Anyone who has been reading this blog from the beginning may remember that I started it at the urging of my friend Kate. I know that during the summer she does not have good computer access, so I get lazy and let it go. Now I have been reminded that summer is over, and it's time to pick it up again. So here we go!
Lots of fun knitting happened this summer, although I can't say I have actually finished anything. Well, that's typical. However, I did spend the time working with the yarns I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which is what I said I would do, so at some level I consider the summer a success. The first project was the beige organic cotton. Here it is:
Looks finished, doesn't it? Well, I knitted it a little large, so I decided to take it in on the sides and (gulp) cut away the extra the same way you do steeks. So I sewed up side seams (was surprised that they came out looking pretty nice) and have not had the courage to actually cut into my knitting. I have to do it though. The sides are too bulky otherwise.
I have photographed the top along with the skirt I am making to go with it, also almost finished. The skirt is from a modern adaptation of a 1940's pattern. It has pockets with cute V-shaped top openings. If you look, you can see them there. I love this pattern. It also fits well and makes me look shapely. It is from a company called
Decades of Style.
Here's a close-up of the neck edge and cabling. It was knitted top down with raglan shaping. Garter stitch neck edge.
Then in June I took a class on entrelac with
Gwen Bortner. If you ever get a chance to see her or take a class with her, do it. She's a great teacher and a fun person. Since then I have been totally enamored of entrelac. So I started the next project, an entrelac top in pink and brown:
As you can see, it's still on the needles. It's just a bottom up entrelac tube, seemed simple enough for a first project. Now I'm up to where I have to do some shaping. It will be simple, just split the sides and knit to the shoulders to make a cap sleeve (a style I'm particularly fond of) and then a square neck. Seems to be the right shape to go with this pattern.
I have staged the top with the fabrics which inspired it, a brown linen which will probably become a summer dress I can wear under the top and an art deco look cotton velveteen I bought ages ago at Vogue Fabrics. I have always thought it would make a fun jacket in a simple unconstructed style. I thought the diagonal quality of the entrelac would be interesting with it. I didn't buy the yarns to go with the fabric, but when I realized I had yarns in the right colors already, it seemed like fate.
Not being one to have only one or even two projects going at a time (!) and being hotly curious to see what the Noro lace weight I bought at sheep and wool would work up like, I also started something called a mananita (that first n should have a tilde over it, it's Spanish) from the book
Shawls and Scarves. You can see some pictures of someone else's finished product
here. Mine is about 2/3 done, and like most lace, it doesn't look like much but a mess right now. Can't wait to block it and see how it looks!
The first weekend in August I went to the Knit-Out at
the Mannings with my knitting group from school. It was a bit rainy, but I took my pop-up shelter, and we were able to stay sufficiently dry. That day I started my final project for the summer: a baby blanket for one of my part-time workers, who is due in October. The ultrasound says she's having a boy. At the Mannings I found a nice variegated washable worsted weight yarn in shades of blue and teal. Being still enamored of entrelac, I decided to make the blanket in entrelac. Since I like blankets to look the same on both sides, I decided on garter stitch instead of stockinette, and since I wanted the blanket to have some drape, I decided on a larger square for the entrelac, about 3 inches. It will be a substantial blanket, but I figured an October baby can use a warmer blanket. To make it somewhat more interesting to knit, I also decided to knit some stockinette hearts into some of the squares. They're subtle, but they're there. So here it is so far:
The colors in this photo are a little too gray, but you get the idea. I think it'll need a little blocking to square up the squares. I think this yarn turned out to be a little short in the color changes for really good entrelac, but anyway it'll be fun and functional for a baby.
So those are the current projects. My goal is to finish the two tops for the NSKO, and of course finish the baby blanket before the end of Sept. I think my big project for the NSKO will be an Aran sweater for my mom made from some Jacob sheep sport weight purchased from my friend Ralene. Here's one of the preparatory swatches for that:
Okay, enough of writing about it, gotta go knit!
