Tag: wool

Fall Knitting Projects to Inspire Your Creativity

I can only imagine the cool, crisp Fall air swirling about my head and filling my lungs. I miss New England always, but especially at this time of year. Knitting season has arrived, and I know my fellow knitters are excited. I am excited also to see all the new patterns.

Before I get too far along, I want to give credit to the creator of the cute kitten in an orange scarf image at the top of my post. I just love it! The image was created by GrumpyBeere and there are more like it at the free image sharing site, Pixabay.

Prospective Projects On My Fall Knitting List

I’ve been a bit down on knitting lately, and it has nothing to do with the summer season. In Florida, it’s either hot or less hot, so I’m pretty much always knitting during non-sweater weather.

My last few finished knitting projects have not thrilled me. I’m currently knitting a big, over-sized sweater (it’s really big) that has lost my interest. The recently finished Rebel Cardigan is very nice, and I do look forward to being able to wear it.

For the sake of having something to do while I watch TV, I’m doing some colorwork on a tube scarf. I’m making the designs up as I go, which is fun.

rebel cardigan shoulder
Rebel Cardigan
Tube colorwork scarf
Fun colorwork tube scarf.

Little Projects to Consider

Mittens can be fun to knit but they need to be gifts in my case, because no one wears mittens where I live. Fingerless mitts, or fingerless gloves, are more likely to be on hands here. I would wear them early in the day, before the temps creep up. I’ve already knit some of these patterns, and others look interesting.

Mittens and Fingerless Mitts

If you know how to finish off mittens – any mitts pattern could become mittens.

  • Fair Isle Mitts – FREE colorwork pattern, using Fingering weight yarn. I have knit these – see my page (and photo below)- and love them.
  • Hiedra Mitts – Solid color, using DK weight yarn. These are in my Ravelry favorites, and would make a nice gift.
  • Bee Creative Mittens – or fingerless mitts done in colorwork. Who doesn’t love bees? As a gardener, I am drawn to this pattern.
  • Simple Fingerless Mitts – FREE pattern! Has some optional colorwork for a beginner, which could be skipped. Very simple knitting project.

Mitts I’ve Knit

Fair Isle Mitts colorwork pattern
Fair Isle Favorites
Oulu mitts
Oulu mitts
Oulu Mitts
Fingerless mitts Stellar Parallax pattern
Stellar Parallax Mitts
colorwork little flowers fingerless mitts knitting project
Fun made up pattern – with lots of mistakes!

Just a word of advice here about knitting with wool. Mittens and mitts should be knit in wool, IMO, because of the warmth factor. Choose a good wool too – like Jamieson, Shetland, or Rauma come to mind. These brands have nice, consistent yarn, basically without knots. The wool creates a lovely project.

Shawlettes

A simple little “shawlette” works perfectly for keeping a neck warm. Knit it in warm wool, and keep it handy for the southern winter season. A small shawl will work up quickly and may use only one skein of yarn.

  • Interisland Shawl – this one is on my needles, but has been neglected. It begins with the lace edging and I’m not a big lace knitter. I do plan to finish it!
knitting lace
Lace edging of Interisland Shawl.

Bigger Projects: Namely Sweaters

  • Fallow – Yoke colorwork with deer / woodland design. This one is at the top of my sweater knitting list because it is so cute.
  • Schneeflocken – lots of pretty colorwork on this pullover.
  • Shake a Tail Feather – Colorwork pullover
  • Low Tide – a new pattern by Rachel Illsley is absolutely stunning! It’s on my list, but I’m not sure I can handle all the lace knitting.

That’s about it for my list, and it changes all the time! There is a new yarn (new to me) that I’d love to try. It can be machine washed on a delicate cycle. This would be a game changer for gift giving. Schachenmayr Regia Premium Merino Yak (link goest to the Ravelry yarn page) is the name of the yarn, and it is not cheap. People don’t like it for knitting socks apparently because it pills. But, I read a review by a test knitter who uses it often and recommends it. I plan to buy it at some point and see for myself.

