I can’t stop knitting things for Leah in the rich golden colour called Candlewick from Madelinetosh.
In the summer of 2014 I knit Leah a cardigan (Peloponnese by Sandi Rosner for Twist Collective) that used Candlewick as an accent colour against Composition Book Grey. I blogged about it here, where you will find all of the details and many great photos. The cardigan was a huge hit and I am told that Leah practically lives in it:
I had a skein of the yarn leftover, so this Christmas I whipped out a pair of fingerless mitts to match.
Monika Sirna recently released a mitt pattern to match the cowl, but I decided not to use it. First, it was designed for worsted weight while my yarn was DK, but I also found the pattern to be a bit busy. I decided that I wanted a pair of simple stockinette mitts with a single pattern of the cable running up the back ; I think they turned out elegant. I didn’t take any notes – I used double pointed needles in a US size 5, put in a single pattern repeat with one purl stitch on either side, and added a thumb gusset. The only slightly tricky part was incorporating the pattern repeat into the ribbing on the bottom and top of the mitts (which involved decreasing one stitch as the count was off by one, if I recall).
Leah loves them and I think they will get a lot of wear. This colour really suits her.
We are having an astonishlingly warm Christmas here in southern England. The photo above of Leah in her Peloponesse cardigan was taken in August year before last, the other photos are taken today in late December. I think the temperatures are probably the same today as they were on that summer day. Everything is green, and you can see the rosehips on the rose bush and the flowers blooming behind Leah. I have no doubt that the cold will arrive eventually and then hopefully the Candlewick mitts and cowl will be both cheerful and warm.
I finished my Laelia cardigan almost a month ago but haven’t been able to get photos taken until today.
When I first bought this yarn, I pictured it as a zesty, spring-y splash of citrus orange to liven up a summer sweater; something silky and lacey to slip over a sundress and wear with orange heels. And even though it is most definitely a summer sweater, and will look great next summer over a cute dress, I can’t help but think it looks pretty nice against the brilliant fall foliage here at the back of my house.
The pattern is by Hanna Maciejewska and the yarn is the luscious Merino Silk Fingering by The Uncommon Thread. I can highly recommend both pattern and yarn. The two together make for a very serendipitous pairing.
(I have a terrible cold; thus the somewhat pained expression on my face. Or it could be that I am all smiled out after jumping and whooping for joy today – Go, Trudeau!) You can see how beautifully this yarn showcases the lace pattern. I made two changes to the pattern. First, as I’ve adopted from many other Ravellers, I’ve had the two cascading lace patterns “meet” at the back of the sweater. In the pattern, they are separated by a laddered lace detail; this is done to accomodate the many sizes. You need to do some fiddling with the numbers to make this work, and it won’t be appropriate with every size. Second, I’ve knit the sleeves without any lace.
I had both bad and good timing with this one. Bad timing because I finished it just as the cold weather is settling in, and it will have to sit in a drawer until the spring comes. Good timing because no sooner had I finished it, then I developed hand and wrist problems which have prevented me from knitting.
In my last post, I chronicled my first attempts to modify the collar of the Escher Cardigan. This lovely design, by Alexis Winslow for Brooklyn Tweed, has a very interesting and fun structure. I knit most of this cardigan exactly to pattern. I made two very simple modifications, and one slightly more complicated one.
The first modification was merely technical: I decided to knit the upper and lower edgings separately and then sew them together. In the pattern, you knit the lower edging first, and then knit the upper edging, while joining it to the lower edging stitch by stitch at the ends of each row using short row construction. I found this a bit fussy (though I am sure it gives a neater edge) so I knit the upper edging back and forth. Here you can see how it looked before I sewed the edges together:
The second modification was a very tiny one: I used I-cord bind-off instead of a rolled garter stitch edge around the entire edging. To do this, I put the lower edging on a long needle to hold the stitches live while I knit the upper edging. Then, I sewed the two seams, and knit the I-cord around the entire joined edging. (This edging had almost 600 stitches, and took me four days to finish!) Here is how I did the I-cord:
*K3, sl 1 k-wise, k1, psso, sl all 4 sts back on left needle; rep from * until all sts have been worked. Four I-cord sts remain on needle. K4tog, break yarn and draw yarn through final st.
