Hey fellow crafters,
It's been a while, so I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to.
First of all, I finished my sweater. The stripey one that I made out of leftover single ply merino fingering held double. And let me tell you, I love it! It's so soft and comfy. I used larger needles for it (US size 10 - 6.00 mm). I casted on at the collar and worked the turtleneck long enough that I could fold it over if needed, or keep it super long for a cozy feel. Worked it on a 2x2 ribbing. then, I worked my favorite sweater construction back and forth to elevate the neck and lower the front collar of the sweater. I increased every other round in a raglan style (8 increases per round), except the first 10 rounds where I didn't increase at the inner sleeves (so 6 increases total on these 5 increase rounds) to have more of a saddle construction at the upper shoulders.
I worked each colored section for 24 rounds after the collar before moving on to the other color, and kept increasing raglan-style until 1 inch below the armholes for ease of movement. Then, I put the sleeve stitches on hold and worked on the body. In my favorite style, I mounted 10 stitches at the armholes (5 on each sides of the body) and kept working the body, adding 4 stitches on the sides every 3 inches or so to create a more flowy style. Not A-line, but kinda-ish. I like the ease of movement it gives me.
At the last color, I worked half of it in the round before splitting for the hem. I was playing yarn chicken so I had to frog back the bind-off after I realized it was too short (!) and found a partial skein in my stash that would help me lengthen the hem by another inch or so, which made all the difference!
When I picked up the sleeves from my wonderful, favorite stitch keeping cord (I'm not even kidding about this, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them). I picked up the underarm stitches (I always pick up 2 extra stitches at the junction between the sleeves and the underarms that I decrease right away at the next round. It closes that awful gap without making the sleeve larger), including the 10 extra I cast on. Work this larger sleeve for about 1 inch, before decreasing the casted on stitches every other round for 10 rounds. This creates this triangle of decreases that brings the sleeve back to its original size while allowing for ample movement in the shoulders. It also helps with minimizing the bulk you'd get if you were to work the yoke longer at the underarms to obtain that ease of movement. I wrote an article about this a while ago that you can consult for more information about this.
-> You can also read this article for more information: 8 Tips for Flexible Sweater Construction
Once the sleeves are at their original size, I slow the decreases down to about every 1-1.5 inch, like you usually have on most sweater knitting patterns. I tend to stop my decreases after the elbows, as I love the sleeve at the forearms to have some positive ease to make it feel cozy.
I ran out of a color on the second sleeve and patched as best as I could, and it doesn't really show. It was just short a couple of rounds and nobody even noticed it (I do not recommend this, but hey, it was designed to be a stash buster so...).
This project is now over. So now what? Obviously, I cast on another sweater. I'm not ready to share it with you yet, but it's coming along. Also, my son requested that I knit him a blanket. That's gonna take a while...
Speaking of blankets, I was chatting with my very good friend the other day, and she reminded me that Sebastien will be turning 5 this summer! Sebastien is one of the few blanket patterns I have available in the shop and on Ravelry. It's my favorite blanket pattern, and I have fond memories of knitting it for this baby who's now growing into a wonderful, curious, and energetic boy <3. Want to know the full story of this pattern? Read this article that I wrote a while back about it.
In other unrelated news, I took advantage of my favorite craft store going out of business and gave them a lot of my hard-earned money 😬 Yes, I'm talking about Jo-Ann. I stopped by one of the remaining stores last week, planning to spend up to an hour there while casually shopping (I was waiting for a friend). Didn't I know that I'd be spending half a day there and a couple hundred bucks!! OMG! I will miss this store when it's gone. 😭
A lot of items were out of stock, but I did buy enough yarn to make my son the blanket he requested, as well as enough yarn for another blanket and a sweater. On top of that, I got enough bean bag pellets to make a bean bag for the game room, enough fabric to sew my daughter a fancy dress, AND even more cotton for this coming year's advent calendar project bags! I'm still debating which pattern I'll use for this year's project bags. Any ideas? Contact me and let me know about your favorite project bags!
Here are examples of past years' advent calendar project bags:
Also, I'm thinking about doing a pre-order this year that would open much earlier. What would you think about that? I see a lot of indie dyers listing their holiday advents right now. I know there's a lot of work put into building those advents, and it only makes sense to want to get a head start. I might list them at the beginning of the fall. I have a couple of months to figure that out and get organized, but stay tuned! In the meantime, if you want to grab the last few project bags I found hiding somewhere in my inventory, you can do so here (if the link doesn't work it's because it's sold out)!