Shapely Tank using Gedifra Aragona. It’s a strange yarn, two variegated plies. One is cotton-ish, the other, some nylon/acrylic stuff. The cotton is very pale and pastel-ly, while the nylon is jewel toned colors. The cotton has only 4 colors, and the plastic has maybe 10 colors, and they repeat at different intervals, making a really nice confetti look to the fabric. My swatch didn’t shrink at all, which I guess makes sense if they are plying two materials together it would really suck if one shrank and the other didn’t, leaving a loopy crappy sweater. I am halfway up the front, having just finished the increases, and on my way to the short-row shaping. I am amazed at the simplicity of this pattern. No hand-holding here! She just says increase here, decrease here… no mention of what type of increase to use. In other words, think for yourself! I know, I know, a novel concept for most Americans. ahem.

Miss Jessica was graduating from college last weekend, so the hub and I went down to Del Mar for the ceremony, which took place at the racetrack, which I guess was because the school doens’t have that much room.
On the way down, we stopped in at Common Threads, which is a shop I really like to visit when down San Diego way, because they organize the yarn by color rather than by vendor. I can get close to the vision when things are arranged this way. And the shop-folk are really nice and helpful. Then it turns out they are related by marraige or something to another shop that I really like, Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, here in Long Beach.
Anyway, I left the shop with $100 worth of fuzzy, slubby, bumpy, shaggy, tweedy and otherwise fru-fru that I would never normally buy, but I was caught up by the poncho bug that’s been going around. Plenty of knit-bloggers are making them. Some of my local Stitch and Bitchers are making them too. So I swatched, and I grumbled and started and frogged and started again and frogged again and I am not going to make a damn poncho with this stuff. It’s the vision thing, again. I picked out these yarns, but when I put them together, they look more like vomit. So, maybe I will mix them up with something more plain, like some navy blue, or blue heather or something. They just don’t work together, and why didn’t the vision stop me from spending $100 on fru-fru that doesn’t go together???

I broke out the sewing machine recently, and came up with a few nifty needle holders. It was getting a little hard to keep track of stuff, so this was very necessary.
For the double pointeds:



Click to see more detail on all these images.
And for the circulars:


These were inspired by the patterns in Stitch and Bitch book, but I just saw what they did and made up my own thing, using some coordinating fat quarters picked up at JoAnn. I even used the ribbon they were wrapped in for the dpn holder.
I thought they came out ok for someone who hasn’t done much sewing since 7th grade home ec. And beleive me, that’s a long time ago.

There have been lotsa babies recently. One was born to a colleague of mine, a little boy named Brandon. Around the same time, I bought a copy of Alice Starmore’s Children’s Collection in an ebay auction, and the sender also offered Debbie Bliss’s Baby Style along with it. In that book, there was a sweater that I really liked, called Moss Stitch Jacket. I thought that it would be good practise if I am ever going to make an Alice Starmore cardi covered in seed stitch.
I made this one in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, and I really liked the way it turned out. I think Brandon’s parents liked it too. Brandon probably couldn’t care less, but he gets to do that, being a baby.

I love the little pockets. Like a baby needs pockets!
Another friend had a little girl, Ryan, and I am working on something for her too, but I think it will be something less conservative, like a Jolly Roger sweater or something. Although I haven’t met Ryan, only her sister Riley. If she is anything like her sister, it will fit. We’ll see.

I have been working on this sweater. Here’s the fair isle band around the waist, and the steeky bits off to the right hand side:

Click to see more.
I think I’ve mentioned it before. It’s adapted from a pattern in the Knit It! magazine from 2002. Now that I am looking at the pattern, I can see it was designed by Nicky Epstein. I generally like the way her garments turn out. But looking at the kinds of things she produces, she must have wrists of steel. Her and Debbie Bliss both. They use cotton a lot.
Anyway, I have made a lot of changes to the pattern. I decided to not knit it flat, but in the round instead, with steeks. I am using Cascade 220 instead of Wool-Ease. I am not doing the purl bumps in the solid colored part of the sweater. I just didn’t like it that way. I chose my colors based on one of the Cascade Quatro yarns. It’s four colors, one ply each, twisted into a worsted weight yarn. I really liked the combination of colors, and since I don’t think I have the vision myself, and since they probably paid someone to figure out those colors, I decided to rely on their expertise.
By now, I am getting close to the collar, and I haven’t decided what to do with it. The pattern calls for Black Fun Fur in garter stich, but with my super sensitive skin, that would send me to the loony bin. I can’t stand when hair touches my face, and the Fun Fur would drive me up a wall so close to my face. But what to do? I will swatch and see when I get there.
My goal was to get this sweater finished in time for my trip to France in August. Looks like I’ll make it!

