Love at first sight

Do you believe in love at first sight? This question seemed to be of utmost importance to me and my friends when we were in high school. I remember one answer by a clever and prematurely wise guy who said: “I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I do believe in a new sight. When you look at someone for maybe a hundredth time and all of a sudden notice something that you’d never noticed before. And you fall in love with it.”

This, my friends, is the best definition of inspiration. At least from my point of view. I can go through my daily routine when all of a sudden my eye catches something unusual that I might have seen a hundred times but never noticed before and this new sight stirs something inside of me.  

For example, I had walked on the same road many times before I noticed these trees.

One day I looked at them and all I could see were cables, asymmetrical, lusty, sculptural cables… Immediately I had an idea of making something like this from tweed – white with grey and brown speckles. At home I went through my stash looking for the appropriate yarn and found 12 balls of Rowan Cashcotton DK that I bought many years ago in Edinburgh. My older daughter was studying at Edinburgh University then not so sure what to do with her life and where to go after finishing school. Obviously, it took her less time to make this important decision than me to choose a project for this yarn. It is not tweed, but still its color and structure give off a sort of organic, earthy vibe of growth and warmth. So it happened again – I looked at a very familiar object and saw it differently.

At the time I was making a sweater from an old Phildar magazine and kept looking at the magazine spread. Next to my chosen pattern was another sweater. At first I didn’t give it any attention – it seemed unusually ugly and overdesigned.

But after a while I looked at it again and imagined it in one color. Boom! It reminded me of the trees that I saw while walking. Or, maybe, the trees made me see this sweater differently. Anyway, I decided to try and make it.

I made some changes to the original pattern but not too many (besides the major change – making it in one color). All of them I described on my Ravelry page.J))). And since the yarn is smooth and silky, it is not too bulky. I made it longer and a little bit A-shaped, tunic-like.

My biggest worry was the sleeves. I was afraid that with all the cabling my arms would look huge and too muscular for my frame. So I picked stitches for the smallest size and changed the cable pattern a bit to preserve cables along the seam and raglan decreases.

I like the finished sweater very much. Even though it wasn’t a love at first sight, I definitely became very fond of this pattern.

 We didn’t have time to change clothes while photographing it so you have to believe me. It looks great with a skirt as well (with or without a belt). Kim Hargreaves would have approved:)))

While making this sweater I was watching Patriot (free streaming with Amazon Prime) and the main character was wearing a similar cabled sweater (made of dark green wool) in several episodes. Since I really enjoyed the show (and its soundtrack!), I decided to call this sweater Patriot.

As I said earlier, inspiration is everywhere. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t. Here are some other examples of things that inspired me to start my next project:

I had 5 balls of Rowan Pure Wool 4ply in yellow that I used for Juno and my Blue Improvisation sweater. I’ve been thinking about a whole sweater in this color but, obviously, I didn’t have enough yarn for it. To solve this problem I decided to add another color: mostly white, but I also interspersed it with dark and light blue (because – why not, if you go color, you might go all the way, right?). I really, truly didn’t want any flowers, snowflakes, deer, or other traditional fair isle patterns and was looking for something geometrical instead. I found the right design in this book (I gave it to myself as a Christmas present, because I am worth it!!!).

It is easy to remember, blends colors well, and works for the asymmetrical part of my garment. Since – again, no surprise here – I picked an asymmetrical pattern from a Phildar magazine. This time the pattern is made in one color and I decided to reinvent it with added color work.

I am making it flat which slows the process down significantly. Fair isle is much easier when done in the round with only knit stitches. Yet, when knitting it flat (like in the old times, when I had no idea about doing it in the round) it gives you much more freedom with the shape and form of a garment. For me shape is essential and more important than the easiness and speed of the process. But I’d better explain it all later when I finish this crazy difficult asymmetrical thing.

Problems and solutions

-          -When will I see a refrigerator in our new kitchen?

-         - This is a problem that still has no solution.

(from conversations with my husband)

Knitting is inherently full of problems. There is always something that goes wrong even with the best patterns. Yet, years of knitting taught me that for every problem there is a solution, and if there is not, you can always unravel your work and start all over which could be also called a solution albeit on a radical side.

