Mommom and Pop's Tiny Sweaters!

I already posted about the tiny sweater ornament I made for Grandma, but I didn't trust Mommom and Pop not to read the blog, so I didn't post about theirs!

I also made little ornament sweaters for my other set of grandparents, as you can see, but there's a little bit more context to this one. You see, my great-grandmother Lily, after whom I am named, and whom I never met, was apparently an avid knitter. She used to knit my mom's family beautiful thick, wool, fair-isle sweaters for Christmas every year.

Last year, my grandmother passed on her needles. You deserve them, she said, You're the only one who can do them justice.I cried.And I knew, at that moment, that there was no other option for their Christmas gift. It has to be sweaters on Great-Grandma Lily's needles. And even though I used her sock needles, and even though they're really sweaters for keys, not people, I think I did the best I could with the time I had.

Mommom and Pop, if you're reading this, I hope you understand how meaningful those needles were to me. I love you dearly.

Ravelry Project: Mommom
Ravelry Project: Pop

Grandma's Sweater Ornament

When I was about six years old, my grandmother decided that every year, she wanted each of her grandchildren to make her a Christmas ornament.  These ornaments were for a special tree dedicated to the grandchildren, which soon became overcrowded, of course.

Now, I was never the best at follow-through as a kid (which is why I started this blog, remember?), and so I always chose a DIY ornament and almost never finished them, resulting in a few interesting finds when I cleaned out my childhood bedroom.

Well, it's been at least a decade since I followed Grandma's wishes, and so this year, I decided to use up a little sock yarn (which qualifies it as Cold Sheep!) and make her a mini-sweater ornament!

This was also my first experience with a Raglan sweater construction, which you'll hear more about later.

Ravelry Project

Vladimir the Aggilator

Meet Vladimir the Aggilator.  Vladimir the Aggilator has a buddy named Rob, who happens to be a good friend of mine.  Vlad takes Rob everywhere he goes and they always have crazy adventures and take pictures together.  It's a delight to see.

Recently, Vladimir had a sad day, in which he fell and broke his leg.  Like a good friend, Rob gave him immediate medical attention, and he is back on his feet and doing well once again, but I decided a get-well gift was in order, and so I knit Vladimir the Aggilator a get well sweater.

I hope he likes his gift (and more importantly, I'm glad it fits!).  Below, I'll write a quick synopsis of the technique I used.  Since it's probably not an exact pattern anyone would ever want to repeat, I'll write it more as a concept, explaining how I created it, in hopes that others could recreate the process.

1. Find your measurements.  I knew that I wanted the end result to be about 8cm in circumference and 4.5cm tall (2.5cm to be below the armholes, 1cm for the armholes, and 1cm above the armholes).  I also knew that I wanted the "back" section to be slightly larger than the "front" section, as far as armhole placement, so I approximated 4.5cm on the back, 2.5cm on the front, and .5cm for each arm hole.  I used these measurements to place my buttonholes and armholes.
2. Cast On and Knit the First Rows.  Using the Channel Island Cast On, I cast on 44 stitches (about 9.5), and throughout the entire body, I knit in a P1K1 rib, following the Cast on ridges.  I chose to do this because the ribbing would give if my measurements were wrong, and the extra 1.5cm could be used for a buttonband.
3. Make a Button Hole. On the fifth row, I k2tog over the 5th and 6th to last stitches, and on the sixth row, I knit 5 stitches and then did a yarn over, making a button hole for my 1cm buttons.  Work 4 more rows.
4. Bind off for Armholes.  On the fifth row after the button hole, work 10 stitches, cast off 2, work 20 stitches, cast off 2, work 10 stitches.  Work the next 4 rows only in the section before the bound off stitches.
5. Create and finish Armholes.  Using the other end of the yarn, attach and work 4 rows across the section between the armholes.  Cut and repeat with the final section.  
6. Create the second Button Hole.  Return to original working yarn, which should still be attached, and work across, casting on 2 stitches over each armhole.  On this row, you should k2tog for the second button hole, and on the following row, yo.
7. Finish Body.  Work 4 more rows and bind off.
8. Make Sleeves.  Pick up 10 stitches around armhole and work in stockinette stitch for 4 rows.  Bind off.  Repeat for second armhole.
9. Finishing.  Weave in ends and attach buttons.

