BlueSand !

I was just on Ravelry  to catalogue my overdue BlueSand and noticed there are currently 554 projects logged- this is one popular buttonless cardigan by the designer La Maison Rililie which fast becoming one of my favourites. Have a look at her other designs and her blog.

I've used stash wool in sport and DK weights rather than cotton option and I went for soft and light summer colors . The main color in cream is one of the nicest alpaca yarns out there-blue sky alpaca melange in almond shade. The grey stripes which look a bit light blue is Rowan alpaca dk and the yellow mustard stripes were knitted with a shinier sport yarn,- the blue sky alpacas, alpaca silk color 132.  I went down needle sizes to achieve a sturdy fabric- there is a large percentage of alpaca fiber and I found out I prefer it dense.

I loved knitting it , there is a lot of mindless stockinette with the anticipation of color change. Beautiful little details such as those almost hidden pocket background stripes,
Icord edges on hems, bands and pockets, textured stitch on botton hem and part of the sleeves, short rows which nicely shape the bottom curve and so on. The pattern is well written with lots of photo examples and usefull links.

 

My only main mod is to make the length shorter otherwise this cardi would have grazed my knees ;-)I've started short row shaping immediately after the last grey stripe.


So here I am on a somewhat wet Saturday morning in my village, wearing my super comfy, easy going stripey piece. Have a beautiful Day ! x

 

s t a s h m a n i a !

Anything with chevron immediately catches my eye. Actually the only pattern I designed from scratch had a chevron textures in it. Anne weaver's version was just what I needed a full on chevron cardigan.

 

 

 

 

I bought the pattern and then a delightful searching and planning begun. I liked the broad stripes but wanted to go a bit further into the Missoni domain ,so chose to knit with width changing stripes in some sort of colour scheme. I made a swatch with stash yarn mostly from my skein lace club held doubled .

I was almost going to go with that tasteful delicate purple/green colours but at the last minute I changed my mind and went for a full on colour party that was inspired from this lovely version.

I changed the colours as the knitting grew , at times ripping back and starting with a different yarn. I chose all yarn from stash either 4 ply weight or lace held double , all hairy yarn even fuzzy like kidsilk haze. I've decided to coordinate the sleeves with the body stripes -  a slow process that required meticulous counting of rows.

The buttons were purchased in Nice by Caroline which took a sample of light blue skein lace and made a perfect match. The buttons are transparent with some glittery stuff , am delighted with them :-)
By the way I gifted Caroline for the yarn to make her monomania. She's almost done and I cant wait to see hers..

When all was done I showed it to my biggest fashion critic, my 13 years old daughter who eyed it and said- mom it is c o l o u r f u l...well , yes it is ! and when the sun is shining and suddenly all looks bright I wear my monomania with pride.. :-))

 

My long suffering pumpkin ale

 Ysolda first published Pumpkin Ale as part of Rhinebeck Sweater collection book. I only purchased the book for this particular design. This is how eager I was to get the pattern.  I love the original rusty orange Ysolda used but was determent to use stash yarn.
My five skeins of lioness arts  MCN dk  in(dark) hortenes were originally destined to become Joji's dragonflies jumper and then changed purpose. I'm still going to knit dragonflies as a cardi.

I knew I needed to make this shorter as I'm not tall so omitted quite a few rows from the body length. Not sure what had happened , perhaps I was too carried away with the blocking but it still rather long.

Another issue was the pockets. I still remember how excited I was to see the pocket hems in Ysolda's pumpkin ale but then a close study of the pattern revealed some sewing was necessary. I'm absolutely a complete ignorant when it comes to sewing machines. The one in my house I had over ten years ,was never been used. I'll happily waste time hand sewing than try to operate that devil's devise.

Right ,so in no time I cast on and things progressed smoothly more or less up to almost pocket holes- my skeins were disappearing in an alarming rate. The yardage for me was wrong and I needed to order another skein which I knew most likely wont be a perfect match because it was hand dyed from a different batch. I was right. It took sometime to arrive and it was somewhat lighter so I had to introduced it gently in stripes . If you look close you'll notice the pale cuffs..

Then the big hurdle was those damn pockets. I meticulously cut four equal pieces only to discover they could never serve as pockets- you need two mirror pieces to complete a pocket ,dah! Then what? zigzag stitching, bias strips? Begging begun...  Elseline  patiently prepared the pockets including stabilising interface, for me then to hand sew into the knitted holes. Thanks a million..
Once I started pinning the fabric I realised the match is poor- pocket holes were way too big for the actual fabric pockets. I ran out of fabric material so instead used mattress stitching on the sides to disguise the ugly gap.

