FO Friday: Citron

Citron

I am successful! Not only was I able to complete my Citron Shawl yesterday, but I had a couple of minutes after all of the guests were gone to lay it down to block. I probably had enough yarn to do another couple of rows, and in a perfect world I would have done it. With my time constrictions, though, I didn’t want to fiddle around with that. I basically did the pattern as is, which may be a first for me.

This morning, quite to my surprise, it was bone dry. I quickly got it off the board, sewed in my ends, and wrapped it up. My pile of presents for tonight’s early Hanukah is growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, the sweater is still a little damp. I have the fan blowing on it (as per Audry’s recommendation), so hopefully it will be dry enough for me to sew up the sleeves and weave in the ends in a couple of hours.

Quick recap: I started this Citron last Sunday with 1 50g skein of Malabrigo Lace in Verde Esperanze. Now, less than a week later, it’s a whole shawl. Yeah me! Hopefully, I’ll be able to snap a couple of picks of all of my presents on their intended recipients tonight.

For more FO Friday posts, check out Tami’s.

Cast On Monday: Citron

I’ve done something silly. Several weeks ago, my father told me that my Aunt’s cancer seems to have returned. This is not good news; she’s been battling stomach cancer for a while, and we thought that, after almost a year of chemo, radiation, and surgery, things were looking up. Unfortunately, it turns out we were wrong. Of course, as soon as I heard the news, the urge to knit hit me. When she was first diagnosed, I made her a lace shawl using some Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn in Blues in the Night, a gorgeous colorway. I pretty much designed the whole shawl myself, although it was right when I had gotten started designing, so I did not write anything down. That was INCREADIBLY stupid of me, as it really turned out gorgeous. If I ever get the chance, I am definitely going to write that pattern out! Anyway, my Aunt loves the shawl and wears it all the time, which makes me pretty happy.

Citron

Flash forward to the silly thing that I did this weekend. I had just finished binding off the shoulders for my mom’s sweater (more news on that later, I promise) when I had the sudden urge to cast something on for my Aunt. I think most of us would realize that this is not at all a silly urge. I dug out a skein of Malabrigo Lace in Verde Esperanze, which reminds me of Evergreen Trees, out of my stash. I think this is on of the skeins that the wonderful Learner’s Per Knit gifted me with over the summer (thanks again!). I wound it all up and printed out the instructions for Citron. Just in case your head has been buried under a rock for the past few years, Citron is another of the incredibly popular patterns published in Knitty. It uses just one 50g skein of lace weight, size US 6 needles, and quite a bit of stitches to create a wonderful shawl.

Closer up

But what is the silly part? Although Hanukah does not start for another couple of weeks, we are celebrating this Friday, as the whole family will already be together for Thanksgiving. Not only does that mean that I have to block and seam a sweater in the next week, but I also have to knit 50g of lace weight and block that, too. Silly me! Luckily, it’s been speeding off the needles. I’m already half way through the fourth section, so I probably have about 40 rows to go. Of course, those 40 rows include 2 ruffles, which double the amount of stitches on the needle for 5 rows, plus 3 more increase rows. Wish me luck!

FO Friday: Coquette

It is finally, finally finished. Yesterday, after a long, long day of classes, I managed to dredge up the energy required to unpin it from my blocking mats, sew up the armholes, and sew in all of the ends (well, most of the ends. I promise that you cannot see the little one I missed around the armhole). So I can introduce you to a finished version of Coquette.

Everything about this pattern was pretty much a surprise, mostly in a good way. I don’t usually enjoy summer patterns, but Interweave Knits Summer 2012 was pretty good, and I ended up falling in love with this vest/tank top by Adrienne Larson. By complete accident, I ended up purchasing the required yarn, Zitron Filigran (100% wool). This may be the first time that ever happened!

As for mods, I did shorten the pattern considerably. Even though I did a guage swatch, I think my tension must have changed while I knitted. I blocked almost entirely for length, and the tank is overall looser than I expected. This was actually a happy surprise, as I was expecting something very fitted, and now I may even be able to wear this while working! Besides that, the pattern did call for an icord finishing, but I’m scrapping that. The selvage along the edges is plenty even, and I really, really do not feel like making lace weight icord for a year.

Also surprisingly, I have over 3/4 of a 100g skein left, which is pretty impressive considering the next size up requires you to buy an extra skein. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with it, but it might make a very pretty summer shawlette. That is, if I ever feel like working with lace weight again!

