Another knitting blog

How-To: Decorative Two-Color Braids

2010-01-20T16:43:00.001-08:00

I've received a few inquiries regarding how I made the decorative ties on the Iceland Hat. And I'm not surprised: I think they add a particularly homey, festive touch. As with buttons, frog closures, etc, I think there's something very attractive about being invited, visually, to understand the way things go together.

And this particular cord is a favorite of mine. Made out of four strands and two colors, this braid riffs on the look of stockinette stitch by creating a column of nested V's in alternate colors. I think this would work particularly well as a complement to Nordic-style mittens or hats worked with knitted two-colored braids.

So without further ado, here is a brief tutorial! (Excuse the blurry photos; I'll try to have better soon).

For cords attached directly to the tassels, start with two strands of yarn, in Color A and Color B, each strand about 2.6 times the desired length of the braid. With a tapestry needle, thread the strands underneath the anchor string at the top of the tassel.

Pull the strands through halfway, so that each of the four ends is the same length (and consider tying an overhand knot for neatness and durability). Arrange the strands so their colors are ordered "A, B, B, A".

Create the braid using the following two steps:

1) Cross the right-most strand over its left-hand neighbor.

2) Cross the left-most strand over its two right-hand neighbors.

Repeat!

Properly executed, the strands moved in 1) and 2) should always be the same color, and at the end of the repeat the two strands should be crossed in the middle.

For additional clarity, here's a horrible MSPaint diagram. Good luck!

The Iceland Hat

2010-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

After a long hiatus from posting (and knitting), I bring to you my favorite hat ever:

The Iceland hat, alternately titled Capucine, had its start in my brother's birthday present to me: a gift of two balls of lopi in a beautiful, heathered blue ... carried by hand back from Iceland.

I'm always impressed with my brother. I don't think that many people would manage to get exactly the right color. Maybe it's because he has blue eyes, too!

So I've been on the lookout for a pattern to use this yarn in. Many of you will be familiar with lopi, thanks to the Reynolds line by the same name. The style of yarn seems to be an old standard of Icelandic knitting. The yarn is constructed from fairly long fibers of wool (staples!), simply twisted together without being plied for strength. So it has a sort of nature-ish, haloed, thick-thin thing going on. All in all, it's thick, hearty and lovely, evoking the "unprocessed" quality that brings such big bucks at Whole Foods. It needs a pattern that allows this quality to shine through; I find it can easily be overpowered by complicated cables and textures.

Because of that, I wasn't sure what to make with it, since lately I favor fine (and highly-processed) yarns in patterns meant to show off complicated stitch-work.

A search on Ravelry of free hat patterns quickly yielded a winner. And in spite of my general preference for more complicated knitting, this hat's structural interest, fit, and gorgeously outrageous tassels manage to showcase the yarn perfectly (IMHO), and I find myself fabulously pleased with the results. Totally cute.

Technical details:
I found my row gauge was a little off - I found it necessary to knit more rows than were indicated in the pattern, for all three sections: the ribbing, the garter stitch section, and the in-the-round crown.

I also decided that I liked the look of a proportionately wider garter-stitch section, so the first five or so rounds of the crown are in garter stitch. I inserted extra rounds of stockinette before the crown decreases.

The tassels (so fun!) are made according to these instructions, with the lopi and a few strands of a coordinating sock yarn I had lying around, to give them some textural interest and pick up some of the undyed strands of the lopi. I made them detachable, using decorative cords, so as to be able to wash the hat without damaging them.

Tech-link-al Tidbit

2009-06-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Dad:

I know you only got your Dad Scarf in March, and now it's totally summer where you are. So you're probably not using your scarf at the moment. But it just occurred to me that, reading my blog post about it, you might have wondered why the picture of it looks so nice and flat when (in all likelihood) by the time the present reached you in the mail all my careful blocking had been undone and it looked more like a tube.

A valid question.

So I thought I'd share a link that discusses just such an issue, in bountiful detail! TECHknitter's explanation is also a great example about why TECHknitting is one of my very favorite knitting blogs. So mathy!

Thought you'd enjoy.
-Your daughter

P.S. Dad -- if it's really unwearable, I can try to block it for you again. Let me know next winter ;)

At Last My Love Has Come Along

2009-05-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a finished project that I've finally gotten photos for. (Thank you, Jay! You're hired!)

Please excuse the flood of photos. I'm just pleased as punch to have had a real, live photographer to help me out!

The pattern is Ubernatural by Stephanie Japel. Word of warning: this pattern has errors in it, and I wouldn't recommend it for a knitter who isn't confident adjusting the "recipe." Notes below.

The yarn is the green merino I salvaged some time ago. Although the yarn itself is two strands of worsted-weight held together, as the pattern recommends, it wasn't quite "bulky" enough to get gauge.

Still: this is a very wearable little sweater when I want some warmth in the cool Colorado evenings! Here, I was dressed up for the premier of Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll, Boulder's very first nationally-broadcast cable TV show!

So, the notes. Two things seem off. The first is that the raglan increases, as written, won't work. If you purled one of the YO's, maybe, but it doesn't give you the nice paired-increases in the picture. I'd replace them with the instructions "yo pm yo" in row 2 with the instructions "yo pm k1 yo", and thereafter on RS rows "knit to marker, yo, pass marker, k1, yo". The effect is to add a stitch between increases. This is necessary. This also requires shuffling some stitches around. See below.

The second is a little less straightforward. The instructions for the small size say "CO 40", and row 2 sets up the distribution of stitches: "Make buttonhole, knit 7 [for right front panel] yo pm k1 yo [for raglan increase], k4 [for right shoulder], [raglan increase], k18 [for back panel], [raglan increase], k4 [for left shoulder], [raglan increase], k7 [for left front panel]." Sounds OK. But here's the problem:

The button bands are knitted with the rest of the garment, with the first and last three stitches of each row done in garter. That means that the front is effectively only 11 stitches in width, compared with the back's 18. Uh oh!

There are two ways to fix this problem. The first is to size-up and cast on extra (that's four extra for corrected raglan increases and about six extra for the button bands) and work as follows: "Work 3 in garter stitch (making buttonhole), k7, increase, k4, increase, k18, increase, k4, increase, k7, work 3 in garter stitch."

The second fix would be to pull the extra increase stitches from the back panel, knitting row two as follows: "Work 3 in garter stitch (making buttonhole), knit 4, increase, k4, increase, k12, increase, k4, increase, k4, work 3 in garter stitch." I believe this is what Ms. Japel intended. Choose your fix depending on your gauge: the first will have 82 stitches at the bust, the latter 72. I chose the former, and mine was still pretty darn tight. But pretty!

Dad's Man Scarf

2009-04-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Men are hard to knit for. No matter what I do, the yarns, colors, and patterns I tend to like turn out girly. No good for men. So my poor father has been waiting for years on a knitted gift. Socks have languished in the forgotten WIPs bag; hats have failed before they were begun. But here, at last, is a project I was happy to gift to my beloved Dad.

This is Jenna Jenks' Braidy Scarf done in Tahki (that's TAAAAAAH-ki, apparently) Sedona, a beautiful worsted wool-silk blend tweed. The pattern, though shamelessly lifted from The Gap, is a real pleasure to knit: minimal, easy, and completely stylish. Dad, I hope you actually get some use out of it!

Tahki Sedona is also a real pleasure to work with. The colors are reserved and gorgeous, and the wool in the silk gives it that little hint of crinkle that I love. I chose it initially because it was the only tweed yarn that didn't look like it came from a candy store, and I ended up entirely pleased by this choice.

For anyone who happens to want to knit but thinks they don't have the skills to make something beautiful, I recommend you try this pattern! It looks beautiful in chunky yarns, too, so it takes only a minimal yarn investment (the pattern calls for Lyon brand Wool-Ease Chunky, about $3 a ball) The two braided cables provide the only moments of breath-holding, and with a little faith and courage I'm certain that anyone can get past them. Believe me, the gratification is worth it!

