sophy's knits, notes, etc.

this weekend i finished knitting the sweater vest for my newborn baby cousin, Darith (i finally learned his name!) let me tell you, i couldn't stop gushing over it: so tiny, so tweedy, so stripey...

blocking with buttons.*

i didn't yet have any buttons, so i braved the rainfall to find suitably cute ones at Imagiknit, where of course, i couldn't resist showing off the tweedy vest to any lady or gent who happened to approach!

* these wouldn't have been my first choice of buttons, but i love the contrast. the limey-yellow really stands out against the green and grey tweed; it works also because the green tweed has flecks of yellow and blue.

happy knitting!

i mentioned before that i had some buttonhole drama just as i was finishing my cropped Wicked Eyelet Rib vest; because it ended very well (read: i didn't have to scrap the project), i thought i would post the pictures here for you!

before knitting the buttonholes, i decided to place them 4 rows from the caston edge then every 8th row after. of course, i miscalculated. not only did this result with buttonholes too close together, but the last buttonhole was too far from the neckline. at first, i decided i could live with that. but, as i continued knitting, i just couldn't let it go. so, after i finished knitting the armhole decreasing, i decided to go back and make the buttonholes every 10th row after the first.

Step 1 i unraveled the neckline stitches to the column of purl ribbing where the buttonholes were placed. the edge stitches are like bind-off stitches, so it was just a matter of slipping one stitch off the preceding stitch.

operation: unravel neckline stitches.

Step 2 i dopped the two purl stitches down to the second buttonhole, purled that row and another, then (yo, p2tog) to create the buttonhole 2 rows above its original location.

operation: drop stitches to the second buttonhole.

Step 3 i continued up the column of 2 stitches, purling stitches and making buttonholes every 10th row.

operation: buttonholes every 10th row.

Step 4 i passed the neckline stitches one over the other to bindoff the edge stitches back to my starting point.

operation: bindoff neckline.

the end result? 7 buttons, with the last button flushed against the neckline. and really, i think the neckline was much cleaner after doing this... tell me i'm awesome! haha

happy knitting!

i know i've been lagging on recent blog posts... i think i'm just not super excited about the things i've knitted lately—isn't that awful? here's a project that i meant to write up weeks ago: my first sweater vest for 2009.

while i love how it turned out, because the pattern is very well written and easy to follow and modify for this cropped look, it's made me realize that i should not wear cropped vests. it emphasizes my bosom more than i want and well, these pictures do not help matters.

when i wore this into the office, my coworker asked, "why did you knit a sports bra?"

Pattern Wicked Eyelet Rib vest by Joëlle Meier Rioux.
Source Classic Elite Yarn's Web-letter #28.
Yarn Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, Color 45, 2.5 skeins.
Needles Size 4 (3.5 mm) and 3 (3.25 mm).
Modifications Cropped length and used smaller needles.

the pattern

this pattern is extremely well written and easy to follow. when i started knitting this, i only had 2.5 skeins of Silky Wool to work with, which is not enough for the full length. naturally, i modified it for a cropped length which really just involved knitting fewer rows of the ribbed bottom:

i basically followed only three of the charts: 16 rows of mock cable rib chart (1 full repeat and 4 rows), 4 rows of eyelet rib chart, and continued with eyelet st st chart (beginning with row 5) for the rest of the garment.

maybe i shouldn't knit scooped necklines, either.

the only complication with the pattern was calculating the buttonhole placement. i thought every 12 rows (as dictated by the buttonhole rib chart) were too few for my cropped vest, so i knitted them every 8 rows. when i finished, not only were they too many and too close together, the last buttonhole fell far below the neckline. after i finished the armhole decreasing for the front right side, i decided that i needed to go back and make the buttonholes every 10 rows instead.

so of course, because it would have needled me otherwise, i: (1) unraveled the edge stitches to the purl section of the ribbing where the buttonholes were, (2) unraveled down to the second buttonhole, (3) moved that buttonhole two rows up and knitted the rest of the buttonholes every ten rows after, (4) bound off the edge stitches back to my starting position. i did take some pictures of this (since i was concerned it would not end well); that will be a quick post for another day.

the yarn

i've knitted a couple of sweater vests (for me and for Adam) in Silky Wool before, so i don't think i need to tell you how much i love this yarn. i still have 2.5 skeins in this green and 2 skeins in a blue.

sweater vest challenge

i jumped right into knitting this as soon as i decided i wanted to knit a bunch of vests this year—not bad for a first vest, really. will i wear it again? yes, but probably under a blazer if i wear it to work.

as far as the de-stash effort went though, this was a complete fail. convinced that i wouldn't have enough even for this cropped version, i bought 2 more skeins of Silky Wool. (which is why i have exactly the same amount i began with.) but, that just means i can actually knit a long striped Silky Wool vest at a later date—yeah?

so what's next? i'm almost finished with a big and chunky sweater vest knit from yarn recycled from an old project. but, first, i may finish a striped vest for my newborn baby cousin. following that, i would like to knit a cabled vest for a two year old cousin (the newborn's order sister).

happy knitting!

in the past couple weeks, as i rushed to finish my first sweater vest for 2009 (making life unbearable for Adam in the process), i decided i would need to change the rules of this a bit... but, first...

