weasleys

Tania's weasleys! Eklectika's weasleys! Orli's first weasley! Tami's weasley! Four cheers for weasley knitters - hip, hip, hip, hooray! Awesome job, gals.

sockapalooza

Everyone in both groups should now have a pal. I've updated the list of sockers. Check the list to make sure that you're on it and your blog info is correct.

Can you believe that some knitters (like Illanna) are already finished with their socks?! Wow! Please hold on to the socks until March 15 though, so we can all send them off around the same time. And those of you getting started, share your progress with us or direct us to your blog for updates by leaving a comment here to each week's "tuesday is knitalong day" post. 150 people is a lot to keep track of, so it'll be better if you pop by here and let us know that there's progress to see. Thanks! I can't wait to see all the socks being knitted out there.

february is for fixing

Got a few knits gone wrong? Need to rip? Need to reknit? Fall in love with those projects again this February by putting them back on the needles and putting them right. It's a February fix-a-thon for inspiration and commiseration!

Here they are, my dirty little secrets: the projects I've fallen out of love with.

Ready for fixin':

Pop. But we knew that already.

Knitting my gifted mittens I asked myself whatever happened to those big plaid mittens I made last year. They're still in the closet. Not being worn. I love that they're so big and mitten-y. They'd be perfect for walking to work or standing around outside, but with two toddlers I've got to use my hands a lot, even when they're cold. And I have to admit that my big, fun, floppy mittens are just too big to allow me to do things like buckle the boys up in car seats. So I'm kinda thinking I should take these apart and knit them smaller (I'll add new sizing to the pattern). Looking at the mittens I remember how much I loved the construction of them (following Ann Budd's mittens in her Handy Book of Patterns). I actually really liked this pattern much more than the gifted mittens, but I'm not sure I can fight the urge to knit them flat.

So add plaid mittens.

As I was pulling out the Plaid mittens, I caught a glimpse of my brushed alpaca hat. It's so soft and fluffy, but also big, and too round looking on my head. And I remember that I had to buy a second ball to finish it but only used a few meters from it. So I've got lots of this yarn left. Wouldn't a big, beret-style hat be better?

Add brushed alpaca hat.

Now, what else do I have that I'm not wearing? Are there some other knits suffering from neglect?

Well there is Klaralund. I knit it nice and loose because I wanted it to drape a lot and it sure does. But then I saw Terri's and liked the more fitted look. And now I think I want to do away with all that garter stitch and make one like Laura's. It knit up so fast, I think I can deal with ripping and totally reknitting this one.

Add Klaralund.

Oh yeah, add Rosebud too. I've got some tinkering to do with the sleeve length.

Ready to rip:

Brown butter - Hubby never wore it and says he never will (not a vest man after all). And hey, I could use that yarn. For something.

Greensleeves - The yarn is too stiff and heavy for the pattern. Plus, I've found a very similar pattern that's more fitted and would be more flattering. And I have the perfect yarn for it!

And now for the really hard one....

Elizabeth - Never worn it, never will. It's too dressy and toooooo white. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the yarn, but it's depressing me in elizabeth.

Oh my, February's fixing frenzy is going to be full.

Just to balance out the sh*t list.

First I gotta mention banff and sooty mango, my two favoritest sweaters of all, which by the way were both results of major reknitting (I cut the ribbing off of sooty mango and reknit it and banff was knit out of the yarn from a failed cardigan!).

Next, these socks, one of the first pairs I ever knit. The recipient recently hinted that she would love a couple more pairs just like them. When they ask for more, it's definitely a hit!

Finally, there's nothing like adorable babies to restore your faith in your knits.

Happy baby in daisy sweater.

Happy baby in mya sweater.

And it's not technically a KNIT hit, but I get a kick out of this recently finished (and now pompon-ed) crocheted beret that I made for charity. B. let me take his picture wearing it, but made me promise that he could see the picture when it was done. When he looked at the picture, he immediately smiled and said, "hey look, it's my blankie!" See the little bit of it in the corner?

We have a winner! The biggest knit hits of all have got to be my very first projects, the baby blankies for my boys.

I love knitting.

Super sockapalooza socks I've seen so far:

Finished: Suzie's pretty pink socks, Jenn's awesome blue stripey socks, Grauwal's fabulous fair-isle socks, and Timothy's first sock ever!