Jaywalker Socks

2009-04-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, a new post.

A classic pattern, done in Oasis Yarn Aussi Sock, my Jaywalkers have been a lot of places. An attractive, simple pattern makes for a great traveling project!

I began these on a trip to Steamboat Springs with some friends, finished the first one on the plane to the southernmost tip of Argentina, and finished the second aboard the Lindblad Explorer in Antarctica. I believe there were four women on the ship who were knitting socks! Go figure.

This yarn is definitely not my favorite. The colors are really nice, and the dying creates beautiful stripes. But as you can see from the picture, it has problems with pilling. The picture was taken after one or two wears, and they look very worn. Still pretty, though.

For all that this is a simple pattern, knitting these was not entirely easy. The first time around I found (as many people have) that the sock was impossibly tight; to get it to fit over my heel, I had to rip it out and knit a larger size. I also had.. must confess... gauge issues, ugh! The second was much looser. To get them to look the same, I knitted the second in a smaller size. And thought I don't think it is very noticeable, I'm not going to post pictures of them both! Illusion of perfection preserved!

A Silent Stirring of the Blood

2008-08-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

The package will be in the mail as of this morning. And having finally finished that bit of weaving and blocking (I can't wait to get a reaction!), I am on a roll.

Still not touching the WIPs at the moment, though since we're currently in the move-out/move-in process of switching apartments, I've had ample opportunity to go through and see what's what. I reacquainted myself with the Fair Isle Sweater, which is still sin-of-pride-inspiringly lovely but tragically overlarge -- steek it into a cardigan? And I found several little projects I could finish quickly. More on that later.

No, I'm still on a lace craze. I have belatedly started the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl. What a mouthful! Here's the idea: a kind pattern designer sets up a group of knit-a-long-ers, and then once excitement is built to a fever pitch (knitters are crazy) the designer begins to release charts for the pattern, section by section. Knitters have no idea what the thing is going to look like. And with this one, neither does the designer: each clue I've seen so far has four charts, and knitters are instructed to choose one.

So, says the mathematician: assuming this trend continues, then with the four non-border clues, there are 4-to-the-sixth possible shawls! Damn!

Anyhow, that project's a-going down in an alpaca-silk laceweight yarn that I bought a cone of from Shuttles. They have a lovely policy of taking back unused portions. I've already used this same yarn to knit a grey Wisp, and I'll tell you: I'm starting to really understand what they mean when they say that alpaca does not have as much memory as wool. This stuff is determined to stay As Straight As Possible! Even after blocking, it does not lie nicely and neatly in its pattern. Not great stitch definition for lace. However, I have great dreams for a fall sweater design!

And I'm racing through this shawl as quickly as possible. Why? The Secret of the Stole begins in September :)

For the Queen of My Family

2008-08-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, when I get around to actually finishing something, I am reminded of and once again surprised by the amazing transformation that projects undergo when they are done. The errors that you've spent the whole time eying, the little bits of unevenness, your concerns about pattern/needle/yarn choice, all disappear after the finishing touches are done. Your project becomes a thing that has a life separate from your hands and needles, and it becomes a whole other beast. How nice it is to finish!

And every now and then, even more rarely, I get to put those magical finishing touches on a project that went off without flaw to begin with. And that's a transcendent knitting experience.

I give you: the finished Queen Anne's Lace shawl.

I am in love with this. I could point out some things that I'm less-than-pleased with in terms of my execution, but I won't. I think this is the loveliest single object I have made to date. Mom, I love you! You are Queen of Everything, every day.

Close to Me (Remix)

2008-06-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

What beautiful weather we've been having in Boulder! The amazing tulips on the Pearl Street Mall are finally over, but there have been plenty of other pretty things to take their place. After an unseasonable wet period, the wildflowers on my drive south and into the mountains were numerous, lush, and astonishingly vivid. They've moved on as well, but the plains still have this indefinable look of "growing" about them.

It's so beautiful that it's becoming hard to sit inside and work all day. I compensate by leaving all the windows open, all the time, which at least gets some fresh air in here -- and the cat has finally figured out she can escape from windows that don't have screens. It took her a while. I also console myself by taking breaks here and there to work on my QAL shawl. Line by line, it grows - and it's lovely! I've been knitting in a tighter gauge than I normally do lace, because I always find my lace is too open after blocking. Hopefully this one will open equally, because I'm afraid it will end up too small.

Anyhow, I'm on row 138 of 160. The last push will take a while. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I can spread it out flat!

A long time coming

2008-05-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, it's been a while.

It's been a long while.

I took a hiatus, primarily from posting but also (a little) from knitting itself. Something about the weather changing made me not want to work on wool sweaters and mittens, and something about my life changing made me not want to work on all those projects I enumerated in the last post. But I've picked up again, and we're back to business.

First, the WIPs: The greenwood vest? Body is done. I cast on for sleeves, after laboriously calculating what the set-in caps should look like, but I ripped out after shaping the first one because it looked like it was going to be way too snug. I have to increase the circumference of the cap and also (probably) the bicep measurement. It'll get there, though.

And a new one: the Queen Anne's Lace shawl by MMario, which is gorgeous, fun to knit, easier for a number of reasons than the Cap Shawl, and (get this!!) does not have a damn vandyck border. NO INTERMINABLE FINISHING! I'm at row 98 of 160. I am not making the mistake this time of calculating how many stitches I have yet to go - and this one, with only eight increases (ostensibly) per increase round and actual pattern of 32 increases per every four increase rounds, in a rather unpredictable manner, would take some doin', so.

Things change. Taste changes. The season changes. It's spring here in Boulder. I finally believe it won't snow any more - though as little as two weeks ago, it did. With the warmer weather, my experience of life changes. I wear less clothing, bike more, am getting tan. The song "Summer's the Worst" by Anthony Leviton comes to mind. I clean my room, it gets messy again; I feed the cat, and the cat gets fatter; I cook food and I eat it; the lace grows. Someday I'll get back to all those socks and sweaters that need my attention.

Taking Stock

2008-03-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been a while. I blame HatAttack... all that waiting around, adrenaline and bloodlust pumping through my veins, only to be killed a day before finally (weeks later) receiving a WIP for a second hat.

But it also seems to me I'm having a little trouble sticking with any projects these days. I've been holding myself back from starting any (large) new project, since I know I have plenty to work on, so bear with me while I think out loud about the WIPs hiding in my closet:

1. Fairisle sweater
Status: on hold until I a) figure out what kind of cast-on to go with, ultimately; b) resign myself to the fact that it's larger than I meant it to be

2. Greenwood Vest
Status: progressing slowly, maybe 50% done. Planning on making it a cardigan, not a vest. My TV-watching project, slowed by the fact that I don't have a TV.

Various projects waiting for the size 1 dpns -
3. Gryf mitts
Status: frogged, colors are not right, may turn them into socks instead

4. DK hat
Status: off the needles, yarn sucks, no plans

5. Random purple socks
Status: going quickly, but not for any good reason, just nice and portable. Afterthought granny heel sounded like a great idea - except without the heel shaping, socks are so boring!

6. Random self-patterning socks
Status: not even started! Good lord, I need more dpns!

7. Thrummed mittens
Status: on hold, it's not cold enough right now to be thinking about mittens

8. Cap shawl
Status: god damn vandyck border

9. Very Tall Socks
Status: ... is it ever realistic to expect to finish these? They're from so long ago, I haven't the faintest hope of gauge being the same without some hard work

10. Pkt Creatures
Status: three just need finishing

Damn. Gotta get motivated. I haven't been doing nothing these past weeks, just not a lot. I'll post some catch-up pics soon.

