Started a new project this week. Had been kind of driving myself crazy trying to figure out color combinations, but in the end, I decided to just use naturals for the lightest and darkest shades and mix and match medium tones in the charts. Hopefully the overall effect will be playful and eclectic. 🙂
Anyway, I’m working this one the same way I did the Fair Isle Experiment last year- only stranding and steeking the front. Will work the back separately in probably a solid color then assemble and do the edgings. But this time, since I know I’ll be cutting it open, I’ve added six steek stitches, so I have a little selvage to work with.
Feels good to have gotten a start on this. I find stranded colorwork so satisfying.
And while it’s been rainy and cool outside, in the hoophouse my sunflowers are going nuts-
About 8 feet tall now, they are finally developing flower buds Hopefully they bloom before they try to bust through the roof!
Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a good week, folks.
Finally off the needles this week is Daphne’s Bea cardigan vest-
Finally got the length just right, and found the perfect button in my stash.
Not doing any finishing on the armholes, as the slipped stitches form a nice edge on their own. Not a flashy knit, but I suspect it will get a lot of wear. Nice and light (12 oz), soft and fuzzy, in all the rich shades of the crazy girl herself
After all that garter stitch in a single yarn, I’m getting exited about switching things up a bit and doing stranded colorwork- revisiting the Alcott vest.
I went through my yarn stash and pulled all the yarns in the right weight range (~90-100 yds/oz)
and am working on a plan for the color combinations. I think I might actually only do the colorwork on the front of the vest- kind of a “Half Alcott”, if you will 😉
So we’re looking at side and neck steeks, then probably a solid color back. Should be fun!
Oh- and I forgot last week to introduce my two new chicken friends (adopted to keep Speck company since the untimely demise of our Wyandotte hen (d#$% ravens!)
They are mature Brabanter/Delaware girls. No names yet, but they seem to be settling in well, and are laying pretty regularly, which is an added bonus.
Apparently they were escape artists at their last home. They seem to be happy in the pasture and shed with Speck, though they are a little freaked out by the sheep, and try to steer clear of them.
Alrighty- that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a good week folks.
Been a while since I’ve posted a Daphne Bea project update.
In that time, I’ve alternately thought I was almost done, then ripped back the whole collar to add a couple inches to the body, then re-knit the collar, adding some additional short rows and increases so that the collar folds back and lays flat more readily.
And now (as of this afternoon), it is back off the needles-
I’ve not yet tried it on again, because it is way too hot right now (weather station is saying 89F).
So I am hiding in the house, drinking iced tea and waiting for the sun to start to go down.
I realized earlier today that I’d forgotten to post a followup on my recent lanolin collecting efforts.
Back in early May, I had maybe 2/3 cup of lanolin mixture that I’d skimmed from cooled fleece washwater, but I was hoping to get it a little more reduced. I played around with heating it, thinking maybe that some water would separate, and then when that failed, I decided to freeze it. Because, why not?
So nothing happened in the freezing itself, but once it was a solid block, I turned it out onto paper towels, and found that as it thawed, it let go of quite a bit of water into the towels, and I could easily scrape the remaining pasty substance off with a spatula. I think it lost about 1/3 of it’s volume.
Since then, I’ve used it to condition my potting bench
and also some garden tool handles. So I’m pretty chuffed about how that worked out.
A long, long time ago, I traveled to England with a school trip organized by my aunt, who taught English literature at a high school in the Chicago suburbs. We did day trips out to see various literary sights, but also got to spend quite a bit of time exploring London. I still have an item that I bought on that trip- a bright purple cable knit sweater.
It was the 80’s, so the style was drop-shoulder and oversized. I hadn’t worn it in years, but held onto it for primarily nostalgic reasons. But it was 100% wool- and I always thought that perhaps I could remodel it and give it a second act.
I don’t have a picture of the sweater right-side-out before the project began- but you can get an idea of the general shape from the reverse side
The issues I wanted to remedy- sleeves too short and wide, folded collar too tight, bottom hem ribbing too tight. I decided that I would remove the sleeves, rework the collar into a more relaxed crewneck, and reknit the bottom ribbing to give it a drapey finish.
I soon realized that the disassembly and reclaiming of the yarn for re-knitting was going to be complicated by the sweater’s construction.
All of the pieces had raw edges, sewn and serged. The only bit that was knit in the round was the collar, which I was able to remove in one piece and reclaim as a continuous length of yarn
Thankfully the new collar and sleeve finishing I had in mind wouldn’t take as much yarn as the doubled ribbing did.
I went with a 1×1 ribbing, and just secured the raw edges behind with whip stitching in a single strand of the garment yarn. Here’s a look at the inside of the armhole.
I was able to get it all pretty well secured and tidy, so I’m calling that a win. 🙂
The last bit was the bottom edge. I had to cut off the ribbing in order to unravel it. And the yarn came off in about 1.5 yard lengths. So, while I had plenty to re-knit with, it was chock full of ends. I was able to reknit most of the front using the remaining yarn from the original collar. But in the back side I had to make due with the shorter lengths. I overlapped the lengths at transition points in order to save myself some weaving in later on, and decided that a split hem would finish the new look nicely.
And with that, the 80’s London sweater, is now back in business as a slipover vest! To complete the 80’s London vibe, enjoy this classic from the Housemartins. You’re welcome 🙂