When the idea of the Blue improvisation sweater was born I imagined it like this.

Yes, I drew a sketch, like a real pro. Because it helped to visualize better how I wanted my sweater to look: with a cabled body and multicolored sleeves. Both techniques – fair isle and aran – are old and traditional, but combined in one garment – become more modern and, dare I say, extravagant. And almost everything went well. At least till I reached the neck line. It turned out to be a real pain in the neck.

I followed the original directions for the Iron Work Sweater and its neck line was too low and too wide for my liking (keep it in mind if you decide to use this pattern!). Problem # 1. Solution - I picked up stitches around the neckline with the leftover blue yarn and smaller needles and started working in the round in 1x1 rib (all knit stitches through the back loop) while gradually decreasing the number of stitches. I put all decreases around the seams so they would look as continuation of the blue seams on the sleeves. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of yarn left.

The last ball of Rowan Pure Wool 4Ply in Indigo in my possession was of a little bit different hue (how that could happen?!). That is why I couldn’t possibly have the turtleneck collar from my initial sketch. Problem # 2. Solution – I turned the collar, joined the last ball, and started increasing stitches mirroring the decreases (all the details are on my Ravelry page). There is a visible line at the place where a new ball was attached, yet, this line is inside the garment and no one knows about it besides me (and you).

Even though the sweater doesn’t look like on my initial sketch, I like it. The collar is stretchy and comfortable, it is much higher than it would have been if I followed the directions for the original pattern, and it looks right for this particular project.

The photographs were taken on Valentine’s day. We went boating – my husband and I, just the two of us. Funny, but for many years we didn’t even think of celebrating such silly things as wedding anniversary or Valentine’s day. Now, with kids gone, we are getting more and more sentimental. Or, maybe, we appreciate more our time together, or what is left of it.

Anyway, I was very pleased with this sweater. It feels soft and is weightless, fits me well and is warm enough. This whole experience – from the initial idea of a mixed techniques sweater till the final result – had a strange effect on me. It “freed” me from the directions’ constraints, so to speak, made me realize that I can do more than just follow directions. Something sort of snapped inside and released some creative potential that I never suspected to be there in the first place. Like a genie was freed from a bottle. And I started sketching, and looking for inspiration, and sketching again. That is how at the moment I got not one but two EXTREMELY challenging projects on my needles simultaneously.

One – a symphony of cables, big, luscious, and almost three-dimensional. Reminds me of succulents.

Two – another asymmetrical design, with a twist.

Both are not finished yet, and I am not sure how they will turn out. So I’d better write about them later, when they are done.

Meanwhile, I finished one little garment in between (it was my “to go” project that I could take to the knitting group with me). To make it I used Drops Recycled Cotton from my unraveled sweater. Why I unraveled it? I didn’t wear it, even once. Funny, because the wool version of the same pattern I wore so much it became almost unwearable.

I picked an old Adrienne Vittadini pattern that was made for a winter garment. I am a big fan of Adrienne Vittadini, I used to buy her books and yarn when she was in business. Many of her patterns are stylish, classy, and look surprisingly modern. I made a couple of them then – not everything worked well for me, but my experience with Vittadini certainly left me wanting more. This particular pattern was in my mental queue for the longest time. And I decided to try it in cotton with short sleeves – more practical for the life on a subtropical island.

What can I say? This t-shirt fits me like a glove, goes with everything, and will be worn a lot. And I like it. Yet, I didn’t get as much excitement from the process of making it, or from wearing it, as I did with my experimental blue sweater. No adrenaline rush, no jitters (Am I doing it right? Do I need to unravel and start over again?), no decisions to make. Just follow the pattern and enjoy the result. No fun at all.

Meanwhile my “blue” period is officially over and I don’t have a name for the new one. Maybe “green”??? 

