Nachtfalter

Well a few weeks ago I finished my Nachtfalter (my submission for the Tops, Tanks, and Tees KAL), but with all of the spinning and knitting that I have been doing I am just getting around to posting about it now.

The Nachtfalter is a fun and addictive knit that looks way harder than it actually is, as long as you can read a pattern, knit and purl you should be fine.

The butterfly lace section of the top was a lot of fun and was very easy to memorize. After the first lace repeat section was done I had the pattern memorized and I didn’t have to look at it until it came to the garter section.

I lengthened everything about this top which I am very glad I did because I prefer my tops to be longer.

Pattern: Nachtfalter

Project page: here

Yarn: Jilly by Dream in Color

Colorway: Poppy

Mods: I did the size small but followed the measurements for large on the baby cable ribbing and butterfly lace, medium for the sleeve holes, and small for the top garter section. I also used a fingering weight yarn, the pattern calls sport/dk, but I got gauge with the exact needles size called for.

I surprisingly only used 682 yards which I am kind of glad because I loved the yarn and color and now I have some left over yarn to use for stripes or something small.

The yarn is to die for, it is up there in my top three favorite single ply yarns. Northbound Knitting and Madelinetosh’s tosh merino light being the other two. Jilly is one of Dream in Color’s newest bases and it is amazing and has a ton of fabulous colors. I had a hard time picking what colors and I ended up buying two other colors  for other things.

 

 

DownEast

Well the never ending saga of me and the DownEast sweater finally came to a close today. It finally dried and the rain finally let up so I could take some pictures and blog about it.

As you have read or those of you who are new to the blog are lucky and haven’t had to read my endless complaining about this sweater. The complaining is now over. I think I have finally decided what ultimately is wrong with this sweater and it isn’t the pattern. It’s the yarn, I hate it. It wasn’t right for this project, as you can see in the pictures below the sweater is a little bit see-through and I have decided it is because the yarn wasn’t bulky enough.  Another strike against the yarn is the fact that I just didn’t enjoy working with it, though it is a wool blend it has acrylic in it and well I hate acrylic. I will admit that I am a yarn snob and well acrylic is not my cup of tea. I use it from time to time, but those projects are never for me and the person has generally hired me to make it so to keep it the item at a decent price I compromise and use cheap yarn.

*Disclaimer I am not saying that this yarn is horrible in anyway, I had no problems with the yarn its self. I just didn’t enjoy working with it and it was the right yarn for this project.

I think besides all of my mishaps stupid mistakes with this project ultimately not enjoying the yarn is why this project lingered on the needles so long.

The pattern on the other hand is really well written and is beautiful. The sample of the pattern page is knit up on Swans Island (Out of my price range when I went to buy yarn, but is totally worth the money if you have it) and I figure that if I would have chose that yarn it would have turned out perfect and it wouldn’t even be see-through.

Pattern: DownEast

Designer: Alicia Plummer

Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky

Colorway: Tide Pool

Mods: none

Project page: here

End of the Month of WIP’s

Well March has come and gone and boy I am glad it is gone. The month of March was not very kind to me and well the amount of school work was ridiculous, but I know that this month will be worst. Well anyways the month of wip’s was decently productive, I finished 4 projects, 2 sweaters, 1 pair of socks, and a shawl; I still have two shawls, a pair of socks, a sweater left on the needles. I have decided now that I must have at least one but hopefully two of the leftover wip’s done by the end of the following months. Being that the sweater, socks, and one shawl are in the final stretch I don’t think it will be too bad.

So the finished wip’s round-up I guess will start with the one we already talked about, the dissent:

As I stated in the last post this is the dissent shawl by Lisa Mutch, and well I love it.

Now for the socks:

The socks are the Climb socks by Jane Richmond. They were first published in the Journey book, but they are up for individual sale (I do recommend the book though, it is just lovely and the other patterns in the book are beautiful). I think my favorite feature of the socks besides the stripes would have to be the heel. I adore the make-up of this heel, I think what made me like this heel so much was the fact that I didn’t have to worry about the gaping that happens when you turn the heel.

Now the sweaters, first up is the Eastwood Cardigan, and boy is this cardigan fun!

