This is a throwback post published on February 21, 2009.

I enjoy a good “fast-off-the-needles” project, and this was one of them.

Pattern: Herringbone Slouch
Yarn: Mission Falls Superwash 136 (one ball each colour)
Needles: 3.25 mm dpns

Mission Falls makes a lovely yarn. The colours are fantastic and the wool itself has a great soft and springy factor. I was going for a knit fabric that would be substantial enough to keep you warm, and the needle size coupled with the extra-layer provided by fair isle make this a cozy knit.

Though honestly, I was sort of hoping for a more “slouchy” effect than the one I got. I’ll just have to get my hands on some lighter-weighted yarn and give it a go.
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On an unrelated note: As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been messing around with my template and creating a new look for the blog. While it’s very fun, I must admit that I know very little about this stuff, and am sure that the page could appear rather, uh, messed up on other screens/browsers.

If you notice anything funky (and that’s the bad funky!) please drop me a line and tell me I’ve gone awry.

This is a throwback post published on September 20, 2008.

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This is a throwback post published on September 16, 2008.

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Scrumptious!
Superb!
Silky!
Scandalously superfluous!

with a little bit of happy dance thrown in.

Why the exuberance?
Well, my friends, I do believe that this Saturday has seen me make the most wondiferous single stash enhancement ever.
Since I cannot help myself, I pampered me to an early birthday prezzie and got:

3 different colourways of Fleece Artist’s Woolie Silk
(I think the colours are best described as Granny Apple Green for whom I already have plans a-brewin’, Amber and finally a Buttery Cream),
Enough Handmaiden silk to make a long-planned for autumn sweater (I must give the proverbial shout-out to Linda’s Craftique. I buy gorgeous yarn from her booth every year, and yet have still never been the store itself),
a perfect and long-searched-for shade of chocolate brown in a dk merino from The Black Lamb,
some black baby alpaca,
and a couple hanks of black laceweight merino.

Hmmm, I feel a new personal colour preference coming on.

Stayed Tuned.

Oh yeah, and Rav got me “recognized”. How cool it that?!
In the meantime, I’ve been diligently knitting away on a new one (this time from the Great Stash Enhancement of July 2008.
As per my usual trademarking, this lace has many-a-woopsies, but I’ll live with it.
I think I’ve cropped them out of this photo…
You’ll see in (hopefully) a couple days.

This is a throwback post published on June 20, 2008.

I’ll have to fess up and say that a rather disproportionate amount of joy for me comes from naming knits for designing.
This is a case in point.

Pattern: Alauda
Yarn: oh, a few scraps. Methinks it was
1) Brown Louisa Harding “Grace”
2) Orange Manos Silk Blend
3) a couple different yellow/golden shades of Handmaiden’s “Silk Maiden”
4) white Elsebeth Lavold “ClassicAL”

Why I made it:
My hands were unbelievably cold at work.
Why it’s got such a highfalutin name?
I love the naming. I love the organizing and labelling and making odd and rather twitsy-turny connections. In this instance, I knew I wanted to use some pretty stash scraps, hence the idea of a “legion”, expand that to a particular legion (one of Caesar’s Gaulish legions, see here)
and to top it all off, this particular Alauda word morphed into the modern French word Alouette, which is denotative of a small bird.

Gratuitous Butters photo:

If you want to make a pair:
step 1 – get scrap (all same gauge)
step 2 – measure around knuckles to get # of sts cast on (1” neg ease)
step 3 – cast on and knit knit knit in a rectangle til the piece measures to your wrist (if you want to add the YO row, just work one YO, k2tog across the fourth row).
step 4 – cast off and stitch together edge, leaving thumb holes!

This post has been brought to you by procrastiknitting.

This is a throwback post published on May 3, 2007.

Please let me know if you see any glaring errors. I didn’t keep the best notes going along. I hope this isn’t too convoluted.

Sized for a 36″ bust. You can read my suggestions for pattern-improvement.
Gauge: 7 sts/inch
Yarn: Wendy – Peter Pan 4 ply
Needles: 2.5 mm
Extras: seven 1 cm buttons, tapestry needle.
Warning: crochet ahead!
Hook: 3 mm

You can block the Spencer to make the lace look nicer. Just don’t use pins that will rust! (yes, I did).

Double Seed Stitch:

Row 1 – *K2, p2. Repeat from * to end of row.
Row 2 – As row 1.
Row 3 – *P2, k2. Repeat from * to end of row.
Row 4 – As row 3.

Clover Lace:

Rows 1 and 7 – K
Row 2 and all Wrong side rows – P
Row 3 – K2, yo, sk1, k2tog, psso, yo, *k5, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo*, rep from * to *.
Row 5 – K3, yo, ssk, *k6, yo, ssk*, rep from * to *.
Row 9 – K1, *k5, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo*, rep from * to *.
Row 11 – K7, *yo, ssk, k6*, rep from * to *.

Back

CO 82 sts
work 1×1 ribbing for 1 cm (0.5 inch)
work double seed stitch for 6 cm (2.5 inches)

Begin clover pattern, and begin increases. Increase 1 st on each side on the Front Side of the work until piece measures 23 cm (9 inches) long.

(I had to fudge the pattern for the increases. What I did was placed markers at the beginning stitches, and continued the pattern as normal within the markers. When there was enough stitches outside the markers – which is seven, I believe – I worked those in pattern).

