FInished Object Friday and 2nd Blogiversary!

It's true, today is the second anniversary of this blog.  A lot has happened in two years.  Why is it that the older we get, the faster time seems to go.  I'm very grateful that you stop by and read this, post comments, and offer encouragement.  I feel like I have made friends through Tami's and Wisdom Begins in Wonder, even though I may not know there names.  And whenever I have a knitting dilemma you all have an answer.  Thank you so much for that.

Today I have a finished object for a little girl.  This will be published in November in Cast On, they don't get excited about you putting things on blogs in advance.  I'm doing an article on set in sleeves and had to have a pattern as an example.  Honestly I'm way ahead of their schedule but with doing the article as well, I needed it.  The normal deadlines are pretty stressful.  This was much less so.

The only stressful thing was that I almost ran out of yarn.  This is in Liberty Wool super wash.  I'm not usually a big fan of super wash but I love how this yarn turns out after washed.  And for kids it has to be washable, right?  I have about 3 yards of yarn left!  As a result I just did a crab stitch edging and crocheted button loops.  I hate ribbed buttonhole bands, so even if I had more yarn, it is doubtful I would have done more.  The ruffled edges are from a Frilled Cast on.

You know the drill.  Go to Tami's and Wisdom Begins in Wonder to check out all the great fiber projects.  Have a great weekend with lots of yarn.

Work in progress Wednesday

Hey there.  I started a new project this weekend, Kathy Zimmerman's Plaits and Links Cardigan.  It is a great aran pattern with saddle sleeves.  I'm doing it as part of a class with some members of my guild.

I'm using Louisa Harding's Grace Silk and Wool.  Really great yarn, holds color great and isn't itchy (I'm sensitive to itchy).  It is a single ply so it may pill badly but we'll see.  I've had it in my stash for years and got it on sale for 50% off.  We're doing it in one piece up to the armholes, so a row takes forever.

Other projects are just about complete - buttons and buttonholes - so hopefully I will have something to share on Friday.  Of course my never ending socks are still in the same place as usual.

Head over to Tami's to see the great projects there.

Finished Object Friday

Happy Friday!  Beautiful weather here, not too hot or humid yet, but still to warm for my finished object.  Why do we always finish things off season?

I designed this tunic myself.  It was a pretty challenging design.  I don't think I will ever write up the pattern because it took four tries to get the sleeves right so that the stripes matched at the armhole.  The thought of sizing that four times is not exciting.

A little on how I did this.  I bought this yarn, Berroco's Remix, during the yarn crawl last fall at a great price at Holley's Yarn shop.  I loved the color combination and I like how the mix of silk, cotton, and synthetics work together.  It is comfortable, plush but not too hot.  Since it was on sale, there wasn't enough to get one color for a sweater.  That made me think of stripes.  I was thinking of how Missoni does the chevron stripes and I wanted a tunic with three quarter sleeves.

First I had to figure out the color sequence.  I used a ruler and wound samples of different sequences to see what I liked.

 I didn't want the stripes to be the same size but wanted to vary their size.  I had read an article years ago about using Fibonacci series to come up with stripes.  The series is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc..  you add the last two numbers together to get the next number in the sequence.  To make it easier to knit I used 2, 2, 4, 6, 10.
First try didn't speak to me on color order.

 Actually this might have been the first try when I would actually do stripes one row high - in flat knitting, what was I thinking?

Third try.  This is what I went with.  So there are four colors and five stripes so you get a more complex looking design.








Then I thought about the actual stitch pattern.  After research, I found two ways that chevron stitches are made.  The first is with yarn front and back for the increases and the other uses yarn overs for a lacy effect.  I decided to use both.  The 10 row stripe is in yarn overs.  The others have the yarn front and back to make chevron - except the second stripe of two rows.  That stripe I did in a two garter row stitch.  I had seen that combined with chevrons on some pillows and really liked the addition of texture.

Might be hard to see all the texture but i like how the second two row stripes stand out in garter and the biggest stripe that is ten rows is lacier from the yarn overs.

Construction wise I did it bottom up, flat in tunic length with a v neck and ribbing around the neck.  The body and 3/4 sleeves don't have ribbing at the bottom.  I just blocked the points so they would stay.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with it.  It was a long project but worth it.

Head over to Tami's and Wisdom begins in Wonder to see other great projects.