A little bit Chanel

I want to let you in on a little secret of mine. I actually like sewing in ends and sewing up garments. I find it sort of meditative. There's something so satisfying about taking separate pieces and producing a wearable garment.

I often work in cars. If I'm not driving, I tend to need distraction so that I am not the world's worst back seat driver. (I hate other people driving my car but seeing as all my children are old enough to drive, I occasionally have to grit my teeth especially when playing in their neck of the woods. Apparently I drive too country to be allowed to play in the city).

So this is a sunny Saturday afternoon heading for a lovely lunch in down town Mornington. I had my camera with me and the boy decided to capture my delight with my handiwork.

"But what are you sewing up?" I hear you ask. Well this is Graphic Grays, another of my stash to sweater efforts in 2015.

Pattern: #12 Graphic Jacket by Jacqueline van Dillen from Designer Knitting Early Winter 2013.
Needles: 4.5 mm
Yarn: 8 ply Blue grey machinewash bought from op-shop (8.5 balls) and Moda Vera Pure Wool 8ply shade 44 Dark Gray (10 skeins). 

My daughter Melissa went on a giant trip through Europe at the end of 2013. This was part of the Christmas present she bought home for me - Italian and European knitting magazines.  (Best present ever!) This pattern just sang to me - classic, elegant, a little Chanel-like and could double as a jacket / blazer. As a University lecturer, I do have a job that often calls for corporate suiting but I loathe actually wearing a conventional blazer. It feels too restrictive across my back, shoulders and upper arms. To me wearing a blazer / suit jacket is like wearing a straight jacket. I have the same sort of aversion to traditional shirts. This is a nice compromise. I have the world's largest collection of cardigans but this one will take the style formality up that little notch.

Now I don't really have worsted weight yarn in the stash. I wanted to knit this in DK (Australian 8 ply) so swatching was absolutely necessary. Strangely enough, I got gauge first time with the suggested needles (4.5 mm).

Isn't it a pretty swatch? You can really see the pattern properly here.

This was gorgeously addictive colour work. Proper traditional fairisle with only two colours per row, short colour repeats so no long floats to weave in and a easily memorised pattern.

The piece at the front shows the pattern 'in the knitting stage' so to speak. The underneath piece is blocked

Even though this was quick to knit, it was slow to finish. I swatched in January, cast on the sleeves in February, knitted the backs and fronts through the Aussie winter, sewed it up in August and officially finished in October (sewing on the buttons) but didn't get shots of me wearing it till a ridiculously hot day in December!

Let's blame it on the buttons shall we? They were a saga in themselves. The pattern called for self cover knitted buttons. Our local haberdashery has moved to a town a half an hour away so things like this require a planned shopping trip. I couldn't get the size of self cover button I wanted and so compromised on the next size up. Then I got them home and tried to assemble the first button and they were defective. They were missing the little gripped / spiked edge to hold the fabric and the fronts and backs didn't clip together and hold. So it took me a month to make the trip to return them and I couldn't get any self cover buttons that time. (They had been recalled because they were defective - strange that?). So I left with a  refund but no buttons. Finally about 6 weeks later, I had to get a poster printed for an academic conference and had an hour to kill and finally bought some appropriate buttons. It was late September by this time). I did sew the buttons on as soon as I got back from the conference though!

I'd actually worn the jacket without buttons a few times. I'm now looking forward to getting a lot of chances to wear this next winter.

This is the photo that made me realise I really needed a haircut as it's all flyaway again.

Thanks once again to my boy. He may not wash dishes or do housework without a running commentary on the unfairness of life but he has peculiar knack of (a) taking a good photo of me and (b) making the knitwear shine. (I love you Mark!)

Hugging the curves

The first of my New Years knitting resolutions for 2015 was to turn the stash into sweaters... I have quite a number of sweater sized lots in my stash. They take up a lot of room and it's time to seriously use them up.

So I matched the stash to some patterns I liked and swatched for a few sweater projects in January 2015 exploring possibilities.

I dithered on this pattern. I really like the twisting cables from waist to shoulder but was a bit unsure on the peplum idea… However, the back flows so beautifully with the peplum, I think I’ll try it anyway. (God knows my hips are generously sized to say the least at the moment).

