Northern Wind Cardigan

The only cardigan I knit this winter is for my eldest daughter. My husband picked out the color and yarn, while my daughter selected the design. The yarn is some Turkish acrylic from our local yarn shop. The design is a free DROPS pattern.

It was a fairly straightforward knit, nothing too exciting or boring. I managed to finish without running out of yarn which was a win. The real callange was getting the lower scalloped edge to not curl. I crocheted two rows of slip sts to counteract that and it works for now.

My daughter is happy with it and that is what I was aiming for. Next up are a few smaller projects.

Winter Fantasy Cardigan

After a summer-long hiatus, this project was recently picked up again.  At that point, it needed a few inches of knitting on the body and both sleeves. A few rows on it every night and it is finally done. I sewed the buttons on it last evening and wove in the ends this morning.

I like stranded work so this was a good, fun project. Knitting top-down meant reversing the instructions and doing some recalculation to adjust gauge. The cardigan is on the smaller side, because I was tired of baggy sweaters (and perhaps am a bit deluded about my actual size). All-in-all it was a satisfactory project and just the thing to bring back the knitting mood.

Craft Break

The final examinations are over and the school is out for the older kids, so I have a bit more free time, Alhamdolillah. I have been putting that time to good use by expanding my craft horizons. I have been indulging in clay art and jewelry making. Only a beginner in both, I have had a lot of fun with both. My oldest daughter joins in the fun and has been enjoying herself a good deal. We made some fridge magnets, candle holders and heaps of jewelry.

 Besides all that and a bit of sewing, I also managed to start the colorwork cardigan that I was hoping to, in the last post. I have never made a colowork sweater for myself and had been wanting to for some time.

 The pattern is a DROPS free pattern, but I decided to knit it from the top down. The yoke is done and I am halfway down the body now. It is looking good, though the progress has been slow on 3 mm needles. I am thinking of adding the colorwork to the sleeve cuffs. That should keep it interesting.

Driftwood Cardigan

The plain black sweater is finally done and I have been wearing it for many days. It is warm and comfortable. Its construction was a bit weird in that the pattern asked for too many sts in the underarm area. Also, the neck was too gaping. I will have to live with the former issue, but fixed the later by doing a row of slip st crochet with a smaller-sized hook.

In the end, it has turned out almost just as I had wanted _ black, plain and comfortable. Next, I have some hankering for stranded work. I may already have cast on another cardigan.

Simple and Black

Before I got caught up in sewing my daughters' dresses for a family wedding, I had cast-on for a black cardigan. I needed one for routine use, and considering how black (and sparkly black at that ) can be a difficult color, I wanted a plain sweater. And I wanted to knit contiguous sleeves. And I was feeling too lazy to figure out the details on my own. So I searched and found a free, contiguous pullover pattern and chose to knit it as a cardigan.

This is how far I came, before the wedding sewing put the inevitable pause in my knitting:

 As you can see, I have divided for sleeves and from now onwards, it is just rows of simple stockinette stitch, with a little bit of waist shaping. I hope to resume work on it in a couple of days. It is going to be an loosely-fitting, cozy sweater. For this season or next.

New Addition And Blue Flowers Cardigan

I know this blog has been neglected for too long, but life has been crazy busy lately. It has been hard to find a moment to catch my breath and slow down, let alone find any time for knitting or other craft. Besides all the usual stuff taking up my time, there was one unusual (for us, at least) thing as well.

 Let me introduce the cutest and bounciest cause of my full days, the newest addition to our family, Ginger. We rescued it form the streets, couple of months ago. He was in a very bad shape, being very sick, weak and abandoned by his mother. After many weeks of love and care, we finally have him thriving. It is a full time job, keeping him out of mischief.

For the last two months, the only knitting I managed to get done, was a few rows here and there. The knitting was put on hold for several days at such points that required some mental calculation, because I was not free enough to sit down and do that. Extreme but very true. And thing look even bleaker for the coming months with ever-increasing loads of homework,  exams, projects that need a hand, on top of all the housework and errands.

