On frogging and starting again

A few weeks back, I bragged about my Flying Vee, that it was ‘flying’ off the needles, which was completely true. I loved this yarn and watching the project take form.  Fast forward to last Saturday, and I finished it. I got the last stitches bound off, wet blocked and dried and started seaming it together. That’s when I knew I had a problem.

The t-shirt is written so that it tapers at the waist, and I was a little concerned about needed a little more ease for my middle, so I was making the shirt with a mod the designer provided for more room at the waist. In the middle of seaming, I tried it on and was crestfallen to see how it was fitting on me. It was roomy in all the wrong places, doing me no favours and not giving me a flattering silhouette.  I’m okay with the loose, boxy sweaters (my Joji Boxy is high up on my favourite sweaters ranking), but this one just wasn’t working like I wanted it to.  I sent a picture to a friend, I Facetimed with my sister, all for that extra set of eyes and extra opinions.  The result was unanimous. I ripped it all out.

Angry at this project going south, I rage-finished my pink and black vanilla socks and rage-started a set of skimmer socks, all before I could face that blue yarn to cast on one more time, this time as the designer wrote it without the waist modification.

I got there. It took a day or so, but I re-cast on Monday and knit a few rows to get it started.

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Flying Vee is Flying

Earlier in the Spring, I felt like all I was knitting was socks. Please do not misunderstand; that is not at all a bad thing.  My warm toes are always happy for socks, but I was really wanting to start something new.  I had quite a bit of sock weight yarn in my stash (shocking, I know) and really wanted to make a garment.

I was really pleased when I found Flying Vee by Stephanie Earp. It is a fingering weight shirt which could either be made with long or short sleeves; I’ve opted for the short sleeve version.  I loved that it had the middle panel where a fun sock yarn really could pop.  I had two options in my stash, and with the help of Soper Creek Yarns, we narrowed the choice to Riverside Studio Supersock Superwash Merino Nylon Fingering in Raspberry and found an amazing Cascade Yarns® Heritage to compliment it as the main body colour.

Here are the two yarns, Cascade being the dark blue (and although this photo doesn’t show it, the heathering is pink), and the light blue/pink/purple is the Riverside.  The bag likely dates to the 70s, and it is new-to-me, likely owned by my great-grandmother who was a member of the York-District Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers.

Well, this t-shirt has been flying off my needles. I had a few moments of confusion around a modification provided to allow for more ease at the waist.  There were two of us, and I would consider us (my friend, especially) to be confident and competent knitters, and at times we were interpreting  these short row instructions completely differently! My default go-to move is simply ‘I’ll just try it and see what happens.’  I’m pretty happy that I only had to completely frog it once!

It’s an interesting construction; rather than being knit top-down, or bottom-up, it’s knit from side to side, and the centre ‘V’ is achieved through short rows.  The front is completed, and I’m making very good progress on the back. Hopefully I’ll have a new shirt ready for wear in the coming weeks!

How simply MARVELous!

In anticipation of last year’s Avengers Infinity War being released, I took to my needles and made my Captain America Shawl:

The pattern for this lovely piece is A Little Old Fashioned by Lalíe Roque.

I’ve been waiting (not so) patiently for the release of Endgame, but before that happened, I fell in love with a new Marvel hero: Captain Marvel. She kicks ass.  She is what the MCU has been waiting for. There have been strong female representation (I’m looking at you, Black Widow), but by FAR, we’ve seen men taking the lead while women are (typically) in need of rescue. Not with Captain Marvel. During the big fight scene at the end, I couldn’t help but get more excited about Endgame, because I’m just waiting to see this strong woman face against Thanos, and I don’t think he’s gonna stand a chance.  

I saw Endgame last night with my usual MCU movie watching gang, and once again, I wanted to wear something knitted. As amazing is Cap is, there’s a new Captain in town. So I took to my needles.

I made this:

I didn’t use a pattern to create this shawl; I used four.

I was HEAVILY inspired and influenced by Taking Flight by Katherine Belisle. Her shawl is a masterpiece. It’s made with worsted yarn, complete with lovely lace panels and pattern repeats. Simply stunning.  Unfortunately, I was under a time deadline with fingering weight readily available. So, I improvised.

