Project Report 26.14: Cherry Blossoms and an Ivy

Y'all, I had a stressful week. Not the inner-turmoil kind of stressful that allows for excellent knitting, either. Nope. I had the strangers-in-my-house, holiday-shoppers, heat-wave kind of stressful that puts me to bed at 9:30 and makes me cranky all day long.

Even with less knitting time, I still have some cool updates for you.

My Ivy Top is off the needles. I did end up opting for a rounded hem, but because I also added some decreases at the bottom, the effect isn't curved so much as cinched. I can't judge whether I like that effect or not, because the color is so bold.

I picked up a box of "denim blue" Rit dye with the hope of tipping the green toward a more subtle shade. This is my highly-technical mockup of how that might work:

 

If I can get the color to a better place, I may also go back and adjust the hem to be more flowy. Time will tell.

Once the Ivy was cast off, I wanted to start another garment project with the Berroco Comfort Sock I've been itching to play with.

I briefly considered the Louise Pullover, a free cable-and-lace pattern by Sari Nordlund, but I don't like drop shoulder sweaters, and with the placement of the shoulder detailing, I felt like it would be too much work to modify the construction. 

I also waded through a lot of vintage patterns on Ravelry. And no, I don't mean 2002 "vintage," I mean 1940s and 50s vintage. This pattern from a 1940s newspaper has an "alluring fit" and "gay" breast pocket:

 

Unfortunately, pattern sizing wasn't really a thing back in the day, so I opted out of the antique patterns.

Instead, I turned to Audrey Borrego's catalog of free designs and chose the Sonate pullover. This is a lightweight raglan sweater worked at a fairly loose gauge with a lovely cable panel down the front. Her patterns are always easy to follow and thoughtfully designed, often with shaping for various body types.

Me being me, I can't leave well enough alone, so I decided to alter this to be a V-neck. I'm currently on my third iteration of trial-and-error neck shaping. This version spaces out the first 8 increases to one every fourth row, then start increasing every RS row to incorporate the stitches for the cable chart. I'll keep you posted on whether this is the final combination or not.

I still have the purple mountain socks in progress, but I'm expecting that to be a more long-term project for on-the-go knitting. 

All my other updates for you are garden-related. More of my seedlings have sprouted.

The cherry blossoms are in bloom.

And the snap peas are growing like weeds.

 

I even found a couple of birds' nests in our yard. Both are empty at the moment, but I'll be excited to see who moves in throughout the season.