Let's make something! Part 1--Pattern and yarn choice

Chana and I are going to do a little 2-person knit along (or KAL) and I'm going to blog about it in intricate detail. The goal is to make a little light-weight sweater appropriate for summer. Our first plan was to make the Whisper cardigan from the summer 09 Interweave Knits.

This pattern uses lace weight yarn, which guarantees 2 things: it will be lightweight, and time-consuming. Based on finished pics on ravelry, this cardigan looks like it would be flattering for most people, and would work well as a little coverup to wear with a dress or tanktop for chilly summer nights (those might not exist in NYC, but they do here). But, then I saw this Featherweight cardigan on some else's blog.

Simpler construction than the Whisper, more basic design, but really pretty. Also knit from laceweight yarn--this pattern calls for Malabrigo Merino Lace, and you know we love us some Malabrigo around here! Malabrigo is a single ply lace weight, and the dying technique yields vibrant, slightly varied colors. The question of what color to use: I am drawn to making the cardigan out of something bright and lively--a bright light green, like this yarn

Though I think a light grayish color would be more versatile. And I'm not sure if the green would look on my skin tone.

The other issue with yarn choice is getting gauge (duh duh duhhhh!), something I'm a bit worried about. The pattern says the gauge should be 6st/in, and the author used size 6. Well, I'm getting more than 6st/in on the project I'm working on now--and it's with fingeringweight yarn on size 5 needles! So I'm not sure how I'm going to get the required gauge with laceweight yarn. Hmmm. There will definitely be some swatching--next post!

My new theme song?

Just maybe.

Instant gratification fix

I started this little thing on Friday, and finished it last night--pretty quick turnover for an item knit out of sport weight on size 5 needles (for me, at least).

Made from some knitpicks shine sport that was hanging out in the stash, this little top is sized to fit a 1-2 year old. And I just love it! So cute and summery, I kind of wish I had one for myself. :) Knit from the bottom up, using the EPS (Elizabeth Percentage System) to get the numbers for the sleeves and underarms. I did an I-cord cast on for the sleeves, and I really like the way this turned out. Since small people have large heads, I made a little notch in the collar to (hopefully) make this easier to get on. Not sure if the neck is the right size, though. Worried it might be a bit too small.

I used one of my mom's (11) sewing machines to do the free motion quilting on my placemats. And I'm so happy with how they came out!

The free motion quilting was super fun. I finished sewing the 12th and final napkin today. These were definitely more of a challenge than I expected, thanks to turning such a small hemmed edge and the pain in the ass mitered corners. But I'm very pleased with how they came out. Look at that corner!

And I finished just in time, too. I was worried there for a minute while sewing the last one. This is all the brown thread I have left:



I had so much fun sewing, I want to start more sewing projects RIGHT NOW. I saw this tutorial posted on a blog yesterday, and I really want to make one. But this will have to wait. Because now I am a knitter on mission. I gave my Aunt Michelle that little heart shawlette that I made last week, and she loved it so much, she's paying me to make another one for her to give to her mom. As a general rule, I do not make things for money--it's never really worth it. But when your sick aunt asks you to make something for her to give her mom, you say yes. So I went to the LYS this morning and got a skein of some lovely sock yarn to make another shawlette. I'm basically going to make it the same as the first one, I just wish I'd taken more notes the first time--I didn't think I'd be trying to recreate it. :)

It must be in the air here!

Brr! It's chilly today. Good thing I finished up this cozy wool sweater!

The sleeves are definitely too short (and so's the body). But I haven't washed the thing yet. So we'll see. And it fits kind of weird in the shoulders. I definitely want to try EZ's seemless sweater technique again to see if I can get better results. Maybe in June.

I finished knitting the pieces of the modern lace henley. I still need to block them then knit the placket and collar and sew all the pieces together.

Also finished a pair of socks. Remnant Stripies!

I used yarn left over from Tracie's xmas socks and Christine's xmas socks. Not too impressed with these socks. They'll enter the gift pile.

With all these projects off the needles, that leaves just one sock in progress. Gasp! Must start new project ASAP! But I'm not sure what to start. I want to start my May sweater, but I'm still waiting for the pattern to arrive in the mail. I kind of feel like knitting a baby sweater--I could use some near-instant gratification.

Speaking of near-instant gratification, I did some sewing yesterday! I made some placemats.

I love the apple/pear fabric, and I think the leaves match it pretty well. I'm going to machine quilt around the fruit. I'm also working on some cloth napkins out of the same 2 fabrics, but these are proving to be more laborious.

