Red, red, red

I eventually could log to blogger and can post again. As said in my previous post, this time some bright red sweater. The original is yellow (mustard) and taken from a Rebecca magazine. It's knitted 2 years ago in a synthetic fiber, but has a soft smooth touch...I love it. The back is same as front but less deeper. I still have enough of that yarn to knit something else...lucky,lucky.

I didn't intend to post about my big red jacket today, but as I also have issues uploading images (pop-up window gets blocked) as I could get it done, I post everything now.

This jacket is so bright that I had to set my camera very dark to make it appear normal. The original design is from another german magazine: Verena. It used to be blue and using a special astrakan pattern. I used a regular knit pattern, but with 3 yarns held together(bright red, burgundy and a multi-colors). The trims are also using some sort of hairy yarn and knit in a brioche pattern.

I hope next post will be about a summer sweater or tank that I will knit

From out of nowhere

This sweater knit up so quickly that I didn't get around to posting any progress photos at all! This was started as a project to use up 4 100g skeins of DK acrylic that I bought a couple of years ago and had never gotten around to using. I was looking for a casual top that I would wear often and be happy to throw in the washer.


Pattern: Lola, free pattern from Berocco
Yarn: James Brett Marble, Berries colourway
Modifications: omitted the novelty yarn trim, made the sleeves top-down, and much shorter than the pattern, added keyhole slit to the neck, and changed neck edging to one row of single crochet.

As you can see, I modified the pattern quite a bit, mainly because I didn't have enough yarn for the original long sleeves. I guess the slip-stitch ribbing ate up a lot more yarn than I had anticipated. I had one ball of yarn left by the time the front and back were done, so I divided it evenly by weight, started the sleeves from the top, and stopped when I ran out.

The result is a soft, cozy top that is perfect for lounging on chilly spring days. It was different to go back to acrylic, which I haven't touched in a while, but I have to say this is a nice soft acrylic, affordable, and easy to care for. And I'm a sucker for self-striping yarn! It would be great for kids clothes.

First Post and First Sweater

I started my red sweater a couple years ago. Its mostly stocking stitch and I got bored real fast. So it became a lovely UFO. Id spy it hiding in a drawer now and then but never really felt like pickign it up. THen I found this KAL and thought, hey, I can finish that thing. The yarn (Homepsun stuff from Lion Brand) is soft and cozy, so Im looking forward to wearing it!

When I got all the peices out, I discovered I had some how knit two backs. UHG!! I did have one arm pretty much done, though, so I was enthused. I got to work on the other arm. It went pretty fast and it helped alot to read here and see how everyone else was doing.

I finally got the front,back and arms sewn all together only to see that I had made the arms a couple inches too long and the body wasnt long enough! Poop! But, hey, its still lookin ok fer my first sweater :)

I added a few inches of double crochet to the body hem. And after looking at the arms for a bit, I decided I didnt mind them a little long. Cozier that way!

So now Im working on the hood. It calls for circulars but the only size I have was one a little too small. Its taking ages to knit! The stitches are smaller so I have to do more, you know? But it will be fine once Im done. Then I was going to crochet around the front of the hood instead of knit and then make a souped up pocket for the front.

Here she is so far!Thats one of my tooties, Weem, lovin up my sweater. She adores anything knitted!

A red Wallaby

I have just finished a red version of Cottage Creation's "Wonderful Wallaby" using Mission Falls 1824 wool (color #29, "Raspberry").


This is the second of two Wallabies, knit as gifts for a friend's boy/girl twins. It is the first time that I have used 1824 wool for anything more than a hat or mittens, and I loved it. I will definately be using this yarn again.

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!

So, this evening, while watching Dancing with the Stars, my favorite guilty pleasure, I finished knitting my second Gingerbread Baby Sweater. This one is for my friend Elise's new baby, which isn't due until April something-or-other. I can't wait to surprise her with it this Friday!

Also, I actually figured out how to post a two-page pattern to blogger! It's a long, involved process which I will not bore you with. Changing a document from .doc to .jpg is mentally painful. Suffice it to say, figuring this out took me the better part of two hours and lots of tech advice from my brother, Josh (thanks, bro!).

Does anyone know how to upload .pdf files to the internet? That would make posting patterns much easier!

So, without further ado, I present to you the Gingerbread Baby Sweater pattern. I'm going to keep working on it, so that I can change the schematics to fit larger sizes, but for now, I'm very happy with the result.

I realize that the picture is small. It's only posted here for affect; if you actually want to print it out, click on the link in my sidebar under "My Patterns".

Check out my blog at : http://alohaknitter.blogspot.com

End of Summer

I had a vision of myself wearing Norah Gaughan's pentagon pullover on the beach this summer, but it wasn't to be. Autumn in Melbourne is very mild and lovely, so it might still get an outing - if I can just get through the finishing.

Almost there...

Almost FO

My little red cardigan is just about done. I have a few more ends to weave in, and I need to go button shopping this evening. It has been languishing in my UFO pile for a long time, but I'm on a roll this week. Three finished sweaters, all started months ago. It feels good to finish up a bunch of stuff and to be able to start fresh and guilt-free on new things! Action shots to come soon.

