December Vest

I would have made more progress on my Lilac Pullover but I was distracted by this beauty.  This is the latest Dream Club color from Dream in Color and for some reason the colors just really spoke to me.  It is worsted weight so I ordered two skeins, which I figured would be enough to knit a vest.  I did a quick gauge swatch and whipped up a pattern in my Sweater Wizard software and cast on.

I just love the way the colors are pooling.  I did 2 x 2 ribbing (I'm not a fan of 1 x 1 ribbing) and am in the stockinette section.  I still have to figure out what I want to do on the front and armhole edges.  I may do a button band, with some pretty buttons.

Pattern:  December Vest, created in Sweater Wizard
Yarn:  Dream in Color Classy with Nylon
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm) and US 7 (4.5 mm)

Fresh Ink Pullover - Done!

I finished this on Saturday, but was waiting for it to dry, and the weather to clear a little so I could get a decent photo of it.  We survived the storm just fine, rain, some wind, but no power loss.

Pattern:  Top-down raglan from Sweater Wizard
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK in Fresh Ink (Quasi Yarn Club February 2012 color)
Needles:  US 4 & 5 (3.5 & 3.75 mm)

Fresh Ink Pullover - Body Done (Mostly)

I still need to do the neckband, but I didn't bring my shorter cable with me.  The fit is good and the pullover will be warm and comfy.  I am writing this post from the Owl's Nest in the Arthur Morgan House Bed & Breakfast in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Every room here is named for a bird.  Across the hall is the Hawk's Nest.  The room is not large, but is very comfortable.  Here is a shot of the bed, with Bruce napping.

We are up on the third floor, which is why we have the sloping ceiling.  We have a private bath, although it is rather narrow.  You've heard of galley kitchens?  Well, this is a galley bathroom.  I would not recommend this particular room for large people, but for Bruce and I it works just fine.

I really love the built in drawers.

The location is incredibly convenient.  We haven't had to drive since we got here, which is a good thing, because neither one of us has wanted to drive anywhere.  We are only a short block away from my parents' house, and a short walk into the heart of town.  It has been a very relaxing visit.  The innkeeper, Susanne is charming, and we feel very welcome here.  So much nicer than staying at a big chain motel.  And the breakfasts are very yummy.  We will definitely stay here again when we come to visit.

Pattern:  Top Down Raglan from Sweater Wizard
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK in Fresh Ink
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Raspberry Mocha Pullover - Finished!

Finished today, my second project for Camp Loopy 2012, and the gallery on The Loopy Ewe web site hasn't even been set up yet.

Pattern:  Top-Down Raglan, from Sweater Wizard software
Yarn:  Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Raspberry Mocha, 3 skeins
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4 mm)

Raspberry Mocha Pullover - Body Done

I spent most of the 4th working on this, and finished up the body this evening (as evidenced by the darkness beyond the window in the background, and the poor lighting).  Even with my knitting mojo at a low this is an easy knit and still enjoyable.  Plus, I have a deadline as this is the second Camp Loopy project - 800 yards and must have a color from my country's flag.  Easy.

Yarn:  Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Raspberry Mocha
Pattern:  Top down raglan from Sweater Wizard software
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4 mm)

Raspberry Mocha Pullover

When it comes to knitting, I can't stay monogamous for very long, and I seem incapable of having less than 8 works in progress going at a time.  Of course it doesn't help that the second Camp Loopy project started this past Wednesday.  This time the challenge is to knit something that takes 800 yards, and has a color from your country's flag in it.  I took the easy way out and decided to knit another one of my top down raglan pullovers in Fiesta Yarns Boomerang.  I have the pattern down and I know that I can finish it quickly and that it will use more than 800 yards.  The color is Raspberry Mocha and there is both red and blue, and you can even convince yourself that there is some white in there as well, so I think I have the color thing covered.  I do love this yarn, and I do enjoy knitting this pattern.  I think that this project will give me an even dozen of these pullovers.

