New projects: knitting and sewing

Posted on January 28, 2017 by knitigatingcircumstances

Observant readers will have noticed a new project in my last post. I wonder how many of you figured out it was the Acer Cardigan, designed by Amy Christoffers. Given that there are currently 871 Acer Cardigan projects on Ravelry it is not unlikely that many of you tagged it. Here is the pattern photo for the design:

acer

When I got home from Vancouver, I was in the unenviable position of having nothing on the needles. What to knit? I fretted for a few days before having a light bulb moment and deciding on this project. Acer has been in my favorites since the pattern was released in 2010. That’s YEARS I have been thinking of knitting this cardigan. Plus, I just happened to have an SQ (sweater quantity) of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a deep red. Perfect! (The photos look slightly more rasberry; the real colour is a deeper wine red.)

I whipped out both sleeves super fast (no sleeve island for me this time!) and cast on for the body. As you can see from the above photo, the body – back and fronts – are knit in one piece until being divided at the arm holes. This makes the rows fairly long and slowed me up a bit, but I am still making very quick progress. As of this morning, I have 9 inches of the body done.

Last weekend, I went into Loop in London and found the perfect buttons:

I absolutely love these buttons! I think they will be gorgeous on the finished piece.

I am really moving fast with this sweater and hope to be wearing it in a few weeks. I am also very happy to be making it from stash; no money spent on yarn this month! Hooray!

Not spending money on yarn gave me more to spend on sewing lessons! Yes, that’s right, I have decided to take the plunge and try to get into sewing again. My plan is to take a dress-making course, but I decided to start with an afternoon intro to sewing class, just to get back in the swing of things. (I was never a terrific seamstress, probably because my mom is a true expert, and it has been decades since I last did anything other than hand sewing.)

The class was great fun! It is such a lovely way to spend an afternoon. I took the class at Ray Stitch in Islington, London. The instructor, Luisa, was both helpful and nice, and I had a great time with fellow classmates as we figured out sewing machines and made tote bags. (Of course, we all know that they are actually knitting bags, because what else would you need to tote?) Here we are with our totes: Louisa, Judi, Asia, me, and Alicia.

Knitting is a comfort to me right now as the world reels from political craziness. It helps keep me (relatively) sane. My advice – find ways to make your voice heard, don’t watch the news before bedtime, and keep a project handy for when you need talking down from the ledge.

I KNIT TWELVE SWEATERS IN TWO WEEKS!!

Posted on January 23, 2017 by knitigatingcircumstances

Kelly: I KNIT TWELVE SWEATERS IN TWO WEEKS!!

Doug: What? That can’t be right.

Kelly: But I used ALL CAPS and two exclamation points!!! That means it’s true.

Doug: But Kelly, consider the photographic evidence…

Kelly: Photographic evidence?

Doug: Yes. Here is a photo of your knitting from the past two weeks:

Kelly: Exactly. Twelve sweaters!

Doug: I see two sleeves and around six inches of the body. That amounts to about 30% of a sweater. It’s not even close to 12 sweaters.

Kelly: Oh! Now I see the problem, Doug. This photograph is taken against a white background.

Doug: And?

Kelly: And the other eleven and a half sweaters are white! They blend in to the background so you can’t see them!

Pretty much perfect in every way

Posted on January 10, 2017 by knitigatingcircumstances

I’ve written a lot of posts about the Tinder Cardigan that I have been knitting for Emma. Some of them funny, some of them frustrated, and many of them nit-picky. But, I have to say, this cardigan is really worth the effort.

I fretted about the seaming, complained about the yarn, worried that it wouldn’t fit, dragged it around the world and back and then back again, had ridiculous conversations with Emma about whether and how to modify it, ripped out seams, blocked it TWICE, bought three different sets of buttons, knit it in four countries on three continents, and………

it is pretty much perfect in every way.

I will leave you to read through my earlier posts for in-depth details. The cardigan was designed by the great Jared Flood for Brooklyn Tweed (the Ravelry link is here). I used Shelter worsted weight yarn (also from Brooklyn Tweed) in the shade Birdbook. Despite the fact that it is not my favorite yarn to knit with (I don’t like the feel of it in my hands), once washed and blocked it really delivered! It is so light and lofty and has one of the best tweed palettes anywhere.

