Summer Sweater

Here on the Central Coast it's generally cool enough to be sweater weather right through the summer, yet it's rarely cold enough to require wool. This sweater pretty much hits the sweet spot for our climate.

The pattern is Wasabi, by Wendy Bernard. This is a blank slate kind of pattern. Boat neck, drop shoulder sleeves. It's basically 4 rectangles joined together. It's knit seamlessly from the top down and it's good social knitting. Not much tricky stuff to distract from a good conversation.

side shot

I used a yarn called Bamboo Pop, which is a 50/50 cotton bamboo blend. It was nice to knit with and the fabric is soft and fluid. Which is a good thing, because a sweater this square could easily be a mite too boxy if the fabric had a lot of body.

back view

I see from my Ravelry notes that it took me about 6 month to knit this up. That's only because it spent quite some time resting in my knitting bag. If you kept plugging away at it you could finish this sweater in a week, I bet.

I bought the yarn at Stitches West because I liked the color. I might call it periwinkle blue. Or maybe cornflower? It's a pretty strong color. I used to be able to wear pastels, but since my hair turned grey I feel like I disappear unless I wear colors with some punch to them.

Color is very washed out here, but look at that diagonal ribbing

The pattern called for knit2-purl2 ribbing at the edges. I made my own little mark by doing a diagonal rib instead. There are some instructions for it on Craftsy here. Basically, you just shift the rib pattern one stitch to the left every other row.

We're getting ready to take a train trip to Chicago, stopping along the way to visit family in Minnesota. Nothing like a train trip for some prime knitting time! I'll be starting on Snapdragon, by Marie Wallin. That's if I can figure out the gauge by next Wednesday.

My Ravelry notes are here, if you're interested.

Blue Jewel

Another knitted FO, and another Wendy Bernard pattern. This is Jewel, from Custom Knits.

A lot of my favorite knitted garments are made from Wendy Bernard patterns. For me, she's got a nice balance of do-able and challenging. I've heard that, in science, the key is to pick a problem that's complicated enough to be interesting but easy enough that you can solve it. And so it is in knitting.

Jewel has a bit of fancied-up ribbing at the top and bottom, and the rest is stockinette with a bit of waist shaping.

The top is actually supposed to be longer, but I ran out of yarn, so I cropped it by popping on the bottom band just after finishing the waist decreases. As long as I wear it with high-waisted bottoms, I'll be fine.

I used 6 skeins of Llana Grossa Binary, in a kind of steel blue color. I scavenged it from the Four Buck Bucket at the Swift Stitch,  here in Santa Cruz. That Four Buck Bucket gets me every time.

I've made this pattern two times before. I'm giving myself some bonus points for this version because I think I finally figured out how to do the crocheted crab stitch edging on the arm scythes. Thank you, YouTube!

I'm a miserly yarn-buyer, which is why I so often end up having to figure out how to do something useful with 600 yards of yarn. Lucky for me, sleeveless shells end up being pretty wearable here on the Central Coast.

My Ravelry notes are here.

in the Pink

Gosh, I finished another knitted object!

This is Pink, from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. It's just about the most straightforward sweater you can imagine knitting. Top down raglan with a V-neck; a wardrobe staple.

Front view. No shoes again,  how embarrassing.

It's knit from some cotton yarn I got ages ago at one of my favorite knitting stores in Grass Valley. The store is no longer there. Very sad.

I had started another sweater with this yarn and then set it aside for, oh gee, maybe 8 years or so. I found it while tossing the stash in preparation for a knitting retreat last fall. I decided I didn't like the original project much, so I ripped it out and looked for something else I could do with 600 yards of cotton yarn.

Back view

Why do I always buy 600 yards? Why do I think that's enough to make much of anything? That's why I have so many sleeveless sweaters.  Which is OK, I guess, considering I live on the Central Coast, where long sleeves are rarely required.

Well, 600 yards wasn't quite enough to finish up this sweater. I ended up needing to buy another hank of cotton to add the ribbing and finish the neck. I took the daring step of getting a contrasting color. Actually, I had to be daring because there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to be able to find another skein of my original yarn. Especially since I hadn't kept the ball bands, so I have no idea who made it or what it's called.

As it turns out, I like the contrasting navy bands, so all is well.

I would happily recommend this pattern to a new knitter. The gauge is 4.5 stitches to the inch, so it moves along pretty fast, and it doesn't ask for any tricky stitches or techniques. Plus you can do the whole "try on as you go" thing that top-down knitting allows.

I'm thinking of casting on Beatnik to take on the train with me to Washington State in August. Kind of a big leap in complexity, huh? I'll let you know how it comes along...

Ingenue

I've been lagging on the sewing front since we got back from vacation. Maybe because it's been unseasonably hot and my fabric cutting area is the floor in the spare bedroom, up under the eaves. After a few minutes crawling around up there the sweat is blinding my eyes and I have to stagger down to the kitchen for a cooling beverage.

What's a crafter to do in such circumstances? Haul out the multitude of half-finished sweaters and try to figure out what the heck I was doing with my knitting. Wool may not sound like the best creative response to hot weather, but I can knit in the shade with that refreshing beverage at my elbow.

This is Ingenue, a pattern from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. 

It's a mite wrinkled because it lived balled up in my knitting bag in the upstairs closet for 18 months. I'd done the body and most of one sleeve, then set it aside.

Why? With most of my kitting projects I lose steam when I reach a point where I need to make a decision. Is it time to start the shaping for the hips? Are the sleeves long enough, or should I do a few more rows? And, most often, Will I have enough yarn to finish this thing? I have a habit of buying just barely enough yarn for a project and then panicking as I come down to the wire. The Yarn Harlot calls this "playing chicken with your knitting." It's kind of stressful, really.

'Barely enough yarn' is the reason my version of this pattern is a bit skimpier than Wendy Bernard's.

This is one of those nifty top-down, raglan sleeve sweater patterns. I mostly knit these patterns because:

1. you can try the garment on as you go to see if you're in the right fit ballpark, and
2. no finishing, except for weaving in your ends

The thing I'm not wild about in a top-down raglan design is the fit in the shoulder.

You can kind of see what I mean in this back view. There's almost a kimono sleeve thing going on. I don't mind it too much in a pullover, but some of my top-down raglan cardigans want to slide off my shoulders if they aren't buttoned up.

I've knit more sweaters from Custom Knits than I have from any other knitting book I own. I find the patterns are straightforward enough to go quickly (if you don't neglect them for months), yet there are enough little decorative bits to keep you from falling asleep over the stockinette.

My favorite part of this sweater is the funnel neck:

The yarn is a wool-cotton blend that I got at the going-out-of-business sale at Yarn Dogs in Los Gatos. Gosh, I miss that store.

The color is something I call "Goth Green." I don't remember what the spinner called it because I carelessly lost the ballband. Yes, all of them. The yarn is almost black, but with a mossy undertone. Kind of reminds me of The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

It blends pretty well with my wardrobe and I'm sure I'll enjoy wearing it, if this heat wave ever ends.

Meanwhile, I've almost finished cutting out the pieces for my first coat. Plus lining! I aim to finish that this week. Wish me luck.