Saturday, March 10, 2007

Azalea

I want to thank you all for leaving me nice notes and it was so good to receive your caring words. That's very soothing! ;) I had a new check up yesterday and it looks like that things have much improved, though I will still be under medications for another 3 months until my hormones stabilize again. It looks like I am not classified anymore in a such serious condition as I previously felt and was make to believe! What a relieve! It feels great to be able to celebrate life again! :D :D

I have been working hard on my next post about my trip to Europe. It's a long one with lots of photos but the new blogger is not helping much. While I was working on my draft post, some of my photos disappeared ( not being available) by itself. Strange? It's happening on this post as well. Does anyone has had the same experience?

Then, I decided that I should do a shorter post instead and talk about real knitting. Remember that I was working on a light purple sweater? I wanted to finish it in time to wear in Hokkaido. And I was able to do so but I wasn't so happy with the ending result. Here is an overview of the sweater in it's almost finished stage that I thought it woul be interesting to keep as a record.

The sleeves, front and back of the sweater were knitted separated and later sewn to the yoke. I am not satisfied with the reverse stockinette section that is knitted by picking up stitches from the side of the braided yoke and then knitted in the round. I should have started the decreases much sooner, so the area wouldn't look like a cylinder. But being a good student, I followed the teacher's instructions without giving much credit to my own senses. The teacher doesn't keep notes of her instructions , she relies on her memory and having so many students it's hard to keep track of every one's work. You can tell from the picture below that the yoke doesn't fit on my shoulders properly. I have to keep pulling the yoke down to have it in place! :D
Spring sure is coming, look at these beautiful Azalea bushes in my neighborhood. Thus inspiring me for the name of this sweater. The weather here can be very unstable. We had a Spring preview couple weeks ago and this week is so cold that I have to post with a small heater
next to me.

I only wore Azalea once while in Hokkaido. More precisely, for less than one hour while I was having a breakfast in the ski resort. One of my friends commented that the bottom part looked too "flipping". After that I felt a bit too conscious about the effect since the friend has a fashion designer background. Her suggestion was to knit the style with a thinner yarn instead. It's true, I found it not warm enough to wear without a over coat. And it wasn't comfortable to be worn as a layered clothing, perhaps it was too thick. So lesson learnt, will keep my future winter projects on thinner yarn from now on.

Actually, now that I am looking at the picture, it doesn't look so odd. Since this project gave me some trouble to process and the cost for it was close to be a small fortune ( I didn't pay the yarn at discontinued rate :( ) , I shall wear it while the weather still permits. The truth is that it's not a very comfortable sweater, due to the unfitted yoke.

Design: Pringle of Scotland
Pattern : Azalea , from my knitting teacher
Yarn : Chamonix from Jaeger (48% Angora, 47% Extra Fine Merino, and 5% Polyamide)
( This yarn has been discontinued)
Needles : Japanese 13 ( 6mm)
Modifications : There is a minor difference in the composition of the braids and the yoke braids are much smaller than in the original design.

15 comments:

Laura.Y said...

It drives me nuts too when things don't fit well. Azalea looks very good in the picture. Perhaps reknit the yoke? It's good to hear you're better :)

Agnes said...

Not having seen the sweater in person, I am not able to tell if I agree with your friend or not. But this sweater has a very interesting construction! And lovely colour too!

Celia said...

That's a gorgeous sweater! I have been dreaming about it ever since I saw it over at Vanessa's (coloursknits). Do you think I may be able to buy a copy of the pattern from your teacher? Cause I would love to make one myself!
It's good to hear you are better!

handknit168 said...

Azalea does not seem so odd itself. It is the yoke, knitting in this method, sometime is very difficult to fit oneself. May be reknit the yoke can help, the body is OK to fit you.

Unknown said...

I'm glad to hear you're doing fine Mimi. Sorry for having been able to get back to you. I've been super busy with work for the past week.

Your sweater turned out fabulous!! I love it. I've been wanting to attemp this pattern for quite sometime.

Maryann said...

This is absolutely gorgeous! The yoke seems to fit so well on your modelled pic and I just don't see any "flipping". Yes, the cabled yoke and the A-line design may not go well with layerings or overcoats... but it's looking really great on you, all by itself ;o)

Anonymous said...

Azalea looks good from here. But I do agree Chamonix is a bit thick to wear a coat with. Have you consider wearing something under instead? I see a lot of stylish swing coats at 3/4 sleeve length, and a swing sweater with 3/4 sleeves would look very nice too.

Jan said...

I think your sweater looks lovely. I have been waiting to see how it would turn out! It looks like it fits fine. And I'm glad to hear you are ok. Its awful to have that weight hanging over you when you get a bad diagnosis. Life is sweet isn't it?

OLGAJAZZY said...

Mimi, it is gorgeous!!!
I really love your Pringle, great job!Kudos!

Anonymous said...

I think it looks beautiful! Wear it with pride :)

Vivian said...

It's gorgeous. Looks great on you too.

Janette said...

Azalea is beautiful. How very clever you are.
Would you mind sharing how much Chamonix you used. I have some stashed away and would like to try my hand at this knit.
Thank you.

Peggy said...

The pringle is gorgeous! I've been meaning to knit this (sometime down the road). I like the construction... it's interesting. A blogger called Miss Twiss also made this... you can view her design and perhaps give you some ideas about what to do with the yoke (jan posting) http://misstwiss.blogspot.com/

wakana said...

I am so jealous! I wanted to make this Pringle for a long time so bad!! It looks great on you.
Hope you feel better by now.

Unknown said...

Hello. I have been looking for a pattern for the beautiful cable sweater. Is this available?

Thanks, Susie
svineberg@gmail.com