Unraveled Wednesday: Twenty

March 20, 2024March 27, 2024 Vicki8 Comments

On this day, 20 years ago, which was the First Day of Spring, I wrote my first blog post.

In 2014, I managed a pretty epic (if I may be so bold) 10-part series to celebrate my 10th blogiversary.

This year, I thought I’d celebrate by sharing 20 of my favorite knits, since knitting was the #1 reason for starting a blog in the first place. That idea came to me in the middle of the night, but I guess it’s not all that new — I shared 10 favorites as part of the 2014 series (and there are some repeats)!

So, in a bit of a departure from the usual Wednesday unraveling, today I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday with 20 of my favorite knits! I’m not going to link to individual project pages, but y’all can find anything you’re looking for on my Ravelry page… I am knitorious.

1. Cabled Pullover w/Kangaroo Pockets

aka #11 Turtleneck by Anna Sui in Vogue Knitting, Winter 2003/04. This was finished in 2004, knit with Rowan Polar, a yummy super bulky yarn (now discontinued). Katie wore this sweater a lot back in the day!

2. Alpaca Pure Shawlette

I think this was the first shawl I ever knit… Judy Pascale’s Simply Garter Shapely Shawlette. I knit this in 2004 with yarn that I received in a swap (also my first-ever swap). I would never have chosen that colorway myself, but found a pattern that would work and, lo & behold, it was a favorite/staple of my wardrobe for a long, long time!

3. St. Brigid

I fell in love with this sweater on sight, and it’s the #1 reason I learned to knit cables… and to knit from a chart. At the time, the only place to get the pattern was in Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, which was out of print. I think copies were selling for $800s or so. Thankfully, that’s been resolved & there’s a new edition. Anyway, finished right around this time of year in 2005, I knit it in Cascade 220. The photo, inspired by one in the book, was taken at West Kilbride, Scotland, on our first visit to the UK in 2011.

4. Fib

I might consider this my first triumph with color, using seven random hanks of Donegal Tweed that my sister Sharon had left over from a kit or two. Alexandra Virgiel’s Fibonacci was the main inspiration, but it’s really more of a Frankenstein sweater… finished in 2006.

5. Williamsro

I knit this as a member of the US Cable Team for the 2006 Knitting Olympics, which was a blast! (I still have my certificate.) Williamsro was designed by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton, and the yarn — Noro Blossom & Cash Iroha — was a real splurge.

6. Cecil Cardigan

This was the cover sweater of Vogue Knitting, Spring 2003. Started in 2004, it languished until 2007 when Kate urged me to finish. I’d realized that it wasn’t really suited for me, but it was perfect for her! It was really fun to knit. I purchased the buttons at Tender Buttons when I visited NYC in 2005.

7. Habu Birthday To You

Knit for my mom from an amazing Habu Kit featuring Tsumugi Silk, it took me two years to make it, mainly because… it was weird (those Habu patterns are often… weird). It was knit in pieces, all going in different directions then sewn together, but they were so small… I remember thinking, This is never gonna work! But it did work, after stretching those pieces to within an inch of their lives. It’s an incredible sweater, which I finished in 2010, and my mother loved it so much — it was 100% her style. She loved telling me about the compliments she’d receive, and that she was so proud to tell people that it was knit by her daughter.

8. Parcheesi

My first blanket, and let’s call this my second triumph in color. Knit in 2010, while my sister Sharon was undergoing treatment for cancer, I finished it just a few weeks before she died in December. The pattern is Parcheesi by the wonderful Janine Bajus. You see this blanket every time you visit my blog, as it’s up there in the header. I will always treasure it.

9. Freestyle Cabled Cowl

Inspired by a couple of other cowls that I’d knit, and also by Fiona Ellis, whose taught a “cables” class at Midwest Masters one year (a long time ago), some of the cable motifs are normal, but others go off willy-nilly. I knit this in 2011 with some Plymouth Galway Worsted that I dyed myself.

10. Wisconsin Wedding Shawls

I knit these shawls in 2013 for Ali’s wedding. Her “Wisconsin Wedding” shawl is a pattern by Julia Trice called Mexican Wedding, and mine is also a pattern by Julia, Frambuesa, from the same collection. I used two different yarns, and dyed them both.

11. TTL Mystery Shawl ’14

I also dyed the yarn for this shawl — my first gradient. The pattern is Algiers by Kirsten Kapur. The MKAL started on June 1st, and my mom was admitted to the hospital on June 4th, then transferred to ICU a few days later. There was a wonderful group of “old gang” bloggers who formed an FB group for this knit-along, and it was a balm each night to check in with them. Mom died on June 23rd.

