Dear Kay,
First, some great, breaking Bang Out a Sweater news: the Stopover pattern is being revised to include more sizes. Currently it has four sizes; now, it will include one smaller size and four larger sizes, up to 5X. The updated pattern will show up in Ravelry by Saturday. If you’ve already bought the pattern on Ravelry, you’ll get the updated pattern automatically.
Meanwhile
Clearing the decks before my Plötulopi not-yarn arrives from Iceland. It’s some kind of procrastinating. Precrastinating?
This cowl, which had a misbegotten moment when its border (now ripped out) curled too much, has become the most hardcore low-skills good time. It’s the yarn that sings here, Camellia Fiber Co. merino, undyed, as soft as a bunny. I was going to stop at two skeins’ worth of cowl, but I kept going with skein three just because I couldn’t imagine stopping.
It could be a miniskirt, if I needed a moss stitch merino miniskirt.
Which I guess I don’t.
Or maybe I do?
Also soon to be done is NellKnits’s lovely little Hortensia cowl. Having trouble catching it on camera—lace wants to look clumpy until its glory moment after blocking. But trust me when I say that this merino/silk yarn from Little Fox Yarn is compelling. And the lace pattern is easy to get a groove on.
I got through the end of Broadchurch, season 2, working on this, which was not the easiest show to knit to. OH GOOD LORD fire that show up if you want a great ride. The crying! The vindication! Charlotte Rampling for the prosecution!
This is about five inches wide, halfway done.
The trunks of the little trees are knit through the back of the loops, giving it all a leftward lean. I wonder why that stitch was chosen.
We’re sharing a bit of news via our newsletter, if you’re curious about what we’re up to. Just sign up in the footer, and we’ll keep you up to date.
Thanks to all the yarn shops valiantly dishing up lopi! Please know that this may be the loosest knitalong in the history of simultaneous-group-knitting-of-a-pattern. The official start date is Monday, February 1, but with no official end set, we’ll be banging out our sweaters for a good while.
Love,
Ann
I love your moss stitch merino mini skirts! 😉
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Good Morning dear Ann. I do love the Camellia Fiber yarns, yet I have not added a skein to my list of have-knits. That fabric. I can see why you kept going.
To answer your question, the twisted stitch was added to the pattern to keep the eyelets wide open as well as for it’s addition of depth. I love the reverse side of the work nearly as much as the front, by the way.
It will be a pleasure to be a KAL spectator, I’m keen to complete my Empire pullover before the winter leaves, which may just happen.
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Looking at all the blank comments, I just had to see if mine would post.
Silence of the lambs? At least it is something familiar to knitters.
Now that is funny 😀
Have you ever bought enough patterns and yarn in a week to set off the fraud alert at your bank? I did this week. Apparently 3 patterns off Ravelry plus yarn from three online stores is enough to do it. Should I be proud or ashamed?
Ayup! Just last week on vacation seeing family in LA. I always look up yarn stores when I travel. This fraud alert was for an “unusually large transaction”. Hmmmm….$250 in a yarn store doesn’t seem unusually large to me.
Proud, very proud!!!!
I’ve done it — Stitches West. The bank guy was incredulous. Awful.
Haha, I got a fraud alert after Maryland Sheep and Wool a few years ago. Even made the bank rep laugh
My best friend had it happen DURING Maryland Sheep and Wool! It was because she bought things “in” Nebraska, Maryland, and somewhere else. No, just from vendors local to those states.
Actual quote from her conversation with SunTrust: “I’m at a fiber festival. I’m standing here in a field with SHEEP. There are vendors from all over the country. Fix this. I need to keep shopping.”
The sheep field part was an exaggeration, but we were leaning against a fence between one of the vendor barns and one of the sheep barns!
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I’ve been frantically ordering Lopi wherever I can find it and I have to say a special thank you to Tricia at Dublin Bay Knitting who stopped me from purchasing 2 almost identical reds yesterday. Wonderful customer service!
New to the blog and loving it.
Amazing to me that so many of your readers happen to have Icelandic yarn in their stashes.
We are large … we contain multitudes!