  

     For now, I have managed to finish a cardigan for my five year old. I had a hard time picking a pattern for this yarn. I finally took inspiration from a picture and equipped with that picture and a Google Translate page for the pattern, I set about knitting this cardigan. Other than the flower chart, I did not use the translated pattern but did my own construction,knitting a round yoke and other omitting the collar.

It was an interesting knit and went smoothly for most part, except at the end when I forgot how to crochet. I kept holding my crochet hook and yarn like I hold a knitting needle and wondering why it felt weird. I had to do a net search before I figured out the problem. The little grey cells are really feeling the age.

My daughter is happy with the sweater and keeps asking when she can wear it. It will not be long now as the weather is turning cold now.

Ripped

Even though I have little progress to report, I have been busy this month, knitting-wise. I got some new yarns, picked out the patterns for them and got down to knitting the first of them. I intended it to be a cardigan for my toddler. I wanted a size larger than the one the pattern was originally in, so I went up a few needle sizes, and that seemed to work well with my yarn. I knit, and knit and knit. I had some doubts that it was turning out a tad bit larger than the target size, but I persevered. I had doubts about the color and the pattern together, but I continued. I divided for the armholes, and continued with body.

 

 I went much farther down the body than seen in the picture. With each passing day, and every growing inch, my dislike for the project grew. Even then, I gave it another chance, and started a sleeve to see if I would like it better once the sleeves were done. In the end, I had to be honest with myself, I hated it, no matter what. Hated it enough to rip out a couple of weeks of work and start afresh. So, I have finally done that. My confidence is still a bit shaken and I am not ready to share a picture of the new WIP just yet. But I know already that I do not hate it. So, there is a good chance, it will have a happier ending. 

Upcycled: Cardigan to Strawberries and more

The little hand-me-down cardigan was worn by at least five little girls, including three of mine, mashaAllah, over the past decade. The tag on it, indicates it was originally a 18 month size, but with innumerable

 washes over the years, it shrank and felted to be a six month size. It also got misshapen.

So, when I needed some red felt for a project, it was time for this cardigan to be sacrificed. And some time later, I had a little strawberry pincushion. (Picture tutorial pinned on my pinterest board here.)

And because the little strawberry was ridiculously easy to make and cute, I made another.

 My kids wanted in on the action, so we made a couple more.

Now we had a complete harvest.

And I did not have the heart to throw away the embroidered part of the cardigan, so that got made into a case for my scissors.

I still have quite a bit of red felt remaining. Who knows what it will turn into some day.

On a serious note, I bumped my head into a preschool swing set, a few days back and suffered a mild concussion. The dizziness and headache still persist. I do not feel like taking on any new projects, (to be honest, daily housework is hard enough) until I feel better. Soon, inshaAllah.

To Frog Pond And Back

Just as I suspected, in the case of my grandpa sweater, the tubular bind-off at the lower edge and front bands, did not hold up well with wear and stretched to much out of shape. So much so, that I decided to take the drastic step and frog back the collar bands and the lower edge ribbing. It took a significant bit of resolve to take off all the buttons and rip out all the buttonholes reinforced with hand-sewing, but it needed to be done, if this cardigan were to make my frequently worn list.
I redid the ribbings with smaller-sized needle and did regular bind-off in rib. I lost some yarn in frogging and decided to forgo the shawl collar, considering the little extra yarn that I had, was used up in the lower edge ribbing.  It was all worth it in the end, as the regular bind-off is much more stable and I do not miss the shawl collar much.

 

Grandpa Cardigan

In an amazing turn of events, I actually met the deadline of finishing this cardigan by the weekend. Perhaps the facts that pattern was easy to memorize, the WIP (work in progress) looked promising, and that I desperately needed for a new cardigan to wear around the house, helped move things along faster.
On the other hand, the tubular bind-off all over this cardigan, took much longer than the simpler bind-offs. Thankfully, I am not averse to Kitchener st, and managed to get it done.

