FO: Acer Cardigan

What? I didn't blog my completed Acer Cardigan? Well! I'll have to remedy that.

Vital stats:
Pattern: Acer Cardigan
Yarn: Cascade Lana D'Oro, color 1052. About 6 skeins. Maybe 5.
Needles: Size 6
Time to completion: About 5 months.



I finished this cardigan at the beginning of May. Just in time for warm weather! Nothing like a wool/alpaca blend to welcome the sun. I was mostly just glad to finish this cardigan. It was a long knit. It wouldn't have even taken that long if I'd been committed to it, but I wasn't.



I do really like this sweater. I hope it gets a lot of wear next season. The pattern is really a very flattering style. As I knit it, the arms are a bit tight, which seems to be a pattern with me. I've historically had very large upper arms.



The buttons are some inexpensive plastic ones from the tiny sewing shop in town. I like the sort of retro look they have.


And that's that cardigan. I think I'll queue up a post about my exciting new Featherweight cardigan.

Hellos and Goodbyes

It's sad, but my local yarn store, The Dancing Ewe is closing for good. They had a close call last summer, but this time is really the end. It was a lovely shop and a lovely community of knitters (and crocheters), but all good things must come to an end. Thank you, Kathy, Jami, and all those who have helped make it great over the years.

Closing up shop means sales, and sales mean I end up with a great deal of yarn. Particularly of the luxury variety. My stash is now stocked up against the soon-to-come yarn drought in this town.

Also on the yarny front, my good pal Diana from the days of grad school has started up a fabulous etsy shop - Keystone Art & Craft yarns. She specializes in up-cycled or recycled yarns, many of which she then redyes. She sent me some pretties!


That's an indigo-dyed silk-cashmere blend, cashmere in Orchid, and merino in Wild Rose. I'm seeing some new lace shawls in my future.

I feel like I've been doing a lot of knitting and not finishing. I have a sweater that's been done for a month except to sew on the buttons and block it. But I have at least finished my Porifera socks. I started them in October. October. What can I say? I'm not a fan of ribbing. But the Malabrigo sock yarn is amazing and the pattern is lovely.




I think I'll get that sweater finished up tonight. Maybe it will help kickstart this blogging thing again!

Valentine's Day

I've spent the day sick in bed, but this card from my aunt made me smile.

Scary Maneuvers

I decided to say the heck with it and start knitting a sweater. I have often come back to the Acer cardigan on Ravelry, so when the gauge looked good I cast on and started knitting.

And I was moving along at a pretty good clip when I noticed something... I'd missed a cable crossing about 15 rows down.


See that? That hurts. I considered... could I live with it? No. Was I willing to rip out over 3000 stitches and inches of work? Absolutely not! So. Drastic measures. Fix the cable.

Step 1. Using a stitch holder, capture the five stitches that will need to be crossed.

Step 2. Put two end stitches on holder.

Step 2.5. Breathe deeply. Don't panic. This is no time to panic.

Step 3. Drop the five stitches down 15 rows. That's the scary part. It looks like this:


Step 3.5. Continue to not panic. Stay calm.

Step 4. Get the 5 stitches on the needle and cross them in the right direction.

Step 5. Start laddering your stitches up, not forgetting to do the yo, ssk every other row. I did this step row by row. I suppose you could do the three straight stitches all the way up, then the yo ssk, but I don't think it makes sense. Easier to keep track this way.

Step 6.

Step 7. Profit!


And no one will ever know that I forgot! Except you all. But you won't tell.


The Yarn Harlot has a much nicer tutorial on how to execute this tricky, but very useful maneuver.

I'm knitting on this cardigan like crazy. I'm very nearly ready to divide for front and back!

A tale of two cowls!

Merry Christmas Eve! It's a quiet one around here - the husband and I are sticking around here since air fare is redonkulous. A couple of weeks ago I made a few kinds of Christmas cookies. We ate all of those. So I whipped up a second batch of cookies yesterday morning - snickerdoodles and meringue surprises. This is the first time my meringue cookies approximated success!


And the surprise? Chocolate chips.


The subject of this post is not COOKIES! It's a tale of two cowls. For that is what I have knit lately. I needed something quick to knit up and I found the Birthday Cowl. Exactly the thing I needed. And the yarn? Some of my much hoarded Jade Sapphire Cashmere. The thing is like butter.


I increased a bit at one end to create a flare. It's soft and warm to wear, but isn't very fashion forward.



Cowl #2 has been in the works for a while. But it's been a slow knit. Churchmouse's Bias Loop Cowl. It's knit in lace weight yarn and is a simple simple pattern. But beautiful. I knit it a few needle sizes down (Size 9!) with Malabrigo lace. My neck is sensitive and can't take mohair, or even alpaca, but Malabrigo lace gives that sort of halo with amazing softness.


Instead of a kitchener graft, I did a three needle bind off. It's not invisible, but it saved me a lot of grief. And I have been and will be wearing this cowl all the time. I might be making these for gifts one year.


And those are the cowls. Both soft and warm, but one will be worn a lot more than the other.

A sad hat

There's been no Christmas knitting this year. No one is getting a knitted gift from me. Instead I've been huddled under my blanket, too cold to knit most nights. There has been a bit of knitting, here and there.

Like the sad hat. I call it sad because it was a failed experiment. I thought, I'll use this ball of Cascade 220 to make a cabled hat. And I won't follow a pattern! I'll just make it up as I go along! What can go wrong?

A lot.



I'm not sure the picture conveys the full sorrow of the hat. First off, it pulls in on an especially cable heavy row. Second, the lack of planning contributes to an unfortunately organic look. If the thing were dyed pink it would look like my brain was sitting out.



It fit, I give it that much. But that's all it gets. Except for frogged.



I frogged it this evening. No more sad hat.

FO: Haruni Shawl

Phew. Been awhile? I'm an on-again/off-again blogger. I've got no excuses. Okay, I've got a ton of excuses, but I'll not go into them.

During my hiatus there has been knitting. I have always loved the Haruni Shawl, so I finally knit one. I finished the main leaf portion during my August vacation, but stalled out a bit on the edging motif, mostly because I found my initial read through of the instructions confusing and put it aside to do something more straightforward. But it is done now.

I knit it from Naturally Dawn, a wool/silk blend which I quite like. In fact, I have enough of it in white for another project yet. Needles were Addi Turbo Lace, size 5. I followed the pattern except for the crocheted loops/bind off where I just did what I knew and not precisely what the pattern said.

Unblocked with hank of Lorna's Laces sock for scale:


Blocking with same scale (and cat):


And finished:


Details - I love the leafy edging:




And now I'm feeling a bit mad, so I thought maybe I would commit myself to a large scale lace piece with all the bits that drive me batty - patterned on both sides, knit on edging, needles below a size 5...


I haven't cast on. But I will.