This cardigan has tons of  fun details and an interesting construction that made working on it a treat! I mean there really isn’t anything bad i can say about this cardigan, I mean it has stripes, it has pockets, and it has a fun triangle pattern on the front panels. The Eastwood Cardigan is an Allyson Dykhuizen design that was published in Holla Knits. The yarn was enjoyable, but just like the Dissent shawl above is also discontinued, but if you are curious the yarn is Sheffield from Valley yarns, it is a merino, angora, silk base.

The final sweater is the Rolling Rock.

The Rolling Rock is another Thea Coleman design and as usual it did not disappoint. It has all the features that I have come to expect which are: an enjoyable knit, a great and easy to read pattern, and fun design features. I just love this sweater, but I fear that I have ran out of weather to wear it in being that we have been in the upper 60’s and 70’s this week.

The yarn for this pattern was a treat to work with (I actually used the yarn the pattern calls for which is pretty rare for me), it is plucky traveler sport in the colorway November Skies. It is lovely and well this was my first experience with plucky and I was not disappointed. Plucky is pricey, but the quality of the yarn and the colors make it totally worth it. This yarn has a great depth of color to it that I don’t think any picture could do justice.

And the games began

Well the Olympics started and before I knew it they were over. My goal for the Olympics was to start and finish two sweaters and as I stated in my last post I only got one finished because I didn’t get the right amount of yarn and when I realized it and ordered the yarn it was too late to get it in on time. So the yarn arrived this past Monday and because of my frustration of not meeting my goal the sweater is in time out.

The sweater I got finished is called the Sundottir (originally called Skydottir but due to copyright issues the name was changed). I thoroughly enjoyed this sweater. Even though my first time starting it I cast on for the wrong size and didn’t realize until I was about 5 inches in so I had to rip out and start all over. The second time around everything turned out perfectly, but during the body of the sweater I was incredibly sick so I don’t even remember working on most of it, but happily it turned out perfectly.

This is my first completed Brooklyntweed pattern, I have a pair of socks started and almost finished that was published through Brooklytweed, but it got put on the back burner during the Olympics.

I really enjoyed the yarn I used. The yarn is Kenzi by Hikoo. It is a 50% Merino Wool/ 25% Nylon/ 10% Angora/ 10% Alpaca/ 5% Silk blend and it feels fabulous. It has a rustic tweedy look, but is soft and washes up beautifully. It was a great substitute for the Brooklyntweed yarn. I haven’t used Brooklyn tweed yet but as you saw in my last post I just got some so I don’t know if I like one more than the other, but Kenzi is a semi affordable yarn if you can’t afford to get Brooklyntweed yarn.

Pattern: Sundottir

My project page: here

Yarn: Kenzi

Mods: I lengthened the arms by about and inch and a half and I am sure glad I did. I have been told I have monkey arms, basically saying that I have really long arms and on average I should technically add length to the arms of any sweater I make. Other than that it was a perfect well written pattern that I would totally suggest to any one.

I knit it up to have no ease and in my opinion the sweater fits perfectly! The sweater also had some back short row shaping that was really nice and I think enhanced the fit of the sweater.

Now onto my shamefully unfinished sweater. It is the Downeast sweater by Alicia Plummer. Like I mentioned above I didn’t get the right amount of yarn so I had to order the yarn. With ordering new yarn I knew it would be a new dye lot so I waited to start the sleeves because I didn’t want any weird striping due to different dye lots. But actually with this sweater nothing seemed to go right. The yarn I ordered back in November was back-ordered until a week before the Olympics started, my local yarn store was out of the double pointed needle size I needed for the sweater so I had to borrow a friends who I luckily got to randomly see because of a class and then I ran out of yarn. It feels like I am not suppose to ever finish this sweater. But enough complaining. Here is my sad unfinished sweater that will be finished next month during the month of WIP’s.

Sorry for the poor quality Iphone picture.

The yarn is berroco vintage chunky which is a decent yarn, it has some acrylic in it and I’m not a fan of acrylic, but it worked for this sweater. I’m not sure if I would use this yarn again. I will post more about this sweater (no complaining promise as long no new obstacle pop up while making the sleeves) once I finish it.

How did your Olympic knitting go? Did you participate in the knitting Olympics? What are you knitting on?

