Author Archives: Kris

Stop! Sweater time!

Posted on 17 February 2012 by Kris

This took me way longer to piece together than it should have, but I’ve been plagued with one thing or another since my last post on this project. Those things included some serious (and unexplained) wrist pain, which obviously made knitting and finishing a bit difficult.

But! I finally healed up enough to finish Amelia. Which makes me super happy!

Pattern: Amelia by Laura Chau
Yarn: O-Wool Balance in color 8014
Needles: US6 / 4.5mm Clover bamboo circulars

I made a lot of modifications to this one. The most obvious one is that I chose to add buttons all the way down. Sadly, I don’t love the buttons themselves, but they’ll work, and they’re easy to replace if I find ones I like better.

Other modifications: I mentioned this before, but I added shaping to this sweater. I’m still having a bit of a hard time with front shaping though, specifically bust increases. It’s more of a mental thing; for some reason I feel like my measurements are wrong there, and that the distance between my waist and full bust is longer than it actually is. I really just need to stop doubting the numbers and start increasing more rapidly. I did a better job at it this time, but there’s still room for shaping improvement.

I also went for set in sleeves instead of raglan shaping.

Oh! Speaking of sleeves, these are almost perfect! I could probably stand to add a little more ease in the lower arms on my next long-sleeved sweater, but these are pretty comfortable as is. Also, they’re just about as long as I wanted.

I do have a couple of quibbles with this sweater, both of which are sizing related and which can be easily remedied in future sweaters. This one’s a little too big in the back, and a hair too small in the front; just a teensy bit more ease in front would have prevented the gapping in the buttonband. Whoops. I’m pretty thrilled with the sweater despite these things, though!

I’m also pretty thrilled with the yarn I used, and definitely want to get more of it, once I let myself buy sweater yarn again. O-Wool Balance is 50% cotton, 50% merino wool; it’s not the first cotton/wool blend I’ve used but it’s my favorite to date! It’s warm, but not too hot for me to wear most of the year; it has a nice weight to it, but doesn’t feel as heavy as, say, Arm Candy does. The twisted rib pattern shows up beautifully, and the yarn softens up nicely after a wash, but not enough to make me fear immediate pilling.

So, overall, even with the minor sizing issues, I would still call this a win!

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More for the feet

Posted on 27 January 2012 by Kris

I’m caught up on the FO photography again, and have not one, but two new things to show you! First off, my last FO of 2011:

Pattern: Spey Valley by Nancy Bush, published in Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in Peppergrass
Needles: US0 / 2.00 Inox express circulars

I only did 8 rows of ribbing #1 and 3 repeats of ribbing #2, rather than 12 rows and 5 repeats respectively, because I made the whole leg shorter and wanted to keep the original pattern’s proportions relatively intact. I’m a little sad that ribbing #2 doesn’t show up all that well, but other than that, I’m pretty happy with the sock. Nice and simple knit, for the most part, although I don’t really know how I feel about working the braids.

I like the yarn a lot – soft, but not overly so, and the colors are gorgeous! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of it… I have nearly half a skein left!

This is my third pair of my 2011 self-imposed sock club, which I obviously didn’t finish. But, with the three pairs I did from the sock club, plus the two for T, I beat my previous record of four pairs a year (held jointly by years 2006 and 2009). So, I’m calling this a win anyway!

Also a win is my first project for 2012:

My own Felted Clogs! Yes, it’s the same yarn and pattern as T’s, although I opted for a plain join for my slippers’ soles. It’s a little weird to have an item nearly identical to his, since we are SO not the matchy-matchy couple-y type. But I didn’t know what else to do with the rest of that bulky wool, so slippers it was! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the last 70-something yards…

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Sweater work

Posted on 23 January 2012 by Kris

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on Amelia since you last saw it!

I finished the fronts. Looking at them now, I kind of wish I’d made the twisted rib section a little narrower. But I’m not bothered enough to reknit, or even to ladder down and change, so… it’s all good.

I’ve also finished the sleeves, which I’m a little paranoid about, not gonna lie. The last couple of times I knit long sleeves, I didn’t do so well – Roam’s sleeves are too long, and let’s not get started with all of Eris’s sleeve issues. So I made T measure me several times just to make sure. I think these are good now, but we’ll see once I seam everything.

After seaming, all I have left is to knit the neckline edging. Oh, and to sew on the buttons. Can’t wait to have a new sweater!

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About one ill-advised yarn purchase

Posted on 20 January 2012 by Kris

Whoops, still haven’t posted all my 2011 FOs! So here’s the story of my second-to-last project of last year.

Years ago, before I knew any better, I’d purchased a bag of bulky-weight wool on sale. It wasn’t until after it was too late to return it that I asked myself: “what the heck does a San Diegan need bulky-weight wool for, anyway?!”

Finally, it was T who gave me an answer. We had a conversation a couple of weeks before Christmas that started like this:

T: “My feet are cold.”
K: “Dude, I made you two pairs of wool socks, why don’t you wear them?”
T: “I don’t want to wreck them!”

Which explains why I once thought he never wore his handknit socks. Turns out he does, but only in shoes. Since we don’t wear shoes in the house, and he didn’t own any slippers, he would swap out the wool socks out for cotton ones as soon as he got home.

And he’d been doing that because our carpet is pretty hard on socks. He witnessed me darn several of my pairs within the first six months of our moving into our current place, before I remembered that I actually owned a pair of slippers (a gift from my parents that I’d barely used in my previous laminate-floored place) and started using them regularly. I haven’t had much of a problem with premature sock wear since.

So, the conversation continued along these lines:

K: “Well… I could make you house socks out of heavier yarn so they wouldn’t take as much time, would you feel less bad about wrecking them then?”
T: “I guess. But what about slippers?”

And you know? That wasn’t a bad idea.

Pattern: Felt Clogs by Bev Galeskas
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Wool Bulky in Oxford Heather
Needles: US13 Denise circulars

I opted for this particular pattern, since I knew several people who had used it – more than once, even! And I can see why it’s so popular, it’s a nice, clever, and clear pattern.

We have a front-loading washer, and I wasn’t sure how felting was going to go – I hadn’t actually felted anything in years, and that was back when I had a top-loader. Turns out I shouldn’t have worried, it turned out fine.

They’re still going to wear through at some point, but neither of us will feel all that bad about it by then, I think. T should get plenty of use out of them before then. And these took me so little time to make, and they were pretty fun too, so it won’t be that big of a deal to reknit them.

Also? He’s worn them pretty much every day since I finished them. So, success!

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Textured Shawl

Posted on 30 December 2011 by Kris

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe 2011’s just about done. I’ve finished a few projects in the past couple of weeks, but haven’t had quite enough time to photograph them! So, I have just one December FO to show for now.

This project actually went pretty quickly, after I started working on it more than once a fortnight.

Pattern: Textured Shawl Recipe (Ravelry link) by Orlane
Yarn: Jo Sharp DK Wool Tweed in Oatmeal
Needles: US7 / 4.5mm Clover bamboo circular

My only modification was to mirror the textured pattern.

It’s really more of a scarf or shawlette because of it’s size, but I like that, I think. Cute and warm, but not too bulky or unwieldy. I’m glad to have it, and I’m glad to have used up some of the oldest yarn in my stash.

Speaking of which, I didn’t really like working with the Jo Sharp DK Tweed – it was pretty rough on my hands. It did soften up a little after a wash, though. I wouldn’t wear it right next to my skin, but it’s nice as another layer.

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