Annual Christmas Sweater: I won't let myself be great

In 2016, I planned out a much more complicated sweater than I actually knit. In 2017, I planned out a much more complicated sweater than I actually knit. Am I becoming predictable?  If you’ve missed my other three sweaters, check out this handy tag I made to get all caught up, then hop on back here to read about another sweater that wasn't exactly as epic as I had wanted it.

No color work? What gives?

2017 was going to be the year. I was finally going to go all out, big Intarsia Christmas tree smack dab in the middle of my chest. The ornaments were going to be bobbles, maybe big, themed buttons. It was going to be awesome. But guess who had to nix that idea because she hasn’t learned Intarsia. Yeah. That’d be me. Why won’t I just let myself be great?

But Mandi, that still doesn’t explain the one color sweater. I’m talking in circles because I honestly don’t know. I think I had it stuck in my head that I needed to knit something out of my Bernat Handicrafter Book 538 (I was today years old when I learned that it was Handicrafter, not Handcrafter). I soon realized that none of those sweaters were my idea of Christmasy. It didn't matter, though, I had my heart set on a vintage inspired sweater and this pattern was the only one that had an overtly Christmas theme.

So what pattern did you use?

I ended up going with Style No. 53 (such a sexy name for a knitting pattern, no?). I heavily modified it. It was originally a cardigan with the design panel centered on each side of the front. All I did was center that panel on the front to make it a pullover. The pattern called for set-n-sleeves, but I wasn't about to try and figure out how to shape them in pattern so I converted them to dropped sleeves. I have to be honest, I do this too often. I really don't think a dropped shoulder is the best look on me. But it's the easy option so this is what I lean to most. I need to fix that and step outside my comfort zone. Maybe next year.

Next Week

So, that concludes my backlog of Christmas sweater posts. This whole process has been fun to see how much my sweater knitting has improved. Next week… well, next week I'm supposed to have this year's sweater done, but procrastination has set in and we're not celebrating Christmas until the middle of January, so we'll see what happens.

Wanna see if I finish my current Christmas sweater by Christmas day? Follow me on Instagram to see all my work-in-progress shots.

Annual Christmas Sweater: Round Yoke Redemption

My 2015 sweater was riddled with fit issues and poorly thought out color substitutions. The following year, 2016, I set out to be far more ambitious than I ended up actually being. Here I go trucking along sharing my annual Christmas sweaters if you’ve missed the previous two sweaters check out my handy tag here to get caught up.

Round Yoke Redemption?

In 2015 I knit an ill-fitting round yoke sweater. I could say the reason I knit this one in 2016 was because I wanted to redeem myself and show that I could knit a round yoke sweater that actually fit me. But that’s not exactly the case. That’s not the case at all, actually. What I had really set out to knit was an all over colorwork sweater with dropped sleeves. Once I got going on the all over patterned sweater, I realized it was going to be too much of a chore to knit, and I wasn’t about to do any stressful knitting on a tight deadline. So, I opted to change it to a simple round yoke.

My original idea for the all over pattern.

I wasn’t overly happy with the decision though. I love the sweater and it turned out great, but to me, at the time, it felt like a cop out to do two round yoke sweaters two years in a row. I low key wish I could revisit this one year and do the original all over pattern I was planning on. But I’ll probably think it’s a cop out, too. (haha)

Leftover Beads

When I was still planning on knitting the all over pattern, I ran into the dilemma of the snowmen’s faces. I’m not too keen on knitting with three colors at a time, I had done that in my previous Christmas sweater and really I had no desire to do it again. My two options then were to knit the whole thing leaving the faces blank and then duplicate stitching the eyes and nose on later. Or using beads to act as the coal and carrot. Since I’d rather adopt a pack of opossums and raise them as my own children than duplicate stitch anything, I decided to go with the beads. It was perfect, I had a ton of leftover beads from my first Christmas sweater so I would finally be using up those beads and I wouldn’t have to duplicate stitch.

Fast forward to after I swatched, the beads were transparent, I tried to pretend I liked the look, but I really didn’t so I had to buy opaque ones. Keep in mind, at this point, I was still knitting an all over pattern. Needless to say, I have a whole new set of beads that I don’t know I’ll ever use. Haha, I’m the worst.

Did I meet the deadline?

