the first sweater i ever knit but never blogged about

Hey pals! While I'm on a knitting streak here I thought I'd finally do a proper post for this sweater so I can stop referring to it as "the first sweater I ever knit but never blogged about" because that is a long title for such a humble sweater! So since I wore this outfit to work today, and felt pretty good about it, and there was still a considerable amount of daylight left when I got home, I decided to go for a walk and take some outfit shots along the way.

Behold! The First Sweater I Ever Knit but Heretofore Never Blogged About! This was actually the third knitted item I ever made, and therefore, despite it's myriad of quirks, I'm intensely proud of it. I started it early February 2014 (I think...?) after learning how to knit over my Christmas break. It reached completion, I believe, around May - sped along by a rather tenacious upper respiratory infection that had me couch ridden for much of March and some of April.  Which is why it never got photographed or properly blogged about. By May it is already much to warm to even pretend to wear wool for the sake of the camera here in Texas! Just the thought of donning this sweater made me break out in a heat rash! So it got carefully folded and stowed away until the cooler temperatures decided to make an appearance again. And let me tell you, what a lifesaver it has been this winter! Anytime our fickle winter temperatures thought about nearing freezing (or really anything below 50F because I'm a thin-blooded southerner)(yes, I know, cue the tiny violins from all you northerners dealing with real winter!) I pulled on this jumper and immediately felt swaddled in warm, loving, hand-made, coziness.

So the deets. This is the Bedford Pullover by Michelle Wang for Brooklyn Tweed Fall 2011. I knit it up in BT Shelter, a worsted weight yarn, in the color 'Cast Iron'.  This sweater was knit from the bottom up, completely in the round.  It doesn't have any shaping, so the finished look is quite boxy. I think I knit the second to smallest size, although it's been such a long time I don't totally remember.  I do remember that I learned a lot. There was a lot of YouTube-ing various stitches and techniques and knitting jargon! And a lot of visible improvement was made on the sweater as I went.

One of the biggest things I think I finally got the hang of was finding a uniform way to tension my yarn as I knit (of course this is also something that I want to experiment with a bit on my next make to see if it makes a difference in efficiency - constantly learning...).  Sadly this means that the 1x1 ribbing at the bottom of the sweater isn't the prettiest, but you can kinda see in this picture that I sort of got the hang of it by the time I was doing the arm cuffs.  In the end, the fact that this sweater isn't the most uniform really doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I think it's a lovely memento of my growing proficiency with this new skill, and a humbling reminder that I'm never too old to learn a new craft.

The sweater used a twisted stitch to create this lovely textured pattern, that almost looks like a small scale cable.  There is about a 1 inch 'racing stripe' of purl stitch that runs up the side, a bit hard to see in these photos, but a nice little detail all the same.  And the sleeves are all reverse stockinette - or purl stitch. I got very good at purling...

One issue I've had with both of the sweaters I've knitted is that the neck opening always seems much higher and tighter on me than it ever seems to be on the models.  I think this must have something to do with my wider shoulders, but I'm not sure. It might just be an adjustment that I have to make with all knits, like adding length.

And speaking of length! That was one thing I was pretty disappointed about with this sweater.  It ended up much shorter than I would have liked. Of course it's still 100% wearable, it's more of a wearing preference than anything else. At least in the body. The sleeves really are too short, there's just no denying it! It was for this reason that I was very conscious to add length to my Carpino sweater, despite the fact that I was itching to speed up the knitting process. I knew I would regret not having that additional length in the long run.

While I'm blogging about old(er) knitting makes I thought I would give y'all a two-for-one here and throw in this little hat! I knitted this up in January of this year when I was starting to feel some serious Carpino burnout! I thought maybe taking a bit of a break and focusing on something else, but still knitting, might help me push through the last couple of steps. And I guess that technique worked...? I mean, I did end up finishing my Carpino, but I think this hat was less the result of some fancy scheme to increase my productivity and more the result of me being unable to resist the siren song of a shiny new ball of yarn!