For more FO Friday posts, check out Tami’s.

Now that I’m finally finished with the vest, I’m really excited to move on to some other long-term projects. My mom wants a sweater for the Holidays, so I should probably get seriously started on that. I have the yarn, and I’ve even make a swatch- I just need to block it. Plus there’s the short-term hat on my needles (another present).

And I can’t stop thinking about a design collection that I’ve got stuck in my head. Now is probably not the time to start thinking about something this long term, but it’s an idea that I really, really like. I’m considering approaching Knit Picks about an ebook, although I have no idea what that process looks like. The other option would be self-publishing on ravelry, and I also don’t have much of an idea how that would go, either. Do any of you have any advice for more about that?

WIP Wed.: Almost Finished

The end is finally in sight for my Coquette vest/tank/thing. On Sunday I finished the knitting, binding off on the final arm strap. I wasn’t able to block until Monday, but it was totally worth it.

Seeing it on the floor, I love how this is coming out…I think. I do think it might be a bit big for the fitted look that I wanted, and I didn’t even have to stretch the lace that much. If this were a lace shawl or scarf, I would have stretched it a lot more to open those eyelets up. Still, the fabric is a bit more dense this way, which is probably what you want for a top.

It’s only lace-weight, so I should be able to pick it up tomorrow. All I have left is sewing the straps and my ends. If all goes well, I should be able to get some FO shots for Friday. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

For more WIP Wed., check out Tami’s.

Wip Wed & Yarn!

I’m chugging away on my Coquette Vest. The lace pattern is pretty intuitive, and I think it’s coming along nicely. My progress was somewhat impeded by the dog getting hold of the yarn and tangling it up a little while I was home last weekend, but I straightened that out pretty quickly. I’ve probably gotten another 3ish inches since last week, which is pretty impressive considering I’m using lace weight Filigran and haven’t had a whole lot of knitting time.

Coquette Vest

Unfortunately, it’s probably going to have to go on the shelf for a while in favor of Christmas Knits. I finally got the HUGE order that I put in at Webs a couple of weeks ago, so now it’s time to start working on that.

Berocco Vintage DK

First, there’s a single skein of Berocco Vintage DK (50% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 10% Nylon- 288yds/100g). It’s much more of a cranberry color than you can tell in the picture, I promise. This is destined to be a beret for a friend. Ok, it’s for her Birthday, which was a couple of months ago, but it still counts. Honestly, we were on opposite ends of the state, so I like to think that I’m doing ok.

Valley Yarns Superwash DK

Next, there’s about 9 skeins of Valley Yarns Superwash DK (100% Extrafine Merino- 137yards/50g) in a minty green color. This was more of a guilty purchase for me than anything else- I think I’m going to use it to make myself a sweater! It’s incredibly light and lofty, so I bet it will make a comfy cardigan.

Berocco Vintage DK

This is another 6ish skeins of Vintage DK in fuchsia (a little darker then this) for a Hanukah sweater for my mother. She picked out the color online, so this time she can’t say that she doesn’t like it!

Valley Yarns Northampton

Next, there’s a single skein of Valley Yarns Northampton (100% Wool- 247 yards/100g) in Lake Heather. It’s much greener than the picture! This will probably make someone a hat at some point in time- it’s a just-in-case yarn. Ok, so it will probably end up in my stash. What’s wrong with that?

Valley Yarns Huntington

Last but not least, there’s two skeins of Valley Yarns Huntington (75% Fine Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon- 218 yards/50g) for future socks. Yes, this is also stash, but let’s be honest- I make a lot of socks! They would go really well with one of my crazy-er yarns to make the Stitch Surfer socks from the new Knitty, wouldn’t they? Those socks are really cool, so if you haven’t seen them yet, check them out!

That’s about all for me on this WIP Wed. I know that I haven’t been blogging a lot recently, but life has been really hectic. I’m trying! Hopefully, I’ll have a long overdue blog WEEKS in review this weekend. Hopefully. If you want to see MORE WIP Wed. posts, check out Tami’s.

WIP Wed.: Coquette Tank

This WIP Wed. post is brought to you by the Coquette Tank.

