How Did I End Up With So Many Green Sweaters?!

How do you choose the colors you want to knit a sweater from?

While I start choosing a shawl based on the colors of the yarn and how much I love the yarn, when I choose a sweater project I tend to start with a pattern I love and a yarn I think would work and choose a color of that specific yarn. This has lead to the following stats:

I've knit...

• 3 green sweaters
• 3 red sweaters
• 2 purple sweaters
• 1 1/2 white sweaters (I have one in progress)
• 1 blue sweater
• 1 brown sweater
• 1 gray sweater

I don't think I look particularly wonderful in yellow, so I don't mind that I've skipped that part of the color wheel. I have been thinking of what my next sweater should be. I'm thinking either Jean from Pom Pom Magazine. I have some orange DK weight from Ellen's Half Pint Farm I bought in 2007 at Rhinebeck. It might be nice to use it before it will have been in my stash for 10 years. And you'll notice that orange isn't a color featured on that list of colors!



I'm also contemplating a yoke sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman that I've been thinking about for several years now. In my head, this sweater is navy blue and has a ring of white stars around the yoke. I think they'd be hand drawn stars, though, not perfect ones. I got this idea after seeing someone with an EZ Yoke sweater the first time I went to Rhinebeck. Hers had a yoke that had a kind of Greek wave pattern on it. At some point after that I started thinking about this kind of sweater (I feel like it was very close to having met that woman, actually, on the benches of the food court part of the fairgrounds). I've thought about this sweater quite often throughout the years, and I think this might be the year it becomes a reality.

At Rhinebeck in 2014 I bought some worsted weight blue yarn and white yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery. I'm just not sure if I actually have enough white to accomplish the stars as big as I'd want them. I might need another skein of the white, which due to dye lots, I'd probably have to buy two more and add the first to the PILE of white yarn I have on hand for whenever someone decides they need a bouquet of white pom-poms again.

All the talk this year seems to focus on Icelandic yoked sweaters, but that cabled sweater is so pretty and I already know I have yarn for it that would work. What do you think I should do first?

Also: How do you choose the colors you want to use to knit a sweater?

Preparing for Yarn Disasters

This is probably something I should have posted before the hurricane, but there were a few other things I was a little concerned about. I live in a basement apartment, and it was entirely possible during the storm that we would get a little to a lot of flooding. I also knew there would a LOT of time spent with my boyfriend's family and that knitting might prevent me from harming any of them. Here's what I did to prepare:

When I moved to this apartment, I was worried about what could happen to my yarn, and I needed an easy way to transport it as well. I put it all in clear plastic bins from The Container Store. Amusingly, these boxes were called Sweater Boxes (and they stack on top of each other!). The plastic proved to be a good move, as there were a few boxes on the floor that ended up getting wet, but the yarn inside them is totally fine.

I have a box of pretty yarn that I usually keep on the floor next to the TV. It's in a fabric box because the fabric box is pretty, and it's open. I simply moved this onto a TV table, which kept it above the water and fine.

You may have seen my blog Yarn365. I love taking photos for artistic reasons. However, one of the things I did before I moved last year was take photos of all the yarn I had and document which box it was in. I wanted to make sure that when I got to the new place, I knew that I had all my yarn. This proved to be useful in that, if anything bad did happened to my yarn, I had proof of my collection and how much it was worth in case I needed to file an insurance claim.

I was also worried about being bored, so figuring out what my next pattern would be was instrumental. The project for my brother's wedding is too warm to work on should the power go out and the AC fail. I was going to finish a shawl, but I was running out of yarn and I lost the bead needle I needed to string the beads onto a new ball. If I finished the sock I was working on, that'd be bad. So I started swatching. I settled on knitting a Cosy V Neck Pullover (Ravlink) from Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter (AMZ Link). It's top down and I finished the V-neck part and was ready to join for the round when I realized that I'd omitted the neckline shaping. So I ripped it all out Sunday night.

However, my issues with the pattern were all mental. I could read the pattern, despite the fact that the lights were out and our transformer exploded because I had a Neck Light. My SNB went in on this. I think we got something like 20 lights alltogether so we got them cheaply. It was pretty awesome to be able to continue to knit despite the dark.

Overall, we weathered through ok. We had a transformer explode on our block and we had to leave our house because of a possible gas leak whose origin they still don't quite know. But everyone here was safe, and I hope you were too.

(photo: Decadent Fibers Creme Brulee from Rhinebeck last year, the yarn of my hurricane project)

Rhinebeck 2010!

Another in a long list of Rhinebeck posts I'm sure you've already seen.

One of the things I love the most about Rhinebeck are the sheep:





The fabulous fiber works are always amazing to look at as well.





And of course, who can resist the lamb ravioli, the apple crisp, the fudge, the wool, and the friends? The ambiance is half of the reason to go, right? :)







Oh, but don't you just want to know about the yarn I bought? Is that why you're here?


Firstly, some Briar Rose Sonoma. I knit a Quincy hat (Ravelry Link) already (I finished it on the ferry this morning, wove in the ends and wore it right off the boat!). I'm also going to knit a nice bulky scarf (maybe edged with icord like Quincy?).


