Lorette

Dockside Cardigan

Finished!

Project Notes:

Pattern: Dockside Cardigan, by Amy Herzog. This is one of her CustomFit patterns.
Yarn: Warm Valley Orchard wool/alpaca blend. This is deep stash yarn, purchased on a vacation to their farm on Orcas Island in 2006. It’s about time it got made into something lovely. I used a bit under 1600 yards for this, I have a little under 700 yards left for a squishy shawl, or perhaps hat and mittens.
Needle: Size 6 circular
Started: February 22, 2021
Finished: July 27, 2021
For: Me
Rating: *****for both pattern and the wool. If you haven’t used CustomFit, you pick your pattern, enter your own body measurements and your row and stitch gauge from your swatch. You get a pattern that is customized for your fit and the yarn you want to use. I’m sold on this. This is the best fitting sweater I’ve ever made.
What I learned: I need to knit more from deep stash. I have some very lovely yarns that I’ve collected over the years. The new and shiny will always catch my eye, but the “old and curated” once caught my eye for a very good reason. I also learned to trust the measurements. I tend to knit oversized sweaters in general, so I kept thinking that this was going to be on the small size. It fits perfectly.

Another couple of photos, since I don’t finish a sweater every day.

I finished the knitting on my Dockside Cardigan over the weekend, and sat down this morning to sew on buttons. Button-sewing is not my favorite task, and it needed to get done in the morning hours when it is still relatively cool around here.

Here they are, half done. There are actually five already sewn on, five more to go.

And a close up:

How about that fancy button-shank-making tool?

Of course, where there are buttons, there should be buttonholes. I did remember to put those in as well. I fidgeted around with a couple of different methods of knitting these, and settled on a one-row buttonhole using the “TULIPS” method. Here’s a link to an article about how to do these, and a video explanation as well. These look really complicated, but once you’ve done one, it all makes sense. It’s the best of the horizontally placed buttonholes that I’ve found.

Next time, I’ll do a finished project post about this, and perhaps a bonus finished project as well!

Little lace loops

I’ve been knitting away on my Cathedral Stole lace shawl for months. My Ravelry project page says I started this in 2016, which is true. This is what it looked like since then.

I pulled this out of hibernation in mid March and started working on it again. This is a rectangular shawl, started in the middle with a provisional cast on. You knit for miles, bind off, then pick up the provisional stitches in the center and knit for a few more miles. Fortunately I’m happy knitting the same thing for miles and miles. This yarn helps. I bought this yarn in 2014. Here is what I wrote about it then. *

Peace Fleece got in some lovely lace yarn hand spun by women in Tajikistan. They had a nice little story to go with the yarn about how these women spin yarn to help feed and clothe their families. One skein provides enough money for them to buy a chicken, a loaf of bread, or a kilogram of potatoes. Tell me you could resist that. Let’s just say I bought enough for a nice chicken dinner complete with potatoes and bread for the whole family.

I’m not sure exactly why this sat unloved for so long. At any rate, I am just finishing the first half. I decided to do a fancy schmancy crochet loop bind off. It isn’t hard to do, just fidgety. And trust me, you do NOT want to have to undo this, so make sure it is what you want before you wade in. You can always put in a lifeline before you bind off, but where’s the fun and adventure in THAT.

It makes pretty little loops along the edge. Here’s a birds eye view of the lace.

Have faith. Lace knitting always looks like crap until it’s finished and blocked.

*The links in the quote don’t work, Peace Fleece only carried this for a short time. This, my friends, is why I buy yarn that I love when I see it.

Forgotten but not unloved

I’m not sure how you can forget to post about such a pretty pair of socks. That color! That woolly wool!

This is my usual generic jerry-rigged sock pattern: 2×2 ribbing, heel flap and gusset, no frills. I modify the standard heel flap by adding a few more rows, it fits my high arch foot much better. I used 2.00 mm needles.

The wool is John Arbon Exmoor sock yarn. It is a lovely wool blend with a bit of nylon for durability. The colors I used are Mizzle, and Quickbeam (that orange). I’m really happy that I love this yarn, because I bought a bunch of other colors as well. You can get some of your very own at John Arbon in the UK, or at Woolly Thistle here in the US (though they are sold out at the moment-not my fault, I bought direct from the UK). I will warn you about checking out the John Arbon website, it will be difficult to resist some of their other offerings. You may see some of their yarn in future projects here at Chez Knitting Doctor.

