I went to Stitches West

I went to Stitches West 2013 and all I got was:

A pattern book from weaverknits. I liked the cover pattern and this pattern. It helped that I could see both the sweaters being worn -- the designer herself wore the second one.

Some vintage buttons (or as I like to say, "budduns") from Buttons!, my favorite buddun vendor.

And lastly, some yarn on sale from WEBS. This was a good deal at $52 for the package of 10. I love looking at all the yarns at Stitches, but frankly, many of them are just too pricey for my blood. I usually spend no more than $70 for yarn for one sweater, and that's for the nice merino wools and blends. I just cannot convince myself to spend over $100 for sweater yarn.

FO: Dog sweater

This is a sweater for Sencha, a neighbor's dog. I didn't use any specific dog sweater pattern, but I sort of made up my pattern after looking at a few of them. I knit the sweater as two pieces, and then sewed up the side seams, leaving two holes for the forelegs. The neck and bottom hems have ribbing. The rest is stockinette, but as with all knitwear, one can customize this by putting some sort of stitch pattern on the back.

Below is a very rough schematic. I left out any measurements, since this needs to be customized to fit. I think this style will work for your basic tube-shaped dog, and I made the front and back pieces the same width. For the dogs with deeper chests, I think you might need to make a wider front, or perhaps a front that has more increases towards the middle and then decreases back down at the bottom. Or even better, maybe some short row shaping would do the trick for a deep-chested dog. Also, this sort of leg hole might not work if the dog has long legs since it would be hard to get the legs through.

And the winner is....

Lauren Helen -- Congrats on winning my big bag o' yarn. I'll email you shortly to get your contact info.

Big Bag of Yarn Giveaway!

I haven't held a giveaway in ages, so it's about time! I'm giving away many of the leftover skeins from my various knitting projects. I always seem to have at least a skein leftover when I knit sweaters because I don't know how much I will need when I stock up on yarn and I end up buying a bit too much. Here's what's in this pile:

• 1 skein Mirasol Tupa
• 1 skein Rowan Calmer
• 1 skein Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton
• 1 skein Rowan purelife Revive
• 1 skein Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy
• 1.5 skeins Valley Yarns Northfield
• 1 skein di.Ve Autunno
• almost 3 skeins Fibranatura Heaven
• 1 skein Awana Kancha baby alpaca -- I've never knitted with this yarn. I won it in a contest, but I never knit with that fine a gauge

Of this batch of yarn, my favorites are the Hempathy and the Northfield. I've knitted at least two garments with each of these yarns. I love the drape of the 2nd Time Cotton, and I've knitted at least two garments with it also, but it's a bit too thick a gauge for summer pullovers. It's good for summer cardigans though.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment any time up until 12:00AM PST Monday February 11. Hmm -- that's just after the Lunar New year. Perhaps I will consider this a Lunar New Year giveaway!

Be sure to leave some clue as to how I can find you if you win. If your comment leads to your blog, that's good enough. Otherwise, a ravelry ID would work.

If you don't hear from me until then, Happy Year of the Snake!

FO: Quasi peplum cardigan

My latest finished object is from an improvised pattern. The yarn is Fibranatura Heaven. This might be a discontinued yarn, as I got it at a deep discount, along with the cream colored batch that I used for this sweater. I wanted to do something with some gathers since that would require more yarn than the normal cardigan and I had a ton of yarn. I didn't want the bulk of a full peplum, so I ended up with this quasi peplum cardi. The borders are seed stitch, and the stitch pattern at the waist is something called a "ripple" stitch that I found in one of my stitch pattern books. I used it way back in time on this skirt. It pulls the fabric in with a tighter gauge and is quite stretchy. I decided to use big snaps for the sweater closure so the buttons are decorative. I used some felt between the snaps and the yarn fabric to keep everything sturdy. I think I would have liked this sweater in a heavier yarn of the same gauge, but I'm pretty happy with it.

FO: Arc and Line Cowl

This is the Arc and Line Cowl from Knit.wear Fall 2012. My yarn is some merino yarn by Tattersall Mills which I bought as a souvenir from my New Mexico vacation. My gauge is a bit finer than the pattern's gauge so I added a few stitches to the sides, and I did more vertical repeats. While I was knitting it, I kept thinking of it as the "underwear cowl" because of how it looks when flat. The Other Half says it looks like a pair of feminine tighty whities.

FO: Lace Doily Cocoon Vest

This is the Lace Doily Cocoon Vest, knitted using Bergère de France Ecoton. I normally would not have ever found this pattern because I don't browse through the Tahki Yarns pattern books. My LYS had a knitted sample on display and allowed me to try it on and I liked how it looked. I didn't use the suggested yarn, and I think my yarn is a slightly finer gauge. This is probably a spring and summer type of garment, but I wanted to knit it anyway. It sort of has this 1970s hippie chick vibe which I like.

The pattern was a bit of a pain because I think it had some stitch count errors. Also, the lace pattern is directional so it wasn't easy to make it more or less symmetrical. It is knitted from right to left, and I did not see any instructions on how to terminate the lace pattern on the left side so I had to improvise. It's knit in a rectangle, as seen in the WIP photo. I added a row of single crochet on the underarm edge to bring it in and firm it up. I'm pretty happy with the end result though. I'll have to wait for warmer weather to see how it wears during the course of a day.