Make a Wish ♥

 

Make a wish!
I wish for a cardigan that will hug me, and warm me… I wish for something luxurious, but yet easy to wear, a piece that I can dress up or down. I wish for a color that will make me happy and beautiful, and softness that will make me smile…
Why not make it true?

Once again, I had the privilege of working with the great Sundara, and together we came up with Make a Wish.  She created this color for me, and I created this pattern for her yarn.  A dreamy collaboration!

The yarn we used is Sundara Fingering Silky Merino, and she is currently offering the color I used (Make a Wish), and 3 other luscious colors in case Purple is not for you.
This is a circularly shaped cardigan, with lace details in the edgings and back. This flattering little sweater is worked seamlessly in one piece, with top-down set in sleeves.

Sizes
To fit chest: 30/32 (34/36, 38/40, 42/44, 46/48, 50/52, 54/56, 58/60) inches. This sweater is supposed to be a little “loose fitting”. If you are choosing between 2 sizes, I would advise you choose the bigger one.

Materials
Yarn: Sundara Fingering Silky Merino (50% Silk/50% Merino – 150g/500y), 3 (3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5) skeins, shown in colorway Make a Wish.
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) and US 2½ (3mm).

I hope you guys like it!  I had a great time working on this, and I had some wonderful help from a group of friends who helped me make sure the instructions are correct.  You can check out our gallery of finished projects on Ravelry if you want to see this in different bodies and colors :)

Hope your dreams come true too!

~Joji

Leftovers Hats

You know how things are when kids are little... Life is not easy!  It is blessed, that for sure, but it can get quite complicated, especially with 2 babies (my second son was born when my first was 18 months old)...  So we didn't think of holidays much back in those days, I have to be honest...

But a couple of years ago, my husband and I decided our boys were big enough to travel comfortably, so we started travelling as a family.  Oh, what wonderful times we've had together!

We have always gone to cities where it is really cold, so as I looked through our photographs, I noticed that we always look the same!  Cause we wear our jackets all the time, in our pictures we are always wearing the same clothes... So I thought that if I made new hats for everyone, 2 or 3 for each, then we can rotate them, and we won't look like all our pictures were taken the same day.

If you have travelled as a group, you might know that it is important not to loose your group, so I decided to use bright leftovers to make matching hats for the whole family.

I am making these using straight needles and knitting them flat.  Once I am done knitting the hat, I sew them and weave in ends, though I must confess I am totally postponing the weaving part :)
Also I'd love to add a neon yellow pompom to each of them, so that I can locate the kids easily in the crowds, but the boys are not too happy with the idea (although they are really tempted by anything neon).  The neon yellow I am using is Tosh DK in Edison's Bulb colorway.

How do I make them?
I CO a certain amount of stitches, I am not being to precise with these.  For the kids' ones, I CO 86 st for the ribbing, and then I worked 4 rows in 1 color and 4 rows in another.  Then I switched to stockinette, increasing about a 20% percent of the stitches (increased to 102).  The stripes are not random, actually they go in a sequence: 4 rows, 2 rows, 6 rows, 4 rows...  when the hat measured 6 inches, I worked decreases for the crown.  I divided the stitches in groups of 10 (I left out 1 stitch for each seam), and I decreased a stitch from each group  every 2 rows.  Then I drew the yarn through the remaining stitches (10) and seamed the body.

As you can see, their hats are done, but now that I've made a couple, I am dreaming of new projects, so my husband's one is currently in this state, and it looks like it's going to stay this way for some time...  I am going through a terrible "startitis" crisis!

Here in Buenos Aires winter is already leaving, and we are having warmer, longer days...  However I always, always dream of new sweaters... I have some Arroyo yarn from Malabrigo that's been calling me for a long time... Long time no Mal on my needles!  I'll have to remedy that soon.

Hope you have a great week!!

~Joji

From Dubai with Love

Before I tell you the story of these hats, let me tell you some things:  

I have a brother.  In fact I have 2 borthers and a sister, but my brother Marco is quite the extrovert of the family.  Marco likes to go skiing, a lot.  And he also likes handknits, a lot.  He had asked me to make him a hat for a long time (I eventually made him one, see this post), but I mostly knit garments that are going to become patterns, so I always told him "yes, some day I'll make you one...".

