Cowichan Sweater

So, I did it. I made that quintessential kitschy sweater that seems to solidify knitterly dorkdom, but whatever. I love this thing.

It took me almost a year to make, even though it really only took a couple days. It's just that there were those months in between those days during which no effort was being put into this sweater. I even got to the point where I was considering just using the yarn for some other knitting project--I lost my way. But only for a little bit. Somehow I got back on the right path towards this cowichan sweater.

And I have this thing where I like to reflect on what I was doing/what I was thinking when I made one project or another. So for this, here are the sweater shoutouts, without which none of this would be possible.
1. Thanksgiving vacation from work, including the bus ride down to my parents' house.
2. Radiolab
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. Marwencol
5. A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Original Soundtrack

Just in time to wish cold weather a good-bye

The pattern comes from this neat, little Bernat Irish Aran sweater pattern book from, I think, the 60s. I've been working on this sweater for not too long, but the period that elapsed between the weeks I worked on it were actually VERY long. So, about 2 years later, I have this sweater. Luckily, I finished it right before St. Patty's Day, so I was able to wear it then.

It's All Uphill From Here

The weather has slowly been climbing to the 60s during the day, shoe are being worn without socks, a three-day weekend is fast approaching, and this concept/online playlist is fascinating me (right now I'm listening to the Sunday Morning mix). Also, I've had a lot of people in my life recently either have a baby or find out they're expecting, and with this population boom comes more knitting opportunities. Below are baby blankets that can be made from PurlSoho kits, which may be a bit much for my wallet, but are inspiring anyway.

Warm Hands Club

After so many stockinette-heavy sweaters, I decided to go the opposite route for a while: mittens and gloves with varying degrees of cabling. This also gave me a chance to use up some of my scraps and get a feel for what makes a good mitten or glove.


Warm hands for the new year! But, of course, once one fascination has abated, another one rears is head. Now that hands have been taken care of, it'd be nice to have ensure ears are not forgotten. Inspired by the following Steve Alan beanies, it seems like chunkier knits are in my near future. I'm not complaining.

NaKniSweMo

November was National Knit a Sweater Month (known to the knitting world as NaKniSweMo) and I decided to tackle the Acer Sweater. It knit up fairly quickly, which was good cause I still have Christmas gifts to turn my attention to.



There's nothing like a good, red wool cardigan.

get a grip

With all the free time I've been afforded due to my own calling on for a personal vacation, I've been given tons of time to do the things that truly make me happy, and with all the little things aside, I've been attempting to make an effort to write again. I used to write a lot before than I do now, but now feels different. Now I feel as if there's pressure (even though there isn't) for me to write something that I really truly care about. And while writer's block is making itself known, the main problem is finding something to write about that I honestly do care about. Do I really care about the umpteenth collaboration that whozits doing with whatzits? Not really. Do I think people haven't read (or already written about) the new bag that the house of whoever is releasing? They probably have. So in an attempt to rid myself of this writer's block and a bit of the negative vibes I'm putting out, I'm going to try and just write about whatever fancies me, so that maybe, I can get to something really, really good.

Heavy shit aside, on one of my more boring days yesterday, I went on an amazingly long walk and found myself searching for curtain fabric at the thrift store, which was a total failure (since when do thrift stores realize their gems and price it as such! wtf!). But I did manage to snag this adorable knitting magazine that had such a clean, pure style to it, I had to bring it home with me. I by no means knit at all (that's my sister), but with all that perfectly blown out hair, the sophisticated little grins that say, "oh, i wake up this way," and those plump fake eyelashes, I figured what the heck. I have a hard time finding good inspiration in magazines these days, perhaps I blame myself for overexposure, but these pictures inspire me. I may not always want to look so prim and proper, but these pictures make me want to stop with the T-shirts and plant some pearls on my neck. I suppose it's a nice breath of fresh air from all the editorials that always try to give off that "easy" air, that very throw-on-and-go type of grunge. I forgot for a second that everything wasn't all ripped and loose, and that there's still room for sophistication.

Do the Damn Thing

And by that, I mean I should post about some old sweater projects of mine. If you're knitting-savvy, you can check out the details at my Ravelry site (one day I'll write about the deep gratitude and admiration my heart holds for those clever gals who came up with the idea of Ravelry). I knit these two several years ago, and while I adore them both, I do need to start putting waist shaping in to avoid looking frumpalicious. It's funny that I say this cause I'm seaming together a new sweater right now and it also has no midsection definition. When will I ever learn? Next time, always next time.

Whenever I choose a new knitting project, I have to be certain I'm not knitting it solely because I just love the strangeness of a project idea or because I'm interested only in the challenge a demanding pattern would present. Then I have to be honest with myself about the possibility of me actually wearing the end product. Not taking this last bit into account has led to disastrous results and waste of yarn, time, and knuckle movement as are evidenced by the horrid poncho project of '04 or the dowdy cabled/bobbled hoodie that haunts my closet and inflicts guilt on me every time I clean my closet only to find it shoved to the back and purposefully forgotten about. I dub that one my monster of Frankenstein hoodie.

Me and My Autumn Sweater

Here's our attempt at a photo shoot to showcase the latest sweater I finished. Note how we styled the bok choy in the sink just so. And was that candle intentionally lit to add a bit of atmosphere? It'll have to remain an eternal mystery, I suppose.

I'll write a bit more about the weekend in the next post, hopefully before it all gets away from me and Friday arrives once again. But for now, here's a bit of information about the sweater. Note to Mel, it's about to get jargony. The pattern, slightly modified for a narrower body, was taken from the Fall-Winter/1977-1978 issue of Good Housekeeping Needlecraft. I believe I found the magazine at an antique mall for around 75 cents. Knit on size 8 needles (with the ribbing in size 5), it's all worsted weight yarn from various brands (main color is Plymouth Galway in #711, the blue is Brown Sheep Nature Spun in Blue Knight, the white is Patons Classic Wool in Winter White, and the dark brown may have come from a thrift store). Sadly, I didn't have enough of the main color and had to order one more skein, so you can actually see where the dye lots switch. Argh.

Anyway, the bottom half of the sweater was knit to episodes of This American Life and several pots of green tea, while the yoke kept me busy on a bus traveling towards New York. I don't know if I'd ever venture to bring fair isle knitting onto any sort of moving vehicle again, but whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.