Sebright Bantam Dress

Sebright Bantam Dress in Einband

I finally finished this dress, which had been waiting for me to pick it back up again for a couple of months, and just in time for it to be the last FO of 2018! Looking back, I didn't actually do much knitting this year - according to ravelry, just over 4000 yards in 7 completed projects - and here's the breakdown:

• 2 of them were the same basic 2 x 2 rib hat (one for me, one for my mom, both of which I didn't take pictures of)
• 2 more were testknits (Satinel & rumo)
• 2 were gifts for my auntie Kit: chrysanthemum shawl by Francoise Danoy followed by a bolero she commissioned from me to wear to her son's wedding (for which I also forgot to take a finished photo of her wearing... I've really been falling off the wagon lately!)
• Which leaves this 1 project that I made 100% for me: this Sebright Bantam dress, which was inspired by the silver Sebright Bantam chickens I saw at Center Island way back in the summer. Here's a photo of a silver Sebright hen from Wikimedia Commons (attribution in caption), because I failed to take a picture of the ones on the island.

Taken by Mark Robinson from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. No changes made to the original image.

Aren't they sweet? And their plumage absolutely beautiful? So I decided to make a dress that was like their feathers. It came out more mermaid-like than I had envisioned, but I like the look of the mitered diamonds, and it's my first time working with this technique, so I'd say I did a pretty good job!

Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of things I would do differently next time, namely:

• It's a bit tighter than I'd like. The fit is actually perfect, but because of the yarn/needle/construction combo, the smallest diamonds aren't as stretchy as they could've been if I'd kept the smallest needle size a 4mm or even just maybe 3.75mm instead of the 3.5mm I went with. Which means the dress is a bit difficult to take off - it's a tight squeeze out even if I take the both arms over the head approach. It works. It's just a touch awkward.
• The Einband isn't great for next to skin wear, for me.
• I suspect this issue would be solved if I used a slightly larger needle size for the smallest diamonds though, because then I'd be able to comfortably wear a full slip under this dress. As it is, I can wear a half slip, which is still good because the lower/larger diamonds are a bit sheer.
• I underestimated how many rows of diamonds I'd need for the full length of the dress so that it would be long enough for my taste, so next time, maybe also knit a full row of diamonds more for both of the two larger needle sizes so that less of the dress is at the smallest diamond level.

That's basically it, though! Not too bad for a wildly experimental run where I had no idea what I was going to do for the neckline. I like the varied textures I ended up with, and I also used up some mystery mohair-like yarn I got from a stash swap - whoot! To be honest, I suppose the biggest issue right now as far as this dress goes is: where do I wear it?

I'm going for a haircut soon, I promise

I've also been working on what was originally supposed to be a really lacy baby pink dress, but just ripped back most of the skirt portion because it wasn't looking how I wanted it to look, so that'll have to wait till next year to be completed. I'm not even sure I like the bodice part of it, but it's a construction I wanted to try, and I had an idea in mind for how I wanted it to be, so I'm going to roll with it and see how it turns out once I finish the new skirt.

Here's to hoping I'll do more knitting in 2019! I'd really like to make some more comfortable dresses with some of my superwash merino stash (of which there is more than I'd like to admit), for soft, next-to-skin wear, so there's a mood going forward! I've also really been slacking with regards to keeping track of my reading & film-watching, so I want to get back on that.

Satinel Test

Beautiful rib pattern for the body!

This is the first time I've knit any of Asja Janeczek's patterns, and it probably won't be the last (Ziggyzack, Wild Grass, Whiskey on the Rocks, I'm looking at you) - I had a great time throughout with the attention to detail and interesting construction. Yes, it's a top-down raglan, and perhaps that seems pretty run of the mill, but it's made in a way that accounts for small details such as the way the short rows don't introduce asymmetry in the garment (even though I usually just leave it with one side having one more row than the other in my own designs - shame on me!) as well as the very narrow front which allows for the generous neckband. It's definitely something I would never have been able to think up on my own, and that's one of my favourite aspects to following other designers' patterns!

Stockinette brioche

The only big mod I made to the original design (with permission) was to crop the cardigan so it hit my hip rather than my thigh. Of course, the sleeves were shortened as well to match the body so the proportions would work out. The only other thing was that because I don't own 3.75mm needles, having never had to use them before, I ended up using 3.5mm for all the brioche parts. It was my first time knitting stockinette brioche, and I really love the way the knit side looks! I could probably use that as the main fabric for an entire sweater, myself. The purl brioche I'm not sure how I feel about on its own, but the cuffs match the neckband, and I do like how it looks on the neckband. That's one of the details I was surprised by when I actually got to it, because the main photo for the original design was worn WS out, showing what looked to be a rib cuff (pretty normal).

Worn wrong-side out, the rib pattern is more prominent

What really sold me though, was the rib pattern. at first I thought it might be a cable, since I've never really worked with rib patterns like this before, but I love how subtle it is from the right side! All the little details that went into designing this cardigan make it absolutely perfect for every season - I originally wanted to make it using a silver dk-weight silk/linen mix, but couldn't get gauge - and the knitting goes by very quickly with the easily memorized rib pattern that keeps things interesting as you go.

