July » 2010 » Untangling Knots

100 posts

This is my 100th post. Awesome. You can find my terrible first post here. I thought a lot about what to do for my 100th post. I wanted to do something different. I finally decided to share some blogs that I love for my 100th post. It just made sense to me. I hope you check out some of these blogs.

A recent blog discovery: I recently ran across Under the Red Umbrella while looking for new sewing blogs to read. I was happy to find Katie’s blog which has knitting, sewing, and crochet.
An old favorite blog: I started reading Turtlegirl’s Bloggy Thing years ago before I had my own blog. It’s just chock full of consistently good knits and Tabby Tuesday always makes me smile.
A blog with eye candy: A Black Pepper has beautiful skillful photography in every post, but the photos of knits are what draw me in. I could just stare at this blog for ages.
A blog that found me: I found Izznit because Iz found me first. I followed a comment she left here back to her blog and discovered her beautiful colorful crafts. She recently posted some stunning pictures of her trip to Hong Kong so go check that out as well.
An inspiring blog: The Yarn Over Movement’s blog, Stay Fancy Free, has a mixture of fashionable bulky knits and stylish photos. The regular updates of project 365 photos give a sneak peak into the life of an Etsy seller and I find that motivating and inspiring when I’m working on my own designs.
A delightfully blue blog: I realized that this is a silly category but it suits Mooncalfmakes who tends to knit in cool colors. Her mixture of mostly blue projects gives her blog a calm and comfortable feeling.
A blog with an amazing variety of crafts: Since I started reading her blog, Sarah of The Student Knitter has picked up more and more crafts at an enviable speed. She decides she wants to learn embroider in one post and has started an embroidery project in the next. I’m always interested in seeing what she is going to try next.

If I didn’t mention your blog, it’s not because I don’t love it. I was just trying to show some restraint. It was hard to not make this post too long. I hope this helps you find something new to read!

Miette

I am horribly excited about this. I was going to save this for my next post because it would be my 100th, but I couldn’t wait. (I also don’t have anything else to post about.) I was going to hold out until tomorrow so I could post this earlier in the day, but here I am at 9PM! I am giddy and proud to present my first sweater pattern, Miette. Download Miette here.

I decided to name the pattern after a character in the film La Cité Des Enfants Perdus who always wore red. I was watching that movie while I worked on this version of the cardigan and I decided that Miette the character and Miette the cardigan suited each other.

By the way, these are the pictures that I liked but couldn’t go in the pattern. This one didn’t make the cut because it has so much random stuff and you can’t see the tree branch I grabbed. Can you spy the blue truck, horse trailer, gate with Christmas lights, and/or well pump?

Anyways, Miette is a free download on Ravelry. The cardigan is actually not too bad to wear in the summer because I knit it using Cascade Sierra, though today it was 100+ out. Not really cardigan weather. I’ve described this design too many times in posts so if you’d like to read more about the cardigan, please check out the first version or download the pattern.

Vicki’s Shrug

Yesterday I was sitting around working on a post about buttons while I was waiting for my friend Vicki to come pick me up so we could go out to lunch. When she got to my house she was wearing the shrug I had made her a year or two ago! I had never seen her wearing it before because I gave it to her at Christmas time when it was too cold and last summer was way too hot for shrugs. Apparently she wears is a lot. Yay! Anyways, I ran inside and grabbed my camera because this is much more interesting than my original post about buttons.

The pattern is Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher. I used LB Cotton Ease and knit this on 5mm and 6.5mm needles. It’s chock full of mistakes but nothing that is overly noticeable. There was this one rogue purl stitch that should have been a knit in the ribbing. It cruelly taunted me from across the table while we were eating lunch but I forced myself to ignore it. At some point in my freshman year of college I went from a meh knitter to a BAM knitter. I don’t know how that happened except maybe because I started knitting a lot more once separated from my sewing machine.

It’s nice to see my knits in action. It gives me that happy shiny feeling.

P.S. I just saw Inception. It is awesome.

Toasty

I’m waiting around for my friend to come pick me up. We were going to have a picnic and hang out in the park but today is going to be 100+ degrees out. Not the best weather for being outside. I think we’re going to go out to lunch somewhere instead. It’s not quite the same, but it will do.

Today I’m wearing one of my favorite band t-shirts. I love band tees but they’re hard to wear stylishly in the summer because you can’t really wear layers. Don’t ask me why I thought it’d be a good idea to wear a black shirt when it’s this hot out. I couldn’t answer. I’m also wearing my cat’s eye sunglasses. I bought them on the same trip as the dress I wore yesterday. I don’t wear them too much because they have cheap overly dark lenses so they’re not the best for driving and such. Today I’m not driving so I thought I’d break them out and wear them.

Roll With It

I’m really behind on blog stuff. It’s been too hot for much makeup or computer usage and then I went off to a wedding in Alabama. I needed to get myself to post and I really need to catch up on the blogs I read.

