Category: Basic Chic Hoodie Sea & Sky

The first day of Spring and the Lake is almost a lake again. The icebergs and floats are vanished, surely popping up on the other side of the Globe so everything stays balanced but I have to say, I am not sorry to see them go. Seeing the water on the north side of the Shedd Aquarium, in Monroe Harbor, so full of color and sky, was the certain clue that warmer, better days are ahead.

Also on the north side of the building? Whole panels in stone relief, of sea creatures. This was my favorite, the Smiling Whales with Floating Turtle. The surface of the walls there were polished by the wind and grand storms the Lake faces year-round and even though they were too high to touch, I could feel their smoothness from afar.

The original picture was fun to try some filters on and this one made it even smoother and dimensional, more like an illustration. The Film Grain filter was used here.

Then it was just a short step to fresco: this is the Dark Strokes applied to the original.

While I’m waiting for the Chicago area’s first above- freezing temperature in 5 days, I’m knitting something warm and comfortable and colorful! By the time the crocus are pushing their way through the chill spring air, maybe I’ll be wearing a bright welcome…

The Body of my current Stockinette St project is FINI!

(Except for the pockets, hee.)

I don’t know why, but when a major portion of a garment gets to this stage, it just seems like a natural thing to stop and do some happy dance.

The front lace panels were extended all the way to the hem this time. I love the way the lace waves the colorplays in this yarn.

Paula writes: “Your reference to the shoulder being more stable with set-in sleeves – is this why you didn’t begin the lace pattern on the basic chic hoodie till further down on the sleeve? I’ve seen some raglans where the lace pattern starts up at the neck and was wondering if you tried this and found that it spread too much under the stretch over the shoulder?“

That’s a great idea! I like it. But in the case of the Basic Chic Hoodie lace detailing, it was actually a design decision instead of a structural one. You can see that the pattern wants to go UP in the middle, so I took advantage of that characteristic by starting the lace further down from the neckline. It makes a medallion, of sorts when done this way, and the position at the top of the arm looks like a crest (actually slightly above where I have a tatoo!)

For this version, I might omit the sleeve lace and leave all the focus on the front band. What do you think?

 
 
 
This little number is now big enough to be considered a Lap Blanket! Given the fact that it is now -17 degrees these days, I need all the help I can get! NOTHING keeps you warm like down and wool and by gum, if I have to resort to putting on the down vest inside today, WHY NOT?! ;p

I also have a glider chair in my living room and it works up a little more heat to knit and glide. Its footstool also glides at the same time so I’m just incredibly happy knitting away on my latest Stockinette as Tranq sweater.

The little lace pattern along the front edges is delighting me as well; the color breaks are all over the place but the overall effect is working en masse. I’ve switched up to another varieagated colorway for the body of the piece and it’s going to be a seriously fun look once the bands and finishing is done…

WHY SO SERIOUS!? Well, once again I fiddled with the layout on ye olde blog here. The past one appeared too crowded to me looking with 2009 eyes. I like to see the pictures and they were not surrounded by enough white space to relax and enjoy the show.

So IF this blog looks wonky on your browser, hit the REFRESH button and reload the page completely. On IE, I had to flush my cache as well, being the tenacious little brat that it is. Usually, I work and surf on Firefox on a Mac but also have IE on my laptop and work computer. (BTW, IMHO, the higher resolution available for your screen viewing also enhances the look, but I hate to post that right on the site.)