I knit it in a size 34 planning on an inch or two of ease; my gauge swatch lied a bit (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) and it ended up being REALLY narrow. I blocked it out twice in order to get more width, particularly in the collar and biceps. It ended up with zero ease – not the look we were going for – but both Emma and I agreed that it looked fantastic this way.

I made very few modifications. I knit it two inches longer than called for – both in body length and sleeve length. I knit the ribbing for 6 inches (instead of the 4.5″ called for). I put in more buttons (9 instead of 7), and they were also slightly larger than the pattern called for (1″ as opposed to 3/4″). I found a beautiful ribbon which has a pattern in the very same shade of green, and I painstakingly sewed it over the pick-up seams on both the button and the button hole band. My hope is that the ribbon will give the cardigan some stability over time and keep it from stretching out of shape.

I took the unfinished cardigan with me to Vancouver, where we were spending the holiday with our daughters. While there, I knit the button bands, picked out buttons with Emma (at the funky shop Button Button), sewed on the buttons, and then, as said before (but it demands repeating) painstakingly sewed on the ribbon.

On New Year’s Day, we drove up the coast, first to Horseshoe Bay and then farther up towards Whistler. The day was stunning with blue skies and fabulous scenery, but it was icy cold and extremely windy. In fact, the road into Horseshoe Bay was covered with downed branches and we nearly drove under a tree just as it crashed onto the highway during the drive. As you might expect from our family, we made Emma get out of the car in the freezing cold and gale force winds – repeatedly – in order to photograph the sweater. The things we do for this blog!

On the photos we took during that drive, you may notice that the cardigan has no buttons or ribbon yet, thus compounding the child cruelty in making Emma pose in the cold and wind! Once we headed back into Deep Cove, I sat by a roaring fire and started to sew.

As always, when Doug and I find ourselves in Vancouver, we head down to Deep Cove to take a photo of us on the spot where we were married. Here we are, at the very spot, a mere 25 years (and a few months) later!

My year in review – 2016

Posted on January 3, 2017 by knitigatingcircumstances

This year has been such a train wreck in so many ways that it is difficult to put a happy spin on my traditional end-of-year post. On the personal front, many great things happened this year: I graduated from business school with an EMBA, I settled into a new and exciting career, I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary, and I traveled a lot, including a fantastic holiday with Doug and the girls and dear friends to Sicily, a visit to my mom in Phoenix, and some lovely trips with Doug to Beirut, Verona, South Africa and Vancouver. The double whammy of Brexit and Trump threw me for a loop, however, and all of this good stuff seems to pale into insignificance when compared to the state of the world. I admit to feeling depressed and still in a state of shock.

On the knitting front, it has been my least productive year since I began this blog. My new job took a lot of my attention and energy, and knitting took a back seat. This year I finished only 9 projects: a hat, a pair of mitts, a shawl, a baby sweater, three cowls and a sweater each for Leah and Emma. In the photos below, I am modelling Leah’s sweater and I have included a teaser photo of Emma’s on the bottom right. (I have finished her cardigan but haven’t had time to blog about it yet. I will get photos before I leave Vancouver and will blog about it soon.)

In an interesting twist, I didn’t knit any sweaters for myself this year. Last year, I knit five sweaters, all of them for myself. Most of my knitting time this year was taken up with the gold cabled shawl in Kidsilk Haze Eclipse, which I love to pieces so it was worth the effort. The general trend for the year has been a bit of a loss in knitting mojo, due to lots of other things keeping me occupied and feeling in a bit of a funk. However, I am happy with the projects I have finished, and they are all getting lots of use, which makes me feel good.

As for the year to come, I am optimistic (as far as knitting is concerned). I have just two knitting goals for the year. The first is to organise my knitting tools and supplies, including stash, in such a way that knitting is easy. Right now it seems like I can never find what I need when I need it, and this often leads me to just give up and read a book instead. My second goal is to have fun knitting. I want to knit what pleases me and enjoy the process. I think I may have forgotten a bit of the fun this year.

This New Year has begun with absolute gorgeous, crystal clear skies here in Vancouver – the kind of days that make you catch your breath at the beauty of it all. We have been walking in the mountains and enjoying the freezing cold but spectacular outdoors. My mind is bubbling away with plans for the knitting year to come. I am looking forward to another year of knitting and blogging.