Oftengrumpy unless I'm knitting...

New Pretties

2012-02-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Hi! Remember how I blogged every single day in January and siad how it was challenging but fun and I wanted to blog more often if not every day... well turns out if I don't some sort of deadline or mental challenge kicking me in the butt every day, I can get a bit... let's say "distracted." Partially, it's just that my knitting has been really boring. All I've really done is finished these:

I've showed them to you several times at various in-progress stages and until I finished them I was basically putting in 10-15 rows a night and not working on anything else (damn school taking all my knitting time.) I didn't really want to show you a picture every day of my next 10 rows.

These are Winter Twilight Mitts by Laura Rintala which is a free download through Interweave's Knitting Daily. They are supposed to look like trees (that have lost their leaves) in twilight, but I have had several people tell me that they can't see the trees. The lighter color is the trees and the darker color is the night sky as seen through the trees. I think the problem is that some people are looking for the trees in the negative space.

I had a bit of a problem because the pattern assumes that you will use a very dark color for the trees (like black) and a sunset type color for the background (like reddish-purple.) Because of this, the cart for the pattern charts the trees in black and the background in white. Since I was using a light color for my trees and a darker color for my background I had some trouble reading the chart and inverting the color associations in my head. Something to keep in mind if you want to make a version with light trees.

The yarn I used is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light. I used this yarn for the first time on my shawl from the Westknits Shawl Club Sharktooth. I loved it and ran out and bought some for these mittens so that I would have a chance to knit with it again. The lighter color is Antique Lace and the darker color is Clematis. The colors are so deep and the yarn is so soft. And it's a single-ply and I love working with single-ply yarn. It's jockeying neck and neck with String Theory Caper Sock for the title of "Melanie's Favorite Yarn."

As promised

2012-02-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

I got out in the sunlight today and snapped a few pictures of Arroway looking good. Now that the knitting is further behind me and I've worn it and felt how warm and plush it is and I've seen the colors in the sunlight I'm a lot happier with it than I was at the moment of bind off.

This is the second installment from the Stephen West Westknits Shawl Club. The yarn this time around was from Lorna's Laces in their Shepherd Sock line. The colors are mossgatherer and newsprint (I'll let you decide which is which.) It's definitely not as soft as the Tosh Merino Light from the last club installment but the yarn is plumper and has a more substantial feel.

I hated every minute of making these arrows. Stranding on the wrong side is exceedingly painful and even seven rows was almost too much. It also gives the shawl a right side and a wrong side as you can see in the first picture. Now that its done and blocked and the arrows don't look as messy I'm much more pleased with it. I used all but about 7 yards of the main color, so be careful using anything with less than 420 yards per skein. The pattern and the yarn will be available to non club members in May. Can't wait to see what February brings!

I made it

2012-01-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month, I made a secret resolution to blog every day for a month just to see if I could. Well, today is January 31, and this is my 31st blog post of the year. I'm sure they haven't all been the most exciting thing on the web, but I did a lot more showing off of my WIPs than I normally do and it motivate me to take more "in progress" photos.

My blog marathon was made easier by the fact that over winter break I had finished up a lot of projects and so had a backlog of cool things to show you. Now that school is ramping up my knitting tim is petering out and my progress is much less impressive. (Unless you want to see my daily fingerless-glove progress... I could show you what it looks like every 4-10 rounds. Could be fun... right?)

Now that the month is over, I don't think I'll push myself as hard to make sure I have a post every day, but I have enjoyed having it as a regular part of my routine and hope to remain somewhat diligent. Soon there will be good-quality picture of Arroway, I promise. It's just that it's dark by the time I get home Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully tomorrow I can catch some light and get some good pictures up for you.

Two good things

2012-01-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

Good thing #1: I wore Arroway today. To prove it, I offer up this exceedingly unflattering self portrait.

Better pics will come I promise. At least the cat is looking cute over my shoulder. She always sits like that... so regal. I'll just say that it's super warm and I loved having it up around my neck all day. It kept me nice and toasty all day. Definitely going to be in my scarf/shawl rotation.

Good thing #2: I made split pea soup last night and now I have a whole fridge of split pea soup carefully ladled out into bowl sized portions! (If you don't like split pea soup 1: my excitement about this will not make sense to you; 2: you're crazy; 3: no need for you to read the rest of this post.) Split pea soup is my favorite.

To say that my "recipe" is easy is to make it sound harder than it is. If you can chop celery, you can make this. (You do need a crock pot though.) Here goes.

Ingredients:

1 bag split peas (the reasonable size bag, not the industrial size)
1 pound carrots--I buy the ones that come already shredded because they mash really well and I don't have to do any chopping. If you want to do more chopping buy whatever is cheapest
1 bunch of celery
1 giant can chicken broth--I use the 99% fat free reduced sodium kind. I mean giant, buy the biggest can at the store
1 pound pork (I use pork instead of ham, I have never liked ham, I think it has a greasy texture that gives me the willies, if you like ham and can't imagine split pea soup made with mere pork substitute as you like) I've used pretty much any cut of pork from pork loin to thick-cut boneless chops to shoulder. Hint: sometimes the supermarket will put a sticker on it that says "great for crock pot"--pick that.

Directions:

Put split peas on bottom of crock pot. They must go on bottom. This is a cardinal rule. Do not violate it.
Put pork in crock pot on top of peas.
Put carrots in crock pot on top of pork (if you didn't buy shredded carrots, chop them up first.)
Chop celery then put it in crock pot on top of carrots.
Empty chicken broth into crock pot. All of it. Trust me. You need it.
Add extra water to crock pot. I have the big circular sized crock pot. After all the ingredients are in, I fill it to the top with water. If you have the giant oval crock pot I have no suggestions for how to properly measure the water you add. Guess. You may think the giant can of chicken broth gives you enough liquid since it covers all the ingredients. It does not. If you don't add the extra water you will have split pea sludge, not split pea soup.
Set crock pot for low and try to be patient for 16 hours. It will start to smell good after hour 9. This can be torturous if you are hungry. Best to let it cook while you will be out/asleep.
If pork hasn't fallen apart on its own, use a fork to shred it. If vegetables have not disintegrated into green soupyness mash them with a potato masher, they should disintegrate into soup at the slightest pressure.

This will make 9 seriously good sized bowls. If you use relatively lean pork you are looking at 150 calories per bowl. That's right 150! Delicious and healthy. It will be a good week.

Spinning at Ryan's

2012-01-29T19:19:00.001-08:00

I have some roving and a drop spindle that I keep at Ryan's for times when he's busy, or I'm waiting for him to finish his Starcraft game, or other down time. Here's how much I've got:

The fiber is merino/yak from Abstract Fibers. This is spinning up very slowly since I only work on it for 5 - 10 minutes at a time. I don't have any plans for the finished yarn. Just like to have something to work on around all the time. Averts the problem of me having to guess if I need to bring anything over with me.

Edit: Oops, looks like the post from my iPad did not get the photo uploaded correctly. I think I've fixed it, hope you guys can see it now.

Finished

2012-01-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

I finished the knitting on Arroway today. The purl-side stranding drove me nuts as expected. Even though there were only seven wrong-side rows it was enough to make finishing this very unpleasant.

My tension on the wrong side was totally wonky because I'm not used to stranding to the front. I'm falling back on the belief that blocking will cure everything. As you can see, the arrows are a bit scrubby looking right now.

Once it's blocked I'll give you all the details and a full review. Right now I'm too sick of it to give it a fair review.

Surgery

2012-01-27T22:02:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month I showed you the little boo boo I made on my Dahlia Cardigan. Basically, I attached on of the back panels 180 degrees from how I should have.

Today was the day I decided to fix it. To create the back strips you use a provisional cast on at the center and knit out in both directions. To fix my boo boo, I started by unpicking one of the ends from the center so that I had two sets of live stitches.

I rotated the sides until there was no longer a mobius in the middle of my back. Then I kitchner-ed the live stitches back together.

All in all, it took about an hour. Not as much lost time as if I had to frog back to my original incorrect join. I completed the right sleeve today and have just started the left. Currently my fronts are on holders because I don't like the original shaping of the front and I'm brainstorming how to fix it. Suggestions?

Want to cast on NOW

2012-01-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

Picture via Interweave Press

This is the Rosamund Cardigan. I want it. I have the yarn. I have the pattern. I have 12 other unfinished projects...

Good night

2012-01-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight, my 21 year old brother (who also lives in Portland) came over to my apartment and we watched Tangled. We both laughed. A lot. It's not as good as The Emperor's New Groove, but it's the closest Disney has gotten in a long time. Ten years between hits is a long time. When I wasn't laughing too hard, I worked on Arroway but I can't bring myself to show you another picture of garter ridges. I'll wait for the FO and show you some good ones. Tangled is on Netflix watch instant. Watch it. Laugh.

For Cathie and Patt

2012-01-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Lissajous.

I finished the first one at knit chat tonight. These (I say "these" even though the second one is not cast on yet) have been worked on exclusively at sock hour since July. There are several reasons (besides the fact that they only get one hour a week of attention) that these are taking so long. Reason one: big-ass chart on the cuff.

Reason two: same big ass chart on the heel, only this time worked back and forth.

Reason three: calf shaping leading to over 100 stitches at the widest part.

Just for fun, try taking a picture of the back of your calf in a pencil skirt. I couldn't be bothered to change outfits before my photo shoot. Luckily, I live alone so no one was here to mock my strange gymnastic poses.

Reason four: um, hello, they're KNEE socks. Knees are many inches away from toes. 25 inches.

I came home a put the sock on in a display of knitterly pride. (Oh come on, you've worn a single sock just off the needles, you have. Admit it.) Ryan came over for some pasta and I started cooking with the sock still on. Then I had a heart-stopping moment when a drip of bright red pasta sauce dripped off the serving spoon toward the floor. It missed the sock, but I kid you not, I gasped out loud. The sock came off and got put away somewhere safe. Disaster averted.

More?

2012-01-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

How many more pictures of garter stitch can you all withstand before you leave me and never come back? A few more I hope since all I've been working on for the past couple days is my arroway.

Nothing but miles and miles of stripy garter stitch. I did get to the point where the stipes go from 1x1 to bigger green stripes. This means I am close (4 rows) to adding the arrow border.

Originally, I was excited to get to the arrows because I thought the colorwork would provide some interest. Then I realized that the colorwork is worked flat which means I will have to strand in front on the wrong side. No me likey. This has become more a project of will power than of true enjoyment, but I will prevail. I'm even likely to finish before February, my self-imposed deadline. Fingers crossed.

Alpaca Silk

2012-01-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

This alpaca/silk I finished spinning the other day is finally dry, measured, and skeined up. I ended up with about 270 yards of mostly fingering-weight yarn.

I say "mostly fingering" because there are a few spots where it's more of a sport weight, but they're actually pretty few and far between. I was amazed at how consistently I was able to spin this fiber.

The fiber is from Abstract Fiber and it created a heavenly soft yarn. My only complaint is that something about their dyeing/prep process seems to pack down the fibers pretty tightly so that there is a lot of pre-drafting needed to fluff up the fiber so it's spinnable. The colorway is Mt. Hood Rose and the fiber is 70% alpaca, 30% silk. My LYS has chosen the Rustling Leaves Beret as the February knit-a-long and I think I will see how it looks in this yarn. I'm hoping the yarn is a solid enough color that it doesn't obscure the pattern.

I have a lot of yarn

2012-01-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

I organized the stash today. This is how my organization process begins.

Everything gets piled up, then I inspect it and put it away cataloging anything that has escaped my ravelry stash database. Five hours later, everything is put away again. It's even tidy.

What next?

2012-01-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

Since I finished the alpaca/silk that I had been working on on my wheel, I need to pick what my next wheel project will be. The trouble is I'm torn. I have so much lovely fiber that I feel like I want to spin ALL of it. Right NOW. So I'm asking you. What should I spin next?

First up, I have this luscious 100% Tussah Silk top that I got at sock summit in July. It's from Teresa Ruch Designs. The color is so vibrant and it's so soft that when I touch it I feel like my hands must be covered in sandpaper. The only downside is that I've never spun 100% silk before so there may be a steep learning curve.

Next option is the mind boggling roving from Abstract Fiber that I got at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. It's 50% merino and 50% tencel. The colorway os called "silver" and the reason I say that this is mind boggling is that it actually "looks" silver. I didn't know it was possible to give fiber a metallic look... at least not until I saw this for the first time. It's not as soft as the 100% silk, but still very soft. The only downside is that I've worked with Abstract Fibers before and while their colors are absolutely amazing something about their prep or their dyeing makes the roving really packed tight so it takes a lot of extra prep to "re-fluff" to the point where it's easily spinnable.