Every year I set a deadline to have my Christmas sweaters blocked and wearable by Christmas Day. Every year I’ve made that deadline. Every year except the year I knit this sweater anyway. I don’t remember exactly why I didn’t have it done on Christmas Day, but I do know that was when the tradition of going to my grandpa’s house to celebrate with family on Christmas Day ended and we all got together at a later date. I’m guessing when the actual get together date was set I was like, “Screw it! Now I got a whole ‘nother week to finish this thing.” I ended up casting off on Christmas Day and had it blocked maybe the next day. But in my mind, that doesn’t count as meeting the deadline even if I didn’t need to wear until a week later.

Next Week

To date, this was my most successful Christmas sweater. It fits just like I had intended it to fit with the one exception that the sleeves grew A LOT during blocking. The sweater also taught me another important thing. I do not care for round yoke sweaters. I don’t have any real reason for it, they’re just not my cup of tea.

Next week, I’ll be sharing my 2017 sweater. If you don’t like spoilers stop reading. The 2017 sweater is by far my subtlest Christmas Sweater.

Don't miss my progress on my 2018 Christmas Sweater(vest)! follow me on  Instagram to see all my work-in-progress shots.

Annual Christmas Sweater: Black Santa... Gnomes

Back in 2014, I started a tradition where I knit myself a Christmas themed sweater to wear every year for my family’s Christmas get together. If you read this blog regularly, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, you knit that one sweater that one year and then abandoned the idea.” While that may be more characteristic of me, I am happy to inform you all that I have indeed knit myself a Christmas sweater every year since 2014… I just haven’t posted about any of them on the blog. But this December, that’s going to change. Each week this month, I’m going to be sharing each of my sweaters on here, finally.

The Concept

The only thing I knew going into the 2015 sweater was that I wanted to incorporate a black Santa. I was first thinking about an intarsia Santa smack dab in the middle of my chest complete with 3D pom pom on his hat. But I don’t know how to do intarsia so I scrapped that idea and decided on a round yoke sweater instead.

Like my previous year’s sweater, I used a mix of patterns to achieve the results I wanted. For the overall body, I used Winter Doldrums by Carla Pletzer as a jumping off point. It’s a great free pattern in multiple sizes that did exactly what I needed it to do. At that point, I had never knit a round yoke sweater so, me being me, I also bought a Craftsy class with Amy Detjen just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything big. And then for the colorwork, I used a modified version of Nisse by Tasha Moss for the Santas and I made up my own color pattern for the trees.

I wanted to keep the overall feel of Tasha’s pattern the same. I wanted it to look like the Santas were standing on snow in front of a blue sky. I knew I didn’t want the original carrots that Tasha had in her pattern because what the hell do carrots have to do with Christmas? Carrots, in fact, do not have anything thing to do with Christmas. But if I’m calling the white part of the sweater snow, and the blue part of the sweater sky, then why the hell are there evergreen trees underground? I don’t have an answer for that but whatever.

Still not considering the logistics of the evergreen trees, I trucked on to the Santas which I figured would be simple enough. Swap the blue jackets for a nice Christmas red and swap the peachy skin color for the dark brown skin color and I’d be good to go. Fast forward to me showing the sweater off and a person saying, “Cool! I want a Santa Gnome sweater.” Well, I don’t but that is indeed what I knit for myself and I’m going to have to live with that regret for the rest of my life.

The Fit

Ufdah. The only word I can think of to describe the fit of this sweater is bad. First, I knit the entire body too short. If I remember right, I wanted it to be a little more cropped because I have a 50s inspired skirt that I wanted to wear with it. But in order to get the color pattern to fit, I had to give it too much positive ease for the look I was going for. In hindsight, I should have cut one of the repeats in half and I wouldn’t have had to fudge to get the fit so much. But hey, the oversized crop top is kind of back in style. I guess I’m a trendsetter. Is it trendsetting when it’s unintentional?

The second issue is that I knit the sleeves way too long. I don't know, I must have thought I was knitting this sweater for Kevin Garnett or something because there is no other explanation for why I knit such long sleeves. With the freakishly long sleeves and the cropped body, the whole sweater looks ridiculous laying flat after I wash it.

The third issue I had with fit is the neckline. As I was decreasing, I was getting more and more worried about it fitting over my head. This was mostly because when I switched over to the 16-inch circular needle, it made the whole thing look super small, which is to be expected. The more I decreased the more nervous I got about it. I was knitting on a deadline and I wasn’t about to knit it too small, not be able to get my head into the thing and then have to reknit it. So, I stopped my decreases too early and ended up with a neckline that’s too wide, which coincidentally, is sorta in style right now, too. I really am a trendsetter.

