Ashen - Upper Bodice Done!

This went very quickly.  The pattern is very well written and easy to follow and set up in knitCompanion.  I think I just wanted an easy and mindless knit, which this one is given how well written the pattern is.  The pattern actually has all the shaping written out for all of the different sizes, so all you have to do is find your size and follow it.  No expanding out condensed text with strings of numbers for each of the different sizes and the “at the same time” instruction with yet more strings of numbers for the different sizes.  I can follow those just fine, but sometimes you just want easy.  Now I’m into the body and it is just endless rounds of knitting that I can read during.

I am reading an actual physical book, a paperback, from my book stash (also known as a library) - Mars by Ben Bova from 1992.  You can’t even buy it on Amazon and it is not available on Kindle.  I know that paperbacks typically require a hand (or two) to hold them open, but I have this nifty thing called a book weight that I bought from Levenger.  I just put the book in my lap and lay this across the open pages.  I have to shift it up and down as I read, but it works and lets me do two of my favorite things - read and knit.

Levenger sells lots of neat stuff for readers, and fountain pens.  I really love fountain pens.  I am enjoying this knit so much more than Last Word, and I may have to make more than one of these vests.  The pattern does say that it is so quick and fun you will want to make more than one, and they may just be right about that.

Pattern:  Libraire by Tricot Design MCL

Yarn:  The Ross Farm Ashen Wensleydale 

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Ashen - Cast On!

I really liked my stockinette swatch of the Ashen Wensleydale yarn, so yesterday I frogged Last Word and cast on Libraire by Tricot Design MCL instead.  The yarn was still damp, so I didn’t even need to soak it to un-kink it.  As I frogged, I wound the yarn onto my Niddy-Noddy, tied up the skeins and hung them up to dry.  Libraire is a simple v-neck vest knit from the top down.  My gauge doesn’t quite match the gauge called for in the pattern, I have more stitches per inch, so I’m knitting a medium, and because it is top down I can adjust the length as needed as I go.  I am enjoying the knitting on this so much more, even if the stockinette curls like crazy.  I’ve already finished the upper back and am ready to pick up the stitches for the upper front.

Pattern:  Libraire by Tricot Design MCL

Yarn:  Ross Farm Fibers Ashen Wensleydale 

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Purple Haze Tredegar Scarflette - Cast On!

As part of my efforts to rekindle my knitting mojo I also pulled out some of my handspun skeins.  I do really enjoy working with my handspun yarn.  This yarn is what is left of the three spins that I used in the Practically Handspun vest.  This is spin 13, and I have another full skein, besides the partial in the picture, over 250 yards total.

Here is a picture of the original set of skeins.  I used about half in the Practically Handspun vest, and I really loved working with it.  I spent some time yesterday going through my Ravelry library looking for a pattern that I vaguely remembered buying at some point that I thought would be perfect for this yarn, and I finally found it - The Tredegar Scarflette by Jo-Anne Klim.  I’m very happy with how it is knitting up, even though the yarn is a 2-ply my cables are popping quite nicely.

Pattern:  Tredegar Scarflette by Jo-Anne Klim

Yarn:  Handspun Rosie’s Multicolor Merino Top in Purple Haze

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm) for the border, US 6 (4.0 mm) for the cable pattern

Swatching and Watching

I haven’t had a whole lot of knitting mojo since I finished up the two colorwork bolsters.  I cast on Last Word with the wonderful Wensleydale from The Ross Farm, but just wasn’t feeling it, I wasn’t enjoying the knit, so this morning I decided to block what I have knitted so far and just see how it looked and felt.  I put some Barber cord on my tips and soaked away.  We’ll see how it comes out, and then I will decide what I want to do next.

In the meantime I did a couple of swatches while watching PLY Spinners Guild videos.  I have had this luscious set of Sundara Yarn Extra Fine Aran Merino in my stash for a little while.  And it has been quietly insisting that I do something with it.  I mean, just look at those colors!  That is what I love about Sundara Yarn - her  colors.  Seriously, she dyes beautiful yarn, and I love her Daily Dreams emails.  She is pretty much my only impulse yarn buy these days because if you see something you like in the Daily Dream you have to get it, as all of those are essentially limited runs.

Before I started swatching I spent some time sipping my first cup of tea and cruising the pattern library on Ravelry looking for some potential patterns for this set, as well as something that might suite the Wensleydale better.  I found a few prospects, noted the called for fiber and the stitch gauge and swatched away, while I watched the aforementioned PLY Spinners Guild videos.  The swatches are blocking, but I think I know what I want to make with the Sundara Yarn.  Even still damp the swatch is wonderfully soft and has nice drape and the gauge looks pretty good for the pattern I have in mind.

