Tag: #vintageknitting

Post from Minnesota

We had a wonderful first show in St. Louis this past weekend at the Midwest Fiber Festival. We will definitely be there next year.

I drove up to St. Paul, MN on Monday and have a few days before I will be setting up the booth again at Shepherd’s Harvest Festival. While I am waiting I plan to do some work on my website as well as some knitting and reading. My website is experiencing some issues with credit card processing. The PayPal option works and we always welcome checks but the credit card issue is a problem that needs fixed, so I am looking at my options.

Anyway, I finished my gansey last night. I hate to post an unblocked sweater picture but I don’t want to wait until next week to show you so here it is. Now keep in mind that it will look even better after its had a proper soak and block.

I now have nothing on the needles but I have several yarns picked out and I brought my swift and winder. I’ll fill you in later on what I am doing when I have the yarn wound.

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It’s Seaming Time

After two festivals in a row and only two days at home between them, I’m glad to be home for a bit. I was busy with knitting as often as I could manage, so I completed all the pieces for the small size Vintage Diamonds Cardigan.

Here they are being blocked yesterday morning. It’s time to get it seamed so I can knit the collar.

I got to work on that last night. I got the shoulders seamed and the sleeves set in. It was reading time when I got to that point so I’ll be doing the side seams tonight. Hopefully that can be done in just one more evening.

The other ball of yarn sitting there in the background is what I wound yesterday to motivate me to get the seaming finished. It’s for my next project. I’m in the mood for something lacy. More on that next time. 😉

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Next Up

First up is the Confection Shawl in its ready to wear condition. I will enjoy wearing this in the booth this month I think. 😊

As I may have mentioned last time, I used a total of 913 yards of my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn for this. It’s a pretty generous sized crescent shaped shawl. If I wanted to used only two skeins in two colors I would use the Classic Merino Bamboo since those have 490yds./100g.

I believe this was probably the quickest shawl knitting I have ever done. I completed it in about two weeks, which is crazy for the size of it. Gotta love that!

Which brings me to my next project on the needles, my small Vintage Diamonds Cardigan. I started it on Sunday night in the Classic Merino Bamboo in Crimson. I think this will be a nice alternative yarn to the Superwash Sock I used on the original. It’s light fabric is even more flexible for warmer climates and layering.

This color is challenging to photograph because it tends to look less saturated and warmer than it is in person. I think it will pair well in the booth with the medium grey of the Graphite sample.

I hope to have the back and at least one sleeve done in a few days. I should be able to estimate the yardage for the whole sweater by that. Since Kristi is kindly test knitting the largest size, I may be able to publish the pattern soon. 😀

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Thursday updates

Titles are hard! Some days it’s just difficult to come up with a relevant one and this is what you get. 😊

I am getting extremely close to finishing up the Wonderful Wallaby . I am 1″ away from the last bit of top shaping on the hood and that’s it.

I have added to the hood length since I took these photos.

In other news, I am nearly finished with the pattern for the Vintage Diamonds Cardigan. It’s been slow going to include the 4 other sizes in the directions. Lots of math. I have only two more sleeve cap sizes, the collar and the embroidery details to add and it’s ready for some other sizes to be test knit. I mostly need the smallest one done so I can have the range of yardage required. I made the size in the middle and have a volunteer for the largest. Anyone game?

I am really enjoying the sunflowers we planted this year. I can see them out the kitchen window and they are so cheerful!

The show this past weekend was great. Much better than I had hoped actually, since it was pretty slow the previous time we were there in 2019. It is nice to be able to go home every night too. 🙂

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Lots to Catch Up

I’m sorry it’s been a little while since my last post. I have been working a lot lately. I will try to catch you up on a few things.

The Vintage Diamonds Cardigan is finished but I haven’t quite got the pattern ready yet. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can devote some more time to that. I really love it though. 😀

I also have gotten back to the Wonderful Wallaby and am working on the top yoke section.

We have been busy most days working on products for the remaining festivals this year. We are working on new Shawl and Hair Sticks, Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs, plus lots of dyeing.

Here’s just a tiny bit of that.

We are going to be vending this weekend in Lebanon, TN at the Natural Fiber Extravaganza. So, if you are in the Nashville area come check it out.

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To Embellish or Not?

That is the question. I posted this on my Instagram/Facebook yesterday but didn’t get time to write a blog post. I spent most of yesterday cleaning house.

So here’s the finished sweater with no embroidery yet. I wanted a picture of it like this to add as an option for the pattern when I publish it. I also wanted to have a comparison as to whether I even still wanted to do that at all. So, here’s a sample with half of the embroidery done. What do you think? I am leaning towards finishing the other side.