Too much to knit, so little time

The Christmas season is quickly approaching and I think this maybe the most behind I have ever been since my first Christmas of Christmas knitting. It just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. There are a lot of things to blame for me being behind in Christmas knitting and for the most part it is all my fault. First thing is school work, I have a lot of it and well I the past few weeks I haven’t felt like working on it so it has been taking me forever to get it done (I just recently started having more of a desire to get my homework done early). Secondly I have been biting off  more than I should, I have been volunteering to test knit like crazy. I still have two test knits on the needles which due dates are surprise surprise, in December or January for them. And thirdly I still have so much stuff that I want to make myself that I only want to be selfish.

On the plus side I have my two biggest projects for Christmas knitting almost out of the way, as I mentioned over the summer I made a sweater for my niece and now I am finishing up my nephews sweater. I am knitting him the flax in a bright blue color, I am about halfway done with the body of it and coincidentally it is great textbook reading knitting.

So now that all of that mess is out of the way I have a pretty great announcement.

My Ease by Alicia Plummer is finally finished! After months of talking about it and posting WIP pics it is done and I love it!

So here is my project page.

yarn: Cascade 220

colorway: walnut heather

I love the yarn and the color of it! The sweater is great too! It is just so comfy and warm. I had been really wanting to make it for a while and I so glad that I finally did! The only thing that I wish I would have done differently would be to go down a size or two on the neck to make it stand up better.

Oh yeah and now my niece and I can be twinsies when I give her her Christmas gift! Yay! But don’t worry in case you don’t remember my niece is getting one in pink.

Trowbridge

So the Trowbridge was another test knit for Alicia Plummer and as usual it was perfect. I am so happy with this sweater, it is one of the best fitted pullover’s I have made. It is a simple Raglan construction, but the little added embellishments on the collar and sleeves are what really makes it a beautiful sweater.

I love the yarn I used! It is  Cascade 220 sport and well I love cascade, it is a great go to that isn’t to expensive and makes beautiful projects. The color of the yarn is just lovely, it is called pumpkin spice.

yarn: cascade 220 sport

colorway: pumpkin spice

pattern: trowbridge

designer: Alicia Plummer

My rav project page: here

The buttons I used are from AddVintage and they are black Czech glass from the 1930’s with a silver overlay. They are gorgeous!

I know I have said it before and I will say it again if you want unique antique buttons, or just unique buttons that happen to be antique this is a great etsy shop to check out and the women who run the shop are awesome and super helpful.

Now back to the sweater, everything about this sweater is great, so there really isn’t much more I can say about it. Alicia is just one of those designers that creates a beautiful design that is also simple and comfortable. She just recently published a new hat and she has many more patterns up her sleeve, you should totally check her out!

Taking Care of Business

Wow, it has been a while since I last wrote and honestly I really didn’t think it had been that long. I have been super busy recently with school and I have been going out of town quite frequently, but I have also been finishing up a lot of stuff my WIP’s pile only has 4 items in it instead of 7.  My ease, pontos, annis, and helix scarf are the only things left on needles and my plan is to get the pontos and ease off very soon. I’m not allowing myself to do anything else until my pontos comes off, which means it really needs to fly off of the needles because I have two test knits and Christmas knitting to work on.

Okay so over the next week or so (hopefully) I will be showing you all of my recent finished objects and to kick it off I will start with my Themisto. It was a test knit for Tori Gurbisz.

So the pattern is really well written and well the finished hat is just wonderful. I’m really happy with this hat and how everything turned out.

Pattern: Themisto

Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes superwash Merlot heather and Oyster heather

The yarn is nice, it is new to Knitpicks so I got a ball free due to a promotion which is why I used this yarn. It is a great work horse yarn and it has nice coloring.

What have you been working on? Have you started your Christmas knitting yet? Do you have a to of WIP’s or have you been busting out finished objects?

Chocolate Stout

Well  my chocolate stout is done and I love this sweater, ever since the cold weather hit it has been my go to. It is just so cozy and big, it’s like wrapping myself in a blanket. I absolutely love it, but if you would have asked me how I felt about it while I was making it, that is not what you would have heard. While I was making it I didn’t really encounter problems because Thea Coleman is an amazing designer and the design was great not a single error, I just got tired of holding it. The sweater just got so heavy and the cables and weight really took a toll on my wrists, and though it was an aran weight project it just took forever. Other than that I really couldn’t complain.

