Our little one is four months old (how has that happened?!) and suffice it to say lots about our daily life has changed! Rare is the day, though, that I don’t manage at least a teeny bit of knitting, and even if my progress is much slower, I am really happy that there’s time for a few stitches (what will you think if I tell you that not being able to knit was one of my big anxieties prior to Miss W’s arrival?) Continue reading “Continuing Threads”
Hi friends, and happy weekend! Today, I’m really happy to be sharing a finished object that’s been a long time in the making …. it’s my finished Southwell Cardigan!
The Southwell Cardigan made it’s first appearance on the blog … let’s see … over 2 years ago! I was living in Philadelphia and had flown home to my parents for a little visit, and my mom and I cast these on together!
On and off progress continued on Southwell the following summer when I was in LA (including a bit of cardigan surgery), but by the time I arrived in Lancaster in late August, with temperatures already cool, I put the lightweight cardigan aside, thinking it wouldn’t be needed before the following spring. And thus it was consigned to my heap of unfinished objects.
Then, spring did in fact come, and the cardi sat no nearer completion, I fished it out again, thinking what a great wardrobe staple it’d be through the British summer. I picked up collar stitches, I started a sleeve, I made plans to get the buttonband finished. But once again, autumn came, the cardigan wasn’t done, and back to to the UFO bin it went.
Fast forward to this spring, a day or two before EYF. My Threipmuir was fresh off the needles (yay!), and I found myself without a simple project to take for social knitting at EYF and remembered I was part way through a sleeve of my Southwell! So the cardigan came with me to the festival, and one sleeve got done. Then I packed it for my trip to the US and returned with only button bands to be done. By that point, not even my dislike of picking up stitches (or sewing on buttons) could stand in the way of finishing.
And I have to say, I’m so glad I did. I’ve worn this cardigan nearly every day since I finished it. The pattern is Southwell Cardigan by Marie Green, knit in Sherwood Yarns Bluefaced Leicester Sock in shade Holly Blue. I think it was easy to keep shoving this aside as I’d started to wonder whether I liked this color, and the knitting wasn’t particularly exciting. But now that it’s done, I’m really enjoying having a simple lightweight cardigan in my handmade wardrobe and have also been pleasantly surprised with how well the color, which is a bit out of my normal palette, fits in with the rest of my wardrobe.
I knit size 36 of this cardigan, and ended up using less than three skeins of yarn. I knit this top down, raglan cardigan pattern (from what I can remember) pretty much as written. Since I picked it up and put it down over, ahem, two years, there was a certain amount of guesswork getting things like sleeves to match up. I did alter the button band slightly. Following advice from Jen Arnall-Culliford, I picked up every stitch of the button band on the first row, then decreased down as needed. I found that the suggested pick up rate of 9 out of 10 stitches gave me a button band that flared out, so decreased to something between 3 out of every 4 or 4 out of every 5.
Before I sign off, I just want to take a final moment to celebrate the little buttons that grace this cardigan. Before we left Los Angeles, Mr. N and I took a trip over to West Hollywood to The Button Store, without a doubt the most impressive button shop I’ve ever been in. I had several projects that would need buttons in what I thought was the near future, including this cardi, and the formidable woman who ran the place came out with drawer upon drawer of buttons to fit the bill. I chose these little milled Italian buttons, and while I had a bit of a shock when we rang up my button purchases (I’ve never before or since paid so much for buttons — and I hadn’t thought to ask the price!), I have to say I am so pleased with how they look on the cardigan. If you find yourself in Los Angeles and on the hunt for very nice buttons, I definitely recommend a visit (just please don’t tell the owner I used yarn to sew these on — she categorically forbade me from doing it, but I lost the spool of coordinating thread I got on the same visit!)
Thanks, as always, for stopping by, and I hope you have a lovely weekend with a bit of knitting planned!
xo K
I’ve been absent from this space lately — work and travel have kept me busy — but, thankfully, knitting hasn’t been missing from my daily life. Today, how about a little catch up on some highlights from the last few months.
I finished my Threipmuir and wore it to Edinburgh Yarn Fest!
At last year’s EYF, Jenni, Kate, and I had all bought some beautiful Birlinn Yarn Company yarn for Threipmuir. Jenni and Kate knit their beautiful versions shortly after the festival but, in typical fashion, I didn’t get around to it right away. Finishing in time to wear it to EYF was a near run thing … the jumper was just dry from blocking in time to pack it!
