My Japanese Jacket

 

In my last post I had said I didn’t like the cardigan with jeans. I didn’t mention that I had donned it to wear to a Superbowl party, but having changed my mind, I now had to find a different top or bottom. In the course of trying different things, I popped on this jacket to show my husband as he hadn’t seen it on me and he said I should wear it and no, I wasn’t going to be cold. 

 

I call it my Japanese jacket as the designer is Japanese and the pattern is written in the Japanese style. Once I realized that the numbers were for the entire back of the garment but the schematic was just half the back I was good to go. The garment is knit sideways in three pieces – back and two fronts. Except I worked the back in two pieces as I wanted each piece to be the same. After the cuff stitches are increased for the sleeve shaping and stitches cast on for the body. If I had worked the back in one piece I would have been binding off and decreasing stitches on the second half. This did mean I had a centre back seam to sew. I decided to make this a feature of the garment and worked a 3-needle I-cord bind off. I also worked this on the top of the sleeves. The side and sleeve seams were mattress seamed. 

 

The kit (yarn and pattern) were given to me by my friend who had been given it. She also had purchased the kit a number of years previously and started hers at the same time – she just hasn’t finished it yet. The project uses two strands of Habu mohair and one strand of Habu linen paper held together. People said the linen paper softened on washing but I didn’t notice that mine did but as it is an outer layer that is not really a problem.

This was an easy project that I only worked on when I wanted something easy and sat for months waiting for the seaming to be finished. Many people added buttons but I like mine as it is. Now that I have worn it once I can see myself wearing it more frequently.

 

My Christmas Cardigan

I might not have anything to show for this year but I still have a few finished items from last year that have yet to make an appearance. I haven’t posted about them as they are garments that I wanted to photograph with me wearing them.

For Christmas 2022 I made myself a skirt. It is definitely a Christmas skirt and is very likely the only time I will wear it. I used the same pattern as here but did a better job with the waistband, this time it all made sense. Also I cut out the size larger to make the pleats bigger but I’m not sure that was necessarily a good idea. Having made a skirt for 2022, I decided to make a garment for 2023; especially as I had red yarn in my stash. It just would have been better if I had started it earlier in the year. I started the project on 1 August. Plenty of time to finish for Christmas if I hadn’t had so many other projects on the go which I wanted to finish. I finished the cardigan in time for Christmas although I did not have any buttons I could still wear it. I do have photos of the cardigan and skirt taken at Christmas but they are not very good and the cardigan does not have buttons so does not count as finished.

And buying buttons was not too hard even though I needed nine and I had to go to JoAnns. I managed to get five sets of two each. 

Now that it is completely finished I’m not sure how much I like it. I am not sure if it is because I have been wearing it with jeans and it doesn’t go with jeans, or if I have been wearing it buttoned up and it doesn’t look as nice buttoned up. I will have to try it with a skirt and see what I think buttoned and unbuttoned.

Let’s talk about the pattern – Fickle Heart by Justyna Lorkowska, a Polish designer. The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn and I just so happened to have some in my stash. My gauge was slightly different from the pattern so I made a size larger to make up for this. The pattern is knit from the top down with stitches picked up for the hood. I didn’t want to make the hood, I felt it was a design feature that would cover up the wonderful cables on the back of the cardigan. The cardigan is knit in the round from the top down. Top down is not my favourite form of construction and this cardigan emphasizes why. The shoulders are too narrow and the armholes are too deep. Although they are the correct size based on my measurements in the pattern. If I had been knitting from the bottom up, these parts of the garment would have been easy to correct. Because the shoulders are a little too narrow, the sleeve head puffs up. My friend and I have been discussing different ways to rectify this which will have to wait until the weather is less wet! The sleeves are worked by picking up stitches around the armhole and then working short rows. I was lucky and able to check out from the library Elizabeth Doherty’s book on set-in sleeve design which explained very well how to pick up the stitches and work the short rows. The other feature that fits perfectly well but I do not like on me is the waist shaping and is probably why I do not like wearing the garment with jeans.

