When Life Interrupts Art

A little over a month ago, our life got a bit complicated.  On Tuesday, June 9, Bruce had gone downstairs to work in his study, but he quickly came storming back up from the basement demanding to know if I had let Jezebel (our very sweet cat) into his office.  His office is kept closed up, but I will let her in if I am downstairs exercising, if she asks (which she sometimes does, in the most polite manner).  She likes to check it out periodically and make sure no small critters are setting up homes in there.  I said that I had, but that it had been a few days, why?  Did she throw up in there?  He replied that there was some cat barf, but that the carpet was all wet around his chair and accused her of peeing in his study.  I was skeptical as this would be extremely unusual behavior on her part and immediately followed him back downstairs to investigate.  On entering his study I immediately noticed a complete lack of the tell-tale smell of cat pee.  I checked the carpet and it was indeed very wet, but it was water, not cat pee.  We had a water leak.  The water line (the picture above) comes into the basement in his study, behind his desk, his massive, modular desk.  There is an access panel, but it only gives us access to the shut off valve for the water in the house.

The spot where the line comes into to the house is below the 2x4 that you can just see in the bottom of the picture, behind dry wall.  So, we spent the rest of the day clearing out that end of the study, which meant moving his massive, modular desk, as well as a heavy credenza.  We then went to the hardware story and bought a water key so that we could shut off the water at the street, as the water was coming in to the house through the conduit that held the outside water line, which should have been porridged (sealed up with hydraulic cement so no ground water could come in) and obviously was not.

The next day, June 10 (Wednesday), we spent pulling up the carpet, and the sodden carpet padding underneath.  We pitched the carpet padding and rigged up some scaffolding to elevate the carpet to allow it to dry.  First we folded it back so that we could get as much water up from the concrete floor as possible.

We propped the 2x4s that are laying on the floor on the saw horse and laid the carpet on them so that it could dry.  

On Thursday, June 11, we cut open the dry wall to expose the leak.

We also brought the dehumidifier in from the exercise room to help dry things out.  

On Friday, June 12, a plumber came by to check the situation out.  He told us to have the leak detection folks come by and verify the location of the leak.  We were pretty sure it was close to the basement wall, under the front porch, based on the way the water was coming in.  According to our water meter, the leak was 0.29 gallons per minute.  When we called the county services folks, the nice lady told us that it looked like the leak had started on May 30.  We didn’t find it until June 9.  Bruce doesn’t go down into his study that often.  The leak had saturated the carpet out to about 7 feet from the wall by then.  It was bad, but it could have been worse.  We called the leak detection company, and Bruce talked to an AI as it was after business hours.  The AI was really good.  They called us back on Monday, June 15.

That outside faucet is in line with the underground water line where it comes in to the house.

On Wednesday, June 17, the leak detection guys came out and confirmed our suspicions as to the location of the leak.  It cost $600 to tell us something that we were pretty sure about.

We called the plumber back, but apparently there are not enough plumbers in the world today, and he is super busy.  He was not able to come out and fix our leak until Monday, June 29.  We had talked to the builder, who lives just up the street from us and he had said that we had all copper pipe coming in to the house.  When we talked to the plumber, before they started digging, we discussed the possibility of just running a new line of the new plastic they use, as the copper is about 35 years old, and is likely to spring another leak but when the plumber dug up the leak he found something else.

Blue hose, and a temporary coupling, that somehow lasted several decades before leaking.  We don’t know when or how this was done, as we’ve been in the house 20 years, and my husband lived in it before us as we bought his ex-wife out of the house, and it was not done during his time in the house.  We have no idea if we have this blue line all the way to the street, or if there is copper.  If we get another leak we’ll deal with it and probably just re-route the water line.  He fixed the leak, and replaced the copper pipe coming in to the house, and also replaced the inside water valve, as it was also leaking.

The conduit is also properly porridged, so no more leaking into the basement!  It cost us $750.  We also picked up new carpet padding so we can get the carpet back down.  We haven’t done that part yet, but we did lay the carpet back over the floor.  We’ll need to do some carpet cleaning, but that is easy.