Regarding the PLY Spinners Guild, if you’re a spinner, or want to be a spinner, it is a really great resource.  They have a whole series of videos that are really quite excellent.  I am also reading PLY Magazine, which is also an excellent resource.  The Sheepspot Society is another great resource.  I took the Fall 2024 Spin School on line course, which is actually how I learned to spin, and now I’m in Breed School.  And I don’t know what happened to that first paragraph.  When I put in the link for The Ross Farm it centered everything, and I can’t get it to go away.  Oh Well.

Last Word - Cast On!

After finishing up the two bolster pillows I wasn’t sure what I wanted to work on.  I have several WIPs that I could have picked up but just wasn’t feeling it.  I did cake up yarn for another Natasja Hornsby pattern, but it was a bit more involved than I felt like dealing with so I grabbed this wonderful yarn that recently made it in to my stash.

This is Ashen, 100% Wensleydale, from The Ross Farm.  It is natural, no dye, and is really lovely to work with.  The pattern is Last Word by Thea Coleman, and the yarn is the one called for in the pattern.  It came out this past March, and I bought the patten and ordered the yarn right away.  I did go down a needle size, but am working the second size.  I substituted a long tail cast on for the cable cast on, and did not do the increases on the sides after completing the ribbing.  I just didn’t see the point.  I’ve made a bit of progress, I’m almost through the first skein.

It is pretty easy knitting.

Pattern:  Last Word by Thea Coleman

Yarn:  Ashen from The Ross Farm

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Bolster Cover 3 - Finished!

This one worked up so fast.  This morning I crocheted the end caps and attached them.  This one does not fit as tightly on the pillow form as the previous one because I cast on more stitches - 96 stitches for this one, 90 stitches for the previous one.  This also made it cover more of the pillow form so I did not work as many rounds on the end caps.  I only worked 16 rounds (as opposed to 18 rounds for the previous one) which made it perfect, as that resulted in 96 stitches on the end cap, which made joining it to the bolster easy peasy.

This is before I had attached the end caps.

And this is an end cap in the making.

The yarn is super soft and nice to work with, and the colors are wonderful.  I do love how this one came out even though these are not my usual colors, but I think they are perfect, and I love the sea creatures.

Pattern:  Improvised

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and Crochet Hook G (4.0 mm)

Bolster Cover 2 - Finished!

Here is the finished bolster, in its official spot - Bruce’s chair.  He is very happy with it, and it is a definite improvement over the cushion that he had been using for ages.  Although I did try very had to keep my floats loose, there are some places where there are single stitches that are a little pulled, but overall I am very happy with how it came out, especially considering that I really just winged it.

Here is an end cap in progress.  I just crochet a circle until it is big enough, and then work another round where I join it to the cast on or bound off edge, as the case may be.  Once I get enough stitches in a round that counting becomes tiresome and error prone, I put markers on the stitches where I need to work increases.  I also have an end of round marker.

Pattern:  Improvised

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm), & Hook size G (4.0 mm) for the end caps.

Bolster Cover 3 - Colowork Finished!

This one went super fast.  I cast on Friday and finished it up on Saturday.  It was so much fun to knit, and now I want to do more colorwork.  I used the same blocking process on both bolster covers:  soak, wrap in a towel and walk on it to get the water out, pin the cast on and bound off edges on the blocking mats to combat the curling,  I leave them for a day, and then remove the pins and transfer them to a suspended mesh drying rack so the air can circulate around it.  That speeds up the drying considerably.  I checked on this one this morning, and it is almost dry.  I already have a color picked out for the crochet end caps.

Pattern:  Improvised 

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Bolster Cover 3 - Cast On!

As soon as I finished the colorwork for the second bolster cover I immediately cast on another one.  I have two bolster forms to cover.  This one is a bit of a different vibe.  I had these two skeins and I knew I wanted to use them together, but I really did not want that dark brown to be the background, so I decided to flip things, so the variegated yarn is the background and the dark brown is the motif color.  I had also fallen in love with the octopus motif so I decided on an ocean theme.  Looking at the row counts and how many rows I need for one of these covers (106) I ended up picking three different motifs:  OCTOPUS, SEASHELL, and SQUID.  The order of knitting will be:  OCTOPUS, SEASHELL, SQUID, SQUID (with the chart flipped so it points in the opposite direction), SEASHELL, OCTOPUS.  I cast on with the dark brown and worked one row before switching to the variegated yarn and beginning the first chart.  This time I did cast on 96 stitches, so I am repeating the motif four times around.  I am also using stitch markers between the repeats.  I know that the variegated yarn does have some dark runs that almost match the background color, which does obscure the motifs in places, but I think it just adds to the mystery of the creatures.  Once again, these motifs are all taken from The Doodle Knit Directory by Jamie Lomax.

I reproduced them in Pattern Genius, exported them to PDF, and imported them in to knitCompanion.

Pattern:  Improvised

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Bolster Cover 2 - Colorwork Finished!