The only other yarn I bought was this beautiful yarn from Decadent Fibers. The yarn is called Creme Brulee and is quite fabulous. It's a merino, silk mohair blend. So soft and so beautfiul. It really wants to be a simple v-neck pullover. I'm thinking of this (Ravelry Link) one from Fitted Knits. Only trouble is that when I moved to Stan's apartment in July, I had to put a bunch of stuff, including knitting books into storage. So I have no idea where this book is. I'm not quite ready to knit it, but I think Ruth might loan it to me so I can use the pattern.

Though, I must admit, I have no idea when I'm actually going to be ready to knit for me what with all my friends having babies and my brother getting married and all that. I'm so in love with this yarn though, that I hope I can get to it soon!

Oh, I feel like I have so much more to say, but I need to pack for yet another trip to Rhode Island this weekend. Gotta check out the bridesmaid dress I'm going to wear at my little brother's wedding (and pay for it!)

Rhinebeck Tank Sundress

Where have I been? Well, most of late August and Early September were in preparation for this:


Clicking on that will take you to a nifty slide show.
Stan and I went to Hawaii. It was utterly amazing and if you ever get the chance to go, you certainly should! They're not kidding, it truly is paradise.

You may remember right before I left a couple of posts on the sizing of a tank top. I'd like to show you the results, if I may:


From the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting, this is pattern number 25. I knit it up with Handmaiden Double Sea Silk on size 6 needles for the most part. Funner details can be found on Ravelry. I did end up knitting the size 36 and it fits PERFECTLY. I might have done with another set of smaller bust darts, but it does fit fine and dandy. You'll also notice it's a better photo of the hat that I made at Illanna's that one time.

Also making it's debut in Hawaii was a dandy new sundress I sewed up from a Heather Ross pattern:


I just love the pattern on this fabric. It's Marcus Brothers from their Rainbow Gardens design line called Pink Paisley Garden 1139-0126. I fell in love and purchased it at Purl Patchwork.

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So those are new FOs. I regret to inform everyone that I won't actually be making it to Rhinebeck this year. I was really looking forward to it, but it's not going to happen this year. My stash is already massive, so it'll survive and I think it will only make things better for next year. If someone wants to pick up some beautiful Briar Rose for me though, rest assured that I'd find a way to get some dollars to you for it!

The reason I can't go is actually quite a joyous one. My little brother recently got engaged to his girlfriend! While they don't have a date exactly yet, they're thinking it will happen April or May of 2011. We're all super excited for them, and their engagement party is the Saturday of Rhinebeck. So while I'm bummed I'm missing Rhinebeck, I really couldn't have asked for a better reason to miss it!

Now accepting interesting ideas for knitted wedding gifts. I really want to knit her a garter, I don't know why, I just do. So if you come across any interesting patterns for garters, drop me a line. I found one on Ravelry, that I've added to my queue, but if anyone finds another one that's equally interesting, let me know!

Bust Darts

Oh wow. I have a blog! Hello blogosphere! I am terribly sorry for having forgotten you. I've been somewhat busy. Hope you're prepared for a long blog post...I'm ready to eat your lunchtime up! I know from the top that this post looks identical to the last post, trust me, it's different.

I had a great crafting weekend about a month ago with Illanna. She showed me the gift I gave her for her wedding. It's hanging across from their bed, which I think I kind of special! I got to take a much better photo of it...with like stitch definition and everything!


One of us had a bit of trouble winding our bobbin (uhm, I'd only threaded a bobbin once on my machine, and had completely forgotten how to do so - I've since reminded myself), but once we got through a bit of that trouble we were mostly ok. We sewed hats! Here's mine:


The fabric is some sort of disco circle something or other according to Illanna (that was such a half assed description eh?). I got it at Brooklyn General and kind of fell in love with it. We couldn't sew the whole weekend though. That would be crazy. So we visited Ridgewood Needlepoint since I've been doing a bit more of that recently. I had been waiting for a flag canvas to come my way from Annie & Company, and I wanted to stitch something while I was waiting for it. So I bought a belt at Ridgepoint Needlepoint. I've got to be honest though, I haven't even started it yet. It's a pretty cool pattern though. It's chocolate brown and a nice pastel teal color. A combination I happen to totally love.

Illanna's a bad influence. We've known this for a while. So, even though I'd spent a decent chunk of change at the needlepoint store, she brought me to Yarn Diva & More, her favorite LYS in Hillsdale. This range of yarns at this place is amazing! From acrylic to silks and cashmeres, Pattons and Berocco to Handmaiden and Tilli Thomas, the place was ceiling to floor filled with yarn! They barely had any books because, Illanna told me, they have so much yarn that they want to display! We're friends on Ravelry, this yarn store and I. It's really too bad that all these awesome stores are far away from me! The owner of Yarn Diva and her daughter are amazing people, so friendly! It was one of the few places you can walk into for the first time and feel completely welcome. As Illanna pondered what colors of Malabrigo she was going to get, she pointed me in the direction of the handmaiden silk (I told you she was a bad influence, you've had your warning!). I had to, of course, wipe them out of a color:


There's a really great tank top from the spring 2009 Vogue knitting I intend to knit it into. Hopefully soon. It's a really simple pattern, almost wife-beater esque. I'm seriuosly hoping I can bang it out with only 5 skeins. We'll see. I'm now taking bets....

