Knitting > amy a la mode

Stitches West 2012

Posted by Amy on February 28th, 2012

Whew!!

It has been a long week of preparations, booth building, chit-chatting, making change, eating M&Ms, lugging boxes and shelves around, and being overwhelmed by fibers and colors, but Stitches West is now over and it was a ton of fun!

We did great at our booth (final numbers aren’t in, but by my last estimate we did great!). And I’m excited that my friend Dolin’s brand new Lulu Bliss patterns were a huge hit as well!

I had a shopping list of things to look for while I was there. I have quite a few sweater projects on my list and was hoping to get enough yarn for one or two of them. The one I’ve been mulling over for the longest time is this sweater.

It’s “Laar“, and it’s on the cover of the Shetland Trader book. I’ve loved it since the moment I saw it, and I have finally decided that I want to tackle a sweater in a lace-weight yarn. Strike me down for saying it!

And when I saw the RedFish DyeWorks booth, well, it was a match made in heaven. I bought 1200 yards of the 50% merino/50% silk lace weight yarn in a gorgeous orangey-rusty sort of color. I can not WAIT to get started on this project! (Don’t worry, I know I will need to alternate skeins with this hand-dyed yarn, but I think it will be totally worth it!)

I spent most of the weekend, of course, in our booth fondling the Hazel Knits yarn. And helping people pick out yarns for the projects they had in mind. At one point we had two people trying to decide on yarns for a shawl I had never seen before, called “Color Affection“.

I have never made a shawl, because it just doesn’t seem like something I would wear. But this shawl? This had me swooning. Is this colorwork not something that screams “Amy!!” to you?? It does to me!

I helped someone with my same coloring pick out a set of three yarns for this shawl, and then could not resist buying the same set of yarns for myself. These are, from left to right, Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Aquarius, Nickel, and Shady Verdant.

It is now less than two weeks until our 15th Anniversary trip to Kauai, and, yet again, it seems there are no video monitors on our plane. That means the shawl will be the first of these two projects to be cast on, since it will be the perfect project (all garter stitch!) for a 5 or 6-hour plane ride and a week of relaxing in Kauai.

But first, I have to catch up on a bunch of other things around here. You better believe I’ll be trying to catch up quickly so I can get started on my new projects!!

Knitting Tip for Stretchy Necklines

Posted by Amy on February 24th, 2012

So, I was wearing my first basket yoke pullover the other day, and I decided it was time for me to do something about that neckline. It stretches out so much as I wear it, that I can literally barely keep the thing on.

I did a little research on the web and came across some instructions by the Yarn Harlot on stabilizing things like necklines with a crocheted chain. While I didn’t use this method, it looks really useful, so I wanted to share that link with you.

What I did do was take some of the leftover yarn from making the sweater, which is not a very stretchy yarn, and weave it through the neckline to stabilize it.

Here’s a shot of the inside of the neckline after I did this. The bow was just temporary until I decided if I liked that fit. And it makes it easy for you to see that I started and stopped this in the center back, just up by the edge of the neck, but clearly inside the sweater.

Since the yarn is the same color, it’s hard to see, even in a detail, but since this was a seed stitch, I fed the stabilizing strand of yarn under a knit stitch on the top row, then under a purl bump on the row down, up and down, all the way around the sweater, and then tied it in a knot. I did my best to highlight the stabilizing thread in black in the photo below.

I am super excited with how this now looks. It may not seem that different to you compared to the photos I originally posted of this sweater, but believe me, this sweater was doing a serious Flashdance kind of thing and it wasn’t good. And it wasn’t really wearable. But now it’s back to being perfect for bumming around in, and that neckline isn’t going anywhere. Perfect!

New employment update: my husband did get his new contract gig that will last for at least a year (he’s been at it for over two weeks, and I think I just forgot to mention it!). I, unfortunately, did not get the job for which I flew to Connecticut for an interview last week. I’m bummed, but it’s just the start of my search. Time to see what else is out there!

Cross-Country Lifesaver

Posted by Amy on February 22nd, 2012

Thank goodness for knitting!!

Last week, on the morning I was to leave for Connecticut, I woke up about half an hour before my alarm was set to go off thinking that I DID have a knitting project I could take with me on the plane. I was SO grateful that I thought of this, because it kept me busy during most of the long, dull trip.

I quickly weighed some leftover yarn and did some quick calculations and decided I definitely had enough yarn to make another Botanical Cowl. I made one for my mother for Christmas, and she loves it and wants a bunch in every color. I had some Hazel Knits chocoberry sock yarn left over from making fingerless mitts for my sister and a friend, and figured why not?

I finished it half-way through the flight back from Philly to San Francisco. And now I have one Mother’s Day gift lined up and ready to go! Details of the project are on my Ravelry page.

Awesome New Scarf!

Posted by Amy on February 1st, 2012

I’ve been wanting to make this scarf literally for months, and I finally got around to it!

I’m wearing it right now, and it is 100% squishy, cozy goodness!

This scarf is made from 2 balls of Classic Elite’s Liberty Wool Prints. This is really lovely worsted weight yarn, and the chunkiness of the variegated sections is absolutely perfect for this scarf!

The other scarves I’ve made for myself were long and rectangular, but this one is an intriguing wide but shallow asymmetrical triangle sort of shape. Very fun to style!

Details of my project can be found on my Ravelry page.

My fabulous friend and coworker Dolin wrote this pattern, and you can download it from Ravelry for a mere $3.95. Totally worth it, because you’ll make this again and again. The pattern includes instructions for making both this worsted weight version and a fingering weight version!

My big employment shake-up is dragging on a bit, as one particular event has been postponed about two weeks. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to scrounge up more projects I can polish off before any major changes occur!

Basket Yoke Pullover, Revisited

Posted by Amy on January 13th, 2012

Ever since I made this basket yoke pullover, which came out really big and I have a terrible time keeping on my shoulders, I’ve been wanting to make another one. Well, I managed to get a smaller version finished around the New Year!

There are more details and photos over on my Ravelry page about this project. This one is actually two sizes smaller than the first one.

I like this version TONS better. It doesn’t fall off, for starters. And it isn’t super baggy in the back like the other one. Though I have a feeling that the size between the two that I made would probably have been the best size. But, hey, live and learn. I’m just learning about sizing for knitting. I knew I wouldn’t get it right the first time around!

Just for fun, here’s a comparison between the two sweaters. Fortunately, this was really fast and easy to knit!