FO: Wool & Honey Sweater

Yay! It is done!

I have had this sweater on my “to-make” list pretty much ever since it came out a few years ago. It’s the perfect combination of being cozy, but polished, and comfortable to wear. While some there are really amazing patterns coming out all of the time these days, I especially loved working on this one because I knew I had loved this pattern for a long time and would love wearing it for a long time, too. I prefer a narrow sleeve and love the combination of a boxy sweater with slimmer sleeves and this sweater really delivers. And unbelievably, it’s also my first sweater knit in BT Loft (it won’t be my last). This yarn is definitely an investment, and I actually just collected these skeins, in the Fossil colorway, over a couple of years. It was intended originally for a lacy shawl design also by Brooklyn Tweed, but when I realized that I was just one skein short of being able to knit this sweater, I went over to Hillsborough Yarn Shop, used some store credit I had saved, and cast on.

Despite this color looking very natural and undyed, it did actually have some color variation in the lots that I had collected, and so I alternated skeins while knitting in the body and no one would be able to tell. The honeycombs are created using this really clever technique that at first, looks a little floppy and weird but when blocked, becomes really striking.

I knit the size S because with the generous ease built into the body, I was in between sizes but my gauge was coming out a bit bigger than what the pattern calls for. I think it worked out, because it’s definitely still boxy but I don’t feel like I’m drowning in it either. The only modification I made otherwise was to lengthen the body by about an inch and literally used all but one yard of all five skeins (including ripping out the swatch to use as yarn in the sweater). There was some nerve-wracking yarn chicken at the end there! The body of this sweater would have been really excellent movie theatre knitting had we been able to go to the movies over the past month, as it’s just really long rows of knitting and purling.

You can see my full project page and the pattern on Ravelry here. 10/10 would recommend and I know I will be wearing this one so much when the weather cools down again (and also today, with the AC on).

love list: vests and such

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Now that it is September, I have one thing on the brain - fall and fall only. I'm not at the point where I can imagine that it will be cold enough for sweaters any time soon, but these vests are simple and gorgeous and could knit up pretty fast, especially the middle vest! I love Danforth because of the really slight sleeve. It's gorgeous! And the Georgia cardigan looks beautiful both buttoned and unbuttoned. It looks like it would be great for layering as well. 

I can imagine wearing these to the pumpkin patch, out shopping on a Saturday or on a cooler evening. Let the seasonally-appropriate knitting begin! :)

swatching for timberline

I was talking with sweet Jennifer in Asheville this weekend about knitting, and life, and husbands. And knitting for husbands! The fun (and challenging) thing about knitting for my husband is that not being a knitter, he has no idea what I can and cannot do. He sees a knitted thing and says, "Can you make me that?" As is the case with Timberline. He saw it in my favorites on Ravelry and loved it. A richly cabled, seamed, shawl collared cardigan. Have I ever knitted a cardigan before? Nope. Have I ever picked up for a collar before? Nope. Have I ever knit a seamed sweater before? Nope. And yet, here we are, and I'm swatching for Timberline. 

The swatch that I knit took me nearly an hour, so this baby is going to be a marathon! We chose Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for its huge color selection and affordability (and they answered all of my questions about where their wool comes from, which made my ethical side very happy). This color is "Opal Heather" and it has a lovely variegation and has been pretty easy to knit with. This pattern I took from the back chart, and should have probably knit the whole piece, you'll notice that its uneven as I omitted one of the side cables that frame the center cable. I started down a needle size from the recommended and still came out to 25 x 4" instead of 31 x 4". So I will be going down at least another needle size in a second swatch, if not 2 sizes. After listening to Julie Hoover's interview on Woolful on my roadtrip, I'm thinking it might have something to do with the material needles I'm using. I'm pretty dedicated to my Addi clicks, but maybe it's worth trying another material?

I still have a tumultuous relationship with swatching. I know I need to do it, and I for sure want the garments I knit to fit! But I sometimes just can't wait to get started and swatching for a piece like this takes much longer than I'd like. Any tips from master swatchers out there to help make this process any easier? 

