Olivia

Tags

kim hargreaves, olivia

The project that I decided to bring on the trip to Chicago was a long time coming – I bought the yarn and pattern book to make this sweater a while ago.  Actually, I just realized I can check Ravelry and see exactly when I queued it: August 28, 2008!  Wow!  I didn’t realize it had been that long!  In any case, Olivia got started on the plane to Chicago, and just got finished up a few evenings ago.

This project got put on hold because of my issues with gauge.  In the past year, I’ve come to learn that I’m a very loose knitter compared to some.  Case in point – this pattern calls for a size 5 needle, and I ended up going with a size 2 and working the pattern two sizes smaller than Linden-size!  That’s a nice adjustment to make, though, so I won’t complain.

The pattern is Olivia from Kim Hargreaves’s Thrown Together.  I loved this sweater so much, that I bought the yarn the pattern called for in the same color as the model!  It’s Rowan Felted Tweed in Seafarer, and I can’t express how much I adore this yarn.  It’s so soft and tweedy and such a pretty color.  Using the called for yarn definitely payed off – this is the first time that I’ve ended up with a sweater that looks almost exactly like the picture and I love it . . .

I decided to knit the sweater in one piece to eliminate seaming.  I knit the sleeves in the round, and joined them to the body to work the raglan yoke all at once.  The thing that I love about this sweater is all of the details.  I love the little pockets hidden in the moss stitch edging, I love the way the sleeves blouse out from a cute little garter stitch cuff, and I am really happy with the raglan decreases.  Instead of working a two stitch decrease every other row, Olivia calls for you to decrease four stitches every fourth row.  This pattern of decreasing eliminates the line of decreases that I’ve always had with raglans, and I think it adds a really cute detail.  I’ll definitely be using this technique again!  It’s all about the details with this sweater . .  .

Thrown Together is a great book by one of my favorite designers, and I’m planning a few more projects from it – specifically, Nan and Polly!  Stay tuned to see these come to life (Nan first, Polly later).  Oh, and I almost forgot that I made Aimee for Emily’s wedding from this book!  I’m starting to think Thrown Together was a really good investment . . .

Also, I’m planning to let you know what’s up with Oblique soon.  Well, as soon as a figure out how to fix it . . . let’s just say that this was my first major experience with alpaca stretching during blocking!  We’ll see how my planned sweater surgery goes.

June Wedding = March Knitting

Tags

aimee, kim hargreaves, pure silk, wedding

Well, that doesn’t have the same ring to it as “April showers bring May flowers,” but that’s what I was going for.

Emily is getting married June 7, 2009. That is 80 days away. A more helpful unit of measure – the wedding is 1943 hours away (and, sadly, not all of these hours can be spent knitting). That means I’ve got to get a move on if I’m going to finish Emily’s wedding cover-up plus a secret wedding present.

The cover-up . . .

(That’s my office for those of you who haven’t seen it.  It’s not much, but at least it has windows!)

I’m knitting Kim Hargreaves’ Aimee for Emily to wear over her dress in the event of cold weather (which Emily thinks is quite likely).  Emily and Eric are getting married in Oregon, and I’m told that we may need galoshes for the ceremony!  Hopefully the weather is nice, but we need to plan just in case.  I’m making this . . . (is it a poncho?  it doesn’t really seem like a poncho but I don’t know what else to call it) . . . we’ll call it a capelet (eventhough it isn’t really that either) . . . out of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in color 03.  Emily’s not too much into the fuzzy yarns, so we thought silk would do nicely for a wedding!

This is my first time knitting with silk, and I’m finding it a little bit difficult.  My stockinette is very, and I stress, very inconsistent right now, but I’m hoping a good blocking will fix it right up.  The yarn is beautiful, and Emily and I have both described touching it as like “touching a cloud.”

The plan is to add a bunch of these flowers (sorry to you non-Ravelers, I couldn’t find another picture) from Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Flowers to the neck and shoulders.  Oooh, it’s going to be so pretty!

Ok, now the secret wedding present . . .

You didn’t think I would actually say what it was here?!  Where Emily might read it any time she wants to?!  Nope, I actually need ideas right now.  I’ve got a few things that I’m stewing over, but I’d welcome any suggestions.  And please, don’t worry about the timeline – I’ve got 1943 hours and you can knit anything with that much time.  Right?