What’s in name? The Lion brand patterns have such prosaic names. This one is Cabled Peplum Pullover. I rarely use them for actual project names. The combination of twisted almost plaited cables and the gorgeous tweedy gold yarn reminded me of traditional corn dollies. These are plaited from the last grain of the harvest to give the spirit of the corn somewhere to live till the next planting. Hence ’Spirit of the Corn’ for this one.

Pattern: Cable Peplum Pullover - free pattern by Lion Brand Yarn
Needles: 4.5 mm (Knitting a worsted weight pattern using DK yarn meant I had to go up a needle size to make gauge).
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Naturals 8 Ply - colour 1839 Gold - I used 11 balls
Cost: $22 ($2 a ball on sale)

This was cast on 15th of Feb for COM. I began as I often do with a sleeve. Sleeves are a good place to start and also good large scale swatches to check gauge. Also the sleeves for this pattern are simple 2 by 2 rib. Train knitting powered through the bulk of the first sleeve really quickly. The momentum carried me through the second sleeve pretty promptly too.

This hibernated for the winter… The sheer number of stitches for the peplum section at the bottom was a little overwhelming. And the charts are very large but the individual stitches are shown really small. I almost need magnifying glasses to read some of this so it required patience to tackle the first par.

 

The back hit the needles in late September and flew off the needles in less than a week. I did find a small issue in my instructions for the Cable 4/4 RC - the needle needs to be held at the back of the work instead of the front as listed. But once I got this started, I was pleasantly surprised at how quick this was to knit. There is really only a cable row every 7 to 11 rows or so and the rest is just a few increases and rib.

The front also flew fairly quickly bar some very annoying chart problems with the neck shaping. The charts show the decreases a row too early. The written instructions were OK though so I followed these instead.

Despite the finished jumper looking like a narrow ribbed tube designed to fit a stick figure, it stretched out beautifully and hugs my figure like a gently fitting glove. The cables curve gently around the outside of my breasts and up to my shoulders and everything just sits and flows perfectly. I LOVE this! The children all told me it was few inches too short but after blocking it has relaxed a little and grown about an inch and a half in length and is now perfect.

I hereby declare this stash to sweater project a massive success! (Photo credits once again to the boy!)

Dealing with Knitting ADHD

I suffer a little bit from Knitter ADHD - also know as the Ooh, Shinny new thing! Syndrome. Now I know this about myself and so I know I need to restrain my impulses or I end up with no needles left to use, a million new cast-ons, piles of WIPs and UFOs cluttering up the house and nothing actually ever getting finished. For me, I find I need to periodically drop the needles, back off from the actual knitting and stock-take and plan. The beginning of a new year is a great time for this.

I did make some New Years Resolutions for 2015. (But they are mostly about my knitting and they are more in the light of challenges I have set myself. On a more personal reinvention to a healthier me note, I also gave up sugar in my tea. That's a real challenge!) I'm sharing them here with you as a form of self motivation and type of self shaming.... If I proclaim it to the world, I'm more likely to follow through aren't I?

All good efforts start with good planning…. I want 2015 to be as awesome a knitting year as 2014 was!

1. Knit up the four jumper lots of yarn that are yelling to be done this year.
2. Find and queue patterns for said jumper lots - One cable for me, one classic cardigan for the boy, a self designed kimono with an asymmetric front, and a self designed garter stitch jumper in a chunky boucle.
3. Apply my free forming skills to the swatch collection - I’m thinking they become a basket.
4. At least one pair of socks this year.
5. Charity knitting that actually gets donated to charity - I tend to need to knit toys on a regular basis - also hats but hoard them.
6. Put the practical bits of the stash on Ravelry - garment and accessory sized batches that are labelled.
7. Buy and knit at least one dream pattern from the queue.
8. Seriously cull the magazine collection - this is my current January summer holiday project… (I also like idea of a long term plan to knit a project from each book/ magazine I own!) Once done stick more of the library on Ravelry.
9. Play along in the useful Rav activities that make me knit productively - COM (Cast on Month in Village Hopelessly Overcommitted) and regular WIP wrestling bouts as well as NaKniSweMo.
10. Try to keep the ratio of Cast ons to WIPs completed at less than 1:1. Finish at least three long term WIPs in 2015.

