Tudor Roses - Elizabeth Woodville - Body Done

Last weekend I raveled and reclaimed the yarn from my initial start.  With all of the snow we stayed home on Monday, so I was able to finish up the body increases and work the left front and get a good start on the back.  Yesterday I finished up the back and the right front and joined the shoulders.  I pinned it out and spritzed it last night so I could check the fit.  I am very happy with how this is coming along.  The fit is perfect, just the right amount of ease, and the length is good.  I extended the depth of the armhole and did short row shaping on the shoulders, joining them with three needle bind off.  I will now pick up stitches around the armhole so I can work top down set-in sleeves, my preferred method.  It is so exciting when a fitted pattern comes together like this.  All of the prep work that I did has really paid off, and I have learned so much.  I didn't even mind knitting the bottom part twice.  It is worth it to get the finished results that I want.  I now feel confident that I can work through all of the patterns in this book, which was my original intent when I first looked through it.  I already have the yarn for the second pattern, and I've been looking at the third pattern and thinking about colors.

Here is the view from the back.

I have become a real fan of pinning and spritzing a work in progress to get a quick check on fit and drape.  It provides many of the same benefits as a full blocking, but is so much quicker.


Pattern:  Elizabeth Woodville, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply (277 g in Red Rattle & 50 g in Whin)
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Piglet Socks - Done!

I finished these up early yesterday afternoon while watching "For a Few Dollars More", the second film in the Man with No Name Trilogy.  I love those movies, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone are an amazing combination.  I think my favorite film of theirs is "Once Upon a Time in the West", which is truly operatic.  Once I finished up these socks I cast on the next pair and worked through the toe increases before setting them aside to work on my Elizabeth Woodville.  I haven't decided what to call them, so right now they are just "Basic Toe Up Socks 5".  I must confess that I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought those skeins of self-striping yarn.  The color combinations are pretty wild.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Piglet Socks - Two Feet Done

Last weekend was a wonderful four-day long weekend of snow and knitting, but even when I went back to work I managed to get some knitting done during telecons and while reviewing a document.  I finished one sock on Wednesday and finished turning the heel of the second sock yesterday.  From the first sock that I knit I have always loved turning the heel, it still seems magical to me.  I am almost done with the second sock and will likely finish it up this morning.  The next cake of sock yarn is standing by to be cast on.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Live Long and Prosper Tunic - Making Progress, Slowly

After pinning and spritzing my Elizabeth Woodville, I decided to pull out my Live Long and Prosper Tunic.  I figured this was the perfect mindless knitting to work on while watching football.  I do love the way this is turning out, but those rows are still long - I've only worked two sets of decreases.  I'm not working my decreases right on the side seams, but instead shifted them in so they are more like darts.  I thought it would make the tunic hang better.  After working with the Felix sock yarn and the Hebridean 2-ply, this yarn is so soft and silky, and very slippery. 

My Elizabeth Woodville is dry, and the fit looks good, so I will continue on with that.  I also reclaimed the yarn from my previous start and it is wound back into cakes and ready to be used.

Pattern:  Live Long and Prosper Tunic by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  Fingering Merino Cashmere and Fingering Silky Cashmere by Sundara Yarns
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Tudor Roses - Elizabeth Woodville - Increases Halfway Done, Almost

After pinning and spritzing last time I tried the fit so far and decided that I really needed more ease in the hips and that I also wanted the peplum to extend further down from my waist.  The original pattern does not extend far past the waist, and given how high waisted I am, that makes for a pretty short torso.  I pulled the needles out of my knitting, and cast on again.  I decided to go up a size for the bottom part, and work all of the decreases.  I also worked 3 rows between each of the decreases, whereas the pattern has the last few decreases occurring every other row.  This allows me to extend the peplum further down, and makes the shaping a bit more gradual than the pattern.  I switched back to the smallest size for the increases, which means that I will only work 9 of the 12 increases.  This gets me to the correct stitch count for the bust measurement of the smallest size.  I am also spacing the increases out more, working 5 rows between the increases instead of 3.  I pinned and spritzed my progress today so I could check my fit again.  I have completed 4 of my 9 increases.  At some point I will ravel and reclaim the yarn from my previous effort.

