It's Soft and Brown and Bulky

Wrenna
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Here are the nicer photos of the Wrenna cardigan I finished on Tuesday. You can see the pattern a bit better in these photos, but I have always found it hard to photograph dark lace. There’s a black sweater in the French Girl Knits book that I wish had been done up in a lighter color just so I could see the patterning a bit better, so it’s not just my poor lighting situation (we really need to get the separate flash for the good camera—that will fix things).

I’m still deciding exactly what I want to do for closures on Wrenna. I almost bought another agate button at the LYS, but hesitated. I am now thinking of doing three large-ish buttons fastened by loops on the edge of the front. I think it wants to close up a bit more, and that more buttons might give it a different look from others I’ve done recently.

I’ve been faithfully knitting along on the back of the Bridget cardigan. It looks tiny to me at the moment, but when I look at the Land’s End cardigan I’m wearing right now, I realize it’s pretty much the same size. I made it to the armholes last night, so it won’t be long until I to the fronts, which I am pretty sure I’ll do at the same time to ensure they are mirror images. Come to think of it, I should also do the sleeves at the same time. The yarn on this cardigan is really the star—such subtle grays and browns flowing around, but not distracting. I do like the pattern, though, which is in the Fall 2008 Wild Fibers magazine. It is a simple, pieced pattern done well, with subtle waist shaping and nice short-row shoulder shaping and other touches that will make it look good when finished, I think. Right now it’s hard to tell how it looks, since it’s all stockinette-like and folding in on itself at every opportunity!

I keep looking at other patterns and thinking about making them, but nothing, even that incredibly cute Montera cardigan on the Knitty Surprise, tempts me more than the thought of knitting up some of that yarn in my stash and those patterns I already have picked out. Two ideas are fighting it out in my mind as candidates for the next project (of course, after finishing a WIP). I am deciding between making Sara (Ravelry link), a little cabled top, in pink Rialto wool that I bought the yarn for last year or maybe earlier, and the temptation of making the Raglan Rust (Ravelry link) pattern in the Knitter’s Winter 2008 issue that I liked so much using the very special Brooks Farm Duet DK weight yarn I got at Kid-n-Ewe rather than doubled sock yarn. I don’t have any sock yarn that I have two 400-yard skeins of, so I can’t make it in the right yarn until I finish up knitting with stuff I have. Well, it’s decisions like these that keep the mind occupied during lots of rows of stockinette at a small gauge!

Thanks for all the nice comments about Dawn. I know she appreciated them, too. For Wednesday Wonders, I’ll probably alternate among people no one knows but were important to me in my knitting past, “famous” knitters whom I admire, and people in my life now. But, I’d love suggestions and nominations, too!

Wednesday Wonders #4: Dawn Ortega

First, yes, I finished something else already. I feel like FO Queen when I do that, but since this was done on size 17 needles, I feel like I cheated. I took this photo of Wrenna in my office using the phone, so I had to lighten it up a lot. But you get the idea. It's a brown short-sleeved cardi, in the shape I like so much (Lee hints that I have perhaps too many items in this shape). The yarn, Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, is incredibly, practically indescribably soft. I saw a wrap calling for it in the new Vogue Knitting, and wow,that would be one soft (expensive) item. Anyway, I haven't decided for sure what closure to use on this. The pattern calls for leather lacing, and I guess I COULD make something with some of the Berocco Suede yarn I have way too much of. Or I could get another of the wonderful Sculpey/Fimo buttons at the LYS. Or I could keep using a pin. Decisions.

So, before getting to my Wednesday Wonder, let me encourage you to go buy the wonderful French Girl Knits book and make something in it. And let me beg you to get NICE size 17 needles if you are making a project that will take a while. The inexpensive ones I used would NOT uncurl and were a royal pain to deal with. For sure the next item I make from that book will be one of the ones on slightly smaller needles, though I do note that the author is very fond of using larger needles than normal for a particular yarn. I guess she likes "airy" things, and there's nothing wrong with that. Especially here in Texas!

Dawn Is a Wonder

So, who is Dawn Ortega (I'll put her whole name in once I get permission), and why is she a Wednesday Wonder? No, she's not a famous knitting icon, and no, she didn't teach me any particular knitting skill. She's a knitting friend, and by friend, I mean a person who is kind, caring and giving to everyone she encounters. In this photo she's helping Wiebke at our yarn dyeing party.

I've been enjoying watching Dawn's knitting skills grow. She sometimes hesitates to try new things, but once she gets an idea in her head, she keeps going. A case in point is her green sweater. She had never made a sweater, and the really interesting pattern made of garter-stitch strips that she chose didn't quite go up to her size. Plus the only color there was enough of was green, and she's a BLUE person! But she swatched. She tinkered with the pattern. She believed her friends when they said green matched her eyes. She knitted. And she persevered. It came out at a weird length. She figured out a way to make it longer that actually improved on the look of the sweater. She put the sweater on, and it was amazing. It looked so good. Even better was the look on her face when she realized she had DONE it!

This kind of payoff is what keeps me going folks! When a knitter takes it on faith that she can do something she never did before, and it works--that's a wonder. It took a village to help her, but the village was willing. It's the great thing about knitting communities!

What caused me to think about Dawn was something she posted in an email yesterday. These are her own words:

I am on a continuing adventure called Knitting. Everything I thought was hard and scary is really easy and interesting. This is like being a kid at an amusement park. First you ride the baby rides that go in a circle and the you adventure to the kid area where you climb ropes and fall in ball bins eventually we all will end up on the scary roller coaster and find that we love it and have to do it again and again.

