Tag Archive | ripple bralette

Sock It To Me Monday

The title is a little bit misleading: I have no sock to show you. I have no sock progress to show you, though my Tainted Love sock is growing and I’m halfway through the foot. Instead, I will share with you my sad sock story: my Christmas socks itch my feet!

I wore my newest WYS self-striping socks yesterday and by the time 5 pm came around, I couldn’t keep them on any longer, they just felt so itchy and prickly. And I have three pairs of WYS Christmas socks! Guys, I was so sad I immediately went to Etsy and bought this yarn from Two Sisters Yarn Co. I WILL have Christmas socks, by golly! Now I have to decide whether to gift them to someone else or keep them and just plan on wearing them for short durations.

In better news, I did finish a lingering WIP over the weekend. When my second Oxbow swatch did not give me the desired results, I was discouraged and needed a win, so I pulled out my ripple bralette that only needed straps and binged the last season of Schitt’s Creek while I finished it.

Though this mannequin is a smaller size than I am, I am happy to report that it does fit me. It’s not perfect: the body is about an inch too long and the straps maybe 1/2″ too long. But certainly wearable … assuming I can wear the wool against my skin. It’s Malabrigo, which I can easily wear as scarves and socks, so maybe it will be okay. Anybody have any magic wool wash suggestions to help make itchy things less itchy?

WIP Wednesday: Ripple Bralette

Oct14

My Dissent Cowl is done and blocked, but I need to get proper photos before I share it. Once I finished that, I resisted the urge to cast on something new and instead pulled out a WIP, my Ripple Bralette. I’d gotten most of the body done so I finished the last half-inch of that, then slid the stitches onto waste yarn so I could try it on.

Good news: it fit! This is my second attempt at the bralette, and I didn’t check gauge, so I’m pretty pleased this is working out. I’ve got the right front done and just started the icord strap. I’ll need to try it on again to figure out how long I want the straps, but I can get a good bit of the strap done first.

Yesterday the puppers had an adventure: our neighbor’s dog came over for a play date! They keep their dogs on chains in the yarn, since they don’t have a fence, and the young dog loves our dogs and loves to dig. She started a hole under our fence a few weeks ago, and we told them about it and they filled it up. But ha, guess what? She did it again, and this time she did it deep enough to wiggle under. The first time, on Monday, she wasn’t over very long and the neighbors said they’d put her on the shorter lead. Yesterday, she pulled the stake out of the ground and came back. Thankfully, my dogs were friendly, and they all had a marvelous time running around. I think I might need to invite her back for a sanctioned play date!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Ripple Bralette, Take 2

Aug6

I was dreaming about shoes. Purple loafers, gray oxfords with hot pink laces, pink oxfords. They were cute shoes, and I was excited to be shoe shopping. But then the husband’s alarm went off at 6 am, and he wasn’t there to turn it off because he got up at 5:30 with Grace. I managed to make the noise stop, but then there was a dog pawing at my bedroom door, and then the alarm went off again, and that was it. At least I got to sleep until 6!

My Ripple Bralette did not work out. I tried it on yesterday and while I was able to get it on (barely), it stretched out more than I wanted and didn’t give the best coverage. Not surprising, given that I was using sport weight instead of DK, I didn’t check my gauge, and I chose the smaller of the two possible sizes. I’m not even made about it, because honestly, the body is totally my kind of knitting. I love to knit ribbing, and I love to knit in the round on 16″ circs. It feels like making a hat! So I frogged my precious fucsia Malabrigo and set it aside for a future project. The pattern suggested using worsted weight yarn if you want a denser fabric or more coverage, so I found a nice red merino, since I don’t wear red tops or accessories anymore. (Purple hair. Don’t like the two together!) Then I double checked the yardage requirements, put the red back in stash, and found two skeins of Malabrigo Rios. The color, Archangel, has more yellow/orange in it than I’d like, so using it for a bralette seems ideal.

Now, don’t freak out and yell at me, but I still didn’t do a gauge swatch. I chose the next size up in the pattern. For the cast-on, I went up one needle size than recommended for a little extra stretch, but for the band and body I’ll stick with the recommended sizes. I will try it on a little sooner this time, but honestly, I don’t even care if I have to frog and reknit again. What the heck, we’re in a pandemic. Knitting ribbing makes me happy.

