Seat of the Pants Cardi

Seat of the Pants Cardi
Pattern: My own, based on the Anthropologie Inspired Capelet
Yarn: Knit Picks Elegance in Daisy
Needles: US 5 and US 3
Buttons: 11 plastic from a big box store

I liked the Antropologie Inspired Capelet, but I knew that a capelet was not going to flatter my body, and what I needed anyway was a nice-fitting cardigan, and I had all this Knit Picks Elegance lying around from a failed project. I loved the color and the yarn, so the Seat of the Pants cardi was born. I call it that because I really didn't know what would happen once I started this. Would I have enough yarn? Would a top down pattern work even after my repeated failures at making a top down pattern fit? Well, I had to order an extra ball of yarn, which after going through my stash searching for something else and running across an unused ball just sitting there I realize I didn't need to do.

Here's how it worked:
1. Unravel Ms. Marigold. Wind all the bits and ends into one big ball. Because it had already been frogged once because of the way the pattern worked, there were lots of bits and ends.
2. Determine gauge
3. Decide on size of neckline. I wanted something quite a bit wider than the original, which would also save on yarn.
4. Follow instructions on pattern for dividing stitches based on gauge. Decide to keep yarn over increases for interest.
5. Knit like mad. Insert two short rows for the girls. Also, cast on four stitches at underarm to attempt to make the body circumfrence and raglan length compatible.
6. Add waist shaping, decreasing three times one inch apart after knitting to below bust and increasing three times one inch apart.
7. Knit to desired length.
8. Order extra ball of yarn.
9. Knit ribbing at arm holes. Knit on button band. Frog because the math didn't work to my satisfaction. Knit again. Knit button hole band.
10. Realize buttons have been left at parent's house.
11. Swear.
12. Block, stretching considerably because despite my best caculations, it's a bit tight.
13. Get buttons. Sew them on.
14. Wear on freakishly warm day (44 degrees yesterday) preceding freakishly cold day (10 degrees today).

I'm not sure if I'm really in love with this. I think if I were to knit it again, I wouldn't make the neckline so wide. It's a bit wider than I really wanted. Also, I think I would eliminate the short rows. You can see in the pic that the front points dip down a bit. Also, I think I would eliminate the waist shaping, and I would find a stretchier bind off for the botton. Despite binding off with US 5, this sucker is stretched to the limits over my hips. Other than that, I love the yarn both the color and the softness. And I love the buttons. And the armholes fit perfectly. All in all, the jury's still out on this one, but not bad for a first "design."

If you, like me, are finding that your patience is not up to watching that drivel that they are marketing as TV with the writers' strike continuing, may I suggest The Complete Jane Austen on PBS. Sunday nights here in Michigan. And the best part is that it's continuing through to the spring!

Updates

This is the second time I've written this post today, and I can't remember what I wrote before. Apparently, Blogger had a little nap. I hope it's rested.

So. Seat of the Pants Cardi, finished, blocked, awaiting buttons tonight. The buttons are the coolest part of this very classic cardi. They're buttery yellow and brown swirls, and I loves them.
The EZ shirt yoke is coming along. I'm completely unconcerned about finishing this or the progress I've made. I'm just letting it go... knitting along when I feel like it.

This is the hat for my brother. After I finally got my hands on a US6 16-inch circular, I managed to knock all that out last night. I really want to get this done soon, so this is my main project aside from sewing on the buttons to my cardi tonight. The outside is going to be plain jane - just one stripe in the middle. The inside is going to have some color work to keep me interested. This yarn (unknown hemp/wool blend) will really benefit from a double layer. It is very stiff and coarse with lots of vegetable matter, and I hate it, but it's what he wanted. So. Double layers to hopefully keep out some of the cold and a good soaking and blocking to try and soften it up.

Real FO shots of the SoP cardi later this week?

Anastasia

I love me a pair of handknit socks.

Pattern: Anastasia by Mintyfresh
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote, 1.5 skeins in Purple Splendor
Needles: US 1
Mods: Shortened the leg a bit.
New techniques: Toe-up socks! This is my first pair, and I am quite tickled. I like not having to graft, and the heel turning seems much faster and easier. I don't like the lack of depth on the toe and I wonder how that same lack of depth on the heel would effect other patterns. That said, they fit perfectly.

I'm contemplating new ways around this blog... I'm definitely going to keep it, but I think that it will turn into a finished objects only kind of thing, unless I stumble across some problem or bit of news... We'll see how it goes. Nevertheless, you shouldn't be waiting too long for the next FO. Seat of the Pants cardi is getting close, close, close!

I got a wonderful little package from Knitpicks this week. My aunt had given me a gift certificate for Christmas, and in my little package was The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush, a bottle of Euclan, US 6 16" circulars (which do not seem to exist outside of mail order), and one ball of Elegance in Daisy to finish my cardi. This is plenty enough to get me into some serious trouble this weekend. The needles are for my brother's hat which he commissioned me to make last, um, May. Yeah, about that. I've been putting it off because 1) I didn't have the needles and 2) he really wasn't open to any fun patterns or anything. Enter EZ. In The Opinionated Knitter there is a pattern for a Very Warm Hat which is lined. This seems to me to be a perfect solution to satisfying both of us. Not only will it be warmer with a double layer ( the yarn is a hemp/wool blend which knits up like a cotton) but I can sneak in some fun designs on the inside. And should he decide that he likes the pattersn, well, it's reversible. Only one slight snafu. I lost the measurements I took last May.....

