Finished: City Cape with Bonus WIP Photo!

Since I've been working on so many things at once it's been a little harder than usual to see progress, but I finally have something that looks like a cape and a cardigan!


I am pretty much done with the Not-a-Poncho City Cape, from the book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I used Cascade Ecological Wool in color #8087, Coffee. It's a top-down, raglan shaped cape. It took me a little under two skeins, and I added several inches before beginning the arm holes, otherwise the armholes would have started half-way up my biceps. My only other modification was changing the trim to 3 x 2 rib instead of 2 x 2. This is one of the things I really wanted for my Fall/Winter wardrobe, so I'm happy it's done before the weather changes.


I don't know if the news has traveled out of Southern California, but we've been having record heat around here (113 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and at least that hot where I live!) so I just couldn't face stepping outside to model my wooly cape. It's pretty much done, but it's supposed to have ribbon facing on the front bands and around the armholes. I bought some brown and cream with blue accents paisley ribbon at Joann, but it's not exactly what I had in mind--so I might just leave it off until I find the right one. I wanted something a little more earthy, and less of a contrast with the knitted part.

I do like the Cascade Ecological Wool, if only because it's so cheap. I bought five skeins of this stuff on sale at WEBS for $11 a huge skein of heavy worsted/bulky weight yarn (depending on who you ask), and so for $55 I have knit my husband a sweater, this cape, and still have enough left for a short sleeved cardigan for me. This color is a little hairy, but I have a lighter color that isn't quite as bad. From now on I think I will stick to the lighter colors.

Just for fun, here is one of my WIP's, the Delancey Cardigan designed by Alexis Winslow. Delancey is a one-armed lady at the moment...but I love knitting with Knit Picks Swish DK, so I don't even dread the sleeves. The other one will be coming right up! I'm using Beach Glass as the main color, and Pampas Heather as the contrast color. It's a little less punchy than the pattern model, but I was good and used stash yarn.




This is such a well-written pattern, and for once it's designed for taller-than-average girls with long arms! I actually knitted my sleeves SHORTER than the model. Never happened before! I really like the way it's written, with row numbers given in all instructions. It would be difficult to modify the length without completely re-writing the pattern, though, so keep that in mind if you're considering this one. This will hit me around the bottom of my rear, and I am 5'7" tall. Once I get the bottom trim knitted on, it will not have that "V" shape anymore.

A Few Updates

Since I haven't taken knitting pictures in a while (still getting used to the new homeschooling schedule!) I thought this would be the perfect time to make a little list of things I've been wanting to blog about but haven't had the time for. Not the same as a real post, I know, but it will have to do. :)

1. The stash challenge has, quite honestly, been a complete bust. I really am an addict. I don't intend to stop trying to knit only yarn I already own, but among other purchases, last month's mad money was spent on a lot of Knit Picks Main Line (discontinued yarn) that was just too good a deal to pass up--a Raveler had it for sale for 19 skeins for $25--and a whole shipment of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes has come to live at my house. The latter was purchased for...

2. My first go at intarsia. More on this later, but I'm making a huge felted satchel for my mom. I've got the back, sides, bottom, and straps done (the solid-colored pieces) and will be starting on the colorwork soon.

3. I have been a little bit on the scattered side when it comes to my knitting lately. In the past week, I've worked on the Not-A-Poncho City Cape from Custom Knits, the Delancey Cardigan designed by Alexis Winslow, the aforementioned Weekend Getaway Satchel, and yes, I started yet another new project tonight: Sheer Poncho, an absolutely gorgeous laceweight free pattern by Amy Arifin.

I don't know why I keep starting new things--I suppose I would finish pieces more quickly if I stuck to one or two at a time, but I've decided to stop feeling bad about it and just go with it. It's fun! I'll be writing more about each of those projects as soon as I can...with pictures, I promise.

Hooray for the Public Library!

