A Little Process Knitting

Over the last few days, I have been craving a new knitting project. It’s not so much a case of startitis, so much as a desperate desire to engage my mind intellectually and relax physically. Some serious process knitting was in order. A good sized project with an interesting stitch pattern. In the middle of all the infant care, I’ve just needed to claim my brain as my own. To remember I’m still the same person, even if life looks very, very different.

I was going to start a new project, some sort of cottony, beachy cardi. But when I started swatching, I reallized I just did not have the brain cells to design a brand new sweater. Then a litle lesson I learned two years ago jumped into my little head. Two Mays ago, I started a gorgeous alpaca pullover, I worked on it all summer, and come september, I had a beautiful sweater all ready to go. I didn’t repeat the tradition last year and really missed it when the fall came around.

So I decided to skip the beachy sweater idea, and finish the black cardi I started last fall.

A huge chunk of the design work was already done and I’ve been dying to make myself a normal wear-with-everything black cardi for about 3 years.

The timing was perfect.

When Inspiration Strikes

Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times. While I was working, I could think of nothing else but some mythical sweater that I wanted to make. I would sketch schematics, dream up stitch patterns, sometimes even do some swatching…but those ideas rarely materialized. Then when I quit my job, had hours and hours all to myself, all I managed to do was knit maybe three of the ideas that had been brewing in my head while working, and I generated virtually no new ideas. It was really disappointing and demoralizing.

What I find hilarious now is that all I can do is think about starting a new sweater for myself. A beachy cardi, with a lacy, maybe loosely cabled stitch pattern, made out of a lightweight cotton, or even just the right wool. I just spent the last 30 minutes culling my Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries to find the perfect motif.

There must be something about not having enough time for knitting that makes you value the time you do get to spend so much more. Quite frankly, though my productivity is down, I’m enjoying my knitting hobby so much more these days.

Pardon me… a little person is about to have a melt down if he doesn’t get his lunch.

A “Go To” Yarn Roundup

So I guess I sorta left the topic hanging yesterday. I gave all these criteria for my favorite yarns, now lets discuss what those favorites are!

Classic Elite Liberty Wool – $7.50/50g – 100% Superwash Merino Wool – Worsted

Ever since I first used this yarn about a year and a half ago this has been my favorite yarn to work with for any project requiring a smooth worsted wool. It has phenomenal stitch definition, is wonderfully soft, and has great memory. It was originally released in a pretty broad spectrum of colors, but it wasn’t until this year that they added some beautiful neutrals, thus solidifying it as my top favorite yarn.

Knit Picks Swish – $4.69/50g – 100% Superwash Wool – Worsted

Swish comes in at a close second. It has all the same features as Liberty Wool, but doesn’t seem to have quite the same quality. Which, as you can see, is reflected in the price. However, since it is cheaper, I do frequently consider it if I’m working with a smaller budget than usual.

Knit Picks Stroll – $4.69/50g – 25% Nylon, 75% Superwash Wool – Fingering

I haven’t found even a close competitor for this yarn. While there are other yarns that give stroll a run for its money either in the quality or luxurious feel of the yarn, none of them come close to the price. Every other sock yarn I’ve been tempted by is at least twice the price, and I really have a hard time spending $25 for a pair of socks on a regular basis. It does seem like there’s room in the market for a medium priced sock yarn. Knit picks will set you back around $10/100g, while every other brand costs $20-$25. I’d love to find some reasonably high quality sock yarn for around $15. If you know of any I missed, please let me know!

Knit Picks Gloss – $5.99/50g – 70% Wool, 30% Silk – Fingering

I love, love this yarn with no complaints. well, maybe one. It really should be made available in the stroll tonal colorways.

Knit Picks Wool of the Andes – $2.69/50g – 100% Peruvian Wool – Worsted

My favorite for any felting project. I haven’t tried Cascade 220 yet, so I can’t offer a good comparison. Anyone want to jump in on this one?

