2010 sweaters

I love making hats and mittens, but I will always be a sweater knitter at heart. I started knitting because I dreamed about making my own sweaters, and over the years since then, I've always measured my ability as a knitter by what sort of sweaters I was able to knit. Sweaters, for me, are the perfect knitting project - they take long enough that there's a sense of accomplishment afterwards, but there's enough variation in the construction to keep from getting bored. There's just something immensely satisfying, also, about making an actual garment - especially since I'm generally too scattered to remember to wear mittens every day, but I can (at least) be counted on to wear clothes.

In any case, here are the sweaters of 2010: above was the first I managed to finish, a Vine Yoke cardigan in Dream in Color Classy (Deep Sea Flower.) This is such a gorgeous pattern. I was so happy with the resulting fit, and the color of the yarn is amazingly beautiful.

This Wispy cardi was a bit of a beast to knit: tiny yarn + slippery needles = one seriously unhappy Mikka. It was nicely portable, though - I did it a lot of this one on trains in Central Honshu during our cheap ticket local trains only extravaganza - and once it was finished, I wore it all through the summer. Though it may be awhile before I attempt a laceweight sweater again, I do absolutely love the delicacy and the drapiness of the resultant fabric. This was my first project with Madelinetosh yarn, and the luminous Gilded colorway was enough to make me an instant convert.

Francis Revisited - also in Madelinetosh, this time in tosk dk in Duchess - knitted up really, really fast: hooray for size 9 needles! 

I'd been wanting to knit Wendy Bernard's Favorite Cardigan for at least a year; this was tosh dk in Tart and it's probably my favorite of all the sweaters from the last year. The neck is quite wide, because I left off one raglan, increase and cast on more stitches, which I might not do again if I knit this again, but I was still super happy with the results. This is the first pattern I've ever knit by Wendy Bernard, and I am constantly impressed by how gorgeous it is - fortunately, now I have a whole book of sweaters of hers for possible 2011 sweaters...

And then there was a second Vine Yoke cardigan, this time in Lorna's Laces Ysolda Red (I know, groupie-est sweater EVER, right?) I wear this one way more than it's blue predecessor, as it goes better with jeans :-) I am especially pleased by the fact that I was able to squeeze a sweater out of just three balls, as Lorna's Laces is not cheap.

This Owls sweater was another re-knit: the first met its untimely end in the dryer at the beginning of 2010. My stepdad felt really bad, though; he even paid for the replacement yarn (Cascade Eco-Wool, same as the first one). The last Owls sweater was knit in hotel rooms in Hai Ning and Beijing while we taught at an insane summer camp in 2009, and then finished during my first visit to Iain's family's house in Scotland, so knitting this again ended up bringing back a lot of happy memories. 

So those were the sweaters of 2010! Considering the massive undertaking that sweaters once represented for me, I was a bit surprised to realize that on average, each of these only took me about two to three weeks, not counting for distraction. Also, yay for audiobooks: most of these were knit to the sound of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, World War Z, the Little Stranger and We Need to Talk about Kevin, amongst other things). Weirdly, all of these were knit during the hottest months of the year, which made trying them on a bit difficult at the time, but which was much appreciated by the time the cold weather finally rolled around...

2011 knitting resolutions

I'm pretty bad at New Year's Resolutions, typically, though I did manage to keep up my goal last summer of knitting six sweaters in the last half of 2010 (though I didn't manage to finish that Vivian sweater). I guess goals related to something I love doing are a bit easier than my annual promise to start jogging regularly, but in any case, here are my knitting-related New Years Resolutions for 2011:

1. Finish the Vivian sweater that I started way back in December 2009. For real this time.
2. Finish the February lady sweater that's been sitting in a sad pile next to my bed for four weeks now.
3. Seven sweaters fit to be worn in public. (I love making hats and cute tiny accessories, but I really do love knitting sweaters more than anything else.)
4. ... at least one of which that I've designed myself.
5. Finish the reading/viewing for the Design Your Own Shawl class, for which I have woefully fallen off the wagon during the craziness of the holidays.
6. ... and then actually design a shawl using the information from this class.

above: I swear I'll finish this eventually..

