I thoroughly enjoyed making the Acer Cardigan designed by Amy Christoffers. With lovely yarnover and cable motifs, it kept my interest. As I learn nifty little tricks to add polish to my knitting, I love to incorporate them into knitting sweaters. "Acer" knit up fairly quickly using worsted weight yarn. I chose Rowan's Hemp Tweed in the teal color. The yarn's tweedy-ness is subtle enough to enhance, rather than detract from, the stitch pattern. And while some tweed yarns feel like a bale of hay, Hemp Tweed has a nice hand and the sweater is just soft enough that I can wear it next to skin. Since I've become so enamored with my fusion of Custom Fit and the kind of shaping used by Ysolda Teague in her Blank Canvas sweater pattern, I used my "hippy shaping" to create just the right fit for my Acer Cardigan. I created hourglass shaping on the front and back of the sweater, to give the illusion of an hourglass figure which my actual body certainly does not have. Then I forced the extra hip shaping to the sides of the sweater. It makes the hip shaping appear less severe. I also altered the sweater by adding some length and adding short rows to the upper back. I used decreases in the corners where the back shoulder stitches meet the bound-off back to make the neck band lie flat. I explained this technique in detail in my blog post for the Drumlin sweater . A new-to-me idea that I tried in setting in the sleeve was to very loosely sew the underarm seam with dental floss as a guide. It's much easier to pull out errant dental floss than it is yarn if the sleeve stitches don't line up with the body stitches. It was so easy to follow the floss with the seaming yarn - the columns of stitches lined up perfectly with each other! Typically, when I wear my hand-knit sweaters buttoned up, the buttons pull out toward the outer edge of the buttonhole band, making them look off-center. A little trick I used on this sweater was to cheat the buttonhole one stitch toward the body of the sweater. If you look closely, you can see that the buttonhole is just a bit closer to the inside edge of the band. When buttoned, the button appears perfectly centered. I just love to learn little techniques that add up to a sweater that I enjoy wearing! Resources: If you're not already a member of TKGA , I highly recommend it. I love Arenda Holladay's articles on seaming, in the members-only section. I use her "Seams Part 3" article as a reminder every time I seam a sweater.

I love the designs in Barbara Benson's book Mosaic & Lace Knits . I was especially drawn to the Love Child shawl, with its bands of color and clever lace and mosaic stitch pattern. Last April, when it was STILL snowing, I happened to walk into my LYS, The Artful Yarn , when they were stocking their shelves with a brand-new shipment of Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock yarn. Oh, my...the gorgeous colors! Quite a few skeins came home with me, including a bright yellow and a cheery blue. I was more than ready for happy summery colors after such a dismally long winter! I like the mosaic and lace stitch pattern so much. It makes the shawl a perfect weight for warm weather. Knitting with the Tough Love Sock yarn was a dream. It's well behaved and soft. You can check out my review of the Mosaic & Lace Knits book here .

Once in a while I knit up a project that I'm so pleased with, I can't help smiling when I see it and I wear it all the time. Such was the Waterlily top. Designed by Mehgan Fernandes, I found it to be absolutely delightful to knit. I added my own modifications to make it just right for me....Shaping in the front and back to form an hourglass illusion, with extra decreases on the sides to make up for my pear shape. (More on this in a future post). I also made it longer than the pattern's finished measurements. I used Knit Picks Lindy Chain yarn in the Sagebrush color. Even though the yarn is fingering weight, it was a very quick knit on the #7 needles that got me the right gauge. The linen/cotton blend offered nice stitch definition. I'm in love with these details - the pretty lace on top and the clever Latvian braid. I might just knit another of these next spring! Resources: Mehgan Fernandes web site; her designs on Ravelry To get the pattern: Pompom Magazine Issue 8 ; pattern errata Knit Picks Lindy Chain yarn

The Reyna shawl is one of those lovely little projects when you're in the mood for something very easy to knit, or you have some pretty sock/fingering yarn you want to use up. The pattern, by Noora Laivola, is available for free on Ravelry . I don't know about you, but as the days tick down to travelling by airplane my anxiety level rises in proportion to the number of portable projects I have on hand. When I had nothing at all to work on before a recent trip across country, I was in a dither. I was thrilled to find the Reyna shawl! I zipped over to my LYS and picked up some lovely Malabrigo Sock yarn. Out of the many gorgeous colorways, I chose Indiecita - it has enough colors to keep it interesting, while not being so contrast-y as to take away from the stitch pattern. At 16" high and 44" wide, the shawl is on the small side, although it's fine as a little summery accessory. When I make another one I'll work it on a larger needle (maybe a #5 instead of a #4) or work another pattern repeat or two, but I might need another skein. This was one of my favorite travel projects. It's perfect for social knitting too!

I love knitting shawls! This time I was in the mood for something subtle but beautiful to wear during spring and summer dinners on the terrace of a favorite restaurant. Ripplerock , by Allison LoCicero, fits the bill perfectly. I chose a soft, sage color that will go with lots of my spring and summer outfits. The beautiful lace border adds a slightly dressy look for dining out. It starts by creating a crescent shaped body from the top down. Then a wide lace border is added. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport , one of my favorites. • Mods: I worked the body of the shawl in a double moss stitch rather than the one called for in the pattern. It seemed small, so continued knitting the crescent until it was the bigger size that I wanted. I could have instead gone up a needle size, I suppose, but I liked the way the border looked on my US #5's; if I'd gone up a size some of the definition might have been lost. Thank goodness I had purchased a couple of extra skeins, so I didn't worry about running out of yarn. The bigger crescent meant I worked 22 border repeats rather than the 18 called for in the pattern. As it is, I'm glad I made the changes, since I ended up with almost the called for size, mine coming in at about 68" wide by about 24" deep. • I used lifelines throughout the making of this shawl, and left them in place as I went so I could use them as guidelines for blocking. For more details and photos, you can check out the previous post, Using Lifelines in Blocking .

Sometimes all I need is a little "something" during transitional weather. I made this version of my Farrand Cowl out of some cheery Malabrigo Rios colors to keep my neck warm as the weather struggles to let go of winter. The "Apple Green" color reminds me of spring-time tree buds. Always a fan of teal, I thought "Teal Feather" was just right for the accent stripes. Now, puhleeeze...can we get rid of what seems like the longest winter ever?! · Farrand originally appeared in Knitty's Winter 2016 issue.

Projects Archives

Acer Cardigan

I thoroughly enjoyed making the Acer Cardigan designed by Amy Christoffers. With lovely yarnover and cable motifs, it kept [...]

By AudKnits|2019-12-19T15:57:02-05:00December 19th, 2019|Projects, Sweaters, Techniques|0 Comments

Texas Sunset + Farrand Cowl

While enjoying a Texas sunset I finished knitting another Farrand Cowl. I just love it when a project is color-coordinated [...]

By AudKnits|2019-02-16T18:10:03-05:00February 16th, 2019|Cowls, Projects, Scarf|0 Comments

Drumlin and CustomFit

Looking back over previous posts, I discovered much to my chagrin that I first wrote about starting my Drumlin sweater by [...]

By AudKnits|2018-09-02T07:53:27-04:00September 8th, 2018|How to knit, Projects, Sweaters|0 Comments

Love Child Shawl

I love the designs in Barbara Benson's book Mosaic & Lace Knits. I was especially drawn to the Love Child shawl, [...]

By AudKnits|2018-08-26T11:21:42-04:00August 28th, 2018|Projects, Shawls|0 Comments

Waterlily Top

Once in a while I knit up a project that I'm so pleased with, I can't help smiling when I [...]

By AudKnits|2018-08-22T10:52:56-04:00August 21st, 2018|Projects, Tops|0 Comments

Reyna Shawl

The Reyna shawl is one of those lovely little projects when you're in the mood for something very [...]

By AudKnits|2018-08-02T16:13:50-04:00August 2nd, 2018|Projects, Shawls|0 Comments

Ripplerock Shawl

I love knitting shawls! This time I was in the mood for something subtle but beautiful to wear during spring [...]

By AudKnits|2018-07-21T12:33:38-04:00July 21st, 2018|Projects, Shawls|1 Comment

Mosaic & Lace Knits Winner

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE! Ann from California is the winner of the Mosaic & Lace Knits giveaway. I hope she enjoys this lovely [...]

By AudKnits|2018-06-21T16:18:28-04:00June 21st, 2018|Giveaway, Projects, Shawls|0 Comments

Spring Farrand Cowl

Spring Farrand Cowl

Sometimes all I need is a little "something" during transitional weather. I made this version of my Farrand Cowl out of [...]

By AudKnits|2018-04-10T16:39:34-04:00April 8th, 2018|Cowls, Patterns, Projects, Techniques|0 Comments

Stranded Knitting Practice: The Freyja Hat

I'm practicing my stranding. Why? Sheer, shameless jealousy. My good friend (She Who Will Remain Nameless) strands like the wind. When [...]

By AudKnits|2018-04-05T15:49:19-04:00April 2nd, 2018|Hats, Projects, Techniques|2 Comments