pattern release - Hibernate

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I thought it was fitting to release a green sweater pattern today and I'm hoping the weather will warm up enough in the next few weeks I can shed my parka and just wear this outside.

Pattern: Hibernate (see sidebar)

Yarn: 8 (8,8,9,9,10,10) skeins Quince and Co. Puffin (100% American Wool); 112 yds/102m per 4 oz / 100g skein). Shown in #129 ‘Parsley’

1 skein Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran; 100 yds/91 m per 50g skein). Shown in #300008 (dark brown) or about 60 yds of any aran or worsted weight yarn

Notes: The body is knit from the top down with the upper body worked in pieces to the bottom of the sleeve openings and then joined together, then worked in pieces for the pocket openings. The sleeves are worked from the top down using short row caps.

I recommend wearing it with 2-4” of positive ease, as it's a bulky yarn. It's suitable for a beginner knitter.

As with many of you, I'm sure, my heart and mind have been with the people of Japan this week and the horrific situation that they are continuing to be faced with. For the next month I'll be donating 50% of sales from all my patterns along with my own donation to Doctors Without Borders to assist Japan.

Happy Spring to you! Here's hoping a green sweater will encourage some new green shoots of life through all the snow.

cardiganizing

So last year I finished this lovely Lopi pullover and have worn it periodically in situations where I know the temperature will remain cool, such as inside hockey arenas. Because it's a pretty warm sweater and not really conducive to wearing at the office, inside my house, etc. I really love the colours in the yoke and like the icelandic wooliness of it (and I forgive the pattern's shortcomings such as lack of shortrow shaping in the yoke and waist shaping).

So last night I decided to make it into a cardigan because cardigans are the greatest things in the world and because it would give it a cooling factor for indoor situations.

Sorry I didn't take photos (it was evening), but all I basically did was rip back the collar (which was folded and tacked down) to about 6 rounds and bound it off again. Then I found the centre column of stitches on the front, ensuring it was in the middle of the yoke motifs. This happened to correspond to the decrease rounds in the yoke, so it was not so much a strict column of stitches up there as a vertical line. Then I took some slippery superwash sock yarn and my big needle and stitched a quick line where the middle is.

Then I took the sewing machine and did a row one and a half columns to either side of the middle for reinforcement, though this yarn is as sticky as Shetland and they wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway. I just like to make my sewing machine feel loved once in a while.

Then I took out the sock yarn and cut straight up the middle. Picked up stitches along each side and did 6 rows of seed stitch like the cuffs and collar, buttonholes on one side. Added buttons. Tacked down steek sts to the inside. Et voila!

I am going to wear this a lot more now.

fibre.yarn.idea.

I've been spinning. And charting. And notemaking. A bit of knitting.

This is some wonderful Old Maiden Aunt superwash merino in 'Crest of the Wave'. 100 grams spun into about 260 yds. of sport weight 2-ply. I'm thinking about combining it with some solid teal yarn I have - maybe in the yoke of a cardigan?

This is part of 16oz of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in 'Touch Me'. It came to about 644 yds. of worsted weight 3-ply. My daughter has drawn up what she wants me to make with it for her. I have another 16oz I can spin if I need it.

More tree charting. This is a bit of a(n) preoccupation (obsession).

happy weekend!

random thoughts friday

I've had trees and tree-like shapes on my brain lately as I'm working on a chart for a project. They're generally a constant source of imagery in my head and I frequently dream of forests and bosques. I've also been listening to Arcade Fire a lot; mostly while riding home through the tree-lined streets after work on the bus. I saw them in concert last fall and I'm so glad they're getting the recognition they deserve. Speaking of trees, this is a cool film by Chris Milk with Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait".

I'm also trying to curb my obsession with Ann's fabulous new design, as I have many other things to knit right now. Though I do have stuff that would work in the stash...

I'm also doing a lot of spinning, so I'll post about that soon. Hope your Friday is fab.

keeping the dog warm, take 2

Pattern: DROPS dog coat, again

Yarn: Cascade 220 superwash colour # 1909

So I really felt I had provided the dog with too small a sweater in my last post, so I re-knit it in the largest ("Cocker Spaniel") size in another superwash yarn. This is a great heathery, deep red and works well with the cables. She seems to like it, though she's really amenable to pretty much anything. She goes home today and we will miss having this very sweet dog.

We're all suffering from bad chest colds here, but I hope you're having a good weekend.

the dog needed a green sweater, too

Pattern: DROPS dogcoat

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish worsted in 'Dublin'

Here's another green sweater that only took a week to make. Hmmmm....if I stuck exclusively to bulky yarn or very small sweaters I would have 52 by the end of the year...

Here is wee Kira who is staying with us again for a week. Although the weather is fantastically warm today she allowed me to try it on her. I was using leftovers from a previous sweater, so I worried about running out of yarn the whole time and made it a bit shorter as a result. I also started this before I had her to measure, so I was guessing between "Bichon Frise" size and "Cocker Spaniel" size. I picked Bichon Frise but used worsted instead of dk weight yarn, hoping to split the difference. I'm not sure it worked because I think it's a bit snug. After blocking I'll take another look and decide. Regardless, it's a very nice pattern.

Hope you're having a great weekend. Happy Valentine's!

and now for something completely different...

Pattern: from my head

Yarn: Quince and Co. Puffin in 'Parsley', plus a bit of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in brown for the pockets

Something super quick (it took a week) in bulky warm yarn - I've been piling on the sweaters as I leave the house for various cold hockey arenas and this one will work well for that, I think. I love the big collar that can sit open or button up for extra warmth. I also adore these fabulous dark toggle buttons. The yarn from Quince and Co. is wonderful, too. The outdoor photos show the colour best. In my haste during the photo shoot I missed buttoning one button - my sweet 10 yr. old photographer was freezing! (not me, though. I was toasty)

I decided to make pockets on the side 'seam' (there are no seams on this) with the Bliss yarn to match the buttons. The construction is top-down, with set in sleeves made with short rows on the caps.

Fast. Fun. Warm.