I got an update on Jack yesterday too: the vet is thinking he might have an underactive thyroid, based on his bloodwork. It can pop up in middle-age dogs, as Jack is, though I had no idea it could affect dogs. They’re doing one more test to confirm it, but if it’s confirmed, he’ll be on a daily thyroid supplement for the rest of his life. For me, this is good news! No, I wish I didn’t have a second dog with a chronic condition, but I looked up the symptoms and it would explain several things that we’ve noticed in Jack over the last few months. If we could do a simple pill and he’d feel better, that would be fantastic. Also, I’ve had the same issue for several years, so I know that treating it is easy and inexpensive. And if nothing else, it would explain his recent weight gain and prove wrong the snarky vet tech who “playfully” shamed me the other day!

So I’m calling yesterday a win, and hoping for another one today. Happy Thursday, friends!

Ripple Bralette

Aug5

Today started a little early for me, with Grace starting her barking at 4:45 am. The husband usually gets up with her during the week, but that’s around 5:30ish, close to 6 if we’re lucky. I felt bad this morning, so I got up and let the dogs out while I tried to get more sleep on the couch. The upside is that I had a bit of knitting time before starting my work day, and I got the back of my Ripple Bralette bound off. Of course, first I had to look at the pattern wrong and bind off too many stitches, undo the bind-off and redo it, but I got there in the end.

Now here’s the funny thing: supposedly that’s going to fit on my body! That’s what the pattern says and all the projects seem to support that, so I’m trusting the pattern, but I am skeptical. Now I just have to knit the cups and straps and it’ll be done!

Yesterday was a weird day. I actually wore real clothes and went out into the world multiple times! I voted, I drove to my local bookstore to pick up Midnight Sun (and it’s a signed copy, YAY!), and took Jack to the vet. (Mysterious gastrointestinal issues that are sporadic but persistent. No answers yet, just bills & expensive dog food.) In the waiting room at the vet, there was a woman across from me wearing a mask below her nose. Intentionally. And I know it was intentional because while she was talking to the vet tech and the vet, she kept reaching up to adjust it and make sure it was barely above her upper lip. Super. You can bet I stayed more than six feet away from her and discouraged conversation. So yeah, it was a long, kind of stressful day, but I ended it by “making” the guys watch Shrek with me. We hadn’t watched it in years so it was good for a few laughs.

61827260952__b4b76fbf-8db7-493d-8c82-5980dc6c895d Jack and I wish you a happy Wednesday! (He is just happy he does not have to go to the vet today!)

Hopping around

Aug3

Not that long ago, I was a monogamous knitter. I mean, I haven’t been for most of my knitting life, but there was something about quarantine that tipped me into it. However, it would appear I have reached the end of that stage. Either that or I haven’t found the right project, because my lace sock and garter stitch/short row shawl have not kept my attention. First I cast on a simple sock last week, and that’s been good, but over the weekend I needed something new.

Originally I wanted to try my hand at sewing a top, so I spent some time on Etsy finding the right beginner pattern, but once I bought it, printed it, and assembled the pattern pieces, I discovered the fabric I wanted to use wasn’t quite wide enough. Heck it all, I’d cast on a new project. I’ve been wanting to make a Ripple Bralette for a while, so I grabbed my last skein of Malabrigo Arroyo in Fucsia and bought the pattern. Well. Guess what? It calls for the old Norwegian cast-on. I don’t know that cast-on. Here’s how that went: Okay, hello youtube, help me please. That doesn’t look too bad. Let me try. Wait, are you kidding me? What? Do that again. Oops. Shit. Pause replay pause replay rewind pause replay. WTF. ARGH.

I did that for about an hour until finally the lightbulb went on and suddenly I was in the rhythm and it was super cool! After that, it’s all ribbing for several inches, so I’ve just been knitting along merrily and crossing my fingers that it will actually fit. Because, you see, to heck with gauge swatches. I wasn’t in the mood. I might come to regret it, but whatever. It’s a small, quick project, and the suggested ease is between 9-15″ of negative ease, so I just need to get close enough, right?

Oh, and just now I went and looked at Arroyo and it’s actually a sport weight, not DK. Sigh. This could be fine, or it could be bad. Fingers crossed!

Pattern: Ripple Bralette DK. I can only find it on Ravelry at this point.