In progress: Cece's pretty purple sock, Angela's blue/beige stripes, Kate's swirly, frilly sock, Margene's red hot salsa sock, two, count 'em two pairs of Friday Harbor socks (by Nancy Bush) underway - Sandy's and Deb's -, and more Nancy Bush - Erika's Travelling socks.

And although they're not sockapalooza socks, Kim's argyle socks (scroll down to Jan 21 - it's worth it!) and Jenn's nipper ripple socks are just too cool for me not to mention.

And no, I still haven't decided on yarn or pattern for my sock pal. Too many choices out there!

Note: anyone without a blog, I'd be happy to post pictures of your socks in progress! Just send me an image by email.

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Same goes for February fixers - send me pics of your ripping/reknitting and I can post them in tuesday knitalong updates.

For those of you who are ready to rip, a few links about washing your yarn to get the kinks out.
Theresa's page on reusing yarn
joyknit's quick how to
some pics from my own frogging saga

And you can recycle yarn from store-bought sweaters too, you know:
How to Unravel a Sweater
Yarn Tomato takes apart a Gap sweater
Knitty Gritty's Sweater Redesign episode

In fact, I just found these in my closet that could be fun to cannibalize! A gigantic Banana Republic cashmere blend sweater and a stretched out Tweeds sweater in 100% silk - not bad! And since both have survived several years of wadded-up neglect in the closet, I think the yarn is pretty sturdy. It's worth a try, right?

Are we ready?! (I know Laura is, 'cause she's already done!)

Update: The link to Theresa's page on recycling yarn has been updated. All the images should work now. It's the tutorial I followed to help me rip and reuse yarn for the first time. It's all you'll need to know to get started!

It's going to be a short post today. Except for posting, I've been offline for a few days catching up on some much missed sleep. I haven't even checked my email! Another day of r&r and the blue blog should be fully operational again. For now my misadventures in knitalongs.

I started my sock pal sock and although I love that color, I'm still not convinced that my sock pal will. The rib pattern at the top of the sock looks good, I think, but I suspect that the rest of the retro rib pattern will get lost in the colors. I'm putting this one in time out for a bit, until I decide how to continue.

And I have actually failed in my first attempt to frog a store-bought sweater! I started with the ribbed cashmere blend Banana Republic sweater. All the seams looked good for ripping, so I gave myself the thumbs up.

I began with the neck, but the tubular bind off wouldn't reveal its secrets so I had to cut it and pick out a row to get a piece of yarn to start the ripping.

And then it wouldn't unravel! It seems that the first and last knit stitch of the 3x3 rib are knit a row higher than the rest of the stitches in that row. Perhaps this is some way of making the ribs lay flatter? I could unravel it, if I were willing to pull the yarn by had through each of these stitches every row. I of course am not. Too bad!

So everyone how are you doing? I hope your knitting and ripping is going a lot better than mine. The comments box is wide open awaiting all your knitalong updates. I promise to take the time this week to come visit you all!

The front of january is all finished! Looooove that neckline.

And I tried the keyhole opening on pop one more time. I managed to come up with a version with a one piece front. It looks much better on than before. But I'm still not convinced that this is not the right neckline for my striped version of this sweater. The opening throws off the pretty lines of the stripes too much. So back to the drawing board again.

And thanks to Jenanne, I was able to rip out the neck on that Banana Republic ribbed sweater afterall. She was absolutely correct that I was unravelling in the wrong direction. It's actually very clear in the link about unravelling sweaters that the neck should be separated from the body first and then ripped from there back to the edge. Doh! So I picked and snipped and finally ripped that neck out. The boys even helped wind the yarn into hanks.*

* (They actually turned their attention away from "Lazy Town" as soon as they saw the swift come out. And if you're a mom of a NickJr.-watching toddler you understand what kind of power "Lazy Town" has over kids and can appreciate my shock when they literally turned their backs on it to play with the swift.)

February fix-it month is all about loving your knits. So here it is Valentine's Day already - are you in love again yet??

My son is loving his blankie. Bonne Marie is loving her reclaimed yarn. Laura is loving her Lauralund. Lu is loving her sockapalooza attempt number two. Sarah is loving her thrift-store Manos. And I'm loving the cashmere from my old Banana Republic sweater! Yes, I attacked the sleeves this weekend: I snipped, ripped, wound, washed, and swooned.

