I often wonder whether there’s a use by date for writing about ‘new’ FOs. For example, the vest mentioned in this post was finished in mid January. Now that it’s March, it feels strange to be writing about the vest, particularly when there was nothing stopping me from writing about it back in January (unlike Manu, where it was a gift that I needed to keep quiet about). I guess the moral of the story is to blog more often so I don’t have to ponder these things. Anyway, here’s a new/not really that old FO:

Tummy Warmer by Angela Tong
175ish grams Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply, pink
3.75mm and 4.5mm needles

Start: January 2012
Finish: January 2012
Ravelled: here

In January a friend of mine had a baby girl. To celebrate this occasion, I wanted to knit a little something for the baby. Although I have knit a couple of things for babies in the past, I’m not really attuned to the patterns that are out there, so when I started looking at baby patterns this time round, the selection was slightly overwhelming. After some deliberation, I finally settled on Tummy Warmer from Petite Purls. As an aside, if you’re in the market for babies’ and/or kids’ knitting patterns, I recommend checking out Petite Purls, there’s some cute stuff there.

Knitting in pink feels a bit foreign to me. To be honest, knitting anything that isn’t grey, blue, red or brown feels a bit strange. What is probably even more strange is the fact that I had pink yarn in my stash. It was left over from my ‘selling knits at craft markets’ experiment, and even though it was a heavier weight than what was called for in the pattern, I thought it would work well as a nice warm vest. As it turns out, I made the 3-6 month size with no alterations to the stitch or row count, and the vest came out with more or less the same measurements as it would have been using a 5 ply. It’s definitely too big for her now, but I’m hoping that when the consistently cooler weather comes, it’ll be the right size.

The honeycomb stitch used for the body of the vest makes it thick and warm, and adds a nice bit of texture. However, I found it a pretty tedious to work up. The yarn and needle combination just didn’t seem to suit the stitch pattern; whenever I had to knit into the front of the stitch, I needed at least two attempts to get the needle through cleanly. I suspect that the relatively unpointy needle, the looser twist on the yarn and the tight twisted stitch created a perfect split stitch storm. If I hadn’t been so good at splitting stitches, I think it would have been an even quicker knit than it was.

My favourite part of the vest are the buttons. They’re not necessarily the world’s prettiest buttons, but they do suit the vest well. The thing that makes them my favourite part is the fact I accidentally happened across them during the Pransell Declutterathon 2012™. I have no idea when or why I bought them, but I had exactly the number of buttons I needed, they were exactly the size I needed and they matched the vest. Serendipity.

It’s really quite a cute little vest, and these photos don’t do it justice (my age old excuse for not taking good photos of something). I find taking photos of baby items quite difficult, as I don’t have a small person to model them for me, and I’m not a fan of using dolls or soft toys as models. I could possibly go down the Posie Gets Cozy route and use a little person’s clothes hanger… Any suggestions would be gratefully received, as I highly doubt this will be the last time I knit an item of clothing for a baby.

If you are looking for a little vest to make for a little person, it’s worth considering this pattern. It’s quick to knit up and the honeycomb stitch means that it’s not boring (although I do suggest avoiding non-pointy needles and yarn that splits easily). It’s been a little while since finishing it, but from what I remember the pattern is easy to follow. It’s a winner.

Over the Christmas break, I borrowed my sister’s Manu and added pockets to it. It was one of those projects that wasn’t particularly involved, but it was one where I got to a certain point and thought ‘oh, I can’t be bothered with this right now’ and left it for a week (or two or three).

The sticking point was seaming the sides of the pocket flaps to the cardigan. It wasn’t a difficult job, I just couldn’t be bothered dealing with the rigmarole of getting the pockets lined up. Once I got my motivation back, otherwise known as ‘I’m going to see my sister in a couple of days so I’d better get a move on’, it didn’t take long to do at all.

My opinion of the pockets is not relevant, given it’s my sister’s cardigan, but I’m going to give it anyway. Sadly, I think they muck up the line of the cardigan, and detract from its nice simple lines and details. When I have my hands in the pockets it doesn’t look too bad:

But the pockets sans hands don’t really appeal to me at all.

A lot of this has to to with the yarn I used. Pear Tree 8ply is 100% wool and doesn’t have much drape. A drapey yarn is recommended in the pattern. While the more ‘structured’ yarn, for want of a better adjective, worked well for the cardigan itself, it just doesn’t suit the pockets that well. It bulges where a yarn with more drape wouldn’t.

I am a bit disappointed, though not surprised, by the outcome. However, my Mum reports that she often sees my sister wearing it, so if the recipient is happy, then I am happy. Mostly.