Thank you Asja for the opportunity to testknit this pattern!

Chrysanthemums

The WS is facing the camera, but you get the gist.

I've had the Chrysanthemum Shawl by Francoise Danoy in my library for a while, and it's sort of been waiting for the right occasion to come up for me to knit it up. When my mom brought up knitting a small shawl or scarf for an auntie of mine, I dug through what patterns I had queued up, as well as trawling the free lace shawl patterns on ravelry before realizing I had the perfect pattern and yarn waiting to be knit up together.

A nice size to drape over your shoulders

To be honest, I didn't really take too close a look at the instructions beyond how to start the tab at the beginning of the shawl, how to do the yo rows (because it's not completely a pi shawl), and following the charts. Which turned out to be fine, actually, so if you know how to knit a circular shawl, or at least the general pattern recipe, then this pattern is really easy. The only lace chart I had a bit of trouble with was the last one, because I wasn't paying much attention and kept making mistakes, but everything's relatively mindless. (And I can say this because probably a good 80% of this shawl was knit while marathoning season 2 of Preacher.)

How do I put this on in time for the time- oh. Every time this happens! Every time!

Personally, I would've liked a slightly larger shawl, but that could have been in part because I didn't block as aggressively as I could've (no pins used at all). And besides, the request was for a wee scarf, without much bulk, so this definitely fits the bill. I've got way more yarn left over than I expected, too, considering the entire skein fell right within the pattern requirements: I used 75g of the 100g skein (100g = 765 yards), and the pattern asks for 730 - 766 yards. I thought for sure I was playing yarn chicken, but alas. More leftovers to mull over.

Honeydew

DONE.

It's been a while since I've posted anything but books and movies. Three whole months! The library life is certainly one I can't quite seem to separate from what would be personal life, and at any rate I'm not entirely sure I want to expend too much effort trying to do so: reading and books (two separate things, yes; they're related, but owning the latter does not mean I do the former for every book I own) are such integral aspects of my life that I'm not sure what would be left if I were to make a conscious effort to stop myself reading on my downtime. (Also, that would mean I'd have to actually lug all the books & movies & CDs I borrowed back to the library where they belong. Which at last count is numbering over 50 and thus strikes me as too much a hassle.) But all this has nothing really to do with this dress.

Flounces were supposed to go where the vertical shaping is at

The original design has actually gone quite down the drain altogether:

1. The horizontal flounce that had been the design feature being scrapped altogether for the ones at the waist
2. The romper jettisoned for a dress (easier to wear)\
3. Sleeves added
4. Added pockets, but of a different sort (originally wanted angled side pockets)

And that's just an incomplete list. In short: I still have room in my wardrobe for the original design and I'd like to do it because I swatched for it, darnit!

It just goes to show how utterly unpredictable the design process can be from thinking up what I'd like to make, to figuring out the logistics of actually making it (e.g. top-down? bottom-up? provisional CO so I can do both? how should I be picking up those flounces?) , to doing the swatches and then actually knitting it up. In this case, I ripped out the top half I think 3 times because my swatch kept lying to me or I simply left things to chance and refused to actually face reality: I'd have to do some more calculations. The first time I ripped out, I even made sure to use the top that I had knit to recalculate the gauge, since that should have given me a more accurate gauge! To be honest, I still have no idea what my true gauge actually is, which is why I ended up changing the entire back to be ribbed.

The story doesn't even end there. After wearing the completed dress out once, I realized I  had to change the bottom hem of the skirt from just a tubular BO to a round of decreases about 3" above where I wanted the skirt to hit, followed by 1x1 rib (from 2x2 above) all the way down before binding off tubular. This was because it was doing that thing where the skirt gets caught between your legs when you walk and it looks like you're wearing shorts. Not pretty. Then since I was at it, I ripped out the neckline to pick up fewer stitches (3/4 rather than 4/5), doing the same *CO 2, BO 5* ruffled BO as before. It forms rather a pretty picot that isn't too flashy, which worked well for all the flounces too (minus one BO in between picots, since that wasn't too important).

Oh, and did I mention I picked up and knit another layer under the actual skirt in 1x1 rib almost all the way down (minus an inch or two), then tried it on and ripped it all back out, because you could see where the underskirt ended and that wasn't elegant enough a solution for me? This dress has had me running in circles!

Real talk: When is the answer ever "no pockets" though?

There were so many details that had to be hammered out along the way - pockets or no pockets? Am I adding in the horizontal flounce? What about the one at the waist? I can't add that in the same way after I pick up the waist stitches for the skirt, so I have to decide that soon!, etc. - but all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out. I learned a new BO method that worked really well with the ruffles and made for a nice neckline as well so I didn't have to do anything particularly fancy with that, and figured out a way to make thinner pockets that also have the added benefit of staying in place, which is great. The only downside being that I have to do a touch of seaming after knitting the pockets, but it was well worth it.

So glad it's done! I don't even care my face isn't in focus here!

That Movie I Haven't Watched Yet

Aimed a bit high - wanted it to go around neck level.

