at long last…

Well, kids, here it is.  After 5 months of on-and-off knitting, the pleated top is finally finished.  This sweater was a long labor of love, stress, and tears.  This was my first experience knitting with lace-weight yarn, and its delicateness has certainly provided me with, shall we say, many lessons in patience and problem solving.

There are so many things I love about this sweater, in particular, the tiny pleats on the sleeves, as well as the pleating at the bust…

And I love the beautifully ethereal way the light filters through the cobweb-like yarn…

The sweater fits more like a tunic than a baby doll, even though I knit to gauge and blocked to measurements.  The pattern calls for Swarovski crystals along the neckline, but I left them off because I want the ability to dress the sweater up or down as needed.  It looks equally nice paired with a skirt as it does paired with jeans.

Let’s talk a little bit about the bottom hem.  After weaving in the last end on Wednesday, I immediately began taking pictures of my gorgeous new sweater.  I was jubilant that the sweater was finally finished; basking in all of the hard work that had gone into creating the now finished product.  It was, oh, about 4-5 minutes into the photographing that I noticed the bottom of the sweater had loose stitches.  Upon further frenzied inspection, I discovered that something had caught the delicate yarn, right in the middle front of the hem and ripped my cast-on edge OPEN.  The sweater was literally unraveling.

To say that I wanted to cry is also a gross understatement.  Readers, it could have gotten very, very ugly at that moment, but for the love of all things Elizabeth Zimmerman – I did not shed a tear.  I went into the studio, closed the door and worked through the crisis as best I could, trying to salvage the now ruined stitches along the hem.  I was in there a long time, trying to figure out what I was going to do to fix the problem.  My hubby kept peeking in on me, no doubt to make sure I hadn’t stabbed myself with a knitting needle.  Finally, he came into the studio and said “Okay.  So what are we dealing with here?” And he began to troubleshoot knitting with me.

This is why I love my husband.

After a few minutes of throwing out suggestions, he brilliantly said “Why don’t you just shorten it?”  It was then that I had an epiphany!  I had plenty of room in the length, so I bound off all of the loose stitches, secured the torn yarn with some creative knotting and felting, then turned the garter-stitch border up inside the sweater and hand-sewed a new hem all the way around.  It is not as perfect as I would have liked, but sometimes there is only so much one can do.

But despite its imperfections, I am still in love with it.  This was an enormously personal project for me, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.

Here are the project details:

• Pattern: Pleated Top by Coralie Meslin
• Source: Vogue Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2009
• Yarn: Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb, 1 skein in color 962
• Needles: Size US 3 circulars, used as straight
• Size Made: Small

Have a great weekend, knitters! ~J

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in the homestretch…

The pleating is {thankfully} finished; mon dieu! they were tricky.   All that is left is knitting the shoulders and cap sleeves, then blocking and sewing the pieces together.

I’m so close now… ~J

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Vogue Knitting, Early Fall 2010

{Hooded Jacket by Josh Bennett}

Here is a little peak of the goodies you’ll find in the new Early Fall 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting!  Remember yesterday when I showed you the Amy Butler yarn?  Well this chic hooded Jacket is knit in the Aran weight, and is just gorgeous.

The gingham, paired with the wide-rib detailing is charming, without any trace of sweetness.  If you’ve never seen any of Josh Bennett’s knits, I definitely suggest hightailing it to his Ravelry designer page, or his website.  He is super, super talented and such an inspiration.  He takes classic knitwear elements and elevates them so that they are fresh and modern.

{Lace Cardigan by Jennie Atkinson}

I adore the romantic style of this lace cardigan.  Personally, I would knit this to throw over my silk chemises at night, or in the morning while reading magazines and drinking coffee.  It is perfect for lounging in bed, don’t you think?

Of course, this beautiful lace-work is too pretty to only wear around the house.  It would be also be perfect for a Sunday afternoon lunch date with my husband.

{Lace Stole by Erica Schlueter}

This pale aubergine-colored lace stole also caught my eye for its simplistic versatility.

While it could easily be worn as a wrap with a cocktail dress in the evening, it looks like it would be equally at home worn as a scarf with jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of leather boots on a Friday afternoon.

{Cables & Lace Vest by Cheryl Murray}

This Cables & Lace Vest makes me want to move to the English countryside, live on a grand manor, ride horses and grow organic vegetables.  But since that’s not quite possible, perhaps this would work for fall apple picking and hayrides here in the good old US of A.

The styling in these vest photos is spectacular – the belt, the hat, the ruffles and plaid.  Yes please to all of it.

{Long Necklace by Shadowplay}

Speaking of styling, this issue also includes two pieces of hand-knit jewelry – my favorite being this J-Crew-esque necklace by Shadowplay.  According to its Ravelry page, it’s knit with Be Sweet’s Magic Ball yarn, with 500 Crystallized Swarovski elements delicately woven in.  Stunning.

