Pea Vines, Sidecar, and Ripley

Perhaps Anne, Thea, and Ysolda didn't plan for their designs to be a set, but they have become one for me.


Pea Vines
First - as I said in my last post, I finished Anne Hanson's beautiful Pea Vines Shawl a couple weeks ago.  I plan on wearing this as a scarf with my olive green wool winter coat (once it warms up enough to wear any coat other than my long down-filled parka).

This blocking photo doesn't do the color -- Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle -- justice at all.  You can see all the colors better in this in-the-ball photo. It's full of green and browns, with beautiful rosy highlights.

Or maybe in this draped-over-a-booktruck shot.

Details:
Pattern:  Pea Vines Shawl (petite, which is the middle size)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle - just a little over one skein
Needles: size 4
Notes:  Although I started this in October and didn't finish it until January, it was actually a very quick knit because it got put aside for most of October through December.  This shawl starts at the bottom, so you cast on a boat load of stitches (in this case, boat load = 315).  This is the first time I've made a bottom-up shawl, and boy, does it move fast!  I'm used to starting with 8 stitches and ending with a boat load, so it seemed amazing that each row went faster than the previous.

I made no mods at all.  I was a little intimidated by the nups, but had no problem with them at all - the secret seems to be to lift the 8 extra stitches over 2 at a time.  As with all of Anne's patterns, it was beautifully and clearly written and charted.

Sidecar Mittens
Next I cast on for Thea Colman/BabyCocktails' Sidecar Mittens.

No feline has ever deigned to actually sit on this piece of cat furniture, 

but it works well as a knitwear display stand!

The main part of these were knit out of madelinetosh tosh vintage in Cherry.  I love this yarn and I love this color.  I think I could knit everything in my queue out of various madtosh yarns, all in Cherry! (Okay - maybe not....) The underlayer/cuff was knit out of more Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle, to tie these to my Pea Vines shawl.  As I said, Cloud Jungle has rosy highlights in it, which look perfect with the Cherry mittens.

I love the lace edging on these mittens, and I am certain I will "borrow" it to use on other items.  It's very different, but easy once you do one or two motifs and realize what's happening.

Details:
Pattern:  Sidecar Mittens by Thea Colman of BabyCocktails (7 inch size, with mods)
Yarn:  madeline tosh vintage in Cherry for the main mitten (almost all of 1 skein) and Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle for the underlayer (maybe 50 yards or so)
Needles: Size 6 for the mittens; size 2 for the underlayer
Notes:  My yarn was slightly heavier than what was called for, and size 6 needles gave me 5 stitches per inch rather than 5.5 stitches. The 7 inch size ended up just a teenier bit bigger than I would have liked, but just a teeny bit.  However, the Smooshy underlayer is just the right size, so the mittens are nice and toasty around my wrist.

I did make a couple of modifications:  I made the mitten cuff, between the lace cuff and the thumb gusset increases, only an inch long, rather than the 2 1/2 inches called for.  I just liked how it looked better.  This means that more of the underlayer shows, which is fine.  I also used the main color for a single-crochet edging around the edge of the underlayer, to pull it together more.

Ripley
As the final piece of the set, I'm in the midst of the Ripley hat by Ysolda Teague. I'm making the lace-trimmed version, with extra slouch, although since my yarn is a lighter weight, it will probably be more like medium slouch.  Although the lace trim on Ripley is different than the one on the Sidecar Mittens, they are similar (although knit totally differently!), so I think they will go well together.

I should finish it this evening.  As you can see, I'm using the same madelinetosh tosh vintage, which is a light worsted weight, although the pattern calls for an aran weight yarn.  I'll tell you about my mods when I'm sure they worked!