Perfect Autumn Sweater?

I am pleased to have finished my second red sweater. It is the perfect weight for Autumn in Melbourne. We get warm days (not too hot) often with beautiful clear skies and cooler evenings (but not too cold). It really is the best time.

The pattern is the Sand Dollar Pullover from Norah Gaughan's book 'Knitting Nature' (apologies to aunt nancy for the delay in providing the source). The yarn is Victoria by Posh Yarn in pillarbox red.

Now for a nice thick winter sweater...

Europe is in

Hi fellow knitters,

I am Swiss and French and love knitting (I do have other crafts as hobby such as cross stitch, quilting and sewing, but this one is the one I mostly practice).

A couple of years ago I decided I had enough of green, black and grey in my wardrobe and thought I needed something at the opposite...on the colour wheel...RED.

So I knitted a couple of red sweaters.

The one I present today is actually not bright red, but burgundy. It is a Verena design (German knitting magazine), which is shorter than the original and the neck is home designed as well as the flowers as buttons (I added beads in their center).

These crocheted flowers were supposed to be within the cables "openings". It is also a sweater rather than a cardigan and shorter (I was not sure to have enough yarn)...I absolutely love this type of tweed yarn.

Next post will be a bright red knitwear.

Ill mannered yarn

Remember that Chinese Red Vest I mentioned that was going to be my red sweater project? It had been languishing since 2004.

I picked it up this morning and started to knit, first completing the fronts, then the back to finish up the main body of the vest. And then came time to bind off the shoulders.

Fighting to stay free, the stitches kept jumping off the needles when I wasn’t looking. Taking a leap, they ran down away from the bind off. A springing yarn, the Gedifra merino had plenty of energy and obviously a mind of its own. Added and abetted in this endeavor by the ebony needles, I finally cried enough, sliding them onto one needle. Alternating the recalcitrant escapees from both front and back I forced them into submission with a K2tog and psso, locking them in pairs for the life of the waistcoat.

You think I could find my scissors after this?

No, they were declaring its support for the integrity of the yarn by hiding.

I hate biting off yarn.

And finally, my status just before going out the door for services. The facings are done on the fronts, and the neck is finished. Although not without spending 15 minutes rooting through the stash before finding the remaining ball of yarn from the same dye lot. [I had decided I was not going to cry even if I was 20 m of yarn short].



Now on to do the armhole finishing and blocking. [and we will not talk about the two orphan socks I discovered while on my yarn search, increasing my numbers of UFOs....]

ah well, it will give me something else to complain about on my blog
-Holly in Heidelberg

Red Hoodie

I'll try again. I hope the picture loads properly. I could see it when I clicked on the website. Here it is below not being modeled.

Red Hoodie

I finished this sweater for my nephew in February, but am just now posting about it. I think he looks pretty cute (but then again, I am his aunt) !

Pattern - Hooded Sweater by Debbie Bliss Special Knits
Yarn - Annie Blatt No. 4 (100% wool) Color 519 (a brick red)
Needles - US size 7, Bryspun circulars
Modifications - None except for the yarn. The pattern called for DB Cashmerino Aran which I love. But I wanted to do some stash busting and had bought this yarn last summer at the Yarn Lady Bag Sale. This was the second time I've made this sweater and for some reason I couldn't figure out the pattern for the hood. First time...not a problem. Second time, it came out backwards. Weird. I'd make it again. I think it's cute and simple. The only thing I would change is the seam at the top of the hood. If I could find a pattern for a seamless hood, I'd like it better.

FO photos at long last!

I finally managed to get some photos of my red sweater.

Original design, in vintage Bear Brand Town and Country (bought on eBay), 100% wool, 2 ply, DK weight, used approximately 12 oz.

This was my first attempt at sweater design from scratch. I'm happy with how it turned out overall, but as I suspected early on, it turned out too big for me. Rather than start over, I decided to push on with it, because I know that it will fit a special someone in my family perfectly, so I will probably tuck it away until Christmas.

I learned some valuable lessons about trusting my measurements and calculating ease. And I discovered a great new independent fabric and store downtown with thousands of buttons
sold individually (sure beats the options at WalMart!) I will post a few more photos over on my blog. I love these buttons!

Thanks Anne and Laura, for organizing this KAL - it's been fun. I may be back if I get around to starting my second red sweater soon. The yarn has been sitting in stash for far too long!