What do you have on your knitting roster for this Fall and coming year?

cat and yarn image

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Knitting the Calliope Pullover in Rustic Gold Wool

Stumped while knitting the sleeves of my second Calliope sweater.

After I had knit my first Calliope sweater, I wanted to knit another one. The style is basic raglan, but it has some rib at the yoke. The sleeves also have an extra long rib. I ended up changing that on my project. (The pattern was free at one time, but no longer is.)

I have not altered the color on any of these photos, but lighting makes things look different. The yarn is a beautiful, rustic gold color.

The yarn is something new for me, and came from the Sonder Yarn Company. It is a pretty, golden color called “Toast & Honey”. I’m really enjoying knitting with it. Some skeins had more than one knot though. Thumbs down on all the knots, which I cut out and “spit spliced“.

sonder yarn skein
Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.
pullover hand knit sweater
Beginning of Calliope
Yoke after washing

The sweater had some weird looking stitches as I knit, but after washing all things magically smoothed out and it looks wonderful!

An Easy Sweater Knitting Project

This sweater pattern is quite easy to knit and might be perfect as a first sweater project for beginners. It helps to know the basic construction of a raglan. Increases widen the front, back and sleeves as the yoke expands. The pattern says exactly where and when to make the increases. Stitch markers help to keep track of it all. I used removable stitch markers to mark the two sleeve sections, for my own preference.

The sweater designer used two yarns held together: a fingering weight with lace to make a DK. I did that for my first Calliope and used Superwash yarn. The sweater stretched and ended up very big and droopy – that’s why I now avoid this type of yarn for sweaters. This time I am knitting a smaller size overall, and using a single strand of DK wool.

Buy the Calliope Pattern at Ravelry

Knitting the Sleeves

My one concern is the sleeves of this sweater. I’m using a completely different yarn this time, but as I knit the long ribbing, it seems big around.

I considered doing the sleeves differently. I do like the unique long rib, but I’m not sure this yarn is right for it. Yarn can change a great deal once it’s washed and blocked which usually makes a sweater look much better. *Yes, this happened! I think the original ribbing in the pattern would have worked out fine.

Calliope sleeve
Long ribbing on sleeve
knitting magic loop
Magic loop sleeve knitting
Sleeve and cuff on Calliope
Long ribbing removed and shortened cuff

Sleeve changes: I ripped back to the beginning of all that ribbing on the sleeve. I did a few more decrease rounds to end up with 60 stitches on the needle. Knit to about 16 inches and made a 2 inch rib cuff. I’m not happy with the bind-off and may go back and do an Invisible rib BO. *Update: I am now knitting the second sleeve with a 1×1 twisted rib cuff that is about 4 inches long. Will go back to the first sleeve and re-knit to match! I’m happy with my ending choice on the cuff. See below.

twisted rib cuff
Ribbing on cuff after washing

I used magic loop on the cuff but it was leaving ladders, so I changed to DPNs. The ladders are now gone and the cuff looks perfect – through the magic of washing! (Soaked entire project in Eucalan -Amazon paid link- for 20 minutes and put on boards to dry.)

Calliope sweater hand knit
A perfect fit
Calliope sweater

Making it a Split Hem

I decided to split the hem and do a twisted rib. I’ve never done this on my own, without following a pattern, but it’s simple enough. Divide front and back stitches in half. Make a nice edge at each side of the rows. I did have to learn how to knit the wrong side of a twisted rib because it’s different than going round and round.

twisted rib knitting
RS – knit through the back loop
wrong side twisted rib knitting
WS: Purl through the back loop

Doing a Flat (Back and Forth) Twisted Rib

For the hem ribbing I did this once the stitches were divided between front and back of sweater: Right side: begin row with K1tbl, sl1wyib – then *knit through the back loop and purl one across to last two stitches and end row with sl1wyib, k1tbl. Wrong side: begin row with Sl1wyif, P1 – then *knit one and purl through the back loop, to last two stitches and end with P1, Sl1wyif.