So what did we do for those 20 days?  We turned the water off, and only turned it on for brief periods of time when we needed it.  That usually worked out to having water 3 or 4 times during the day for an hour or so at a time.  We did use some plumbers putty to try to block the leak, and it mostly worked, until the leak detection folks came by and disturbed things, and then it stopped working so well.  So we always had to have towels down to absorb the water, and then I was dealing with wet towels and swapping dry towels out for wet, and throwing the wet ones into the dryer, or hanging them on our deck railings to dry in the sun.  We filled pitchers with water for drinking, and made sure to fill up the tea kettle and the coffee maker when we had water.  I also kept water in one half of our double sink to rinse things if we needed to.  We have three toilets in the house, but they only got flushed when we had water.  We turned off the valve inside the house before we would turn off the water to the house to keep the pressure up (for the most part) in the house so that we didn’t get too much air in the pipes (the fridge really hated losing water pressure).  Needless to say, it was a bit of a production, and it really makes you appreciate the conveniences of modern life.

And then on Saturday, July 4, during the big storms that hit the East coast, we lost the top of one of our Beech Nut trees, so we’ve been dealing with that for the past week.  We also lost power for three hours, it went out just as we were sitting down to dinner.

All of that greenery is attached to this monster, which managed to miss the electrical distribution box that feeds our house, as well as our neighbors.  It also missed the land-line phone box, not that many folks have land-lines anymore.  Once again, we were lucky.

That came off of this spot that you can just see in the top of our tree.

We’ve been cutting off the smaller branches, which have most of the leaves, so that when we call the tree guys they just have to cut up the big stuff for us.  The top was also a little bit into the road, so we had to clear that off right away on Sunday morning.  In this Virginia heat and humidity it is dirty, sweaty work, and pretty exhausting, so we pace ourselves (we’re not so young anymore).  When we come in from working, we strip and throw the clothes into the washing machine, and then we go take a cooling shower.  Despite the heat, we don’t mind the work at all, and kind of enjoy it.  I especially like flinging the cut branches on to our brush pile in our woods.

Lemon Boatneck Top - Cast On!

Onling does these seasonal boxes - patterns, yarn, and some extra goodies, typically tea and lotion, and I like to buy them, mostly because I really like the tea and the lotion, but also because I like the yarn/pattern pairings they offer.  These boxes are a reasonable way for me to try something new in the yarn and pattern department.  I’ve been buying their Advent boxes for a few years now, and have also bought a few of their Spring and Summer boxes.

Lately my knitting mojo has felt a little low and I was looking for a pick me up, so I bought the Summer box and when I finished up Jezebel’s second blankie (which she has been getting a lot of use out of, curling up on it for at least some portion of every day since I gave it to her) I decided to cast on.  The pattern was a simple top that looked pretty boxy from the photo, with twisted ribbing on the hem, sleeves and neck.  There was no schematic in the pattern, and no mention of ease, but I decided that from the photo it looked like it had a reasonable amount of ease and I went with the small size as opposed to the extra-small size.  I did a gauge swatch, and got gauge, and so I cast on.

For my size the pattern has you cast on 192 stitches, and knit 2 inches of twisted rib, on a 3.0 mm (US 2.5) needle.  The body is knit on a 3.5 mm (US 4) needle.  I grabbed a 3.0 mm, 32” circular needle, and cast on.  When I went to join in the round I could barely get the stitches to meet so that I could actually work them.  I managed to work about 10 stitches before I gave up.  I did some quick math, based on the stitch gauge (which is given for the body needle), and determined that on the bigger needle I should have about 33 inches of fabric.  But of course, I was working on a smaller needle, and also trying to work 1x1 ribbing, with a twisted knit stitch.  Looking at the pattern some more I also noted that after working the 2 inches of ribbing, and another three inches of stockinette (on the larger needles), the pattern calls for 11 sets of increases at the side (4 stitches total for each increase, increase every 8 rows), resulting in 236 stitches.  That would give a measurement of about 41 inches around (my size is supposed to have a finished circumference of 40.25 inches).  Looking at the picture of the top, this just was not making sense to me, and there was no schematic to help it make sense.  As I said, the top looked pretty boxy.

So I ripped out and just decided to improvise a bit.  I cast on 230 stitches, which would give me a bit more ease around the hips, even on a smaller needle in ribbing.  I only managed about an inch of ribbing.  I’m not a huge fan of ribbing, especially 1x1 ribbing, and to call this yarn splitty is a bit of an understatement.  The yarn is Tencel Lycocell which, according to Wikipedia, is sustainably made from wood pulp.  The structure is interesting, it is actually 15 plies, but in the form of 5 3-plies, plied together.  Although calling it plied is also a bit of an overstatement as it really does not hold together that well, as you can see from this photo.

