the fiber fetishist

One of my good friends from high school and her husband just had their second child, another gorgeous little girl. I knit her older sister Veronica a Baby Surprise Jacket just before she was born almost two years ago, so I felt Heidi needed a cardigan as well!

so cute

The design process all began when E (Poking My Eyes Out) came over to dig through my button jar for an appropriate button for a cardigan for her mom. I discovered some very cute ladybug buttons and they immediately said, “Heidi!” to me.

ladybugs!

E and I went off to a few craft stores and I had the idea that I wanted a green color of Berroco Comfort — my favorite soft, washable yarn for baby and kid knits these days. Unfortunately no one had the shade of green I wanted. I held the ladybug buttons up to a number of colors before settling on Crypto Crystalline, a mostly blue-with-a-bit-of-green shade that highlighted the bright red ladybugs.

the back

I opted to use Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system for babies/kids, but knit top-down, and mimic a Nashua pattern that I like. My ravelry notes are here.

cute cardigan for a cute girl

I used less than two balls of Berroco Comfort worsted. I knit the garter stitch hem on US5 and the rest of the sweater on US7. I really like this sweater and hope it fits Miss Heidi this fall!

Once I finished a couple of projects, I felt like I should work on one of the two handknits I’m aiming to finish for December this year.

bowl & new project

This is the yarn (and a couple of rows of ribbing you can’t see) for Dr. G’s Memory Vest [ravelry]. I’m knitting it in Brown Sheep Lanaloft Worsted in Dark Ash, a very nice charcoal grey. I picked it up at Little Knits.

The yarn is in a bowl, one of those fun yarn bowls with a notch on the side to thread your yarn end through. My mom picked it up for me at Maryland Sheep & Wool this year. I used to go to MD S&W with Mom and my Aunt Michelle and we always had a wonderful time! Since I moved back to Seattle I sadly haven’t been able to travel back to MD for the festival.

Mom bought this from a vendor from Dayton, MD, Greenbridge Pottery (they call these “yarn jars”). Thanks, Mom! I’ve always wanted one of these and never bought one. Now I have a gorgeous green one with a crackle glaze — my favorite!

It took a good 72 hours for it to dry here in Seattle, but my Snapdragon Tam [ravelry] finally did.

hanging

Because I started it in Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris where I was not supposed to carry knitting needles on the plane, it was mostly knit on double pointed bamboo needles. This actually caused a slight issue in the pattern when I had a yo at the beginning of the needle — it caused it to expand a bit more in the tail of the bud than it should have. My fault, which I chose to view as a design element.

not really pensive…

I really love the pattern and I love the yarn — it’s Madeline Tosh Tosh DK (formerly Tosh Worsted) in Warm Maize. I bought it at the wonderful Little Knits (visit the shop in person if you get a chance, everyone is super friendly). The yarn is really squishy and soft and I very, very much want some for a sweater (not happening anytime soon)!

the top

I am always impressed with Ysolda’s patterns. They are cleverly designed and presented clearly. For example, this pattern has both written and charted instructions for the hat, but it also includes a chart that tells you how many stitches you should have on the rounds where the stitch count changes. I didn’t have to utilize that chart, but it would definitely be useful if I had set the hat down for a while and then returned to it.

straight side

I’m not sure who the tam is for. This color really only works for certain people. It will find an owner eventually.

My ravelry project notes are here.

flop!

And a couple of shots that I am sure the dogs will get me back for someday:

post-surgery Boris, being very good

The color works much better on Ginger.

right before she used her left ‘hand’ to take it off

Well-written pattern, fun knit, great yarn.

I’m not very good at assembling stuffed animals. I always sew things in the wrong place and they are crooked or look weird. This amigurumi kitty was no different.

whoops!

It didn’t help that I’d run out of the pink yarn and for some reason decided white would be a good idea, with little bits of the pink like spots… What sort of crack-addled notion was that?!

In any case, I cut that tail off, re-crocheted a tail in the orange “shirt” color with a pink end and re-attached it at a much more reasonable tail position.

upside down!

This pattern makes a very squishy and snuggly stuffed cat. It was a fast crochet, too. It ate a fair amount of yarn.

I’ve napped on some of these books, too

This is a gift for the almost-2-years-old daughter of a friend of mine who just had another little girl. I thought she might like to get something too.

cute cat

I think I might actually like to make one of these for myself!

zzzz

Overall, a fun and quick project. Here’s my ravelry notes.

I am a layer-er. I like to wear layers on layers. Tees over tanks, cardigans over tees, sweatshirts over tanks, sweaters over tees. I especially like this when travelling — a few colorful underlayers (tees, tanks), a coordinating overlayer (cardigan, usually) and I feel and look more put together than if I were just wearing a t-shirt.

Because of this, I got it in my head that I needed to knit a short sleeve lacy cardigan for my trip to Europe last month. I ended up picking Shiri Mor’s design, #19 Eyelet Cardigan published in Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2007 [ravelry].

all folded up

I pulled some Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Stone out of the stash and knit furiously, finishing it a couple of weeks before my flight left Seattle. Only thing was — I ended up deciding to not even take it with me. It took up a lot of space and I didn’t like how the stone color looked with one of the dresses I was taking.

So I had knit furiously for no real reason.

