p/lucky bees and rainbows (two finished knits)

Tags

bees to honey shawl, renfrew hat

I’m not sure where I read this: Ravelry? The Plucky board?

But I quoted it to my husband last week: “It is high holy knitting season.”

 

When I am not buying yarn (mostly I am not buying yarn I promise), I am drooling and dreaming and scheming about how I can get SQ’s (“sweater quantities,” to you fabric people). When I wake up, I knit a few rows with my coffee, to help my feet find the ground more steadily.

 

I started this shawl, from the Bees to Honey pattern by Amy Miller, a few weeks ago, but it’s been in the works for much longer. Back in September, I treated myself to a single skein of Plucky Bello Fingering–a fingering weight yarn that is 55% merino, and a whopping 45% cashmere. I chose my old standby favorite, gray.

A few weeks later, offhandedly, I mentioned on the Plucky Ravelry board that I had the Gris but really what I wanted was Miss Manners, the super-duper bright pink. A women who I don’t even know private-messaged me that very night, offering to sell me her skein of the bright pink. She said it was too bright for her! Nothing ever is too bright for me, so I eagerly sent her some Paypal funds.

And then! Another woman on the Plucky board who I don’t know offered her “extra” copies of the Bees to Honey pattern (she had purchased several kits) as gifts on the destash board. She gifted me the pattern. Without any planning, I had bumbled into the materials I needed for this shawl. (Materials that are actually very difficult to bumble into, seeing as how the last time Bello Fingering was offered for sale, it sold out in about 30 seconds.)

 

My luck held as I knit the pattern–many folks found they were running out of the main color of yarn before they finished the body of the shawl. I had a nub left over–enough for several more rows.

I’ll skip the part where I ripped out the lace portion TWICE because I kept fudging it up, and refer you to the first photo in this post–that is swoon-worthy lace, dearies. (And you can’t feel it because it’s a photo, but: 45% cashmere.)

I’m wearing the shawl right now and I can already tell it’s going to be one of my favorite knits of all time.

Less favorite: Lucy’s rainbow hat. Oy. It has turned cold in earnest this week, and in addition to refusing a hat, Lucy is now refusing to wear her winter coat. She’s 2.5, so I kind of feel like…she just needs to do it. At any rate, I did the good-mom thing and knitted the rainbow hat, as requested:

 

I used Jane Richmond’s Renfrew hat pattern, and Tosh Feather, a light fingering-weight single-ply merino-alpaca blend yarn, held double. I also used a size 5 needle to make the hat Lucy-head-sized. With all the fudgery, I’m surprised it came out–but it did!

 

There is a cute little faux-cable pattern on the right side of Lucy’s head–the variegated yarn hides the pattern here–it looks tricky. Oh, it is so not. I knit this hat in two days flat and I wasn’t even really working on it. Renfrew is a fun pattern I’ll definitely use again!

So, how are you dealing with the wintery weather? Are you dreaming of cashmere-y knits, shawls, and cabled hats? Or stitching up a few extra quilts (maybe minky-backed)?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope there is some sewing-machine time in it for you all.

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what’s happening

Tags

lowbrow hat, phoenix twins, super tote

Oh, hello, two weeks that went by without a blog post. I’ve been ever so busy, in the best possible way!

I realized Christmas is coming. And so soon! So I went bats for hats.

I knit two gorgeous hats:

These are the Lowbrow Hat pattern. The lace pattern might look special, but is ever-so-easy to knit. I felt like a genius when I quickly memorized the lace pattern and didn’t mess it up at all. The blue hat is Plucky Primo Aran in Outta My Hair; the green is Tosh Chunky in Thoreau. (I think this is the IDEAL pattern for a lonely skein of Tosh Chunky, if one happens to have one languishing.)

I also knit a hat dud.

Purl Soho’s Chunky Cabled Hat, knit up in some heathen stash acrylic yarn. This might have turned out better had I ponied up the bucks for the gorgeous-looking Super Soft Merino, which undoubtedly has better drape. As it is I looked like Marge Simpson. I’m considering: trying to shrink the hat in the washing machine, adding a pompom (go bit or go home amirite), or giving it to one of my more-stylish younger sisters who seem to wear everything fabulously. I will not be frogging back or futzing with it in any way that requires real effort.

