Dawn!

Backstory Done and Done!

Pattern: Dawn from Kim Hargreave's Nectar
Yarn: GGH Linova - 6 skeins
Needles: US 5 and US 6
Exposition: Well the Dawn has finally arrived!

What to say about this little shrug? It came together so quickly, it's almost like it didn't happen. Like it just magically appeared. Amazing! And now that it's all done I'm excited for an opportunity to wear it.

I had my issue with the collar, but was able to fix it with just a few hours frogging and knitting. Attaching the collar to the back edging was another story. The garter has give and the lace is loose and floppy, so trying to fit one to the other worked out, but caused a little bit of a gathered look at center back. It does lay flatter when pulled up, so it's not anything that's bothering me. I also think that a good wash and block will fix it.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow and it knit up very quickly. My initial concern was about how tight the ribbing would be around my waist, but it seems to be fitting okay - dare I say loosely [I think I blocked it out a bit too much]. Now my concern is stabilizing the wonky button band. The garter is pretty stretchy and therefore I'm having trouble figuring out where exactly to attach the buttons. I don't want any funky pulling [as you can see at the bottom, it's already curling] so I'd like to get it to lay flat and behave. I might have to sew something to the backside or add a hook an eye to give it a little extra stability.

Speaking of buttons - I love the buttons I found at Joanns this afternoon. They are La Mode Vintage - a collection of buttons recreated from their archives. I first saw this pretty leaf style, but unfortunately, it didn't look right on Dawn. These were next ones I picked up and they were perfect! Oh, I love them so!

I love them so much, you might see them appear on another garment in the not too distant future - or maybe I'll have to go back and get those leaf buttons...

Overall, I'm really happy with how Dawn turned out. I'm going to give it a good washing which will hopefully snap the ribbing back a bit, figure out a solution for the band and attach the buttons accordingly. WHOO HOO!

Seaming: FAIL

I'm wearing my totally cute Cabled Jacket #41 today. It's steaming hot outside and comfy cool inside the office, so this is the perfect little sweater for today. The wool keeps me so nice and cozy, the 3/4 sleeves and croppy-ness keep it spring-y and light. Oh, I'm so glad this sweater worked out!

I guess the love comes from the trials and tribulations we went through.

So that means I'm going to love Dawn once I get her all together.

Seaming. Where did I go wrong? Oh yeah, that part where I decided not to follow those pesky instructions. Yeah, that's it.

Being a knitter of independent and unsound mind, I decided to blaze my own knitting trail. I decided to knit the collar band in one piece rather than knitting two separate pieces and seaming together at center back. Then I sewed the collar to the back. As you can see, it came out all wonky.

So, guess what?

I'm going to frog and follow the instructions this time.

Go figure. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. I was pretty mad at myself for being so stubborn. So how did I console myself?

I started a new project.

Dawn Is Not Distant...

Despite my weekend soiree with Jacket #41, I've made some significant progress on Dawn. I'm on the back section and am about 40 rows away from starting the back's bottom ribbing. I'm excited to get this one off the needles, but it's getting heavier, so I may have to pace myself a bit. Working on Helon is an option as well as a few other little projects I have in mind.

The one thing that has been on my mind quite a bit lately is what to do with the Plymouth Bamboo. I'm depressed about the two different dye lot issue. I would need 3 more balls to make Nectar and unfortunately, Webs [who has it on sale] doesn't have either dye lot in stock. I would suck it up and buy the extra 3 balls, but then that's a third shade I'd be throwing into the mix. I thought of the over-dye option, which seems valid, but I'm not sure how bamboo would take the dye not to mention I happen to really love the shade of green it is now. I also thought of buying another colorway and making something striped, but that just doesn't appeal to me at all.

What's a knitter to do?!?!

Right Before Dawn

I'm about 6 rows away from finishing Dawn's right front. The pattern states that this shrug is knitting in one piece, so I imagine I'll be joining the two fronts together and working down the back.

Why bother reading the instructions beforehand? I'd rather be surprised.

Famous last words, right?

Sleeves A'Dawning!

I really thought I'd get more done on Dawn while I was visiting my brother's this past weekend, but with three girls to look after, I didn't have much quiet time.

Besides that, Dawn requires my full attention. As many of you know, I sometimes have issues reading instructions. I tend to assume I understand the directions rather than reading and doing what they say as written.

Dawn is a pattern that is not having any of it!

Decreases for the neckline occur AT THE SAME TIME as increases for the sleeve. It's all very confusing [especially to someone who interprets instructions]. I knit and frogged and knit and frogged and knit and frogged. I finally decided to just put it away until I could have some uninterrupted knitting time.

So last night, I took the time and went line by line, doing what the instructions told me to do. It confounds the mind to realize that it worked! I only had to frog once when I missed an increase.

There were a few tools that helped me get through. First was the Stitch Minder application for the iPhone which I used it to keep track of increase and decrease rows. Priceless!

Another tool that is super handy are these colored stitch markers. Blue for decreases, pink for increases, and white for anything else. So when I did need to frog back, I knew exactly where the last increase/decrease/anything else was and could go forward without guess which increase/decrease/anything else it was.

Just one more decrease, twenty some odd rows and I'm at the shoulder! Not bad! Of course, then I have to knit the second side.

sigh...

Dawing...

I finally remembered to bring my camera with me, so I thought I would share some pictures of Dawn's progress.
So far, so good. There's just a little shaping here and there, so keeping track of row count has been really important.

The Linova is pretty nice to work with so far...it 74/26% cotton/linen blend so my hands haven't been drying out like they do with 100% cotton yarn. I'm excited to see how it is after a wash and a block. The color is called Lint...which although seems to me to be a strange name, is actually an accurate representation of this particular shade of purple [for some reason the picture makes it look more blue than it is].

That's it for now.

Spring!

Last September, I was seduced by Kim Hargeaves. Her book, Nectar,was available at one of my LYS and once I looked through it, I knew I had to have it. As much as I wanted to cast on immediately, Fall was immanent and knitting something light weight and breezy and having to wait 6 months to wear it would have been torture.

So this weekend, I was rummaging through the stash and pattern books looking for something springy to make. The patterns in the Nectar book once again jumped out at me. I matched them up with some stash yarn and swatched away.

Lucky, the yarn that I thought would work did! I've casted on for Dawn in GGH Linova. It's been a while since I've don't anything that could - even remotely - be considered lace, so it's been slow going to say the least. I mean, are all those yarn overs really necessary?

I also decided that I will start on the Nectar sweater soon. I have some Plymouth Bamboo yarn that I've been really looking forward to using and this pattern will be perfect. I did run into one small problem.

I'm about 3 balls short.

Luckly, Webs has stock so hopefully the dyelot is the same. Keep your fingers crossed for me!