But I have a finished cardigan now!

flat

The pattern was pretty simple, though I made a few changes. I did knit it in pieces, but rather than knitting the back in stockinette, I repeated the lace pattern and reversed the pattern halfway up the back to make it a little more interesting. This lead to some frogging because I managed to mess up the very center part in my mistaken calculations.

I knit the fronts and back, seamed them, and then knit the sleeves from the top down using short rows. This actually worked out quite well.

close up

The biggest problem is in fit — the lace stretches in width, which then shortens the sweater. So it’s a little big on me (at waist and hip), a little too short in length. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have added short rows to the bust, which would probably make this fit me a little better — the problem isn’t that it is too small in the bust, it’s that the front of the cardigan pulls up because of my bust and raises the ribbed waist up higher than I’d like. I still like it — it’s a nice weight and the pattern is nice — but it doesn’t look very good on me. I know better how to knit stuff that fits me well, so I am a little frustrated with myself about that.

Here’s my project notes on ravelry.

Still, it’s a nice, quick, wearable pattern (and published in Vogue Knitting, surprise!).

I realized recently that I’ve been finishing projects and not logging them here!

I know one part is that a few things I’ve finished I never took good photos of before, like this baby sweater.

pea pod baby set

This is Kate Gilbert’s design, Pea Pod Baby Set [ravelry], originally published on Interweave Knits website (but listed in the magazine) and later removed when the contract expired. I knit this sweater in the 6 month size for friends of ours who had a little baby girl back in early April. I knit it in Berroco Comfort DK in Pimpernel, which is a deep reddish-purple-pink. I think it’s pink, other people call it red.

I was planning to mail them the sweater when we had the opportunity to grab dinner with our friends at the last-minute, so I delivered it in person instead. I quickly took awful photos before going to dinner!

pea pod

I really like the style of the pattern — though I made a few changes. It’s knit from the bottom up and I cast on a few extra stitches there so it would be more swing-styled. I decreased those back down to the regular pattern size stitch count by the time I got to the baby waist. I also only added three buttons because I thought that would work better.

I also modified the cuff pattern on the collar and cuffs after I wasn’t happy with the look of the ribbed cuff transition to the stockinette stitch.

with an overall jumper! aw

I knit the hat incorrectly and it seemed too small but I included it anyway.

It’s a very cute pattern. The seaming took me a while to do, but I was very happy with how it looked. Yay, baby knits!

Why do you build me up, buttercup, baby
just to let me down and mess me around?

Before our vacation, I was looking for a simple stockinette project to take with me for the two 10+ hour plane flights. I started working on Buttercup (ravel me!) intending to get it to the point below the neckline where it’s just miles of stockinette.

I thought things were going great! I finally got to the point where I separated the sleeves two days before I was going to leave. I was so excited, the sweater was going to be ready for me to knitknitknit on it during my long flights. I might have a new summery sweater to wear at the end of it!

And then I saw it.

I need repairs

I had accidentally worked the feather and fan pattern in the front neckline incorrectly, forgetting the purl rows.

Drats drats drats.

After a few minutes of trying to talk myself into leaving it, I decided I had to fix it. Rather than rip back a few inches of the entire body (front, back and two sleeves), I just ripped out the 14 rows in the front panel between the sleeves.

repair me!

It’s rather a mess. I started trying to fix it the day before I left for Germany, thinking I could finish it and have it ready for the plane. I got frustrated after the first row which I could not even finish. Clearly delusional, I set it aside and flipped out looking for another project to take with me.

Now I’m back and ready to try to fix it again once I finish two gift projects. Wish me luck!

blocking

I washed and blocked this Snapdragon Tam (ravelry) on Tuesday morning.

It’s Thursday night and IT’S STILL DAMP.

This is Seattle.

I had a bit of a knitting mess before leaving for Europe. I was freaking out because I knew I had two 10+ hour flights to deal with, flights twice as long as my longest flight ever. I was concerned I would be going stir-crazy and a little insane without “enough knitting” to make it through.

I had planned to bring my buttercup top but two days before I left, I realized I had totally messed up the front lace panel. I ripped out just the front panel and started trying to fix it… the night before I left! The repair wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped, so I scrambled and set it aside. I still needed a project to take with me! Crap crap crap!

snapdragon tam

Add to all of that that the two Paris airports say they don’t allow knitting needles in carryons. I was Freaking Out! After casting on a pair of socks and throwing them across my office, I talked to E (PokingMyEyesOut) and cooler minds prevailed.

I packed a wound ball of Madeline Tosh Tosh DK, Ysolda’s Snapdragon Tam pattern, and a bunch of bamboo and plastic dpns in a pencil case. I ended up casting on in CDG airport in Paris before boarding for our return flight. I’m still not done, but getting there.

I’m back from a short but sweet trip to Munich and Paris — my first trip off of the continent.

While wandering around Munchen on a Sunday morning, we came across Wolle Rödel (closed of course, it was Sunday!).

cute window display

The window display was cute and the shop looked nice.

colorful cotton yarn

Later, at Sommerfest, we came across a booth selling a bunch of crocheted goodies:

crochet booth — some really cute pieces

…and a man spinning flax and selling a both of woven linen garments.

flax

Pretty cool all around! Munchen was very comfortable for me and friendly. We also had a great time in Paris.