Orange colorwork sweater FO

I didn't expect to finish a sweater before returning to the UK, but I did! This is Caitlin (kind of).

I made a LOT of mods to this pattern. Firstly, the pattern is written in pieces and I did it all seamlessly in the round. Second I altered the charts slightly. Third, I made up my own shaping and added bust darts. But at its heart, it's still the same sweater.

I'm so very pleased with this sweater. It's only a few months ago that I started it and since the majority of the body is plain, it went very quickly. The body of the sweater is done in millspun yarn - Lang Shetland Soft in orange. But, all the colorwork sections are done in my own handspun yarn, in Shetland yarn in natural colors plus a little bit of orange merino/silk. So, it's like training wheels to a handspun sweater - I didn't have to spin an ENTIRE sweater, but I still get to show off my handspun.

The Bohus-esque colorwork yoke of the sweater does a good job of flattering my shape, I think, as I had read about in Fit to Flatter. Amy Herzog might have recommended that I remove the colorwork section from my hips, but I like the balance it gives. At any rate, I'm almost itching to knit a 'real' Bohus now... maybe someday!

~Joyuna

Dead Easy DIY: Lip Balm

Recently, I tried my hand at making lip balm. I wanted to get everyone in my extended family something small but thoughtful for Christmas. I'm a total lip balm junkie myself, and when I found a recipe for DIY lip balm online, I couldn't resist giving it a try. It turned out great!

I used this recipe from Instructables, which I found via Pinterest. It's really simple and once you get all the ingredients, it's a snap to make.

You will need: Beeswax, cocoa butter, glycerin, liquid vitamin E, some type of oil (I tried Sweet Almond Oil and Coconut Oil; both worked great), and optionally: honey, cocoa powder, or some other flavorant/scent (make sure it's food-safe), and a bit of lipstick if you want to add a tint. You can find all these ingredients online at places like Etsy or bath & body supply shops, and some of them you can also find at the drugstore. I got all mine online from one source, because it was easier that way. (Except for the cocoa powder, honey, and lipstick of course, which I already had around the house)

You will also need a pot or saucepan, a smaller container for the ingredients, measuring spoons, lip balm containers, and a dropper. The instructable tells you to just pour it in, but that could get really messy! I also used a tray specifically for filling lipbalm; it isn't strictly necessary but again, it's less messy that way.

After you've measured out your ingredients, you just need to melt them down and pour it into containers. Melt your ingredients in a small cup inside a pot of water, double-boiler-style. I got lip balm tubes from the same place I got all my other ingredients; you could also use old ones you already had or little pots or whatever, really! Make sure everything is stirred up really well; the honey has a tendency to separate from the rest of the mixture, and if that happens then it won't harden as it cools.

It's a good idea to buy disposable droppers for getting the lip balm into tubes. The lip balm hardens as it cools and after a while it will clog up the dropper. For that reason, throwaway plastic droppers would be better than a glass eyedropper or turkey baster or whatever.

The lip balm will cool very quickly after being taken off the heat, and your tubes should be hardened in under a minute. I had very good luck with this recipe other than the separating issue - I ended up with a few duds in my batch, but the rest turned out great. So long as the proportions are consistent, you can play around with the recipe and adjust it - just remember to keep in mind how you change the recipe will affect your finished product. For instance, the more oil or less besswax you add, the softer the balm will be. If it's too soft, it won't work in a tube.

I followed the recipe for my first and second batches of lipbalm (for the second batch I left out the cocoa powder). My third batch, I switched out the almond oil for coconut oil (I like the smell of it better) and added a slice of an old tube of lipstick into the batch. I used about half a tube of lipstick across 25 lip balm tubes, and it created a subtle tint for my lips. Not too noticeable, just adding a tiny bit of color.

~Joyuna

Fit to Flatter: You must read this!

Amy Herzog has an absolutely fabulous series on her blog called Fit to Flatter. I've been reading through it in dribs and drabs over the past week or so, and I have learned so much. Heck, even if you're not a knitter, the first few chapters are worth a read - it takes the basic 'apple / pear / hourglass' formula and adds extra nuance to it.

The series helps you to a) identify your body type, b) figure out what kind of clothes flatter that type, and c) choose patterns or adjust patterns to suit your body. The beginning lessons are more general, and toward the end she gets in to specifics on how to alter a pattern to suit your figure.

Maybe it's old news to some people, since the series is a couple years old, but the advice is timeless and well worth a look. For instance, I learned as a bottom-heavy shape, colorwork yoke sweaters would flatter me because it draws the eye upward, balancing out my wide hips and my narrow shoulders. And I already knew that it was more flattering to wear a dark bottom and a light top than vice versa, but now I know why - for the same reason, attracting the eye up to my top half.

The series is available free as a series of blog posts, or you can buy it in a nicely formatted, go-anywhere PDF set.

~Joyuna

The Best of Knitscene

I was sorting through my queue on Ravelry lately (13 pages isn't too much, is it...?) and I found something interesting - a whole bunch of patterns in my queue are available in a single volume - The Best of Knitscene (Rav).

So if you've wanted to knit the Central Park Hoodie, Geodesic Cardigan, Heather Hoodie Vest, Molly Ringwald top, Opulent Raglan, or Riding to Avalon, now's your chance to get them all and others at a steal of a price.

This is a seriously fantastic collection of patterns - I was already planning to make the Geodesic Cardigan (with the Wollmeise Lace I got at Knit Nation) and I have at least 4 of the other patterns in my queue. The a la carte price is fine if you only want to make 1 or 2 patterns, but you can't beat the bundle price of the book if you want to make lots of them, like I do.

The Best of Knitscene is available in hard copy or as an eBook. I got the eBook version because I'm impatient ;) It was available for instant download right after payment.

Not only does the book contain 20 patterns, many of which I want to knit, but it also includes articles from past issues of Knitscene and a profile for each designer. I may write up a full review once I've had the time to read through it all... I am looking forward to it!

~Joyuna