cosmicpluto knits!

time to go!

It seemed to both take forever and sneak up, but it’s time to head to Hawaii with my family! I’ll be gone from the 1st to the 18th, but I’ll definitely try to post a few times. I’ve got a fun multimedia blogging idea that I’d love to work on too!

The Koigu above is some vacation knitting. Of course, the hardest part of packing was deciding what knitting to take! I decided today that I wanted to knit something out of a ball of black Zephyr I know I have, but for the life of me I couldn’t dig it up. Frustrating.

Happy Canada Day, and talk to you all soon!

milkweed and adobe?

I hear some people are having trouble opening the Milkweed Shawl pattern with Adobe - what kind of errors are going on? I actually used Adobe suite to create the PDF, and I use Acrobat to open it without any problems.

And if anyone has any ideas on why there might be a problem, let me know that too!

Another omission was found in the written instructions in row 94 - a missing yo, CDD, yo at the beginning and end of the row. The latest version of the pattern is available on Ravelry and is called “MilkweedShawlJune26_2_.pdf”. So sorry for any confusion!

random things

My knitting is really fighting back lately! I forgot my sock project at a friend’s last week just as he was going out of town so I couldn’t work on that. I keep having to re-do the math on a compound raglan and ripping out what I’ve knit.

Then today my Honeybee cardi was fighting me too - I knit a whole hem (around the body) and found out that it didn’t really work. So that was a day’s work ripped, and I ended the day right where I started. Booo.

Hopefully I can get my knitting back on track and get some new projects on the needles too. I’m going to be traveling in July so I need knitting I can count on! My parents and sisters and I are taking a vacation to Hawaii!

We’ll be staying in Waikiki, and on Kauai and the big island. I don’t intend to spend all my time with them, so I’d like to do some exploring on my own too. Does anyone have recommendations for things to do, places to see, eat, or shop? I love unique sorta boutique-y shops for clothes (I’m especially fond of dresses and skirts from local designers) but I’m having a hard time coming up with particular places.

And so this isn’t a photoless post, how about some eye candy?

Megan brought me back this gorgeous, huge skein of laceweight from Squam - it’s merino from the Woolen Rabbit. Beautiful!

honeybee lace cardigan

Is it obvious that I love cardigans with all my heart? I don’t remember the last time I wore a pullover!

I started this lace project quite a while back, but had a bunch of screwups that resulted in several ripping sessions. Now I definitely, definitely know how to knit this pattern though!

This is the Honeybee lace pattern in Socks that Rock Mediumweight “Rose Quartz” (I think I posted a photo of the swatch awhile back). Took longer than necessary with all the ripping, but this has now become this:

I didn’t know how far my yarn would go (I have 3 skeins) so I cast on provisionally for the body, knit up to the underarm, cast on provisionally for the sleeves as well and knit a seamless set-in sleeve for the upper body. I love it! The yarn amount situation is looking good, too.

Now I’m going to knit the sleeves down a bit, then decide what to do with the body. The idea was to just have the lace from the waist up, but now I’m wishing I’d done the whole thing in honeybee! I love this pattern. But I think what I’ll do is keep it as sort of a cropped shape, with a wide stockinette hem at the bottom. Still needs button bands and a neckband too.

The pattern for this one will eventually be released as well, but it’s going to be pretty complex to work out because of the patterning and the set-in sleeve! My math could probably use the challenge though.

macro lace preview

The “macro lace” Malabrigo cardigan is just off the needles - the picture of efficiency today, I took some photos right away, uploaded them, and here they are!

These are just some kinda rough photos so you can see the shape. I’ll be taking proper photos to go with the pattern soon. The finished pattern probably won’t be available for a couple of weeks though!

Oops, it’s upside down in the photo. But this cardi-shrug thing is reversible from bottom to top, so you can wear it either way! It is dolman-sleeved, which is pretty polarizing, but I happen to be quite pleased with the shape for this particular piece. Plus, it’s super easy.

It’s not really a cardigan in my book because it doesn’t close in the front (although you could make the ribbing longer so it would close). The Malabrigo makes this super comfortable, it’s sort of like wearing a blanket around your shoulders but way more stylish!

The pattern is forthcoming and will be out in July. It will probably have fewer sizes than my usual because the fit is pretty generous and would look great on a variety of body types. Don’t worry though, it’ll still have at least 5 sizes! And the sleeves will be totally adjustable to fit whatever your arm size is.

I’m a 35-36″ bust and this took 4 skeins of Malabrigo. It’s not quite seasonal considering that the weather just decided to start warming up dramatically here, but would be a great summer knit in a cotton or blend!

apologies for the delay

Okay, finally the newer, corrected version of the Milkweed Shawl is up, and everyone who purchased it should have received a Ravelry message/email saying that it is available for download! Sorry for the delay and confusion, I had some technical difficulties.

Currently on my needles, nearly done:

The Malabrigo lace shrug/cardi thing. It’s kind of become a larger project than I intended, but I’m still pretty pleased. I think it’ll be nice when it’s done, although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to wear it since the temperatures are supposed to take a big jump next week!

This is sorta how it’ll be worn - the sleeves are picked up from the side there to custom fit your arm, and then the excess space is sewn up.