This looks like a lot but I knit every day so a need a decently ambitious plan.

And I signed up to Cold Sheep (go a whole year without buying any yarn) after a small final fling in early January -  8 mixed balls of browns and greys to have enough to finish Granny wants a latte macchiato and one ball of variegated red for a charity project. And I walked past my favorite op-shop and a sweater weight quantity of delicious dark blue grey sport weight just asked me for a new home at a ridiculous price.

I really, really do have enough yarn to knit from for a whole year and not run out. I do!

I gave myself the following loopholes:

1. Yarn to finish already started projects.
2. Yarn for commissioned projects. (Though the other person can supply this).
3. A free pass for Craft Shows and road trip yarns - but a serious budget limit to be applied here.
4. Shopping my mother’s stash is always allowed.

I seriously did a list of the current UFOs and WIPs. Lists are good. I like lists:

I'm only including the stuff on Ravelry - There are a couple of very old UFOs that haven’t made it to Ravelry yet but they are not on the radar this year.

UFOs (I have to really go digging to unearth these. They are in deep storage. There are only eight though).
AK Traditions Doll
Dead Fox
Dickensian Mouse
Domino Shawl - has a chance at life soon - I know where it is at least….
Gentlemans sampler afghan - next long term knit afghan project - plan devised as part of January 2015 stocktake process.
Longitudinal - damn second sock syndrome.
Of mice and mushrooms - self designed cardigan suffering for a lack of yarn to completely execute plan. A lovely fellow Raveller is sending me 4 balls of yarn so I can execute the original plan….
Order of the Garter - what project? - this is yarn with a plan.

Welcome to the UFO cave

WIPs (Have received recent love. Not in the rotation at the moment though. Only five of these).
A headless bear - needs clothes
Fungus among us - Want to make more fungi and lichen. Have patterns ready.
Monochrome - freeform exploration piece. Being added too as inspiration strikes.
Pallina di natale - one down - lots more to make. Christmas baubles for my daughter’s tree. Little diversions that only take a day or so. The Christmas goat is next.
To tag an owl - Little crocheted owl tags /ornaments - want to make a few more out of the oddments. Planned small diversions.

Current WIPs (I’m not a monongamous knitter. Four at a time is pretty standard).
Anyone got Cable! - the scarf afghan - one scarf to go. Pattern and yarn picked - will be next new project on the needles this month.
Granny wants a latte macchiato - long term granny rug that has just been assembled so far and the crochet hook is out and I am making new squares. About 1/3 finished. It will be queen bed sized….
Pitted Olive - the current knitting project
Swatch buster - free form C/KAL for Jan / Feb 2015. Theme: Polar opposites. Aim: To cover my work tub with all those pesky swatches.

Queue (Burning a hole in my knitting basket waiting its turn)
Sunrise / sunset - We hand dyed the yarn, we have a plan. Next to the needles.

This is typical me. It's nearly the end of January and we're only just letting the plans out in public. The good thing about the delay is that I can report on the progress as well!

So far, I have:

1. Added all the magazines and knitting books that I located to my Ravelry library. (And earmarked about 6 or 7 magazines for sale / trade) (Serious Progress on Resolution #8).
2. Logged all the identifiable stash into Ravelry. (I took lots of photos of yarn...) (Resolution #6 done and dusted!!!)
3. Joined a couple of new Stash busting / Finish a thing and Cold sheep groups on Ravelry. You need your support mechanisms and these types of groups are wonderful.
4. Tried to fit plans to yarn - queued a few patterns, swatched a bit, etc... (This is the subject of next blogpost). (Resolution #2 seriously underway).
5. Decided on a hastag for the year #Stashtosweater.
6. Began wrestling those swatches into a recognizable project form. (Resolution #3 is source of great current enjoyment and knitting challenge).

Oh, and of course I have picked up the needles again I've been knitting up a storm.... (I love holidays)...