The Sybil Sweater pattern is coming tomorrow!
I just got the photos back from Seth so thought I'd tease you a bit!
Here's Sybil styled for 1917:
And for 2012:
I'm psyched for this new pattern and the great photos!
From size 10's to size 3's
I'm all finished knitting the Sybil Cardigan (and yes, working on the pattern! It'll be out very soon!) and started yet another project . . . even though what I should be doing is finishing some of the stuff that's nearly-done. But you know what it's like when new yarn shows up in the mail, right?
First you think, "I'll just wind it so I can see the colors"
Then when that's done, you think "I'll just swatch it quick, just to give it a try"
The next thing you know you're off and running and trying not to feel guilty about it.This happens often enough to me that I should really just either accept it and move on, or never ever bring that fateful new skein of yarn into my apartment until it's OK to dive in!
Anyway, what you see above is what I've got knit so far on this new design. I knit all that in just one day! On size 3 needles. Clearly I'm liking this!
The yarn is Sandra Singh's Laceweight and it's a dream to knit. It's very soft but strong enough not to break as you work with it, which is important with such thin yarn. Going from the size 10's I used on Sybil to these size 3's has been really hysterical! It took me a little while to get my groove back on the thin needles, let me tell you.
Here's a closeup of the lace:
The concept for this shawl is to do a lace design that's appropriate for a first-time lace knitter but that still looks professional and delicate like "real lace" does. I've seen plenty of patterns for "beginner" lace that has the knitter use large needles and bulky yarn and while the finished item might be attractive, it's just not what I think of when I think of lace knitting!
I've had lots of requests for a simple lace shawl pattern and that's really what inspired this new design. The lace pattern itself is only 10 stitches wide and 8 rows tall, and all WS rows are all-purl (my favorite!) so it's really simple to knit and easy to memorize. But it's not boring at all, and it uses one more advanced lace technique that is not at all difficult to execute but which will make you feel like a lace super-star when you've learned it!
I'm super excited for this design and can't wait to write the pattern up and photograph it. But I've got to finish it first ;o)
Oh and in other news, Koigu sent me a UPS shipping notification today, here's a screenshot:
Gulp. Where am I going to store all that yarn!??!?
So far so good
A few minutes ago I finished setting in the second sleeve on Sybil and popped her on to see how I'd done. Not bad! If I do say so myself =)
This is little peek at how it looks pre-blocking, but right after I took this photo I dunked her in some Soak to get the blocking process underway. Washing and blocking such a heavy sweater is a bit of a delicate process, because it soaks up so much water and has the potential to stretch way out of shape if you pull the wet mass too thoughtlessly. This particular sweater had an unpleasant surprise during the washing step:
It bed like crazy! I don't think I've seen yarn bleed this much color in a long time. It's kind of disappointing. But I'm not complaining because at least I found this out on a solid-colored piece and not on something where bleeding could ruin the project! And yes, I did wash my swatch but if that bled, it was clearly not enough for me to notice it. Reading through the Ravelry comments on the yarn, no one else mentioned bleeding, so perhaps I got a bad batch. Many people did mention knots, though, which I unfortunately also saw plenty of over the 14 balls I've used so far.
That said, I'm still hopeful that the finished sweater will dry and wear well and that I'll get lots of use out of it. I'll give you my final verdict on the yarn after I've worn the sweater for a while.
Which won't be all that soon, because she's laying out to dry:
And with this rainy weather, I'm not sure she'll be dry anytime soon.
Quick aside: Have I mentioned before how much I love sweater drying racks? They're probably my second-favorite non-knitting tool that I use for knitting (the first being the kitchen scale!). I never had much luck stacking them on top of each other, but they're worth their weight in gold when used in a single layer like you see here, on top of my (very messy) bed. Having air circulating both over and under the piece makes it dry way faster, and also means that my mattress stays nice and dry.
Oh and you see the tape measure on top? This is a technique I started using after blocking a few heavy sweaters WAY too big. Like I mentioned above, when they're full of water they can easily stretch way out of shape if you aren't careful. When laying the piece out to dry, it's easy to leave it in a wacky shape that will totally dry that way and make the finished sweater really weird, or too big. Now every time I do this step with a heavy sweater I make sure to have a tape measure on hand and spread everything out to the correct measurements. The most important one being the chest circumference of course. I hope that tip helps someone out there!
I'm now knitting the collar and then need to do the belt, and of course write the pattern . . . but so far so good. I have a quilting update to share with you too, but that will have to wait for the next post, this one is long enough!