What I should be doing:

• Writing posts about the 1.5 FOs completed in the most recent unplanned blog break.
• Writing a post about how impressed I am with Cleckheaton’s Country Vintage Blends 8ply, which features colourways from a 1965 shade card. I think it’s a great idea and hope it’ll spawn more ‘vintage blend’ colourways from them.
• Finishing one toy turtle, one capelet and one top, all of which are nearly finished.

What I have been doing:

• Working on my Jan Sweater. It’s going pretty well, given it’s knit up in 4ply yarn.
• Re-watching Mad Men, starting from season one, episode one.
• Writing lazy dot point blog posts so I can get back to watching Mad Men and knitting Jan.

For the Mad Men fans out there, this post (featuring spoiler alerts for season four) about Mad Men fashion predictions will whet your appetite for season five, which starts at the end of March. Also, I’d completely forgotten how little Sally Draper was when the show started. So little!

The first post for the year is about my first finished object for 2012. It also happens to be Matt’s first pair of hand knitted socks and the first Nancy Bush sock pattern that I’ve finished.

Oak Ribbed Socks by Nancy Bush, from Knitting Vintage Socks
MadelineTosh Tosh Sock, Twig
2.5mm dpns
Modifications: Lengthened the feet

Start: November 2011
Finish: January 2012
Ravelled: here

So far in my knitting career my Mum, Dad, sister have all received socks made by my hands. Although Matt didn’t let on, I suspected that he was feeling a bit left out. These socks were part of his birthday present for this year, and I think they were a success.

There was a bit of trial and error involved in making these socks. Initially I cast on the Yarrow Rib Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks using 2.75mm dpns because that was the size I had and the swatch was to gauge. The fabric was looking a bit loose, so I had some concerns that they wouldn’t wear that well. After seeking advice from Twitter and SnB, they were frogged and I started again using smaller needles and the Oak Ribbed Sock pattern. As it happened there was a bit of frogging going on at that SnB meet up, as a friend was frogging a pair of socks that were knit up on 2.5mm Knitpro dpns, and the resulting fabric was so firm it could have stopped bullets. Bulletproof socks were apparently not the goal, so the 2.5mm dpns were kindly leant to me.

This was my first opportunity to try Knitpro/Knit Picks/whatever they’re called at the moment needles. Although there’s little risk of metal dpns breaking, I’ve been put off buying or trying Knitpro needles because of the broken circulars I’ve seen or heard about. After knitting one of the socks, I went out and bought myself a set of metal 2.5mm dpns. They feel nice and solid in my hands, have a decent point and are a good weight for me. I’m unlikely to move away from my circular needles of choice, Addi turbos, but I’d definitely consider buying more Knitpro metal dpns in the future.

Tosh Sock is a great yarn to work with, and although it softened up a lot after blocking, I think it’ll wear really well. The colour way, twig, caused me a few headaches though. It’s lovely in the skein, but even fairly basic patterns kept getting lost in the mix of light and dark brown. Before making these socks, I started a Shaelyn Shawl and swatched for A Thousand Splendid Suns, but it just wasn’t working out. Even with this sock pattern there’s a bit of pooling, but I think it works well enough and Matt is happy. Before casting these socks on I bought another skein of MadTosh Sock but in Graphite. There seems to be less variegation in that colour way so hopefully finding a pattern to go with the yarn will be easier.

I’m very slow on the Nancy Bush sock pattern uptake, so the next paragraph or so will be nothing groundbreaking for anyone else who has used a knitting pattern by Nancy Bush. I remember borrowing Knitting Vintage Socks from the library not long after it was released and was impressed not just by the patterns, but by the sections at the front about the different kinds of heel and toe. Even though Oak Ribbed Socks are just ribbed socks, but little things like the rib ‘seam’ to the bottom of the heel, the welsh heel and the three point star toe made it a fun knit.

These were meant to be finished in time for Matt’s birthday. They were finished the night of his birthday so I was kind of on time and also kind of late. Irrespective of whether they were technically on time, they’re done, he seems to like them, and I don’t think they’ll be the last pair of hand knit socks he’ll get.

It was a funny old year this year, knitting-wise. It felt like I had my knitting needles in my hands at every spare moment, and yet I have only seven finished objects to my name this year. I’m trying to stay rational about it, reminding myself that it’s not a race and at that I’m making things that I’m happy with, but I can’t deny that I’m disappointed that I got so little finished. My productivity deficiency seems to have largely come from misjudging the amount of yarn I had, and pattern/yarn mismatches. This is otherwise known as being a duffer.