Berroco Lustra – $12/100g – 50% Wool, 50% Tencel – Single Ply – Worsted

This one is a bit different, but a lot of fun to work with. It has great stitch definition and the Tencel gives it a wonderful sheen.

Spud and Chloe Sweater – $15/100g – 50% Cotton, 50% Wool – Worsted

I like this one for baby knits that are intended to be a bit more heirloom quality. it’s incredibly soft, spun to be a bit hardwearing, and is thoroughly washable.

Berroco Remix – $10/100g - 30% Nylon, 27% Cotton, 24% Acrylic, 10% Silk, 9% Linen – Worsted

I was really surprised that I liked this one as much as I did. But I’ve now used it in three projects, and I always love the result!

I got a comment yesterday, but I’d love some other folks to jump in too. What are you favorite yarns? Why?

Afternoon Musings on Choosing Yarn

Today I actually got a nap AND some knitting time! These last few weeks, it seems I’ve had to pick one or the other if I have any time to myself at all! But as I was working on little Elsie’s summer dress and listening to the Knit Picks podcast from last week about cotton yarns, I started mulling over my favorite yarns, the yarns I keep in my stash, and how I tend to choose yarn for projects. At one of my little brainstorming sessions for this blog, I envisioned doing monthly yarn reviews, discussing the pros and cons of a new favorite and exploring how it may or may not further ones desire to knit beautifully and frugally. But that idea fell flat in a hurry, and as I was sitting mulling over my yarn choosing practices, I finally put my finger on why. I am a really boring knitter when it comes to choosing yarn, I have a very short list of favorites, and it’s those favorites that tend to get revisited over and over again for whatever project I happen to be dreaming up.

All that being true, I find myself consistently trolling my LYS and the internet for yarns that have the potential to add to that short list, so maybe in time, it won’t be quite that short. So what criteria do I use? I thought you’d never ask.

1) Sensible Fiber Blends

I don’t tend to like super luxury blends. I like wool/silk blends, but that’s about as luxurious as I get. I have never owned a gram of cashmere, though if the right project/yarn combo came along I’d be open to making an exception, but I’m not likely to put that yarn on the Elegant Economy short list. I tend to favor your classic superwash wools as well as your merino blends and cotton blends.

2) Sensible Yarn Weights

I’m not a big fan of thick and thin, or other funky weights, much as I may drool slightly while in the store or at a festival. The projects that those yarns work well in are just too few and far between, so I don’t tend to buy a lot of it. Not to mention, if you’ve followed me for very long, you’ll know that I like the classics, and most of your funky yarn doesn’t produce classic results. I tend to stick mostly with fingering, sport, and worsted weight yarns. Fingering and sport for sock and baby knitting, and worsted for your hats, mittens, cowls, and sweaters.

3) Sensible Pricing

This is a very relative category. As I hope I’ve made clear in other frugally focused posts, I’m not really about knitting on a shoestring, I’m more about knitting with high-quality yarn, that doesn’t have an excessive price tag. Now admittedly, that still is pretty vague. What might be more concrete is how much I like to spend for different types of projects, and then I fit in whatever yarn matches that budget. So for a baby sweater, I like to spend between $10-$20. I think all the sweaters I made for the twins matched that budget. Accessories like hats, cowls, mittens and socks have a similar budget. For a sweater for me, I prefer the $60-$80 range. So depending on what the yarn is for, you’ll usually find me recoiling from a price tag if it’s more than about $15 for a 100g skein.

4) Good Color Selection

So a yarn may meet all the above criteria and make it into a single project. However, if it doesn’t have a broad selection of colors, it doesn’t really make my list of favorites, because I won’t find myself coming back to it for other projects. Also, it’s probably fair to say, that unless it has a good grey, a good beige, cream or other warm neutral, and a black, I probably won’t be putting it on my favorites list either. I LOVE my neutrals, and while a pretty purple, pink, or teal may catch my eye for a baby sweater or cowl, I probably won’t be using it for my socks or sweaters, since I like those to blend a bit more with what I would buy if I was shopping at NY&Co, or Gap, and I would never drop over $40 on an article of clothing that didn’t go with at least 40-50% of my wardrobe. So neutrals are an absolute must when I count a particular yarn line as a favorite.

So what about you? How do you decide what your favorite yarns are?

 

Farnsworth Sweater

I’m totally thrilled with two out of the three sweaters designs I used  for my little one. If you remember from a few posts ago, I made two girl-specific sweaters, two boy sweaters, and two gender neutral sweaters. The gender neutral ones left something to be desired, but I’ll get to that later. The others were absolutely darling!

Here is one of the boy sweaters modeled on Chad.

In retrospect it seems a little silly to knit sweaters for babies due in april who live in NC. I mean really, aren’t they going to wear them like twice before it’s too hot? What can I say? I’m a knitter and these babies just didn’t seem properly welcomed without a few sweaters made just for them.

For this sweater, I wanted a simple textured stitch pattern. Something that didn’t take a lot of concentration, but had a more dramatic effect than all-over stockinette.

I’ve also had a thing for the Matthew Cuthbert sweater style for men. Big and warm with huge shawl collars for those super chilly nights on Prince Edward Island. And since newborn boys always look like darling little old men, the style seemed thoroughly appropriate.

When I first discovered Remix, I picked up some grey and blue. As you may remember I ended up doing the crossover cardi out of the grey, and loved it. But I never ended up using the blue, so this ended up being a great little stash busting project. If you go out and buy the yarn, the sweater only requires one skein, and should only set you back about $10. A pretty cheap little baby knit in my mind.

My only irritation with the final product is how the button band turned out. This is a consistent complaint I have with my sweaters, and I ripped this button band out three times trying to get it right and finally surrendered. I never ever seem to have a button band that lays perfectly perpendicular to the body of the sweater. I either pick up too few stitches making it pull up from the bottom, or I pick up too many and it fans out from the bottom. I decided to go with the what was the lesser of two evils in my mind, fanning out from the bottom. I’ve included my notes on how I worked up this sweater below. I’d be curious how others knitters tackle the button band. Actually if you have any button band wisdom at all, I would totally like to hear from you. Have you figured out a trick? Have you run across other blogs or instructional videos that may shed light?

If this is a sweater your interested in knitting for a new little one in your life, I hope the following notes are helpful. Please note that I haven’t graded this for multiple sizes, and it hasn’t been tech-edited. If you run into issues, please let me know, I’d love to help as best I can, but my time is a bit limited these days. Nursing twins in quite the time-hog!

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Farnsworth Sweater Notes

Gauge: 3.5-4 sts/inch

Materials: 1 ball Berroco Remix, #8 (US) Needles (or size needed to obtain gauge), stitch markers

Size: 0-3 months

Back
CO 34 sts
Work 2×2 ribbing for 2 inches starting with purl, end on wrong side row
Row 1: purl.
Rows 2, 3, and 4: Work three rows of 2×2.
Rep these four rows till work measures 8 inches.
Purl 1 row.
Bind off.

Left Front Side (As worn)
CO 18 sts
Work same as back till work is 5 inches long. End on wrong side row.
Attach stitch marker to 1st stitch. This marks the beginning of the v-neck decreases.
Purl 1 row.
Sl1, p2tog, work to end in established pattern.
Work in established pttern.
Rep these two rows until work measures 8, 9, 10 inches. bind off

Right Front (as worn)

Work mirror image for opposite side, make sure final # sts same as left front.

Sleeve (Make 2)

CO 26 sts
Work 3 rows in 2×2 ribbing starting with purl, ending on wrong side row
Purl one row.
Row 1: sl1, p2tog, work in established pattern to last 3 sts, ssp, p1.
Rows 2 and 3: work 2 more rows in established 2×2 ribbing.
Row 4: purl.
Repeat above 4 rows 5 more times. (14 sts)
Work in 2×2 ribbing until work is 6 inches long.
Bind off.

