Lotsa Stuff

Whoops, it's been a while huh. Perhaps this will make you smile....Joe and I had a photo shoot. Some of these are old some are new, I don't think there are any surprises. I'm pretty sure I've at least mentioned them before, then again, maybe not.



This is the ever popular Mr. Greenjeans. I had hesitated to make this merely for the fact that it is so popular, but a KAL in one of my Ravelry groups spurred me on. I love it. Made with reclaimed cotton. I WILL make this again in a heavy wool for winter. Pattern here. Other blog posts here....hmmm no other posts about this?!? Here's the Ravelry project.



This is GreenDay another pattern that received a lot of chit chat but not as many takers. That was clearly understandable once you see the pattern. It's a translation from Norwegian? Swedish? I was swayed by the same Ravelry group to join the KAL. (honestly, I'm such a push over!) Pattern here. Ravelry project here. IF there was going to be a next time I wouldn't make the ribbing on the bottom as deep. I did raise the original neckline and worked it in the round.



Ahhhhh my saddle shoulder cardi. LOVE this cardi!!!! I can't wait for cooler weather. I know you've already seen this done, minus the buttons with Vivian wearing it, thought I'd share a photo of me wearing it, buttons and all. :o) Lots of blog posts on this one here. Ravlery project here.



Another you have seen plenty of, blog posts here and its big sister here. Ralvery project here. I live in this sweater. I took a pic today cuz you guys have never really seen a side view like this...isn't the diamond on the deltoids to kill for?!? It thrills me to no end. Case in point, do you really think I'd post a pic of my drapey old chicken neck like that if I wasn't so thrilled with the diamond and thought you'd be thrilled too????


Did you really think you'd get away without seeing another Drops pattern?!? My Open Cable Top (Ralvery project) blog posts here. I did modify this just a tad. I opened up all the cable crosses, the pattern calls for only the top one to be open, and I lowered the neckline.


I made this one last summer and realized I hadn't said anything about it. Yes, it is the same reclaimed cotton that I used for Mr Greenjeans. There's an awful lot of yardage in a man's x-large cabled sweater. :o) (I still have some!) The pattern is here, obviously I did not add the bling, and if I remember correctly I made the shoulder straps differently. Here I braided some i-cord to make the shoulder straps. This too is on my list to make again, it is super fast, easy to make and very easy to wear. Oh yeah, I worked it in the round too.

What am I doing now? There still are some older UFO's on the needles, and if you check out my Ravlery projects page you'll see quiet a few of them (not all of them mind you but a few of them) They will all get done in their own time. Someday. The current project that has most of my attention is this Drops pattern. (go figure it's a Drops!) I'm making the long sleeved version. It is suppose to be for Gillian, but if she doesn't like it I'll be happy to keep it. I'm using Classic Elite Four Seasons in red. It is a cotton wool blend I thought would be a nice winter sweater Savannah style where Jilly goes to school.

I'm itching to cast on for something new. Something wooly, bulky, and big., OR something light and lacy. I'd love to cast on for the winter Mr. Greenjeans, but that really doesn't fulfill either of my yearnings and I'm afraid it would languish longer than usual. Maybe I ought to make Mr Greenjeans in something bulky! lol Now that's not a half bad idea......

hmmmm......

gotta go!

;-)

Company

I guess I've been neglecting the blog, a fact brought to my attention yesterday by Joe. When a non-fiber person, who lives with you, complains about the lack of posts, it's a really bad sign.

I just haven't thought that I've done much of anything blogworthy. I've worked a bit on Big Red, I made a couple pairs of very utilitarian anklets (they aren't even pretty...plain white) I've started a couple of small gauge cotton projects. One is a cabled bag the other is a v-neck summer shell that I'm sort of winging. I've got a picture of it but no instructions it's from VK sometime in the 80's (I think). I had cut out the pic cuz I liked the design, but I didn't save the pattern cuz I didn't know how to knit at the time. oops. Neither of those projects are worth blogging cuz they are literally just inches in length. Nothing to see.

I suppose a finished pic of the Petal Cardi II with the zip installed is blogworthy enough, but the real drama was when I dropped the stitches and reworked the buttonbands and I already told you about that here.

Behold the Petal Cardi with zip installed.....

It's a little rumpled I wear it ALL the time!!!

The latest and greatest that I'm thrilled with today is a new-to-me pattern I found in a vintage magazine (1950's) It is a bottom up saddle shoulder that is seamless. Yep you heard me right, it is seamless.....ok that's a small lie....there is an armpit seam about 2 inches long. I have a progress pic for you but it doesn't show anything exciting, it looks like any other bottom up seamless at this point. Right now I am just to the point where I have joined the sleeves to the body stitches and will begin the saddle shoulder shaping on the next row.


See what I mean? Nothing special...yet! I don't know maybe I'm crazy but I can't recall ever seeing a seamless saddle shoulder before. Yes, the wonderful EZ has a neck down design that I think she calls a Scandinavian sweater that is a saddle shoulder type thing but I don't think she has a bottom up one. In EZ's sweater you start out with the neck ribbing then work some rectangles off the sides of it to make the shoulders then eventually you pick up along the edge and work it in the round. Does she have a bottom up one? There are no stitches to pick-up in this bottom up design just stitch manipulation (I'm loving that!).