Right side= pretty

Believe it or not, a lace-weight tank is not the quickest project ever. Who would have thought? Still, I’m getting used to working with lace weight and enjoying the process along the way. I may have to abandon this project for holiday knitting, but I think that I will be happy to come back to it. Besides that, school has been a little bit insane, so I don’t have too much time to talk. I hope your week is going a little better!

Wrong side=ugly

For more WIP Wed. posts, check out Tami’s.

FO Friday: Zest Cardigan

Front side

It’s finally, finally finished. I can’t believe it! It feels like I’ve been working on this cardigan forever. Ok, that’s not exactly true, but a lot has happened to me since I started the project on May 30, which is probably part of why it took so long 🙂

From the front, mostly unbuttoned

For the concrete details, this is the Zest Cardigan by Jennifer Thomas (Fern Knits). Jenn was gracious enough to gift this pattern in a contest, and I was lucky enough to win it! I immediately bought the requisite amount of yarn for the 38″ cardigan: 6 skeins of Knit Picks Palette in black. I ended up barely dipping into the 5th skein, but that could be because of my tight gauge. I don’t know 🙂

Back- over the shoulder!

As a yarn choice, Palette worked out OK. It is definitely a workhorse yarn (as the price suggests), but, occasionally, I would split the plies with my sharper needles as I was doing the lace or cables. And black was probably not the best color to choose, as it made it a lot harder to see.

Detail of the lace on the sleeve

There were a couple of different mods on the sweater. For the “purposeful” mods, I changed a couple of things. First, instead of doing seed stitch in between the front and back, I did a 1×1 ribbing. I was slightly afraid that going up to the 38″ would be too much for me, so that would pull it in a little. Turns out I didn’t need it! I changed a couple of other minor things, mainly shortening the sweater to make it fit my petite frame.

From the front, buttoned

Now for the not so on purpose mods. I didn’t realize until after I finished that I would probably like buttons running all the way down the front, and that there would probably be enough extra material (because I had gone up a size) to use the button band for this, instead of creating the loops called for in the pattern. I grabbed some cheap buttons from Hancock Fabric (and when I say cheap, I mean cheap) and tried my hand at afterthought buttons. I think they ended up OK, but I’m just slightly afraid that they will get bigger the more I wear the sweater. I guess we’ll see. Beyond that, the buttons aren’t exactly even (or placed well), so they gape. At this point, I would just rather wear it with only the top buttoned then do the math to fix this.

Detail of the cable on the back

The other accidental mod has to do with the cable detail on the back. I started this portion while on an airplane (only me), so I ended up totally messing up the chart. I didn’t figure it out until I had completely finished the cable and had done a couple of repeats of the lace. By that point, I was so tired of the cables (black fingering weight cables in airplane light? BAD IDEA) that I didn’t feel like frogging. It came out OK, I think. Besides, it’s not like I will see it very often.

Flat detail of the cables on the back

There’s not much more to talk about this sweater. I’m really excited to finally have a hand-knitted transitional sweater. I’m sure I’ll wear it a lot…as soon as the weather drops down from 89 degrees.

All folded up. C’mon, weather, don’t let it be this way for long!

For more FO Friday posts, check out Tami’s.

WIP Wed: Zest Cardigan, Part 4

Well, it’s been over a month since I last talked about my Zest Cardigan in any depth, and the end is in sight! With the crazy-ness of my internship I didn’t exactly have a lot of time for knitting, but in the last couple days I’ve been watching the Olympics nonstop, and knitting for most of that time. As a result, I’ve gotten through the entire second sleeve! It’s a bottom-up raglan worked in mostly 1 piece, so this morning I had the chance to join all of the pieces together. I used my Knit Picks interchangeable needles for everything, so putting everything together was pretty easy. I would just unscrew the needle from the part I had been knitting from and put it on the next part, using those little end things to keep myself from losing any stitches. Pretty painless, considering how badly it could have gone. Right about now, it looks something like this.

Back of the sweater, including the cable panel in the middle and the mesh lace everywhere else

I apologize for the strange pictures, it’s storming outside, so the light is a little spotty, and this is all my camera could do. I do assure you that the Knit Picks Palette that I am making this out of is BLACK, not charcoal or some other shade of grey. I promise. Did you notice that the cable panel on the back is looking a lot like arrows at this angle? I wasn’t planning that AT ALL- this mainly comes from me trying to do tricky knitting on a plane. It’s still not as awesome as the cables on the original pattern, but its a lot better then I was expecting- yeah me!

from the side- you can actually see how this is going to be a sweater!