The I-cord looks great and very professional on both sides – this is important because the collar rolls back so both sides are visible. Here is a good photo that shows the I-cord:
For those of you who carefully read the last post, you can see in the above photo that I carried through on my threat to rip out the upper edging and start again – the shoulder decreases now line up with the triangle. If you recall, the issues I had with the upper edging were that the shoulder decreases in the pattern were too close together and that I needed more stitches on the needle to accomodate my gauge and to put a bit of extra “give” into the shawl collar. Due to all of the extra fabric between the shoulder decreases, I couldn’t get the back neck to narrow anything like it does in the pattern.
Alexis WInslow has a great photo of the back collar and shoulders on her blog post about Escher. It is the third photo from the top. Let me make this clear: I think this looks great. I love the pattern and that’s why I wanted to make this cardigan. But, it was clear that I couldn’t get the collar and shoulders of my Escher to mimic hers. This is due in part to my row gauge, which is always long, and meant that the edges of the triangle on my back were significantly wider (though they did line up with my shoulders). It is also due to having wide shoulders and wanting the shoulder decreases to shape the collar AT my shoulders rather than at the shoulder blades. I tried a number of things to fix this in my first attempt, which you can read about in my last post. Ultimately, I ripped out that attempt (about 5 inches worth) and started again.
The biggest problem with my first attempt was that I went way overboard with adding more stitches. I didn’t count, just picked up so it “felt” right. I ended up with 258 stitches picked up for the upper edging, compared with 186 specidied in the pattern for my size. This time, I was more modest with 218 (57 on each end and 104 across the back) – an increase of 32 over the pattern. I moved the shoulder decreases out to line up with the edges of the triangle, thus having the width between the shoulder decreases at least five inches wider than the pattern.
I decreased for four inches, and then knit four rows as set, and then started increasing. I put the increases at the same place as the decreases, except that I reversed the sides, so that the wrong side became the right side (since the collar would “fold over” when worn). Here you can see the shapings from the right side:
and from the wrong side:
I continued increasing right out to the very edge, and this gave the collar enough “give” so that the shawl collar lies beautifully:
The problem with knitting something in this shape (like any shrug-type garment) is that until you’ve finished and blocked it, the final fit is a bit of a crap shoot. But when you get it right, it’s pretty cool:
I left out the button hole because I was modifying the collar significantly enough that I wasn’t sure how to get it placed right. I have a lovely twig-shaped pewter shawl pin (a Christmas gift from Emma) that works perfectly:
I think it looks great both closed and opened. It is also quite cozy and warm and surprisingly easy to wear.
I had a few comments from people regarding my perseverance with this pattern; I don’t see it that way. I did do some ripping and put an awful lot of thought into how to modify the collar properly so that it fit me. And I did have conceptual problems with the upper edging instructions. However, the pattern is mostly crystal clear, and very clever; I really liked knitting this. Alexis Winslow’s blog post was extremely helpful (especially her photos of blocking it – not intuitive by any means without being able to see it). And Brooklyn Tweed has superior customer support. I also had wonderful help from Ravellers, particulalry Alice (Ellisj on Rav) – thanks Alice! It worked!
Emma is still around, so I had both Doug and Emma to make sure we got some decent photos:
As usual, when they are in charge, I spend most of the photo shoot laughing:
And that’s all the news that’s fit to print! Good knitting!
Today, I can finally bring you some modelled shots of my Gossamer pullover.
I wrote in an earlier post that a discussion thread on Ravelry about the beautiful yarn Rowan Kidsilk Haze Eclipse, which was being discontinued, led to an impulse purchase of a dozen balls in the gorgeous golden shade called Virgo.
Because the yarn can be rather bling in certain lights, I wanted to keep the design very simple and stark. Instead of trying to find a pattern to suit the thoughts in my head, I designed it myself as I knit. I think it is rather like a 1950s Sweater Girl pullover. I call it Gossamer because it is as light as air.