Oh, and speaking of names. Now I got so much appreciation for people who find names for things. Like Sherwin-Williams paint colors. There are many colors at Sherwin-Williams, and every one of them has a name: “After the Rain”, “Blueblood”, “Hyperblue” – these are just few examples. I would love to meet a person who came up with these names. I confess, my imagination isn’t that wild. Actually, it stops working when it comes to naming a project. “Blue improvisation” is no better than “blue disaster”. How to deal with this problem? I need to find a precise spot somewhere between pretentious and bland. Or maybe the name is not that important? After all “What’s in the name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet”, right? Or, as a possible solution, just go to the Sherwin-Williams website and borrow a name there?

Winter blues

As you probably guessed from my previous post, I started going to a knitting club again. It is a great experience and I enjoy it very much, but talking or listening to other people talk don’t help with concentration. Unfortunately, almost at the same time in January I started an EXTREMELY challenging project.

Here is a teaser:))))

I am still not used to documenting my knitting in details, yet, this time I decided to write down everything – just to understand the process better. It was painful and, at times, I reminded myself Dory, the fish with short-term memory loss, walking around and repeating things before I forget them. You can find most of my notes on Ravelry’s pattern page and Instagram.

My inspiration for this project was this incredible design as well as many Pinterest pictures of sweaters with mixed patterns.

The Iron Work pattern by Madeline Lee that I used for the body had been in my wish list for a while. It looks really beautiful but when I bought and downloaded the pattern I discovered that it had no charts for the cables and no schematics whatsoever. Just words, words, words. Do you like knitting a complicated cable design from row by row explanations? I don’t. I need a picture that is worth a thousand words, at least for me. Plus for this pattern almost all stitches are knit through the back loop (right and wrong side) which slows the work down and usually is painful for my hands.

Yet, one day I just sat down and started deciphering the row-by-row explanation. After several hours and false starts, I finally memorized all the abbreviations and was able to see the inner logic of the cables.

Actually, this is the reason why I love cables so much. Not only they look good on a finished garment and make it warmer, they are extremely logical. Even though I hate life’s randomness and unpredictability, I know that it cannot be helped (I go with statistics and science on this one). However, there is nothing random or unpredictable in cables which make them so endearing to me… When you’ve got to cross stitches to the left, you cross them to the left no matter what till the end. Isn’t it great?

Anyway, as soon as I figured the cables, I started thinking about simplifying the pattern. Because I like going out of my comfort zone but up to a point. In general, I like comfort more than discomfort, and I have a hunch I am not alone. Knitting all stitches through the back loop and making some other twists and turns that are not critical to the overall design seemed just too much (I tried to explain better on my Ravelry page). So I just didn’t do it. And the cables still looked good to me.

For the sleeves I picked the fair isle pattern that I have already used a couple of times. It is from the same old French magazine that inspired me to knit my Blue disaster cardigan.

 I made this sweater in fair isle pattern all over many years ago. Unfortunately, the yarn I used for it was cheap, extremely scratchy, and the colors would run if washed. In other words, I spent several months making a sweater that was impossible to wear. It was a BIG lesson for me – not to make a difficult pattern from cheap untested yarn.

I used Rowan pure wool 4ply that I tried first making Juno and liked it a lot. The yarn is discontinued but I managed to find quite a bit of it in different colors. It has a very good stitch definition, is soft and squishy at the same time, and the colors are not bright, a little bit subdued, dull, which makes the colorwork interesting but not showy or flashy.

The only drawback was that I couldn’t possibly take this project with me to the knitting club. To solve this problem I had to start something simple but useful. This is why in January I was working on several projects at the same time – shocking, I know!

First, I had to use up the leftovers from my Blue disaster cardigan (I had 6 balls left). I found this simple elegant camisole and finished it very quickly.

I didn’t change anything in the pattern, but the finished garment turned out to be too revealing for my taste (or, maybe, I turned out to be too prudish for this garment), so, to avoid showing too much of my bras, I stitched the seams much higher than in the original pattern.

Then, I had 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Cathay in an amazing purple color. I used the same yarn for Beloved last summer and was really disappointed at how much it stretched after washing. My first instinct was to use cables to prevent it from stretching. And then I decided to think outside of the box (our living room/the only room was covered with boxes at the time so it was rather easy to do) and to go with the yarn. If the yarn wanted to stretch let it stretch.

