Tag Archives: queue check

Queue Check — December 2019

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Queue Check — December 2019

I took a break from my delightful green cardigan WIP to work on the baby sweaters — one of which I finished and the other of which is nigh — so it’s only grown about 5 inches since last you saw it. It would be farther along, but I took it on an 8-hour road trip on Thanksgiving completely forgetting that the WIP in my bag had no yarn attached and no spare skeins along for the ride. Having since wound more yarn and placed it in the bag where it belongs, I’m hoping to race through this gem between now and year’s end!

But as that year-end approaches, I took stock of what else was on the WIP shelf. The first is the unspecified cowl-dickie object I had started last winter before diverting some of the Luft yarn into the garter kerchief that is now never separated from my neck. Seriously, I love that thing more than life itself. So the question remains what to do with this dickie that wasn’t quite doing it for me.

Meanwhile, I also discovered the Carbeth Cardigan I had abandoned back in the spring when it wasn’t going to be done in time to wear. I was shocked to find it was as far along as it is — and also that I had picked up the button-band stitches while clearly having not blocked the body. That’s unheard of for me, so I’m not sure how that happened. But I am coming to terms with the fact that this rediscovered WIP leaves me cold, as it were. I should be thrilled to find a nearly done black cardigan, since that is what I wish for every single morning. But nope. It’s a classic case of “if I can stand to not be knitting it, it must not be right.” And between these two things, I’ve realized that I’ve always known what my heart wants in both cases, which is a cardigan in the black Luft yarn. So I’m just going to sit with that thought while I concentrate on the green cardigan. If I’m diligent enough, I’ll be wearing it by New Year’s Eve.

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: October 2019

Queue Check — Early Fall 2019

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Queue Check — Early Fall 2019

Do you recognize this yarn? This perfectly green Andorra that’s been on my Yarns in Waiting list since late 2017. I’ve been dying to knit with it but cognizant of how warm it is — a delicious wool and mohair blend — and whether it would be sensible for me to make a sweater in it. At this point, given that I have wanted this theoretical sweater for two years, I feel good about committing to it — at least on the level of “how well-considered is this make,” and “will it really be cherished?”

But there’s still the question of (excess) warmth. As much as I would like it to be a simple pullover, a cardigan would be safer, and after searching high and low for a less-warm green yarn that I felt anywhere near as inspired by — due diligence, y’know — I gave myself permission to just do it. Um, held double. Trying to get a sweater’s worth meant ordering from two different stores, and when a dear friend caught wind of my plan, she reminded me that she knitted a Weekender in Andorra-held-double and finds it too warm for our climate. So she loaned me her sweater, I wore it for part of an 80+-degree morning with the window open and then into some frigid a/c. And I found it perfectly cozy! Granted, this is a far-from-scientific experiment, but I want to knit this sweater and if it turns out I can’t wear it, I will find someone who will love it as much as I do. Which shouldn’t be hard, because it is going to be gorgeous.

So this is my travel project — a simple V-neck, stockinette cardigan, most likely with a shawl collar, knitted top-down over the next two weeks as I travel to and around India. (I’m of the opinion that a top-down sweater is the ideal travel project. You get to do the fun starting bits as you embark, then settle into the rhythm of the yoke during your journey, and it generally doesn’t get unwieldy before you get home.)

I leave tomorrow morning and will be back to blogging sometime the third week of October. I’m hoping to tell you a little bit about the textile workshop portion of the trip when I’m back, but I will be offline until then, fully present for my trip.

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If anyone is wondering about Slow Fashion October, I only alluded to it at the time, but 2018 was meant as my last year hosting it. I organized it last year around the notion of how to build a wardrobe you’re committed to, which is at the core of slow fashion — because loved clothes will be taken care of and kept, not treated as disposable — and left a note at the end saying it’s there for anyone to follow anytime. And that remains true! If you’d like to go through the process, it’s there for you in the feed and the entire history of Slow Fashion October can be revisited here on the blog as well. The conversation is obviously far bigger than me and I encourage you to keep having it, with or without me — feel free to use #slowfashionoctober this month to do so! Or start another and I’ll be happy to spread the word. In addition to everyone who’s ever been featured on @slowfashionoctober, I also recommend adding @thesustainablefashionforum and @melaninASS to your follow list!

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Given that I won’t be available to respond after tomorrow, I’ll be turning off comments while I’m away and will re-enable them when I’m back.

The blocking kit pictured above is via Fringe Supply Co. and I should note that my absence will have zero effect on anything with that — the shop is open and DG will be shipping orders just as efficiently as always!

