berry berry busy

Posted on Posted in designing, projects

the strawberry plants beginning to forge their way through their winter blanket of mulch.
the fortitude is admirable.

deb has added her new cashmere yarn to the fearless fibers etsy shop—a range of fresh colors in laceweight and sport/DK. the first group carries names of women that begin with the letter ‘A’—the blend of dark blues and grays that captured my heart is named anne (squee!). we’ll do a neckwarmer with this later in the summer (if i can keep my hands off of it long enough).

when mary at the knitting zone heard i hadn’t tried HiyaHiya needles, she sent me some to try

they arrived today so i haven’t had a chance to test drive them, but they appear to be very nice. the steel ones are quite lightweight (love that) and the bamboo ones seem smooth and sturdy, with a close, tight grain, unlike some other bamboo needles i’ve tried. i chose size 4 (3.5 mm) because that’s a size i use often for mitts and knit-on edgings.

i promised sweater progress and that’s what i have to share today.

on saturday night i knit up the left front of the blue version of the red cardi (this is why we need an actual name), then cast on for the back section.

i think i’m going to wear this sweater a lot—the fit is a bit better than the red one and it will go with tons of things in my drawers and closet.

i decided on a name for it, too—are you ready?
it was kinda tough; i wanted something that referred to the corrugated texture of the fabric and also relayed that pretty, womanly feeling you get from a piece that makes you feel “dressed”, no matter what you pair it with.

so i decided on ondulé, which is the french word for undulated—womanly, right?

last night i worked on the back section some more

i’m almost to the waist. soon, i’ll be halfway done; i can’t get over how fast this is knitting up. but i’m glad—i have lots to get done in the next few months.

because today is monday, i worked on my gray sweater in class this morning and got the neck completed and lots of ends woven in. this sweater is shaping up nicely, too—now that some edges are finished, it’s looking a little spiffier. during the afternoon class i started one of the sleeves but didn’t get far—we talk too much in that class (but we have a lot of fun). and we had cake. i think this evening i’ll relax and get a few inches knit on that.

i think i mentioned the other day that, much as i like this gray version of the sweater (which also needs a name), i’m going to have to reknit it if for publication in a yarn that is currently available. chris sent me this gorgeous batch of her legend sport/DK. i haven’t knit with legend yet, but i have the feeling i’m about to fall hard for it. this rich gold colorway is incredible; i have an old much-loved gansey in a similar color but nothing remotely new so i’m psyched.

i’m going to swatch for this sweater with it and compare the results to the swatch i did last week in fourth of july, then decide (the one i don’t use will become something else).

ok, now i’m going to tell you about another project where i’m sorta making a mess in order to get to a better end. i made this lace-ribbed sweater about four years ago in a plain blue and to dress it up i added a narrow edge of fur trim.

feel free to drop to the floor an roll about laughing—i’ll wait . . . . .

i agree it was an unfortunate choice. it made the sweater so dressy that i never wore it and then it went out of style very, very quickly. but i can really use a sweater of this weight. and i think this color will look good with brown and gray trousers and tweeds and a few other things in my closet (including some jewelry i don’t get to wear much).

it cannot be pulled out in the normal way—the yarn simply can’t be ripped. but i can snip the base of the fur stitch-by-stitch and release it

it sounds tedious but the work actually goes very quickly—in a few hours time i’ll be able to save and use a sweater that was languishing in my drawer. less time than knitting a new one, eh?

and with that, i think i’ll wander off to see about the knitting. adios.

30 thoughts on “berry berry busy

  1. I have no idea whether this would be possible or whether you would feel it would compromise the design of the sweater or be too difficult to offer–I suspect both of these–but I would love to see the gray sweater pattern incorporate an alternate neck. My neck skin is sensitive and I find even mock necks very itchy. I know this is the sort of mod more experienced knitters make all the time, but I am not experienced when it comes to sweaters… Anyway, normally I would not mention it but since you are doing a reknit I just thought I’d put it out there.

    It looks fabulous, though. And I’m very curious to see what will become of the formerly fur-trimmed sweater!

  2. Loving your grey sweater and the gold yarn is fabulous. Two of my favorite colors, for sure. Can’t wait to see it finished.

  3. OK – I have finally gotten off the floor. Actually I was laughing before you said to. I know what you were going for,tho!

    How about a simple little picot edging or rev sc. From what we can see it doesn’t look like it would need much, and these two wouldn’t take anything away from the pattern. Think the brown trim would still be nice, and may stay in style longer 😉

    Let us know what you think of the HiyaHiya needles if you will, been thinking about trying them.

  4. I’m in love with the gray sweater. The cables at the sides remind me of a running river. Gorgeous!!

  5. The grey sweater makes me think of a jigsaw puzzle. And, I agree with the previous poster that an alternate choice for the collar would be nice — at least could you mention an approach to changing it for those who can’t tolerate even a mock turtleneck. My climate doesn’t call for such a neckline even if I could wear one without feeling chocked.