The Wonder Woman Wrap enjoyed a tremendous amount of love the moment it came out from what I can remember, and there are currently (as of writing) 1086 projects, combined with the addition of being listed in 2393 queues. And that's only counting the knit version! That's phenomenal. But I think also well deserved. I downloaded the pattern back when it only had one size, so I'm not sure whether there have been any changes made since, but I followed the instructions exactly (without swatching), making no modifications whatsoever, and the shawl came out beautifully! It was a pretty magical moment watching it all come together; I don't think I've been so enthralled with pattern instructions for a while. Honestly, this pattern is absolute genius. The use of short rows and the different types of increases really makes this wrap sing, and I love it to bits!

Those wings!

At least, I loved the making of it and the actual finished product. I don't see myself wearing it (in part because I haven't actually watched the Wonder Woman movie, so I feel as though I'm not quite qualified to do so). Which is why I asked a coworker of mine whether she would be interested in wearing it - and she seemed absolutely ecstatic over it, so I'm glad for that! - and now it has a wonderful new home where it will be loved and worn, as it was meant to be. Hurrah!

I'm actually pretty inspired by this pattern to use more short rows and increases & decreases to create shapes in general. It's really cool and was a lot easier to knit than I would've thought at first glance. Maybe something to consider for future designs?

The Too Little Lilla My

Lilla My sweater/shirt for the brother

So... this was what it was meant to be, for my brother (above).

Lilla My on the front

This is how it came out (above).

Now, my brother's about one full size larger than I am as far as clothing goes. So suffice it to say it doesn't fit him. The good news is that it came out pretty true to the illustration, at least! The slightly relaxed fit, the drop shoulder, the Lilla My... the size just came out completely wrong. About a full size wrong. What went wrong? I can only guess at a few possibilities.

1. I had two gauge swatches: the first was not quite tall enough, but used the chart, and the second was the bottom half of the shirt after I had ripped out the colourwork because my row gauge was wrong and I had to reknit it. I should have made two swatches: one with the chart, and one plain stockinette. Then I could probably have made more accurate calculations regarding how to make up for the difference. Measuring again using this finished shirt, here is the stitch gauge: 25 sts (stockinette) and 28 sts (over chart) = 4". That's a pretty big difference.
2. I put too much faith in the magic of blocking. It seemed to stretch out somewhat and relax into a good shape after the first block, so I didn't have my brother try it on or compare it against the tee he gave me as reference after that.
3. I tried it on in the last few stages and saw that it fit me, and assumed my brother being only one size larger should be ok with that too (and besides, it would stretch back out a bit after blocking, right?)

Weeeell... what can you do right?

I'm actually pretty miffed about the whole thing because this would have been the first thing I knit specially for my brother, but well... what can you do? I'm not about to rip the entire thing out (who knows if I'd ever finish it again after frogging the entire sweater?) and the sizing issue's a bit too much for me to just adjust it little by little, so. The shirt will have to be for me and/or my mom, since it fits us pretty well. And just in time, too! It's getting a bit chilly, but not outright cold just yet, so we'll be able to make good use of it, I'm sure.

And besides, this is sweater/shirt #2 completed for the Very Shannon Summer Sweater Knit Along 2017! Considering my progress in 2014, this is amazing.

Welp!

At least I've learned a few things from this project (in addition to getting a nice new shirt, though it's not really my style):

• Make proper gauge swatches! Especially if I'm going to be doing colourwork, because now I know that my tension goes horribly awry when I do that.
• Use smaller needles for the inside of the folded hems: I had to reknit the sleeve hems because (as you can see in the photos above) the folded hems are kind of popping out a bit. That's because I knit them using the same size needles. I went down to 2.5mm needles afterwards for the inside bit.
• The sweater curse runs true, even if it's only for your brother! (For further proof, see the unfinished Sherwood sweater, which I'm pretty sure is actually also too narrow for him.)

5-Year Old Sheep

I suppose the sheep are closer to 3 years old since I reknit them all in 2014?

I think I can call it a year now. This sheep sweater-turned-vest-turned-sweater has finally - finally - been finished! It's come a long way, and I just discovered the progress updates information on the ravelry project page, so I have a bit of a better idea when I did what... kind of:

• April 2012: CO and work on it sporadically until sometime in May
• 21 months pass
• March 2014: join in SSKAL14 in an attempt to motivate myself to work on it again - it didn't work.
• I ripped this out all the way until the ribbing, re-knit the sheep and basically got myself back to where I was before picking it back up again, I think?
• 4 months pass
• September 2014: unfortunately I didn't write any notes down as to what I did to it during this time, but I remember just knitting it straight up to the armholes and starting the armhole shaping
• I also started to knit a sleeve, because my original plan was to knit it all in one piece, connecting the sleeves and knitting the armhole shaping all at once.
• The sleeve was frogged for several reasons: it was way too roomy because of the sudden increases right after the ribbed cuff (part of original pattern that I ended up changing), but also because I was rethinking how I wanted to knit the sweater
• I think I also decided to make it into a vest around this time, so that probably gave me a good reason to just rip out that entire sleeve.
• 33 months pass - 33!
• July 2017: pick it back up again, just in time for the SSKAL17!
• Had to re-knit the ribbed neckline once because I just winged it and it was a bit of a tight fit.
• August 2017: finally done!

