I was hoping to make something similar to a store-bought dress I really like. I found a similar pattern, but then had a terrible time finding some fabric for it. Here in the city of salt, we have lots of fabric stores for quilt fabrics and craft fabrics, but there’s not much choice for nice clothing fabric any more. I finally bought some fabric at Jo-Ann’s that seemed like it would work.

But I couldn’t motivate myself to start, so I just left it on the table by my sewing machine.

And there it sat. And sat. And sat.

I even got a new sewing machine, since my old one was so crummy. But the poor new sewing machine just sat there too.

Finally, with the hubby being gone for a week, I decided it was time to give it a try.

It’s a pretty simple pattern, but sewing it gave me terrible fits. The fabric wrinkled badly at some of the seams, especially the lower few inches of the side seams and the princess darts in the back. I would have suspected a tension problem, especially since it’s a new machine. But some of the seams are perfectly fine, and I had tested the stitching and tension on some scraps of the material before starting – and those were OK. It’s a fairly thick fabric, so perhaps it’s the needle or thread I used, or just my lack of expertise.

I don’t know what the fabric is, since I’m totally uneducated in that area. I’m pretty sure it’s 100% polyester, woven (and frays easily), and on the heavy side. It kind of reminds me of the heavy tights I wore for exercising in the ’80s – or bike shorts, except that there’s no stretch.

Pressing the seams out afterward helped a little, but there are still a lot of puckers. And I won’t tell you how many times I seamed part of the back to the front when I was trying to sew on the pockets (not part of the pattern, and I was sewing them on after I was all done with the dress). Let’s just say that the seam ripper got a good workout.

In the end, it turned out OK, I guess. The fabric design helps disguise the wrinkly seams. I didn’t expect the top to be so tank-top-like – I thought the neckline would be higher based on the pattern drawing. I took in the shoulder seams a little, but I didn’t want to make the armholes too small. If I made it again, I’d definitely raise the neckline (or more likely, make view A of the pattern instead). But it’s OK for casual wear. I did wear it to the office, but put a white cardigan over it.

The pattern I used is New Look #6643, view C. I modified it by eliminating the front waist darts so it would be looser in the front across the midsection, shortening it about 1 1/2 inches, and adding patch pockets. I also was able to skip putting a zipper in the back, since I can pull it over my head – but I’m sure that’s only because I didn’t put in the front waist darts.

A short-sleeved, tuckless version of Geodesic Cardigan.

I still had enough left from the two balls of Malabrigo laceweight that I could have probably done elbow-length sleeves. But this is really all I wanted – just something that I could throw over sleeveless tops for work, or when it gets a little cool.

I really liked the tucks on the first cardigan I did, but I just wanted this one to be very basic.

Pattern: Geodesic Cardigan, by Connie Chang Chinchio
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Lace, colorway 118 “Tortuga”, 2 skeins
Needles: US 6/4mm (US 4/3.5mm for the garter stitch hems)

Ravelry project here.

Modifications: No tucks, short sleeves. Worked the sleeves downward from the top of the cap, shaping by casting on and increasing. To make a front facing, I added 5 stitches on each front edge, and worked them (as seen from the RS) as k1, p3, k1. Then I folded the facing to the inside along the knit column adjacent to the body, and tacked it down. Otherwise, I worked it as per the pattern: in one piece to the underarms, using a phoney seam.

The skeins were quite a bit different, so the entire cardigan was worked by alternating yarn from each skein every other row.

Hmmmm. Green, with head tentacles/antennae. I guess I must either be a martian or an ogre.

Pattern: Geodesic Cardigan, by Connie Chang Chinchio
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace, in #117 – Verde Adriana, about 2 1/2 skeins
Needles: US 6/4mm
Ravelry: Project page, pattern page

Modifications: Mostly just in construction. I knit it flat in pieces, rather than knitting the lower body in one piece with a phoney seam. For the sleeves, instead of starting with a provisional cast-on and knitting the sleeve cap upwards, then setting it in and knitting the remainder of the sleeve down in the round, I did a trick I’ve done with a couple of other sweaters:

I knit the entire sleeve from the top of the cap downward, starting by casting on the number of stitches to be bound off at the top of the sleeve cap. Then I followed the sleeve instructions in reverse – casting on stitches at the end/beginning of rows instead of binding off stitches, working increases instead of decreases for the sleeve cap, etc. Once I was a few rows past the sleeve cap, I set in the sleeve, then joined it to start knitting in the round.

Basically the only difference between how I did the sleeves and how the pattern was written was that I knit the sleeve cap top down, so that the provisional cast-on wasn’t necessary.

It’s a great cardigan, and a well-written pattern. The tucks aren’t all that difficult to do, once you work through one. I made a practice tuck on a small swatch before knitting it on the actual sweater, which was very helpful. Like many other people who have knit this sweater, I found that it was easiest to pick up the stitches on a DPN when forming the tuck.