I said the yarn was in my stash and has been waiting for a very long time. It is Patons Decor that I purchased some time before 2005 and I was going to make a baby blanket as a gift but changed my mind and never used the yarn for anything else. The yarn has moved with us twice and now was its time. Because I wanted a red garment and this was extra appropriate as the colour name is Christmas Red.

This is the back of the cardigan before the neck band was added but shows the pattern well and you can see why I wouldn't want to cover it up.

 

And this picture shows me wearing the finished item but standing at an angle so you can't see the pronounced waist shaping.

Let’s Talk Yarn

Yesterday I was winding yarn for my February sock cast on and when I unwound it, it looked different than it had appeared in the twisted hank. This wasn’t a problem as it will still work with the pattern I have chosen, but it was a surprise.

So let’s talk about how to buy hand-dyed yarn.

Hand-dyed yarn is a delight (mostly) to behold and it is very easy to be drawn in by the prettiness of it all and end up with yarn you have no idea what to make with or are too scared because you need just the right project for this oh-so-pretty yarn.

Hello socks and shawls. A basic pattern for either of these will show off the yarn. 

 

If possible, buy your yarn in person. Then you can see the colours and are not subject to the vagaries of your screen and the effort of the dyer to capture the true colour. But the yarn I wound was purchased in person but still surprised me. (The whole skein was dip dyed which wasn’t apparent in its twisted state where it looked slightly tonal.) How do you deal with this? Unwind the skeins of course! BUT ask the shop owner first. They do not want their lovely yarns left in a mess.

If you buy hand dyed yarn on line you have to trust that the colours shown are a true representation. To see how true your own electronic device is, look at yarn you have in person and how it looks on screen and take any differences into account when looking at websites. If you are able, look on Ravelry at other people’s photos. Do they all look the same or is there a big variation; do they look the same as the dyer’s shop?

Does the dyer dye the same colour on different bases and do they post a photo of all the colours on all the bases? I know this can be a lot of work but colours look so different on different bases. For example, ontheround shows her color of the month on each of four bases and has a knit swatch and a crochet swatch.

 

I have not ordered from this dyer and have not seen her yarn in person but this effort makes me more likely to order from them.

However you buy your yarn enjoy using it and the process of making something.

Latest Happenings in the Yarn World

The problem with my knitting being year-long projects and a secret test knit is there is not much to show despite all that I am making. Today I am going to talk about a couple of things that happened in the yarn world this weekend. One sad and one disrespectful but both reflective of the yarn industry.

Let’s start with the sad news. Stranded Dyeworks has announced that he is closing the business. This is at the same time surprising and not surprising. Not surprising because I reckon that most dye businesses last about 10 years and they have been in business for 8 years and surprising because they are a single person and this is their livelihood. Coincidently, last week, before Stranded made this announcement, a friend was destashing yarn including four skeins of Stranded Dyeworks and I was tempted. But I am not buying yarn unless it will be used straight away. In this way I hope I can avoid the FOMO that will come when Stranded announce their last shop update. I wish Jude all the best in whatever his future holds.

The other thing I saw over the weekend also involved an independent dyer. They had been asked to enter a business relationship which they did not like so they declined. End of story. I’m afraid not. They posted about it on their website without naming names but with enough information to start people guessing with only one name coming up. The dyer, who is a business, has taken exception to the fact that the person who approached them has a monetized account. What? So she (the dyer) is allowed to make money but other people can’t? The dyer’s success is thanks to the internet and Ravelry. This goes back to my post in December where I said that picking on YouTubers is a popular hobby and this was a good example because the way she wrote it was obvious she thought that herself and other dyers were superior to people who use their products.

WIPing Wednesday 2024

I was going to write this last week as the year had just started and I was going to tell you about all my WIPs. But with Monday being a holiday my week was off and WIPing Wednesday passed by.

Although I said that I did not want to cast on all the things this year, this might not have been the case as there have been five cast ons – one for each category

Socks:- I am test knitting a pattern and cannot show it until the pattern is published. There is a deadline in February to finish one sock but I would like to get the pair finished by the end of the month. Crochet:- with some yarn I was given when someone moved (not the big destash) I decided to crochet a blanket. Today I frogged all the way back to the foundation chain and shortened it as I realized the blanket would be long and skinny. (I might have been sorting that out instead of working on the socks.) Easy:- I cast on a hat, in fingering weight yarn, the rib is never ending! Concentrate:- I started a blanket where a square pattern will be released each month. This may move into the year-long category if I catch up and finish before the end of the month as I didn’t start this until the 7^th. Year-long:- currently I have two socks (same pair) on the needles. I will be working a section a month from a 12 skein Advent set.