Last but not least is some good hearty 100% BFL that I got on the Portland Yarn Crawl. (If you can't tell, there are a lot of yarn/fiber related events in the Portland area. It gets expensive.) This is from Black Trillium Fiber Studio and the colorway is called Emerald City. I have never spun with this particular dyers roving, but BFL is one of my go-to fibers for hours of simple mindless spinning enjoyment. It is the least temperamental fiber I've found. I curse way less at BFL than any other fiber. The only downside here is that, while BFL is amazing fiber to work with from the simplicity standpoint, it lacks some of the sexiness of silk, merino, and other wonderful butter-in-your-hands luxury fibers.

Your votes will decide. What do you think I should start next?

Ugly lace

2012-01-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

This little bit of ugly is all I have so far of Jared Flood's Rock Island. The edging is knit in a long thin strip, then the body of the shawl is picked up and knit in ever decreasing rows toward the center.

I've knit lace before, so I know that it sort of looks like hell until you finish and block it, but this has a particularly scrubby look. It's sort of making it not fun to work on because it feels like all I'm producing is a hot little mess.

The finished versions on Ravelry are extremely impressive (the ones I don't like are almost all either because of bad yarn choice or bad blocking.) Since I love this yarn and I know it's necessary to block the snot out of lace I think I'm on a path that will eventually pay off. I started this in May just after school got out, but haven't really worked on it at all since school started. I'm hoping to pick it up again, but hoping doesn't put stitches on the needles.

Still gartering...

2012-01-18T23:56:00.000-08:00

...Though it's less enchanting than it started out. I'm ready for the colorwork section now please. Only 20 rows more till I get there... of course, every row gets bigger.

Grumble

2012-01-17T21:22:00.001-08:00

Knit Night was canceled tonight due to bad weather. I went home and did homework like a responsible jerk. I was really looking forward to my procrastination time.

More spinning

2012-01-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

It's been kind of a major weekend of spinning for me. For those of you not in law school, this is how it works. Your whole grade is determined by your score on the final exam. There are no mid-terms, essays, or anything else for the 13 weeks of the semester, just general reading homework and class leading up to one big test. While this makes the last third of the semester absolute hell, it actually means that the first several weeks of the semester are kind of relaxed (at least I've never begun preparing before the half-way mark--too likely to forget before the test comes.) I've taken the relatively relaxing beginning of the semester to get lots of fun fiber stuff done (in anticipation of the later hell that will keep me from the fiber.)

For Christmas, my mom gave me this yummy soft alpaca merino blend. Turns out there is an alpaca farm not far from where she works and she stopped by to investigate. She picked me up this naturally color fiber along with two lighter shades as well. My mom also got me the drop spindle for me for my birthday. It's the Knit Picks Turkish spindle. The quality of the spindle is only so-so. Clearly an example of "you get what you pay for."

I spin a drop spindle by flicking the shaft between my fingers (sort of like you would as if you were snapping.) This particular spindle doesn't work well with my method because the arms don't fit very snuggly around the shaft. This means that sometimes the shaft spins but the arms don't. Now that I have more fiber wrapped around the arms, it seems to prevent this problem, but it was a real pain when I was first starting. I only have about 2 ounces, so my plan is to try to spin this as a stable single to maximize yardage. We'll see if it works...

Most of a mitt

2012-01-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

My Winter Twilight Mitts have been trucking along nicely. All that is missing from the first one is the ribbing at the top of the thumb.

My Christmas gift to myself this year was an iPad. One of the best apps I've found so far is GoodReader. It is a PFD reader and editor and it is great for knitting patterns. I can "mark up" a PDF of a pattern, highlight the size I'm making, or follow along in my chart. I can draw a line on the chart and move it as needed when I complete a row. It's been so helpful for keeping my place as I pick up and put down this project.

Since I can't really watch TV while I work on these, I've been taking them to knit-chat or working on them while listening to an audio book. I just finished listening to the Hunger Games and loved it. It's very similar to Battle Royale (which I also loved) plot-wise--bunch of kids forced to fight to the death by a ruthless government. If you don't like violence/are squeamish I'd advise against picking this one up. Otherwise it's totally enthralling from about 20 minutes (couldn't tell you in pages) onward. I really want to start the next one, but it's only available in hardcover (don't like buying hardcover books) and I don't get my next audible credit until the 22nd. Resisting the urge to just buy it anyway. I got the book per a recommendation on the Yarn Harlot's blog then 2 days later learned they are making it into a movie. I can't wait to see how true they stay to the book. They did a great job with Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so I have a bit of faith in Hollywood right now.

Satisfaction

2012-01-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

I was patient and waited until this evening to ply my singles from yesterday. However, I got a comment from someone on Google+ saying that she never waits to ply, she just fills a bobbin then uses her ball winder to make a center pull ball and plies from both ends. Anyone else tried this? Anyone ply without waiting overnight? How much of a difference does it make? My finished yarn on the bobbin:

This color is near impossible to photograph well. At least for my mediocre photography skills. The fiber is 70% alpaca 30% silk. It started out looking like this:

Spinning muted the color changes quite a bit, but there are a few places where pink barberpoles around the cream. I managed to spin pretty darn consistently, after dividing the roving into two halves and spinning the singles and then plying them this is all that was left on my "fuller" bobbin:

After plying, I used my swift to skein up the yarn so that it could be washed. I don't bother to use the niddy noddy at this stage because the length will change with washing and hanging anyway.

Then I drop the whole thing in the sink with some wool wash. I just picked up this tester-sized bottle of Eucalan and I love it. It's grapefruit scented, but not overpoweringly so, just enough to be pleasant. For $4 it was a great way to see if I liked the scent. I used less than 1/10 of the bottle, so it's a pretty good value. (Especially compared to the $10 per bottle of SOAK testers.)

The fiber is Abstract Fiber Alpaca Silk in colorway Mt. Hood Rose. It appears to be available on the website, but they don't have a picture. I got mine at For Yarns Sake. I let you know the final yardage and weight once it's fully dry.

Impatient

2012-01-13T23:56:00.000-08:00

I have these singles.

I want to ply them NOW but I will be good and let them sit overnight. Is it tomorrow yet?

Yum!

2012-01-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

My newest installment of the Westknits Shawl Club arrived yesterday. Of course I cast on immediately. The new pattern is Arroway.

It's garter stitch stripes (lovely and squishy) for most of the body with colorwork arrows around the bottom edge. The green is Stephen West's exclusive colorway. The white/black is apparently exclusive to the yarn company hosting the shawl club, but not exclusive to the club members. The green is called Moss Gatherer, the black/white is Newsprint. Both are Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock 80% wool, 20% nylon.

I was seriously just thinking that I needed to add a little garter stitch to my WIPs for knitting at home after long school days. This will be perfect. Best gift ever!

New Pattern

2012-01-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

The Sylvan Cowl pattern that I showed you guys earlier this month is not available on Ravelry for $2.00.

It's an infinity cowl that can be wrapped twice around the head as show above or worn as one long loop, more like a scarf. I originally created the pattern because I didn't know what to do with some sport weight handspun I've had for months. The yarn was extremely soft so I knew I wanted it around my neck, but the heathered tweedy color made it look very rustic. I couldn't find a pattern that was both interesting to knit and worked with the yarn. I tried lace but the delicate look of the lace didn't seem right with the hearty look of the yarn. This was my solution. It's interesting enough to knit since you're changing what you're doing every few rounds, but the pattern doesn't overpower the yarn.

This is Knitgeneering's test knit version of the pattern. I think she made it so beautiful. Her yarn is exactly the type this pattern was made for.

Every few rounds there is something different going on--garter stitch, stockinette stitch, eyelet panels. Even though it's knit in sport weight it goes very quickly. Mine only took about two afternoons. You can get it through Ravelry as linked at the beginning of the post, or you can buy it here but clicking on the design tab up top and click on the "buy now" button. Hope you like it!

Much better

2012-01-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

Today I knit. I knit on a sock on my lunch break. I went to sock hour and For Yarn's Sake and worked on a different sock. Then I stayed for the open-knit knit chat and worked on my stranded fingerless gloves. I feel much better than yesterday. Also, I almost have one glove. I'll show you tomorrow.

The day of no knitting

2012-01-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

Classes started back up today. I've had three weeks off from school. I had to work the first week, so that wasn't "really" vacation, but the past two weeks have been blissfully free of all obligations. Or, at least, I unashamedly ignored all the obligations I could have/might have had. I did a lot of fun things. Spent some wonderful time with my family and with Ryan. And, I knit. I knit a lot. I knit for at least an hour EVERY DAY. It was wonderful. I throughly reconnected with everything I love about knitting.

Today, there was no knitting. The alam went off and I was up and off to class, then another class, then another class, then another class. I had to spend my breaks between classes finding out where to go, trying to remember material already half-forgotten, and eating those pesky meals my body seems to demand every so often.

After classes, I went to the gym. It's extremely temping to skip this step in favor of sitting on the couch in a knitting stupor watching Star Trek Voyager reruns, but the life of a student is pretty sedentary and precautions must be taken against melding into the furniture I spend so much time sitting on to read/study.

Now that I'm finally home I'm tired, both mentally from school and physically from the gym and I have to wake up early to be at work tomorrow. This means to get my full 8 hours (I really like 8 hours, 7 is passable, 6? well, I refer you to the tile of this blog) I have to be asleep 50 minutes from now.

I'm going to knit a round on the fingerless gloves I showed you yesterday in protest of my awful schedule, just so I can say I did some knitting today, but it's just not the same now that there are obligations and responsible bed times looming over me. Friday can't come soon enough.

Jumping around

2012-01-08T23:12:00.000-08:00

I feel a mad case of startitis brewing. The burning desire to cast on every wonderful pattern in sight until I completely run out of knitting needles. (Hint: I have a ton of knitting needles.) I think I start to feel this way when all of my projects feel like they are "long term" projects (meaning more than one week to complete.) When I start to feel like there is no end in sight, my logical (totally and completely logical, don't laugh) reaction is to cast on another project that will be so fun and enjoyable that I will speed to the end and feel the sweet sweet gratification of having a finished object.

So far, I've been resisting the urge and haven't cast on anything new since the new year. To satisfy my lack of ability to focus on any one project, I've been jumping around putting a little bit of attention into one or two of my WIPs each day. On the one hand, this satisfies my desire to constantly be working on something different, on the other hand, it also ensures that I continue to feel like "nothing will ever get done" that tends to bring on startitis in the first place.

Today, the project du jure was a fingreless mitt I've been working on, which will (hopefully) be part of a pair someday.

So far these have done a pretty good job of keeping me interested--they have that colorwork "just one more row" magic--but I suspect that as soon as it comes time to make the second one, working the pattern a second time will seem less charming. I will resist casting one 15 new things. I will!

Well Crap!

2012-01-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my Dahlia Cardigan at knit chat for quite a while. Here's what I've got so far:

See the giant huge completely obvious problem? This cardigan is constructed by first knitting the lace back in the round. Then, because the lace doesn't cover your whole back, you knit two strips to go on top and bottom of the lace to fill out the length of the back. These strips are seamed to the top and bottom of the lace (as you can see, I haven't sewn the seams yet.) Then you put live stitches from the side on one long needle and knit the sides of the sweater out horizontally. The sleeves are put in as afterthoughts, just like you would an afterthought heel. Here's the top back of the sweater:

No problem there, just need to sew the seem. Here's the bottom back of the sweater.

Yeah. Oops. Turns out, when I attached the strip that borders the bottom of the lace, I twisted it 180 degrees. I made it a mobius. Since my back is not a mobius, this is definitely a problem. I can't think of any solution other than ripping the side back to wear I attached the strip. Hundreds of stitches and the set up for the afterthought sleeve all in vain.

Because I don't want to deal with this obvious problem, I'm knitting the sleeve on the "good" side of the sweater. Clearly I will have to do something about this eventually, but for now I'm just kicking myself and moving along like nothing is wrong.

Hey look! A sock!

2012-01-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

I mostly knit socks one at a time. I'm perfectly aware of all of the two-at-a-time methods and occasionally will use one of them, but for the most part, I just prefer double pointed needles. Second sock syndrom hits me every so often, but in general it's not something I suffer from too badly. Well folks, I'm suffering.

Meet Pomatomous. My single pomatomous.