Elsewhere this Valentine's Day, Susan is attacking store made sweaters like it's going out of style. Deb is fixing by felting. Melissa just says no to her Heather. Karen has ripped her purple monster. Steph has fixing fever. And I think I've actually fallen in love with the misfit projects that Nadia plans to rip! (Hey, Nadia suggests that once we're all done with our adventurous - and virtuous - fixing, we should all buy or start something totally frivolous on March 1st. How fun!)

For anyone who's fallen in love with the idea of ripping and reclaming yarn, be sure to check out the article "Recycle, Re-knit, and Re-use" in the new Interweave Knits and the accompanying knitting projects on their project page.

And for those of you still frustrated with frogging and fixing, some words of wisdom heard during the Valentine's Day Coupling marathon: "It's a relationship, someone's bound to get hurt!"

I can't wait to use this cashmere!

that's two sleeves and the neck's worth

Before I rip out the rest of my old Banana Republic sweater, I took note of the gauge and actual measurements of the original sweater (as suggested by Kristi's very helpful page on recycling yarn from old sweaters). The boys were happy to oblige when I needed an object for scale.

biiiiig sweater

It is so big, I'm really hoping to have enough yarn to knit an entire sweater. But choosing a pattern for this special yarn is proving just as hard as choosing a pattern and yarn for my sock pal was. Since it's cashmere, I was kinda thinking something classic, simple (no cables or fancy details), and maybe a little vintage. Any suggestsions?

I had a long list of projects to rip and reknit this February, but got sidetracked by my cashmere Banana Republic sweater. Instead of ripping the rest of it this weekend, I decided to move on to another knit I've fallen out of love with, one that I did knit myself, my greensleeves (able) pullover. When I made it I was a few pounds heavier and it was already a loose fitting style. Once I stopped nursing and lost the last of the baby pounds, the sweater seemed way too big. The style is also meant to have a lot of drape - the pattern called for summer tweed - but the yarn I used is a stiff wool tweed and just felt too heavy and rigid for the style. I think it would work better as a jacket, maybe even this jacket. As soon as I got excited about the new pattern, I couldn't wait to start ripping.

looking for seams

back in pieces

riiiiiiip

ahhh, yarn

Almost as fun as ripping my own projects is watching others rip theirs!

Grauwal has ripped one project gone wrong and a cashmere thrift store find! Patti ripped out her Klaralund. Mary ripped a silly little sweater she wasn't going to wear. And Shannon ripped her dreamy creamy. Rip, rip, hooray!

Need some inspiration to rip and reknit? Here are some success stories from the February fixin':

Bonne Marie finished her tank to cardi adventure (steeking a store bought tank and adding sleeves - is there nothing she can't or won't do?!). And she's already blocking the body and picking out necklines for her new cardi in her reclaimed cash iroha. Colleen successfully shortened her Top Secret. Amy fixed up her mirror mirror sweater. Erica's posted before and after pics of her scarf redo. And my favorite success story of all, Jo pulled out her blankie-to-be-fixed and discovered that she loved it just the way it is. Awwww!

Fill me in on other updates!

Big update today! First another finished weasley! After making one for her son, MA finished one for herself. With an "R". Awwwww.

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On to a wrap up of the February fixins, which definitely won't end with February. Cause I'm not done yet! Those of us who have ripped and are reknitting can just continue the makeovers through March. And for inspiration, just check out Sandy's latest posts where she's making final decisions on all her (AWESOME!) unfinished projects.

Since I've already started my new project with the yarn I recycled from the sleeves, I thought it would be best if I went ahead and finished ripping out my Banana Republic sweater. Not only were the body pieces huge, but about 3/4 of the back came out in one long piece of yarn!

5 1/2" diameter ball of yarn
(full ball of Koigu added for scale)

Yes, there was a whole lot of ripping going on:

Poor Stacey has ripped out her sockapalooza sock. Oh noooo! Wendi ripped out her very first knitted project and Janell ripped out her almost-first project. Amy Lu ripped a poncho for her daughter. Dani ripped out her poncho (marvel at her new finished sweater, then scroll down for ripped poncho pics). And another poncho bit the dust over at Jenny's. Karen frogged a failed project and was rewarded with 10 skeins worth of Lana D'oro. Yum! Michelle said good-bye to her fluffy thing and is gonna start a scarf style scarf! And Nicole ripped Rosedale United to start Rosedale.

