Striped Stash Yarn Choux Sweater [sweater pattern by Jessie Maed Designs]

Choux Sweater Ravelry Link Here

I love this sweater pattern design by Jessie Maed. I love a lot of her designs and the Choux Sweater combines my desire for a loose, comfy, basic sleeve, loose arm opening and no seaming after you're done knitting. Getting to wear a sweater right off the needles rather than having to get around to blocking and sewing the pieces together is... magical. I knit to relax and get away from my more detailed forms of fiber work. This sweater pattern has the delight of immediate gratification when the knitting is done. I did have to stitch in a bunch of ends before this one was ready to wear, but I can do that with little effort while watching tv. 

I'm never totally sure about how a pattern like is going to come together, or how much I'll end up liking the style and fit. So I decided to go with stash yarn for the first run on the Choux Sweater. I don't have 3 skeins of any one stash yarn (probably not even 2 skeins)... so stripes. I have a lot of blues. Likely because I don't tend towards blues, turquoise yes, but not basic blues, so they've piled up. I got all the blues and their variations together, created a sample and washed it. (If it won't survive the washing machine in a lingerie bag, it's not worth knitting). I figured it was good enough, but as I started knitting the actual full-sized sweater, I didn't like it. I added a variegated sock yarn that has blue, turquoise, pink and plum, that solved my color problem. Just a little spot of pink/purples made it so I was excited about knitting this. I also sampled the stripes in single rows and double rows. I have something else large from a few years ago that I had started in single rows that I'm ripping out now, I like it for the Tin Can Knits beanie that I live in at work in the winter, but for a whole sweater I decided to change yarn every 2 rows. 

First Try-On

"You're knitting with pretty big needles for you" my friend Jenn commented as I cast on this project at our local tea shop in Old Town. She's right, knitting any bigger than size 4s is unlikely for me, even 4s are pushing it. Maybe it's just the fingering yarn size that kept this still fun to knit. I also don't really like heavy sweaters. I used to think I hated wool sweaters, but it was the weight and density that I used to find uncomfortable and suffocating. This is wool, so it's warm, but with the larger needles it's somewhat light, almost airy. A perfect comfort level. 

I have, in the past, created my own dolman style sweater that the COVID lock-down helped me finish. I was trying to keep track of how I knit it, but that wasn't fun. I knit it bottom-up and stitched the top of the arms up to a loose neck opening. I do love that sweater, but I didn't love figuring it out, and it's a bit bulky. I wanted to create a similar sweater but I wanted to work off of someone else's pattern. Jessie put this sweater out just in time (I bought 3 sweater patterns from her Ravelry shop during her birthday sale, hoping one would be ideal, the other 2 are raglans). I started this on a mini ski trip with a friend, messed up the middle area gsr pattern, had to pull that out and restarted. Tracking this on Ravelry, it looks like I finished this in about a month and a half. That's pretty good for me for a whole sweater. I have the size 9 needles and a great pattern to thank.  

Detail of stretchy bind off that I took out

The pattern suggested a stretchy cast-off for the bottom if you tend to knit tight. I do knit tight, so I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off (there's a lot of links if you google that one). Upon my first try on it was TOO stretchy and I didn't like the way it hung. So I took it out and redid it with my normal bind off, which isn't really stretchy, but it fits my hips and that's what matters. 

My next blog post will be about the matching earrings

More Checkers [earrings]

Tan & Light Yellow Checker Huggie Earrings 

can be purchased HERE

I've felt a bit...overwhelmed and lost lately. I haven't gotten to my next weaving on my big loom because I need to dye for it. I have a weave structure that I want to play with on my little loom but I don't have specific imagery in mind for it...I need a bit more direction to get motivated for that weaving. So. Beading checkers. Talking out the weaving issue with my husband led me to the fact I probably need to just start with checkers on the little loom too. Checkers are my default. 

