Wild Life

We have had a lot of visitors to the back yard lately! One morning we awoke to the sound of crows cawing, and looked out to see this beautiful red fox in the yard:

And of course, it is deer delivery season

This was a very wobbly speckled baby, and it was adorable to watch it try to follow the mother, until you think of the devastation of the gardens and the rampant Lyme disease in our area...Sigh. What is one to do? Knit!

Here is progress being made on St Margaret, which will be ready for publication on Ravelry by the end of the month! I can hardly wait to wear this cardigan especially since I thought it needed pockets. I used an I-cord cast-on across the held 30 sts, and it looks like a continuation of the cable, so I am pleased with this result.As I only have one skein of yarn in the right dyelot left after this one, I will use the non-matching dyelot for the inside of the pockets so I can get as much length as I need.I'm still mulling over whether to put a braid cable around the bottom or finish it with ribbing. I love the top down process, where I can adapt the knitting to my wishes! 

Cosmos Cardigan part 2

So, after a few days of knitting, and 3 balls of yarn, I have reached the magic row 51, and divided for sleeves. This involves knitting across the front, putting sleeve stitches on a separate holder ( in this case, a cable from my Denise set), casting on 10 sts under the arms, knitting across the back, putting other sleeve on holder, casting on 10 sts under the other arm, and knitting across the other front. I'm pleased with how this is coming along, and I'm glad I chose this type of construction, as the gauge changed as I knit. Now I'm at about 6 rows per inch and 4.5 stitches per inch.Knitting in aggregate sometimes differs from swatch gauge, and luckily, I can try this on to check as I go. Here is the back view:

I'm liking this a lot. I think I will put a single vertical buttonhole in the front, so I can use a large decorative single button for a simple closure. And the 4-stitch purl column will allow some tapering in the back for the waist shaping further down.

Now the questions are: Short, long or medium length sleeves? And, cropped, long, shaped, peplum or what kind of body? I have a lot of yarn, and so I have a chance to play around with the design, according to what this sweater wants to become. I think I'll taper down to the waistline, and see how it goes from there.

Sometimes I like to knit about 4 inches on the body and then do sleeves, so I can get a better sense of how the sweater will hang, so that is probably what I will do.

What to knit now?

Now that I am working on the long slog down the body of St Margaret (doesn’t that sound lascivious?), I find that I need something to knit that is portable, simple enough for group knitting events and something wearable for the upcoming warm weather, which was foreshadowed yesterday when it reached 90 degrees with high humidity around here.


But what to knit? I wanted something cardigany, in summery light yarn, maybe with a kimono collar and swingy and cool. The sweaters I have knit in the past were all somehow inappropriate. I wanted something in a dark color, not especially black, but maybe, kind of like the sheer black summery cardigan Paula was wearing at the last Manhattan Quilter’s meeting.

So, stash-diving I went. It was, after all, late in the day, and I know I have stashed a lot of yarn. Last summer, one of my LYSs ( www.flyingfingers.com ) had Warehouse Wednesdays, in which yarn ( marked down amazingly) went from their warehouse into mine, so I knew I must have something interesting up in the yarn closet.

I can’t believe I have amassed a yarn closet, but sure enough I have. Diligent attendance at sales pays off!

Rummaging around in the bins yields 13 balls of Cosmos in the S.Charles Collezione.

Normally I wouldn’t have purchased this yarn, which is 45% Viscose,40% Polyamide,15% Cotton, preferring more natural fibers, but at $2 a ball ( reg 10.95) who could resist? And it is a blue/purple mix with black and white that looks like grey at 10 paces, so I loved the color. But oddly, the gauge on the ball band is 3/inch on a 10, which seemed strange to me, as it is a rather thin, loosely plied slippery slick yarn. On a 10 it seemed really flimsy to me. So, I swatched it on a 9. Still really loosey goosey. On an 8, the fabric had a nice density and a lot of drape, and hit about 4.25 sts per inch. This just might be nice, and perfect for a summery knit!

But what kind of stitch shall I use? I tried stockinette, which looked like a lovely tweed, but would be boring and tedious to knit, and difficult to keep track of where I am in a pattern. Cables just vanished in the complex patterning. Seed stitch was lovely, but I don’t enjoy lots of that either. Lace would also be lost in the swirl of colors in this yarn. Because of the inelasticity of the yarn, ribbing might be nice and flat, and seemed to work out well, but then it hit me that a garter rib might provide a hint of line and be easy enough to work with all purl WS rows and a bit of KP on the RS. Perfect for knitting in public!

