You don’t know what to say!

Bottoms Up is a lovely little top. Most of it was knit in April and then I abandoned it, 90% finished, to start Twenty Ten. I finally got around to finishing the knitting at the beginning of July, and then it sat around, unblocked and without the ends woven in, for another three weeks. Bad, bad knitter.

There is a lot of twisted rib in this pattern which I LOVE. It’s not the most exciting thing to knit, but there isn’t much else that looks better. The yarn is Elsebeth Levold Silky Wool, a go-to yarn for a lot of people but one I’d never tried before. I’d consider knitting with it again, but one thing to keep in mind is that it stretches a lot when blocked. I made the size 36/38, and if I were to knit this again I’d make the next size down to accommodate the yarn.

I did take a few notes while knitting Bottoms Up. It’s not a pattern I’d recommend for beginners. I had to make a number of changes to it (which I documented on my Ravelry project page, linked below), partially because as written the torso would have been really short and partially because, well, there was just an easier way to do things. And I am all about keeping it simple.

HelloKnitty’s Bottom’s Up – Ravelry link

As some of you probably know, when you knit stockinette in the round your gauge is different than when you knit it flat. This is because when you knit in the round you’re only knitting knit stitches, where as if you knit stockinette flat you’re knitting and purling, and the tension when you knit is different than the tension when you purl.

For example, to make gauge on the Whisper Cardigan I finished last summer I knit the sleeves, which were knit in the round, on a size 3 needle. When I began knitting the back, and switched to knitting flat, I had to go down to a size 1.5 needle to get the same gauge. That’s quite a difference.

In the past, when I had to swatch for a project knit in the round, I would get a 12” or 16” needle, cast on enough stitches that I could comfortably knit in the round, and knit until I had a large enough piece to measure. When I make a flat gauge swatch I usually cast on around 35 stitches and knit for 4” but the in-the-round swatch it always required way more stitches and took a lot longer. And if you’re anything like me, spending more time than absolutely necessary on a gauge swatch is to be avoided at all costs.

There is a way to knit a stockinette gauge swatch flat that mimics knitting in the round. It’s genius, and simple. Here’s what you do:

Cast on however many stitches you want to cast on. Knit one row.

Instead of purling the next row, slide your stitches back down the needle, bring your yarn across the back, and start knitting another right side row.

The wrong side will look like this. See how there’s a length of yarn that’s been brought across the back from the right to the left? Make sure you don’t pull the yarn across the back tightly. You’ll want a little slack.

Keep repeating until your swatch is the size you want it. The back will be kind of a mess when you’re done.

Voila! No purls, only knits!

I can’t remember where I learned this but it’s definitely a trick I’m glad to have in my knitting toolbag.

Maybe I should make this a regular feature? If you have a knitting technique you’d like explained, or a general knitting question you’d like me to talk about, let me know!

That would be the first finished sleeve of Goodale. All that’s left is the other sleeve, the collar, a little sewing, and blocking. Yay!

If I were my normal self I’d say you could count on seeing pictures of the finished cardigan by the end of the week. But lately, and I’ve never been like this before, I’ve had no motivation to block or photograph anything. I should look forward to it. My blocking table is set up down in the basement where it’s nice and cool. And my summer wardrobe, which is more than a little sparse due to every piece of summer clothing I own no longer fitting, could use the extra tops.

Basically, I need someone to come over to my house and start cracking a whip.

With Goodale coming off the needles tonight, this pile, which is all finished but unblocked or unphotograped projects, is about to get a little larger.

A couple weeks ago I kinda challenged myself to knit five sweaters in two months – from the beginning of July to the end of August, mostly because there’s a number of cropped or short-sleeved sweaters I want to knit right now and it would be nice to finish them before it gets too cold to wear them.

And then Jodi challenged me to a sweater throwdown to see who could knit the most sweaters this summer, which I happily accepted because I’d already completed two sweaters in July alone (neither of which you’ve seen yet) and I love winning.

So even though I’m usually all about knitting I got even more down to business and knit Watershed in a week, which is sweater #3 of the month and sweater #1 of my five sweater challenge. Here’s a sneak peek, even though it hasn’t been blocked yet and doesn’t look like much:

And I started on Goodale, which I highly recommend if you enjoy endless rows of stockinette.

Tuesday night I finished the yoke and separated the sleeves. If all goes to plan I should have this baby finished by next Wednesday so I can start my next project, which I think is going to be Abalone. I want to have it finished by the time I leave for vacation on August 10th. I’m heading to Santa Fe, where Jodi and I will be meeting up for an epic clash of cardigan knitters. The Southwest won’t know what’s hit them.

As soon as the pattern for the Twenty Ten Cardigan was released it moved to the top of my to-knit list. I’m always a bit of a sucker for asymmetrical designs, and being that I started this in April, the idea of a short sleeved sweater was very appealing

It fits perfectly (I purposely knit it in a slightly smaller gauge so it would be more form fitting) and the pattern was so easy to understand – if you’re a fan of interesting techniques you’ll appreciate the short-row sleeves. I love the little details like the floppy collar that looks just as great unbuttoned.

And the tiny pocket you can barely see unless you know it’s there. This was the first time I’d ever knit a pocket!

That being said, Twenty Ten was a total snoozefest to knit. With the exception of the cuffs and sleeves, it’s all moss stitch. Knitting this was so boring I lost the will to blog and it made me completely lose my knitting mojo for about three weeks because I couldn’t bring myself to knit another row of k1, p1.

