Knit Dreams

If I had infinite time, or even just a little more time, I would knit So. Much. Stuff. My queue, library, and favorites grow every time I go on Ravelry. There are so many amazing and talented designers, releasing such stylish and creative patterns! I get the impression that knitting is still considered a "granny craft," in which case grannies know what's up. When I first started perusing knitwear patterns, and still thought knitting was the realm of old women I remember thinking "If this old women's fashion they've got me beat!" But in reality it seems all ages are represented amongst knitters, with all sorts of fashions.

Ravelry has this fantastic feature for pattern highlights. Until yesterday, I hadn't checked out Ravelry's suggestions for me in weeks. Here are some knits I love that found their way into my pattern highlights page. What are you dreaming of knitting?

1. Aiken, by Andi Satterlund.

2. Light Trails, by Suvi Simola.

3. Issara, by Anne Kuo Lukito.

4. Foxy Dress, by Jacqueline Schiller.

5. Trilinear, by Cindy Garland.

6. On the Road Again, by Joji Locatelli.

New Yarn!

Ok, well it's sort of new yarn. I've had for about 2 months, and made a gauge swatch with it about a month ago, and finally have cast on a project with it. A while ago I noticed my Instagram feed was heavy with green and grey knitwear, and my wardrobe had a lot of black and cool colors. I also had a new design in mind, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to break out of my fashion comfort zone and make something in a new color. I decided I wanted a deep red, wine colored yarn in a worsted weight. And so the hunt for the perfect color began!

I loved Quince and Co.'s new color, Malbec, but it wasn't released at the time, and I wanted to try a new yarn. I've always been curious about Manos del Uruguay, but I didn't want something that variegated for this. I also looked into a lot of Etsy hand dyers. Overall, I discovered a lot of cool and enticing new yarn purveyors. Lorna's Laces almost reeled me in with some lovely deep reds, and O-Wool is now very high up on my list of yarns to try. But I'm very particular and all of these awesome yarns were just slightly, slightly off from the color I wanted.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at yarns, and really wishing I had a local yarn store (alas!). I kept coming back to Malabrigo's Merino Worsted in their deep burgundy.  I originally wanted a true solid, but my current design is so simple I think Malabrigo's subtle variegation will add some extra loveliness (assuming my design works!). But I had used this yarn before for my Tourist sweater, and I really wanted to try something new. Try a new yarn, or go with one you know you love? In the end it was the prices that got me. Here's the reality of the situation: a lot of the lovely, small business, hand dyed yarns were way too expensive. $20-30 for a 100g skein is not feasible for the amount of yarn I needed and the amount of my grad stipend. I went with Malabrigo, which I found on sale for a super reasonable price. No new yarn for this project, but I do get to nuzzle Merino Worsted like a weirdo! But if anyone has any yarn recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them! What are you favorite yarns?

The most epic of meals, Thanksgiving.

No real posts for this week because it's Thanksgiving! We, meaning some friends from my lab and I, are hosting the 3rd Annual Grad Thanksgiving.  None of us live close enough to our families to go home and see them, so we've made our own family here.  I didn't plan on tackling a Thanksgiving turkey until I was in my 30s, and none of us planned on hosting Thanksgiving while our parents were still alive, but life had different plans. And we rose to the challenge! Our Thanksgiving is complete with turkey, garlicy mashed parsnips and potatoes, cresent roles, homemade gravy and cranberry sauce, apple and pumpkin pie (with homemade crusts!), multiple veggie sides and salads, a smattering of appetizers, and a decent amount of booze.  For the hosts, we have all day snacking and there is ne'er an empty cup to be seen. It's like a real adult Thanksgiving, but without all the family drama that one racists uncle causes.

Sorry no knitting, but enjoy these lovely leaves.

But this most awesome of days requires a lot of planning on our parts, while still pulling regular lab hours.  So unfortunately knitting is on the back burner this week.  I hope everyone enjoys the time off with their friends and families, and stuffs themselves most abundantly. Happy Thanksgiving, from the hostesses with the mostest!

Design my own knitwear: Check. Please welcome Iris Sweater.

A while ago I thought a raglan sweater with sleeves in a different color than the body would look cool, and those sleeves would be even cooler if they had some sort of fair isle pattern in them. Kind of like a long sleeved baseball T-shirt. That's got to be on Raverly, baseball is popular right? Turns out I couldn't find what I had in mind. So I thought, hey, why not make it myself! How hard can it be? Remember how I said I tend to start things and have no idea what I'm doing, or what I'm getting into? Yeah. Now I think there was a reason the design wasn't on Ravelry (until now!) It's because it's kind of pain in the ass to make, at least until you separate the sleeves from the body.