I made a Super Tote, too! I don’t have much to say about this pattern that others haven’t already said; that Noodlehead knows how to write a pattern. I will say that if you choose Essex Linen for your exterior gusset, DO choose to interface it. I did not, and the gusset is a little floppy for my taste.

I went to a Victoria Findlay Wolfe lecture hosted by my guild last Friday. (I wrote a little writeup of the lecture over at my guild’s blog.) You guys? I think Victoria Findlay Wolfe is a genius. Her lecture was luminous and inspiring; her quilts even more so. I’m still working out what to think about what she had to say (there’s always more fabric! cut it up and use it; never make the same quilt twice, try something new every time; make the quilt you said you would never make; if it’s not working cut it up; challenge yourself by using the fabric you think you hate) but I know that 100% of what she said is true.

I also worked hard at soaking up every last bit of fall sunshine before we fall into the cycle of 6 hours of grey daylight every day all five months of winter.

Oh, and I finished a little quilt top. No big deal.

Yes, this is the first of the two twin quilts I’m making for my friends living in Phoenix (so I’m calling them the Phoenix Twins). I started the second one today and I can tell it’s going to go very quickly. I’ve worked all the drama out of my system on the first one. I’m quite pleased with how this top turned out.

I’ve had a couple of questions about how I made the center blocks for this quilt. I took a few process photos today and will post a little behind-the-scenes tomorrow. You don’t need a tutorial, for goodness’ sake. They are just improv-pieced on a paper foundation (and I owe a lot to Rachel’s Ziggy Strings tutorial for helping me get here). Check back to see how it’s done!

all the things

Tags

color affection shawl, lowbrow hat, nanook sweater

Yesterday on Instagram I observed, “cooler weather = casting on all the things.”

Yesterday evening I cast on a Lowbrow Hat (click through to purchase the pattern on Ravelry) in The Plucky Knitter Primo Aran in the June Classics colorway, Outta My Hair. I have a good friend who washed a man outta her hair this spring-summer, and I wanted to knit her a little luxury to remind her what a good thing washing a man outta your hair can be. The pattern is so easy and amazing that I knit through the first pattern repeat before bed!

I always thought that leaves looked tricky to knit, but this leaf pattern isn’t. What fun hats are.

Also on my needles right now is my Nanook (again, click through for details and to purchase pattern). You’ve seen the Insta-spam, probably.

I’m using Cascade 220 in the colorway Anis. Bad math led me to believe that my five stashed skeins were enough, but as I seamed the first sleeve on Sunday

I started to get that really bad yarn runny-out-y feeling and rushed to order more. (I’ve since re-done my math, and guess what? 5 times 220 yards does NOT, in fact, equal 1200 yards. #englishmajor). The color is a real chameleon. I love it in the top photo, hate it in the second; love it with certain Instagram filters, am wishy-washy on it IRL. I realized it’s the exact color of one of Lucy’s vests

and so I’ve made peace with it, as a color. I’m 1/4 down the second sleeve and then it’s just a mile and a half of garter and stockinette for the body, so I hope to have it done before a hard frost.

About a month ago I finished my Color Affection shawl, which I posted about before I started it but not since. Yarn is (natch) Plucky Feet in Oatmeal, Dandy Lion, and Ball Point.

I’d not ever knit stripes before, so, as you can see in the second photo, my edge is a little disastrous. (I’ve got to get one of you IRL knitters I know to teach me to twist yarns together at the color changes.) I don’t care. I love this shawl and I’ve been wearing it in the evenings, August heat be damned. Now that it’s cold, watch out, I’ll hardly take it off.

I’d noticed that I’d gone a bit off knitting and yarn buying. But now that it’s getting back down into the 50s 60s here, I’m having fun planning my fall knits. I want to knit Grace, and those Purl Soho kneesocks that kicked my butt in January. I wound yarn for a To Infinity and Beyond cowl, and MAY have just ordered a couple of skeins of DK for a French Cancan. And I think Lucy’s just got to have a Little Sperry.

If you knit, what are you planning for the fall-winter? Are you casting on all the things too? 🙂

finished: tiny tea leaves cardi, first socks

Tags

first socks, tiny tea leaves cardi

I always let knit finishes pile up a little before I take photos and post them to Ravelry. And then, I don’t want to do SO many knitting posts here, because most of you-all are quilters.

