FO Fridays | Page 4

FO Friday: Hipster Stripe

My FO for today is the prototype for my newest sweater pattern: Hipster Stripe!

This design is actually a re-working of a sweater I designed a few months ago, Anyone for Rugby? (link goes to Ravelry project page).

The original

I really, really liked that sweater… but I didn’t think it through. To maintain the wide stripe pattern for different sizes without changing the look, I had to increase or decrease the number of rows for each stripe. This meant that the extra-small size would be substantially shorter than the medium sample… and the plus sizes would have been down to the knees.

I made a promise to myself when I started designing that I would offer my garment patterns in a wide range of sizes. So when I figured out the workable range of this sweater would only be up to extra-large, it didn’t sit right. I went ahead and had the pattern test knitted, got it all ready to self-publish, and then couldn’t do it.

So this is the sweater reborn! Thinner stripes make it much easier to upsize and downsize, which is what I’m working on now.

The specs:

Pattern: My own! I’m thinking this one will be ready in about a month. It will be published through Knit Picks Independent Designer Program.

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Black and White. This yarn is oddly, eerily similar to the Malabrigo Rios I used for the wider-stripe version. It feels very similar, looks almost the same, and blocked identically. I thought it would make a good substitute, and I was obviously right!

Notes: This is a fast, easy sweater. It’s top-down and each section (sleeve increases, neck increases, body) are done one after the other, which hopefully will make it suitable for less-experienced sweater knitters. For the original, several of the test-knitters made this as their first sweater–and their FOs look gorgeous!

I like this pic–but I can't decide if there's too much cleavage to make it useable. Thoughts?

FO Friday: Grandmother’s baby bootie

Today I have a finished object to show you…

…but it doesn’t happen to be one of mine. It’s my grandmother’s.

I never met my paternal grandmother. She lived in another country, many thousands of miles away. She died when I was ten years old. A few years ago, I was looking for something entirely different in my dad’s closet and found this single, delicate, hand-knit bootie.

My current foot size, for scale

When I asked my dad about it, he said she knit a pair of booties for me when I was born. When I outgrew them (probably in a week or two–it’s teeny-tiny!), he put them away in a drawer and had forgotten all about them until that moment. In the 25-plus years that intervened, one went missing.

When I picked up knitting needles eight years ago, my dad didn’t mention that his mother had been a knitter. Like so many women of her era, she probably knit to keep the family in warm clothes and accessories. He likely wouldn’t have marked her handcrafting as anything odd or different (unlike today, when people gape at me when I knit in public and will often interrupt me to ask incredulously, “Are you knitting?” I’m always tempted to say something snarky like, “No, I’m swimming laps, actually”).

Dad said I could keep this little bootie, and I’m glad. Maybe I had nothing else in common with my grandmother–but at least we both understood the language of knitting and the feel of yarn sliding through our fingers. Maybe she enjoyed making delicate pieces on tiny needles–or maybe she cursed the whole way through the project and longed for a good worsted wool, like I would have. Either way, it makes me feel closer to the grandmother I never knew.

Look at that pretty seam–puts mine to shame!

FO Friday: Daisy Cloche and Mittens

I have two FOs to show off today–and they’re both new designs!

Here are my Daisy Cloche and matching Daisy Mittens:

The specs:

Pattern: my own–in testing now, planning for a release in about a week

Yarn: Cascade Ecological wool held double, left over from the Neverending Christmas Stockings of 2011

Needles: Size US #11 circular and DPNs (which I had to go out and buy… I’d never used any DPNs bigger than US #10 before!

Notes: These quick projects were EXACTLY what I needed after the three-week exclusivity of my Bevin Pullover. My hands loved the switch from DK weight cotton/linen to super-bulky, squishy wool! And the hat and mittens came together with astonishing speed… I think I spent about 8 hrs on both, and that includes writing up the patterns afterward!

Now to go mess with Photoshop Actions and get the pictures exactly as I want them, hehe…

FO Friday: Bevin Pullover

A few days ago, I finished the sweater I’ve been working on. Today, hubby and I got some pictures, just in time for FO Friday!

I named it Bevin, which happens to be my middle name. Hey, I never claimed to be really creative with pattern names. It seemed appropriate for this design, somehow.

I’m really, really happy with the way this one turned out. The twisted-stitch detail goes up both sides of the front and back and stops right before the bust shaping (no need for any stretched-out motifs emphasizing the size of my bust, thankyouverymuch).