It's been a long time coming.

Longer armholes next time, maybe?

To tell the truth, I probably wouldn't be casting this on if I saw the pattern today. It might make it into my favourites, but I don't think I'd even have added it to my queue: I just wouldn't be able to see myself wearing it. So thank goodness I cast on before I started actually thinking about the practicality of casting something on! It's a pretty basic sweater, and I know the sheep aren't all that sheep-like, but it's cute, it's comfy, and I think it'll probably see some use once fall and winter roll around. It's actually the first stranded sweater I've ever knit, and what's even more amazing is that knowing that there was colourwork all throughout the entire thing didn't faze me a bit - me, who had yet to do any stranded knitting before; who didn't get gauge so had to recalculate the pattern (though this has never really fazed me so much as irritated me because it was extra work - though satisfying once everything came out just as it was supposed to!); and me, who didn't understand what magic blocking could generate (as evidenced by the pink sage). Though I'm pretty sure everything to do with knitting can't be that difficult, really, and that it's mostly a matter of practice and going for it, which has been my attitude since I started. And which is why I ended up knitting wight in a completely different gauge, and did the math to make a sage pretty early on. Knitting finally made me see the practical use of the math I had been learning all those years - truly, it did!

Loopy stitches possibility - neckline too wide to do this

Originally (by which I mean my Plan B after I decided I'd cut myself some slack and make it into a vest instead of a full-blown sweater), I was going to add a loop stitch funnel neck (as in the sketch above) to really bring out the sheep colourwork at the bottom hem, but the neckline ended up too wide and I really didn't want to rip it out and re-knit the neckline for both front & back again, so I ended up just doing a regular red ribbed collar. Because all the measurements for the finished garment were for a slightly drop-shoulder sweater, it ended up being too wide to change into a vest, so despite having ripped out an entire sleeve before some years ago, I went ahead and knit some sleeves to go with the body. Everything came full circle.

Impractical with shorts? Definitely!

This sweater has gone through so many revisions, starting as a sweater and then turning into a vest, then returning to the original sweater plan because the body was just too wide to be a vest; not to mention the frogging of everything except the ribbing at one point! It's been a solid 5 years since I cast on in April 2012 and I'm so glad it's done and out of my WIP pile! And now I've only got one more long outstanding WIP: the Sherwood sweater for my brother. I started that one in July of 2013, so I've got one full year more to just get on that before I break my record for this sheep vest. It will get done eventually, or so I tell my brother (who has  long since stopped asking about it). At least my completion of the sheep sweater should serve as proof of my word!

Riff Dress

Just finished a dress.

In light of my recent addition to the stash (though really, I haven't been adding to the herd much this past year or so), I feel as though I should put on a proper show of stashbusting at the very least. Granted, the Rosebleed shawl was also knit using yarn dug out from somewhere around the middle layers of my stash, time-wise; I purchased both this teal cotton and the studioloo lacey loo at the same time at the Knitter's Frolic a couple of years back. Maybe there's an incubation period that yarn has to go through before I can finally use it? (Though I'm not sure what that means for all the yarn that I bought when I first started into the knitting abyss and have yet to use...)

Anyway, this dress was a riff off the Country Garden Top pattern, using completely different yarn & needles producing a different gauge and completely disregarding the pattern altogether save the feather and fan bib. I also took the idea of knitting the straps past the front and attaching everything at the back. And that's basically it. So I think of the Country Garden Top pattern as more of an inspiration than anything, but I'm also veering heavily towards "let's not make a pattern out of this".

More slip dress-like than I planned

I was aiming for a summery dress, and to be sure, this fits the bill, but I overestimated how much 40" would be once it went completely around the bottom hem of the dress, so it's a bit less voluminous than I wanted it to be. In hindsight, I should have skipped the A-line shaping altogether and did heavier decreases at the top, just under the front bib, to get a more dramatic shape out of it, but I suppose this is fine too. It came out rather more slip-like than babydoll dress-like, but I think I can work with this - and it supports layering!

The yarn gives this dress wonderful drape, as you can see in the photo above, and the cotton makes it heavy enough to actually hang down rather than float about me, which I sometimes get when working with light wool. I was afraid that I was playing yarn chicken throughout - the original plan was actually to introduce another yarn to colourblock the straps/back because I thought I might not have enough yarn - until I realized that the first skein of yarn (out of two) took me well past half of the entire dress. It would probably have worked out just about perfectly if I had skipped the body decreases and just knit a straight tube up until the armholes, but alas. I'm pretty happy with how the back turned out, though! It's a bit of a hassle in terms of making it work with a bra, but isn't it always? And the straps going all the way from the front to the back was a nice touch, which I probably wouldn't have done normally, so I'm glad I took a look at the Country Garden Top pattern (if only just to double check that what I thought was feather and fan lace was actually feather and fan lace).

Not as sheer as I'd feared, either!