And, finally, one stash related resolution, and really the entire point of writing this whole post, because if I post it here, then it's official, difficult as it will be: 

7. No buying new yarn until I've used the yarn that's accumulated in our tiny apartment - with only 3 months left before we have to pack all of our belongings up and hit the road for a good 3 months of suitcase living, the last thing I need to do is collect more stuff. There is plenty of gorgeous yarn lying around to keep me occupied. 

So that's it!  What are your knitting related New Year's Resolutions? 

new pattern: thisbe

It took a bit longer than I expected, but Thisbe is now up for sale on Ravelry! 

Thisbe was a Christmas present for my sister, who had  requested a red slouchy beret. It took me four attempts to get a hat I was happy with, but after a few false starts, I am quite happy with the resulting hat, which uses a twisted rib brim and a sinuous vine-like lace pattern. Several of my test knitters worked this beret in bulkier and lighter yarns (adding or decreasing pattern repeats) and they came out beautifully as well, so I think that this pattern can handle a lot of customizing to suit whatever yarn you have floating around :-) which is my favorite kind of project. 

buy now for $5 - with an extra 25% off during its first week, through January 9th!

really big yarn!

One of the most exciting things about being home (okay, after the family and the friends and the food and the ability to understand people) is the ability to actually visit local yarn shops! I also feel kind of guilty dragging people along with me, though, so when my sister held up a skein of Malabrigo Rasta and asked if I could make her a scarf, I of course said yes. I'd never seen Rasta in person before - the downside of doing most of my shopping for yarn in tri-annual online shopping binges is that I almost never pick up anything I'm not already looking for, and I almost never use bulky yarn. Rasta could make me a convert to both super bulky and crazy variegated yarn, though - the colors look like a watercolor in the skein, and almost luminous in seed stitch - so, so gorgeous.

The store only had one skein of the color my sister liked (indiecitas), so I opted instead to make a cowl. I'm about half an hour into the Marian Cowl by Jane Richmond (link forthcoming), and am both loving and vaguely unsettled by knitting with insanely chunky 15 needles. It's kind of like knitting with toy knitting needles, or something, but I'm certainly not complaining, especially since I'm almost halfway through already.

red

Thisbe test knits are underway - several testers are already done, and it's a crazy rush for me to be able to see my hat knit up by other people. This week has been insanely busy with travel planning, end of the month reports, new classes and - very excitingly - a very brief visit from my father, so, no proper post today, sadly...

non-gift hat

This is the prototype of a new hat pattern I am in the process of writing - it was supposed to be a hat for my sister, but it's a bit large - not a problem for me, as I like slouchy hats and can easily sew in some elastic if it gets too stretched out - but I'm not totally sure of her head-size, and so I actually made her a different one that was a tiny bit smaller in a different color, which is blocking right now. Better photos to follow soon, hopefully; if all goes well, I should be able to put it up for test knitting soon, where I'm hoping I'll find at least 2 takers given the insanely busy time of year.

necessity mittens

These were all set to be a regular pair of Arden handwarmers, but while knitting them, I noticed my fingers were uncomfortably freezing and so made a snap decision to make them into mittens instead.  Numazu is bitingly cold in the mornings and evenings, and the lack of insulation in our apartment makes the cold that much more pervasive. 

I tried to take good notes on how I worked the decreases on the top - even mentally congratulating myself on being so thorough, as I often have this problem with mittens - but  it was several days before I made it to Mitten #2, and I quickly realized that my scribbled notes meant next to nothing at times. Oh, well.  Still, the mittens at least look roughly the same - it's just for me, anyway, so I'm not too fussed. 

The primary changes I made for this pair of mittens was knitting at a tighter gauge using size 6 needles. Then I started the thumb increase at Row 50; and then continued the cable pattern to Row 94, where I began decreasing, binding off after Row 100. The thumbs were worked for 10 rows of purl stitches, and then decreased in two rows. I might write up the decreases in more detail eventually, but I think it will require much deciphering of my poor, confused notes. In the meantime, I'm just happy to have something to wear while I ride my bike through the wind and the cold!

Also, random important life lesson: I cannot pose for mitten photos to save my life.