 The finished cardigan looks quite nice with all the cables and has a nice fit too. The pattern was well-written and easy to understand. Sleeve construction technique was new for me but it went smoothly. I am a bit skeptical about the tubular bind-off, that it might stretch out of shape. It has not happened yet, after one evening of wear, but I am watching out for it. The other thing, I have doubts about is the collar, which amounts to only a semi-shawl collar. It works fine for me, but in case anyone wants a true shawl collar, one should add more short rows.

My little assistant helping with the photo shoot.

The yarn is our old faithful acrylic, warm enough for our weather and easy to care, (not to mention, inexpensive and readily available).
Next up, before I get back to the boring aran pullover, I hope to knit a pair of gloves. No more cables for now, It is time for some colorwork.

KAL Update

 

All the slog over the past two weeks has paid off, and I am happy to report that I am done with the body of the grandpa cardigan and nearly half the way through the first sleeve. The tubular bind-off, at the lower edge of the body, took its time but gave satisfactory result. I hope to get this cardigan done by the next weekend, inshaAllah.

Grandpa KAL and more

The Winter brought with it, the seasonal illnesses into our household, namely cold, flu and associated respiratory problems. The youngest two members of the family were affected and last week consisted of hospital visits and caring for the little ones. Thankfully, they seem to be on a mend and I am again able to take stock of the world beyond antibiotics and bronchodilators.

On the knitting front, the aran sweater that was giving me trouble, continued to live up to its reputation as I ran short yarn. When all my efforts to procure more of the same yarn failed, I decided to take a risk and get some instead in the exact shade of color but different weight. I try to knit the sleeves with the lighter yarn, held double and hope for the best. Soon.

 

Meanwhile, I embarked on a KAL (knit-along) with my long-time friend Shells. We did many a KALs in the past, but none to recently. This time, we are knitting Grandpa cardigan. Although, the start has not been perfect, Shells finding the selected yarn a bit thin for the pattern (she bogs about it here and here) and I getting caught up in kids' illnesses, still I have high hopes for this KAL. Hopefully, it will provide us much motivation and fun.

At this point, I have managed to knit this top-down sweater to a point beyond the armholes. Ahead are long pattern rows with relatively little shaping, in other words, a slog. And that is just where I wish to be, knit-wise, at the moment.

Another Baby Cardigan

 

This baby cardigan got done this week. I found it hard to decide on a suitable pattern for this variegated yarn. Finally decided to improvise with this design, not sure if it worked. And as I winged the size, it turned out a bit larger than the intended 1-year size. It is more like for 18-24 months bracket. I still have some more variegated yarn to try and knit a toddler sweater with. Hopefully, that will turn out better than this one.

Striped Baby Cardigan

This week, I worked on this baby cardigan. You can probably tell that leftover yarns from some previous projects were used in this project. The short sleeves, with different color ribbing and underlying plain, full sleeves, might look like clever design elements, but are in fact improvisations on my part, as I ran out of yarns.

The pattern I started with, was Little Coffee Bean Cardigan, but these necessary, impromptu changes turned it into something else. Nevertheless, I still think it turned out quite cute.

Purple Toddler Coat

 We have had a lot of rain this month and so while I finished this coat a week ago, there has not been enough light to take proper photos till now. It may look benign or even nice, but it was one of the most tedious things I ever knit. Not fun at all. In addition, the honeycomb pattern can be physically challenging to the wrists.

The technical details..Initially, I picked this pattern to knit, but my yarn was a different weight, so I decided to do my own math. And go with a top-down, contiguous approach, which I later realized, was all wrong for this design because of the considerable gauge difference between stockinette st and honeycomb pattern. So when I tried to get proper sizing at the yoke, the sleeves caps grew quiet loose. At that point, I had already invested a great deal of time and energy (remember the honeycomb pattern being hard on the wrists) to rip back. So I decided to move on and get it done.