Marco is very supportive with what I do, and for that reason he checks out my knitting Facebook profile often. And that is how he came up with the idea of asking my Facebook followers to make him a hat.  And yes, the AMAZING community of knitters out there answered him!!  Yes, I know everyone says the same, but I cannot believe what a wonderful and generous kind of people we knitters are...  And neither did Marco.

So last Tuesday, the mailman rang the door, and I received the most awesome parcel coming from... Dubai.  My friend Jocelyn, from Dubai Knits, sent my brother no less than 4 knitted hats, and she also sent me some yarny goodies.  Thank you so much Jocelyn!!!

I knew she was waiting to hear what we thought of the hats, so I asked my eldest son, Nano, to model them for us.  Let me show you the lovely hats I received for Marco!  All of them were made using the yarn that Jocely dyes herself.

Gray: I couldn't find the specs for this one in her notebook, but it is my absolute favorite.

 Red: Found it!  Pattern is Exeter, and she used Dubai Knits BFL Sport in colorway Spit the Pips.

Blue: Couldn't find it... Nano's front teeth are so ready to fall off... Can you notice?  He's so big!!!

Green: Found it! Pattern is Rib-a-Roni, and she used Dubai Knits Cloud Nine (my absolute favorite base of all the ones she used), in colorway Pacific.  This is the softest most comfortable hat ever, and my kids are already fighting for it :)

Jocelyn also sent 2 skeins for me to try out her yarn, so I am ready to make some more hats for the hubby. 

Dubai Knits: BFL Sport (Left) and MCN DK (Right)

So this blog is about to get really busy with hat action.  Hope you don't get bored. :)
Have a great week!

~Joji

Boxy and Buttony

You might have read it somewhere else already, but I do have a new pattern out!  It's called Boxy and Buttony, and well, I guess the name describes it well.

This is a modern and contemporary pattern with clean lines and a boxy fit.

Despite being Boxy’s little brother, this pattern is worked in a completely different way and features lots of details that make it quite unique and interesting!
It is worked from the top down, seamlessly. It has an oversized fit, but with slightly less fabric. The main sections of the sleeves are worked at the same time with the body, and a faux button-band outlines the shoulders.
A textured panel in the front helps to add visual interest to an otherwise simple and minimalist sweater.

 

Hope you guys like it!  I do love it a lot, and I have been wearing it so much!  It is perfect for fall and transitional weathers (we are facing Spring down here), and it goes with all my wardrobe.  In fact, I have recently discovered that about 90% of my clothes are either white, black, gray or denim blue, and I am perfectly OK with that :). 

For my sample I used one of my go-to yarns: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light.  Great yardage, great price and LOTS OF INSPIRING COLORS! I want to knit them all!  The color I used is called Ink, and it is the most glorious Indigo-blue.

It's been ages since I published my latest patterns, part of the Hopeful Knits collection (I don't think I even blogged about those, what was I thinking?), so I was really looking forward to my first release after my break.  We are now chatting about the pattern in my Ravelry group, so you can pop by and say hi...

I have another pattern soon to be released... Can't wait to show you!  I know, not many patterns for this fall, but I did put a great effort in each of them.  Thank you for your constant support!

~Joji

B A

Oh, sunny, stylish Buenos Aires...

I was looking for a place to sit and knit... but it was taken.  She had the perfect spot.

I suddenly feel the need of taking a photo of each corner in BA.  Probably not all of them are this crowded, though.

About Cashmere

A couple of months ago, I received the newsletter from The Plucky Knitter announcing they were releasing a new yarn based called Plucky Bello.  You will not find it on their site, probably, because they don't hold much stock of it... But you can certainly see what it is about, here in the Ravelry yarn page.
They offered it in a couple of updates (updates are the "events" when a famous dyer uploads all their stock of yarn for sale -whether if it is already dyed or for preorder-, and people go crazy buying all they can as soon as they can), and I was lucky enough to get me some 3 skeins in a really gorgeous, gorgeous colorway.

Plucky Bello in colorway Good Ol' Pip

 What stroke me about this yarn was the high content of cashmere in it, since it has no less than 45%!