Fresh Ink Cardigan - Let's Try That Again

So I was knitting and purling away on this the other evening and remembered how much I hate working ribbing.  I don't mind knitting and I don't mind purling, it is the constant switching back and forth that gets me.  To complicate matters further, the dark yarn made it harder to see the stitches.  After messing up for the third time in as many rows I took the hint and frogged.  I went back to my Sweater Wizard pattern and got rid of the ribbing.  Then I cast back on and did 6 rows of garter stitch.  The yarn is lovely to knit with, and the color is so deep.  You can get a hint of the subtle variation in the color from the picture.  I love semi-solid colors with subtle variegation.  I think they add depth and texture to the knitting.

In other project news, I've finished the leg of my second Hibernia sock and will be working on the heel tonight.  I should be able to finish it before the weekend, which is a good thing.  I received my shipping notice from Janel Laidman today, and Camp Loop starts on Sunday.

Rose - Making Progress

This is another of Fiesta Yarn's Flower of the Month colors, Rose.  The yarn is 100% silk, and not tightly spun, so I am not sure how well it will wear.  It tends to split and is easily snagged, but it feels heavenly on.  I was going to do another raglan pullover, but now I am thinking it will be a raglan tunic-tee.  I thought I would do a simple edging on the neck and the arms, maybe eyelet, and then just use up the rest of the yarn adding length to the body.  But right now I need to get back to my second Hibernia sock.  I have just passed the half way point on the leg.  I need to finish that sock this week.

Calla Lily Pullover - Redux - Finished!

We had to go down to Blacksburg, Virginia this weekend.  Our son was moving into a new apartment with his fiancee and we went down to help.  Our daughter and her boyfriend also came down from Charlottesville.  In the end, we couldn't move the bed as we had planned because it wouldn't fit in my Element (I could have told them that), but I think the real reason we went down was to spend some time with the kids.  Our son is heading off to New Mexico for a summer job, and we wanted to celebrate his engagement before he left for the summer.  It is a four hour drive, which really makes it too long to go down and back in a day, although we have done it.  Bruce did all of the driving, and I knit.  I knit one sleeve on the way down, and one sleeve on the way back.  This came out a lot better knitting it at a tighter gauge.  There is almost no pooling at all, just some striping.  There isn't even any pooling in the sleeves, which is unusual. Here is a picture of the original for comparison.  Quite a difference!

Fresh Ink Cardigan

This color was the latest offering in The Quasi Yarn Club offered by Roxanne of Zen Yarn Garden.  The yarn is a new addition to her line, Serenity DK, a 90/10 superwash merino/cashmere blend.  The color is Fresh Ink.  (Being a long time fan of fountain pens I can relate to the name, although I usually pick wilder colors for my pens.)  I have been pondering what this yarn wanted to become every since it came, but have not found anything that really spoke to me.  When I first started searching I found the Hooray Cardigan.  I like the design elements, it reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, but after knitting my swatch the yarn just didn't seem all that eager to become that cardigan.  So I went back to the Ravelry pattern library (a very dangerous place to spend time, we won't talk about how many other patterns found their way into my library) and I came across the Cable Trim Pullover.  This one reminds me of classical Greece, which is one of my favorite historical periods and I even started knitting the bottom cable trim, but once again the yarn was not enthusiastic.  So this morning I went back to the pattern library.  I found some more nice projects, but still none of them really spoke to me.  I wanted something easy.  I will probably finish re-knitting my Calla Lilly Pullover this weekend and I need something for my work bag.  (I knit when I am listening to telecons, if I don't I start doing work and stop listening, I also knit when I am reading documents.)  I also wanted something that I would get a lot of use out of.  In the end I fired up my Sweater Wizard software and whipped up a simple cardigan.  I am knitting it in one piece to the arm holes, and will be doing top-down set in sleeves, which I haven't done in a while.  It will also have a collar.  I have knit three rows of the bottom ribbing.  The yarn seems happy, and so am I.

