What's next?

If I've finished the gloves, what next?
When the Knitty Fall surprises came out, I was taken with Kristin Nicholas' Macaron slipper socks. My daughter is a ballerina, and she is supposed to wear slippers or socks backstage over her ballet slippers. My daughter also isn't the biggest fan of my knitwear. But, when I showed her these, she was excited. So now, my job is to finish them to be worn backstage during this year's Nutcracker, which is the second weekend in December.

Saturday, my local yarn store, Sheep's Clothing was having a little Halloween sale, and the two of us went yarn shopping. She chose this yarn by color, really.

It's Cascade Pastaza which is actually a little heavy for this pattern. It's 50% wool, 50% llama, which surprised me. My daughter is a bit of a princess & the pea type, and I would have thought this yarn is too "woolly" for her. But she loved the colors. So, I'm adjusting the pattern for a bigger gauge to accommodate this yarn. With a few little tweaks, I'm making the smallest size, and aiming for a result more like the medium size.

Gloves, pair 5

I've finished the gloves that will be my mother-in-law's birthday gift.
Her hands are longer than mine, so they don't fit me "like a glove".

But they sure are pretty.
More information about the gloves in the previous post, and in the sidebar.

Yet another pair of gloves

I'm making another pair of gloves from the wonderful Custom-Fit Sideways-Knit Garter Stitch Gloves pattern. This pair is for my mother-in-law's birthday. I actually think I have two pair of these yet to go before I can get back to the red sweater. My husband and mom have birthdays coming up -- and I think they might enjoy these too. Well, not these, but like them. Glove details are here in my first post about them.

These are made of Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn, in the Safari colorway. They have a touch of cashmere and are SO soft.


This picture shows a little more about the gloves' construction. First you knit a flat hand print, using a provisional cast on at the first edge and for each finger, putting stitches on a string for each finger as you finish. You then go back and knit the top of the hand, picking up the held stitches and then grafting the provisional cast-ons as you go. It's fiddly, but the end result is, in my opinion, well worth it.

I'll end with a proud mama shot. It was homecoming weekend here.

What came home from Japan?

My husband came home from Japan, bringing gifts. I hate it when he travels (without me) for work, but there was some consolation in the presents in his bag.

I'd asked for a Japanese knitting book or magazine. He came home with four!

This vest is one of my favorite things in the book with the 9 on the cover, for reasons I can't quite explain. Possibly there's something to do with the lovely red color.

This sweater with the chevrons is a great use of color striping yarn. I'd lengthen those sleeves though.

And there were several garments that channeled the late 60's/early 70's granny square vests my grandma made us. There were also some intricate crocheted sweaters that could almost convert me from a knitter to a crocheter. This doll-like girl modeled every sweater in the book with the white sweater on the cover. She fascinates me.

I found a web site, I think associated with Nihon Vogue, that lets you get a better look into some of these books. This is the inside of the big magazine, which to my American eyes reads back to front. And this link let's you look inside what might be Let's Knit Series Vol. 9.

Still the Japanese Sweater

I mentioned that I've decided to work on "The Japanese Sweater". "What is that?" some of you might ask.

I've been working on Am Kamin, from New Style of Heirloom Knitting, for years. This is what it should look like when I finish:

So far, I've knit the back.

And the fronts are done (the last few inches since I finished the Botanica cardigan).

I've begun knitting the sleeves, both at once.

If you look closely, you can see the wonderful tubular cast-on. Here's a link to the instructions that a) worked for me, and b) seem most similar to the pictures in the back of the New Style of Heirloom Knitting book.

I bought my book from Amazon.jp, which is an adventure in itself. It's also available from the Needle Arts Bookshop, if you're uncomfortable dealing in yen. The book is in Japanese, but there really is a lot of help on the web to help a knitter understand Japanese patterns.

The blog "Crossed in Translation" has lots of good resources in the sidebar, if you're interested in tackling this sweater, or one like it.

I'm very happy to be making progress on this sweater again.

Botanica Medallion Cardigan

My husband suggested that we could use this for an afghan or a table cover when I'm not wearing it. It does look OK here.

But it looks OK here too.




I love the crunchy texture of all these stitches in the Blue Sky Alpaca Skinny Dyed Cotton yarn.

I followed the pattern exactly (I hope), except that I misunderstood the triple decreases in the center medallion - the pattern calls for a different triple decrease, which doesn't leave the straight line of center stitches that I have here. And, I agreed with several other folks on Ravelry and moved the seam from the center back to under the left armhole. I grafted the seam nicely, but I still wish it was more invisible. Also, the directions have you unwrap all the cross stitch wraps at once, but it's much easier if you unwrap the triple wraps 6 stitches at a time.

This is a great pattern - both simple and complex. It's a simple shape, worn in an unusual way. Most people who see it on would never guess that it is a large circle with armholes. The way the row gauge shifts as you move outward on the border stitches is so clever, and the stitches themselves, especially the Indian Cross Stitch, are so pretty. Several people have mentioned that they think the trinity stitch section is wrong-side out. I'd just remind anyone making this that the prettier side of the trinity stitch section is what is turned back for the collar and around your face. So it is right side out, where it counts.

Details:
Botanica Medallion Cardigan, designed by Shiri Mor, from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2009.
Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed Cotton, 7 skeins, gravel color (the pattern calls for "clay"). Yarn from Knot Another Hat in Hood River, OR.
Size M/L, though if I had to do it again, I'd make the border in size S, but the medallion in size M/L -- if you are not tall, and not thin, like myself, this might be something to consider.
US size 7 needles for the center medallion and size 6 for the border. Mid-border I switched to Addi lace needles (circular, but used back and forth). I'd recommend these needles, or some other pointy-tipped ones for this project. The trinity stitch was much easier after I switched.

Success? I think this sweater would be better for someone slimmer, with Michelle Obama arms. But then most clothes are. I'm happy with this sweater. It's comfortable to wear, both interesting and pretty. I think the color will be nice -- I'm not finding the neutral color so versatile as I'd thought, but the neutral tone keeps the sweater more casual, which I like. I wore it to my high school reunion last weekend. Only one friend knew I'd made it, but it made me feel more myself all night, to be wearing one of my own hand-knits.

Textiles from Thailand and India

Instead of saying tomorrow, I should learn to say "next time". I promised a look at textile gifts from India and Thailand, and it's taken me longer than I expected to take pictures and do this post.

My daughter recently returned from three weeks in Thailand and India. It was so great to have her back home & hear all about the wonderful things she saw and did. She'd been with a church group, and visited refugee camps, orphanages, and schools. But she also rode an elephant and brought home some fun gifts. I think I've raised her right, because my gifts were all textile related.


This lovely scarf came from Thailand.

My gift from India was this big length of fabric.

This is the end of the long piece of yardage. The dark blue part looks like it was dip dyed.

This is the border that runs all along the side of the piece.

It's a large piece of light-weight fabric. I'm musing on what I should do with it. It's very long - so there's plenty to work with. I am thinking a skirt, something full but not voluminous. Any thoughts?

Finally, she bought herself a textile gift.

Here she is (in the middle) with some friends in their Indian finery. I think the girls' clothes are called salwar-kameez - a tunic over pants. My daughter picked a cotton tie-dye. It's not fancy, but she looks great in it. And we've had fun looking at the hand-made fabric. I still need to finish the ends of her scarf, and the threads that tied the tie-dye were still in place when she got dressed that morning. Here are some details of the fabric:

I think the light spots look like little volcanoes.

I think these textile gifts are so beautiful and none of them were expensive. We'll all enjoy them for many years.

Next post (see, I do learn sometimes): something is finished!