Vino Reissue!

It’s back, bigger and brighter!

finished vino

I’ve reformatted, upsized, and expanded the Vino Cardigan pattern – it now comes in sizes up to 56 inches! I also corrected some stitch counts and rejiggered a few portions of the pattern as well as expanding the directions for the Front sections. Also new in this version are new photos of Dr. Steph in her gorgeous version.

Finished Size
Bust: 32 [36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56] inches around fullest part of bust
Length: 36 [38, 38, 41, 41, 41, 41] inches from top of shoulder to hem

Materials
– 6 [7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10] skeins Dream in Color “Classy” (Worsted), 250 yards/4 oz skein;
Shown colour November Muse
– 5.5 mm/US 9 32-inch circular needles or size needed to achieve gauge
– spare needle for Three-Needle Bind-off
– 5 to 7 1-inch buttons (depending on preference!) OR 3-4 toggles (shown)
– tapestry needle

Gauge
18 stitches/28 rows = 10 cm square in stockinette stitch

sleeve detail

All knitters who purchased this pattern previously can get a new copy of it through their Ravelry Library or by emailing me at cosmicpluto@cosmicpluto.com!

If you purchased the pattern not through Ravelry, an approximate date of when you purchased the pattern as well as the Paypal address used, would be useful so I can locate your receipt. People who downloaded through Ravelry should have received an email update notification, and you can download the new version through your Ravelry download library!

TO BUY

This updated 4-page pattern is 1.5 MB and is available for download through Ravelry. Payment is through Paypal, credit card or balance. No registration is required for either!

$6.50 CAD

Note: As of July 5, 2010, sales tax will be added to this price for all Canadian residents only. The rates are: British Columbia 12%; Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador 13%; Nova Scotia 15%; and everywhere else in Canada 5% GST. Tax will be added in the Paypal payment process.

success…and rippage

I managed to finally, FINALLY finish the yoke of my brown Casbah sweater – it’s taken me so many rips to work this out!

set in sleeve success!

This is the bottom-up set in sleeve from Knitting Workshop, and it fits! No fault of EZ’s that I had to rip so many times, I just clearly wasn’t paying enough attention or y’know, planning ahead. For those that wondered, I’m attempted to knit this sweater with 3 skeins of Handmaiden Casbah (heavy fingering weight merino, cashmere, and nylon). I’m knitting it at quite a loose gauge, 6 stitches per inch, and I’ve used up just two skeins of it to the end of the yoke. So I’ve got one skein to do the button bands and then knit both sleeves as long as I can get!

Some more of this colour, although it’s a bit different seeing as how it’s handdyed, came into the store a few weeks ago so I just might opt to do the button bands in that and use the rest of the matching yarn to do the sleeves. I’m a big fan of 3/4 length sleeves anyway, so we’ll see how it works out!

I also finished up those socks that were going so quickly before:

finished: plain cedar socks

They’re knit with Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (which is one of my favourites!) in Cedar, 68 stitches on 2mm needles, top down, heel flap. They’re for a gift, and although they went so fast at first (I knit the first sock in only 2 days) they slowed down a bit and I finished the pair in maybe a week and a half or two weeks, something like that.

Of course, for all the knitting success, there’s always some downside! This handspun sweater wasn’t working out, so I finally ripped it.

yeah, this wasn't working out

Of course, since it was all striped, that means that I ended up with wee little balls of yarn – oh well. I’m sure they’ll find something else to live as.

wee balls of handspun

For now they’re just sitting prettily!

a spinner is born

So back at Rhinebeck,my travel buddies Cheryl and Andrea both decided on Sunday afternoon that it was high time to look for a spindle and some roving and get spinning! Obviously I was rather pleased, having both of them turned by the wool fumes…buahaha.

With that goal and a tight budget for this whole spinning lark, we set out to find some inexpensive spindles (a bit challenging) and some pretty roving (not nearly as challenging) and I got ’em spindling on our last night at our Rhinebeck house.

Fast forward a month, and both of them have finished their very first handspuns! I didn’t take a photo of Cheryl’s (I should’ve though, it was awesome) but I did take some photos of Andrea on Wednesday night at knit night!

Plying…which is my favourite part;

big-time plying

Stephanie helping Andrea with Andean plying;

andean plying

And Andrea’s very first plied mini-skein! She ended up with about 100 yards or so. (From pretty Ashland Bay merino, in case anyone’s wondering!)

first skein of finished handspun!

Awesome. I love seeing spinners being born.

I’ve been spinning a little bit myself, too – here’s some gorgeous 2ply worsted-ish weight that I spun up from merino/silk batts that I got at Rhinebeck. I haven’t counted up the yardage yet, and there’s another bobbin full that I haven’t wound off yet.

from Rhinebeck batts

I’ve also finally managed to get a few woven scarves up in my Etsy shop. I’d wanted to get more done for this update, but I figure I’ll just add as I go – lots more to come, and you can always contact me if you have a request!

new woven scarves