FO: Copper Cables

I have two finished objects today!
First and most important I finished my Spanish course and this morning I passed the exam with 99.5% Yey for me!!! A month of rest and festivities and in January I intend to enroll into the next level.

And then I have a new sweater to show you. It took me two attempts at it, but I'm fairly satisfied with the final result. I started the sweater about a month ago in November and had almost finished it (body and a sleeve), when I finally accepted the truth - it didn't fit me well, the yoke was too narrow and the sweater kept pulling up my neck and felt uncomfortable. Besides, the cable on the sleeves, which I had chosen from my Japanese stitching bible, was not a good choice for a single cable and lastly, the texture I was getting on my 4 mm needles was a bit too dense and lacked the plasticity I was looking for. So, on the last day of November I took a deep breath and unravelled it.

The new version of the sweater features a simpler, but quite elegant cable - a version of the stag-horn cable, much wider neckpiece and yoke and the sweater was knitted on 4.5 mm needles. As always, after a heavy decision to rip an almost ready sweater, I find myself quite happy with it in the end, as the resulting finished piece is a sweater I'm going to wear and love.

Pattern: Copper Cables (personal pattern)
Yarn: Zegna Baruffa Kent, 100% merino, 200 g
Needle: 3.75 mm (ribbing), 4.5 mm (body)
Time to knit: 12 days (second and final version)

The sweater is knitted top down, with saddle shoulders, straight silhouette, about 8 cm positive ease, split hems and a faux seam at the sides (a single purl stitch).

The yarn, Italian bobbin merino, is very soft and extremely warm. Though the sweater is only 200 g and feels quite light, it is pretty toasty and on a sunny December day like today I felt quite warm without my coat.

The faux seam - I should do this trick more often, as this purl stitch helps with preserving the form of the sweater and against twisting (the body is knitted in the round).

Starry Night

My latest sweater - for me! No pattern, improvised top down raglan with round yoke and Asian back correction. The body is tailored with decreases at six points, like in tailored shirts - on the sides and at two points on the front (symmetrical under the bust) and on the back (symmetrical under the shoulder blades).

Inspired by Gaby's Lavandula, I added beads to my very simple blue sweater and I'm so happy with the result. Initially I had started adding the beads randomly, as in the Lavandula, but then it occurred to me that they could be a feature, forming a pattern, so I alternated placing them in the center and in the end of each of the 16 sections, within which I was adding the stitches to form the round yoke.

Pattern: Starry Night (personal pattern)
Yarn: Filpucci Ascot - Italian bobbin yarn, 70% merino, 15% cashmere goat, 15% angora, 170g
Needle: 3.5 mm body, 3 mm broken rib
Time to knit: 17 days

Blue Cardigan. Details

Last night I sewed the buttons to the long blue cardigan and it is now wet blocked and officially ready to wear. Gaby tried it and styled it with a fitted dress and low boots and I like the look of it on her. Some of the details I added to the cardigan:

A ribbed wedge between the sleeve opening and the sleeve. The wedge is formed using short rows and, apart from adding some interest to the design, it continues the slope of the shoulders (which are also formed with short rows), thus helping to eliminated any bulk under the arms:

Small buttons to the sleeves on a stripe of elongated rib:

The pockets are deep and separate from the body, so that they are not simply a decorative element, but Gaby can truly keep her hands in them - the idea of this cardigan is to be a work horse for university.

The most work consuming feature - the almost unnoticeable small pockets of stockinette stitches, which cover the edge of the fronts and the back, from which the stitches for the button bands are picked. To avoid excessive thickness there, I knitted each side of the "pocket" with a single thread and then combined the two threads to continue knitting the actual button bands. I really like this neat finish, though it is almost lost in the heather of this yarn. This is one of the videos I looked up for this detail.

Modeled photosession - hopefully on Monday, after Gaby's upcoming exam (one of six for this semester).

Double Photoshoot - Raspberry Heart and Copy.Cat C.C. Beanie

My last sweater for 2018 - Raspberry Heart, together with a hat I made with the remaining 100 g of the yarn - the immensely popular Copycat C.C. Beanie.

Pattern: Raspberry Heart (personal pattern)
Yarn: Pecci Filati Pacchero 16% alpaca superfine, 26% merino, 13% viscose, 30% acrylic, 15% nylon, 200 g, hand dyed
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Time to knit: three weeks

Pattern: Copy.Cat C.C. Beanie by Emily Ingrid
Yarn:  Pecci Filati Pacchero, 65 g, held double
Needle: 4.5 mm brim, 5 mm body
Time to knit: 2 days

Gaby has been wearing these two for several days now and seems very happy with my knitting Christmas present for her (given in advance), especially the sweater. The design and the color are very much to her taste and I think they suit her beautifully.

I posted a picture of the sweater and the hat on FB and got so many requests to write down the pattern, that I feel obligated to do so, may be during the holidays. This year I've become more and more confident in my designing skills and of the six sweaters I knitted this year five were my original design and one (Drop's Stella Alpina) was based on a pattern, but I did entirely my own calculations and dyed my own yarn for the purpose. Still, when it comes to writing down the pattern and calculating it for different sizes - that's a whole different animal. So we'll see what will come out of the writing process.

The small "tattoo" on the back - it's almost invisible, though I made the heart a bit bigger than the hearts of the cable on the front.

I like the hat pattern so much, that I plan at least two more of these out of my stash yarn. I did a small change in the hat pattern - I replaced the k1p1 rib panels between the st st panels with half-brioche stitch.

Bonus Sweater - Photo Session

And a quick photo session of the Bonus sweater. It is amazing how much I like this sweater and how little I expected of this color combination when I started it simply to use up the very high quality merino remains.

Pattern: Bonus sweater (personal pattern)
Yarn: Zegna Baruffa Cashwool 160 g asphalt, 160 g burgundy
Needle: 3.5 mm (sleeve cuffs), 4 mm
Time to knit: 3 weeks

BONUS SWEATER (DOWNLOAD)

Ho'okipa Cardigan

Yesterday's hike on Vitosha was 2-in-1 :) First, we had our three and a half hours hike and then a brief photosession of my Ho'okipa cardigan. The problem with logistics was easily solved as the starting point for our hike - the Golden Bridges, which is the biggest moraine on Vitosha, is a picturesque place and an excellent background for a photoshoot. So this meant that I didn't have to take the outfit with me on the hike, I had it in the car. When we returned from the hike I quickly changed into the dress and platforms (by the way, climbing those stones in platforms is quite the challenge :) )  and was ready to pose for a few pictures. Win-win :)))

Ho'okipa is a simple cardigan, inspired by the Ho'okipa shawl pattern by Paulina Popiolek. It repeats my idea for a solid color stockinette cardigan with lace borders, based on a shawl, which I implemented once in my Maluka cardigan. I wouldn't claim my border is exactly as in the Ho'okipa shawl as I don't have the pattern and what I've knitted is my visual interpretation of what I see in her shawl. The cardigan is slightly tailored, knitted in one piece up to the armholes, with high decorative neckline and 3/4 sleeves.

Pattern: Ho'okipa Cardigan, personal pattern, based on visual interpretation of Ho'okipa shawl
Yarn: Performance Cotton Gem, 100% cotton, 450 g
Needle: 3.5 mm (borders and lace), 4 mm (stockinette st body)
Time to knit: three weeks