Squooshtastic!

Pattern: 198 yards of heaven (pattern on Ravelry)
Yarn: in this case, I used just under 264 yards of my own handspun :)
Needles: US 11 - large needle size, coupled with lace = nice, fast, rewarding knitting.

Comments: This is a large shawlette - I totally forgot to take measurements before wrapping it up and sending it off. My cat isn't tiny, so use him for reference as you will.

Modifications? I believe after 2.5 repeats of the main pattern (it may have been 3.5 - I can't find my notes) I didn't use the proscribed edging - rather I follwed another Raverly Knitter's modifications, repeating rows 11 & 12 a few times (3x each) before binding off - I didn't follow her modifications to mimic the eyelets along the bound off edge....1) I didn't like how they looked and 2) I didn't have enough yarn to do so.

I'm really pleased with how well this came out - it's open, and plenty warm when wrapped around the neck. The colors worked out well, combining the two handspuns - and because they are both navajo plied yarns, the fabric is incredibly squooshy.

behold :) I love the bits of green at the edge...and the slighty tweeded effects of having handblended while spinning the singles at the wheel. I love it. I hope the recipient adores it as much as I do!

Rustic Autumn Audrey

Pattern: Audrey in Unst from the fall 2009 Twist Collective by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: SuDan Hug-a-sheep handspun 2-ply Border Leicester (from a sheep named Libby on SuDan farm in Oregon)
Needles: Ravelry fails me - or rather I failed and didn't enter the data. I can't remember if I used US4 or US5 or US6. Regardless, there was math involved.

Comments: In short? I love it. This was a fast and fairly simple knit - and it was especially interesting because it's seamless. I love learning new techniques, don't you?

Because I seem to get stalled during the finishing, I always look for patterns that have minimal finishing required - in this case, this sweater has faux seams (along with some shaping) on the sides, and seamless set in sleeves (shaped by picking up stitches and short rowing). In addition to the faux seams and set in sleeves, Audrey has nice details including the twist stitch ribbing, the shetland lace bib motif and the I-cord edging at the neckline.

As I mentioned above, there was definitely math involved - I swatched hoping to get in the same ballpark range as the gauge specified in the pattern, but the yarn is definitely thicker in grist than the yarn called for in the pattern. As you may imagine, the major math bits were around the armscye, the lace motif and the neckline - I wound up reducing the number of lace motifs in the bib motif, while still having it occupy approximately the same space as on the original design. The neckline is a bit more boat-shaped, making it challenging to find clothes to wear under it if I want to layer (I tend to live in T-shirts, and a plain tee neckline just doesn't look right with this sweater - so I'm thinking tank or cami or a collared shirt). The only other modification was the order in which the last bits were knit - First I knit the body, then I did the button bands, then the neck edging, leaving the sleeves for last - this allowed me to use up the most yarn possible...and it just so happens the sleeves wound up a perfect length!

I don't recall how many buttonholes the original pattern called for, but since it is recommended to knit the sweater with negative ease, I wanted to be sure to prevent any sort of gapping problem and went aggressive with the buttons. After finishing the main body, I pondered installing a zipper instead of buttons, but swiftly killed that idea as I thought the rustic nature of the yarn lent itself much more to some fancy buttons.

Here's a closeup detailed shot of the armscye - isn't it lovely? I'm really glad I discovered this method for creating set-in sleeves, because I hate seaming up set-in sleeves that are knit separately from the body. I'll probably have to study the technique some more to understand the math behind it, because I can tell you the first time I picked up way too many stitches (I went with my intuition and didn't do the math) - once I realized the sleeve was turning out to be big enough for me to put my leg through, I ripped it back and did the math conversion, and it goes to show I should have just trusted Clever Gudrun.


I'll leave you with a closeup of the fantastic buttons I found - antiqued brass buttons with wee trees! Perfect for autumn!

Wing of the Moth

Pattern: Wing of the Moth" by Anne Hanson of Knitspot
Yarn: Handspun Singles from Spritely Goods handblended batts in Arizona Sycamore colorway, combined with additional fiber that was blended by hand rather than by the carder.
Needles: US 6

the moth, pre blocking
Comments: Have I said recently how much I love lace? It's challenging to knit, and it has different "faces" to it at different stages of the process. Witness above and below - the moth, prior to blocking - it has such texture to it in its unblocked state!

another preblocking photo - of the moth preblocking
I love these bumps - they were formed on the backside of the shawl, in the fircone lace section - witness the fuzzy halo from the angora :)

The patten itself is well written, though due to my own peculiarities with how I use markers I had a little bit of a challenge figuring out just what I was supposed to be doing during the transition rows, but if you follow the instructions, you should be fine.

Blocking this baby wasn't too bad, and it didn't seem to take any longer than my other shawls - I ran blocking wires across the top edge, stretched her tight evenly across the top (7-foot 8-inch wingspan on this one - I'm rather aggressive with my blocking though), then pulled the midline tight and pinned it in place (46 inches tall if I remember the measurement correctly). From there, it was a question of pinning out the coronas - I did this the same way I did the points on my other shawls - I pinned the "center" point of the "center" corona out on both left and right sides, then I did the next midpoints between those coronas and the bottom point and top points, and continued in this manner until each midpoint of each corona was pinned out - then I went back through and pinned out each of the loops in the corona to get that nice scallopy edge. I will admit to getting a bit impatient at that point, and pinning away at will from left to right along each corona, which has resulted in some slightly lopsided scallops, but I figure it will do for now ;) I'll have to reblock her sometime in the future anyhow :D


Those that followed along on my regular blog might recall that the yarn spun for this project was prepared in 2 different methods. The main fircone portion (the portion in the lower right in the above photo) was spun from blended batts. The yarn used in the outer portion of the shawl was prepared by actually blending fibers at the wheel - resulting in considerably more striping. The fibers used in the preparation were the same as those used in the batts, and also in the same ratios - they just spin up differently depending on how thoroughly blended they are.

The Moth was a pleasure to knit, I just regret that I can't seem to capture the slight sparkle that is present in the yarn - The colors remind me of a Sphinx Moth, though up close, there is more earthy green visible. I'm looking forward to the weather cooling down so I can actually wear the Moth rather than simply gaze at it!

Eyelet Lace

This scarf was knit as a holiday gift, it's a nice long somewhat narrow scarf from handspun vebena batts! The pattern was simple, and unfortunately it no longer appears to be online any longer. And of course, I knit it so long ago I don't recall what the dimensions of the finished scarf was (and of course it's winged off to its new home), nor do I recall what size needles I used. Anyhow, It's warm when wrapped several times around the neck, but open enough to stretch and cover a longer season.

If you're wondering what the yarn looked like before it was knit, click here!

I was very happy to hear the response of the recipient :) she's very happy with it indeed!