Knitting Musings

Ireland Cardigan Pattern For Sale!!

Ireland Cardigan
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U.S. $5.00

SIZES:

Woman’s Small (37" chest) / Medium (42" chest) / Large (46" chest)

YARN:

100% Cormo Worsted from Foxhill Farms, approximately 1300 (1550, 1800) yards.

You will also need a zipper to close the front of the cardigan.

GAUGE:

Gauge (Cables over 4 in = 10 cm): 22 sts by 30 rows on U.S. Size 7 needles (or size needed to obtain gauge).

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Labels: Ireland Cardigan

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Still Alive...

...and somehow still knitting!!! I'm just about finished sewing up the Gathering Intentions/I-Cord Cables sweater. I'll still have to decide on a neckline, but otherwise, the knitting is done. I hope to finish it up this week. I'm also on the verge of begining S' Ireland Souvenir Scarf, which hopefully will go relatively quickly since I'd love to finish it in time for the cold weather.

Pictures of all of this will be forthcoming as soon as I get my camera back from S - we went camping this weekend, and the camera decided to hang out in S' backpack for a little longer.

In other news, I spent the majority of my "free time" on Friday ignoring all of the things on my "to-do" list, and writing up the pattern for the Ireland Cardigan. I'll hopefully be able to make a pdf file of everything this afternoon, and will be offering it for sale in the next couple of days!

Labels: Ireland Cardigan, Random

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A Little Help, Please?

Although the temps were in the 60s yesterday, less than a week ago, we had snow. A LOT of snow. It was so beautiful, that I got up at 7 am on a Sunday just to take pictures and enjoy the snow before everyone messed it up by walking in it.

And, coincidentally, I got another little lesson in the differences between dogs and cats.

Cricket's response to the snow? "Ew. Cold. Wet. Back to bed."

Abby's response to the snow? "OOOOOOOO! COLD! WET! OOOOOOOOOOOO! Let's go run in it! And dig in it! Yippie!!!"

I must admit - for most of the day, I sided with Cricket on that one, and enjoyed the snowy day from inside the nice warm house. Since I wasn't going anywhere anyway, I decided it would be a good time to install the zipper in the Ireland Cardi.

First, I laid it out on the table, using my little green cutting board to separate the back from the front so I didn't accidentally sew the wrong thing.

Cricket, hearing the siren song of the Cormo, quickly made an appearance.

Round 1: Cricket (1), Maeve (0).

After a few difficulties in the "cat removal department," I basted the front edges closed with contrasting yarn (leftover sock yarn, in this case.)

Then, I flipped the sweater inside out and pinned in the zipper.

At this point, I cleverly distracted the Great Cormo Hunter with the ball of leftover sock yarn. Much gleeful unravelling of the yarn-ball ensued.

Round 2: Cricket (1), Maeve (1).

This momentary repreive from the Great Black Blob allowed me to baste in the zipper with contrasting thread.

This, however, was about as far as I got.

Side view:

aerial photography supplied by Goodyear...

Yeah - it was clearly time to give it up.

Round 3: Cricket (2), Maeve (1). Victory, Cricket!

So I kept working on my Forest Socks - and managed to finish them at some point this week. Details to come - but you know the basics. Toe-ups, 60 sts, garter stitch rib, size 0 addi's. You know, the usual.

But there isn't much that's usual about the new socks - they are "put on your sunglasses and avoid staring directly at them" kinda bright. They're the ubiquitous jaywalkers - with hot pink, bright orange, and bright yellow, on 60 sts with size 0 addi's. The pink and orange yarns are from the same ebay seller as the forest yarn.

I cannot adequately describe how happy these socks make me... so much so, that since I took this picture on Wednesday, I'm almost done with the first sock.

And speaking of new friends - Abby met Paul at Knit Happens on Wednesday.... they played ball, and Abby gave Paul lots of kisses. :)

K - I'm off to watch last night's olympics. Yes, I've already fallen behind - but just by 1 day. I'm hoping to keep it that way... luckily, there aren't nearly as many winter events, so hopefully I won't still be watching the olympics in may. I just wish I had cable so I could watch curling....

I'm definitely in the running for "Gigantic-ist Olympics Dork."

