Month: June 2024

knitting

Big Sister

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I don’t often knit a sweater exactly as the pattern says. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some kind of knitting goddess who can make a sweater up as she goes and still have it sized to fit me. It’s just that a pattern will say Japanese short rows, and I go “no thanks, I’ll stick with my German short rows” or it’ll say long sleeves and I don’t want long sleeves. Nothing major, I just change things to fit my knitting and wearing preferences.

This, though, is the Big Sister cardigan by Hinterm Stein, and for the first time in ages, I didn’t find a single thing in the pattern I wanted to change. The start, a rectangle on the back, increasing into the shoulders and then fronts, is cleverly done and intuitive. The notch at the collar is just right, and keeps the faux-ribbing at the edges from pulling in too much and looking like the button band area is a size too small. Knitting on the bottom edging with the 1-2 decrease pattern works perfectly. Also, done in aran yarn (which is undyed donegal aran from wool2dyefor), it’s going to be a super snuggly sweater for the wintertime, which given the local climate, will be able to double as my winter coat. Given the deep pockets, I think it’ll be the perfect winter coat.

knitting

Finished Applesauce Sweater

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Hey! It’s not blocked yet, but my crisscross shirt is done. The edges are rolling a little in the photos, but I’m sure a wash and block will cure that. As is my usual issue with speckled yarn, I think it looks better in person than photos, so I’m sorry they look pretty meh. (the yarn in the skein looks beautiful, obviously, and in person, the sweater looks pretty great in my opinion.)

The pattern is nice and simple, well-written and easy to follow, with a great schematic, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the designer in the future. Love these useful, wearable designs, and think I’ll get a lot of use out of the sweater.

knitting

Socks again!

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Back to those #PridePodMAL socks, they’re done! This is what happens when you make socks for a person with tiny feet, I think, and it’s kind of amazing. They took maybe 12 hours of knitting all together, and they’re done. Again, it’s the Wildwood Socks pattern by Catherine Meyer aka GingerDogKnits. The lace pattern is quite simple, both written and charted, and I love how it turns out.

The color is terribly washed out in the photo, it’s called pistachio, and IRL it’s a beautiful tonal cool green I got from the Etsy shop WhimzeeStitches. I’m really glad I probably have enough left of it to make myself a pair of short socks too.

Since the socks are very small, I didn’t block them on my giant foot sock blockers and stretch them all out of shape; I’m waiting till a pair of smaller blockers I ordered comes in, since I won’t be seeing the recipient for the next few weeks anyway. I know sock blockers aren’t a requirement, but I like the uniform way they make the socks look, so I use them.

This is the first time I’ve finished a pair of socks in . . . a while. But they went well and were fun, so I think I’ll be going back to more of them. Goodness knows I have enough sock yarn waiting to be used.

knitting

Double Agent Double-Cross

Lindey2 Comments

Since I don’t have enough to do in June, or maybe ever, I’ve also decided to take part in Camp Loopy, hosted by The Loopy Ewe every summer. I used to do them early on, and when they emailed this May, I was in the mood for some lovely timed knitting.

The first month’s mission is pretty simple: I’m looking for a double agent. (yes, it’s silly, just go with it.) So I got myself two different colors of Wollmeise Twin to make the Applesauce shirt by Noriko Ho, doubling up all over the place.

Here’s the pattern sample of the sweater, sleeveless as I intend to make it.

I’m going to make it from a beautiful speckled yellow and even more beautiful variegated purple / burgundy:

Shouldn’t be more than a few days of knitting, and I’m looking forward to getting it done!

knitting

Pride Make-a-long

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One of the podcasts I’ve been listening to started talking about a Pride make-along a few months back, and she said that other podcasts were also involved. So the result has been that I started listening to / watching another few podcasts that are also involved, bought some yarn and project bags, and will be getting a pattern to get involved.

Because at this point in life, I’m all about Pride. The very concept is the opposite of shame, which we’ve been trained to feel for too many reasons, and I no longer have any use for that in my life.

Not that a rainbow bag and ace flag wallet is going to change the world, but also . . . in small ways, we can all change the world. One person and one interaction at a time.

So today I’m casting on some Wildwood Socks by Catherine Meyer with Whimzee Stitches yarn, in one of their project bags as well. So LGBTQA+ creators all around, including the knitter, since I’m maybe the acest romance writer out there. Not that it’s a competition.

If you want to join me, they’ve got a group over here: Pride Pod MAL