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Knitting content!

I blogged about this one way back here. It's been done for a while and I've been wearing it regularly. In fact, it needs washing, so I decided to get some pictures before I put it in to soak--because, you know, I'm always convinced my knitting is going to hit water and dissolve. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm still on the alert.

This is the one I've named Flame D'Amore. It's based on Francis Revisited, which is a lovely pattern all by itself, but I'm not one to follow a pattern. I worked this from some handspun merino and merino tencel which I plied together for a fingering-dk weight yarn. I knitted it at 19 stitches to four inches for a light, drapey fabric. I added plenty of waist shaping using darts both front and back.

I did this one as a top-down raglan and knitted the cowl neck on afterward. I picked up stitches and worked the sleeves top-down in the round, so there was no seaming at all. We love that!

I left the edges to roll for a light, casual finish. They rolled a bit too much initially, but after a little steam blocking, they relaxed nicely and gave just the baby-roll I was hoping for.

The fabric is surprisingly warm, considering the light weight. I've even worn it to work under a suit a couple of times. It looks great with a black suit; the reds and blacks add a nice pop of color. Since I wear black suits several times a week, I'm always on the lookout for flattering bright colors to wear with black.

FO: Opulent Raglan

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled frog-fest to bring you:

The Opulent Raglan!

Pattern: Opulent Raglan by Wendy Bernard, from the Fall 2008 Knitscene.
Size: 34"
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al
Needles: Size 5 and 6 KnitPicks Options circulars

Modifications: Only a few. I increased the length and adjusted the waist shaping to fit. I did a 1x1 ribbing at the bottom instead of a turned hem, because I thought the turned hem looked a little bulky (and ribbing is so much easier, anyway). I lengthened the sleeves a bit, too. The neckline on mine is higher, but this doesn't really count as a mod, since it was the result of my smaller row gauge. I wanted the neck higher, anyway, so the gauge difference just saved me the trouble. Gotta love that!

Thoughts: I love this pattern. The design is elegant in execution, top down, one piece, and yet very shapely and even a bit fancy. The cable is gorgeous; it makes me think of a intricate ribbon, like the kind you get when you have the department store wrap the package for you. It kept the knitting just tricky enough to be interesting, without making me want to stick a dpn in my eye. I even went with the short, belled sleeves, because I decided I liked that feminine, almost old-fashioned touch, and the sweater would lose something if I deleted them. All in all, a satisfying knit, and a very pretty FO!

36 Inches

I'll admit this is getting tedious.

Here's the ubiquitous progress shot on the endless lace trim:

But I have officially reached three feet, of the five that I need for this piece, and the seven that I need total.

It would probably be going faster if I weren't also working on this, which is ever so much more fun:

Yes, it's time for another crappy bathroom mirror wip photoshoot. Note to self: clean bathroom mirror before next photoshoot. But as you can see, despite the embarrassing spots of what I can only hope is toothpaste, the Opulent Raglan is progressing swimmingly. I love that fancy cable up the front, and it's so easy! I haven't done much in the way of modification to this one, except for increasing the length and adjusting the spacing of the waist shaping to fit. Oh, and I replaced the turned hem with some simple 1x1 ribbing, which will match the ribbing on the neckline. The turned hem looked sort of lumpy and unfinished to me in other FO pictures, and ribbing is faster and easier and gives a more finished look, in my opinion.

I'm just about to pick up stitches for the sleeves, having already done my daily lace-knitting penance. I still haven't decided exactly how I'm going to do the sleeves, but to my own surprise, I'm leaning toward knitting them as written!

Stockinette to the Rescue

This is nowhere near seven feet of lace, and I am sick of knitting lace. Yes, I know, lace is wonderful, we love lace, I love lace. It is just the knitting of the lace that poses a problem for me.

And so, without even a little bit of guilt, I cast on some nice, plain stockinette, just to take the edge off.

My camera seems unwilling to process the color green. The actual color is darker and greener than this. (It is Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in a colorway I can't currently put my hand on, but it's definitely green.) The pattern is Wendy Bernard's Opulent Raglan, from the fall 2008 Knitscene. It is the reason I stalked this issue of Knitscene and searched multiple stores to find a copy. (What is it with Interweave that they can't seem to issue subscriptions for this magazine? I know it's an occasional thing, but it always seems to come out four times a year, so why can't they just make it a regular thing and save us all a whole lot of bother trying to find copies of it?)

It's a charming pattern. I am loving the whole top-down, all-in-one-piece, no-seams sweater these days. What's that? Lazy? Why, yes--yes I am. Thanks for noticing! I am loving it so much that on Saturday, while waiting for my son to be weighed in for football (for which we had to drive--are you ready for this?--eighty miles round trip), I went to Barnes & Noble and bought Wendy's new book Custom Knits just for her terrific explanation of how to design top-down sweaters. Tammy just wrote a post about this book (and did one of the test knits that appears in it--go Tammy!), so I won't go into detail here, but it is good enough that I paid full price for it in a brick and mortar store just so I could take it home right away, which I almost never do.

Now, if I could just get some time to read it...