There was plenty of fixing too:

Emily is fixing her Mariah. Patti has started Gersta with her Klaralund yarn and fixed her just finished Marilyn! Bethany is reknitting a sweater for her son. Shelby shows us that fixing's not so bad after all (and should have a finished Gloria to show us later today). And Renee is making a blanket out of the yarn she recovered from the baby sweater she ripped last week.

Rae had an emergency fix precipitated by a boy and his scissors! Eklectika fixed her dangerously low-cut tank. Jessica fixed and finished her mon petit chou hipster panties. Wowza! Nat fixed a wonderful heirloom blanket that a few moths had gotten to. Grauwal fixed the sleeves on her Jean Moss cardigan. And Jenny fixed something she didn't even know was broken!

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This is your official sockapalooza two week notice!

I'm on schedule with one sock done and the second begun. (Hey, that rhymed!)

And what you're all waiting for, more finished socks to covet:

Silke's cloverleaf socks
Tania's striped regia socks
Jackie's retro ribs
Karen B.'s elegant fair-isle socks (when they were still in progress)
Judy's gorgeous fair-isle socks
Angela's violet variegated
Jessica's beeea-utiful Birch Leaf socks
Lydia's lacy, autumnal colors
Jenny's beautiful blues
Timothy's first socks!
Deb's purple patterned socks
Amy Lu's rainbow socks
Fern's red socks
Dyann's Conwy socks
Jackie's red hots
Beate's incredible orange patterned socks

And in-progress socks you're gonna want to have:

Jody's tutti-frutti socks
Valentina's berry Tumbling Leaves
Emily's pretty white confetti socks
Ginger's teal blue sock
Jackie's retro green socks
Mamacate's Broadripple
Keri's Dublin Bay sock
Wendi's blue ribs (those would be PERFECT for me!)
Julia's Bob Marley Carribean Shells sock (did you vote in the poll?)
Kathy's beautiful striped socks

Sock on folks! Only two weeks 'til we ship.

Didn't think I'd forgotten about pop, did you? I did make a few attempts to fix her up in February, but this sweater is really stubborn - it just does not want to come out right! My latest attempt at the neckline is good, but too open. I think I'll keep the same shape, but leave myself a few more stitches for the shoulders. My shy bra straps should appreciate that.

But before I go back and fix the front yet again, I decided to tackle the back. When I first finished the sweater I noticed that although the measurements were good, it rode up a little while I had it on, so my February fix-it plan was to invent a new neckline and go back and add an inch before the armhole shaping on the body and before the sleeve cap on the sleeves. Since the front is in time out AGAIN, I ripped out the pink of the back and am starting the re-knitting there.

Straight knitting - I can't get that wrong, right?

No way I was gonna make it through the two-month fix-a-thon without fixing both boys' blankies. I rescued S's blankie at the start of February. B's blankie has been hanging on by a thread (literally) for a while now. He has rubbed the edges down so much that there were at least five spots that were just one snuggle away from developing into holes. Last week, I saw him stick his fingers right through the garter stitch edging and knew it was time.

no denying it, that's a hole

Sure, I could pick up that stitch, patch up that hole, but everything around it is about to go. I'd be fixing another spot in less than a week (and even worse, just look at how thin some of the yarn is in some of the first pattern rows below the edging!). Nope, the entire edging and last pattern repeat had to go.

Of course there was no variegated Baby Merino DK to be found round here no more, but we found some in blue that B approved of.

he's grinning ear to ear behind the yarn

He snuggled with the ball while I got all the stitches back on the needles correctly, then passed it to me to start the reknitting.

Two days after first seeing the hole, the blanket had a new border ready for lovin'.

together again at last

In the last few days, there's been no sock knitting, no hourglass knitting, no pop repairing, and no vintage sweater starting. I've focused exclusively on my new fixer-upper, "Banff on Safari."

I am having so much fun reknitting this sweater! Since the original version had such nice ribbing already, I kept the old ribbing and adjusted the Banff pattern to work with that stitch count. The OnLine sweater had 10 fewer stitches for each body piece and almost 30 fewer for each sleeve! In order to get that little poof after the ribbing, I needed to add more stitches to the total stitch count though. I wasn't worried about adding to the width of the sleeves, since they were so poofy at the top, I figured there'd be plenty of yarn to redistribute the poof over the whole arm. But I was nervous about adding stitches to the body and then still having enough yarn to finish the sweater. I decided to do only two increases on each body piece. But then I joined the two pieces and started knitting them in the round. This has the effect of further increasing the total stitch count (including in the body the four stitches that were previously sewn together in the seam), without using up any more yarn. I was very proud of myself for coming up with that little idea.

