The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I’ve been showing off all of my holiday knitting this week that I wasn’t able to show off before Christmas, and last but not least we’ve got the second half of my gift to my sister in law, Emily. I did show off the From Norway With Love hat I gave her, but I was able to keep this a secret till Christmas morning.

Pink and Brown Infinity Scarf!

Emily really liked the scarf I made when I was wearing it before Christmas, so I added it to my to-make list. I totally meant to take pictures of her wearing it at Christmas but of course forgot.

Pink! Brown! Love!

I love pink and brown together. This is some left over brown Caron Pound of Love I had laying around, and I found a silky pink remnant at JoAnn for the other half.

So Cute and Cozy!

Want this scarf but can’t crochet? Jessica adjusted the pattern and wrote a tutorial for a knit version! Check out her Half Fabric, Half Knit Infinity Scarf tutorial here.

Pattern: Half Crochet Half Fabric Infinity Scarf by Me!

Yarn: Caron One Pound in Brown

Hook: Size G and size 1

Ravelry Project Page

Remember that pile of gray and green stockinette stitch I showed off in a few WIP posts this fall? That magically turned into this!

PT's Sweater!

PT’s Christmas sweater! It’s Emilien by Ariane Caron-Lacoste, a zip up hooded striped cardigan, and quite a boring knit! Thank god for those stripes or I would have had a hard time getting through those sleeves!

Zipper! Stripes! Cute Boy!

I knit the 36″ size and it’s a little big, even though I already sized down by knitting the 36. As you can see, the sleeves are cuffed which makes them shorter and smaller and the sweater wearable. Which, I’m happy to report, PT does! This sweater has already gotten more wear out of this sweater than the other two I knit him, so that is a success in my book.

Large Hood, Weird Striping

The pattern was a little frustrating. Even though its shown in the pattern to be a striped cardigan, the pattern isn’t written to be striped. At the end it’s suggested that you do a 22 row stripe pattern if you want your sweater to be striped, so I did that and ended up with stripes that didn’t work out. You can see in this shot that the bottom of the sweater is in the contrasting color, half St st and half rib, when it should have ended in the main color, like the sleeves. I was too far in to pull back and re-math out the stripes to work out for my striping and gauge (which was on!). And the hood is gigantic, even though I saw on ravelry that knitters said the hood was gigantic so I eliminated the shaping. That was not enough!

Success!

But I can’t really complain. PT likes it, and I think it looks great! I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mist and Aurora Heather and PT was on board with the colors, and didn’t even mention the weird striping! I’m putting this one in the win category, and also vowing to take a break from the PT Christmas sweater knitting in 2012. It’s just too much damn pressure!

Pattern: Emilien by Ariane Caron-Lacoste

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mist and Aurora Heather

Needles: Size 7 circs

Ravelry Project Page

Even though I’ve had my Aidez finished for a couple weeks now, for whatever reason I never took my FO shots until this morning. By myself. On an overcast day. Oh WINTER!

Belted Aidez

So these pics are a little weak. And yes, I still have all of my Christmas decorations up.

Open and Looking Amazing!

This is pretty much exactly how I’ve been wearing my Aidez! Over a long sleeved tee and my lounging leggings (READ: PJs). I pull out my belt (designed by Katie!) when I leave the house and wear my Aidez like a coat. Which, despite being in Minneapolis and it being January, I’ve been doing a lot!

From the Back

It fits perfectly. It’s super warm and cozy. And it’s really beautiful. The yarn, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky, is great. The sweater grew when I blocked it, like I was anticipating, and it fits like a glove. And the color is fantastic! It’s a little lighter gray than what shows up in the pictures, and goes with everything. A neutral! And I love it! Imagine that!

So Fun and Funny Apparently!

This KAL was a little more challenging than I had anticipated, but so many knitters tackled this beautiful pattern by Cirilia Rose and I couldn’t be more proud to have hosted. I’ll be sharing a bunch of FO shots from the KAL on Monday! So if my pics don’t make you want to knit this sweater immediately, theirs certainly will.

Pattern: Aidez by Cirilia Rose

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Stormy

Needles: Size 10 24″ circs

Ravelry Project Page

New Years Eve is my birthday! I turned 28 on Saturday! As if it being New Years Eve wasn’t a good enough reason to finish my Short Row Sweater, I knew I wanted a fun outfit to wear, even if we were just spending the evening chilling with a few friends at Blue Door Pub in St Paul.

Short Row Sweater!

I love this sweater. It’s so fun, unique, and interesting, and I styled it almost like a vest over a long sleeved tshirt and high wasted skirt.

Cute!

From the front it looks like a pretty normal tshirt. Thank god, because when I finished knitting this top it looked like a mini shirt! I was really scared about the length. I knew it would grow a bit because I used fingering weight yarn instead of the DK weight the pattern calls for, but kept the needles at 5s. Blocking added at least 5 inches!

From the Back!

And the back is just so fun. Putting this top together was a little bit challenging! The pattern is really helpful with pictures and diagrams, though, so I figured it out with relative ease.

From the Side!

And I’m in love with the yarn! Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock. It’s beautiful! Just a tiny bit of shimmery glitter that you can’t even feel. It’s just super soft yarn that is really drapey and lovely. I just cast on another sweater with it a couple days ago!

Pattern: Short Row Sweater by Purl Soho

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock

Needles: Size 5 24″ and 16″

Ravelry Project Page

Now that the holidays are over I can show you even more holiday FOs I finished for friends and family! Starting with this ridiculous monstrosity.

Orangutan!

I had a really normal present picked out for my mom for Christmas, but then she threw down a challenge! Could I top Nestor the Long Eared Donkey from last year? Turns out that no, I couldn’t, but I went down swinging with this gigantic orangutan.

Quite a Dignified Profile!

I used Red Heart Boutique Fur Sure yarn (yes, that is the real name) and I can’t imagine why you’d ever use that yarn for anything other than knitting animals. It’s super chunky and fuzzy as hell. The finished monkey looks like it was sewn together! No stitches are visible. I used size 6 needles and it was a struggle the entire time.

I had a hard time with the yarn substitution and have no idea what the finished orangutan is suppose to look like! The pattern, My Pet Orangutan, called for Ice Yarns Eyelash, which of course I couldn’t find anywhere. I figured I’d sub Fun Fur for it, but that looked much too thin in the store. A lot of my pieces, particularly the head, just did not match up with the rest of the pattern pieces, which I’m sure is the fault of my yarn substitute mistakes. I even had to email the designer to ask how things fit together because I couldn’t figure it out! But I made it happen.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a Orangutan

His legs are also very short because when I saw I was going to run out of yarn for the second time, I said forget it and worked with what I had. The yardage requirement was meant with 3 skeins of the Fur Sure. I quickly noticed I’d need more and picked up 2 extra. I’m pretty sure I would have needed ANOTHER 2 had I followed the pattern exactly! That is just how far my gauge was off on this thing.

But it all worked out! He was a huge hit with my mom and I’m sure is currently keeping company with Nestor.

PS – Christine Grant, the designer, has a ton of other amazing toy patterns! A white elephant, a super realistic panda, chicken, and even a triceratops!

Pattern: My Pet Orangutan by Christine Grant

Yarn: Red Heart Boutique Fur Sure in Camel and Knit Picks Comfy Sport in Whisker

Needles: Size 6 straights, size 3 straights

Ravelry Project Page