Is it too early to make a post about winter?

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To be fair, it was recently Christmas in July. And while I agree that Christmastime deserves recognition during more than one month of the year, something about it being 87 degrees at night just doesn't get me in as festive of a mood. :)

Anyways - as we inch closer and closer to the start of school, bouquets of sharpened pencils, end of summer clearance, and the like, I get so excited. I've been enjoying seasonal summer food this season in a new and wonderful way with my job at the farm; our whole menu this week has been planned around ripe tomatoes. Glorious. But still - on some level, summer is a season I get through to get to fall and winter. It might be blasphemous, but it's true. 

What's exciting about planning my fall and winter knitting is that I actually already have the yarn for all three of these projects! The Lila Winter sweater is a bulky variation on a shape that has really been popular this year, and I have plans to dye some wool for it before the season is over that I currently have in my stash. The Trellis Scarf is already in progress in worsted weight, after frogging a failed shawl design and refusing to let the 2 skeins of Flax Down that the hubs gifted me go to waste on a crummy pattern. And then, Timberline. I'm a bit scared of this pattern. The schematic is comprehensive but daunting, this will be my first seamed sweater, and the charts, while very doable, are LONG. Just what I get for letting B pick out whatever men's sweater he liked from my favorites on Ravelry ;). It will be a fun challenge, but I can see it also being a marathon. The swatch alone took me an hour. But we've bitten the bullet and decided to go for Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for the beautiful color and affordability. (And they answered all of my questions on where they source their wool, which made me pretty happy.)

The great thing about these patterns too, they are all so cozy. We don't get "real" winter in NC the way so many others do, but I literally get so excited thinking of snuggling up in all of these knits with snow falling outside and watching a movie. It's going to be glorious. 

Only 148 days til Christmas!

And only 79 days until the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY! I just found out today that I'll be going again with Virginia and her crew. Anyone else planning on going this year??

Off the needles: Gable

It's done! It's done! It's done!

Gable by Hannah Fettig

Started: March 18, 2015

Finished: May 28, 2015

Fiber: O-Wash Fingering in color "Barn Owl", 3.5 skeins

Notes: This was SUCH a great first sweater. I've admired Hannah's classic and beautiful designs for a long time and knew I wanted to knit one, and this one is just great! The twisted rib was simple but just different enough to be interesting, and I even took on short rows. Only somewhat successfully, but still. Like I mentioned in my first post about this sweater, I was a little nervous about not alternating skeins with this yarn that came with instructions to do so, but even now looking at it I can't tell even the slightest variation or pooling of color, so I'm glad I didn't go through that process for this project. 

I knit a size 38" to accommodate for the intended 1-2" of ease. The only real modifications I made were to knit the sleeves about a half inch shorter, and when I got to the collar I got a bit impatient and only knit about 1.5" instead of 2". :) And the only real panic moment I had (aside from the short rows) was when I blocked the sweater and laid it out flat to dry. The weight of the water, even after I dried it with a towel, stretched the garments' gauge out significantly. Even though the yarn is an organic superwash, I was afraid to throw it in the dryer. However, when I did put it in the dryer for about 10 minutes, it went right back to the gauge I had swatched and was perfect. How great is that? One of my favorite things about this piece is that I don't have to worry about accidentally shrinking it, but also that the fiber was made organically. And it is so soft. It's been such a bummer that I finished it right as summer is really kicking in here, because I just want to wear it all. the. time. 

I'm not going to lie, I definitely got a little bit sentimental finishing this sweater, as I thought about all that knitting has brought to my life over the past few years and all the ways that I'm excited to grow. If anyone is looking for a fun, slightly challenging first sweater, I highly recommend it. Thank you to Jocelyn for making this awesome yarn, and thank you Hannah for this beautiful pattern! I cannot wait to knit more. 