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Almost…

These last 5 weeks have been good but exhausting. It is great to be back vending at festivals. We had 4 shows in 5 weeks and the last one, Mid Ohio Fiber Fair, was a bit of a whirlwind for me. I drove about 400 miles to Newark, OH on Friday. Thus year’s festival was modified to a one day show in the location of the farmers market. I showed up at 5:30 am to set up for a 9 am opening time. I was anxious about whether I could pull it off, but I did it! The market hours were 9-5 and then break down. Whew! It was a long and challenging day but worth it. We did pretty well. 😍 I drove home on Sunday and it is good to be home for awhile again. No more traveling until mid August.

Now for some more news I am excited about! I have almost finished the vintage sweater I have been laboring on for months. I only have the collar to knit and buttons to sew on. Oh and I almost forgot about the embroidery. It does look nice as it is so we’ll see on that.

I did the seaming up in a couple sittings. The sleeve setting in is done first. I may need to tweak the sleeve cap height a bit on the pattern since there was a fair bit of easing in required. I kind of like the look of them though so maybe not? 🤔

I found an excellent new use for my Darning-Egg while seaming the sides. I always start at the cuff and hem and work towards the underarm. That ensures everything lines up nicely and makes easing in extra fabric tidy. But it gets tricky to see the seam area towards the end, so that’s where my Darning-Egg came in handy.

I am still trying to decide whether I want the collar to be in garter to match the button band or in 2×2 rib like the cuffs. I think I would like the look of the rib but garter would be easier for the short rows I plan to use to shape it. I will probably try the rib first and see how it goes. Back soon with the result. 🙂

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Progress Continues

I have made some encouraging progress on the vintage sweater design.

I have knit the back and right front pieces and as you see here I have also blocked them. I prefer to wet block sweater pieces as I go so they are ready for sewing up when I am to that point.

The pieces are matching up perfectly. I am pleased with that.

I have reworked the chart for the left front and begun the knitting on that piece. I took this picture yesterday and have gotten to the second set of diamonds since then, so it’s going pretty fast.

I have done some preliminary work on the pattern over the weekend. I wanted to get what I have so far down while it is fresh in my mind. Once I start the sleeves I may have to do some more tweaks to the sleeve caps to account for my row gauge and armhole depth.

Tomorrow will be pretty busy with preparations for my first fiber festival of the year, Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, so I don’t know how much more knitting will get done until next week. I had hope of finishing the sample and the pattern for the show but it’s not gonna happen. Especially since I want to include multiple sizes and that’s more work.

I’ll try to blog from the show if I have time. Wish me luck because I am very out of practice 🙃🙂😅

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Vintage Knitting Project Start

Before I get to the new project I am working on, here’s a quick update on the Wonderful Wallaby. As you can tell I have the pocket done and it is taking a break.

I was too excited to get knitting on the vintage baby sweater so I picked a color and cast on for the back. I decided to go with a neutral color, Graphite, in Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. I think it may take some of a second skein since this is around a 12 month size. I thought that would be a good starting point and can work other sizes from there.

I know it’s not too exciting yet, because the back is plain, but it will go pretty fast even at such a small gauge. The fronts and sleeves will be a bit more decorative. 😊

One last thing to share. I made home made spaghetti sauce and rolls for dinner today. It was all yummy. I forget to get a picture of the meal but here’s the bread for you to drool over. 🤤

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Swatch Done

Before I get to the new design progress, I did get around casting on the body of my Wonderful Wallaby yesterday. I only have 3-4 more rounds of ribbing to go.

So I mentioned in my last post that I am working on a vintage inspired sweater. It is primarily a baby cardigan but I can see potential for making multiple sizes up through children’s and possibly adults too. I love the pieced format, and while it’s not the popular choice, I may just keep it. There are several reasons for this. One, I like the smaller pieces on the needles. I also like the stability it gives the garment against stretching out. And third, I think it’s a classic look.

This is the right front of year sweater. It’s about a 12 month size to me. This size will be about 23″ or so chest circumference and around 12″ in length from the shoulder. The gauge is 8 st. × 10.5 r. per inch on 2.75mm needles. It’s very light and has lovely stitch definition at this gauge. I steam blocked the sample.

I won’t be knitting the whole sample from this color, though I will be using the same yarn, Classic Merino Superwash Sock. The ball I used here was a remnant from another booth sample and I don’t have more in this dye lot. I am thinking I would like to use a neutral like Pewter, Earl Grey, or Graphite and then use remnants for the embroidery.

Here’s a couple embroidery ideas I have tried. I like the five petal lazy daisy better of the two. I also am surprised that I like the double crosses maybe better still. They are simpler to execute and have a wider gender appeal, don’t you think? Maybe I could just include both as options in the pattern?

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