I love adorable handmade Christmas ornaments, but I don’t like finicky knitting. Here is my predicament. I have cast-on for my Knitting group’s Christmas Ornament swap, and I’m hoping it won’t take more than a few night’s worth of knitting hours. No spoilers here 🙂
If it’s super cute, I’d like to make one for me, and maybe one for my knitting niece… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I might absolutely hate knitting the next part, or I might love it. We shall see.
This weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. We took her to Kyneton and spoilt her with fancy food. She loved it, and it was great fun.
Before I cast-on for my Christmas ornament, I cast on and began knitting my EXP sweater (by Sanna & co.) with a group of friends. Now that my Vintage Flannel is finished I can focus on this and try to catch up to the others.
I purchased a Louie and Lola kit from the Bendigo Sheep show a few years ago; so I was really happy when my new knitting friends (old friends who have suddenly become knitters) decided they all wanted to knit it. The light colour will fade into 4 colours in total. I am becoming obsessed with this stitch pattern. And it’s not Brioche!
I hope December treats you well, I’m doing my best not to be overwhelmed.
I’ve cast on for Vintage Flannel a sweater by Anna Johanna and I’m obsessed! It is bringing me so much joy, I’ve wanted to make this for such a long time and it’s now coming to fruition. The yarn is by My Creative Garage, who is well known for her beautiful pinks and I love everything she dyes. The contrast colour is actually 3 colours, a speckled yarn and 2 solid colours that I’m alternating through every few rows. This was Vanessa’s idea after I showed her my inspiration…
I was inspired by test knitter: Purlific Knitter’s project she always makes beautiful projects, I love seeing what she’s knitting over on Ravelry.
As the yarn I’m using is superwash (I will not be beaten this time!), I’m going to knit my collar by picking up stitches later, rather than first up. I’ll also keep an eye on the length of the body and sleeves, this pattern is kind of cropped so I don’t think I’ll be in danger of it being too long, but nonetheless, I’m paying attention!
I’ve also adjusted the amount of short rows at the back neck. Highlighted by a few knitters on Ravelry, there is an extreme amount of short rows in the pattern, so rather than ending up with a blob at the back of my neck, I’ve done a normal amount of short rows. But… this has meant that I’ve had to adjust where the vertical rows of the colourwork pattern landed to compensate for the increases that hadn’t occurred yet. It’s a bit hard to explain. Needless to say, this is NOT Knit Night knitting!
This is my current Knit Night knit, Colourblocked Rib socks by Summer Lee, from her book The Sock Project. Once again the yarn is by Danni of Halfbaked Hand dyed, and is a one-off colourway.
Last weekend I visited the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of Vic, to see an exhibition they were hosting for Annette Finton Instagram link aka Nini & Wink Facebook link. She is a Melbourne Fibre Artist and I’ve loved seeing her artwork around Melbourne (a lot of it outside!) for many years.
Pretty cool huh? If you click on one of these images, it will take you through a gallery of larger images.
Very excitingly, my Fragmentation Cardigan is finished, with sewn on buttons and all! I’m so glad I made the amendments to this cardigan, to give me a better fit/length, the extra effort was/is worth it. I now have a cardigan I will wear and it won’t be languishing in the wardrobe. Yay!
The final clue for Stephen West’s mystery sock knit-along also dropped this week. Whilst the final clue wasn’t a lot of knitting for some. It seems my row gauge was tighter than most, so I got to do ALL of the final patterning for the foot before the toe. Which is okay, because I would have been disappointed to have missed out on the fun basket weave rows at the end!
But I am so glad it’s now done! Another bright and fun project for the books. I’ve also done a bit of swatching this week for my next sweater project, it’s been a long time since my last sweater cast-on and I can’t wait to start.
I’ve finished knitting my Fragmentation Cardigan, I think. It’s been blocked, but I still need to purchase buttons, I think. I’ve tried it on now, and it has grown a bit. I wish I made a size smaller. It looks a little oversized on me, which is not my style. It’s also a tad long. Do I buy the buttons and attached them, then judge? Or do I remove the button bands and seam up the middle, making it a sweater? For now, I’m going to mope, it’s been a mopey day. I’ve unintentionally made a couple of oversized sweaters in the past year or so, and this will be the third one. It’s starting to get to me. The three sweaters have in common: superwash yarn, garter stitch or mosaic (stretchy) stitch. 2 of them are by Stephen West. I’m feeling some rage here. Maybe I’ll sew the buttons on (and sew the buttonband down for stability), and it will be fine. Maybe. I might ask my knitting group for their advice, I wouldn’t want to be rash.
I have cast-off my Hot Jam Donut socks (a Bendigo colourway by Halfbaked Hand dyed) in 8ply and they are super cosy. I added a bit of silk mohair to the red and white sections, as I had some random fluff in my stash. They feel amazing on my feet, and they fit hooray.
Apparently I’m participating in the Stephen West mystery sock along which is launching on Tuesday, Sharon told me I had to.
The socks require 5 mini skeins of yarn. I’ve wound up some minis from a My Creative Garage mini skein set that I bought at last year’s Bendigo Show (go me!), and I’ve also gathered some speckled minis from a Little Woollie advent calendar. I’ll only need 5 of these minis, but I’m keeping my options open for now.
When I posted my Bendigo haul online this year, my sister who came to the show last year, commented that she hadn’t used any of the yarn she purchased from last year yet. I then begain to wonder if I had?!
Last year’s Bendigo haul
Turns out, I hadn’t either! I’ve used the bags, sure! And now I’ve wound up the mini skein set for the mystery sock along. I’m also finally going to cast on for my long desired sweater Vintage Flannel by Anna Johanna from her book Strands of Joy II. It’s going to be in yarn purchased specifically for this from last year’s Bendigo. Vanessa from My Creative Garage, also dyed up some extra skeins for me especially for this. Today I wound them all up. The pattern is not going to be released as an individual pattern until next year (I thought it would be released this year, so I delayed casting on) but not anymore, as my sister bought the book for my birthday, thanks Suzy!
Just realised Vanessa named this colour after me!I hate winding yarn!
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.
I’ve had a bit more time for contemplation. I’ve had a week to sulk, and a week to consider what to cast-on next. Then this morning, I measured the gauge on my yet to be frogged Calm Down Sweater. Are you all giggling?
My row gauge is in fact correct and it matches the specified gauge of 30 rows. My stitch gauge is on the tighter side of 24 sts rather than 22 (but that part doesn’t matter). I’ve gone back to the pattern page on Ravelry and checked out more of the finished projects, and it appears… my cardigan is on track.
The sleeves are deep. I’ve read a few more people’s project pages, and they say the same.
See how Lily Kate the designer (and also model in real life) has her hands up above her head. The sleeve depth is a bit deceiving, not intentionally I’m sure.
Thanks to ‘Knitting is so fun’, (sorry I don’t know your real name), for your comment about altering the sleeve depth. I have found that, whenever I try to alter a pattern, it never works out for me. And maybe I’m not prepared to rip things out a million times to make it perfect, I’m not that kind of knitter. For me knitting is supposed to be somewhat relaxing, I want it to be right to start with, if not the first, then definitely the second time.
So maybe… I’m thinking about continuing. I’ll probably decrease the sleeves at a faster rate, so that I don’t get total batwings, but they’re still going to be huge, and I have to be okay with that. The body will be better fitted, so it shouldn’t end up being a sack on me, hopefully.
You see, in this week of contemplation, I wasn’t so upset about putting the cardigan aside. I was bummed because I still really wanted this cardigan. I’ve been looking at what to knit next and I can’t move past this, I really want some plain wardrobe staples. So let’s see.
So I haven’t told you, but I’d already restarted knitting The Calm Down DK cardigan once. It happened after Knit Night one week a few weeks ago, when something Karen said about row gauge triggered me. Long story short – my row gauge didn’t match the front left piece I was knitting, and I restarted the cardigan on smaller needles.
The new row gauge on 3.5mm needles still didn’t match the gauge of 22 sts on 32 rows (it had hardly changed), it was still in fact close to the gauge I acheived with 4mm needles which was about 28 rows, but the fabric was denser and I thought that it would be okay. Surely I couldn’t knit this on smaller needles?!
Fast forward to this weekend when I joined the fronts to the back after the armholes, I laid my knitting down over some of my knits from my wardrobe to compare.
The sleeves were going to be larger than my Pressed Flowers Sweater… yes that is a bad thing
Rather than investing anymore knitting time into this cardigan. I’m calling it… it’s being ripped out. I may never attempt to knit this cardigan again. I don’t think I’ve ever given up on a garment, but I’m glad I’ve made this decision at this point rather than thinking it was still going to work out, it’s not.
Good news is, I’m ready for a new cast-on for October 🙂 the next cast on has to be a winner.
Last week I made the decision to not cast on a new sweater in May. The excitement of casting on with reckless abandon, has taken a pause… but only for May! I currently have 3 sweater/cardigan WIPs, and I feel as though that is the most I can cope with at one time.
I’ve been working solidly on my March Sweater, the Pressed Flowers pullover, and I hope to finish it up this month as well as make some good progress on my other 2 WIPs.
I’m now on the rib of the body of my sweater and I’ve divvied up the gradient yarn in 2 for my sleeves; I really hope I have enough, eek…
I’ve also cast-on for some Stephen West socks, Painting Honeycombs, which I’ve been wanting to knit since they were released last year. Using some stash yarn in Patons Patonyle fluro orange, and some mini skeins from advent calendars and left-overs. My friend Jade gifted me this gorgeous honey bee stitch marker, how perfect.
Whilst I was away in Daylesford, a sneaky purchase was made from my favourite self-striping hand dyer Danni of Half-baked hand dyed.
Isn’t it gorgeous… it was sitting by my Painting Bricks sweater WIP when it arrived, and I think it’s a perfect match.
I’m looking forward to getting lots done this month, so the excitement of a new cast-on returns for June.
Yippee my Paul Klee Sweater by Midori Hirose is all finished! I’m very happy with how it has turned out. The yarn is from Kate Davies’ Advent calendar of 2023 which included all the colours from her Milarrochy Tweed yarns, plus all of her new colours released in the club. It was a very happy happenstance. Whilst you can choose to limit the number of colours used in the yoke, I decided to use 22 of the possible 24 colours from the Milarrochy Tweed range, and the additional charcoal colour for the body and sleeves.
I have been busily knitting on my March Sweater, Pressed Flowers by Amy Christophers. I’ve just divided for the body and sleeves. Originally I thought I would be knitting to the second size of instructions (the pattern has a crazy amount of ease), but I found that my row gauge (or my gauge overall) was smaller than expected, it’s hard to tell with mosaic knitting. But when I placed my yoke up against another yoke I’ve knitted, I could tell there was not going to be any ease, if I’d divided at that point. So I needed to knit another repeat of flowers before dividing for the body and sleeves. I think that was the correct decision, no one has time for sweaters that are too tight to wear.
My lovely basic stripey Christmas socks are also off the needles. The yarn is by my friend Danni from Halfbaked Hand dyed. Now that I don’t have any socks on the needles, I’m feeling a little lost.
I’m casting on for my April Sweater today… or maybe just a swatch, more on this month’s Cardigan… after I get back from a Spinning retreat next weekend. So much to do, so little time.
Sonia Knits 