A Little Bragging...

Go look at Knitaly/Cristiana's blog post for today!

She finished a beautiful version of Sloane and used some unknown stash yarn in the process.

Great work!

Sloane Pullover Pattern Available

 
The Sloane Pullover features a strong cable motif down the center front of an otherwise simple design. Knit in one piece from the top down, Sloane features fitted cap sleeves and optional bust darts and waist shaping.

Knit from a smooth classic worsted weight wool, worked at 18 st per 4"/10 cm. Pattern written for finished sizes from 36-52 inches, in 4 inch increments.
Difficulty rating: Experienced.

Pattern available for pdf download. $7 USD

Sloane (on a person!)

Finally! Photos of the Sloane Pullover on a human!

This is my friend Leslie who graciously agreed to model. The sweater is a bit snug on her in some places and not a great fit through the shoulders, but it gets the idea across.


I've been working on pattern writing. I had a few disruptions this past week, but hope for a full normal school week in next week.

The Road to Where is Paved with What?

I guess it's time for a blog post. I've been a little under the weather since Sunday and have taken a bunch of naps. I'd say I'm back up to firing on 3 cylinders (out of 4), having felt like I was down to 1.5 for a while there.

Because I've had this nasty little cold, I was a soft-touch this morning when the Little Emperor feigned claimed illness. I was thinking how I would not have been able to function all day, sitting up, paying attention, running in gym, and all that other stuff that's required. So, in moment of weakness, I let him stay home today. And I knew, KNEW, in my heart of hearts that I'd been conned by 9:30 this morning. I should have just marched him out to the car then and there and taken him. But I didn't. So, it's been a day of minimal productivity.

I finished the Sloane pullover. I need to see it on a real human and take pictures to really assess its success, but I think it's good. I've begun writing the pattern, which involves a bunch of simple illustrations to explain the process through the shoulder area.

Marie Grace tagged me for the Seven Things About Me meme a few days ago. I've been mulling over what I could possibly choose for that. Things I'm willing to share, that don't veer into Too Much Information, but something that my blog-reading public might not already have gleaned about me. I'll have to keep thinking about this. Right now, I can't come up with anything.

Winter Wonderland

Click this one to make it bigger! Mr SABLE took this this morning on his way out to warm up the car before going to work. I cropped and Photoshopped a bit.

Our high today will be in single digits F. The ice that covered the trees on Sunday isn't going away any time soon. Now, at about 9:30 a.m. the bright sun shining on the ice-covered birch by our driveway is beautiful, like a totally schmaltzy Christmas card by Hallmark.

Yesterday I finished the first sleeve and the neck on the Sloane Pullover. I hope to finish the second sleeve by the weekend. Then I'll have to cast about for a local model to wear it for some pictures before I send it off to Maine. I can just imagine the personal ad now:
Wanted: woman to model sweater, bust about 36-38", wears at least C cup. No pay.

I bet I have a friend around town it should fit fairly well. If I have to use a flat-chested woman, I can always stuff the front with balls of yarn, right?

Sloane Progress

Actual knitting content!

Here's the progress on the Sloane Turtleneck. The photo is a bit strange. I took several on the living room floor, some with flash and a few severely underexposed with no flash, at as slow a speed as I could and not have a blur. This is one of those. I adjusted the exposure in Photoshop, which introduced its own bit of strangeness. But, at least the wonderful 3-dimensionality of the cable shows. A flash picture just completely kills that.

I put a towel into the sweater for the picture for two reasons. First, the bust dart needs a bit substance in it to photograph at all well. Second, the cable tends to draw in so much in the current unblocked state that it's hard to get a sense of the garment.

I'm getting a bit anxious about all the proportions around the armscye (fancy-speak for the opening the arm goes through, pronounced "arm sigh") and hoping it won't be too deep. It's all a bit of a gamble.

I'm also a bit anxious about the way the short row bust darts will fit. Each time I turned, I have a rather blunt two row addition to the front. I probably should have slipped the first stitch to soften that a bit. Live and learn.

This yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Parfait. A few years ago, I bought a bunch on clearance from a Herrschner's yarn sale deal. It's a great smooth classic worsted weight yarn; easy to work with and looks good with any kind of texture. I think it's discontinued now, but I'm not sure.

Various updates

Sloane Pullover

Here's the new cabled turtleneck pullover. It's coming right along. Yarn Thrower, you'll be happy to know that I did remember the short row bust darts. And I have just about completed the waist shaping, so maybe will get the body finished in the coming week.

Spinning Every Day
I'm not really a joiner: don't do a lot of memes or knitalongs or such. But there is a movement afoot to spin every day in February. I didn't officially put my name in for this, but I think I'm going to try. Even just 10 minutes.

The You Make My Day Award
In other meme-ish news, I've been blessed with the You Make My Day award by Marie Grace, Molly Bee, Cindy at Baxter Knits, and Yarn Thrower. Thanks ladies! I feel like one of the popular girls at school!

Funny timing on this, because last weekend, after Last Saturday Knitting, I was reflecting on what a wonderful group we have and how it's all because of the internet.

The award instructions read as follows:
"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."
My You Make My Day awards would go right back to the same gang, plus a few:
Teleknitter, who spins amazingly and chats with me online when we should both be working.
The Linnet Knits, who has taken up weaving as well as spinning and knitting.
Wendy at Knit and Tonic who is not only a big time famous blogger, author, and designer but someone I consider a friend.

OK, I know that's not 10, but if I keep going to get to 10, I'll soon find myself at 40, so I think I'll stop now. But you should know, if you're reading this then you make my day!

Knitting Machine Surgery
Last night I did some surgery on one of my knitting machines. The LK-150 is a great beginner friendly single bed machine. I've had mine about 10 years. Mr. SABLE got it for me lightly used. In the last year or so, I noticed it was getting more difficult to run the carriage across and began to fear that something expensive was going wrong with it. In the machine knitters group on Ravelry, I learned that a common cause of this might be something called the sponge bar. Clicking through on the Ravelry advertiser who sells knitting machines and parts, I ordered a new sponge bar for $6 and spent last night replacing it and cleaning all the needles while I was at it. You have to take out the 150 needles to do the job. Which means, you have to put the 150 needles back in when you're done. It's not a job I would want to tackle very often, but has made a world of difference to this machine!

Stay warm! Happy Knitting!

New Project!

This is the strange looking knitting, about 48 hours later. I'm very excited about this project and find it hard to stop to take care of things like meals and getting kids from school.

I misplaced my copy of Knitting From the Top, so I'm working out the top-down set-in style cap sleeves as well as I can from logic and memory. Seems to be working so far.

Adirondack Pullover: Finished!

The Front View



The Back View


Dance Like an Egyptian?

Pattern Available Here!

In other news, can you make sense of this?

You can make it bigger by clicking on it. More will be revealed next time.