Right now, I am in the midst of a Postman Pat sweater vest for my dear friend’s little boy. I found the pattern for next to nothing on Etsy, and I know it is the same pattern that my husband’s Nan had back in the 80s. Both my husband and my daughter were big fans of Pat in their younger years, and though they’ve both grown out of it now, I really wanted to make this pattern.
That being said, this is intarsia, and the back of this sweater currently looks like yarn barf. It is so fiddly, cutting tiny strips of yarn for just three stitches here and there, and there are LOTS of ends.
BUT I’m still having fun with this.
I’ve already knit the majority of the back of the sweater, which I did while I was waiting on a couple of colors I needed for the front (and which I ended up ordering from England and waiting quite some time for).
My hope was this would be to my friend by Christmas, but seeing as where I am with it now, I think we can all agree it will either be a New Year’s or Valentine’s sweater. 🙂
ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS! Hope you’re all enjoying the season, and not panicking too much.
I’m joining in with Carole on Three on Thursday, and today I’m sharing three knitting projects in various states of progress.
One – I’m knitting BK a new Wee Wildflower. I made her one a couple of years ago that still fits, and I think it’s the most-worn knit item of her life. It’s still working for her because those 3/4 sleeves are very forgiving (though now it’s about at elbow height), but she does need one in a bigger size very soon. I’ve got the body and sleeves finished, and they’re drying on the blocking board right now (picture above).
Two – I am knitting my third Sproutlette. I made one for BK, one for a very dear friend’s baby, and am now working on another one (though I promise it is not for my own baby). I absolutely adore this pattern, and think it is a must for all special girl babies in my life.
Three – I have the most of the yarn for, but have not yet cast on, a Postman Pat vest. I bought the pattern off Etsy for next to nothing and cannot wait to get stuck into this one! My LYS didn’t have all the colors I need, so I need to order a couple more for the intarsia bits. But this will hopefully be on the needles very soon!
In case you wondered how these three projects are fitting in with my new minimalism kick, two of them are destined for locations other than my house, and the other one will certainly be loved and used a lot. If you want to read more about my journey, check out yesterday’s post on decluttering anxiety!
I’d also love to hear what you’re making – so drop me a line in the comments. 🙂
A couple of months ago, I started looking for a pattern that would work with a large quantity of Cascade Longwood Sport that I won at my LYS during a Cascade event at the shop. It was the perfect neutral color and it was enough for an adult sweater with 3/4 sleeve (a pattern was included). But I didn’t like the pattern. Plus, as much as I probably shouldn’t say this as a knitter, I’m not really a sweater wearer. However, my daughter loves a handknit cardigan to throw on, and she’d outgrown the last one I made. So after a little Ravelry browsing, I settled on the Chain cardigan pattern because it was lovely and classic with just a little detail.
I have to say that I found knitting with the Longwood Sport frustrating. It was fine to knit it, but if you had to tink back at all, the yarn basically would completely untwist and then it would get very splitty and it made it unpleasant to get back on track. Given that I messed up the cable quite a few times (since you’re on cruise control stockinette for a couple hundred stitches it’s easy to forget the twist on the last few stitches of each row), this was an issue for me.
I left this sweater unfinished for several weeks, though I just had to do the bind off, weave in the ends and graft the underarms. On a very unseasonably cool day a few weeks ago, I was bummed I’d put it off. The next day, I finished it all off and gave it a bath so I wouldn’t be caught out again!
My daughter wears a size 6 or 7 depending on the brand, and I knit a size 8. It turned out to be nearly dress length (only about an inch shorter than her favorite dress).
The sleeves have almost 2 inches extra. Since the sleeves are slim, you can get away with wearing them without folding them back and they don’t look bulky, but you can also fold them back.
I took my daughter with me to my LYS and she picked out these multi-color heart buttons. I asked if she had a preference on the order they went on the cardigan, and she did! I love her little notations on the paper the buttons came on.
We only needed four of them, so only 1-4 made it on the cardigan. I think they add a really sweet finishing touch.