The pattern calls for bulky weight yarn, but I knit mine with worsted and went up a size or two to accommodate the change. I used MadelineTosh Vintage, which is pretty much my all-time favorite sweater yarn now. It’s such a dream to knit with. The color is Dahlia and I have no clue what size needle I used. And even though moss stitch sucks up the yarn it didn’t use a ridiculous amount – just 900 yards.

These pictures were taken by the lovely Sarah (aka Sarie26) on Bainbridge Island while I was on a mini-break in Seattle in late June. Thank you dear!

HelloKnitty’s Twenty Ten – Ravelry link

Sadly, I can only take credit for the hat. The boy is all my sister’s doing.

This is my nephew, Brady. He’s two, and his favorite thing in the whole world is going to Home Depot to look at lawn mowers. He lives far away in Wisconsin, which I think is a shame because his parents deny him daily exposure to my charm, sparkling wit and potty mouth. I would totally make up for that last one with lots of free babysitting, which apparently isn’t good enough because he still remains 1500 miles away.

If we’re being truthful here, I am a sucky aunt because this is the first thing I’ve ever knit for him. And making him a hat wasn’t my idea, my sister asked. Sorry, sis. Please don’t take it personally.

Since I can’t do things like a normal person I modified the Turn a Square hat by Jared Flood instead of finding a toddler hat pattern. I made it a little big so hopefully it will fit him for more than one season. The yarn is Valley Yarns Goshen, a wonderfully soft cotton/rayon/silk blend in Black and Silver Lake.

A big thank you to my sister for taking the photographs. She’s pregnant again and has wised up with this one and two minutes after telling me the fantastic news handed me some yarn to make a hat for the baby. Smart move.

HelloKnitty’s Hat for Brady – Ravelry Link

Snore, I know.

Life is good though. Great, in fact. I haven’t fallen off of the healthy lifestyle wagon – I’m still eating right and exercising and have now lost around 95 lbs. My sister and her family visited from Wisconsin. She hadn’t been out to Idaho in nearly 20 years so this was super exciting. My husband got a fantastic new job and spent most of June in training in Seattle.

I went to visit him for a long weekend, and I hope you enjoy this picture (taken on top of the Space Needle) because it’s the only one I took on my entire trip. Which is not at all an indication of the time I had in Seattle, because I had a ball and would move there in a heartbeat if my husband liked large cities.

And I’ve been knitting.

That’s a sneak peak of one of my finished projects – there are three I need to show you!

And I’ve been designing. The second sleeve is nearly finished, then it’s on to the button bands. I’m so pleased with how this is turning out. I hope you love it because I really, really do. I don’t want to give away too much yet, but I will tell you this: it’s a cardigan.

I have been kicking myself for letting the blog go for so long without a word. Now that my husband is home and things have slowed down a bit around here that should change.

During my kinda-sorta spring break last week I managed to finish up all my projects that were laying around, the last of them (and quite possibly my favorite) being my Tea Leaves Cardigan.

You wouldn’t think the simple gathered yoke would be all that exciting, but it really knits up beautifully. I am such a sucker for this sort of pattern: a cardigan that only buttons at the top with a detail around the yoke. My Ravelry queue isn’t filled with million sweaters like this, and I’m not really sure why because they’re so wearable.

As usual, the yarn deserves a lot of credit in making the cardigan look so nice – it’s MadelineTosh DK in Oxblood, a color I absolutely adore. When my Mom saw this sweater, her first comment was about how soft the yarn is. And she’s right. It’s gorgeous in every way.

I knit this pattern exactly how it was written, except for adding in another button hole and picking up less stitches for the button band. But if I were to knit this pattern a second time there is one change I would definitely make – for my tastes, the neck is a little too wide. It still turned out nicely, and it’s not anything that would make me not wear the sweater, just a personal preference.

HelloKnitty’s Tea Leaves Cardigan – Ravelry Link

My Thorpe is so very North Idaho. As proof, my husband and I went on a hike two minutes after this photo was taken, and ended up here:

It fits right in, doesn’t it?

Thorpe was knitted out of a South African Fine Merino handspun I bought from Pigeonroof Studios. The color is Forest, and it’s a heavy worsted weight.

This poor little hat sat unfinished for months as I tried (not very hard) to figure out what to do with the edging. I was going to ask someone to crochet the edging on like the pattern called for, but I felt so guilty asking someone to do what I should have gotten around to learning years ago. But since learning to crochet isn’t anywhere on my list of things to do, I ended up picking stitches up all around the brim and earflaps, purling one row, and binding off in the knit stitch. I think it ended up working perfectly!

HelloKnitty’s Thorpe – Ravelry link

Adelina is finished!

This lovely sweater is the newest design from Stash, Knit, Repeat. The pattern should be available sometime this month – I promise I’ll let you know as soon as it’s out. I’m stealing this description of it from Amy, the designer, because she says it way better than I could:

Adelina is a classic, fitted V-neck sweater with a bold stripe of color to give it a modern, figure-flattering edge. The stripe is continued around the hips and (square) neck on the back, but not vertically. The sleeves and hem are done with fairly deep 1×1 rib, there are princess seams for shaping, and there will be both 3/4-length and long sleeve options.

Since this was a test knit I made very few changes to the pattern. My only modifications were to knit the bottom hem out of the same size needles as the body (all the other rib was done with a needle size smaller), and I changed the gauge to accommodate my yarn choice – I knit a size 32″ to fit a 36″ bust.

My version is knitted out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport in Meet Brown, Joe and Rose Quartz. I held two strands together because, although I could get gauge with a single strand, the fabric was lighter than I wanted. If you remember, I was a little worried about the yarn irritating me, but it’s doesn’t. It’s incredibly soft.

HelloKnitty’s Adelina – Ravelry Link