Meanwhile I've been wearing my various colored checker huggie earrings a lot. They're lightweight, easy and out of the way, I've made a few more in different colors. Above is the yellow and champagne checkers, below I was inspired to bead with 24K gold plated seed beads. I did a spray finish to help with the plated finish but these should not be rubbed or exposed to much water, if any. 

Purchase Gold & Olive Green Checker Huggies HERE

I thought that the gold with white would be a classy neutral, I made those first (below). One of the clothing additions to my collection is an olive green midi skirt that I'm leaning towards accessorizing with gold, thus olive green and gold checkers was the next obvious stitching (above). 

And last, checker circlet earrings. I don't lean towards red much, especially wearing it, but, some of my favorite ska band tees are red and I had the red, white and black beads out already for the Resist Bangle. So these large circlet earrings also came to be.

Shop Circlet Earrings HERE

I took checkers to the next personal level adding them to my slowly growing tattoo collection. I have wanted a checker arm band tattoo since my late teens, early 20's. Back then I thought it'd go on my upper arm, but in my 40s...well, thank goodness I waited because upper arms can get weird (mine included) and they may have not looked as even 20 years later. I decided instead to have them tattooed below the elbow of right arm. I went with my friend (for her first tattoo!) we decided to do a walk-in and I ended up with Mo (@mo.mo.tattoos on Instagram) who did an amazing job lining up a very straight, linear design on a very not-straight part of my body. The idea for my checkers probably started with ska music, but they also satisfy my attraction to even numbers, multiples of 2 and 4, things fitting together in a certain way, and a way in which I am constantly using to express myself in my artwork. Checkers just always feel right.

Last night on our way out the door to go to see Cake
Made by me: Olive and Gold checker earrings

Green, Neon and Neutral Checker Bangle

Totally Tank, design by by Jessie Maed Designs

Jesse Maed's Totally Tank Top (Racerback) in Turquoise

I love Jesse Maed's designs, they're really fun to knit. I was hooked with the first one that I knit thanks to Sarah's suggestion of "My Secret Little Crop" (which I have knit 3 of) and then I got into Jesse's other designs. This Totally Tank Top took me forever (see it's tag), for a crop top anyway...longer than I'm used to...ok, I was learning. I ripped this out and restarted at least once (twice?) and then it took me 3 tries to get the neck edging right (for me). 

I knit the Medium size. I extended the arm opening (at least 2 inches, it was 70 rows total) which also created more of a scoop neck that I like better. The first time I had enough of this knit up to try it on I was following the suggested strap length and the arms holes were tight and the neck much too high for me.  

I love Jesse's designs because they're super easy to make adjustments on. I chose the "ribbed" arm and neck finish which I seemed to be picking up the stitches weird and this yarn blend wasn't "ribbing" it just wanted to lay flat on this needle size so it decided to be a "design choice" a pattern at the end of the day. I ended up knitting a lot less stitches (58 ish on the sides) than called for in the pattern (75 on the sides) for the neck.

I put my first tag in a hand knit piece :)

I've worn this a few times and I'm finding it really versatile and summery, which is what I was going for. 

Jesse Maed's Outline Tank in Orange & Long Fringe Earrings

Art Installation on our walk to the Madness show!

We went to a metal concert on Valentine's Day at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit and there was a woman there wearing a long skirt with large checkers. I had to compliment and inquire where she got it. Shein of all places, which is known for inexpensive (like really really cheap) fast-fashion clothing. She actually had me feel the fabric to confirm it was nicer than one would expect, I agreed and, of course, I ordered it. I recall a long period of time where it was hard to find checker-anything and it's practically a staple "color" for me so I don't usually hesitate to grab something checker right now while it's back in style. 

I love the skirt (yes, it will probably pill, it's already fuzzing weird after one wear, fast fashion and all) I decided I want to wear it for the Madness concert we went to this month in Seattle. I needed to pick a top to go with it and nothing that I had or was shopping for was inspiring me. I had purchased 2 patterns from Jessie Maed Designs in February so I decided it was time to knit one of those tops. The Outline Tank called to me and I went on the hunt for a really bright saturated color yarn. Of course there was nothing in my stash that fit the bill so I went over to Woven Art to hunt something down. 