This sweater provided me with some challenges. I was reminded (more than once) why I tend to knit sweaters in the round rather than in pieces–I couldn’t try it on as I went, had to make sure the pieces were EXACTLY the same size, had to deal with all the seaming at the end, etc. But I wanted the yarn to be appropriate for summer, and the cotton/linen blend really needed the extra structure of seams to prevent any sagging or bagging.

Here are the specs:

Pattern: my own! Soon to be published through Knit Picks’ wonderful Independent Designer Program. Stay tuned!

Yarn: Knit Picks CotLin. I’m not terribly fond of working with cotton or linen (give me a nice squishy wool any day), but I can honestly say this sweater will be more comfortable to wear here in SoCal than most of my wool sweaters. It’s one of those process vs. product questions… and I think it was worth some discomfort if the finished item is so nice.

Notes: Now it’s time to write up the pattern in different sizes (I want to do XS – 3X, at least), then get it to some test knitters and a tech editor. I’ll be running the test through the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry, if anyone’s interested–hopefully I’ll have a call for testers up by Monday.

Love this picture, even if it isn't the best one of the sweater!

FO Friday: Smittens

A quick little FO today: ornaments gifted to my mom for her tree!

Pattern: Smitten (a Holiday Garland) (Rav link)

Yarn: Leftover Malabrigo Worsted from the Give ‘Em the Slip Set, leftover Malabrigo Rios from SoCal, and I think the gray is leftover Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted from something lost in the mists of time.

Notes: This pattern is really easy and fun! The worst part of it was knitting worsted yarn with size #3 US needles, but even that wasn’t too bad. I sewed the loop wrongly on the first one (it’s supposed to be on one side only, not across the whole mitt), but I liked the way it looked so I did them all like that.

Now I’m wondering if I could use the same pattern for baby mittens, hmm…

FO Friday: Husband’s Sweater!

Almost four months ago, I offered to make my husband a custom sweater. Last week, I finally finished it!

Model pose–isn't he handsome?

The sweater was, quite honestly, a giant pain in the behind. But it fits perfectly and looks great on him (if I do say so myself, heh). And most of the pain was my own fault. I showed him a bunch of sweater pictures and told him he could pick whatever features he wanted.

Instead of a stockinette raglan (as I’m told most men tend to want), he picked out an Elizabeth Zimmerman saddle-shouldered, seamless hybrid pullover with folded (sewn) hems, a henley neck opening, a hood, and a fairly complex cable detail on the edge of the hood.

Oy. I had never done saddle sleeves before, but I had a copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears and figured it couldn’t be too hard. I worked up a sketch and set to work.

Look how excited he was!

My original sketch, for posterity.

The turned hems went okay, but then I tried it on him and it was huge, even though I had swatched carefully and done all the math. Okay. I ripped it out and cast on 20 fewer stitches. This time I got about eight inches done before I tried it on him again. Still too big. After a good moan, I ripped it back to the beginning again and cast on 15 fewer stitches.

I slogged my way through the seemingly-endless stockinette of the body and sleeves. Then I got to the yoke.

Cue the ominous music.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the decrease section to look like the sweaters I saw on Ravelry or the picture in Knitting Without Tears. I spent hours gnashing my teeth and swearing as I ripped the top part out again and again. It was to the point where my husband started apologizing for requesting the sweater and asking me if I wanted to chuck the whole thing.

This only made me attack the sweater with renewed determination. I was not going to let it beat me. Finally, after hours of searching forums on Ravelry, I found one (1) post that explained the problem. I’m documenting it here, in the hopes that it will help some other poor soul, currently roaming the internet and cursing Elizabeth Zimmermann’s pithy directions.

The pictures I had been trying to copy, the ones I saw everywhere on Ravelry and blogs, were not, in fact, of the seamless hybrid. They are almost all pictures of a variation on the seamless hybrid, called the seamless hybrid with shirt yoke. The kicker? Hardly any of these pictures mention that they’re of the variation. Even on Ravelry, where there’s a separate listing for the shirt yoke variation, most of the (several hundred) finished sweaters are categorized incorrectly as the plain vanilla seamless hybrid.

