Words about Ferns

This has been a Lenty-Lent.  It started with a bang on Forgiveness Sunday with the news that my brother-in-law and his family were involved in a serious car accident that flipped their mini-van.  They were hit by a drunk driver in a high-speed chase with police.  The cops said if the angle had been slightly different, at least one of them would have died.  They all came out with concussions and minor contusions, but no broken bones or major injuries, so there is that to be thankful for.  That was on top of another hospitalization for my father-in-law, who had been in and out for several months with a respiratory infection.  There were a few other things that happened around the same time that just felt like a pile-on.

The Upper School musical this year was Narnia and it was a pretty intense show with a lot of spiritual attacks during tech week and the first performance.  A lot of weird stuff happened.  The kids were total pros and took every twist and in turn in stride, but it was stressful for the adults!  The whole cast did a superb job but our White Witch was amazing and nailed it as did Aslan (which I just found out is the Turkish word for lion--how cool is that?) I worked on costumes leading up to the show and was backstage again this year and that was fun.  It was a very good show and I still have a bunch of the songs living rent-free in my head.

Just before tech week, my father-in-law passed away.  He had gone on hospice care the week before so while it was not a surprise, it was a little faster than we expected.  My father-in-law was 90 and had not been well for several years. My husband was able to get to Texas in time to prepare his body before having him moved here for the funeral and burial.  (We had bought plots at an Orthodox cemetery about an hour out of town).  

My girls and I sang the Panikhida at our church on the Sunday night and then sang the funeral with the priest's wife at the out-of-town parish the following morning.  Relatives and colleagues came for the services and it was nice to catch up with some people we hadn't seen in a long time, including our beloved spiritual father who happened to be in the area for something else.  Many stories were told of my father-in-law's truly bonkers antics over the years.  After the memorial meal, we went back to the city for afternoon rehearsal at school. It was a crazy start to tech week.  

And since the weather has turned frigid again, I figure I better log this sweater I finished in February. This is Words about Ferns and I reused the yarn I made Ponchik's Weekender with when she was in 1st grade.  She's long outgrown the sweater, but it was a cashmere-merino blend yarn and I just couldn't let the yarn go to waste.  

I had more than 700 yards to play with, and the pattern said 600 was enough for my size, but I am here to tell you that the pattern is grossly off.  I had to buy 3 extra skeins, so almost 400 yards more.  

The new ones were obviously a different dye lot so I had to get creative about blending the new yarn so it wouldn't show as a harsh line.  Three-quarters of both sleeves and all of the collar are in the new yarn.  In some lights you can hardly tell, and others it is more obvious.  It is a little bit of an ombre effect, I guess.  I don't really care, to be honest.  It is warm and cozy and I've worn it a LOT since finishing it.  

My mods were to add waist shaping and to double the collar, because at that point, I had the extra skeins so I figured I might as well take advantage.  I used up every last bit of yarn except for a 6" piece I'm using for sleeve scrap on a baby sweater.  Talk about yarn chicken!

I went out to the garden last week to spread the salt hay that we can purchase from the garden association to which our community plot belongs.  We received our plot too late last year to take advantage and hauling in mulch by the bagful on a busy city street was not fun, so I was glad to have the hay delivered right to the plot this year.  The daffodils are blooming and the tulips are up with a few in bloom.  The bulbs out back are up green but not blooming yet (just a lone crocus managed to bloom) but the containers tend to lag the big garden by several weeks, so I'm not concerned.

I moved my fig and blueberry bushes there in the fall in the hopes that full sun might encourage better fruit development. The fig has never fruited and the blueberry bushes have struggled in the back. Plus the bleeping squirrels wouldn't leave the bushes and containers alone.  I'm focusing more on flowers in the back, although I still have the raspberry canes.  The birds get a few but don't bother them as much and the squirrels can't really climb the canes very well.  I might move them to the plot at some point, but they do okay out back for now.

Japanese Theotokos and Christ child

We celebrated Annunciation liturgy this morning and it is already Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday this coming weekend!  C'праздником!

Gruggle and March of the Turtles

Just popping in here briefly to assure you that reports of my demise are greatly overstated.  What can I say, it's Lent? Holy Week next week, so the end is in sight.  Meantime, enjoy a photo of some flowers in my garden:

And also to share a quick accessory that I made late in the fall: Kate Davies' Gruggle.  

I wanted to like this pattern, but the truth is that I didn't enjoy knitting it, at. all.  It was so boring after a while that I struggled to finish it.  It is a nice size and very warm for being fingering weight, but I've also struggled to find ways to wear it.  Don't know if it is the color or the style.  

