Tag: miss babs

Getting My Kunlun at End of Year Yarn Sale

Specialty yarn is on sale at the end of the year in Miss Babs shop and I took advantage of that sale.

End of year yarn sales can become overwhelming without a buying plan. Lack of money is usually my plan! Haha… but seriously, the one sale I’ve come to look forward to the most is at Miss Babs.

Without knowing much about the knitting world, I jumped in and joined a KAL (knit along) and Miss Babs yarn was suggested. We knit a shawl using lace stitches and amazingly enough I was able to do it. See my Vine Pops shawl here. It is when I discovered how lovely Miss Babs’ yarn is.

Customer Care

Not only was the yarn super soft and easy to work with, but some of the knitters were running out of yarn for the project. Miss Babs jumped in and offered some help in some form, which I can’t recall now. It was certainly not something they needed to do, and it was above and beyond. All the knitters were all impressed, and thankful for the offer. (I know this from reading the KAL forum). This was when I realized that this company was run by involved people.

Sometime after that I knit the Fine Sand sweater and once again used Miss Babs yarn (Tarte). Someone from the company actually left a comment on my sweater on Ravelry. I have never had another yarn company do that.

I’ve written about this before, but yarn orders come wrapped in tissue with little stitch marker gift. Also included is a small braid of yarn to use to create a little swatch. Who doesn’t like to feel like an appreciated customer?

The Yarn

At some point I ordered some un-dyed Kunlun yarn. It was probably part of a sale, because I had no plans for it. Eventually, I used it when I made two hats for my daughter and my son’s girlfriend. The white in these hats is the Kunlun yarn (it is combined with some variegated handspun I had purchased). They are the softest hats I’ve ever made. My daughter wears hers all the time.

Turkish patterned cap stranded knitting
Finished the cap
Crown star on Turkish Patterned cap
Blue star is a mess, white one is knitted correctly
Both Turkish Patterned caps hand knit with handspun
Hat one in blue, and hat two in brown and pink

This is how I fell in love with Kunlun yarn. The yarn contains 70% merino wool, 15% cashmere and 15% cultivated silk. No wonder it is so soft and lovely… and expensive. Each skein is $42 at the time of this writing, so I wait for a sale.

This year I had a project planned. I needed four skeins of Kunlun for this project. I looked online at the colors and had chosen a few favorites, then waited. I wasn’t sure when the sale would begin, but I get the Miss Babs newsletter in my e-mail and figured it would be coming soon.

One night, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw a mention of someone ordering their Miss Babs sale yarn… ! Yikes, I was late to the sale. That is all it took for my favorite yarn colors to be sold out! I was one day (possibly only hours) late…!!

I did not give up. I got up, in the middle of the night (this is when I can’t sleep and scroll instagram) and went online to find some Kunlun. I ended up with some Moss green yarn and it is very pretty. I’ll be using it soon to knit Joji Locatelli’s “Arco Iris” sweater.

Kunlun yarn in Moss green

So, did any of my fellow knitters grab some Miss Babs sale yarn? I’m sure I won’t be waiting another whole year before I buy from Miss Babs. I see they have new worsted weight wool (non-superwash) yarn now called Intrepid. I also love Tarte, which I used for a sweater and is able to be machine washed. This yarn is great for knitting gifts for people who will never hand wash anything! I’ve also used the Yummy 2-ply when I knit the Bay’s Edge shawl. There is a lot to like in this shop.

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Knitting The Calliope Sweater Pattern

Knitting has begun on my Calliope pullover sweater pattern (link to the pattern below).

Somehow I managed to pull a muscle in my neck which is causing me some extreme discomfort. The pain is keeping me from doing much of anything except sit in front of the television and knit. For that reason, my sweater is coming right along! We must take the good with the bad 😉

The Yarn Story

I’ve had the Miss Babs “Katahdin” green yarn for a long time now. The “Spring Clover” yarn is a Wild Iris – meaning they only made the color once – and the skein has 1750 yards of yarn..!! It’s made up of Bluefaced Leicester Wool and is Superwash. Originally, I thought I would use it to knit a large, rectangular stole for my daughter, then I decided not to.

So, this huge skein of yarn sat around until recently when my new idea was to pair it with mohair and knit a sweater.

Miss Babs Katahdin yarn and Filcolana mohair
Yarn is ready to knit

I ordered some dark green mohair to use, but after knitting up a swatch, decided I didn’t like the colors together. After trying the Katahdin with some leftover white mohair, and liking that combination better. I ended up buying the Filcolana Tilia mohair (link goes to Fairlight Fibers) in very light green called “Green Tea”.

