Knitting: Bray Cap

In December, B and I went away for a full month and traveled to Costa Rica and Chile. We were camping and backpacking most of the way, so we had to pack light. But even then I couldn't resist bringing a knitting project along, and what best project to bring than a hat.

In fact, I brought two hat projects with me, and this one happens to be #2, which I started on the trip but finished here last week.

The pattern is Bray Cap by Jared Flood for Brooklyn Tweed. It is a mixture of cables and lace, for a  slouchy result. I probably knit mine a little looser than intended as it seems to be slightly more slouchy on my head than on the pattern photos, but I do have a rather small head, so that could also be it.

The pattern includes instruction for tubular cast on, but I couldn't be bothered, so I just did a regular cast on.

Once I got the hang of the chart, the knitting was pretty straight forward and it came together quite fast (except I forgot to change needles between the ribbing and the main part, so I had to undo a dozen rows and start over with the right needles....).

I used Madelintosh yarn from my stash, Tosh Vintage in colorway Badland (worsted). It was really nice to knit with and a good combination with this pattern. Plus it's 100% superwash merino wool, and you know how I love me some merino.

I'm really happy with the result, I love the color, I think it works well with the stitch pattern, and judging from the photos, it definitely fits into my usual color scheme.

It has been snowing a lot in Vancouver, which is highly unusual (we barely ever get snow in the winter, let alone that much snow that sticks to the ground and stays over a few weeks), but I kind of like having that excuse to wear my new hat.

B, snapped all these photos yesterday morning, just before I left to go to work, and I just loved all of them, so yes, that's a lot of photos of my face for one single hat... But it's my blog after all :P

The other hat I made while on the trip was Purl Soho's Traveling Cable hat. I have to go dig through the thousands of photos taken over the month of traveling to collect some for a blog post, so hopefully I will be posting some "action shots" in the near future.

Finished Project: Poolside sweater

A few years ago I purchased a few skeins of Estelle South Pacific cotton yarn from a store that was closing down near my work.
It took me forever to decide what to do with the yarn. I considered the sweater below from Phildar,

  

 But after doing a test swatch I decided I didn't like the result of the cable pattern with the yarn so the search for the right pattern continued on. Eventually I chose the Poolside sweater by Isabel Kraemer.

This sweater is knitted in the round, from top to bottom. The body is worked first, then you go back to each sleeve where the stitches have been put on hold and you knit them. The previous sweater I made was knitted in pieces and seamed up, so it was nice to try this other method.

 

What was nice about  knitting in the round was being able to try on the sweater early on in the making, and making sure the fit was correct. I did not enjoy however how long the rows ended up being, since it's knitted in the round. Generally speaking, I find that knitting in pieces is easier from a motivation persperctive, as each piece you finish is an extra step completed, whereas when knitting in the round, you have to knit the entire body before achieving the first step.

I really like how the stitch pattern on the body turned out but let me tell you IT.TOOK.FOREVER.
The thing is, it's one of those repeat patterns where you have to really pay attention. Forget about social knitting and having conversations while working on your project. This one (for me anyway) was a full-focus project. I could barely watch TV while knitting it. Hence the time it took to finish.

I made a size S. The pattern is designed with negative ease in the upper body, which makes the fitting a bit easier I think. As far as adjusments, I added a few rows at the top to make the armholes bigger. I didn't want the sleeves to be bigger though, so I balanced that by not adding additional increases on my additional rows, and making more decreases at the start of the sleeves. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but it worked out in the end.

To make the sleeves, I used double pointed needles. I didn't love that process as, again, it's a bit more focus-intensive as knitting flat and you have to pa extra attention to all needles and not dropping any stitches from any of them. In the end though it was nice to bind of the last sleeve and be able to put the sweater on right away (well, after weaving in the ends) without the hand-seaming step...

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Even though it's cotton, it's pretty warm. I haven't had issues with the cotton stretching, which was one of my biggest worries, but no major stretching so far, hopefully it lasts...

I just finished another sweater, for B this time, and the next one on my list will be a Phildar pattern with some black Cascade 220 yarn I purchased in Washington State on our Christmas road trop..