The yarn is holding up very well to the reknitting. It's so slubby and bumpy that there wasn't even any need to wash it after frogging. And the fact that the gauge matches that of Banff perfectly was really serendipitous. It's made reworking the raglan sleeve decreases merely a matter of adjusting for size. I've shortened the armhole a bit and to adjust for the dramatically smaller stitch count on the sleeves, I've decreased a bit more slowly there. Again, the slubby nature of the yarn will help me, since it will hide the fact that the decreases on the body and sleeves won't match up perfectly.

I should have this finished this weekend! And things should stay green around here for a while longer, because a big box o' green yarn just arrived yesterday!

Artful Yarns' Candy in sour apple

This Candy yarn is so neat. It's a soft, light cotton/acrylic/elastic blend and look at how nicely it knits up. I may have to make another "nothing but a t-shirt" with this fun stuff.

Lookie, it's my finished Banff on Safari. Just so we remember what the sweater looked like before.

and after

From silly, poofy thing to legitimate sweater. Right on! This ripping and fixing stuff RULES!

But that's not my new favorite sweater. This is.

Coco from Jo Sharp's Book Two

This is another older shop model that I picked up in my LYS's sale bin. It fits me perfectly! When I first saw the sweater on display in the store a couple years ago, I immediately bought the book because I wanted to make one for myself. I never got around to knitting the sweater, but actually I'm glad of that now. I would never have thought to knit the short-sleeved version of the sweater, but it's really comfy to wear. The wool is warm enough that it seems to make up for my arms being bare. It's making me rethink all those charming short-sleeved "vintage" sweater patterns that I discredited in my mind as impractical. Cause I like this one. I really like it.

But what makes me love this sweater so much, besides the fact that I love the pattern and the yarn (Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed), is that I didn't have to knit it. I don't have any family members who knit, which means that there isn't anyone out there ever knitting for me. So it's really cool to have this beautiful handknit sweater that someone else knitted. It makes me feel special somehow.

I've had some requests to share the modificiations I made to the Banff pattern to make my Banff on Safari. I didn't start out with the idea of making a downsized Banff, but as I was limited to only the yarn that was in the original sweater I was recycling the yarn from, I couldn't make a genuine, big Banff, and yet I just kept thinking that this sweater had to become a Banff, somehow. So here's the somehow for those of you who are interested in a Banff with a more standard fit.

Banff on a Budget

Measurements

Bust: 42"
Length: 22"
Sleeve Length: 17 1/2" to underarm
Sleeve Width: 14" at underarm

Instructions

BACK: Cast on 74 st. and work in 2x2 rib for 4 1/2", ending on WS row. Switch to stockinette stitch, increasing as indicated in the pattern. Work even on these 78 st. for 10". Bind off and do raglan decreases as written in pattern until 34 st. remain. Follow shoulder instructions as in original pattern.

FRONT: Work as for BACK above, doing ribbing, increases, armhole bind offs and decreases until 46 st. remain. Then follow instructions as given in pattern.

SLEEVES: Cast on 38 st. and work in 2x2 rib for 4 1/2", ending on WS row. Switch to stockinette stitch, increasing 6st. evenly over the first row. Increase one stitch at each end every 16 rows until you have 50 st. on needle. Work even until sleeve measures 17 1/2", ending with WS row.

(Note: I kept the original ribbing from the store model that I was working with. That sweater had narrower sleeves at the bottom. If you want to have a bigger, straighter sleeve like in the real Banff pattern, I'd suggest casting on 46 st. at the beginning of the sleeve, increasing 4 st. evenly on the first row after the ribbing, and leaving out all other increases.)

Bind off 4 st. at each end of next two rows. Work raglan decreases as given BUT instead of working the raglan decreases every row, *decrease in next four rows, then work one row even*. Repeat from *to* until 8 st. remain. (This has the effect of spreading out the decreases, similar to if you were doing decreases on both ends of a single row every two and every three rows alternately.) Follow pattern for top of sleeve.

Sew it up. Pick up 64 st. around neck for turtleneck. Work neck in 2x2 rib as long as you want (I had enough yarn for 8") and bind off in pattern.

These modifications are also posted in a separate Banff on Budget page in my free patterns section.