The entirety of the pattern I drafted was worked out on the yarn label, so there isn't much to go off of, and I'm not sure I really want to write this one out at all, as I mentioned above. We'll see if I ever do it, but in case you're interested in knitting this up yourself, here's the recipe:

• It's an A-line dress, knit bottom-up.
• CO a multiple of 18 sts for the bottom hem (the feather and fan pattern is an 18 st repeat)
• I cast on 40", but I would maybe suggest even 50~56" if you want to do the body decreases throughout to get a nicer silhouette
• If you want the A-line like I did, decrease slowly up to the armholes
• You don't want to decrease down to your bust measurement though! You're going to be doing *k1, k2tog* or some variation thereof (I think just k2tog to end, or even *k1, k3tog* might be better), so make the calculations as to how many stitches you need before starting out the armhole shaping
• Keep in mind also that you'll be binding off about 1" each side of both front & back pieces! Those you don't need to account for in terms of the decrease row.
• I also think it might be better if we keep the decreases to the front bib (but do it all along the back), but that's up to you. The ribbing of the strap does help ease the look.
• Armhole decreases/shaping (do this in reasonably few rows, because you want the pleats/gathers to be right over your bust - I decreased one stitch/side, every row, 3x)
• Gathers row: whatever variation of this you decide on, just do it across to get to the measurement you need to cover your front
• Keep in mind that the ribbed straps will pull in a bit, so keep a few stitches (or just don't do the decreases as heavily) in the strap area to accommodate for this
• I forgot to do this, personally, and remedied it by pu&k around the outer edge of the armhole, which worked
• Mark off however large you want the front bib to be and start feather & fan lace, placing markers to mark off where the ribbing starts/ends and where to work the lace
• Work even until high enough for you, then BO all feather & fan lace part
• Work straps individually until it goes around to the back, minus however high you want the back neck to be.
• I worked the back piece armhole shaping and all that just past the gathers row so it was ready for grafting while I was here, also. Just use another skein or use the other end of the ball of yarn you've got.
• Long-tail CO back neck stitches using scrap yarn and knit across to join both straps to main body piece once more.
• Work in rib until long enough to reach back piece.
• Graft together using kitchener stitch. I'm not sure if it's necessary, but I made sure to adjust the instructions for whenever I saw that it was a purl stitch next rather than a knit stitch (because one side is ribbing), to make it a smoother transition. I know this is something that makes the work look better if both sides are ribbing/not stockinette, but I'm sure it would have blended in just fine even if you just do the regular ol' kitchener.
• If you would like to add some stability to your straps, PU&K around outer armhole (I didn't even count, but I did just pick up every edge stitch I saw - I slipped first stitch of every strap row, so you might actually want to do a different pickup rate)
• I didn't do that for the inside, because I liked how it looked better without, but feel free to do whatever!

I know you're thinking there's no way I could possibly have written all this onto one yarn label, but that's because I was making stuff up on the fly as well. It's mostly just the calculations, so it really does fit on just a few lines!

Have fun!

Rosebleed

Alistair's Rose Pi Shawl

It's been a while since I've knit anything, or so it feels - anyone else noticing a pattern of all-or-nothing going on here? - but I finally got myself to start something up, starting with a skein I've been wanting to use for a couple of years now: Studioloo's lacey-loo in Roseblood. It's a lovely deep, saturated pink that reminds me of honeysuckle (even though I didn't actually know what honeysuckles looked like until I searched them up for writing this post to make sure they are what I'm being reminded of... yes. Even then, they reminded me of honeysuckle) or an overripe fruit, overlaid with a touch of honey to bring forth that almost golden glow - I say almost because there is zero that is yellow or golden to this colourway, and the illusion of a golden pink is only through the slight halo arising of its singles construction, producing the slightest of a golden aura, albeit an imaginary one. The yarn itself is soft and surprisingly strong, and I found zero knots in the entire skein, which meant I had exactly two ends to weave in at the end of all the knitting: the cast on and the bind off. So much for what I love about the yarn, and now onto the murky cons, specifically: it crocked like nothing else (except for maybe that other saturated pink, the madtosh tosh dk that I used for the chevron bomber - I'm tempted to conclude torchere has some relation to torture, that. What's with the pinks?), and subsequently, unsurprisingly, bled into the soak. I tried rubbing it vigorously against a white fabric surface after it had dried to see if it would crock again, but it didn't transfer any colour, so perhaps all the excess dye washed out in that one soak? Probably just my wishful thinking.

It blocked out spectacularly! I also can't aim my camera today.

I knew from the start I wanted to use more or less the entire skein on one project (it took 979 yards total to make this size using 3.25mm needles and laceweight yarn), so a pi shawl seemed the best bet, besides which it had been a while since the last one and I've been itching for a large project since finishing the brioche dress. (There might also have been the little issue of me not wanting to do the whole nine yards for swatching, so garments were out of the picture altogether.) And of course, having such a saturated pink in a colourway called Roseblood, of all things, I figured I should go all in or nothing and look for something flowery in design. Alistair's Rose Pi Shawl seemed (and I think did turn out to be) a pretty perfect fit, so I went for it. Now, the design's lovely and very easy to follow - I think everything's pretty self-explanatory upon seeing the charts, especially if you understand the mechanics of a pi shawl.

Just to see the edging, which I ended up pinning while it blocked.