The fabric is extremely sheer and I shopped around for an appropriate tank to wear under it. Just as I was finishing the pullover, I found a new Hanro tank design, in a creamy ivory lace that I thought would work perfectly. (And which gave me the perfect excuse to splurge on Hanro.) You can see what I mean in this shot:
The lace tank gives just the right amount of cover without being intrusive and distracting the eye from the beautiful yarn.
I knit this in pieces and seamed it together. I think that with a fabric this delicate, the seam helps to give the pullover some structure and hopefully will help it to maintain its shape. I didn’t use any fancy seaming technique for this – I just stitched it up rather quickly in mattress stitch. The halo of the mohair means that the seam is soft and so is rather forgiving. I think it looks great:
Here you can see the set-in shoulders. Again, I didn’t do anything fancy, just mattress-stitched the shoulder into place.
I have been trying to decide whether to write this pattern up and make it available. Even though the Kidsilk Haze Eclipse has been discontinued, this would work perfectly in Kidsilk Haze, which comes in so many beautiful colours. What do you think? Is it worth the effort?
The thing I like best about this pullover is that it is so light – it weighs in at less that 125 grams. It is the perfect travel sweater. It won’t take up any weight in a suitcase, won’t show any wrinkles, and can add a bit of “Wow!” to a travel wardrobe.
My Gossamer sweater is finished, but still unblocked. Today is a holiday in the UK (Easter Monday) and, as can be expected on the last day of a long, grey holiday weekend when everyone is on the highway on their way home, the skies are suddenly blue and the day is lovely. I couldn’t resist taking Gossamer outside to play in the sunshine.
This is knit with Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze Eclipse in the colour Virgo. This yarn has been sadly discontinued; I wrote here about how I aquired the yarn (Ravelry made me do it!). It is a lovely but very difficult to describe shade (champagne, perhaps?) shot through with a metallic thread.
The pattern is one I designed myself, and call Gossamer. Once I got the yarn in my hands, I realized that it needed a very simple sweater design – stark, even. I envisioned it as a very classic, v-neck pullover. Since I had the design in my head I didn’t bother to try to find a pattern; I just cast on and designed it as I went.
Although the Eclipse line has been discontinued, you could easily knit this in Kidsilk Haze, which is still going strong, with many luscious colours. The fabric it produces is incredibly sheer and fine – this sweater weighs less than 125 grams! It is like wearing a cloud.
The fit is perfect; my only concerns are that the bottom edging rolls, and it is just a tad short. However, I have yet to block it so hopefully both of these problems will be easy to fix. I won’t show you modelled shots today for two reasons. First, I want to block it beforehand. Second, this is the type of sweater that needs appropriate undergarments. I have found something I think will be just right and have ordered it; we shall see how it turns out. In the meantime, in the interests of decency, you’ll have to make do with an unmodelled Gossamer.
Last week I finished knitting and blocked my turtleneck based on Hannah Fettig’s Lightweight Pullover pattern. I then procrastinated for a week before weaving in the few ends. Finally, this morning, I was able to wear it!
I love how this turned out. The fit is perfect. This might be because I tried it on every few inches and knit it to fit.
I mentioned in a previous post that I was considering making the seed stitch border at the hips a bit longer. I ended up doing this, taking out the cast-off border and adding half an inch of seed stitch for a total of 2.5 inches. The pattern calls for ribbing at the cuffs and hem, but I really like the look of the seed stitch; I think it gives the sweater a bit of a dressier line.
I knit this with Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Tart. I wet blocked it, giving it a good soak. I poured a cup of white vinegar in the water to help set the dye. It definitely ran – if you are going to use Tart in colourwork I strongly recommend you wash all the dye out first. I put it through a gentle spin cycle in the washer (inside a bag for delicate wash), and then laid it out to dry. I didn’t need to pin it as the size was already perfect. A warning, however, Tosh Merino Light does grow lengthwise after a soak – the sweater is two inches longer than pre-blocking. Luckily, I was expecting this and the length came out perfectly.
I am particularly pleased with the fit in the shoulder and arm. I mentioned in a previous post that I didn’t follow the numbers in the pattern, but just winged all of the math. This method works well when knitting top-down in the round since you can try it on as you go.