Since it’s first outing at EYF, Threipmuir has been in constant rotation — so constant in fact, that I’ve never gotten around to doing “proper” finished objects shots. The upside of this is that after two months of pretty solid wear (the vagaries of spring in the Northwest mean that, even this week, I was reaching for this very woolly sweater), I can report that it is, hands down, my favorite jumper. I absolutely adore the Birlinn Yarn Company Hebridean 4ply from which it’s knit (in fact, I might have bought another sweater’s worth at this year’s festival). I love the colorwork yoke. I love the easeful fit. I think it will be the jumper against which I measure all other jumpers from here on out — both literally (the sleeve length is perfect) and figuratively!
EYF itself was great — time spent with good friends, meeting new people, and plenty of yarn buying. I didn’t take many pictures, and don’t really think I could do justice to the whole experience, so I’m not even going to try! I’ll talk about the yarn that came home with me as and when I use it though 🙂
Right after EYF, it was off to Paris with Mr. N. It was a short trip for work, but we did get a free day to do a bit of exploring. I worked on recently cast on Pebbles and Pathways Socks in a Parisian park (how’s that for a tongue twister) …
And paid a quick visit to La Bien Aimee!
From Paris it was straight onto Virginia, where I spent a few lovely weeks with my mom. We took very few pictures, but cast on Olivias together:
And went through old knitting books in search of the pattern for this stunning cardigan, which my mom made shortly after she learned to knit:
On my return, I had some lovely friends come to visit, then it was off to Brighton (another work trip), but that didn’t stop me needing something to knit! Sleeves make such good travel knitting, that I, er, started another project … Bressay by Marie Wallin!
Seeing it all written out, it’s no wonder I’ve not been blogging much (and, in the process managed to miss my three-year blogiversary!) Though all the knits I’ve cast on during my travels remain, ahem, uncompleted, I did finish a longstanding WIP just last week … with any luck, I’ll have a finished object post to share later this week!
Until then, I better crack on with all these projects … especially as another trip to the US is coming up in just a few weeks!
Hope you had a great weekend — I’d love to hear what’s keeping you busy at the moment!
A flying note on the eve of traveling to Edinburgh Yarn Fest (!!!) … my second ever pattern, the Burgeon Socks, is now available on Ravelry!
Well February came and went, didn’t it? I won’t bother with the usual excuses and laments about my blog absence — it seems intermittent blogging is my norm, for the moment. But to those of you who’ve stuck around — thanks!
Continue reading “A visit to Blackwell House and State of the Knitting”
Hi friends! It’s been awhile since I’ve shared what’s on my needles, so how about a little WIP round up? Right now, for me, it’s all about the knitalongs!
Hi friends!
Hope you’ve been having a happy and restful festive season. I don’t tend to do big year-end round up posts of what I’ve made (I like to save that for my blogiversary). But 2018 has been a big year, and I thought it’d be fun, as the new year dawns , to look back on some of the highlights of this year and make a few plans for the upcoming one!
Knitting-wise, 2018 was a year of firsts. I massively enjoyed my first ever Edinburgh Yarn Festival, spending it with old and new friends. I taught my first knitting classes. I occasionally helped out at my favorite local yarn shop, Northern Yarn. I also got to work my first knitting festival at Yarndale on the NY stand and received the most special wedding blanket from lovely friends while there! And I released my first ever knitting pattern — something I never thought I’d do!
Personally, it was a big year as well of course: settling into UK life, submitting my dissertation, and, most memorably, Mr. N and I tying the knot — and then celebrating throughout the rest of the year with our families and friends.
I’m looking forward to seeing what 2019 holds and sharing more crafty adventures here. As ever, I’ve got a queue to knit that could see me through several years, but I’m also hoping to carve a bit of time out to learn to sew, do a bit more designing, and hopefully get into some more new fiber-y adventures!
But for now, I thought I’d start 2019 with my “Make Nine.” Unlike last year, I’ve actually tried to pick just nine things, and I’ve included a few smaller projects in the hopes of making it achievable. And there’s a blank spot in the grid to represent the designs I want to work on! 
Top Row, from left: Threipmuir by Ysolda Teague (I’m looking forward to casting it on when I get home in Birlinn Yarn Company yarn from EYF 2018); Log Cabin Mitts by Karen Templer; and Flaum by Justyna Lorkowska (also to be knit in EYF 2018 yarn)
Middle: Houlland by Donna Smith; Còinneach by Kate Davies; Olivia by Julie Weisenberger.
Bottom: Fjer by Fiber Tales and Tettegouche by Virginia Sattler-Reimer.
It’ll all probably change, but I do love a bit of project planning! Do you already have any projects planned for the New Year?
Hope you’ve had a happy and peaceful festive season, with a bit of time for knitting.
xo K
