purlsandmurmers

Cotton Wildflowers

The last couple of weeks have been rather frantic and frazzled and my knitting time, when I have been knitting, has been focused primarily on the wildflower cotton tee for rather obvious reasons.  It is simple.  At 3 1/2 stitches to the inch it moves quickly so it doesn't take much to feel like I have accomplished something. I don't have to carry a pattern around iwth me. 

The front and back are now done, and have been sent to the blocking board.

I am very happy with how this is turning out.  In fact, seeing the entire front and back, I am happier with the muted color blending than I was initially with the knitting.  I am also quite satisfied with the actual knitted fabric, it is light and soft, with nice drape, but it does not grow uncontrollably in the wash, nor feel waterlogged, stiff, and heavy, like some cottons.    I am gaining confidence that is going to be something I will wear quite a bit.

Even more surprising, the 726 yards of yarn looks like it will be more than adequate.  I started with 8 skeins originally and have used 4 plus a little extra, but not a full quarter of the 5th skein.  I used the fifth skein only to do the shoulders, on either side of the back neckline, 200 some-odd stitches perhaps?

Since I originally envisioned this sweater with 3/4 length sleeves it looks like there will be enough yarn.  I haven't figured out the sleeve pattern yet, that is next up.

Sorry about the odd angle of the photograph, I snuck it in quickly between tasks in the late afternoon light and this was the only angle in which I could get the entire sweater.  It really is symmetrical and looks better in person.

Still nothing

I have not finished Avril.

 By the time I get to my knitting I have been mentally unsuited for anything other than simple mindless entertainment.  So I have been creating a simple tee shaped sweater out of the On-Line cotton.   It is amazing what a difference 3 1/2 stitches to the inch makes in terms of progress compared to the almost 6 1/2 of ruby bubbles.

I am calling this my stormy wildflowers tee and I am not quite sure what I think of it yet.  It is simple seed stitch and the knitting is going quickly.  I love the weight and drape of the knitted fabric, but I am not yet sure what I think of the colors.  Sometimes I love them, other times, not so much.  I'm willing to wait and see how it progresses though. It is not so much the way the colors become more muted with in the knitted fabric, but that the yellow seems more dominant than I expected.  I'm not sure though, and I think how I finish the sweater will make a difference.  

I am enjoying knitting though, and am willing to wait and see how it turns out.

Finishing Avril

Ruby Bubbles was put aside last week.  It was time for a short break, even from luscious fine alpaca.  Besides, we had a few hot days, and no matter how yummy, I do not feel like knitting alpaca when it is in the mid 80's. 

The hot days did not last.  And I did not start any summer projects either.  I picked up a pair of socks I had let languish in the bottom of my bag; they will be good travel projects as the next week is filled with waiting rooms and appointments.  Last night, I started a new sweater with that lovely cotton I showed you in my last post. So it seems I will be working on several simultaneous projects, which only seems to delay the completion of any of them, not that completing things has been my strong suit of late anyway.

Primarily however, I worked on Avril, a sweater I had intended to wear last fall.  I knitted all the pieces and never put it together.  I don't really know why.   

Although it is wool and silk I hoping I can still wear it in the early morning air since we still have freezing temps overnight. To this end I spent most of my knitting time the past week knitting the front bands and the collar.   It is not quite done.  The knitting is done, but I have yet to seam and set-in the sleeves.  And there seems to be a ton of yarns to weave in as well. But these things should not take long.  The seaming requires focused time, not relaxing and knitting time, but even so it should be done this week.

At which point, I will finally have another finished sweater to share.  I do hope I can still wear it.

This yarn is calling my name.

 I've got this yarn sitting on the middle of my cutting table.  My intention was to sell it, but the more I looked at it the more I realized I wasn't quite ready to let it go.  It is a cotton blend and I have 726 yards and it supposedly knits to a gauge of 3 1/2 stitches per inch, although I haven't really tried it yet.  I am sure I can do something with this, but I haven't spent enough time to figure out what it wants to be.  

Should it be a cardigan?  A pullover?  Something lacy?  I suspect the first step is to play with some swatches.  

Although I have other things to work on and those UFOs are still calling my name.  Some swatch play may be in the works.

Do I want a pu

Progress

 The Right front of the ruby bubbles cardigan is done.

I shall wind a new skein of yarn and start the left, but probably not until tomorrow or the next day.  I'd like to look at a few of my UFOs in the meantime.

More Verena

As I scanned the patterns into my pattern library, I added a few more.  They are all from the vintage section.

 Stanwick caught my eye the first time I looked through the magazine,  But I really don't like the way it looks in the photo.  When I look at the diagrams though I see that it does indeed have the potential I originally envisioned. This design is knit in a dk weight yarn by On-Line, Linie 4, which is described in the magazine as wool and on Ravelry as cotton.  I am inclined to think it is a mistranslation in the magazine and the yarn is cotton.  But I would probably knit this in wool anyway.

 Then there is Harlow.  This pattern is for a cardigan and a skirt.  I like the cardigan.  Again, I can see potential here, although I am not completely sure I when I will ever knit or wear this.    This design is knit in Gedifra's Mayra, a worsted weight cotton/nylon yarn.

The skirt however, I adore.  When I look at the diagram I love it even more with its fabulous short-row shaping.    Although I may or may not use a similar cotton/nylon yarn if I knit the jacket, I believe you would need the nylon content in a skirt to help keep it from bagging and sagging.

 I also added the pattern called Lake, a lovely sweater.  Again this is one I was strongly drawn too and then put aside and came back too.  I realize, as I look at the pattern more closely, that my original doubts were due to the soft colors and the strongly vintage feel of the original. Although I am all for femininity, it seemed to soft and sweet.  But when I looked at the black and white photo, and the diagrams, I began to have more ideas as to how I would potentially knit this and use it, and began to form color ideas of my own in my head.  This was critical.

 There are also several nice crocheted sweaters in this issue.  It has been decades since I have crocheted a sweater,  and most of these are charming but not "me".  There is however, one I added to the file, although I have no immediate plans to make it.  Angelou is crocheted in a DK weight silk yarn by Junghans. 

All in all, it appears I am interested in 9 patterns from this issue, a very good number.