Tag Archives: cormo rusticus

My Bláithín. It is really and truly done!

In fact, it is so done, it has already been worn several times as of this post. It passes the comfort+snuggly-ness test, hands down!

Overall, I am very happy with how it came out, especially with it being a sweater of several firsts for me — first “big” colorwork, first steeking, first time actually measuring myself correctly…

As with anything I do though, there are a few problem areas I’m not thrilled with. The absolute worst is that I bound off my original neck stitches too tightly and ended up with that pucker you see in the picture above. It won’t kill me, but I am feeling extremely self-conscious about it when sharing the project among people who can see what it was supposed to look like, you know? Also, the i-cord bind offs on the pocket fronts are attached really poorly. I will probably redo them at some point actually. And finally, as you can see in the picture below, I got really sloppy when I closed the ends of my steek sandwiches.

But back to happy times! Those little puckery areas in the i-cord are button holes. Applied i-cord buttonholes are the easiest kind I’ve ever done and I not only love the way they knit up, but also the way they look around buttons.

And speaking of buttons… Picking out buttons is usually somewhat of a daunting task for me. I generally have a pretty specific idea in mind and sometimes feel a little distraught when my vision doesn’t magically appear before my eyes on the store shelf. I lucked out this time because even though these little wooden beauties weren’t exactly what I had in mind, I am very happy with the feel of them and I think they’re a great fit with my color scheme, and the rustic nature of my sweater.

And just like that –all ends long since woven in, a good washing and a nice light blocking a thing of the past, and buttons attached– it was done.

I quietly snuck a few finished photos up on Ravelry when it was officially 100% done. I expected a few people to stumble across them before the big reveal here on the Juniper Moon Farm blog, but not enough that the surprise would be too diminished, you know?

What I was NOT expecting was to log in to Facebook on the morning of the 23rd and find a message from my friend Lyn telling me my sweater was featured on the front page of Ravelry. I faintly remember taking a few fortifying sips of coffee before opening a new tab to see this for myself, and sure enough, there it was (and in the most excellent company!)

That day was a blur of comments and messages, new Ravelry  “friends,” a few awkward attempts at Tweeting (mine) — you name it. It was just an all-around very exciting and sort of surreal day.

But hey. You came to see a finished sweater, yeah?

I already miss working on this project a lot, but I plan to make another one for myself someday that is more true to the original pattern. I love the changes I made as a means to showcase two very lovely yarns, but the original design is what I fell in love with and I’d like one of my own just like it.

As far as I’m concerned, wanting to knit the same thing more than once certainly speaks well of the pattern in question, but perhaps the greatest personal testament to how I much I enjoyed knitting Bláithín is that I immediately cast on a Bláithín Jr. for my daughter Lydia.

Her body will be done in Juniper Moon Farm Cormo Rusticus like mine, but the yoke design will be done with the colors shown above (all JMF yarns). Click on the link above to be taken to my Ravelry project page if you care to see my progress on that one as well. As of today, I am just starting the second sleeve.

I cannot thank everybody enough for following along with my knitting, and for keeping me company here as I made my way through what has turned out to be one of the most rewarding projects I’ve ever knitted. I hope to have a new project to share with you in the near future!

—————————————————————————————————–

Amber resides in sporadically idyllic Berks County, PA with her husband and three children.

She can most often be found knitting, making soap, sewing, or puttering around in her garden. She should probably leave her house more often.

I thought I’d start this segment of my Bláithín saga with a brief explanation of how I came to realize that I have ridiculous monkey arms. It is a rambly and stupid story, so I have thoughtfully inserted pictures of sleeve progress throughout, because I find having pictures to look at makes my incessant rambling far more tolerable.

When I get a pattern, the first thing I do is read all the abbreviations, pattern notes, and other important bits they stick right there at the beginning. Next, I skim the pattern once or twice, just to familiarize myself a little bit ahead of time. In the case of an item that has sizing options, I measure any parts that need measuring and highlight the corresponding sizes on the sizing chart. Then I go through the pattern highlighting all the number instructions which match the size I’m making.

The last time I made an actual garment with sleeves for me, I was using a much thicker yarn than what the pattern called for, so I altered the numbers quite a bit to compensate. I measured the really important things like bust, waist, and length from underarms to bottom edge, picked my size, and started knitting away. Thanks to the magic of math and lots of meticulous note-taking, the finished sweater was just the fit I was hoping for, except for one thing: the sleeves were too short. Like, waaaaay too short. The now obvious reason this happened was that I had not actually measured my arms. (Duh!) Instead, I just assumed they’d be the same sweater size as the rest of me, and I was so very wrong.

Needless to say, I measured carefully this time, several times in fact, thanks to my previous discovery. In addition to increasing the length, I also went two sizes up for the upper arm circumference since I like to layer and I cannot stand the feeling of too-tight sweater sleeves over bunchy under-layer sleeves. Drives me nuts! Especially because I have an annoying habit of rolling up my sleeves on a long sleeve shirt, but throwing a cardigan on over that. (I don’t know. We all have our quirks I suppose.)

As for the length, I ended up going up four sizes to compensate for my freak arms. So basically, I am using seventeen times more yarn in my sleeves than in the whole rest of the sweater. (Okay, so that part’s a slight exaggeration, but still…)

So there you have it. I freely admit this was the lamest story ever, but there wasn’t too much else I could say about my sleeve and body knitting progress, you know?

As of today, I am only slightly beyond the picture below. There’s one sleeve done, one with only about 2 1/2 inches to go, and I need 5-6 more inches on the body. Knitting time is tight around here as we get the boys ready to go back to school next week, but if all goes well, I’ll have some colorwork to show you next time!

