The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Sometimes you just have to dig through your stash and bust out an amazing pattern that has been sitting in your ravelry queue for a while.

Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney

For me that project was this fun Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney. I’ve been really into houndstooth lately, and you guys know how much I love mixing patterns! So before I left Minneapolis for Michigan over Christmas I dug around in my stash and found a fun mix of yarns to cook this guy up with.

Knit Picks Mish Mash

The yellow is Knit Picks Brava Sport in Canary, the grey is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mist, and the white is Knit Picks Swish Worsted in White. I used about half of the skein of Brava, and two skeins of the WotA and Swish.

Houndstooth LOVE!

This is a pattern that totally tricked me. I’m pretty good at looking at something and figuring out how it was knit and what is going on where, but Jocelyn Tunney had me fooled with this one! I really loved knitting this project, but it has a lot of pretty annoying elements. For some reason they didn’t bother me in the least, but when I tell other knitters about it they all freak. It’s many inches of a short amount of ribbing, it’s a LOT of picking up stitches. A lot. So much so that my 36″ circulars couldn’t handle them all and SNAPPED! It was intense.

Slight Modification

It is probably because I used worsted weight grey and white yarn and sport weight yellow, but I had to use more of the top band to pick up the correct number of stitches, so instead of having the long strips of yellow at the end, I’ve got kind of squatty ends. But other than that I followed this pattern to a T and loved every second of it.

And I’ve been wearing it pretty nonstop since I finished it!

Pattern: Houndstooth Bandana by Jocelyn Tunney

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Sport, Knit Picks Swish Worsted, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes

Needles: Size 4 36″ circs

 Ravelry Project Page

I’m so excited to be a part of knit.wear fall 2012 magazine, due out soon!

Thermal Pullover

I’ve been in love with this stitch pattern for years, but have had a hard time working it into a sweater pattern until now. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started knitting this sweater, or a cardigan or pullover with this stitch pattern but different construction, and just totally failed. It’s one of those things that has been haunting me, until now! I finally did it, and it worked beautifully, if I do say so myself.

Fun, Relaxed Pullover

knit.wear magazine, from Interweave, is dedicated to clean, classic knitting. Their magazines are always full of timeless pieces, classic sweater shapes and textures, and I’m so excited to be a part of it. Snag the issue here. Queue it on ravelry!

Twisted Rib, Dimple Stitch

Thermal Pullover is a classically shaped pullover with all-over dimple stitch and a deep shawl collar. Piece is worked in the round from the bottom up.

FINISHED SIZE 27 3⁄4 (32, 34 3⁄4, 39, 41 3⁄4)” bust circumference. Pullover shown measures 27 3⁄4″.

YARN Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted (100% Peruvian highland wool; 110 yd [101 m]/13⁄4 oz [50 g]): #24075 camel heather, 10 (11, 13, 14, 16) balls.

NEEDLES Size 9 (5.5 mm): 24″ circular (cir), 16″ cir, and set of double-pointed (dpn). Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.

NOTIONS Markers (m); stitch holders; tapestry needle.

GAUGE 23 sts and 21 rnds = 4″ in Ovals in the Rnd patt.

HOTT From the Back, too!

A note about sizing: I had this sweater pictured measured as a size 32″. knit.wear’s tech editor clocked it as a 27 3/4″. I think that clearly demonstrates that this stitch pattern is pretty hard to measure, and also that it has a lot of stretch. I’m a size 36″ bust and I could weasel my way into this sucker. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it still worked, so don’t be turned off by the small sizing of the sweater. I think it should have at least 2 if not 4″ of negative ease, which would make sense based on my original measurement.

My friend Theresa VanderMeer runs an organization called The Lotus Odyssey that exports fair-trade products from different eco/people-friendly groups in India. She is starting a foundation called WORK+SHELTER that will offer women living in the slums of New Delhi a fresh start. Theresa is working to give these women decent living conditions and a chance to build a better future. WORK+SHELTER will be a safe place where women can come with their children to live and work. She will be providing training, materials, and a fair wage, and members of WORK+SHELTER will be producing products to be sold in boutiques around the world.

Two Sweaters in One Pattern!

Theresa asked me to design garments and accessories that will be hand knit by the women living and working at WORK+SHELTER. These sweaters are two of those items! By purchasing this pattern you are helping this amazing cause. Read more about this project here, donate by emailing Theresa, and when someone compliments you on your beautiful new sweater, be sure to tell them about WORK+SHELTER.

Winter!

WORK+SHELTER LACE STRIPED SWEATERS

Finished Size 36 (41, 46, 51) bust circumference. Sweaters shown in size 36.

Summer!

MATERIALS

Winter Sweater Yarn Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. 110yds/50g: White, 8 (10, 13, 15) skeins.

Summer Sweater Yarn Knit Picks Comfy Worsted, 75% Pima Cotton, 25% Arcylic. 109yds/50g: Ivory, 6 (7, 9, 10) skeins.

The Beautiful Striped Shoulder: Winter Sweater

Needles Size 9 (5.5 mm) 24” and 16” circulars, or size to obtain gauge.

Notions Tapestry needle.

See-Through Back! Bra Straps! Tank! GAH!

GAUGE

18 sts and 20 rows – 4” in St st.

WORK+SHELTER Lace Striped Sweaters pattern is $6

Ravelry Pattern Page

In November I released four new accessories patterns I designed for my friend Theresa’s organization WORK+SHELTER, a women’s shelter in India dedicated to getting women in need a fair wage and shelter for work they do producing products. They are in training right now, learning to knit in order to produce the first collection. It’s pretty amazing to think that there are women on the other side of the world knitting up projects I’ve designed, and that those products are going to help them live a better life.

Knit Picks Dishie in Conch

I’m knitting up four new sample products for a new line right now, and working up the patterns. This time two sweaters are included! So the sample knitting is taking a lot longer this time. But I’m chugging along!

Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in my Yarn Bowl!

I’ll have all the samples knit up and shot and patterns written up and ready to debut in February. Because the shelter is still in it’s beginning phases and isn’t able to produce many products to sell yet, pattern sales have been one of the only ways it’s making money. I’m so happy to report that to date pattern sales have earned WORK+SHELTER nearly $1000! And most of that is due to the fact that my patterns were included in Knit Pick’s weekly email last week.

Lace Stitch Pattern Stripes

So thank you for purchasing my WORK+SHELTER patterns. Every little bit helps, as you can see, and even $2 a pattern adds up. I can’t wait to get these four new projects finished and written and ready to start helping with their sales, too!

And more than that? I’ll be traveling to India this fall to lend a hand where I can! Hopefully I can teach as well without knowing the language as I can in English. I’ll keep you posted, of course!

I’m also knitting up the three patterns I’m contributing to the first Holla Knits collection, and you can get progress pics on the Holla Knits Blog.

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