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I thought I had signed up for the newsletter already, but alas, no news? Trying again.
Love both cowls. The first reminds me of GWB the first, which I scored some more of and still have no plans for.
My bank didn’t do anything but PayPal did. I guess they didn’t want me ordering from Iceland. Shipping was horrendous!!! But I got the colors that I wanted, plus some Alafos to go with a bag I found in my stash.
The way I think about the shipping from Iceland is that it’s slightly cheaper than flying over there and getting it. Plus: package coming from Iceland! Fun!
Broadchurch! I know! Charlotte! Difficult to find another series to jump into after that, I had to switch to audiobooks for a while. Meanwhile, a serious stash dive was unsuccessful–not enough of one color of anything to join the bang-out. Still working on ratio along buying more yarn… I may waffle myself right out and be a spectator. Sigh.
I tried knitting while watching Broadchurch. I couldn’t do it, frogged that dishcloth 3 times before I had to give up and just watch.
I am frantically finishing my Flying Geese Blanket so I can be ready. I function best as a monogamous knitter–weird, I know. Maybe I will swatch my gray LettLopi this morning, though. Circular swatching!
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My order hasn’t even shipped as of yet! I’m really going to have to power knit to catch up since I doubt I’ll have it by Monday.
I don’t think mine will be here either. We’ll just start when we start!
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Broadchurch requires stockinette in the round. I think I was doing socks and had to stop at the heel turn.
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All this sweater talk has me thinking I need to start one. Put aside the scarf, and the hat, and the other hat, and the sock, and the other sock….. Now to find a pattern. Pretty sure The Stash can provide the appropriate wool.
So happy you provided a list of stores that have the Lettlopi yarn, was having a problem getting colors I wanted and now they are on their way! Should be here by the 2nd.
Then I was gathering my needles…yikes, had to order some ( in rural area) Will be here by 3rd or 4th. So I will be playing a little catch up. But thrilled you have gotten this knit-a-long going! This is going to be fun, Thanks!
Signed up for newsletter earlier but have not received. So trying again.
Loved Broadchurch and am not a big CSI fan. I needed the two seasons of time to complete the Brooklyn Tweed Shale baby blanket on a timely basis. That has an easily remembered repetitive pattern that did allow me to concentrate on the slowly moving plot while knitting. What is the first cowl pattern? Or maybe not a pattern, but x number of stitches knit in the round?
I, too, am missing the newsletter so am trying again. I hate that I’m missing out on any of the fun. I snort every time I read the blog!
I also thought I’d signed up already.
I wish I could join in the KAL but left on a 6 week road trip carrying enough yarn to fill a suitcase so I could finish 2 pullovers! Were I to suggest buying more I think I would have to hitchhike home.
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Well, now I know why so many entries just say “comment”. I just tried to sign up for the newsletter, and immediately my name and the word “comment” appeared in the comments.
Ahhhhhh, I have been wondering if it was some kind of social media term that means something if you are tech or media savvy!!!! Obviously I am neither!! Thanks for clearing that up!
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So excited about this KAL. Also clearing the decks here.
Am I tempting fate to swatch flat? Is the gauge different? I asked this out loud and my husband looked at me like I was speaking gibberish. Funny retired IBM husband – this is payback for all the years of tech talk at dinners out with his co-workers!
Gauge will likely be different. Most people knit tighter than they purl. That is why so many people use sleeves for switching in the round, if you are on gauge, you can just keep going! Me, since my “fake” round swatches never seem to work, I do flat, see how off I am and start with my best guess needle and measure after a few inches. Not ideal, but that or the sleeve option works best for me.
As I suspected. Thanks, Stephanie B. As a sock knitter, I tend to be a squeaky tight knitter….. I’ll do that swatch in the round. Thanks!
Wish i were doing the KAL, but i have designated 2016 as the year of finishing my UFO’S!
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And, I just bought the pattern. The KAL appears to be helping to push the pattern in to the top 20 on ravelry!
As for knitting a st in the back – remember Clafoutis and its knit in the back of the loop edge sts? Kept them from enlarging by some mystery of the Yarn Force. I love yarn tech tricks; all adds up to knitting pretty.
