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)