So, You Hate the Whole Thing, huh?

You might be surprised to learn that I don't hate this sweater. Fit issues and color pattern blunders aside, I’m still really proud of it. It still amazes me sometimes that each year I’ve set out to knit a Christmas sweater and each year I actually do. That’s some character development I never expected from myself. And you know, maybe the Santa Gnomes have grown on me over the years.

Next week, we’ll take a look at my 2016 sweater. Spoilers, it’s another round yoke and there were no ill-fated color changes that were made.

Don't miss my progress on my 2018 Christmas Sweater(vest)! Follow me on Instagram to see all my work-in-progress shots.

This Gal's Gift Ideas for the Knitters in Your Life

Tell me if this sounds familiar. The holidays come along and you're making gift list ideas for all the people in your life. It's going great, one person is getting their favorite superhero apparel, another person is getting that book they've been talking about. Gift cards for another person to their favorite store. Then you come up to that one person who has a highly specialized hobby, let's say knitting. You have no idea what to get that person. Well, don't worry because this gal's got you covered. Below are 7 budget-friendly gift ideas for that knitter in your life.

1) Novelty Stitch Markers
(from left to right; DIY charm: $12, Charm from Sucre Sucre Miniatures: starting at $8, DIY charm: $11)

2) Small Scissors $7 to $10

3) Emergency Fix Key Chain $2.49 via Knit Picks

4) Needle Threader $1.79 via Joann Fabrics

5) Darning Needle $3.59 via Lion Brand

6) Locking Stitch Markers $5.99 via Joann Fabrics

7) Ring Stitch Markers $4.99 via Joann Fabrics

Still looking for more ideas? Check out my comprehensive list of ideas for gifts for knitters.

If you're a knitter yourself let me know what you like to get as gifts.

Free Vintage Knitting Pattern: 1960s Chunky Cable Pullover

Keep warm during sweater season in this classy 1960s cable rib pullover. This raglan sleeve sweater would be perfect for chilly Autumn nights by a bonfire or staying warm on a lazy weekend during the winter.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up in pieces with raglan sleeves. It features a rolled turtleneck and a chunky cable rib stitch. There are three sizes with bust measurements of 32”, 34” and 36”.

The pattern calls for 1,400(1,400, 1,680) yrds of worsted weight yarn in 100% wool or 50% wool and 50% nylon.

If you’d like to size this pattern up or down, I highly recommend Tasha’s knit-along on her website By Gum By Golly. Or check out some other sweater knitting resources.

Specs

Publication date: Early 1960s
Publication name: Columbia Minerva
Gauge: 9 sts = 2" 6 rows = 1"
Sizes: 32", 34" and 36" bust

.

Knitter's Life Printable Set + Freebie Yarn Swatch Card

My number one challenge right now is how to organize my knitting notes. About a year and a half ago I released my first knitting binder printable, I still love those printables, but I wanted something different. As I’ve gotten into bullet journaling, I tried to think of a way that I use some bullet journal style spreads into my knitting notebook. That’s how the Knit Life Printable Set was born.

Included are 11 pages set up like bullet journal spreads, complete with dot grid. The pages range from project pages to needle inventory logs to swatch cards. Hop over to my Etsy shop to see the full details. And keep your eyes peeled here because, in the early part of 2019, I'm going to do a video flip through of my knitting notebook to show you how exactly I use this printable set.

Speaking of swatch cards, I’m offering the swatch label card free today. These are perfect for keeping track of what needles and yarn you used for any given swatch. If you’re like me and never remember where you wrote down that information then these cards are for you. All you have to do is fill out the card, punch a hole in it and then tie to the swatch. No more random bits of paper floating around. I like to print them out on cardstock for stability.

Don’t forget to check out the whole Knit Life printable set available on my Etsy shop. And stay tuned to the blog, because in the early part of 2019, I’m going to do a flip through of my knitting notebook and you can see in detail how I used this printable set.

Fresh off the needles: Keia's Golden Gopher Sweater

There’s no real reason that such a simple sweater took so long to knit. Or any sweater really. But what are you going to do? It did, in fact, take over seven months to knit. I got it done just in time for my sister, Keia to wear on our visit to my mom’s hometown last weekend.

Yarn chicken again? Girl, what is wrong with you?

I know right? This is the second time I’ve done this on a sweater I knit for Keia. I don’t know what it is that makes me under-estimate the amount of yarn I need for her sweaters. In my semi-defense, I wouldn’t have had to worry about it at all had I stuck to the original plan and just knit a plain stockinette stitch sweater. Either way, I did have more than enough yarn which makes my yarn chicken record 2-0.

I guess I’m a liar

Ha ha. Remember in my last sweater post when I swore that my next sweater was going to be knit using an actual pattern? Yeah, well, I lied. I turned to my trusty whatever that book is called once again. I used the drop shoulder sized in the adult 36 chest. As I mentioned earlier, I was planning on knitting another stockinette stitch sweater but veered off course when I was browsing through my vintage booklets and found a sweater with a broken rib stitch. I liked the look of it and decided to use it for this sweater. And I am quite happy with the results.

I’m not even going to end this post saying that the next sweater I knit will be from an actual pattern because the next sweater I knit is going to be my annual Christmas sweater and I never knit those from patterns. But I will say this, I will make it my 2019 goal to knit at least one sweater from an already written pattern. How’s that?

If you want to watch me follow through on that promise, or you want to see updates on my Christmas sweater, follow me on Tumblr, and, Instagram.

Fresh off the needles: My First Mittens

Who knew a pair of mittens could make me so happy. I don’t know what it is but they just make me so inexplicably happy. On a whim, I cast these on one Friday afternoon and had them finished on Sunday morning. So, it might be the “instant” gratification that makes me so happy. Or it’s just that the yarn reminds me of a carnival. Who knows.

The Yarn

It’s not something I would normally use. I’m always drawn towards the beautiful colors of variegated yarns, but usually never buy them, because knit up, they just don’t suit my taste. But when I saw this Dorothy colorway by Dyebolical Yarns I couldn’t resist. The colors are so pretty and vibrant. My favorite part is the little pops of purple that it has. I hadn’t noticed it in the skein, but every now and then the purple would come up and I’d get so happy. The only way I can describe it is with the dancing lady emoji. 💃

The Pattern

I used a Tin Can Knits pattern and you honestly can’t go wrong with Tin Can Knits patterns. The pattern is called The World's Simplist Mittens and they weren't lying. The was so clear and to the point. Plus, there's a blog post to go along with the pattern so if  I got stuck there was an easy way to find an explanation. I couldn’t have chosen a better pattern to follow for my first pair of mittens. Really, it’s not an exaggeration to say this will be the only mitten pattern I’ll ever need. It comes in five sizes (toddler to adult large) and four different yarn weights/gauges (fingering to chunky). So, unless I eventually decide I want a different stitch pattern on my mittens, I'm pretty much set with this pattern.

So, what’s the verdict? Will you knit another pair of mittens?

I will most definitely knit another pair of mittens. Next time though, I plan to make them convertible so I can have a little bit of freedom for my fingers. I hadn’t worn mittens since I was a kid and honestly didn’t even think about the fact that you can’t use your fingers. So, honestly, I’m not even sure how much wear they will actually get. Right now I’ve used them mostly for scraping off my windows in the morning and driving.

Once I get the convertible mitts down there’s going to be no stopping me. I hope everyone is ready for endless mittens because I’m already planning on making at least 100 more pairs.

Have you knit mittens before? Let me know in the comment section or connect with me on Instagram. I’d love to hear from you.

Free Vintage Knitting Pattern: 1940s Valentine's Day Pullover

This 1940s pullover’s all over heart pattern is perfectly kitschy without being over the top. Styled the right way it’s perfect for a night out with your honey but can also be dressed down for a cozy night at home watching your favorite romantic comedy.

The Heart Pullover is knit in pieces from the bottom up with set-in sleeves. It has an all-over pattern of stockinette hearts against a reverse stockinette background. There are three sizes with bust measurements of 29”, 31” and 33”.

The pattern calls for 284(284, 340) grams of fingering weight yarn in 100% wool.

If you’d like to size this pattern up or down, I highly recommend Tasha’s knit-along on her website By Gum By Golly. Or check out some other sweater knitting resources.

Specs

Publication date: 1946
Publication name: Handknits by Royal Society
Gauge: 7sts x 8 rows = 1in x 1in
Sizes: 29", 31" and 33" bust