Queue Check — October 2015

I’m sure you’ve all been on pins and needles wondering what happened — did I finish my Cowichan-ish vest in time to wear it at Rhinebeck? I can’t believe I didn’t say so in my Rhinebeck report, but yes, yes I did. Wellllllll, sorta. The zipper needs a little more attention and I haven’t decided what I’m doing about the armholes yet, so that’s one last detail to be tended to. But I love it, I wore it, so did Amber, and I hope to have pics of it soon, at which point I’ll interview myself for the series. I also finished my gorgeous Laurus that same weekend.

If I could drop everything and cast on anything I wanted right now, hand to heart it would be another Cowichan vest, with another mega zipper. However, there are more pressing matters. For one thing, there’s my Slotober Frock, which I honestly still haven’t made up my mind about, so it’s not looking like it will be finished before Slow Fashion October comes to an end. That’s fine and just, right? Then the thing I cast on after the last Cowichan end was woven in (oh lord, so many ends) was the aforementioned black version of my Anna Vest. I’ll be at Tolt for the anniversary and book launch party on the 7th, and I thought it would be fun to wear my vest from the book, but those six inches of knitting you see up there are all I have, so there’s no way that’s happening. I am crazy about the way the Terra is knitting up in this stitch pattern — an unexpectedly perfect fabric — so while I can’t wait for this to exist, the fact that I won’t have it in time for the big event means the project is downgraded, while these two skip ahead:

1) Bob’s first sweater. How long have I been promising this? Forever. It’ll be knitted in this great deep blue-green O-Wool Balance and it will be a classic rollneck pullover. I’m thinking saddle shouldered, but I’ve not knitted a saddle shoulder before. Research to do.

2) My perfect grey pullover. We’ve talked about this treasured Sawkill Farm yarn — I just need to make up my mind about the pattern. Do I want to do the Purl Sweatshirt Sweater? Improvise a perfectly basic top-down crewneck (with basted seams, of course)? Or apply aforementioned saddle-shoulder research to my own sweater, too. (I mean, this is pretty perfect, right?)

Decisions, decisions. Thankfully there’s the next Hatalong hat, launching tomorrow, to alleviate all the stockinette stitch in my future.

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16 thoughts on “Queue Check — October 2015”

wearing my first hat-along, “Audrey” almost every day now, here in MN – Lovin’ it! The three others are still callin’ cause I love these little opportunities to try new stitch patterns etc. Also working on that pale pink classic cable sweater still – back, front and one sleeve complete. Taking a break from that to do the Cowichan vest with a friend – waiting for her to say the word. Also,anxiously awaiting my tolt pattern book because the Anna Vest will be knit this winter – yeah, lovin the
vest these days – so perfect in so many ways! Keep ’em comin’, Karen!

I have fallen in love with grey recently. You can pair it with any color and it looks fabulous! Little boring to knit, but it is wonderful when it is done!

That texture in black looks wonderful. Maybe it will inspire me to order the Soot Shelter that my husband wants for a sweater. I have been procrastinating. He is a big guy and likes big sweaters…in (almost) black. We finally agreed on a pattern (which I have to modify, of course) so what am I waiting for, right? Okay….maybe today….

Hey Karen,

I’ve made the Purl sweater and sadly don’t love it. I recently made Aibrean by Isabell Kraemer, which is a textured take on the sweatshirt sweater. It was a pretty easy knit and I think it would be lovely in the Sawkill. I only picked up 3 skeins of the Sawkill at RB and definitely want more! It’s a pretty perfect gray and is so sheepy!

Wash a swatch of the O-Wool balance before you use it… I chose it because of its machine washableness, but the color bleeds so badly it cannot ever go in the wash with any other garment. I have never had yarn bleed so badly. Even the damp sweater blocked out stained the mesh rack I blocked it on. I think they are not setting the dye properly for the cotton content :/ I really love the yarn, but would not use it again for this reason.

wow, I just wanna rub my face in that texture for the vest!!!! I’m in between projects right now and while it’s exciting to make the decisions of what to do next, there’s a lot of pressure! so I’m practicing my colorwork on some abandoned acrylic yarn until I decide

I’m really loving your color palate at the moment … it’s so rich!

I’m using my Sweater Study class at my LYS to finally make my husband a sweater. I’m going for the Sawyer from Brooklyn Tweed, I’m loving the texture of the stitch pattern a lot. And as for saddle shoulder, since you encourage me to try sweater knitting (which I’ve become obsessed with) I will encourage you to do the saddle shoulder. I knit my first one in February and it was surprisingly easy. It’s all about picking up stitches around the patches you knit. Don’t be afraid!

IamDWJ says:

October 28, 2015 at 9:04 am

Oh and it was great to see you featured on Instagram as a knitter to watch!!

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Hey! I’ve made the Purl sweater and don’t love it. Check out Aibrean by Isabell Kraemer. It’s a textured take on the sweatshirt sweater and would be perfect for the Sawkill. I recently finished it in Elsawool cormo and love it!!

I wonder if Ysolda’s Blank Canvas would be your ideal grey sweatshirt-sweater? It has pretty interesting shoulder shaping and is, as the title suggests, pretty open to interpretation.

Michele Wang’s Bedford is a lovely sweater. It hangs well, it’s flattering and the repeating pattern on the body makes it interesting to knit. It has all the advantages of a basic sweatshirt, but with texture.