Monday, July 10, 2006

Salt Peanuts

It's my come-hither look

Pattern: Salt Peanuts by Veronik Avery, Interweave Knits Spring 2004 (also available as a PDF online to IK subscribers), second size
Yarn: Malabrigo in Vermillion (100% merino wool), 5 hanks
Needles: US size 9
Comments:
1) Another 2-week sweater for me! All that stockinette made the knitting fly by. Grace was my other 2-week sweater. I love this sweater as much as I love Grace. And I predict that this sweater will pill just as much as Grace does! Such is the fate of merino wool.

2) I LOVE the shaping of this sweater. It doesn't make me look like a frumpy log. The non-batwings sleeves help, too.

3) At first I thought that I was going to have problems making the collar lie flat. Elizabeth said that she had to tack the collar of her sweater down, so I knew that was an option, but I didn't really want to do it. So once I assembled the sweater, I arranged the collar and steam-blocked the heck out of it. To do this, I cover the entire collar with a damp cloth and held a hot iron on the cloth so that the iron was barely touching the cloth. I did not press down at all. Just enough contact to cause the cloth to steam. Now the collar lies flat without any additional help.

4) I think adding more short rows in the collar would have helped the collar lie flat. But it's not something that you can predict until you put the sweater together. If I were being anal, I would have ripped the fronts to add at least two more sets of short rows to each short-row section. But I decided not to be that anal...this time.

5) Yes it's an indoor photo. I'm not so dedicated to this blog to take a photo of a 100% wool sweater in 95ºF weather.

(Sorry no close ups at this time. The batteries in my camera died. I'll add more photos later. the lace-rib pattern is quite nice!)

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful.

As usual.

Laura said...

It looks gorgeous! I have to say, I've seen that pattern in the magazine and on the website, and never been tempted to knit it. Until today! :)

Karen said...

The sweater is lovely. I agree with Laura...I've never been tempted to knit it until now.

wonky said...

I love it! That collar is so pretty, and the color looks great on you! Look at that smile, you must love it too!

Anonymous said...

What a pretty sweater! I had not heard of Salt Peanuts before, believe it or not, but your version is definitely tempting!

Thanks for posting the Lorna's Laces shawl info to my blog. I'm still trying to find the Helen's Lace (my LYSs only carry the sock yarn). The color is so pretty! I promise to share all the pink yarn with you. :)

Jennifer said...

Gorgeous! Very lovely. You knit it so quickly!

Agnes said...

This is very lovely!

Meredith said...

Cute! It looks great on you, and I love that color!

amylovie said...

You look stunning in it Laura. Can't wait to see it in person.

Amy

Zonda said...

Nice job on that! Looks really good on you, thanks for the steam blocking hints for your collar! :)

Christina said...

Laura, your skin simply glows in that vermillion wool! You should wear more red things. Lurvely!- and I canna believe you knit this sweater in two weeks. Zowwie!

Elizabeth said...

It looks lovely! I'm so glad to see how this knits up in a non-ribbon yarn. The Malabrigo is fabulous. I might have to try steam-blocking my collar, since it still is ornery and doesn't want to lie flat. Thanks for the tip.

Elizabeth said...

lovely work. I don't blame you for not wanting to do an outdoor pic. Even 800 miles north, it would be uncomfortable to step outside in a wool sweater these days.

Anonymous said...

But wool breathes and absorbs moisture so nicely -- it's actually the perfect fabric for those 95 degree days! (Just kidding -- I wanted to see if I could get you to run errands in your wool sweater in Texas, but if you wound up dying of heat stroke as a result I'd feel a little bad.)

I have to say this sweater looks about 50 times better on you than on the model. I don't care for it as shown on the IK site, but it looks really cute on you. (Maybe because it actually fits you as opposed to the IK person.) I would love to see a close-up of the lacy rib.

Valerie said...

I love it! I'm not going to make it though. Isn't that a surprise? :)

Hannah said...

Looks great! And what a beautiful smile!

Anonymous said...

You look just too cute in that sweater. You did a great job and the color is very flattering.
Dorothy (Missouri Star)
dswaite@mac.com

Anonymous said...

Indoor picture or not, that is a great picture of you! So many times you read and read blogs but you don't know what the writer looks like. And now I do. You're a pretty little thing.

And what an adorable sweater. I don't know how you all knit so fast. It takes me like a month to knit a scarf. but you guys can knit a sweater in 2 weeks. Are you sure you're not a robot?

Anonymous said...

Oh so very cute!

Anonymous said...

You look wonderful in that color! Don't you just love Avery's patterns? They are all so well designed and stylish. Very well done! You won't go outside in the heat to take a pic in wool? I did that very thing yesterday. You have to wait months to wear your latest creation too. Bummer, huh?

fillyjonk said...

Goregous!

I'm happy to see the sweater knit up in a different yarn than the Bergamo listed by the pattern.

I have a bunch of lovely (electric blue) llama/wool blend on hand I wanted to use for it - but never started, because I feared that a non-tape yarn would be too heavy. I guess not...your sweater looks great.

Knitting Bandit said...

Thank you for the notes on your Salt Peanuts. I am swatching for the same sweater, probably in Malabrigo, but I am really hesitant because I'm afraid of pilling. Now that you've had the sweater for awhile and hopefully worn it a lot, do you still love it?