Most knitters will alternate skeins every row when using hand dyed yarn to avoid pooling. It turns out that I am terrible at doing this when knitting in the round; the join always looks messy. Besides that, it is awkward and I hate doing it. For this sweater, I only alternated for an inch or so every time I joined a new colour. I was lucky and didn’t get much pooling.
I love the fact that this sweater is so versatile. I wore it above with dressy navy slacks and heels. Here it is with a skirt. (It would look better with a navy,brown or black skirt, but you get the idea.)
Once I finished posing for the photos, however, how do you think I styled it? Well, how else does one wear a jumper to go walking in the muddy English countryside?
Answer:
You put your hair in a ponytail.
You wear your wellies. Wellies are essential; trust me.
You borrow your husband’s way-too-big-on-you coat. Why? Why have a husband if you can’t wear his clothes?
Now I’m off to find a muddy field to trek through….
(By the way, I asked Doug to look at this post and he said “You should have named it Tart in Turtleneck instead of Turtleneck in Tart”. He deserves to have his clothes stolen!)
I have finished the gorgeous Soumak Wrap and am totally in love.
This wrap was designed by the super-talented Lisa Richardson of Rowan Yarn. I met her when I was at Rowan last week, but unfortunately I was just 5 days short of finishing. The pattern is called the Soumak Scarf Wrap and was published in Rowan 54. It is also available online for free; follow the link from the Ravelry page here. Rowan 54 is a terrific volume, however, so don’t be afraid to splurge for the magazine.)
I love everything about this Wrap. Most especially I love the colours. They are so rich and deep, and they change according to the light or the background.
I also like that I wouldn’t have picked this palette of colours myself. This allows me to push my boundaries a little bit and open up to new colours and combinations. One of the bonuses of the pattern, to my mind, is that the back of the fabric is nearly as cool as the front, and the juxtaposition of the two is fabulous.
The title of this post, Suddenly Soumak, is a bit of a joke. I have had the song Suddenly Seymour from the Little Shop of Horrors in my head the last few weeks (and the play on it, Suddenly New Zealand, by the cabaret group Fascinating Aida). As I was blocking this, the song was running through my head and morphed into Suddenly Soumak. The joke is on me in this case: I started knitting this in September 2013!!!! It took me 16 months to knit.
Notice to anyone lusting after this pattern: it does not take anywhere near 16 months to knit, unless, like me, you have problems with knitting project monogamy. (In those 16 months, I also knit 3 sweaters, six cowls, four pairs of fingerless mitts, a skirt, and – please forgive the lack of humility here – the world’s most fabulous Tolkien-inspired birthday present.) Now I am kicking myself for dawdling, because this is one of the best things I have ever knit and I want to wear it every day. It is also quite easy to knit, so do not have any fear: cast it on immediately and you will never be sorry.
I knit this according to the pattern, with the exact colours and colour repeat sequence. The only changes are that I went down a needle size, and I knit only 7 repeats instead of 8. Therein lies another part of the “Suddenly Soumak” joke: I kept knitting and knitting and I never seemed to get near the end of this project. I finished 7 repeats and I still had one more to go and I was losing momentum. Then for the first time I measured it, and discovered that it was already longer than needed. I bound it off quickly, blocked it, and – suddenly Soumak was done.
For those who like to know these things – the unblocked measurements were 16″x71″ and the blocked measurements are 19″x77″. As you can see, it is quite long:
I cannot end this post without gushing about the yarn. I love Rowan Fine Tweed. I knit one project with it before, the Peerie Flooers hat designed by Kate Davies, which like Soumak utilizes many colours in the design. A really good tweed yarn needs to have a beautiful, rich, heathered background colour, and then very bold, contrasting flecks. Rowan Tweed does this perfectly – there is not a single shade that I do not covet. When washed, it becomes bouncy and squishy, with a fabulous loft – really airy and plush while still being warm. But the absolute best part, particularly after all of the hand-dyed yarns I have used lately: there are ten colours in this wrap, and when I washed it, not a single one ran. I love the fact that I can do intricate colourwork with this yarn and don’t have to worry about colour bleeding or pooling. I can see a lot of Rowan Fine Tweed in my future!