A couple of weeks ago I took my kids to a library we hadn't visited before (who knew there were two different library systems in my county?!) and not only did we find lots of books for my girl, I found a great selection of up-to-date knitting books! I finally got to check out in person the book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. Wow! It is so much more than a pattern book...lots of tips about fit and customizing your own sweaters. Even instructions for doing one of those duct tape dressmaker's forms. If you haven't looked at this book before, I'd really recommend it highly. The cape I am working on is from this book, the Not-a-Poncho City Cape.

Even though I'd like to buy the book eventually, isn't it just...COOL? That I can go to a big building full of books and they will just let me...BORROW...any book I want? And I can walk out with a bag full of 27 books without paying a single cent? It's like a throwback to a simpler time. No matter how the world has changed, the public library is still free. Amazing. This is going to be a lifesaver for my daughter's reading appetite, I can already tell. She is going through a little chapter book every two days or so. Today, it's The BFG.

Anyway, I am busy with the cape, and my daughter's first day of Kindergarten at home was last Monday--so while we're having a blast with school, my crafting time and blog reading time has been severely curtailed. I miss it, but it's for a good cause.

Slow Fashion

If you haven't already heard this term, "Slow Fashion," you will be hearing it soon...the slowed economy has caused many people's disposable income to dry up, and this has inevitably affected when and how people buy clothes. I first heard about slow fashion earlier this year when I started reading more sewing and knitting blogs in preparation for starting my own blog. There are so many women out there who are sewing their own wardrobes, refashioning thrift shop finds, knitting copies of expensive sweaters, creating their own beaded jewelry, and on and on. It's inspiring!

Zoe Wood (article link) writes: "'Slow fashion is not just about responding to trends,' says Adili chief executive Adam Smith. 'It is a mentality that involves thinking about provenance and buying something that won't look unfashionable after one season.'"

Many bloggers have also translated this concept into wearing things that are handmade, by themselves or someone else. The explosion of Etsy in the past couple of years is part of the slow fashion movement as well, I believe.

The concept of slow fashion fits well with my personal philosophy of consumption: we try to buy things that last, not necessarily the cheapest model of whatever doo-dad the house/car/kids require. BUT--we often buy used or scout around for a floor model or "scratch and dent" item. I've always said I have champagne taste on a beer budget, and this applies to my wardrobe as well. As much as I may drool over the clothes at Anthropologie or higher-end designer stores, the budget simply won't allow it. So, I've really made a commitment to avoiding "disposable" clothes--you know, the ones that fall apart after 5 washings and will look hopelessly dated in just a few months. As a bonus, making things myself enables me to know that they weren't made in sweatshops, and will (with a little skill and luck) fit perfectly.

The challenge for me, at least, is that I do want to look current and fashionable. I definitely don't want to be that weird hippie lady with the cloth-diapered, home schooled kids; a weird diet; and the frumpy clothes (because I already have three of those four). So, for now, participating in slow fashion means attempting to use the fabric and yarn in my closet--see, I'm sticking to my stash challenge!--to make clothes that somewhat re-create looks I see in catalogues and magazines.

I am making a knitted cape, I'm working on a 50's ish dress, and I've got several more ideas for things I want to make and wear this fall and winter. Shall I share the sewn things here, not just the knitted?

Finished: Watershed

I've been working on something different each night, so I'm at that point where there are tons of things in progress, but progress is so slow that nothing seems to be getting done. Well, one thing is done...I finished up Watershed, by Amy Swenson. This was a stash yarn project, and also it was a quick project to make me feel like I was finishing something in the middle of all the larger projects that I've got on the go. I really liked it, and in fact learned a few new things: I learned that the order in which yarnovers are done in relation to their paired decreases effects how the lace looks (one side of the front edging looks slightly different than the other), and I learned how to do knit-on trim.