This sock is a beast on many levels. As you can see, the sock has a very long leg. The pattern is a 24-row repeat and it's repeated 3 times before you start the heel. Thats 72 pattern rows plus the twisted rib cuff before you ever even start the heel. Added to that, because the pattern is predominately twisted rib, it is less stretchy than most. This means that you have to cast on 72 stitches to make the sock fit. Each round is 8 stitches bigger than a standard sock-weight sock. Finally, the chart has to be followed line by line. Even after following it five times though, I couldn't come close to memorizing it. Look, it's pretty complex!

I will make the second sock my on the go project for the upcoming semester. The one that I keep in my backpack and work on when I'm on the bus to Clinic, on my lunch break at work, and in spare moments between class. Hopefully I will have a finished pair by the end of the semester without having to use any of my primo couch/netflix knitting time on these suckers. That time is for lovely projects that fill me with joy. See yesterday's post.

I love cables

2012-01-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

I love cables in the winter time. There is something so quintessentially cozy about them. They are plump and thick and warm. A nice celtic cable pattern can be mesmerizing to look at and addicting to work on. Shhhhh. Can't talk now. I'm cabling.

Darn Socks

2012-01-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, if there are tasks I don't want to do, I justify not doing them by telling myself that it will take absolutely forever and I just can't waste all that time at the moment. I use this with doing the laundry, vacuuming, cooking for myself, and other tasks that aren't my favorite.

As it turns out, it does not take hours upon hours to vacuum my 600 square foot apartment. It takes about 15 minutes... at most. And yet, every time I look at the floor and think "I should vacuum" my next thought is something like "but I have to do X in two hours so clearly there's no time to vacuum right now." When I finally suck it up and do the vacuuming I'm amazed that this time it went so quickly.

I also do this with mending. I will spend hours and hours at the sewing machine making something happily. However, if whatever it is later gets a hole that will take seconds to sew up, it can sit in the pile for months before I steel myself to the arduous one minute task. This is why it took me over a year to darn my socks. A pair of socks I knit many years ago was wearing thin. As you can see, there were patches on the heel and balls of the feet that were so thin that one more wearing would result in holes.

Thin spot on the heel

Thin spot on the ball of the foot

I'm ashamed to admit that I let these socks sit for about 2.5 years needing darning without doing anything about it. I told myself it would take forever to fix. That it would be hard. That it would be boring. That it wouldn't work. That the socks wouldn't be as comfortable afterward. Excuses excuses excuses. Then came this Christmas when my mom picked a random assortment of things from my Knit Picks wish list (interesting the things non-knitters choose, very random) one of which was a darning egg.

Today, I decided to suck it up and devote as much time as it took to fixing my socks. I found the yarn I had originally used for the socks (why yes I did keep the leftover yarn for more than three years, why do you ask?) Then I got a tapestry needle and used some of the extra yarn to reinforce the weak stitches by tracing over them with the new yarn.

The darning egg slips inside the sock and gives you something to pull the fabric tight over so that you can see the stitches and trace them more easily. Between the two socks, there were five weak spots that needed fixing. It took me about 90 minutes to do the darning from beginning to end. Not quite the all day task I'd been building it up in my head to be.

As you can see, the socks (which have been washed many many times) are slightly faded compared to the new yarn, but I'm not too worried about the balls of my feet and the backs of my heels being beautiful. I am very excited to increased my winter wool sock collection by a whole pair of socks for less than two hours of work. Since these socks have been out of my wardrobe for over two years it feels like I have a brand new pair. Hopefully the next time I wear out a pair of socks I will remember how quick and easy the fix is and fix them right away, but if my vacuuming habits are any indication I may not have permanently learned my lesson...

Wanderer Cap

2012-01-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

This week I knit a hat in 2 days. Really, I could have easily done it in one day but I didn't have my dpns on hand the first day to finish the crown. I love instant gratification projects.

I love the book Weekend Hats that was released in the fall. It's got some amazing hats in it, and this one is no exception. This is Wanderer Cap by Jared Flood. It's pretty simple. Mostly garter stitch with 6 slip stitch cables that twist around the crown in a spiral. The pattern is only charted, not written. I found that after a few rounds I could "see" where the pattern was going and didn't have to refer to it every row.

The yarn I used was amazing. It was Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama, 100% llama, colorway dark brown. (Sometimes I like it when colors have obvious names rather than fanciful ones.) It's amazingly soft. Ryan loves Alpaca and this has the same silky smooth texture.

Since I know that other camelid fibers like alpaca can lose shape I knit this hat entirely on size 6 needles rather than the 7s and 8s called for. It looked very small coming off the needles, but after washing and blocking over a balloon it ended up the perfect size.

Man do I love that smile!

Ryan says it is the best beanie I have made for him yet. This sounds like a challenge.

Sylvan Cowl

2012-01-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

I've had some handspun that I finished several months ago burning a hole in my stash for quite a while. The fiber was a merino silk blend heathered with misty grey, blue, and gold. The finished yarn was very heathered and had a "rustic"look to it. While the color gave it a rustic feel, the fiber blend made the yarn buttery soft and I knew I wanted it up by my face to snuggle in when it's cold outside.

I could not find the right pattern. Lace didn't seem to go well with the rustic look of the yarn. Too much texture, like cables, took away from the beauty of the yarn itself. Plain stockinette was too boring. I decided to play around and invent my own pattern. Here was my solution.

I call it Sylvan Cowl. It's an infinity scarf that can be worn long as pictured above or wrapped around the head twice for a snug fit up around the neck.

It's a mixture of simple textures and simple eyelets that is just enough to give some interest to the project but allows the yarn to do its thing and show off its inherent beauty. I want to make another one in a tweed yarn, I think it would be perfect.

Currently the pattern is being test knit. When testing is done, I'll have the pattern for sale on Ravelry and here on the Designs tab. The pattern takes about 250 yards of sport weight yarn and US 7 needles. If you are interested in test-knitting for me, shoot me an email before January 12 and I'll send you the pattern for free so long as you can get my your feedback by the 16th.

My new favorite sweater

2012-01-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

Every time I finish a project, whatever it is becomes my new favorite... whatever, hat, scarf, mittens. That project becomes the best and I wear it or use it all the time. My latest finished sweater is no different. I love it.

This is the GreenGable -hoodie by Mari Muinonen. It was in the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting, but if you don't have access to the magazine, the pattern can now be purchased individually from the Vogue Knitting website. From the minute I saw it in the magazine I wanted to knit it. The giant cables worked in bulky yarn just seem to pop off the fabric.

I modified the pattern to get rid of the deep v-neck. I want to be able to wear this in place of a jacket in the early fall/late spring and a giant v-neck would make the sweater less practical as a jacket replacement. I also left off the hood. I don't really wear hoods (I have a lot of knit hats) and I didn't want the hood constantly hanging down obscuring the cables on the back.

To get rid of the v-neck I just worked basic raglan decreases for the front of the sweater and worked the decreases as proscribed for the rest of the sweater. When I got to the directions for where the hood should go, I bound off 12 stitches in the center for the neck, then worked one row with decreases on both sides of the neck. This gave the neck a tiny bit of shaping, making it lower in the front than the back. Then I bound off the rest of the stitches. Next I picked up all the bound off stitches (the bind of was for stability so the neck won't stretch out with wear--this sweater is a bit heavy since it's worked in bulky yarn) and worked 5 rounds of k1tbl, p1 to mimic the twisted rib at the back and the cuffs.

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Bulky in a colorway that's been discontinued for about 2 years: Adobo. I love the rusty orange/brown color. I know it's not for everyone but to me it screams cozy fall thoughts like hot chocolate and sweaters and mittens and hats and sitting by the heater in flannel jammies. Swish Bulky is probably one of my favorite Knit Picks yarns. It's super soft and big and squishy and did I mention soft? Also it's superwash so it can just be tossed in the washer and dryer (I use the delicate cycles on both) and it comes out looking wonderful. The yarn does pill, all merino does, but I have a sweater stone and it takes care of them quickly.

This pattern helped me to realize something about myself knitting-wise. I hate knitting sleeves in the round. There. I said it. Hate them. I don't mind socks, mittens, other small circumference things but sleeves... hate them. I also don't mind knitting sleeves flat and seaming them. There's just something about knitting 30+ inches of small circumference tube that gets under my skin. I knit this sweater up to the underarm very quickly but then stalled on the sleeves.

Have you seen enough pictures yet?

I've pretty much been wearing this all the time since it came off the needles. It's so cozy. I almost don't mind that it's winter and freezing cold outside.

100th project

2011-12-31T18:04:00.000-08:00

According to Ravelry, I completed my 100th project this month. I know that there are a few small projects (charity hats, blanket squares, etc.) that I didn't log as projects, but everything substantial has been entered into Ravelry since I began knitting in 2007.

Unlike many more veteran knitters I have never been a knitter "without" Ravelry, and honestly I don't know if I would love it as much without having such an amazing source of information and inspiration constantly available to me. It's so fantastic that if I'm struggling with a pattern I can instantly find tons of other people who have worked through it before and help me out. I can choose a pattern and instantly know if there are errata. Wonderful.

Here is my 100th project.

This is Sharktooth. It's the first pattern from the Stephen West Westknits Shawl Club. Have I mentioned before that I have the most amazing boyfriend in the world? For Christmas and my birthday (which fall way to close together for my personal enjoyment) he splurged and signed me up for a membership in the club. For 5 months (starting in December) I will receive one pattern every month along with the yarn required to make the pattern. Overall there will be 9 skeins of yarn meaning some of the shawls will take more than one skein. All of the patterns AND the yarns have been designed by Stephen exclusively for the club. I have always loved Stephen West's designs and his color sense has always appealed to me so I'm super excited to be in the club.

The yarn for the first installment was Madeline Tosh Tosh Merino Light in a colorway aptly named "Stephen loves Tosh." It's impossible to capture the subtle nature of the colors of this yarn. The predominate color is sort of a rust or bronze color but there is blue ranging from very dark navy-black to cobalt in some places. Of course, being Tosh Merino Light it's buttery soft. However, it does kink back up on itself a lot making it a pain to work with at times. It's a problem common to single ply yarns and it's so soft and so beautiful that I mostly forgave it for the hassel.

The club installments are shipped on the 14th of every month and I have given myself permission to tear into the packages and cast on immediately as each one arrives even though on of my goals for the new year is to finish up as many of the projects that have been lingering on the needles as I can.

I have my reservations about the way the club is being run. I feel that the yarn store Stephen West has chosen to coordinate the club (because he is living in Europe) is not necessarily dealing fairly with the club members. They have come out and said that there have been "mistakes" on their end and that it's all due to the fact that the club is large and hard to coordinate. I will wait until the end of the club, trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, before I make a full evaluation of their level of service. I do hope they have managed to work the "kinks" out and that it really was just a matter of organizing a large shipment for the first time.

Fastest Scarf Ever

2011-12-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I knit the fastest scarf ever. It was during finals and I needed a quick project to take the edge off. Crystal Palace's Tutu yarn was just the right thing. In two half-afternoons I had this scarf.

If you follow the yarn link above you can see the unusual nature of the yarn. You knit through small openings at the top of the ruffle-y strand and the rest of the ruffle hangs down creating the texture of the scarf.

I didn't follow any pattern, I simply cast on nine stitches and knit every round until I was out of yarn. I followed the cast on and bind off instructions provided at the link above. Start the finish the scarf took about 5 hours. Lots of the ladies in my knitting group were whipping them up for holiday gifts because they go so quickly, and I decided to jump on the band wagon. (Mine, of course, was for me and not a gift.)

I'll admit I should wait until my hair is dry to take pictures, but my photographer (Ryan) is, sadly, not available to take pictures for me at my every whim.

I'm not too big a fan of the variegated colorways, but I think this yarn looks really nice in solid colors and creates a unique scarf unlike most other knit projects.

Christmas is coming

2011-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't know. I didn't knit many Christmas presents this year. I knit a pair of socks and some fingerless gloves for my grandma and aunt, but those were mailed off weeks ago and I wouldn't really call them "Christmas gifts" so much as just "gifts." My brother is getting a pair of Triforce gloves sometime soon, but they're not his Christmas gift and I don't feel pressured to have them finished.

The one gift that I really felt pressured to get done for Christmas was my mom's and it's done. I made my mom a set of BYOBs because she generally uses the grocery store-brand reusable bags and they fall appart pretty quickly. These are much more sturdy.

I may have used them on my last shopping trip... Just to make sure they worked they way they were supposed to...

These were knit with the newest 100% cotton yarn in the Knit Picks line Dishie. The colors are Swan (white), Azure (light blue), and Jay (dark blue). The Jay color is sadly being discontinued so if you like it, you'd better snap some up. I used almost 3 full balls of each of the main colors and less than one ball of the Swan.

