The Spring Garden Tee

When I was contacted by Alana of Never Not Knitting to do a test knit for her, I jumped at the opportunity.  I have a few of her patterns in my library and have even knit a couple of her lovely designs.  She is a fantastic designer and I knew that she would put out a great pattern that would be fun to knit.

Presenting…

The Spring Garden Tee in adult sizes

This is the grown-up version of her previously published pattern for girls and features some changes such as waist shaping and a scooped neckline.  The yarn that she sent me for this test knit was Be Sweet Bamboo which is such a lovely yarn :: blocks beautifully and is so cool to the touch – literally!  The finished Tee has a lovely drape to it and is perfect for summer wearin’.

Spring Garden Tee

Pattern: Spring Garden Tee by Alana Dakos
Yarn: Be Sweet Bamboo in “Meadow”
Needles: Size US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4 mm

♥ Love, Love, Love this pattern!  There’s a KAL for this design on the NeverNotKnitting Ravelry Group.

The fun didn’t end with the knitting. I got to play with picture-taking too 🙂  Pictures were  taken by Le Hubster at Burnaby Mountain which is a great place to enjoy the panoramic views of downtown Vancouver and the North Shore.

Love the rustic Totem Poles (I think that’s what they are)

Posted by & filed under Canada, Finished Knits, Lace, Tops. This post has 13 comments.

Almost There

I love when a project on the needles is almost near completion.  It’s the excitement of binding off those last stitches, laying your knitting out flat and thinking, “I made that”!  

I’m almost at that point on my secret knitting project.  As much as I would love to be able to design knitwear (maybe someday), this isn’t my design.  I’m doing a test knit for an awesome designer, so be sure to look out for the pattern release of this summery garment in early June.  I will provide details and linky dink stuff soon.

First, I have to get this project finished, blocked and mailed before Vineet leaves for Traana on Monday.

Have a great day, peeps!

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Sneak Peek

All other knitting has been shelved temporarily so that I can devote my time to a secret project that I can’t really talk about on the blog.  Here’s a little sneak peek…

All will be revealed in due course.  My, my…ain’t I cryptic these days!!

We opted not to do the road trip this weekend which was a good thing considering that the May long weekend always has busy highways and crowded ferry/border crossings.  We stuck around instead and had a great time including some rodeo fun.  YeeHaw!  Sadly, no pictures of any cowboys, but it was fantastic! 

And the big news that I talked about in my last post….

Well, we bought a house! 

We aren’t going to move until July so Prithvi can finish the school year at his current school.  But it’s offish – signed, sealed and delivered (well sorta, seeing that we don’t have the keys yet). 

We’re excited but I’m sure going to miss waking up to this view every morning…

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Anyway…

This blog is still mostly about knitting, but lately I haven’t said too much about zee kneeting because it would probably be a repeat of the same stuff.  Sadly, due to the nature of stockinette, the projects on my needles produce very little blog fodder.  A blogging friend said the same thing in her last post.  There has been knitting progress though and I’m almost done with the first sleeve on my Geodesic.  One more sleeve to go and then this baby will be ready for the wearing.

Also….other new and exciting things have taken priority over the past couple weeks.  Just waiting to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and then all will be revealed.

We have a road trip planned for the Victoria Day long weekend and if the Weatherman will smile favorably down on us and there will be fun stuff to talk about next week.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

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Handmade vs Homemade

Homemade blueberry pie…yum-O!!  Homemade knitting…hmmm…  I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately with regards to my Summer Tee.  I’m usually not pouty and whiny about knitting patterns, but this particular pattern is making me wah-wah-whine!

See what I mean?  I don’t like the look of the floppy ribbing and how the lace panel insert is making the neck pucker all funny.  Also, the lace was too busy for this yarn, in my opinion.  There are plenty of gorgeous Rusted Roots on Ravelry, but I guess it was just not working for me. 

Vineet actually peeked at the pattern when I began knitting it and said, “hey, the lady’s knitting is crooked” (he was referring to the lace panel being off to one side).  I didn’t want to get into a technical discussion with him that the pattern actually intends it to be that way! 

I don’t think that moving it to the center would be flattering  – it would look like a great divide.  So, I was going to knit a plain stockinette top seeing that I was determined to repurpose this yarn. 