Until then, happy knitting.

—————————————————————————————————–

Amber resides in sporadically idyllic Berks County, PA with her husband and three children.

She can most often be found knitting, making soap, sewing, or puttering around in her garden. She should probably leave her house more often.

Since my last post, I have been happily knitting away on my Bláithín whenever I had a spare moment. And despite the fact that spare moments haven’t been so plentiful as of late, I do have some progress to share.

Getting started meant doing a provisional crochet cast on, which I may or may not have just fudged in past projects due to my complete lack of crocheting ability. Crochet and I have had a tumultuous relationship since about 1999, when I first attempted to learn the basics. It did not end well, and for many years I called crochet late at night, crying into its answering machine and writing countless, tear-stained letters that never got sent.

But some time in the past few months, something clicked! And after butchering a granny square and proudly doing some extremely crooked edging on another project, I decided I couldn’t possibly fail at a cast on. Luckily, that turned out to be correct and I am now 100% in love with crochet cast on and will use it whenever I can.

The idea behind the provisional cast on is to do an I-cord bind off with the live stitches upon the sweater’s completion, but I am toying with the idea of adding a 2 1/2 – 3  inch colorwork section before the bind off if I have enough yarn left after doing the yoke. I certainly have plenty of time to think about it, and thanks to this particular cast on, I can decide after I see the rest of the sweater if an added colorwork section will fit with the overall design or detract too much from the yoke.

The hidden pocket construction was an absolute breeze — and so refreshing after the last pockets I did on another project which were downright fussy and fiddly. All I had to do (without giving away any vital pattern details of course) was move some stitches to waste yarn,

then knit up some quick and easy pocket flaps,

and easily join them right back in with the body (shown here after binding off the pocket openings).

The length I have now needs to be almost doubled to get to the underarm area, and I need to get started on my sleeves. That ought to keep me busy for a little while until my next post!

—————————————————————————————————–

Amber resides in sporadically idyllic Berks County, PA with her husband and three children.

She can most often be found knitting, making soap, sewing, or puttering around in her garden. She should probably leave her house more often.

We’ve got a great group of ladies lined up to help me with out WIP series so I don’t go prattering on by myself! First up is the amazingly multifaceted Amber, who will show you what she made with the very limited-edition, unlikely-to-be-repeated Cormo Rusticus that we sold a couple years ago. I’m very excited to see her progress with this sweater, and I’m sure you will be, too! – Lauria

Hello there! My name is Amber, but if you’re active in the Juniper Moon Farm group on Ravelry, you’ll know me as HowdyPandowdy. I’m going to be doing some guest posting over the next few months to share my progress on Bláithín , which I am knitting with some luscious Juniper Moon Farm Cormo Rusticus,

and some stunning Gilead Fiber Farm Shetland (dyed and spun by owner Kristen Judkins).

Here is where I admit that I have a slight tendency to be a bit, shall we say, long-winded? So instead of launching into a fourteen chapter back story about all the neato connections between pattern, yarns, designer, etc, I will cut to the chase and present it all in list form. (You’re welcome.)

1) For some time now, I have had quite the knitting crush on the genius that is Scottish designer Kate Davies  (and especially her gorgeous color work). I could never quite muster up the courage to try anything before, but after my dear friend Lyn “gifted” me this pattern on Ravelry, it was time to dive in!

2) Kate Davies also happens to be one of the designers for The Shepherd and The Shearer. I managed to snag a spot before that announcement, so it was basically like being given an entire orchard’s worth of delicious cherries on top of what was already the best sundae ever.

3) In honor of Susie’s trip to Scotland, one of our group members on Ravelry suggested those of us stranded stateside should come up with some Scotland-inspired activities to enjoy, which is what spurred me to re-ogle all of my favorite patterns in the first place.

4) Shetland sheep (the breed I have to thank for the beautiful, autumn-colored yarn from Gilead) originated in the Shetland Isles. One of the tinier islands, Fair Isle, should be familiar to all knitters as the namesake of the popular colorwork style featured in many of Kate Davies’ designs.

5) And finally, Kristen Judkins, gifted dyer and spinner and owner of Gilead Fiber Farm, got her start as a shepherd when she won a flock of goats in a giveaway from Juniper Moon Farm!

So now you know that I play most of my life like some sort of bizarre Six Degrees of Separation game, but hey! At least you got the abridged version.

But anyway, swatching?

Because I am doing only two colors for my sweater and knitting the main body in the JMF Rusticus, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue the Rusticus right up through the yoke background, like so,

or switch to the GFF Shetland.

I decided I didn’t want to lose the nicely contrasting yoke background (which is one of the things that drew me into the pattern in the first place) and did a third swatch featuring the Shetland as the background color. This time, I tried holding the Shetland double (it’s a fair bit thinner than the Rusticus), and modifying the bottommost edge slightly to better transition my color change.

Doubling the Shetland makes a sturdy-without-being-too-thick fabric that I think will lend itself very nicely to the yoke structure, and the Rusticus washed up like a fluffy sheep cloud dream. (Technical description, of course.) Despite some pulling here and there, I think it came out nicely and feel confident in my ability to not destroy my finished product — well, not until it comes time for steeking anyway, but we’ll deal with that when we get to that point…

For now? Lots of knitting going on here, and hopefully I’ll have some good progress to show you next time!

—————————————————————————————————-

Amber resides in sporadically idyllic Berks County, PA with her husband and three children.

She can most often be found knitting, making soap, sewing, or puttering around in her garden. She should probably leave her house more often.