Skiing and Tomato

Our week off from school and work was fun, cold, and snowy! It looked like this:





and this:



Tomato was a fast one, and turned out very close to what I expected. I used about 3.5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Navy, and a partial skein of Pickle on 4.5 mm needles. I wanted to knit a top with about 1 inch of negative ease, so I modified the pattern to make a finished bust between the smallest size (31") and one up from that (35.5"). I think I was successful.

These are the mods I made:
Upper body I cast on sts as if for the smallest size per pattern, but repeated the increase rounds 23 times (a hybrid of sizes) so that I had 238 sts total (26 ea front, 56 ea sleeve, 74 for back).
Divide for armholes cast on 1 st on either side of m for ea underarm (again, a hybrid of sizes) using method as per patt, and cast on 22 sts for centre front. This means across the front (26 + 22 + 26) and back (74) plus 4 sts picked up (1 on ea side of underarm m) I had 152 sts, which at a gauge of 4.5 sts per inch, equalled 33.8" which was about 0.2" of negative ease...this would do! Especially since the fair isle section is not as forgiving and stretchy as the stockinette, it would work for me.
Lower body did not decrease on the main colour round (after the 1 round of contrast colour).
Waist decrease repeat decrease rounds 3 times total
Neck edging k2p2 for 7 rounds, then work in patt to 2 sts before first m, work 2 tog, sl m, work 2 tog, work to 2 sts before next m, work 2 tog, sl m, work 2 tog, work in patt to end of rnd.
Sleeve edging pick up and knit 2 sts at underam, pm, pick up and knit 2 sts at underarm (4 sts picked up total = 60 sts). Then decrease 4 sts evenly on next rnd. I used 4 dpns, so I k1, k2tog, then dec 1 st per dpn on the next 2 dpns, and then k until the last 3 sts of rnd, and k2tog and k1.

I'm just a teensy bit unhappy with the shape of the sweater immediately before starting the waist decreases, to me it looks like it got a little bigger. I am convinced this is because of the nature of stockinette following fair isle (guess maybe I still was not loose enough in that section)...if I were to knit it again, I would start the decreases on the round after the last contrast colour round. However, I'm pretty pleased overall!

This may be up next...Happy Easter!

Moving along

I'm feeling rather quilty! I got busy cutting half-square triangles from prints and semi-solids.



The main blocks are laid out on the design wall in a pleasing arrangement. I love this part of the process.



Now the star points and background pieces are added to the mix. I could have mixed up the star points with the main square for a scrappy look but that is not what I want for this quilt.



I think this will be the final layout, I'll think about it for awhile before any piecing is done.



So in the meantime, I got these finished.



And managed to do the Fair Isle section of Tomato too. This is the second time I completed this bit - it was my first try at fair isle techniqe (practice for a future project). Although I knew it would pull in a bit while stranding the other yarn behind the working yarn, I didn't realise it would be SO much until I tried it on (this is a top-down sweater). I had allowed some negative ease too, and combined with the fair isle section, ahem, shall we say it was a little uncomfortable across the chest. It has since been fixed with a re-calculation of stitches and a re-knit with increased awareness of holding the other yarn LOOSELY. Now it has some give! I'll be able to breathe.

Seastorm coming to an end

Turned the heel, and now I'm on the final stretch!



I really like this colourway. I am following Cat Bordhi's technique for her Foxglove pattern, but I can't handle putting the increases "anywhere I feel like." I wanted to knit a plain toe-up sock with traditional increases on the sides, so I placed the increases at the beginning (LRinc) and end (LLinc) of the sole at the rate of 2 increases per 3 rounds for the arch expansion section, as per Cat. This pair of socks will be going into the gift reserve, designated.


To meet my non-sock knitting project needs, I've cast on for Tomato using Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Navy. The colour is so dark, it's not the best project to work on in the evening. The contrasting houndstooth will be in Pickle. The colours remind me of black watch plaid, a favourite of mine. I have a good feeling about this one. Hopefully it will be a quick knit, without any major mistakes! Check out my queue on Ravelry to see what will be after this - I'm crispynoodle.

Sew soon

Today I spent a little time with my ball winder and swift. These gadgets play great together. That there on the swift is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock merino. All in anticipation of me finishing off Seastorm sock, well, I haven't made it to the heel, but soon. I just can't cast off without being totally ready for the next sock in line. After winding the whole ball, I wound approximately half back into a second ball - as a toe-up sock knitter I want to use up that yarn. A visual guess at half would likely do, but when pharmacists have access to sensitive scales, well, let's just say these two balls are now within 0.5 g of each other. Perfect.



And to start the ball rolling on yet another endeavour, Bernie and I will be getting re-acquainted. I pressed the fabrics (shown in the last post, all folded up) for the new quilt which will eventually go in our room. This is the first time I have blogged about quilts, I was starting to think I should take the quilt out of the crispy noodle! (just go with it, folks) It's still in me, though, the pressing and cutting has rekindled my interest and will be another distraction from all my woolly work.



Bernie looks pleased.