Catch you on the flip side—

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: Midsummer 2019

Queue Check — Midsummer 2019

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Queue Check — Midsummer 2019

I know some of you are thinking “midsummer?!” We’re moments away from kids going back to school; there was a football game last night; the stores are already putting out their pumpkin-flavored-everything displays. But I still have a good 2.5 months of heat to deal with and can’t afford to start dreaming of fall. Although — even as I tell myself it’s ok to make clothes that don’t work in every season, that that’s the only way to really address clothes for hot weather — I can’t help thinking about how the things I make now will both travel and transition. That’s what I’m loving so much about the color palette I shared yesterday, which is also reflected above: It’s a palette for all seasons. And with the focus on garments with sleeves, I’m dealing with those in-between times I truly am unequipped for.

The only thing that’s happened to my toffee cable sweater since late June is I finished the first sleeve and cuff. I hope to knit the other sleeve this weekend and get back to the body, wrapping it up soon, because I need to get serious about my fall travel project. You can see I’ve got that skein of green wool-mohair out again, and can’t stop petting it. I’ve decided the very simple everyday stockinette pullover I’ve been planning to knit in navy will be preempted by a cheerful green version, and this Andorra is the precise shade of green I want. Sadly, it’s a warmer blend than I should really knit it in, so I’m pondering that while I finish the toffee sweater.

Meanwhile, I’m all about Linen Quest 2019, as seen in the sketches above — dresses plus mix-and-match separates on the horizon. Sketches 1 and 7 are the Fen dress and tunic mods and I’ve posted in the past week, and sketch 2 is the next variation I’m after. Even more caftany. (Likely making that this weekend!) Sketches 3 and 6, shirtdress and shirt, are slight mods on Liesl Gibson’s Gallery tunic/dress that I’ve sewn and loved before. Sketch 4 is my Hemlock mod from a few years ago, the wool gauze that got away, and I don’t know why I never thought to make it in linen. Sketch 5 is a tweaked Scout tee — a pattern I’ve had for some time and have yet to sew. I want to shape it like the rust one on yesterday’s mood board. And the last two are my pleat-neck tee idea and my beloved modified Robbie pants I’ve made a handful of times but all in heavy fabrics. Time for some linen!

It feels good to have a plan, and to have dusted off my machine. We’ll see what I can accomplish before it wants to go back into hibernation again.

So that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend! I’d love to hear what you’re up to —

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: June 2019

Queue Check — June 2019

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Queue Check — June 2019

With my smock vest all done (and already worn repeatedly), my Summer of Basics trio is off to a speedy start! I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had cast on my modified Grace pullover (in dreamy toffee-colored Our Yarn from the shop) and had made it to the body/sleeve separation within the space of a very short trip. I’ve been sick the past week and spent a few days stuck on my couch, one of which I spent knitting most of the first sleeve so I could block it so far and see how it’s fitting. Remember I’m doing my own measurements and math, since I’m knitting at a different gauge than the pattern, and so far I could not be happier with how it’s shaping up. Now that I’ve been able to try on the blocked WIP, it’ll be full steam ahead again! And at this pace, it’ll be done long before it’s wearable. (I’ll tell you about that bit between the pink lines when it’s done, but here’s the backstory on that.)

Stuck at home sick also turns out to be the perfect time to start a crochet project, i.e. my Joanne hat. The one thing that keeps me from doing more crochet is having to pay close attention and count all the time; I worry about getting interrupted (or my mind wandering) and losing my place. So what better use of staring-at-the-wall-in-a-congested-stupor time, right? Step one, watch a YouTube video and remember how to crochet; step two, commence counting.

I didn’t do a gauge swatch. Getting used to working with this raffia is a thing, and there’s no way I’d be able to catch it with a smaller hook (I do like this Lykke crochet hook), so I’m just doing what I can do. My gauge seems to be a bit looser than the pattern calls for — meaning a bigger hat — but I also have a big head. Ergo, I’m winging it. I worked on the top disc part until it seemed perilous to go any bigger, and then I started working downwards. I figure I’ll just try it on as I go and fudge my way through the shaping. I have low hopes for this entire project, so there’s a fair chance of being happily surprised!

So far I’m having fun, but if anyone has advice on how to manage that cone of raffia, I’m all ears! It basically exploded like one gigantic continuous party streamer, and I spent another chunk of a sick day making my confinement all the more miserable by winding the tangled mess into four big raffia nests, now nestled in that Field Bag. Never doing that again, thanks.

As for piece three, the dress, I am now in possession of the English edition of the Japanese pattern book. Just waiting for my fabric to arrive.

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: May 2019

Queue Check — May 2019

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Queue Check — May 2019

It’s been two months since I cast on this simple little vest and I’m finally nearing completion. After letting it sit for weeks unassembled and then postponing the pick-ups, I made great strides over the weekend, when I ripped out the false-start first armhole edge and knitted them both, then picked up stitches for the neckband. After crowdsourcing armhole edging ideas, I wound going with Norah Gaughan’s suggestion, which was to pick up, knit one round, then bind off in purl. It’s a bit like a single garter ridge, but set off slightly, which felt like it’ll be a good companion to the garter-stitch shawl collar I’m planning.