January's sweater vest

well, i wasn't quite sure i would finish my first sweater vest (bringing to mind my November promise to blog everyday...), but today, Jan 31, 2009 at 0930, i did!

January's cropped Silky Wool sweater vest.

well okay, not quite. it IS missing buttons; i intend to go find some today. more details soon to follow. i do want to mention that the pattern is a very simply modified version of Joëlle Meier Rioux's Wicked Eyelet Rib Vest, which is available for free in Classic Elite Yarn's Web-letter #28.

Changing the rules (hey! it's *my* challenge!)

so, like i said, the past couple of weeks have made me rethink my 2009 Challenge rules...

while knitting this month's vest, i was very concerned that i would not have enough yarn; so i went and bought a couple more skeins. guess what? i now have 2 more skeins of this yarn; leaving me with exactly how much i had to start.

where am i going with this? i think i will call my 2009 knitting challenge, "Sweater Vests from stashed yarn." therefore, i will not buy new yarn for any of the vests i knit (from this point forward).

another thing—sweater vests really aren't much of a challenge; i have knit a few already. of course, i've really only knit very simple vests... i believe my first was a striped v-neck, and then i made two plain v-necks for Adam and myself. i did mention this before, but now i think i will insist that my vests include more sophisticated designs. so, to challenge myself, i will knit at least one vest each in lace, cables and colorwork.

last but not least, umm... what was i thinking when i said one sweater vest each month? really? why did no one call me out on that??? oh wait someone did, and to that person i say thank you for bringing it up. i have many things i want to knit; i would grow to resent my lovely future sweater vests if they were the only things i knitted this year. and if i really intend to finish one sweater a month, they would have to be the only things i'd knit this year. (i mean, it took me two weeks to finish a very simple cropped vest!)

so, my new goal is SIX sweater vests by the end of 2009. it doesn't matter if i knit them one after the other or every other month... there will be ONLY SIX. one reason for this, of course, is that i don't really have enough stashed yarn for twelve individual sweater vests. Six might be a challenge; but that's the point right?

so, to recap:

for my 2009 Knitting Challenge, i will knit sweater vests:

• using only stashed yarn
• with more sophisticated designs, including lace, cables and colorwork
• ending with no less than six unique garments

whew! and i thought this would be a short and quick post... well, it's a beautiful day... happy knitting!

i've talked about this before; and i really want to walk the talk. so here's what i'm planning for 2009: one sweater vest each month!

that's right. by the end of the year, i want to have 12 sweater vests to wear in 2010.

sometime this week, i'll publish the pool of candidate patterns. but, i suspect the first few months will be simple or cropped sweater vests as i take the opportunity to work through as much of my stash as i can. but, eventually, i want to throw in some more sophisticated patterns... lace and cables... and colorwork. it should be fun.

January: Cropped vest

is it the last week of January already? i don't have much time, do i? you might already notice that i threw three possible cropped vests in my queue, from limited amounts of Silky Wool, Kidsilk Haze, and Yorkshire Tweed that i have in my stash. well. i'm really hoping to get one started... SOON, that is...

...once i finish this.

i'm currently using the needles i planned for the Silky Wool vest on another project, which i'm calling my "KSH Victoria yoke pullover".

you can see where it deviates from the Victoria yoke pullover...

a couple weeks ago, i couldn't get this project out of my mind; i really wanted to caston. although it was already midnight, before going to bed, i read through the pattern and realized how exceedingly simple and straightforward it was. so, the very next morning, (thank goodness it was a weekend) i went through my yarn stash to find something suitable. i was very disappointed that i didn't have anything at all... but Rowan's Kidsilk Haze jumped out at me and i saw the possibilities...

now, drat it, i need those needles to start my Sweater Vest challenge. but, i'm more than halfway through the body of the pullover right now... i think you know what i'm doing after i write this post...

who wants to join me?

so, i'm knitting one sweater vest each month; do you think i can do it? do you think you can do it, too? yes yes yes! i think you can! haha

now i'm excited. \(^_^)/

happy knitting!