Gretel

Oh Gretel, the perfect first project of the year. I love the texture of this knit - nubbly, bumply, twisty, turny, and all accentuated by the incredible softness of Berrco Ultra Alpaca. I love alpaca. My current back up plan for if this whole being a musician thing falls through is to start an alpaca farm and spin my own fleece.

Gretel by Ysolda

Yarn: 1 and a bit skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca #6277 (I think it's called "moss")

Needles: US7 and US8 16" circulars

Size: Slouchy. Plus I think that my gauge was a bit big. I wasn't completely diligent in checking my gauge because I have gigantic head and generally need to increase the gauge to make a hat that fits my head.

Mods: None

New techniques: Provisional cast on and tubular cast on. I've been afraid of the provisional cast on (which has kept me from a tubular cast on since you need one for the other) but I am currently in love with it and want to do it every chance I get. My crocheted edge even "unzips" the way say it should but I've read never usually happens. Yay provisional cast on!

Speaking of provisional cast on, I just cast on for my first pair of toe-up socks. I needed a bit of a quick knit, and something kind of mindless, but not too mindless, you know. Updates on that as it progresses.

In my queque is a Dollar and a Half cardi for my mom since she loves mine and has been itching to get me to knit something for her. We decided on Cascade 220, but she's still picking the color. I'm a little nervous since this is the first time I've knit a sweater for someone other than myself, and I want it to fit properly. At least I've knit the pattern before, so I know all it's pitfalls and booby traps. It will be bit before I can really start on this one, so I'm strongly considering starting an EZ seamless sweater in a shirt yoke kind of like Jared's Big Blue only not a cardigan (because I'm craving some stockinette in the round). I'm wondering, though, if the shirt yoke is a little too masculine. I flip back and forth on this because I'm envisioning a weekend-y kind of warm and snuggly sweater, not a going-out kind of sweater, and a fair isle yoke will not be terribly flattering on me (not to mention I don't have the colors for a nice one) since I have relatively broad shoulders. Probably I'll just do it. So then I have to pick yarn. I'm thinking seriously about reallocating the light blue Sheperd Colour 4 Me from the Deep V Sweater (which is another option for a warm and snuggly weekend sweater, though not stockinette in the round) but I also just got a rather large shipment from Webs which I sent home because I ordered on Christmas Day and I thought would get there before yesterday. There are some things in there that I'm very interested in looking at in person.... Any thoughts on EZ and sweater design would be MIGHTLY appreciated.
Now, go knit yourself a Gretel!

New

I feel like since midterms I've been running, running, running, just keepin' on keepin' on, ignoring the pain and fatigue, one foot in front of the other that by the time I finally finished the semester and got back from Midwest, my mind knew it was time to stop but my feet just kept on going and I blew right past Christmas and barely acknowledged the new year from sheer fatigue. So it's lucky that today is the Orthodox New Year (and, incidently, the start of a new semester) and being of some significant Eastern European blood, I choose today as my official recogniziance of the New Year.

I resolve to:
- give myself a pedicure once a month. (Um, this could be a bit of a disaster since on my first attempt last night I managed to break a bottle of nail polish and get it all over my other bottles and now the whole aparment smells vaguely like nail polish/nail polish remover and the scented candle I lit to try and get rid of the smell.)
- make my health and fitness non-negotiable. This means it takes precedence over everything but school work, practicing, and jobs (if someone will hire me). To that end:
- watch less TV. There's nothing on anyway, especially with the writers' strike.
- clean out and organize my clothes, keeping only what fits and is flattering and what I will actually wear.
- focus eating vegetables and not on prohibiting sweets.

On the actual New Years Day, I treated myself to casting on for Gretel, which I had seen on Kara and absolutely loved. I finished it on January 4th.

Today being a singularly disgustingly grey day, I was not able to get a respectable shot of the hat, so this will have to do until the sun comes out. The whole day was twilight, only without the pretty colored sky. Like, turn your lights on in the middle of the day kind of dark. Oh, and also 60 degrees. Perfect weather for a woolen hat, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, I've got a new craft to be sharing with you. I'm learning to sew! Here's my first attempt:
It's the "Blooms and Borders" pillow from the Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. I fell in love with this book during a post-birthday trip to Barnes and Noble, and managed to resist it the first time, but kept thinking about it and came back to get it later. It's a real beginnger's guide (which is what I am), giving instructions on everything from how a sewing machine works to how to sew a straight seam to how to buy a machine, not to mention a bunch of patterns, many of which I'd actually wear.
The one thing I'll say about this pillow (which I love, love, love) is that the seam allowances were not included in the pattern, which you are instructed to cut yourself, so make sure you include them or you end up having to make some creative readjustments to the pattern, which I did. I had to re-cut the back (thank goodness I bought a bit more than the required amount of fabric) and add an extra border of strips to make it fit the 18" pillow.

I've even got a sewing machine! My grandparents live in a retirement community and they have a "treasure chest" which is a bunch of donated items the residents don't want anymore which they sell and donate the money. My mom asked my grandma to keep and eye out for a machine for me and that same week, one showed up. Well, two actually. The one I bought put me out $20. It's a Singer from the 70s, and it even came in a cabinet (which I won't use right now, not enough space, but maybe some day). It's currently in the shop to get a tune-up but hopefully it will be working again soon, and I can start making thing like cute skirts and dresses.

Ooo, one more resolution:

-make one cute, well-fitting sundress with my own hands.

Happy New Year!