I did a preview knit for Brooklyn Tweed! I’ve never done a preview knit before (let alone a test knit). So many of my friends are doing test knits, and I wanted to see what the fuss was. I thought that committing to a hat design, was like dipping my toe into the water, so to speak. Also, due to the size of the project, it gave me plenty of time to complete the hat! The pattern was fully road-tested and tech-edited, which meant the only thing for me to do, was knit the hat!
The design is called Diamants Hat by Mary Weaver (a BT designer) and it launches today. I’ve knit my hat in Jamieson & Smith 2ply jumper weight (4ply) as unfortunately BT Tones light (the called for yarn) is not available in Australia. The J&S is yarn I had in my stash, and I think it’s a great colour for me.
The pattern is well written and the charts are clear. I actually really enjoyed knitting the twisted stitches and the pattern describes how to do these really easily, without having to drop stitches at any point.
The weather has turned chilly here, so this is the perfect addition to my hat wardrobe. Thanks BT.
My Stripes! sweater by Andrea Mowry is complete! I’m really happy with it! The fit and drape vastly improved once it was blocked. I’m not sure why I was surprised by this, doesn’t blocking make everything better? It is a fun sweater and I’ve already worn it a couple of times. This is a relief to me, because I thought this would only be a very ‘occasional’ type sweater.
Everyone seems to love it. So my ‘February’ sweater is complete. My ‘March’ sweater (Wool & Honey) is a little behind schedule, due to a little distraction. More on that next time. And my ‘April’ sweater will need to be cast-on soon seeing as though we are in April. No spoilers 🙂
Since I’ve last blogged, I’ve been away on a crafty weekend in Daylesford with friends. During this weekend, I finished knitting my stripey socks and even did some cross-stitch (the photos of the patchwork, are not mine!).
Then this past weekend, we visited Tasmania. The main purpose of our visit was to see our Melbourne friends who were making delicious food in Tassie. We were not disappointed. Bruny Island oysters, yes please, as well as many other delicious delights Tasmania has to offer. Thank goodness they’ll be back in Melbourne this week, we’ve missed them and their food. Whilst in Tassie we also visited Mona, which was incredible. I haven’t visited Tassie in many years (maybe 20!), and Mona has been built since then. We’re already making plans to return one day, to spend more time because one day is not enough. And look I wore my Stripes! sweater to Mona.
I’m still going on my Stripes! sweater by Andrea Mowry. For some reason I thought I would be done by now, but a week for a sleeve is probably fair. Thank you for your kind suggestions, about knitting the sleeves 2 at a time. I just really detest knitting anything 2 at a time! I also got fed up with having to grab the next colour. So, I wound all of the yarn (in the correct order) into a gobstopper ball for fun.
The long weekend has been a good time to get a few things done. I’ve been dyeing, or rather over-dyeing some yarn and a sweater! I’ve wanted to correct some dye jobs (that I did) for a while now. Every time I looked at my yarn set aside for sweaters in my stash. I haven’t wanted to use the ones I dyed… so it was either fix it, or donate it.
These are the ‘Before’ skeins. I no longer like variegated yarn for sweaters, my tastes have changed…
This is the ‘After’
I’m much happier with these… but some of the skeins are still not quite right. The tarragon skeins look pretty good (phew!), but the ‘night’ ones have a few light patches in them. The bloodwood skeins were all good, except for one with a shocking flash of red. This was due to it being missed in the dye pot.
And here’s the Dragonfly sweater I knit, originally dyed in dusk.
Whilst I love the sweater, I never really liked all the white bits. So I attempted to over dyed in fuchsia. I kind of messed up the dyeing on this one too. I put in 50gms of dye for the 500gms of the sweater into the dye pot. Ten minutes in, I began thinking the colour was not deep enough to cover up the dusk colour. So what did I do? I dissolved the rest of the dye in my glass jar and threw it into the dye pot. Amateur! The result is uneven dyeing, there’s some really dark bits, and some not as dark bits. Dyeing is hard work! I have so much more appreciation for hand-dyers after this weekends escapades. The sweater may have gotten smaller as well…
Not to worry, I’ve ordered more dye, and the touch-ups will continue next weekend. Then I may never dye again.
