You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
So here is my ode to Socktoberfest 2007
I came, I knit, I drank, I ripped. That is all I have to say about that.
In regards to the picture above, here are a few of my thoughts:
- I am a girl drink drunk so I don’t drink beer, instead I opt for fruity and sweet drinks, hence the Hard Cider.
- The loose Monkey was not doing it for me. Lesson learned here, 2.5mm is often classified as size US1, US1.5, OR US2. Knitter beware!
- Yes, that yarn on the ball winder is the beginning to the end of the monkey you see behind it.
- I now know that it is not only my knitting mojo, but my crafting mojo in general is all screwed up. For the shirt I was making for class, I ended up making two of the same sleeve instead of a right and left. Unlike the semi forgiving nature of knitting, sewing is not so generous. So more cutting ahead, while I burn one of the sleeves in effigy to banish the evil crafting spirits.
OMG OMG OMG!!! I have been stalking the Amy Butler site for a glimpse of the new patterns and they are up!! I am soo happy 
I have been lusting after the Lotus tunic and cami every since seeing it in the inspiration section of the site and now it is here!! The Sophia carry all is definitely high on the must sew list as well. Maybe I will make it to match my Weekender since I have more of that fabric stashed away. I can’t wait for November 1st because that is when they are suppose to be available. Yeah!!!
…because my knitting is all over the place. I’ve got FO’s falling out the ears and that just isn’t me.
So I thought I would make a quick Christmas hat out of the leftover Noro Iro…
Too small…
Next, I thought I would start on the on the Turtleneck Vest from Fitted Knits
but my Left Lifted Increase was leaving some pretty big holes. I tried to knit them through the back loop to try and minimize the holes but it just looks messy and uneven so that was forsaken too.
I finally thought I would cast on for the Monkey socks. Man I was cruising happily thought these socks because they are a pretty easy knit as socks go. I was even impressed that they were knit on size 2 because I have a big foot and the circumference of the sock was 8″ unstretched and my foot is a 10″. They were going so fast that the sock looked like this on Sunday…
and today it looks like this..
Just one problem. I didn’t realize size 2 DPNs come in two sizes 2.75mm and 2.5mm. WHAT!!! Yeah, guess which ones I used. You guessed it. Even funnier is that I bought a pair, then misplaced them, then brought another pair. When I figured out my error I went in search of the other needles, which just so happen to be 2.75mm too! Errr.
So I am this far to finishing the first sock, it is kinda loose and I really like the yarn so I may rip and either start again with the Monkey or find some other pattern to showcase this lovely yarn.
I want my mojo back!!!
Ok, so the weather turned out to be cold today (yes, 64F is cold to me). So I got to wear my Bradshaw today. Of course I was teased a bit about wearing a parka, but I went to lunch with a coworker yesterday and sat in the shade. It took me 2 hours to warm up again. Poor blood circulation? Maybe, but now I got Bradshaw to keep me warm!
My obsession with Bradshaw began when I bought the Noro Knits book for the Butterfly pattern. The contrasting collar and cuffs caught my attention straight away and possibly even more than Butterfly, if that is possible. As soon as I got it home I google searched this baby to death and only came up with one other instance of the sweater at HPNY knits. How could that be?? Such a wonderful sweater going unrevealed. Well, that is when I google search the yarn…the rest is history, or at least to be continued later in the post
Yarn:
- Noro Iro, 80% Wool and 20% Silk, color #63
- Valley Yarn Berkshire Bulky, 85% wool/15% alpaca, color Red Purple
Inspiration: Noro Bradshaw Sweater from Noro Knits
Needles: Size 10.5
Size: 38-40
Yardage: Approx. 1048 yards or 8 skeins of Iro, 3 skeins of Berkshire Bulky
Modifications: Knit the body to 29″ instead of 34 3/4″, knit the collar to 9″ instead of 14″, only increased sleeve cap stitches to 60 sts in an effort to reduce the bat wing effect in the underarm.
Enjoyment Factor: 8.5
Knit Time: August 24 – September 29
The Good:
- Sale Yarn: I cannot stress enough how imperative sale yarn is to my knitting. As I was saying above, I google searched the yarn and Holey Moley was I surprised at $20.00 a skein for the base yarn, Noro Iro, and $17.00 for the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Super Chunky!!! That makes this sweater nearly $275.00!! now I like the sweater and all but nearly $300.00 is pushing the edge of knitting sanity. That is when my faithful partners Little Knits came on the scene with 58% off Noro Iro, and WEBS produced the suitable substitution yarn, berkshire bulky, at an economic price. All in all, the sweater cost me a little less that $100.00. Pricey yes, but have you calculated your knitting projects lately?? You will be surprised at how much we could save by going shopping
- Both yarns were wonderful:
- Noro Iro: despite being 80% wool, is really softened by that 20% silk content. It is not scratchy at all (disclaimer: I do find Kureyon to be scratchy but not prohibitively so). The knots were horrendous, but wonders of spit splicing made me less angry with the situation. When blocked it really did not grow that much, nothing to change your knitting needle size for.