Hatty Doom

2008-02-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

Very clever of you to find me, Mr. Bond. I've been waiting for you.

Above you see the deadly weapon that I whipped out and into the mail less than five hours after the inaugural Hat Attack began last weekend. The pattern is the one provided by the organizers. It's called Binary. 10 points to whosoever may point out why (who doesn't also have access to the Ravelry discussion of the pattern!). The yarn is Lamb's Pride Worsted, of which I've formed no opinion yet, though I love that it's unplied.

And below you'll see what I did with my time when, five hours later, I was still amped on killin' hormones and had nothing to do but wait for the USPS to do its job. Which it still hasn't.

Yarn again is LPW (got two whole caps out of it!) and Malabrigo color X, again salvaged from the doomed Matrix mittens. The pom is ridiculous but entirely necessary.

I'm having mixed feelings about Hat Attack and am debating whether to sign up for the similar but better-established Sock Wars that's coming up. It's a really fun way to connect with people internationally.. But it's been a lot of waiting, a lot of reading and posting to the forums, and not a lot of actual knitting or getting knitted presents. I'm worried my target may have just decided to stop playing.

Some yarn thoughts:

This is the Araucania Nature Wool Chunky (minus one hank that I was swatching from). It's interesting stuff. The color is actually kind of pretty, and the yarn is soft enough, but the dye job is pretty inconsistent. And on top of that, the hanks come actually a little felted together, which to me might indicate sort of poor handling. I'm still toying with the idea of making Durrow with it, but I'm concerned that the cabling might not look good with the variegated effect. But then, I don't think anything looks good with variegated yarn. Oh well.

Weekend WAR

2008-02-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

Just a heads-up: Don't expect a big post this weekend. Hat Attack is ON!

This Week's Progress and Dreams

2008-02-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

Work continues both in real-life and in knitting land. Had a mini-review at my wonderful job and got some very nice feedback and now am back to plugging away. Also still plugging away at various projects. I'm not pushing the tempo at all, so I'm only through a repeat and a half of the diamond pattern on the Greenwood Vest, which post-blocking should translate to about three inches of entire vest. Also discovered that a co-worker is about to have his first baby, like, immanently, so I've joined the crowd making Saartje's Bootees - so cute!

I had this weird dream last night.. part of it was about cleaning toilets (maybe it's time to clean house? I did notice a little ring this morning). Part of it was about fleeing the city from some kind of society-wrecking disaster. And the rest of it was about stopping in on the yarn store, and trying to convince them that since the world was ending, they should let me take some yarn so that I'd be able to keep my family warm in the future. They grudgingly allowed.

So I was standing there, in the dream, and really doing some intense calculations. I knew I could only take what I could reasonably carry on my back with all of my survival gear - this was a serious dream! So I had just about decided that, although it would be less efficient weight-wise, it would be a better idea to take bulky yarn, since it knits up more quickly and I'd have a better chance of producing multiple sweaters. But by the time I started making a move to grab any, the entire store was swarmed with other people having the same idea: rabid knitters whose desert-island scheme was yarn, and lots of it. In that confusing way that dreams have, I kept putting things aside and then coming back to find them gone, and in the end was left only with cotton DK novelty. Bogus.

Small Things (Picture-ful)

2008-01-27T21:51:00.000-08:00

Whew, the end of a long, knit-ful weekend. You'd think I'd have exciting things to share. You'd be wrong.

Just kidding!

My Webs yarn came on Monday. I am.. guilty but pleased. SO MUCH YARN! One surprise was the highland tweed. The stuff is really cool, but I'd hoped that the colors would go together better! There is still the orangey color available, and I think I'd recommend it to anyone who has time to deal with washing it. The change is amazing.

You can perhaps see the difference in thickness between the single strand of yarn and those in the washed mini-hank.

Craft night this past week was oh-so-fun. We had a new member, a lovely young lady who I connected with on Ravelry through the Boulder knitters' group! Long gone are the days when meeting "IRL" is a scary taboo, I guess. Seems like everyone I know is hanging out with people met through online dating sites. While there, I started work on my Greenwood Vest - actually more a raging purple color - as seen below. Please excuse the lame-o picture, it is late and I am tired.

Swatch

Swatch Vest

The pattern isn't exactly a fun knit - no shaping until the end, pretty repetitive, and my favorite element (the ribbed button bands and edging) don't get done until the entire thing is done! Add to it that it's knitted flat, and you've got potential for serious underwhelmage. Especially since it's purple and.. that might have been a poor color choice. However, for what it is, I think it is well designed, and the cabled diamonds are very elegant for the effort. It's nice to knit on in front of the TV.

My problem with knitting recently has been an overabundance of yarn and ideas compared with my needle collection. I'm actually being held back by not having the right sizes, or enough of the right sizes. Since my sock revelation last week, I've really been wanting to knit more.. but my size 1s are currently inside of a hat (that I left at someone's house!), and my size 2's are inside of a never-ending, very ambitious sock which will likely never be finished (hand-dyed yarn in three colors with natural, crunchy-granola vegetable dyes, striped, TWO-SIDED hiking socks).

So.. I contented myself with designing, mostly, and a little dying to go along with it. I have a new friend who is going to be very pleased when he gets what I've designed for him (assuming I ever get those size 1s back). So here's what I did:

Kool-aid dying, oh-so-fun!

You can see the result below, with another, my own special blend - here, turmeric and citrus tea (don't actually have any vinegar in the house, gosh!). It made for a really bright, not at all orangey yellow! Cool effect. Watch out that you only use a little of the spice, though - one teaspoon to 50g of yarn did it for me. Last time I used much more, and though I was pleased with the saturated color, I could never get it to the point where the wash water ran clear before I knitted it!

Together they make..? Geekery!

That's pretty much it. Not bad for a week. And I wasn't kidding about the socks, though. I've washed them and worn them more times than I want to admit since last week. People are starting to notice.

A Socking Experience

2008-01-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

I have something embarrassing to admit.

Until this week, I have never worn a single sock that I have made.

I had this revelation when I noticed an unwoven end sticking out of my sock drawer; it was from my Fair Isle socks, which I finished, like, forever ago. I wanted to show off by wearing them in front of a new friend, so I wove in the ends and started wearing them. That was about five days ago. I'm still wearing them. Man, guys, hand-knitted socks are AWESOME! Totally comfortable, totally fit, they don't stink, and they're oh-so-warm. I wish I didn't hate knitting socks so much, because they freakin' rock.

See? Here they are. A little funny, but totally wearable. I was a little embarrassed, maybe, that I turned the heel upside-down, but whatever!

So, that experience led me to take stock a bit, and it turns out there are other products I've made that don't see a lot of use. Cotton beanies, for example, get short shrift simply based on their fiber composition. Blaze has been worn once or twice, and is always well-received, but I avoid in in general because of the un-lovely color and gappy neckline. And then there is the bag of UFOs that could definitely be worn, could I work up the energy to finish them.

But there are exceptions to this "rule." The green sweater - finished long ago but never actually posted here, egads! - gets a crap-ton of use. I LOVE it. It is handsome, cozy, comfy, and in all ways excellent. Except for one. The yarn, Valley's Northampton, is pilling a lot on the sleeves. Possibly because the sleeves are knit slightly looser than the body? Whatever, it doesn't look so hot.

It's made me think. It's really important to me that the things I produce be not only useful but used. However, it also seems to me that it may be partly a learning-curve issue. I'm a lot better now than I used to be: better at pairing materials and patterns, better at picking materials, and more likely to execute something to a wearable standard. So I guess that's ok. I'll sure be wearing the socks from now on. Enough of the rambling, on to the news.

I have a new cat. And a new home!

She is beautiful, funny, talky, and obsessed with animal fibers. We get along. My roommate is awesome, too.

