Stripey Tolsta

The perfect way to welcome summer is with a cute tee fresh off my needles. Once the temps began climbing steadily in May, my summer knitting mojo was in full force. The Tolsta Tee by Rebecca Clow of the CreaBea Knitting Podcast has been mentioned a lot over these past months and Rebecca herself has knit a whole bunch of them.

This pattern is a very simple design but the thing that makes it fun is its versatility. You can knit a plain version, a stripey version (like I did), add long sleeves, add texture or lace or cables. It is more like a recipe that can be altered to suit the vibe you are going for.

I chose to knit mine using Rowan Summerlite DK in a lilacy-pink with the stripes in a lovely antique gold shade. Summerlite is a 100% cotton yarn with a soft matte finish and comes in lots of colours. I think it works really well and I love the outcome!

A cute summer t-shirt with a bit of interest that knits up really fast and is easy to care for.

I have a second Toltsa on the needles and this time I’m using the same yarn but in black. I’m going to add some eyelets and maybe some texture.

Tolsta Tee (Ravelry Project Page)
Pattern: Tolsta Tee by Rebecca Clow
Yarn: Rowan Summerlite DK in “Blushes″ and “Pickles”
Needles: Sizes US 7 & 8 / 4.5 & 5 mm

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Sweater Streak

About halfway through this past year, I realized that I had knit 6 sweaters during the 6 previous months. Shocking, I know! As most of my knitting friends are aware, I am not the fastest knitter. In fact, I’m pretty slow — preferring to savour the process rather than churn out finished products. With six sweaters under my knitting belt, I thought it would be crazy to see if I could knit another half a dozen garments before the end of 2022. What a crazy idea!

It’s December and I’m so thrilled to report, I am on the home stretch of my twelfth finished garment of the year. Gasp, I can’t believe it either!

A couple of these many sweaters were finished in 2022 after being started in previous years. I’ve added them to the list because they are now completed and part of my handknit sweater rotation.

I have learned so much through this year of sweater knitting.

Making and wearing handknit garments gives me so much pleasure and joy.

Seasonal knits can be fun.

I am most definitely a monogamous knitter. Too many projects stress me out!

WPK (wears-per-knit) percentage is important.

Not all my sweaters were successful with the WPK (wears-per-knit) percentage. Some finished garments are in the single digits for WPK and I am happy to pass these along to knit-worthy friends and family.

“Ooh shiny” can be fun, but not always practical.

Sweater fit is more important than trending knitwear designs at least for my body type and personal aesthetic.

I have loved this year of slow fashion and making my clothes by hand. It has been a joyful experience and there will be more – maybe not another 12-sweater-year but you never know!

It’s a wrap for 2022 and I wish you all the very best for a spectacular new year!

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sweater surgery

I’ve got a new sweater on the needles. This one is called “Wayfarer” by Kiwi designer Libby Jonson. This one has some lovely fitting details which makes for interesting knitting in my books.

Wayfarer has a cable panel running down the front and there are instructions and a design chart explaining clearly how things are supposed to be knit. Did I look (glance) at the chart? Yes. Did I read the instructions? Nope!

I was progressing nicely down my sweater and wanted to take a picture for my Ravelry project page. That’s when I noticed a whole cable was MISSING! Big oops!

I had two options, rip and reknit. Hmm… no, thank you. Or I could perform sweater surgery and salvage the situation. I opted for surgery.

I basically ripped out the stitches that were supposed to form the cable all the way to the neckband and picked them back up, row by row. I did the cable chart crosses as per the chart and things worked out.

Now, does the cable column appear wonky compared to the other two perfectly executed cables? Yes. But that will be rectified through the magic of blocking wool. At least, that’s what I’ve convinced myself 😀

Stay tuned to see how I progress with my Wayfarer.

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Salty air

The Salty Air Tee is another summer knit and was it ever fun to knit! This cute little number has a gorgeous lace yoke and a cropped length (well, cropped for me and shortish according to my teenage daughter). It makes for a lovely, light summer tee.

I had a limited quantity of a sock yarn from Hedgehog Fibres that I wanted to use up. I wondered if I could squeeze in a summer top or modify an existing design that I’ve made previously. After a bit of a search on the interwebs, I came across the Salty Air Tee pattern and knew this was the perfect match. The colorway I used is called Teacup which has pink, brown and a few navy speckles on an undyed base. I thought the speckles would detract from the lace and it does seem that way in these pictures. In real life though, the speckles/lace combo is quite lovely.

Salty Air is designed by Samantha Guerin, who is a new-to-me designer. I love her style and I’m sure I will knit other patterns by her.

Halfway there!

The Salty Air Tee was designed with easy breezy summer moments in mind. 

Samantha Guerin, Designer

There are so many things I love about this tee.

The star of the show is definitely the lace yoke. The pattern radiates outward with strategically placed increases making a nice transition from the neck downwards over the shoulders.

