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

Looking Ahead to a Petite Polished

Y'all are in store for a cozy twosome in this post!  Camden gets to show off a new hat AND a new sweater!

For such a lovely sweater, I took so long to write the blog post that the Petite Polished shows wear. I would say it honestly started pilling pretty soon after finishing it, too.  I wanted to hold out on allowing Camden to wear this design by Alicia Plummer, but since I finished it in October and she needed a pull-over, well, that was that.  Originally, I'd wanted to sew her new jeans first for a nice photo combo, but I have yet to get around to sewing those.  Maybe next week, aha.

There was some silliness in knitting this pattern, though the pattern itself was lovely.  Because of my gauge, I added extra yoke rounds, but in doing THAT, I also added extra increases, which wasn't great for the sleeves, and when I started the first sleeve, I realized my mistake and had to rip back and decrease differently.  I wasn't sure that it'd work, considering I couldn't just get rid of the original sleeve stitch count, but it ended up being okay.    I alternated skeins, and while the gauge called for is looser than I like to knit a DK weight yarn, it does look nice.  In saying that, I wonder if it'd be AS pilled as it is if I knit at a tighter gauge.  I knit with Tanis Fiber Arts PureWash DK in the Luna Gray colorway.  I was glad for Camden to have a somewhat neutral-toned sweater, which it is, but she really still needs another pull-over - and a cardigan, while we're at it.  I had been desperate to try the PureWash base for some time (because of its more eco-friendly "super-washing" process, and it is nice to knit with, but I'm not sure I'll knit with it again, unless I do try some time, at a tighter gauge.  Overall, the sweater is quite lovely, and Camden loves to wear it!

As for Camden's hat, this is another moment where I feel cool that I knit with deep stash yarn!!!  The yarn was purchased way back in 2012, and I had paid an Etsy seller to knit a sweater for Camden, because I didn't trust my abilities or something and figured another person would knit it faster, LOL.  Anyway, the remnants have been in my stash every since, some lovely Madelinetosh colorway - I think it was Truly, Madly, Deeply.

A tiny July 2012 Camden!

Looking Ahead, designed by Veera Valimaki, is a simple-enough pattern, thought I botched up the decreases a bit; it was hard to know how to stay in pattern, or I'd get off track.  Either way, it is cute, and I also had a feeling it'd be super cute with a faux fur pom pom, and I was RIGHT!  I am so glad I ordered from Thread Head Knits.  She has tons of choices, and I bought my poms as a bulk order, but keep in mind that some colors can't be ordered in bulk buys.  I was winging it on color choices, but I figured something I ordered would work, and the light pink is so pretty with the hat.

Even here, you can see the pilling.  I really should get a Gleener!

I am pretty happy that I have been working through stash yarns - for the kids or for others.  I am knitting two wee sweaters for twins right now - one down, one to go!  And I have recently knit another pair of mittens each for the kids, both from scrap yarns.

Lastly, so much has happened since the last post, but here are some snippets from some days!!

She worked on this longhouse with her dad.  She presented very well!

Their monsters are afraid of faeries!

But their monsters love to eat!

This and the next shot are the same beach, same five minutes, LOL

A gift her grandma made!!!

Gift for baby cousin Helen!

They are now obsessed with The Lion King!