I made a big swatch, washed it, and stretched as much as I could. When it dried I calculated my gauge and started a simple garter stitch t-shirt. The body is knit from side to side with some decreases/increases for neck shaping.

When finished, front and back were sewn together and I picked up stitches for sleeves that were knit flat. I had just enough yarn for the collar.

This t-shirt is very light and airy, perfect cover up for subtropical winter weather. And the color is to die for.

The pine cone was found under a palm tree – a big mystery where it came from! Moreover, the pine cone looks like it was trying to disguise itself as a pineapple which makes sense – pineapples are much more common here than pine cones.

Meanwhile, my work on the blue sweater is almost done (I’ll post pictures and final notes soon) and I am already planning my next project from this yarn. It seems that when a designer uses same materials and same patterns for different garments they become a collection. I am not a designer, but I think I can say that I am working on my own collection of sweaters and cardigans from Rowan pure wool 4ply. And I love every minute of it!

WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM...

… to introduce a knitter extraordinaire and an amazing person Carol (seajean on Ravelry). Carol make shawls, huge beautiful shawls from the finest yarn in the world on the tiniest possible needles. I am not a big fan of superheroes mythology but Carol is a superhero in my book.

You see, I’ve made quite a lot of shawls myself years ago. And – to be completely honest - I hated every minute of it! Little by little rows become longer till at some point they are so long that I’d fall asleep in the middle of one. But sleep is impossible – you’ve got to keep focused and alert because it’s lace and you are bound to make a mistake if you stop paying attention even for a second. Sometimes you can breathe a little while making a wrong side row, yet, sometimes a pattern asks you to do something even then. Just kill me now!

No TV, no books or magazines reading, no talking, nothing… Plus at the end, you’ve got to spend quite a lot of time blocking the shawl which – and everyone who did it at least once would agree – is not easy. And then – ta-da! (insert a drum roll) – I would give this object of torture to someone as a gift. Not only because I don’t wear handmade shawls anymore (only store bought scarves) but because I couldn’t even look at it without cringing inside from unpleasant memories. I think with time I developed a sort of allergy to making shawls. That is why I am in awe of Carol and her crafty hands.

I believe knitters need to know and respect their heroes. We all have "special powers", as one woman in my knitting club said. Carol "special power" is making incredible intricate shawls. She hasn’t any finished project pages on her Ravelry profile but you can see some of her creations here (Carol gave me permission to publish her projects' photos).

Aren’t they amazing? If you believe Dostoyevsky (and, being Russian, I certainly do), beauty will save the world. Don’t you agree that our troubled world is in dire need of beauty and saving? And please, go to Ravelry and write a note to Carol. Maybe this will encourage her to get out of a “knitter’s closet” and start sharing her masterpieces with us. 

Christmas sweater

Happy New Year! Here is my first sweater of this year. Or rather the last one from 2016. I finished it on December 31 and I call it Christmas sweater.

I bought this yarn - Rowan fine tweed - on a whim in a knitting store where I went to get new needles. Why? Two reasons – color and sale. I was immediately attracted to this color – it is a very deep shade of red, the one that is sometimes called “oxblood”.

It is rich but not too bright and I just couldn’t stop myself and grabbed all the balls of this color from the bin. Plus the yarn was on sale – no brainer! The color turned out to be rather difficult to photograph. Camera wouldn’t give it justice – sometimes it was too red, sometimes – too dull. Here is probably the most accurate rendering.

When I saw the pattern on Ravelry for the first time –boxy short jumper with a funnel neck - I knew that I had to make it no matter what.

I love how youthful and playful it looks, especially the asymmetrical cables, that mix traditional and modern. The pattern is free and even though it is in Japanese (not my first language), the charts and schematics are clear and self-explanatory. No problems there. When I looked this pattern up online, there was a video of a model wearing this jumper and moving in it. It was obvious that I needed it to be a little longer and less oversized. Plus the sleeves were too large and bulky for my taste. And I couldn’t understand the slit at the front – there was no reason for it except an additional funkiness, but to me the jumper was funky enough without a slit.