This is the Purl Bee's Traveling Cable Hat (a FREE pattern!) knit up using one skein of Manos del Uruguay's Maxima in the color 'Oxygen' (which I'm not seeing on Purl Soho's site anymore, but trust me, it existed).  I wanted to knit this hat to brush up on my cabeling. Last year I made Purl Bee's Chunky Cable hat, which was a great introduction to cables, but this year I wanted to try a more complicated design, and this seemed like the perfect next step. Plus, I love wearing knit hats in the winter. They are an essential during my chilly bike rides to work, and it's nice to have options.

Nick found me this lovely pink barnacle (note: that is not it's scientific name!) while I was shooting photos, so I had to show it off! 

My one pet peeve about this hat is that it's a little snug - and I have a small head! According to Revelry, this is a pretty common complaint about this pattern.  I could have added another pattern repeat, but I think then it would have been too big. If I make it again I might experiment with sizing up my needles and seeing if that makes a difference. Other than that, I think it's a really pretty hat! I love the way the Manos hand-dyed yarn creates this very subtle shift in blues throughout the hat.

And here I am with the ultimate accessory, lovely Lucille. She's not great at posing for the camera, so this photo was the best of the bunch. It looks like I'm giving her the Blessing... 

Well, I think that about brings me up to date with my knitting, save for a hat I made for Nick as a Christmas present, but I think it just might be asking for a miracle to get that photographed! Just imagine it - it's a very straightforward men's sailor cap in a tweedy navy blue. Exciting, no? So there we go! All up to date! Whew that feels good!

Alright guys, that's all from me! I hope you all are having a great March! Stay warm! Spring will come!

xx

we got there in the end

A sweater!! You guys! I knit a sweater! I'm realizing that I'm actually pretty terrible at blogging about my hand knit items, so I'm trying to change this. For some reason knitting just seems better suited to Instagram than my blog (for me, I love reading about other people's knitting on their blogs). I'm not totally sure why this is, because knitting is so. SLOW. Seriously. You wanna talk about a labor of love, just talk to a knitter! I mean, I can slap together an entirely new, hand sewn outfit in the amount of time it takes me to knit a hat! So you'd think after all that hard work I'd be ready to crow about it from the rooftops, right? And instead my hand knits tend to only get a fraction of the hoopla that my sewn garments get. Well no more! This is me, climbing onto the neighbors roof (because it's more fun if it's trespassing) and crowing: I MADE A SWEATER! 

And it's purple! This is the Carpino pullover designed by Carol Feller for Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People 6. I had my eye on this design since I learned how to knit (*cough* last year *cough*). I love the honeycomb lacework design of the front. It felt like a less girly version of lace, which is good for me, because as much as I love the way lacework looks, I get really uncomfortable in anything too girlish (... I mean, there's an exception to every rule, but in general...) I also really wanted to learn lacework, and this is a nice, repetitive, not-to-complicated pattern. Perfect for learning.

This sweater was knit from the top down, in the round. I followed all the instructions as is for a size 39 - which should have given me plenty of ease, since my chest measurement is closer to 34 inches. I did test my gauge, but I think I tend to be a tight knitter, even when I'm trying to relax. So the finished sweater is a bit narrower, after blocking, than the size 39 specs. I'm actually okay with this. I think the fit is pretty cute, and pretty close to what I had imagined. The only place that I would have appreciated a bit more width is through the shoulders, however I actually think my sweater fits me through the shoulders pretty similarly to how it looks on the model, and I can comfortably wear a long sleeve shirt underneath it, so I'm just gonna go with it! It'll probably relax with time and wear anyway.

I added an extra inch or so to the overall length of the sweater, leaving the arms the original 3/4 length. I did this because 1) I thought it looked short on the model and 2) my first sweater that I knit (never blogged... but maybe I'll get around to that...) always feels a bit short and it bugs me. I think that after all the work and time you put into knitting, you really don't want to have any regrets at the end. While you're knitting it can seem like a pain to spend more time and yarn on one section, when all you want to do is get to the next part of the instructions, but it's worth it in the end. Knitting, I've found, is a practice in the art of patience.

