fo: larch cardigan

After a mere nine weeks, my Larch cardigan is ready to wear! This project actually started way back in the depths of last year when I contacted Lyndsey from Countess Ablaze to ask her if she could custom dye me some of her DK-weight blue-faced Leicester, Bluefaced Baron DK. We back-and-forthed over the colour for a few weeks until she hit upon the single most amazing emerald you have ever seen.

This is the emerald that makes you think of rolling hills and mythical creatures and burial sites full of untold riches. It is lush.

I knew almost immediately that it had to be a Larch cardigan. Larch, for the uninitiated, is an Amy Christoffers design. Amy occupies a place of deep affection in my heart. She is an incredible designer. (I’ve heard several people say that it’s like Amy designs just for them, but they’re wrong. She designs just for me.) Her cardigans are exactly my aesthetic.

I did a few small mods that others might find helpful.

1. I tend to find long, loose cardigans gape around the small of my back (because my bum sticks out and I have little natural waist), so I spread the decrease stitches evenly rather than at the sides where they would traditionally fall (every 50 sts for the first set and then immediately above [i.e. so they're stacked] following Amy’s row count). This seems to have worked very well.
2. As usual, I knit my sleeves until I thought they were long enough and then added an extra inch and then added ten rows. This seems to be the only way I ever manage to get sleeves that fit. NOTE: I did NOT do this for my Acer or my Tinder and my sleeves for both projects are definitely a bit too short. I think it works rather well with the vintage feel of the Acer, but I have a good mind to hack into the Tinder and add some rows.
3. I extended the sleeve caps and arm holes by about 6 rows. Amy’s main criticism is that her sleeves tend towards the tight side, which I noticed in my Acer. These sleeves fit perfectly. They are deep enough to be able to comfortably wear a couple of layers underneath (which is totally necessary at the moment! When will it be spring?!).
4. Amy suggests using a double-knit BO around the shawl part of the collar, which is super stretchy but looked very unfinished and amateurish when I attempted it. I stuck to my regular BO (k2, sl 1st st over 2nd, * k1, sl 1st st on right needle over 2nd, repeat from *), but looser than normal.

I am very pleased with the result.

On the needles now: not another Amy (I just couldn’t decide!), but my long-awaited Perfect Christmas Jumper! About time, no? Lou finished her’s years ago.

new twist collective, fall 2012

I don’t know if it’s the Olympic fever or the heat, or the fact that EVERYONE is on holiday except me, but I cannot concentrate on anything for more than about 50 seconds.

Actually, I suspect it’s more due to the fact that the casing on my laptop has snapped, which means I can’t close the lid and thus am stuck at home (anyone have a laptop they’d like to sell me?) AND there has been building work going on in the downstairs flat FOR A MONTH. Being stuck at home — at my un-air conditioned, stuffy, noisy, nausea-inducingly drill-rattled home — sucks (seriously, I really need a new laptop, if anyone can help a girl out…). There isn’t enough lemonade in the world that can soothe my shattered nerves.

And yet, just when I thought the world had simply gathered up my pleas for help and swept them under a great cosmic carpet, the new Twist Collective arrives. [insert crowd going wild here]

I’m on a mad cardi kick at the moment — I’ve Paulie on the way off the needles, Tinder and Acer just on — so as soon as I saw Praline by Gudrun Johnston, it went straight into my queue. Obviously the pockets are excellent, but I also really like the delicate stitch pattern, which for some reason reminds me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Elizabeth Doherty’s Tenaya is also an immediate favourite — the cuff detail is delicious. It has the same cable-and-laciness that drew me to Amy Christoffers’s Acer cardigan.

As just about everyone I known is pregnant or recently given birth, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time gazing at tiny baby patterns. I am smitten with Kristen Rengren’s Barberry. The adult version is lovely, but the child’s size is fantastic!

(I really want to mention that I love how the editors chose to show the yarn for the storyboard Tenaya and Barberry are both from, Down East, and the One Morning in Maine storyboard. I like seeing what the strands will look like, as they usually display the yarn, but there’s something very satisfying about the close-up of the fabric created. Incidentally, I just noticed that both storyboards are photographed by Carrie Bostick Hoge — I wonder if that had anything to do with it.)

As well as the great cardi collection, there are some great little jumpers (Fortune Bay, Fara), fantastic mitten patterns, some very cute shawls and wraps (Pussy Willow, Bayfield) and some incredible sock patterns (Budapest Market, I’m looking at you); too many to play favourites, but I have a sneaking suspicion Rachel Coopey’s Banach or Barbara Gregory’s Horatio and Oren will find their way onto my needles at some point.