The overall design is pretty simple, almost nonexistent – just two identical rectangles ending up with a half funnel neck. The main attraction of this design is the intricate cables. I knew that making back and front the same was a bad idea, because in this case usually there are problems with fit. But I couldn’t think of an easy solution, the jumper is boxy and shapeless enough to compensate for the fit, plus I am rather flat chested and normally can get away with it.

My children came home for Christmas, I was incredibly busy, and didn’t even think that I could manage to make something so complex-looking at this time of the year.

So I ordered some green yarn for this sweater (yes, I wanted it green like on the photo and was planning on wearing it with red socks like on the photo as well – so cute!) and while waiting for the yarn decided to try the cables. Plus I wanted to see what kind of changes I needed to make in order to avoid excessive boxyness.

I took this amazing red yarn and started cabling… Almost immediately I understood why it was discontinued. Besides its color, softness, and tweediness I can hardly tell anything good about Rowan fine tweed. It is thick and thin, and I don’t mind its thickness, but the thin parts were really thin, at some points almost non-existent. The yarn was literally dissolving and disappearing in my hands.

This yarn cannot be used for socks or mittens unless you are not planning on actually wearing them. They’ll have holes almost immediately, the moment you put them on. I don’t know how it could be used for clothes either because, you know, it will break… Actually, using it for a cabled jumper seemed to be the best solution: cables absorbed the thin parts and made them almost invisible (I am keeping quite a lot of leftover yarn to darn the future holes).

There are only 90 meters (98 yards ) in a ball, yet, almost every ball had a knot or two in it. Which was annoying and quite irritating. So unlike other Rowan yarns. The last unpleasant surprise: the color bled when the sweater was washed. On Rowan website the yarn is described as “perfect for fairisle and color work”.  I wouldn’t use it for either. Or be extremely careful and wash several swatches before committing to a project. Verdict: the yarn looks amazing but is not well made.

Meanwhile I just couldn’t stop cabling. The cables on this jumper turned out to be easy and addictive, like popcorn. They were very logical and easy to memorize, not big and could be done without a cable needle, created a very interesting fabric, and overall were fun to knit. At some point I just gave up and decided to make the whole garment in this bloody red color with fine tweed. It seems like the jumper knit up all by itself because I don’t even remember how and when I was working on it. Christmas miracle, no less!

Surprisingly enough, I like the end result. The sweater is lightweight, fits better than I expected, and goes extremely well with most of my clothes. We made pictures of it with a skirt and pants.

I am sure I’ll be wearing it a lot while traveling this summer. Plus the funnel neck, according to Karen Templer, is going to be very trendy this spring! And who am I to argue with Karen Templer?  I put all the specs on my Ravelry page (go there if you want to make something similar).

Juno, or Knitting for relaxation

Do you knit for relaxation? Do you, really? Honestly?

I know quite a lot of knitters who not only don’t get more relaxed while knitting but for whom knitting is one of the major sources of frustration in life. Haven’t you heard from some people that knitting makes them angry, or nervous, or angry AND nervous, that they have no patience for knitting?

I don’t knit for relaxation. Actually, it is hard to explain with one or two words why I knit.

It all started long ago (34 years ago to be precise), in a faraway land (former Soviet Union), when I first made myself an object of clothing from a ball of old, recycled yarn. My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was 8, but I didn’t really knit till I was studying at Moscow University.

One of our professors required mandatory attendance which meant that we couldn’t skip his lectures if we wanted to pass his class. 

Those lectures were incredibly boring and I don’t like to be bored, it is my least favorite pastime. I began looking for possible useful things to do while sitting in the class and pretending that I was listening to him. I couldn’t read – he would’ve noticed, and his monotone voice was extremely distracting.

At the time a friend of mine got a new hat handmade by her grandmother. The hat was adorable and warm, and you’ve probably heard that winters in Moscow are long and cold. I found a ball of bright blue recycled yarn in my mom’s stash, took a pair of her needles and decided to make a copy of my friend’s hat. Believe it or not but I figured how to knit in the round on my own, without Internet. Those old day, when we had to use our brains instead of the shiny new “prosthetic  brains” in our pockets!!!! Alas, they are gone… Nevertheless, I figured that if I would go in the round I would be using only knit stitch, and I didn’t have to look at my hands too often. So one day I brought my knitting to the boring lecture and by the end of it made a lot of progress on the hat. Actually, I finished the hat in no time and wore it for several years.