The yarn is Brooklyn Tweed's Loft in the color Thistle.  I love that on BT's updated site they give the color stories for their yarns. I've spent a fair few lazy Sundays just reading each one, they're like little love notes to color! I had to give a hoot when I read that, according to BT, "Playful Thistle is perhaps rather intense for adult-sized garments"... whoops! Um... definitely didn't get that memo! In truth, I actually don't think this color is nearly as intense as it shows up in photos. In reality it's more of a red-purple, and the flecks of navy, bright red and white are so much fun. Brooklyn Tweed's yarns are really interesting. They are 100% wool and have a very 'heritage' feel to them. When you're knitting them up they're kind of scratchy and stiff, but after wet blocking them they really soften up and come alive. I haven't knitted with a ton of different yarns, but I really am partial to this stuff. They're insanely warm. The other sweater I knit is with Shelter and it is the absolute warmest thing I own.  I'll admit that I don't like wearing these sweaters directly next to my skin, but I don't really like wearing any wool right next to my skin.  

Loft is BT's fingering weight yarn, so it's much lighter weight and makes for a thinner, slightly drapey-er material. You guys. I will give pause before I knit another sweater with fingering weight yarn. This sucker took me FOR . EV . ER! I think I cast on in the beginning of September? It's so long ago now I can't really remember! But let's go with September. And when I knit, I get pretty obsessive, so I was devoting a good amount of my free time to this baby. So six month. SIX MONTHS!! Egads! I blame it on the fingering weight yarn and size 4 needles. The fact that I'm a painfully slow knitter didn't help.

Sorry this photo is a bit out of focus. It was getting dark while I was shooting these, so my shutter speed was very slow. But anyway, The sleeves and hem are finished with a 1x1 twisted knit ribbing.  I learned a thing or two while knitting this sweater - I mean, you're bound to learn a thing or two about anything if you do it for a straight six months! But one thing I learned is that I really prefer knitting in the round with 5 DPNs (double pointed needles). I had always used 4 (3 holding the stitches in a triangle shape, one used for knitting) in the past and could never figure out why I got such ugly laddering on the stitches where the needles joined, but then I read somewhere that if you switch to 5 DPNs those joining stitches have much less strain placed on them. It made sense to me, and it definitely made a difference in my sleeves! 

The neckline is finished with an i-cord bind off. This was also new to me! For the first couple of stitches I kept thinking that I was just making a big messy knot, and then slowly it started to reveal itself and I got pretty psyched! It's a really pretty way to finish a neckline, and a nice alternative to ribbing.

As I was nearing the finish line with this sweater I began to suspect that I would run out of yarn. I guess that extra length I added really ate up a lot of my yarn! I just had 1 inch left of cuff ribbing and the i-cord bind off to go and I was down to a marble sized blob of yarn. I started to freak out a bit because the thought of buying a whole new skein just for that little bit of knitting seemed insane.  When I lamented about this on Instagram (see, IG gets all the good knitting stuff) Samantha, of A Gathering of Stitches, suggested I try Ravelry to see if anyone was selling a leftover skein, which was a brilliant idea! Unfortunately I didn't have much luck - it seems that Thistle is not a very popular color! Who'd a thunk...? But I'm passing that little nugget of wisdom on to you guys, should you ever find yourself in a similar situation. Anyway I eventually had the thunderclap realization that I still had my two gauge squares stashed away somewhere. So I unraveled those and ended up with more than enough yarn to finish my sweater! I ran out of my original ball of yarn while I was binding off the cuff edge, which was super inconvenient, but it did force me to learn how to do a spit join (or spit splice), which is magic! Why have I not been doing that all along?!? I could have been saving myself from so much tedious tail weaving-in! Again... the things you learn...

Well, I absolutely adore my new sweater! And I better after all the time it took away from other projects! Nick isn't too keen for me to jump into a new knitting project too quickly. He thinks I love my knitting more than him, but I think a bit of jealousy is healthy for a relationship. Keeps the sparks alive, ya know? So on that note, what do you think I should knit next?? 