Swatching for the Sweater

Using the size 7 US needles, I knit up a swatch to check for guage. Before the washing and drying of the swatch, the row counts were pretty exact. But after blocking, the knitting expanded to be slightly taller, so I will watch the length of my sweater. It’s not terribly off, so I stayed with the same size 7 needles. (I should have gone down a needle size because this sweater really grew!)

swatch knit for Calliope sweater
Before washing the swatch is very close to exact.
swatch for knitting a sweater
Swatch for Calliope, after washing

The Sweater Pattern is “Calliope” from Espace Tricot

Raglan sweaters are generally quite easy to knit and I’d already knit the Turtle Dove pattern offered by the same designers. That one was my first raglan knit, but it came out huge – more like a big poncho / blanket.

This pullover has texture at the yoke which is created by simple knits and purls. The pattern begins with a cast-on for the neck and is knit top-down. I decided not to include the mohair until I knit a few rounds. Something about fuzz at my neck turns me off.

Photographing knitwear projects, and getting the color right to share, can be difficult. For some reason this mint green color is exceptionally difficult to capture. GRRRRRR….. I promise, my sweater color is not that ugly!

short row shaping on Calliope sweater
Short rows are done, moving onto the raglan increases
front of sweater after short row shaping

Calliope has short row shaping using German Short Rows. They are explained in the pattern, and are very easy to do, and a link is provided to a video by Very Pink Knits for further explanation. Short rows give the sweater a better and more comfortable shape by raising up the back section (shown in my photo below). You can see that the front of the sweater (photo on the right above) has fewer knit rows after the short rows are completed.

Once that is accomplished, the raglan increases begin. This creates the sleeves and widens the front and back. My sleeve increases are easy to see in the photo above. I have just put the two sleeves onto waste yarn and will now continue to knit the body – round and round in stockinette.

Not Liking This Mohair

Body of sweater is done. It seems a bit big around. On to the sleeves, but the fuzziness of the mohair is quite annoying. Every time I knit, I end up with fuzz in my nose, mouth and eyes – like I am a magnet for it. I don’t know if it’s this type of Mohair, or all mohair which would do this. (I have since discovered Knitting for Olive Mohair, which is much better.)

Photographing this green has been a real pain in the neck! Finally I took the sweater, with one sleeve half knitted and the other on hold, and put it outside in the sun. The photos came out a bit better, but they are not true to the pretty green of this yarn.

calliope pattern sweater knitting
calliope pattern sweater knitting
calliope pattern sweater knitting
calliope pattern sweater knitting

The sleeves have a very long section of ribbing that runs down the arm from about the elbow area. I began that with DPN’s and switched to 9-in. circulars because I really don’t like using DPNs for long lengths of time.

Because I was working on this pattern alongside the Meadow Moon color-work pullover pattern, and also my Lettlopi “Migrating Birds” pullover, among other projects, the sweater was finally done three months after I began knitting.

Calliope Sweater End Results

The Calliope Sweater is quite an easy knit. The directions are well written, and mostly you are knitting, or knitting and purling. I chose the yarn from my stash because this past year has been a year of “no buying” (for the most part).

What I like, is the easy going style and the fact that most of this sweater can be knit at night while watching TV.

The sweater is big. Superwash yarn tends to do that, and that is why I usually avoid using it for sweaters. This is a good lesson in watching the gauge and changing needles accordingly – especially if using a Superwash yarn. I may toss it into the dryer one day to maybe shrink it a bit.

Espace Tricot used to offer all free patterns. They no longer do, but the patterns are nice even if you have to spend a few bucks. Recently, they came out with a classic raglan sweater called Gingerbread Sweater and it’s another that is most likely perfect for a beginner knitter.

Please keep reading….

Year-Round Camping in Florida; Enjoying Nature While I Knit

The peaceful days of camping in the wilderness go perfectly with knitting. What could be better than having coffee outside, with knitting on my lap? We camped twice in the last month and here is a look at the knitting projects I took along.

Pam's avatar by Pam

Pattern Review: Beginning the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

I’m knitting a beautiful cardigan pattern by Camilla Vad. The Magnolia Chunky Cardigan is knit top-down with lace and bobbles on the body and sleeves. On this page I cover some issues I had in the beginning.

Pam's avatar by Pam

Free Hat Pattern Knit in “Mad Hatter”

In need of a hat pattern that was fun to knit, I began to search my favorite patterns which are saved at Ravelry. Many hat patterns are simple enough to knit up quickly. The Colorado Chic(k!) Beanie looked interesting, and it could be knit in a heavy weight yarn – and it’s free!

Continue reading “Free Hat Pattern Knit in “Mad Hatter””

Finished Knitting the Fine Sand Sweater

Here it is, part 2 of my journey through the knitting of the Fine Sand sweater. (To read Part 1, go here.) It came off the needles October 7th (2019) and has been washed and blocked.

hand knit long-sleeve sweater in Miss Babs Tarte yarn

Overall I did like knitting this pattern. It’s only my second sweater, but with the exception of the short rows – wrap and turns, no part of the pattern really annoyed me. If you are familiar with knitting wrap-and-turn short rows, you would get by just fine. I have vowed to substitute German Short Rows in their place from now on.