But it is soft, and shiny, and the stitches do look nice, although I have a feeling that snagging could be an issue, so who knows how well this top will wear in the long run.  At this point I have sort of abandoned the pattern and am planning on a simple boatneck top with little, if any, shaping.  I will work the ribbing on the armholes, to finish them off, and maybe an I-cord bind off on the neck.

Pattern:  Improvised, but sort of based on the Gry Top by Katrine Hannibal

Yarn:  Onling No. 14

Needles:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Jezebel’s Blankie II - Finished!

I finished up Jezebel’s second blanket this past weekend.  Blocking was simple - a soak, a roll in a towel, and then I laid it out on the blocking mats, no pins, just smoothed it out.  It dried in a day, which was nice.  Jezebel approves, taking a long nap on it yesterday afternoon.

Pattern:  None, just a giant swatch

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Jezebel’s Blankie II - About halfway done

I’ve been making pretty good progress on Jezebel’s second blankie, and am about half-way done (based on my usage of the mohair yarn).  This is a pretty mindless knit, even holding two yarns together, and it is an enjoyable knit as well.  Jezebel has already provided her stamp of approval, curling up on it last night.

Pattern:  None, basically a giant stockinette swatch

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering & Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Jezebel’s Blankie II - Cast On!

I received the additional skeins of Fluffy Fingering (the purple merino) that I had ordered from Ewe Ewe Yarns last week, so after I finished my Slightly Sassy Rambouillet I cast on the blankie for Jezebel.  This will basically be a giant swatch.  I cast on 100 stitches, and started working in garter stitch.  I thought I might just knit the whole thing in garter stitch, but after knitting several rows I decided it wasn’t as squishy as stockinette, so I switched to working stockinette with a 5 stitch garter stitch border on each side.

Pattern:  None

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Luxe Shawlette - A Little Progress

I did make a little bit of progress on my Luxe Shawlette last Sunday while we were watching our Sunday news shows.  The fabric is really cool, much softer than I would have expected given the novelty yarn, and it isn’t hard to work with, although you do have to pay attention to make sure that you get both strands.  I do think it will be a really splendid piece when I’m done, although I can understand why it is only a shawlette.  I’m not sure I would want to tackle a larger piece with these yarns, but we’ll see how I feel when I get to the lace part.

Pattern:  Luxe Shawlette by Anniken Allis

Yarn:  Lang Yarns Mohair 21 and Lang Yarns Paillettes 

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Slightly Sassy Rambouillet- Finished!

I finished this up on Friday afternoon and blocked it right away.  I did I-cord bind offs on all of my edges using the Lilac skein that I had.  I didn’t quite use up all of my handspun, but I did use up most of it.  It is a nice t-shirt, very comfy.  I did screw up a bit on the neckline when I added the extra rows to increase the armhole depth.  I should have done the last two neck increases right away, joined to work in the and then worked the rest of the armhole increases.  I sewed the neck edge together where the slope changed to make a little key hole.  The top still fit without that mod, but it fits a bit better with the mod.  I made a note on my pattern modification in case I knit another one, which I just might do.  It is an easy pattern, and seems to work great with handspun yarn.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet 

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) for the body, and US 4 (3.5 mm) for the I-Cord.

Slightly Sassy Rambouillet - Raglan Shaping Done!

The raglan shaping is done, and then some!  Yeah, this one is just hard to put down, knitting my handspun Rambouillet is just so nice.  At this point I’ve knit up two skeins and started on a partial third.  I have some partial skeins from frogging the tank, which I will use on the sleeves.  I did make a modification to the raglan shaping, which for my size ended on row 54, after several rows with raglan shaping on every row.   I’m not exactly crazy about that every row shaping as it makes a run of tight stitches that I think are just not that attractive, plus I needed more depth for my armholes.  I ended up ripping back those rows, which was easy to do with this yarn as the stitches do not disappear making it pretty stress free to just pull the needle out, rip back, and then carefully put the needle back in to the stitches.  After I got all my stitches back on the needle I reknit those rows but only worked the increases on the right side rows, adding six more rows to get the armhole depth that I need.  Unfortunately I may have done something screwy with the neck shaping in the process (adding those extra rows changed the slope a fair bit), but it looks like it will be easy to deal with when I work the neck edging.  The fit is absolutely perfect, and I am very much looking forward to finishing this one up.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Slightly Sassy Rambouillet - Cast On!

After the disaster that was the Tarahi Tank.

I frogged that project and reclaimed the yarn.

Using the Tahari Tank as giant gauge swatch I went searching for a better pattern and found the Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher, a top down raglan top that is easily adjustable for body and sleeve length.  This is my handspun yarn, the first spin from the Breedschool that I started almost exactly a year ago.