The sleep-inducing professor was teaching us 19^th century European literature – and there was a lot of literature in 19^th century in Europe, lots and lots of it. So we had this professor for the whole year. By the end of that year I finished a scarf and a sweater. And I got hooked on knitting.

My life was rather difficult then and not only I don’t like to talk about those times, I try very hard not to think about them, to forget as much as possible about them. Knitting helped me to survive. It gave me something to look forward to, dream about, control, and enjoy.

And this is why I still knit. For enjoyment. And I am constantly looking for a pattern that would make me forget about my day to day life and completely captivate my attention. A pattern I could “dive into”.

Can you call it relaxation? I wouldn’t. To me it is similar to some sort of trance or meditation, when you are focused and concentrated on one thing – and you absolutely cannot put down your knitting.

Not all projects are the same. Sometimes I get tired of a project before it is finished and then I have to trick myself into finishing it no matter what (I’ve got quite a few tricks up my sleeve!). Or unravel it. However, I am always looking for excitement, fun, something unusual and experimental to try. There are several requirements though for these unusual and experimental things before I start making them:

1)      they have to be practical (i.e., I have to be sure that myself or someone else will be using it)

2)      they have to fit (e.g., I never knit using entrelac technique because I don’t find clothes made in this technique flattering and would never wear them)

3)      they allow me to be creative, to bring something personal to the pattern.

When I first saw Juno, a free pattern by Natasja Hornby, I was drawn to it because of the fit. Have you see the pattern photos? It fits like a glove. Stripes are my favorite, so that also helped. And then I saw another variation of the same pattern made by the author. The original Juno is figure fitting, with waist shaping  and darts. The second version is more streamlined, without waist shaping or darts. But it also looks amazing. Because of the fit. And if you go to Natasja Hornby’s Ravelry pattern page and look at her finished work, you’ll see that this person really understands woman’s body and knows how to make clothes fit well. This is a rare skill even among professional designers.

So I knew that this pattern would probably fit me well if I did the math right and measured my gauge properly. And I knew that knitting it would be pretty exciting because of many different techniques used. 

What about practicality? Actually, for a while I was looking for a short jumper/sweater to wear with a skirt and so popular now high waisted pants (I love them because they make me look taller). Juno seemed to be precisely what I needed.

In Florida inspiration is everywhere: ocean, trees, birds… Sometimes, you walk on a road and find something like that right under your feet. Just look at these colors!

That is why, even though initially I wanted to use white as one of the main colors for Juno because I had 6 balls of Rowan pure wool 4ply in white, and only 3 balls in each light blue and verdigris, I ended up using light blue and verdigris for the stripes all over the sweater. It seemed more appropriate in these surroundings. And the argyle pattern has been in my plans for a while and when I figured out that I could use it here my hands started itching. It looked like a perfect project – practical, well fitting, and creative.

Now, Juno is finished (more details and pictures on my Ravelry page) and I can tell you that it didn’t disappoint me. The jumper is short and fits me well but the most important part were the happiness and joy that I felt while making it. This kind of magic is rare and it doesn’t happen to me with every project no matter how much I try.

 

A couple words about the yarn. It is discontinued (naturally!) but I liked working with it and wanted more so I bought some odd balls that I could find on the Internet. We'll see what happens when I get them.

Project of interest

How do you pick your next project?

1) You find out that your beloved cardigan or sweater has a whole in it, or was eaten by moths, and you need a new one pronto?

2) You find some incredibly beautiful yarn and immediately begin looking for a project to use it?

3) You see a picture of a garment on Ravelry and cannot stop dreaming about yourself wearing it? Or you see an amazing picture in a knitting magazine…

4) Or, maybe, you just pick something simple without seeming and shaping, just to occupy your hands while you watch TV (Knitflixing is a word now, you know)?

Do you ever pick a project just for fun and creative excitement, because it seems to be a challenge or a puzzle, and you have only a vague idea what it will become at the end?