Now, to pattern. I envisioned a K1P1 collar, and a structured, set-in-sleeve kind of jackety thing, so I began in the same style as Ingrid, at the back of the neck with a 20 stitch k1p1 collar, intending to work a top-down, simultaneous set-in sleeve jacket. Here is where I am so far, at Row 19, making it nice and portable, and easy to keep track of. Now I am ready for any knitting environment. St Margaret has to stay home and be tied to the charts, but Cosmos Cardigan can roam free!

St Margaret Cardigan

I decided to write up a pattern for doing a complex Celtic-style cable sweater from the top down. I designed two Celtic Knot cable patterns based on various sources, including Elsebeth Lavold’s "Viking Knits", Alice Starmore’s "Aran Knitting", “How to Draw Celtic Knotwork” by Andy Sloss and the celtic knot generator at http://birrell.org/andrew/knotwork/ , which is fun to play with. I'm calling it "St.Margaret". This is a test-knit for the pattern and the charts, and so far I like it a lot. I am doing it in cotton, though, as I wanted a summer version, but definitely I prefer to work this kind of cable design in wool, as the cotton doesn't give as you knit with it, so it leaves holes. Hopefully that will block out when I'm done.
 Writing up the pattern is a challenging exercise! So far it is around 18 pages, with huge charts and lots of instructions. I have a marvelous test-knitter, who is meticulously going over the pattern with me as she knits it for herself, so I know I am not the only one who can knit this! Hopefully it will be done soon and then I will offer it for sale in my Ravelry Store (Jeri Rigged Designs). Of course, I'm knitting my own sweater, and today I am almost finished with the sleeves, done on DPNs. I will finish the body after the sleeves are done, and I'm probably going to put pockets on this sweater, as I’m always trying to find my keys. …

Column of Leaves #3

Column of Leaves #3 arose out of my wish to test knit my pattern in a larger size, but make it fit me. I had this gorgeous blue cotton yarn I had bought ages ago, and as it is a DK weight, I figured I could use my Column of Leaves pattern for size 42 and have it fit size 38. Of course I went down a needle size, too.I purchased some wonderful polymer clay buttons at the Lyndhurst Craft fair yesterday from Karin Noyes, whose work I have loved for years ( http://www.karinnoyes.com/ ), which just delighted me.
Here is the back of the sweater. I love that there is just one tiny seam at the back of the neck:

This pattern is for sale in my Ravelry ( http://www.ravelry.com/ ) store , Jeri Rigged Designs.

Column of Leaves

So here is the second "Column of leaves" sweater I have knit. I just love this one, especially because I found a way to represent the elements of the lace pattern graphically, so I could figure out how to upsize it and keep the design details intact. Representing it in 5 sizes was a fabulous exercise in geometry and engineering, and I was really thrilled that it worked out!

I love how the back flows organically into the collar:, leaving just a tiny seam at the center back neck.

And I also love how the V neck preserves the design of the lace pattern as it evolves upward:

Figuring out how to make that work while sizing it was dependant on learning the Knit Visualizer ( http://www.knitfoundry.com/ ) software, and thanks to urging from my friend Elizabeth, I finally read the manual! Duh! Great software, very addicting and fun to use.

Now I'm in the midst of writing up my top Down Celtic Raglan sweater, so it is gratifying to have all of this software capability and be able to see this evolve. When my speedy and marvelous test knitters are done, I plan to publish this pattern on Ravelry...

Spring Ahead!

Spring has sprung upon us, with sunny skies and warm sunshine. Bulbs are springing up all over my yard. Time to get the deer fence up again, and break out the spring sweaters. I knit and designed this sweater which I called Column of Leaves Cardigan in 2007, and have enjoyed wearing it . Folks have been asking for the pattern, but it always seemed way beyond my skills to write up.Funny how things can be easier to do than to describe, but the problem is sizing it for other people! Because of the nature of the construction I used ( seamless yoke) and the lace pattern, it is almost a different sweater and has to be figured out anew for each size. But I loved how the back came together:

So I've been crunching out the numbers, making charts, swatching and making little paper models to figure out the sizing and I think I've almost nailed it! Then it is off to my test knitters, and hopefully I can publish it soon....

In other news, my son returned from college with is stuff which is now in boxes all over the living room. What does he have? Here is one box of treasures:

He can actually solve all of those! Amazing!