My shawl follows the semi-circular recipe from 5 Basic Shawl Shapes Cheat Sheet by Derya Davenport. It was a very simple, easy to remember garter pattern, and I followed the colour structure outlined in Taking Flight. Towards the end of the shawl, I wanted the bottom border to be different, so I pondered for a few days trying to figure out how to finish it off. Many years ago, I made the Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz, featuring a very simple but effective ‘elongated’ garter stitch, providing me the perfect way to finish off this shawl.  Finally, I was struggling for the 8 point star before I found the Star Afghan by Bernat Design Studio, which provided the stitch structure needed to create said star.  It all came together into my wonderfully marvelous shawl for Captain Marvel.

I am utterly thrilled with this shawl. Thrilled. What’s wonderful about it also is that it is more subtle than the Captain shield, so this piece could be more versatile than the shield, meaning I could incorporate this into my every day wardrobe, and only those in the know would really appreciate how nerdy it is.

Soper Creek’s 2019 Yarn Challenge

Yarn challenge complete. This year was fun! In case you missed what I’m talking about, one of my Local Yarn Stores hosts a yarn challenge every late-winter. The owner chooses a yarn and colour palette, and she makes kits for participants to purchase. From there, each person makes a piece, and upon return to the LYS, she puts the pieces in her front window and people can vote for their favourites.  This year’s yarn was Briggs and Little Sport, and with it, I made this:

 

The pattern is Raspberry Field by Jana Markova. The overall structure was easy to follow. The confusion started with the lace. I really wanted to include the lace because it added a certain something to the project, but the designer didn’t design the lace chart to account for the increases at the beginning (RS) and end (WS) of each row, and it didn’t account for the decreases happening along the spine. I had to think really hard about how to proceed with this section.  Basically, for the first row, I went for it, started the lace where it should have started as per the chart, and I figured where to start each subsequent lace repeat by counting.

Despite the challenges in making the lace, I’m very happy with the final product. It’s woolly and warm, admittedly a little scratchy (because it is VERY woolly), but so cozy.

Once Upon a Sock – March 2019

On the first Thursday of the month, a number of sock-knitting bloggers share their progress with the theme “Once Upon a Sock,” an awesome initiative co-ordinated by Paula @ Spin A Yarn! It’s well worth checking out the other posts because it’s always interesting to see what other people are looking at; it’s like sock yarn eye candy!

My knitting this month, admittedly, has been dominated by the Soper Creek 2019 Yarn Challenge project. It’s still super secret until later this month, but I am SO PLEASED with how it’s progressing so far.  I have a number of rows to finish and giving it a good bath before I turn my submission into the LYS.  Can’t wait to post pictures.

But, anyways, in between the super-secret-project, I’ve been working on socks!  Last month, I mentioned how my two sock projects on the go were simple vanilla socks.  After finishing the purple socks and wanting something new to work on, I wound this beautiful skein Leo and Roxy Yarn Co. 80/20 Sock and started a simple lace sock.

I ACTUALLY started a different texture for the sock, a simple 1×1 cable, but the texture was getting lost in the variegation.  So, after 15 or so rows, I ripped back to the ribbing and started with the lace.  It’s a lovely, simple design, allowing the yarn to showcase the colours and speckles, and this pattern was one I’ve improvised, inspired by a historical pattern.  (Is it fair to say something this simple is something I’ve ‘created’? I’m sure others before and after will undertake this simple lace… just a musing, I guess.)

Take 1 for this sock didn’t take off. Frogged before starting again

The lace inspiration came from The Stocking Knitter’s Manual: A Companion to the Work Table, by Mrs. George Cupples in 1870. There are a number of patterns for socks in this book, and after reading and re-reading different variations, I settled on an adapted lace, like below: 

See, really simple. I’m working away at the foot and am VERY happy with how it’s progressing.  The lace adds interest but is not taking anything away from the yarn, which is doing its own magical thing!  If I was to make this pattern again (and, I very well might), I would swap row 4 and 8 of the pattern – the way it’s currently working is that the first instep stitch after turning the heel and picking up for the gusset, is a yarn over, and the first stitch of the heel (when looked at from the RS) was a yarn over as well.  By swapping these two rows, the yarn over would always be in the middle of the pattern, not the first stitch somewhere. Things to keep in mind next time. For now, I’m going to keep working away and am looking forward to seeing this pair progress!