I note that I did not mention the projects I started the year with. Partly because I am sort of ignoring them. I started with five projects but two of those are long term blanket projects and one is the project that stays in the car. And I really should frog one project. Which leaves the one project that I could work on, but I cast on the hat instead. Already planning for the WIP knitalong so I can finish it and frog the other project!

And It's 2024

Although I have started the New Year casting on all the things, this year I really want to try not to have numerous WIPs on the go at any one time. There are two main reasons for the number of projects in progress to increase without finishes. Firstly there is the easy project that then requires some concentration so another easy project has to be started. Secondly I have been starting things just to get them on the needles even if I have plenty of other projects to work on and if the new project gets started and then put aside while I work on other things. This relatively new habit has to stop. When an easy project becomes one that requires concentration then I will treat this as a priority so that it can go back to being an easy project and I don't need to start anything new or it becomes a finished object which is always a good thing.

I have decided this year to have five categories in which my yarn crafts fit and I can only have one project on the go in each category with one exception. The categories are socks, crochet, easy, concentrate, year-long. This last category is the one where I can have multiple projects.

My general plans for the year are to knit socks along with the Sock Knitters Anonymous group if the challenge fits a project I already own, use old yarn, knit a blanket square each month in a knit along, finish all the mitred squares, use the minis I got in December.

I hope by having written this out I will be finishing projects throughout the year and not a mad dash finish all the things at the end of the year.

2023 Not in Pictures

With a finishing spree at the end of the year, I have not got photos of all my finished projects but I wanted to get 2023’s round up posted on the last day of the year so I can start 2024 with all my exciting plans.

Looking back at 2022’s round up, I started 2023 with four projects and two of the projects are the same as they are the long term blankets. Which means that in 2023 I finished all (non-blanket) projects started before 1 January 2023. This is my biggest aim - not to have old projects. The number of WIPs at any time is less important.

I finished 25 projects, which is fewer than previous years and the yarn used is slightly lower than last year. I made nine hats; six pairs of socks; four cardigans/jackets; three shawls; one baby blanket; one baby jacket; and one tea cosy. I also started nine projects that were eventually frogged. Looking at my plans at the start of the year I did start all the items mentioned but some were more successful than others. The Tunisian project was one of the frogs and the Advent shawl is waiting for a decision. I made five and frogged a sixth hat from Kelborne Woolens.

I knit 8022 meters and crocheted 959 meters into completed projects. The yarn in that I purchased was very low as I only want to purchase yarn if there is a definite pattern I want to make and I need yarn for it. The two yarn purchases I made this year were to support small businesses. I have not counted all the yarn I was given when my friend downsized. Although I have been using a lot of it I did not want to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it.

I am happy with my yarny achievements and am ready to cast on all the things.

A Cheeky Advent Cast On and a Bag to Put It In

I have been working away on my WIPs and haven’t wanted to add more but I was feeling at a bit of a loss around the start of the month because I didn’t have an Advent project and the post office had lost my Advent yarn.

Rather than choose a pattern specifically designed for Advent that would take away from my time spent on WIPs, I chose a small project and worked a few rows each day. I calculated three rows a day would get it finished on the 24^th but some days I worked two rows and some days four rows depending where I was in the pattern.

I chose the Clayoquot Toque by tincanknits and the yarn was some hand spun from Primrose yarns that I was given when my friend moved and it was very appropriate that I could give it back made into a hat.

 

 

I also made her a project bag out of fabric she had also given me when she moved. I tried a new-to-me pattern for the bag. It was not a hard make but I wish I had thought about the measurements before I started as I had intended to make a bigger bag.

 

What is the WIP Situation?

I haven’t written about my WIP achievements as after I finished the socks it seemed to be all knitting and no finishing. And as we are getting close to the end of the year I was wondering if it was even worth talking about projects. But as I have been quiet for so long it is about time they got a quick mention.

When I laid out my WIPs before the challenge there were 12 active ones. I snuck in a cheeky little (but not so little) cast on just before the challenge started as I really needed an easy project for vacation. There were a few projects that would be frogged but I didn’t want to do that straight away as I feared the satisfaction would deter me from completing projects.

The socks were finished quickly as they had their own deadline and then it was knit, knit, knit with nothing to show for two months. Do I work on projects in order of starting, closest to finished, most wanted? At the start it was a mixture of the latter two but one day I calculated how many rows I needed to knit each day to finish the edging on the shawl (my oldest non-blanket project) and it was doable and as I got going I realized I could actually finish it by the end of November. Which I did; blocked and ends sewn in. I won’t be any showing it yet as it is a gift.

While the shawl was blocking it was time to frog. A project I didn’t really like; a cardigan that was coming out too big, and another cardigan which I didn’t have enough yarn. I was sad about these two projects because they were so pretty.

 

I then tackled the three crochet hats. One was frogged and the other two were quickly finished. This did mean that I had no car projects and I had to start a hat on Sunday when I was a passenger. 

 

 

This month I have mostly been working on the cardigan I want to wear at Christmas. I realized that I should have been working on it most of the time because Christmas is just around the corner. But I was hoping that I could have finished another cardigan but sewing in the ends is taking forever.

Of the 13 projects at the start of WIP along, I have completed 4 and frogged 4. Not bad going. Now back to the Christmas project.

 

Women Hating On Women

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything. I have been knitting away on my WIPs and it is not very exciting to write every week – “been working on my WIPs, not yet finished”.

There have been a few thoughts running around my head about the yarn industry in general but the one I want to write about today has been bubbling under the surface and has come to the forefront when people have been mean about YouTube vlogs.

Yarn crafts are predominately a female hobby. My mother and others of her generation would knit and sew our clothes as it was cheaper than buying them. At some point this changed and crafting is for fun not money saving. I feel like this cost change occurred when women of my generation continued to work after marriage and family.

Whenever it changed from money saving to purely fun it still remained a women’s thing. I am not dismissing men here. There are plenty that knit and sew but this post is about how women treat women. Which I’m sad to say is not very well. We’re not talking critique or criticism but just downright nastiness for the fun of it.

Not only are the participants predominately female but the small business side of the industry is also predominately female. Mainly because having participated in the craft, they now wish to have a go at designing or dying yarn. Also with YouTube you can show off your work, whether as a hobby or your business or if YouTube is now your business. These all have relatively easy entry points and can be started from home so make it very favourable for women.

So why are other women hating on them. Why do they feel this is an OK thing?

As the entry point is easy, it also means that standards can be low and we should be critiquing badly written patterns and badly dyed yarn. But what I also read is:- Designers should be paid, designers should produce a free pattern, they shouldn’t even have bothered to write a pattern for this. If something is just not to your taste then don’t bad mouth other women who are trying to get a toe on the threshold of the industry. (Another post for another day is the oversaturation of the industry.)

YouTube is an interesting phenomenon and many of the popular YouTubers (in any genre) never imagined that when they started out they would become so popular. This does encourage others to give it a try and I imagine some of them expect to be big from the beginning. Especially as you hear about so many making a living from their videos – I hear about this a lot in the gaming industry.

The beauty of YouTube is that you don’t have to watch it or there is something for everyone. And in this case there is something for every complainer. Picking on YouTubers is becoming a popular hobby especially right now with everyone producing Vlogmasses. You could just not watch them or say that person isn’t for me instead it is picking apart the content maker. And as with patterns it is mostly women picking on other women. And it is unnecessary. It is to the point where watchers are picking apart the person and their home life and they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing and I don’t like their voice and what they spend their money on and how does their husband put up with them.

So let’s stop this and support women. Give a big hoorah to those who are brave enough to put themselves out there for our consumption; whether it be YouTube or selling their yarn at their first show or nervously posting their first pattern on Instagram.

September Was For Socks

This year it seems to have taken too long to knit a pair of socks. To change that I decided that in September not only was I going to start two pairs of socks but I was going to knit a sock a week. I did achieve that but it was at the expense of other knitting. (WIPs anyone?) And in each case it was easy to finish the first sock in one week but I had to push myself to finish the second sock in the same time frame. It is an exercise I will probably repeat but when I have fewer WIPs.

The theme for September was Art and Music and true to my own limitations I chose two patterns already in my library.

The first pattern was Flying Dutchman using some older yarn in my stash – I nearly wrote a separate post about this project as I purchased yarn to go with yarn and still knitted socks!

The light colour is a variegated yarn from Candy Skein and was the colour of the month in June 2016. I really liked it but couldn’t think what to make with it, so in September 2017 I bought the blue yarn to go with it. But I still didn’t make anything with them, until now. I know I only used about half of the blue and third of the variegated but I’m much happier having used them then waiting even longer for the perfect project. I thought this pattern was illusion knitting but it is all stocking stitch requiring turning the work every couple of rows. It wasn’t hard but I printed the pattern and crossed off each part so that I wouldn’t get lost if I was interrupted.

 

The yarn used for the second pair isn’t quite as old as it is one of the many skeins I bought in a closing sale in 2021. The pattern is SmokyMountain Rain and is named after a song and the yarn is from Oink Pigments.

 

So far I haven’t cast on any socks in October although I could find plenty of patterns in my library that fit the technique – cables. The main reason for not casting on is that we were away at the end of September into October and I didn’t want to think about which pattern I was going to knit and which yarn to use etc. And as I have all those WIPs to finish I was happy working away on them.

Do I Have to Talk About My WIPs?

Of course I don’t – this is my blog after all. But it is that time of year again – finish all the things. And I certainly have started all the things. Ever since this yearly Make Along started and I finished a really old project, I have managed to get my projects under control by the year end. Even finishing most of them.

The good thing about my current projects is that only one is more than a year old and it was started as a year long project. (We’ll just ignore that it has passed the year mark.) The bad thing is that I cannot picture when I will finish most of them.

I hope you are sitting down. I have 14 WIPs. So many that it is written in digits and not words. Of course I can get that number down. Because it includes two blankets which are long term projects. Yay, only 12 to finish in just over three months. Here they are in all their glory, except if you diligently follow this rant you will note that you can see only nine. Did I miraculously finish three projects in between sentences? No. I thought the number shown here was bad enough that I didn’t get the three out of the car. (Three in the car!, I know but there is a reason for that.)

Let’s talk about those first. I really thought I had finished a hat, so started another from scraps and then when I was given yarn I started another on a drive so that I wasn’t scrabbling around for scrap yarn. And then after assessing hat one I decided it wasn’t long enough and that needed to be rectified on the next vacation. These three hats will be finished or frogged by the end of the year. Nine projects to go.

Another two easy finishes is a project that needs to be frogged and the pair of socks that I want to finish by the end of the month. Seven left.

There is a jacket that needs seaming, which will just take a couple of days if I sit down and do it without interruption and a cardigan that is easy knitting apart from the bands that need to be picked up. Although once all the knitting is finished there are a lot of ends to sew in, maybe another couple of days. Now we’re down to five.

I really want to finish a cardigan for Christmas, it isn’t very far along, and is cables and lace so doesn’t qualify as easy knitting but if I make it a priority after finishing the items mentioned above. I could finish it.

Which brings us to four projects. One of those I don’t have enough yarn to finish but I haven’t decided what to do about it yet. So if I start the New Year with three unfinished projects I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

Now back to the knitting.

 

Podcasts

Although podcasts started as an aural concept, the term is now used for video casts as well. The downside of this, is when talking about a podcast you don’t know if it is visual or aural.

Recently I have come across discussion on podcasts, the first was on Ravelry and was mainly about which podcasts people watch/listen to and why, and what they like/dislike generally about podcasts.

The other one was on Reddit and mostly revolved around the monetization of video podcasts. And in a world full of clamouring for pay-the-designer, I find it interesting that in other areas crafters do not want to pay producers.