I have joined the HAT ATTACK! For those unfamiliar with "attack" games, it is an international, knit-to-the-death, secret gift buddy competition. You target and are targeted, and "kill" by mailing your random victim an item (hat) knitted at breakneck speed from a formerly-unseen pattern. Last one still grasping needles wins... Who cares? What I love about it is that you end up with a hat, knitted just for you by someone you don't know. They say that gauge for the pattern (something geeky, since it all came about through the Ravelry Geek forum) is 5 st/in, and I think I'm going to fudge a little and use that beautiful ball of orange Manos left over from those stupid Matrix mittens. You remember the ones.

Been playing with double knitting again - using some of those $1 cones to make a blue/blue Fair Isle cap, double-sided. No pictures as I left it at a friend's. Maybe I'll pick it up when we go SKIING tomorrow!

And... according to my tracking info, my Webs order arrives on Monday!!! Oh! My! So much good stuff coming! Let's see... three or four skeins of Cascade Eco Wool, 900g of Araucania Nature Wool Bulky (meant for Greengables, but poo to that), two cones (lbs) of the Highland Tweed that I've been eying more than a year, enough Northampton (I still like it, it's cheap) to make the Greenwood cabled vest.. I'll be all set.

The Eco Wool was meant for a gentlemanly sweater, but I've decided my energies would be better spent elsewhere, so I'm considering jumping on yet another bandwagon and joining the Hemlock Ring Throw Knitalong, as narrated on the Webs podcast, just because I've never done a knitalong before. And it is a pretty pattern! In any case.. I'm set for 2008, yarn-wise :)

Pattern woes

2008-01-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

Oh, no!!! The pullover I mentioned in the previous entry was Greengables, which you can find on Rav if you have an account - the pattern was free last week when I bought the yarn. When I went to download the pattern, expecting my yarn to ship, oh, any day now, THE PATTERN IS GONE! It is going to appear in Vogue and so is no longer free :(( More than that, it's not going to be available until August. I'm very torn - I'm happy for Tikru that she's gotten this one in Vogue, but, dammit, I want to start knitting before then! I tried to wheedle it out of her, but she's obligated not to give the pattern out. Sigh.

So my advice, fellow knitters, is: download the pattern. Even if it's on a stable site like Knitty.. you never know when technical issues or contract disagreements or whatever will take it away, and then you'll be stuck. Just be safe and get hard copy as quickly as possible.

Worker-Bee Busy!

2008-01-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

I have been so good! So very good! I work from 9 to 5 (or from 8 to 4 or 7 to 3 or 6 to 6 or whatever) and today I brought some knitting with me . . . and left it alone all day. It sat on the windowsill to inspire me.

Tonight we pick Craft Night up again! The year's first! Right now I'm working on what was to be a Christmas gift - remaking the very Dashing handwarmers for my gentleman. They are green again, but with fairly different yarn. This time they are in Plymouth Royal Llama Silk. Warm! Lightweight! Soft!

Again, I'm having trouble with the sizing. But whereas last time they were JUST TOO SMALL no matter what I did until I bumped the needles up two sizes - this time they were JUST TOO BIG! So I have frogged them, and I cast on another this time on sizes two smaller, and I am kind of a sad panda. In the process the yarn has lost a lot of its loft (plies now hug each other rather than the air) and the fabric is not nearly as soft. They really were too big, and they'll look better this way, but it hurts to spend the money on new yarn and not get the aesthetic benefits of new yarn. And with my luck they'll be too small this time!

Work has picked up again on my Fair Isle Sweater, as yet to be named. Also broke down and put in a rather large order for yarn at Webs. Have several projects in mind (greatly facilitated if my birthday present from my parents, arriving with same this weekend, is what I expect it to be!), including a handsome boy sweater, a handsomer boy-ish(?) pullover, and a cute vest for me! The first two are twinkling dreams of presents for men who have never received knitted presents from me before - so dream, young men, dream, knitting might be in your future!

Now, to Savers, for furniture! I've been without it long enough!

Green Wisp

2007-12-27T17:53:00.001-08:00

For those of you who wondered, this is the Wisp I was talking about. Please excuse the slightly blurry and so-typical Lace On Leaves photo, but it is the only photo I have of it from before I blocked it to death, and I am too vain to show it any other way. I highly recommend both the pattern, from Knitty Summer 2007, and the yarn, Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I easily made the scarf in less than one ball by making it just a touch narrower - now what to do with the tiny quarter ball that is left?

Ski-mergency Moebius Turtle

2007-12-27T17:24:00.001-08:00

When I was heading out the door on my way to a Christmas back-country skiing trip, I had a realization. Although I had spent the last week and some carefully, maybe obsessively preparing my gear (I hadn't yet been on a back-country trip for which I felt fully prepared), and I finally had the important things - weather gear, hattage, glove- and mitten-age, appropriate underwear, All Ten Essentials, everything - I didn't have anything to keep my face and neck warm but a scarf given to me by my dear mother. Not only do I love it too much, I would trip on the ends.

Luckily, I knew just what to make, and I had the perfect materials on hand. So I grabbed them, and I knitted this on the way to Aspen:

This is a moebius! This is what my best friend taught me to make! The yarn is Noro's Kureyon (color 152 for the interested), recently frogged from my unfortunate attempt to be creative with the Matrix mittens from Knitty:

See? not too pretty. If it had just been the colors I might have kept going and hoped for the best, but the gauge was simply too different; even my tiny hand was uncomfortably between the child's and medium sizes.

I'd thought that the two yarns would work well together because of one glorious moment of color harmony, which can be seen (more or less) below.

I suppose that's because I figured - hey, the colors are the same, and if a color happens within a ball of Kureyon, then it must go with the other colors! Maybe I should mention that I've never knitted with Kureyon before. I liken the experience to reading a book by an author you love, whose writing style you adore, whose characters are fresh and new and compelling, but whose plot you just wish would happen differently with all of your heart. The colors are beautiful; the colors are rather amazing; but I have no idea why they appear together in one ball when the colors so clearly do NOT work that well together.

But for my moebius, it worked very well. It was surprisingly warm, and actually took the place of my hat most days since it better accommodated the strap of my goggles. Hoo-rah!

!

2007-12-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post. Heading out tomorrow for a back country skiing trip - and I'm not packing any knitting! Argh! I might reconsider, we'll be spending a lot of time in the hut at night.

We've been on a Craft Night hiatus, and I've been craving it. I miss knitting with other people! But I've gotten some things done. Finished two Wisps as presents, and actually managed to send one off in a timely fashion. I need to learn to block more gently, b/c I kind of killed both of the with overstretching.. the charm of the pattern is in the fluff and loopiness.

Cast on a pair of Matrix mittens from this season's Knitty, but although the pattern is very simple, I chose poorly for yarn and will probably have to scrap it. Pictures later!

More Christmas Knitting

2007-12-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

How much Christmas knitting can a Jewish girl do?

I ended up spending the weekend in Boston, visiting my very best friend, and one of the magical upshots: I learned how to knit moebii! (moebius strips) I'd heard some buzz about them, but imagined that it was just a gimmick - knitting a strip and grafting it or somesuch. But NO! you knit a SURFACE. It has ONE SIDE. It has ONE EDGE. It is AMAZING!

Finished the Wisp scarf in pink wool - on a visit to Windsor Button, a crafty store in Boston, I spotted a ball of green Kidsilk Haze, which is what Wisp originally calls for, and I sprang for it, figuring that I have enough friends in geographically disparate locations that I could get away with knitting the same pattern more than once. Well. The pattern in SO DIFFERENT in the right yarn, and it is so so much better. Scratch the pink. It is now a table-runner. Demoted.

Very excited to knit mittens; bought my first ball of Noro Kureyon and some coordinating Manos del Uraguay to knit Matrix from this season's edition of Knitty. I'm also working up some funny-looking thrummed mittens in leftovers from the fair isle sweater, which is in limbo during the holidays. Pictures soon? I'm too busy learning to SKI!

