cross stitch – Knitwerks

Sode Sweater Struggles

January 12, 2025 by Tracy, posted in knitting, stitch

As the title says, I’m struggling with the Sode sweater. It’s a cabled cardigan that you have to use several charts in the same row. The pattern does state that it is recommended for advanced knitters and now I’m guessing I am not an advanced knitter after all. I’m ok with intermediate. Maybe I should stick to intermediate. I’m not giving up. Yet. I need to be in the right mind space and right now my head is going in a million different directions at once. The rows I did knit were done with the help of the tutorials included with the pattern. You can find them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8WChKL24mQ

The good thing is said direction is cleaning and organizing my house. Trust me, I do not do enough of that. Every year I do Dry January. Basically, I cut out alcohol for a whole month after over doing it between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. This year I’m hyperfocusing on tea. I’ve taken our junk cabinet and turned into into my coffee/tea hutch. Take a look!

I’m still working on two other projects in addition to the Sode. First is my cross stitch. I’m 80% done. The second is a simple shawl which I’ll write up another recipe for. I don’t feel comfortable calling it a pattern because it is loosely created based on common knowledge. I want to create videos that help people knit it from start to finish. It’s just a simple triangle shawl with bilateral increases in every other row. That’s all. It’s spun from home spun and gold thread so I wanted to use the yarn for something simple that will show off the colors. I think this works.

Here is my latest update.

YouTube, 2025, and What Did I Get Myself Into

January 5, 2025 by Tracy, posted in Uncategorized

Happy New Year. I’m a few days late. I’ve been posting to YouTube regularly while promising to update my webpage. That didn’t happen. Life is crazy with a full time job, three kids, three cats, four chickens and perhaps, ADHD brain? I finished the Darkwater Sweater pattern by Jennifer Steingass and I’ll post that separately here with the video that shows my progress. I really enjoyed this pattern and had the focus to follow it through. My coworker asked if it was a Christmas present and I believe I beamed when I told her I made it myself.

My goal now is to knit the Sode sweater, which is a Cabled cardigan designed by Hiroko Payne. However, I’m already overwhelmed. I couldn’t get the gauge quite right so I think I’m going to knit one size for width and another for length. I am going to cast on this afternoon when life is quieter and I can focus. Right now my brain is busy with getting ready to ski with my middle child. We’ll go for an hour plus and I’ll be home before lunch time. I’m no longer in any kind of shape to be skiing, but it’s quality time with the middle child who doesn’t have constant, intense needs.

I’m also reading the Principals of Knitting, which is a great big book about everything you ever wanted to know about reading. I’ve borrowed it from my library and read a few pages each night before going to bed.

Happy 2025. I will be eating, drinking, breathing knitting this year!

Here’s my New Year, New Project Video

Here is my weekly summary on my knitting/crafting projects.

2024 Year In Review

December 27, 2024December 27, 2024 by Tracy, posted in knitting

Wow! From January to today, it’s been a journey in homemade. I left a good job ruined by a bad boss in December 2023 (despite letting go of a month’s health insurance!!) I was exhausted.

I spent a weekend at a respite house for caretakers and then started the new job, full tilt!

My projects were simple and comforting. I made a blanket I’ve done at least ten times and stamped cross stitch.

Plain Jane socks on a paddle board

Another blanket unfinished

I’m Back – Knit Sweaters, Master Knitting Program and YouTube

December 20, 2024December 20, 2024 by Tracy, posted in knitting, Thoughts, Uncategorized

I’m really awful at keeping up with this. I’m back and I am now a – drum roll please – YouTube creator. I did a few videos about a year and a half ago but they were simply not good and I dropped it.

How did we get here?

Some of you may already know, I’m the mother of three kids, two with special needs, and I work full time as an accountant. If you are on Tik Tok or You Tube, you know I don’t sleep that well. I’m up most mornings between 3 and 4 am. I was away at a respite retreat when I should have been sleeping, but instead I stumbled upon this master knitter’s program. I’ve been knitting for about 30 years, so why not? Then I looked at the program and read/watched reviews of what is required. I was floored. My knitting experience may be vast, but my technique is not.