My opinion of the yarn is that it is perfect for market bags, would make great exfoliating bath accessories--wash cloths, bath puffs, shower glove, etc.--but that it's probably not ideal for anything else. The yarn is very tightly spun. This makes it incredibly sturdy--I think the light blue bag has about 10 pounds of groceries in it in that picture. At the same time it makes the yarn very rough. I found my hands aching after working with it for too long because it had no give and had a stiff rigid feel. I would never use it to make a garment or toys with, but sturdy bags, and bath things are right up this yarn's ally.

In this picture, the light blue bag has been through the washing machine and dryer but the dark blue bag has not. You can see that after washing the bags shrunk in height but got wider. Definitely something to take into account if you are knitting something where gauge is important.

As for the pattern, knitting it once was a bit tedious. Knitting it a second time in quick succession was painful. The pattern is basically a sea of seed stitch. You knit a base in seed stitch. Then pick up stitches around the base and work in seed stitch. Add stripes in seed stitch. Then you get a blissful 32-row break where you do a simple lace pattern. Then it's back to more seed stitch. Seed stitch stripes. Seed stitch handles. You get the point.

All of the posts online say that these bags come out very big and they are not wrong. I think these are still OK grocery bags, but they are certainly on the side. I would probably size them down a bit--maybe take out 20 stitches or so. They stretch quite a bit when anything heavy is put in them. Anyway, I hope mom likes them.

Ryan's present

2011-12-04T18:45:00.001-08:00

This year, Ryan is getting an iPod (he's already got it, so there's no risk of spoiling the surprise.) His old iPod was stolen from his car earlier in November. It was the second time someone has broken into his car and taken his iPod. (Consequently, it's been easy for me to think of presents the past two years.) Along with this year's iPod, I gave Ryan this:

It's an iPod case with a long i-cord attached to it. It's not pictured because I was hasty but I attached the other end of the i-cord to a lobster clip. The idea is that Ry can clip the iPod to himself so that he wont forget to take it out of his car. It sucks that people are such jerks. What sort of messed up sense of entitlement do you have to have to think it's OK to break into someones car and take something? Jerks. Pure jerks.

Handles

2011-11-27T13:37:00.001-08:00

It is all gift knitting all the time in my apartment. I've decided that while I'm at home I should be working on my gift knitting exclusively so that I don't have to give too many gifts on the needles this year.

My mom is getting a set of BYOBs for her birthday this year (December 21) and as I've been working on them, I've come to appreciate the construction of the handles immensely. They are so cleaver and so utilitarian.

First, you cast on the number of stitches your handle is going to be and you knit a little strip of stockinette four rows tall.

Next you fold the strip horizontally with the purl sides together so you have a double-thick strip of stockinette only two rows tall. knit across the row knitting each live stitch together with one of the cast on stitches (which, since you've folded your fabric is up near your needles. (The pattern has you cast on using a provisional cast on so that you are knitting two sets of live stitches together. This is totally acceptable, but I find a provisional cast on slow and my way gives the exact same result.) Here is my handle strip half knit so you can see what I'm talking about.

The stitches on the right have been folded and knit together with the cast on row, the stitches on the left haven't been worked yet. Here it is from the back.

(Stitches on the left have been worked together, stitches on the right are waiting to be worked)

Once you've finished folding and working all your stitches across you have a double-thick round uber-squishy handle pad. (From the front then the back)

Once you've made your handle pads set them aside until you're ready to knit your handles. Bind off the number of stitches your handles call for. Then on the next round, instead of casting on over the gap as most patterns have you do, simply knit the stitches from your handle pad. The rolled double-thick cushion really makes a difference if you're carrying a loaded bag. It really cuts down on the way that handles can sometimes dig into your hands and makes the handle feel more substantial and less "fragile" than some bag handles feel.

The BYOBs come out huge, and I think a smaller size would really be more practical as a shopping bag, but even if I don't make the pattern again, I will definitely use this handle trick on future bags. Genius.

SIP (Spinning In Progress)

2011-11-23T19:10:00.001-08:00

You know you are falling behind on your blogging when you non-knitting boyfriend notices that you haven't posted in a while. (Thanks for the kick in the butt Ry! Love you!) It's been a solid three weeks since I've posted anything. Partially it's because I don't have anything finished and my favorite posts are showing off finished things. Partially it's because the weather has been horrible... 5 straight days of rain... and there's been no sunlight to take pictures in. My apartment is destroyed and I don't want you all to see the mess. Really, I'm thinking of you all. It's bad.

I've been very uncommitted to any one project lately so all my projects have some progress but not lots. Mostly I'm trying to get some market bags done for my mom's birthday present (her birthday is December 21.) I've got some socks going for working on at sock hour at the yarn shop. A sweater that I started as part of an October knit-a-long and am only about half done with. Socks that I can't work on at sock hour so only get attention when I'm on the bus. A cabled pullover in bulky yarn that I love but don't focus on too much because every time I do I feel guilty I'm not working on gift knitting. Granny squares for an afghan that I sometimes have interest in.

There are some other things I need to cast on as gifts, but I think I'll keep them a secret for now. But I don't want to talk about any of that right now. Right now, I want to show you my current spinning project.

That is 2 oz. of Alpaca/Silk from Abstract Fibers in colorway Mount Hood Rose. This luscious fiber is 70% alpaca 30% silk. I've spun it to a lace weight but I'm planning on spinning another 2 oz. and plying it so that I get a fingering weight. I'm hoping for enough yardage for a triangle shawl--they make the best winter scarves because they cover the whole gap in my coat, not just up by my throat.

Spinning this was a bit hard to adjust to. I've never worked with alpaca before or any other really long-stapled fiber and I wasn't used to drafting with my finger so far apart. Once I finally figured it out and got in my rhythm it spins so smoothly and it can be drafted down to almost nothing.

The yarn is not as garish as the photos make it look. The sheen from the silk and alpaca make it hard to photograph. Especially in the bad lighting the weather has left us with here in Portland. Don't expect good pictures on the blog again until June... grumble rain grumble grumble

New blanket just in time

2011-11-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

I finished my OpArt. Truth. I know it's been on the needles since forever (June 30, 2009 cast on according to Ravelry.) Don't you hate how Ravelry can remind you that you've been a complete and utter slacker when it comes to those lingering projects that just won't finish themselves? LOOK!

This is supposed to be our last day of sunshine before the winter grey sets in so I pretty much finished right on time as far as taking nice pictures is concerned. It's huge, over 5 feet square. Here it is on the floor with cats for scale (and because I couldn't get them out of the picture--my "shoo"s mean nothing to them.)

It's true what everyone says about blocking this, you have to be highly aggressive with it. It comes off the needles totally wobbly and not at all square. Here it is laid out pre-blocking.

See how it's all dimple-y and swirly at the corners? No good. Time for pins and a yardstick. I started from the center and pulled out one row of corners along the spiral and pinned them out. Then I pulled out all the corners on the opposite side and pinned them too. Here it is half pinned.

Then I did the same thing with the other two sides. As you can see from the finished pictures, at some point, I had to take a "good enough" attitude toward the whole thing or drive myself crazy trying to make it perfectly square.

I used acrylic yarn (Carron One Pound in colors "off white" and "rose") so I had to kill rather than block. After it was all pinned out I grabbed the steam iron and held it about 2 inches over the blanket and gave the thing a good steam. I could see the yarn physically relax and settle into the pinned position. It was pretty cool. It also made the yarn way drapier and much softer.

Warning: if you make this blanket using this yarn, there is not enough to make the larger size. I ran out halfway between the small and large size--with 9 rows left to go in the stripe I was working on. Luckily a kind raveler sent me her leftovers and I was able to finish without having to buy a whole new pound of yarn. Now to snuggle on the couch with some hot tea, my new blanket, and an episode of Star Trek. I hate being cold, but I love being cozy... winter is a weird season for me.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Two years ago my brother was looking for a Halloween costume, but couldn't find anything to fit his giant 6'10" body. Enter my awesome sewing skills and Burda 2471.

Get it... a really tall Napoleon... Ha. The pattern is only sized for men up to 6'3" so I had to alter ever pattern piece 7 inches longer. I added the length along the waist "lengthen here" lines. If I had used the lines for lengthening the chest Adam would have ended up looking like a flying squirrel. I made the britches, vest, jacket, and even the hat. Adam bought the boots.

Just for a size comparison, here's what I look like wearing the jacket.

It's a wee bit big on me. Adam was down town running a muck this Saturday in costume and I guess many people stopped him to take a picture with the giant Napoleon. It's a very good think Adam likes this costume. It was a pain in the $&@ to make given the intricacy of the pattern and all the alterations I had to do. I told him he has to be Napoleon for at least 2 more years before I'm ready to undertake making a new costume.

What was your Halloween costume?

Yarn Harlot

2011-10-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

That's her. She just wrapped up her book tour and Portland was the last stop. I went to her 2008 book tour when she stopped in Madison, Wisconsin, and I think if it's possible, she's gotten even funnier.

My brother went with me. I asked him too. Portland feels pretty darn safe, but the location of the book store isn't close to the parking structure and there can be some strange people on the Portland streets, especially after dark. My brother is very big. People don't really mess with him. How big you ask. This big.

That's me, my brother, and the Yarn Harlot. She is standing on a chair. Her knees are at the same level as my hips, and yet, Adam is still taller.

Adam even chuckled several times during the talk she gave before signing books. On the way out of the book store he said the strangest thing to me: "She sounds like you." I discovered the Yarn Harlot's books about the time I started knitting and we seem to share the same sort of... impatient... nature when it comes to doing things the way we want. Of course, Adam had never heard of the Yarn Harlot until I roped him into being my escort for the evening. It sort of makes sense that he would attribute all the knitterly attitudes and frustrations to me since I'm the one he hears it from. Still, I think of Stephanie as someone who has impacted my knitting attitudes greatly and contributed to the way I think about knitting. I think it reality, I sound like her. Still, it was a flattering sentiment.

Now off to knit Adam some Zelda inspired tri-force gauntlets, the price of his attendance.

Just my luck

2011-10-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been cruising right along on several projects. I've got... eleven... current projects and over the past weekend I think I managed to work on 7 of them. Part of the reason I was able to work on so many was that I kept running out of ^*$# yarn. First, I decided to work on the market bag I'm making for my mom.

That's BYOB by Moria Ravenscroft from the Summer 2008 Knitty. I'm making it with Knit Picks new cotton yarn Dishie. It feels like a great yarn for market bags, dish towels, scrubbies, etc. but I would never make something like a garment with it--too stiff, it would never drape. Soft, but stiff. The pattern calls for two balls of a yarn that is 207 yards per ball for the main color. Dishie comes in balls of 190 yards. As you can see, those extra 34 yards are critical. All I have left to knit are the handles. An emergency ball is on the way and hopefully I'll have the bag done soon.

After that disappointment, I picked up a project I haven't worked on it quite a while and got pretty close to finishing.

That's the Op Art blanket by Melissa Dominguez from the fall 2008 Knitty. (Clearly 2008 was a good year for Knitty). I started this when I first moved to Oregon way back in July 2009. Mostly, I started it as a way to use up the two huge skeins of Carron One Pound I was given by a well meaning family friend. I figured two POUNDS of yarn would be enough to finish a moderate-sized blanket. Imagine my extreme frustration when I ran out of yarn 9 rows from the end. Since the size of the stripes matters, I can't just stop where I am and bind off. I could go back to the last whole stripe, but I really wanted it to end on a white stripe... My own weird aesthetic. That would mean going back a whole strip and a half and would leave me with quite a lot of left over yarn, thus defeating my plan to use up all the yarn with this blanket.

Ravelry to the rescue. Another kind knitter used this yarn for a project and had about 4 ounces left over. The yarn is coming to me as we speak. I love living in the digital age. I could not function in a world without "the cloud"..... mmm instant gratification, instant information, instant organization.

Had I not run out of yarn on these two projects I probably would have given them each some serious dedicated work and maybe had a few FOs to show for my weekend, but as it is, it was nice to revisit so many of my current projects and get back in touch with why I love them.

Susie's Mitts

2011-10-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

My aunt Susie is pretty much a saint. She lives with my grandma and basically takes care of her. Grandma is pretty much at the stage where she shouldn't drive any more, so Susie takes her where she needs to go and all the palaces she likes do go (like doughnuts on Tuesday mornings.)

