New Chiagu Pattern: Halfobi!
I knit this on size 8 needles using one strand of Koigu and one strand lace cashmere from Karabella (you may remember I fell in love with this combo a long time ago). It's knit at 4.5 sts/inch, so plenty of yarns can substitute in. . . I can see it knit in Silk Garden, for example, you'd get flattering vertical stripes . . .
The pattern is available via downloadable PDF for $4.50. Hop on over to Chiagu to get your copy!
And let me know what you think! I love it so much I already started a second one, I have this idea to make a whole series of cuff-to-cuff pieces. And I'm totally obsessed with this wide, below-the-elbow sleeve, don't be surprised if you see it pop up again in the near future!
ETA: In the bright light of morning I realized that the two pics yesterday didn't show very much stitch detail . . . it's really hard to photograph this color and yarn combo! So today I tried to take clearer pictures, here's what I came up with:
Here it is all laid out so you can see the construction well. The fronts are not meant to meet, so I give the size in terms of finished back width. I made the Medium for myself, which has a finished back measurement of 22". My actual bust measurement is 37" around. This boxy top should fit loosely, so the small size is good for those whose actual measurements are 30-34", the medium for 35-42", and the large for 42-48".
And here's an extreme closeup of the front ribbing, this one being the best for color and texture.
Another sizing note to keep in mind: It might seem strange that the sleeve length gets shorter as the sizes gets bigger. This is because all 3 sizes are written so that the sleeves will hit at that
below-the-elbow length, you can see the length on a person in yesterday's pictures (I'm 5' 5", which happens to be the average height for an American woman). As the body width grows, the sleeve length has to shrink in order to keep the sleeve-to-sleeve length consistent.
If you're very petite or tall, you should shorten or lengthen the sleeve length to flatter your frame. To see if you like where the sleeve hits, hold a tape measure from one elbow, over your shoulders and down the other arm, and see where the sleeves will hit as written (the overall width from sleeve to sleeve is given in the schematic). Then adjust accordingly.
As always, if you have any questions or need help, just email me!
ETA (again): I'm changing the date to keep this as the top-most entry for a couple days.
Stash Flash!
Happy April Fool's! It's Flash Your Stash day, so here's a stash flash for ya -- that's my "linen closet" which serves as my stash hideout. It looks really messy, doesn't it? But actually, all the yarn in there is separated by type or project. Let's take a quick tour:
See those two drawers in the middle? The top one holds dark-colored oddballs and the bottom one has light-colored oddballs. I plan to use them for a big oddball project.
To the left of the drawers you can see a big bag of Kersti oddballs, which will eventually become some sort of blanket.
Above the drawers is some shetland that I bought to knit Point Reyes, but decided isn't soft enough to wear. I may felt with it.
Above THAT is a big bag of Classic Elite Charmed, bought on big sale. This will be another blanket.
Pretty much everything in here lives in giant hefty bags, my favorites for organization (you absolutely need to be able to see through your storage bags, in my opinion). I've posted about my love for them before. I'm not a "neat" person, which is so blatantly obvious from this photo, but my stuff is organized. And I'm pretty good about putting all my yarn in this closet, there's almost no yarn everywhere else in the apartment. If my mother saw this closet she'd have a fit, but I'm actually pretty proud of it!
Back to the closet tour: (WARNING: This is the best part!)
On the floor in those clear boxes is lots, and lots, and LOTS of KOIGU. Wanna see how much?
Isn't my Koigu stash beautiful? Actually, this isn't all of it, these are just my oddballs which I buy for future shawl projects. I end up buying a skein of almost every new color that comes in at String, and will often buy random skeins anytime I see a color I've never seen before. With Koigu, you've gotta buy it when you see it!
But I do have more elsewhere: there's an entire dye lot of a color in its own ziploc, it's going to be a hoodie. There are 8 skeins of a burgundy that's going to be the Frost Flowers Shawl (that's in its own bag, too). There are also, in another bag, 2 each of 3 different colors, earmarked for socks. AND there are about 6 or so skeins with matching Laceweight Cashmere playing together in another bag, they will become a kicky cropped cardigan.
I'm exhausted from all this touring, go check out everyone else's stash flash!
Drive-by posting
We interrupt your regularly scheduled Knitting Olympics progress update with a much more interesting update photo:
I'm almost to the end of the first chart on Frost Flowers, and I just have to say that it's a lot more fun to knit than Little Rivers. Is that blasphemy against Herself? If it is, I don't care! I really love this shawl! Here's a detail shot, the best I could do trying to stretch the shawl out:
I switched to circulars the second I could (well, actually, I switched before I should have, but a little stretching never hurt a shawl) and now it's moving along much faster.
As for Little Rivers, it looks pretty much exactly how it looked in the last photo, but it's over 11" long now. Still beautiful, yes. But I can tell you right now, if it weren't for this whole Olympic thing, I probably would never ever finish it . . .
More tomorrow, I got the new Interweave Knits today! Great issue, but it deserves its own post.
Ahem. What's this?
Ok, I did it again.
We got another huge box of Koigu in at work today, and somehow, when I wasn't looking, all these skeins jumped into my bag and came home with me. REALLY! Of their own volition! They wanted to come.
I SWEAR I didn't go through each new color saying "Oh, I definitely need one of these."
I promise I barely even layed out color combos, thought up new projects, or tried to add colors to projects I already have planned out.
I certainly didn't say several times, "Oh, I really need this one," nor did I think for a moment whether I already had this color, or that color, since I know full well that each dye lot is different and so even if I had the same color number, it wouldn't look anything like the wonderful skein I had in my hands.
I also pinky-swear that I didn't infect others with my Koigu lust, and I certainly didn't convince a few people to take home some skeins of their own. No really! It wasn't me!
Yet somehow, 14 new skeins have joined the others in my stash. That's why I insist that they wanted to come, they're happy in their new home -- it wasn't me, I swear!
I think I need to take a nap. (with the Koigu)
(BTW but not related: We got a VK preview copy in the mail and this issue is AMAZING! Some of the best stuff I've seen in any knitting magazine in the last 5 years, hands down. It'll be for sale in a few weeks, you should definitely check it out)
CashKoigu Gloves!
Look what I finished! (well, I finished one, anyway) I LOVE it. I originally planned to make this a Chiagu pattern, but realized that I borrowed so much shaping from published patterns that I just wasn't comfortable selling it as my own. I combined info from a few patterns out of the Vogue on the Go Mittens & Gloves book, and some info from the Interweave Knits article on making gloves, to just wing this glove from start to finish. I did have to rip out after I made the arm the first time, because it was too loose (I have stick thin forearms, aparently). Actually, they could even be tighter than they turned out, but I'm not gonna worry about it.
I wanted to make them look vintage so I rouched the bottom and added a small crochet flower. Here's a detail shot:
This picture is more acurate for color, too. To rouch like this, all I did was thread a piece of yarn on a tapestry needle and sew the yarn vertically between stitches, sewing into about every 4th row or so. Then I doubled the yarn back on itself and sewed down through the same places, pulled the yarn tight and tied a knot, and sewed the ends in. Totally easy and stays put. The flower helps hide where it might not look the neatest.
Wanna see the reverse side? Of course you do!
I completely understand if you all start placing bets about when/if the second glove gets done. . .
