pepperknit

The Tapestry Cowl is now available as a Ravelry download. Please go to my Pattern Page to access the link to Ravelry!

It’s double the pleasure—and double the fun! Just in time for fall:

A pattern for a fully reversible, double-knit cowl.

“But I don’t know how to double knit!” I hear you cry. Never fear! I have created five incredibly clear and helpful videos (plus one bonus video!) to show you how to cast on and knit two sides of a fabric at once. It’s easier than you think, and will be a no-brainer for advanced knitters. You’ll be designing your own double-knit scarves, baby blankets, and even garments in no time after you watch my clever tutorials.

Plus, you get the elaborate, continuous brocade chart (with no repeats), designed exclusively by me, so that you, too, can wrap your neck in a cozy cowl of luxury.

All this for the low, low price of $5! You can buy it directly via PayPal, and soon you’ll be able to buy it through Ravelry. Please visit the project page for pattern details as well as to buy it!

I started out really strong right off the gun—but I rounded that first turn and hit something of a wall. (More like: I was on vacation at the beach and had other things to do besides knitting.

But when I realized yesterday that the Olympics are actually over tomorrow, I hit my second wind and quickly finished seaming it up. Today I went to Tender Buttons for the priciest buttons I’ve ever bought (total came to 3/4 what I paid for the yarn), but they’re worth it.

Drops Jacket
Pattern: 103-1 Jacket in Eskimo or Silke-Alpaca with A Shape
Yarn: Ram Wools Selkirk, natural/undyed
Skeins: 4
Needles: Addi Turbo US 8
Started: Friday, 8/8/08
Finished: Saturday, 8/23/08

Notes: Knit the pattern as indicated, with full-length sleeves. Instead of “casting off” in the body, I just decreased. I suppose I’d have liked it a little longer, but I’ll try to block it bigger next time I wash it. (Mirage was too long, this is too short!) And boy will there be many more washings; the yarn is incredibly scratchy but “softens with washing”; it’s a marked difference in softness from the knitting to the blocked piece, so I’m hoping more washings will make this more wearable. It is ridiculously warm, and will be perfect come winter. (As it was, I was dying during the photo shoot.)

Here’s to getting the gold!

After a long drought, I was a bit of a crafting fool in Singapore, huh? Because here’s another FO (and all were knit on US 5, the only size needle I brought!). I should space them out or something, but I’ve waited long enough to blog about this finished object (two whole days)!

I have always had a thing for turtles. In fact, I had a pet turtle, Gus, in college. (He’s buried on campus.) In elementary school, I made a little clay turtle for my mom who we named Tootsie; she’s in storage in Maryland while my parents are overseas. So naturally, this second handmade turtle should be named the Tootsie II.

Let’s hope she isn’t carnivorous.

Tootsie II
Pattern: Sheldon (knitty; rav)
Yarn: Harvest Pure Wool in green and khaki
Skeins: 2 of each color
Needles: Addi Turbo US 5
Started: Friday, August 1
Finished: Saturday, August 2
Notes: I knit the body and top of the shell on my last day in Singapore; the rest I knit in the air flying from Singapore to Korea. The couple sitting next to me were delighted by her (ps, she’s enormous). (FO shots were taken in the Inch’on South Korea airport.) I really hated knitting it; there has to be a more elegant way for the turtle to be assembled (mostly the shell was a pain in the ass—three layers, none effortless matched up). It’s a pretty cute FO, though, so I hope my friend’s baby likes her. She liked the airport quite a bit.

I saw Mirage in More Big Girl Knits and immediately fell in love. While in Singapore, I did the work to go about sizing it down for me, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

I wore the sweater for my journey home from Singapore—those planes are so cold. On my way out, actually, the man sitting next to me put an extra blanket over me because I looked so cold huddled under my single blanket (and I was wearing a cardigan). Wow, the sweater kept me so comfy warm, I only needed one blanket on each leg. It was uncomfortably warm in the airports, in fact. In all, this sweater has seen Singapore, Korea, Vancouver, and New York.

I used a thinner yarn on purpose, hoping that I could just knit one of the existing sizes and not have to actually redo all the math. (I’m not afraid of math, but if I don’t have to do it . . .) Happily, it worked out to knit the smallest size in the book. But I actually used the principles and lessons imparted in the Big Girl books to think about whether the motif needed to be sized down further as well. I wanted it to be in proportion—and the tighter gauge accomplished that—but I decided that it needed to be still smaller. However, I swatched the “cable” part (which isn’t really a cable, it’s just an increase on one side and a decrease on the other) at different widths and preferred it the way the pattern indicated. The part I changed was the eyelet panel, which felt too wide as it was. So I dropped it down to just 4 eyelets, instead of 6. The additional stitches were transferred to the stockinette panels.

Mirage (my ravelry page)
Pattern: Mirage Pullover (rav link), from More Big Girl Knits
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, which softened upon blocking and wearing
Skeins: 6
Started: Sunday, July 13
Finished: Saturday, July 26
Needles: Addi Turbo US 5
Notes: I’d figured that there was risk of the sweater falling off my shoulders (and other knitters reported such), so I’d planned to work the yoke further than called for. Because I transferred the stitches taken out of the eyelet panel to the stockinette panels, this meant that I already worked the yoke further in order to decrease until the stockinette section had disappeared on the arms. It was perfect with just that change—probably about 1 additional inch.

On the sleeve (above) I didn’t do the increases the way they said—between the purls and the stockinette section—because it produces a distinct jog; instead I did M1s one stitch in on each side. Adds some elegance, to my eyes.

Other mods were to not make yos in the “cable” panel but to do M1Rs and M1Ls. This was no big deal until I got to the short rows at the neck, when working the M1s backward was too much for my brain to handle. I’m not even really sure what I did, but it’s not noticeable so it’s fine.

I think I made the sweater overall too long (that’s the hem above), but I’m not going to change it. I knit until I got to a length I liked—which turned out to be the length given in the pattern—but in the wearing I think it could be about one inch shorter. It doesn’t grow or anything, it just feels too long.

Over the years, I’ve knit far too few sweaters (being a product knitter I tend to love the quick, fast knits), but I want more, more, more—and this was a great first step.