Juliet

My newest addition to my fall wardrobe: Juliet. (I am slowly but successfully replacing all my store-bought sweaters with my own handmades, except for the golf sweaters, of course, but hey, I think I may try knitting argyle next...)



I had bought some Cascade Ecological Wool for another project in mind, but the gauge would not work. Then I remembered Juliet used a bulky weight, so off I went. Worked on 6.5 mm needles, this was truly a fast and easy knit with no major modifications.



After casting off the sleeves, I worked the garter section for 4.5 inches before beginning the lace. I went into the second skein near the end of the 7th repeat. I completed eight pattern repeats, then went on to four rows of garter stitch, and then cast off purlwise.



Found these fabulous buttons here, the selection was so amazing, it took me an hour in the shop to decide which to choose. I spaced them evenly, and staggered like in the pattern photo for some whimsy. For the closures, I did two stitch I-cord, and sewed them opposite. It's very easy to wear, my new favourite!

Back to School U-neck Vest

I love going back to school - especially the fall clothes! Here's the other vest I had planned this year, from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits. This vest I knit from Aslan Trends Ecolana (alpaca 60%, merino 40%) in a very dark brown, on a 4 mm circular needle. I like this stuff, no dyes or chemicals used, soft and so light. A little itchy, but I think I can handle it!



I think there may have been an omission in the pattern where, after the ribbing section is finished (working from the bottom up), there should be a "knit 1 round" before beginning the purl 3 rounds, knit 3 rounds, etc. This would better define the purl band. I'm not sure why I didn't just do it, since that's how it's written before starting the ribbing. I would definitely recommend including that row.

There are errata for this pattern, I'm glad I noticed it before things got bad. Plus, I made a few mods myself. Like many other folks on ravelry, I wanted the neck to be a bit lower, and the shoulders to be a little narrower. The following modifications take into account the designer's errata, for the size I knit (the smallest)




Body
I worked even in waffle stitch til body measured 14” (obviously for longer length)

Upper front
After decreasing 1 st at beg of next 12 rows, I worked only one row (instead of 7, for a lower neck)

Front neck
Row 2: bind off 24 sts, work to end (22 sts remaining)

Note: all decreases occur at NECK edge
Row 4: decrease 1 st, then decrease 1 st every 4th row 3 times more (18 sts). Thereafter, decrease 1 st every 3rd row for 6 times (12 sts)

At this point you will have done the required number of repeats of rows 4-13 as per patt, plus one row (consider it negligible)

Next two rows: decrease 1 st at neck edge (10 sts, for a narrower shoulder width, taking into acct that purl bands will add a little more width)

Upper back
I wanted the rate of decreases to match the fronts, hence: decrease 1 st at beg of next 12 rows (44 sts)

Back neck
Repeat rows 3-4 six more times (10 sts)

Finishing
For the armholes, I only purled three rounds, then bound off purlwise. This helped narrow the shoulders a little more.

I’m happy with it! Another fall vest finished, and I got away with just (we’re talking less than 5 metres) two skeins.

Wool Peddler's Shawl

All done - and getting lots of use already, is my version of Cheryl Oberle's Wool Peddler's Shawl from her book Folk Shawls. Starting from the top down, it's knitting on easy street with rows and rows of garter stitch on a 3.75 mm circular needle. Five different colourways of Koigu PPPM were used, just like the ones I've seen before. The next colour was introduced in alternating rows with the working colour until the working colour was used up.

After getting suitably bored with knitting every stitch, the lace section was pretty exciting to begin. I started my lace when I had 331 stitches on the needle, that is, 165 sts on either side of the centre stitch. The pattern gives you a chart and written row instructions for this part. I always wish I could follow charts, but usually I find it easy to go through the row by row instructions. Not this time! With all my stitch markers in place to increase around the centre stitch, I found that the instructions omitted "sl m," which led to problems the first go-around. So this is how I re-wrote it:

On the odd row instructions where the designer says to repeat the lace pattern "from * to 1 st before next marker," I worked the next stitch as per instructed, THEN I slipped the marker and carried on ie. on row 1: K1, yo, knit to marker, *k1, yo, k3, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), k3, yo; repeat from * to 1 st before next marker, k1, sl m, yo, knit centre st, yo, sl m, repeat from * to 1 st before next marker, end k1, knit to last st, yo, k1. On even rows, the markers are slipped on either side of the purl stitches. Once that was resolved, it was back to easy street! I even had the pattern memorised by the end of the lace.

While on the last colour, I was mostly stressed about not having enough to finish the pattern repeat, and then completing eight rows of garter stitch before casting off. Since the shawl was getting bigger and bigger with each row, my estimate of how much yarn I needed for a row was pretty weak by shawl end. I did in fact guess wrong, and ended up doing only six rows before the cast off (which I did purlwise so that it would look like another row). I think it turned out alright! It has a very nice weight to it and the delicate edging just totally makes it.

Here it is pre-blocked



and being blocked



and the completed shawl



as worn by miss M: