Sew Wrong

Round Yoke Cardigan WIP


Round Yoke Cardigan WIP

I’m making yet another black sweater so I can wear some of my knitwear to work. The neckwarmer was a nice break between my tank and this, something to break up constantly look at a puddle of black, which can really be hard on the eyes sometimes. This cardigan is plugging along slowly but surely, and I’m just about at the point where I stop knitting the body and make the sleeves. I’ve never made a round yoke sweater before, but it seems like a neat way to make a sweater: no visible seams at all, it just all blends together after you join the sleeves to the body and knit up to the neck.

The yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which is one of the first yarns I knitted with when I started making sweaters, and I forgot how much I love it. It’s the perfect blend of wool and cotton and has enough spring in it so that the cotton doesn’t stretch out and isn’t’ itchy (to me at least) like straight-up wool. I opted to do the modified version of the sweater that Wendy mentions in a sidebar in the directions: a three-quarter length flared sleeve with a wide neckline. It’s great for TV knitting since it’s just back and forth stockinette, which is also making it a little bit slow for me since I’m slower knitting back and forth than in the round. But hey, it’s about the process, right?
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New WIP – Lace Neckwarmer

Lace Neckwarmer WIP

I must be a glutton for punishment because I started another lace project. Lace and I don’t get along, but this pattern was just too pretty to pass up. Plus, it makes a good project in-between my finished Jewel (a black tank) and my next project (a black cardigan). Color is good!

Pattern: Lace Neckwarmer by Classic Elite Yarns
Yarn: Rowan Silk Wool
Needles: US 7 16″ circs
The pattern called for a delicious cashmere Classic Elite yarn named “Wicked.” An appropriate name considering the yarn is about $55 a skein! Too rich for my blood, so I settled for a lowly 50% merino wool and 50% silk blend yarn instead (frankly, anything would be inferior to cashmere) that was much more affordable, and pretty soft to boot. Currently I’m about 60% of the way to finishing my little neckwarmer and the lace is going pretty smoothly, no major errors or problems thus far. And knitting lace on Addi Turbos makes it such a more enjoyable experience anyway.
Finished pics to come soon, I’m sure.
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Debbie Bliss Lace Scarf WIP

I thank this scarf for finally getting my knitting mojo back. All it took was a trip to a few local yarn stores, fondling some skeins of yarn, and I was wondering why I wasn’t inspired to knit for the past five months. Add in a simple lace scarf pattern that only requires two balls of yarn and knits up on size 9 needles, and I had a cure to my knitting blues! This pattern is knitting up super quick, and I anticipate finishing it in the next week or so.

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Sophia, Sophia

If you remember quite awhile back, I bought fabric from Purl Soho to make Amy Butler’s Sophia Carryall. I completed her Birdie Sling, loved it, and thought I’d take a stab at another one of her patterns.

Whoops. I’m not too happy with how it’s turned out so far.


This bag is definitely more of a challenge than the Birdie Sling. The construction was going along just fine until I had to attach the top panel to the sides. It was awkward to sew and tricky because of the multiple layers of interfacing, fabric, and covered cording. When I turned the bag right side out to see how it looked, I had to go back and fix a lot of tucks and re-ease the fabric. Plus, the interfacing (cheep cheep Pellon, yuck) made my fabric all wrinkly looking.

I’m assuming I can steam it to make it look better.

I thought that that was the hard part until I got around to attaching the bottom to the bag. For some reason, the bottom panel wasn’t the correct size! It was either too small or too big, I don’t remember which, and I had a devil of a time getting even more layers of interfacing and fabric through my machine.

Eww eww. I did take the suggestion from someone on Pattern Review to omit the covered cording for the bottom and I’m glad I did, because I can imagine that would have made it exponentially more difficult to sew. I need to rip out the bottom and redo it, I know I didn’t sew it straight. Plus, I’ve got uncovered bits of cording exposed as well.

Needless to say, this has me wondering if the lining, which I have yet to put together, will make the bag look any better from the outside. Maybe the bottom will look less puffy and droopy once I install the false bottom. This might just be a bag I use to store yarn or fabric in and not for shopping or dining out. Oh well. At least I have leftover scraps to play with!

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Fetching Gloves – in progress

Fetching Gloves - in progress

One down, almost done with the second. These should keep my hands warm on that chilly steering wheel early in the morning.

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