2 WIPS: Phoebe and Melissa

#1

I’m working on two sweaters. Phoebe and Melissa.

Melissa is too boring to knit without some diversion!
And, the yarn is really rough to work with! (Tahki Donegal Tweed)
Here is a model photo of Melissa:

Here is a swatch of the yarn:

Here is the model photo of PHOEBE:

And here is the BACK, finished the other day. The pins are placed at the end of each repeat. They’ll come out before blocking, of course.

Both designs are by Elsebeth Lavold, my favorite designer!

So I finished the BACK for Melissa, then the BACK for Phoebe, then the FRONTS for Melissa, then the FRONTS for Phoebe, etc.

It helps with the boredom of an endless pattern repeat for each of these!
I want both sweaters badly enough to keep working at it!

The Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora has been languishing in my Stash for eons. I finally found the pattern to inspire me to use it, and use it all up, too! I got this yarn on an Ebay auction a long time ago. And incredibly low price for the 20 skeins. :eyes: What was I thinking? :shrug: My BAD for buying yarn just “CUZ”!

#2

Bet they’ll come out beautiful as always. Can’t wait to see the finished product :slight_smile:

#3

OMG that is too funny! I saw Phoebe today and the first thing I thought was “This looks like something Dollyce would knit!” :roflhard: Love the colors!

#4

I agree with Jan . I can just see you wearing both of these. I can’t wait to see them finished :slight_smile:

#5

I’m working on the FRONTS for Melissa now. That yarn (Tahki Donegal Tweed) is a real tough customer. First of all, its ‘nubbiness’ makes the stitches real hard to create. It requires a lot of hand muscle. The thumb on my right hand is hurt right now. Also, because of the nubbiness, the stocking stitches sometimes catch on themselves, making a stitch too big now and then. So then I have to stop and use a darning needle to wiggle the extra yarn from it onto its neighboring stitches. :eyes: Ok, Ok, go ahead and call me a fuss-budget! Blocking can’t solve every problem. So I try to ‘right’ the overly-large stocking stitches as I go along. Then blocking can take care of the minorest stitch discrepancies remaining.

Fortunately, the red Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora is very compliant yarn! The st st are coming out right on the first go around!

That’s why I need the break from Melissa! Phoebe calms my nerves! :teehee:

Then I can go back and tackle Melissa again. :eyes:

I’ll be off the grid all next week, up in the wilderness…knitting and tending camp while DH hunts. I also get the extra fun of keeping the hounds quiet while he hunts. So can ya just see me…inside our 27’ travel trailer…knitting, with all these 4 dogs at my feet? The two hounds tuck themselves under the table and try to appear as small as possible (they hate to get tossed out)…and the St Bernard lays in the aisle which doubles as my kitchen floor…and he blocks the door to the bathroom…and my little Shih Tzu lays beside me on the couch! It is really quite a sight! Here they are in summertime, all sprawled all over our little deck!

The weather report for the region is 56 daytime temps and 25 nighttime temps. Some rain expected, but if the rain meets the colder temps and they collide on the mountaintop…it means snow. :pout:

Lots of Fun, if you don’t need to 4-wheel OFF THE MOUNTAIN. :teehee:

#6

Your dogs are so lovely !! I love big doggies .
I hope you have a great time and you manage to avoid any snow .
LOL You asked for it ! "you are a fuss-budget " hahahahahaha . Seriously , You are doing a lovely job and i am sure the finished item will be worth the pain .
You are also doing a good thing by having two projects on the go when one of them is a naughty :slight_smile:

#7

WOW that red yarn is just yummy. The sweaters are looking gorgeous so far. They are going to look so pretty on you. I can see why you are preserving. I can’t wait to see the finish. I just love your work.

#8

You continue to amaze me. I wanna be you when I grow up! :slight_smile:

#9

Yea! What she said!

#10

I love your doggies! My husband and I adopted a bassett hound this spring. He is six months old now and we are having so much fun with him! Your knitting is beautiful as always. I love the red! I have some of that Tahki donegal tweed and I don’t know what I am going to do with it yet, it is a beautiful purple, but if you have problems with it, I can imagine what will happen when I start.
Ginny

#11

Hi Ginny,

The Tahki Donegal Tweed makes into a beautiful fabric AFTER BLOCKING! You need to handwash the pieces, then use a rinse, then pat dry between thirsty towels (no Downy), then lay them out on your blocking board til bone dry.