Grandma called me the other day to tell me that Susie's hands get cold when she has to drive in the mornings because the steering wheel is cold and asked if I could please make Susie some fingerless mitts for driving. I decided on the Commuter Fingerless Mittens by Stephanie Sun from Knitty First Fall 2011.

I thought this patter was super cute when it first came out in Knitty and queued it immediately. The request for fingerless gloves immediately brought the pattern to my mind. I love the way they flip up to provide more finger coverage if you need it.

New camera! I just got a new Cannon SX230 HS. It's a pocket sized point and shoot and I love it! It takes fantastic close up pictures don't you think?

The yarn is some of my favorite from the stash. It's Berroco Pleasure 66% angora, 29% merino, and 5% nylon. It's basically the snuggliest yarn there is. Sadly it's discontinued. I got 14 balls back when it went on close out (originally $13.99 per ball, I got it for $4.50 per ball) and have enjoyed deciding how to use it. I have also made a Climbing Vines pullover with it. It's wonderful to work with but the real magic happens once it's been washed. The yarn blooms and becomes even softer and fluffier. Perfect for keeping fingers nice and toasty.

The buttons are just simple silver buttons I found at JoAnn's last weekend, the same style on the back of the hand and on the palm just different sizes. I was shocked at how expensive buttons have become! It was $6 for these simple ones, more elaborate ones would have cost even more. Oh well, since I used stash yarn the cost for the project was pretty low. The project only took one ball of yarn and knit up in under a week. If I didn't like my aunt so much, I'd seriously think about keeping these for myself.

My Grandma

2011-10-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

My Grandma is a difficult woman. I try to be patient with her and remember that she's a product of a very different time and a very different upbringing. My Grandma wants to tell everyone what everyone else's problem is and exactly the path they should take to fix it. Needless to say, my Grandma's 1940s Catholic ideals are slightly different from my own... At the same time, she's my Grandma and I love her and I feel like I should do nice things for her. A few weeks ago, my Grandma called me asking for some wool house socks. These are the result:

These are the faceted rib socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott from the Little Box of Socks. I love those little cards, they're so easy to pop in my purse and carry around. The pattern creates a very dense fabric. Even though these are made with standard sock-weight yarn, I don't think they would fit in any ordinary pair of shoes because they are so thick. All the better since they are meant to be house socks. Also, the pattern takes a lot of stitches because it doesn't have a lot of stretch so it eats yarn. I had 380 yards and, as you can see, I had to result to "complementary" yarn for the toes.

The main color yarn is Pico Accuardi Dyeworks La Libera in colorway Hyperspanner (I don't know how long that link will be good for, I think the company is closing down, which is too bad because it's pretty good yarn). The yarn is slightly thick in some places but it has a nice tight ply and a good sproing.

The toes are some Knit Picks Special Buy Sport Wool in colorway Amethyst Heather that I ordered long ago and haven't found a use for yet. Its yarn that was over-spun so they sold it for $1 per ball. I ordred a bunch of it, but haven't really used it until now. It's very tightly spun and feels dense the way that hand spun yarn often does. Even though it's sport weight, I don't notice much of a difference between the toe and the rest of the sock.

Grandma won't like them. She finds fault with everything. The color will be wrong, or the fit, or the pattern... something. Of course, if I didn't make them, then I'd be un-loving and mean to an 85-year-old woman and I'd never hear the end of that earlier. So, I'm just going to package them up, send them off with a nice card, then refuse to take any calls from Grandma for at least a month... You know, like an adult.

Heaven

2011-10-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

I debated about posting about this since it's not really far enough to have any good pictures, but this project is so heavenly I thought I would share the love. I've been working on the Dahlia Cardigan for the past few weeks on and off and every time I pick up the project it's pure bliss.

I'm not very far along because I have other projects that "need" to be done so I've been trying to be good and focus on them and only work on this every once a while but just look how lovely it is so far:

That is almost all of the lace pannel for the back of the cardigan. The lace is pretty simple but you have to keep track of where you are in the pattern since it is repeated 4 times every row. The pattern starts with this fun bit a lace that is just the right amount of challenge, then changes to easy-breezy stockinette for the rest of the pattern with some interesting construction elements thrown in.

The pattern, as written, has long square fronts which look cute on some, but I'm not really into the flowing -front style that is so popular right now. I plan to do some short-row experimentation and see if I can get a more typical cardigan style shaping.

The pattern is fun, but the real reason this project is heavenly to work on is the yarn.

This is String Theory Caper Sock. Heaven. This is hands down my favorite yarn. Better than Malabrigo. Better than Madeline Tosh. It's the perfect. By clicking that link, and looking at the pictures above, you can see that their colors are absolutely amazing. Sadly, what the pictures can't show you is how amazing this yarn feels. The yarn is 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon. It's so amazingly squishy and soft and snuggly and makes perfect plump squooshy stitches that just look happy.

The other two projects that I'm working on that "need" to be done sooner than later are some socks for my grandma to keep her feet warm this winter (she is having circulation issues and always has cold hands and feet) and a set of market bags for my mother that are long long long over due... I try to work on those most of the day and just get a few guilty-pleasure rows of this cardigan in before bed.

Speed Knitter

2011-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

I love working with bulky yarn. I think chunky things are so cozy and I think big fat stitches are adorable. Plus there's the added bonus that whatever your knitting feels like it knits up at warp speed. Especially if you've been working with finer yarn for a long time.

I've been working a very complex sock for a long time and haven't even turned the heel on the first sock yet. *sigh*. When Irina Heemann asked for testers for her Bulky Rhombus Shawl Shoulderette, I jumped at the opportunity. I mean, a whole shawl in less than 200 yards of yarn?! Perfect relief from sock-knitting hell. In three short evenings I had produced this:

Beautiful, no? The pattern is basically just a chart, there's not much written instruction at all. That being said, I found the chart very easy to follow (all wrong side rows are purled straight across.) We testers did find a few errors in the chart, but hopefully this means they've been cleared up for all future comers.

The pattern, as written, doesn't have the pointy edge around it. That was my own addition. I was worried that the edges would curl under, even after blocking, if I left them "raw" so I crocheted the peaked border on after I finished the knitting. I used this Triangular Edging which worked like a charm. I didn't do any calculations before hand (dangerous!) I just started in one corner and it just happened to "fit" the shawl perfectly.

I used some Knit Picks Swish Bulky left over from this monstrous blanket. The colorway is called Hawk. I think it's the perfect neutral grey to go with my black winter jacket without clashing with any of my clothes. I've said before how much I love this yarn, but I'll reiterate again that it's so plump and soft and smooshy and one-hundred-percent pleasant to work with. It does pill a little, it's merino, buy a sweater stone, get over it. (Also, it's superwash. If you make a garment with it and you put it through the washer, it will come out huge. Instead of freaking out, throw it in the dryer for 30 minutes. It will pop back into shape just fine. Have faith. Throw it in the dryer!)

I love the magic of blocking. Here it is just off the needles/hook:

And here it is stretched out tight to block:

It went from a bunchy ugly mess to the lovely flowy drapy shawlette you see modeled above. Blocking = Magic. Have you blocked anything lately?

Curtains!

2011-09-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

A while back, I told you all that I was making curtains to cover up these ugly metal blinds in my apartment.

Seriously, they are so ugly. They give the living room and the bedroom (the only two rooms with windows) a terrible feeling. Especially since they're that sort of dingy yellowish color, like they used to be white back in the 70s but aren't any more... gross.

Earlier in the summer, Jo-Ann's had all their home decore fabric at 50% off, so I decided to do a little improving. I bought a pattern (McCall 5828) and yards and yards and yards of fabric. (It takes way more fabric than you think to make curtains.) I made the ones featured in the main picture, but I didn't make them go down to the floor. Here is my interpretation.

You can see the covered buttons on the tabs holding the curtains to the curtain rods. Here's the same curtains, but a little shorter, on the bedroom window.

The hardest part of the whole process was adding the trim that separates the cream from the purple. I finally figured out that I could do it using the zipper-foot of my sewing machine and stitching close to the ridge of the trim.

This isn't so much a traditional sewing pattern as it is a worksheet for calculating how to make your own curtains. You have to measure the window, then add some, then divide, then subtract, cut to X length... etc. I bought some special "green" curtain lining that is supposed to reduce energy waste by keeping cool air in in the summer and warm air in in the winter. It's cut just an inch or so smaller than the curtains and sewn to the back of the curtain along the top edge only so that it can trap air between it at the actual curtain. Hopeful it works, it was a bit spendy...

I also made the shears. They were very easy, just a lot of straight seams then a pocket at the top to hold the rod. The hardest part was finding double-rodded curtain rods. Fred Meyer had some, but only in one style... at least it was a pretty nice style. Plain, but nice.

Overall, I'm so much happier with the whole feel of my apartment now that these are up. I'm pretty proud of them.

Picky Hat

2011-09-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

My latest design is available on Ravelry now! I've been meaning to get this hat design down on paper for a long time. I decided to hustle and get it out to test knitters before school started at the end of August. I've gotten some great feedback and I'm finally confident enough that the errors have all been caught to release the pattern.

Ryan is picky about what knits he will wear. He has very strict ideas about what is manly. I've combed the ravelry database of men's patterns over and over having him reject 95% of the hats I propose. Finally I decided to get as much info from him about what he wanted and come up with something on my own. This is the end result:

This is not Ryan modeling, this is my brother Adam. He's 6'10", that's why the photo is taken looking up at him, I can't get far enough away from him to get a picture that looks like it's taken straight-on and still shows off the hat.

I call the pattern Picky because it was designed because of Ryan's rejection of most other patterns. It's knit on size 6 needles using worsted weight yarn. When knit to gauge, the fabric produced is nice and dense without being stiff, perfect for a winter hat.

The yarn I used for this hat is Lion Brand Superwash Merino Cashmere--72% merino, 15% nylon, 13% cashmere. It's very very soft and I have absolutely no complaints about the yarn itself. (It looks like it might pill under abrasive use, but hats aren't usually treated that roughly and I hate it when people use merino yarn then complain when it pills... that's like cooking with real butter then complaining that your food is fattening... um duh, take the good with the bad.) My only complaint is the put up of the yarn. There are only 87 yards per ball. At $8/ball it makes for a pretty expensive project, even for smaller items. It also means weaving in more ends than usual which annoys me greatly.

My brother deserves some major props for modeling in these pictures. It's about 90 degrees outside in those photos and I had him modeling this and the Habitat I finished during the same "photo shoot." He was a pretty good sport about it. I told him to pose as manly as possible, this is what he came up with:

I wouldn't want to mess with that.

Covered Buttons

2011-08-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is not about knitting. Sorry. It is of a general craft nature though. If you came for talk of knitting, I'm sorry. It will return. I promise.

I'm in the process of making some curtains for my new apartment. I have two long windows that have those awful metal blinds covering them. See, ugly.

Since I'm renting and I can't uninstall the ugly things, my plan is just to keep them permanently pulled up and let the curtains do the work of blocking out the sun/providing privacy. Not only are the curtains way WAY more aesthetically pleasing, but the cats used to love the sound the metal blinds made when scratched.

I'll tell you more about the actual curtains later. Today, I want to tell you about covered buttons. My curtains have decorative buttons sewn along the top where the curtain goes over the rod so that it looks like they're buttoned on (they're not, the buttons are just there for show, it's one of those "useless-but-pretty" things.) If you've ever gone on a hunt for the perfect buttons, you know the anxiety that can accompany button shopping. It feels like nothing is exactly right. Enter the magic of the covered buttons.

Covered buttons are a metal frame that you "cover" with fabric, meaning you can make it match any sewing project exactly. If you use the same fabric as your project, once the button is covered, it looks like it was made for your project... which it was. Here is what you need.

That is a hammer (for pounding), a circle of fabric cut about 1/4" bigger around than your actual button, and the covered-button assembly kit. You can buy covered button kits in most fabric-type stores. I got mine at Jo-Ann Fabrics. The kit I got had traditional "button" backs with the button shank and flat backs with no shank in case you just want to glue your button to a flat surface. The white and blue plastic pieces are the assembly pieces. The first kit you buy will need to have these pieces. After that, if you save them, (I always lose them and so am constantly buying the "starter set") you can just buy the "refill" packs that just have the button parts and no assembly pieces.

First: lay the fabric with the side you want showing facing down over the white plastic bottom assembly piece and push the button top into the white piece on top of it. This will cause the excess 1/4 inch of fabric to bunch up around the edges of the button.

Next: squish all the fabric ends to the inside of the button and place the button back on top so that no fabric ends are showing.