Do I spend the money, jump full on into it and get frustrated? At that point, I had knit three sweaters in the space of less than two months and none of them fit as expected. The fourth sweater wound up being huge as well.

Let’s start at the beginning with GAUGE.

I decided to knit the Wasabi Sweater from Custom Knits 2 again, but this time for my daughter. I had to go down two needle sizes to get the right gauge.

I did the provisional cast on using a crochet hook instead of figuring it out while in the car on a two hour ride.

I blocked the sweater. For the FIRST TIME. Did I mention I’ve been doing this for THIRTY YEARS!

It came out – perfect. I added a cabled ribbing, and it is perfect.

Onto sweater number 6. Let’s tackle color work. I picked the Darkwater Sweater by Jennifer Steingass (Knit.Love.Wool). I made my swatch and went down one size with my needles and a size down since my swatch was wide. I can knit it longer. I will knit it longer!

So far so good.

Boxy By Joji Locatelli — It’s supposed to be wide but I made it REALLY WIDE!

Darkwater Sweater – Jennifer Steingass (So far so good!)

http://youtube.com/@knitwerks/videos

Almost There

August 17, 2023 by Tracy, posted in knitting

I had a goal of finishing my shawl? Scarf? Poncho? By today! I’m on the last panel and then need to knit the ending but that’s not going to happen in the next few hours. Meanwhile I’m working on a cross stitch Pokemon pattern when I’m tired of cabling every other row.

I love this pattern but it’s very involved so I need to take breaks.

I still love the Lindisfarne pattern even if it’s time consuming!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/library.ravelry.com/brigiknits/1430457/Lindisfarne_Poncho.pdf?response-content-disposition=&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJNNSUP6J3RN4WZYQ&Expires=1692276761&Signature=ahnCMzaLqyadC68f5kwx7%2Bofw%2BU%3D

Two Projects at Once

July 30, 2023 by Tracy, posted in Uncategorized

We start again. Is there any better feeling than starting a project from scratch? I started yesterday on the Lindistfarne Poncho using my hand spun, hand combed, Tunis. The cabled cream colored four ply stranded yarn already looks fantastic cabled. I just hope I have enough yarn and/or fiber. Second, I’m cross stitching Pikachu and it’s evolved form for my youngest. It’s a bit intimidating starting such a large cross stitch project but it is stamped- making it easier.

Catching Up

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021 by Tracy, posted in knitting, Spinning, stitch, Thoughts

It’s happening again. I’m falling into that void where depression meets crafts. Normal people get depression, stay in bed for days with no motivation. Not me. I turn my grief, my anxiety, my huge amount of anger and drive it into a need to create. I have a Facebook feed filled with my creations. The worst part was after Christmas my arm hurt so badly (tennis elbow = knitting elbow?) that I couldn’t knit for about six months. I’d try only to be unable to flex my wrist or twist for days.

What have I been doing since my December knitting madness?

January & February were devoted to skiing. You can’t think while you are skiing. It’s waiting, waiting, waiting, followed by an intense one to five minutes and back up again. I put my audiobook on and let it rip.

May be an image of one or more people, outerwear, people skiing and snow

March was just intense. I received some devastating news. I attempted to backpack my way out of the anger and grief. Then my body said, you haven’t been doing this for a year, WTH! Then I flipped to planning my garden and starting seedlings. I finished my cross stitch cross from last year. I also, painfully, finished my kids green sweaters.

April was when I really did a lot of work in the garden, doubling it’s size. Plus we got back into camping and I pulled out the spinning wheel again.

May and June were gardening, camping, backpacking, vacation and so much more. I started to realize I was overscheduling myself and coming off the worst of the March shock.

May be an image of one or more people and outdoors — Hallockville Fiber Festival – First in person (for me) event since March 2020

July and August were overscheduled again, but well worth it. The garden was abundant and we have jars of tomato sauce for the winter. I finished my rainbow blanket from knit picks and started a sweater but more importantly, picked up spinning again.