I still have two key decisions to make: 1) will this have button/holes or not, and 2) still debating sewn or knitted pockets. As soon as I decide those things, the finish line is mere days away, so of course now it’s in the 90s — but still, this is a great a/c defense tool. (Yarn is Mungo.)

Meanwhile, needing a major departure from stockinette, I cast on the April Hat from my recent bobble berets post. I’ve never knitted anything like this, am having a great time with it, and will say more about that when it’s finished! (Yarn is Germantown.)

Which means it’s time for me to zero in on a Summer of Basics plan.

(Lykke needles and stitch markers from Fringe Supply Co.)

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: April 2019

Queue Check — April 2019

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I feel like nearly every time I make a list of things I intend to knit and/or sew, I’m almost guaranteed to make one or fewer of those things. Since the list I set out for myself last month, I added the possibility of a blanket/shawl for my niece, and in the interim I have worked on only one thing: the shawl-collar smock-vest situation above. Somehow it’s taken me a month to knit those three plain little pieces of fabric, but now the fun part starts!

I’ve had this idea before (for my vanilla cardigan) but am saying it out loud this time: I’m considering sewing canvas pockets onto this garment instead of knitted ones. I really like that combination and decided against it for the cardigan partly because it would have been too bulky to get under the foot of my machine. But it might work here …

Meanwhile, swatching for the prospective navy pullover.

I’ve also never really actively participated in Me Made May before, and probably won’t this year in any traditional sense (maybe the occasional mirror selfie on IG, dunno) but it seems like as good an excuse as any to dust off my sewing machine, which hasn’t been touched since last summer. So that’s my pledge: By this time next month, there will have been sewing. In addition to the patterns mentioned last month, I bought the new Wiksten Shift, so who knows what my Garment of Return will be. But I’ll be sure to tell you about it when it happens!

(Cocoknits Knitters Block kit and removable stitch markers from Fringe Supply Co.)

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: March 2019, a whole new queue

Queue Check — March 2019: A whole new queue

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Queue Check — March 2019: A whole new queue

Having wrapped up multiple projects for others lately and said “see you next year” to the bulky cardigan I started in December and won’t need till next December, I’m at a rare moment: A clean slate. And rather than rushing into anything that hadn’t been sufficiently thought through (which resulted in No. 2 below), I’ve been taking my time making my plans. But this is how they’re crystallizing:

1. The shawl-collar vest
After some deliberation (and discussion with you all) about using mismatched wool from my stash versus acquiring a more wearable cotton blend, I decided on the latter. I’ve bought a handful of skeins of Rosa Pomar’s Mungo — 50% recycled cotton and 50% recycled wool, all preconsumer mill waste — swatched a couple of ways, and am ready to cast on. The fabric is nothing at all like the Balance I know and love — it’s much more summery, more cottony, lighter — even though they’re both 50/50, so I’m eager to see how this goes.

2. The Luft mystery project
In the absence of any specific plan or outcome, and the presence of this swoony black Luft, I’ve been knitting it into a garter-stitch triangle, which may become a rectangle or a square, or may simply be ripped out. Only time will tell. But no moment spent with this yarn flowing through my fingers is wasted. It’s a therapy unto itself.

3. The navy pullover
I haven’t even so much as swatched, but I’m pretty certain the ultra-plain little navy pullover I’ve been wanting will be knitted from two strands of this deep dark blue Bummull. As it will probably be a simple stockinette top-down — a good pick-it-up-anytime project — I’m thinking of casting on and planning to knit it here and there between now and next fall, when I’ll be wanting it again.

4. The “kimono” jacket
While multiple brands have renamed their “kimono jackets” to the more accurate “haori,” the fact remains that this Assembly Line pattern I’ve purchased bears the name Kimono Jacket. But name aside, I’m super obsessed with this pattern, the shape of this jacket, and am planning to sew it up in navy linen, which I have a lot of in my stash from Eliz Suzann’s $2/lb garage sale a couple of summer ago — I’m just waiting for the pattern to arrive at my mailbox. This will be an excellent all-purpose garment throughout the year.

5/6. The pants
As previously noted, I’ve been thinking for a long time of sewing a pair of woven Hudson Pants, and think the guinea-pig fabric might be that stripe in my stash. (I still have those Jenni Kayne pants in my head.) But there’s also still the goal of the Carolyn Pajama pants in navy linen with black piping, for street wear. Not sure yet which will come first; either/both will be awesome with the jacket.

That should keep me busy for a little while!

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PREVIOUSLY in Queue Check: January 2019