I’m sure I’ve written once or twice about how knitting has seen me through tough times — loneliness, worry, loss. I truly don’t know what I’d have done without it sometimes.

12. 2016 Rhinebeck Shawl

There was no time to knit a Rhinebeck Sweater in 2016, so I knit a Rhinebeck Shawl, instead. I love the pattern — Close To You by Justyna Lorkowska — and have knit it at least once more, and my sister Ann has knit it a couple of times, too. Also yarn that I dyed myself. As chance would have it, I’m wearing that shawl today! (It looks like winter is going to be making a couple of appearances over the next week.)

13. Making Her Own Arrows

This is a lovely “adventure” pattern from 2017 by Larissa Brown called We Make Our Own Arrows. It was potato chip knitting — so fun to pick it up everyday and see how it would go! Another scrap project, another triumph in color, I knit this for myself but ended up giving it to a friend.

14. Oblique

Oblique! A ten-year project (and not the only one), 2007-2017, start to finish. After 10 years, it didn’t fit me, but Maddy LOVES it! I’d like to knit another sometime. Oblique by Veronik Avery, knit it Cascade 220.

15. Gnomes

No list of favorites would be complete without mentioning gnomes! Susan B. Anderson and Sarah Schira are my designers of choice. I made my first little gnome(s) in 2018, a bunch more in 2020 while recovering from Covid, and a few mystery gnomes… another one to start pretty soon!

16. Safe At Home

Talk about Covid projects… this is Margaret Holzmann’s Safe at Home blanket, highly modified. This was knit for Davy (who’s going to be 4 in September!).

17. Hexie Love

This is crochet, so technically not knitting, and it’s also a WIP, as I have yet to master the border situation. And more color! The pattern is Hexie Love Actually by Greenletterday, which I started in 2021. The colors are Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails, and the background is Tosh Merino Light. I’m pretty sure this is destined to be Addie’s graduation blanket… which gives me another year-and-a-half to finish (I won’t wait that long)!

18. 5 Point Bomber

Last year’s wonderful project for Modern Daily Knitting | I Made It with Atlas! It was so fun to knit this project for the kids — with their input. Designer Holli Yeoh now includes coloring pages with the 5 Point Bomber pattern.

19. A Light in the Window for Mack

A fun little riff on Kay Gardiner’s A Light in the Window, this was knit for Mack’s high school graduation. There’s a lot of play on ONE color — mostly dye test skeins that I’d purchased a few years ago. I think he likes it.

20. Family Temperature Blanket

Another WIP, more color, more riffing… and tonight I’ll knit the last few rows of Ali’s panel and get started on Maddy’s — the last one!! I’ve already been working on this for over two years. I’m excited to wrap it up this summer. (Whatever will I do next…?? ha.)

BONUS MATERIAL

A gallery of little projects…

It’s hard to pick just 20 out of 133 projects! That doesn’t count the multiples… gnomes, dishcloths, hats, etc.

And, of course, THANK YOU!! Thanks for reading, laughing, encouraging, enabling, crying, comiserating, and just for being there. It’s changed in many ways, but I’d have never lasted 20 years without our community.

Knitting Olympics 2006/Williamsro · Knitting-Baby · Knitting-Fibonacci Sweater

Of sweaters and quilts

April 15, 2007 Vicki10 Comments

On Friday night, I wore Williamsro to the art opening — there are fiber artists in that cooperative, they hold the knitting in high esteem — and yesterday, I wore Fibonacci to the quilt show. I was a little warm yesterday and am both happy and sad that the days are numbered as far as the woolens are concerned.

Have I mentioned, by the way, how much happier I am with Williamsro since I ripped and re-knit the bottom (Noro Blossom) part of the body? I had picked up too many stitches the first time — it was okay at first, but then it began to stretch and I could even see it pulling the other part (Noro Cash Iroha) of the sweater out of shape. What was once a rhetorical question ("Does this sweater make my butt look big?") was not so rhetorical anymore and I didn't like the answer. I'm happy I didn't let that one sit for too long.

Fibonacci, having been knit entirely using left-overs from another sweater, seemed appropriate attire for Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond at The Paine Art Center in Oshkosh — even if the colors are more fall-like than spring. (It's been on my mind to knit another, in different colors, for the warm seasons — maybe in cotton?)

Alison met us (Mom and me) and then we all went to lunch afterwards. Ali was really more interested in just lunch and could have foregone the quilts, but I made her see the show and I think she was amazed. We all were. I knew a little more what to expect, but Mom & Ali had no clue.