The knitting on this went super fast. In between colorwork projects I seem to forget how addictive it is.  My gauge obviously changed between the 5 rows of stockinette at the beginning and end, and the 96 rows of colorwork in between.  If I were doing this again I would work an increase round to bring the colorwork section stitch count up to 96.  This would have allowed me to work the leaf pattern four times around, instead of three, and I wouldn’t have had to modify the pattern at all.  But, I love how it came out and I think my additions look great.  Now I just have to wait for it to dry.  Worsted weight, colorwork, it is going to take a little while.  The colorwork pattern is LEAVES 13 from The Doodle Knit Directory by Jamie Lomax.

Pattern:  Improvised

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Mulberry Nila - Finished!

I finished this last Wednesday, August 6, and blocked it that morning.  I didn’t really do anything special to block it, just laid it out.  No pinning or stretching.

By Friday morning it was dry, being a fingering weight yarn helps a lot.  Things did relax a bit, so the fit is a bit looser than I thought it would be, but it is all good.  I prefer a little more ease.  The sleeves also came out longer - I knit them until I had used up the three skeins I had reserved for them, so they were going to be as long as they were going to be.  They are pretty much full length, stopping just shy of my wrist bone.  It has a nice drape to it.

Overall, I’m very pleased with how it came out.

Pattern:  Nila by Natasja Hornby

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in the Mulberry Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Bolster Cover 2 - Cast On!

Recently I have started using the round bolster pillow that I created using some of my early handspun yarn to provide extra support to my lower back when I’m on my daybed (my usual spot these days) and it occurred to me that maybe Bruce would like one as well.  He had a special pillow that he has been using for years that is definitely past its best by date.  So, I purchased some more bolster pillow forms and checked my stash for some suitable yarn.  I ended up going with Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted.  I had three three-skein sets that had the potential to work together. 

I pulled them out and, after letting them mingle for a day, decided on the two caked skeins at the bottom.   Given that I am improvising, and have no idea of how much yarn I will actually need I decided to do colorwork figuring that it would give me a lot of flexibility, and pulled out The Doodle Knit Directory by Jamie Lomax and started looking for a pattern that I liked.  I settled on the leaf, given the fall colors I had picked.  I had already cast on 90 stitches with the darker color, based upon my guess at the gauge and the circumference of the pillow, so I was pretty much committed to that stitch count.  The pattern I picked, however, was 24 stitches, not the 30 that I needed for an even repeat.  No problem.  I opened up Pattern Genius and set up a chart that was 30 stitches by 24 rows and proceeded to reproduce the stitch pattern, then I added some of the minor motifs to the blank space that I had to fill, exported it to PDF, pulled it in to knitCompanion and set up my chart.  Easy Peasy.

I need to work 4 repeats of the chart, plus another 5 rows and a bind-off to get the length that I need.  The end caps I will do with crochet circles using one (or more) of the remaining skeins.  Based upon my yarn usage so far I may have enough in the two skeins to get there.  I weighed them before I cast on, and weighed them after finishing the first repeat and so far things are looking good.  I will weigh them again after finishing the second repeat, which will be my half-way point.  If I don’t have enough of the background color I will simply swap the two colors and use the lighter one for the background and the darker one for the motif.

Before I started spinning and working with my handspun I would never have been so bold as to just jump into a design like this.  It is incredibly liberating and has really energized my creativity.  Of course being retired helps a lot as my brain power is not being sucked up by work anymore.

For reference, here is the bolster pillow that inspired this project.

It is a pretty unassuming little thing, but it made good use of two skeins of handspun that I really didn’t know what else to do with.  They were early spins and not very consistent.  In fact, my gauge changed when I changed skeins, but foam and knitting are both forgiving mediums.

Pattern:  Improvised

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Mulberry Nila - Sleeve Caps!

I love a top-down set-in sleeve.  As long as the armhole is the right depth and you pick up the right number of stitches to get the sleeve diameter that you want the result will be a perfectly fitting sleeve.  At least that has been my experience.  I use the method laid out in Barbara Walker’s Sweaters from the Top Down to work my top-down set-in sleeves, and it is very simple and easy to follow.  I did not follow the pattern directions for the short rows to shape the sleeve caps, as there were (in my opinion) too few short rows to get me a sleeve cap that would fit.  I also did not do German short rows, just wrap and turn, and no working of the wrap on the return row.  If I had followed the pattern directions I would have worked a lot fewer short rows as the pattern called for working 3 stitches past the double stitch before turning, and I worked up to the previous wrapped stitch, and then wrapped the next stitch and turned.  I did use the pattern directions as guidance on the number of stitches to pick up.

I will continue to work the sleeves together, alternating between them as I use up the first three skeins of my set.

Pattern:  Nila by Natasja Hornby 

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)