After KonMarie-ing the bejeezus out of my basement a few weeks ago, I can say with fair certainty that I have a WHOLE BIN of inherited plutoloopy, wound into neat little cakes and still with its old-school typed tags. I need to examine it more closely to be sure and to survey the color options (brown, brownish, and white-brown, as I recall), but I just about passed out with excitement when I realized I might be able to use it under controlled, supervised circumstances like a knitalong.
Trying again to sign up for newsletter. Also ordered yarn for the KAL
Same colors as the pattern sample. Should be such fun, knitting with you all!
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A moss-stitch mini skirt actually sounds delightful…
Oh, yes, I’m in! Did my stash dive and found appropriate yarn that has been waiting for *years* to be something. Even one skein of Lopi for a contrast color. Did my flat swatch and now part of a sleeve which looks like it may indeed be tighter. I’m off to block that piece and crossing my fingers it will be OK!
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Will I get kicked out of the cool kids club for knitting a different pattern with different yarn? Same gauge, a bit of colorwork, still a pullover, but I have stash I need to use and a pattern (Stilwell from Jared Flood) to use it on. I’d love to bang out a sweater!
Nah. I’m banging out a different sweater too. Will cast on Sunday.
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Here’s another, “but I thought I signed up for the newsletter already?” post. I am clicking the box again, and look forward to seeing it.
Re: the sweater. I already had some skeins of lettlopi, courtesy of a kind friend who was in Iceland last summer. I will use the lovely purple she got as part of my sweater. I’m going to swatch (a hat) today with the doesn’t-work-in-the-colorway-of-the-sweater light red, as I wait for my main color yarn to arrive. I’m a sluttishly loose knitter and usually have to go down at least 2 needle sizes to get pattern gauge, so will start with a size 7 and move up to 8 and 9.
I’m very pleased about the expanded size range for this sweater. I have Whole30’d my way down to something between an XL and 1X. I got extra skeins and was going to try and knit the XL size at 3 stitches per inch, but it will be nice to have a choice!
“Sluttishly loose”. Giggle
London Spy with Ben Wishaw, Charlotte Rampling, Jim Broadbent and many other fine actors is an excellent series. Love, revenge, spies, loss, tragedy, choose an easy knitting project to watch this show!!
Ok, I’m in! Admitting I already have enough plates of Plotulopi in my stash to do this — and still I hesitated … Silly me! I look forward to learning how to handle the plates. They told me in Iceland NOT to pull from the center of the plate but some of the colors I have only the one plate!! So doubling the yarn I’ll have to take from the center.
Well, dang! I, too, thought I’d already signed up for the newsletter…at least three times now, I think.
I’m still on the fence about the Stopover KAL but have been googling the hell out of lettlopi yarn and anguishing over color combos so who am I kidding?
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Started sleeve swatch last nite, despite baby blanket being due at noon tomorrow. Too many st/inch on US 10.5. I like the fabric at this gauge. Maybe I can cheat and use the #s for a larger size…..
I adore the Stopover pattern, but alas, I can’t wear wool, even with a shirt underneath. I wonder if anybody has any suggestions for another type (or even a brand, if I’m being hopeful) of yarn that would work?
Shipping notice for my yarn . . . 🙂 From Iceland, so it’s hard to guess when it might arrive. On the plus side, I can add Iceland to the long list of countries I have received yarn packages from.
I am so on the fence here. Brought home some Lettlopi from Iceland last summer, but not a sweaters quantity. Also Sunday and Monday are forecast to be 80 degrees! If I knit it I doubt I’ll have the chance to wear it…earned south Texas weather! I may jump in later, but will resist and live vicariously through everyone else.
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Ok, I caved. I just ordered my lettlopi. BANG!
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Wow, that cowl looks so luscious now. You couldn’t even tell before when it had that improper lace surplusage that you so wisely removed.
As for the blue lace, can’t wait to see it blocked, as you referenced the other day.
I know this is all about Stopover but I’m still loving the moss stitch cowl. Is there a pattern for it?
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