Making

I sort of fell off the radar screen there, didn’t I? June just whizzed by, we had an awful heat wave, and now we’re settling in to the other part of summer in the Pacific Northwest: the season of vacationing relatives. Which means time for fun, food, and hanging out outside enjoying the beautiful summer weather.

Despite our high temps a couple weekends ago, I have been getting some knitting done. Our house isn’t air-conditioned, so when it gets hot, I retreat to the basement where it stays relatively cool. I have a big woolly cardigan that is just short of the front bands and buttons, but I’m not too enthusiastic about working on that in the summer, so it’s in time out for a bit. I am working on a pair of socks, a lace shawl, and a Hitchhiker. I’ll save the photos of those for another day.

I have been finding myself sitting at the spinning wheel more often. It’s such a relaxing, meditative thing to do when my mind just wants to veg out. I finished this over the weekend.

That is around 684 yards of lovely cream colored blue-faced leicestershire wool. This was handspun and plyed on my Watson wheel. The weight of the two hanks is 320 grams. I thought about throwing this in the dye pot, but I’m now leaning towards leaving it the way it is. I think it would make a lovely shawl.

Here’s another photo:

It isn’t everyday that I finish a big whack of handspun yarn. Instead of shoving that into the vault, maybe I’ll wind it up today and cast on for something new. There isn’t a rule about how many projects I can work on at the same time, right?

Stay tuned.

Ah, Retirement

Yes, it is everything I’d hoped it would be.

Those socks are coming right along. This is John Arbon Exmoor Sock yarn. The colors are just lovely. I may have enough in the stash for a few more pairs. If you must have squishy-soft merino sock yarn, this isn’t it. It has a sturdy, rustic hand, and I suspect it will wear well due to the wool blend used.

Because I know someone will ask, the pins are to help in counting rows so the second in the pair ends up more or less the same length. I just put a pin in every ten rows to keep track.

Well this is embarrassing

I finished this shawl almost a month ago, and I’m just getting around to posting about it.

Project Details:

Pattern: Boneyard Shawl, by Stephen West
Yarn: Sincere Sheep Cormo Fingering, color 9 Mile Ranch
Needles: 3.75 mm
Started: January 29, 2021
Finished: May 11,2021
For: Me
Rating: ***** for both pattern and yarn. This is a free pattern, available on Ravelry. It was originally written for a DK weight yarn, but can be made with any weight yarn, really. The pattern is dead simple, and can also be adapted to the yardage you have available. This is the second one of these I’ve made, and it won’t be the last. The yarn I used comes in a 500 yard skein, and makes a nice small shawl to wrap around my neck. This does work well with a gradient dyed yarn like this, since the background pattern is so simple. The color changes do all the work here.

In other news, I’m still on a sock-knitting binge. Here’s the latest.

The yarn is Exmoor Sock, from John Arbon. This is a lovely wool blend, with a bit of nylon for durability. It has a somewhat rustic hand, and is on the light-fingering end of the sock yarn spectrum. I might have a few more colors of this in the stash. The luster and colors of this yarn line are fabulous.

One more finished shawl photo for you:

Insomnia is good for something

New socks for John! I nearly finished these late last night.

In a rather uncharacteristic bit of wisdom, I decided to wait to do the toe grafting this morning. I woke up at 4:30, couldn’t go back to sleep, and finally got up and finished. At that I ended up screwing up the Kitchener and ripping out half of it to re-do.

It’s the same old pattern, 2.00 mm needles. The yarn is Regia Premium Merino Yak. It is insanely soft, we’ll see how well it holds up to sock wear. I ended up using 38 grams of the grey yarn and 66 grams of the teal for these.

A couple more photos:

Yes, that is considered fashionable footwear where we live.

I still owe you a finished project post for that sunshine-y shawl I finished recently. It will be sunny outside this weekend so I’ll get John to take some photos for me.

Happiness

Knitting new socks, whilst wearing recently finished socks. This Regia merino yak stuff is the crack cocaine of sock yarn.

Hudson Memories

Hudson Bay socks done!

Project Details:

Yarn: Biscotte Bis-Sock, color Hudson Memories
Pattern: same old jerry-rigged vanilla sock, this time with a picot cuff
Needles: Lykke Driftwood double points, 2.00 mm
Started: April 26, 2021
Finished: May 15, 2021
For: Me
Rating: ***** on the yarn. This is the first time I’ve used this, it is soft, but feels sturdy at the same time.