It was an amazing fiber to spin, and it is so nice to knit with.  I dyed it up using WoolTincture Dyes.  Even though I frogged the Tahari Tank last November, I didn’t cast on this top until May 3, after finishing my Copenhagen Cardigan.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Luxe Shawlette - Cast On!

The Luxe Shawlette by Anniken Allis came out on April 17, and because I subscribe to her newsletter, I saw it right away, and decided that I wanted to make it.  The link to the kits took me to a yarn store overseas, so I checked out the yarns required on Ravelry and managed to find a US distributor, Wool and Company in South Elgin, Illinois.  They had bunches of colors to choose from, but I ended up going with gold.  The two yarns are:  Lang Yarns Mohair 21 and Lang Yarns Paillettes, held together.

This is definitely not mindless TV knitting, but it is very pretty and sparkly.  I did make one mod to the pattern.  The pattern calls for increases where you pick up the strand between stitches and knit into the front or back, depending on whether you want a right or left lean.  I am replacing all of those with simple yarn overs.  No way was I going to deal with working that kind of increase with these two yarns.  I received my yarns on April 23 and immediately cast on.  I haven’t made too much progress, mostly because I was focused on finishing up my Copenhagen Cardigan.

Pattern:  Luxe Shawlette by Anniken Allis

Yarn:  Lang Yarns Mohair 21 and Lang Yarns Paillettes

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - Finished!

I finished up the knitting this past Saturday, May 2, gave it a good soak Sunday morning and laid it out on my blocking mats.

On Monday I switched it over to my elevated mesh sweater drying rack, which speeds things up, and by Tuesday it was dry.  I snipped the ends and went looking for buttons in my button stash.  I ended up picking vintage Lucite moonglow buttons, from the famous bead hoard that A Grain of Sand has.  I have bought quite a few things from them, they are a wonderful resource for vintage items, as well as semi-precious stones and pearls.  My selection was somewhat limited by the fact that I needed nine buttons!  I had lots of pretty options that were a few buttons shy of that number.  Finally, this morning, I got around to sewing the buttons on.  This task was complicated somewhat by the fuzziness of the sweater.  The button holes are invisible, and can only be found by feel.  The sweater itself is super soft and warm.  My cat Jezebel approves.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - One Sleeve Done!

One sleeve is complete!  I did make a couple of simple modifications to the pattern.  When you split for the sleeves, the pattern has you cast on six stitches for the underarm.  I did this, but when I picked up stitches for the sleeve, I actually picked up ten stitches.  This gives me a roomier sleeve, which I like, and need, given my fairly muscular arms and broad shoulders (for a woman), and also prevents any of those pesky little gaps in the underarm.  Some patterns will tell you to pick up an extra stitch on each side of the cast on stitches and then decrease them away, but this one did not.  So, instead of having 70 stitches for the sleeve, I have 74.  I also did not work any decreases until just before the ribbed cuff, at which point I decreased 20 stitches, so that I would end up with the 54 stitches for the cuff per the size that I was knitting.  I then switched to the US 4 (3.5 mm) needles to work the ribbing.  I worked six rounds of ribbing and then bound off in pattern.

I did order two more skeins of the Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering, and one more skein of the Magicland Yarns Marvelous Mohair, and I am very glad that I did.  I started on the fifth skein of the Fluffy Fingering on this sleeve, and based on the usage rate on my second skein of Marvelous Mohair I will definitely use at least some of the third skein that I bought when I work the second sleeve.  Fortunately the extra Fluffy Fingering that I bought is the same dye lot as the original four skeins.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering & Magicland Yarns Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - Body Done!

With my Saltwind finished, I’ve been focusing on finishing up my Copenhagen Cardigan, binding off the body this morning.  I did not work the Italian bind-off as the pattern called for as I really just didn’t want to do that with mohair.  I also did not go down a needle size for the body ribbing.  I just worked six rows of ribbing on the body needle and bound off in pattern.  I am very happy with how this is coming out.  I like the marled effect, although I have learned that if you carry mohair along with your regular yarn there is no such thing as mindless stockinette.  There are a few stitches where the mohair is not on the correct stitch, or was left off, but only a few.  If I noticed quickly (on the next row, for example) I was able to fix it, but there are a couple that I didn’t notice until way later and there was no way I was dropping stitches down and fixing them with mohair in the mix.  I’ve picked up the stitches for the first sleeve and have started working it.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm) but only for the collar ribbing

Lupine Saltwind - Finished!