Leah’s is knit from the pattern Cabernet Infinity Scarf by Monika Sirna, in the DK weight cowl version. I had a skein of the gorgeous Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in Candlewick left over from Leah’s Peloponnese sweater. I ordered an extra two skeins to make this cowl, as per the yardage instructions, but only used two skeins in all (thus leaving me with one skein for…moi!).
I knit this with a US size 5, which gave it a pretty tight knit. I imagine that most people would knit it to a bigger gauge, but I liked this look better. I then blocked it heavily. It was 7″x36″ pre-block, and I blocked it out to 8″x46″. Once blocked, the cowl is light and airy, and very soft. The cables and lace are crisp and clear in this yarn.
I have wanted to make this cowl for a long time. It is really a striking pattern, particularly in this rich golden hue. It is a bit of a fiddly knit, but is worth the extra effort. It was clearly a big hit with Leah. It goes beautifully with her Peloponnese sweater, but also looks good with many other colours. Leah wears a lot of reds, burgundys, and purples and the gold really shines.
Emma’s cowl uses the Lowbrow Cowl pattern by Thao Nguyen. I had two skeins of the lovely Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in Venetian left over from Emma’s gorgeous sweater, Venetian Audrey. I knit this one with a US size 6 needle, and also knit an extra pattern repeat to give the cowl more width; blocked, it measures 8.5″x48″. I had almost half a skein left over.
Unfortunately, Emma’s Audrey is across the ocean and couldn’t get in on this photo shoot, but I think they will work well together. On my Ravelry page, I have named these two the Golden Cowl and the Ruby Cowl, because of the beautiful jewel tones.
The weather here has been lovely this Christmas; cold but very sunny. We have gone for many long walks through the countryside. The winter sun gives beautiful light. This, of course, gives many opportunities for photo shoots.
My family are surprisingly good at indulging me and this blog. Yesterday, Doug and the girls went into London for the day. They dutifully took many cowl photos in the British Museum. Here they are standing in front of the Bronze Gates of Balawat (fragments and replicas of the huge bronze gates of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) from Balawat).
Incidentally, Doug was also wearing a hand-knit cowl. I knit this one a few years ago for myself but it looks better on Doug so its his now. (Its just Malabrigo Worsted held double knit in seed stitch).
Happy New Year to all of you from all of us. I am heading off now to drink home-made eggnog and watch Dinner for One (if you don’t know, ask a German!).
This post is about new mitts, and the story behind them. Because one should always start with the pretty, here are the mitts:
And here is the story.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a mismatch of pattern and yarn. I had a skein of Madelinetosh DK left over from another project and decided to knit a pair of mitts. The yarn is lovely, very soft and warm, and the colour, Composition Book Grey, is one of my favorites. I picked a lovely mitt pattern called Masonry Mitts by Vera Brosgol. Here is the pattern photo:
copyright verabee
And here is my attempt to knit it up with the Madtosh:
I really didn’t feel like this was working; in fact, it was pretty clear to me almost from the beginning that it wasn’t going to work but I stuck with it for a while. Leah, who writes this lovely knitting blog, left a comment on my post, in which she says: “It is amazing how the wrong yarn can make such a huge difference in even such a small project as mitts. Good for you for not trying to force the yarn on the project. ” This comment made me think about what exactly was wrong with this yarn-pattern pairing – it also made me realize that there are other people out there who think about things like this. So, for those of you who care about such things, I will discuss it further here. For the rest of you, feel free to look at the pretty photos and ignore those pesky words.
The Masonry mitts are designed to be knit with Cascade 220, which is a plied yarn with a tight twist; it is a sturdy yarn, what we call a “workhouse yarn”. The Madtosh is a soft, fluffy, un-plied yarn which is very splitty. Cascade 220 could be described as architectural – it will keep its shape. It has substance. The Madtosh is lovely and light and unformed; if left to its own devices it will flop. When I tried to knit the Masonry knits with the Madtosh, there wasn’t enough structure to hold the shape. I could have attempted to mitigate this by knitting with a much smaller needle and forcing a tighter fabric. However, another design mismatch was also at play here.