 "Is it going to be that short? And the neckline looks bad"-Mom

I had an image in my mind of what I wanted, and also how I wanted to do it...sort of. I did not know I had to learn intarsia knitting if I wanted the sleeves to actually be connected to the body. Nor that I would have 7 little wads of yarn to work with until I separated the sleeves. And ok, I get that a lot of raglans have you work flat for some neckline shaping and stuff. But I did not know that my intarsia sleeves did not lend themselves to round knitting. So I had to roll with it and shape the neckline into more of a scoop-neck and keep on knitting flat all the way till the sleeves were separated.

Don't worry Mom, I'm not making a boob shirt.

Once I figured the top out, the rest would be easy! Just plain circular knitting with some waist shaping. Except I didn't figure out beforehand how many decreases or increases to make, or how often. Patterns usually have sizing all spelled out for you! Oh but I'm making this up...crap. When I thought I was done I noticed the top fit fine, but the bottom didn't, and had to rip out my stitches about 10 inches. It made me sad.

Then it came time to write the pattern. Generally patterns exist in real or virtual space. As in someone wrote up what they did, instead of leaving it in their head. I wrote down what I was doing, while I was doing it, about 75% of the time. I think I did a pretty good job filling in the rest to make a pattern that can re-produce my sweater, but I didn't feel comfortable writing the pattern for other sizes when I had to reverse engineer instructions.

Ok enough complaining! Yes, this was hard to design, and I messed up my own design a few times in the process. But I'm very pleased with how Iris turned out. Plus I learned lots of knitting skillz for future designs. So, without further ado: Iris Sweater is available as a free PDF download on Ravelry or by clicking this link: http://www.ravelry.com/dls/stephanie-bora-designs/182625?filename=Iris_Sweater.pdf. I'm not charging for something that could have a decent amount of errors. So if you try making this and run into trouble or find errors, please contact me! I'd be happy to help as much as I can, and I'd like to fix errors in my pattern as they come up. Once you get the concept of how this sweater is constructed it's pretty straightforward, but keep in mind that it uses round and flat knitting, and intarsia and fair isle color work, so it may not be best for beginning knitters. Though that never stopped me. Enjoy!

The days of getting crazy on my birthday are over.

I'm convinced I'm a 70 year old man stuck in a 26 year old woman's body. The evidence to back my case? I like scotch.  I get all grumpy when the hoards of students get out of class at the same time on my campus, and I complain about "the youths" not being able to text and walk at the same time. My boss recently told me I make her feel young. I'm a curmudgeon. Not so long ago, my birthday celebrations matched my age better.  But this year my birthday drove home how lame I've become:  I was really, really looking forward to spending the weekend knitting, making dinner with my boyfriend, and watching movies.  Lock up your sons because this lady was getting wild!

Yeah not so much.  I didn't get crazy, but I did start working on a new knitting project! I made a 6 inch gauge swatch, and blocked it and everything. I hate doing this, so I'm giving myself a pat on the back right now. I also received a much appreciated and useful gift: a yarn bowl. Sadly a piece was broken when I opened it, but nothing some Epoxy couldn't fix.

So my days of waking up hungover after my birthday are gone, but so are my days of chasing yarn balls rolling around my floor.

Favorite Fall Sweater!

Halloween is a milestone in fall. Usually by Halloween it's consistently chilly, a lot of trees are bare, and hooray it's always sweater weather! This fall has been a little wishy-washy though. One day it's a brisk 40 degrees, the next it's 65 and humid. But now after Halloween, for which your faithful blogger sported a beard, it seems like sweater season is staying. This post is devoted to the ultimate reason for knitting, the one piece of knitwear that everyone can relate to, loves, and covets: The Fall Sweater.

My favorite fall sweater is Joji's Tourist, in the same mustardy yellow she originally made. I think it's a color that could go horribly wrong on me, but it's so perfect for fall I had to try it out. And after making Helene, I wanted a break from lace.  A simple pattern using a warm, worsted merino wool really resonated with me. This was my first time using merino wool, and I fell in love at first touch. Hmm...that sounds kind of weird. But it's just so soft: how could I not nuzzle it? Ok, not any less weird.

Snuggles!

I almost wish this pattern gave me more trouble, or some knitting epiphany so I would have some more amusing anecdotes to write about. But this pattern was smoothing sailing from cast on to bind off, and it knit up quickly. The ribbed collar and buttoned pocket lend it an elegant style, but in essence it's a simple raglan in stockinette stitch.

Pocket for increased coziness.  Oh and storing stuff, I guess. 

