Category: Blog

First snow of the season hit yesterday.

And it is still here, as it has remained mighty cold (by PNW standards).

At least it provided a bit of a backdrop for this year’s holiday card photo:

Aren’t they sweet boys? Bruno was kind of nervous about getting in the front loader, but it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have enough cookies on hand.

I’ve been busy spinning up the Border Leicester so I can keep my experimental project going,

and trying to get some cookie baking done so I have goodies to share (sorry, no photos yet!).

As per usual, I’ve feeling terribly behind on Christmas stuff, but hopefully I can wrap up the remaining essential items on the to-do list tomorrow and proceed to have a fairly stress-free holiday season.

That’s the plan anyway.

Wish me luck.

The experimental knitting is progressing nicely.

It now has a bit of a back,

and the beginnings of two sleeves:

At the back, I’m increasing on either side just before the stitches I cast on under the arms. My hope is to create a nice swingy feel to the coat. Hard to tell yet if it will work out the way I ‘m envisioning.

And I’m about out of the black/charcoal wool I’ve been using for the last few inches, so I’m going to have to find (or spin up) something compatible to finish it off.

The Border Leicester fleece that I brought home last month would be a nice match. Have some washed and picked,, but I’d hate to have to stall out on the knitting to spin up the remainder. I’ll have to consult the stash.

As an aside-The BL is really a treat. I’ve spun some in the grease, and some washed up and carded, and I like it both ways. It’s quite a bit finer and silkier than the last of that breed I worked with.

That’s it for now-

Thought I should finally post some shots of the finished Urban Aran and Oregon Vest.

So, without further ado, here is the former, front,

and back.

And the latter:

If I would change anything about the Urban Aran, I might take and inch of length off the sleeves. In fact, I might still do that. I don’t think it would be too hard. If I decide to give it a shot, I’ll let your know.
I wouldn’t change a thing about the vest. It’s really great. In fact, I would knit a whole bunch of these in different colors and wear them all the time. Super toasty in the heavy worsted/chunky Romney three ply. This is the first Oat Couture garment I’ve knit ( I don’t work from patterns much), but based on how it turned out, I might try another.

I have to admit,, I did make a few small modifications to the pattern. A little bit of waist shaping so it wouldn’t be so boxy, and some short rows to slope the shoulders a smidge. I think that they do help to fine tune the fit.

In other news,, the experimental sweater coat progresses, but is not yet at the exciting stage where the sleeves take off from the body,, so you’ll have to wait ’til next week for photos!

Denise out.

Remember this scarf?

It was a lovely scarf.

But I couldn’t help but think that it wanted to be something more.

So here it is, becoming more. A raglan open-front sweater coat.

At least, that is the general plan. I really like the idea of having the cable panel as a collar.

Here’s the layout:

A closer look at the shoulder and back increases:

The only difference between this and a regular top-down raglan is that on the front shoulder raglan seam you only increase on the shoulder side. On the front side you decrease. Tricky, eh?

And the fronts are going to end up knit side-to-side, where the back is top-to-bottom. So it might be kind of interesting sewing the side seams. But I’ll figure that out when I get there.

In other news, I have successfully installed a zipper in the Oregon Vest. Still have a bit of other finishing to do, and then it will be ready for a photo shoot!

And fresh off the wheel-

This is the white spot (and some surrounding intermediate coloration) off Mariah from Little Country Acres. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Denise out.