Lost at Yarn Chicken (Knew I Would)

When it came time to bind off the back hem, I had only a small bit of yarn remaining. I did not make it, so had to wind up my last skein. I encountered two knots in that one skein and it was my one complaint with this yarn. Too many knots to cut out. I have nearly one entire skein of yarn leftover.

yarn left for bind off
Yikes, just this much yarn left.
Binding off
Not quite enough yarn!
split hem twisted rib knitting
Hem knit longer in back

Washed and Photographed

As is so often true, this yarn became soft and lovely after a wash. My sweater is plenty loose, long and comfy – just like I’d hoped it would be. I would have no trouble wearing this without a shirt underneath. But layering would also work. I am very happy with the finished project. On to the next…

End measurements: Total length from top of back to bottom is 26 inches. Sleeves are 18.5 inches, Body knit for 12 inches and then did a 3 inch twisted rib in the front, and a 4 inch rib in the back. I knit the size 3 Calliope using a size 6 US needle as my main needle. I used 4 skeins of Sunday Morning DK = 1072 yards (plus about a foot!) See notes on my Ravelry page.

Split hem twisted rib
Split hem
Calliope pullover sweater

Have you knit the Calliope sweater?

Please leave a comment, as I’d love to hear if, and how, you changed the sleeves.

More knitting projects, reviews and stories.

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Beautiful Wool For Knitting From Sonder Yarn Company.

Here is a look at some new yarn I recently purchased from a new (to me) shop.

Sometimes I cannot resist a yarn sale. I’ve become much better at controlling my urges when it comes to yarn. I have narrowed my choices down to buying beautiful wool.

The Sonder Yarn Co. is located in Canada. I’ve been watching their yarn and knitting projects slip by on Instagram (I’m usually looking in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep), and I’ll tell you.. they have lovely colors!

You must spend a lot to get free shipping, and I just never wanted to spend the money. And then, I saw that there would be a sale on their pretty yarn. A very good sale too, at 20% off!

I had just finished knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater pattern and was seriously thinking of knitting another one. I needed fingering weight yarn for it.

My Wool Order

The Sonder Yarn company said there would be a bit of a delay getting all the sale orders out. I was in no hurry. Finally, I got an e-mail saying that my order had been sent to the wrong place. Instead of waiting for the order to come back to them, they were sending a replacement to me. So, altogether it took about three weeks to arrive.

The yarn did not come in the box you see in my photo – just stuffed into a bag. There was nothing extra, just a “thank you” on the order invoice. I am only mentioning this because some places add extras, like a free stitch marker, tissue wrapping, etc. – this place did not.

On the same day that the yarn arrived, another shipment of something arrived and came in this box, which fit the yarn very nicely. Perfect!

Sonder Yarn delivery with two colors and nine skeins.
Yarn delivery – (did not come in this box)

The Fingering Weight Yarn

The Sunday Morning 4 Ply yarn is fingering weight. It is made up of two types of wool; 75% BFL, or yarn from the Blue Face Leicester sheep, and 25% Masham wool. I ordered the color “French Press” which is a rich brown. Each skein has 432 yards!

Sonder Yarn Sunday Morning 4 ply in French press brown color
Color “French Press”

The DK Weight Yarn

The other yarn I ordered is Sunday Morning DK. It is made up of the same wool mentioned above for the 4ply. I choose color “Toast & Honey” colorway, and I love it! Each skein has 268 yards.

Already I have cast on and begun knitting a second Calliope pullover in this pretty golden color. My first Calliope came out too big, and the yarn was not right for it. I’ve been wanting to knit another for a while. I think this pretty wool will be just right.

sonder yarn skein in Toast and honey color way.
Pretty Toast and Honey yarn color.

Happiness

All in all, I am very happy with my yarn purchase. It’s tough buying yarn online but the colors shown on the website match very closely to what I got. The brown really caught my eye, but I ended up loving the golden color even more once I had it in hand.

I spent more money than I usually do, but I have gorgeous yarn and plans to use it. Also I got free shipping because of the amount, so that’s a plus. The wonderful color options may keep me going back for more, or at least keeping an eye out for sales at the Sonder Yarn Co..