Even though I’m having a bit of a sulk about the year’s worth of finished objects, what I did actually finish turned out pretty well. This part of the recap always reminds me of the end of some movies or TV shows, where there’s a still shot of a character (sometimes sepia-toned) and a caption about where they are now…

Golden Hands Vest

Gaptastic Cowl

Lyttelton

Manu

Cornsilk Pullover

The Delicious Knee Socks and Kalajokis declined to be interviewed, still cross they didn’t get a fair showing when they were debuted during the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show weekend.

I’ve been planning for 2012 for the last few weeks. The pattern queue has been set, the stash has been rifled through. All systems are go, and I’m really looking forward to having a productive year with minimal dufferism. What are your crafting plans for 2012?

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments about the Cornsilk Pullover. I’m happy to report that it’s been worn a couple of times since, and given the weather doesn’t know what it wants to do (yes yes, I know, I live in Melbourne), I’ll probably be able to wear it a few times more this year.

The week I finished my jumper was a pretty exciting week, knitting-wise, for the Pransell household. In addition to the jumper, a copy of A Stitch In Time Volume 2 landed on my doorstep. This wasn’t an accidental landing; I’d preordered it some time ago and had been eagerly awaiting its arrival.

It’s a really impressive-looking tome, with its hard fabric cover, dust cover and pages of matte, heavy paper. Volume 2 looks how I imagined Volume 1 would be if thicker paper were used for the pages.

Like the first volume, the patterns are split into chapters based on the decade the pattern was from. Also like the first volume, there are quite a few things I would knit. Some of my picks include this top (which I have yarn set aside for):

and this ruffled top, with some modifications:

I personally wouldn’t make it with the bows. They are a nice feature of the top but just not my style. Instead, I’d make it monochromatic; the body in a dark grey or charcoal and the ruffled stripes in a lighter grey.

I only have two slight niggles about the book. The first one relates to the photography. The photography in general is really nice, but there are a couple of instances where the models’ poses or other bits of clothing get in the way of seeing all of the garment. As much as I think it could make for a nice coffee table book, it is ultimately a book of knitting patterns so the photos need to show how the garment will look when it’s finished. The other niggle, which is even more slight, is that the book itself looks a lot different to Volume 1. As they’re part of a set, it would be nice to have a version of Volume 1 that has the same physical specifications as the second volume.

Another nice feature of this book is the techniques section at the start. It goes beyond the basics that you usually see in knitting books which I thought was a nice change.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but it’s been two and a half years since I wrote a wee review of the first volume, and I’ve not knit anything out of it. There are still a lot of things I’d like to make from that volume, I just have been terrible at getting round to it. In theory it won’t take me that long to get around to knitting something from Volume 2, because I’ve already got yarn lined up for a project.

If you have volume one of A Stitch In Time, I recommend getting Volume 2. If you like vintage knitting patterns, either to look at or to knit, I also recommend getting Volume 2. It’s a beautiful book with an impressive collection of vintage patterns. A real treasure.

Cornsilk Pullover by Amy Herzog
5ply yarn from the Bendigo Woollen Mills bargain room, avocado
3.75mm needles
Modifications: Combined two sizes, lengthened the arms

Start: July 2011
Finish: November 2011
Ravelled: here

Besides blocking, it’s finished and I’m very happy with it! Look at the back, it fits like a glove!

I actually finished it on Monday night. The seaming took a lot less time than expected, which I can only put down to my cheer squad (thanks DrK!). The sleeves are a bit bumpy in places but I think it’ll be fine once I’ve given it a wash.

This is the first Amy Herzog pattern I’ve knit, and I’m impressed. The pattern was pretty clear, and the result is pretty pleasing. To fit with my body shape, I combined the bottom half of the 38 inch size and the top half of the 36 inch size. To make them fit together I rejigged the waist decreases a little bit, and seemed to work quite well.

This jumper was more or less knit in tandem with my sister’s Manu. Working with this yarn was like working with jute in comparison to the Pear Tree I made Manu from. However, it didn’t seem too bad once I’d finished with the Pear Tree and was working almost solely on this jumper. There seem to be a lot of guard hairs in this yarn which are probably the source of its jute-like texture. While I’m happy enough with the fabric, I’m not sure I’d buy this yarn again if the opportunity arose (unlikely, as it was purchased a long time ago from the Bendigo Woollen Mills bargain room). It just happened to be in my stash, it was the right gauge and there was a jumper’s worth.

Using slightly dodgy yarn for the sake of using it up probably isn’t the best approach to knitting with stash. However, I tend to be a bit of a bad weather friend to my yarn, sticking with it until I’ve found a use for it. That’s not to say I don’t destash, but the process of letting my yarn go can be a bit more difficult than it should be.

