Ramea - Finished!

I finished this up back in March - March 25th.  The back went fairly quickly, and then it was just grafting that final long seam - 184 stitches.  I decided to do the I-cord edging on the sleeves, neck, and hem in my color B, the fuchsia, to have a color pop.  I’ve tried it on and it fits perfectly.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn:  Karabella Yarns Aurora 4

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 1.5 (2.5 mm), US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Ramea - Front and Both Sleeves Done!

The really exciting news is that I have finally finished the front of my Ramea.  I started planning this project over a year ago (after seeing it on the Fleece and Harmony knitting video podcast when I was binging the earlier episodes).  I swatched for it back in January 2024.

Finally casting on in November.  The first sleeve worked up quickly, but the lace front took me a while.

Once I finished the lace front I immediately moved on to sleeve number two.  And after I finished the knitting I blocked before I grafted the sleeve together.

I blocked it right side down to make it easier to pin out, and ended up putting a cookie canister (Pepperidge Farm) in the other sleeve to keep the shape proper.  I’ll use canisters in both sleeves when I do the final block, it worked perfectly.  Now I’m working the back, which is just straight stockinette. It is nice to get some pretty mindless knitting, and to get rid of some of the needles that I had holding stitches.  While working the second sleeve I had needles for both sides of the body, and the other side of the sleeve - so four sets total.  It did get a little crazy at times.  Now I just have two.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn:  Karabella Yarns Aurora 4

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 1.5 (2.5 mm), US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

 

Ramea - Front Halfway

There are two supplemental lace charts provided for the front and I finished the first chart.  I am excited to be making progress on this top.  The construction is so very interesting.  Once I get across the front I will work the left sleeve, joining it to the front with short rows exactly as I had joined the front to the right sleeve.  I will then work the rest of the sleeve and graft it together, before working the colorwork band on the left side and the back.  The back will be joined to the sleeves with short rows and the right side will be grafted.  The back is straight stockinette stitch, which should go quicker.  I will block it as I finish each stage to make the grafting easier.  I did not block the right sleeve before grafting and I think it would have been easier had I done that.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn:  Karabella Yarns Aurora 4

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 1.5 (2.5 mm), US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Ramea - Front Cast On!

I have been focused exclusively on my Winter Wonderland Dress and Cowl, but now that I’ve finished those I decided to get back to my Ramea.  I knew that I was going to need some quiet time to do the cast on and knit the colorwork, so yesterday morning I finally tackled it.  It isn’t too hard, but it does require focus, and it is a bit fiddly, especially securing the steek before cutting it.  I did notice a mistake in the last row of my color work once I had it steeked and could really lay it out and examine it, but it was just two  stitches that needed to be swapped and that was easily fixed by dropping the stitches down and pulling up the colors in the correct spots.

Then I started on the lace front.  I had downloaded the supplemental charts for my size and had already set them up in knitCompanion, so I was ready to go.  Joining the side band to the arm was a bit magical (sort of like turning the heel of a sock).

This is definitely not mindless knitting, but it is such fun seeing how this pattern evolves.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn:  Karabella Yarns Aurora 4

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm, lace), US 1.5 (2.5 mm stockinette), US 2.5 (3.0 mm, colorwork)

 

Ramea - Right Sleeve Done!

After finishing the right front sleeve I started working the right back sleeve using the stitches on the other needle.  I had some issues with the knitting rowing out using the Addi needle that I used for the cast on, so I switched to another Knit Picks needle identical to the one that I had used to work the right front sleeve and that seemed to fix the issue.

I probably should have blocked before I did the Kitchener stitch to join the sleeve as I think it would have made it easier, but I still managed to complete it and it looks okay.

After I finished joining the two edges I did give it a quick block just to see how it would fit.  The top is close fitting, but I was a little concerned after trying on the unblocked sleeve.  It did, however, relax a little after blocking and fit fine.  I then tackled the edging on the sleeve cuff.  The pattern calls for picking up stitches, knitting one row and then working an I-cord bind off.  I picked up the stitches with a 2.5 mm needle, and worked one row, but the I-cord bind off just didn’t look good with this yarn, so I did a simple bind off with 2.25 mm needles.  It does flair a little, but I think that will block out and, in any event, I did not want the cuff to be tight, so I’m okay with a little flair there.

Ramea - Right Front Sleeve Done!

The construction of Ramea is quite interesting, a trademark of Jennifer Beale.  It is constructed sideways starting with the right sleeve, beginning with a provisional cast on.  I used Judy Becker’s magic figure 8 cast on, which is the same one that I use for toe up socks.  You then start working on one of the needles, knitting across and then casting on steek stitches and joining in the round for the colorwork panel.  After the colorwork panel is completed you bind off the steek stitches, reinforce the steek, and cut it.  From there you continue in stockinette using short rows to shape the raglan for the shoulders.

