Sahara #2 Finished

I never thought I would ever use the same pattern twice, but I just loved how my first Sahara came out, and I think the pattern is genious. So here is Sahara, Jr., a short sleeve, smaller version of the first one.

Pattern: Sahara, by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Jaeger Roma in color 010, exactly 5 balls. Tilli Tomas Exotica in Stony Mist, 1 skein.
Size: In between the small and medium. I wasn't going to get negative ease with this yarn, so I had to knit it according to the schematic exactly, assuming no stretch.

Modifications: I shorted the overall length of this one. Since it's for summer, I wanted something that wasn't too warm. I joined the center fronts together sooner, so the plunging neckline isn't that plunging. I ran out of yarn, though. The medium size called for 530 yards, but even though I knit it shorter, I still needed 137 x 5 yards of Roma. Still haven't figured that out. I kept the shirt-tail hem, which I think makes the garment lie much nicer on the hips. I will probably incorporate this technique into other knits.

Verdict: LOVE IT. I wore it to work yesterday and only 1 person asked if I knit it. The Roma is just a little itchy (there's 15% angora in it), so I might need to soften it up. Any one know of a way to do this?

Now that I've used the Tilli Tomas "luxury" yarns twice, I have to say that they're not as fabulous as they may seem. The silk is nice, but I think it's way over-priced. The sequins and beads are simply pre-strung on thread and just held together with the silk. I think it would be easy to buy beads or stone chips separately at a craft store, feed onto sewing thread, and just hold together with your favorite yarn, pulling up a bead or chip when needed. I have this in mind for one of my upcoming knits, so I'll keep you posted on how it works.

Stash Additions

First, thank you for all the nice comments about my WIPS. They are coming along nicely, and I've been adding to the stash in preparation for my summer knits. In trying to stay away from my usual obsession with pink:

Cotton Fleece in Rue for a Rusted Root



Classic Elite Summer Set (a new cotton blend) in color 2146, Awning. For Cable Down Raglan from Spring IK.



Valley Yarns Longmeadow (cotton/microfiber) in Yellow for a Somewhat Cowl.



Kona Bay Cotton in Cream. For the Two-tone Shrug out of Fitted Knits. I want a basic neutral shrug, but obviously mine won't be two-tone.

Classic Silk in Paris Green. Not sure what this is for yet . . . maybe a Green Gable? Or maybe the summer Knitty or Interweave will have something for this yarn. I originally bought it hoping it would match the Tilli Tomas Exotica I'm using for Sahara, but they didn't match.

Speaking of Sahara:

Crappy photo, but hopefully a fabulous FO!

This state of the knitting

Here's a look at the state of my current WIPs.

This is a top-down v-neck cardigan with cables starting about 3" past the underarm and planned to go all the way down to the bottom. I used Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits to get an idea of how many stitches to cast on and how many increases to do given the gauge I got, knowing that I wanted it to be about 33.5" around before the button band. It's knit with Debbie Bliss Cathay in color 09. It's a nice shade of pink - not too bright. I plan on doing the sleeves similarly, maybe with a flared sleeve where the cables start.

Next up is Sahara. Ahh, Sahara. So freakin' close!! I'm not sure how I screwed this up, but I ran out of yarn. Luckily, I discovered that WEBS carries the Jaegar Roma on sale, so I've already ordered more. I can't figure out what went wrong here. I am making this version much shorter than the pattern calls for. The pattern says I needed 523 yards for the short sleeve version, and I had more than that. Oh well.

And, I cast on for the Swan Lake Cardigan from the Spring Interweave. This doesn't seem to be one of the popular patterns from this issue (like Cable Down Raglan), but I like it because it's different and the construction is a challenge. The chart on this looks super intimidating, but once I got the leaves started, I realized I just need to keep track of them - the rest is just filling is some reverse stockinette. I'm using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Banana, my first project with this yarn. I've joined the Interweave KAL. I also want to join the Sexy Knitters, but they've moved over to typepad, so I hope I can join. They're doing Sahara now!

In search of a match

This past Christmas, I received 2 skeins of Tilli Tomas' luxury yarns. One I used to embellish Sahara, which I blogged about here.

Faithful readers will remember that I had luckily ordered a silk/wool blend that matched the sequined yarn perfectly. I knew I would use the other skein of TT for a short sleeve version of Sahara, but finding a matching yarn for the body was going to be a little more challenging.

I've got TT Exotica in Stony Mist - a greenish, but slightly bluish silk blend with fun green stone chips. It's beautiful, and I love it more than the Disco Lights.

As a first try, I ordered some Classic Elite Classic Silk in Paris Green from WEBS, but that yarn was too greenish-yellow and did match this at all. I'm keeping though cause it's nubby and nice.

I decided that I was probably going to have to go to my LYS to find a match in person. I don't really go to my LYS that much, mostly because I don't love it and would rather get good deals on the internet.

