I’m celebrating with a new sweater. A sweater for Brandt. I’m having serious project OCD right now, specifically, sweaters.
I’m insane in love with about a dozen different sweater patterns right now, but I’m trying to be true to this one, and finish it up by Thanksgiving. It’s becoming a bit of tradition, Brandt having a new sweater each fall by Thanksgiving. He loves them, he wears them, I’m happy to knit them. It’s a win win. Check the details out for this one on Rav.

Filed by Julia at 7:00 pm under Knitting,Sweaters
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A few days after my last post, I finished spinning the yarn for the body, and cast on. I started it on a friday afternoon, and finished it Saturday evening. Making this the fastest freaking baby sweater knit ever. I think it has something to do with my being used to knitting with string on toothpicks (I like fine gauges, you know), and this being knit on US7′s.

Spinners, this is also a great, great, knit for using up those lone 4oz skeins of precious handspun in the stash.

Ravel the details here!

Filed by Julia at 11:57 pm under Knitting
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This is the finished, but as yet unblocked beaded shawl I started back in April. This was a great knit. Even with the tedium of placing all the beads, which are put on with a hook, instead of pre-strung (there are 1500!) I really enjoyed it. Not being much for lace knitting, this is the second lace shawl I’ve ever knit, the first was my Charlotte’s Web, which took the knit blogs by storm a few years back.
It is crazy big, in the photo, it is unblocked on a KING SIZE bed. It is huge, I went and bought wires to block it, I don’t think there are enough pins in this hemisphere to block it with! Rav the details here.

Filed by Julia at 12:29 pm under FO!,Knitting
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Finally! I finished it about a week ago. It’s just as fabulous as I wanted it to be, fits perfectly, and is the best shade of red. Rav the details here.

As much as I procrastinated at the end there, I so want another one of these. Actually, several, in many different colors and weight yarns. I do loves me some basic sweaters.

The drive to finish for this was spurred by the shawl I wanted to knit for my sister’s upcoming wedding. It’s the super romantically titled Beaded Shawl #10, from Vogue Knitting Holiday “08.

I’m knitting it in heavier than called for yarn, Louet Gems Fingering, in Caribbean Blue. In case you didn’t know, this stuff does indeed come in an 1/2 pound (that’s 8oz) cone put up. I think I will probably use just one, but I have two, just in case. If I do end up only needing one, I know a certain man who will be receiving many new blue socks. Yup indeed.

Filed by Julia at 4:41 pm under FO!,Knitting
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After many, many hours spent knitting, winding, kitting, and pattern writing, I am jump up and down happy to release my Chevron Love Mitten pattern (and kits!) into the wild.
I have made the pattern available through Ravelry, and the kits available through my shop.

I knit this pair in Brown Sheep’s Nature Spun Sport, and that is what the kits contain. They each have eight 20g skeins in eight coordinating colors. I had the hardest time ever picking out colors, the nature spun line as something, like, almost 80 colors to choose from. Which is crazy, but the people at Brown Sheep are wonderful, and great to work with. They are also really great about working with the indie dyers, and conveniently, lots of there yarn comes in cone form.
I knit these on US 3 needles, magic loop style, and wrote the pattern in one size, but it’s a cinch to up size the mittens by using a bigger needle. They are warm, and the fabric is so. nice.
I have about eighty million more colorways in mind, so every 2 weeks or so I’ll have new kits up, and of course I’ll repeat previous colorways too. I also owe a great big hug and thank yous to my test knitters, Adrian, and Elinor, who both did a fantastic job creating their mittens, and helping me through the particulars. You can see their mittens here, and here.

Filed by Julia at 6:09 pm under Chevron Love,Knitting
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To combat all the general and yarny craziness around here, I started a simple sweater. In red. After all the colorwork knitting I’ve been up to, and after all the prep for the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival, I need something nearly mindless to just stockinette away on.

So I started a sweater I’ve had in mind for awhile, a top down raglan v-neck, using Barbra Walkers formula in Knitting from the Top. The yarn is Alpaca with a Twist Baby Alpaca, in a very delicious shade of red. I purchased two of their big ass skeins (8.75oz each) at the Pittsburgh Festival, which totally falls into the special exceptions of my yarn diet, which is that Festival yarn doesn’t count as long as it’s a purposeful purchase. Obvs this is.

Even with stopping to configure and stopping to try it on a bijillion times, this is a very enjoyable knit.

Filed by Julia at 4:22 pm under Knitting
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THANK YOU all SO MUCH for you words and hugs about our poor boy. My family and I are going to feel the sting of his passing for quite some time. He had a great life, we gave him a great life, and we all miss him like crazy. He lived in Michigan with my fam, but I can not begin to tell you how odd it is that he isn’t just there any more.

Recently, I’ve been completely taken with Bonne Marie Burns “Cassidy” pattern. I have wanted desperately to knit it since I first saw it in August, about a week before she officially released it for sale online.
I started the first sleeve on Oct. 11th, while in Boston, and from there on out it has been ON. I want to do nothing but knit this amazing sweater. I freaking love it. Tonight, I seamed the shoulders, and am cranking on the hood. I knit the body in one piece, and oh, how I want to wear it now. It will be done this week. It will.

Also, knitting a red sweater is so not good for blog fodder. The photos all look like crap. Freaking red. Even though it is the perfect red.

Filed by Julia at 12:11 am under General,Knitting
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Taking the advice of my ever-wise friend Claudia, after I finished the first sock, I immediately cast on for sock number 2. I almost always knit socks toe up, sometimes I find a sock pattern I like, and decide to mix it up. Honestly, sometimes I look exclusively to knit something with a completely different construction. Like, my Monkeys, I knit those top down. I’m currently thinking about starting the Through the Loops mystery socks, before they’re not a mystery anymore. Once these are finished, I’m going to start a pair with my Rocktober yarn. Oh, and Brandt needs a third pair. After all, it is Socktober.

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Day 8: 6 more rows of ribbing to go!

Filed by Julia at 7:35 pm under Knitting,Socks!
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That is how many stitches of ribbing have to be reknit on this thing. I finished my comfy gray sweater back in August. (Ravel it here!) Sadly, I picked up too few stitches for the front bands, that it caused the fronts to pull up and pucker a bit. Grr. So I put it into time out for um, awhile, until I felt like reknitting all those stitches. I ripped down to the pickup row, and increased every two stitches. Increasing to 1/3 more stitches than I had the first time.
I’m going to be out of town the next two weekends (Hullo, Rhinebeck!) and this is the perfect weather for this sweater, so I’m hurrying the hell up to get it done. So far? I’ve knit 6 rows.

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Day 7: Practice makes perfect. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes perfect.

Filed by Julia at 8:02 pm under Knitting
4 Comments

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Day 6: Thinking about doing a Fiber Club, anyone interested in that?

Filed by Julia at 9:25 pm under General,Knitting,Socks!
17 Comments