WIP Designs | Page 8

Rhinebeck Bound!

The Tosh sweater is done! It’s gorgeous. Unfortunately, it’s also unblocked, so the big reveal will have to wait a few days. But it will be done long before Friday, which is good because…

… that’s the day I’m leaving for Rhinebeck!

This pretty much sums up how I feel about that:

Although my sweater looks a teensy bit cooler than his.

It’ll be my first time at Rhinebeck, so I’m mostly just going to soak in the atmosphere. I’ve heard it can be pretty overwhelming for first-timers! I’ll be at the Ravelry meet-up on Saturday, so if you’ll be there, you might get to see my pretty Tosh sweater in person.

Hubby and I are driving out to New York and it’ll take about 10 hours, so of course my thoughts turn to projects for the car.

I’m thinking I’ll work on the matching hat for the Malabrigo scarf:

I might get through that one, though, so I’ll need another project too… hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

WIP Wednesday: Design Snag

I’m still working on the same sweater, but I’m not quite as lovey-dovey about it this week.

I finished the body and the neckband, which is good:

But the little jog where the neckband ribbing meets the placket ribbing is bothering me. Which is bad.

The stitch markers are standing in for buttons.

It’s especially bad because I wove in all the ends already… thinking that the main reason I didn’t like the look was because there were dangling ends everywhere. *facepalm*

I think I might have to unpick all the ends, rip it out, and try again… which doesn’t make me very happy. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my year + of designing, it’s that time spent re-doing something that isn’t quite perfect is time well-spent. That was true when I wasn’t designing, too, of course. I just didn’t want to hear it then.

Want to help me get psyched up for all that ripping? :-(

Same Sweater, Different Week

I’m still knitting away on my Tosh Merino Light sweater:

The placket part looks so weird before the buttonbands are added, doesn’t it? I have to keep reassuring myself that it’ll all look fine once the finishing is done.

Now that I’m past the part where the sweater is joined together, it’s smooth sailing (no more purl rows, yay!), so I should be able to make some good progress on it this week. I’m hoping to at least have the body and sleeves done by next Wednesday (the finishing would be great too, but I’m not sure if that’s a realistic goal).

I’m a few inches farther now than that picture–and I only just ran out of the first skein of TML! Knitting fingering weight on size #6 needles is definitely a good way to stretch out your yarn, that’s for sure. I’d be surprised if I used all of three skeins for the whole sweater, since I’m planning to do 3/4 sleeves anyway.

Back photo:

FO Friday: New Scarf Design!

I have a new design to show off for FO Friday:

The coolest thing about this pattern is the reverse side, which looks really cool and just as textural but totally different:

Proof that it’s the same scarf and I didn’t just knit two scarves with the same yarn but totally different patterns to mess you up (cause, you know, that sounds like a really good use of my time):

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery, 2 skeins (part of my birthday present from my lovely mother!)

Pattern: My own. I’m calling it by the amazingly unimaginative name of Texture Scarf while I think of something better. Any suggestions?

Notes: This cable pattern is kind of awesome, as long as you can cable without a cable needle (pretty easy with Malabrigo, since it’s definitely not what I’d call slippery). It was interesting enough to keep my attention, but easy enough to memorize pretty quickly and work while watching episodes of The Office (on season 7–please Netflix, hurry up and get season 8!).

I’m planning a matching hat, so I think I’ll wait to write up/release the pattern until I can do them as a set. Here’s hoping the LYS has another skein of Purple Mystery in stock…

WIP Wednesday: Dream Sweater

I finally got a chance to get started on my new sweater design! (See this post for details.)

I am completely in love with this project. The Tosh TML is amazing to knit and to look at, and the pattern has just the right amount of juggling to keep me interested (the twisted rib on the back, raglan increases, and neck increases).

We’ll see if I still love it later….

New design brewing…

I’m already thinking hard about how to use my beautiful Tosh Merino Light from the last post…

…and after some sketching and swatching, I think I have a winner!

I went back and forth on the “interesting rib” I wanted to do… and finally decided on this nice mock-cable rib:

I love mock cables. They’re easy to do, require no cable needle, and look just as pretty as “real” cables.