Holiday Knitting

2007-12-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm traveling to New York this week to visit friends. I only brought a single project with me, in hopes (equally) of finishing the project and getting a lot of work done. It is a Christmas gift for my gentleman friend's mother, a lace scarf happenin' in the pink yarn from the previous post. Halfway done! Pictures if my hosts have a camera.

Also

2007-11-29T16:49:00.001-08:00

OMG I am wasting so much time exploring Ravelry!

WIPs 'n Things

2007-11-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

Finally, here it is. A review of What's Been Happenin' in the knitting world since my dramatic move to Boulder - With Photos! Back to normal. Please enjoy.

The environsI mentioned more than a month ago that it had already started snowing here in the mountains. It hasn't really stopped - not for very long, anyway. It just comes and goes. Here is a view from my window. Waking up this morning, early for the run that never happened, I saw approximately this view - and without my glasses thought that the pond was somehow steaming. But even crazier, the pond has begun to freeze. The hills are still green, what with all of the conifers, but winter is surely approaching.

What's on the needles

Yet another handwarming doll from Knitty. I can't help myself. I have the yarn, I have the passion. . . unfortunately I no longer have the needles! I'm not really sure what I did with my size 10's, but the lack of them has been plaguing me. Anyhow. Bobble nose.

The Cap Shawl is still not done! Here it is. Achingly close. Oh-so-achingly close. Vandyck borders will be the end of me. But it does make the whole thing look delightfully formal. Unfortunately, I just don't think I like knitting lace in and of itself - I have a couple of projects I'd like to try, but I'm clearly a process- and not a product-knitter, and I can't stand repetitive patterns. Sigh. It will be done someday. Maybe for spring, when a lace shawl will actually be wearable. Or are springs as short as falls out here?

Kitty interlude

This delicate lady is Miss Kitty. Please excuse the action shot. She's actually something like 17 years old (so my roommate tells me), but you wouldn't believe it to look at her. I adore cats, but this one has developed a determination to inhabit my room. Now, anytime I leave my door even slightly cracked, I turn around, see her there, and we promptly engage in a game of Keep Kitty Away from the Bed. I'm starting to fear for my. . .

Yarn

Hello there!

Thrift store snag. The colors are a little prettier and warmer than they look - two cones deep black lace-weight, three cones assorted DK or sport blue, and one glorious soft pink in lace-weight. They all come from various mills in the UK, and in total they set me back - wait for it - $6. That's right. Lovely wool, 1000's of yards, a dollar a piece. I was saintly and actually didn't buy out the store's entire supply.

And finally..

It will eat you!

The Fair Isle Sweater progresses. The decision I mentioned? Not to do the pattern over the entire body. I can't really explain the entirety of the reasoning behind this, only that it really felt like the right thing to do.

So that is why the bottom border is so abrupt. The change I'm going to have to make is to take off the ribbing at the bottom, add 5 or 6 rows in the striping pattern below it as a frame for the band, and put on a wider band of ribbing. But it will be worth it - so worth it.

I have to say again, I love this yarn. I love this project in general. But the yarn - New England Shetland - is just so beautiful! The colors are amazing, and the photos don't do them justice. And though the yarn, unwashed, it is a real pleasure to knit, and I can console myself with the fact that it will soften after it's washed and blocked.

I have to say, one of the reasons that I'm enjoying this project so much is that I adore the colors. Because of the tight money situation, I've never really indulged in a large quantity of yarn in colors that I love - my selection has always been more determined by what's available on sale. It just gives me such a feeling of pleasure to see these colors unfold as I go, the beautiful punchy blues set against the stripes of green and teak and brown and lovely reds that blend together like guache.. I'm digging it.

One mild complaint: Elizabeth Zimmerman ruined my gauge! Ever since I read Knitting Without Tears, in which she advocates knitting loosely, my gauge has been out of control. I think about it too much - I get worried - I let it change mid-project. Look closely at the borders of the Cap Shawl and you might be able to see what I'm talking about. I had to frog two inches of the Fair Isle Sweater last night for just that reason. Sigh. I suppose it will settle down eventually.

So that's what's been happening in this girl's knitting world - other than a few designs in the works for the coming months. I have dreams of Knitty submissions. I'll try to post photos more regularly from now on.

Progress, Progress 2

2007-11-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

My Thanksgiving coma was spent on the couch (back home in Missouri!) knitting on my Fair Isle Sweater, and I've arrived at a decision. I think it's a good one, for a variety of reasons on which I will expound later, though it will make necessary an annoying alteration to what I've already done! Oh, well. Pictures of it (for it looks verah pretteh) as soon as I figure out my folks' camera/

Progress, progress

2007-11-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Weekly Craft Night was, as usual, last night. Other people than me actually brought projects this time :) it's a constantly-evolving thing, and now it seems like it must include the week's new episode of Project Runway. It feels just like evenings at Grrrl House in college.

Seems like the ladies have given up on learning to make socks for now. I got excited, though, and have continued working on the sock I cast on just as a demonstration in purple, Kool-aid-dyed wool (same as in the Fair Isle Socks but purple). Finished one a couple of nights ago and have decided to give them to my gentleman friend, as they are too big for me. He appreciates them, even though they are purple, and manages to look quite handsome. However, the ankles are sagging even around his massive bones. Does anyone have any advice on adding elastic to already-knitted socks?

So last night I continued working on my fair isle sweater. It is slowly growing. I am more than halfway through one entire repeat of the pattern, and it's looking beautiful. I'll post pictures soon. The question I have is whether it will be too busy with an all-over pattern. Have some ideas..

Best Day EVER

2007-11-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

No longer homeless, now no longer jobless.. This girl is now (almost entirely officially) a paid mathematics researcher! Getting money! For my brain! Salary! Vacation!

Also:
Today is the day my Ravelry invite came!!!

:purely happy:

Craft Night

2007-11-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

A picture from the Inaugural Craft Night. We were trying to learn to make socks. Notice the skillfully handled DPNs!

My salvation here in Boulder is definitely Craft Night. Even though the trend is to not really get much done (last time there were only three of us and we watched Dirty Dancing), it's a great group of people who are really fun to spend time with. Can't wait until Wednesday.

Knitting Leads to All Things Good

2007-10-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last night was our second Weekly Craft Night. The first happened last week - I'm still waiting on pictures! So last night was kind of sparesely attended, thanks to the Rockies game. Apparently they're big here. I got to put in a little work on my Fair Isle sweater. One small-but-recognizable pattern band is done! I pray that it fits!

But even sparsely attended, it was nice. We held it at my house, so it was the first time I've hosted a gathering in Colorado. Some non-crafty boys came, too, and set to chopping wood and lighting fires, and by the time we were done knitting the Nordic-style sauna was ready! How lovely!

The sauna is a separate building, wood-burning stove, stone walls, and it sits next to a dock on one of the three ponds on the property. So from 9 to midnight we alternated between the hot, dim sauna and jumping in the pond/sitting on the dock/sluicing off and enjoying the bright, bright moonlight. It was awesome. I don't even think it could have been better with knitting involved. Somehow, moving to the mountains I never expected to spend much time outside in the cold night, semi-nude and sopping wet. But I could get used to it.

Can You Spot the Knitting?

2007-10-18T20:30:00.001-07:00

Here is a view on a rainy day from the kitchen of my new place. The leaves already on the ground are mostly from aspens, which at my altitude have turned a beautiful golden-yellow that is startling against the mostly-pine forests that coat the Rockies. And there, nestled in the corner, is the knitting.