I've been listening to so much great music lately. I don't want to take the time to go into all of it, but today I'm grooving to local kids Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom, which I think is a hilarious band name). Their newest CD, Oohs & Aahs, is great, clap your hands, dance around music. They're playing tomorrow night with Cloud Cult at Neumos. And I'm totally going, whether I can find someone to go with me or not! :)

What a wonderful kind of day!

Today is perhaps the most beautiful day we've had yet. And tomorrow is supposed to be even better! I continue to welcome the reappearance of my freckles. :)

In knitting: The knitting of the Noro Yoke Sweater is complete. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The sleeves are a tad on the tight side, but I'm thinkin' they might loosen up a bit upon blocking. We shall see.

Yeah, I look kinda crazy in that picture. Maybe it's the sun. Or maybe it's the fact that I knit all that Noro on US 4 needles and it kind of drove me nuts-o. All that's left is to weave in the ends and graft the underarm seams. But maybe I'll love those open...

A wool sweater with pit vents--I could market that idea! No, I'll sew those up. Sometime. Not now. Given how lovely the weather is, I'm not exactly motivated to finish this wool sweater, but I'm sure this dense sweater will be nice come winter.

Once the noro sweater was complete, I went back to the modern lace henley, and I'm plugging along on the front.

I have 18 more rows to go on the front before I start the sleeves. I'm feeling kinda iffy about the color of this sweater. It's a dark, dullish green. I kinda wish I'd gone with navy or dark purple. Oh well.

In reading: I'm slugging through The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It's a humorous and informative look at the puritan settlers of the early 1600's. I'm about half way through, and just not sure if I really need to gain whatever information could be presented in the second half. We'll see. To distract myself, I started Persepolis yesterday (and will finish it today). I loved the movie. And the book is great, too.

In movies: I went to a screening of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past on Monday. Meh. The Stranger has a funny "review" of it in this week's issue. You should read it and pretend I wrote it. :)

Look how pretty it is here!

What's that saying?

When life gives you lemons,

knit a shawl!

I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.

I took a break from the sweaters in progress to whip up this little shawl over the weekend for a loved one who's sick. I used sock yarn and US 5 needles and improvised the design. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I think it's just the right size for its designee--about 51 inches across and 26 inches long. I particulary pleased with how the little hearts turned out.

I wish I'd had enough of the black-pink yarn to complete the border, but I'm not displeased with the solid black border.

One week

Knitting: Last week, after blogging about my progress on the modern lace henley, I promptly put it down and cast on for the rainbow yoke sweater. I brought this with me to Cara's bachelorette weekend (which was super fun), and made a fair amount of progress. This morning I joined the sleeves with the body and started knitting the yoke.

The sleeves and body are Cascade 220 (one of my favorite yarns) and I knit them on US size 6. The noro is slightly larger than the Cascade and the pattern recommended going down 2 needle sizes for this portion. So for the yoke, I'm knitting noro on US 4s, and there are so many stitches that I have to use both my 16 and 24 inch needles just to knit them all. Let's just say, it's not the most efficient knitting. But I think it's going to be really pretty when it's done, on the upside. :)

For the yoke decreases, the knitscene pattern calls for 4 decrease rows, about 2 inches apart. EZ's pattern for a seemless yoke pull over recommends 3 decrease rows, and starting them later than the knitscene pattern. At first, I thought I would do EZ's decreases, but after only 4 rounds of knitting the noro, I'm all for decreasing sooner rather than later, and I think I'll do the knitscene decreases after all. I wish I could do them now. But they're probably another 3 or 4 rows away.

I organized my yarn stash last week.

Isn't it pretty??? :D Going through all the yarn, I just wanted to go cast on crazy! But I restrained myself.

Speaking of pretty, Monday and Tuesday were the 2 best days of weather since I've been here. Look at the view yesterday when I got home from an outing to downtown.

Movies: I saw Adventureland yesterday. It was cute. Some funny parts, a little heart warming, a nice little coming-of-age story. Kinda bummed that Ryan Reynolds played a sleeze-bag, though. I don't like to think of him that way. I went to see this movie at 2:15 in the afternoon on a weekday, something I did in NYC with a good amount of frequency, but never once was I the only one in the theater. Until yesterday. At the beginning of the movie, there was 1 other person in the theater besides me, but he left about 1/2 hour in--I think he may have been an employee of the theater. It was strange.

I have new upstairs neighbors; they moved in yesterday evening. And aparently they have a dog, because I just heard it barking. :) Maybe when I get a dog, our dogs can be doggie friends.