This is my summer wardrobe of choice. A breezy light dress and nothing else. I like to go barefoot around my house and yard. Why not? I don’t wear flip-flops and shoes can get hot. I bought this dress a few years ago when I was in Ashland, Oregon to see some plays. I went through a phase where it didn’t quite fit but it fits again and I’m happy to wear it more. It’s different from the styles of dresses I usually choose in color and cut.

Rock, Flag, and Eagle

I had a pretty awesome 4th of July but I wasn’t the photographer. You can check out some rad fireworks pictures and cunning outfits here at my sister’s and Rubie’s blog.

Here’s a hint of our 4th of July inspiration:

Britta’s Bow Beret

I took my sister to the yarn store to buy yarn for me to knit her a cowl with and we ended up with yarn for two hats. This one is just a basic beret that imitates a two textured red one that I had made with mohair and merino. This one is Cascade 220 and Cascade Pastaza. I knit it on 4.5mm and 5.5mm because I couldn’t find my 16 inch 5mm needles. I’m not entirely sure where those needles went.

You can probably see in this picture that the hat is in need of a blocking. I was too lazy. I also forgot a decrease and had to ladder down to fix that when I was almost done which is why it’s looking a bit messy. A good wash and blocking should fix that.

I stuck a little bow on it because my hat has one. I should probably tack down the bow a bit better so it doesn’t fold in half.

Cotton/Acrylic vs. Cotton/Wool

I really am not a summer person. I’ve been feeling hot, lethargic, and unphotogenic. That means two things. I have a pile of knits on my desk that have been waiting for me to model and photograph them and I haven’t knit anything since Saturday. I balled some yarn intending on knitting but that didn’t happen. I need to get it together. Now onto the real post!

I kind of hate knitting with cotton. It’s harsh on my hands and it sags with age. Cotton blends make it a bit more pleasant to knit with. In writing my cardigan pattern, I’ve used three different cotton blend yarns. Two were blended with wool and one was blended with acrylic. I thought a break down of what I thought of the yarns might be handy for you and for me when I have forgotten all of this by next spring. All of these yarns were knit on 5mm needles at the same gauge for the same pattern. Pictures on the right were taken with the flash. Pictures on the left were taken without the flash.

Lion Brand Cotton Ease
Content: 50% Cotton 50% Acrylic
Stitch Definition: The stitch definition is kind of medium. The individual stitches are visible but not screamingly obvious. The reverse stockinette and the twisted ribbing both pop really well but the eyelets aren’t as open and clear as I would have liked. I think this yarn would be better for textural stuff than eyelet patterns.
Feeling: It sort of feels like rope when I’m knitting with it. It’s not unpleasant but it’s not the best feeling yarn either. It can be a bit splitty near the cut end which makes finishing work a little annoying but it isn’t splitty during the actual knitting.
Fabric: The fabric is kind of dense feeling. It’s a little on the stiff side but it softens up a bit after washing. The sweater feels sort of heavy.
Color: I love the depth of color. It’s very rich and the yarn is colorfast.

Cascade Sierra
Content: 80% Cotton 20% Wool
Stitch Definition: I quite like the definition with this yarn. The stitches are extremely visible which probably wouldn’t be best for someone with tension problems but it works well for me. The eyelets show up well and the reverse stockinette and twisted ribbing show up nicely but not super dramatically. I should probably note that it isn’t blocked in the pictures.
Feeling: It’s nice on my hands. It’s softer and more flexible than straight cotton so it isn’t as harsh feeling. Unfortunately, it is splitty. Splitty yarn doesn’t bug me, though.
Fabric: The fabric drapes fairly well. It feels soft and isn’t stiff or bulky. The wool helps it have memory so it won’t get stretched out of shape as quickly.
Color: I was feeling a bit meh about this color of red when I got it. It looked kind of dull in the skein. When I finally got the yarn knit up, it looked a lot more vibrant and full of life. I think that the dull/bright thing is because of the twist to the yarn.

Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Content: 80% Cotton 20% Wool
Stitch Definition: The definition with this yarn is also pretty nice. It has crisp stitches and it shows off the eyelets well. The reverse stockinette and twisted ribbing look pretty nice but they’re kind of flat (physically).
Feeling: This was the most pleasant feeling yarns of all of the ones I used. It’s gentle on my hands and soft. It is also really splitty.
Fabric: The yarn makes a soft fabric with a nice degree of drape. The yarn isn’t very lofty so the fabric looks a bit stretched.
Color: The colors in this line are amazing and that’s why this was the first cotton blend I tried out. They looks vibrant and amazing in the skein and they knit up equally well. Unfortunately, they don’t stay that nice after the first washing. I had to wash my sweater repetitively until it stopped bleeding enough for me to call it quits. When my sweater dried, it was noticeably unevenly faded. Not okay. This yarn might be good in white or to dye yourself, but the bleeding and fading were a deal breaker for me.