Although I said I would not be able to start the fair isle sweater until the blue shawl was done . . . I lied. I decided to use a random pair of smaller-than-threes circs that I found in a cafe a couple of years ago. I was Magic Looping because these needles are literally long enough to make a sweater for a cow. I had no idea that they even made needles that long. Luckily I had decided to go with just a thin ribbed border, so I'm already on to the fun part. Wish me luck.

The other day at my office one of the teachers wore this ridiculously cute orange sweater - some sort of orange cotton, short raglan sleeves, empire waist, and from the bust up it was this amazing waffle-textured stitch that I would never have expected from a machine-knit. I found it fascinating, and I've been trying to duplicate it from my memory of what it looked like. I found a stitch called Rose Fabric that looked very promising, and I've been knitting swatches ever since. Below are a couple:

This is the first swatch I knit, and it's the same yarn as the Fair Isle Socks . I was distressed as I knitted - I had never played with knitting "into the stitch below," and it simply doesn't look anything like the picture of the pattern on the Maggie's Rags site. Ultimately, it's much too loose. But before I gave up, I tried a couple of other yarns, kicking myself all the time that I left most of the yarns that give really good stitch definition with my parents.

This one's knit in the same yarn as the fair isle sweater - I ended up with an extra ball of this red. I have to say - I love this yarn. Love it. The stitch looks lovely, though a lot looser than the picture on the website. I still want a bit better stitch definition, but I am pleased. Maybe there's a project in the works here?

Full Time = No Time

2007-10-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

I've finally hit on a solution to this "no time to knit" thing. I just bring a project with me literally wherever I go.

Since I drive, a lot, to get to and from work, and since I spend a little fewer than half the nights away from my house, I keep a lot of things in my car. Tooth brush. Deodorant. Extra shoes and clothing. Now, I keep my knitting there as well.

It's working out. Last night, Friday night, I didn't have anything to do -- don't have many friends here in Boulder yet, and the ones that I do have were away for a retreat. So I found myself a coffee shop with comfy chairs sort of near my house, got myself a delicious slice of quiche, and knitted for a couple of hours. It made for a lovely evening, and it was only possible because the knitting was so close at hand; if I had had to drive all the way home to get it, it would never have happened.

And today: I was scheduled to take a free biking tour with some girlfriends of some local artists' studios, some kind of open house thing, only I didn't know what time it started. So I put my shawl in my backpack along with the lunch I packed and headed to town early. I ended up having a lovely day, which included several stolen moments knitting under trees and in coffee shops. If this keeps, up I'll have that puppy done in no time.

So things are starting to shape up. I'm feeling good. I'm almost - ALMOST!! - at the two-thirds mark for the border of the shawl. I'll have pictures soo soon! But I have to tell you, I'm getting really bored with it. The body of the shawl was very interesting, because by the time I got bored with the y/o k2tog part I'd gotten to the print o' the waves part, where every row was a different story. But knitting the vandyke border is just too much of the same, and it's as boring as knitting a scarf. It makes me very aware that I'm knitting a flat piece of cloth. I have the crazy urge to veer somehow, to give the shawl a handle or a fold or a heel or something.

Not Exciting

2007-10-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hi, all!

Just a quick update. I'm finally settled in here in Boulder with a rented place and a sort-of job and everything. But I'm working full-time, and most of my evenings are taken up with unpacking and grocery shopping and all that. No new pictures to post. The blue shawl is coming along nicely - I'm about two-thirds around the border! Hoo-rah!

Other than that.. It's beautiful here! I'll keep you posted.

Update

2007-09-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't had anything to share, guys! I've just moved across the country to Boulder, CO, and I'm still at the busy work of finding work and a home. Also, as I have read Eunny Jang to observe, there are only so many pictures you can take of the crumpled mass that is pre-blocked lace! I'm knitting the lace on my size 2 needles, which are also what I need to start the ribbing on my fair-isle sweater, so I won't dare to start that until the shawl is done :)

Wish me luck in my job search, andI'll get back to posting ASAP.

Taking So Long

2007-09-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the body of the shawl, and I've been working on the Vandyke edging. It is slow going. But there is one thing that's really cool about working the edging -- I'm starting to be able to see what the shawl will actually look like. See above! Formerly, the whole circle (and it turns out it's a big honkin' circle) was held on my rather small circular needles. Well, because the knitted-on border also finishes the raw edges of the body, each time I finish a set of rows another body stitch slips off the needles. What you stretched out above is pictured from a distance of about six feet and is less than a third of the whole thing.

I'm starting to think that this may actually end up being very beautiful. I've been feeling some anxiety about it, because this is my first large lace project; maybe me gauge was too loose? Maybe I made some visible mistakes? Maybe I should have made it in the yarn the pattern called for? Well, phew. I like. I may actually be done with it someday. I can't WAIT to block it.

Not So Secret

2007-09-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

vtwopoint5, you were right -- it's the beginnings of a fair isle sweater. Here is what my gauge swatch looks like. You can see I'm still fiddling with the gauge a little. For reference, the swatch is just wide enough to make a sleeve fitted to my wrist, and the picture was taken in bright sun, so the colors are a little more subdued.

The yarn is New England Shetland by Harrisville Designs, which is just lovely. It softens and fluffs nicely upon washing, and the colors are gorgeous. I'd hoped to make this sweater for a gentleman friend, but of course the design turned out much too pretty, and it will be for me instead. That means that I seriously overbought, and you'll be seeing some hats and mittens in the same colors.

A lot of you who are reading probably found your way here thanks to my dad. Well.. he's great! Thanks, Dad! (He also helps me a lot with resumes.) Along with advertising my blog, he sent me this article, which mentions knitting. While the content itself is not terribly deep, check out the middle picture on the header of the article. If they actually found a left-handed knitter on purpose, then I am tremendously impressed!

[edit:] Actually, it occurs to me that the knitter pictured is probably just knitting not-continentally. Whoops!

Here's a Hint

2007-09-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Got the yarn today. Does this mean anything to you?

Reclaiming the Past

2007-09-03T18:17:00.001-07:00

I bought it the year I moved to Connecticut at the Goodwill in Rocky Hill. It was "100% merino" but had clearly been machine washed many times. It had a kangaroo pocket in the front with an olive green panel behind it. The neck was too high, and with the kangaroo pouch right under the bust it made my boobs look low. No shaping in the waist at all. It was completely unflattering, but I bought it anyway because it was warm. It must have been $1.

Fastforward four years. I found it today as I was cleaning out my closet, getting together a bag of clothes to go to the Goodwill. Funny how a lot of my clothes start and end at Goodwill. I could gladly have given this sweater up, ugly as it is.

But as I was holding it, trying to decide, I thought "I can do something with this." I was filled with a sense of certainty, especially when I saw that the pieces had been knitted, rather than cut, to shape, and so the yarn could be salvaged in good usable lengths. So I went for the scissors.

Quickly, it decomposed.

The kangaroo pouch was a little difficult. Against my expectations, the olive patch was knitted separately and seamed in, and the main panel was all one piece (albeit knitted using three separate strings).

And finally:

Pre-wash

Drying post-wash.

The Search for Yarn

2007-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

What to do?

The blue shawl is almost done. The green sweater is done, though I'm waiting for its inaugural post until I can do some color-correcting of photos. I... have no other projects to work on!

So it's that time, sort of magical, sort of nerve-wracking, when I get to dream up what to do next. And what I've been dreaming of is a sweet little cardigan, fitted and sexy, in some kind of animal fiber blend. Only instead of short-row shaping to make it fit, I dream of gathering the front panels at the side seams and button bands. Delectable!

To do this, I'm convinced that I need a very drapey fabric made with a very fine gauge. I've been looking for something in a fingering weight; but not just any yarn will do! It must be soft and have exactly the tweedy shade I've been looking for. I found something quite lovely at my local Kirkwood Knittery, but it was silk and quite expensive. Nothing else so far in St. Louis.

