Iris

I finished this top not too long ago and I love it! The pattern is Iris and the yarn is Hempathy. I've used this yarn severaL times before and it's great for warm weather tops. It's also really durable and washes well over and over. Since the weather is still cool, I wear this over a longer sleeve top but I imagine that when the warm weather arrives, I can just wear it over a sleeveless tank.

I used a finer gauge yarn than specified in the pattern so I got a 40" circumference or so instead of 42". I've knitted quite a few sweaters by this designer and I usually go for a narrower look. I also shaped the shoulders and shaped the front neckline so that it scoops about 2.5" below the back. My sleeves are also a bit narrower than specified. I finished the neckline with some purl rows.

I anticipate wearing this top quite often in the next few years.

Poncho Sweater

And here I present a recently finished garment! This is a self drafted pattern. It's loosely based on a garment I saw in a window on a mannequin at a shop at the Shinjuku Station in Tokyo when I was there on vacay in October last year. I call it a "poncho sweater" because it is essentially two rectangles with a hole for the head. Well, it's a hole with a nice fluffy collar added :). I forgot what sort of collar the window garment had since I had deleted the photo by accident. I do know that it had fringe on the sides, but I didn't really want fringe. I ended up adding the button tabs on the sides because it reduces the flapping around of the pieces and also gives the garment an illusion of shape. The yarn is a blend of merino wool and bamboo so it has nice drape. It's a discontinued brand from WEbS. My favorite feature of this sweater is the fluffy collar.

Happy 2024!

Happy 2024 everyone! I can't believe that I haven't posted any knitting projects since April of 2023. Knitting has been happening, although at a slower rate than past years. Here's one cardigan I knitted some time ago last year. It's the Wilder pattern, knit in a bulky yarn from Cascade. It's a really warm sweater so I enjoy wearing it this winter. It's also an oversized look, so I made mine shorter in length and moved the pockets higher because I didn't want that long of a baggy sweater. For some reason, I could not capture a good photo of me wearing this thing -- it always came out crooked and my neck came out too thin! It's probably because I wasn't in the mood to take a picture anyway.:)

On the other hand, here's a photo of a much more photogenic life form with her new vest! This is Proton the Dog, who can get a bit cold because she doesn't have a thick undercoat of fur like some dogs do. I used up some leftover yarn and made her a granny square sweater/vest. She seems to like it, or at least she doesn't complain!