took a couple of days off "regular knitting" to make my very first Baby Surprise Jacket.
It is fully reversible:
I am a little partial to side 2, with its impression of decorative top stitching:
The back:
For the shoulder seams, I picked up stitches knitwise on each half of side 1, then grafted them together with side 2 facing, thus preserving the continuity of the garter stitch progression and creating a fully reversible seamless effect:
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket (perhaps the most famous baby sweater in the world?)
Yarn: Knitpicks Crayon - a plush, machine wash-and-dry-able cotton in brilliant primary colours to delight the little guy's senses and camouflage his blurps.
Gauge: At 5 stitches to the inch, this works out to about a standard 12 month size, though since he weighed 9 lbs at birth, I suspect it will be useful sooner rather than later.
Modifications: I went for an i-cord tie rather than buttons.... because I'm paranoid like that. And the collar is not part of the original version, though it has been done by others many times over.
Here it is: the first hand knit that my beloved husband has ever actually worn!
They have been pronounced warm (already test-driven with long undies), quite tolerable, and possibly even.... (drum roll)... comfy!
And since it's Friday, and I am slightly jealous of Tiennie, who regularly gets to show off her gorgeous hubby in fabulous sweaters, here's the eye candy:
Go on, tell him how handsome he is! (I almost categorized this post under Natural Beauty, but I thought that might be pushing it....)
These were knitted from long-stashed Austermann Step (the one with aloe vera and jojoba oil for tender footsies) using my newly developed not-at-all-scary toe-up formula. He is thrilled with the concept of the hand knit sock, though he is also the most texture sensitive member of the family. Thus far, they have been pronounced slightly tickly, but good enough to wear to ski school an hour from now. Keeping my fingers crossed!
A girl after my own heart - the Noro leftovers were entirely her idea. There wasn't quite enough, so I added the closest thing in the stash - a lone ball of sunny yellow Lopi lite.
She declared them soft, warm and wonderful and wants to wear them "forever."
Which is in startling contrast to the reaction a family member recently had to my (premium Icelandic Lopi) Winter Wonderland sweater:
"Is that ever scratchy. Oh my gosh, that's awful!" (feels it more vigorously)
Me: "Well, it is outerwear..."
"Oh! Ewww! That's HORRIBLE! How could you stand to wear something so coarse?"
I think I might as well have displayed lingerie hand sewn from recycled burlap.
(Since the person in question will no doubt recognize themselves, let me say that this is in no way meant as personal criticism, and I am fully cognisant of the fact that people differ widely in their tactile sensitivity. Nor did I take it personally!)
For the record, the sweater is worn as cold weather outerwear, which is what that particular yarn is supremely suited for, and in that capacity, very little (if any) of it touches bare skin. I have worn it for hours at a time, in the heaviest of snowstorms, marvelling at the way those long guard hairs trap the snowflakes above the surface of the sweater proper. Never once has so much as a drop of dampness penetrated its (highly breathable) surface. What intrigues me most is the idea that "not soft" is unquestioningly equivalent to "poor quality," which is perhaps indicative of the evolution of Western society's relationship to fibre and textile. In a few short decades, functionality (except perhaps, for high performance exercise gear) has become merely a "nice to have", and durability / longevity is out of the running altogether. Increasingly, the clothing and textile industry is being recognized as a significant contributor to global waste and pollution, as cheap, disposable fashion becomes the norm.
Even in the world of hand knitting, how many stories abound of the starry eyed purchase of supremely soft yarn, the triumphant FO, and the crushing disappointment when severe pilling rapidly relegates it to "just around the house" status? Natural fibres that are buttery soft and hardy tend to be rare and precious, and the attempt to convert them to cheap and plentiful status almost always comes at a terrible cost to animal and/or environmental well-being. Which is not to say that wearing Icelandic Lopi is necessarily morally superiour to cashmere, or even polyester, just that it is well worthwhile being an informed consumer of textiles. (Even better, an informed purchaser/creator/user. Seriously, what does it really mean to "consume" a garment?)