Labels: Abby, Cricket, Ireland Cardigan, Socks

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A Real Update

Despite all of the recent excitement, there is still knitting going on! Sure, it's only a sock, because, well, there are limits to how much one's brain can handle. But it is knitting nonetheless -

These are the Forest Socks, using a garter stitch rib pattern, in sock yarn from ebay seller lotusblossom. This yarn was FUGLY in the skein - too much bright yellow/green. But knit up, the browns really come out, and the whole thing looks amazing! Just goes to show you that you have to knit with it before judging it. ;)

Ummm... those of you who are trying to (for some unknown reason) NOT buy yarn may want to skip this next picture. But it wasn't really my fault - first, Stephanie bought some, so she started it. And then the colors were so pretty, and I was just going to look at them, when, in a bizarre accident, the yarn and my credit card flew towards the cash register, and suddenly I owned the yarn!

But isn't it purty? It's Cherry Tree Supersock yarn in Serengeti. I lurve it. :)

Plus, I was justified in buying more yarn because I have two finished objects!! :)

Multi-Directional Scarf

Pattern: the multidirectional scarf from Magknits

Yarn: Hipknits 100% cashmere sock yarn on size 5 needles.

Notes: Um, well, the length is a bit, um, extreme. My plan was to keep knitting until I ran out of yarn - and it totally worked, since I ended with about 10 yards or so extra. But things got a little out-of-control.

Even held double, it's a bit on the long side - just for scale, I'm 5' 7".

But because it's so skinny and loosely knit, it works GREAT when worn - see?

and finished object number 2:

Ireland Cardi

Pattern: my own

Yarn: 100% Cormo Worsted from MDS&W

Notes: I still need to install a zipper... but words can't quite express how happy I am with this sweater. I proved to myself that I can successfully plan all the raglan and neck shaping - and come up with a sweater that fits me the way I want it to. This sweater was definitely a challenge, but I took it one step at a time and took the time to do everything properly - and it shows!

hint - the fair isle is a shop sample!

front views

back

And despite the crazy amounts of snow they're predicting for the Washington area this weekend, the spring yarns are arriving at the shop - and apparently, they put a little "crazy" in the boxes with the yarn!

And speaking of crazy - is it normal that one of Abby's favorite treats is a CARROT?

Labels: Abby, Ireland Cardigan, Multi-Directional Scarves, Socks

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Update, the Sequel

Since I'm going to be spending 48 hours this weekend competing for an editor position on my law review, I felt entirely justified in only being minorly productive this past weekend. After all, there really should be a limit to how much law school work one can be expected to do!

Exhibit A: Challah

It came out of the oven on Sunday afternoon, and DAMN was it good. In my (not-so) humble opinion, there are few things in this world as good as fresh baked bread, hot from the oven.

Exhibit B: A New Project?

Cindy gifted me with some beautiful cashmere sock yarn from Ally Pally in October. And while I love pampering my feet with handknit socks, socks seem like a waste of some amazingly lush yarn... especially since I actually do not own a hand-knit scarf. So I'm giving the Baltic Sea Stole a try. I'm making mine MUCH narrower since I want a scarf, not a stole, but otherwise I'm trying to go with "as-written." I'm not 100% convinced that this is the pattern for this yarn, but I need a few more inches before I can tell what it'll look like. But I LOVE the yarn, and the colors are totally perfect for me.

Exhibit C: New Finished Object Galleries

2006 is up, and I'm working on 2005 and 2004. I'm still tweaking all of the templates, but I'm (generally) liking how it's turning out.

Exhibit D: Ireland Cardi

All pieces are completed, and the whole thing took a nice, long soak in some eucalan. Now they're drying, and waiting for the far-off time when I have enough energy and an opportunity to break out the needle, yarn, and some mattress-stitching. Those very visible raglan seams are going to take some concentration!

So there was quite a lot of non-law-schooling going on last weekend, and it worked out so well, I've been carrying it into this week. I try to keep a sock going during classes so that when I'm not taking notes, I have a chance to, you know, pay attention, instead of checking my email or something equally destructive to my attention span. Between classes and choir yesterday, my current sock went from this:

to this:

And on a completely random note - anyone care to guess what's going on in this picture? hint - the blue and white you see in the bags on the right are also turtleneck sweaters.

and another hint? yes, that's cashmere.