I finished the lace sweater!
If you haven’t already, please do point your blog feed readers to my new address at www.limescented.space, where there’s a post with all the details!
Moving to a New Home!
After more than five (!!!) years, I finally took the plunge and am moving this blog to a new home. Please join me at www.limescented.space, and, if you’re so inclined, change your blog reader settings so that they point to the new address.
(That’s the first photo I put up on this blog, I think. Endpaper Mitts in grey and yellow.)
Thank you for reading all these years, and see you soon!
2016 – Where Did You Go?
Another year gone, with some significant changes in my crafting life — quite different from my usual ‘here’s what I made’ posts.
In the first few days of 2016, I blocked and posted my Cusp and was delighted when it was featured on the first page of Ravelry! What a happy beginning to the year!
A couple of months later, I did a thorough cull of all my handknits, looking at them as garments and not things I had made. I sorted through heavyweights, lightweights and accessories. To my amazement, I felt no pang in giving them away — I had such a strong need for a clutter-free life, where everything was useful or beautiful, that anything that couldn’t stand up to that scrutiny had to go, and it was a pleasure to see them go.
(ETA: I realised that readers like feedly are turning this picture heavy post into a horrible patchwork of images! Please click through to the actual website for a better reading experience — I’m trying to find ways to solve this problem)
Annis in Silk
I made another Annis, in worsted weight silk, as a gift. I’ve already used this lace pattern a couple of times before and, with over 7000 projects on Ravelry, it remains a favourite with knitters! The lace section itself is easy, the crescent shape is pretty to wear; it took me just over a day to knit and a few hours to block.
Blocking silk isn’t the brutal process it needs to be with woolens; I first rolled up the shawl in a very damp towel, then pinned it onto a dry surface, pressed the still damp towel on areas which felt dry, and then left it under a fan for a couple of hours.
I worked most of the pattern as written, except a few mods to the decreases, and changing to BO to prevent a rolling edge.
Details
Pattern: Annis
Yarn: Silk Petals Chunk; 2.6 skeins; “009 Caribbean”
Needles: 5.0mm for CO; 4.0mm for rest
Ravelled: here
Fingering Weights
Remember when I culled a lot of sweaters earlier this year? I identified colour and style gaps in my wardrobe, and determined what would be truly useful, reflecting my lifestyle and personal style. One of the strongest needs was for fingering weight pullovers.
So I made four this year, and each one has justified itself by being worn again and again, working with my other clothes, and serving the purposes of form and function.
Here they are, with a couple of outfits I used each sweater in. I hope, by logging outfits each time, I can do a more thorough analysis in a couple of years, but for now, I’m very happy with my knitting decisions!
Operation Sock Drawer
Remember when I culled and categorised my handknits, and realised how pathetic my collection of socks was? That I, a knitter, was condemned to cold, cold toes when I travelled? How sorrowful was this collection, and how quickly I had to discard everything in it for being darned and patched beyond counting, felted to unwearability or mysteriously lost?
Weep no more!
And the last, unblogged Sidewinders
I see a lack of red/orange colours, so know exactly what to make next year. And I’m happy to report, I’ve been wearing these socks a lot. On flights, during travels, when the air conditioning is too cold… they have all proved themselves worthy!
Lupine
New sweater on the needles:
A “wolf paw” lace pattern on the front, stockinette on the back. Cable ribbed hems, probably deeply cabled sleeve cuffs. I’m trying to chart out a compound raglan shape, but that it still sooooo far away!
Fingering weight sweaters are agony and ecstasy.
In the meanwhile, the Chevron Socks pattern is live! Testers have commented they love the fit provided by the slipped stitch heel and ball of the foot, so do give it a try if you want extra wear-resistant socks!
Testing Open!
A quick post to say, testing is open for this pullover! If you’re interested, do check out this page. Thanks to every one who expressed an interest!
When You Really Love a Cable
I swatched some of the pretty Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed a few weeks ago. It makes such a good fabric, wonderfully light, and with that matte integrity that tweeds seem to acquire after blocking.
I’m thinking of a compound raglan pullover, bottom up, the raglan lines marked with — you guessed it — these slipped stitch cables from my last pullover.
The sweater is going to be stockinette with lace on the front and shaping on the back only. Perhaps a deep, scooped neck. We’ll see.
I found a lace pattern called “Wolf’s Claw” from an old pattern book, but the text-only instructions were mind-boggling. They were a mad jumble of wrn, fully written out left decreases, and other horrors. So I tried to figure out the lace pattern by electronically annotating over the accompanying photograph:
I’m happy to say I got only two rows wrong! Well, actually, the same row wrong twice, since the pattern alternates diagonally.
Now to figure out how to actually knit the whole thing…
Lime Scented 