- Valley Yarn Berkshire Bulky: I love this yarn. I used it on my Doctor’s Bag and it fit perfectly as a sub for the DB Super Chunky. It is soft and a pleasure to knit with because it slides through your fingers like butter…mmmm silky soft. It is a loose spun yarn so some pilling, haloing, and stitch definition should be factored in. However, my Doctor’s Bag still looks really good so I knew it would stand up on my sweater. Note, this yarn grows like a chia pet. My garter stitch gauge swatch (read: my sleeve bottom because I was too lazy to make a gauge swatch) grew by about 1.5″ in width and that was without any extra stretching so beware.
- Knits up pretty quick, except for the garter stitch. One month for a knee length coat sure isn’t bad.
- I really like my buttons. I also used a backing button for more stability. I highly recommend this as the finished result is amazing.
- I love the contrast color I chose. Every time I look at it, it makes me want to put it on
The Bad:
- Beware of the measurements. I know that every knitter is different but if I didn’t have the issues with Butterfly I might have knit on this blindly. Surprisingly I didn’t have a problem with the sleeves as I had thought I would, they actually came out perfectly in length. What I did change was the finished sweater length. I am 5′5″. If I hadn’t cut off that 6″ of length I would have had a trench coat. I was going for a shorter length but this one is fine.
- The sleeve hole size. When I finished the sleeve cap, I pinned it in and noticed quite a bit of extra material right in the underarm area. Huh?? what is that used for outside of giving me those dreaded floppy underarm bat wings. I didn’t really know how to fix it so on the second sleeve I only increased sleeve cap stitches to 60 sts instead of 66 in an effort to reduce the bat wing effect in the underarm. Since it was ribbed stitched I didn’t think that would be an issue. I think it helped quite a bit but I still have some extra room in the arms.
- I am not a drop sleeve gal. Good to know ones personal style preference and I am definitely putting this on the list of things to avoid in the future. I really like this sweater but the drop sleeve makes me feel like it is falling off, plus I just don’t think it is that great a look. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t keep me from wearing this sweater, but I will steer clear of them in the future.
The Ugly
- Garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch. I won’t repeat it here, but I think I summed it up pretty well here.
Yes, I have been thinking of you, my blog reading community. I have been thinking about how I really REALLY need to post soon. I have so much to tell you and so little motivation to get it done. So here are some highlights in the crafting world.
- Bradshaw is done, the post is written, now all I need are the pictures to go with it! The weather, my motivation, and the presence of photographers is not cooperating.
- I went to a yarn swap on Sunday. It was so great. I donated 37 balls to the swap and walked away with 6 balls of Knitpicks Shine Sport, which I have been wanting to use!! I was so proud of myself!! I could have easily walked away with more than I came with, but I was the queen of self control.
- Still working on my McCall’s jacket. All that work matching plaids was destroyed on the first stitch because the plaids on the two fronts were not matched properly. I kept sewing and the rest of the plaids look ok so far. I could blame the teacher since she was helping me, but instead I will chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. Hopefully it doesn’t look too bad in the end.
- Did some fabric shopping in Downtown L.A. It is soooo overwhelming that while I was going to find woolen fabrics, I walked away with some pretty shirting instead. Go figure!
- Knitting has been a series of disappointments. I have so many WIPs right now it is crazy!! All because I am not that in love with any of them. Hopefully my newest shipment of sale yarn will bring back the mojo. I bought some 50% off Calmer from Elann. CALMER PEOPLE!!! I couldn’t pass it up. I was poised by the computer at 9:00 am and by 9:04 am it was completely sold out! It looks like I got my allotment of Refresh and it should improve my Sour knitting mood. Can’t wait until it gets here!
So that is it for now. I promise some knitting, sewing and FO updates soon. Sorry for the rushed post but that is pretty much all I could muster.
So as I have mentioned before, I am taking a women’s tailoring class. This class is pretty intense! Unlike my intermediate class which is all about learning the basic techniques and moving on, this one is about making the best alterations and changes to a pattern to get a “tailored” fit to the garment. Hence I will be focusing on the McCall’s Jacket above for 10 weeks.
From this class I am learning so much about how to create more professional looking garments than the basic instructions of a pattern would yield. For this jacket, we did a paper fitting to get the closest match to my body, we had to add 1″ to the side seams to aid in easy alteration (see the white paper? That would be my bum area plus the extra 1″ for my hind parts which is a little bigger than the fabric tissue…eek!), I also shortened the sleeves to accommodate my personal length, we will also be using wool hymo and wigan interfacing instead of the Pellon easily found at Jo Ann’s. These are techniques that I just wouldn’t have known otherwise.
One of the other big challenges was matching plaids! I got this great worsted cashmere plaid for a Scottish Fabric importer who came to our class on the first day and thought it was so pretty. Little did I know that matching plaids would be that fabric and time consuming. Since I am a borderline perfectionist I would move around the pattern pieces for hours to get maximum fabric leftovers. Why?? Because I have a problem people!! The other part of it was matching plaids on the bias. That is not any worse necessarily than just the plaid itself and actually looks kinda cool.
Anyhoo, I have some sewing to do and tailor basting of interfacing to complete before my next class if I am going to be able to finish this in the 10 week allotment. I will keep you posted on the progress.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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