I took advantage yesterday to check out the local yarn store in Estes Park, CO, The Stitchin' Den, and while I didn't find anything that suits my needs, I must say I was impressed! The store is very tiny, and half of it is filled with books and needlepoint supplies, but I've never seen a store with a nicer stock. There was not a thing in it (excepting maybe some fun fur, but it was still good fun fur) that struck me as junk. You pay for it, I'm sure, as the prices weren't cheap, but I coveted a good half of the yarn in there.

And how's this for a call-back: browsing a shelf near the door, I saw the most interesting, loopy thick 'n thin yarn in really cool colors. And what was it? Ozark Handspun! Who'd have thought? Go Missouri!

(Also, don't tell, but I'm not that desperate; I've got some amazing yarn, specially ordered, waiting for me at the Kirkwood Knittery. I am about to embark on a Super Secret Project! Shh!)

A Word on Devotion

2007-08-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The lace shawl is coming along nicely. I'm about 25 rows from the end of the body. The farther out from the center you go, the longer it takes, but the work progresses nicely; we are simply not acclimated enough to the high altitude to spend all day hiking the mountains, so I spend a fair amount of time knitting!

I wanted to touch on one of those almost-mysteries of knitting: that is, how/why do we devote SO much time to this process?

Let me elaborate. I said in my last post about this project that I was over half-way done. That wasn't a guess. I was curious a while back to know exactly what the half-way point of the shawl was, for consider: the littlest row has only 9 stitches, the largest has something over 730. As you work out from the center, the rows increase. So by the midway row, something around 80, you certainly haven't done half the work! So I decided to use my math degree a little and determine the total number of stitches in the thing, minus the border for simplicity, and then determine at what row you reach the halfway point. The reasoning is below.

Number of stitches in increase row (IR) number:
(1) 9 stitches
(2) 9 + 9 stitches
(3) 9 + 9 + 9 stitches
...
(n) 9n stitches

There is one plain row (PR) for every increase row, so 82 IR's and 82 PR's. To count the total number of stitches after the nth IR is completed, add up all of the stitch counts of the IR's and double that number. The formula for that is:

tot # stitches = Σ2(9i) (from 1 to n)
tot # stitches = 18Σi (from 1 to n)
tot # stitches = 18(n)(n+1)/2

So with 82 IR's,

tot # stitches = 9(82)(83) = 61,254 stitches

That's right. The body of this shawl contains approximately sixty-one thousand stitches. Sixty-one thousand.

So what's the answer to the mystery? I don't know about for everyone. For me, I feel I get to spend hours at something I enjoy for about the price of going to two movies (one skein of the lace yarn cost me $14). What's more, I can watch TV, listen to music, or talk to company while I do it. But still.. sixty-one thousand? Damn.

Anatomy of an Underarm Gusset

2007-08-26T20:15:00.001-07:00

What's that bump, you say? That unsightly lump? Sure to form a hump when worn?

Why, it's an underarm gusset, my dears, and it lets you go like so!

This underarm will not wear out, my dears, even though it is grafted and not seamed! Sweet.

The Kindness of Strangers

2007-08-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I left home with my family to visit the beautiful mountains of Colorado. This was a tradition every summer when I was growing up, though for the last seven years everyone's been too busy with college and work to make it. Well, here we are! You see above some lovely mountains . . . and some lovely yarn! Here's the story:

I brought my knitting, of course. It's nice to have something to do with my hands while hanging out with my family, because they like to talk. So as I was sitting in the airport, working away at the neck of my green sweater, I suddenly hear a man say "That's some fine knitting there!"

It turns out that we were seated next to David Gentzsch and his wife, respectively the artisan and business manager behind Ozark Handspuns, a home-grown Missouri business (they operate out of our capital, Jeff City) that sells rather delicious hand-dyed and handspun wool and mohair yarns. They were on their way to a trade show in Phoenix. I was very impressed to find fellow knit-enthusiasts - David pulled out an entire shopping bag full of in-progress hats, and he was able to recognize my sweater as an EZ pattern.

Well, we got to talking, and it turns out that his shopping bag also held a whole bunch of balls of yarn: nubbly, fluffy, thick-n-thin yarn in dramatic and subtle colorways. And bless their hearts, they gave me three free samples! Dream come true! I can't wait to figure out the proper way to display these yarns. I didn't remember to ask the fiber composition, but it seems to be a combination of a long-haired wool and something a little smoother with some definite kinks and curls in it. It's got a lovely shine to it. And one of the most interesting things about it is that it appears to have been spun from pre-dyed roving; I'm much more used to seeing hand-painted yarns, and I look forward to seeing the colors pop when knitted!

Folks, good luck at the trade show! I'll be sure to post the finished product!

Be sure to click the picture below to check out the crazy fiber detail.

Vacation Knitting

2007-08-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is the circular "cap shawl" from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today. I'm knitting it in a lovely extrafine merino; the label says "Fa Re Baruffa" by "Zegna Baruffa." It's a bit washed out in the bright light, but the color is nearly right.

For all that I yell about structure, this pattern is very fun to knit. The pattern has a nine-pointed star or flower in the center, set on a background of (I think) Print o' the Waves. I am about halfway through it, by my calculations - that is, I'm at row 130 of 171. It stays interesting. The sample I knit in this yarn just blossomed most beautifully, so I can't wait to get this finished and block it! I'll update if anything interesting happens.

WIP, finally

2007-08-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

This is a seamless raglan sweater, a la Elizabeth Zimmerman, with some changes to make it more my shape and more interesting to knit. I began it sometime in June or July, sometime after the brown sweater. Boy, is it a quick knit! I've been spending most of my time on other projects, but it's still moving fast.

I decided on a bust size of 36.25, which gives just over two inches of ease; in order, then, to make it fit nicely at the waist I nipped it in a few inches at the side seams, and I did short-row shaping at the bust. Don't get me started on how wonderful short-rows are. They are wonderful. Truly.

The yarn is "Northampton" by Valley Yarns, the WEBs home-brand. It's a worsted-weight wool that comes in a really lovely range of solids and heathers. I recommend it! I usually like to knit in a much finer gauge, but for a worsted it's nice. The yarn is soft and makes a nicely-springy fabric.

So it's exciting. I would have finished it two weeks ago but I left it at home when I went on vacation, worried that I'd finish it too early and then be carting around a winter sweater the rest of the time. As it is, I finished the second sleeve and joined them to the body today, but had to frog back an inch later - I'd attached the arms wrong! I look forward to cold weather with this sweater.

And a note on wool wool wool: why am I knitting so much in wool, even though it's summer? It all began when I got a sweetheart who is into the outdoors. On our various camping trips, I've discovered just how true it is that cotton clothing can kill you: when wet, it loses almost all of its insulating power. Stuck in the rain for two hours, even in the summer, and you can really tell! So in reading up on it in various camping and mountaineering books, I've become convinced that wool is the way to go - because of its scaly fibers that still trap air when wet, it insulates in any conditions. And in anticipation of a winter spent in the mountains with said sweetheart, I'm on a quest to procure enough wool garments that I will be at home whether in a cafe or a snow cave!

First Sweater Ever!

2007-08-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is exciting. This is also probably my last Knitty pattern for some time, since it seems I just can't bear to simply follow a pattern for a wearable garment; no, I have to change things.

This, my very first sweater, is a rather odd alteration of Jenna Adorno's "Blaze." I substituted the yarn rather dramatically and added gussets at the underarms, because it did not look like it would move well otherwise. In all else, it is unchanged. It was begun in early May and finished early June.