The yarn was originally purchased to be used for my colour work vest. I evidently wasn’t very good at judging how much yarn I needed, because there was enough left over from the vest to make this jumper and there is still a fair bit left. It was also purchased during a brown and green phase, which has now morphed into a brown, grey, blue and red phase. I contemplated overdyeing it after finishing, but I’ve thought of two skirts and one dress I can wear it with, so light green it shall stay for the time being.

Almost as exciting as actually finishing something is the fact that it was cool enough today for me to wear it to work. To be honest, it could have been in the high 30s like it has been in other parts of the country of late and I would have still worn it. I wasn’t going to let a little thing like heatstroke get me down.

My Cornsilk Pullover is now being seamed up. The back and front pieces are now as one, the collar has been knit, the sleeve caps set and one sleeve seamed. The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that the temperature will reach a maximum of 19 degrees in Melbourne on Wednesday, which could be my last opportunity to wear a jumper this year. The question is, will I, or can I, finish it in time?

There are a couple of things working against me; having to go to work, and knitted pieces pinned together with sewing pins not being particularly conducive to taking onto public transport. Probably the biggest threat to getting this jumper finished in time is my almost compulsive tendency to try the jumper on after every stage of seaming. One shoulder cap set, try it on. Another couple of rows of sleeve seamed, try it on again. A lot could happen, fit-wise, in a few rows.

On the other hand, it’s only two side seams, a sleeve seam and the collar seams to go. I blocked the pieces before seaming so if I was really pushing it, I could wear it in public before giving it all a wash/wet block. Maybe.

See you on Wednesday with either a tale of triumph (featuring a finished object), or a tale about the one that got away.

Manu by Kate Davies
Around 700g Pear Tree 8 ply, grey
3.5mm, 3.75mm and 4.5mm needles
Modifications: Lengthened the sleeves and the body, mirrored the pleats

Start: July 2011
Finish (sort of): September 2011
Ravelled: here

It’s been over a month since finishing it, but I gave it to my little sister only recently. When she unwrapped her cardi she cheekily exclaimed ‘about time!’, as she’s been asking (in the form of whinging) for a jumper or cardigan from me for a while. As soon as it was unwrapped, she put it straight on and seemed pretty happy with it. Lucky for her.

The best part of this pattern is the little details; the icord cast on and bind off, the pleats and the sweet icord buttonholes give the cardigan polish. It’s those details that made the acres of stockinette stitch worth it.

There were only three minor modifications that I made to the pattern. The first two were to lengthen the body and sleeves, based on the measurements on a cardigan my sister often wears. The other modification was to mirror half of the pleats, which I did after seeing a few versions on Ravelry with that modification. The cardigan just seems to look more balanced in comparison with the having all the pleats facing the same way. It was lucky that the size I made had an even number of pleats, because I’m not sure how I would have dealt with mirroring an odd number of pleats.

After the little yarn hiccup at the start of the project, it was a joy to work with. Lovely and soft, a few lighter nubs for variation and the fabric had a lovely halo. It looks like I might be able to make something small for myself with the leftovers, but that does little to deal with the nagging feeling that I’ll never be able to get that yarn for such a good deal again.

Even though I’m calling it finished it’s not really. When I gave it to my sister, I mentioned that she could have pockets on it if she wanted. Her response was ‘I like pockets’ which more or less translates to ‘I would really like it if you added pockets to this cardigan, dear sister’. Pockets she will have, but only after I manage to get the cardigan from her. I predict it will be officially finished in July 2023.

This post could have gone up hours after the last one, but I’ve had a dose of the denials which has meant I’ve waited a week to publicly say it: I don’t have enough yarn to finish the Woodland Capelet.

The main section is finished, and all that’s needed is for the top darts to be sewn up and the ties to be knit. However, the ties are made up of around eight rows of stitches. Each row is 208 stitches long, and I have this much yarn left:

My Frankenstein Lego Man kindly offered to step in for scale, and also provides a fairly accurate representation of my furrowed brow when I had to face facts; no amount of happy thoughts are going to get me there. I’m not quite ready to give up on this project yet though, so if you have some unwanted Bendigo Woollen Mills Allegro in Scarlet floating around in your stash that you would like to sell, I would love to hear from you. I think I need about 20 to 30 grams of yarn and I’m not fussed about the dyelot at this point. Besides financial compensation, I can guarantee that you’ll be a contender for my favourite person for the second quarter of the 2011-12 financial year.

Now that my attempts to knit a quick project have been thwarted by my picky taste and/or my stubborn resolve to use up that Allegro even if it’s the last thing I do, I have turned back to the bigger projects I originally shunned. The funny thing is, I feel like they’re flying off the needles when before progress felt so slow I could have been frogging instead of knitting. ‘Tis just another reminder that pretty much everything is relative.