two week sweater

Finally, something finished to share with all of you!

This is the big orange thing from my last entry, all finished and blocked.

So, to understand this sweater, I first have to remind you all of that trip I took this summer, to visit New York. I stopped in at Knitty City, where I saw madelinetosh yarn for the very first time. I was utterly enchanted, and at the time, I hadn’t seen any in Canadian yarn shops before. So, naturally, I really wanted to buy a sweater quantity of it to take back home and make into something pretty for myself. And so – after a lot of waffling over colours – I wandered out of the store later that day, feeling very pleased, carrying four skeins of madelinetosh vintage in glazed pecan.

I have no idea why I thought 800m worsted weight yarn was, in fact, enough for a sweater. It is not.

I spent a fair while on Ravelry, looking for patterns that would give ma full sweater using that little yarn, and finally I landed on Every Last Yard, and my life was forever changed. Guys, this is an amazingly clever pattern.

Basically, this is a top-down raglan sweater pattern. Except better. It starts with the collar, and the yoke is picked up from that, and then the entire sweater, edges and all, is knit top-down. There are no button bands to pick up. You don’t have to save extra yarn to go back and do anything. Once you’re done the yoke, you’re done, so that you can stretch your yardage as far as possible, the way you would with a pair of toe-up socks.

I actually had even less than this pattern called for, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get a full sweater with long sleeves out of what I had. So, I decided to use the first three skeins to knit the yoke and body. Instead of binding off when I was done, I put the body on holders, knit the sleeves, and went back to use any leftovers to make the body even longer. I also modified the original pattern so that the lace portion started immediately after the waist shaping, to get the very most out of my yardage and stretch it into a hip-length sweater.

I love it. It fits wonderfully. It’s a perfect transition-weather sweater, and I plan to wear it an awful lot.

I’m also completely smitten with this colour! I was really, really nervous about it, since I tend to shy away from reds and yellows and oranges with my hair, which is also red and yellow and orange. But now that I own an orange sweater (although, okay, it’s kind of a sandy orange-brown), I find I’m wearing it a fair bit, and it doesn’t feel too bright at all.

sweaters = work life balance

So even though my life is keeping me on my toes, now that fall TV has started up again, I’m finding it much easier to find time to knit. We will ignore what this says about my priorities – the point is, I’m much farther along on my new cardigan, and super excited about it.

I find the alternating cables really fun, and this pattern is one that’s extraordinarily easy to memorize. After the first repeat, I didn’t need to look at the chart at all, except to keep track of whether or not I was on a cable row.

I also had dinner with Laura a couple of days ago, near Koreatown, and while I was waiting for her I wandered down the street to see if I could pick up some of the snacks I used to love while I was living there. And then I had a bit of fun playing with cookies and my macro lens.

but what does it mean?

Finally, the purple stockinette I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks isn’t just purple stockinette! Now there’s another stitch pattern, too.

This is the beginning of an Austin Hoodie, which I am very, very excited to finish, as I think it’d be a really perfect fall hoodie. I’m knitting it in sweetgeorgia sock, in Mist. Everything about this yarn is amazing. I have been trying and trying to take colour-true photos, but it’s incredibly difficult – it’s purple, and that always comes through, but there are lovely almost-blue undertones and subtle variegation that I have such trouble with. This is the closest I’ve come to getting an accurate photo so far:

I crack jokes, but I actually have been enjoying the mostly-plain stockinette of this sweater. I have a secret love for completely mindless knitting projects, and this fulfills that perfectly. There are a few little details here and there (the turned down hem, the slipped-stitch ‘seams’) but mostly it’s a nice, easy project that I can pick up without thinking, and knit away while I watching TV (now playing: Season 2 of Fringe).

Also, I just really, really want a purple handknit hoodie.