Pattern:  Elizabeth Woodville, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply (277 g in Red Rattle & 50 g in Whin)
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Piglet Socks - One Foot Done

Of course, once I bound off my Summer Breeze socks and I had to cast on another pair.  I grabbed the next cake of Felix and was confronted with the question of what to name the project.  The colors reminded me of Piglet, from Winnie the Pooh, so that is what I called them.  We had all of the stuffed animals when I was growing up.  Pooh was much loved, and a little the worse for wear.  Kanga was disemboweled by our dog Minnie, so Roo ended up an orphan.  Tigger was not a plushy, he was small and firm and his body was filled with sawdust - a fact I discovered when his head came off.  Piglet had cardboard pieces in his feet so he could sort of stand up on his own.  He provided my sister Liz her first opportunity at small animal surgery when the cardboard pieces shifted in his feet, and one of his ears started to come off.  I'm happy to say the surgery was a complete success and she is now an extremely good small animal vet.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Summer Breeze Socks - Done!

I finished up my Summer Breeze socks last weekend, well, last Monday, actually, but it was a holiday, so it still counts.  The weekend was not a very good one in other respects as I had a nasty head cold the whole time, one which I'm still getting over.  Plus, I gave it to Bruce and it hit him harder than me.  He was home sick most of the week, but is finally on the mend.

I wore my Carousel Socks to work on Tuesday.  The purple in them went with my Lilac Pullover, which I was also wearing.  I was briefing the program office, so I had to dress in mufti, which for me is slacks and a hand knit sweater, as opposed to colorful leggings and a tunic, but I can't resist wearing some color.  I'm happy to say I wasn't the only person wearing striped socks at the meeting, but I bet I was the only one wearing hand knit socks.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Tudor Roses - Elizabeth Woodville - Making Progress

I've been working mostly on this project and making steady progress. I actually ripped back to the start and redid all of the hem shaping wrapping all of my turns, which I think gives a neater appearance.  I could see small holes where I hadn't wrapped on the rows that turned against the garter row as opposed to the ones that turned against a stockinette row, where I did wrap.  Those little holes were bugging me, so I ripped and redid.  I've almost worked two complete skeins, but the piece was curling something fierce and it is hard to really see what you've got so last night I pinned it out and spritzed it to make it behave a bit better, and I'm glad to say that it worked.  I need to figure out my upper body shaping, where to start working the armholes because I need them to be deeper than the pattern is calling for, and my brain is a bit too fuzzy for that today (darn head cold), so I think I will go work on my Summer Breeze socks (I just have to finish up the leg of sock number 2) and read some more Phryne Fisher.


Pattern:  Elizabeth Woodville, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply (277 g in Red Rattle & 50 g in Whin)
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Tudor Roses - Elizabeth Woodville - Fresh Start

Almost exactly 2 years ago I started working on this project but I didn't get very far.  I knit one sleeve using different colors but I was worried about gauge and fit.  I did a couple of restarts but was never really happy with the results so I put it in a timeout.  It didn't help that I knocked a Dr. Pepper over and splashed a not insignificant amount into the project bag.  In the intervening years I have bought several of the color work kits they have offered, yarn for the second project in the book, and new yarn for this project.  This time I purchased more yarn than my size called for, to give me some cushion.  The original yarn will not go to waste, I'll use it for sampling and swatching.  Last week I pulled the yarn and the book back out and decided to go back to basics.  I swatched again, using the previous yarn.

The swatch on the right was done on the needle size the pattern calls for (4 mm), but is too loose.  It is not a bad fabric, if I wanted a wrap that had some drape.  I then swatched on US 3 (3.25 mm) and hit the gauge spot on.  I have gotten pretty good at knowing what size needle I should use with yarn to get the right gauge.  I then spent last week reading over the pattern and comparing the measurements of the schematic with my measurements.  The smallest size mostly works for me, but I'm high waisted and small on top, I need a deeper armhole, and my shoulders are fairly broad.  Yesterday I finally cast on.  This time I'm using Red Rattle as the main color and Whin as the contrast color.