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Surprisingly Sweet Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Sweater Pattern

My experience and notes about knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater pattern by Thea Colman, aka Baby Cocktails.

After some summer top knitting, I needed to have wool in my hands again. I chose a new pattern and some new-to-me yarn and got knitting on the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater (pattern link below).

I made a stupid mistake when beginning the first rows after the neck ribbing, and had to rip it all out and begin again. Believing I would be able to do those yarn-overs just fine, I began to screw things up again – because, no I did not do yarnovers correctly. This time I kept knitting and took a refresher in doing yarn-overs.

  • Knitting eyelets with yarn overs
  • Knitting sweater yoke

Once I had all that down, the knitting went smoothly and the yoke became fun to knit.

The Yarn

I am knitting with Sandnes Garn Tynn Line Peer Gynt wool yarn (link goes to Wool & Co.). I’ve never knit with it before, but it’s soft and beautiful. There are some thick to thin areas, but I don’t mind that and I think it’s typical.

Although I bought two types and colors of yarn as possible choices for this project, the Tynn Peer Gynt worked out better for the needle size. I’ve ended up knitting with the black yarn.

  • Sandnes Garn Tynn Peer Gynt fingering wool yarn
    Norwegian wool
  • skeins of wool yarn
    New yarn
  • Knitting swatches drying
    Swatches
  • Harrisville Designs shetland wool
    “Peacock” Shetland wool color

Let’s Try This Thing On!

Using fingering weight yarn to knit a sweater means lots of little stitches and many rounds of knitting. Surprisingly, to me, I was done knitting on this fun project in just a little over a months time.

Finally I have split the body at the hem which means I can get this thing tried on! Yay…!

I am very pleased. That neckline seems perfect. A bit wide, but not too wide, just as the designer promised. I did knit for one more inch on the body, stopping at around ten inches and not nine. Two more inches of hem will be added, but first I plan to knit the sleeves.

We cannot run out of yarn on the sleeves, so I want to knit them without worry. IF I run low on yarn for the body ribbing, I can order another skein and not worry if it’s not a perfect match. *No problem here. I ended up with plenty of yarn even with adding a couple of extra inches to the body length.

Blueberry vodka lemonade raglan sweater knitting pattern
Hem split done, time to try it on

I began knitting this sweater on July 20th and today is August 15th, so it has taken almost a month to get this much done on the BVL sweater. *Then I finished on August 29th.

A few days later, I had one sleeve knit. They are 3/4 sleeves which stay wide until just before the short cuff. I ended up liking them a lot.

Decreasing for the Cuff

The knitting round where the many decreases are made, just before the cuff, gave me pause. Then I realized that the first set of knit stitches – in the parenthesis () – is done ONE TIME ONLY to begin the round. The next set of stitches – in the brackets [] is the number of stiches to knit along with the k2tog – and this is repeated in the round. The last set of stitches is what is left at the end of the round, and they will be knit – unless there are no stitches left and you knit zero.

For example: For my size, on this decrease round, I had to knit 2, then knit 4 + k2tog for the repeat, until I had only 2 stitches left at the end of the round, which were simply knit.

knitting sleeve cuff
Sleeve cuff
knitting sweater sleeve
Sleeve 1 done

Buy the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Pattern

Finished and Happy

It took me about a month to finish knitting the Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater. I enjoyed knitting it because there was always something going on while knitting. The yarn-overs at the raglan sleeves, the texture down each side, and the bottom split rib, all added to the enjoyment.

Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater

The sweater was dry after a day and I did a quick photo shoot. We were getting the outer bands from Hurricane Idalia, with wind and rain, so I couldn’t go outside.

I also love this yarn. It is wool, but very soft. I would compare it to Rauma, but it may actually be softer. The finished project is absolutely fabulous! I’m always amazed at much more lovely a hand-knit becomes when washed. I’m very happy with my new sweater!

I don’t often say this, because once I knit a pattern, I move on to something new, but this is a pattern I would absolutely use again.

  • Blueberry Vodka Lemonade sweater
    Drying
  • Washed & hanging
  • Side texture
  • Back view

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