It's too hot to wear these, but...

...here are some mittens I finished a bit ago. They only took me a little over a year to finish. o.O


Pattern: A Bird in the Hand Mittens by Jorid Linvik
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock in a variegated blue and a variegated beige.
Needles: US 2.5
Started: January 16, 2009
Finished: March 9, 2010

I really enjoyed working on these. The only reason they took so long is because I kept setting them aside to work on other things. They were the red-headed stepchildren of my project basket, poor things. But now they are done, just in time for...summer! Doh! Oh well. At least I'm prepared for this next winter!



I have yet to duplicate stitch the bird on the palm (hence the 'bird in the hand') or the red heart, but that's because I haven't found the yarn I want to use to do that yet. They are nice and toasty - the silk garden sock yarn is very silky and scrumptious - the perfect yarn for mittens!

Happy Knitting!

Ravelympics/ Knitting Olympics Gold!

I finished my sweater in time to cross the finish line! Yay! It was finished at 4:35pm EST Sunday.

So, here it is - my finished Ravelympics Sweater!

Pattern: Autumn Rose by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in 11 colors
Needles: US 3 for most of it (and US 2,1 and 0 for neck ribbing)
Size knitted: size 37 (with alterations - see below)
Started: Feb 12, 2010 at 9pm EST
Finished: Feb 28. 2010 at 4:35pm EST
Total Time: 90 hours

Modifications:

• Changed the color palette (I'll list the exact colors I used below)

• Added length to the body - extended the pattern down to the bottom of the chart (12 rows), and kept the decrease rate the same (12 extra stitches for cast on).

• Raised and narrowed the neckline. I raised the neckline to the same row as the sleeve division, and narrowed it by 4 stitches each side.

• Lowered the yoke to the smallest size's height. A lot of previous knitters noted that the yoke was too deep when worked as written.

• Lengthened sleeves and worked sleeves one size up, per the 39 size chart. Started sleeves on same row of chart as the body started. Charted out evenly spaced increases to decrease down to 35 stitches on chart (69 stitches total including the seam stitch). Mirrored bottom corrugated ribbing on the sleeve cuffs. Worked the rib over 64 stitches and then increased to 69 stitches before starting chart.

• Adjusted the raglan decreases (since I altered the neckline and the yoke height along with the sleeve width). Worked 5 sets of decreases every third row, then 10 sets of decreases every other row, then 14 sets of decreases every row. I did this on both the body and the sleeves. The sleeves ended up with a stitch count of 19 at the neckline.
  

• Kept color change in neck ribbing to mimic the bottom and cuff ribbing.

Overall I am extremely pleased with how this turned out! It fits like a dream now that it's blocked. I was concerned about some bunching that I was getting (pre-blocking) in the sleeve cap area, but it all blocked out and the raglan sleeves fit wonderfully! The Palette yarn is very soft, especially after blocking - yet it has the sticky quality that you want in fair isle. I did not reinforce my steek at all prior to cutting and it's holding together just fine.

Sleeve seam detail

My Color Palette:

Old Gold = Ash
Bracken = Marble
Pistachio = Fog
Yellow Ochre = Mist
Scotch Broom = White
Shetland Black = Asphalt
Pine Forest = Ivy
Admiral Navy = Clover
Peat = Spearmint
Sunrise = Celedon
Madder = Edamame

Here is what I came away with this time around with the Ravelympics:

I was crazy to pick such an ambitious project. Next time around I will not be so crazy - in order to save my sanity and the sanity of my entire household. I was determined to not 'fail', so housework and homeschooling and anything other than knitting was put on the back burner. Not a bad thing in and of itself , but I think next time around I'll take things a bit easier, and hence have a cleaner house and less rambunctious children during the games. (Really, who cares that my house was a mess for two weeks? And the kids were really great the whole time - they just watched a bit more tv than normal.) As proof of how much knitting I was doing each day - I even dreamed about knitting on this sweater several nights there!

I am very proud of myself - I proved to myself that I could, in fact, knit an entire fair isle sweater in 17 days. Because, I guess, I needed to prove that to myself for some strange reason. Now that that is done, I am going to take things a bit easy on the knitting front - well, for just a day or two anyway!

Happy Knitting everyone!!

Ravelympics Progress

We're into Day 6 of the Knitting Olympics. I've made a good bit of progress on my sweater. It seems like it is slow going as I'm knitting, but it really is growing by leaps and bounds!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

My main concern right now is whether it's going to fit or not. I put it on waste yarn on Monday to try it on, and it fit fine at that point. Now that I'm past the hip decreases and started the increases I think I'm going to pause and try it on again just to be sure the waist fits. We'll see. I know it'll block a little larger in the end, so there's a bit of wiggle room if it's a tiny bit too small. (I hope!)

I absolutely love the Winter Olympics - especially the figure skating, so I've been enjoying watching the last few nights. I don't know how much longer I can keep up the past-midnight bedtimes, though!

Keep it up, all of my fellow Knitting Olympians! 12 more days to go!

Gearing up for Ravelympics

So, for those of you who are not knitters (are there any non-knitters that even read this blog??) the Ravelympics is an event which takes place on the knitting community of Ravelry during the Olympic Games. The idea is that you pick a project (or projects) that is/are a challenge to complete within the two week time frame of the Olympic Games. You don't cast on until the Opening Ceremonies and you have to finish before the end of the Closing Ceremonies. Teams form for the purpose of cheering each other on.

I participated two years ago, and didn't do too bad. I focused on getting gift knits done, and I had a total of 4 projects cross the finish line.

This year I have gone bonkers. I am going to attempt to knit the Autumn Rose pullover by Eunny Jang. Fair Isle. Sweater. In two weeks. Yep - bonkers.

There's a bit of prep involved with a project like this.

First, I do not like the colors that the original is knit in. Oh, don't get me wrong - I think the sweater is gorgeous - it's just not in colors that I prefer to wear. So, I'm switching colors. And I want to use Knit Picks Palette yarn instead of the yarn called for. I've used Palette a lot and I like it - plus it's very inexpensive. So the quest for the perfect colors must begin prior to the Opening Ceremonies.

Secondly, I've heard that there are some issues with the fit of this sweater. I'm going to make adjustments to the pattern so that it fits my body better. I don't like plunging necklines, so I'm going to raise the neckline - which is easily enough accomplished. And I want to make the sweater a bit longer - it's a little bit short for my taste - again, that's easily done. The more difficult changes are to make the shoulder to armhole depth a bit shallower while adding in a bit more room in the upper arm of the sleeve. I'm going to have to plan those changes out ahead of time, and re-chart the pattern.

So, I've already done all my swatching - to pinpoint my colors and to check gauge (very important!!)

I'm going with a green color scheme. Here's swatch #1:


I don't like the yellow-green in the bottom check section. And the bottom of the medallion does not have enough contrast. Plus my gauge was a bit too tight. So on to try #2:

I tried out two different color combos for the check section. I've decided that while the yellows are pretty, I think they're too bright for the overall sweater - the greens in the medallion are muted and the yellows seem to scream at me a bit too much. So I'm going with the colors up top for the check section. And notice how the bottom (and top) of the medallion has more contrast now? I'm happy with these colors. I also went up a needle size and my gauge is much better.

I haven't made all my design changes yet. I'm going to try to get those done this week. I foresee lots of pen and pencil marks on lots of charts.

I am so anxious to cast this sweater on! The swatch sure whet my appetite for knitting this sweater!! I don't know how I'm going to make it a whole two weeks (almost) before the Opening Ceremonies. Oh well - I'll continue knitting on my WIPs until then. But it'll be pure agony, I tell you.