Little Wit Knits – Unplugged

I wanted to find a cute dress to wear for our engagement photos because apparently I don’t wear cute dresses anymore. I picked up one at Macy’s that I rather liked until I got home and realized it was cut a bit low for my bust. So I decided, hey I’m a knitter I will just knit a shawl of some sort that will mask that and all shall be well. After perusing through all my brown yarn I stuck with the Cascade Heritage. It was pretty much the exact same color as the ribbon on my newly acquired dress. Then I putzed around for awhile trying to figure out what type of cover I really wanted.

Finally at knit night a week and a half before our photo shoot one of the ladies suggested Wrapped in Tradition and one of the other ladies happened to have it in her car! How fortuitous! I borrowed the pattern and then hemmed and hawed for a couple of days trying to figure out how I would modify it since I didn’t have quite the yardage the pattern called for. I finally sucked it up and cast on.

With 7 days until the photo shoot, folks were taking bets as to whether I would finish it on time. I knit steadily each night and may have spent a whole afternoon watching football, starting with the OSU/Wisconsin game (hello both times were wearing the same color! That does not make it easy to yell who scored to your loved one when you’re only half paying attention and they’re outside manning the grill) and ended with watching Drew Barrymore host SNL for as long as I could take it. [SNL is not as funny as it used to be although I do love me some Drew Barrymore.] I did finish the shawl in time. In fact, I finished it on Sunday while visiting The Boy’s grandparents. We drove home, I blocked it and it was totally dry by the time we headed out at 1pm on Monday.

Full length of the shawl.

Description: Chocolate Tradition Wrap
Pattern: Wrapped in Tradition by Shirley Paden from the Wrap Style book
Yarn used: 1 skein Cascade Yarns Heritage Solid Colorway 5609 (75% superwash merino, 25% nylon) 100g / 437yds
Care Instructions: Machine Wash
Needle Size: US 6 (4.0mm)
Modifications: I only knit 15 repeats of the Alpine lace border. Then I did the lacey holes, one repeat of the Clover and Diamonds section, another repeat of the lacey holes and then the Trellis Diamonds section. I finished off the top portion with a repeat of the lacey holes, maybe 2 repeats of the Daintier Chevron pattern (I can’t find my shawl!) and then the picot edging.
Finished Size: It’s a bit narrower than the original shawl and it only goes to just below my elbow (which is where I wanted it) whereas the original shawl should go pretty much down to the wrist.
Date Started: 10/5/2009
Date Completed: 10/11/2009
Notes: I am actually debating ripping out the last section and re-knitting it with a couple less repeats so that the neckline has more shaping like the original pattern intended. Since I was making up the numbers (and possibly not knitting to the same gauge) as I went along I wasn’t sure how narrow I could get away with.

Close up of the Trellis Diamonds section with a big grin

Some detail of the Clover and diamonds section

Another shot of the whole shawl in action.

Oh and nah, we didn’t go to and meet at OU that’s just a coinky dink. Go Bobcats! Oh and yes, we may have the DVD with all of our Engagement photos in our possession now.

So it appears I have been a bit remiss in posting my FOs. Shame on me. When we left to go on our vacation to Seattle in June (oh I s’pose I didn’t blog about that either did I? Well we went and it was great!) I took along Sahara to work on during the flights and downtime at the airport.

True story, while we were waiting for our flight in Atlanta, I could not for the life of me find my nail clippers that I carry in my bag for cutting yarn. I even searched my bag twice. I then stupidly tried to break the silk yarn and accomplished nothing other than cutting my hands. Then I started asking other passengers if they had nail clippers and no one did. So I went up to the gate agent to see if she had anything but alas, they aren’t allowed to have scissors either. However, this gate agent was one smart cookie. She said “well you could burn it” and whipped out her lighter to burn the yarn to break it for me. Hooray!

I wouldn’t say this sweater was my greatest work ever. In fact, if I were to give the pattern a second chance I think I would ditch the silk entirely and find a nice squishy superwash merino to knit it in. I would also make the long sleeved version. I think that combo would probably look better on me.

Description: Silver Sahara
Pattern: Sahara by Wendy Bernard
Yarn used: 3.5 skeins of Tilli Tomas Plie Colorway Atmosphere 3033 (100% plied silk ) 50g / 140 yds and .5 skeins of Tilli Tomas Disco Lights Colorway Atmosphere (100% Silk with a strand of sequins) 100g/ 225yds.
Care Instructions: Dry clean or hand wash while saying a prayer
Needle Size: US 6 (4.0mm) and US 4 (3.5mm)
Modifications: Nothing overly drastic. I may have knit my own version of the Diamond Rib pattern on the arms because I am silly and worked the wrong version.
Finished Size: I knit the XS (I think?)
Date Started: 6/17/2009
Date Completed: 7/30/2009
Notes: I made some goober mistakes somewhere and took out markers when I shouldn’t have which may have caused the problem with my “decrease seams” going in opposite directions. Oh well. It works. I wasn’t a very big fan of the pattern layout although I hear that is a Stitch Diva thing and not a Wendy Bernard thing. Also I had some issue with the stitch counts, no matter how I interpreted/reread the directions I could not get them to come out to the numbers in the pattern. Finally, I just decided I didn’t care. Can you tell it was vacation knitting?