Here’s my cast-on for March, I’ve casted on today. I’m knitting Wool and Honey by Andrea Mowry for my knitting group’s Bendigo sweater. If you’re not from here, The Australian Sheep and Wool show is in Bendigo, a large regional town in Victoria. It takes place every July. This is the 5 or 6th year my knitting group has made this tradition. I absolutely love this colour. This will be the second time I’ve made this, it was super fun the first time 6 years ago.
I think I may lengthen the sleeves on both versions. It’s been a week of improvements.
It’s the 2nd of March, and as expected I haven’t finished my Stripes! sweater. Why can’t we have a few more days per month?! We were short-changed in February after all.
I am on the first sleeve of the sweater, and I’m playing Yarn Chicken, boo hoo. I never like to cut it this fine, the yarn is from an Advent calendar, so there’s not much I can do. The stripes on the body are 8 rows in length. I feared that I wouldn’t have enough yarn for 8 rows on each sleeve.
And I was right. I’ve made 7 rows on the first complete stripe past the body divide.
Thanks to my trusty new scale, I’ll be weighing each colour, to know when I’m almost at the halfway point. I think I’ll be able to make 7 row stripes for all colours.
I have not cast-on for my March Sweater yet, but I will this week. Now that I’m on the sleeves, the stripe colour changes are happening more rapidly which is very motivating.
With less than a week to go until February is done and dusted, my Stripes! sweater is coming along. It won’t be cast off for the start of March. But, I hope to be at least halfway through the first sleeve. Aren’t knitting goals fun?!
To be honest, I’m not sure I’m loving this knit. This week, I have asked myself more than once, am I too old to be knitting sweaters with this much colour? Should I have knit this for a niece instead? Probably. My friends disagree. And then there’s the self-doubt over my order of colours, should I have put it in a proper colour sequence… I think once there’s sleeves, I’m going to like this more. I’ve placed barber cords on the ends of the needle and tried the sweater on a few times, and it looks to be a good fit. I’m excited to get it finished, and then I can truly decide if I’m going to like wearing this, or it has been a terrible mistake.
My other striped project, vanilla socks with yarn by Danni of Halfbaked Hand dyed, is being worked on intermittently, mostly when Damian is bbq’ing a feast for us. I’d love to have these cast off soon as well, they’re just too pretty to be on the needles for too long.
My Sabela sweater by Isabel Kraemer was off the needles last weekend and blocking. I’m super happy with how it turned out, there never was a doubt when it comes to an Isabel Kraemer pattern, they always fit really well.
The yarn is by Great Ocean Road Woollen Mills, Summer Fiesta in their 3/4ply. It was a pleasure to knit with this yarn which is a merino and linen blend. Whilst it is a light yarn, it has enough warmth to it, that I probably won’t wear it in the warmer months. Alas, it’s 18 degrees in Melbourne today, which is quite a change from the high 30 degree temperatures we’ve had this week. So maybe I’ll be wearing it sooner than I think.
Meanwhile I have cast on my ‘February’ sweater, Stripes! by Andrea Mowry. I’m using my advent calendar yarn from My Creative Garage.
I’m hoping to have finished the yoke and divided for the body and sleeves this weekend. It’s raining outside so this works with my plans. There’s less than 2 weeks left to February, so I’m hoping to get as much of this sweater knit as possible before the start of March.
I’ve also cast on for my Marlene socks, thanks so much for your comments on this project!
The yarn is beautiful, it has a lovely structure to it. I hope to pay more attention to this after I’ve done ‘enough’ knitting on my Stripes! sweater.
