Well, God, glad that’s over.
In the interest of talking about the most normal, friendly, innocuous things, here’s a picture of my friend Maggie wearing the sweater I knit her for Christmas to work:
It’s a Kristen Johnstone pattern; I knit it in the mountains this past fall.
More of the wonderfully banal:
Well, God, glad that’s over.
In the interest of talking about the most normal, friendly, innocuous things, here’s a picture of my friend Maggie wearing the sweater I knit her for Christmas to work:
It’s a Kristen Johnstone pattern; I knit it in the mountains this past fall.
More of the wonderfully banal:
You all know that I am basically only capable of expressing my love in one way.
But did you also know that, when I knit, I’m strong enough to bend steel needles? I didn’t.
So, cripes, about a month ago I went on a wonderful camping trip with some friends of mine to a place that’s very dear to me– I mean, it’s where I go for nearly every fall break.
Anyway, because one of the ladies I went with is 1) a terrific photographer who 2) planned on shooting a few rolls over the weekend, I made sure to oh so casually wear pretty much exclusively knitwear. I ruined the all-the-wool-all-the-time effect by layering a windbreaker over the whole ensemble, but, hey, it was cold: we walked up along the ridges all weekend, got hella windburn, and woke up with our tent encrusted in ice.
Nic took lots of photos, but I selfishly picked out the ones featuring my knitting, since that’s what this blog is all about. Also, to pre-explain: the Highlands are home to a bunch of sweet lil’ pon’s.
So, um, there’s my hat, doing a great job as a hat.
Guest starring Cormo Rusticus,
and an extra pair of gloves that came in handy,
and my pretty-much-all-time-favorite-knitted-thing, the Peerie Flooers vest.
Comments Off on Knitted: Red Beret, Also, Knitting in Action!
Tagged backpacking, clothes, fair-isle, Friends, gloves, hat, jacket, Knitting, photography, pullover, selbuvotter, travel
Because I was (and still am) pretty excited about ombré effects in knitting, I was particularly drawn to the unique way that Bohus knitting uses texture to help blend and incorporate color (in short: sometimes there are purls). But I didn’t want the colorplay to dominate the entire garment, so, for Cora I left it as a yoke detail.
This croqi reminds you of Selma Blair’s character in Legally Blonde, right? Severe black bob, an even severer expression– somewhere between petulant and pugnacious.
Anyway I opened up my copy of Poems of Color, which was a Christmas gift from my parents, and swatched around.
This is what I came up with.
Anyway, this is me. I’m wearing my most beautiful wool pants and a nice wool fedora (despite my fears) from Rag & Bone’s Fall 2011 collection (this is the one thing I bought when we went to San Francisco back in January– it was even more expensive than my emergency-room visit! (turns out, I had an ulcer!))
I’ll be the first to say that this design doesn’t even come close to approaching the level of intricacy and precise blur for which the original Bohus Stickning garments are so rightly famous. This is an approximation– a taste, I guess, of what’s possible.
One of the first decisions we made, when putting together the Herriot book, was that it was going to start easy and finish hard– we wanted to start our knitters off with stripes and simple shapes, and take them on a neutral-toned tour through all the colorwork techniques we could think of. I wanted to add a little something– but not too much!– to my stripes, so I designed Bessie in a ticking stripe, then added set-in sleeves, waist shaping, and turned hems for extra neatness.
A few changes were made along the way: the set-in sleeves became faux set-in sleeves with saddle shoulders, the crew neck became a boatneck, and I became the model (so, well, there were a few more inches of ease).
I’m really pleased with the result:
If I could wear this outfit every day of the fall, I’d consider it a fine season. I’m in the market for pants & boots.
My favorite part about the ticking stripe sequence I chose is that you can’t tell whether it’s a light stripe on a dark background, or a dark stripe on a light background. While knitting it (I had to pinch-knit for this one– it’s not usual that I’d knit my own sample), I kept going back and forth on what it looked more like.
This technique of creating faux set-in sleeves + saddle shoulders is probably not my own invention, given all the neato work that’s currently being done in the world of armscyes (I am being completely sincere.), but I’m pretty fond of it and will most likely use it in my future knitting.
