Finished Objects and… not so finished objects

Hey there, lovely! I have some fun things to show you.

Apparently, I have been in love with fair isle berets without knowing it.

Tasha Moss’s Victory Hat

I finished my first fair isle beret in September and just adore it. It is a 1940’s beret from none other that Susan Crawford’s A Stitch in Time Volume 2. I opted out of a fourth color, sticking with the grey, black, and purple colors for a winter palette. Every time I put it on, I feel like I should throw on my Land Girl pants and go milk a cow after scraping the frost off my milking bucket. I am in love.

Linky to my ravelry page with more information here.

The other hat I made was a test knit for Tasha over at bygumbygolly! She is such an inspiration to me. If you have never read her blog, leave this page immediately and immerse yourself in her vintage-crafty life. When I got the email to be a test knitter for her first self-published pattern, I nearly fell out of my chair. I feel so honored that she turned to me to be a test knitter for her beret inspired by the end of WWII, I made an exception in my vintage knitting. I absolutely love this pattern! It is so well written and the motifs are clever and well thought out. Check out Tasha’s Knit for Victory Knit-a-Long too, which I will be joining.

Photo credit goes to roommate and photographer extraordinaire Michael Banh.

And now, for the not so finished pieces.

I mentioned in my last post about plans for Operation: Finish! in which I finish the four non-finished garments I have started during my year of vintage knitting. Because I also have 11 knitted Christmas gifts going at the same time, my deadline is December 31st. Some only need part of a sleeve, others need a bit more. But I have a good feeling that I can get them done by my deadline!

xoxo

Sydney

The Month of Hyperventilating & Operation: Finish

It’s October! Can you believe it? It’s starting to come down to the wire for me. It’s crazy to think that my year of vintage knitting will be coming to a close in less than three months. Which brings me to the business portion of this blogpost! Starting November 1st, I am commencing:

OPERATION: FINISH GARMENTS. (cue Eye of the Tiger)

The challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to finish all of the garments I have started and quietly tucked away when something has gone wrong, I have gotten distracted with another pattern, or I have come face-to-face with my recent mortal nemesis: sleeves.

The contenders:

• The Jan Sweater in Susan Crawford’s A Stitch in Time
• “Doubly Lovely,” a modified classic 1939 blouse
• “Casablanca,”  a 1930’s cardigan
• “La Vie En Rose et Lemon,” a modified 1930’s blouse

The goal is to get them ALL done within the month and to start/finish my final piece in December. But, as many of you know, November also marks the beginning of the Knitting-that-must-not-be-named….Christmas knitting. I hope that everything will be finished promptly and I will keep you posted!

Now, onto the fun part of this post.

This month has been incredibly exciting for me because I got to meet two women in the yarn world that I have always dreamed of meeting. Both of these ladies are so inspiring to me, and while meeting them both I was barely able to talk. These lovely ladies are Cirilia Rose and Clara Parkes.

Cirilia has inspired me for years because of how early in her life she got into the yarn/knitting world and made a name for herself. I love her unique knitting style and color choices! She came to Stash, the yarn shop I work at, and let me tell you, it was the most amazing day I have ever worked in my life.

Cirilia and I also pretended to be cats.

This is what dreams are made of.

And then there is Clara Parkes. In my opinion, she is one of the major living Knitting Goddesses. She came to Portland, OR for a book reading and signing, and when I first saw her, I had to do everything in my power not to cry with happiness. Her books and accomplishments in the knitting and yarn world speak for themselves. When it was my turn to approach her, I took a deep breath and readied myself for the well-rehearsed speech I was going to give her. “I am going to make an impression on her!,” I thought, “I am going to flatter her while also impressing her with my eloquent words!”

……

Here’s how it actually went. I got up there and felt my whole face go red. I was clutching my Marlene Dietrich books with all my might after I awkwardly slid her the book for her sign. I mumbled something like: “Umm, I uhh really appreciate all that you’ve done in the knitting world and umm I look up to you and you’re great and umm such an inspiration to me…” She was so sweet and helped by making a little friendly conversation, and I think I mustered out a few more awkward sentences as I stared at her awe-struck. Though I made a slight fool of myself, it was an experience I won’t soon forget. ❤

My beautiful coworkers, Clara, and me!

Hope you all are enjoying the fabulous autumn weather!

xoxo

Sydney

Nightmare on Yarn Street

It happened. I told myself it would never happen. I said to myself,

No, that only happens to knitter’s who don’t pay attention;

You’re an experienced knitter, you know how much to get;

Don’t worry, this will be plenty.

Well folks, I’m here to tell you that I made one of the most fundamental knitting mistakes: I didn’t buy enough yarn.

Not only did I run out of yarn, I ran out when I only had one teeny tiny sleeve cap left. That’s right, everything else was knit up, button band and all, all I had was a couple of inches of sleeve cap.