But the way that I got interested in knitting was reading other quilters talk about their knitting projects. So, here you go.

1. Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan for Lucy

Pattern: Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan, available for purchase at the Madelinetosh website

Yarn: Madelinetosh DK Twist, Mag Society colorway Doe Eyes (insider info: there was some general griping on the Ravelry discussion board re: this color. Some squeaky wheels said it looked too undyed, and one person even said it looked like a band-aid. !!! I love this color for a basic staple garment, like I hope this will become for Lucy. Plus it makes her hair look super-blonde.)

Notes: I made the smallest size, which turned out a little big for Lucy. I can’t decide if it’s because she is pretty tiny (she is) or if my gauge was like half a stitch off (it was). At any rate, for knitted garments for a child, too big is okay. Maybe we’ll get two winters out of it.

I think she likes it. We are living (what I dearly hope is) the hottest week of the year in Massachusetts, and she fought like an animal flatly refused to take this sweater off to go run our errands. She wore it all the way through her toddler dance class, facepalm.

She’s got sweet moves.

2. First Socks

Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock, by Glenna C, available free on Ravelry

Yarn: The Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet, Princess Phone

Notes: Not many. These are cuff-down (as opposed to toe-up) socks. I used size 2 40” circulars and knit one at a time using the Magic Loop Method. They fit fine. I screwed up the second toe by not reading the pattern (a theme here at l n’ l) and frogged back to re-do. I love how they feel on my feet–more handknit socks are in my future.

 

Ravelled here and here!

towards handmade

Tags

colette ginger skirt, constellations washi, tiny tea leaves cardi

All the cool kids are doing it, you know.

Lizzy House is. (Consider the above Constellations Washi–my third Washi!–an homage to her inspiring handmade wardrobe.) Carolyn Friedlander is (follow her on Instagram, she is posting some amazing garments and home dec projects made from Architextures. And you thought you were just going to quilt with it). Jeni Baker is. (Her Nordika garments? Unreal.)

Suddenly, we’re all making dresses and skirts, not just bags and quilts. Or is it just me? Has everyone been doing this all along, and just not really saying much about it?

All through vacation (it was lovely, I am not tanned, and I am way behind on everything blog-related, so thank you very much), I plotted and planned and dreamed, and even bought a little bit of fabric.

And when I got home? The second thing I did (after going to guild meeting on Saturday, natch) was sew up my Tsuru motif madness Ginger skirt.

I’m still a zipper chicken, but I managed to install the invisible zipper in this skirt with a minimum of teeth-gnashing. It doesn’t look awesome, but it looks fine, you know?

Zipper-gnashing and cutting included, I sewed this skirt start to finish in 2.5 hours. So much payoff, for so little time invested.

When I first tried it on, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know if the high waist was flattering on me (Lucy left behind some serious luggage, if you know what I mean), and I thought the print might make me look…crazy. Keep your thoughts to yourselves re: the crazy, but I’m wearing this skirt for-real today, and I love it. Going to make the next one out of some Liberty. Yep, sold out, I cleaned ’em out again.

I didn’t forget Lucy in my wear-homemade mania.

I’ll put this on her and take real photos as soon as I sew on the buttons–but this is her Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi, knit from madtosh DK Twist, Doe Eyes (the April Mag Society yarn club “neutral” colorway). I tried it on Lucy yesterday to see how big it was on her skinny shoulders, and she flatly refused to take it off. Good sign!

And…of course, there’s still quilting going on. Plenty of it. I have 20 out of 36 x-plus blocks done. I have the last 16 cut and ready to go. Need to apply my rear to the chair and just get them done.

How about you? Are you making garments too? Have any favorite patterns to share? I’m particularly interested in patterns of the “flattering blouse” variety.

nothing to see at all

Tags

tiny tea leaves cardi, washi dress, x plus

Only, everything, all at once.

Putting some sleeves on some things: Tiny Tea Leaves cardi for Lucy, in madtosh DK twist, April mag society colorway doe eyes.

And, another Washi (for me!) lacking only sleeves, bias tape, and a hem. I’d like to wear it tomorrow so I’d better get a move on.

Trying to figure out which one of these x-plus blocks is my favorite. (Tutorial here, using these cutting directions to achieve a 12” finished block.) Six down, only 30 more to make!