Lest you think I don’t actually read my magazines, Sandi Rosner’s article on shaping in pattern is GENIUS. I love these technical pieces that not only help (and inspire) budding designers, but explain just what our stitches are doing.

*All images slurped from Ravelry.

mojo jojo

Despite my recent jumper/yarn posts, the evil, brainy monkey of knitting malaise had me in a headlock for months. Well, NO MORE!!! I’ve got that monkey beat.

June turned out to be an excellent knitting month — I finished Beatnik, I finished a sock and started its pair, I even nearly finished ripped out and am nearly finished again my Paulie! I think it’s partly because I started making myself make time to go running, or rather started making myself make time for myself!

I’m really hoping I can push this into July. The school year is almost to a close (no more crazy marking schedules, in any case!), so I feel like I can start fitting in yoga and knitting AND running without having to justify time spent away from planning, outlining, researching, marking, writing, reediting…

It definitely helps having a couple of projects waiting in the wings!

• I’ve already swatched for the Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers, in my gorgeous Bowmont yarn from Devon Fine Fibres (originally the nearly finished Welt and Rib Raglan sweater, which I tried on just before casting on the arms and decided it was NOT doing my waistline any favours).
• I’ve cast on Juuli by Suvi Simola in Fleece Artist organic Merino aran weight — I love the pattern, but I think the gauge is too loose and the lovely richness of the yarn isn’t quite working with the leafy stitch pattern. I think I’m going to have to wait to knit this one when I have a little girl to knit for, in a springier (i.e. seasonal, not textural) yarn.*
• So I’m now looking at Dark and Stormy by Thea Colman or Tinder by Jared Flood. Both patterns call for a worsted, and I think the FA will work better as a worsted yarn than aran!
• I’ve got the most AMAZING yarn from Countess Ablaze in the works for Larch, also by Amy Christoffers.
• And, last but not least, I’ve bought the Lakeshore Shawl pattern by Glenna C. to be knit up in the awesome Countess Ablaze aplaca/mulberry silk lace weight, as a present for Persons Unknown.

So basically, July will be full of Amy Christoffers and Countess Ablaze. It’s thematic (and they have palindromic initials — it’s thematic AND meant to be)!

Now I just need to get back on the yoga mat and I think by September I’ll start feeling like things are back to normal. Right in time for the school year to start up again!

* Incidentally, Juuli is part of the two-volume Hold Your Needles, a fab collaboration between Suvi and Mari Muinonen. There are so many patterns in that I want to knit! I ended up buying both e-books, and they are delightful. The children’s patterns are especially adorable.

** Also, the most fabulous post-grad secretary in my department pointed me in the direction of Park Run — has anyone participated in this? It’s a weekly (every Saturday) timed 5k through a planned route in a park, starting at 9 a.m. I’m so excited to do this!! I found running in the race really motivating, and I think this scheme will really help boost my performance. The first one I’ll be able to attend won’t be until 21 July, but I can’t wait.

new twist collective, spring 2012

How much do I love the shawls in the latest Twist Collective? More than I have words for. But I’ll give it a go.

Janel Laidman’s Elysium is just so, so gorgeous. This shawl is just so unusual, so unlike all the other shawl patterns out there at the moment. I love how round and dextrous the pattern is.  It’s really not like anything I would normally go for, but I find myself increasingly drawn to it (and seeing as I dreamt I was knitting it last night, I feel it might have to be the next project I cast on.)

Susanna IC’s Stellaria is really lovely, too. I love her classic crescent shaping and while I generally am not hot on garter stitch, she works it so that you can wear your shawls front or back, up or down and they always look good.

Although I can’t imagine ever managing to complete one, Kerry Milani’s Paon is breathtaking. She immediately gets a Genius stamp. The pattern is pretty and delicate, the shaping is exquisite and the sheer size is extraordinary. Compared to it, Brenda Patipa’s Satsuma is just a mere slip of a thing, but I really like how directional the lace is. Very different to the other shawls here, but pretty in an almost Metropolis way.

Apart from the shawls, Robin Melanson’s Sylvatica and Amy Christoffers’s Lanata are two tops I can really see myself wearing.

Usually I like my knits to be heavy on the cables, but both of these tops make good use of lace in a primarily unobtrusive way. I’ve got the Acer Cardigan lined up, but I’m starting to think Lanata might come first. Regardless, I want to have Sylvatica ready for the first day of school.

What are your favourites? Are you aching to test drive the soles on Lingonberry? Let me know in the comments!

(All pictures by Jane Heller, slurped from Ravelry.)