The Masonry mitts have vertical columns of garter stitch and stockinette stitch. Most knitters get different row gauges with the two stitches. This means that one half of the mitt (the stockinette portion) will end up measurably longer than the other half (the garter portion). Garter rows are tighter and pull the fabric together vertically. If you are using a yarn with a tight ply and a good twist, this will still happen, but it will be less obvious and more amenable to blocking.
I frogged the mis-begotten mitt (this means I ripped it out so the yarn could be recycled into another project) and decided to try again with the pattern Toast and Jam, designed by Emily Foden. Toast and Jam also juxtaposes garter and stockinette (I guess I was finding this an attractive theme), but it does it in a smaller portion and over a field that is increasing rather than a straight vertical section. This keeps the mismatched gauges from getting too out of control. Not entirely, though, as you can see from the unblocked Toast and Jam mitts, where the row gauge of the garter section is clearly tighter:
A good blocking fixed this problem. The main advantage of this pattern over the Masonry pattern, with respect to the Madtosh DK, is that the Toast and Jam Mitts are knit almost entirely in Twisted Rib. The twisted rib pulls in the knitting and keeps tight control on the otherwise unplied Madtosh; in other words, it gives it structure and keeps it tight. It doesn’t hurt that it is knit with a 3.5mm needle (a US 4) instead of the 4mm (US 6) that I was knitting the Masonry mitt with. I knit Leah’s beautiful cardigan with the Madtosh and it has flow and drape – it doesn’t need a tight gauge and a twisted rib. But a Mitt takes a lot of punishment – it doesn’t need flow and drape, it needs structure.
One of the lovely features of the Toast and Jam pattern is that the garter stitch portion can be worn on the outside of the hand, or on the palm. Here it is on the outside:
And here it is on the palm:
The next time that you are considering substituting a different yarn for the one the pattern calls for, think carefully. What are the charicteristics of the fabric you want to create? How is it going to be worn? Does it need to be sturdy or delicate? Are you looking for structure or flow? And what are the characteristics of the yarn? Once you think you have a match – go for it, be creative, that’s what make knitting fun! And when you can see that you’ve got it wrong, don’t be afraid to stop. Rip it out and try again. Then, you’ll have a match made in heaven.
The autumn has definitely arrived and the English countryside is turning shades of reds and golds. My knitting, without conscious intention, is following suit.
I knit these beautiful mitts this week using Quince & Co Chickadee yarn in the colour Honey. The pattern is called Antiquity and is designed by Alicia Plummer.
I didn’t like the colour when I first bought this yarn (ordered online) but now I think it is luscious – particularly juxtaposed with autumn’s bounty.
There is a small orchard near our house, which I think is mostly a hobby for its apple-enthusiast owner. He grows dozens of varieties of apples, most of which I’ve never heard of; over a period of four months a different variety reaches its peak every week or two. Doug and I go there every week through the autumn and try them all. These are called Catshead apples and they are a very old variety, dating from the 1600s. I’m not sure what they taste like but they certainly look delicious with my mitts.
Doug has just returned today from an exhausting business trip to Mumbai and then on to Brussels. It was not autumn-like in Mumbai but Doug seems to have been on the same wavelength as me since he returned with autumn colours. Since I seem to be developing a theme here – here are my mitts photographed against the antique carpet Doug bought in Mumbai:
I have also been slowly making progress knitting my Lightweight Pullover, designed by Hannah Fettig, and knit in the glorious Tart shade of Madelinetosh Light. It fits in perfectly with our autumn theme today. Here is a progress shot:
This also shows the great fit. I am modifying the pattern to get an in-between size and I am quite happy with the results. Tart is such a lovely rich colour. The simplicity of this pattern, basically just miles of stockinette stitch, allows the colour to shine.
When Doug left for Mumbai, he asked me what I wanted him to bring me. I asked for saffron and a tablecloth. And Doug, even though he only had a few hours free on the whole trip, managed to bring me saffron and a tablecloth. I can’t resist showing you the tablecloth here, especially as it fits so perfectly with this post:
Amazing, isn’t it? It’s pure silk and practically luminescent. I can’t wait to see this adorning my Christmas table.
I cast on another project this week, but since it’s grey and doesn’t fit the theme, you will have to wait to see it. Whatever your weather, enjoy the colours!