However. And this is a very stressed however. If you follow the instructions to the letter, your charts will not match up. They will not be centered. It's not by much - one stitch, and what's one stitch in the grand scheme of things? Can you tell I only found out after the first chart? Can you also tell I goofed, twice!, and tried to fix one of them? No? Good. - but if you, like me, are the type to be bothered (but apparently not bothered enough to rip back after discovering that yes, I would have to rip back an entire chart or two) by this one stitch off-centered design, then you just need to insert these lines into the pattern as you work your way through:

1. Before working Chart 2, after working the yo & K rounds: sl first stitch of round so it becomes the last stitch of round
2. Before working Chart 3, after working the yo & K rounds: sl first stitch of round so it becomes the last stitch of round
3. Before working Chart 3B: sl first stitch so it becomes last
4. Before Chart 4: sl last stitch of round so it becomes the first stitch of the round

I believe that's all. I'm pretty sure the direction of slipping stitches I've provided here is correct, but just pay attention to the numbers (count how many stitches until the center of the chart below, and make corresponding changes to current chart). I made the mistake of not looking through everyone else's projects before starting, also, so although a number of others have made a note of this already, I failed to see it until I encountered it myself.

Perfect size for doubling up as a crescent shawl

The original plan was to keep it for myself, but as with all the best laid plans, this is going to become a gift. My parents mentioned my cousin very briefly while I was knitting this and I haven't been able to get it out of my head thereafter that this shawl is to be hers. Not that I know her very well, unfortunately, but I do think it would look lovely on her, from the couple of times I've seen her over the years. (I'll have to make especial mention of possible transfer of colour though. That's actually quite worrisome.)

I suppose a pi shawl for myself will just have to wait till the next shawl itch comes around.

Burnt Brioche Dress

Stretched vertically, but shaping still falls within acceptable range - huzzah!

According to my ravelry project page, this dress has been in the works since 2015, which sounds about right to me; it certainly feels like it's been forever or so. Technically, this version of the dress has only been in the works since October 2016, and I've had projects on and off between stints of knitting this up, so once I got the math figured out, it came together pretty nicely (if I do say so myself) and without too much fuss. It has gone through a couple of false starts though, from two bottom-ups to working out the issues with the CO and raglan shaping (see below), and I'm very pleasantly surprised at how well this yarn has held up to so many frogs! Blocking itself took 2 days to finish because of the torrential and not-so-torrential downpours, with the humidity that comes of those, so fortunately for me, it dried out just in time for the one sunny day of the projected week! (I thought April was supposed to be the rainy month and May was supposed to be sunshine, lollipops flowers, and rainbows. April showers bring May flowers, or so I thought it was supposed to go.)

Side-split hem.

Onto the details:

1. Top-down. The CO took me 3 or 4 tries to get right, because the regular brioche CO looked much too loose to me, in that it looked really sloppy. In addition to this, I had calculated a neck size that was a smidgen too small the first two times, I think.
2. Raglan sleeve shaping to get the sleeveless dress, because I really like the look of it. This part took two tries, from ripping out all the way back to the base of the neck to the end of the raglan shaping. After I got the correct shape, I BO the raglan "sleeve" stitches and split up the front and back, continuing down flat before doing quick armhole shaping and reconnecting to knit the body in the round.
3. Shaping spread out between the center back-ish area and the sides (for the front). These come down a little lower than I had originally knit them, because it stretched out a bit during blocking, but thankfully they still fit within the right areas or so. I'm eternally grateful I don't have to rip back and reknit because they shifted downwards.
4. The original length was actually the slit starting high/mid thigh and the dress ending just below the knee, so the vertical stretch dragged the entire dress down to mid-calf area. This also worked out (and I kind of planned for this eventuality also, stopping below the knees so I'd be happy if it stayed there or if it stretched down) - hurrah! I was worried I'd have to kitchener an inch or two from where I started the slit, but because it stretched out, it saved me a bit of work there.
5. I reinforced all - I might have missed one or two raglan edges though... - of the potentially weak spots where I split to knit straight or reconnected for in-the-round. Both split hem areas have been sewn together, as have the AHs and especially the one raglan point that was particularly weakly connected (I think it was just the nature of the construction that that specific connection was going to be a bit more tenuous than the rest of them, but I probably could have done something to avoid that to begin with, like doing a k2tog or something). It doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart anywhere, so I'm going to be happy with that until it does.
6. I probably should have foreseen this, but it's a bit see-through, which I'm going to say was unavoidable: knitting at a tighter gauge would have destroyed me physically and emotionally, and I'm not sure whether the fabric would have been too stiff if I went down a needle size besides.

I'm bffs with my wall. Doing Fusion Dance with it, DBZ style.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out! I'm thinking of writing up the pattern for this, as has been the plan for the past three years, but there's no projected timeline whatsoever. I'm coming to realize that setting myself these deadlines is an exercise in futility. Who knows? I might even be more motivated to finish it if I'm not forcing it on myself.

Yellow Holes

It's such a nice fit! And super comfortable, too!

Jutta von Hinterm Stein has designed a beautiful cardigan that can easily be dressed either up or down, the Holey Comfort, just in time for spring weather! Even better, I got to testknit this beauty for her! This is actually my first time knitting one of her designs, although I had been drooling over a couple of them over the years. See the Low Budget Pullover, Turnaround Diamonds, Louvre,  Slim Lines, Cross Pockets, and Hourglass, to name a few.