Calla Lilly Pullover - Redux - Body Done

This is the third and last of the original pullovers that I knit in Fiesta Yarns Boomerang that I decided to re-knit in a tighter gauge.  This is the Calla Lilly colorway and it was pretty crazy when I knit it the first time around.  It is amazing what changing the gauge will do with these variegated yarns.  Boomerang is listed as an Aran weight yarn, which frankly really blows my mind.  I knit Boomerang on Size 6 (4.0 mm) needles (the yarn band recommends a size 8) and I am not a loose knitter.  In fact I usually get gauge when knitting with commercial patterns.  Of course, now that I am on the last of these Boomerang sweaters I finally have the pattern dialed in.  I started out with the Sweater Wizard top down raglan pattern, but I modified the shoulder and neck shaping.

African Violets Pullover - Finished!

I finally finished up this pullover.  It fits pretty darn well, too.  I like the modifications that I have made to the pattern with the shoulder shaping.  I think on the next one I will start the body a little bit earlier though, the arm hole is a little long.  This is certainly the tamest pullover that I have made from the Fiesta Yarns, I'll try not to let that happen again.  Colors rule!

Yarn - Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in African Violet, 3 skeins
Needles - size 5 and 6 (3.75 mm and 4 mm)
Pattern from Sweater Wizard Software, top down raglan with modified shoulder and neck shaping.

Rose

This past Wednesday, when I should have been knitting and listening to my telecons, I was not knitting, but I was thinking about knitting.  In fact, I was thinking about knitting this top.  This is Fiesta Yarns La Luz, 100% mulberry silk.  Have you ever noticed how silk can sometimes feel crunchy and at the same time be so soft?  This is one of the Flower of the Month colorways that has been sitting in my stash for a while.  After trying on the body of African Violets I wanted to knit a short sleeved version of the top-down raglan so I pulled this yarn out.  The yarn band recommends size 6 (4 mm) needles, but I automatically go down 2 needle sizes with Fiesta Yarns, so I am knitting this on size 4 (3.25 mm).  My gauge is a little tighter than that on the yarn band, but I like the fabric, and I love the colors.  The pattern is from Sweater Wizard Software.  The plan is to knit just the body, probably without the ribbing at the waist, and then do some finishing around the hem, neck and arms.

African Violets Pullover - Body Done

So this colorway doesn't really remind me of African Violets.  I will confess that the first word that came to my mind was camouflage.  Camouflage is an interesting word.  It is probably derived from the word camouflet, which is French, and means "smoke blown in someone's face as a practical joke", but the modern definition is "an underground explosion of a bomb or mine that does not break the surface, but leaves an enclosed cavity of gas and smoke".

This is certainly the tamest of these pullovers that I have made, and it is also the best fitting.  I adjusted the increases of the body and neckline to give more ease in the very top portion, where it fits across the shoulders.  I have wide shoulders and the other pullovers, while they fit, are a little snug across my shoulders and will ride up a little.  So I increased every other row for about half of the distance of that upper section before you separate out the armhole stitches, and then spaced out the rest of the increases.  It increased my yarn usage a lot more than I thought it would.  In fact I ran out of yarn on my second skein while I was working the rib around the bottom so I didn't do all 15 rows, and I had to break into my third skein to work the ribbing around the color.  I still have plenty to knit the sleeves, though, there just won't be as much left over as my other pullovers.

Azores Islands Pullover - Finished!

I finished this up on Thursday.  Once the body is done the sleeves go very quickly and I have started a new project at work so I had a fair bit of reading to do.  I only have two more colors of the Boomerang yarn to knit up into pullovers, and then I will start working my way through the Baby Boom, which is a lighter weight version of the Boomerang.  This colorway is Azores Islands, part of the Fiesta Yarns Color Cruise 2012 series.  The pattern is a modified top-down raglan from Sweater Wizard software, 3 skeins, size 5 and 6 needles.

Azores Island Pullover - Body Done

A trip to Charlottesville, two trips to Aberdeen Proving Ground, reviewing documents at work and reading Alexander Dumas at home (The Three Musketeers) produced the body of my latest pullover.  The yarn is Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Azores Islands, the Color Cruise colorway for May.  Do you see what I mean about the colors?  They are a somewhat unusual combination that I would never have considered - purple, blue and red all go well enough together, but then they added that seafoam green.  And yet, somehow it works.

