A Poem for Baby S or Baby J

The Poetry in Stitches baby sweater for one of the two anticipated grandchildren has been completed. It was a labor intensive project but seems to have been worth the effort.

The sleeves are done in "elm stitch" which is a pretty stitch but very, very slow. The front side is simply knit, but on the back side one has to do a yarn over, purl two stitches and then pull the yarn over. It's a lot of stopping and starting, but adds a lacey look to the sweater.

The motifs are done in double-stitching which is a lot of fun. However, I was surprised to find that the spots on which the sweater is embroidered become hard and inflexible, altering the pliability of the knitted fabric. I guess I should have anticipated that this would be the case, but I didn't. I don't think it will make that much difference in comfort for an outer garment.

On the back is this cute little butterfly.

Specs:

Pattern: Baby layette from Poetry in Stitches, p. 22-23, by Solveig Hisdal.

Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, 100% wool, machine washable, approx. 3 balls (165 meters each) using doubled yarn throughout.

Modifications: took artistic license with the embroidery, changed the placement and did not include the tulip or cherries in an attempt to make it suitable for a girl or boy.

If I ever knit this again, which I tend to think I won't, I wouldn't use doubled yarn as it seems too heavy (or maybe it was just the yarn I chose) for US1 needles.

Now onto an easy, colorful baby blanket on US6's as a hiatus from little tiny needles.

A Blank Slate ...

This is about being a blank slate in several different ways. The first way is that I'm about to become a grandparent ... well, sort of. I am only 48 (about to be 49), which seems pretty young for a first-time grandmother doesn't it? But, the back story is that I will actually be a step-grandmother or, as I think I might prefer, a "bonus grandmother." My DH is 12 years older than I am and his two children, a son and a daughter, were away at college by the time we met and later married. So, I've never actually parented his kids, we rarely see them, and now both of them are married and expecting their own babies in July. So, I'm a blank slate about how to be a grandmother especially when there are already two biological grandmothers and another "bonus grandmother" in the family.

So I turned to what I know: knitting!

And then I turned to my all-time favorite knitting book: Poetry in Stitches by Solveig Hisdal and decided to start by making the baby layette she designed.

Et voila, here is the second blank slate:

The third blank slate is that we won't know if one of the babies will be a boy or a girl. So I modified Solveig Hisdal's embroidery design in an attempt to make the sweater more gender-neutral. Alas, I fear it tends toward the masculine at this point, although with a butterfly on the back and picot edging and textured sleeves, it may yet suit either a boy or a girl.

I do love the sweet motifs taken from a 17th century Norwegian brocade bed tapestry.

More photos to follow as the work progresses.

Introducing "Heidi"

A belated Christmas gift arrived recently ... a body form with my exact dimensions. It's an extravagance about which I feel somewhat guilty given these difficult economic times. I mean does anyone really need a body form? However, she was a gift and you know what "they" say about not looking a gift horse in the mouth ...


So, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I can now measure my knitted creations as I make them without having to take off clothing during these cold winter months and contort my body as I attempt to see if I'm getting it right in the mirror. Now I can see if the waist will fit by fitting the garment on "Heidi" instead of myself. Although I have to say, it's very humbling to see one's widening figure reflected in an inanimate object.

Today Heidi is modeling the almost completed Vine Panel Cardigan. Here you can see a close-up of the lace design and collar. In the previous photo you can see that I modified the waist ribbing to elongate it (I have a long torso) and changed the sleeves from bell-shaped to fitted around the cuffs.
I still have to add the buttons and pockets and hope to get to that today.

A Little Christmas Sparkle

First, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Channukah and I'd like to send out a wish for Peace on Earth in 2009!

Since this is a knitting blog, I will move right to my latest FO, "Agnes & Joy," finished just in time to wear to Christmas dinner tonight.

I modified the pattern to lower the waist to my natural waistline -- the pattern calls for it to be just below the ribcage which seemed odd.

I also made the sleeves full-length as in "Joy" but used the cuff design from "Agnes."

I sewed on grosgrain ribbon to stabilize the buttons and had to add a couple of snaps to ensure the front stays closed.

I knit the sleeves plain (without beads) except for a bracelet row of beads on the sleeves and cuffs and a extra 3 beads above the right cuff.

