Knitted warmer weather top

I recently finished knitting this patternless top for warmer weather. The yarns are the Cloudborn Fibers Pima Cotton DK (discontinued) and the Rowan Summerlite 4Ply. The coral color is the Cloudborn and the white is the finer gauged Rown yarn. The white section knits up a bit more loosely, since I used the same needles, but it works out fine. The transtion section is a brick design achieved by using a slipped stitch pattern which allowed me to knit each row with just one color. Plus, I think the brick pattern looks pretty cool! This sweater is great for warmer weather and I've already worn it a few times before taking the photos.

Appenzell Pullover

I recently finished the Appenzell dolman sleeved pullover. I'm not sure that I love the very deep dolman sleeves because they do cause quite a bit of extra fabric in the upper mid-section. I thought I'd give it try. The yarn is the discontinued Cloudborn superwash worsted, so the price was very affordable. It was also a relatively fast knit. It's a very warm sweater and we still have some cooler days ahead so I've been wearing it a bit. I find the yarn is a tiny bit scratchy -- it's not a merino wool. Sometimes sweaters that I don't initially love turn out to be long-time favorites, so I'll have to see how it goes.

As for modifications, I decided to just do a ribbed neckline instead of making the large collar. I also raised the cable pattern a bit higher on the upper section. To making the knitting go faster, I just used reverse stockinette on the bottom section instead of the moss stitch. After all, if I wasn't sure I would love the final result, I didn't want to spend a lot of time making it. :)

First Sweater of 2022!

This is my first finished sweater of 2022! It is from the Ko-michi pattern by DanDoh designs. I made a few modifications to get the fit I wanted. I wanted a narrower sweater so I cast on fewer stitches and also narrowed the single-strand purple sections. I had to increase the height of the purple parts and also the number of vertical repeats in order to get the length I wanted. I added neckline shaping to achieve a more rounded neckline and shoulder shaping to prevent the top armhole parts from sticking up too much. Finally, I finished the neckline and armholes with a few purl stitch rows. I love the artsy look of this sweater!

Two Sweaters From the Same Pattern

Hello everyone out in the blogosphere! For some reason, I haven't posted anything in awhile and I'm not sure why. Knitting has been happenning and I finished two sweaters from the same pattern. The pattern is Temporal, and I liked the first one well enough to try it again. Also, I made the first one a little too big because I managed to cast on more stitches for the front than the back. This teaches me to always do a stitch count after the first two rows just to check. The pink sweater below is the first one. Both of these are done with the same yarn but in different colors. The yarn is Cloudborn superwash merino DK and I really like it but it's discontinued.

The second version is in a deep red color. In addition to making it a little smaller, I also changed the shaping to a standard waist shaping. The pattern originally calls for a slight widening from hem to bust line. The smaller size does make it a little slimmer but since this is really a sweater that fits with some ease, I don't mind the larger pink one. For both of these, I shaped the front neckline a bit to dip a little lower since I don't like necklines right against my throat.

The pattern calls for a cotton yarn but I decided I wanted something warmer that I can wear over thin tops for cooler weather. I should get some good wear out of these until next summer.

Linen Dress -- M7242

I finished this dress late last year and it is now finally warm enough that I could take it out for a spin! The pattern is McCall's M7242 and I sewed a sleeveless version with the skirt flounce. My main modification was to change the skirt to not have a button front because I didn't see the need for that many buttons. The elastic waist also fits better if it doesn't have to be split by a front band. The fabric is a lightweight linen that needed a lining only for the skirt section. Removing the skirt opening made it much easier to just line the bottom -- the lining also serves as the elastic casing at the top. This dress is really comfy and easy wearing -- I'm looking forward to putting it to good use this in warmer days.

Five Rectangles Cardigan

I recently finished knitting what I call my "five rectangles cardigan". It's my own design and it's basically composed of five almost-rectangular pieces - one back, two fronts, and two sleeves. I say "almost-rectangles" because the back and front pieces have shoulder shaping. The sleeves were picked up from the front and back pieces, so the only finishing work was sewing up the side and sleeve seams. I fussed a bit with various ways of slipping the border stitches on the fronts so that I would not need to add any sort of finishing band. The textured pattern is a broken rib and has a different look on each side, which gives the lapels a different texture from the front. I was aiming for an easy fitting cardigan so this fits me with a bit of ease and I didn't want any waist shaping.

I didn't want a button closure on this sweater because I figured it was a good vehicle for my 3D printed shawl pin. In the name of shameless advertising, you can find my shawlpin in my Etsy Shop. :)

The yarn for this cardi is Shepherd's Wool Worsted by Stonehedge Fiber Mill, which I love. I had purchased this yarn several years ago and as I was winding it and sometimes knitting it, I noticed that it would just break in random places. Sometimes, one or two of the plies would break leaving me a thin strand. I called the company and asked about it and they said it sounded like moths had gotten to the yarn. I store my yarn just in some wooden drawers and I didn't see any moth evidence, but they said I might not see anything. I asked my knitting friends and a few said that it has also happened to them. I don't have much of a yarn stash anyway, but from now on, I'm not waiting several years before knitting my wool yarns!

Diamond patterned pullover

I recently finished this pullover which is based on the Losange pattern. I really liked the diamond pattern on the front, but my yarn is a finer gauge. I used Rowan superfine merino DK weight and the color is really a light green. For some reason, it came out white in the photo, and I was just feeling too lazy to adjust the color or keep trying to take a better photo.:) I used a standard raglan topdown sweater pattern sizing that I've knit many times before, although I made it with a bit more ease to avoid distorting the diamond pattern. It's cold these days, so I'm wearing it over a thin knit top.

For some reason, this sweater took way too long to knit. I think that's partly because I sort of got bored knitting it. However, I'm pretty happy with it now that it's done and I think it will get some wear this wiinter.