"Quilts," I'd say. "We're going to a quilt show, but they're different…"

It's so hard to describe these quilts and their design — how free and fresh and inspiring and inspired and traditional and artistic and cutting-edge and colorful and resourceful and moving — without sounding a little more than passionate — without sounding a little nuts. And I'm not even a quilter! They make you passionate, indeed. The show was quite busy and (not surprised) no cameras were allowed. One word: GO! If you have the opportunity to see this show (or a variation), just go.

We toured the mansion, also (amazing), and there is a children's discovery area in the lower level. It was so wonderful to see Gee's Bend-inspired quilt designs on the wall, very nicely done (fabric patches glued to paper) by some local 5th graders. It was a big highlight of the show, for me — fun to see the fabric of their lives — lots of sports-minded prints, including the Packers, some Pokemon, lots of denim, but also some glitzy glittery fabrics. There was one so definitely inspired by the Work Clothes quilts and very meticulously done so that all the frayed edges of the denim were exposed.

The Paine is also known for their gardens. This corkscrewy bush (for lack of knowing what it's really called) is right next to the museum entrance. So intriguing. There's nothing much blooming yet, except for some snowdrops, but the tulips and daffodils are promising — soon! Still, even at this stage, the gardens are beautiful. I went on a stitcher's retreat to Colonial Williamsburg one December and was amazed at how beautiful the gardens were at the dormant time of year — truly something to aspire to with my own gardens. Right now, though, "Baby A" and I would just be happy to see sprouting peas. Sweater details in the "Completed in 2007" sidebar photo album.

Knitting-Fibonacci Sweater

A Tale of Two Sweaters

September 17, 2006 Vicki40 Comments

…and two sisters who knit (one of them is knitorious). ; )

My sister Sharon bought a kit to knit a sweater for our mother for Christmas about 10-15 years ago. I don’t know the pattern name or who designed it, but perhaps it is in her archives somewhere and I can come up with it — or perhaps one of you will recognize it. You know, I don’t think Sharon ever knit a dishcloth or a scarf or even a simple cardigan or pullover — it seems like she picked up the needles and started to knit a tour de force (or three) right from the start. Besides the cardigan modeled above, she knit one with navy blue wool cables sprinkled with multi-colored intarsia chenille leaves, and a cotton intarsia fruit cardigan, and started an incredibly complicated wool and chenille smoking jacket before putting down the needles — despite my frequent urging to take them up again, they’ve been down for a while now and there’s been talk of giving me her (vintage) stash.

There was a lot of yarn left over from the kit — one full skein of each color of the lovely Donegal Tweed, plus a few extra, small balls. One thinks that there may have been a mistake in the original kitting-up. She no doubt made one of the largest sizes — and still, a lot of extra. She does knit quite tightly — the intarsia areas, in particular, feel almost as if they’re woven and there is no give in the knitting whatsoever, plus there’s been a little felting, which is a good thing, in a way, because otherwise this sweater would be incredibly huge and the sleeves, already too long and rolled up, would hang to my ankles.

Over the years, the left-over yarn traveled from Wisconsin to New Mexico to Ohio to Kansas and back to Wisconsin — it was good yarn! — and it eventually came into my possession where it continued marinating in the living room. Then Alexandra Virgiel had a pattern called Fibonacci published in Magknits, and I knew I had a project for that yarn! Reading about the Fibonacci sequence in The DaVinci Code was one of the tidbits that stuck with me from the book, and the idea of a Fibonacci-inspired sweater just tickled my fancy.

A top-down raglan on circular needles, however, did not tickle me at all! I did some swatching, and figuring, and charted the colors and sequence and row count using an Excel worksheet, and cobbled together this and that from that and this, and, voila!, with a lot of wishful thinking and spurred by curiosity, I set out to knit a cardigan in pieces. It was love from the first — beautiful yarn, gorgeous inspiration, color and pattern…

Pattern: My own, a cobbled-together cardigan in pieces, with indispensible inspiration by Alexandra Virgiel’s "Fibonacci."

Sequence: Two, Two, Four, Six, Ten — a repeat of five stripes — using a rotation of seven colors.

Yarn: Seven hanks of Donegal Tweed (one in each color) plus a very small ball of nearly every color. Colors: 801 (Tan), 802 (Gold), 803 (Bright Green), 840 (Dark Red), 880 (Rust), 893 (Orange), and 894 (Dark Green). I have a small bit of every color left except for the dark green.

Needles: US 8.

I splurged on the buttons — they were $5 or $6 each — but they’re so perfect for this sweater, and I got the yarn for free!

Started April 7, 2006; finished September 9, 2006.

I will, forevermore, look at leftovers and oddballs from a slightly different perspective — one that’s more full with possibility.