Next: take the blue assembly piece and place it over the shank (if you're using backs without shanks just center it over the back of the button.

Next: whack the blue piece (watch your thumbs!) with your hammer a few times. You should feel the button back pop into place. Pop the button out of the bottom of the assembly piece. TA-DA!

Now you have a button that will perfectly match any project no matter how unusual the color or interesting the print. No more settling for buttons that are a "close enough" color.

And August is gone...

2011-08-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

What happened? Didn't I just get back from Sock Summit? I feel like that was yesterday, but the calendar is telling me that it is already the end of August. School starts on monday. Incontrovertible evidence that fall is right around the corner is staring me in the face even thought it feels like summer is just kicking off. I worked my last full-time day yesterday before switching over to my part-time "school schedule"--fall is here. What better way to (grudgingly) welcome it than with an offering of wool?

That is my brother being blackmailed into modeling the Habitat by Jared Flood that I just finished. If he looks a bit sweaty, that's because it's 88 degrees out and he's modeling a wool hat.

This pattern is one of those "looks-super-complex-but-really-just-takes-a-little-focus" types that makes you feel like you worked out something really clever when you're done. It's for my dad's 60th birthday (which was the 11th...) Really though, he only told me he wanted a hat on the 4th, so I think it's OK that it was finished a bit late. Plus, it's still super hot in New Mexico where my parents live so it's not like he "needs" it right now.

The yarn is the handspun Corriedale that I made on my new Ashford Joy spinning wheel a few weeks ago. The handspun nature of the yarn plus the heathered color means the cables are a bit subdued, but I think it gives the hat a well-worn rustic look that makes me think of those pictures of knitwear taken on a farm when it's drizzling out... you know the ones.

Extremely fun hat to knit. I'm sure I will knit it again. However, as much as I love buying things local it's over a dollar more to buy a paper copy from the LYS than to buy it online--since I prefer digital copies anyway, I don't think I'll be buying any more of Jared Flood's patterns as a paper version. I'd be different if they were the same price, but one dollar added to a five dollar pattern is a 20% mark-up... not cool.

A spinning miracle

2011-08-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

So I showed you the beautiful new wheel I got at Sock Summit. Time to show you what I've created with it so far.

This is a 2-ply worsted (mostly) weight yarn that I spun up in about 3 days. One day for each single, then another day to do the plying. Honestly I would have finished in two days except that I've heard that you have to let your singles "rest" overnight before you ply. Anyone know why this is? What's the benefit? It was pretty frustrating to have to not use my new wheel while I waited.

I wanted to try to spin a thicker yarn as recently I've been drafting down to almost lace weight. The choice of ratios presented by the Joy and the ability to finely adjust the tension made it pretty easy to stay at solid worsted weight. That's not to say that there are not some think and thin spots, but very few.

In fact, that's where my miracle comes in. You know how you have to split your fleece into two so that you can spin your singles, then you ply your singles into a finished yarn? (Of course you do.) You also know how no matter how hard you carefully separate your fleece, you always end up with more left in one "half" than the other. Well, look at this.

That's how far I was off by. Less than a yard. When my first bobbin ran out and I looked at the other to see how much was left I could hardly believe my eyes. My singles were by no means perfectly consistent, but they must have been inconsistent in pretty darn equal amounts.

The fleece I started with looked like this.

It came in 3 little 1.5 oz. slivers of natural undyed Corriedale wool. I got it during the Portland Yarn Crawl back in March. It was pretty soft to the touch as sliver. Now that it's spun it has a slightly "rustic" feel to it, but not too bad. I plan on making the Habitat hat with it. All in all I ended up with about 168 yards so it should be just enough. Awesome.

Sock Summit

2011-08-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Dear YarnHarlot,

I walked into the Portland Convention Center totally excited to be attending Sock Summit for the second time. When I saw YOU hanging out talking to someone right in front of the booth for buying marketplace tickets I (internally) "lost my shit" as they say. I grabbed my boyfriend's arm and frantically (hopefully quietly) whispered to him "That is the YarnHarlot!" (Yes, I dragged my boyfriend to Sock Summit, he was awesome about it, proving he is the best man on the planet.) You were talking to someone and I wanted so desperately to ask to take a picture with you. While you were talking I started thinking, "you know, I bet she's really busy, I bet she has tons and tons of stuff to do, I bet it would be a total inconvenience to break up her flow and ask her to stop what she's doing for me, especially when she's running this amazing show (with some help) and I'm just here on my Saturday off to spend a grip of money on some yarn, I bet she'd be totally resentful and hold it against me and spend the rest of her days telling stories about how this totally rude girl in a black dress with a nose ring completely threw off her chi on the second day of Sock Summit and made the whole experience crap." So, I didn't ask for the picture. I'm a wuss. I don't like talking to strangers at the best of times, and even though I've read your whole blog and have, in a teeny tiny way, been a part of your life, whether you know it or not, in real life you're still a stranger and I'm still a wuss.

All my knitterly-love,
Melanie

P.S. I did the same thing with Franklin Habbit. I convinced myself that maybe it wasn't Franklin. Maybe I would just end up making a fool of myself in front of some other 5'2" bald dude with a goatee wearing a utili-kilt who came to Sock Summit and can't understand why people keep pestering him.

Now that my lack of courage is on public display, lets see the goodies!

Cats not acquired at Sock Summit, they're just nosey.

What's that you ask? Oh, why yes, that is an Ashford Joy spinning wheel. Why yes, I did buy it at Sock Summit. Why yes, I've already spun over an ounce of beautiful brown cormo on it. Why yes, I love it like a baby. Why yes I did spend all day at work today (my first day away from it) wondering if it was OK in the apartment with only the cats and the Babe to keep it company. I went to Sock Summit pretty sure I was going to buy a spinning wheel but pretty sure I was going to buy a Schacht Sidekick because it's also small and folds up and is a bit less expensive. I pointed one on display out to Ryan saying "that's the spinning wheel I'm going to get" and he said something strange. He said, "that doesn't feel like your wheel." In my head I sort of thought "you're crazy, that's what I came here for." We found a booth that had several spinning wheels including a Sidekick and what is now my Joy. The woman running the booth insisted I try them both. From the minute I started treadling on the Joy I knew it was the wheel for me. Spinning on it feels effortless. It's perfect. The cats are totally jealous.

The first booth I hit up after acquiring my new wheel was the Sanguine Gryphon booth. Yummy. I wanted to take one of everything home with me but alas I had to be content with just these two precious skeins. The carmel-y colored skein is Skinny Bugga! in Honeybee. It's screaming STEPHEN WEST at me, we'll see what pattern it ends up in. The gorgeous teal is Gaia Lace in Lobstrosity (I think that name should go on a red yarn because it makes me thing of Lobsters... anyone know why it's teal?)

While standing in the Sanguine Gryphon booth trying to make an impossible choice I asked Ryan, "what's the most beautiful thing in the booth?" trying to get his opinion. He said "You." AWWWWW. Good man.

Next booth was the Signature booth.

Those are 5 size 1 double pointed needles in 5" length. I want to cast on new socks immediately just to try them out. Other than the spinning wheel these were my most expensive splurge.

Next was the Fiber Optic Yarns booth where they had this on display.

It's the Evenstar Shawl knit in hand-spun from one of her gradient-dyed yarns. Of course this colorway was totally sold out, but I'll be stalking her online shop so that I can try to make a replica of this beauty. I did buy this 50% merino 50% tencel blend from her booth...just to tide me over till I can get my hands on the gradient.

Also on the fiber front I got this 4 oz Tussah Silk top from Teresa Ruch Designs.

I'm thinking of trying to spin it down to a lace weight to get the most milage out of the luscious silk.

The last fiber I bought was this gorgeous top from HAY by Rachel. It's only 4 oz but it's so fluffy it takes up as much space as most 8 oz tops. It's superwash merino. I'm hoping it spins up nice and tweedy because of the carmel splashes.

Lastly, I bought these earrings made from cross-sections of old aluminium knitting needles. I love them because I know it's knitting jewelry but it's totally inconspicuous.

Overall it was an awesome Sock Summit, minus my wuss-ness about asking the YarnHarlot for a photo. I hope you had as pleasant a weekend.

Fancy Socks

2011-07-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Ever since May, For Yarns Sake, my closest LYS, has been doing monthly knit-a-longs. I started the May project--don't ask--but skipped the June one. When I heard what the July project was going to be, I just had to join again. Per my suggestion (I don't know if they chose because of my suggestion, but I'm pretty sure I brought the pattern to the attention of the people who did the choosing) they/we are knitting Lissajous Socks by Cookie A.

photo courtesy of Twist Collective

These beauties come in both a knee-high and standard sock length. I'm of course doing the knee-high (look at the pretty!) I'm enjoying working on these, though they are a bit slow-going. There's more stitches around than a standard sock because of the calf shaping and there are 4 charts to follow at once. It's a good thing I'm enjoying these, because as you can see, I've got a ways to go...

Why do my legs suddenly seem so much longer than usual?

I'm just over half-way through the first big chart, and I'm looking forward to the "ease" of focusing on just the cables and calf shaping for a while.

I had a small accident in which I continued to rib even though the directions clearly (maybe not that clearly) tell you to stop ribbing after 18 rows. I was on row 33 when I realized this. I did no rip back. Instead, I knit to each wrong purl column and dropped the stitches down individually for 15 rows, then picked them back up the right way. This fix-it crochet hook was extremely helpful, and made the whole process way more painless than it could have been. Look at the delicate cables.

Sorry my pictures are ass. They were taken inside by me. If these were finished, I'd have no trouble running around outside taking a billion pictures of my socks and thumbing my nose at anyone who thinks it's weird to take sock pictures. However, even I draw the line at running around outside with a thin stip of sock halfway up my leg holding the attached ball of yarn in one hand, the camera in the other, and hitching up my skirt to try to get a picture that shows off my twisted stitches. For me, that's more of an indoor activity. Expect better pictures when/if I get these done.

The yarn I'm using is Spud and Chloe Fine. I'm still forming an opinion about it, sometimes I love it, sometimes I'm not so sure. I'll give a full report after I have more than 2 inches knit with it... I want to be sure I really give it a fair chance.

I do have one question about the pattern though.... Why the *^&$ does it make you cast on, then do make-ones in the first &(*^%$# row, then, in the next row, make you use the make-ones to do &^%#@!) twisted-stitch cables? Hmmm? That I'd like to know. Why not just cast on all the stitches rather than increase on the first row? If there is a logical practical reason I may be able to accept the maddening torture that was the first two rows of this pattern. If there is no good reason, then the only logical conclusion is that Cookie A is a mean diabolical hateful woman who secretly plots to drive sock knitters insane. My progress on my Pomatomous would seem to suggest the latter.

Spring Socks

2011-07-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems I've fallen in to a non-blogging rut again. I would like to be posting at least once a week, but I find it so hard to do posts about WIPs. I like to show off FOs, it feels like an accomplishment, like a giant strike through on my to-do list. Posting about WIPs feels like a reminder of the fact that there are things unfinished, that my life is actually cluttered and (sometimes) overwhelmingly unmanageable. I feel like if I only show the FOs, it will at least give the impression that I have everything together all the time. That's why I didn't post until I could show you these:

These socks were started so that I would have something to knit at the Sock Hour at my LYS. Since they're kind enough to host the knitting event, I try to work on projects from yarn from their store or at least projects in yarn they carry (it's not hard, I have a lot of yarn from them, they have awesome selection.) I started them back in May, and if you're in Portland, you know what our May was like this year--grey, rainy, cold, not at all like what May should be like. When I was trying to decide what yarn to cast on with, this green practically jumped into my hand. It was such an appealing color against the ugly weather that was showing no sign of letting up.

The yarn is from a local indie dyer StitchJones. This yarn is her Titanium Sock yarn. I think it will live up to it's name. It's very tightly spun and feels like it will be very durable. The color is called "Tempest in a Dyepot" and it varies from a light bright spring green to a deep olive-forest green. I was unbelievably pleased that the color didn't pool in any obvious or terrible way. Perfect variegation is extremely rare, but this is a wonderful example of how awesome hand-painted yarns can end up looking.

Ryan is an excellent sock photographer don't you think? I told him taking good sock pictures is just one of the many reasons I love him. His patience for my knitting photo shoots is incredibly endearing.

The pattern is from the book Knitting Socks With Hand Painted Yarns which I've owned for a long time but never got around to making anything from until now. The premise of the book is patterns that make hand painted yarns stand out without overpowering the stitches and obscuring all the hard knitting work.
I think these socks speak for the effectiveness of the book. The pattern I used is called Zigzag Anklets.