After that, the knitted fabric ‘blooms’ (the stitches fluff up), and the fabric is ‘soft’ for a donegal tweed. Don’t misunderstand, donegal tweed will never be alpaca or merino! :teehee:

I highly recommmend this product for the wash and rinse.
Unicorn Fibre Wash and Rinse. They have Power Scour, too. Don’t use that. Just type www.unicornfibre.com into your browser, then click the tab for Fibre Wash, and Fibre Rinse. They have quite a good testimonial on their website. I have had great customer relations with them, and besides that, their product is all it’s cracked up to be! It’s the best sweater wash I’ve ever used.
It isn’t for acrylics (although you could prolly use it), it is designed for natural fibers.

#12

They look great, i wish i could afford enough yarn to make a jacket like that (or had the patience and skill!).
It is a good idea to alternate the work so your fingers don’t get too tired and you don’t wall asleep.

PS. If im ever in the US and one of your doggies mysteriously dissapears, i swear it won’t be metrying to smuggle them out of the country, honest! (they look lovely, i realy do miss having a pet).

#13

they are looking great, only you would call that first one boring. LOL looks complicated to me.

#14

ArtLady,

The Phoebe is speaking to me the loudest. I love that yarn. I can see why you like working with it so much. Hey, you could use a knitting needle for the closure. Very appropriate don’t you think?

Merigold

#15

[COLOR=Blue]Now THAT is a darned good idea! [/COLOR]A short little bamboo dpn might work, too! Or a short bamboo knitting needle! Oh, and I have some 4" bamboo pin thingies…they have a knob on one end and are kinda pointy at the other end! I post photos of it if I use it!

#16

I am working on a pattern to make a shawl pin… :smiley:

The knitting needle idea is really cute!!!

#17

That’s a gorgeous red!

#18

I’m done with the BACKS AND ALL FRONTS of both sweaters. The BACK for MELISSA is blocking today. I washed and rinsed it in Unicorn Fibre Wash and Rinse to soften the yarn, and also to encourage it to ‘bloom’ and fill in.

I won’t do the same with PHOEBE however. I’m just going to lay her down gently on the blocking board, pat her to shape…and then mist her. If that improves her to where I like, she’s done. If not, I’ll take a heavier hand with her, lay damp hand towels on top of her, and leave her til bone dry. The towel method is more aggressive because adds a bit of weight, and also it takes longer for the towels to dry. She’ll get a longer damptime.

I don’t want to smoosh the pattern stitch though. So I hope the misting technique improves the fabric.

Now I’m off to start the SLEEVES. I’m s’posed to start Melissa sleeves, but I’m gonna do Phoebe’s sleeves first. The yarn is so much easier to work with. My hands are still a bit tired from Melissa’s FRONTS and BACK (the yarn, not the pattern).

#19

How is it going ArtLady?

#20

So nice of you to ask! [B]Phoebe[/B] is almost ready to be seamed. Her sleeves are almost dry and come off the blocking board tomorrow or Sunday. Our furnace went out for 2-1/2 days…so we were only heating the family room with the fireplace and my office with a space heater. The furnace repair guy came yesterday.

[B]Melissa [/B]is all blocked with the exception of the sleeves, which I finished knitting this morning. When Phoebe’s sleeves are dry, then Melissa’s sleeves will be washed, rinsed and pinned down on the blocking board! I am going to knit some 3-pc leafs with I-cord stems tonight for the design elements (embellishments) and block them, too, before tacking them onto the right front, left sleeve, and back shoulder area.

[I][B]I took two sidetrips! [/B][/I] A complementary scarf for Phoebe…and a complementary scarf for “Something Cocoa”. I don’t know why I allow myself to get distracted.

Oh, and I swatched three separate colors of Peruvian Highland Aran Tweed (4"x4" swatches in broken rib), testing to see which color I like best for a zip-up jacket for DH. He hasn’t seen them yet. I don’t know if I will ask his preference, [B]or[/B] if I’ll use my own judgment and knit the darn thing and just give it to him! :teehee:

He really liked the jacket I made for my brother this summer, the RICK RYAN JACKET…he was my male model during the knitting & design-as-you-go phases…and when I ran out of yarn…and was unsure if I could find an exact match…he was fetching around to get it instead of my brother! This from a man who doesn’t like to wear sweaters! He did manage to grab the matching Jacques Cousteau Seaman’s hat I had intended for my brother. He says, “oh you know your brother doesn’t wear hats!” He cracks me up! :teehee: