Veronika Cardigan

Hi Internet friends!

As promised in the last post today I'm sharing with you my new personal speed knitting record, my Veronika cardigan.  :D

I first heard about this pattern by Shannon Cook, through the Fringe Association posting wayyyy back in July and added it to my queue immediately, knowing that I would want it for a fall knit... given that it's essentially a craftily constructed worsted weight blanket I didn't really want to start this project until the weather was sufficiently cool. As it turns out my patience in waiting to cast on paid off in spades as it allowed me to wait until this year's Knit City to pick up this amazing yarn by Sweet Fiber Yarns, an amazing dyer local to British Columbia.

Side Bar: Knit City was amazing!! It was the first time that the stars aligned so I could go this year and I had a blast! I think the best way to explain my experience with how friendly and engaging the knitting community is is through the following analogy I gave to my non-knitting friends; Knit City was kind of like a sober version of the ladies room at a bar, everyone is so complementary, everyone is ooing and awing over what everyone else is wearing, ladies come up and touch what ever knit wear you have on to see what it's like, everyone is super forthcoming with the details of what they knit, the pattern, the yarn, etc., and most of all you instantly have about 100 new best friends. The only difference is that it's much more sober (well we were all a little punch drunk over the yarn selection......)

Back to Sweet Fiber Yarns, currently her yarns are only available at a single shop in in BC or through her online store so getting to see all the yarn in person at Knit City (in all their squishy goodness) was amazing! I had been crushing hard over this particular colourway, Rose Gold, after seeing it on her Instagram, I was in love with the way the golden tones and the deep dusty pink played together. So off I trucked to Knit City thinking initially that I would simply by a single skein in fingering weight and make a nice fall shawl even though deep down I knew I wanted to knit the Veronika cardigan with it (I was trying to be a good #adult and stick to a budget!).....however the knitting gods heard my internal dilemma and set temptation in my path in the form of a fellow knitter who had knit the Veronika and happened to be in the Sweet Fiber booth moments after I had purchased my single skein of fingering weight.....I took that skein for anice trip around to all the booths, even bumping into that same knitter a few times, until I eventually succumbed and went back and exchanged my single skein for 6 skeins of rose gold Merino twist worsted. (Side bar for the #fluffyblondmonster: I think the point is here that I TRIED to stick to a budget....I tried really hard! who am I to contend with the wills of the knitting gods?)

Let's get to my knitting notes: all in all this was a super fast knit, almost exactly one week from the moment I cast on to the moment it was blocked and drying on our living room floor (I wish I took a picture because I had to do some creative blocking since it was bigger than the interlocking foam pads I used for blocking boards and basically had to pin part of it to the carpet and then put the coffee table over top to protect it.). The speed can be mostly attributed to my need to be able to wear it as soon as possible! Not that I didn't enjoy the making process, I just really wanted to add this guy to my fall wardrobe ASAP. I knit at every opportunity, on the train in the morning and afternoon, before work and after work, it was an obsession! In the process I broke my previous personal record for speed knitting large projects by a wide margin :) In terms of sizing and modifications I knit the smallest size and took about an inch out of the back width just so it wouldn't completely overwhelm me, Shannon provides details on how to do the modifications on her website since this is knit as one big piece. Given the variegation in colour with this yarn I knit with alternating skeins, changing every two rows in order to avoid any colour pooling. In total I used almost exactly 5 skeins of yarn, leaving me with a whole skein of this loveliness for another project ;)

Look at that colour!!!

As you can probably guess I haven't really taken it off since finishing it......I've worn it around work, out and about, and at home. It does take a bit of learning to figure out how to drape it 'just right' so that both fronts are even and the whole thing doesn't feel like it's going to slip off, but once you get that sweet spot you'll be in a snugly cocoon of warmth (it's a good thing this yarn is super wash because it's going to get quite a work out!) The only two possible downsides to this pattern are that it's hard to layer under a jacket since the sleeves are quite large so you'll end up with a lot of bunching in the sleeves, the second is short person related since I keep catching the wide sleeves on door handles and table edges, but such is the life of a short girl. All in all I can see myself wearing this all through the fall and spring for the foreseeable future so I'm quite happy :D

This is a classic shot of me with my 'please stop taking photos of me I think we have enough' pose that I only make for the #fluffyblondmonster I feel like I should share more of these as they are part of the #bloglife

More fall knitting and sewing coming your way in the next few weeks! In the mean time what are the fastest knitting projects in your books? Let me know below!

Starting Point Wrap Mystery Knit Along

Yay! It's fall! :d time for #AllTheKNitting posts!

I've been knitting up a storm recently, both towards the end of the summer and after KnitCity this year, so expect a few knitting posts in a row :) First up: I'm finally posting about my Starting Point Wrap

I'm so excited to share this project with you guys! This was my mystery first knit along and I was super pumped to take part! For those not in the know a mystery knit a long (MKAL) is when a pattern is released with only a minimal description (like what the item will ultimately be, ie. a scarf or socks, in this case a huge wrap) and the final dimensions, without an image or picture of the final project. This can be a pretty intimidating type of project to take on since you really have to trust the designer...you're literally investing hours of knitting without knowing if you will like the final result. Having knitted a fair bit in the last few years I've discovered a few designers that I would absolutely trust with my knitting hours. So when Jojli (one of my favorite knitting designers) announced this MKAL right before my birthday I was suuupppeeerrrr temped to knit along.

such a huge wrap!! my tiny arms don't do the full size justice!

Now, I'm not usually a huge scarf knitter, some of my very first projects were scarves and the process can be kind of scaring especially when you are first starting off knitting. Don't get me wrong, you will for sure get knitting and purling down pat if the first thing you knit is a scarf, but its a really lllooonnnnggg project to start with and it's really easy to give up and either a) end up with a super short scarf, or b) give up on knitting all together.....so when I was first looking into the final dimensions of this wrap I was kind of daunted by the final size, 26.5" by 72". All knit in fingering weight yarn with size US6 needles (aka really skinny yarn on fairly thin needles = LOTS of knitting). But! since I've knit my fair share of fingering weight cardigans/sweaters I thought that I could probably handle this guy.....I also got really swept up in all the pre-pattern release hype (I love the knitting online community!) AND the first knitting clue was to release on my birthday....we all knew I was going to end up casting on in the end....it was fate.... Plus, I was going to ask for yarn for the project as my birthday gift and would have the whole summer to work on it until the fall came if the project proved too much.....little did I know......

Here are the yarns all nicely boxed up....

...and here's how much of each was left at the end. You can see how little of the fauna was left! All the yarn details are listed below.

Now that I had committed to casting on I then needed to find some yarn for my birthday wish list! There were so many amazing dyers around the world who came up with MKAL kits specifically for this pattern, it was so inspiring! I still consider myself a relative newbie when it comes to selecting colours for a multi coloured project so it was really great to see some colour combos by 'professionals'. Since I didn't know what the final wrap would look like (and therefore couldn't choose colours based upon what would look best next to each other in the pattern) I decided to focus on what kit colour combos I liked the best as a whole, as well as if the colours in the kit would work with some of the pieces I have in my wardrobe. I ended up falling in love with the colourway that Jojli used for the knit along instructions, C1 off white, C2 pink, C3 white with speckles, C4 purple-black, and C5 brown, so I decided to find a kit that closely resembled this pallet. In particular I wanted something with a pink, a speckled or variegated pale option, and a navy or black for the dark option. I ended up settling with a Sweet Georgia Yarns kit dubbed Grandville Island which consisted of C1 Birch, C2 grapefruit, C3 Fauna (a variegated pink, yellow and purple), C4 Charcoal, and C5 Ginger.

Lucky girl that I am, the #fluffyblondemonster took my hint (I mean he couldn't really miss it, I may have spammed him via text and email and in person about how much I loved this kit....) and even took me to check out the Sweet Georgia head quarters (they are based in Vancouver) to go pet all the yarn (it's a knitting thing guys, you have to go pet the yarn) and pick up my kit. I so pumped to cast on, I think I may have scared the #fluffyblondmosnter with the speed with which I wound 5 skeins of yarn, I was a girl on a mission!

After clue 2!

It was pretty clear from the first clue that this large rectangular wrap would not come together in a 'traditional' way, meaning that we wouldn't be casting on the width of the wrap and simply knitting rows back an forth. The pattern begins with a garter tab cast on that slowly builds to an arrow shaped piece, one side has a rectangle and the other has a pointed end (hence the name starting point). You also knit the wrap in two identical parts, so two 'starting points', that are then joined by knitting an additional two triangles to fill the portions between the points. All in all a really cool way to make up a large rectangular wrap. This also made the knitting way more fun and portable, you didn't have to worry about the wrap becoming too large to carry around until the last clue! I actually knit a good portion of this wrap on a beach in Tofino with out having to worry about lugging it about or getting sand all over it. There were also eyelet, lace, and stripped sections of the pattern to break up the monotony of garter stitch (although tons of garter stitch are perfect for tv knitting!)

perfect beach knitting!

Since the project was divided up into two haves, in addition to the pattern itself being broken up into a series of 5 clues, I knit this waayyy faster than anticipated. I couldn't wait each week to get the next set of pattern clues and then to knit them which really drove me to knit as fast as I could to be ready for the next clue! In the end I knit this in about 6 weeks! crazy fast for the sheer size and yarn weight/needle size for me, making this a PB (personal best!) in terms of knitting time :) A PB that held for about 4 months until I beat it this week (more on that in my next post ;)

Since the amazingly warm summer we've been enjoying has finally come to an end I've now gotten a chance to wear this beauty and I honestly love it. The Sweet Georgia tough love sock is light weight but durable so I know I'll get many fall walks and winter rambles with this oversized wrap. I've been wearing it around the office constantly wrapped around my shoulders (the heating hasn't kicked in yet), even going so far as to don it during a presentation, having it dramatically sweep about as I pointed out features of my slides. It also wears well as a large scarf which I also have been loving :)

I'm really glad that I took the plunge and had faith in Joji to design an amazing wrap! and now that I've caught the MKAL bug I'm sure there will be more mystery knits in my future :D