It’s another rainy day, one month later.  I now have 8 inches of butterflies knitted up … wow, that’s not a lot of progress!  Here’s the scoop: I knitted up about 10 inches of the project mentioned in my last post and then tried it on.  It was waaaaay too big!  Back to the drawing board.

The second pass is actually better, because I have more practice in knitting the cute petite shells border and it looks prettier than the first try.  That said, I have just barely caught up to where I was when I decided to start over.  I think it will be very cute when all is said and done, and it seems there is lots of time before summer kicks in “for real”.  I say that because it has been cloudy, foggy or downright rainy for 3 days now and the forecast says “rain” until Saturday!

Here, for illustration purposes, is a spot of sun:

Hubby brought me some sunflowers recently (a “sick prize” for some minor surgery) and every time I pass the kitchen, the bright yellow reminds me of the sun that’s hidden out there behind some clouds!

I intend for this to be a little bit loose so I can wear it over a tank or tee.  This is just after joining the second ball of yarn (about 4.5 inches).  Do the eyelets look like butterflies? OK, it takes some imagination!

It’s called Summer Love.  Check out my Free Patterns page for the details!

This may become the next summery top.  The stitch pattern is called Butterfly Lace.  How about that edging, isn’t it awesome??  It’s called Petit Shells.  I’m trying to decide needle size (this is a 6, or should it be a 5?).  Looks like a couple of rows of stockinette are a good idea before beginning the butterflies.  I like the buttery color of the yarn too (Knit Picks CotLin in the Creme Brulee colorway).

OK, 3 posts is a lot for one day.  I’ll give it a rest, ha ha!

The details:

Yarn:  70% mohair and 30% silk; see above!

Needles: US #9

Pattern:  Invisible Stripe Scarf by lupinbunny

I cast on 25 stitches for a 6″ wide scarf and went until I had 40″ (accessory size).  Using my excellent new digital scale – whee! – I got 11.5 grams for this scarf.  That’s just shy of half a ball, so two friends could split a ball of this fancy yarn.  (By the way, I see Knit Picks has introduced a similar yarn called Aloft.  Will try it sometime!)

This pattern is basically garter stitch (all K stitches) except that every now and then you do a row with 3 wraps for every K stitch.  On the next row, you drop 2 of the wraps and knit a Very Big stitch to get back to your original stitch count.   You can choose however many K rows you want between the fancy rows.   I did the two rows described plus 4 more.  You can do 2 wraps instead of 3.  If you vary the number of wraps, you can get something like this:

Finished at last!  This will look nice under a jacket (air conditioning, you know).  I’m pleased with the fit, since I reduced it a LOT from the pattern (believed my own gauge and glad I did!).

Here’s the summary:

Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton (organic worsted weight) in the Haze Heather colorway.

Needles: US #6

Pattern: Summer Tee Top by Claudia Olson (you’ll need a Ravelry login for the link).

I deviated from the pattern in the following ways:

- I reduced the cast-on by 28 stitches in order to get 36″ using my gauge.  Others on Ravelry noted that their tops came out on the large side which gave me the confidence to go with such a big modification!

- When it came time to bind off for the arms, I shifted the bound-off stitches to the center of the underarm (3 on either side of the marker).

- I struggled a little with following the directions for shaping AND keeping in pattern.  I ended up following them in spirit and doing what I thought was sensible to keep the stitch pattern tidy.

- The directions didn’t spell it out, but when the sleeves get to their final width of 16 stitches, there will only be half of the stitch pattern left (for me, it was the YO K1 YO part).  I added a K1 SSK at the beginning and a K2TOG K1 at the end of the pattern row (makes up for the lost double-decrease and keeps the fabric straight).

This was the first time I had occasion to try a 3-needle bind-off.  What a nice tidy way to finish!  Much better than sewing a seam.  Indeed, it allows me to say that this top is totally seamless.

I’m already scheming out the next one, stay tuned.

There has been time for knitting, but not at the pace I would like.  Here’s the status of my Lilac Haze Tee:

I should have the back finished tomorrow … maybe the front will be finished by next weekend?

I spent a lot of time knitting, ripping and knitting the row which transitions from knitting in the round to knitting flat.  Frankly, I couldn’t (can’t) see how the pattern would work as it’s written.  I found a way to proceed, more on that in the final notes.

Interesting challenge ahead: 3-needle bind-off.  That’s gonna be a new one for me.  I look forward to it!

This latest project is made from organic cotton … Simply Cotton in the Haze Heather colorway (organic cotton from Knit Picks).  The pattern is “Summer Tee Top” by Claudia Olson, a free download on Ravelry.  After getting gauge, I reduced the CO by 28 stitches.  I don’t know if this will result in the desired 36″ size and just the right amount of negative ease … or another gift for someone else (wah! I want to wear it myself!).  Anyway, the suspense will keep me knitting, ha ha!

I actually have completed both the tweed sweater and the fuzzy scarf … EXCEPT for the finishing steps.  A tiny bit of weaving in will finish the sweater and all I have to do is bind off the scarf.  For some reason, I don’t want to take them off the needles.  Maybe I’m just not interested in wool and mohair now that the snowdrops and witch hazel are blooming!

In the meantime, I also made a pair of mitts.   This is a second pass for this pattern.  In December, I ad-libbed a pair and gave them away before I even had time to model them for pictures!  Thank goodness I had made some notes.  I made another pair and I think they’re pretty cute.

I don’t think this picture does them justice.  Maybe when hubby is wielding the camera he can get a pic or two in better circumstances!  The palm is straight K1-P1 ribbing (and so is the border). As with the first pair, I used leftover yarn from a pair of socks.  I’ve started writing up the pattern and will post on the Free Patterns page when it’s ready.

We had a nice visit from one of my sisters-in-law this weekend.  She is the one who turned me on to knitting!  Dorothy brought her bag and some needles and some fabulous mohair yarn and we browsed through Ravelry until we found a nice project.  She got going on it and it was looking awesome.  I thought it would be fun to make the same project, so I looked through my stash and found a totally squishy ball of  Kidsilk Haze that was waiting for the right inspiration!  Mine won’t look as dramatic as Dorothy’s because it’s only one color and not so fuzzy.  But it’s fun that we’re both knitting on the same project at the same time!!  It’s a pattern that will go quickly.  I cast on earlier today and here’s a peek:

I think it will open up a lot with blocking.  I totally love this yarn.  It is soooooo sooooooft!  What a treat to play with it!!

Time for the Fun Part!

I just tried all three pieces on (ok, well, it was kinda awkward since they’re not attached yet) and have concluded that it’s time to pull this act together.

The sleeves could be an inch too long, but the cute garter stitch cuff folds back and still looks great.  So there’s some leeway there!  The original pattern called for CO 4o for the sleeves and I thought they were too wide.  I backed off to CO 32.  This called for extra increasing to get to the final stitch count (to make the yoke work).  I should have increased every 6 rows instead of every 8.  That’s why the sleeves are long!  If I like this sweater as much as I think I will, I may use this template again.  Next time, the CO for the cuffs will be 36.

I love the weight of this yarn.  It’s City Tweed HW from Knit Picks in the Jacquard colorway.  I can tell that the sweater will feel substantial.  I bought 7 balls but it’s looking like I will use less than 6.

OK, off to make the Big Join and get started on the cable yoke!

Edit: this is from a pattern by Ann Budd.  See previous post.