This 1936 cardigan is what I call a “sad-girl-cast-on.” My friend (and also my fabulous photographer) Michael and I have been house hunting for months, and we thought we finally found our dream place. The upstairs of a gorgeous 1893 home. Yes, you heard me, 1893. I was in love, it was perfect in every way. Long story short, we didn’t get it. I was probably more torn up than I should have been, but I knew the cure: cast on something. Cast on something you’ve been really wanting to knit. Disregard all other WIPs, disregard the fact that it’s 95 degrees and you’re wanting to knit with Shetland wool, just do it.

 

So I did. But, as you can see, it backfired. Oh yes, did I mention I got the yarn out of town, a year ago? I will get the yarn by mail order or online, but it won’t be the same dyelot. And lastly, to be frank, I don’t really want to be knitting on this! It didn’t come out the way I thought it would, and the Shetland started getting to me. It was never a good idea to knit on this in the same room as my madelinetosh stash, as I would all too often look over longingly at the merino, cashmere blends, hand dyed colorways… excuse me as I wipe some drool away.

I have some other WIPs going at the moment, I will give you a small teaser picture of them, and hopefully one or two of them will be up soon in a finished object blog post.

 

And, in case you were all wondering, Michael and I found a wonderful 1950’s duplex that we just adore. I am currently getting the rest of my yarn packed up as I move in officially tomorrow!

xoxo

Sydney

 

Impromptu Hiatus

tumbleweed tumbleweed tumbleweed…..

Is anyone still here? I had so many plans for different blog posts this summer, and then, well, summer happened. So first off, I’d like to apologize for my disappearance from the blogsphere. But I won’t waste any time, let me get you caught up on my summer knitting!

Many fun and exciting projects have been started, and unfortunately, not many have been finished yet.  For one issue or another, my WIPs have reached stopping points.

The lavender blouse, which is The Jan Sweater in Susan Crawford’s A Stitch in Time Volume Two, is a 1930’s lacey delight that I’m knitting out of Madelinetosh light in the colorway “La Vie En Rose.” The body seems to be too long, so I’ve been nervous to block it in case it stretches more. It also needs sleeves. 

I will remember this summer as “The Summer When Sydney Had a Weird Aversion to Sleeve Knitting,” because really, that’s what all my WIP garments need.

The minty green blouse is an Oops! projects because I didn’t buy enough yarn last year when I impulsively got two skeins of this Knitted Wit Fingering solely for the love of the color. I’m currently on the hunt for a similar yarn base in a contrasting white for the rest of the blouse.

Some knitting I have been finishing are socks. Lots and lots of socks.

 

I have a lot of other exciting WIPs going right now, but we’ll have to save those for the next blog (I promise I won’t wait three months to post it). I have been ready for Autumn since July, meaning that cardigans and sweaters, warm wooly hats and socks are on the needles.

Thank you to all of you sweet readers who have stuck around!

xoxo

Sydney

Ladies, Welcome to the Women’s Land Army

I thank you, beautiful readers, for waiting so long with me for these photos to be up. The weather in Oregon has been spastic, changing it’s mind from rain, sun, cloudy and everything in between on an hourly basis. But they are finally here! I had so much fun with my talented photographer friend and future roommate (which means much more photography!) Michael Banh as we attempted to take these while a class of over 100 biology students were walking by. Yeah, that was awkward.

We’re twinsies.

Looking back, knitting this sweater was not too bad. Truthfully, I ended up practically making up the entire pattern as I went. The sizing and overall shape came out perfectly. I studied old photos of Land Girls as well as modern adaptions of their attire (such as the show Land Girls) in hopes of making it as accurate as possible. I purposefully knit it fairly tight, and it ended up only taking about 850 yards of worsted weight!

Okay, enough of me jabbering, you probably want to see some photos.

Now I feel ready to join the Women’s Land Army.

Oh wait, I think I need some stockings… 😉

xoxo

Sydney

An Unexpected Detour

Hi, my name is Sydney, (“Hiii, Sydney”) and I am obsessed with knitting socks.

Wow, that feels good to get off my chest!

I never- and really, I mean NEVER– thought I would be “one of those sock knitters.” You know, the kind who can’t be without a sock on the needles, who scroll through ravelry at one a.m. looking at sock patterns, who believe buying sock yarn doesn’t count… okay, to be fair, I already believed that. But the magic of sock knitting has taken over! I love knitting socks. I’m not even afraid to say it, I love socks!!

Prior to this discovery, I have knitted 2 1/2 pairs of socks . My first pair are huge, my second were worsted weight ankle socks for a friend, and the 1/2 is a knee high striped sock that I suffered Second Sock Syndrome with. But now, I feel strange when I don’t have a sock going!

These were my first pair after I caught the sock bug. They are from a 1953 pattern book found for free here! The yarn I used is Anzula Dreamy, which is, for lack of a better word, dreamy. I would highly recommend working with it.

