Jellybean – Yards of Happiness

Stitching Status: Almost Finished

I’m still plugging away at my Pink Professor sweater.
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Last night I got down to working on the cuff of the first sleeve and I’ve finished the collar. I had to do a little steam blocking to help relax the body and the collar after I took this pic to make sure I didn’t need to rip it all out and redo it but it seems to be fine.

I love picking up stitches but always feel like it’s too tight and with this sweater I made sure to slip the last stitch at the beginning of each row to have clean edges to pick up. Once I steam blocked it a bit it seemed to fall better into place but I do think once I’m finished it will definitely need a good soak to relax it a bit. My shawl collars are never as big and cozy as I have them envisioned in my mind but overall I’m really loving how this sweater is turning out. This yarn is just really, really pretty. I’m hoping I’ll be blocking it on Saturday! And in non-knitting news…

I got Jellybean a little carrier. We own a big backpack style carrier call the Muttmover that I bought a few years ago when Kendell ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon. I needed a way to keep Cher with me as I went all over Brooklyn cheering him on but I also needed her to be safe and not get stepped on. I’ve recommended that backpack for lots of people and everyone who buys it says it’s worth the money. But for Jellybean I needed something a bit smaller because we’re thinking of going to Chicago and New York next month and she’s even smaller and I need to keep her from getting stepped on in the big city too. Plus I’ve found when there are lots of people around she gets scared and will immediately turn around and ask to be picked up. So I figured I should be proactive and get a carrier for her. I went with this $15 find on Amazon. Of course she loves it. Snuggled down in it and got cozy as soon as I popped her in it. Of the two dogs she’s the most easy going as long as you’re holding her close. Perhaps in a past life she was a baby kangaroo?

So my weekend will definitely involve some knitting, what’s on your needles?

July 21, 2017July 21, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, Jellybean, Knitting, Madelinetosh, My Dogs, pink, Stitching Status, Sweaters, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, dogs, Jellybean the dog, Madelinetosh, pet carriers, pink, sweater knitting, traveling with dogs 5 Comments

Sweater Knitting: The Process

In July of 2015 I bought this sweater quantity (1400 yards) of Madelinetosh Vintage in the colorway Kilim on sale. It is gorgeous. Pictures don’t do it justice to all the flecks of color in this dusty pink yarn. I love it.
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But the yarn was so gorgeous that I kept trying to find the perfect sweater to make with it but couldn’t find anything good enough for it. I was at the beginning of my sweater knitting craze in 2015 so my skills weren’t where they are currently so I just kept looking lovingly at that yarn in it’s drawer. And this summer I’ve been trying to dig through my stash (and actually document it on Ravelry) and really use up a lot of what I have in order to move on and buy more yarn. Plus I know I love how good Madelinetosh feels and I wanted to knit with it. So I decided it was time to pull out the insanely gorgeous yarn and just make something as part of my Summer of Basics Makealong projects.
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On Friday night while my husband and I have pizza and watch a movie I finished off another little dress for a baby girl and then decided to swatch the yarn for the next project.

I decided to use size 9 needles, they’re my favorite. They’re not too small and not too big. Pre-blocking my swatch was 5 stitches per inch and post-blocking and drying it worked it’s way down to 4 stitches per inch. The magic of blocking folks. It truly changes your yarn.
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Saturday morning I got up and looked at my blocked swatch and decided to go ahead and make myself a very basic raglan sweater. I’m going for simple stockinette stitch because the yarn really does speak for itself, garter stitch bands and a shawl collar. I did add a little faux side seam because why not? And I’m considering picking up stitches and doing some patch pockets and perhaps adding elbow patches. I’m calling this one the Pink Professor because it seams like it would be a scholarly kind of knit plus I’m a professor. Although my classroom is always so hot I never wear my knits to lecture.
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As of Tuesday night I’ve gotten 9 inches of body from the point of separating from the sleeves. My hope is that by Wednesday night I can finish the body and by Saturday finish the sleeves. So far it fits really nicely and I’m hoping once it’s blocked there will be a bit more ease to it. I want it to be like a nice boyfriend cardigan but I added in waist shaping because I didn’t want it to just be a big box on me. I thought I’d document this one via my Instagram stories because so many people say they don’t think I sleep and I just knit. And I thought it would be a good one for my Sweater Knitting Series on how I actually go through a sweater from swatching to blocking. And I promise and I sleep and don’t knit in my sleep. I’m in bed passed out every night by 10:30/11pm. I promise.
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But Jellybean is also a tiny drill sergeant and makes me knit faster and faster so she has more warm yarn to burrow under. Perhaps that’s the secret to my success? So when it comes to really awesome yarn, how do you decide what to make with it?

July 19, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, Jellybean, Knitting, Madelinetosh, My Dogs, pink, Sweater Knitting Series, Sweaters, YarnTags: #summerofbasics, #yardsofhappiness, knitting, Madelinetosh Vintage, Summer of Basics, sweater knitting, sweater knitting tips, Yarn 6 Comments

FO: Scrappy Little Things

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You might be wondering what this is…such a tiny little finished object. Well when I finished knitting the neon pink toy dog the other day I had just the tiniest bit of yarn leftover from the skein. What to make with it? I’m often left with scraps that I put in a big glass bell jar and use for swatching.
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But this time I turned it into a tiny bandana cowl for Jellybean. She looks so regal here. LOL

In the span of about 40 minutes I cast on 41 stitches and whipped this baby up. Even did some short row shaping to get a point. It’s similar to this style of cowl I’ve made for non-dogs and myself before. But really it’s because I’ve been watching the Short Row Shaping mini course on Craftsy (it’s free) to really understand short rows better and to be able to do more in my sweater knitting. I’ve got lots of ideas swirling around in my head and just need the time to learn and test knit a lot. So that’s what I spend my free time doing. What new techniques are you trying to learn?