My main mod was to increase needle size at every break in the pattern to create a funnel shape and I'm glad I did.  I wish it was slightly wider at the bottom than it is, but fingering weight on size 7 needles was already pushing it for fabric density and tension. 

I'm still poking away at Kate's Cowal pattern--similar, but somehow less boring?--and that pattern has you go up on needles at some point too.

And in ongoing sweater modifications Because Juliana is Freezing All The Time, I added turtlenecks to my Not A Bláithín sweater and my Rustbelt Mackworth, and I'm super happy with them now! I love the weight of those sweaters for winter (stranded knitting is so warm!) but did not love how cold I felt in them because my neck was bare.  The Mackworth neckline was always too wide on me in any case.  It was the work of a few hours and now I have two extremely useful sweaters after letting them mostly languish this winter.  I had lengthened the hem and cuffs about 1/2" in the early fall, but it was such a minor change it wasn't worth noting here.

And yes, I know.  I need to address the elephant in the room at some point: the weight loss.  I've lost about 60 pounds in the past year and am still finding my way with how I feel in my body.  Short answer: very strange.  But hey, at least my hair isn't coming out clumps any longer.  Small mercies.

Hats!

I've mentioned before in this space about how thin my hair has gotten over the past decade or so, and especially on the crown.  I've been taking some medication since the fall that is supposed to help, but I'm not noticing a huge difference yet (just less shedding, perhaps).  I have about half the hair I used to.

In any case, the back of my head is often cold in the winter, so I've been making hats to keep my wig warm!  I prefer to wear my hats on the back of my head, and I think I've cracked the sizing and style.  My previous attempts at berets all ended up too floppy and big (and that is saying something, given the size of my noggin!)  

It seems like a basic beanie is a better fit for the style I like, and I think I've got the right length figured out too.  I usually anchor the hat with a bobby pin in the middle at the top and that seems to keep it in place during the day.  

The first is a blossom heather hat, using KnitPicks Wool of the Andes DK weight yarn.  I've really come around to Wool of the Andes over the past year.  I used to think it was unbearably rustic, but I'm finding that a good soak with a little conditioner in the water softens it nicely, and it wears like iron.  Plus the price is nice. I used a stitch pattern called Lozenges and Triangles from a stitch pattern book I have, together with a basic beanie pattern that had the correct multiple of stitches for the gauge.

The next is a companion to my Footfall shawl, which has gotten a lot of wear this fall and winter and I wanted a hat to match.  I used the same lace pattern for the hat, although it came out differently because the hat is straight whereas the shawl ends up staggered because of the increases. 

(I should add that I redid the border on my Footfall to make it wider, since the original was constantly flipping up and the size was borderline for my preference. So the garter border is wider and the overall size slightly larger and I'm much happier with it!)

Finally, I finished an Easwas hat yesterday and am quite chuffed with the result. 

I used some stashed Jamieson and Smith yarn, which I really like and want to work with more in the future.  My crazy eyes in this picture should tell you the truth of my enthusiasm!  (Ha!)

J&S is a pretty "sticky" yarn, but for this project, that was just fine. I made this hat after making a Gruggle cowl (that I still have to blog about!) but found it much more enjoyable to knit, even though the twisted stitch pattern is similar.

There's also a little sneaky peak of a sweater I just finished and will also blog about soon!  

I'm giving a presentation on medieval music at my kids' school this afternoon, so I'm a bit nervous.  I've done it before as a two-parter, but this is a combined presentation and I have to cover a LOT of ground.  And sing a bit.  I just started taking voice lessons from our very talented choir director at church, so my voice confidence is pretty low at the moment.  Nothing like singing in and directing choirs for most of your adult life only to discover in your mid-40s you're doing it all wrong.  I probably just need to get out of my own way, to be honest.  

My trial run earlier this week came in just at time, so hopefully it all works out as planned!  

Footfall

I'm trying to post these projects in more or less the order in which I finished them, but I seem to keep falling behind as I finished this scarf a month ago (and have worn it a lot since) and even photographed it then, but am just now getting around to posting!

This is the Footfall pattern from Kate Davies and it comes from her Bold Beginners book. I tried knitting this pattern some years back (before I was really grooving with lace charts) and made a complete hash of it and gave up. This time, however, it was fairly smooth sailing. In retrospect, I wish I had done a M1L/M1R at the center instead of a yarn over, but not enough to start over again.