Anyway, that’s about all I have to talk about. I’m going to go jet off to watch some beach volleyball (which I didn’t know was so fun to watch- I’m such a big fan now!). For more WIP Wed. posts, go check out Tami’s.

WIP Wed: Zest Part 3

Progress on the Zest Cardigan has been slow, but actually pretty steady. I’ve already finished the cable pattern on the back and have moved up a couple of lace repeats past it. Unfortunately, MY cable motif does not actually look like the one in the pattern, or what I wanted it to look like.

To tell the truth, it’s probably my fault. I decided to take this project with me on vacation because I was so excited about working on it, and that might have been my downfall. I printed out the pattern in black and white because that’s all my printer does, and I was not willing to go through all of the hassle of printing the pattern off somewhere else just to have pretty pictures. That would probably have been fine if I had gone ahead and taken a look at the cable pattern (I hadn’t started it then)…but I didn’t

While the chart is a rectangle, the part of the pattern that is repeted and the part that just shows the edging isn’t (did that make any sense?). Jennifer marked that border in bright red, which hardly showed up at all in my black and white copy. I was half-way through a coast to coast plane ride before I realized my mistake. At that point in time I just made the executive decision to go with it. I was not about to rip over an inch of a cable and lace sweater made with black fingering weight wool in the middle of a plane.

It didn’t come out looking like anything artistic, and I may kind of hate it, but, as of now, I’m just going with it. Right now life is kind of hectic and I JUST NEED SOMETHING TO KNIT ON. Plus, the cable pannel goes on the back, so the only time I’m going to be able to see it is when I crane my neck in the mirror. And that’s assuming I can figure out what is going on with all of that dark wool 🙂

Either way, I’m enjoying the process of knitting it. The lace pattern is definitely addictive (although I kind of hate the purl side lace row- too many p2togtbl’s) and it’s zooming off the needles. Pretty soon I’m going to have to ditch the body for the sleeves- we’ll see how that works out.

Sorry for the miserable lack of pictures. Right now I can’t seem to summon up the energy! But next time, I promise you’ll get to see it with your own eyes. For more WIP Wed. posts, check out Tami’s.

Zest Cardigan, Part 1

I finally got the chance to start on my summer sweater the other day. Of course, it’s the sweater that I wanted to wear during the summer, but it will probably still be wearable well into the fall 😉 Plus, the fact that it’s mainly made of lace will probably make it a good summer project. In case you were wondering, it’s the Zest Cardigan by Jennifer Thompson, better known (to me) as Fern Knits. Way back in January she was generous enough to gift patterns to several of her blog readers, and I was lucky enough to score a copy of Zest. Needless to say, I grabbed 6 skeins of Knit Picks Palette (100% Wool) in black within the coming weeks. And then they all sat in my stash. Finally, finally, finally, that sitting is over!

What my Zest Cardigan will hopefully look like, snagged from the ravelry page (link above)- I hope that’s OK, Jennifer!

I’ve decided to go up a size to the 38″ so that, hopefully, I’ll be able to make closures for the whole cardigan, not just the bust area. I don’t usually like how that style looks on me, so I’m going to try to do buttons all the way down the front. Just in case that makes it too big, I’m going to sub the seed stitch that goes between the fronts and the backs for ribbing to pull it in a little bit. Besides that, the only mod I’m making going into the pattern is to shorten the bottom of the sweater by about an inch- the finished measurements are just a little too long on me. (Btw- her measurements are fantastic. She has info for everything you could think about modifying, PLUS there is a different size every 2″. No more trying to decide between 3″ of positive ease or 1″ of negative!) Oh, and I had to go up a needle size- my swatch was just a tad too small, so now I’m using a size US 6 instead of US 5.

My progress. It’s as small and insignificant as it seems 🙂

For now, though, I’m in seed stitch purgatory. It’s a seamless cardigan, but it’s worked from the bottom up. That means I have over 200 stitches in fingering weight for each row…ouch. Luckily, I’m almost done and should be able to start the lace soon! Unfortunately, I’m going away for most of next week, and we’re flying. I think I’m just going to bring along a much simpler pair of socks than tote around the whole sweater. And then, after that, I start my full-time summer internship. Basically, this sweater is probably going to be in the works for a while. But I’m still really excited about it (let’s see how long that lasts)!