My favorite golfer in colorado asked some months ago for a knitted driver cover. Not being a golfer, and not finding any decent patterns for such a thing, it took me awhile to figure this out. In the end, it was pretty easy.

The patterns out there for club/driver covers tend to take the shape of a loose sock: a long ribbed area with a loose top. sometimes with pom poms. easy, but not cool. I decided to do something more fitted.

Specs:
Yarn: Koigu Kersti, about half a skein, super bright yellow
Needles: size 3s or 4s or maybe 5s, dpns

Before I forget even more of the pattern, here's the basic idea.. its like a sock, but different.

The ribbed part is just that, 2x2 ribbing, over maybe 44 stitches. Then I switched to a textured pattern for the club area. The pattern I used is from the gentleman's sock pattern in knitting vintage socks - 2 rows of stockinette, followed by one row of k1,p1.

I knit a heel flap in this textured pattern, half the stitches plus 1, then the short row heel turn. After picking up stitches, I decreased less than you would for a sock.. so the club area ended up larger. Also made sure the decreases lined up with knit stitches in the textured pattern.

I knit straight for a couple inches, then decreased a bit as for a toe, and used a 3-needle bind off on the reverse side to finish it off.

and then there was a driver cover! Its kinda stretchy, fit a couple different drivers in my tests.

First there were the endpaper mitts.

Specs:
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette from SQ and Drops Alpaca from Kris (thanks, yarn providers!)
Pattern: Eunny's Endpaper Mitts
Needles: Magic loop with size 1 and 2 needles.
Cast on: I did try the recommended turkish tubular cast on, but after 3 tries it was back to the one in the Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques.

I held the green alpaca in my left hand, for correct color domination. Before these mitts, I used to switch hands depending on how much of each color there was in a round. oops.

Next there is a start to the Anemoi Mittens. These are not going quite so fast because of color indecision (not to mention corrugated ribbing). The current white with navy is a bit off in some indiscernible way.. other options are the green alpaca and maybe brown.. the brown might be it.

ps. completely unrelated, but anyone battling spam? After installing akismet a couple weeks ago the number of spam comments making it to my inbox has gone down to zero. available for MT and Wordpress.

The Urban Aran Cardigan is complete.

Specs:
Pattern: Urban Aran from Patons Street Smart
Yarn: Gjestal Naturegarn from elann (not currently sold). Its a thick single similar to Lamb's Pride Chunky
Needles/Gauge: size 10 for the ribbing, and 10.5 everywhere else

Cardiganization: To turn this pullover into a cardigan, I copied jared and added 3 knit stitches to each side of the front opening and slipped the first and last stitch on the WS rows. This worked really well, the slipped stitch wrapped around to the back for a clean edge.

Zipper Installation: I referenced Bonnie Marie's zipper tutorial. I found the most important part (in addition to basting) was to place the zipper teeth just inside the edge of the knitted fabric. This way, there is no gap between the knitted edges and the zipper is not visible.

Size: Even though I dropped 4 stitches from the sleeves, they are still on the big side. Might try re-blocking. Overall, this is loose sweater. It very warm though!

The Urban Aran collar took a couple tries.

I wanted the top of the collar to be fitted and straight, so it could be zipped up into a decent-looking turtleneck. The pattern as written tends to yeild a looser collar. I modified it a bit to get these results..

I picked up less stitches. My collar was worked over 84 stitches total on the smaller needle size: k3, p1 selvedge on each edge, and k2 p2 rib in between. This is about eight stitches less than called for in the pattern.

Also, I decreased right before casting off. On the WS row before casting off, I worked all the k2s as k2togs. These are the purl stitches on the RS, so the decreases aren't very visisible. Then I just did a normal cast off. Without this step, even with the reduced stitch count, the collar tended to flare out.

perhaps this will help future knitters of the urban aran..

As requested, here's the Built by Wendy coat in action.

Specs:
Pattern: Simplicity 3966
Fabric: Wool coating from Mood. Note: because wool felt is not woven, I could have gotten away with less than the pattern requires.. like 2 1/2 yards rather than 2 7/8.
Lining: Woven wool plaid from Alfred's Fabrics.
Buttons: Basic peacoat anchor buttons

A couple things I'd change if sewing this pattern again: Cut a smaller size and maybe move the pockets forward. The pockets are in the side seams, but feel like they are further back. The coat is big on me; it could go down a size or two. It has no shaping, but it could be a good pattern to try out added shaping.

Sewing this was pretty straightforward, but the thick fabric was tough for my lightweight sewing machine. I broke 2-3 needles in the process.. all on sections where sewing through many layers.

Continue reading "The Built by Wendy Coat" »

I didn't mention I am working on the Urban Aran cardigan. When the weather got cold in September, I started the sleeves of this sweater. due to the thick yarn, the sleeves are knit on a couple stitches less than the smallest pattern size.