The entire cardigan looks so beautifully structured, but it's completely seamless!

Because it was my first time knitting one of her patterns, getting used to the way the instructions are written took a bit of time. Jutta is very clear in her instructions, but do make sure to read through everything in the section before starting so you know what's happening. In my haste to knit up this cardigan, I misread some sections and ended up having to rip back the equivalent of about one whole sleeve's worth of knitting! However, the pattern itself is very detailed, and Jutta takes care to introduce charts where they are relevant within the instructions instead of putting them all on another page at the end, which I quite enjoyed. There are also many little details that make the finished cardigan fit beautifully! I was worried at first because the armhole seemed so large (it stretched a couple of inches further down from my actual armpit than I would have expected it to when I tried it on), but just trust in Jutta and knit on!

Should I make another?

I made no changes to the pattern, but here are a couple of notes for anyone observant enough to notice and wonder why it's a bit different:

• My gauge was off, since I couldn't get the specified 25 sts x 34 rows despite several gauge swatches and yarns/needles combos. I had 27 sts by 38 rows, so I knit up a size (M) to get what I needed (S).
• The yarn was held double, so it took me about 1730 yards, which is much more than the specified estimated yardage for size M (1250 yards). I suspect this is due to my gauge difference, and would trust Jutta's yardage estimates over mine.
• Another note on the yarn: while it's lovely stuff, there's a ton of oil in it and it biases like nothing else I've ever knit with (except for maybe my own overspun yarn). I'm not sure if the milky yellow that washed out was the oil or the extra dye, or both, but it looked pretty disgusting, to be honest. Prewash the yarn in hot water with some citric acid if you can. Otherwise, go through a couple of hot soaks before blocking, with citric acid. I noticed the same thing happening to a slightly lesser degree in my mokoshi, so now I'm absolutely certain that it's caused by this yarn and not the Louet linen.
• I made a mistake in the right neckline by a couple of rows. It's not too noticeable, so I kept it (also because I was pretty behind in terms of the test deadline). It also did not affect my stitch count, so all's well.
• When I connected the sleeves in the round, I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I kept getting a hole in the armpit area, so I just left it and sewed it up afterwards. If this extra little bit of sewing will irk you, I would probably just knit the sleeves flat and then do a major seaming of both of those after blocking instead.

Whaddya mean my yarn biasing means the back increases aren't centred?

This was also a huge stashbust in that I've got less than one cone - specifically, 365 yards - of this yellow left! Hurrah! I mean, I love the colour and the yarn itself, but I don't actually need that much sunshine yellow in my wardrobe (or at least, I don't think I do?). The major biasing that I can't fix even when blocking is also a bit of a downer, so I'm pretty happy I'm using it up and getting lovely results out of it!

There's no snow on the ground, but here's Snowdancer anyway

Knee-deep, dancing in the snow (except there's no snow out there)

I'm quite late in submitting my testknit of Snowdancer, but I'm finally done! I had a couple of false starts, using a different yarn, which turned out to be much too transparent for my liking; changing the pattern to include picot edging (to go with the scallop pattern, of course); etc.; none of which really panned out. So in the end, I pretty much followed the pattern, with a couple of mods:

1. Because of differences in gauge, I CO one size larger, as well as adding a couple of increase rows to the raglan shaping.
2. I lengthened the entire thing into a dress and changed the position where I started the chart, postponing it to the very bottom, right before the "ribbing". I also added four sets of body increases, but I'm wondering whether I should have done that at all at this point or kept it slimmer. Oh well. It's also a bit longer than I planned, but I really don't want to have to rip back a fourth or fifth time, whichever iteration of this garment it would be!
3. Instead of ribbing, I ended up doing a 1x1 faux stranded ribbing, ending everything with an attached i-cord edging to prevent the hems from flipping.
4. Changed up the sleeves by cutting them short at half sleeves, as well as changing up the part where we switch colours.

I haven't blocked the i-cord edging for the bottom hem yet, so the sleeve is the best detail I've got.

I have a couple of misgivings about the length of it, like I mentioned above, as well as the edging that I chose, but honestly, I wanted it done. I've ripped it out enough times - the cone yarn withstood all of it so well that I'm actually quite surprised! Both yarns are singles, too! - that I really just don't want to have to tinker with it anymore. (I suppose that's what I get for tinkering with the pattern to begin with...) And the end product is definitely wearable, not to mention really light and warm (and surprisingly comfortable in that it's not itchy), so I think I can stop.

It's really a great pattern to build off of, for making a basic sweater, complete with really simple colourwork for those of us who are terrified of the idea of doing huge swathes of stranded knitting! I would definitely make this again, though probably just stick to the pattern and make a basic sweater next time.

Babble Babel Baa-ble

Do you see the sheep?

So my friend Shirley asked me to knit her the famous Baa-ble Hat. She's not a knitter, so I have no idea where she stumbled across this pattern, but stumble across it she did, and knowing as she did that I'm a knitter, she put forth her request to me. So of course I said yes! I've wanted to knit this hat ever since it came out, though I figured I'd probably never wear it myself, so I refrained from doing it.

