KnitMe

Moor

Another new WIP (I can stop anytime I want to, honest!) This is Moor, the fair isle vest from the Rowan Yorkshire Fable book. A very simple fair isle, it's not terribly exciting to knit, but is fun and easy and I like that wavy bargello-like thingy in the design. The yarn, Rowan's Yorkshire tweed 4-ply is just lovely. The colors are turning out to be quite different from the photos in the book. The color used in the ribbing, for example, appears purplish blue in the book, but is really a teal green.

Linette

Gerbera

I made some progress on the Gerbera sweater from Dale #126. After the stranded, 2-color part, the back and front yokes are knitted separately. I'm really enjoying this project.

Linette

Autumnal WIPs

Now that the weather is beginning to cool off here I'm getting even more enjoyment out of my sweater knitting. These are update pictures of two things I've brought to the Tea before. I'll save the lace for another day when there's more progress to show (right now they look the same as before, just a little bigger...).

This is the body of the Byzantine sweater from the fall issue of IK - shoulders joined, and neckband added. It is draped a little funny but you can still see what a beautiful cable it is, and I love how the welt pattern grows right up into the body pattern so nicely.

This is a detail of the neckband. The pattern calls for a turtleneck, with a couple of inches of ribbing and then a turnback with the cabled pattern. I skipped the ribbing because I don't want a turtleneck, and just did a neckband with the cabling. I like how it turned out, and in a couple of places the body cables just by chance flowed into the neckband cables - this was total serendipity, I love it when that happens.

This is my progress on Poetry in Stitches p126. The body is just the same two colors and the same 49-row chart over and over for about 12 inches so this is my knitting for when I'm watching Emily play by herself - each row is easy to get in mind. There hasn't been anything difficult about this yet, I'm expecting the challenge to come when I have to decipher the instructions for neckline shaping. I've had several different suggestions as to what they might mean, but I won't know till I try.

It's easy to see that Solveig Hisdal is inspired by fabric - those roses have such a look of tapestry or drapery. This is a nice bit of variety to expand my color knitting experience.

Swatch

I'm so excited about this swatch, I had to post. This is Rowan Yorkshire tweed 4-ply on #2 needles, at exactly 9 stitches/inch. I'm excited because it's a design I've wanted to knit for a long time. Look familiar, anyone?

Linette

WIPs Old and New

I've added another panel to the sampler stole. This one is the same as the center panel of the Unst stole.

I also have a new WIP, the Gerbera sweater from Dale 126. The yarn is Sisik, a very nice tweedy mohair blend. I was pleasantly surprised by how soft it is. It's an easy but fun knit, it's done in the round, and it's a sweater which I can't wait to wear this winter! What more could I ask for in a WIP?

I haven't forgotten about Scarlett, though. Working on the first sleeve, slooowly. I MUST try to finish this soon. It's getting to be ridiculous how long it's taking me.

But look, another distraction arrived today! It's Rowan's Yorkshire tweed 4-ply from Cold Comfort Yarn. How can I possibly keep my hands off this stuff:

Linette

Saga Rose Re-Dun

it's so exciting to have my first pink tea entry! i'm vanessa and my sweater is the saga rose in jamieson's 3, only substituting jagger re-dun yarn from nancy's knit knacks instead of shetland 2 ply. the re-dun is very soft, and i love the heather colors. they match the originals fairly well.

I cast-on 3 times, the first time using cable cast-on, finally using a variation of the long-tailed cast-on shown in meg swansen's fair isle vest video. you scoop up the outer edge of the finger loop instead of the inner loop. had to go down a needle size for the cast-on, maybe because of the extra twist in the loop? look ma, no curling up :-) have finished one complete pattern repeat, it's addictive! maybe sheila and i can compare saga roses next year at ms$w?

Vanessa

Mutant Handspun Sock

Here's the followup to my dye experiment from last week. This is the first of two socks using the yarn. I split the hank into equal sized balls using my swift, and knitted till I ran out of the first ball then joined in some Country Garden DK I had left from another sock, and finished it off.

It's so hard to catch in a photograph the colors of this yarn, but it's definitely NOT just one color, it has some nice shading of purple among the blue.

Turns out it's a VERY DENSE yarn and actually knitted like worsted (heavier than the Country Garden), so this is one warm sock! I reinforced the heel with reinforcing thread because it's 100% merino, and meant to do the same to the toe but forgot... what can I say, I was on a conference call while doing it. I wonder if I can go back and duplicate-stitch the toe with the reinforcing thread? I will remember to include it on the other sock, if it seems like I can go back and fix up the first one in this way.

Future spinning goal: Less twist for more loft!! Meanwhile, I'm inordinately excited about knitting with handspun yarn of my very own and I plan to wear these socks all winter long, to work, with clogs.