I wanted a cotton/linen blend but everything was in neutral or pastels, in the sale area there was a lovely orange Manos Del Uruguay Alegria, a merino superwash and polyamide blend which I was worried would be too heavy for a drapey tank top, but I knit up a sample swatch, washed it and really liked how it turned out. (I also bought and knit up a sample of the Mojave cotton blend but what I thought was maybe a grapefruit color was much more pink when it knitted up than I liked). 

I had a month to knit this top. So I got started, it only took me 2 weeks, including a few tear-outs. I can thank our day at Pinball at the Zoo' for helping move this knitting along. Bryan drove (knitting time) and I was on the easy part of stockinette stitch so I got about 2.5 inches done between the drive and knitting while waiting for my turn on the machines. I also ended up hand-winding the second skein of this yarn on the drive there since it kept getting tangled on my swift. Thank you to Gotham Knits on Instagram for normalizing hand-winding a yarn ball for me! I really love the soft light weight of this top and yarn. The only issue is that the "outline" detailing isn't showing much in the straps and neck. The yarn is a little too squishy, next time I knit this I'll use a more structured yarn.

I was going to do a separate post for the earrings that I made, but they belong with this top. Even without the skirt finishing off the look....

I don't usually like to bead fringe. I pull too tight and it gets all kinked up, then when I loosen it, it seems to gap and have thread showing at the top between the bottom of the stitched base and the top of where the fringe starts, gravity taking its toll on the spacing. This is why I prefer to stitch beads into each other one and a time, tight and controlled. Not OCD at all....

(lighting is weird in this photo)

These actually turned out. 30 years of beading made me think through what would work best for my particular beading issues. A thinner thread makes me bead looser (it snaps when I pull too tight), I don't back through the fringe, I thread the fringe gently. I'm really proud of myself at how well these turned out, I kinda expected the same too-tight fringe disappointment but here we are with a successful pair. For a moment I thought, maybe I should start making fringe-earrings. They're really fun. Then I remembered how much I hate bead-stringing and I only do it when necessary. I'm not interested in getting into the habit of making these to sell, so fringe will come when it's needed for another outfit. 

I've gotten a lot of complements wearing the earrings and top together and separate. The Madness concert was awesome and I was glad to have a bright ska-outfit for it :)

My Secret Little Crop #3; Super-cropped Cotton/Hemp blend

Backtracking to my summer projects...I can't get enough of this crop top pattern by Jessie Maed Designs. "My Little Secret Crop" knits up quickly and I found some stash yarn I wanted to try for a lighter weight garment...I also wanted it shorter to go with overalls. I started and finished this crop top in June and every time I wore it out it got compliments. 

Out at lunch for a date-day:

Waitress:  I love your top
Me: Thanks, I made it.
Waitress: You did? Do you sell them?
Me: No
Waitress: Would you sell them?
Me: No, I just knit for myself, it takes too long to knit to make it worth selling.
Waitress: ...[clearly disappointed tension]
Waitress: Oh, it even has a crisscross back! [walking away]
Me: It's a pattern on Ravelry if you learn to knit...
Bryan: I thought she was going to rip it off you. 

I thought it looked cute with my work pants, 

it was easy to throw on for a totally different look to grab dinner when I got off. 

I have a bunch of small balls of a cotton/hemp blend that I love. I know I used this yarn in red for the red leaf tunic I made years ago, I'm not sure what I have all this green for. Sometimes when I love a yarn I just buy a bunch, which is probably why this has been sitting in my stash. I have been good about not doing that kind of purchasing anymore, I have more yarn than I'll ever be able to use (yet never what I'm looking for so that's when I buy more). Anyway, the green hemp/cotton blend with a pretty Berroco variegated blend turned out really lovely. I wore this top a lot this summer.