 

One thing I did have to do differently was I didn’t do as many rows when it came to the button band section (I did all of the rows for the collar though) because the band would have been a lot wider than called for. I did a yarn substitution because the project called for plucky rustic and though I love plucky I just couldn’t buy it for this particular project. So I used cascade eco colorway coffee and besides the issues with the button band it worked well and I’m happy with it.

The buttons surprise surprise are from AddVintage and I’m super happy with them yet again. Overall I just love this project I mean it has pockets, it has cables, a wonderful shawl collar, and it is just so roomy and warm. Though while I was making it I was thinking that I will never make an all-over cabled worsted weight sweater or cardigan ever again, but end result are just so wonderful I’m sure I will make more.

Bradbury

Yay for stash busting!  This is another stash busting project. It’s my Bradbury size small from Melissa Schaschwary using Jagger Spun Zephyr Wool-Silk. It was a very well written and beautiful pattern. This was my first time using Jagger Spun yarn and I am not disappointed. To make gauge I doubled the yarn and it was perfect. The yarn is just so soft and airy, but only problem is I haven’t worn, made, or own a wrap so I’m still trying to figure out how to wear it, I mean I know how to wear it, but how I would prefer to wear it. So without further ado here is my finished wrap modeled by one of the little girls I watch.

How do you like to wear wraps?

Grace

I don’t know about you, but when I find a project (especially a knitting project) that I fall in love with I start dreaming up what I’m going to wear with it, what materials I’m going to use, and all the other things that go into the project. Well the Grace from Jane Richmond was one of those projects. From the moment I saw it in Jane’s Island book I knew I needed to make one, and not just make one but use top quality materials for it.

So first I went on the quest for yarn and as you saw in earlier posts I had found the madelintosh tosh sock in charcoal at a lys I like to frequent. But by the time I found the perfect yarn and finished up my current WIP’s it was spring time so I decided to wait and knit it in the luvinthemommyhood summer kal because what would be better than knitting up the cardigan of your dreams with the perfect yarn in a wonderful group of encouraging and friendly knitters. While waiting for the kal to begin I ended up finding the perfect buttons from AddVintage, which made everything seem so perfect or so I thought.

So with all of that hype I mean I was wanting/expecting it to come out perfect, but much to my dismay the cardigan wouldn’t stay buttoned. I was very disappointed so then I started looking into reinforced button bands which require a whole bunch of sewing mainly by hand, so I discussed it with my mom and she came up with this idea that I will show you below. It worked and it was a lot faster than sewing it, now I still have some kinks I need to work out, like making sure the ribbon is perfectly line up behind the button hole so the hole in the ribbon can be perfectly centered and making sure that both sides of the cardigan are even. But here is what I did, it was my first time and I don’t swear by it, but I will probably do it again and figured I would share so you all could decide on your own what method to use.

So I got some heat and bond and and hem tape that were the same size as each other and the button band.

I measured out the heat and bond and the hem tape to be the exact same size as the button band.

Then I pinned the buttons bands together evenly with the wrong sides facing away from each other.

Then I followed the directions of the heat and bond using my iron and after I had the one side of the adhesive adhered to the button band I put the ribbon down and bonded it to the cardigan. After both sides were completed I took an exacto knife and made holes through the ribbon so the buttons could go through and resewed the buttons onto the cardigan.

The wrong side of the cardigans button band, the side with buttons sewn in.

The side with the button hole cut it.

So here is my Grace.

Well I love my grace now, and it fits perfectly. The madelintosh was a dream to work with, that was the first time I had ever worked with it and it is definitely is not going to be my last considering I have some in my stash waiting to be used. You can see my project page on ravelry here.

*I just thought about this while responding to Michelle comment. When it comes to ironing the heat and bond and also when it comes to adding the hem ribbon to the button band. Sit the iron down, let it set for a few seconds, pick the iron up and move on to the next piece. DON’T push the iron or it will cause it to stretch out and the band will be longer and you may have two different size button bands.