Forest Weave Sweater

I recently finished knitting a sweater using the Forest Weave pattern. I used Cascade Ultra Pima cotton yarn, which is one of my favorite all-cotton yarns. It has really nice drape and feels very soft to knit with. I love this sweater -- it makes me feel like I should be hosting a show at an art gallery or something like that. I did make a few mods, as I usually do. I reduced the circumference by 8 inches. It is 40 inches as compared to the 48 inches for the pattern's smallest size. The sweater is knit side to side for the front and back pieces, so I reduced the number of rows and scrunched the cable pattern down by having fewer rows between the cabling rows. It still feels a smidgen too wide, but the drape seems to improve with wear, so it's looking narrower with more wearing time. I also did not knit sleeves but just added some rows of garter stitch onto the armhole opening. I did some decreases at the top to prevent the band from poking upward.

The Cutest Shop Ever

Until last weekend, I had never shopped before in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. I went strolling through there last Friday and I stumbled upon one of the cutest shops I've seen in a long time. It's name is The Ribbonerie and it specializes in tons and tons of ribbons. This shop looks like something you might find in one of those narrow streets of Paris or Tokyo. It's got ribbons for sewing, ribbons for wrapping, and ribbons for any other purpose you can think of. I didn't buy anything because I couldn't think of what I might need. I did take some photos though.

It's got some other vintage items for sale like these cool hats.

Vogue V9079 in printed stretch denim

I recently sewed up Vogue V9079 in this printed stretch denim I got at JoAnn. I loved this print as soon as I saw it. It felt a bit too stiff on the bolt, but I washed and dried it twice and that softened it up pretty well. The denim is sturdy enough so that the dress holds its shape and the stretch makes it really comfy. Since it's denim, I decided to top-stitch it to death. I put double rows of top-stitching on the neckline, the front curved seam, and around the armholes. I used orange thread which both matches the print and contrasts really well with the white and the blue.

This dress is unlined so if you're going to make it, it's best with a fabric that has a some weight to it. It's not a tight fit, but a bit of stretch definitely makes it easier to wear. One of the things I like about this pattern is the shape of the back pleats. The top of each pleat goes up to the neckline instead of ending at a point. For some reason, this is a better fit for me and also makes for easier alterations if you want to adjust the shape of the upper back.

New 3D Printed Stitch Markers

I added these paw prints stitch markers to my Etsy Shop. Being a dog lover, I made these with the idea that they are dog paw prints, but I think can be the paw prints of other types of creatures also.

Along with being colorful and cute, these should be snag-free markers.

New sweater

I recently finished knitting this sweater from an improvised pattern. This is more or less a classic pullover, with a slight vintage look. It came out a smidgen shorter and a tiny bit more fitted than I wanted, and that's probably adding to the vintage effect. The yarn is Handwerks Silky Sock, which is a fingerling weight silk/merino yarn. It's the first fingerling weight sweater I've ever knitted. It didn't take as long as I expected, probably because the sweater is small and only has tiny quasi sleeves. I used most of two skeins, for a total of 870 yards.

The pattern is pretty simple. The bottom section is a broken rib, as is the neckline and sleeve edgings. The center panel is stockinette. The side panels are stockinette interspersed with 1x1 cables that shift one by stitch every other row. This sweater is shaped by increases from the bottom band up towards the underarms. I was aiming for a more dolman effect, but I didn't do enough increases as I approached the armholes section. The fit turned out fine anyway, and I really like the dressier look and feel of a fine gauge sweater. It just seem like very slow going when I'm knitting it.

Here's my tip for putting edgings on this kind of extended shoulder quasi sleeve. I picked up the stitches around the armhole at two stitches for every three rows except at the top 2.5 inches at the shoulder seam. For that area, I picked up one stitch every other row. This pulls in the top area and prevents it from poking upward at the upper arm.

Pictures from an exhibition

I went to the De Young Museum last week. It was a great time to visit -- the Oscar de la Renta retrospective show is there and last week was also the Bouquets to Art week. I thought I'd post a few of the photos from the day's visit.

This pic shows some of the day dresses in the collection. I think I could actually wear that pink number with the embroidery.

These colorful caftans are from a collection of resort wear.

Some more lovely gowns.

I believe this group is from the garden inspiration section.

This was probably one of my favorite gowns. It actually has a lot of texture -- too bad we couldn't touch it!

On to the flowers. This was one of the cutest floral arrangements. The painting that inspired it is in the back, but I did not capture it very well. It does have a little yellow cart.

Both the painting and the floral arrangement have a dark look, but I sort of like it.

Here's one more.

This scene overlooks the museum entrance area with hanging bouquets.

This was probably my favorite floral arrangement. The tub is filled with hydrangeas.

Cabled cowl with Noro yarn

A friend kindly gifted me with 4 skeins of Noro Kureyon yarn this last Christmas, purchased in Japan, no less. I've never used Noro before, so I figured a cowl is a good place to start. This one only took 2 skeins, so I can repeat the process again and try a different pattern. I adapted a cable pattern that I found in one of those 365 knitting stitches a year calendars. I used a size 10.5 needle, so it's knit at a looser than the recommended gauge. My cowl ended up about 10 inches high and 22 inches in circumference. I find that to be a good size for a cozy cowl.

For those who are interested (and also to save the data for myself), here's the pattern. I'm only listing out the main 45 pattern stitches. The cowl includes 2 garter stitches at each edge, but I won't bother typing that out.

The main stitch pattern of 45 stitches:
Row 1: k
Row 2: p
Rows 3 and 4: stockinette
Row 5: *cable 10 front, k5, repeat from * twice
Rows 6: p
Rows 7 through 12: stockinette
Row 13: *k5, cable 10 back, repeat from * twice
Row 14: p
Rows 15 and 16: stockinette
Repeat the 16 rows 8 more times.

I used a provisional cast-on so for my last repeat set, I only did 15 rows and used the kitchener stitch to weave together the first and last rows, which creates the last 16th row.
If you don't bother with the provisional cast-on, just do all 16 rows for the last set, bind off, and sew the ends together.