This is just a small taste of what you’ll find tucked into this issue.  If you want to check out the rest of the patterns, visit the its Ravelry page, or head straight over to the Vogue Knitting website.  ~J

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death by stockinette…

I’m pretty excited, because the back of my pleated top is finished!  It’s turning out gorgeous, but after the 60th row of knitting and purling teeny-tiny lace-weight yarn on size 3 needles, it starts getting somewhat monotonous.  Since the stitches are so lightweight, they slip off the stainless-steel needles quite easily – so I really have to pay attention to what I’m doing. The beautiful, delicate look that it’s taking on is worth the extra attention:

I’ve got a few inches worked on the front…each row contains 156 stitches that need to be knit and purled for 14″ straight before there is any sort of shaping action:

The cool thing is that when this baby is finished, I will know how to knit pleats.   And if there’s one thing I love, it’s adding new skills to my repertoire!  I am hoping to be finished by the end of the month, so that I can wear it out to my birthday dinner.  {*fingers crossed*} ~J

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on the needles…

…a delicate pleated top from the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting.   I am using Jade Sapphire’s extra-fine 3 ply lambswool yarn in the Cyclone colorway; it’s so teeny-tiny, that it’s like knitting with cobwebs.

Also on the needles is a baby sweater for an old childhood friend of mine.  She is expecting her first child this spring – a little girl!  This is the 5 Hour Baby Sweater, a free pattern I came across on Ravelry, but you can also find it here.  I wonder how many people actually finish it in 5 hours….

It’s nice to be knitting light, bright, and airy things for a change!  Like all of you, I am so ready for the warm weather… ~J

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Spring Lace

I’ve been wanting to share this little beauty with you for a while now, but because it was a birthday gift for my mother-in-law, and I had to wait to give it to her before I could tell you about it!  This past weekend, a bunch of us girls got together for tea and scones to celebrate her special day, so now I am free to show you…

This is Védís Jónsdóttir’s #30 Lace Scarf from the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting.  The pattern is amazingly beautiful in its simplicity – if you can YO, k2tog, and ssk – you can knit this scarf!  The 8-row repeat is easy to remember and knits up quickly – so it’s perfect for adding a quick dose of color to your wardrobe.

I picked this bright berry color for two reasons – one, because it will look gorgeous against my mother-in-law’s complexion, and two, because Nancy is an avid gardener, and this color just screams Spring.  When she opened it, she commented on how much she loves the color – it reminds her of one of her favorite roses in her garden.  What’s even funnier is that my sister-in-law gave her a pot of tulips in this very same shade at the tea party!

It was really, really hard to part with this scarf – every time I passed it, I couldn’t help but slip the soft, fuzzy yarn over my shoulders.   Maybe I’ll just have to knit one up  for myself….

Here are the details:

• Pattern: #30 Lace Scarf by Védís Jónsdóttir, Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2009
• Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK (2 skeins in color #35) *yarn is discontinued, but I found some stashed here…
• Needles: US Size 6
• Size Made: 58″ long, blocked
• Mods: Omitted one repeat of lace pattern to make a skinnier scarf.
• Ravelry Pattern Page: here

Enjoy!

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Salem & Seed Stitch Fine Yarn…

{Chilly enough to break out Rose Red}

This past weekend, hubby and I headed up to Salem, Massachusetts for a few days of much needed relaxation.  This was our second trip to Salem – we love its quirky little shops, kitschy attractions and its pretty waterfront.  It’s fun to just walk around and browse the shops, eat some yummy comfort food and drink pumpkin beer.  This year, I was especially excited to stop into Seed Stitch Fine Yarn:

{A delicious assortment of fiber...}

I am a regular reader of their blog, A Yarn Tale, so it was great to finally see the shop in person.  It did not disappoint!

{a cozy spot for knitting}

The best part was actually meeting the owner, Courtney, who was so sweet and let me take a few pictures.  Courtney’s adorable daughter Mazie May was running about the shop – what a doll she is!   I cannot say enough about how wonderful this shop is, and how friendly and helpful everyone was.  I would move to New England and work there in a heartbeat.  After more than a bit of browsing, I finally decided what would be coming home with me:

{Glaciar Del Cielo}

The shop had some Debbie Bliss’s washcloths knit up in this Glaciar Del Cielo cotton, so I picked two gorgeous, watery shades of blue.  So soft!

{Spud and Chloe!}

They had a really nice selection of Spud & Chloe Yarn, so I chose two colors of Fine in the colors Popcorn and Cricket – these will be used to make some socks, when I finally get around to knitting a pair.  (At least now I have some incentive!)

{Glow in the Dark Yarn!}

And you can’t possibly leave a yarn shop in Salem without buying some Glow in the Dark Yarn, can you?  The kids are going to love this.  I tried to take a picture of it in the dark for you:

{spooky....}

It glows bright, flourescent green – how cool is that?  I can’t wait to knit it into something fun for Halloween. In addition to the yarn, I also picked up a copy of Vogue Knitting Holiday 2009:

This issue has a lot of beautiful sweaters and a really cool “Alice in Wonderland” themed story called Through the Looking Glass.  It is definitely worth checking out.  I could have spent the whole day in Seed Stitch Fine Yarn, looking through all of their bins of beautiful yarn – if only I had an extra day!  If you are ever in the Salem area, you absolutely must stop in and say hello.  And in case you are too far away for a visit, here is a link to the shop.

Hope you all had a nice weekend! ~Jenny

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Debbie Bliss and Vogue Knitting, Fall/Winter 2009…

Since my mornings are now kid-free, I think I’ll head over to my local Border’s tomorrow and check out the fall editions of my favorite knitting magazines:

{Vogue Knitting, Fall/Winter 2009}

{Debbie Bliss, Fall/Winter 2009}

*Update – check out my recap of Debbie Bliss Fall/Winter 2009 here!*

And since Jaime was so nice to make me that beautiful blue dress, I’ll be a good sissy and pick her up one of these:

{Quilting Arts, August/September 2009}

Magazines and coffee (hopefully pumpkin flavored!) – one of my favorite ways to relax…

~Jenny

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rip it…rip it…there’s a frog in here…

I was knitting my lace scarf in the studio last weekend, and after completing the 9th repeat, I stretched it out on the chair.  I turned to Jaime, who was ironing some fabric right beside me and asked: “Do we like this yarn in this pattern?”  She looked at it for a second and matter-of-factly replied: “No.  We do not.”  I love sisterly bluntness.

{Lace Scarf by Védís Jónsdóttir}, Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 09

I wish I had taken a picture of it at that point – it reminded me of tiger stripes, which was definitely not the look I was going for.  But I immediately started frogging the scarf, being very careful not to damage the silk and mohair.  Then I sat on the floor with the massive pile of yarn and played with it for a long while, trying to figure out if there was any rhyme or reason to the color repeats.  (No such luck.)  After repeated swatching with different needles and crochet hooks, it became evident that the yarn needed something more open, something with lots of yarn overs so that the strands wouldn’t be so close to each other….

Then I remembered that my Last Minute Knitted Gifts book Jaime had bought me had a pattern called “Airy Scarf” – perfect!

{Airy Scarf by Brenda Overstrom}

The pooling is much less noticeable, but the tiger-effect still lingers a bit along the edges:

{must.embrace.pooling.}

This will be a fairly quick knit – it’s mindless garter with a dash of easy lace thrown in.  One part of the pattern repeat calls for 10 rows of straight knitting, but I modified it, bien sûr, to add more yarn over rows:

1. Rows 1-5: knit
2. Row 6: lace row
3. repeat rows 1-6 until desired length, ending with row 5.

It also says to bind off after 32 1/2″, but I’ll continue knitting until all of this soft yarn is used up.  The new pattern blends the blues and greens together much better than first lace scarf:

{left: old, right: new}

I still love Védís Jónsdóttir’s pattern, so that will go back into my Ravelry queue to be knit up in a solid color yarn – maybe in some yummy malabrigo:

{potential candidates: orchid, blue surf & sapphire green}

Now I am off to work on a baby hat for my niece Ana Sophia – her first birthday party is this weekend!

~Jenny

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a lace scarf…

One of things I love about knitting is that it inspires you to give – a blanket for an expecting sister, a girlie hat for a new baby, a little bird for charity.   Sometimes, I think knitters spend more time making projects for others rather than themselves – don’t you agree?  There has been so much baby knitting going on around here lately, that I decided to cast on a small personal project:

{so soft!}

This is the Lace Scarf pattern by Védis Jónsdottir, published in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting.  What an easy pattern this is – it is a good place to start if you want to try your hand at knitting lace.  The only modification I am making is to slip the first stitch of every row, just so that the edges are cleaner.

{a little luxury}

I am using the ArtYarns Silk Rhapsody that I splurged on in May – the yarn is incredibly soft and angelic, and I love the beautiful blue-green color.  The next few weeks are going to be very busy wrapping up everything for my nephew-to-be, but I will make sure to take some time and knit 5-6 rows for myself.

This week, cast on a little something for yourself – a fun summer washcloth, a cozy cowl for fall, or a lacy pair of socks.

Happy knitting! ~Jenny

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