These are far more my kind of colors than the original colors that I picked.  I like jewel tones.  I decided to work the body in one piece up to the armholes.  Instead of the cast on called for in the pattern - making a chain of picots and then picking up stitches - I did a regular picot cast on, knit two rows and then did the colorwork and switched to the main color as the pattern called for.  For the short row shaping I did each section separately, but did not break the yarn between sections.  I started with the right front and worked through the last right side row of the fourth decrease.  I then knit across to where the short rows start for the back and worked through the last right side row of the fourth decrease.  Because I had knit across to where the short rows started I wrapped and turned when I was working on that side of the back because I didn't have that purl ridge to work with.  I then knit across the left front and worked through the fourth decrease, wrapping and turning.  Then I purled back across the entire body, picking up any wrapped stitches as I went.  I'm skipping the decreases on the body and going right to the straight section after the last body decrease.  I'll work 4 fewer increases to compensate for not working the decreases.  I think this will shorten the body enough to account for my high waist.  I'll start the armholes early, to give me more room, and I'm going to knit the sleeves from the top down in the round, which should give me the fit that I need.


Pattern:  Elizabeth Woodville, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply (277 g in Red Rattle & 50 g in Whin)
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Summer Breeze Socks - 2 Feet Done

Actually one sock is complete - I finished it up last weekend - and yesterday I turned the heel on my second sock.  I decided that I'm not even going to worry about matching up the stripes.  They're crazy socks, so I'm letting them be crazy.  I keep this project in my work bag so I can pull them out when I'm on telecons, or when I'm downloading big files.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Live Long and Prosper Tunic

While I was knitting away on my Summer Breeze socks I was idly thinking about clothes (reading Phryne Fisher novels will get you thinking about clothes) and the kinds of clothes that I like to wear and what I could make out of the mounds of fingering weight yarn that I have in my stash.  I like tunics and long vests.  Things that I can wear over leggings and with boots.  I do love boots.  I went for a simple A-line vest, long enough to wear with leggings, with an asymmetrical front.  The left side stops at the neck edge of the shoulder, and the right side comes all the way across and overlaps.  The style was inspired in part by the dress tunics from Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  I ginned up a quick pattern in Sweater Wizard to get an idea of the yardage I needed and then went to peruse my stash and came up with this lovely yarn.

It is Fingering Merino Cashmere by Sundara Yarn a fingering / 4 ply yarn that is 70% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon and has 500 yards / 150 gram.  The color is Bluebell and is reminiscent of Science Officer Blue from the Original Star Trek, and Spock has always been one of my favorite characters, hence the name of the project.  I wanted a splash of color, and some more refined finishing on the edges so I dug out another skein of Sundara Yarn.

This one is Fingering Silky Cashmere (new) also by Sundara Yarn a Fingering / 4 ply yarn that is 65% Cashmere, 35% Silk and has 420 yards / 100 gram.  The color is Tangerine Guava Twist.  I decided to start with an i-cord cast on, and then I will work an i-cord around the edges to finish it off.  I-cord can be so tedious, but it does look lovely when it is finished.  Knitting with this yarn was like knitting with melted butter, it felt slippery and insubstantial and has a tendency to fuzz.  I'll have to add some vinegar to the water when I soak the vest for blocking. I decided to work a simple cable on the front section that overlaps at the shoulder, just to add a little visual interest.


Pattern:  Live Long and Prosper Tunic by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  Fingering Merino Cashmere and Fingering Silky Cashmere by Sundara Yarns
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Summer Breeze Socks - One Foot Done

After finishing up my Brilliantine Socks I immediately cast on my next skein of self-striping Felix yarn from Biscotte & Cie.  The tag on this one did not have a color name, but as I was knitting the toe a line from the Seals & Crofts song Summer Breeze kept going through my head "Summer Breeze, makes me feel fine, blowin' through the jasmine of my mind".  I've never understood those lyrics, but I like the song, and the picture also contains part of my cat Jasmine, so I guess it all fits together somehow.  It was seasonably cool this morning and Jasmine was having her morning nap in front of the space heater.

Just your standard toe up sock, but this self-striping yarn is a little different from the others in that it has little flecks of dark green scattered throughout.  My knitting mojo has been a little low lately, so I've been enjoying the small project size and the mindless knitting of these socks.  I can also read while knitting these and have been enjoying the Phryne Fisher novels by Kerry Greenwood.  Absolutely delightful reads.  The video adaptations are also quite good, I just love the clothes, but they have to leave a lot out.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)