Given that she wore it all afternoon when I finished it, despite it being a very warm summer day, I’m considering it a win! I think it will be perfect when the temperatures cool down. And look at that twirl power!
One The first thing I am working on is a So Faded sweater for my daughter that I actually started in October of 2017. When I picked it back up last month, I realized that the size I was knitting was now too small for her – but not before I knit several more inches on it to try it on her. It’s all been ripped out, the yarn reclaimed (using a similar process that I did for this sweater), and I’m near the bottom of the body and have started a sleeve. This time around I’ve made some mods (one should be obvious)… but I’ll share those when I get done and make sure they’ve worked out the way I wanted. 🙂
Two My daughter asked for a twin-sized Toy Story quilt when she saw all the Toy Story fabrics that were available. I designed a quilt, bought fabric, decided I could do better on the design… and have redesigned it at least 3 times. I recently realized I made a math error on the design I’ve settled on… so we’ll see what happens with that!
Three I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle a sportweight sweater for my daughter out of some organic cotton I bought at a fiber festival last year. I’ve been round and round thinking about what pattern I want to use, and whether I’m going to do a design on it, and if I do will it be colorwork or intarsia or stripes. I have still made no decisions on this, but have spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking at patterns and letting my mind chug through options.
What a week it’s been! It’s been full of surprises, and not really in a great way for me. But… we’re chugging along.
Joining with Carole today for Three on Thursday – so here is my list of three things from this week:
One I ordered a beautiful bright green dress for my daughter from Primary this week, with the intention of it being a St. Patrick’s Day dress that will have a longer life than one with shamrocks on it. I ordered short sleeves so it can transition into spring, and I had the somewhat crazy idea that I could finish her Chains cardigan in time for her to wear it over her new dress at a St. Patrick’s themed piano lesson event she is going to on March 15. I initially dismissed this idea immediately – no way would I finish it by then – the rows are so long! And then I thought, if I stopped working on all my other projects, it just might be feasible. But…
Two I already have two active projects in other crafts, the Halloween SAL cross stitch and a Girl Scouts quilt. I’m enjoying both of them, but splitting my time between these and knitting is not leaving much time for me to finish either of them.
Three For my birthday, I asked my mom to buy me the supplies to make the St. Patrick’s Day Countdown and Easter Countdown from The Sugar House Shop. (You may remember I’ve already made an advent calendar and a Valentine’s countdown from her shop. I’ve also made a birthday countdown of hers… but I just realized I never blogged it!) They arrived this week… and I’m also itching to try to start and finish the St. Patrick’s Day countdown before the beginning of March. Which again, I could do, if I quit working on everything else!
Ah… if I was good at being project monogamous, things would get done! I’m willing to give it a go, I just can’t decide which one I should go for. What do you think?
The sun is shining!! I feel like I need to send out a news bulletin about it.
I find, the older I get, the more the weather really affects my energy and mood levels, and we have had SO MANY grey days this winter. Today, though it’s just barely above freezing, the sun is at least shining. I am full of joy!
In other news, my knitting mojo has been coming and going in major swings. There was not one thing I wanted to knit for several weeks, so I went back to my cross stitch and quilting for a while. But my daughter really needs a new cardigan (she is rapidly outgrowing everything in her sweater drawer), and I found this pattern, and I also happened to have the perfect yarn in my stash for it… so I’m back to knitting some. The yarn is Cascade Longwood Sport, which I won at a Cascade event a few years ago at my LYS. Somehow, this is making it more fun, because it feels like I’m knitting for free (though I did have to buy the pattern). And the little heart stitch markers make it feel very seasonal. 🙂
My friends, the Weasley Sweater (of doom!) is complete.Â
I knit this sweater 3 times.
