Tag Archives: sand dollar cardi

Progress report

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I haven’t posted in a bit! And I’ve been busy. ish.
First, I don’t think I’ve ever posted pics of the capecho:
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That’s where I currently am. Tomorrow I should finish sleeve 2 (sleeve 1 is on the left looking weird because it is on a stitch holder) and hopefully start the collar. I’m leaving the sleeves on holders in case I want to lengthen them.
I haven’t tried it on… I only finished that first sleeve today, but I’m a bit scared. And I’m so close now I may as well finish. Wrapping it around me when it was just a line of pentagons, it did seem a bit long. I’m hoping sleeves will pull stuff down? Failing that, do you think it would be possible to get rid of the first pentagon? Un-pick it? The thing is, other pentagons are picked up along its edges; will they unravel, or can I fix that? We’ll see I guess when I get there. Each pentagon is 4″ on a side, instead of 5″ for the XS so hopefully it’ll work out.
I ordered some yarn off Etsy a while back, and it arrived the other day.
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They are both from Yarn Ahoy, who is now actually on vacation. The laceweight is amazing, all tan, gold, a touch of orange, a touch of green. It’s going to be something from Victorian Lace today (Leaf and Trellis with Trellis border I think? In the book it is yellow). The handspun is equally lovely, but unfortunately, I ordered sock yarn (in similar but darker colours than the laceweight). I emailed, and got one back the same day saying to keep the handspun, and she will send the sock yarn out free of charge. Now that is service. :)
This evening I went to Fabricland to get interfacing for the shirt I’m making. And of course, you can’t go into Fabricland without buying other stuff. Stuff I need though, like a seam ripper (mine broke), rotary cutter (whee!), thread (oooh, not black or white!), some patterns (I was planning on those), and some fabric (not planning on that).
I’m going to make a summer dress (one of the patterns I bought) and I found the cutest fabric:
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Bugs, frogs, lizards and leaves. So cute! And see what the leaves say?
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I’m an explorer! (Why do I hear that in a Ralphie Wiggum voice?)
Cute, casual, summer dress coming right up. After I make one in the stripe.

My gripe with the pattern I bought (McCalls 4826) was that it had two possible envelopes to buy. One was sizes 4-10, the other 12-18. Looking at the measurements, I couldn’t decide if I am a 10 or a 12! (which is a weird debate in itself, because most things I own are a 2 or 4). In the end I did notice that they had a finished garment measurement as well, so I went with the 10. That was odd, because a size 12 is a 34″ bust, but the finished garment bust was 35.5″. Halters are not something you want ease in, I thought. A 10 has a finished bust of 34″, but the body measurements say bust = 32.5″. As I’m 33″-ish, I think I made the right choice…. But that’s why I’ll make a muslin.

Bits and bobs

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So this is what happened to my needle:
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I’m going to email the Denise company and let them know.

I finished sewing the skirt! I put in a zip! Did French seams! Made some mistakes! But it fits, and there’s no raw edges hanging out. And when I say fits…. when they say ‘waist measurement’ they mean WAIST. I’m so used to the waistbands of everything I own being below my belly button, that I sort of forgot. So the skirt fits, but definitely sits much higher than anything else I own. Not that I’ll be wearing it, this was a learning thing.

Tonight I cut out fabric for my next project, the green shirt from this pattern:
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Although I’m doing it in a stripe, with one pocket that I have stolen from the pink version. The same stripe I did the skirt in, actually. I started with 9m of that fabric, I’m going to have a whole wardrobe soon.
It was great, the pattern was already cut out for me! And all the bits were still there, which was a worry.