By the way, the front pieces really do pretty much stay in place, because the malabrigo yarn is a bit “grabby”.

Clapo-Ktus is done, finished on the road to Las Vegas.

I really like the scrunchy texture the dropped stitch pattern makes, and of course, the madelinetosh yarn is lovely.

I had a surprising amount of yarn left over – 7.3 grams, even though when I got to the midpoint of the scarf, I measured the remaining ball of yarn at only 1 gram more than the first half of the scarf. But after I started on the decreases, I did intentionally knit tighter for a while, because I was thinking that I probably shouldn’t have cut it that close. I guess it worked.

Better to have too much left over than not have enough – there’s really no way to fix that problem with this type of scarf other than to rip it back or get more yarn.

It’s a generous size for a scarf, and it also works as a shawlette – it’s plenty big enough to cover my upper arms if I want to wear it as a shawl.

Those long drives are sure good for knitting… here’s a sneak preview of my Geodesic Cardigan – I’m ready to start the sleeves.

And it even came in handy for my trip up to Snowbird for the afternoon. Still plenty of snow up there.

I ended up using just under 1200 yards of yarn – about half for the body and half for the ruffle.

Pattern PDF and more photos are available at Ravelry or via this post.

See the pretty lace pattern?

What you don’t see in the top photo is the cute little button that’s being used as a shawl pin. It’s a “Magne Button“. There are two identical buttons, both with magnets on the back so they stick together. Instant button, with no buttonholes! It’s very clever. Maybe I should have gotten more.

Pattern: Onerva
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingering, color “Dusk”, 2.3 skeins
Needles: US 6/4mm

It’s knitted from the bottom point up to the top edge. Because of that, I wanted to use a solid-color yarn. I think the Gloss worked out nicely, and has a great drape.

The pattern is charted with some instructions in Finnish. There are translations around in various projects, and a modified chart that makes the pattern a bit simpler. I did not use the modified chart, but I did make my own chart and worksheet from the original pattern. The lace pattern itself is pretty simple. If you follow the original pattern, you will be working a different row of the pattern for each “V” as you go across the row. I believe that with the modified chart, you work the same row of the pattern all the way across.

Details on Ravelry here.

What to do with only 88 yards of aran-weight yarn?

Pattern: Sherwood Mitts, by Ashley Knowlton
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere, color 005, 2 skeins
Needles: US 8/5.0mm

Modifications: Added three extra stitches to the hand, at the same time I started the thumb gusset. I probably only needed to add two.

This pattern has a thumb gusset, but the stitches are just bound off at the top of the gusset. Normally I’d prefer to have a little bit of a knitted thumb, but there just isn’t enough yarn to do that. This was a good alternative, though – it’s more comfortable than just having a hole for the thumb.

Project details here.

Actually, since it’s fingering-weight wool, it’s probably going to be perfect for spring and fall.

Pattern: A mash-up of Neiman and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s EPS sweater
Yarn: Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic 2-ply, Slate and Robin’s Egg
Needles: US 4/3.5mm for the body, US 5/3.75mm for the stranded colorwork

More details and photos are on my (shared) Ravelry project page.

I have one full skein of the dark blue and about 1 1/3 skeins of the light blue left. Any ideas for using them? One skein is 198 yards.

But today there is no day or night,
Today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray.

The bag came out larger than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I’m really pleased with it. The instructions were on a Japanese blog (which seems to be currently unavailable), and although there were explanations as to how to construct it, I had no idea how big it would be with the yarn/needles I chose. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to complete it with 2 skeins of wool, but it worked out fine.

I didn’t line it, but I did sew a large split-ring inside so I can clip keys or something to it if I want. There are more photos (pre-felting, the split ring, etc.) on my Ravelry project page – see below.

Pattern: Garter Stripe Square Bag
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino, “gray mix” and “dark gray mix”, one skein each
Needles: US 8/5mm
Ravelry: Project page, pattern page. I found this project particularly helpful.

I took advantage of Ravelry’s advanced search, and found a pattern for an electric tea kettle cozy.

Sadly, though, I ran out of yarn before finishing – about 12 rows short. I rifled through the stash, looking for something else I could use to finish the project. I had some Eco Wool that I thought maybe I could double, but the colors didn’t work together at all. Then I thought about swatches. I was sure I must have a swatch left over from the jacket I made. I couldn’t find any swatches of the gray yarn, but I did find some that I made from Eskimo in a dark brown. Aha!

I did 6 rows in brown, then picked out the cast-on edge and worked 6 rows on that end. Finished! Well, not exactly. It still needs buttons. For now, it’s just pinned in place.

Pattern: Pink and Pearly Kettle Cosy
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Eskimo, about 60 grams
Needles: US 11/8mm
Ravelry: Project page, pattern page
Modifications: None other than the two-tone effect.