The first time, I managed to switch needle sizes half-way through the body (absolutely no idea how that happened) and it became too small. I realized this when I was almost up to the arm holes.Â
The second time, I didn’t check gauge, and I was knitting a size too small. Again, I made it mostly through the body before realizing this.Â
The third time, I still didn’t end up with the right number of stitches (I converted the pattern to knit in the round, and when I doubled the cast on number, my  mental math failed me), so it is 6 stitches less around than it should be. But hey, it fits my kid, and I’m not knitting it again.Â
This absolutely gorgeous yarn was purchased at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival this summer. It is Youghiogheny Yarns in Highlands DK in Panther Pink and Elven Lillies. My girl picked out the colors, and they are absolutely perfect for her. I love that it is so in your face pink. It is also really great yarn – because even with the tweed flecks, it held up to reknitting 3 times BEAUTIFULLY. I would definitely use this yarn again.Â
The sweater has been done for quite some time (July!), but I was stalling on duplicate stitching the S. I found a Harry Potter alphabet online and ran it through knitPro. Because I was running a small letter I had blown up in size through it, the fidelity was not as great as it could have been. I tried downloading HP alphabets to my computer, but I never got any of them to work, so I couldn’t use a larger version of the text.Â
Finally, I decided to stop stalling and just go for it. I was concerned on how it would look, so I didn’t weave in the ends as I went in case I had to pull it all out. That was a mistake. When I got done, the inside looked like some purple spaghetti. I got the ends woven in enough, but the way the tails had tangled inside means it still looks like spaghetti on the inside. However, you can’t tell when my girl has it on, so we’ll overlook that!Â
My daughter loves it so much, she asked to wear it to school yesterday, despite the forecast being 85 degrees F. And you know what? I let her. Because I’m thrilled she loves it that much, and proud that I persevered and finally finished the thing. And how long will I get this wonderful 5-year-old enthusiasm for my makes?Â
She’s planning to be Hermione for Halloween, and I’m hoping she’ll wear this under her robes! (I know it has an S for her name and not an H, but I think we can pretend, yes?)
I’m working on two more little projects (sneak peak below!) to go along with her Halloween costume, too. My knitting mojo is BACK!Â
Oh my friends. I stayed up late watching the British version of Sherlock. Somehow, I have never seen this. I do not know how that is possible, but it’s true. I watched the first episode last night, and Netflix sneakily auto started #2, and I ended up watching half of it! Of course, with the intention I would be working on my cross stitch (see above), but in reality I put it down and started focusing on the show entirely. Not much progress to show, and I have all the yawns, and am drinking double my daily coffee allotment. *yawn*
So here are 3 projects I’m working on now:Â
1.) Â The aforementioned cross stitch. I have joined the Tiny Modernist Haunted Mansion SAL. Three rooms had already been released when I joined, and I’ve only been working on the project since last Friday, so I am VERY behind. It doesn’t help that I ordered the materials from the suggested online store and it took nearly 2 weeks to get my materials. It didn’t ship until I called the store a week after my order to ask why there had been no shipping confirmation… and 2 hours later, my order magically shipped! So anyway, between the two, I highly doubt I’ll be finishing this for Halloween 2018. Oh well, maybe I can get some cute Halloween fabric on sale in November — because my plan is to turn this into a throw pillow.
2.) Â My daughter’s Weasley sweater. This projects has been a bit of a to do. All I have left is to finish duplicate stitching her initial on it, and I think I should redo the collar cast-off. It’s a little snug, and I think if I redo it to be a little stretchier, she’ll be more willing to wear it more.Â
3.)My quilting class quilt. This week, we learned Flying Geese and Square in a Square. I hadn’t done either of these techniques before, but it was really fun! Head over to Instagram for some sneak peaks of the blocks I’m working on this week.Â
My knitting and I haven’t really been on speaking terms lately (not sure why), but I will be starting a 4th project soon: my daughter’s Christmas dress. I bought yarn for this back in the summer during my LYS’s sale, and didn’t start. I wanted to measure her closer to Christmas. But I just remembered last week that I wanted to do this project — and it’s a fingering weight dress! — so I guess I better get cracking on that.
I’ve had this FO done since the end of 2017, but I was waiting for it to arrive with the intended recipient. He got it yesterday, so now I’m free to show you!
My very dear friend has a little boy who just turned a year old. I have been drooling over this Peanut vest since she told me she was having a boy, but I ended up picking several other projects for him, and this one went on the back burner. This fall, I decided it was time. I checked with her first to make sure she thought it would be useful for his wardrobe, and she said yes, so I was off!