And just for kicks, here's a picture of a sleepy kitten :)

Gable progress

I realized it's been a while since I gave an update about my first sweater! Luckily, there's lots to talk about. 

The twisted rib is really elegant, and with a minor mishap in counting I even managed the short rows without much difficulty. A little side shaping, a lot of stockinette and the body was done. Huzzah!

I have a little bit of doubt about the sleeves. I tried the first one as I went and it seemed a bit baggy, even though I was on gauge and was following the size prescribed in the pattern for my body size. The model in the picture for Gable is wearing a button down under the sweater, so it's possible that the ease is intended and it is going to look great. Only time will tell.

Since this picture was taken, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the second sleeve and then starts the yoke! I've been told that the yoke tends to go quickly on bottom-up sweaters, which is a relief. I want to finish this guy before Me Made May is over!

Aside from the fact that it's taken me so long to make, it's nowhere even close to being seasonally appropriate anymore, I am loving this.

What about you, do you knit sweaters all year round, or just when it's cold outside? From all of my experience with linen and cotton, I am a wool girl all the way through. 

Swatching for Gable

My two big projects I was working on so far this year, Hansel and my husband's socks, both came to a conclusion within a week of each other in March. I got this sudden drive to stop staring at all of this lovely O-Wool I got for my birthday and start knitting with it. This particular yarn was being saved for a special purpose, my first sweater! Needless to say it was a race to finish both of these other projects, because I really wanted to be able to devote all of my time and energy to this one project. 

After reading Karen Templer's post on sweaters for first-timers, I knew that I either wanted to do a top-down or bottom-up seamless construction for my first foray into sweaters. And after knitting Skiff this past fall, I was in love with the detail that Brooklyn Tweed put into all of their patterns. So Gable, a classic and gorgeous pullover by Hannah Fettig of Knitbot and Knit.fm (another one of my major obsessions) was an obvious choice. 

source

Working with the O-Wash Fingering so far has been a DREAM. This yarn is amazing, and I don't see my obsession with fingering weight yarn going anywhere any time soon, and I absolutely love that I've found a yarn that is as soft as superwash is known to be, but that got there using an organic process. WIN. I knit a 4 x 4 swatch in stockinette as instructed, and pre-blocking it came out slightly too small, at 26 stitches to the inch across instead of 24. The row gauge was also slightly taller than the pattern called for. Post-blocking, it came out to exactly 24 stitches to the inch, and the same row gauge. Thinking logically, I knew that the difference was small enough that it wouldn't make sense to go down a whole needle size, and that I'd just need to be aware of the total length of the sweater as I went. 

The only other concern I had before casting on was an instruction to alternate skeins while knitting, as the yarn was susceptible to tonal variation. Looking at the skeins all lined up, I didn't see any evidence to suggest this, but knowing that I was about to invest so many hours in this project, I emailed Jocelyn at O-Wool directly to ask. She suggested that I try knitting my swatch with yarn from two of the skeins I purchased, and if I didn't see any difference between the two, that it might be ok to forgo the alternating. Well I tried it, and the skeins all seem to be pretty identical, so I decided not to alternate. Hopefully that won't prove to be a stupid decision later, only time will tell.

I cast on, and this great sweater saga has begun! If you are interested in following along on Instagram as well, you can find me @abbygoodknits, and with the hashtag #abbyknitsgable. 

Have a great Tuesday!

Love: swinging hemline sweaters

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Brooklyn Tweed released Wool People 8 this week, and as always, it's love at first sight. I think it's so fun that the design team at BT can produce so many different types of patterns and still stay true to their signature style. Stratum, above, was my favorite piece in the collection with it's effortless, relaxed elegance. The swinging hemline is flattering on everyone and is just lovely, so I thought I'd do a little round up of some other sweaters with flowing hemlines for today's post. 

It's hard to believe it's only a week until Thanksgiving day, so tonight I'm also working on my Christmas wishlist, catching up on Scandal, and knitting some two-at-a-time socks for a certain brother-in-law. This is my favorite time of year, life is so sweet!