My pumpkin ale is not perfect but is still such a lovely easy throw on with a garter shawl collar (that I would continue to widen if I had more yarn), textured back and cable running along the sleeves, drapery sides achieved by clever short rows and yes , those pockets .. :-) 

 

Rocio !

Here's my Rocio, just the perfect addition for a breezy sunny spring day. It is light weight
, feel soft against bare skin with enough material to blow elegantly in the breeze. I spoke in details about the yarn here so I'll save you this time from going on and on about its lushness..

Here is a close up of the blocked back lace and those leaves reveal themselves. I'm not always in favour of bobbles but they enhance the appearance of the lace.

Buttons are small smoky mother of pearl with a gentle etching on the outer circumference from bedecked, look in their rowan section. I modified the cardigan to have button holes all along the button band .Seven buttons in total and one of them not in a practical place , above the v neck point, just for pure prettiness- I usually add a button there :-)

Here is a couple of photos taken in the annual cuckoo fair in Dawnton, New forest. The cardigan is hardly dried, buttons not even added but I wore it nonetheless..

 

Do you see what I mean by gently blowing in the breeze?

and last but not least I'm treating you to this beautiful Rivington cowl made by the talented Caroline.
The yarns are uncommon threads tough sock in confetti , sort of white twisted sock yarn with the odd coloured dots of pink, light blue knitted together with another grey-ish tough sock not sure the colour's name. Absolutely gorgeous !

Pumpkin Ale is done as well, of which will be posted in the next entry , see you there !

 

Catboat photo shoot !

 As promised here are few photos of me wearing Catboat. I just love this cardigan . Hope you're liking it too :-)

 

 

 

 

My Sicilian knitting

I've just came back from a short break in Sicily. We stayed in an apartment in Catania with stunning views of Mount Etna. No matter how hot it was this revered volcano was always covered in snow and generated its own micro climate. It felt special to sit down on hot sand with my swimming suit on knitting and feeling the warm sun rays on my skin watching this magnificent white mountain.

There are a lot of shops selling tasty specialised  sweets. I took photo of those sugary woolly herds commonly seen in this time of the year.

There is not much to report on the wool front. I've encountered quite a few 'wool' shops but most yarn was a disappointing acrylic junk. If you're after cottons you'll be in more luck especially for the crocheters. Also it is very rare for a yarn shop to hold a stock of buttons or 'buttoni'. I've discovered a beautiful shop in the fabric street in Catania town centre with gorgeous buttons but they were horrendously expensive comparing to the ones in the UK department stores. I seem to be attracted to the 12 euro per button types which according to the shop seller was designer buttons. In the end I lowered my sight to more affordable but still ever so pretty black enamelled buttons surrounded by shiny 'stars' and a few interesting spotty blue glass buttons. Don't be shy to haggle even in established stores , I knocked off 10 euros off the shiny black ones..

As to my holiday knitting project I've packed two caked skeins of uncommon threads silky merino lace in 'toast' bought in the 'yarn over Berlin' shop. As you can see I'm well progressed with my Rocio designed by the talented Joji Locatelli which also happens to have her birthday today :-) Once the lace bit at the back in finished its pretty much mindless knitting. In 7 days I've  finished one ball or 600 meters worth of thread. The yarn is light and although it is single plied there is hardly any piling at all and is quite strong. I'm besotted with the yarn and planned to buy more as soon as the shop restocks. It is hand dyed by Ce, one of my all times favourite hand dyers. The silk just takes the dye beautifully and it is a sophisticated colour -you can see flecks of silver and bronze. The yarn comes alive and although lace , it has substance and grip to it when knitting it. 5 stars yarn in my opinion..

 

Here is my progress so far. The lace part is not blocked yet and you can see the start of the pleats.
Good bye for now , I took some photos wearing Catboat. It always helps to see a garment on somebody and not just the dummy..

Catboat !

I saw the potential in this garment as soon as it came out but the dark brown colour of the yarn and its wooliness in the model sample did not bring out , in my opinion all those lovely details. Use smoother yarn like the fabulous Sweet Georgia dk with its subtle hand dyed variegation and this cardigan just begs to be knitted..

 

I was wondering if to omit the stand on collar as was done by Caroline's beautiful catboat but decided to keep it . When its cold the collar can be easily be buttoned up to keep ones neck nice and toasty and when the sun is shining the collar lays obediently sideways.. 

I love those garter shoulders and the wide garter hem and the travelling cables. Its just the right amount to make this cardi wholesome.

Nice swirly buttons from John Lewis there-

 

So if you're after a quick satisfying knit, catboat is your choice, totally recommend knitting it and actually it is being carefully folded to be flown to Sicily tomorrow for a nice sunny break.. oh just wait till you'll see my holiday knitting..
Ix