Trina Knit Jacket

This is the Trina Jacket pattern by Fleece Artist. I love their patterns. They are easy to follow and look great. Unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available as you can see here. 

Trina uses 3 yarns to create this jacket. I had 2 different mohair yarn already, a lavender shade and a variegated thicker mohair in a reddish purple to darker purple shade. Since the mohair can be slightly itchy and has those fine fibers that are fuzzy, I needed a third yarn that was not a mohair like yarn and found a Red Heart brand Roll With it Mélange variegated yarn called Autograph at Hobby Lobby that had purple, a blue and gray color in it that blended nicely with the mohair I had. (I found it online here too). I bought 2 of the Roll With it Mélange skeins of yarn not knowing if I would need to use the second one or not. I had quite a bit of the yarn leftover and didn't need to use the second skein at all. There is a lot of yardage in those skeins or maybe they are called cakes? I can't keep up with all the terms anymore.

I decided to knit the small size and after I blocked it, it fit nicely. I will add a shawl pin when wearing this as it is open in the front. I knit the sleeve length to about a 3/4 sleeve length as I like that length the best. 

The sleeves are knit with the Mélange yarn and the lavender mohair only. I used just the Mélange yarn for the neck and front area. The body is knit with all three yarns that alternate every 3rd row.

The back side of the jacket.

This jacket is knit in garter stitch for the body and stockinette stitch on the sleeves and the front band/neck area.

I am all set for fall now. 

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Red Knit Cardigan Sweater

This was an easy-to-knit pattern and I love how it looks. I used a wool yarn in variegated red (with touches of gray and burgundy). Remember the pinwheel sweater I knit a while back that didn't fit in the arms? Well this is the yarn I ripped out from that sweater. Yes, I ripped out that entire sweater! That's the one good thing about yarn is that you can start over again if you make a mistake or just don't like how your creation is turning out.
The sleeves of this cardigan came out too long (I should have measured and tried this sweater on more carefully). So I did end up ripping out the lower portion of the sleeves and re-knitting it shorter. I think I must have T-Rex arms and not gorilla arms, lol! I need to knit a larger size to fit in the bust as that's the biggest part of me, so the arms and everything else tends to be too large and I need to adjust everything else smaller in those other areas.

Here's a tip for wool knits: soak your wool knitted garment in cool water that you have added hair conditioner to the water and let sit for at least an hour. Then block your garment as usual. The hair conditioner makes the wool feel much softer and it smells great too. I use a good quality hair conditioner that I buy at places like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or other natural food stores. Good quality hair conditioners contain essential oils and other good ingredients rather than chemicals and artificial fragrances which are found in cheaper mainstream products. I have chemical sensitivities, so I only buy the good quality products.

Here's my newly knit cardigan. I bought the Mama Bear Cardigan pattern on Craftsy.

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