The body is knit all in one piece, splitting at the armholes. Followed the pattern stitch count, just dropping the appropriate stitches at the (non)seams. it seemed to take a long time.

When I first started this sweater, maybe it was a sleeve, it was while watching Cinderella Man. Now even just looking at the grey cable pattern I am reminded of the movie.

In this photo, it is blocking, but in real life I've started the collar and purchased a zipper. The collar seems large, so it may need to be done over.

The yarn is gjestal naturgarn from elann that waited many months for an appropriate sweater pattern, suffering a couple trials and errors in the process. the funny thing is, I just started knitting this one. no big pattern contemplation or anything. for me, that is a benefit to not blogging.. less planning, no accountability, knitting is just knitting.

ps. wore the built by wendy coat this weekend with great success! its a little big, but I just pretend it is a swing coat and that helps. perhaps a modeled shot this week.

In the past few months, I've really gotten into sewing, exclusively using the Built by Wendy sewing patterns. The styles are cute and modern, plus I like the idea of sewing basic wardrobe pieces.

I worked both from her book, Sew U, and from the Simplicity patterns, and much prefer the Simplicity patterns. They have more detailed instructions that helped me as a beginning sewer. For example, in Sew U, it talks all about pant pocket placement and how important this is, but the pant pattern doesn't provide a baseline to work from.. The Simplicity pant pattern however, outlines exactly where the pockets should go.

Almost complete is a wool coat from the coat/jacket pattern.

The exterior is basic navy wool felt coating and the interior is a fun yellow/navy plaid, also wool. I went with traditional peacoat buttons, the ones with anchors on them. The only things left to do are tacking down the lining seams and hand sewing the lining hem.

hello knitters! sorry for the unexplained blog break. but check it out, Streets and YOs has a new look, and more posts are to come... you will be fully updated on the crafty projects. To start with, a new project:

Lars seems to have lost the fine hat I made him last year. Apparently it was misplaced in some Bat Mitzvah debauchery last March and hasn't been seen since. There are reports that it is in Arizona... which really doesn't help anyone in Brooklyn. So he needs a new one.

Lars is serious about hats not being itchy. I still think it should be warm, so the idea is: Manos wool on the outside, with a inner headband-type lining of non-itchy material.

With the help of Yahaira and Jared, both very knowledgeable about yarns, I selected a silk/merino blend for the lining.

Its going to be a very basic stockinette hat. Stitch count yet to be determined.

About how many crocheted coasters would you guess are in one ball of cotton glace? I thought maybe 3, if I was lucky.

It turns out, you can get 9 coasters out of one ball of cotton glace. NINE. who knew.

The pattern is from Cozy Crochet. I bought this ball of yarn way back before the stash was the stash, just because I liked the color.

So I am moving this weekend. from one part of Brooklyn to another. and I have far too many items.. all of which need to be boxed up in 25 boxes or less, because thats how many boxes I told the movers there would be. But there might be more. Why do I have so many things? ack. Moving is an expensive, draining, stressful activity, but the change of scenery feels invigorating; it will be good. The new apt is mere blocks away from prime running territory in Prospect Park. There is no excuse to miss next year's Brooklyn Half Marathon. none.

Instead of packing, I have been working on Picovoli (without the picots).

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cathay, which I like so far. Its black though; I need full sunlight to work on this!

Shopping for fabrics is an overwhelming experience. There are just sooo many to choose from. And I'm wary of starting a fabric stash.. yet. However, I am working through this! I have managed to buy a couple things..

Red lettuce fabric for Amy Butler's Cabo Halter.
After a good half hour staring around purl patchwork, I took went with an employee's suggestion of this red fabric. Its a Rowan fabric. A concealed zipper foot for the sewing machine is on its way to my house presently, so we'll see how that works.

Blue linen for the Bustle Skirt by Miss Twiss
There are benefits to working in the garment district.. like huge fabric stores to visit at lunch. I had no idea that seemingly normal-looking fabric could go for $60 per yard until visiting B&J Fabrics. I didn't end up purchasing anything there, but did find this yard and a half at Mood. It was the end of a roll, and only $10. (Here's a good online reference to NYC garment district stores)

Some brown tweed.
I got this at Joann's a couple weekends ago while upstate. This might be for a fall bag, or maybe a skirt. I have this idea for a brown nappy bag with red/white printed interior and piping along the handles. This could be the exterior fabric. maybe maybe.

* you might think that after having not posted for awhile I'd have some FOs.. um no. I've been apartment-hunting, tying up loose ends, and can't seem to start any new knitting or sewing projects lately. There are a couple half-finished sweaters in knitting purgatory though; perhaps unraveling them will clear some mindspace.