Might be a bit short in the crown area?

Now, while in theory I was totally gung-ho about knitting this, a couple of stumbling blocks came my way: 1)I didn't have the pattern. Easy enough to fix. 2) I haven't really done much in the way of colourwork, save for my sheepy vest, which remains unfinished (shhhh...), and 3) I had never knit a hat before. All this to say, it's not perfect.

Just barely covers my ears, folded over!

So I went in order:

1. Got pattern to work off of.
2. Knit this thing inside out and kept floats pretty loose. I actually had to tighten a couple of them while knitting because it was getting ridiculous. Switching between continental and English probably also contributed to tension issues, but practice will most likely solve that.
3. I cast on too few stitches at first (60), and because my floats were a smidge tight, the hat would only just barely squeeze past my ears after I had finished knitting half the sheep. So I frogged and restarted with more stitches (84), adjusting the pattern as I went along and fudging the top snowdrops.
4. I also used DK & worsted weight yarns instead of the aran called for, so that most likely contributed to some gauge issues. That includes the row gauge, which is the reason I'm assuming the crown feels a bit short. Hopefully it'll still go over her hair...
5. Because I only used 3 colours, I probably should've switched to using the charcoal grey for the sheep's faces & horns. Oh well. Next time.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and hope she likes it too, once I get it to her! The greatest fear is actually fit, to be honest...

Testing Patience (Silvertweed)

Silvertweed test

Not the pattern; that was easy to follow, as always with Nadia's patterns, and quite satisfying for mindless knitting. I used Miss Babs Kilimanjaro in Impatient, a stunning purple that borders on black. I had been hoarding it since I purchased it sometime last year, I think, trying to find the perfect project to use it all up in one go, and here we are! Sadly, Kilimanjaro is discontinued, but its twin sister, Katahdin, is still going strong!

On the whole, I love the yarn and I want to work with it more! The colours are stunning and although it's not super soft, that's to be expected. I think it would actually be really good for socks, which I'm pretty sure is what it was made for. The only negative things I can say about this yarn are:

1. The dye ran when I soaked the sweater for blocking. A bit of citric acid fixed most of the issue though. (There was still a bit of purple in the water after soaking for half an hour or so, but I'm assuming that's just excess dye.)
2. Not really a negative so much as the nature of hand-dyed yarn: I didn't notice the striping happening until after I knit the entire thing, and while there isn't much I could've done about it anyway, and it doesn't really bother me that much, I might have alternated skeins if I had another skein.

I'm going to go ahead and assume these comments will apply for Katahdin as well, but I get issue #1 with other yarns too, especially with the madtosh when I soaked the bomber jacket. That was a disaster. Citric acid saved me both times, so I think it has something to do with the saturation of the colours for both these cases. As for the subtle striping, that's just hand-dyed yarn doing its thing. If I were really that bothered, I could either alternate skeins, or I wouldn't be working with hand-dyed at all.

First time knitting i-cord edging

The pattern is Silvertweed, by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, which was released not too long ago. I was lucky enough to testknit this before the official release, and although it's not the sort of pattern I would normally have picked, I'm so glad I signed up for it! I would probably make the v-neck a little bit lower next time, but apart from that, I'm quite happy with the finished shirt. This was also the first time I've ever knit an i-cord edging for a collar (I did knit an integrated i-cord edge for this cowl, but that's different), so I ended up having to knit it twice: the first time around, the collar was way too loose, so the i-cord just flopped right over. You can actually still see that the back is a bit loose, but it's barely noticeable, and I can't see it once it's on (nor, do I suspect, can anyone else), so I'll live with it.

I never really get to wear jeans anymore

In fact, I could probably live in this sweater for a while. Winter's rolling in, and despite the lace sleeves, my Silvertweed is surprisingly warm. Maybe not surprising, given the 85% wool content, and I'm sure I'll feel the chill once the wind starts to blow through the lace, but I'm so ready for the winter months ahead now! Now just to start knitting some hats for me...

Testing the Waters

Got your back.

Testing the waters of this lovely Lakes Shawl, by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne.

The pattern itself is easy to follow, and you definitely don't need to bring the pattern around with you for the bulk of this, which is great if you like to take your knitting out with you! The central lace pattern is incredibly easy to remember, as is the textured body. I really only needed to consult the pattern again after I had finished all the increases.

Double the triangle, double the warmth

Now, because I can't seem to knit any pattern straight up - my mods:

1. My gauge was waaaaaayy off, so I made it larger by continuing to increase with the central square and ended up with 9 repeats of the outer lace border instead of 7 repeats. My finished shawl ended up around an inch larger than the pattern dimensions.
2. For any decreases that had to do with stitch adjustment (as opposed to lace pattern), I did them before the yo in the previous row, so as to keep the integrity of that lace pattern all around as best as I could. I know it's just one little yarn over hole per corner, but it bothers me!

Quartered

Next time I do a square shawl, I'd probably want it to be even larger, to be honest. The Lakes Shawl is a great size for scarf usage, but I like a bit more security when having a shawl wrapped around my shoulders, and the Lakes wingspan is just a bit short.

fwip