I wore my Casablanca Pullover to dinner last night.  We took the kids (both in college) to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  The food was fine, but the service was extremely slow.  It took over an hour for our food to come out.  The waitress was very apologetic, even though we didn't get mean about it.  After the kids took off to do some shopping, the manager came out, apologized, and told us that he had comped our dinner.  All we paid for were our two beers and the appetizer.  The thing that I don't understand is why it was so slow, the place was not very busy.

So, this morning I was checking the stats on my blog (I like to see where the hits come from) and I had 89 hits from Russia, in one day.  Kind of weird, huh.  I know it is a big country, but I've never had that many hits in one day, let alone from one country.

Casablanca Pullover - Finished!

I finished this up this weekend, taking a break from lace knitting and enjoying the soothing rhythms of simple knitting.  I will confess that this colorway does not really remind me of Casablanca, but I do like the colors.  Honestly, I haven't really found any of the Color Cruise colorways to be that evocative of the places that they are supposed to represent, unlike the Flower of the Month colorways.  And wait till you see the Azores Islands Pullover.  It has a very unusual combination of colors that I wasn't sure about at first, but which is growing on my as I knit.

Yarn - Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Casablanca, 3 skeins
Pattern - Top Down Raglan from SweaterWizard
Needles - US 5, 6

I have also been busy organizing my studio.  I have been taking photos of the pattern envelopes of my sewing patterns with my iPad so I can leaf through the pictures when I want to find something to sew.  I have made it through my collection of Vogue and McCalls patterns, and am on the Simplicity patterns.

Casablanca Pullover - Body Done

I have been working away at this one between other projects.  This is my easy project, perfect for car rides and reading boring documents at work, both of which occurred in the past week.  I took some time out this morning to finish the ribbing and knit the neck band.  I'll get the first sleeve started and then go back to working on the border of my Christmas Carol Shawlette - I'm over half way done.

The yarn is Fiesta Boomerang in Casablanca, one of their Color Cruise 2012 colors, 3 skeins, size 5 and 6 needles, simple Top Down Raglan from Sweater Wizard Software.

Barcelona Pullover - Finished!

I also finished my Barcelona pullover last week.  The change in color between the top half and the bottom half is partially due to uneven natural lighting and partially due to the way the yarn colors pooled.  In the bottom half of the sweater the pink really started to dominate.  I love these sweaters made with Fiesta Yarns, they are just so colorful and fun and now that the weather is cooling off a little I am wearing them whenever I have the opportunity.  I wore my Poppies sweater this past Thursday and threw my Limestone Shawl around my neck to add a little extra warmth.

Pattern - Top Down Raglan from Sweater Wizard Software
Yarn - Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Barcelona, 3 skeins
Needles - Size 5 and 6

Caribbean Pullover - Finished!

Considering that I finished up the body of this sweater on August 29, it sure has taken me a long time to knit two sleeves, but I finally finished the sweater this past Friday.  This is my third Camp Loopy project, the 800 yard project.  It took 872 yards.  The yarn is Fiesta Yarns Boomerang, Caribbean colorway, 3 skeins (2.73 to be exact).  The pattern is a top-down raglan from the Sweater Wizard software, although I modified the spacing of the increases for the neck and body, using the spacing from a bottom up raglan.  I have experimented with bind offs on all of these sweaters.  On this one I did regular bind offs on the neck and the sleeves, although I did go up a needle size for the bind off on the sleeves.  For the bottom of the body I did a lace bind off because I wanted something stretchy.  It is definitely stretchy.  On this sweater and also on the Barcelona pullover I cast on 16 stitches under the arm instead of 14 to give a little more ease in the sleeves as well as the body.  I also made the cuffs a little looser by only decreasing to 42 stitches rather than 39.  I don't like tight cuffs.  Now we just need some fall weather so I can wear my pullovers, it will be a nice change from turtlenecks.