So now that all that’s decided… I’m waiting until September 22nd to cast on. Sigh. I want to participate in a knit-along with the members of the Madelinetosh Lovers group on Ravelry, and that’s the official start date.

Until then, I have a sweater pattern to finalize and some winter accessory swatching to do. That sounds like fun too, don’t get me wrong… but I can’t wait to get my hands on the Tosh!

Numma numma panna (fun to say, try it!)

I won a contest in one of my Ravelry groups and received my prize a few days ago: a gorgeous skein of yarn!

This is panna worsted weight by numma numma (which is really fun to say, try it!). It is SO SQUISHY. I can’t properly express in words how wonderfully squishy it is. It’s like Malabrigo Worsted, but MORE SO. And I don’t say that lightly, people.

So obviously this needs to be a mega-special design, one that’s worn right next to the skin. I’m thinking mittens, maybe? Not sure I can get two mittens out of 200 yds of worsted, though. Fingerless mittens? A cute beanie?

Any ideas?

An absence of knitting….

For the first time in about five years, I haven’t knit a stitch for the past four or five days. I’m waiting for two (count ’em, two!) shipments of yarn for commissioned designs that both have tight timeframes… so I haven’t wanted to start anything, knowing I won’t be able to pick it up again for a few months.

But pattern writing and math for Blue Betty are happening, so that’s good:

And lots of writing is getting done (my other artistic pursuit), so that’s good too. But I hope my yarn comes soon–my fingers are definitely feeling a bit itchy!

FO Friday: Blue Betty!

The blue Tosh sweater is finished, blocked, and photographed!

I’m so, so happy with the way this design turned out. My intention was to design a colorwork sweater that would be flattering to larger-busted gals. Here’s my original sketch:

I did add ribbing on the sleeve cuffs. My first idea was to do a turned hem, but I don’t think it would have looked right with the ribbing at the bottom and the neck. Other than that, the sweater’s pretty much the same as I envisioned!

Hubby and I went out to a local park and strapped the 50mm/f 1.8 lens to our Canon Rebel T3. I cannot begin to express my love for this camera and this lens. Practically every shot pops right off the screen. And after hours of manually blurring backgrounds in Photoshop on the pictures from our point-and-shoot, having pics that don’t need anything more than a little cropping is spectacular.

The Tosh just glows, doesn’t it?

Here are the specs on the FO:

Pattern: my own, tentatively called Blue Betty. I’m hoping to get it into the hands of test-knitters next week and release the pattern in a month or two.

Needles: 32-inch circs in US #6 and #7, plus DPNs in both sizes. Loving my Knit Picks Harmony DPNs–they really make sleeves in the round more enjoyable.

Yarn: madelinetosh tosh vintage in Betty Draper’s Blues (about 4 and a half skeins) and Antler (about 1/4 skein).YUM. Tosh vintage remains up there on my all-time-favorite yarn lists.

Two of my skeins were much darker than the others, which unfortunately didn’t show up until I wound them into balls. I alternated skeins on the sleeves and yoke to address this, and I think it worked out okay. There’s a little bit of striping, but nothing I can’t live with. You can see it on the upper back in this pic:

Notes: I love the fit of this sweater. I tried back shaping only instead of my usual side shaping, and I’m totally sold. My back is much narrower than my front, so this sweater fits me better than any others I’ve knit. The colorwork band pulls in right under the bust and adds an almost empire waistline effect.

Now on to writing up the pattern! Also fun, but not as fun as knitting (and wearing) the sweater…

WIP Wednesday: Blue Betty

I’ve got a colorwork design in beautiful Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage to show you today! As of this afternoon, I have the body and both sleeves finished:

I was originally planning to do a smaller version of the body motif for the cuffs, but it’s a 22 stitch repeat and would have made the sleeves too hard to size up or down, so I went with a simple 5 stitch repeat that (hopefully) does a good job of echoing the main pattern instead:

Usually I have trouble coming up with clever names for my designs, but this time I think I have a good one. The colorway is called Betty Draper’s Blues, so I’m calling the sweater Blue Betty. Perfect, isn’t it? :-)

Now, on to the yoke!