I chose Simplicity by HiKoo for this project. The main color is First Press Olive, and I can’t seem to find the ball band for the gold! I used 2 skeins of the green, and one of the gold.
When I got done, I still had plenty of yarn leftover, so I decided this little vest needed a coordinating hat! I was inspired by the smaller motif on this project, but it didn’t have a reference for where that design came from. So I looked at the picture on maximum zoom and charted it from there. I then improvised around it to make it feel inspired by Peanut, but not a direct copy. I used the free Clayoquot Toque pattern to get an idea of how many to cast on, and also for the crown decreases. I went for 90 stitches, in between toddler and child, to make my colorwork chart work out evenly.
Then I put my yarn in my new yarn bowl, a lovely Christmas gift from my brother-in-law and his wife, and went to town! It’s a really beautiful bowl (I believe it’s this one), and I love that it’s wooden instead of ceramic. It’s lighter and it also seems less “break-y” if you know what I mean. 🙂
So here’s the completed set. I’m very happy with it and can’t wait to see a picture of the little dude in it!
When we lived in England many moons ago, we used to frequently go on country walks at the weekend. It was a cheap way to have some fun and explore some new areas. Sometimes your path got blocked by cows and you had to turn around (true story), and sometimes it was fairly uneventful, but it was always nice to get out.
We haven’t really done as much walking since we’ve been back in America. There isn’t a whole Peak District in our backyard anymore, and we are in general much more dependent on the car.
But yesterday, we went back to our roots and drove to a state park for a walk to enjoy the last of fall. Normally, I would not say that the end of October is the end of fall here, but it has gotten very cold about 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. And the sun also seems to have deserted us.
The colors were beautiful, and we really enjoyed our walk.
Can you spot the ducks in the pond?
Since it’s chilly, I bundled up BK in a couple of knits that I haven’t blogged about yet.
The first is Little Honey. My lovely friend Kara gave me some leftover KnitPicks Comfy Fingering Weight from a dress she made her daughter. I had Little Honey on my favorites list already, and when I saw this yarn, I knew this was the pattern for that. I knit it pretty quickly because I was enjoying it so much. It’s also incredibly soft.
My only regret on this is that I made the pockets very shallow. I kept lengthening it when I made it, so she would get more wear out of it, and then panicked at the end that it was too long, and truncated the pockets. It’s not a big deal, because she doesn’t actually want to use them for her hands.
And, the longevity plan worked, because I finished knitting this last year – and she wore it then, and it still fits this year!
The second is a “Top This” kit with a butterfly on top. I struggle with some of these kits because I don’t like the ones that only have a head on top – it really bothers me to see a bodiless dog or cat on top of a child. But once I saw my LYS had this sweet butterfly one – with a whole body – and it was pink and purple, I thought it was worth knitting BK one, since they’re cheap, quick and cheerful.
As she was wearing this, I was thinking that my main complaint with this is that the butterfly only attaches at the very bottom of his body, and it’s too floppy. It’s hard to keep laying just right. But then, BK started running and it was flapping and it looked like a butterfly trying to take off from her head. That made me laugh, so I forgave it.
The other thing I’m not super in love with this is how rough the metallic portion of the yarn is. However, the way it knit up, it’s above her ears, so she can’t really feel the scratchy bit on bare skin. But if you make one, I’d be mindful about which end you start from, because this could be an issue. I started from the opposite end of the skein at first, and it was going to make the ribbing itchy, so I ripped it out and went from the other end.
Our handwear on the walk was also worth mentioning. Mine because I still love these after knitting them 4 years ago (and the color looked great against the apple green of BK’s stroller), and BK’s because they are truly awesome. Nothing I knit will top these Turtle gloves, so I’m not going to try.
And, since it’s almost Halloween (hooray!!!), I’ll leave you with this creepy skull we passed on our walk. It thoroughly weirded me out, because it’s the only Halloween thing we saw, and it was covered in fake (I hope) blood.
knitsnips 