Let me say a word about the yarn. I was cheap, so I wanted inexpensive, and I didn't feel like making it in the mohair blend that Jenna uses. I went for another "M" instead, settling on an appropriately-weighted (washable) merino yarn: Giunco, by Laines du Nord. I ordered it from the WEBS site, yarn.com, where I've sometimes found excellent deals on yarn. This time my feeling were mixed: the yarn was colored VERY differently from what displayed on my screen; I thought I'd ordered a yellower golden-brown, and ended up with a chocolate color not at all flattering for my hair color. This may not have been their mistake, however; afraid that I hadn't purchased enough for the project, I ordered a backup-ball the next time I shopped there, and it came a deep, deep coffee brown! Luckily I didn't need to use it, or I would have had to rip out my borders backwards-like to make the dark neck look like it was on purpose.

But aside from the radically-differing colors sold under the same label, I wasn't enchanted with the yarn. It did what it was supposed to - it solidified Blaze's simple aran pattern nicely. But it was not at all soft, and hasn't softened much in the washing. I think from here on I will avoid "washable" wools, as hand-washing is alright with me!

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied. After the amount of trouble I had with gauge swatches/worrying I didn't have enough yarn, I'm very glad it fit! (Remember: always check to see whether swatches are supposed to be in SS or in the pattern.) But really, kind of boring to knit, with no shaping at all. Glad to move onto other projects.

Sock-Within-a-Sock

2007-08-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

This post does not merit a picture, but I would like to note that I did that ninja-est of ninja tricks, knitting two socks at once on the same needles. I did them, for the cheapness, in Wool-Ease deep blue on dpns. I did them. They are done. They have some rather handsome ankle shaping, and against recommendations I did a conventional turned heel rather than a short-row heel. They were on-again, off-again, so though I started them in January I didn't finish them until May.

I'd like to say that this method of knitting socks is very good for me: I do not like to knit from patterns, finding it perfectly easy to knit a sock according to some basic formulas. That, however, was "a" sock, not "socks". It is less easy for me to duplicate a sock knit without a pattern. So.. knit them both at once and you don't have to worry!

Another note: I am a continental knitter, and I do two-strand yarn a little differently, because I absolutely hate to throw yarn with my right hand. So, for fair-isle, intarsia, and now double- or two-sided knitting, I hold my yarn like so:

I believe that this method of holding the yarn makes things go a lot faster. However, as with the sock-in-a-sock, when you are working with two strands of the same color it makes it easier to confuse the strands - in that case, locking the two socks together irreparably!

Fair Isle socks

2007-08-21T15:35:00.001-07:00

Begun on a trip to NJ for Passover.

Completed: April, just after the thesis due-date

These socks are a little funny. They were my first experiment with fair isle, and they are knitted without a pattern. They're a little lumpy around the heel because I did the turning of the heel upside-down! Whoops! It is one of the hardest things in knitting for me to make a mistake on one of a pair and then duplicate it on the other.

The yarn came from an Ebay seller called JojoSquare. I bought a bag of 10 in plain white wool, fingering weight, planning to dye bits of it for various small projects. I dyed the blue and yellow using Koolaid, which was fun! I had been hoping to make some guy-socks, so I don't know what I was thinking choosing these colors. They quickly became socks-for-me. Only I still have not laundered them, as I'm afraid I may not have set the colors correctly! I'm curious to see how the yarn launders, however; as of now the fabric it makes is rather unpleasantly firm. Not a favorite yarn.

Handwarmers

2007-08-21T14:17:00.001-07:00

Here are some handwarmers of a different flavor. These are done after Knitty's pattern "Dashing" (I'll stop with the Knitty patterns soon, I swear). These were finished in March, and were done in an absolutely delicious unplied merino wool by some Italian label called Divé or somesuch. Boy, did these things give me trouble! And not for the normal reasons, either: cabling? Easy. Run out of yarn? Not a chance! There's a pocket-creature out there with a matching sweater, even!

No, the problems came from the recipient, who has VERY LARGE HANDS. I don't really want to remember how many times I started them over and over and over.. Eventually I made them fit, by using the largest size provided by the pattern and needles several sizes bigger than I wanted them to.

And the ultimate tragedy? The recipient tells me that after several weeks of near-constant wear they were ruined when his house caught on fire.

But still, they looked very handsome, and we remember them:

Handwarming dolls

2007-08-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Let me just say: I LOVE this pattern. I LOVE it. It is yet another Knitty pattern, "Pocket Creatures." I have made so many of these that I stopped taking pictures of them, and I started branching out from the suggested decorations for them long ago.

Let me say again: these are SO quick and easy, and so adorable and so full of structural interest that I just never get tired of making them. Here goes, and forgive some of the crummy pictures:

All pocket creatures made from Reynolds' Lopi unless otherwise specified. The jacket on the cyclops is made from a horrid bit of tweed yarn that I bought on super-sale. I made so many of these guys that I ran out of buttons and embroidery floss with which to give them faces, so I extended the clothing idea:

For instance, this dude, shown unfinished and holding a little yarnipop (recognize it?) was eventually graced with a giraffe-neck sweater and matching curly hair. Pretty darn cute.

Another thing that is nice about these dolls is that they are actually functional: they are advertised as hand-warmers, with a little microwaveable sachet of rice and lavender inside of them. And damn if they don't actually do the job! A couple that were meant for gifts got stolen by my roommates in the middle of the northern winter, and I didn't get them back until spring.

Teddy bear

2007-08-21T13:56:00.001-07:00

This guy was another Knitty pattern, "Bubby," for yet another sweetheart. The bear now lives in the keyboard drawer of an Ikea desk I help to build, and every time I open the drawer it makes me go "Aww!"

The yarn is a bit of Classic Elite's Miracle tencel-and-something stuff. Working with this yarn showed me just how much I love working with unplied fibers, in a roundabout way beginning my love affair with Reynolds' Lopi.

A bit of trivia: the face and the bow around the bear's neck are made from a deconstructed bit of the wool Noro from the nautalus.

Nautali

2007-08-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

These are fun toys, made from the Knitty pattern "Nautie."

This first was made with scraps of Artful Yarns' silk and cotton Fable, left over from making some awesome thigh-high socks.

The eyes are made from some stone beads, held in place by wires.

This one went to a sweetheart, and was so much fun to make that its twin went to my dad.

This guy has a Noro wool shell and a face of some unidentified orange and yellow twist yarn.

Eyes are, again, beads and wire.

This fellow went to a "fellow" blogger, in return for a gloriously beautiful crocheted bracelet.

The thing that I dig the most about this pattern is that the structural magic happens as you go; that is, the shell curls because you knit it that way, picking up a stitch from way-back-when and knitting it together with a live stitch. These guys are exciting, fun, and oh-so-ADORABLE! They drove me a little crazy, though, because I kept wondering what the formula would be for the perfect (i.e. leaves the circular cross-section undistorted) rate of increase would be, and whether it would be easy/possible to knit a 3D version of the Golden Spiral using this method.

Completed projects

2007-08-21T13:39:00.001-07:00

Bear with me while I make some quick posts on recently-completed projects. These are mostly from within the last couple of months, and all are within the past year!

Another knitting blog?

2007-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's just what the interweb needs.

Here is the scoop. I am a knitter, among other things. The craft has been a constant companion over the last four years, slowly pushing out sewing as my method of choice for making and understanding clothing. It has been solace in times of boredom, distraction, or grief, and it has been a seemingly-endless source of birthday gifts for those around me. I've leaned towards small projects that are quick to be completed and full of structural interest, like socks, puppets, stuffed animals.

But I feel that recently, within the past year, something has set of a spark of understanding in my brain, and my knitting has spiralled upwards and out. I feel myself growing in confidence, courageousness, and skill as I set off on new, larger, and hithero-unattempted projects. So here I am: I would like to document my own personal knitting adventure, and I may try to share some of the small knitting insights that I have gained as a math-girl and garment-maker.

So excuse me as I jump on the bandwagon! I hope to serve up some tasty creations, and I'll try to make it fresh and new!