The Capecho Saga is now complete

Its been a journey.

It started with the squeel of excitement at seeing the cover of Vogue Knitting, followed by the buzz from fellow knitters. I looked thru my stash and found a perfect yarn, a greenish tan cotton, close in feel to the picture on the cover, warmer than winter white, but still keeping that light cozy feel.

I swatched. I fell in love. I added the next medallion, and then the third and then..... no more yarn!!?!..... noooooo, there has to more yarn around, i ususally buy way more then i need. But this yarn was from Silk City, in the discount bin. A cloud of dred formed over my head, i had to wait almost a month till the next sale and hope that they had more of it.

I drove out to Silk City, in agony that I would'nt find it. It was crowed! It was the end of the school year and FIT students were buying materials for they final projects. I looked around and found all kinds of great yarn and spent way too much money, but my mission was not yet complete. I still didn't have the yarn i needed.

I asked the attendant and they had it in stock, full price but..... hey I had no choice, i had to have it. I lugged it and the large garbage bag full of other cones of yarn home, pulled out my needles and cast on.... Not the same dye lot! So i put the three completed medalions the back... happy accident...suuure!

It was at this point that I started reading that many people were having issues with the pattern, it was way way way way tooo big. And it was insanely to big, so i omitted two medallions from under the arm. I started the sleeves, convincing myself, with much effort, that it would all work out just fine. I finished the sleeves and delighted in using the Kitchner bind off for the first time (love it).

It looked..... big... and dare i say frompy. I put it down. I walked away.

Weeks later i started sketching, doodling, and decided to try to and save it. I added ribbing on the bottom, hoping i would tame the points and puckers that blocking seemed unable to deal with. It worked pretty well, but i had a large wad of sagging, puckering fabric under each arm...

My patience was gone, my love was gone.

My mom came to visit, tried it on and the solution was found. Ooooh, you need a bust to get rid of the sag on the side. Thus the garment was resurrected. I added buttons and loops to make it more of a wrap. My love returned and my mom still got the Norah Gaughan sweater i promised her. It just wasn't the same sweater and it was a different color. I was planning to make her the "Ram's Horm Jacket" in "Knitting Nature".

Capecho news...

In VK Capecho news: I have ripped out the bottom of my capecho for a "do over". The added bottom looks great! But I decreased, in keeping with pattern, when I should have increased, since, OF COURSE, ribbing is smaller than stst, duh!! My mom was in town, so she did try it on and the sleeves are perfect, so I can also bind off the sleeves.

I have been obsessively looking for pattern ideas for a Fair Isle sweater/sweater vest out the Boise Karabella yarn I have. I am thinking something classic, perfect for over a summer dress. The Boise yarn is very fuzzy, as I discovered when i made the fingerless gloves, but its soooooo soft, you just want to nuzzle it all day.

Capecho Saga continues...

Capecho Sneakpeek
Originally uploaded by Digital Leaf.

It has been delightful knitting this thing. And as some have already discovered, there is a major size to photo discrepancy (grrrrr). So i changed it up a bit. I ended up linking pentagon # 9 to 10 and #8 to 11, so the sleeve hole was created. I then picked up the three sides and knit the sleeve in the round. That helped make it a bit smaller. But still not enough to be wearable. My mom tried it on, and it looked great on her, so the redesign commenced.

It will close differently from the orginal design and I added a bottom to it, so its a full length sweater, which makes the oversize not as offensive. I will post pictures of it on MY model soon. And then i will decide if i need to increase the number of stitches on the bottom.

I must say, despite my anger and disappointment at Vogues mis-representation of the design, it was really fun the knit. It went fairly quickly. And I am glad it fit someone I love, cause otherwise I would be one anger chic!

lots of knitting going on...

I had started the cabled bolero by Norah Gaughan in a light greenish cotton that I got from Silk City Fibers. I finished three pentagons when I discovered that I had no more of that yarn. Now, I had not planned to return to Silk City for at least another few months, as evertime I go I end up spending a lot of money. But one's gotta do what one's gotta do.

So I went and spent a lot of money but I got my yarn (though it's different dye lot) and have continued on. Already I forsee making a few changes but I'll decide as I get closer to finishing.

I also finished a pair of flip top gloves for Aunt out of a morino wool also from Silk City Fibers, in a wondful forest green tweed.

The sleeve on my orange cardigan is little longer! I took it with me to the Church of Craft last weekend, determined to get it done. Well i'm a bit closer.