I used some silk/wool mix yarn I got for Christmas last year.  My original idea was to use the yarn until I ran out but I got to a certain point and realized that the scarf would be VERY large if I did that, and I didn't want something too overwhelming.  

The upside is that I have enough left to make a hat (and possibly mitts).  My hair is really thin now and my head gets cold quickly!  So I think hats are going to be a fixture this winter.  I've been wearing fingerless gloves in the house for the past couple of weeks because the circulation in my hands and feet isn't stellar, hence the mitts.  Andrea Mowry's new mitts pattern looks interesting.

I finished a sweater this week (after reknitting half of it at least twice!) and am working on some smaller projects before casting on another sweater.  What can I say?  I likes what I likes.

Kazahana

Sometimes you have to frog a sweater that isn't working.  My Weekender from last winter was such a sweater.  I did wear it some but the neckline drove me crazy and it was always too big.  And the drape never seemed right.  

I know a zillion people have made that pattern and love it, but I'm realizing that a straight neck sits really weird on me.  There were a bunch of things about the fit I didn't like, so when it was absolutely miles too big this fall, I decided to pull it out and start fresh.  

I picked the Kazahana pattern since it has my go-to features--textured yoke, easy body and sleeves, and interest on the cuffs and hem.  I did a twisted rib on the cuffs since I ended up not liking how the pattern iteration looked or felt, and I made the sleeves full length that tapered to the wrist.  I did do the pattern on the hem, but honestly, it is so subtle, I think I could have got away with twisted rib there too.  Since the yarn was worsted weight, the knitting went extremely fast--I think I made the whole thing in under two weeks.  I've worn it a ton since finishing it, so it was a good call!  

The yarn is such a pretty heathered color; it is hard to capture on film, but there are flecks of turquoise, yellow, seafoam green, and a darker teal running through it. It is definitely a solid color for my wardrobe palette.

I used a gift certificate for a local yarn store recently and bought some Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in the Button Jar colorway.  It is more to the olive side of green, but the tweedy flecks are similarly toned, so I'm eager to knit that yarn up!  I'm nearing the end of another worsted weight sweater, so I think the Shelter will be next up.  It is looking to be a colder year this year, so I'll be glad of some heavier weight pieces to keep me warm--I'm feeling the cold a lot more these days.

Geo Lace

Happy September!  The weather is delightful this week, and I'm happily wearing a sweater and tights today.  We had a week or two in August where I wore this sweater a bit too, but it seemed absurd to share it at that point!  

The kids are back in school and this fall is pretty busy with various activities and carpool schedules and such.  'Tis the season; with three kids in Upper School this year, I think this will be the rhythm of my life for the next few years.

But on to knitting.  I did way more knitting this summer than I usually do, not for any particular reason.  I wasn't sewing much at all (mostly thrifting these days) and I like to have busy hands, so it was nice to have some projects to work on.  I finished three sweaters, of which this was the last, but it is also the lightest in weight, so it is perfect for early fall.

I'm enjoying working with fingering weight. I found it so intimidating when I got back into knitting a few years ago, and stuck mostly to worsted or bulky weights, but now I find I prefer the lighter weight and also it is a versatile weight in my wardrobe in the way that the worsted or heavier weight ones aren't.

Not much to say about this one that I didn't write in my Ravelry notes, so I'll leave it there.

Cypress Laneus in the Pascal Season

Christ is Risen!  Христос Воскресе!  We are nearly to mid-Pentecost (this Wednesday) and our weather is moving into more late spring temperatures.  I was still wearing sweaters all day last week, but it looks like this might be the last gasp of sweater weather, so I thought I better get my newly finished Laneus photographed!  

This was an extremely fast and enjoyable knit.  The pattern is Laneus and is by Teti Lutsak, the same person who wrote the Cinnamomum pattern.  I'm totally enjoying her stuff and love the finished fit.  These are the first yoked sweaters I've made that fit me very well through the shoulders and underarms and don't want to stretch out at the neckline.  My Not A Bláithín sweater is a good fit overall with a good neckline, but the yoke is just a smidge too long so it wants to fold up the excess all the time.  I still wear it a lot, though and highly recommend the yarn, as it wears extremely well.  

The yarn is from my previous Cypress pullover, as I frogged the thing in the fall after being totally annoyed with the fit.  I ended up being one ball short, so had to reorder to finish the hems and cuffs, but for once the different Quince dyelots didn't bite me and it looks pretty seamless.  My only complaint about Chicakdee is that it isn't the best wearing yarn; I had to shave the fuzz off even before I wore it because the original sweater had pilled.  At the price point, I wish it was sturdier, but I'm finding a few other options that seem more robust but still feel nice to wear.