19 years ago I lived in San Francisco. It’s when I went from being a knitter, into being a Knitter with a capital K, which just means I became more obsessed. My husband was posted there on secondment, and I joined him obviously! I was unable to work for the first 6 months, which was great, depending on your point of view. We lived in the Marina district (right near Fishermans Wharf), with my local yarn store ‘Greenwich Yarn’, just a ten minute walk away. The whole experience is now dreamlike.
Laurie, who was the owner of Greenwich Yarn, was wonderful and so welcoming, offering help to her loyal customers. It was a small store, but it was very well curated. There was a lovely wooden table in the middle of this narrow store, that you were welcome to come and knit around during the day, even eat lunch there, which is forbidden by yarn stores these days! It almost felt like home. I spent hours there, which I had a lot of. When I made a friend at a Knit Night, separate to the yarn store, we would both hang out here together. What a time!
The oldest yarn in my stash comes from Greenwich Yarn. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and now I think it’s time to cast on.
It’s Crystal Palace Panda Wool, it’s a sock yarn. Laurie recommended I get an extra ball, because of the bamboo content, the yardage is less than usual. Isn’t the colour dreamy.
I’ve decided to pair this with also one of the oldest patterns I own. It’s from a magazine, and it’s by my favourite sock designer Cookie A. She no longer designs patterns, but she also lived in the Bay Area at the time. I met Cookie at my very first Stitches West yarn show whilst living in SF. I bought a bundle of her patterns, that were print-outs in plastic sleeves; I still have them.
But for this yarn, I wanted to knit socks that were almost Mermaid like. This is how I selected to knit Cookie’s Marlene socks.
I haven’t cast-on yet, but I will in February. So this is a super sentimental knit for me after all these years.
I’d like to get through more of the oldest parts of my stash (as well as the new), so that I don’t have things that are 20 years old! And maybe they won’t be as precious as this project, but it’s time.
I hope to catch you up on my other projects soon, maybe this weekend.
I love watching the Tennis, and the Australian Open is providing the perfect distraction to knitting miles and miles of stocking stitch in the round.
I still have a fair way to go on the body, and I’m almost certain I’m going to knit the sleeves full length. I’m aiming to have this finished in time for my February cast-on!
All but one of my Advent calendars, have been packed away in the lovely box I received for my Louie & Lola advent. Just temporarily, so that I don’t feel the overwhelm, and so that D gets some of the living room back.
My Creative Garage advent is going to be my February sweater cast-on! I’m going to knit Andrea Mowry’s Stripes! yoke sweater. I think this will fly off the needles and I’m excited to start.
I’ve been arranging and rearranging the colours in different orders. I didn’t want a fade for this sweater, as it is meant to have the look of Stripes. I still might switch a few more colours around, but I think I’m close.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…
I’ve had a good break, and I’ve done lots of things in between crocheting, knitting and (a little) spinning. It’s been great!
The tree is packed awayJapanese BBQSock knitting whilst BBQingMore sock knitting whilst BBQingKid sittingNiece’s temperature blanketGlampingTips for roughing itFinished SocksRearranging advent yarnBirthday pool partyIce cream birthday cakeSabela progress
I am so pleased with the progress I’ve made on my Sabelatop. I’m past the sleeve divide, and I’ve tried it on, and I think it’s looking great. I’ve decided it’s going to have long sleeves, it’s going to be an in-between seasons garment. Whilst it’s light, 4 ply weight (closer to 3ply), the merino/linen blend is quite warm, so short sleeves (my original intention), doesn’t make sense. The yarn is Summer Fiesta by GORWM in case you want some for yourself.
I’ve also cast on a pair of Vanilla socks on January 1 (see above). So now, I’m thinking of attempting to knit a pair of socks and a garment per month again, how fun is that? I’ve made such great progress on this holiday of mine! I’m now contemplating my February cast-ons, whilst knitting my last stitches before work tomorrow. Do you have any knitting plans for the year?
Thanks Maureen for your comment on my last post about my mum and me looking alike 🙂 I’ll write more soon about my intentions for my Advent yarn… I think I’m changing my mind about one of the calendars!
Sonia Knits 