Since I last left you, I finished some socks:
These are Catherine socks in Hazel Knits Artisan socks. I love them!
Raveled here.
I also finished a super-quick tunic from doubled bulky weight yarn.
It’s Evening Shell in Knit Picks Swish Bulky (doubled).
I think it’s a perfect color for the winter.
Raveled here.
And for the challenge? 2012 is coming up, so I’m hoping to finish 12 big WIPs/new projects in the coming year. I also want to do some smaller projects, but I’m going to focus on the big ones, like the sweaters I’ve been knitting for years. I’m hoping to have some awesome FOs come next December!
My Stripes obsession began last year. I walked into my Poli Sci class, looked across the table, and saw a girl in a striped sweater. I immediately was intrigued, and spent the entire hour and fifteen minutes figuring out how I could make my own that mimicked the best parts of the sweater I saw in front of me while rectifying its faults (needless to say, I didn’t do so hot in Poli Sci that semester).
Now, over a year later, I present Stripes!
This is my first sweater design, and I’m in love with it. It uses two fingering weight sock yarns in an alternating color pattern, and has waist shaping to give it a fitted look.
I know it’s the wrong season for a sweater like this, but I wore it over a t-shirt at Rhinebeck and it was perfect for the fall weather. If you wanted to, you could lengthen the sleeves and it would be more appropriate for fall and winter.
The sweater is knit in pieces and seamed with set-in cap sleeves. It’s a fairly quick knit (I had other things going on, so it took me a while, but I ended up knitting the fronts and sleeves in under a week). I’ve written the pattern for multiple sizes, and many of them only use 2 skeins of sock yarn, so it’s a great way to use a couple special skeins. I used Dream in Color Smooshy and Slackford Studio Hedonist Sock, which is part cashmere. Stripes is soft, lightweight, and comfortable.
You can buy the pattern on Ravelry or by clicking here.
My mom and I just got back from Rhinebeck. We had so much fun!
When we walked in, we saw kangaroos and lemurs.
Then we got down to the yarn buying. We managed to hit every tent/booth before it started raining. Towards lunchtime, it started to get very crowded. I didn’t even go into the Sanguine Gryphon booth because the line was so long, as always.
Here’s a picture of the Ravelry meetup. We didn’t go, but I passed by on the way back from putting some of our purchases in the car.
All in all, it was a great day, and we got some gorgeous stuff. My mom got some sport weight wool to make a sweater, but I made the bigger purchases of the day. I have been dying to make Vivian since I tried on Ysolda’s sample when she came to Brooklyn General (it fit me perfectly, even though it’s not my size…it’s like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants jeans). I got this chunky yarn for it from Wild Apple Hill Farm in a gorgeous purple color.
Then I got this really sparkly laceweight from Maple Creek Farms. I got sock yarn from them a couple Rhinebecks ago, and I loved it, so I made sure to go back to the booth. I’m planning to make Icarus with it.
To top it off, I got a spinning batt from Loop. It’s self striping and sparkly and gorgeous.
All in all, it was a terrific weekend, and I’m super happy with my purchases. Hope everyone who went had as much fun as we did!
P.S. More coming about the sweater I’m wearing in the picture in the next blog post!
I haven’t had much time to knit lately. Between my job, my friends, my family and cute boys (this one has been taking up more and more of my time recently, but I don’t really mind), I’ve been keeping busy. It’s also been very hot out in New York. Last week it was over 100 degrees almost every day, so I spent as much as possible in the pool, which means I wasn’t knitting.
However, with such limited time, I managed to finish a project.
It’s the Ribbed Lace Bolero, which I started in my freshman year of college. It’s about time I got it done.
I’m glad it’s done, because it’s really cute and the perfect thing to wear if the temperature ever dips down enough that I feel the need to cover my shoulders.
Raveled here.
I rarely ever say that something is the cutest thing I’ve ever made. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but in this case it’s warranted:
This is the Offset Wraplan made in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids. I made it for Lee, a fellow founding member of my knitting group who is having her a baby girl in September (she’s our first SI Knitters baby, so we’re all excited!). I loved knitting the tiny little cardigan, which will be perfect for fall in Denver, where Lee lives now.
My favorite parts are the buttons and the applique, which were both from Michaels (they didn’t have a huge selection to choose from, but I figured every little girl needs a cupcake sweater). It’s a simple sweater, but the little details make it so cute!
I want to make a bunch of these for my future children and all my friends’ future children. When I get a free moment (my new job is dominating my life) I’m going to cast on for another.
Raveled here.
So today, we had the final meeting of our campus charity knitting group. While I’m happy to be moving on, it was very bittersweet, since I know I won’t see most of these girls again (or at least for a while) after graduation. Bree, our president, made us CDs of the group playlist we hear every week at the meetings, and she gave me a little something special.
This isn’t the best picture (I took it with my phone), but it’s Bree’s hand-dyed sock yarn. It was so sweet of her to give to me, and it totally fits with my favorite colors! I’m going to knit some special socks with the yarn, and it will always remind me of the cool kids from the Vassar knitting group.
There’s good chance that the next time I post on here, I will be a college graduate. So yay for me and the rest of the class of ‘11! We did it!
So…I’m almost done with college I literally have a week and a half left. It’s pretty exciting. In order to get through finals week, I have been doing a lot of knitting and crocheting. First, I finished my Giant Granny Square Blanket, which I don’t have a picture of because I haven’t blocked it yet, and it’s at home. After that, I finished this charity blanket which I’ve been working on for years. It’s four mitered squares, and I knit it in one piece. It was pretty exciting to finally finish it and give it to a local charity last week!
Then I finished my Crocheted Ripple Blanket, which I’ve been working on for about a year to use up my sock yarn scraps (I doubled them and used a large crochet hook…I’m not sure which size because it doesn’t say it, but I’m thinking M or N). I was going to donate it along with the other blanket, but then my friend Leslie saw it and loved it, so I’m giving it to her as a graduation gift.
I of course have many other blankets I’m working on, but it’s good to get these particular ones out of my hands and into other people’s to keep them warm! It’s kind of silly that I finished them so close to summer, but at least they will be ready for use in the winter.
And on a final note, happy graduation to MEEEE! Here’s to the end of my education!
So, I have some sad news for all the furball lovers out there. Over the weekend, my cat, Angel “Phinky” Cohen passed away. She was 12.
Here is a picture of her, posing with one of my socks. She loved yarn almost as much as I do, and was the inspiration for my mom’s Kitty Scarf pattern.
Since she inspired one of our patterns, I wanted to devote a post to her memory. She was a great companion to my mom, especially during the past 4 years when I was away at college. She had a lot of personality, and I know we were all sad to see her go. In a lot of ways it’s been really hard on me, since I picked her out when I was 9 years old, and she was a big part of my childhood (even though she was really my mom’s pet).
Phinky, we will miss you.
So…sometimes it takes me three years to finish a sweater.
This is Mrs. Darcy. The pattern is no longer available (that’s how long ago I started this thing), but it’s really cute and comfortable. Except that the hem rolls. A lot.
I put a bunch of single crochet at the bottom, and now it puckers a bit. Hopefully blocking will fix everything.
As you can see, the sweater doesn’t exactly fit me. It’s actually for my mom. She’s been having a really rough time lately, because our cat is very sick, so I wanted to finish this up to cheer her up. I’ll give it to her the next time I’m home, but I sent her a bunch of pictures now to make her feel better.
I used almost 4 complete balls of Cotton-Ease. This is all I had left when I was done with the buttons:
For more info, the sweater is raveled here.