I finished up the body this past Sunday evening, and finished up the ribbing on Monday, blocking it Monday evening.

Here is a photo of the body taken Sunday evening, under artificial light.

And a photo of the body with one armhole finished taken Monday morning.  I always find the contrast between artificial and natural light so interesting.  I blocked gently, just smoothing things out and gently shaping it so that things lay flat and straight.  No pulling or stretching.  My gauge is just a wee bit tighter than the called for gauge, but that suits me just fine.  It is a little bit oversized in the shoulders - the ribbing  extends past my shoulders, and the neckline is pretty broad, but overall I am happy with the fit.  It is not too big, just roomy enough to be comfy.

Pattern:  Saltwind by keiko kikuno

Yarn:  Osprey by Quince & Co

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - Progress Check

I have also been working on the body of my Copenhagen Cardigan.  I have about 4 inches more to knit before I work the ribbing and then I can work the sleeves.  I went back and double checked yardage requirements and compared that to what I have on hand and decided to go ahead and buy more yarn so I would have it when I need it and wouldn’t have to play yarn chicken.  The fabric is wonderfully soft and warm, and I love the marling effect with the lighter silk-mohair against the darker purple.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Lupine Saltwind - One Chart Repeat Done!

I have completed one repeat of the charts, and my gauge is looking great.  Granted, I haven’t blocked it, but I’m not one of those people that try to use blocking to change the shape of garments.  I block lace pretty strenuously, but not garments.  I have 20 more rounds to work before I start the armhole shaping.  I’ve made a few cabling mistakes that I had to fix by dropping stitches down, the worst was having to drop 14 stitches down 9 rows to fix a cable cross.

And here is the other side.

Pattern:  Saltwind by keiko kikuno 

Yarn:  Quince & Co. Osprey

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - Raglan Increases Done!

I finished up the raglan increases this morning and have set up for working the body.  When I finished the last row of the raglan portion I counted the stitches in each of my sections and was very pleased when there were all correct.  When I’m working so many rows of increases I always worry a little about forgetting one (or more) and ending up with the wrong stitch counts.  Last night I draped it around my shoulders just to see how it was fitting and it is so warm and soft.  It is going to be a very cozy cardigan.  I only have 4 balls of the purple yarn, and I’m already into my second ball, so I am a little worried about running out of yarn.  When I get to the end of this ball I’m going to work the sleeves, and then I can determine if I’m going to need another ball.  Given that I’m carrying the mohair along with the purple I’m not too concerned about possibly getting a different dye lot.  Marling can hid a multitude of sins.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering and Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)

Lupine Saltwind - Ribbing Done!

I finished up the ribbing last night and started working the cable design.  The gauge for the ribbing was given as 24 stitches and 23 rounds in four inches.  Now measuring in ribbing is always a bit problematic because of the stretchiness, but looking at it on the needles, I think I’m pretty good.  I am a little shy of four inches in height at 23 rounds of ribbing, but that may well block out, so I’m not worried.  I decided to stay on the US 7 needles for the body.  The set up round was a bit of a beast, as I didn’t find the designations for the cable stitches intuitive at all and had to consistently look at the instructions, but thanks to knitCompanion it was easy to keep track of where I was in the row.  When I got to the body it has you knit moss stitch, Chart A, Chart B, Chart A, moss stitch.  I flipped Chart A so that it would be a mirror image the second time I worked it, making the pattern symmetric, an easy thing to do in knitCompanion.

As I was knitting the ribbing I pondered the needle size given in the pattern.  It seemed to me that in order to get gauge with a US 9 you would have to be an incredibly tight knitter (I am not a loose knitter since I changed how I tension my yarn, nor am I a tight knitter).  But then I noted that the designer is Japanese, and I know that the Japanese size their needles differently than we do in the US, so I found a conversion chart online.  A Japanese size 9 needle is 4.8 mm, which falls right between a US 7 (4.5 mm) and a US 8 (5.0 mm).

Pattern:  Saltwind by Keiko Kikuno

Yarn:  Osprey by Quince & Co

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Copenhagen Cardigan - Making Progress!

Lest you think my Copenhagen Cardigan is being completely neglected, it hasn’t been, at least not completely.  I’ve been working through all the raglan increases, and I have a dozen more rows to go before I can split things and just work the body.  So, it is kind of slow going at this point as the rows are getting pretty long.  Once I get the ribbing done on the Lupine Saltwind and get in to the cabling, this project should see more love as it will be my TV knitting.