As is probably obvious, I'm into textured work right now.  There was quite a bit of cabling on this yoke and the cuffs and hem, but honestly, it wasn't that bad.  Even though I really enjoy the process of color work, I'm finding I don't wear colorwork sweaters as much as my plain ones.  My next two planned sweaters are the Sarkle and Geo Lace (with a different body shape).  I have the yarn already for both but am working on some smaller accessories right now just for a change of pace.  

I'm not sewing at all right now, except to alter stuff I already have, but I'm probably going to get back to jewelry making soon.  I played around with some designs a week or two ago and it was fun again.  May is always so busy, I try not to make many plans for myself.

Poet

The lace beast is finally finished!  Man, this sweater was a slog.  I started it almost exactly 11 months ago, and nearly frogged it several times, but I'm glad I pushed through to the end.  It is a very pretty sweater, the fit is excellent, but I don't think I'll be revisiting this pattern.

Yarn is Cloudborn sport, part of the yarn I bought a year ago April in a great sale.  I'm finding it to be a pretty good yarn; it pills very little, has a good even ply, and has a nice feel in the hands while knitting.  The pattern is Poet by Sari Nordlund, and it has Issues.  I'm not sure if I received the magazine version that had a ton of errata, but the lace chart was hard to navigate in conjunction with the raglan increases, and I would have done better with it if she had explained it as a graduated raglan increase, the way Kate Davies does in the Doocot pattern.  

The written instructions were VERY difficult to integrate with the chart, and I really had to wing it, which is why I ended up with an extra lace repeat of about 10 rows after I put the sleeves on holders, but I didn't notice until I was very far into the body and I decided it wasn't worth tinking back to fix.   It's not terribly noticeable and looks almost intentional.

As expected, the neckline gaped after blocking, so I used a yarn tail to snug it up like a purse string. The fix is nearly invisible, adjustable because of how I left the ends, and saved me having to redo the neckline umpteen times to get the fit right. I'd already knit it twice and worried about wrecking the lace edge with repeated attempts.

We had a bunch of rainy days that cooled the weather significantly (yay!) so I was able to wear this yesterday for Mother's Day and was quite happy. The skirt is thrifted and I am happy to have a denim skirt that fits again, although this one needs some elastic in the back waist for a perfect fit. It's on my to-do list for this week.

Also on my to-do list: Swatch Moar Sweaters!! (ha!)

A sweater for my mother

There's a charming children's book called A Chair for My Mother, which details how a family saves up to buy a new chair after they lose everything in a fire.  My kids all had to read it for a book report in lower grammar, and it is delightful.  The book sprang to mind when I was trying to come up with a title for this post. 

Sometime in mid-October, when I was hip-deep in quilt-making for St. Nicholas Day and Christmas presents, I decided I didn't have nearly enough to do, so I might as well make a sweater for my mom's birthday.  Which falls on January 9.  Two days after our Christmas.  And the pattern I chose was fingering gauge with a lace yoke.  So, no pressure or anything.  Ha! 

I knew my mom would understand if the gift was late.  I had made her a little table runner and pot holder from scraps from her quilt, so it wasn't like she had nothing to open on the day.  There have been late knitted birthday gifts in previous years.  But I was quite determined to get this finished in time.  I put aside everything else and knitted away.  Despite the small gauge, it went relatively fast, particularly considering the amount of time I had for knitting this fall.  I had started the first sleeve by November 12 (I know this, because I had to get a 9" circular needle in the correct size), and finished the second sleeve sometime in mid-December.  

I added length to the body of the sweater after I sneakily measured a few of my mom's current sweaters when I visited in November, so that added a bit more time, but I started the lace charts during the winter break, during which time we all got covid (again) and the kids were home an extra three days because so many teachers were sick when we were supposed to go back.  Thankfully this round of the virus was much milder than the first, and much shorter-lived, so I didn't lose too much time to it.

I finished the sweater just before dinnertime on January 5, soaked it quick-like, and put it on the blocks in the warmest room I could find so it would dry overnight and I could get it in the mail first thing on January 6.  The postal service being what it is, I had scant hope it would arrive on Saturday, but my mom was happy to get it on Monday instead!

My making notes are on my ravelry page, including the short row mod for the back neck, so I won't repeat that here, but I will say it was an extremely enjoyable knit.  I'm not generally a leave-it-to-the-last-minute kind of person (that is probably the understatement of the century), but I'm glad I made it, despite all the obstacles!