I’m on a sock-knitting binge at the moment. I have a bunch of hand knit socks that are approaching the end of their life-span, so I need to replenish the stash. Many of my socks have lasted more than a decade of heavy wear, so I definitely get my money’s worth out of them. John needs more socks too. The next pair will be for him. I already started these for him yesterday.

Oh my. This is Regia Premium Merino Yak sock yarn. I may have lost my mind here in the stash-acquisition department. This yarn is heavenly to knit with, and the yak content gives it a muted heathery color. You should go buy some if there is any left anywhere. Simply Sock Yarn carries this in the US, and Knitting Loft in Canada, if you are in the mood to shop.

Today

It’s that time of year. As the weather gets nicer, it’s time for all the outdoor projects to get started. Those big windows are the originals that were put in when this house was built decades ago, and the seals have failed on all of them. So we have scaffolding built, and measuring happening. The rectangular ones were easy, not so much with the top two curved panes. They are having to take off the framing and remove the glass panes to measure accurately. It’s a good thing that there is no rain in the forecast. They already have one taken out and measured, and are putting it back in. Given that this house was built from Halloween Fun House architectural plans, they are taking the other one out to measure as well, just to be sure.

Hudson Bay socks. I’m a little farther towards completion than that photo. I have the heel done and the gusset decreases completed. A night or two of good television should do it.

We’ve been watching Atlantic Crossing on PBS the past few weeks. It’s the story of the Crown Princess of Norway and FDR during WWII. Not sure how historically accurate it is, but it is entertaining.

Lastly, my newest journal. I love the leather, it is a deep green, and smells lovely. The company is Galen Leather, this is their leather Slim Notebook cover. It comes in other lovely colors as well. The notebook inserts are also from them, they use Tomoe River paper, which you should try if you never have. I’m using the A5 size.

Hope your upcoming weekend is full of fun and happy projects!

Blocking Sunshine

Doesn’t that just look like a happy summer day? It’s been done for a bit, but I needed to clean off the dining room table to get it blocked. It was a bit like an archeological dig.

Finished Project photos once it is dry.

Getting closer, and a public service announcement

My Dockside cardigan is all seamed! And it fits! Imagine that, I used a pattern generator that works off my actual measurements, and it worked. What a concept.

I now have the wide collar and the button bands to do, and it will be done. I received some buttons that I ordered on Etsy, and have a couple more sets on the way, so stay tuned for a button-choosing post. I’m really pleased with how this one is turning out. It may well be the best-fitting sweater I’ve ever made.

And now for your public service announcement.

I posted about this on FB, but this has been one hell of a 10 days or so around here. A member of our extended family was killed in a motor vehicle accident a little over a week ago. The family was still reeling from that one, when my husband woke me up a week ago Sunday night, having a stroke in progress. It looked pretty dire initially, although his symptoms were already dramatically improved by the time the EMTs arrived. He spent a couple nights in the hospital getting some tests done, but is now home and doing well. If you weren’t married to him, you wouldn’t be able to tell at this point that anything happened. So we feel very fortunate all in all.

Since many of our friends and family are in our age group, we’ve gotten asked the question, “What do you look for? How do you know you are having a stroke?”

Stroke.org has lots of good information, but just remember F.A.S.T.

F: Face drooping

A: Arm weakness

S: Speech-any changes in speech or comprehension

T: Time to call 911

Time really is of the essence here. If you have a typical ischemic stroke (due to blockage in a blood vessel), the administration of “clot-busting” drugs can be life saving, but this is a time-critical intervention that may not be beneficial if you wait too long.

If you or anyone you know has any of these symptoms, call 911. Don’t just wait it out, don’t drive yourself to urgent care, don’t sit on hold with your doctor’s office. Call 911 and let the professionals sort it out. Time is brain, and you don’t get it back once it’s gone.

New Socks!

Finished just this morning!

The yarn is Retrosaria Mondim, which is a lovely Portuguese wool. It isn’t superwash, in case you are running off to buy some. The pattern is my same old jerry-rigged vanilla sock pattern. 72 stitches, 2.00 mm needles, flap heel and gusset construction. These are for me, though John looked at them and said “I’d wear a pair of those”.

Fortunately I have more colors of this in the stash. I have more colors of damned near everything in the stash.

Antarktis

A finished project!