The most recent finished pair are from the same 1953 pattern book. Though I modified a simple sock by adding a small lace pattern of k2tog, yo, k2, yo, ssk, to either side of the leg & foot. This yarn is Pigeonroof Siren Sock, which is also lovely but sadly discontinued.

Yay for socks! Currently I am working on a Malabrigo sock from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks and loving it. I don’t know when this sock craze will end, but if “never” is the answer, I think I would be okay with that.

My Land Army sweater is done, hopefully it will be photographed this week!

xoxo

Sydney

p.s. I met an octopus today. Her name was mystery.

Warm Toes & The Land Army

Hello, darlings!

Sorry my posting has slowed down a bit. I assure you it will pick back up in a jiffy with exciting finished objects!

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, my current project is my very own Women’s Land Army pullover. After I bought the pants, (see “Define Obsession”) I figured it was high time for me to knit the iconic ribbed sweater.

Now, with trying to stick with my vintage knitting, finding a pattern for this sweater or anything remotely similar was harder than I thought. Turns out, there really wasn’t one. All of the original sweaters were machine made because, well, no one had time to hand knit thousands of sweaters every few months. I found a sweater via etsy titled Paton & Baldwin’s 2792 Women’s Service Land Army Pullover and Stockings hoping it would be like the sweater, but it really wasn’t. I am using it as a reference for knitting mine, but making heavy modifications to make it look accurate. I hope, dear reader, you don’t see this as cheating with my challenge. The way I see it, vintage ladies would have modified a pattern to make it look more like what they wanted too!

Here it is so far!…. Doesn’t look like much. Really, it’s just a big, wooly, ribbed blob at the moment. I am almost done with the body and the sleeves won’t take too long, so I am hoping to have it finished by the first week of May! I have really big plans for the photo shoot, so stay tuned. 😉

Apart from the sweater, I am decided to impulsively try socks again with my dear knitting friend, Anna. I have knitted 2 1/2 pairs of socks, and only have bad memories from them. But, after finishing one sock from this sweet 1953 pattern, my new verdict is that I quite like socks! 

I am using Anzula Dreamy, which is a merino, cashmere, & silk blend, and my oh my the name of this yarn speaks for itself. It is dreaaammy. It is so soft, and certainly helping elevate my love of socks, especially these ones.

xoxo

Sydney

Finished Piece: The Lady Eve Blouse

Did you think I forgot about you, dear readers?

Never! Unfortunately, this blouse has been sitting in my closet for two weeks now. Rainy day after rainy day have passed by my window, and naturally, the few days of sunshine were full of other reasons why photos couldn’t be taken. But alas, the photos are here!

All photos are taken by the talented Michael Banh ❤

I know I complained about the 8 stitches to the inch being invented by demons- which I still believe- but after I finished the body of this blouse (and almost lost it in a library, but that’s a different story) the sleeves, collar, and finishing went by rather quickly.

I am happy with the finished result, and as many of you lovely people mentioned in a previous post, my uneven stitches blocked out as if by magic. The only finicky piece was the collar. The edge of it was wanting to curl, but after I took the steam to it and tacked it down in a few places, it behaved.

I will post soon about my current work in progress, the Women’s Land Army pullover. But I will tell you one thing, it feels marvelous to knit on size 5 needles.

xoxo

Sydney

define “obsession…”

Hello beautiful kittens!

Thank you all for being so patient with me on this blouse. I have just reached the armholes (hooray!) and am knitting as furiously as I can in between finals and studying. But I wanted to use this post to enlighten you on my current forever obsession. World War II’s Women’s Land Army.

Ever since I spontaneously watched BBC’s Land Girls, I have had a deep fascination with British women in WWII and the darling ladies of the Women’s Land Army. For those who don’t know, the Women’s Land Army employed women to work the fields while the male farmers were off to war. Many city-dwelling women didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, hours of rigorous work rain or shine.

  So… this one day I decided to check what eBay had under Women’s Land Army… bad idea for my coin purse…

Let me show you what I got, dearie:

Yes, those are REAL British WWII Women’s Land Army Corduroy Pants!!

…….REAL!!!

..did I mention they are real?

These just arrived today, and I can’t quite bring myself to take them off. I am not ashamed to admit that I am wearing them as I blog. This is also a great time to announce my next project! After much searching online, I have finally found a vintage pattern of… (you can probably guess) A Land Girl Sweater!! I can’t wait to start it!

xoxo

Sydney

8 stitches to the inch was invented by demons

Oh, sure, I told myself, sure, 8 stitches to the inch won’t be so bad. You’ve done seven, and you survived! Oh goodness….

As much as I am loving miles and miles of solid color stockinette… This project is going rather slow. I have just finished the back piece and am about to start the front. I am already dreaming about my next project.

Here is what I have so far! I am using the Ultra Alpaca Fine, and I like it, but there are some inconsistencies in my stitches. If I knit just a tiny bit looser than the row before, the stitches come out diagonal. I hope that a good wet block will even out my stitches.

No more 8 stitches per inch jumpers for me..

xoxo

Sydney