what i’m working on today
August 25, 2010
A new sample of my Gatsby Girl pullover from the fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits, in Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. Since the magazine issue has sold out I’m planning to release the pattern myself, with a few optional modifications (such as, pictured above, no picot edge! plus, some options for a less Miss Manners-ish neckline).
The yarn is wonderfully squashy and lush, and doesn’t pill up in my hands while knitting like the Rowan Cashsoft of the original sample sweater did, undoubtedly a good sign as to its wear as a sweater. I think it’s about time I had one of these for myself.
Posted by jodi on August 25, 2010 at 7.32pm
more sweater factory
July 4, 2010
Sweater cut-out letter sign: craftily cute or painfully hipsterish? I still can’t decide.
The full length of knitting, just before I started chopping it up.
First cutouts.
Posted by jodi on July 4, 2010 at 8.01pm
the sweater factory, day 8
June 21, 2010
Posted by jodi on June 21, 2010 at 1.47pm
the sweater factory, day 4
June 18, 2010
Posted by jodi on June 18, 2010 at 12.00pm
the sweater factory
June 17, 2010
11am to 5pm daily, June 14 to 25, 2010
406 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario
as part of Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation, an initiative of Windsor-based arts research collective Broken City Lab.
The Sweater Factory is a trial run for a project I’ve been talking about doing for a while. Old sweaters are unraveled and knit on a machine into a long panel from which pattern pieces will be cut; these pieces will be sewn together on the serger to create new sweaters, which will be given away to visitors at the end of the project.
The first two days were taken up with setting up and getting to know the new knitting machine, which I hadn’t managed to get out of the case and try out before beginning the project (whoops). Now that we’re friends, new fabric is pouring off the thing at a pretty good clip, although the varying weights of the sweaters being recycled makes necessary constant little adjustments to tension. I hope to stop knitting and start sewing by the end of the weekend. Due to the short time frame and the summer heat, I’ll be making sweater vests instead of full sweaters (so far most of the visitors to the project who’ve been really excited about the prospect of a free sweater vest have been artists and various other types of nerd anyway, so striped sweater vests could become our NERD UNIFORM). The last few days will be devoted to hand finishing (ribbing!) and giving vests away.
Posted by jodi on June 17, 2010 at 9.29pm
running out of yarn
April 8, 2010
These socks are almost as tall as they’re going to get, with a little bit of yarn left to eke out some ribbing. The sloping lace stitch seems a little slouchy, and I’m beginning to worry that the socks might not want to stay up very well. All I can do now is finish them off and take them out for a road test. What I do know for certain is they are exactly the wrong length to wear with any sort of sock garter, unless I want to look like somebody’s granddad.
Posted by jodi on April 8, 2010 at 9.58pm
distraction
March 23, 2010
I started something new. No, the socks aren’t finished. Shut up!
The pattern is Verdaia by Jodie St. Clair; yarn is Fleece Artist Merino. I know already I’m not going to have enough, and yet I knit on. Sucker.
Posted by jodi on March 23, 2010 at 6.12pm
sock progress
March 20, 2010
Posted by jodi on March 20, 2010 at 6.29pm
aurora borealis socks
March 17, 2010
Somehow these socks were never documented even though they were finished almost a year ago.
The pattern is a bog standard toe-up, with afterthought heel and shaping for the calf. I don’t much like having a bound-off edge at the top of a sock, so the cuff was started separately with a long tail cast on, knit downward, and grafted on. Extra work but worth it.
The yarn is one skein Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Sock in the Marrakesh colourway and one skein Twisted Fiber Art Playful in Lizardman, in alternating stripes of four rows each.
Same striping pattern as this Noro sock I’m never going to finish.
Posted by jodi on March 17, 2010 at 5.35pm
presenting. . .
March 14, 2010
The Lime Rickey shawl, finally blocked. Ms Bones was unavailable for modeling this weekend, so her colleague Mister Bones kindly stood in. The shawl looks better on him anyway, and he’s got fewer screws and hardware poking out from his shoulders to catch on things. Ms Bones nearly tore a hole in the last shawl before I even got a chance to wear it. What’s that? Did I really shamelessly use my students’ unfinished drawings as a backdrop for a knitwear photo shoot? WHY YES, I DID.
The yarn: handspun, a gift from Stacie Dolin, spun by her from Hello Yarn fibre. To see what the yarn looked like in the skein click here.
The pattern: Citron from Knitty. The contrast between the stockinette and the ruched sections of this design were somewhat lost in the texture of the yarn, but that’s okay given the lovely result. You may recall the first shawl attempt with this yarn, which was a disastrous pairing that would have helped me move closer to my goal of becoming the weird old lady down the street, because it was shaping up to be ugly as fuck and dumpy to boot (not the pattern! just that pattern in THIS yarn).
The only modification was to add an extra repeat in order to use up every last bit of the yarn. It was nail-bitingly close right down to the finish, when the yarn ran out 2/3 of the way through the tortuously long bindoff row and had to be ripped back a row. So close.
The sweet little dollar signs button holding it all together here is from the totally fabulous Kate Bingaman-Burt.
Ravelry link for the project: right here, baby.
Posted by jodi on March 14, 2010 at 10.38pm