Helping out just a little bit with Quilts for Boston. (I heard they got enough blocks to make, like, 100 quilts.) (100 quilts. That is crazytown. I make a lot of quilts, maybe 12-15 a year–I can’t even think what 100 quilts looks like!)

And Instagramming like my life depends on it. (I’m littleandlots over there, too! Would love to see/hear from you!)

Finally, I’m still hopping in the Let’s Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop. I’m meeting so many lovely people (hello!) and having fun learning about some people I’d already met. Below is the list of this week’s featured bloggers; visit them and say hello!

Friday, June 21st

Leigh Anne @ Ella’s Cottage

Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt

Sarah @ Quilt Candy

Jackie @ NW Patchwork

Liz @ Beadqueene’s Bits And Baubles

Erica @ Happy Fabric

Stephanie @ Simple Sewendipity

Lauren @ Seraphym

Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts

ETA: linking up with the Plum & June Monday LGA link-up, hosted this week at Ange’s Heart of Charnwood. She has a seriously bucket-list kind of hexie quilt on the go…come check it out.

finished: lucy’s low tide cardigan, lansbury cowl

Tags

finished knit, lansbury cowl, low tide cardigan

Knits ahead!

This might be it (haha, might be “knit”!) for awhile. I always go through a little spell of finishing ALL THE THINGS AT ONCE, and then I start a whole bunch of new things, and then there’s dead wasteland middle time.

(If you are good about cycling your projects more skillfully, so you’re not doing a ton of block-piecing-stockinette-knitting all at once, holler, please, and teach me ALL YOU KNOW.)

1) Lansbury Cowl: pattern by Shannon Cook of luvinthemommyhood; can be purchased on Ravelry here. Last Friday, I was feeling rushed and weird and disoriented. Crazy stuff kept happening! And it was 95F hot hot hot. I couldn’t settle down to work on any of my ongoing projects.

So I wound my lonely skein of The Plucky Knitter Primo Aran in the April Classics colorway Whistlestop, and put it to excellent use.

The irony of knitting with aran weight yarn, in an around-your-neck-keep-you-warm pattern, on the hottest weekend of the year did not escape me, but this pattern was easy, and soothing to knit, with just enough texture and cabling to feel fun. And now I have a new super-soft luxury cowl ready for the first whisper of cool weather!

2) Lucy’s Low Tide Cardigan: pattern is by Tin Can Knits, and can be purchased at Ravelry here.

I was nervous to start this sweater, I really was.

Lace charts! (The simplest-ever lace chart.) Kitchener stitch! (For like, four stitches.) Crochet buttonholes! (I downed a glass of wine real quick, watched two YouTube videos, and dove in, no problems.)

I knit it in The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering, colorway Frostbitten (retired colorway! Such a shame–it looks fantastic on my little, and I know it’d look great on me too). 20% cashmere in the mix, so it’s baby’s first cashmere.

Again, I royally messed up the short rows on the sleeves, so if you do make this, your sleeves will look much better. But the end result is still pretty cute and Lucy LOVES it. Her favorite color right now is blue!

Both of these projects are Ravelled at my Ravelry page. If you’re a Raveller, I’d love to see you over there too!

finished: moth mo cardi (and two knitting wips)

Tags

finished knit, knitting, lucy low tide cardi, moth mo cardi, whisper wrap

I waffled for a long time (six weeks?) about whether or not I should post photos of this finished object.

 

This is the spring cardi that I cast on in March, with the first shipment of my madelinetosh Magnolia Society yarn (yes, fancy yarn–they were smart to open subscriptions during a major snowstorm in February. I ordered so much fabric and yarn that weekend when we had 30” of snow!). This is tosh mo light in the club colorway moth.

 

I used Veera Välimäki’s Celery Cardigan pattern. This is my first finished sweater project. I’m fairly frustrated by the silly mistakes I made (more in a moment)

but it turns out that I wear this little cardigan often. It’s the perfect light layer for New England–the fabric is soft, with a bit of soft halo, and because I knit it myself (hey hey) I was able to make the sleeves just so.

 

I also love the color, which wears well with navy blue. I own a lot of navy blue clothes!

OK, rookie mistake confession time. Ever heard of twisted stockinette? Me neither. Until.