Pattern:  Copenhagen Cardigan by PetiteKnit

Yarn:  Ewe Ewe Yarns Fluffy Fingering & Magicland Yarn Marvelous Mohair

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)

Lupine Saltwind - Cast On!

This yarn was a fairly recent acquisition (November 2025) and was purchased for a beautiful cabled vest that I saw in a Quince & Co. marketing email.  It was another of those “love at first sight I must make this” purchases.  The box of yarn has been sitting in my piano room (the home of new acquisitions) and after finishing the Sundrop Top I really wanted to cast it on, even though I still have the Copenhagen Cardigan on the needles.  So, I set the pattern up in knitCompanion, grabbed a skein and caked it up, grabbed some needles and cast on.

Looking at the pattern, it calls for US 9 (5.5 mm) needles, and provided 4 different gauges:  2x2 rib, 1x2 moss stitch, 1 repeat of chart A, and 1 repeat of chart B.  Looking at the yarn label it offers 2 needle sizes and 2 stitch gauges.  And no, I did not swatch.  The US 9 needles were the smaller of the 2 needles mentioned on the yarn label (US 11 - 8 mm was the other).  The only US 9 that I had in my boxes of Addi needles were 32 inch circulars, so I grabbed them and cast on for my selected size.  I didn’t read the instructions completely, however, so I actually only cast on half the required stitches.  Curiously enough, those 120 stitches fit nicely on those 32 inch cables.  Given that I knew the finished measurement was supposed to be 40 inches, I knew that I had screwed something up.  That was when I went back to the instructions and realized that I had only cast on half the required stitches.  Danger, Will Robinson!  Obviously the 2x2 ribbing gauge that I was getting on US 9 needles was going to be way off.  So, I went back to my needle stash and pulled out a US 7 (4.5 mm) needle.  The only one I had in my lace point Addi needle box was a 40 inch circular.  Perfect, I thought, so I cast on again, with the correct number of stitches and started working the 2x2 ribbing again.  I like the fabric, and I think the gauge is looking pretty good so far.  I’ll see how the row gauge works out as a get a few more rounds on the needles.  I will also have to decide what to do about needle size when I get done with the ribbing - do I stay with the US 7 (4.5 mm) or go up to a US 8 (5.0 mm).  Interestingly enough the pattern has you use the same needle size for the ribbing as for the body, which I find a bit odd.  Also, looking at the gauges given for the other stitch patterns, has me wondering what is really going on here.  One way or another I will sort this all out.

And here is the pretty yarn that I am working with.  Curiously enough, when I was watching the tracking information for the package, it said that it came from Lion Brand Yarns, which was very confusing as I had not ordered anything from them in many years.  I did notice on the invoice that it states that Quince & Co. is a division of Orchard Yarn & Thread Company, which is the parent company of Lion Brand Yarns, and also, apparently of Quince & Co.

Sundrop Top - Finished!

Wow, that was fast.  Well, not really as fast as that, although it did work up quickly.  I cast on March 27 and bound off the neck ribbing on March 31.  So a pretty quick knit.  Not quite a snack knit, but close.  The top looks better on me than on the dummy and I’m looking forward to wearing it.  It is very soft, the fabric is pretty thick, given the weight of the yarn, so the top has some heft to it, but it is very comfortable.  It dried faster than I thought it would, given the thickness of the fabric.  I had it on the blocking mats for a day and then transferred it to my sweater rack.

Pattern:  Seven Sisters Top by SloaneLacasse 

Yarn:  Blue Sky Fibers Printed Organic Cotton

Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm) and US 10 (6.0 mm)

Sundrop Top - Cast On!

After finishing the Bunny Wishes Sweater I immediately cast on the Seven Sisters Top by SloaneLacasse for Blue Sky Fibers.  I saw this top in The Dizzy Knitter email and just fell in love with it, even though it is two things that I don’t usually go for:  Cotton yarn in Worsted weight, although coming in at 150 yards per 100 grams, I would consider it heavier than that, more of an Aran weight.  It is also knit on larger needles than I typically use - US 8 (5.0 mm) for the ribbing, and US 10 (6.0 mm) for the body.

The yarn is Printed Organic Cotton in the color Sundrop, and I also just fell in love with the color, and the variegated way it knits up.  I’m still not a huge fan of knitting with pure cotton, or with such large needles, but I am pretty happy with how this top is working up.

Pattern:  Seven Sisters Top by SloaneLacasse

Yarn:  Blue Sky Fibers Printed Organic Cotton

Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm) and US 10 (6.0 mm)