While I was on the floor staring at the Handmaiden Sea Silk, however, I saw this beauty just lying there in a bookshelf, and thought it looked pretty lonely. So I decided to adopt it:


It's a laceweight yarn by a company called Prism. It's going to be such a gorgeous lace shawl, I almost can't wait to knit it up (but I have to knit that Briar Rose stuff first because it's been beckoning to me from the stash for longer!)!

I finished a pair of socks that weekend as well. Beth had given me some Schaefer Yarns Heather sock yarn to play with for my birthday last year. It took me a while to figure out what to do with it and exactly what pattern it wanted to be. I finally settled on the Primavera sock pattern (Ravelry Link).



I knit it on size 0s, which was probably not necessary, but they'll be amazingly warm. That weekend was so amazing that I really can't believe it was so long ago and that I'm going to have to wait soooo long for the next one!! All the sewing and knitting and crafty store goodness and awesome food (Illanna's a great cook!) and hooping! I'm like booked solid through October now, because I'm crazy. Sick thing is that I can tell you what I'm doing each weekend - and yes, there is plenty of time for knitting.

I have also been sewing and needlepointing, however. A few weeks ago, I took a class with Heather Ross author of Weekend Sewing (a great book if you haven't checked it out yet) at Purl Patchwork. That was a linkfull wasn't it? She taught us how to make her Smocked Sundress. The folks that took the class were pretty good (one of them was a mega-marathon runner who was going to run a 100 mile race that weekend!). While I didn't have my awesome camera, I did have my crappy iPhone camera, and here's the shot I got of all of us in our respective sundresses:


I love wearing this dress, even though I have to be careful of it falling! The fabric is really cool and very me. It's so cool to know that I made it all myself, and it was so incredibly easy to make! I even hemmed it myself (which was a bit of a challenge, but I got through it)! It hits just above my knee. I'm planning on making another for when Stan and I go to Hawaii, and a different type of sundress that I'll take from Heather's book to sew.

Ravi took me to The Eduardian for a bit of needlepoint a couple of weeks ago. The owner of that store was totally amazing. I don't think she even charged me for a lesson on how to lay threads. I'm practicing that a bit on a blank canvas (!!??) that I'm stitching as a headband. I think it looks pretty good so far:


It's just a simple chevron pattern, but I wear all three of those colors quite often, so I think it'll be quite wearable.

All I did this weekend was knit. I met up with my friend Nancy from work at Knitty City on Friday. I was particularly surprised that Pearl remembered my name. There's so many people that frequent that shop, and I come in so rarely, she must have some sort of magical way of knowing it! As infrequently as I go to that shop, it really is one of my favorites. I walked in and told myself self, you're not to buy any yarn. We need size 7 dpns, so you're allowed those, and I guess those new Norah Gaughan books will be ok. Fine...add in the new Jared Flood book from Classic Elite. But that's IT!. I took a hard look at myself, and did just what I told myself. Then I sat down, and knit.

Someday, I'll remember to write down the notes I make to myself when I create bust darts. Hopefully, I'll do it with this shirt, so I don't forget for next time. I put Morocco (it's a sublime pattern - ravelry link) down for quite a bit because the bust darts were making me a bit nervous. I wasn't sure exactly how to do them, and I didn't have any information on how I'd done bust darts before, but I knew this pattern needed it. Once I sat down to knit at Knitty City, though, for some reason I felt really confident. Maybe it was just that I was knitting around a TON of knitters, maybe it's because Knitty City is the friendliest place on earth. Whatever it was, it made me feel like there was a huge safety net and that I should just go for it! Which I did. A bit too early, actually. I started in on my short rows, and when I measured the back after I had done them to find out how much more I had to knit, I found out too quickly that I needed to actually start 2" later than I did. So out it all came, and I re-did it. There was a lot of knitting with the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk this weekend. Probably too much.

For the first time since I really started knitting, my hands are KILLING me. To the point where it's actually hurting me to write this post almost. I really want to keep knitting tonight though. While I pop a couple of Moltrins, check out the yarn I ended up getting on Friday at Knitty City (really, did you think I was going to be placated by knitting books?).


I have no idea what this colorway is called, but it's quite pretty. I know it's sock yarn, but I really don't think I've bought any sock yarn all year, I'm allowed to slip up every now and again. Or think of it as my consolation prize for not being able to go to Rhinebeck this year. I can't explain yet why I can't go, I just can't, but I think that means that the year after will be just that much better.

In other news, look out on the Berocco newsletters for voting on their sock contest. I think the voting starts on September 25th or so. I entered a pair into the mix, and I really hope they like them. If they don't publish them, I'll probably whip them up into a pdf and publish it myself on Ravelry.

Well, is your lunch break over? If not, I think you should just knit for a bit until it is. I'm going to watch some Adult Swim and let those Moltrins take my pain away so I can knit again.