  6. Well that was an unfortunate edging, but what a great way to get a “new” sweater!

    I love the grey sweater, nice geometric shapes again 😉 I too would probably make it with a crew neck, but that’s an easy alteration.

  7. All of your projects are coming along nicely, as usual. I will be thrilled to have a sweater pattern that you’ve designed.

  8. the hiya hiya metal circs also come in odd sizes 🙂
    every time i see hiya hiya it reminds me of the northern exposure episode where marilyn has the native american poultice.

    that gold yarn is gorgeous!

  9. hehe, I never would have pictured you for the fur trim type. The grey sweater is gorgeous, and I for one, love the neckline. My neck is always cold (so, neckwarmer or high neckline). And can’t wait to see ondule, great name! (I can’t get the accent).

  10. Anne- We all fell for the funfur thing- don’t feel bad.

    I don’t think Chris at Briar Rose is capable of doing a bad color- they’re all stunning.

  11. I have a bajillion fun fur scarves I’ll never get to wear lol. Thinking I’ll donate them.

  12. Love the stitch and color on the faux-fur-finished sweater. Well worth the snip and save. On my monitor it appears light blue. I’ve been in “blue” yarn sweater phase for a month or so now. I’m finishing up the last sleeve on my 2nd blue sweater in a row.

  13. Oh man–I have a ton of Easter-colored (all pastel pink/green/blue/purple/yellow) funfur in my stash, and I’m cracking up imagining it as a new edging for your sweater. It’d look like an Easter basket!

    (What can I say, it was on sale, and I actually made some really cute scarves and hats from it. But there’s only so much pastel funfur one can use . . .)

  14. It’s a good thing you’re giving lace-ribbed sweater a new life: it seems too pretty to be languishing in a drawer! Can’t wait to see the whole sweater and the new edging.

  15. Love that fur trim…lol. Cut it up into short pieces and throw it out on your bushes for the birds’ nesting material. At least it will have a more useful end! 🙂 That gold yarn is really nice! How about some pics of the new shawl in use? I have my eye on some Rowan Siena, which is a lightweight cotton–do you think it would work for that? I thought it might behave about the same as sea silk…but I defer to your expertise. 🙂

  16. Hooray for ondule! I love that name 🙂 And I’m tres amused by the fur trim — I’m glad it can be changed and used anew.

  17. Lace-ribbed! I surely would like to learn how to do that. I wonder how I could learn? If only there were a Knitspot pattern …

  18. Love how the neck pulls together the two stitch patterns of the gray sweater. Can’t wait to see the sleeves!

    That gold colourway made me drool on the keyboard. Absolutely gorgeous. Does it have a name? Since I’m visually impaired I often have trouble ordering by looking at photos on websites (yours is very clear, thank you).

  19. I defy you to find a knitter who doesn’t have something in fun fur buried in the closet, no matter how much she may deny it. I myself have, um, several items with fun fur edging–and one frighteningly purple fuzzy fun fur vest from about 1990. (To my dubious credit, I never actually wore it, but I keep it around to remind me of the difference between fad and style.)

  20. dude. fun fur, those were the days! was it really only 3 or 4 years ago? times change so fast!

    I have a scarf with fun fur knitted in with other yarns to give it some…fun…and I spent HOURS snipping the fluffy edges off to make it wearable again. I found those little bits around the house for months!

  21. My jaw literally dropped when I saw the furry edge on the sweater — I’m so glad you gave us permission to laugh! I’ll admit to making a couple fun fur scarves, both of which I gave away, because people thought there were so cute! I wonder what they think now….

  22. Ondulé sounds great and looks great, too!

    The gray, possibly soon to be gold, looks mostly like a maze to me, so I put maze into the online thesaurus and got this:

    Main Entry: maze
    Part of Speech: noun
    Definition: labyrinth; confusion
    Synonyms: bewilderment, convolution, entanglement, hodgepodge, imbroglio, intricacy, jungle, knot, meander, meandering, mesh, miscellany, morass, muddle, network, perplexity, puzzle, quandary, skein, snarl, tangle, torsion, twist, uncertainty, web, winding

    Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
    Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
    Cite This Source

    Does anything there snag your interest? I’d thought of ‘arcane’ but it didn’t seem quite right. Maybe ‘cable and maze’.

  23. 1. i LOVE hiya hiya needles (the steel ones). I bought them on a whim and now want them in every size. They’re slippery but not too much,and just slightly flexible (unlike some metal needles). ok, raving over.
    2. At least the fun fur was not an overall design feature and easily removed! I have found that what I have left over from those unfortunate days works great for doll dresses for my little nieces.

  24. Ondulé sounds perfect, looking forward to the name of the gray sweater also. As well as both patterns!

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