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 Magnolia Mini to Grow Into

The second I saw this pattern design, Magnolia, by Camilla Vad, I knew it had to be MINE. 

But wait!!!  This is for Camden.

Yes, it is, as the designer then came out with a children's version, the Magnolia Mini which is clearly much faster to knit, aha!  Since then, she has also designed a hat for this pattern, and she will be coming out with a chunky version of the sweater, which is great for fast knits.  

I really wanted to use HER yarn, as you could tell, in photos alone, that it was a great pairing, but she isn't state-side, and I didn't need to spend a lot of money.  I purchased Quince and Co Organic Chickadee Heathers some months ago from Twisted, which is a great shop in Portland!  I love that Camden now has a classy gray sweater (Kumlien's Gull colorway), so to speak.  I don't do neutrals too much, so, it was fun to make this!

As for the pattern, it was super easy.  I had a one foolish moment, OF COURSE, where I lost my ability to read, and there is one error in the pattern, which I messaged the designer about, but it's a typo sort of thing you know must be wrong.  It did take me five hundred years to work through all that stockinette before the bottom of the sweater, which is great for easy knitting, and I felt I moved quickly through the patterned section.  I was pushing it on needle size/gauge.  Chickadee isn't a superwash yarn, which is great, but I maybe should have sized down needles.  I was pretty spot-on, pre-blocking, and I haven't measured gauge since, but I had also knit a size larger than what she needs, so, it should fit a while. 

Also, I sized down one needle size for the bottom and sleeve cuff ribbing, which the pattern doesn't call for, but I couldn't help myself.  I do see how NOT going down a needle size is beneficial for this pattern, but I am ridiculous, aha.  And while the pattern does include directions for long sleeves, and those would have been pretty, when I had purchased the yarn, I was trying to save money and not buy another skein of yarn, so, I knew I'd do shorter sleeves.  I could have pushed it to see if 3/4 length sleeves would have worked, but I felt lazy.

Go knit this pattern, y'all!!!  The adult version, the kid version, whatever!  I still really want one for myself.

And sooooo many days in the life of us.

On Christmas day in the morning!

Hmmm... whispers!!

Weirdo dad

Mary Poppins was a great show!

OMG... this kills me!

Mr. Banks!!!

2016 and now!!

I love me some throwbacks

Somebody came out at 11 p.m..... lol

A tasty dinner!

                                               

OMSI

Things they do, rather than sleep

Building a wee house

We love author events at Green Bean Books!  Mac Barnett

Reaching for the [Dog] Stars: Tin Can Knits

It has been a year and a million since Tiberius has been featured in a blog post.  Poor little guy.

Of course, he cares NOT at all, aha, but I feel bad, of course.  Lately, he has been wearing his sister's old sweaters, which works out nicely, but I knew he was going to be too large for at least one of them, and one pullover left simply can't be enough!!!  So, he clearly need another - in the form of the Dog Star by Tin Can Knits.  It came out last year, and for some reason, when their new collection, Strange Brew, came out recently, I thought it was part of that, aha!  

 

The pattern is crazy easy, naturally, though the wording for the short rows is a bit weird, or maybe my stitch marker placement was off to begin with, which doesn't make sense.  Either way, I knit the sweater alllll the way through binding off, then I realized my short rows were off - to the side of the back.  No bueno, clearly, so, I had to rip out my sewn bind-off then re-do all of that, no biggie in the end, I know, but still sad.  I then proceeded to knit back through the neck ribbing with my main needle, rather than sizing down, so, I had to rip out the ribbing a second time.  I have no idea what was happening.  Crazy town.  

The pattern calls for needle sizes 6 and 4, and I used 4s and 2.5s.  I knew I was knitting at a tighter gauge, but I liked my fabric, so, I knit the size 2/4 width and the size 4/6 length, no big deal.  The yardage called for was quite high, and I was concerned I didn't have enough yarn, so, I added color work to the bottom of the sweater, which wasn't a big deal in the end, as I found another skein of the main color.  In the end, though, it's nice I didn't crack into that extra skein, but even then, the yardage called for seems excessive, as I think I used two skeins of Cascade Heathers for the main color, River Rock, which is only 440 yards.  I also used colorways Pacific and Summer Sky and sort of winged it for color placement.

I love how the sweater turned out, and it was actually my FIRST time knitting with Cascade Heathers.... I think, anyway!  I could be lying, aha!  The fabric is great, and I am glad it'll fit through next winter, because of the length, though I probably did make the cuffs a bit snug.  I like a snug cuff, but hmmm... maybe I went a bit far, aha.  (Secretly, another great thing is that I used FREE stash yarn, as someone had given this to me!!)

Some days...including Halloween - for which Matt receives most of the credit.  He made their costumes, though I did make Tiberius a pair of Oliver and S Field Trip Cargo Pants, minus the cargo pockets.