Since I tend to really love Brooklyn Tweed's (and company's) aesthetic I had originally planned on moving on to Seacoast from Wool People 7. I love the elegant, wide, neckline and the clean lines, but after all the stockinette on this sweater started to bore me I thought maybe I should try something more challenging and Jared Flood's Backbay from the Fall 14 collection caught my eye.  I definitely think Ondawa is the star of that collection, but the cute little bobbles, moss stitch, and overall classic look of Backbay really won me over. But then the Winter 15 collection came out and I became intrigued by Kusama! Although I can't tell yet if it's the pattern, or the styling of the model that I'm really into here... Obviously I need your help! 

What are you guys knitting? And can someone please tell me if six months is an insane amount of time to spend knitting this sweater?

xx

two very different hats

I usually try to avoid grand, sweeping, generalizations. However, in this instance, I feel pretty safe in saying that for the continent of North America this winter has been one mean mother f*cker! Okay, okay... I actually have no idea what's going on in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm pretty sure California is making out okay... but for the rest of us this has been a brutal one! Usually February is the month that I try to coax my northern friends into visiting me, since they're typically just recovering from their third flu of the season, and our weather tends to be perfect for talking about every aspect of your life while sitting at an outdoor cafe. But this year, forget it! Ya'll just stay put! Don't let the sunshine, greenery, or my lipstick in these pictures fool you. It's cold!

Also... the heat in my apartment is broken.  This means that I've been spending every evening curled up into the same corner of the couch with a heating pad, Netflix, and something warm to put in my tummy (hot tea, curry... a stiff shot of whiskey... just kidding. I don't drink whiskey. It turns me into a weepy drunk.)  And if this nighttime ritual sounds familiar to you than perhaps you know what else these wintery evenings are perfect for...

Knitting. Yeah, I've been bit hard by the knitting bug! It's the perfect thing to do with your hands while you're listening to Game of Thrones on audio book! What? You don't do that? Well maybe you should try! 

To recap - my amazing, and knitting wiz of a sister taught me how to knit while I was home for the holidays this year.  I immediately started on this first hat - Wiksten's Jul Hat pattern, using the recommended Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino yarn in fog (a gift from my Mom and Pop - thanks guys!) It was a great pattern for an utter newbie like me. I found the directions easy enough to follow, I learned a lot while working on it, and I think it delivered a really spectacular finished product! I wear it alot. 

Right after finishing my Jul hat I swung into this Chunky Cable hat - a free pattern from the Purl Bee. I once again used the recommended yarn (I'm not nearly confident enough with this stuff to diverge from the directions) Purl Soho's Super Soft Merino in red zinnia.  I thought this would be a great project to teach myself how to do cables, and I'm pretty happy with the result! I mean, granted, it's kind of a crazy hat, so it doesn't get as much wear as my Jul hat, but it also makes me smile every time I don it.  It definitely turned out huge, despite the fact that I double checked my gauge, but I also think I might have a smaller-than-average-head.  If I were to knit this again I would maybe size down my needles to a size 11 (rather than the suggested 13 - which felt disconcertingly like knitting with baby carrots...) and I might use a smaller needle to knit the first couple rounds of the rib pattern, since it has a tendency to flare at the bottom after several wears.

Neither of these hats are perfect, but, honestly, I'm kind of stupidly proud of them! After these two hats I decided it was time to jump into the deep end, because... you know... sink or swim, right? And as of right now I'm about 6 inches into Brooklyn Tweed's Bedford sweater pattern.  So... at that rate... I should be finished by the time summer arrives, right?

How about you guys? Are you finding the cold weather conducive to knitting? Any big projects on your table?

xx

new year, big news!

A glimpse at some of my sewing-related gifts

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've all had a happy holiday filled with lots of food and surrounded by some of your favorite people. I know I did! I had plans to jump on the bandwagon and do a 'sewing year in review' sort of post to start off 2014. However my focus totally shifted when I received some exciting news that made me less inclined to reflect on the past year, and more interested in planning out the future. 