The monetization of podcasts occurs in a couple of ways – through YouTube advertising (YouTube is the only platform with which I am familiar) and through direct sponsorship of the host. With the latter there will be (or should be) a heading in the video saying it contains sponsored content. This means that the YouTuber gets something in return for talking about a product. This may not be directly related to the subject of the podcast. For example a booktuber I watch occasionally is sponsored by a jewellery manufacturer and a knitting podcast is sponsored by a skincare company.

My google-fu was not being very helpful with this topic as there were plenty of articles about how to be sponsored but very few on how people got paid. I was interested in if YouTubers got paid in product or dollars or both. Personally I feel it is only worthwhile being paid in product if it is something you would be using anyway. And I can certainly understand the feeling of having made it when you are contacted by a sponsor. But don’t sell yourself short – the world and their spouse are sponsored by Skillshare and it is now off putting to find every video is sponsored by them.

One article I read while trying to research the monetization of YouTube said that “supporters are anti the idea that their YouTube heroes might be selling themselves out.” And this is the conversation on Reddit that I found amusing or even baffling, watchers do not want their entertainment to receive payment. Especially if that payment (i.e. sponsorship) is not directly related to crafts. So many want their entertainment to be free; meaning we do not want to pay the hosting platform and we do not want to pay the content provider. And we want to complain about the videos you do create because saying you don’t like a certain YouTuber and then moving on is not good enough. We have to bring them down.

YouTube is entertainment. There is a vast choice of entertainment out there. If you don’t like the concept or a particular channel then move on. If you want all your entertainment for free, use your local library but don’t forget to complain about what is available and what isn’t available. And if that isn’t enough then you can always complain about the fundraisers on PBS and NPR.

I appreciate the work podcasters (aural and visual) put into their content. And if it costs me a couple of minutes of ad watching I will gladly do it to be able to continue to listen to or watch people who are expending a lot of time and their money to entertain and educate us.

More Socks

I have finally finished the second pair of socks that I started in June; just in time for the new season of Sock Knitters Anonymous.

As I had previously posted, there were so many options for June and I sensibly narrowed it down to just two patterns. The first pair took me just over a month and this pair took me 2 ½ months. When I knew I was not going to get them finished by the end of July I decided that I had plenty of time to finish them by the end of August. I finished them on the 29^th. Not quite the 11^th hour but running close.

I do not know what the yarn is as it is one of the stashes given to a friend and then given to me. But it is really pretty and goes well with this pattern. The pattern is Esther by Stephanie van der Linden and was published around 2006. The written pattern is a bit strange in places which I think is a combination of being translated and starting off as a German pattern. As an experienced knitter I was able to decide how the heel should be worked and the pattern centered. 

 

The 17^th year of SKA is starting off with a bang.  My aim is still to try to choose patterns that I already own or are in my queue or library. And for September I already have many choices. The pattern I am starting on the 1^st is not a beginner pattern and there is another pattern I really want to make. If I can get the first sock finished quickly, I can start a second pattern, otherwise there will be other opportunities to cast it on. It is rare for a sock pattern to fit a theme and/or designer and not also to fit into a technique.

I Thought I Wasn’t Making Shawls

I have a finished project at last. It certainly has been a recurring theme of lots of knitting but nothing to show for it. Considering the number of projects I have on the go, this was a relatively quick knit – two months in total including blocking.

(A quick note about my WIPS, it feels like I am getting ready for the WIP challenge in the last quarter of the year.)

I was given two balls of Rowan Fine Lace way back in 2019 because they were my colours – pink. In 2020 when I saw a new pattern –Flowers in the Air – I knew my yarn was perfect for it. But it still took 2½ years to cast on! It is a paid-for pattern but really inexpensive. The pattern is charted and written and is relatively simple. There are options for beads which, although pretty, I decided not to include. The other thing that was surprising for me is that I decided to bind off when I came to the end of the pattern and not keep working until I ran out of yarn. It turns out that was a good decision as the shawl was quite wide already. I used 1¹/₃ skeins and the shawl is as light as air.

Although I said I bound off when I came to the end of the pattern, I actually worked four rows of stocking stitch before bind off so that it wasn’t straight after a lace row as I knew the edge would roll. I modified the edge stitches to make them looser, even so when blocking I could not shape it into a true triangle; another reason why I am glad that I didn’t make it bigger. I just need an occasion to wear it.