Well, let me say that you can definitely tell this is half-cashmere.  It is really really so soft and yummy!  The base is a fingering weight, slightly on the shorter side regarding yardage, since the put up is only 380 yards (compared to most fingering yarns I am used to, which are over 400), but is does bloom really nicely when knit up, so you could also use it for patterns which call for sport weight.

The color was quite a surprise, since my monitor is a little bit crazy (cheap laptop's fault), and I thought this was a perfect gray.  But if you can see the true color (if your monitor is OK), it is actually a lilac-gray, so subtle, so beautiful! 

After finishing other projects I had in my queue, I started working on a small pullover pattern, which is nearly done.  I had to be very minimalistic with it, since 3 skeins of this are not taking me too far... So I finished the body with a wee bit over 2 skeins, and I have now 93 grams to work the sleeves.  I'd rather show you some really nice pics when it's done, so here's my swatch, and you can check out some i-phone pics of the WIP in my Ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/jojilocat/bello

I hope I can have a pattern for this soon!  I am really enjoying it a lot!

After working with this yarn, I came to realize how much I've loved working on all my projects which involved a yarn with some cashmere in it.  I know, that's no surprise, but silk is also luxurious, and I don't enjoy it that much...  Or even alpaca, I love it, but cashmere is different...  Maybe it is the small fuzzy halo?  You know, most people hate halo, cause it means that the garment is going to pill, but I actually think it's lovely.  I just try to remember that the softer and finer the fiber, the more likely it is to pill.

I have been trying to remember how often I knit with this fiber, and I thought I'd show you my cashmere-content projects:

Imagine When,worked in Sundara's Fingering Merino-Cashmere

 

Even Flow, worked in The Plucky Knitter's Primo Sport

To Infinity and Beyond, worked in String Theory's Caper Sock

Dragonflies, worked in Lioness Artes MCN DK

Aaaaand that's all!  OK, I think I need more cashmere stuff in my future...  Off to stalk my own stash.

Have a great week!

~Joji

Get the look

So last weekend I spent a huge amount of time on Pinterest.  I don't pin much, but I watch and watch always looking for new inspiration.  Sometimes I like the fit of a garment, or the stitch pattern...  Sometimes I am in awe with the styling (cause I am so bad at this!)...  And I am generally drawn towards the neutral tones, very minimalist clothes.

But this weekend, I was surprised to see myself coming back again and again to this picture from ZARA.

I want everything in this picture.  Her boots, her jeans (wouldn't hurt to have her long legs), her top, and HER SUPER RED CARDIGAN!

I am not a fan of this shape, but I admit it would be really nice to have something in this color to throw on top of my otherwise super neutrally colored wardrobe.

So first I go to my stash, and start looking for something similar.  I have nothing in this color, but I find the awesome yarn I bought at Knitty City during my trip to NY (remember this post?): Studio Worsted by Neighborhood Fiber Co, in colorway Charles Village.

Yes, definitely not the same red... It is more like a fuchsia red... but a very RED!  This will do.

Then I wondered what the cardigan was really like... So I went to ZARA's website and this is what I found:

Yes, really nice and simple, ,but I am not sure this is worth writing a pattern for!  So I decided to design something that has the same "feel" (oversized cardigan), but with a few twists and a bit more shaping... and some buttons. :D

And here I am with my new design project, working the stockinette stitch section, where I get to relax a bit, stop taking notes, and just enjoy the knitting while watching some TV show.

I am loving this yarn's color a lot.  Super deep and rich, like the rest of the colors I saw on the shelf from this dyer.  Amazing stuff indeed!  The Studio Worsted comes in really big skeins: the label says 400 yards (of worsted weight!), and my skeins weigh 225g, so these are really huge!  However, I only have 2 of them, so I have to keep my yarn usage to the minimum.  I decided to knit this at a really loose gauge, and I am using US 8 (5mm) needles for this.  Let's see how it looks once finished.  At first stitches look a little bit uneven, but I am sure blocking will take care of that later.

In the meantime, I already got myself the jeans and the booties.  Looking for a T-shirt to match the whole thing.

~Joji