The socks are actually most just a plain stockinette sock. The construction is interesting. They are knit top-down. First you cast on and knit the simple zig-zag lace pattern and some 1x1 ribbing. Then you turn the sock inside out and continue in stockinette for the rest of the way. This means that the zig-zag lace is right-side-out when it folded down. I love the retro bobby-sock look of these, though I doubt you'd find any bobby-socks in acid green (until now.)

There are only a few things I would change about this pattern. First, it tells you to knit the body of the sock on US 2 needles. I did, and I got the right gauge, but they are a bit loose for me--not loose fitting, I mean the gauge feels loose. I think I would cast on a few more stitches and knit them on US 1s instead. I tend to like a tight gauge for my socks though, I think some of my socks can stand on their own. I feel like it makes them more long-wearing, not sure if that's really true. I've only had one pair of socks wear through, and they were knit on US 1.5s so who knows... The other thing is strangely picky but since I'm griping about 1/4 millimeter differences in needle size, it seems fitting. The decreases on the gusset go "the wrong way." I like a k2tog on the right and an SSK on the left. This pattern reverses them. I followed the pattern as written, "just to see" and I don't like it. It's not as graceful. It does make the gusset line less noticeable though, so maybe that's what the designer was going for.

I've already cast on my next pair of socks (they are a doozy) and maybe I will even show them to you before they are finished.

Oh Hi

2011-07-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Oh Hi blog. How are you? It's been a while... I started a new Job at the beginning of June and I can't believe I've been there a month now. waking up at 6:45 every morning is not fun, but the job is good and the work can be fun. The real reason I've been derelict in my posting is because I moved in the last two weeks of June and I'm still trying to settle into my new place. The packing up and getting out of the old place wasn't so bad, I had lots of help from Ryan and Adam. It's the unpacking and trying to get the new place set back up that's killing me. Have to find a new place for everything, have to figure out how this place wants to be set up, ugh.

I did finish a knitting project in the midst of all the tumult. A friend of mine got married last weekend, and the invitation suggested that "cocktail attire" would be most appropriate... So I went shopping, found a dress, found some shoes, found some earrings, and a necklace. The dress was strapless, the wedding was in the evening, and the "summer" that Portland has been dishing up lately hasn't been very warm. This was my solution:

The pattern is Lacy Hug Me Tight from the Knit2Together book. I managed to finish it in just under a month (and on the night before the wedding.)

The pattern is exceedingly boring to knit. First you knit a giant block of 2x2 ribbing, 21" worth of ribbing to be exact. Then you knit three strips of lace, two to go around the sleeves and one to go around the body. The strips are about 20 stitches wide. The lace is not charted, so you either have to chart it yourself (which I did after the first repeat) or try to follow written lace instructions. Then you fold the body and add a little seam. Then you sew the strips of lace around the edges. It's a lot of finishing work. I do like the result though.

At the wedding there was a sort of photo booth set up and everyone there got the password to access the photos. The company is located in WA but I guess they do shoots in Portland too. I'm holding a cardboard cut out top hat and Ryan is holding cardboard bright red lips.

The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy. 41% Cotton, 34% Hemp, and 25% Modal. I love the finished project, but this yarn is hell to work with. It's so rough on your hands, there is no give at all, it's not at all soft before it's washed. After it's washed it blooms like mad and becomes super drape-y and soft.

Here's the back view. Excuse the wet hair. I thought it might be a bad idea to ask the professional wedding photographer to focus on the knitwear rather than the wedding guests... And a close up of the sleeve lace:

I focused my knitting attention on this pretty exclusively to get it done in time for the wedding and now I'm feeling the backlash in the form of some major knitting ADD. I can't settle down to any one project I do a few stitches on one a few on another. I'm super tempted to start something new but I'm trying to finish my old project. I have a few that have been lingering for far too long. I'm working on the finish two to start one system. Now that this is finished I have to finish one more before I can cast something else on.

More socks

2011-06-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

I feel like recently all I've been showing you are finished socks. I know there have been other projects, but I'm usually so slow to finish a pair of socks that three pairs done so close together has me feeling like I'm cranking them out. (Disregard the fact that all three pairs were on the needles between six months and two years.) Here is the latest pair.

These are my first pair of socks from Yarnia yarn. This is one of the house blends that is very popular named Boylston. (If the online shop is out of stock you can always call or email them and ask them to make you up another cone of Boylston. If they have the ingredients they'll be happy to whip you up a cone.) This yarn is 50% Bamboo, 27% Merino, and 23% alpaca. This picture really shows the depth of color.

The yarn is composed of four strands: one navy bamboo, one navy merino, one bright blue merino, and one heathered gray alpaca. I think the color is perfect for manly things, which is nice because sometimes it can be hard to find "manly" yarn. Of course, this didn't stop me from making these socks for me.

I have found that Yarnia yarn sometimes has a weird quirk to it. As you knit, sometimes one or more of the strands will get "loose" like you have more of those strands than the other, so you have to slide the excess down as you knit so that you're working with a length of yarn where all the strands are the same tension. If you've worked with Yarnia yarn before you might know what I'm talking about. It's a minor annoyance and slows knitting a bit. In the few instances where it's become completely unmanageable I just cut the yarn, trim the strands with excess down, join, and continue on.

The pattern is just a simply 64-stitch sock. I followed the Yarn Harlot sock recipe the first time I made these, but now I just knit from memory. The only thing I have to look up each time is how many stitches to knit/purl across for the first two rows of the heel turn. I just grab any of my many sock books off the shelf and flip through till I find a sock with a heel flap worked over 32 stitches and use the numbers there. Some day I'll memorize that too and then I'll be able to make socks completely from memory. I think that's cool.

This yarn is a bit heavier than a traditional fingering weight, not quite a sport, but close. At 64 stitches on size 1.5 needles it made a very dense fabric. These would be perfect hiking socks and a great for walking around the house when it's not quite cold enough for slippers but you still want something on your feet. I won't be wearing these for a while it seems though. It's finally spiked up into the 80s here in Portland and I've been able to bust out the sandals. The warm weather is totally worth having to put off wearing my new socks for a few months.

MMmmmmm

2011-05-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

This is the evening I have planned:

The food is homemade crockpot stew and a glass of a yummy Moscato (I like girly wine, I know, not as classy as a Pino Grigio but sweet and yummy and mellow.)

My recipe for crockpot stew:

Ingredients

potatoes--as many as looks good, I usually get about 4 big ones
celery--one bunch
carrots--I buy a bag of baby carrots then add until it looks right and save the rest to munch on
pre-chopped stew meat--about a pound. (I stock the grocery store for it to go on sale then freeze it so I can use it as I like.)
flour--about two handfuls
broth--48 oz (I use broth for all the liquid, if you're worried about sodium you can do half broth, half water) chicken or beef, whatever is on sale

Directions

chop potatoes, throw them in crockpot
sprinkle handful of flour over potatoes
toss stew meat in
sprinkle with handful of flour
chop carrots and celery, throw them in the crock pot
add broth
set crockpot to low and leave it alone for a day (I usually do overnight to the next day's dinner time)
eat stew
hide leftover stew from 6'10" brother who loves stew and will eat it all if given half a chance

It's actually even better if you have the patience to take the stew out of the crockpot and throw it in the fridge for another overnight so it can thicken and the flavors can get all combined. I can never wait.

As for the knitting, its a plain 64-stitch sock from the top down with a heel flap. This is my favorite method of making socks. I know all the benefits of toe-up socks and the short-row heel, but top-down are so darned charming. I love everything about them. I don't much like ribbing, so it's good to get it out of the way when the project is fresh. I have enough stamina to make the leg as long as I want it. With toe-up socks, I find I make shorter legs because I want the project to be over (and I skimp on the ribbing.) Heel flaps are fun. You get to go back and forth for a while rather than round and round. Plus, if you do a slip stitch heel it's more durable than the short-row heel because it's double thick. Heel flaps fit high arches better than short-row heels. I have high arches. Kitchner really isn't that bad. There, I said it.

The yarn is Boylston, one of the Yarnia house blends I picked up when I was working there. It's 50% Bamboo, 27% Merino, 23% Alpaca. It's comprised of one strand navy bamboo, one strand navy merino, one strand bright blue merino, and one strand gray heathered alpaca. It's definitely on the thick side for a fingering weight, my socks will be very thick--good for hiking or as "outside" socks to go over smaller socks in the winter.

Handspun

2011-05-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last September at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival I picked up this lovely roving for $10.

There is just a little hang tag which is hand written and says "color: sea mist, 70% merino, 30% Tussah silk" so I can't tell you who the vendor was. Probably best for my wallet that I can't remember. The colors are carded together so beautifully and subtly. I immediately got the yarn onto the spinning wheel.

I spun up one whole bobbin, then it sat... (totally unlike me to leave a project mid way through huh? I'm never like that, I totally always stick with things to the end... cough... on an unrelated note, Ryan may have called me a "sock slut" yesterday... I think the exact comment was "you're totally not a real slut, but you are a sock slut" in that same voice you use with the know-it-all who is standing before you swearing up and down that they are most certainly not a know-it-all in any way, shape, or form, they just test well, and memorize easily, and you know, learn things fast.)

I blame school for this particular abandonment. Since I'm still new at spinning it takes me quite a while to acclimate to the wheel find the right treadling speed, the right way to hold my hands to make drafting easier, etc. so if I'm going to spin I like to have a big chunk of time to work at it. Big chunks of time aren't easy to come by with a law school schedule, hence the not so much spinning. If you are thinking to yourself: "If you just took those small amounts of time to practice you would get better and learn to be productive in those smaller time allotments," you can hush.

Once school ended I got back on the wheel and quickly filled the second bobbin. Here are the singles.

I divided the 4oz of roving before I started into two 2oz pieces thinking this would give me a chance at getting roughly the same amount of yarn on each bobbin. Here is the finished yarn.

The puny little skein is the amount that was left on one bobbin when the other was used up. I wound it into a ball on my ball winder then plied it against itself pulling from the center and outside of the ball. Plied it's about 32 yards which means that I had 64 yards more on one bobbin than the other. They say (whoever "they" are) that beginning spinners tend to start by spinning bulkier yarns and as they settle into the rhythm begin to spin finer and finer. This seems to have been the case here.

I love the color, "Sea Mist" is the perfect name for the colorway. I also love the shininess from the silk. It does make it hard to get an accurate picture though. It's more muted than it shows here, some of that shine is just the camera.

Isn't my WPI tool cute?

This yarn is pretty consistent (especially for only being my second adventure in wheel-spinning) most of it is about 17 wraps per inch. The internet is telling me that this is even finer than a standard fingering weight, but it looks like to me more like a heavy fingering to a sport weight. Do you find the WIP guide to be an accurate comparison to machine made yarn sizes? Maybe I "squished" my yarn together a bit when measuring. Anyone know what tension the wraps are supposed to be done at?

In the end I ended up with about 326 yards of 2-ply in the fingering-sport range. There are a few places (not too many) where the singles got over energized and corkscrewed and there are a few places that were under-plied but overall I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Now comes the peril of trying to find the perfect pattern for it. Any suggestions?

Zoids!

2011-05-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I went camping with Ryan down in Southern Oregon in between Grants Pass (where I grew up) and Medford (where most of my dad's family is). It was so nice to escape the miserable Portland weather! It's been hovering in the high 50s here with rain almost every day. Down south it was mid 70s and clear blue skies every day.

This is me looking to see if the rustling noises in the grass is a snake... I hate snakes... We did all the fun camping things like campfire with marshmallows, cooking on a little propane grill, sleep in a tent, etc. We also drove into Ashland, Oregon to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to see Measure for Measure. Last year I begged and begged Ryan to go with me because they were doing Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Henry V. Sadly, we couldn't get our schedules to line up since I was working weekends and we didn't make it down. This year, with two free weeks before starting our summer jobs we managed to make it work. Of course, after the stellar list of plays last year, this year was more of a "B" year--Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, Henry IV Part II, and Loves Labor Lost. This is likely why we were able to get cheap tickets just one week before the show. Last year the cheap tickets were selling out almost a month in advance. Even though it's not one of Shakespeare's best, Measure for Measure was very fun to see and the theater did some interesting things with the show setting it in an inner-city Latino slum.

When I got back from camping I finished up a hat for my brother.

Why is it PINK? Adam is a very manly man, he would never wear a pink hat, not even if his life depended on it! That is of course... Unless it was a Zoidberg Hat.

