Obsessed
Why hello! It’s been two weeks since we’ve hung out, mano-a-blogo. Mr. Roboto certainly enjoyed having the spotlight during that time, but I think it’s time to push him a little further down on the page, lest we inflate his ego even more. He would like you to know that he’s flying high these days, happy that he finally found his one true love.
In the meantime, I’ve been obsessing about things a bit.
This is the beginnings of the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature. This is the fourth project that I’ve knit from the book, and it won’t be the last. I’m making this as a mini-knitalong with Lolly and Jody, and a couple of weeks ago Lolly went ahead and started hers. That spurred me to finally swatch, then I blinked and had a completed yoke. Whoa!
I’m very, very loosely following the pattern – I’m knitting the yoke according to the phyllo chart and the rest of the sweater is from my own numbers. I wanted to use a thinner yarn to shrink the yoke pattern vertically so that I could wear this sweater without having to layer a shirt underneath. I do live in Texas, after all, and layering season is quickly drawing to a close. The Rowan 4 ply Cotton is working perfectly so far. I extended the lace chart by one diamond, and the patterning is the perfect length. Perhaps the color isn’t the best color to show off the yoke pattern, but I want this sweater in black, so black it is.
I knit the fun part first (similar to my Tangled Yoke construction (you should click on that link if you like kittens. gah, they were so cute!)) and now I need to think and do math, which means that this sweater has already been cast aside for something else fun. Norah did some interesting shaping in the front of the sweater to make the front neckline fall lower than the back, which I’m going to try to mimic with short rows. Then it’s all stockinette till the cows come home.
Obsession number two comes in fabric form. I’ve been very good at my yarn diet. The only thing I’ve purchased so far this year was a wee bit of sock yarn. However! All that saved money has funded my brand new fiber stash. And my fabric stash. Not good.
I’ve been thinking, dreaming, pondering about blue and orange lately, hence the sudden expansion. We have a bluish-grey couch and a light greenish-blue chair, and I’ve been planning on making pillows for them forever. Have you noticed that all of the good fabrics contain brown? They do! This greenish-blue and orange combo will be perfect accents.
I’ve had diamonds on the mind lately, too, and I’m finally getting around to figuring out a patchworky pillowy pattern. You would not believe how difficult it is to line up diamonds until you cut them out for some coasters and then try to piece them together as you watch your machine devour all of the tiny little diamond shapes. Or maybe that’s just me. Drafting pattern pieces ahead of time is a much smarter way to go.
The scraps (ha! the pillows will only use wee amounts) might go to a baby quilt. Or maybe I’ll just line them up and take more photos of them.
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I love love love how your phyllo is looking so far–that is such a cool pattern! As for the fabrics, they’re lovely! I too have had light blue and orange on the mind lately. the light blue makes sense (being my favorite color), but I have NO idea where the orange is coming. Le sigh, tastes change over time I suppose! happy knitting :)
love all the fabrics! can’t wait to see the pullover all finished up.
Blue and orange is such a tricky combination, but I have to say I really love the fabrics you’ve put together! My favourite is the duck egg blue prints, but I can’t say I’m *not* a fan of any of them. Lovely!
Phyllo is a lovely sweater, I was admiring Lollys on her blog. The oranges look good with the blues, I especially like the cream background one with orange leaves!
Your Phyllo Yoked Pullover looks magnificent! A good idea to go for the black, if you ask me – it looks really good!
i am so excited that we will both have phyllos! mine got a little face time the other night, but it is sharing time with my sister’s birthday knit. i hope to work on it more this coming weekend. yours looks great. doing the diamonds first was a good idea. the bottom-up version is a lot of stockinette from the get-go!
love the blue and orange – one of my faves!
Beautiful! I have yarn and the book and need to start that sweater….I love it’s simplicity and it looks like it would be a wardrobe staple!
Nice new fabrics!! Great color combo!
I have been eyeing that phyllo too–it’s so intriguing–and yours is turning out beautifully!
Your phyllo sweater is looking awesome already! I love the fabrics you’ve been buying, the orange and blue go great together. Good luck with those diamonds!
Blue and orange are awesome together. It’s my favorite color combo. Diamonds scare the crap out of me, though (eeep!). You’re so brave!
I love the fabrics! I love blue and orange as a color combo, too. I’m sure your pillows will turn out great!
I noticed that you had a comment exchange with Nova on your Crown Mountain Farms pencil roving. I don’t know if you’ve gotten an answer yet, but my understanding is that you don’t have to predraft pencil roving. I actually started spinning some of my own CMF pencil roving last Saturday, and I just started spinning with no predrafting at all. I was aiming for thicker singles, but I’m pretty sure you could spin any kind of single without predrafting the stuff. You definitely have to try it–I loooooved it and want to buy some more! Not having to predraft is GREAT.
I love orange. With anything. I also like playing with fabric…. I also like the yoke of Phyllo…very nice.
Oooh, I love those fabrics! I can’t wait to see what you turn them into!
Just delurking to say that I really enjoy your blog, and those fabrics look fabulous! My sewing machine and I are not the best of friends but I’m really looking forward to seeing what you can make of this – I’m sure it will look great!
Colours – they are just great! Those pillows will be fab!
I love that powdery look of Rowan 4 ply cotton, I really got to get some for myself for summer knitting…
The Phyllo yoke looks great!
Such pretty fabrics. Orange and I have a very ambivalent relationship, but your orange fabrics are real winners. Looking forward to seeing the pillows.
To quote above, I love love love the blue and orange. Love. I’m wanting all of those fabrics, right now, especially with the browns! And I’m eager to see how your mods work out with the Phyllo, because I think I’d like the pattern too if I didn’t have to layer with it.
Ooooh, I love that!!!!
The yolk of that sweater is so pretty! Great idea to shrink it vertically – I would have issue with that, too.
The Phyllo is sooo obsession worthy, can’t wait to see more of that!!