yarn
SSSS : Summer Sea Stripes & Stuff
So I made a sweater. Again. Hahahaha 🙂
I was so excited to have learned so much making my first sweater, the Feather & Fan Lace Sweater, that I wanted to apply all that newly acquired knowledge to another project right away! And I did. I present you today my second sweater, the Summer Sea Stripes! It’s not completely finished yet (I still have to make the sleeves) but I’m pretty happy about how it turned out so far!!!
There are still a few mistakes here and there (which project is perfect, really?) but I’m much happier about the fit of this one compared to the first one I made. My first sweater was made to measurements, but realized after wearing it a few times that I did not like the fit so much as it felt kind of baggy and stretchy. To fix that problem, I decided to make my second sweater with 2 inches of negative allowance to give it a snugger fit. And it worked perfectly! It is just SOOOO comfortable and so nice! I couldn’t be happier about how it turned out!
And the colors! Oh My God, The Colors! I designed this pattern to maximize the yardage I had in both colors, but I must say it turned out way nicer than I expected! Both are 75/25 Superwash Merino & Silk sock yarns, very soft and very smooth, with a lovely drape and an exquisite sheen. The black yarn is Cascade Heritage Silk that can be purchased both on Little Knits or on Webs (you can check out the Craft Ressources page of my blog for links to both these online yarn stores. You’re welcome!), I used 1 skein of it for my sweater. The blue yarn has got to be my best discovery of the month. It’s the Squishy Sock yarn, an exclusive product made by Chroma Fiber for the Artfil Yarn Shop & Craft Café, a little yarn boutique my friend Yana recently opened in Laval, Quebec. It is 356 yards of scrumptious deliciousness, hand painted by a local artisan in Montreal. It is simply gorgeous. If you’re interested, you can find it in store at the Artfil Yarn Shop & Craft Café, or you can buy it online on their website at http://www.artfil.ca/products/chroma-squishy-sock.
I recently made a review for this yarn, if you’re interested in reading it you can find it here.
So happy stitches guys, I’ll see you next time with another project (not a sweater again, I promise!)
Cheers!
Sweater-y weather
Hey-ho Fellow Crafties!
Today, I want to talk to you about my latest adventure : the Oh-my-god-I-want-to-knit-myself-a-sweater adventure! It started a few weeks ago; the weather has been warming up a lot here recently, and the snow is slowly melting away. It smells more and more like spring every day, and the warmer days inspired me to retire my winter coat for the season and use lighter and more colorful clothes to match the nice weather.
That said, I have been CRAVING a hand knit sweater so bad that I just couldn’t resist when I saw the most scrumptious blue balls of Bamboo Pop yarn I found as I was out shopping, so I bought 4 balls, and set off on a new adventure! Now, I must mention that I have never in my life knitted a sweater. I sew a sweater once or twice, but never have I actually knitted a piece of clothing other than a shawl, a scarf, socks or hats. I have never knitted a swatch either, because size has never really been an issue. Who cares if a scarf is 9 or 10 inches wide, really? And to top it all off, I had so many unanswered questions, like how exactly am I going to shape the shoulders? Or the neckline?
To give myself a better idea of what I was getting myself into, I first started by looking at sweater patterns, but I quickly realized it probably wouldn’t be a very good idea because I (very honestly) couldn’t visualize how it would come together. I really felt that if I just blindly followed the instructions given on a pattern, the sweater I would make wouldn’t fit as good as it should because it wouldn’t be adapted to my own body and measurements.
After coming to that conclusion, I instead decided to look for videos or tutorials on how to make your own sweater from scratch, and I found this very helpful series of videos from Knitpicks on YouTube that showed me exactly what I needed. You can find the first video of the series here.
I learned in that series of videos how to swatch, calculate my stitch counts and how to shape the sweater according to my body measurements and my knitting gauge. Strong from all this new information, I grabbed a pair of needles and my yarn and I started the project. Instead of making the sweater bottom up like they suggest in the video, I decided to adapt it to make it top down. I have never made a sweater before, so I have no idea if I have enough yarn to make a long sleeves sweater or not. By doing it top down, I can simply adjust the length of the sleeves the match the amount of yarn I have left at the end, so I figured that would be the most appropriate way to do it in my case.
Knitting a sweater is obviously a very slow process, even more so because it’s my first one and I’m not entirely sure of what I’m doing (Who am I kidding, really… I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what I’m doing!). I know I made a lot of mistakes and some spots look kind of weird in my opinion, but I have learned a lot in the process, and I know for sure that my next sweater is going to be a lot better. So far it seems the general shape and the measurements are right, so whatever I did was surely not entirely wrong 😉
I’m going to Cape Cod for the weekend to let off some steam and relax so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it before we leave or not, but if I can’t, I’ll make sure to update this post later to show you guys some pictures of the finished product.
On that note, that’s all for today folks, I hope you’ll all enjoy your Easter weekend and spend some quality time with your loved ones 🙂
Cheers!
Craftaholic
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Hi, my name is Stephanie. And I’m addicted to crafts.
Seriously, don’t laugh!
I cook, I knit, I sew, I crochet, I weave and I catch onto any kind of craft as I go. “That’s great!” you say, “Nothing wrong about that!” you say, but I do so much of it that I sometimes catch myself thinking that reality (a.k.a. everyday day life) is a serious hindrance to my craft life. I’m not unhappy, nor am I an awkward or socially inapt person. I have a wonderful life filled with friends, and laugh, a handsome boyfriend, and a job I like, but you see… I like crafts. No, that’s gotta be an understatement. I LOVE crafts. So today, I decided to create a blog to to share the love, so we can all become craftaholic together. 😉 Every so often, I’ll update this blog about recent projects, share the love on different types of craft, show you pictures and tips, and provide links to my ravelry projects so you can check out the details of every project.
So since we have to start somewhere, I think I’ll start by talking to you about my favorite. See, I love to knit, and I love delicate, creative and unique handmade things. And the best thing about those is that I can do them all at once when I knit lace.
Lace knitting for me is like an exciting adventure, first you have to choose your destination, then you choose your gear, and then you set off. Why is lace knitting so exciting, you say? It’s because the possibilities are endless per se! A change in the yarn, or the needles, or a small adjustment in the pattern can make a project look so uniquely different, you’d never guess where it came from! Every work is a piece of love delicately put together with concentration, patience, and creativity. There’s something distinctly rewarding about giving someone a beautiful and special gift you spent so much time on. Even if it only cost you 8$, it’s worth a fortune in that person’s eyes.
On that note, I think I’ll leave you here for today. Have fun, find inspiration and CREATE! 🙂
Cheers! 🙂
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Crafty Effie 