What makes this the ultimate fall sweater? It's got a big pocket to stuff my hands into on colder days. It's got a collar for ultimate snuggles. It's super soft. It's got a little positive ease for enhanced coziness. And for the cherry on top, the color is perfect for fall. And that's my Fall Sweater: simple, cozy, and stylish.  What's your favorite fall sweater?

Oh hi! I couldn't see you over there because I need a haircut!

Knitting Spaces

Everyone has their nook, their favorite workspace. In my dreams my workspace is a comfy armchair in an open, clean room where I can knit whenever I want. Maybe with a wall of color coded yarn behind me, and a cup of cocoa or tea nearby. In reality, my knitting space is almost always my dining area, after work. The drink nearby is more often a glass of wine than tea (no complaints there). It's not an open space because we rent a pretty tiny house, but I can see the oak forest through the window. Sure, the screen is pretty grimy but the orangey-yellow leaves are still pretty. I can't seem to knit without something else going on in the background, so my laptop is almost always open and playing a movie or TV show. Having a device play a movie, and actually watching a movie are two different things. I'm surprised I haven't worn out my Harry Potter and Grimm Season 1 DVDs because my laptop has run through those discs way more than I've actually watched them. Fact: Hermione is awesome and Monroe has some great sweaters.

My knitting tree

But, every once in a while, when it's not too cold or too hot or too damp, I get to knit outside! No background movie needed. When I have the chance, my yard is my favorite knitting spot. Especially during fall.  I live on a small, woody mountain so there's always something to explore when I look up from my knitting. There's a (half-dead) tree in my yard perfect for leaning up against, and an especially soft, grassy patch perfect for sitting. You can sit and knit for hours. It's worth getting freaked out once in a while because an odd bug mistook you for the tree and started crawling around on you. You look up and there's trees in every direction, a small wood pile here, the garden plot there (or what's left of it), and the green mountain to your right. It's pretty sweet.

My mountain! Yes, it's mine. Don't litter on it. 

So, inconclusion: yes, I'm still renting, no I don't own a TV, yes I know too much about Harry Potter, and no I would never color code anything. I'm not that organized. Welcome to the life of a 20-something. But so far I've been very lucky. Where's your favorite place to knit?

Wood pile, and lovely maple(?)

The good, the bad, and the "meh," part 2

Part 1 of this series was about a sweater I made that didn't turn out as planned. But in this post, I'm focusing on a piece of knitwear that I'm very happy with, wear often, and am even a little proud of. My last post was about having a pity party and complaining when things don't work. This one I think is more fun: it's a chance to brag about something you created and love.

I like to think I take time making decisions. But once in a while I make up my mind to do something with very little forethought and no idea of what I'm getting into. Sometimes it's really big decisions, like "hey, I think I'll go to grad school." Other times it's more forgiving decisions, like "hey, I'm going to knit this lace top," even though I had never knit lace, read a pattern chart, or made anything more complicated than pair of socks. Those socks don't fit well either, FYI. So when I came across Quince & Co.'s "Helene," I decided I had enough of messing around, I was making this. I chose to blithely ignore the fact that this top was way beyond my skill level.

In part 1 of this post, I started out pretty full of myself. But in making this piece I was a little intimidated. I've never been good at arts/crafts. As a kid, my macaroni art was always sub-par, and I still can't color in the lines. I didn't think I had any more potential as a knitter than I do at turning pasta into pictures. I was so new to knitting I didn't even know how to wind a skein of yarn into a ball. Actually I didn't know what a skien was, and I was confused as to why my yarn arrived in this odd, braided shape. So when I found the ends, I turned the first skein into a fantastical knot that took days to undo. I'm not exaggerating: days. Then I Googled what a "skein" was. What a great start! Once I actually got knitting, I didn't realize the pre-blocked shirt would be so tiny. I was terrified I had made some mistake and would end up with a baby-sized shirt! There was much confusion, many YouTube tutorials, and profuse swearing. But two months later, out of the haze of nail-biting and worrying, my Helene emerged. And it was really cute! It fit me well! I, who didn't know the difference between a skein and a ball of yarn, transformed linen yarn into a lacy, fashionable shirt! It was like magic, except super slow!

"You jealous of my shirt bro?"

I love my Helene because it helped me realize why I love knitting. And even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was patient and learned and it worked out! It taught me a lot about drape, fit, and shaping. It's with Helene that I learned I can make something exactly for my body. Plus there are so many ways to dress this top! Maybe you didn't want to display your least loved projects, but what about your favorites? Share something you've made that you absolutely love! Tell me why you're proud of it. After all, you made it, you love it, and it's probably awesome, so don't be modest.