Bottom Edge Finishing

Here is a photo of the bottom edge of the sweater showing the rows of garter stitch and my i-cord bind-off. The pattern does not suggest this type of bind-off but I’ve used it before on my Scrappy Bias shawl and Bays Edge. It creates a smooth, rounded rib and looks very nice. (See the end of this post for links and notes to binding off with the i-cord.)

I-cord bind-off
Bottom edge with i-cord bind-off

This type of bind off takes a while, but it’s not difficult. The sweater bottom is curling like mad, but I assume washing and blocking will take care of that. Yes, it did! While knitting I couldn’t even try this on to see about length because it curled so badly.

hemline curling up
Curling hemline

Once I finished binding off the green bottom section of the sweater, I had to begin picking up stitches along the front edge. I am not used to doing this. I’ve only ever picked up stitches when making socks (and I have not knit many socks because I dislike making them), or beginning a shawl, so I was feeling a little overwhelmed at this part of the pattern. There were a lot of stitches to pick up – all around both edges and neckline and I wasn’t sure if I was getting too many, or too few, but it turned out okay.

Picking up stitches along front edge of sweater
Picking up stitches along the front edge of sweater

Because I ended the bottom with green, I just kept right on using the green up the front edge. After I got part way along I realized that I was supposed to be using blue! It’s what I had planned to do, but I didn’t want to go back and begin again, so I kept on with the green, then switched to blue for the next few rounds of knitting and the bind off. I used the I-cord bind off here as well. In hindsight, I wish I had ripped out the green and done the edge in blue. The edges of this sweater tend to curl inward along the front so it really doesn’t show.

long-sleeve hand-knit sweater
Washed and blocked and ready to wear!

Finishing Up The Sleeves

Maybe it’s because I am a “new” knitter, but I really dislike making two of the same thing. Two socks, two mittens, two sleeves! But the sleeves knit up quickly and I didn’t have to use DPNs because I used a 16″ circular for the sleeves.

I messed up and followed the size M2 for the sleeves, when I should have been following the size L. But that worked out better because my sleeves are long enough. Before the garter rows I did four rows of seed stitch, which added a wider band of interest before the bind off. I did a regular bind-off here, not the i-cord.

End of sleeve
First sleeve done

Finished length is perfect – I knit just as the directions said, but added a second color. I knit the size L and three skeins of Tarte yarn would be plenty. I had very little blue color left, but lots of green.

Fine Sand sweater
Finished knitting my sweater!

Final Thoughts – This is a sweater I will wear!

It fits perfectly, and the light weight, flowing drape is comfortable and good-looking.

For much of the knitting of the Fine Sand you are doing straight knits and purls. I could easily watch TV and do those rows. If you hate to purl, don’t choose to knit this one!

Once I got the hang of the LLIs and RLIs they were no problem. I like to learn new things when knitting new patterns, and these increases were explained well in the directions.

I will not do short rows again because the pick ups on the purl side were impossible for me to figure out! I don’t have the experience.

I’m not crazy about the front edge of this sweater. It will be something to throw on to keep arms warm, but won’t do much for the front of me.

Love The Yarn!

The yarn I used is Tarte, fingering yarn which is a 4-ply, superwash merino with added nylon and tencel. The skeins are large at 500 yards and it was purchased online at Miss Babs. I love the yarn and the finished feel after washing. That blue color is called “Franklin” and it’s beautiful. The darker color is also more forgiving of mistakes, but harder on the eyes to knit – especially at night. The green color is “Moss”.

I hand-washed the sweater and LOTS of color came out. I rinsed many times before it stopped bleeding color. The colors didn’t bleed together, just into the water. The sweater dried very quickly on the blocking mat – within a day – and it really is lovely and light weight as I’d hoped.

ball of blue yarn
All that is left of my blue yarn!

Tutorials and Notes For I-Cord Bind-off

Very Pink Knits has a video tutorial on how to do, the I-Cord Bind Off, but she does not say what to do at the end of the bind-off.

I have a pattern that says to slide the last three stitches to the opposite end of the circular needle and then pull the yarn through all three.

Or: when you get to the last 3 stitches on the needle, slip them to the left needle as you’ve been doing and then bind them off like regular – one at a time.

Or maybe bind-off one stitch and then the last 2 together. I’ve read that binding off the last 2 stitches together makes a neater ending.

This video does show the end, but the i-cord BO she does is different.

Below, I wore my sweater to the beach one morning in January.

Wearing my hand knit sweater on an early morning visit to the beach