 

I picked up the sleeves to knit them in the round and I was all, why do my in-the-round stitches look so different? I google around and found out:

I WAS WRAPPING ALL OF MY PURL STITCHES INCORRECTLY.

Each purl stitch, since the dawn of my knitting, I had wrapped clockwise, not counterclockwise. How could I not have noticed? Well, I knit most of my things in the round, and the mistake just didn’t show in the round.

I’m doing it right now, it’s all cool, but I’ll always have this sweater to remind me of self-taught-beginner-knitter mistakes. That’s a doozie!

Quick peeks of wips:

 

A bit of Lucy’s Low Tide Cardigan, knit in The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering in Frostbitten, which I executed perfectly (Kitchener stitch and all) until I messed up the sleeves. Failed to read the pattern while I was gossiping with my grandma. I just duplicated the mistake on the second sleeve and shrugged it off–they’re there, they don’t look awful, and it’s for a two-year-old. I need to sew on buttons, crochet the button loops, and wash/block this, and it’ll be done!

 

And this is my long-term wip, the Purl Bee Whisper Wrap in Tosh Prairie, colorway Antique Lace. It’s going to take me forever to knit a large laceweight wrap, but I so desperately desire the finished object (so soft and versatile!) that I’ll stick with it.

Thanks for bearing with me for a knitting sidebar. I’m finding that my summer run-around-everywhere lifestyle is much more conducive to knitting than sewing. I always have a project on the needles in my tote bag!

lotta things

Tags

celery cardi, low volume, moth cardi, string fever, sunday morning quilt

(That’s Lucy’s new “thing” to say: we make a verbal list, colors, animals, whatever, and she goes, “Lotta things!” Gotta love a two-year-old.)

My Sunday Morning quilt is in the floor, ready for smoothing and basting. Why, yes, I WILL write a blog post to put off the agony of smoothing-basting for just a few more minutes. Bound for more straight-line quilting. Cannot. let. it. go.

Sleeves on my Moth Celery cardi are…done-ish. They’re probably as as done as they’ll ever be. Yeah they’re rough. And also! Knitters! Do you see my egregious error!? If I finish this thing without trashing it I’ll own up to my horrifying/embarrassing mistake. I lost a whole night of sleep over this cardigan last weekend.

(And no, I’m NOT going to frog. The thing is MOHAIR. It won’t frog for crap. I’ll finish it and wear it as penance.)

Plucky yarn that is too nice for bad knitters, purchased in the triumphant post-cabling-shawl-knitting adrenaline rush of early March. Now I think I probably should be punished with some acrylic Joanns yarn.

Fabric pull for the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild’s first Block-of-the-Month raffle. (Bring a buck and a block, the more bucks-blocks you bring, the more entries you get, winner gets the blocks.) We’re making these!

You’re planning to kill your string stash with Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s Scrap Attack String Fever, right? I know I am. Hoping to use her tutorial for ziggy string blocks, but need to do a block or two first before I know for sure. And I think my Sunday Morning quilt technically qualifies, too!

Hope you have a “lotta things” on your Monday too. Happy Patriot’s Day/Marathon Monday!

finished: holden shawlette

Tags

holden shawlette, plucky feet

I finished my Holden Shawlette weeks ago, and haven’t posted about it–mainly because it is seriously difficult to photograph the back of oneself while artfully wearing a shawl. (And my helper husband gets a little weird about quilt photography, so the mortification of a shawl photography session…well, I didn’t even ask him.)

This was the first lace pattern I’ve ever knitted, and my first “shawl”. It was much less difficult than I thought it would be! I also thought the finished object might not be so useful. “Good practice,” I thought, and then I thought it would stay folded in a drawer. Not so!

I wear it all the time! It looks great over a tank top and bare shoulders (so I can only assume it’ll look great over a summery dress), but it also looks fantastic over a sweater and under my fitted cloth spring jacket, worn like a scarf.

I used The Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet in Edwardian (a colorway that has since been discontinued. I feel pretty lucky to have snagged a skein in time! The green-blue-grey color suits me perfectly). Because I used a true sock yarn, the shawl is really sturdy with great shape retention. (Though it may not have blocked out to the intended size, for the same reason.)

Finally, I’ll just mention that you can get this lovely pattern by Mindy Wilkes free on Ravelry. Try it! I think if you can knit and purl and kind of keep track of what row you are on, you can do it.