I should mention ALL the sweaters, but much like a politician giving a State of the State or a State of the Country report, I’m sweeping the UFO’s under the proverbial rug and we’ll just touch on the sweaters that have actually been touched in the past week.

First up is the Green Freedom Spirit Sweater.

I had enough yarn to do bell sleeves. Well, one is almost done anyway. I decided I wanted them to be light so that leaves out the turned hem. I chose seed stitch. Which means I’ll definitely be ripping out the bottom and putting in a seed stitch hem. I know I could leave it but the neck is rolled and having that many different hems on a garment irks me unless it’s a design element.

Sprout has been my carry around project:

I obviously haven’t been carrying it very much. I was sick last week and I didn’t knit much for 3 days. Not for lack of wanting to but for lack of desire to get dizzy and sick again. Good thing I feel better now, I have a ton of knitting to get done.

And spinning…

I dyed 2 different batches of fiber to spin for sweaters for myself. This one I predrafted and will be the next on the needles as soon as the yarn is done. I’m planning for it to be Bianca’s Jacket. I’ve had this desire to make Bianca’s Jacket from handspun for a while and finally I found the perfect yarn. I’d like to get it done for the end of summer when the nights are cooler.

Because I started thinking about the next handspun sweater, I thought it would be smart to finish Aftur:

I worked a bit on the other sleeve but obviously didn’t get far. All the stockinette in tan is killing me. Needless to say, I’m dreading the body of the sweater. Really I’m doing this only to get to the yoke. It’s all about the Yoke on this one.

The swatches march on. No more photos though. I don’t want to give anything away just yet.

And I should throw in a bit of shop news:
There will be an update this week so keep your eyes peeled for the email announcement.  And for the physical shop I have 3 - yes 3! Ladybugs in stock right now.  It’s really tempting now to buy one for myself…..

Population…1

Ok, I’m sure there are others of you out there in swatchtown too. It just always feels so lonely here in swatchtown. I have a lot of swatches to do. Actually, at any given time, I could say that. There are always swatches to do here. Testing fibers, testing yarns, making stuff for articles, or for designs….There are always swatches needing to be done.

The best part is when I’m testing a fiber or a yarn and I get to beat the heck out of it. I love trying to see how much abuse something can take.

Needless to say, swatches themselves aren’t terribly interesting unless I can show you a picture of a sweater or a drawing of some sort. This time I can’t do that. I can show you my blue swatches in case you get excited over such things….

Are you excited?

In talking to many people about going Vegan, the one thing that many have a hard time giving up, surprisingly (to me anyway) is not cheese, ice cream or eggs, it’s yogurt. I’ve never been a huge fan of the stuff. I like it well enough but it certainly wasn’t the thing that made it hard being a vegan (of course I’m a bad vegan but we won’t go there right now).

I thought I’d mention my recipe for Yogurt and make some at the same time. This is my jar sitting in the cupboard. (I knew you were all dying to see the messy cupboards and just love all these high flash 6 am photos)

I made 2 jars of Cashew milk. One was really rich and creamy with very little water, it was quite thick and almost could be described as Cashew butter. The other was the normal milk that I make. The Normal milk version is what I made kefir with and use normally over Granola or what not. I think I’ve mentioned it before that Kefir is something that is generally mammalian milk. My kefir grains were trained to be vegans. They’re happy and they’re multiplying. Mightily slow in their multiplication but they are growing. Kefir feeds off sugar and I feed mine honey (not alot, but enough to survive).

I kefired the milk, strained out my kefir babies and gave them some fresh cashew milk to their magic with. Into the kefired milk I add in the thick cream of cashews to thicken it all up. I stirred it up, added in some vanilla and some stevia and set it into a warm dark place (the cupboard) to thicken and gather more tang. In a couple of days the yogurt is done. It’s not usually super thick but it has that tangy taste and is really good. Sometimes I don’t flavor it at the cupboard stage. Sometimes I leave it alone and add fruit later. This stuff also freezes well. It freezes pretty solid but by scraping a fork, you can get a nice mound of a treat that seems like ice cream.

KNITTING
I finished the body to the green top down thing….I think…

I did a turned hem and was lazy about not sewing it, I did a different bind off that may or may not work. I need to block it and see if it uncurls or I may be redoing the hem.

I’ve started sprout.

People are finding little oopsies in the newest pattern because it wasn’t tested, wasn’t edited and I basically just threw it out there. The mistakes are little and I’m fixing them as needed. So if you see one, let me know. And no, it’s not a mistake that this is Noro and not the handspun I announced I’d be using. I just don’t love peach and I couldn’t bring myself to use it. I want to wear this sweater alot. I’ll save the peach for a vest or maybe something for the girls that isn’t likely to get thrown into the wash by mistake.

I’m sure this isn’t innovative. I have no doubt that lots of people already do it this way. There seemed to be some interest a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I do my short rows without wraps so I planned to show you how I do it exactly. When I had to do the short rows finishing up Sprout, I took some photos of how I handle short rows on right and wrong sides.

First - when the directions say wrap and turn. Turn and then slip the next stitch. The fancy stuff comes in when you need to work the stitches back in.

RS rows:
When we need to work and work in the stitches, work up to the space including the st that you slipped, you’re now at the break.

That stitch I’m pointing to is the one that you need to pick up and place on the LHN

Then K2tog:

WS rows:
Once again, work to the break and purl the slipped stitch as well.

I picked that stitch up and placed it on the LHN

Then p2tog:

This is a piece of the finished fabric that has 2 of the short row pick ups. You can pick out where they are if you blow up the picture (click to see it bigger). Otherwise as a full sweater, it’s not a noticeable short row pick up at all.

F is for Finished Project
Over the weekend I finished Sprout #2:

I did a smaller size than my original green one and it fits a little better. Of course the green one has stretched out seeing how it’s cotton and all. The yarn in this tealish one is Ella Rae Emity.

F is for Free Pattern
Sprout is a free pattern that the group at The Knitting Experience is doing a Knit along at the shop and online over at Ravelry. But that’s not just it, I have a NEW free pattern to share.

Sprout - Growing Roots is a new pattern based on sprout. It’s top down and includes new women’s sizing for longer arms and longer body with waist shaping. It’s also got information on making it as a full length Men’s cardi. This pattern hasn’t been tested though. I’ll be testing it with the group on the 27th. So if you start it early and find any mistake, please let me know.
F is for Falkland

I’ll be making my next Sprout out of the yarn above. It’s Falkland wool from the spunky club. I’ve been itching for a sweater from it. It’s not really my colors so I may just end up leaving it at the shop.  I’ve been itching to knit with it so at least I’ll satisfy that urge.  I figure this probably won’t even be the last sprout….