Knitting-Fibonacci Sweater

A Sunday in Eau Claire

September 12, 2006February 8, 2019 Vicki18 Comments

If you came across this blog and read that I spent part of my weekend in Eau Claire with a Yarn Harlot, a Beadslut, a Cursing Mama (and her Mr. Motorcycle), a Hyvetyrant, a really wound-up Deb — in fact, she's Wound Too Tight — and that Chris was Stumbling Over Chaos (and Mayhem, too) and into Yellow Dog, and that I yearned for the Rogue I saw… I wonder what you'd think.

You might think I had a damn good time!! And you'd be right — I most certainly did — and it was all quite respectable! That's Deb, Chris, Shari & Betty along the left side of the table; Mr. Motorcycle & Cursing Mama, Anne, Beadslut and Jeanne. My sister was ~~dragged~~ along, and was the only quilter I saw at this great gathering of knitters — she is passionate about many things, so it really was not difficult for her to grasp the whole thing and be entertained and "get it."

We had a great time at Yellow Dog and kitty-corner at the Acoustic Cafe. It was a blast playing "Spot The Knitter" and "Name That Knit." There was some beautiful work being worn. I had finished sewing on Fib's buttons Saturday and then gave it a light, overnight block around the seams — it was still a bit too damp to wear on Sunday, and I would have roasted! As it was, I took off the gray cotton sweater ($10 at Target a couple of years ago, thanks) and just wore the shawl over my shirt!

Just as she wrote in her post, Beadslut and I were first at the door of the Masonic Temple when the doors opened — with about a dozen close on our heels and a warning that there would be many, many more. He wasn't expecting to see anyone, I'm sure, and I think we kinda scared him! There was a huge open area surrounded by a gallery and I thought, whoa, Stephanie can show us her cartwheels in here! It was not really going to work, so we got busy and hauled in some chairs.

With a Hyvetyrant, who is wearing a beautiful Clapotis, and me — Vicki — holding the Harlot's Fleece Artist sock. I was knitting on the moebius during the talk, also in Fleece Artist… more on the weekend's knitting and unknitting tomorrow.

The Olympic button poster was the very coolest thing!!

I can walk right up to Dan Marino and stick my hand out and say, "Hi, I'm Vicki, I love the way you play football," but I'm not comfortable in my blog moniker skin — or at least not saying it. Ifind it difficult to say "I am Knitorious." I'm thinking that I just have to practice, though, because it can't be any easier to say "I am a Yarn Harlot," or "…Beadslut." That should be a lot harder. ; )

I'm sorry that I didn't a hundred other bloggers who were there — I think kmkat was there (didn't meet her), Stephania was there (didn't meet her). It's worth a look-see at their posts — that handknit sock ~~ritual~~ ring was the coolest thing! Speaking of rings, there was a coming together at Yellow Dog — Joyce Williams and Dixie in their stockinette, me in cable. ; ) I wasn't thinking and didn't get a good picture of Joyce's incredible sweater!

Knitting-Fibonacci Sweater

I don’t know where to begin

September 11, 2006 Vicki14 Comments

So, I’ll start at the very beginning… it’s a very good place to start. ; )

On Saturday, I visited my brother, and I’m very glad I did because I had an up-to-the-minute answer whenever I heard, "It’s so nice to meet you! How’s Michael? How’s the pergola coming? Did you finish Fib?" Michael is doing okay! Six hours a day turned out to be a bit of a stretch, so he’s back to four for at least a week or so before they try again. All the guy wants is to put in a day at work and still have a little something left at the end of the day for some recreation. It’s no fun to be totally wrung out at the end of every day! The good news is, he’s had his compound bow adjusted to the lowest tension and he can pull it and he’s intending to go hunting — just being able to get out there for a few hours with the intention of hunting is going to be huge.

Usually, when I go to visit my brother, that’s my final destination and I turn around and go home. This time, I was traveling further and I knew there had to be a better/shorter way to proceed than backtracking to pick up the highway. He said, "Oh yeah, you just follow this road to Knitt Road and hang a left." Those have got to be the best directions anyone’s ever given me. ; )

The journey begun on Knitt Road (obviously, someone doesn’t know how to spell) eventually led me to Eau Claire where I’d dragged my quilter sister to meet up with a group of wonderful knitters — bloggers, non-bloggers, possible bloggers-to-be — and my only regret is that there wasn’t enough time…

…and the Packers lost and my Fantasy Football Team might end up being Tom-Foolery! However, Stephanie trumped the Packers’ season opener at home on Sunday and here you can see that she scored BIG on her very first play — a deftly handled, gutsy hand-off to a walk-on, rookie yarn baby kid, the curly mop more than compensating for ~~his~~ her being slightly undersized at that position. ; )

Much more to come. I had a blast.