Beautiful Ren

October 25, 2022



Finally a knitting post with an actual finished sweater, and it's one of the most beautiful sweaters I have ever knit! Today's sweater is a pattern from a Japanese designer paired with some beautiful Japanese milled wool, and then, snap, just like that, a mere hundreds of hours later, my gorgeous sweater is finished. Please enter if you dare and find out all about my new sweater.





Ren Sweater by Yamagara

This sweater was a very fun challenge and because of that I would recommend the knitter be at least an intermediate. The cable pattern looks like Chinese lanterns to me and it's just so clever how the pattern opens and closes down the sweater. The designer did a stellar job. There is nothing terribly difficult about this pattern except the chart is tiny and has a dozen symbols that I hand colored for ease. In a recent upgrade, colors have been added to the chart and it is much easier to follow so make sure you are working from the most recent version of the pattern. The stitch counter and good lighting will be your best friends. Also, using lots of markers in different colors will help you a lot--see the photo of that below. While knitting I worried that it would not be long enough so I added one full repeat on the body, but now I'm thinking I could have just elongated the ribbing, but either way it would be just as pretty. In the arms I did that and added length to the ribbing. My Ravelry project page is here.


Shimo from Ito

I loved the idea of pairing a Japanese yarn with a Japanese designer pattern. The yarn is new to me but my LYS has had it for a while and I felt it was time for me to give it a try. It's a very fine fingering, I guess a light fingering would be the best descriptive. It's as fine as thin string but as it's 80% wool/20% silk, it behaves and glides nicely and was easily maneuvered into cables. After a wet block it got softer and for me it is decently soft against the skin. I would use it again--there is this gorgeous charcoal gray...

colored markers saved my sanity!

Ren is knit top down.

Halloween in coming up and we see our grandson once a week, so I organized a craft for us. My idea was to make egg carton pumpkins but he had the idea to also make witches and ghosts, and so we did! As we were painting and cutting and gluing, he had the idea to make the witch ride on a broom and said we should collect sticks for that, and so we did. When our ghosts were finished he felt that they should have flowy fabric floating out from them so we made that happen too. I adore the creative minds of children. Even though this project was simple and fast, it took us several visits to actually finish them with all the wait time for paint and glue to dry, and then there was us forgetting about them too, but they sat undisturbed in my sewing room until they were ready for the next step and finally ready for the front porch display. He took a few home to show to his after school teacher as she is pretty crafty and he felt his classmates would want to make them too. So dang cute. I think we'll be using egg cartons again for some kind of turkey or Santa craft. 







My grandson made the jack o'lantern faces and I made the witch faces. Team effort.



Here is our assembly line getting ready for the final touches for our witches.



Thank you for stopping by. I have an October Challenge post update that I'll keep for next time because this post is getting too long, even for me! xoxo Kristen


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11 Comments

  1. The sweater is just gorgeous, Kristen. I love the motifs and the extra long sleeve ribbing. The color is perfect! I usually go for deeper colors, but can’t imagine this sweater any other way. My granddaughter should be ready for this witchcraft next year; her mother and I are already planning:). Chloe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Little ones love Halloween so much these days. I don’t ever remember it being so big and it’s fun to get involved in what they love.

      Delete
  2. Kristen
    The sweater is absolutely beautiful. You did a marvelous job on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your Halloween decorations as are marvelous. Love the buttons!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I’ve got quite a collection now and thinking of crafts that can use them up.

      Delete
  4. Your sweater is beautiful and your Halloween craft is bootiful! Sorry, couldn't help!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The crafts are cute but the sweater is absolutely gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your new sweater is FABULOUS!! It's so wonderful that you have this precious time creating, with your Grandson. The Halloween decorations are so sweet!

    ReplyDelete

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