I've been incredible lazy and slow at posting, apologies to anyone who actually follows the blog. I have been crafty, just not really had time to write about it, promise! Here's a bonus picture of Dr Jenner mid-lick, with a hint of the project below (if you are not interested in knitting, you can probably stop here).
Let's start with the Henriette cardi by Andi Satterlund. Remember I said I wanted to get some cotton yarn that behaves more like wool and was thinking of trying Blue Sky Alpacas? Well, I did, and I tell you, this yarn is awesome! Its soft and squishy like wool but also non-itchy and light like cotton. I managed to find some on sale from Mrs Moon so it wasn't horrendous, and it turned out that I bought a whole skein more than I needed (I think I bought four skeins but I only used three) so this wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be.
So, back to the cardi. Simply said, this was complicated. Andi does call it a challenging knit, to be fair to her, but I feel that perhaps it is written in a more complicated way than strictly necessary. I essentially had to take notes on what I was supposed to do for every single row and have at least two if not three sheets of instructions in front of me at all times. I tried to knit some of it during a long drive to Cornwall to use the time for something useful, but the complex instructions along with me getting car sick (apparently knitting on the bus and the car have a different effect) meant that it was impossible.
I didn't deliberately make any modifications, but I completely misunderstood the instructions for the lace/cable trees in the bottom back of the cardi so I think I basically ended up with one giant tree in the middle and two bushes on each side. Oh well!
For anyone interested, the back has three consecutive sections of the lace/cable pattern and the instruction is to start the first and third at row 11 and the middle one at row 1. What I did was to stick to 11-20 for the ones on the side (the 'leafy' top of the tree) and 1-11 for the middle (hence the long bark). Whereas towards the end I realised that I was meant to just keep cycling through the pattern instead (eg the middle column would go from 1 to 20 and then back to 1). The instructions towards the end also got a bit confusing, where you are decreasing and thus loosing bits of your tree lace/cable, but I have to admit that I forgot what I did there. It definitely had an element of improvisation as I didn't understand the instruction.
At the moment the buttons I have on there are too small so it doesn't look great closed, and I am hoping that the look will improve once I replace them. It does, however, seem to be a little big on the shoulders (it sort of slides down), and I am not entirely sure how to fix this, perhaps picking up fewer stitches for the button band would help? It would also stop it from puckering, which it does at the moment when buttoned up. I think I would also make the sleeves longer if I made it again.
And as another bonus, I have a sewing project to share that I can't be bothered to write a separate post for (now that I am on the roll and all). This is the seamwork Akita top, which came for free with the first issue I subscribed to (although now the seamwork team has decided to let you pick whichever pattern you like every month, which would have been handy last month for me instead of paying for the Astoria). And yes, this top has owls, woo hoo! (or hoot hoot!)
I read lots of people commenting that this is an odd one as it is one giant piece sewn together on the sides, and to be honest, I am not sure it really works, at least not on my frame. It looks quite baggy at the top but then it is too tight around the hips, to the point where I had to make the side slits longer. I also have a sneaky suspicion that I cut it against the grain (still struggling a bit with this), which may explain, first why the owls are sideways, and also how it hangs. But, I have worn it once already and it is quite comfy so I'm not giving up on it.
I also decided to add a little label so that I can tell which is the front and which is the back, which for some weird reason is making me very happy.
Ok, that's it for now, hopefully I won't take ages to write again.
Let's start with the Henriette cardi by Andi Satterlund. Remember I said I wanted to get some cotton yarn that behaves more like wool and was thinking of trying Blue Sky Alpacas? Well, I did, and I tell you, this yarn is awesome! Its soft and squishy like wool but also non-itchy and light like cotton. I managed to find some on sale from Mrs Moon so it wasn't horrendous, and it turned out that I bought a whole skein more than I needed (I think I bought four skeins but I only used three) so this wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be.
So, back to the cardi. Simply said, this was complicated. Andi does call it a challenging knit, to be fair to her, but I feel that perhaps it is written in a more complicated way than strictly necessary. I essentially had to take notes on what I was supposed to do for every single row and have at least two if not three sheets of instructions in front of me at all times. I tried to knit some of it during a long drive to Cornwall to use the time for something useful, but the complex instructions along with me getting car sick (apparently knitting on the bus and the car have a different effect) meant that it was impossible.
I didn't deliberately make any modifications, but I completely misunderstood the instructions for the lace/cable trees in the bottom back of the cardi so I think I basically ended up with one giant tree in the middle and two bushes on each side. Oh well!
For anyone interested, the back has three consecutive sections of the lace/cable pattern and the instruction is to start the first and third at row 11 and the middle one at row 1. What I did was to stick to 11-20 for the ones on the side (the 'leafy' top of the tree) and 1-11 for the middle (hence the long bark). Whereas towards the end I realised that I was meant to just keep cycling through the pattern instead (eg the middle column would go from 1 to 20 and then back to 1). The instructions towards the end also got a bit confusing, where you are decreasing and thus loosing bits of your tree lace/cable, but I have to admit that I forgot what I did there. It definitely had an element of improvisation as I didn't understand the instruction.
At the moment the buttons I have on there are too small so it doesn't look great closed, and I am hoping that the look will improve once I replace them. It does, however, seem to be a little big on the shoulders (it sort of slides down), and I am not entirely sure how to fix this, perhaps picking up fewer stitches for the button band would help? It would also stop it from puckering, which it does at the moment when buttoned up. I think I would also make the sleeves longer if I made it again.
And as another bonus, I have a sewing project to share that I can't be bothered to write a separate post for (now that I am on the roll and all). This is the seamwork Akita top, which came for free with the first issue I subscribed to (although now the seamwork team has decided to let you pick whichever pattern you like every month, which would have been handy last month for me instead of paying for the Astoria). And yes, this top has owls, woo hoo! (or hoot hoot!)
I read lots of people commenting that this is an odd one as it is one giant piece sewn together on the sides, and to be honest, I am not sure it really works, at least not on my frame. It looks quite baggy at the top but then it is too tight around the hips, to the point where I had to make the side slits longer. I also have a sneaky suspicion that I cut it against the grain (still struggling a bit with this), which may explain, first why the owls are sideways, and also how it hangs. But, I have worn it once already and it is quite comfy so I'm not giving up on it.
I also decided to add a little label so that I can tell which is the front and which is the back, which for some weird reason is making me very happy.
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