My only slight confusion was on the short row shaping, when it stated to work to 3 stitches from the end I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to work that stitch (so there would be 2 stitches left) or not.  Similarly when it said to work to 1 stitch (or 4 stitches) before the double stitch.  After reading ahead I decided that I needed to work that stitch, otherwise the short row shaping would extend too far into the sleeve.  I have started working the back of the right sleeve.  That part of the knitting will include the underarm portion of the sleeve.  Then I will graft the sleeve stitches together and work another colorwork band for the body.  I’m thinking about going ahead and doing the finishing work on the sleeve edge after I do the grafting, just to get it done and also to see how it will look.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn: Karabella Aurora 4

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 1.5 (2.5 mm), US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Ramea - Cast On!

I fell in love with this pattern when I saw it on Fleece & Harmony while I was binge watching old episodes.  I bought the pattern, and several others, and then went stash diving.  I found a yarn that I thought would work for the main color, but I didn’t have any other colors for the colorwork, so I bought a selection of colors that I thought would work, and happily they have.  I swatched for it back in the summer, and got gauge with the recommended needles and, more importantly, I really like the fabric I’m getting. The colorwork band was pretty fiddly to work, with the provisional cast on (I used Judy Becker’s figure 8 cast on), and the sewing reinforcing my steek is not the prettiest, but not bad for having to work in a constricted space while trying to keep knitting needles out of the way.

Pattern:  Ramea by Jennifer Beale

Yarn:  Karabella Yarns Aurora 4

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 1.5 (2.5 mm), US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Finished!

I finished the knitting on this last week, but didn't finish the assembly until last night.  I had to ravel some of the collar before I could attach it to the back.  The pattern called for 5.25 inches of the collar, but that was over an inch too long.  When I was attaching the collar I marked the center of the back neck, then sewed one side of the collar down, ripped back 11 rows until I was at the center and put those stitches back on a needle.  Then I ripped the other collar back the same amount and grafted the collars together.  After grafting I continued sewing the collar down.  This is an interesting construction because of the way the fronts are sewn to the back.

The stitch pattern ends up at right angles to each other between the front and the back.  When I was knitting the fronts I always attached new balls of yarn in the middle of a row rather than at the edge because the edge needed to look neat and finished.

I'm not sure that I like the view from the back, but the drape is good.  There is one other thing that I really like about the Karabella Aurora 8 yarn, it is always easy to find the start of the ball.  I had to practically turn the Naturally Vienna balls inside out to find the start, and I was not working from the center of the ball.  It was very frustrating.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Right Front Done

Getting the left front of this vest done inspired me to finish up the right front.  When I blocked this piece I did not let it soak for very long, so it didn't stretch out much.  After I pinned it out I laid the left front on top to make sure they matched.  I've already sewn the left front to the back, except for the neck band.

Before I blocked the right front I wanted to take this picture to show the effect that the blocking had on the piece.  Besides growing a little, you can hopefully see that after blocking the fabric drapes better, and seeing as how this pattern is called "Draped Vest" I thought that better drape was important.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Left Front Done

I managed to get a fair bit of knitting done this week during telecons.  I probably would have finished this last night, but this past Tuesday I pulled out this project only to discover that I had not put in another ball of yarn and I was almost finished with the one that I was working with.  Calamity!  I ended up doodling jewelry designs instead, which actually wasn't a good idea as it requires far more brain cells than this kind of knitting.  On the other hand I do have some jewelry designs to explore this weekend.

When I was working on this last night (while watching Fistful of Dollars on TCM) I realized that I had made a mistake when I was knitting the first version of the left front.  For some reason I had only done the armhole decreases on right side rows, instead of both right and wrong side rows, resulting in 14 more rows than I should have had.  This got me thinking about my first attempt at this vest and wondering if I would have enough yarn to finish if I went back and fixed that mistake (I didn't frog the project, just bundled it in a bag).  So this morning I pulled out that first attemp, but after working with the Karabella Aurora 8 I just couldn't bring myself to work with the Naturally Vienna yarn.  It is scratchy, and the variegation hides the patterning of the stitches and the cable work, so I bundled it back into its bag and will toss it back onto a high shelf in my studio.The Karabella Aurora 8 is a wonderful yarn to work with, and comes in so many beautiful colors.  The picture is actually far more blue than it should be, the color is actually a deep purple.

I have been using my blocking mats for so long that I had sort of forgotten that I had another blocking board that was gridded, so I pulled it out this morning when I went to block this to make it easier to get the dimensions (the ones that I knew, anyway) correct.  This yarn is interesting.  It knits up into a denser fabric, cushy and textured, but when you wet block it the yarn really relaxes (I haven't tried steam blocking it yet, but I have another project waiting in the wings that will probably require that method).  Most of the effort of blocking is smooshing it back from a stretched out shape with the palm of my hand, and I noticed after I took the photo (photos are great for spotting imperfections in your blocking) that I had missed some spots, which I went back and fixed.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Back Done

I've been working on a couple of different projects, making progress but not finishing anything, but today I did finish up the back of the Draped Vest, for the second time.  The yarn is Karabella Aurora 8 in purple.  Blocking was a little tricky because it was easy to stretch it out too much and lose the texture.  It does not help that the pattern does not have a schematic, so I don't really know the finished dimensions, and the gauge was given in stockingette stitch, not the pattern stitch, so I can't even calculate what the dimensions should be.  I just pulled the edges out  and then mushed things around a bit until it looked okay.

Pattern:  Draped Vest by Naturally
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)