Does this describe your knitting adventure? It certainly rings true for me, and I see it going on around me regularly. I love teaching a new technique that lets a knitter step past a previous boundary, or encouraging a friend to give a new yarn a try, or being there when someone struggles through that first sock. And the adventure doesn't end; there's always something new to try.

To be honest, there are so many reasons Dawn is a wonder. Just in knitting reasons alone, I could go on and on. She knits baby afghan squares and items for the poor. She always makes a little mini sock ornament out of yarn leftovers as a souvenier--what a great gift. She brings gifts for all her friends' birthdays, many made by hand. And as a person, she is always there to listen, and never there to judge. So, she may not be famous, but she's treasured by all who know her, and I hear her sweet, small voice in my head when I read her words. A quiet, tenacious and kind human. Of course she's a wonder!

I Threw My Sweater in the Wash

Thanks to all of you who commented and gave suggestions yesterday. It was really helpful! As you can see from these rather dim photos (imagine: I adjusted the brightness on these, so they were really dark at first! must get better flash on new camera) I am now wearing the Damned Orange Sweater.

What I did was put it in the washing machine and wash on warm with warm rinse, and on gentle setting. Since we now have a front-loader, that means not much agitation at all. Just a wee bit. When it came out, it smelled good, but didn't look much smaller, so I bravely threw it in the dryer and let it go for a while. The dryer decided it was dry and stopped long before it was actually dry, but that's fine. It did look a bit smaller, so I took it upstairs and just laid it flat on my drying rack.

This morning, I put it on (with lacy cute thing under it so I'd itch less), and yay, my fingers DID emerge from the ends of the sleeves, and the shoulder seams were where the seams were on the lady in the very dim picture on the pattern. I think it will do. It is just right in the arms--hugs them gently. The width is still a bit much for my taste, so it accentuates my...girth, yeah, that's the word. But it will do.

I think it looks just fine from the back. It's even attractive, perhaps! I can tell that the yarn fulled just a tad, but I didn't lose much stitch definition. The cables show up just fine, as you can see. I probably could have put it on "regular" wash and it would have gotten a little smaller, but I was afraid of over-doing it, because it's no fun trying to un-full a sweater.

You may ask yourself, "Hey, how come Suna didn't measure to be sure the sweater wasn't going to be too big?" Well, she DID. The gauge was right, and I thought I had blocked it to the right size, but my only guess is that I should have made it the smaller size. I keep thinking I am larger than I actually am. The thing was supposed to have a 40" chest, and I think I am more of a person who would wear a 36-38" chest in finished dimensions. I simply made it a size too big. But I fixed it sufficiently that I will wear it, though maybe as was suggested in yesterday's comments, as a slouching around the house sweater. Um, I mean lounging. I honestly don't slouch around THAT much.

For sure, it's cold enough today (and will be tomorrow) to wear a very warm alpaca sweater! So, hooray, I finished it in time to get some use out of it!

Moving on, I did quite a bit more on Wrenna last night, and it's possible it will be finished tonight--for sure tomorrow. I DID try it on, and I think it will be fine. I am making a mix of more than one size, due to using such different yarn from the one called for in the pattern, but it seems to be coming out coordinated enough. There were many knitting challenges last night--I had a bad headache, the phone kept ringing and that darned family kept asking for help. The nerve. But I still did quite a bit!

Two New Starts!

Wrenna Start
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I am so thrilled to be finished with the orange alpaca sweater (named the "Damned Orange Sweater" by the gals at the LYS) other than the sewing up, that I started TWO new projects. As usual, I am tempted by new projects I've found, but I AM using either yarn I already had OR something free.

I admit that the yarn for this first project is new, not from stash. BUT I used the generous gift certificate that my friends on my special email list gave me to buy this sinfully soft 100% alpaca yarn (Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande). The project is Wrenna from the new French Girl Knits book.

I really love this book, because the patterns are imaginative and different, and the construction methods are new. She uses fun yarns and I like everything about the projects except for the huge amounts of grafting involved to keep them seamless. ARGH. I think I'll pay someone to graft any of the grafty ones I end up making. I like everything in the book, just about, but some is a bit young or unflattering for me.

Anyway, rather than review the book, let me tell you a bit about Wrenna. In the book it is knitted with that extremely bulky Twinkle yarn, which I don't own and they don't have at the LYS. So, I got the bulkiest thing in the store with the gift certificate. I checked on Ravelry, where Kristen Griffin-Grimes kindly gives suggestions and ideas for alternate yarns.

Though the brown yarn is a little less thick, I managed to get the gauge OK. Most of the patterns in the book are knit on larger needles than the yarn usually calls for anyway, so this will be OK, I think. I am really not used to knitting with size 15 needles, though, so it's a bit tedious. The photo shows the project up to the underarm break. When I am done here, I will see how much more I'll have done by the end of the night.

Because Wrenna takes a bit of concentration (lace pattern plus something seems to happen on every row), I also started something with great expanses of stockinette in it. And a yarn I love love love. This is Bridget, from the latest issue of Wild Fibers. In the magazine it is made from lovely natural black wool from Wales. I am making it with one of the yarns I got at Kid 'n Ewe, Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool. Co.'s sport/DK weight single ply yarn made from Texas wool. It is dip-dyed in shades of dark gray and brownish gray that really, really look wonderful (the photo hardly does it justice). I got the gauge perfectly, so I sure hope I am not making it a size too small! If it is, my friend Karen at church will probably snatch it off me--it so looks like something she would love!

I need to sew the Damn Orange Sweater together this evening (it took a while to dry), and then I will have photos for you of it.

I am pretty darned excited to have two new projects going. The Wrenna will be done soon, but I expect Bridget (named after my favorite goddess!) will be with us a while.