The short rows at the beginning ensure that the fit at the neck is just right. And of course, it is the perfect length which makes this top wearable in the summer and with no overheating!

This pattern gets 5 stars from me!

Salty Air Tee
Pattern: Salty Air Tee by Samantha Guerin
Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Sock in “Teacup″
Needles: Sizes US 5 & 6 / 3.75 & 4 mm

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Ankers the Third

My third Ankers Sommerbluse (Ankers Summer Shirt) by PetiteKnit is finished and it has been a lovely top to wear this summer. While my handknitted wardrobe primarily consists of wool and wool blends, I like having a few summertime knits that are in rotation during the warmer months. I have been slowly adding summer pieces by knitting one or two warm weather friendly garments each year. #nevernotknitting 😀

I pretty much knit this shirt exactly like I did my second Ankers. The only difference was the yarn I used – Sandnes Garn Line – which is a blend of cotton, viscose and linen. I experienced some wrist and arm fatigue while knitting with this yarn and couldn’t knit for long stretches of time. It is so important for makers to listen to our bodies and take care of our hands! The breaks really helped and I was able to finish this top before the July long weekend.

I knit the size medium and worked short rows after the yoke to raise up the back neck. The original pattern does not have short rows. Another change I made was to knit the yoke with half twisted rib where all the knit stitches are twisted and the purls are knit normally. I think this makes the yoke look really crisp. I mimicked this style of rib for the sleeve cuffs and bottom hem too.

The fabric of this top is really lovely and cool against the skin. I usually handwash my knits, but I threw this one with the regular laundry, and it has held up nicely.

Another summer top crossed off my knitting list and now it’s back to knitting with merino – my happy place 🙂

Ankers Summer Shirt III
Pattern: Anker’s Summer Shirt by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Line in “4361 Light Aubergine″
Needles: Sizes US 6 & 7 / 4 & 4.5 mm

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Seasonal creativity

Yesterday I came across a post from a maker of modern clothing encouraging fellow creators to wear what they make. This got me thinking about how seasons have a huge impact on what I am currently knitting or sewing and even cooking. When the temperatures are frigid, all I want is warm, wooly and fluffy. The recipes heavily in rotation are stews with lots of root vegetables and warm bread. Once the daylight shifts though, everything I do alters too. Lots of outdoor meals, bottles of infused ice water and of course, warm weather knits. I wonder if this is the same with other makers?

While crafting for the current season we are in sounds great in theory, it doesn’t always work out in practice. Given that I am a very slow hand knitter, the projects don’t always get made into finished wearable pieces quickly. I’ve made peace with the fact that speed is not the focus of my creative journey. Enjoying the process and relaxation are what I am after. But I love the seasonal craftiness of building a handmade wardrobe – whatever season it may be.

All this rambling is to say that my current project on the needles is a tried and tested pattern that I’ve knit previously – the Ankers Summer Shirt by Petiteknit. This is my third Ankers and I think, I’ve scratched that itch well and good, haha!

This time, I am knitting it with “Line” from Sandnes Garn which is what the original pattern was designed with. I’m made one modification for this iteration which is to knit the yoke using half twisted rib and I’m really glad with that decision. The Line yarn is a blend of cotton, viscose and linen and I wanted the ribbing to look crisp. I’m about a quarter of the way through the body and I want to get this finished in the next week or so.

Speaking of warm weather knits, I finished a cute Spring Sorrel. I absolutely love the texture on the yoke. And then, I cast on for a short sleeve version of the DRK Everyday Sweater. All I need to do is finish blocking these sweaters and weave in all the ends and then they will be ready to be worn.

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is this thing on?

This is not an April Fool’s joke. I’m actually dusting the old blog off to write a post!

What have I been up to? Well, everything and nothing. All the days smush into one big ball of busyness and yet, there is no singular, major event making said smushed ball. But such is life. Especially after the blur it has been over the past two years. But let’s not dwell on that because this is a season of newness.

Spring has definitely sprung in full force in these parts, so fresh and blossom-laden. It’s like once we said goodbye to February, everything woke up from a Rip Van Winkle sleep.

I’ve even cast on a new sweater. At this point, it’s just the ribbing on the neckband and I have to see if I like it enough to keep going. The yarn is the most gorgeous colour and this picture does not do it justice.

I’ve finished a few other sweaters and projects that I have yet to document. I always forget how much I love blogging until I begin writing a post… I should do it more often!

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Anker’s Summer Shirt – Numero Deux

As soon as I finished my first Anker’s Shirt, I knew that I wanted a second one in a summer yarn. We added Sandnes Garn Tynn Line to our summer yarn shelves at Black Sheep Yarns. I wanted to try this linen-cotton-rayon yarn but it is might skinny. I decided to double it and see if it would work for my summer Anker’s.

