Neither Hip Nor Funky

Nope, not an environmentally aware post, a vest a-wear post. (heh, heh)

Definitely one of those knits where a pretty yarn just does the work for you.

I was feeling a little Star Trek vibe at first, but that started to wear away with a good wet blocking and then some more steam blocking at the shoulders after this photo shoot.

I have to admit that this is not a knit that I am too excited about, however I’m sure it will get a lot of wear.

Pattern: Bloom by Carol Meldrum for Rowan 36
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in Herb (4 balls for M size)
Needles: US4 Knitpicks options

Mods: I took note of other’s mods and complaints on Flickr and Ravelry. I saw darktricos’ version first and fell in love. The shoulder calls for short rows up to 33 stitches. Except in the smallest size, it seemed that people who did all the short rows tended to have problems with the resulting wings. Strikker knit short rows to 21 st and I liked it, but I thought I wanted a little more so I went with 27st.

I also modified the neck. I love the look of Felted Tweed, but with its alpaca content I can’t have it right next to my neck. I decreased 3 more stitches for the back and 5 more for the front.

Up next, a green cycling sock to round these past two months of Project Spectrum

You would have thought that orange knits would have been flying off the needles here at Chez Orange Obsessed during the fire months. Instead there was orange staying on the needles, while a little pink, some green, and some gray were flying off. Yet, I did get one orange spark before April drew nigh.

However, there is some more orange that I plan to finish up before I get too Earthy. As opposed to Glee, I have a sweater on the needles that I dream about and miss when I am away from it: My Tweedy Aran

The color varies from orange to pinky-orange depending on the light, however it is not normally quite as pink as this picture suggests.

The back is finished, and I am to the armholes on the front.

Then I will be moving into some greens. For someone who wears a lot of brown, there is a dearth of it in my stash.

Finally

Pattern: Own design
Yarn: MC:Sundara Worsted Merino in Chocolate over Cherry
CC: Yarn Nerd 900MHz merino in Mustard Wine
Oh, food names for yarn…yummy. Hence the sweater’s name: Tasty Sweater
Also, I’m so sad that the Worsted Merino is discontinued. I love it, and it one of two wools that I get no initial itch factor with. (With most wools, they cause me discomfort for the first minute or so and then my skin adjusts.)
Needles: US 6, 7, & 8

Designed to be snug in the bust and skim over the waist and hips. I ended up with almost 2 inches negative ease in the bust, no ease in the waist and 2 inches positive ease in the hips. And yes this does end up with a sweater that has an odd shape off the body. However, it serves its intended purpose when worn: see how it appears that I have an hourglass shape….well I don’t. I am a triangle/pear shape.

The darts were a major reason that this simple sweater took a awhile. I kept ripping back to get the right number of decreases at the right interval and to make the darts sit at the correct place on my hips. Each time I ripped back, the sweater went into time out for 3 or 4 weeks. The yarn frogs extremely well, but when you are alternating skeins every row and need to rip five inches it can be a pain to untangle.

The slipstitch row for shaping on the collar is a trick from from an Elizabeth Zimmerman video that I watched.

Design notes:

I orginally started thinking of this sweater after seeing the garter cuffs on Road to Golden. Which led to to think about my recent realization of how beautiful varigated yarns can be in garter stitch.

The buying of the beautiful Chocolate over Cherry yarn was next.

From there, I thought about about styles that I feel are flattering to me, and the alterations that I make to patterns I knit. One thing that I often do is reverse the stitch counts for hips and bust. Many patterns have an inch more in the bust or the same stitch count for bust and hips. My hips are larger than my bust, so this would be a bad look for me. I find that a bit of negative ease in the bust helps out a small chest, and that no ease or a bit of positive ease in the stomach and hips is flattering and comfortable.

Longer length for a long torso: I wanted it long enough for the “skimming over the hips” to work but not tunic length. I like many tunic length things, but I’m afraid they will go out of style soon.

So I had all this in mind, but I was searching for the perfect contrast yarn for awhile. I actually bought the Yarn Nerd for socks, but when it arrived, the gold tones with the wine highlights was the perfect compliment to the Sundara yarn.

So all that to say a simple design successfully realized due to the beautiful dye jobs of two color gurus.

Thanks for all the political spinning love. I have actually already transformed the pretty, pretty candidate of change into a nice scarf to wrap around me, pictures to come soon. Go vote this Tuesday my mid-Atlantic peeps. That includes you family (and please, fam, pick up that Democratic primary ballot in VA; it’s much closer this go round).

I can only hope my candidate is on fire tomorrow. How’s that for an awesome segue into my Project Spectrum Fire projects…..awww yaaa-aa–AH.

This is a theme I should have little problem with: orange? check; red? check; pink? I got some of that too.

And I have another single sock that has met its mate

Charade knit out of STR Firebird.

So with my other projects on the needles, I should have easily been all fire all the time,

But this slipped onto my needles also:

Yum

Okay, so I mentioned that I don’t normally wear skirts over pants (nothing against it, I’m just only go for layers on the top half), but these are the shots that I am using for the FO. Although I plan to use the skirt at the beach, I am not turning this into the swimsuit edition of my blog posts.

Pattern: Ogee Lace Skirt by Gryphon in IK Summer 07
Yarn: Knitpicks Shine Sport in Cherry held doubled, 8 balls
Needles: Denise US11
Started: May 8
Finished: May 27

Thoughts:Not much to add. This was a well written pattern and an engaging, quick knit.

I did mess up on the i-cord borders on the side. I realized this after a few rows, but I didn’t feel like ripping back to correct so I just keep going with how I was doing it.

I’m so happy to use up this refreshed yarn that I had no ideas what to use for. It does make a heavier wrap than a ribbon or tape yarn would have, so I wouldn’t go out and buy the Shine yarn for this purpose. However, if you have some lingering in your stash it does work well.

(This shot actually gives a fairly accurate depiction of how freakishly short my legs are.)
I threw it in the washer afterwards to test it out. If I am wearing this to the beach, it will have to be thrown in the washer with bathing suits…I will not be handwashing it. It held up well, although I can see where my joins are again. I did Russian joins for the yarn, so I hope that will hold up well to all the washings. Anybody have experience with that?

See, there’s a swimsuit for ya. I’m all set for the beach…although I need to wait a couple months.