This is really quite an ingenious pattern. First, it starts with a provisional cast on and the bottom lace is knit side-to-side, then the bottom front edging is knit onto each side to turn the corner. Then, stitches are picked up along the bottom trim and the main body of the piece is knit, including the front edging, up to the armholes. After splitting for the armholes and knitting the fronts and back separately, they are rejoined and there is raglan shaping, and then the front edging is continued up and knit onto the back stitches to form the collar; then a little trim on the armholes and it's done! Completely, totally seamless. I highly recommend the pattern--though if I were to do it over, I might modify the lace pattern a bit to make it symmetrical. The only modification I made this time around is to add one lace repeat to the body for a tiny bit of extra length.






I used the Cascade 220 Heathers in Alki Beach I had left over from my Creature Comforts Cardi. I'm regretting that choice now because the other color of Cascade 220 I had in my stash was my first choice, but I wasn't sure I had enough--I would have. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. Oh well, maybe I will have to make another one! It's a very wearable style in the Southern California fall weather. I still have some Alki Beach left, too. Maybe some mitts?

Finished: Que Sera (Sera!)

This was an aptly-titled project--whatever will be, will be! I started this cardigan with the intention of keeping it for myself, because let's face it, most of the things I make are for me. (Side note--I'm not ashamed to admit that at all!) But as in life, things don't always work out as we plan.

Pattern: Que Sera by Kirsten Kapur, size XS with shorter sleeves.
Yarn: 8 skeins Knit Picks Main Line (discontinued), 75% Pima Cotton, 25% Merino Wool, in Ivory
Buttons: Vintage brass dress buttons from Vintage Necessities on Etsy.

Because I'm knitting from stash, when I fall in love with a pattern I have to rummage around and see what I've got that might work. In this case, I had two quantities of cotton-blend yarn: one lot of Knit Picks Main Line in Ivory with enough yardage to make the XS size with truncated sleeves, and one lot of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Robin's Egg Blue with enough to make my size if I also made short sleeves. The Main Line was so much softer (seriously, I don't know why they discontinued this yarn...it's wonderful!), and I started to imagine wearing the sweater in cream color, so I did some calculating and went with it.

Since it's a thicker yarn than called for (aran vs. worsted), I used a size larger needle, and made the XS size. I fully admit this might have been an ill-advised choice from the start. The bust measurement for the XS in the schematic is 31.5". Ahem. Not my size. But I started with the sleeves as a kind of a swatch and it seemed to be working out to be something approaching my size. Once I got a fair bit completed on the body, however, I realized that the lace pattern pulls in much more than I had bargained for, and started to make peace with the fact that this cardigan was not meant to be mine. Once it was complete, it was not quite an XS, but there were about 4 inches between the front edges when I tried it on. Bummer. No picture of my humiliation, sorry.



Then, it really started to be kismet. My very dear (and tiny!) friend got an AMAZING job and is re-entering the workforce part-time after taking a break for children for the past five years. I realized this sweater was meant to be hers. It's my "Congratulations and I'm SO Proud of You!" gift. It was actually finished a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to surprise her so I sat on this post for a while--then I caved and told her about it on the phone the day before our big outing (to an awesome show and dinner for her job!). But oh well: she loves it, and of course I forgot to take a picture of her in it, so here it is anyway.


PS: The robin's egg blue Cotton Fleece I mentioned? It's going to be a Que Sera for me! Stay tuned. :)

Finished: Butterfly Shrug

So, my dear little five-year-old daughter has been in love with my Creature Comforts Cardi since she saw me making it, and asked--no, begged!--for one of her own. But, you know, pink and with butterflies. And in her size of course. Happily, I had just under three skeins of Knit Picks Swish DK in Petal left over from her little girl Bella Mittens [Ravelry project page link], so I measured her and found a beautiful butterfly cable motif in one of my new knitting reference books and made this for her:

Other than the size and cable motif, I also modified the collar a bit--you can hardly see it in the photos because her hair covers it, but I did a little bitty shawl collar. I think if I were to do it over again, I would make the shawl collar a little bigger, but it's still cute as-is.