Enter the vast gold mine of information that is Ravelry….. 

A look at the project page showed that several knitters have done mods to their tops and there was one with an all over swiss dot pattern that I ♥!!!    So much so that I’m being a total copy cat!

What do you think?  Better? Or, who am I kidding??

Posted by & filed under Rambling, Tops. This post has 6 comments.

Rip and Reknit

Our guests have gone and I’ve pretty much caught up on all of the aftermath that follows when company leaves.  I’ve still got an overflowing inbox though with several emails from all of my readers.  I just wanted to say that I am not ignoring you lovely folk and I will respond to everyone soon:)  Thanks for visiting my blog and being such a supportive bunch about my obssession hobby.

I’m at the point on my Geodesic Cardigan where the pattern asks you to block the body of the sweater and work the sleeve caps separately before joining the whole shebang together to finish.  While I wait for this to dry; which won’t be long given that the yarn is laceweight and the days are filled with endless sunshine*; I decided that I have to have another project on the needles pronto!  I wanted a Summer Tee using a bright cotton blend yarn and this pattern seemed perfect.

Remember this top that I was working on ages ago?  Well, I lost all love for this project somehow – maybe it was the mini cables that seemed to pull at the fabric or just the construction of this garment.  I just didn’t feel like picking it up and continuing.  So, I frogged.

That’s the best part about knitting, you can change your mind and when you rip, you’re ready to begin again!!

The Rusted Root Top calls for the same yarn that I was knitting my Cherry Popsicle with and so I swatched and cast on.  Top-down construction, big needles, big yarn and mostly stockinette – this project should proceed at a good clip.

After weeks of knitting with Malabrigo Lace, the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece feels like twine and I seem to keep messing up the tension.  I noticed that the same thing happened when I knit the gauge swatch.  However, the swatch softened up quite a bit after washing and the wonky stitches worked themselves out so hopefully the top should turn out fine.  Anyone have problems with their knitting acting strange when switching between different yarn weights?

There are a few pesky details in this top that are bothering me which I am going to modify.  Fingers crossed that I don’t end up with a tent or a straightjacket!

Have a great Tuesday!

Oh, and….I pinched these pictures off Vineet’s computer….

* I hope I don’t jinx things with my sunshine comment.  The weather in our neck of the woods can be soooo unpredictable

Posted by & filed under Family, Kids, Rambling, Stashbusting, Tops. This post has 3 comments.

Details

Just popping by to say hi:)  We’re in between house-guests so things have been quite topsy turvy at our house.  Despite all of this, I’ve actually managed some progress on my Geo thanks to evenings spent sitting around swapping stories and memories and enjoying plenty of laughs.  I love evenings like these!!

Sweater progress….details are what makes the Geodesic pattern different from any plain old stockinette cardigan.  Connie Chang-Chinchio is well-known for her cardigan patterns and this pattern doesn’t disappoint.  The faux seam, the waist shaping via darts, the tucks done with short rows, the very interesting construction for set-in-sleeves, these are the details I’m referring to.  

I’m done with the waist shaping and begun the tucks.  I’ve used just one skein of Malabrigo Lace until now.  Man, this yarn hauls!!  Now, if it just wouldn’t pill with use!!!

Back in a few days:)

Posted by & filed under Cardigans. This post has 6 comments.

Sweater Streak

Wondering why I’m suddenly into sweater knitting?

This is the reason …..

International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathon

12 adult sweaters in a year is a huge feat for me but I think that this group is just the ticket to get me stashbusting.  As far as progress goes, I’m not faring too well seeing that I’ve just completed 2 sweaters so far and we’re almost done with April.  Yikes!  But I ain’t quitting yet!  Some brilliant knitters have completed their 8th and 9th sweaters for this year!!  So, there’s plenty of knitterly inspiration out there.

Of course, there has been other knitting too but for the most part it has been sweater knitting and I am really enjoying it.

Next on my needles is the Geodesic Cardigan using Malabrigo Lace.  I’m almost at the little “tucks” which is the fun part of the pattern.

Posted by & filed under Cardigans, Stashbusting. This post has 7 comments.