I have frogged the Bubble-stitch Vogue sweater, and I’ve actually put the yarn up on eBay. A whole 12 skeins of Classic Elite Waterspun! I’ve just had it for so long and never done anything, it’s just excess baggage. That, and I have ordered some yarn, and I need to (a) make space and (b) feel not so guilty by selling some stuff. It’s not like I can’t afford it, I’m just not used to having extra yarn money. I made a Webs order. And let’s just say I qualified for the 25% discount. In my defense, I will be receiving yarn for 5 projects ($1.50 Cardi, Eyelet Rib Bandeau, Anemoi Mitts, Raspy, Crinkle), and if you average the price out, it’s super cheap. Usually for sweaters I end up paying more more for yarn than I would for ready-made, but this is much, much cheaper. But yeah, I was just tired of looking at that brown yarn. It’s making me wonder what else I can sell off.

I’ve got some beaded necklaces I made ages ago, I never wear them. I may put those up on Etsy. Hm, if I take pictures tonight, I can do that from work tomorrow….

I’ve done a couple more pentagons on the Sanddollar/Capecho thing. With my gauge, each side is coming out at 4″, a whole inch smaller than the smallest size listed. I’m hoping this will cut down on the flappyness. Tomorrow I should finish the last pentagon, and start on the sleeves!

Tomorrow evening the boything and I are going to see 300 in IMAX which will be so cool. The last thing we saw in IMAX was V for Vendetta, so it has a tough act to follow. :)

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!

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At work, nothing to do, and my needle broke!
It is my trusty Denises, the black bit that attaches the needle to the cord snapped in half. Most of it is still in the needle tip.

What am I supposed to do for another 4 hours? I purposely didn’t bring a book so I would knit more and get more done. poo.

Closing in…

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One of my New Years Knitting Resolutions was a finished object per month this year. I had included bits of a sweater as objects, as I can get very busy with shows. January I managed two objectss, Clapotis and Odessa. February’s? Hopefully an entire sweater!!
Tuesday night I finished the entire body of Rambling Rose. I soaked it in a sink of water, and it’s been drying on a towel since then. Tonight, I start the job of seaming the arms. I’ve been practicing my seaming with my next project: the Capecho. More about that later. So yes, tonight my goal is the neckband, and if I can do a button band per weekend day, I’m great! I just need to find buttons. I never thought I could finish a sweater in one month, but my current job is to thank for that. :)

Monday night was the first class for the Vogue Capecho, which I much prefer to call my Sand Dollar Cardi. Capecho is just an ugly word. I cast on and did the first few rows of one pentagon that night. When RR was blocking, I took it to work, and I ended up deciding to rip out and restart on smaller needles. I had the exact stockingette gauge on size 9 needles, but it was looking a little loose. Then, after finding some finished ones on the internet, I realised that this needs to be as small as I possibly can, so now I’m working on 7s. That makes each pentagon 4.5″ on each side rather than 5″ for the extra-small. Seeing as the only one I saw on the net that looked the way I want mine to look was done in DK weight, I’m a bit worried. But, I’m on pentagon #4 now, so we’ll just see what happens.

I am novelty yarn free, are you?

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I did something great last week. I had seen a post on Whip-up (or possibly the Craft: blog) about a women’s shelter in the States running a knitting program. I wandered over to the blog, and they use novelty yarn! I know some places you can donate yarn to only want wool or natural fibres, but here is a group who will happily take, and put to good use, your novelty yarn. I also sent 3 balls of some acrylic, and some almost-whole balls. No, I wasn’t an ass and didn’t send measly little scraps, but I had some skeins that were almost all still there, and great learning yarn.
I’ll put the photo in when I get my camera back from the theatre. I left it there yesterday by accident.

So I got rid of some yarn that has been following me around for a few years. And the same day I mailed that parcel, I picked one up! I had bought this yarn on eBay for the ‘capecho’ (I hate that word) on the cover of the winter Vogue Knitting. It’s a bit paler in real life, which was a pleasant surprise. I did a quick swatch the other day, and it seems like it should work. Haven’t tried one of the pentagons yet though. I feel that’s like cheating for the class I will be taking. :)

So, as I couldn’t use the new yarn, I found a use for some old yarn! I wanted to make the Arwen cardigan from the most recent IK, so I did a swatch, even washed it, and it was just wrong. WRONG. And for a pattern with such weird construction, the adjusting would be too awkward. So I started flipping through the mag, and realised that I did have gauge… for the Rambling Rose cardigan.
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This got a lot of flack on the blogs when the preview was released, I remember. They didn’t like the skin-tight, popping-open look the sweater has. Well, it’s a 30″ sweater worn by a model with what I’m guessing is a 36″ or so bust. I am not a 36″ bust. Nor am I 30″, but I’m closer to 30″ than that model is, I’m sure.