The good, the bad, and the "meh," part 1

You see a sweater pattern. You picture how it will look after you knit it up with your skillful hands. You haven't messed up a pattern yet, and you're obviously a natural. It's going to be sweet! Sure, you spot a part or two that may trip you up, but no biggie because you're awesome. And then you start, and you remember that your imagination and reality don't always mesh. This is the story of the "meh" project, in this case, the boyfriend sweater. If you have a good boyfriend sweater story, this is a good place to share it!

After having successfully made myself a couple of pullovers (as in 2) my boyfriend started looking wistfully at my warm merino wool sweater. I didn't have anything I was itching to make, and he didn't have any good sweaters, so why not make him one? I started in early March, thinking I can get it done in about a month for him to wear on the chillier spring days. I didn't finish the damn thing till July.

There were so many problems! My gauge was way off, my measurements were off, the yarn didn't hold shape, I hated the pattern. I started and ripped it out again three times. I was slogging through a bulky wool sweater in midsummer. I seriously wanted to burn my knitting, anything so I would never have to see it again. Yet another problem was I had never made anything for a body that is not my own.  Here's an interesting tidbit of information: men's bodies, in general, do not have waists like women's bodies do. They are also larger...like big rectangular boxes. Don't get me wrong, I like men's bodies.  They can be quite nice. And my boyfriend is not a large man. But his body requires more yarn than mine does, thus slowing me down when I'm already dreaming of burning his unfinished sweater.

I went from being optimistic about knitting my wonderful boyfriend a wonderful sweater, to feeling sorry he would be stuck with it, because I wasn't stopping this far in. Oh no, I was committed. In the end my feelings about my first boyfriend sweater settled on "meh," and that's the closest thing to a positive feeling I've had about it. It ended up saggy and oversized. But on the plus side I learned a lot from this particular project. I learned how to do saddle shoulders and a shawl collar. I learned I didn't pick the best way to make the pockets. I learned I have a lot to learn, and I'm still pretty new to knitting. I learned to slow down and think through parts of a pattern I don't understand.

I hope you've never made something you're unhappy with.  But if you have, this is the place to rant about it. Post an image link to your not-so-loved project and commiserate! Why didn't it turn out as you imagined? Did you learn anything new from your "meh" project? What would you have done differently? I would have knit my boyfriend a basic raglan pullover instead of a more complicated cardigan, but hindsight is 20/20.  The good news out of all of this is he actually likes his sweater. I'm still not convinced he has a good sweater.

For the love of knitting

"How can you even stand to do that?" is what my mom usually asks when she sees me knitting. And some times I think she may have a point. Modern industry has removed the need for us to make our own clothes, good yarn is not cheap, and knitting is time consuming.  So why knit?

I started knitting less than two years ago. Before that, if someone asked me what I thought about knitting I'd probably have said something like: lame, waste of time, and isn't that for old people? I was so scathing I would even roll my eyes walking by the local yarn shop (gasp!). At the ripe age of 24 I apparently became an old person.  I was waiting around at my pharmacy, and a woman next to me was knitting. She was working on a tube-shaped thing with some pretty small needles, but I remember it being a really lovely variegated red. Deep and vibrant. We had a pivotal conversation in which I learned how wrong I was, and she inspired a passion in me to learn knitting. I remember it exactly: "Are you knitting?" "Yep." "Is it difficult to do?" "Nope." I was sold.  That very night I bought some cheap yarn and needles, intended to make a scarf (those are simple right?) and I was off! Or was I on? Wait, what's casting on? Casting off, are we sailing? How did I make that hole? Purl?! There's more than just a knit stitch? Basically I had no idea what I was doing, and this has become a theme throughout my knitting.  But after watching the same YouTube videos over and over (shout out to knittinghelp.com) and getting some basics down, I decided to use that holey, uneven, lumpy "scarf" to learn more techniques.  

I've been knitting ever since for a few reasons. The most obvious is sweaters are awesome, and there are a lot of fashionable designs out there.  Who doesn't love a good fall sweater, or summery linen top? But beyond the great fashion potential, I really love knitting. It's steady, rhythmic, and helps slow my mind down. But what I may love most is the progress.  When you knit a stitch, you've made a stitch.  It's right there for you to see.  I love this.  In the lab I work in, that type of visual progress is almost non-existant. I can't see what's going on at the cellular level, but I can see a stitch.

http://www.etsy.com

So why do you knit? For me, it's because I love the process of seeing something take shape. Tell me how you got started knitting!  Did you learn as a child? Did you teach yourself after being an ass about it it, like me? Is it a family tradition? Share why you love it! What is it about looping yarn around itself that draws you in? I'd love to hear!