I am thinking about either a modified version of Sitcom Chic from Knitty or just a plain ole’ stockinette cardi. I need one to replace my favorite Land’s End cotton cardi with the polo collar, so I am going to try and replicate it. I am thinking either Brown Sheeps Cotton Fleece or Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Yeah, I know what you are thinking all you fiber snobs, but this is a sweater that gets left in the back seat of the car, thrown on the floor, worn every day because the AC is always on even when it’s 20F outside! Ok got carried away a bit, I am usually not at work when it’s 20F outside, but more like 40F which is cold after you’ve been in So Cal for a while. The point is, this is a sweater that will be laundered often, so Cotton Ease is actually a great choice. I did’t say Homespun, now did I.
:/

I have also finished the shawl, and have woven in all ends, but haven’t blocked it yet, because I haven’t figured out where I can do it! It’s huge. When the aforementioned camera is back in business, I will at least take a before photo.

I have finished the Bearly Knits project I had been working on for a few months. I have no other major projects on the needles, so it was just time to get back to the bear.
Here are some photos, taken with my Palm camera. Naturally when I wanted to take a picture with my good camera, the batteries were dead.
Here it is with the bear it was made for. Well, not really made for, since it doesn’t quite fit him, but it looks snuggly enough for him.

Here’s a more spread out photo.

I still have a few ends to weave in, and it’s not been blocked, but I don’t actualy have a tiny wooly board (or a human sized one, for that matter!).
It was made using Shelridge Soft Touch Ultra – 100% Wool Fingering Weight Yarn, which was wonderful to work with. I don’t remember there being any VM and it didn’t make my eyes water much (I have hayfever, some wool can make my eyes close up!)
I used US 0 and 1 needles.
I learned a lot about Fair Isle while making this little guy. One, is to read the directions carefully. When I was picking up stitches, I kept messing up left and right, meaning I was thinking from my point of view rather than the sweaters point of view. At first I couldn’t figure out why I was on a RS row instead of a WS on the neckband.
I learned that the end result is what matters, not how you get there. I decided that learning to strand properly on the back of the work was lesson enough and did the whole neckband by starting from the bottom right for each row. There was no way I was going to figure out stranding across the front and keep tension with those tiny needles!
I learned that you can pickup and knit around your steeks before cutting them, and that with a non-shetland wool, it’s actually a good idea! I cut both sleeves at the same time after doing a crochet steek on them. By the time I got to picking up stitches on the second sleeve, it had unravelled a bit. So, when I started the neckband, I finished it before i cut my steek and it held beautifully.
This was a lot of fun. I got Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reinsel for Christmas, and she has a little sweater in there for learning Gansey techniques. I may start after I get back from SW shopping trip. I think this is a great way to learn techniques without spending a huge amount of time. It’s also easier to correct mistakes on such a small scale.
I am really looking forward to the next VC on Arans, this will be great too as I haven’t done one yet.

Some progress on the bearlyknits fair isle:
I am still not sure about the colors though… I know I don’t have the vision, and usually have to depend on others to know what goes together. I just don’t grok the rules.
I have mostly been working on the shawl, after about 180 rows I finally got the rhythm and only have to consult the chart when starting after a long pause (like overnight. ) These are the rows that range from 10-15 stitches long, depending on where you are, and I just wasn’t getting it until about Monday night when it became natural instead of a struggle.

If you are a KCRW member, here’s a good one:
Suss Design is offering 15% off yarns, knitwear, baby layette and knitting classes.
Doesn’t say whether or not you have to go in or if you can do it online. I haven’t been to the store myself, but this gives me motivation! You may have seen the book Hollywood Knits which had some ok stuff in it.