Seam. Keep the stitch markers at the corner of the v-neck in place.

Button Band
Pick up 3 sts for every 2 slipped stitches around. As you come to the stitch markers that indicate the start of the v-neck, remove them from the front fabric, and transfer them to the needle being used to pick up the stitches. Place stitches markers on each side of the neck stitches. The exact number of stitches is not important, but DO make sure that the number of stitches between the each stitch marker and the respective bottom edge is the same.

With Right side facing knit all stitches you picked up. Turn work.
Sl1, work in 2×2 ribbing across.
Sl1, work all stitches as presented; knit the knits and purl the purls.
Work one more wrong side row, slipping the first stitch of each row.

To shape the shawl collar, you will start on a right side row and work sts as presented (knit the knits and purl the purls) to past the first v-neck marker, and both shoulder seam markers to one st before the 2nd v-neck marker. Wrap and turn. Work to opposite v-neck marker, wrap and turn. Work to second shoulder seam marker, wrap and turn. Work to opposite shoulder seam marker, wrap and turn. Work sts as presented untill you reach the v-neck marker (also the last marker). You will create your button hole in the next full set of “k2″ immediately after this marker. After working to the set of “k2″, k2tog, yo, work all sts as presented to the end of the row.

Work 2 more rows, working all sts as presented and slipping the first st of each row.
Next row, knit across.

Bind Off.
Block.

Afternoon Coffee and Knitting

Three weeks ago today I met our little Elsie, and while I hoped and dreamed there would be hours of mother/daughter time spent over coffee, I didn’t think it would start when she was just three weeks old. Me and the twins both needed naps this afternoon. I fed them both, put them down and got the house in order so I could get some shut eye as well. Then I heard her start crying, and since she’s having a bit of a challenge gaining weight, I decided to put off nap time for both of us, let her brother sleep and have some mother/daughter time over coffee and breast milk, while working on a few rows of her little dress.

These little moments make the sleepless nights worth it.

A Couple Minutes

I got a few minutes today to work on this sweet little dress for my daughter. I can’t wait to finish it! It’ll fit her better than anything I made prior to givin birth, as I had no idea how big she would be or how her little clothes would fit.

Crafty Showcase: Wrap-Up

So, me and my little ones are all still getting used to each other. I have some fun knitting projects to blog about (yes, I have gotten to squeeze a bit of knitting in), but for now I wanted to show off a bit more of the nursery. More knitting to come, I promise!

My last significant crafty contribution to the twins little abode, were these burp cloths. I randomly decided to play around with some applique and had an absolute blast.

My dear friend came over to “help” me with the curtains, but in actuality did 100% of the thought work and about 70% of the actual sewing. I have no idea what I would do without her. Once upon a time I liked to sew, but I simply couldn’t seem to wrap my head around making some simple valences.

Auntie Janet made this matching pillow for my nursing chair.

She also made this adorable little boquet of baby socks. While it currently is gracing the window sill next to the changing table, it made it’s debut at the drink table at my shower.

And last but not least, I must give credit to the amazing work of the custom decal designer I worked with to get those darling flowers, bees, sun, and attractive scripture verses that adorn the walls. You can find Elephannie on Etsy. Her standard shop is amazing and very reasonably priced, and she was delightful to work with on the custom decals I wanted. I highly recommend her if you’re in the market for some stunning accessories for a newly decorated room.

There are actually lots more things that were made with care for our little ones, which I will blog about as they make their way into pictures of my dear little twins.

Next time, I’m hoping to blog some knitwear modeled by the sweetest babies you’ve ever seen.

Happy Knitting!

Too Fun!

How fun to see hand knits star in a commercial!

They’re Here!!

This weekend we got to meet our new little son and daughter. Both me and the twins are doing fabulously. God has been very good.