Ravelry Project

(For those of you wondering, yes, I used scraps, so this was a Cold Sheep project, and yes, that's the same Rob I made the cowl for, which he happens to be wearing!)

Doesn't he look so happy in his sweater of love?  <3

Captain Cardie and Booties

I'll get back to the other class I took at stitches at a later date (basically, when I have a finished object to show you).  In the mean time, I do want to catch up on my other projects.

In case you haven't noticed, I've been perpetually two months behind.  This can be a great thing when I spend weeks working on a big project, and in cases like birthdays and Christmas, when I can't post the projects until a later date.  In fact, this whole back up is basically because I made so much for Christmas last year that those gifts were still getting posted at the end of February.  Right now, though, I'm a little frustrated by it.  I might keep the posts at twice a week even after the Sophie's Universe CAL is finished to compensate.

Said Book

Anyway, back to what I was saying.

Over Christmas, I got some lovely knitting pattern books from the Mister's parents, and one of them happened to be a baby book.  At first, Randall and I looked at each other, wondering if this was a hint, but we were quickly assured otherwise, and life as usual resumed.

I ended up knitting a couple things from this book when my co-worker went on maternity leave.  Having just returned from STITCHES, where I learned to knit continental (as a result of knitting with one yarn in each hand for my tam), I chose to force myself to knit the whole sweater continental, and the booties as well.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and I now feel reasonably comfortable with continental knitting, which is a plus for sure.

The pattern was extremely confusing and poorly written, though.  I had to have some of the Stitchers help me figure it out.

I also used the Debbie Bliss yarn from STITCHES, so no new yarn purchased!  Win!

Ravelry Project: Sweater
Ravelry Project: Booties

Grandma's New Sweater

When I found this mostly-complete sweater in the box of yarn stuff from Aunt Vi, and knew immediately that it had to go to Grandma, who had now lost both of her sisters in one year, for Christmas.

The package arrived with two complete front-pieces, a complete back piece, and one sleeve.  The problem, of course, was that Grandmas was many sizes smaller than Aunt Vi, so I had to figure out some way to make it work.

Firs things first, I whipped up a matching sleeve and seamed all the main pieces together.  I decided on finishing the raw button-band edge with a pattern, and then creating a matching belt, and boring old me decided seed-stitch would work just fine.

Unfortunately, as you may have read, Grandma passed just before Thanksgiving.  As heartbreaking as this was, we were able to spend some family time together and reminisce over the holiday.

I had hoped to post this with a picture of Grandma wearing her sweater.  Instead, I'm left with a lovely wrapped gift under the tree.  A box with a sweater and a note, and a topper with her two dishcloths.  I'm honestly not sure what I will do with them.  Maybe I'll give them to Aunt Vi's daughter.  Right now, it's too painful to give them away, so they continue to sit in our family room, reminding me of times we once thought we might have.

Life is short.  Never take it for granted.

Ravelry Project

Custom Fit Sweater - Success!

Before, I wrote about finally being convinced to try my hand at making a sweater.  Well, the time has come to report on the results, and I have to say, I'm a convert!

The sweater fits me nearly perfectly!  (The discrepancies are due to my impatience with the swatches...had I made a longer one, I would have been able to notice the stretch in the fabric over time.)  The sleeves are a little long, but the rest of it is perfect!

Even though it looks a little off in these pictures due to the fact that I'm wearing a puffy dress, I think you can sufficiently tell how happy I am with the results!  And I just love the buttons!

Ravelry Project