Category: knitting

Blogging as usual feels a little like this:

But as the great Elizabeth Zimmerman said, “Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises,” so that’s what I’m doing.

I’m down to the final ribbing on my rainbow stripe sweater that took one entire year so expect pictures of that soon. And instead of doomscrolling at night for the last few days, I’ve been scrolling knitting patterns to find my next sweater that will take another year.

I do love the PetiteKnit patterns and she has a mariner stripe sweater that could be great in an orange and white–but I also saw this neutral (!) cardigan that pulled up memories of my two favorite Banana Republic sweaters in high school, a gray cardigan and a marled b&w turtleneck:

If I could BUY this I would have already, but I’m not sure about making it: Those black flecks are actually colorwork,  i.e. knitted into the fabric using two yarns vs. just using a speckled yarn, so this might not be a fun relaxing knit for me.

But wow did it bring back nostalgia and make me want to cuddle into a cardigan and read some J. Peterman catalogs.

Of course I looked up knitting patterns for sauna hats after I read about them. (Who doesn’t?!) There were far less than I thought there would be but Ravelry had a handful, including this felted gem with jaunty earflaps!

 

The designer’s Ravelry page tells me I can get the pattern in English, which is good because their actual site is all in Norweigian. It’s still fun to click around, though–and look at what else I found I could make for a future sauna life: A DRINK-HOLDING MITTEN!

Those clever Norwegians…

I sure didn’t need to buy yarn for another project but here we are: Harmony was having their anniversary sale so I wanted to support them and they’d just stocked some super-soft and lovely sky blue alpaca blend.

I’ve been eyeing some of the hood patterns that have come out in the last year or so. They seem very chic and they won’t flatten out your hair like a beanie. (I remember my mom hated hats that flattened her hair too–may the circle be unbroken.)

So I think this yarn will become a Harris Hood…someday. Right after I finish the endless stripe sweater and about 20 socks.

I’m deep in Sleeve Island/SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) territory over here, but when I pile it all up, it DOES look like a lot of knitting:

Considering I didn’t really have any meetings in July and spent most of it at the pool (without knitting), I guess the sweater’s coming along OK? But all the socks are stalled out at parts where I have to pay attention, so I guess I’d better watch an MST3K rerun and get the second one started so I can have mindless meeting knitting again.

I started my version of the Gap crazy stripe sweater mid-January and I’m just striping along over here.

The beginning wasn’t meeting knitting–I had to pay attention to increases on both sides–but now that we’re in the round and I have the hang of the sleeve increases, I can zoom (Zoom, heh) along.

I’m using the Aros Sweater pattern like I planned and the shaping is just lovely on it. My yarn is a 72% cotton + merino and baby alpaca blend, so hopefully it won’t give me sensory issues to wear when it’s all finished.

I haven’t bought yarn for a bright stripe sweater because 1) I’m still worried about making something that would be too itchy to wear and 2) I discovered almost a sweater’s worth of neutral beige yarn in the stash. It’s 100% wool and also neutral, which is why it never got made into a sweater, but maybe it could make a nice vest?

I like this basket weave one a lot but I’d need to get another lightweight yarn to carry with the yarn I have to get gauge, which defeats the purpose of using up yarn without buying anything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This one would work without buying anything but I’m not sure about the style–it’s not cabled, not one texture, not a full sweater, not a traditional vest shape. I think it would be fun to knit, though. 

I’m still knitting socks during meetings over here. It looks chaotic but having lots of pairs in different stages of progress means I always can match my sock to the meeting content.

If I can get 3 out of the 4 here finished, that’ll be 6 pairs for the year. Not bad!

Who else spends a not-negligible amount of time thinking about GAP’s holiday collections of 1999 and 2000? Just me? It was all so good, though. I didn’t own this sweater–I think it sold out before I could scrape together $48–but it haunts me.

 

Sewing/textile influencer Martha Moore recently posted about the third striped sweater she’d knit. They’re all giving 1999 Gap Crazy Stripe Sweater and that gave me Ideas.

 

The pattern Martha used is from PetiteKnit, the designer whose pattern gave me such a gorgeous finish on my green vest. It’s called the Aros Sweater (yes, you can make a dress; I won’t, I just liked the stripe colors in the dress more).

 

Thinking about what colors I’d use in my stripes is, of course, the best part. Every time I use the hot water bottle in its stripey cover, I get happy. So what if I used that as a jumping off point?

The only impediments are my unfinished summer sweater, the pile of sock yarn to knit up, and finding a yarn that isn’t the least bit itchy (but not spending $480 on hand-dyed cashmere; I have more money than I did at 19 but not that much).