Shaping armholes:

When piece measures 21 cm (8 inches) long, begin shaping armhole by dec 2 sts on each side of Front of work for six rows. Then dec 1 st each side until piece measures 28 cm (11 inches). Arm holes are now shaped.

Continue in clover pattern until piece is 36 cm (14 inches) long.

Front Panels:

Work two. Just remember to reverse the neckline and arm hole shaping!
At this point, choose which side you want the buttons on, and which side the button holes.
CO 38 sts (this is what I did, but I recommend casting on a few more. I found the front panels to be a bit small).

Do the same shaping for the front panels as you did for the back, save for the 6 sts along what will be the buttonhole edge. Here I just kept the knitting in sockinette.

Button holes:

You create the first buttonhole on the first row of double seed stitch, and from then on place the buttonholes at approximately 2.5 cm (1 inch) intervals.
All I did was work 2 sts on buttonhole edge, cast off 2, and continue in pattern. Then on the next row, you just CO 2 sts over the space created by the 2 you cast off.

WHEN THE FRONT PANELS MEASURE 8 INCHES
Begin neckline shaping. (this is also when you begin armhole shaping!)

Neckline Shaping:
Cast off 18 sts to create beginning of neckline. You should have about 30 sts left.
Now you continue to shape the neckline edge by dec 1 st along neck edge every Front side row. Continue dec in this manner until you have 12 sts left. Work until front panels are same length as Back.

Sleeves:

Make two.

CO 70 sts.
Work 1×1 ribbing for 1 cm (0.5 inches).
Begin clover pattern.
Work in pattern until piece measures 4 cm (1.5 inches).

Begin shaping sleeve.
Dec. 1 st each side of Front of work until you have 2 sts left (my sleeves ended up being 16 cm/6.5 inches long).

Finishing:

Sew up side seams, shoulders and sleeves. Place and sew buttons.
Pick up sts along neckline (sorry, I didn’t count them), and knit two rows in stockinette. This makes a nice edge for you to create the crochet trim upon.

Neckline crochet:
Starting at one edge of neckline, make 1 sc.
Skip 2 sts.
Make five dc in next st.
Skip 2 sts.
Slip-stitch this down.

There you have the mini-shell that I used all the way around the neckline. Just continue the pattern til you get all the way around the neckline. I consciously kept my crocheting a little looser, because I was afraid it would pucker the knitting and look funny.

Suggestions for improvements to pattern:

If I were making this pattern again, I would add an inch-worth of extra stitches to the bust area (I would spread this out across the front panels, so I’d add 0.5 inches to one side and 0.5 stitches to the other).

I would also attempt to do it in the round, at least for the bottom half. I only suggest this because I dislike sewing seams.

I suggest creating a row of garter stitch on the edge of the front panel where the buttons will be sewn. This will make the fabric want to lay flat, rather than curl under like the original does.

Here is a pathetic Paint diagram of the measurement I took of the Spencer. If you can measure your own gauge, you can fit the pattern to you and your own yarn/needles/tension.

This is a throwback to a post published on August 20, 2008.

Pattern: Corona
Yarn: about 3.5 balls of Cascade 220
Needles: My beloved Boye interchangeables (methinks it’s 5mm… whichever are the light pink ones)

Changed from first Corona: had to make the sleeves a bit wider at the bottom (this’ll be reflected in the pattern).

Having already knit this sweater once, I’m able to directly compare the effects of expensive vs. economical yarn choices.

Both the Cascade 220 and the original Dream in Color “Classy” yarn were nice to work with. Neither had any knots in any of the hanks, the plies stayed together nicely (although if agitated, the Cascade would split a very small bit), the stitch/cable definition is perfect and the yardage count per hank is awesome-o.
Where the Dream in Color zooms ahead of the Cascade is in the beautiful colour and texture. Soooo very smooshy and inviting. If you’ve got the cash and you want a sweater to dive into, then this would be the way to go.
The Cascade 220 was exactly half the price of the Dream in Color, and this you can tell by its rougher texture (though not itchy! I wouldn’t buy it if it were) and overall less elegant feel.

I’ve worn the Dream in Color Corona a few times, and can happily report pilling has not been an issue. I’ve only put on the Cascade Corona for the photos, and I fear that pilling may be imminent. When I was buying the yarn the cashier actually asked me if I was planning on felting a bag because “This yarn is really great for that!”
Yipes.
Ah well, I may or may not have a trick up my sleeve. I’ve heard through the grapevine that liquid glycerin, mixed with some water for a knit-soaking, will solve the pilling problem. I have as of yet to get my hands on the elusive liquid, but I’ll definitely get back to you if it actually works.

These photos were taken pre-blocking, so the hood edge looks a bit floppy and rolly. It’s easily fixed. (What can I say – I was excited that the day dawned bright and sunny!)
As for the pattern – since I’ve now completed this one, I have the info required to write up other sizes. Me and the maths are not the best of buds, so I’ll have to be very nice to it and see if it’ll cooperate with me and produce accurate numbers for all. The plan is to have it written up and ready to go by the end of the month.

***PATTERN***
unfortunately, I’ve tried to paste it here, but it just won’t work with me.
Please see it here on Rav.