So a few Fridays ago I decided to go there after work. When I arrived at the LYS, the two co-owners were each helping someone, so I browsed the cotton selection. Not much was jumping out or even coming close to matching. Ugh.

As I was getting ready to leave, one of the co-owners asked if I had found anything, and I said no. She pulled me aside and started digging through the color cards. The other co-owner was now free and she started pulling every green yarn in the store and bringing it over to my skein of Exotica.

The Debbie Bliss pure silk had a PERFECT match, but I didn't want 100% silk - too warm and too droopy for summer.

We ended up finding Jaeger Roma - a bouncy viscose/ nylon blend that was great too. I scooped up 4 balls at $10.50 a piece and went on my merry way.

Out of curiosity, I checked the internet to see what I could have saved had I bought online. WEBS has Roma at closeout for . . . $4.99 a ball. More than half off. Ugh.

My first reaction was to return it and buy from WEBS. But then I started thinking. I never would have ordered this from WEBS anyway, because the colors on their website are never accurate. And after looking at nearly every yarn in the LYS, I realized only 1 or 2 yarns were going to work anyway. It would have taken me many tries and loads of shipping costs to find it if I only ordered online.

I decided to keep the 4 balls. I guess that's what you pay for in the LYS. You help the local economy, keep small businesses going. I don't know if places like WEBS are 'small businesses' or not, but in this case I certainly got what I paid for - excellent service and a perfect match on the first try.

Sahara Finished

In all her sparkly fashion, Sahara is finished!

Pattern: Sahara, by Wendy Bernard

Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr DK in Elderberry (50/50 silk/wool), 1 cone; Tilli Tomas Disco Lights in Dusty Purple, less than 1 skein. I lucked out big time that the two yarns are a near perfect match. I ordered them both on the internet and crossed my fingers. Funny thing is, the whole cone of Jaggerspun (1200 yds) cost less ($34.50) than 1 skein of the disco lights ($38). The sparklies were worth it to me, though.

Needles: Size 6 and 4 circulars. My sleeve stitches fit comfortably around the 16" circulars after decreasing, so no DPNs needed! Added bonus.

Modifications: Just a few. I made a size between the S and M. The schematic scared me a bit because even the M was less than 34" around (my usual size). I know negative ease was built into the pattern, but since I was wasn't working with the 100% silk yarn called for, I knew I wouldn't get as much. I got a gauge of 20 sts/4" and in the end, it fits perfect. The other mod was that I made the sleeves longer than specified. I think in the end they were about 19 1/2 " before I started the ribbing. I don't normally make longer sleeves, so this must have been due to how high up under my arm the sleeve started.

Verdict: Great. I really love this one because I can dress it down with jeans and fun earrings to go out casually, or I can glam this up with a saucy skirt. And I love the sparkles, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

What I learned. Short rows, which are a great shaping technique if you are curvy in some areas, or they're great just to create a lovely hem, as in this case. I had never done the diamond rib before. And, I had never knit a garment that picked up stitches to create sleeves - brilliant!

Would I knit this again?

Well, actually, yes. I'm all smiles about this pattern.

I already have a skein of TT Exotica in a light green for a short-sleeve version. But, no yarn for the body yet.

This pattern is freakin' brilliantly written. Wendy is a genious. Sahara has all the features of an expertly designed garment - shaping darts, set in sleeves, shirt-tail hems, and the best part - it required zero finishing. My favorite part was picking up stitches around the armhole and using short rows to create the sleeve cap. So. Smart. No bumpy sewn in sleeve seams!

I started this in mid-December and really took off with it in January. Although I was tempted to just knit away, I did take it off the needles about 3 or 4 times while knitting the body to check the fit. I did one extra decrease at the waist. It only took an extra 15 minutes or so and was worth it to get a custom fit.

Side shot. I heart darts.

Close up of the neckline. I've got a light purple lacy cami thingie on here. I want to find a dark purple one.

Up for the challenge

Boy have I been busy lately. At work, when it rains, it pours. Everyone is done with the holiday festivities and late January they all come beating down my door. At home, things are the same, but my husband has been super busy at work and stressed out, and on top of that, things like this happen (the woman in the article was his law client) and he has put his work aside to address them.

Things are starting to calm down. We've booked a vacation for early May!! We're gonna do one of those out-west things that I never did as a kid. Right now, we're flying into Phoenix, seeing the Grand Canyon and then hitting Vegas for a few days. After that, we're still not sure. We have about a week between Vegas and when we fly out of San Diego. We want to see Los Angeles, but aren't sure yet what's worth seeing....

On to knitting. Sahara is done, ends woven in, blocked and folded in my closet. Hopefully Saturday I can get my photographer outside with me to take some pics.

In the meantime, I've cast on for 2 new projects. I contemplated doing knock offs of these a while back, and have decided I am up for the challenge. Part of the fun is figuring it all out, right? Well, first I am making a version of a cabled yoke cardigan from Karabella. I drew out a schematic and have hopefully calculated it all correctly. There's not much progress to show, but I am working from the top down and am ribbing away at the yoke.