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Caricia completed

I wanted a portable project to work on while I was at MDSW so I tossed this yarn and the pattern into my bag. I had to finish up my mom’s Mother’s day socks on the way over but on the way back I started this shawl. I then took it with me to Germany, knitting on it diligently the whole flight over. Until I was short a stitch, then I tinked back a row and was still short a stitch. Then I ripped the whole repeat and was still short a stitch. Mind you this was oh 6 hrs into my flight and was roughly about 1 am, I should have just gone to sleep! I picked it back up the next evening and knit the repeat again but was still short a stitch so I didn’t do much else on it until I got home. When I got home I ripped the repeat one last time vowing that perchance this time it would work. And you know what? It did. So lord only knows what I was doing while I was sleep deprived but after that final time of walking through the repeat slowly this shawl did nothing but fly off my needles. I really really liked the pattern and will probably do more of her patterns in the future. I love my shawl! Pictures below.

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Description: Icicle Caricia
Pattern: Caricia by Anne Hanson from KnitSpot
Yarn used: 1 skein of Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel sock in Colorway Icicle (Merino, tencel ) 100g / 400 yds
Care Instructions: handwash
Needle Size: US 4 (3.5mm)
Modifications: none
Finished Size: mini
Date Started: 5/3/2009
Date Completed: 5/26/2009
Notes: The charts may have taken me a moment or two to figure out but once I did. Boy did this thing fly off my needles!

Close up of Vivian cables

On January 1 of this year I cast on for the Vivian cardigan from the Winter 2008 Twist Collective. I thought that maybe if I worked diligently I could have it done by the end of February. You know I could have been right but well I kept running into snags with it. Things like I dunno casting on for it in the round even though it’s knit back and forth. (Who’s the smartest gal in the world?) Then there was the moth scare which it got caught in the crossfire of. Then for some reason it just ate up all my yarn. Thankfully I ordered a few extra balls. Unfortunately I had knit those into swatches when I was trying to design something a few months ago. As I neared the end of the saddles I decided that while I totally adore hoodies, it’s rare that I put the hood up. Ok I do use them in the rain. I also *really* wanted to complete this cardigan so I could finish it. So I made a short collar and did an i-cord bind off all around. Then I blocked it, and it started to grow, but since I had already bought the zipper I blocked it to the length of the zipper. I think it took me about another month to get around to hand sewing in the zipper. But now it’s done. Officially done. Pictures below.

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Description: Amethyst Vivian
Pattern: Vivian by Ysolda Teague
Yarn used: 16.5 skeins of Uruguay Chunky Colorway Amethyst (70% Merino Wool, 20% Baby Alpaca, 10% Silk) 50g / 73yds
Care Instructions: Handwash
Needle Size: US 8 (6.0 mm)
Modifications: No hood. I did an inch or so collar instead with an i-cord bindoff around the edges.
Finished Size: 34″
Date Started: 1/1/2009
Date Completed: 4/17/2009
Notes: You know I kind of adore this sweater. If I were to knit it again (and I plan to) I think I would actually knit it down a size but do something to expand the forearm width. It grew a good amount in blocking and will easily fit over most of my shirts. So I think going down a size would give it a more fitted look than it currently has.

Once I finished the Fern Fitted Shell I had a smidgen less than one full skein left. So what was I to do but knit another pair of Hello Yarn‘s Cable Twist socks? I still love this pattern. Originally the socks were for me but as I knit them I knew they needed to be my mother’s Mother’s day gift. I was able to knock them out at MDSW and wrapped them up for the boy to deliver while I was away. I hear she likes them.

Description: Blue Cable Socks
Pattern: Cable Twist Socks by Adrian Bizilia
Yarn used: .9 skeins of Shelridge Farm Soft Touch W4 Colorway Turquoise (100% wool) 100g / 200yds
Care Instructions: machine wash gentle
Needle Size: US 3 (3.25mm)
Modifications: none.
Finished Size: US Women’s 7
Date Started: 4/28/2009
Date Completed: 5/2/2009
Notes: No notes. I love this pattern and may just continue to make it again and again and again.

PS – Please excuse the bad pictures. I had to take them quickly before hopping on an airplane