VK Cardigan FO

After several weeks of knitting and re-knitting the VK cardigan, I finally have an FO to share. I don't think I have blogged about this project yet. I used a yarn that I've never used before - Somerset by Bristol Yarns. , which is a cotton/silk blend. I didn't have the pattern with me when I purchased the yarn, so I didn't realize that I was buying yarn in the wrong gauge. I really wanted to use it, so I had to redo the entire pattern to work with my yarn. I didn't take any notes, so when it came to repeat the instructions for the other pieces, there were some glitches. I had to reknit the left front FOUR times before I got it right. Needless to say, I was happy to finally get this one off the needles and on my back! So much so, that I took an FO photo yesterday before I cleaned up for the day:



Overall, I'm very happy with how this came out. It fit perfectly when I finished it, which considering how much I winged it is rather shocking, but being silk yarn, it stretched out rather quickly. By the end of the day, it was fairly baggy and falling off my shoulders. I really enjoyed the pattern and recommend it to anyone who likes the design. Unlike most VK patterns, it was error-free. J told me that I look unhappy in this photo, but the truth is, I wasn't. I was running late to meet my mom for lunch, so I was just rushing.

Earlier this week, I took my niece to Seaport Village, a quaint but touristy shopping area near the harbor in downtown San Diego. They have an historic carousel there that was handcarved in 1895, so I took Savannah on it for a couple of rides. Here she is waving to my mom as we pass by and there I am. The reason I'm showing this photo is the skirt I'm wearing. That's my Indigo Ripples skirt, in case anyone was curious about it. I knitted it about a year ago, and it's one of my favorite FO's. You can't see me very well in the photo since I'm mostly obscured by the horse, but you can see the skirt.



Now, I'm working on a Tahki sleeveless cardigan pattern using a stash cotton/acrylic blend yarn, and I placed an order to Knitpicks for their Comfy yarn in Fedora to make the Nantucket Jacket. I was going to use Cotton-Ease in one of their new colors, Hazelnut, but I was informed that the color is a more of a green/brown than a rich, espresso color. When it arrives, I'll do a little stash flashing.

Look at My Pretty Dress!

Even though I sewed it a while ago, I finally got to see Savannah wear the dress I made for her.



It finally fits - last summer it was way too big. She's in a dress phase now, so when she's wearing one, she says, "Look at my pretty dress!" She knows I made it for her, and when I saw her today, I was wearing a skirt that I made that she loved because it has flowers on it. Wearing a dress didn't exactly make her act like a lady though! She still horsed around in it. By the way, those oven mitts she's wearing are her lobster claws.

As for knitting, I finished Josephine and wore it to work on Friday. I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn (I didn't), so I did the neckline trim in the same color as the ribbon I used to tie the sweater. I was all ready to take a bathroom mirror photo of it on Thursday night when I remembered that my camera battery died. I haven't recharged it yet, so I also don't have photos of my Something Red that I started on Friday. I'm moving very quickly on it and it should be done my next weekend. Hopefully, I'll have my camera battery charged by then!

They Call This Summer?

I'm writing to you from a 9-day "vacation" in New England. It started with 5 days in Rhode Island, attending various pre-wedding events and culminating with a wedding at the Towers in Narragansett. The building sits on the sand and looks out onto the ocean. It was a lovely wedding and I had a really great time. I decided to boondoggle 4 days in Boston before heading back home and that's where I am now. The weather is very fall-ish and not at all of what I'd expect for August. I've heard that San Diego is sweltering, thought, so I guess I'm glad not to be there at the moment.

I did finish two projects for my trip - the Lutea Lace Shouldered Shell from the Summer Interweave and the layered Barcelona Skirt by Amy Butler.



I knitted the shell out of Vanilla Cotton-Ease (the old stuff) and made a 38" bust even though as I remember, the pattern didn't come in a 38". I cast on a number of stitches between the size smaller and the size larger and then just made adjustments when it came time to do the shoulders. I made the skirt out of fabric purchased at Rosie's Calico Cupboard in El Cajon, CA.

Here's a close-up of the layering of the skirt:



Since I've been here, I've visited 5 fabric stores and only one yarn store, if you can believe it. As expected, the fabric stores here are far superior to the ones in San Diego so I've been having fun. I've kept with discount/remnant type places, so I haven't spent a ton of money.



The fabric in the lower part of the photo was purchased at Winmill fabrics in Boston's Chinatown. It's a remnant of wool/cashmere/silk fabric that was 60" wide and $7 per yard. The print fabric was purchased at The Fabric Place in Warwick, RI and it was $7 per yard. It's a polyester silk-type fabric. The pinstripe piece was also a remnant. It is 100% wool and was $7.98 per yard.



These fabrics were both purchased in the Somerville/Lechmere area of Boston. One is a 100% cotton fabric and the other is a beautiful piece of chocolate-colored wool suiting. The wool was $5 per yard at Sew-fisticated Fabrics! I couldn't believe it. The cotton is 60" wide and was $3.99 per yard at Sew-Low Discount Fabrics.



These fabrics were purchased at Lorraine Fabrics in Pawtucket, RI. This was a pretty amazing place. It reminded me of Michael Levine's minus the quilting cottons. They had tons of silk, a good amount of linen, wool, silk-type, flannel and all kinds of other fabric. They also had something called "The Loft" upstairs where I was able to get a piece of black courdoroy for $4 for 2 yards. The silk fabrics were $7 per yard. There was so much there that I got completely overwhelmed and dazed. The store was in an old mill so there was a lot of room to cram in lots of stuff.

I spent the first 5 days of the trip with my neice, so I got loads of adorable photos of her. Here's is her first experience at the beach eating her first Dell's Lemonade (local RI favorite).

There Has Been Knitting

But, there isn't really anything interesting to show you. School is crazy right now, but in addition to that, I have the next installment of my sweater design class on Saturday. I haven't done any work on my project in six weeks or more, so I'm cramming this week. As a result, I haven't finished Sahara yet. It won't take long, but every spare minute that I have for knitting needs to be used for the class project. Hopefully, I'll have the back finished by Friday so I'll have a good photo. I made quite a lot of progress last night and I'm now 4 inches or so into the armhole shaping.

Instead, I have non-knitting photos.

I took this picture of my neice, Savannah, when we went out to dinner last Friday night. She did this pose herself - it wasn't staged or anything. Even though she's only 19 months, she's about as big as a 3-year old! The doctor told her parents she's going to be over 6 feet tall. She's also a skinny beanpole, so she's lucky to have gotten those genes from her mother.



I got this shot of Teacup yesterday. I guess having the window open in the bedroom was a bit too chilly for him, so he took refuge by wrapping himself like a burrito in the comforter.

Slow, Slow Sahara

I don't know what' s up with this sweater, but it seems to be taking me forever. I think it's because there's only 4 1/2 weeks left in the semester so there's a ton of work to be done and I'm trying to get some work for the summer. Not much time for knitting. Its the only thing I'm working on, though, so its getting there.



I just did the bottom lace portion last night, and since it was off the needles, I tried it on and I really like the fit. For the first time, I designed decreases to actually match the shape of my VERY long torso. Basically, the distance from the underarm to my waist is around 11 inches and from my waist to where I like sweaters to end is more like 4 inches. But, doing it this way resulted in something that follows the curve of my body well.

Here's an extra Wednesday treat. A photo of my niece from Easter. Isn't she growing up nicely?