I like the buttons though. They were $3.99 for 2 at Joann's, so I only bought 2 with a coupon. I'm waiting for a sale or more coupons to come in the mail. Am I cheapo?

The other new WIP is Beau, for my beau. I decided to make this one easy on myself and follow a basic crew neck sweater pattern for a guy and add in the stitch details. Here's my sketch of what I think it should be. I spent time zooming in on pictures on the internet and counting stitches and rows with my pencil tapping along the monitor screen.

And here's what it looks like so far.

I will surely show more of these when they get more interesting. American Idol and 24 have helped increase my knitting time, and there will be even more when Lost comes back next week.

Fickle Pants

Some of you may remember a cable v-neck sweater I had started for my mother in the hopes of finishing for her birthday, which was this past Wednesday. Well, shortly after I posted my pictures of the finished Forecast, I continued knitting feverishly on her sweater. I went over to see my mom one night and happened to have the sweater in my bag (since I was knitting it any chance I could get). She saw it, and the conversation went something like this:

Mom: "Oh, that's a thicker sweater than I thought it would be."
Me: "Well, it's an aran weight, so it's not going to be real light, like a lace-weight."
Mom: "Oh, ok."

Three hours later, after I went home:
Phone rings.
Mom: "I was thinking, I really think that sweater's going to be too heavy for me. I think I'm going to get hot in it. Can you make some lighter, like one with holes or something?"

So here's what's left of my mom's sweater:

I returned the unused balls. I figured I could use these for a baby knit or a hat or something.

This led me to thinking. I change my mind a lot, too. Could it be genetic? Or is it some socially learned behavior? Either way, I often think I should rename this blog to Fickle Pants Knits. I did a little re-organizing of my WIP and to-knit list and realized that I don't really love a lot of the patterns I thought I loved a few months ago. I was changing my mind, like my mother.

Every time I picked up my Grannie Smith Cardigan, it would take me like an hour to do 2 rows with the Kidsilk Haze. I think the diamond lace pattern just stumps me. This is the progress I had made on it over 6 months:

The pattern shown is from Luxury Knits by Amanda Griffiths and is what I hope to turn my Kidsilk Haze into. The sweater looks WAY over-sized, but I plan to shrink it down a lot. The lace pattern looks easier and is memorizable, and it calls for two strands of KSH, which should be easier to work with.

And here's what left of the Grannie Smith:

More fickleness: I got some lovely Cascade 220 to make the Bell Sleeve Jacket from the VK Holiday Issue. But now I am being fickle and thinking I want to make the Cabled Cardigan from the Fall Issue instead:

But, just to prove I must have some of my dad's steadfastness in me, I am making great progress on Sahara. Here's a peek:

The Disco Lights are fab! More details later.

PS. My mom picked a lace pattern from Luxury Knits too, to be done in elann's Baby Silk. We'll see.

Starting off slow

Thanks for the advice on the whole top-down-seamless-EZ-can-I-knit-a-collar-on debacle. I've decided to start off with an easy seamless project before delving into a complicated one. Since I've never knit my husband a sweater (or anything for that matter), I don't think it would be fair to have his first knitted object from me be a complete experiment and possibly a disaster. So, I am going to use the real pattern for Beau and save the experimentation and/or disaster for myself.

Starting off slowly, I am using some GGH Savanna to knit the Yarn Girls' Cables in Chamonix.

The pattern calls for picking up 64 stitches around the neck line for the turtleneck, so I cast on that many onto a circular needle. I used a provisional cast on so I can knit the turtleneck last with some short row shaping. The pattern says that before armhole shaping, the sleeves end up with 48 stitches each and the front and back with 64 each, which yields 224 stitches all around (before yoke shaping). Subtracting out the 64 stitches I already cast on leaves 160, which is how many I would have to increase to get from the neck down to the yoke. So, I split up my 64 stitches into 24 each for the front and back and 8 for each sleeve. I incorporated the cable pattern and am now just increasing every other round until I get to my 224 stitches. We'll see how it goes! If I am able to get a decent looking sweater, I might tackle the Karabella one. But I am prepared to buy the pattern too!

In other news, I ordered some Jaggerspun Zephyr to knit either the Simple Knitted Bodice or Sahara or something from Stefanie's book Fitted Knits (which is on my Christmas list, even though it doesn't come out til spring). I also asked for 1 skein of Tilli Tomas disco lights from Santa to match the wool/silk I bought in Elderberry:

I've noticed that I have color phases with my knitting. Over the summer and into fall, it was a pink phase with 2 pink tank tops (Prosperous Plum and Eyelet V-Neck) and Arisaig. Now, I'm in a purply phase with Forecast, the Cables in Chamonix and this purple stuff in Zephyr. Hmm, I'm thinking green or blue next . . .