My first red sweater for 2007

baby sweater for Dulaan
pattern: winging it
yarn: Idena Twins (color #320)

Red is my favorite color, which makes it all the more curious that most of my projects for 2007 to date have been either green, blue or black. This sweater is my first attempt to restore balance to my knitting world.

Jean Frost Jacket

Someone commented that they would like to see pics of the jacket in progress. Sorry that I posted last week without being at home where my camera could record my progress. So today I can do that. Here is the back and both fronts finished. Working now on the sleeves. Hope to finish them this week and will post a completed jacket soon.
The strings on the left front mark button placement. I love the way the buttonholes are worked into this pattern.

Sorry that the picture is dark, the color is Barn Red, using Knit Picks Elegance a blend of Alpaca and Silk, that is truely delicious. It is great on the needles!
Hopefully a finished jacket next week. Any suggestions about buttons? Not sure I want metallic gold. Any thoughts about making the buttons out of yarn?

Pictures of the Slow-Coming Shrug

Here 'tis (along with a happy fuzzy red purse):

You can see that there's not much done, but there is some done! After all that frogging, at least there is a heart rising on the left corner.

And here is something else red that I am about to rip out:


I made up the pattern for these heart socks back before Valentine's Day, and now I can't find where I wrote it down! Is there ANYONE as scatterbrained as me? Anywhere? (We did have a massive house cleaning, though, and I have a feeling that, to anyone but me, my little test scribblings looked like trash.) Anyhow, I don't like the way that the yarn looks knit up... it's too bumpy? or something.

Hope everyone is having a good time knitting their red sweaters!

It doesn't want to be a UFO

I have this lovely red vest, called Chines Red from Folk Vests that I started a while ago. A medium size while ago (2004) when I look at the ages of various UFOs that are hidden around in boxes and bags.

Admittedly, it doesn't look like much in the picture, but it should not take me all that long to get it finished. That is if I can crank up the courage to do it.

While I was deployed, some small flying creatures took up residence in my studio, un-noted by the rest of the family. I came home to find suspicious "munch marks" in yarns, roving and batts.

Would you believe I was not a happy camper?

Industriously, I cleaned up everything. This vest was started in 2004, when I decided to do a number of vests out of this lovely book. And I really like red, so this was one that I didn't change much. Just knitting in one piece to the armholes, I am actually about 10 cm past there. Then my job got in the way for 6 weeks of fun and frolic in Korea. On my return- the m*ths were back and had eaten one ball of yarn for this vest.

I just put it away. And now, without a ball band from the original yarn, I have to figure out which yarn I used and where I put it.

Other option of course is to frog the whole thing, but that seems like a shame. Encouragement is obviously appreciated.

-Holly
Heidelberg DE

Frogged, But Beginning Again

I started the red shrug for my pregnant friend Abby several weeks ago, after a vision of her cute preggo belly sticking out beneath it spurred me on.

I got halfway through the back, started the pattern for the "random heart" and then realized I had only increased on ONE side instead of BOTH sides. :-( I didn't handle it very well. I'll admit it-- I cussed, I screamed. I threw the sweater down. It took me three days to get the nerve up to frog those rows out (rippit, rippit) and then four days to start knitting on it again.

But I am trying! I am throwing myself back in with zeal. (OK, maybe not zeal, and maybe not actually THROWING, but I am knitting on it between socks...) Send your knitting spirits my way, please, so I can at least get through the back of the darned thing.

Part of the problem here is that Abby isn't due until September, so there's time. But not really. These babies show up FAST. And I want to get started on some blankets and toys and layettes and... well, lots of knitting left to do, right?

This is my first post, since I frustrated myself with the darn thing before I even posted what I am making. I am creating a "Random Heart Shrug" from a pattern that the local yarn store created with red Diakeito Diavoyage (#705). The heart is movable, and, per request, I am putting it on the lower left back.

Thanks for letting me gripe in public... ;-)

Still knitting

My red sweater is coming along slowly. I've finished the fronts and back. Am working on the sleeves at present. I did some short row bust darts for the front, using Maggie Righetti's book on sweater design to work out the way to do the darts. The pattern for this jacket was slightly off after finishing the darts, but I think they will work. I'll post a picture at a later date. Here is the pattern for those that remember I'm out there knitting a red sweater!

Red sweater FINALLY started

Well, I finally decided on a pattern and cast on for my (first) red sweater. It's the Shawl Collared Cardigan from the December 2006/January 2007 Knitnet. The pattern calls for Wool-Ease Chunky, but I'm using Lamb's Pride Bulky that I got a great deal on from the Sheep Shed Studio. I've modified the instructions to do the sweater in one piece up to the underarms, since I hate seaming, and I changed the gauge from 3 to 3 1/2 sts per inch, because I preferred the fabric I was getting at that gauge. It's all mindless garter stitch right now, perfect for TV watching or taking to "Stitch Therapy" at a LYS. Stay tuned...