shawls, sweaters, sewing, yarn, and a new pop up yarn shop
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I bound off my shawl! Knit out of Julie Asselin’s Merletto and of my own design, I can’t wait to block it and see how it turned out!
First I need this sweater to dry.
I’m so accustomed to knitting & blocking lace shawls (which can dry in a couple hours) that the day or two sweaters require to dry feels like an eternity.
I took a break from my frantic sweater knitting to do a little bit of sewing…
In my brain I know that sewing is faster than knitting – a lot faster – but every time I’m away from the sewing machine for more than a week or so, I sort of forget how much faster it really is.
Mostly though, it’s been sweater knitting all the way.
My boring black sweater is nearing being finished. I started the first sleeve yesterday – and thanks to a long evening of knitting & drinking with friends it’s to the elbow.
Got to love a good distraction for many hours of knitting stockinette.
Last weekend I went to the opening party of a new pop up yarn shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Gauge + Tension is run by two friends of mine, Michele and Melissa. G+T specializes in high end, hard to find yarns – and it does not disappoint!
I was restrained and picked up one skein of Western Sky Knits – superwash merino lace weight, in the colorway “elephant.” It’s a really beautiful irresistible purple-grey-y color.
They also carry, Julie Asselin, Brooklyn Tweed, Quince & Co. Jones & Vandermeer, Sleep Season, Hedgehog, and Tanis Fiber Arts. You can see all of their yarns and fibers here.
If you’re around for the NYC Yarn Crawl this coming weekend, Kristin of “Voolenvine” is going to set up shop at Gauge + Tension.
If you’re in or around NYC, be sure to check them out!
G+T’s address, days & store hours can be found here, on their website.
And my G+T project bag is already hard at work protecting my boring black sweater from harm – not that you’d be able to see a stain on this sweater…
A sweater that took 3 years to knit. And some thoughts on making teeny tiny steps forward.
I’m working on my transitional weather sweater (hopefully). This sweater took 3 years to knit, and it has prompted some thoughts on making teen-tiny-itty-bitty steps forward.
I knit a lot.
I have a handful of unfinished sweaters hanging about, and thanks to a swift kick in the butt from the self-made wardrobe project I’m finishing a bunch of them up.
This particular sweater has taken me 3 years and 1 month to finish.
As far as sweaters go, this one is pretty straightforward.
But the interesting thing about it, is how much my knitting has changed since I started it.
My actual gauge hasn’t changed (thankfully), the actual number of stitches per inch is the same as it was three years ago. But my knitting has changed.
My stitches are straighter.
My tension is more even.
You can definitely feel the difference.
And up close you can see the difference.
The fabric looks and feels smoother.
If you had asked me, before I picked up this sweater, if my knitting had changed in the last three years I would probably have said “yea, but not a whole lot.”
But it did.
I did some quick guesstimates of the number of stitches in most of the shawls I’ve published patterns for between starting and finishing this sweater, and the total comes out around 788,000 stitches.
I can knit about 30 stitches a minute. (In a lace pattern, relaxed, and following a chart. Averaged over a couple hours with breaks, pauses, etc.)
788,000 stitches.
437 hours.
16 shawls.
When you think about the fact that that’s only the knitting I’ve done for the patterns I’ve published, (no swatches, no sweaters, no unpublished shawls), that’s a lot of stitches, and a decent amount of time.
Turns out my knitting has changed quite a bit over three years.
One stitch at a time.
Over 788,000 stitches later.
two sweaters and a shawl
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I’m working on the last two rows of my lace shawl!!! Working with Julie Asselin’s “merletto” was absolutely amazing as always, I can’t wait to work with it again.
My boring black sweater is moving along with some help from “Downton Abbey.” I know that I’m going to love wearing it, I just hope knitting the sleeves isn’t too awful.
My Versio sweater is blocking! Yay! I can’t wait to clip all the ends, thread the cording, and start wearing it!