I'm fickle when it comes to top down vs bottom up. I guess it's based on whether I want the instant gratification and interest a top down can give you until you hit the miles of never ending boring body to complete verses the mindless rounds of the bottom up body with the thrill of the yoke to look forward to. This sweater has definitely spurred me on. I've been breezing through the body fast and furious toward the thrill of the yoke. I'm anticipating this manipulation of stitches, it will likely have for me a marvel similar to the one experienced when turning that heel for the first time.

There's another interesting twist in this pattern, a new-to-me method of working a built in button band that is so totally mindless and I love how it looks. I'm pretty sure I'll use it every time I need a button band from here on.

OK enough bloggin' for one night. I've got a thrilling new-to-me yoke to work! I didn't get as much knitting done today as I had hoped, I had company. (ah ha finally a tie in to the title) After IdaMae and Bennie had enough outdoor fun today I was outside all by myself and the solitude was heavenly. Then I realized I wasn't as alone as I had thought. The three yellow finches who taunt Ida and Ben daily by flying up to the patio door and strut their stuff on the porch while they can only dream of chasing them were drinking and bathing in the Ida's water dish. And then I noticed this little guy had come to say hello as well.

A Refashion of My Own

Before I get into the refashion I'd just like to give a big welcome to those of you who are here for the first time cuz the lovely Sherrill from Bell of the Ball Podcast pointed you guys in my direction. Thank you Sherrill. (If you're looking for the Obama pictures you can go here or follow the links on the side bar. I hope you can find something else that interests you as well.) Michelle from You Just Gotta Keep Knitting gave Sherrill the heads up about me so many thanx go to Michelle as well. Welcome one and all.

Now onward and upward to the subject matter of todays' post. A refashion of my own.....

Yep, I did it. Before I ever wore the second petal sweater I refashioned it. Remember this post in which I contemplated my sanity and the buttons for the second fitted petal sweater?
Insanity won. I banished the garter stitch button bands in favor of a stockinette edge with a zipper. It was not without great fear and trepidation, but my instability was obviously greater than the fear. Behold the beginnings of the stitch drops.

I began by ripping out the bind off and putting the stitches on a holding thread. Then I went a couple rows pass the first button hole and threaded in a life line. I might be crazy, but I'm not a fool and if this wasn't going to work I didn't want to ruin everything I wasn't exactly sure how dropping stitches through a button hole was going to work. I thought it would be easy enough but hey, I've been wrong before.....many times in fact. :o)


The button band consisted of 6 garter stitches. The button hole spanned the three stitches just inside the edge stitch so I freed the outer 4 stitches from the holding thread and then replaced the edge stitch on another holding thread. Next I dropped the three stitches. Dropping pass the button hole was not a problem so the drop continued the entire length of the button band stopping one row short of the cast on edge.




Here is the neck edge with the three stitches that were just dropped on a holding thread. Looks kinda scary doesn't it. At this point I started to work the stitch just inside of edge stitch back down in stockinette stitch. I didn't like it. It left the edge loose, loopy and inconsistent, not a good thing for an edge that will have a zipper on it in yarn that is made of 8 individual threads that are not plied, so I dropped it back to the neck line. I went back to the bottom edge and dropped the remaining two garter stitches of the button band up to the neck. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at things) the pix of all 5 stitches dropped didn't turn out it, it is just as well though it was a sight too ugly to witness anyway, believe me.

After working all 5 dropped stitches I had some space left over. I figured there would be some slack merely by changing the stitch from garter to stockinette but I didn't think there would this much!




Yes boys and girls there enough to slack left over between the newly reworked 5 stitches and the edge stitch for another entire stitch!! So up at the neck I kinda made a starting stitch with my crochet hook and made another column of stitches between the original 5 use-to-be-garter-stitches and the original edge stitch.



I'm very happy. Yes, the gauge is off a little, it's tighter, but I don't think I'd change anything. I think a tighter gauge where a zipper is going to be is a good thing. And I suppose it will be lots less noticeable after blocking and few wearings.

In other knitting news, I started a couple more things this week. Yet another cardi, more sweatershirt casual like. Drops #81-10. I'm using up multiple yarns and threads from stash to beef up some black cotton I had in stash as well. The body is done and sleeves are nearly done. I'll post about it soon.

I started a pair of socks as a last resort to squelch my insatiable need for bedtime knitting that has been the impetus for all the new starts of late. I really don't understand why it took so long to start a pair of socks. I use to make sock all the time. I use to have at least one pair if not two or three on the needles at all times. It's been eons since I made a pair of socks (although now that I think about it, it could have something to do with the fact that IdaMae loves hand knitted socks). If all of these new project starts are the Knitting Goddess's way of telling me to start knitting socks again she could have been a bit more clear in her intentions. I would have happily obliged, I'm enjoying these socks. The sock thing got off to a rocky start though. As a matter of practice I always begin knitting at least 1 if not 2 needle sizes smaller than recommended, that's just how it is for me, but after a few hours of knitting toe up with very little visible progress I pulled out the tape measure and figured my gauge. Um yeah, 16 stitches to the inch is a tad bit ridiculous. I dumped those needles and that yarn and am now knitting a respectable 7.5 stitch to inch sock.

Big Red and the Open Cables top are coming along nicely. Open Cables is done except ends need to be woven in and a slip stitch crochet edge I want to work around it. Big Red is just getting bigger and bigger, I'm still not exactly sure when I'll stop but I have been coming up with some nifty things to do with it.