 Thankfully my toddler does not have an eye for such details yet. She is happy and content with the fact that her mom made her a new cardigan. And that is good enough for me. It is a bit large on her at the moment as it is intended to fit her next winter.

A Bit Unravelled

My current wip (work in progress)

I am knitting this cardigan top down. I had planned to finish the neckline with a few rows of ribbing and it was to have the first buttonhole as well. So i put in the rest of the buttonholes accordingly. However I had a nagging suspicion that the neckline was too small and ribbing would make it even smaller. So on reaching the bottom of the cardigan, I decided to knit the neck ribbing before the bottom edge and just as i thought, it made the neck opening too small. So I frogged the ribbing and did an I-cord bind-off instead. But that meant the first buttonhole was now too far down, thus creating the need for this unravel of the buttonhole band.

Thankfully the band is all fixed now and I am binding off the cardigan now. I have made several mistakes while knitting this cardigan ans sadly not all were so easy to fix. So I have had to put up with them. More on that when I show you the completed cardigan. For now, I am happy to be almost done with this cardigan and if I am wise, I should be sticking to tried and tested patterns for a while (highly unlikely..).

Peplum

 

Once we somewhat settled into a routine with the new baby, I treated myself to some yarn shopping and bought three sweaters' worth of yarn for the older kids. I got to work on the first sweater in late January. It went quite slow because the only knitting time I get is after the kids' bedtime. Still, a few rows at a time and I got this sweater done in under a month.

   This is for my oldest daughter. I knit this top down, checking the fit as it went along. I did not follow any pattern, just did some math and cast on. She specifically requested raglan sleeves otherwise I had initially planned set-in sleeves. I miscalculated the button band width and it turned out too narrow. So, to avoid gaping, I sewed the cardigan closed from the second buttonhole down to the peplum. About the peplum, I have been wanting to knit one for some time and I think it looks awfully cute on seven-year olds.

  The yarn is our local acrylic DK weight which is surprisingly soft and wears well. My daughter is quite pleased with the sweater and I had a fun time knitting it. I guess that makes it a success.

 Now, on to the second sweater. That is half the size of this one and ought to be done sooner, inshaAllah.

Around The House Cardigan

Someone gave me some old yarn recycled from an old sweater, a while back. Since it was a color most often by me in sweaters, I used it to knit a cardigan for myself to wear around the house. The yarn is somewhere between sports and DK weight. After figuring out the needle size and gauge, I knit a top-down cardigan using contiguous method for shoulders and set-in sleeves.I incorporated a cable for the saddle shoulder.

 Even though I was a bit uncertain about the fit, seeing how I was winging the whole process, it turned out fabulously well, at the first go. Even though it is my third contiguous project, I still get thrilled by how this method makes wonderfully seamless sweaters.  

I used cable charts from this pattern. In the end, the yarn ran a bit short so I ended up with a slightly cropped cardigan and three-quarter sleeves.

 

Little Blossom Cardigan

 

I got the buttons and finished up the intarsia sweater. I had to make something for my toddler as she was keenly waiting for something to fit her, trying on all the little baby projects while I worked on them, recently. So I promised her a sweater with flowers. It took care of my need for some color work too, as well as using up some of the leftover yarns. I made a few changes to the pattern, omitting the side slits, doing garter rib instead of seed stitch and added a crochet trim around the collar cuffs and bottom. I knit the 3-4 year size, so it is a bit large on her for now. However she is quite happy with it, flowers, pockets and all.

Intarsia Preview

I did start a little intarsia project to appease the unusual craving I had for some more color work. It is a cardigan for my toddler. It is nearly done, however, I still have to find the right buttons for it. So it will be a few more days before I have a FO photo. Here I leave you with a small preview:

Initially, I was planning a hat to go with it but all this color work has apparently taken care of my craving rather too well. And I can not wait to get it finished and start something new and different.