Sage Blooms and Winter Blooms: A Tale of Two Knits

Wow!  How has it been a year???  A summer of fun in the sun, followed by months of fun in the rain and snow, and here we all are, during the crazy time that is 2020.

Once upon a time, back in November, Erica Sufka offered a test knit for her pattern, Winter Blooms Mini, and I signed right up, knowing I had other things to knit and sew, aha!!!  But it worked out, as it's one of my daughter's favorite sweaters!  Camden loves her cabled sweater, and honestly, the pattern was a relatively quick knit, whipped up in Hazel Knits Lively DK in the colorway Blueberry.  You can likely see the line where I changed colors, as I apparently chose NOT to alternate.  I have no idea how I fell into doing that, as it was back in November of 2019.  At the time, Camden was 9.75 years old, and I knit the size 8, as I figured the chest size would better suit her, and it did!

Fast forward to last month, when Erica announced she was starting a test knit for Sage Blooms, a cardigan version of the same cable pattern - yay!!!  Again, I knew I should be doing other things, but it was so pretty, and Camden was totally in the market for a new cardigan, for real!!  In this case, the pattern runs down the back, and it has a nice band around the sweater, no buttons added!  The version I knit up is a bit on the long side, aha; I'd temporarily forgotten Camden is somewhat short, and it's one of those cables where you have two different stopping point choices.  I went with the full chart repeat, rather than halfway down, when I should have done the reverse.  Because of this, I ended up knitting the sleeves long.  But... I sadly thought I'd knit the armscye long enough, and I didn't.  For this reason, the sweater might not fit as long as I'd like it to fit her.

Sad days.

But!  On a happy note, Camden picked the colorway, Glacier, on Quince and Co. Osprey.  I purchased the yarn from Twisted, a local yarn store I am sad to see closing (though I think they will continue the on-line shop).  I'm not a pale blue kind of lady, but it's her thing, and it's so lovely!  I loved the yarn a lot, but something to keep in mind with this aran-weight yarn is that it's a dense aran weight, so, at the gauge, it bothered my hands on the needles I needed to use.  I love the fabric, but whew.... my wrist and hand hurts, thinking about it, aha!

Legit - you need BOTH patterns!!!  Why???  You need them because you get to work with two different yarn weights and enjoy the pattern twice!!!  Erica includes number counts, which I always love, and the chart is an easy one!!  And I promise that if you have a kid/grandchild in your life, along with too much yarn in your stash, then these are the patterns for you!

A Rose is a Rose is a Mini Rock Rose Cardigan

This cardigan is SUCH gloriousness!!!  Sounds ridiculous, but it's true!  I love it so much!  I have wanted to make this pattern for a long time, and when I found out Nadja of Schneckenstrick Designs was hosting a KAL, I decided to begin!  I dug into stash yarn and used yarn that was originally planned for ME.

(I shall take this time to announce that I pretty much can't see myself knitting too many garments for ME out of superwash yarns, so, I guess it IS helpful I have a few sweater quantities on hand to pull from for Camden or Tiberius, but it's also a bit sad.  I just know my future self doesn't want to get frustrated with sweater growth, etc., so, I plan to mostly knit non-superwash when it comes to me.)

The pattern is called the Mini Rock Rose, and there is an adult version, which would be so fun, too!  You can knit any of her patterns, I believe, and I have no idea when the KAL ends, so, just go ahead and join!

I feel like I was on gauge - or super close, but I knit a size 6/8, and it definitely came out close-fitting, so, I hope against hope that it'll fit well through spring.  I used Hazel Knits - the Lively DK base in the Cabbage Rose colorway, which was a great yarn choice!

The pattern was great - super clear and easy.  I was relieve, LOL, upon reaching the bottom ribbing, as I was dying from so many bobbles, though bobbles ARE simple, and the pattern repeat wasn't complicated or anything.  And I did follow the instructions and knit an i-cord bind-off, so, that took a while.  I probably, as usual, made the sweater slightly longer, because I knit a longer ribbed section on the hem and sleeves.  I love the finished size at the moment.

After blocking, I almost went with a floral button, but the button was slightly too large, and though gorgeous, it detracted from the loveliness of the sweater.

Camden wore this ALL day at school yesterday, as she was wearing her strappy Seashore Sundress, so, she wanted to keep warmer.  That makes me pretty happy!!!

And some fun days!  We went to a Mini Maker Faire, and the kids enjoyed rock climbing, blacksmithing and screen printing!

Christmas in July on her 4th day of school!

Day 3 of school in her Modkid Claudia!

When Voolenvine, Hazel Knits and Joji Locatelli Meet

Oh, y'all....how I love this cowl!  Shall I count the ways???

I'll spare you, LOL.

Pardon my crazy lips :O

Blocking creases and my healing lip aside, this 3 Color Cashmere Cowl is crazy awesome.  It happily knit up in two weeks (thank YOU, Joji Locatelli - FB page - for a mostly-mindless pattern).  The pattern is crazy easy, though I did have to back out a few times in the lace portion...missing yarn-overs and whatnot.  Silly stuff.

What WAS difficult, though, was the choosing of yarn.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use Voolenvine yarn (FB page).  I believe I originally planned this out, and I had ordered three colorways, enlisting Kristin's help in complimenting colors.  I had wanted to use Dirty on Purpose and Nevermore, both on the Wolke base, a lovely merino/cashmere/nylon blend, but that proved an ill match.  Nevermore didn't stand out enough against the Dirty on Purpose, especially where it mattered in those thin stripes.  Royal Amber was the one constant, LOL; it seemed to look good with anything!  I pulled out a million skeins of yarn, knowing I just couldn't use Nevermore.  And, as luck would have it, because I really WANTED to use stash yarn, I was unable to locate the right sort of purple or teal (first-world problems, but LEGIT problems, people), which I knew would be great contenders.  So, I had to put off casting on until a trip to Twisted in Portland.  I knew THEY would probably have a lovely skein of Hazel Knits (FB page that would work.  I ended up finding just the thing in the Entice MCN, in the colorway Orchid.

Thank ME, the photographer, for capturing THAT side of the cowl ;)

It all worked out in the end, and the cowl only took me about two weeks from start to finish, which was awesome (though it felt LONGER, what with fingering weight yarn, aha!).

Date night with Camden's friends!

Tea time!

Camden's Vancouver besties!!!

Future Doodler Shawl???

Project bag prizes sent off to Adelaide Cottage and The Knitting Broomstick!

Making a project!

And below is a cool Link-Up Party I'm a part of over at Paisley Roots this month!  You know....Karly of Saffron dress fame????

An InLinkz Link-up