Finally, the buttons are made of beads that are similar to those knitted into the body. The beads are very subtle and are hard to see except when they catch the light.

I really like this design and enjoyed knitting it. I admit that at first I didn't understand the instructions to cast off at the waist and then pick up the stitches again in the next row, but as you can see it leaves a pretty braid right at the demarcation between the moss and stockinette stithces.

The endless stockinette stitch on number 2 needles did get somewhat tedious by the time I'd started on the sleeves, but created a nice smooth fabric which suits the yarn.

This is a very lightweight sweater, appropriate for wearing over a blouse.

Here are the details:

Pattern: a hybrid of "Agnes" and "Joy" both by Kim Hargreaves

Size: Medium

Yarn: Rowan felted tweed in watery (a little over 8 skeins)

Next up: Vine lace top-down cardigan from http://www.sweaterbabe.com/

Have a Happy Holidays everyone!

My Psychedelic Sweater

I'd like to say here, at the outset, that I don't normally wear bright colors. I usually wear dark and muted-colored clothing and try to project a professional image in my work attire. I say this because my latest sartorial creation is uncharacteristically exuberant. The back story is that I've been quite taken with Kauni effektgarn in the rainbow colorway. At the same time, I found a beautiful brocade pattern by Kim Hargreaves and decided to combine the two. I'm still not sure if it was a completely compatible marriage of yarn and pattern.

The original pattern was for a vest and you can see that in the shaping, which I do like.

The process of putting together the sweater began with cutting the steek ...

... and then designing a sleeve pattern. Again, this was taken from a vest pattern, so I had to figure out what design to use for the sleeves. I decided to take a small motif from the pattern on the front of the body which you can see here:

However, making the rest of the sleeves all black did not work. I thought it would tone down the vivid colors of the sweater, but it just looked as though it was from a completely different sweater. So, after this false start, I decided to combine the flower motif from the front with the stripes from the back of the body. I also decided to use a "Siamese" or "twin steek" in order to keep the color changes as consistent as possible across the two sleeves.

Fraternal twins, separated at birth:

Here are some further project details if you're still with me:

The pretty leaf design in the front blended together too much and I don't really care for the combination of green and orange, so I used double-stitching to highlight the pattern in blue.

Meanwhile, the buttons bring out the red.

A bientot!

So Far, So Good: Works in Progress

I've finished the back of Agnes/Joy and I'm really liking how it is turning out so far. I wasn't sure about the combination of tweed and beads, but the added sparkle seems pretty. I may skip the beads on the sleeves, however, to tone down the evening look so I can wear it to the office.





In the meantime, I was also inspired by a Jillian Lewis design to create an equestrian-style knit jacket. Here is her design as found on the Internet. Her version is rumoured to retail for $700.00!



My much less costly version is taking shape here:


A few mistakes have occurred during the course of the shaping, but rather than rip back and lose the creative momentum, I'm pushing forward.


The yarn, elsebeth lavold Classic AL baby alpaca and merino wool blend, is a dream to work with!

Agnes & Joy

I am becoming a huge fan of Kim Hargreaves' knitting designs. In perusing many of her books and designs in magazines, I've noticed that she frequently tweaks and modifies the same basic design for different yarns and seasons. I feel this frees me up from slavishly following any one of her particular patterns and gives me implicit permission to mix and match her ideas and design elements. Accordingly, I've taken two of her very similar designs and decided to combine and modify them to fit my particular preferences.



"Agnes" is an older design published in Rowan Magazine 35 (Spring/Summer 2004) made up in a cotton yarn with bracelet length sleeves. "Joy" is a newer design published in Vintage Knits and features a tweeded yarn with a chevron design done in beads knitted into the body of the cardigan. It's an interesting idea to pair beads with a tweeded yarn - evoking two different moods - so I thought I'd try it. However, Danish damask (knitting a pattern into stockinette stitch using purl stitches) drives me crazy! Although it looks pretty, I constantly lose my place and get frustrated. So, forget it. I will use a simple placement for the beads following the placement of French knots in the Agnes pattern. (I also could not bear the idea of making a zillion French knots.) So, to my mind this is a happy hybrid of two Hargreaves designs. We shall see how it turns out.




Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed Sport 5 ply (12 wpi) in "watery" colorway