Downton Abbey Knitting
Are you watching Downton Abbey yet? If not, you really should be! I'm pretty much obsessed with the show at this point and can't wait for each new episode to come out every Sunday. It's the only show I watch as it airs instead of much later on DVR!
The series is so well done, it's really impressive. One of the most amazing parts of the show are the costumes, which are impeccably researched and detailed. It's awesome to see the evolving fashion as the years pass! The most recent episodes featured the girls wearing lots of flapper-like looks and black fabric, which is in such stark contrast to what they wore in the first season.
Unfortunately, there isn't that much knitting on the show, so there hasn't been much to knit directly from the show. That is, until the first episode of season 2, where we see the first cardigan of the series! The picture above is of Sybil, the youngest (and most modern) daughter, wearing that first cardigan. Ever since I saw it, I've been planning to knit it for myself.
Here's my sketch of the cardigan I'm working off of:
I decided to knit it in Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky for a variety of reasons, including its wide color range and the affordable price tag. I've only ever swatched in this yarn before, so it was an interesting choice for me since I tend to work in the same yarns over and over again. After knitting almost a full bag of it, I can confidently say I love it!
After knitting with mostly sock-weight yarn for SO LONG, knitting a cardigan in chunky wool on size 10 needles feels like it takes no time at all. Amazing!
Here's the back, almost finished:
As you can see, I'm doing it in a navy rather than the denim of the original. This actually was a happy accident, because I thought I was ordering a denim-like color, but got navy instead . . . and navy is definitely more wearable in my wardrobe. Oh this is color 638 Dark Indigo, by the way. If you want a color more like the show's, I'd order 726 Mid Indigo instead.
This picture is from a few days ago and since then, I now have the back and first front finished, so this project really is flying off the needles. I bought 22 skeins and used about 7 for the back and first front, so I definitely have more than enough yarn to finish. At this rate I should be done very soon!
Here are the design features I'm going with, and the photos I used for reference (all photos are my own screen grabs):
From this picture I took the following:
- Hip-length
- Garter stitch edges
- Wider garter stitch front borders with toggle buttons
- Garter stitch belt at true waist
In this shot, you can see that the collar is a sailor-style collar. I'm knitting that separately, in garter stitch, and sewing it onto the neck edge. You can also tell that there are belt loops on the sides of the sweater holding the belt on, and that the body is not shaped at the waist.
None of the pictures I saw really showed the armholes, so I am going with set-in sleeves since that's what I like to wear. I'm thinking of doing 2 or 3 buttons but will wait to decide that until I have the cardigan almost done. I have some wooden buttons that I think might work . . . we'll see.
And yes, I'll be writing up the pattern and offering it for sale so you can all have your own Sybil sweaters, too!
Another Monday
It's weird that even though I work for myself (and therefore don't have "weekends" or "weekdays"), Mondays still feel like Mondays. I guess after 30 years of living a Monday to Friday schedule, Mondays are deeply ingrained in the subconscious . . . I wonder how long it would take to unlearn that response? This line of thought makes me think of the episode of Downton Abbey where the Dowager Countess says "what's a 'week end'?" . . . I love her character! Such a great question.
Anyway, yesterday I felt like making cookies, but discovered I had no eggs in the house. I ended up Googling and then making up a recipe for eggless chocolate chip cookies, which resulted in these pretty-ugly things:
They taste nothing like real chocolate chip cookies, and the texture is more like a cake than a cookie, AND they need salt, but they're edible. In a way it's good that they didn't come out THAT good, or I probably would have eaten half the batch last night! This way I only eat one or two at a time ;o)
In other news, during the Super Bowl yesterday I finished the first Transitions sock and I totally love it! I didn't end up making it as long as I could have because I realized that there was a lot of plain blue at the end of the ball, and I didn't want to have a mostly-blue foot because I thought it might look like I ran out of yarn . . . so I turned the heel when I got to the "halfway" point of the color shading as opposed to going by weight. I'm really happy with how the sock looks! So much so that I immediately cast on for the second one (and that never ever happens).
Pattern-wise, I'm putting the finishing touches on the Ikat Mittens pattern and am hoping to release it by the end of this week . . . and after that I think I'll release a full garment, since I've been doing so many accessories lately. I have a really cute fitted v-neck vest in Madelinetosh Merino Light that I'm itching to show you guys . . . but I'm holding it out as a "carrot" to myself to get me to do all the other work that needs to be done first! I've been working on my willpower and self-motivation lately . . . it's still a work-in-progress, but getting better!
How about you, how's your Monday going? Is it making you introspective like it's done to me?
