Shortly Stitches

Contrary to what you might have been thinking, I have neither disappeared off the edge of the universe, nor have I forgotten how to knit. I’ve been knitting steadily through a few projects over January, so I will eek them out so as to keep coming back and posting.

The biggest knitting accomplishment so far this year has been my Cecilia cardigan.

I cast on for this sucker on Boxing Day. Without swatching. Silly me.  I then ripped it back when I realised it was waaay bigger than it should be the next day.  So, cast on officially on December 27th, and I didn’t finish it until January 17th. And I knitted a lot over the holidays. A lot!  There is a heap of knitting in this top!  Seriously – I spent an  entire weekend doing just the body ribbing!  I made it from Vintage Purls sock yarn, in the colourway Taimi, which was  a sock club colourway a few seasons ago.  I adored the yarn, and when I scored a second skein in a swap, I thought I might as well knit something significant with it.  I chose this pattern because I liked it, and I had enough yarn. But I wasn’t sure if it would suit my figure. I like it on now that its done though.

Of course, all of that would be too easy – in fact I did not have enough yarn, something that became apparent to me when I was knitting the ribbing. I stopped the body ribbing ten rows early to conserve yarn (nooothing to do with my ribbing aversion, not at all!) and even then it was clear that I would need more. I was able to get enough to finish from a very kind Raveller, and whilst the dyelot was clearly different, I just used it on the arm ribbing, so I don’t feel the difference is noticable to the casual observer.

I ended up knitting the body quite a bit longer than the pattern recommended – I really wanted it to fit over the boobage!  So, I did fittings as I went, and slowed the rate of increase down on the fronts so they didn’t get too wide. I’m glad I did as I prefer this look to seeing the ribbing up higher, which looks like a mistake to me – I guess it’s the benefits of making something for yourself – a much better fit.

The arms are a bit tight – I’d suggest if you have arms that are less than petite  you might want to cast on extra under the arm and add an extra pattern repeat to the arms. I don’t think you’ll regret it!

Proof #1 I’ve not given up knitting yet. But stay tuned to see what my mum was knitting beside me when I was knitting this.  Check back tomorrow!

It has been just over two weeks in the making, but I am delighted that I have finally finished my Turmeric t-shirt.

I cast on just before the school holidays began. In fact they began a little early for me, if you count taking a sick day to look after your chicken-poxy child a ‘holiday’.  Strangely enough my holidays are ending with more of the same – not casting on another Turmeric, but another child all chicken-poxy.  DH is staying home tomorrow to look after  her, but the chances are I’ll be taking some time off work this week as well. Anyway, you will have to excuse the terrible FO pics for now – hopefully we will get a chance to take some better ones when the small poxy dictator allows us out of her sight long enough to take some outdoor shots. For now these are taken in the bathroom since it had lights bright enough for night-time photography.

Anyway, back to the knitting… I chose a 48 inch size, as it was recommended to go for positive ease rather than neutral or negative ease. This has resulted in a very relaxed fit in the final garment. It is possibly a bit looser around the middle than I’d normally choose.  The shaping at before the bottom band brings the top back in to shape again. The neckline also sits nicely, with the arms being a good fit too, all in all this allows the top to fit flatteringly, rather than just being baggy.

The knitting of something knit almost entirely in stocking stitch is never going to be difficult. Let’s be honest.  This was more of an endurance test than an ability one.  You need to know how to knit, knit garter stitch in the round, and increase. That’s about it.  So this is totally suitable for a beginner knitter.  There is, however, a lot of knitting in a 4ply adult garment.  The finished garment used 283g of Vintage Purls sock yarn, in the colour Tatiana.  This is knit to a lofty fabric on 4mm needles, and it is lovely light piece that I hope to get lots of wear out of in the next few months. I felt very virutous knitting this from stash. I bought a third skein to finish it, but used two of the non-superwash skeins of VP that I had in my stash for this.  Unfortunately they are not all perfectly matched and I didn’t alternate skeins. You can see the difference in this shot, but it’s not glaringly obvious when you see it, which I am grateful for.

Others in the Vintage Purls knitalong are still knitting away, and if you’re on Ravelry you can check out their progress here.  Some are being a lot more adventurous than I was – lots are working in lace weight yarn. Some are even doing a garment in a lace pattern in lace weight.  More power to them, can’t wait to see their FOs too 🙂