That’s what happened to me with my last sweater. I wanted to make something interesting, complicated, and, eventually, beautiful. I blame Pinterest. I got hooked on it while waiting in an airport.

Probably, I spend too much time in airports because my Pinterest boards are growing pretty quickly. It is bewildering how many wonderful, masterful, unique knits you can find there. Made by great designers.
Going back to Ravelry sometimes is really sobering – no more daring shapes and extravagant color combinations, no more experiment or challenge. Same old, same old. Yes, sorry, I know. It is not fair. But I wish big designers would develop a pattern or two for us, knitters, once in a while at least (Footnote:Vogue Knitting publishes this kind of patterns. Not very often and sometimes not well edited but it is something at least).

I found quite a lot of bias cut sweaters on Pinterest that looked really wearable. Here are some examples.

Amazing construction, don’t you agree?

And going through my old Phildars collection that I brought to Florida, I found this bias cut sweater that looked a lot like the ones on Pinterest.

Yet, this time I had a pattern. And it looked doable and, after some deliberation, practical. Actually, that was why I was buying Phildar magazines in the first place: they have an atrocious customer service and their yarns are not that good, but their designers were always great and didn’t disappoint. I don’t know how to sew, but I can have some idea about a finished product looking at its blueprint. And this is how I pick a project in a Phildar magazine – I don’t look at pictures (they are very treacherous and seldom show the most important things) but at diagrams and charts.

This particular pattern drew my attention when I first laid my eyes on it years ago. I even started making it but at the time I had no patience with challenging patterns, needed something to occupy my hands and to relax. This is not a good pattern for relaxation. Actually, till the end I wasn’t sure how it would work. There are no pictures of finished garments on Ravelry and only one dark picture in the magazine.

I used Rowan Kid classic again (almost ten balls) in a grayish, light blue color. I thought that the subtlety of color will balance the boldness of the pattern. Plus, I really like working with this yarn.

The pattern turned out to be very clear and rather easy. The only trouble that I had was the difference in my row gauge. Otherwise, it was rather smooth sailing. And fast. I couldn’t put down my needles – was too impatient to see the end result. And it didn’t disappoint.

If you have this particular magazine and like unusually constructed clothes, I highly recommend this pattern. I didn’t put a zipper in it, because 1) I didn’t want to bother; 2) I thought that it was complicated enough already. Next time, if I make it (and I want one like this for myself, with shorter sleeves), I’ll do it without zipper again. There is no need, in my opinion.

More pictures and details on my Ravelry page, as usual.

While this sweater was drying I decided to finish a little black tank that I started to make in June. Usually, when I start something and like it, I finish it before beginning a next project. Yes, I am a one-project-at-a-time-knitter (I think, we should start a group!). I picked it because I liked the picture on Ravelry and there are not enough tanks in my wardrobe.

Cannot say anything about the yarn – lost all the labels and notes while moving from place to place last summer. You see, it seemed to be a very easy project – just knit in the round, no seaming, no finishing – so I kept bringing it with me everywhere. Yet, after two or three rows, I would fall asleep or totally distracted, and my progress was extremely slow.

The pattern is called Slope by Shellie Anderson. It is a very good pattern, with a lot of interesting, thoughtful details. The whole thing is made in the round with some shaping and short rows.
When finished, it fit well and I was glad that I persevered. However, things without seams have a tendency to stretch. This particular tank stretched a lot after washing. My Slope became really sloppy (pun intended).

After having tried different approaches in order to shrink this top, I discovered that this unidentified and mysterious yarn is practically unshrinkable. Which is supposed to be a good thing for a yarn. But it is not in this particular case. I hope one of my daughters likes this garment enough to take it because I have no use for it. And after all my shrinking experiments I don’t think that unraveling it will be possible.

So, no matter how many times I give myself a word not to make things in the round, I get under the spell of easiness and simple stockinette stitch and then… a disappointment! And, yes, I made a gauge, if you are wondering.

Surprisingly enough, my next project turned out to be also a seamless, or almost seamless sweater. However, this is another story and I’ll tell it the next time (here is a teaser!).

To be continued…