I knit a gauge swatch (which is how I begin every garment) to see if I liked the fabric and also to check if my stitch count works with what the designer specifies. My knitting tension is always tight so I usually have to size up to get the right fit or use bigger needles to get my numbers to match. In this case, my numbers were all over the place. I had to sit down and work out the math in the pattern to translate it to be the fit I wanted.

Since I had just knit this design with my first Anker’s, things were still fresh in my mind and so I was able to make tweaks and adjustments. For this version, I wanted it to be more fitted at the shoulders and yoke and comfortable in the body section. I also wanted to avoid the sleeves turning out too loose. I basically rewrote the pattern to suit my requirements and began this tee.

My row gauge was off and so I added an extra round of rib in each of the sections. I added a set of German Short Rows after the yoke to raise the back neck and I also added two extra raglan increases. I know that linen and cotton virtually have no give, so I had to be very precise with the math. All this technical blah, blah, blah aside, I love it!!

The result is exactly what I wanted!

The fabric is just lovely and cool and it makes a great addition to my summer wardrobe.

The Anker’s shirt knits up so quickly with the larger gauge. I love the combination of the rounded yoke with the more traditional raglan shaping at the bust. This will be my go-to summer shirt. Another win!

Anker’s Summer Shirt II
Pattern: Anker’s Summer Shirt by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Tynn Line in “Kitt 1015″
Needles: Sizes US 6 & 7 / 4 & 4.5 mm

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While In Medellin

Summer is almost at an end and what a crazy, fantastical, different summer it has been! There were unbearable bits when British Columbia went through a heatwave like never before. A “heat dome” covered most of Western Canada causing loss of human and marine life and catastrophic forest fires. It was unbelievable that we went through something like this, in Canada of all places! 49+ degrees Celcius in BC – say what!! Our pup didn’t veer too far off his cooling pad and our family congregated near every possible air-conditioning vent during those scorching June days.

July and August were perfection, though!

We survived all that and now we are surrounded with gorgeous hints of fall everywhere and everyone’s favourite… Sweater Weather!

I love crafting seasonal pieces and this summer, it was all about knitting with cotton and linen.

My daughter tried on a store sample of the While in Medellin top by Lina Wu that was on display at Black Sheep Yarns. She wanted one right away and although she knows how to knit, she wanted me to make it for her 🙂 She picked out the yarn and I got to work on swatching and working out some customizations for her smaller frame.

For this piece I used, Tynn Line by Sandnes Garn in a soft pink.

My gauge was tighter than the designer’s which worked in my favour as my daughter didn’t want a lot of positive ease. I followed the instructions for the XS size and made a couple of minor modifications. I increased the length of the body slightly to 10″ and decreased the length of the straps to measure 10″ in total so that the neckline wouldn’t be too deep for her.

These minor changes worked out well and this top fits her perfectly! She is so happy with it and wore it a ton this summer. It is a simple wearable tank.

While In Medellin
Pattern: While In Medellin-Top by Lina Wu
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Tynn Line in #3551
Needles: Size US 4 / 3.5 mm

Posted by & filed under Beautiful BC, Finished Knits, Tank Tops. This post has 2 comments.

Anker’s Summer Shirt

I’ve wanted to knit the Anker’s Summer Shirt ever since Mette of PetiteKnit released this design. There are so many versions of this tee popping up on Instagram and Ravelry and I knew that I had to make one for myself.

For my first Anker’s (yes, there is a second one), I used Sandnes Garn Duo which is a blend of merino wool and cotton. I knit this in the “Pudder” colourway #3522. This is my first time using Duo or any Sandnes Garn and it’s a lovely yarn with a nice stitch definition.

I made some modifications to my top so that it fits me better. For this version, I went for a relaxed fit and knit a size larger than I normally would. The fit is lovely but I think that the sleeves are a tad bit too big. I also added a modified increase on my last raglan round so that I could get the final stitch count I wanted for the body without elongating the raglan yoke too much.

The biggest modification I made was to raise the neckline on the back by about an inch using German short rows. I added 3 sets of short rows between the ribbed section and the raglan increases. I like this style where the neck is slightly raised on the back compared to the front – just like with a store-bought t-shirt. I love short rows and I almost always add them to my sweaters. I think most modern knitwear patterns incorporate this feature into the design.

I am not usually drawn to peachy tones but this colour feels perfect for spring. I love this top so much that I have cast on a second one for the summer!

I am definitely on a PetiteKnit kick. I knit the Anker’s Shirt, then a Balloon Cardigan for my daughter and I’m knitting a second Anker’s. Mette’s designs are simple and classic and that’s so great for my handmade wardrobe. While I was getting a few pictures taken for my Ravelry project page, my little furry friend wanted in on the action 🙂

Anker’s Summer Shirt
Pattern: Anker’s Summer Shirt by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Duo in “Pudder 3522″
Needles: Sizes US 6 & 7 / 4 & 4.5 mm

Cuddles done, off to play! Oh Mowgli, you are funny

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