Here are pictures to illustrate what I’m talking about:

The seamless hybrid : note the vertical lines at the back

seamless hybrid with shirt yoke (shamelessly stolen from Brooklyn Tweed): note that the line is horizontal

Once I figured out what the sweater was supposed to look like, and with hubby’s blessing to do the vertical lines instead of horizontal, I managed to finish the yoke and chug through the hood. Then it was just a matter of grafting the underarms, blocking, and it was finished!

Hubby loves his sweater and is vastly appreciative of all the hard work that went into it. He’s worn it three or four times already and proudly told everyone he saw that his wife made it and it’s the best sweater he’s ever had.

Yes, he is a keeper.

The specs:

Pattern: My own, with (somewhat sketchy at times) help from Elizabeth Zimmermann.

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool. This was the only yarn I had in the stash in enough quantity. It worked out okay, although it’s a little scratchier than I normally like. But I washed the sweater in some cheap hair conditioner and it softened up nicely.

Notes: Gah. So happy this is done.

FO Friday: Go ninja, go ninja, go!

I don’t have any new FOs this week (I did finish a large sweater–but it’s still blocking!), so I thought I’d talk about one I finished last month.

I made this little Michelangelo for my brother’s birthday. Believe me, it was a wrench to give it away….

Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the little nunchaku the husband made. They were ADORABLE. We stuck them in Mikey’s belt.

The specs:

Pattern: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Ravelry link).

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice in Chocolate, Mustard, and Olive (I know, I know… but it was cheap and available in the right colors); Ella Rae Extrafine Heathers in color 17.

Needles: US #6

Notes: The pattern linked above was perfect except for an odd tiny shell. I used a shell from one of the many generic turtle patterns around, and I think it turned out much better. I also added armbands.

I feel about this like I always do about toys or stuffies of any kind: I HATED making it, but I LOVE the finished product. I find toys ridiculously fiddly–all that tiny knitting, followed by trying to align everything properly, sew limbs in place without making it look like crap, and then somehow managing to stuff it evenly.

Maybe that’s why I tend to give them away. I don’t need a reminder of all that effort, heh.

FO Friday: A boatload of Christmas Stockings

Never let it be said that I don’t jump into things with both feet. For my first Finished Object Friday, I present not one, not two, but ten knitted stockings!

Bottom half of cat included for scale

Now, before you get too impressed, I’ve been working on them since February. I promised my mother-in-law I’d knit everyone in the family a stocking with their name on it after seeing the pitiful state of their stocking collection over Christmas 2010. I don’t want to disparage another knitter… but let’s just say the lady who made several of them in the early ’80s (out of eye-searing green and red acrylic) should probably have kept her colorwork floats loose enough to actually be able to get things in and out of the stockings. I’m just saying.

So at the beginning of this year, I ordered a bunch of heavy-worsted weight yarn, settled on a pattern, sketched out the colors and design, and went to work.

Three of the many skeins I used

The first two went quickly. I actually thought they were pretty fun at that point. But as I kept going (interspersing them with other projects so I didn’t go insane), I started to get more and more sick of the pattern, the yarn, the need to pay attention to the colorwork, weaving in dozens of ends at the end of each one… I definitely had to grit my teeth and just power through the last few.

I am so beyond delighted to have these done.

After hearing me moan about having trouble blocking them all to the same size, my darling husband got some heavy wire from the hardware store and made me a blocking form!

Yes, he is a keeper.

The before and after pics show why this was desperately needed:

Right off the needles

After blocking on the awesomesauce form

Here are the specs:

Pattern: loosely based on Ysolda Teague’s Last Minute Stockings (Ravelry link), with lots and lots of mods

Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool and Eco+ for the red, green, and white. The different contrasting color for each family varied. Full details available on my Rav project entry here.

Needles: Size 9 (these were even a little big for this yarn; it’s supposed to be chunky, but I don’t believe that for a minute).

Notes: I actually would much rather have followed the pattern to the letter (so cute and rustic!), but I was attempting to at least kinda-sorta approximate the wretched ’80s stockings, so I had to follow specific guidelines. I did the names stranded rather than duplicate stitch… the floats are slightly visible through the fabric at the back, but it isn’t bad.

I did learn a new technique, the figure 8 cast-on. Even after 10 times, I still think it’s awesome.

My mom saw a few of these last time she came out to visit and gave me the big puppy-dog eyes… but I told her she’ll have to wait a year. At least. And when I knit them for her family, I get to pick the patterns.