Queue it up, y’all.
It’s done, and I love it!
The cables are gorgeous, the fit is perfect– cozily one-size-too-big– and the Sabine really is shown off to its best advantage. My only complaint is that I’ve already promised this sweater to my sister for her birthday in October (and I should probably send it to her early, so that I’m not tempted to wear it any more than I already have).
Charlotte asked for long sleeves instead of 3/4 length ones, and a simple crew neck– both modifications that I’d definitely have made for myself.
The pattern’s repeated on the back, and the sleeves are left unadorned, which I like.
Of course, I’m wearing it with running shorts.
I guess if I were going to knit another that I’d work it in the round, and knit the sleeves seamlessly instead of setting them in. But, really, that’s it. I’ve also been thinking that, if you were to take out the waist shaping, this would work just as well as a man’s pattern. One more thing to add to the list, I guess.
Pattern: Beatnik, by Norah Gaughan from Knitty Deep Fall 2010
Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Sabine in Foliage, 4 skeins
Needles: US 5 for the ribbing, and US 7 for the rest
Time: July 31 – August 7
This is a really old one, but, regretfully, I haven’t got anything new to show you today. This is my favorite sweater.
It’s simple, it’s tough, it never looks dirty, and it fits really well. It’s not particularly flattering, but I can live with that.
The pattern’s a rough adaptation of one in Gladys Thompson’s Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans, which was written on the basis of a promise made by the author to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, at an exhibition in London.
Here’s what the rough adaptation consisted of:
This is the plan I worked from when I knit this sweater two years ago. My favorite part of the whole piece– which I’ll show off to anyone who asks, and anyone who doesn’t– is the small, diamond-shaped underarm gusset, which allows for a wider range of motion and slightly-less-dropped shoulders. You can see that I nixed the mock neck, and that I was pretty excited about the idea of waist shaping.
These pictures are from our vacation out to San Francisco back in January. After driving up the coast, we spent the night somewhere in Mendocino, and woke up early to go down to the beach and look for seals. I don’t think we saw any.
This sweater’s getting a little pilly, both because a) I’ve worn this sweater every day through two winter seasons and b) it’s knit out of Wool of the Andes, which is widely acknowledged to be not-the-nicest. It’s okay. I mean, it’s still my favorite sweater.
Pattern: Staithes Gansery, from Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans: Fishermen’s Sweaters from the British Isles by Gladys Thompson
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather, 10 balls
Needles: US 4 Takumi circulars and DPNs.
Time: July 22, 2010 – August 14, 2010
Ravel’d: here
Well, I finally found the time to cast it on.
I’ve been knitting this while watching Game of Thrones, and, I’ve got to say, the plot’s just about as twisted and internecine as the cables.
Ba-dum-ching.
Seriously, though, I was expecting to be twisting one column of stitches around another– I was NOT expecting to be cabling a cable. The chart’s just complex enough that I keep having to refer back to it, which doesn’t go well with television, and really doesn’t go well to my self-assured, never-rip-back, forge-boldly-on knitting style.
I guess it’s good, every once and a while, to knit a pattern that’s smarter than you are.
The Sabine is doing nicely– springy like a wool, but cool like a cotton– and I particularly like this forest-green colorway, Foliage. It’s fun.
Comments Off on Working On: Beatnik
Tagged JMF, Knitting, pullover, Working On, yarn
Well, I finally found the time to cast it on.
I’ve been knitting this while watching Game of Thrones, and, I’ve got to say, the plot’s just about as twisted and internecine as the cables.
Ba-dum-ching.
Seriously, though, I was expecting to be twisting one column of stitches around another– I was NOT expecting to be cabling a cable. The chart’s just complex enough that I keep having to refer back to it, which doesn’t go well with television, and really doesn’t go well to my self-assured, never-rip-back, forge-boldly-on knitting style.
I guess it’s good, every once and a while, to knit a pattern that’s smarter than you are.
The Sabine is doing nicely– springy like a wool, but cool like a cotton– and I particularly like this forest-green colorway, Foliage. It’s fun.
Comments Off on Working On: Beatnik
Tagged JMF, Knitting, pullover, Working On, yarn