I've been asked to join the Mood Sewing Network, and well (holy crap!) I accepted! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

If you follow the Mood Sewing Network blog (and you should, it's excellent - and not just because I'm about to be contributing, but because all the other fantastic people that already are) you might remember some weeks back they announced that they were looking for new bloggers to fill their ranks.  I dashed off an email with my blog link in it, thinking vaguely that it would be awesome to be offered a spot, but without any real hope. It's still pretty hard for me to think of my blog as anything more than this side project that only my Mom and Dad (and sister) read, an outlet for my thoughts and passions that don't get enough play in my day to day life. So I was floored (to say the least) when I got an email from Mood the day before I was set to fly back east for the holidays saying they wanted to talk to me about joining the team!

So what does this mean for my sewing practice and my blog? Well, let's talk about the business aspects first. As some of you might know already, Mood Sewing Network bloggers receive a modest stipend once a month to buy Mood fabric, sew it up, and blog about it.  The post first appears on the MSN blog, then a day or two later, on the bloggers own blog.  Mood has always been the first place I visit online when I'm looking to buy fabric, so I feel like I'm supporting a company that I was going to support anyway (see: my last post - totally bought that fabric before any of this was a reality). I will always be transparent about what is fabric bought with my Mood allowance, and what is not.  As someone who has always sewn and blogged completely on her own dollar and in her own time, I'm looking forward to the bit of material compensation and accountability as a way to actually make me a better blogger. Far too often I feel like my hands are tied creatively because I want to make something, but don't have the funds to make it happen. This is one of the reasons why I occasionally have to go longer stretches between posts, because I simply do not have enough cash to make anything! Bummer! Joining the Mood Sewing Network team will help lighten the strain on my bank account (a little, as I said, the stipend is modest) and free up some funds for me to pursue some of my crazier ideas (leather! dyeing!) and I'm expected to post once a month, so posts will become more regular around here.

But, really, the main reason I am excited about this opportunity is not financial (because, let's be real here, I'm the kind of lady who takes a pay cut to do work she believes in - accumulating financial wealth is not my forte) or related to my blogging productivity. The main reason I am absolutely psyched to be a part of this group is for the creative challenge! I feel like this is a chance to experiment with different fabrics, and to shake myself out of my comfort zone a bit. I've always been in love with textiles, and I can't wait to push myself to try out some fabrics that, given budget constraints and a more practical mindset, I wouldn't normally try.  

I still plan on continuing to experiment with dyeing my own fabric. This is something that I feel very passionate about and get much personal satisfaction out of, so don't expect that to go away.  Really, don't expect anything to go away! I see this as an opportunity to push me to grow in my sewing practice, and as a blogger, and quite frankly, I feel like it's time for growth.

And speaking of 'time for growth' - I finally learned how to knit while I was home for the holidays, thanks to my beautiful and talented big Sis! This is pretty huge, you guys.  I've been way too jealous for way too long seeing all the gorgeous hand knitted goodness that so many of you whip out like it ain't no thang (I'm looking at you, Lauren - Miss Nine Sweater in 2013!!) I've always felt like I had some sort of mental block when it came to knitting.  Many years ago my sister and I decided it would be fun to learn how to knit and proceeded to try to teach ourselves. She took to it like a duck to water and I... well... I ended up with a ridiculous, hole-y mess, and a headache. Whatever slight enjoyment I may have been able to get out of it was totally eclipsed by my frustration, fumbling fingers, mutters of "wait, why doesn't that look right..." yarn slipping off needles, and disgust at whatever I was making.  So I wrote it off as a 'not for me' type thing.

But then again... I once thought sewing was 'not for me'... Proving yourself wrong is a wonderful thing.  I had decided that this winter would be the time that I would grapple with knitting once and for all. Cross it off my bucket list! And with just a bit of determination, and a slightly obsessive attitude, I am proud to say that I am making serious tracks on Wiksten's Jul Hat pattern.  Of course... this is my second attempt.  I already tore apart one go at it - just before I was about to start decreasing - so saying that I 'conquered' knitting might be a bit rich.  Let's just say, I won't be so easily discouraged this time!

So Happy 2014, my friends! Here's to a year of growing, challenging ourselves, and many many awesome hand made garments!  

xx