I liked it, liked it enough to cast on 5 times before I got it right. There is no ‘mistake’ in the instructions, it just doesn’t explain everything. Specifying the number of chart repeats for the scallop on the sleeve (one centred? two that just fit?) or whether odd or even numbers are the RS when you’re working the chart. I have also never done intarsia before. I think it is going okay. It is hard to tell, because at most change points, there is a yarn over, which makes a hole anyway.

I cast on a sleeve to try it out. I think I like it. I don’t have enough of the second colour to do it like it is in the magazine, so it is going to be mostly red, but the scallop-y bits along the bottom of the sleeves and the body will be in cream. Possibly the button band too depending on yardage.

Aquisition!

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People all over blogland are doing the ‘Knit from the Stash for the New Year’ thing. I contemplated it, and made a vague mention of it on here I believe. But I am weak. My excuse is a good one. :)

I have discovered the magic of recycled yarn on eBay. Go on, search for it. Be astounded at the deals! I got a sweater’s worth of merino/cashmere yarn for under $40 Canadian! It’s a rich royal blue, if the seller’s picture is accurate. There’s also a lot of 100% cashmere laceweight out there. I was very tempted, but I couldn’t be that bad. But…

I bought Victorian Lace Today! We got one copy in in November, and that immediately sold. It has taken this long to get another copy in, because the publisher was out. Go knitters!

Thinking of the power of knitters we’ve all heard the story of how Blue Moon Fibre Arts brought a bank to its knees. That is on one hand the best proof of our power and existence, and on the other a giant pain for Blue Moon. I actually have a code for the sock club, I wandered onto their website quite by chance when it was still open for sign-ups. I did it because it was there. Then, the email came this month asking for the money, and I actually did the math.

Yes, you get exclusive patterns, exclusive colourways, and binder and the other odd freebie or two, but I still can’t pay $50 for a pair of socks. That’s what it works out to. And there’s the possibility I’ll get stung for duty too, which adds even more. It’s not that I don’t want to support a wonderful entrepreneurial business, I just simply don’t have that money.

I shall just make do with free internet patterns, and less expensive yarn.

I really want to buy laceweight yarn, with my new lace book and all. BUT! I want to meet more people in this city. I only know people in the theatre industry, and while that is good, and they’re great people, I want to talk about knitting with actual people. So, I am going to take a class at my LYS. That’s why I took that drop-spinning class, but it felt like I alienated the other two students by somehow being naturally successful at something I had never done before. I am going to take a class on making the cover sweater from the Winter 2007 Vogue. I’m sure I could do it by myself, but it’ll be nice to talk to people about it. Also, so I get more wear out of it, I’m contemplating making it longer. I don’t know if it’ll be with more motifs, or with ribbing, like the sleeves (which I also want to make full-length). It was this sweater that prompted the eBay buy.

My one issue with that is that I got aran and worsted mixed up. Then I checked a website that has them in the same category. But they aren’t the same, are they? The sweater asks for aran, and I bought what the seller called worsted. Oh well, the swatch is my friend.

Oh, and another note. I will not be using the word ‘capecho’. I’m not one for naming things, but I think the motifs look like sand dollars, so that is what it will be.

Of course, I’ve made all these plans, but haven’t signed up yet. I should do that. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve been procrastinating on, that I should really do. And I have today off, but I’ve just lazed around. I want to do something but don’t seem to have the energy or something. There is some stuff I definitely need to do though. Resumes, health care, and the like.