For those of you Futurama fans screaming at your computer "You idiot! You did it wrong! Zoidberg has FOUR mouth tentacles, not THREE!!!!" Rest assured, there are 4 there, Adam just has his head turned weird and it's hiding. You try telling a 21-year-old man he needs to pose for accurate knitting pictures...

The pattern I based this on is the Jackyll & Hide pattern from the Fall 2007 Knitty. I knit the pattern as written to the crown. Then, instead of adding the skeleton mouth, I picked up 48 stitches (24 on top, 24 on bottom) and knit in the round for about an inch. Then I took six stitches of the top needle and six stitches of the bottom needle and knit 15 rounds followed by two rounds of K2tog then fastened off. I repeated this 3 more times. Wove in the ends and voila a Zoidberg hat.

Adam has been asking me for this hat for a long time, so when I called to tell him it was finished he was understandably excited. I told him that I accepted gratitude in the form of Chocolate. He brought me Coco Puffs, Coco Pebbles, Chocolate granola bars, Chocolate graham cracker Goldfish, and...

I think he liked the hat...

Worth the wait

2011-05-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

The last FO that resulted from my stress-filled finals studying are these beautiful socks.

These socks are made from the amazingly simple Air Raid pattern by Emily B. Miller. It's a free download on ravelry. The pattern is well written and easy to follow. It's got a chart and written instructions for the lace so you can work from whichever you're more comfortable with. I found that after the first half of the first repeat I had the pattern memorized and didn't need to look at the chart any more.

As you can see these are definitely "fraternal" socks. I thought I had the colors lined up (the pattern is worked from the top down) but I clearly did not. The yarn comes in 50g balls so I used two. I knit both from the outside of the ball, so it looks to me like at the mill one ball got wound with the colors going one direction, and the other the opposite direction.

The yarn is Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi in the creatively named colorway 101. The colors really are as vibrant as they look in those photos. I got the yarn an a 9" Addi Turbo for Christmas/my birthday 2009 and cast on immediately. Yes, that means these socks were on the needles for just under a year and a half. I don't know what it is that keeps me from finishing projects. I just get distracted by the next new thing, then get distracted from that by the next new thing until finally I look on ravelry and realize "holy crap, these socks have been on the needles for more than a year" and I suck it up and finish them.

I love knitting socks on the 9" circs. I have small hands, so the the short needle tip doesn't bother me and I find that I can go round and round and round without thinking or stopping to move stitches or pick up a different needle.

This is the best I could come up with when Ryan said "pose like a model"... A life of glamor I do not have.

Over all I'm completely in love with these socks. The yarn is single ply so I'm a bit worried about how it will hold up over the long term, but it has a healthy nylon content so I'm hopeful. The yarn was a bit think-n-thin as most single plys are, but nothing too terrible. The colors are gorgeous and they are super soft. Also, Portland is still mostly below 70 degrees so wearing them is still an option. Wool socks after it hits 70 degrees loose much of their appeal, but below 70, bring on the wooly goodness.

Does this mean it's Spring?

2011-05-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, yarndude posted that he had finished a pair of mittens and that the finishing seemed to bring spring to Pennsylvania. This makes sense since by the time you actually finish knitting something, it's no longer the season you need it in. There's no combating this unless you want to do your summer knitting in the winter and be working with wool in the summer. Since it seemed to work for him, I decided it would be worth a try.

These are the NHM #14 mittens from the book Selbuvotter by Terri Shea. I started these about a year ago then lost steam. Recently I dug them out again to start taking to the knit chat at my LYS. After 10 months of not working on them, it only took about 5 knit chats to finish the first and knit the second.

My gauge was a bit looser on the second one. I think I relaxed a bit as I got used to holding one color in each hand. This made one mitten about 1/4 inch longer than the other, but it doesn't show when they're worn.

The yarn is the wonderfully rustic Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift. It's woolen spun which makes it lofty, gives it a nubbly texture, makes it a little thick-n-thin, and makes it wonderfully warm. The colors are yellow ochre and grouse. I love these colors together so much. They scream fall to me. This is good because fall is the perfect season for fingering weight mittens.

These run quite small. I have small hands and usually have to buy gloves made for kids and these fit me pretty well. If you were thinking of making these and you have larger hands, I would seriously consider using sport or dk weight yarn and bigger needles.

On a side note, the semester is over!!!! Now I have two glorious weeks to do whatever I want (you know like laundry, clean my apartment, take the cats to the vet, get my eyes checked...things there was no time to do during the semester.) Ryan and I are going camping on Thursday and to a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Then it's to work for the rest of the summer.

Brainwashed

2011-05-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

How fitting that I should finish a pattern called Brainwash while in the heat of finals. Law school finals are absolute hell and anyone who tells you otherwise has either never taken one or is flat out lying to you... probably because they're trying to recruit you to go to law school. It's a common phenomena among law students to reach a point during finals where you've crammed so much information about the law into your head that you can recite verbatim sections of the united states code, but can no longer perform simple daily tasks or remember things like "bra goes on under the shirt."

In a hopeless attempt to stay sane, I do a lot of knitting during finals. I showed you the front panel of this bag a while ago. Here it is completely knit and assembled pre-felting.

It's pictured next to my criminal law notebook for scale--both are huge. The picture doesn't really covey just how floppy and unstructured the unfelted bag is. I put a book in it and it stretched from hanging at my hip to hitting the floor. After 3 trips through the washing machine (apartment only has front-loaders) and some spot felting by hand to even it out, it looks like this.

It's quite a bit smaller now and much firmer. It can actually have things in it without stretching and becoming completely useless. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted held double because it's cheap... why would you ever felt expensive yarn? The dark green is Forest Heather and the light green is Pampas Heather. Both colors are gorgeous with tons of depth from the heathering (sometimes Knit Picks heathers look pretty solid) and the depth remained even after felting.

This project wasn't that fun to make (maybe that's finals talking) because I found working the intarsia with all the bobbins and dangling ends a pain. Also, since you're knitting on huge needles to help the felting, the project looks like a big holey ugly mess as you're knitting it. I think I would like felting more if I had access to a top loading washing machine (and if I didn't have to pay $1.25 for each wash load.) After the 3rd time through it was mostly felted. I filled up my sink with really hot soapy water on one side and really cold clear water on the other. I used a carpet scrub-brush in the hot soapy water to agitate the spots that hadn't quite felted enough, then dunked the thing in the cold side to "shock" the fibers and help them contract faster. There's no stitch definition left on the bag at all. I love it.

New Top

2011-04-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Finals stress is in really starting to get to me. I've been spending the majority of every day in the library with my corporate tax books... who would have thought it's a complicated subject... (most foolish class choice ever... screw being a well rounded candidate for jobs.) I have been taking my knitting with me every day, and it makes such a difference. My system is to set myself up in a walled off study cubical (the ones by the windows are prime study real estate) spread out all my books on the desk and put my knitting within reach. I work for 45 minutes then I take a 15 minute knitting break. I find the 15 minutes I "lose" knitting gives me time to process the information I've just crammed into my brain and gives me a chance to evaluate whether or not I understand what I've just put in my outline. Go ahead, ask me about §351 nonrecognition exchanges, I dare you.

As a result of all this study knitting (plus my "unwinding" knitting at night) I've completed three projects. This was the first. It took a while to get it onto the blog because I had to wait for a nice enough day to go out and get some picture.

It's my Gamine tank that I showed you half finished a little while ago. Cathy Carron's super easy pattern is in the Summer 2010 Interweave Knits. I knit the pattern almost exactly a written. The only change I made was to hold off on the lace until the top was long enough to go over my pants. I want the option of wearing this in the summer without something underneath it so eyelets all over the belly were less than desirable. I like the lace as just a detail at the bottom.

The yarn is from Yarnia. It's one of the house blends called "Spring" which is a totally appropriate name. It's one strand brown-green cotton-rayon blend, one strand sage green cotton, one strand pale green cotton, two strands lime green merino, and one strand shimmery green lurex. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but this yarn is classified as DK. I think Yarnia yarns tend to run a bit on the thick side, and I find it very easy to knit a Yarnia DK to a gauge more typical of worsted yarns. This picture shows the color particularly accurately.

I was not expecting to have my picture taken... I'm so proud of myself for actually finishing a project in time for it to be seasonable (I've been told spring is coming... I have faith.) Usually I'm just finishing sweaters, mittens, scarves as the 80 degree weather is setting in. This time, my stretchy cotton tank will be ready to go as the temps start to rise.

Other than finishing up knitting projects and spending hours and hours in the library my life is extremely boring right now. I would kill for a few extra hours just to clean my apartment... but it seems that the next two weeks will be too busy.

New Pattern Live!

2011-04-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

My second knitting pattern has been released on Ravelry this week. The Golden Ratio Blanket is available through the ravelry pattern store for $3.50.

This blanket is based on the mathematical golden ratio. It comes in three sizes: Stroller (Crib, Throw) 29.6”x18.3” (48”x29.6”, 77.6”x48”). This blanket is made by starting with the smallest block and picking up stitches to add subsequent blocks. The blanket is finished with an applied I-cord edge. The instructions also include directions for back-stitching or surface crocheting the golden ratio spiral onto the top of the blanket if you wish.

Using size 11(8.0mm) needles and bulky wool, this blanket actually knits up pretty quickly. Great for the math-loving nerd in your life (or a treat for your math-loving-nerdy self.)

The two patterns that I've released can also be found on the "design" tab at the top of the posts. You can purchase them by going to Ravelry and using their checkout system, or by clicking the "buy now" button on the design tab.

Hurry!

2011-04-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I will not be working at Yarnia much longer. For almost a year I've been there on the weekends winding yarn, chatting with customers, and being inspired by the endless possibilities that a shop like Yarnia presents. On the up-side, the reason I'm leaving is because I managed to score a full-time legal clerk job for the summer. Considering that I'm putting myself in an entirely foolish amount of debt to attend this law school thing, it seems like a good idea to start setting myself up for the possibility of a legal career. I'll be in the shop this weekend, then a weekend off while the new person is shown around, then one last weekend as sort of a buffer while the new person transitions to running the show. That means three weeks until I say my final goodbye. It also means three weeks until my employee discount runs out. Not good. I have a project on the go that I'm fairly certain I'm going to run out of yarn on. That project is my Gamine Tank.

The pattern is by Cathy Carron and can be found in the Summer 2010 Interweave Knits (miracle that I'm knitting a pattern from a magazine that's less than a year old... usually patterns have to stew in my queue for quite a while before I make them. I tell myself that this is to ensure that they are not just fashion fads and are actually something I will still want to wear after the current season. This is a lie. I'm just a slow knitter.)

Note to self: learn more words! "Gamine," as it turns out, basically means "girl with a boyish body." That is so not me. Not at all. I have the boob/hip thing in abundance and would call myself a slightly bottom-heavy hourglass. This might end disastrously. As of the picture, the top reached my thinnest part and I have since continued to knit down. I'm hoping to avoid drawing attention to my belly by continuing in plain rib rather than the lace pattern called for in the instructions. I'll add the lace the the last inch or two rather than across the whole belly. I'm hoping this will allow the flattering vertical nature of the ribbing to continue to shine.

I'm not a fan of the whole "take a picture in the mirror" thing but it was well past midnight when I decided my progress needed documentation and I figured neither Ryan nor my brother Adam would like to be pestered into coming over to my place for a photo shoot. I would drive across town a midnight for a knitting photo shoot, but I know not everyone would.

I only have about one ounce of yarn left. I'm certain this is not enough. I'm hoping to finish off what I have before I have to stop working that way I can buy just enough to finish. We shall see. I have a terrible time predicting how much yarn is left on a Yarnia cone. Some times I feel certain that I'm going to run out, that the cone will start to peek through the yarn at any minute, and yet I keep knitting and knitting, and finish my project with yarn to spare. Other times I think I have tons and start wondering what I'll do with all the leftover only to see the cone and get that sudden sinking "ran out of yarn feeling." I'm hoping I will just need 2-3 ounces more to get through the last couple of inches. Who knows.

Law school finals are bearing down on me. My "study" approach so far has been to pretend nothing is wrong and go about my daily routine. Sadly, this means the next four weeks will be "hell weeks" where I kick my own ass and study till my brain leaks onto the floor to make up for all the nothing's-wrong-at-all time I was having earlier in the month when everyone was starting their outlines. This has been my system since the 8th grade. It works for me. I always hate myself the last 4 weeks for letting things get so far behind, push myself to the brink of insanity, tell myself I will be more pro-active in coming semesters, then (once the new semester arrives) I tell myself "well I did fine last semester studying at the last minute, everything will be fine this semester as well." It's one of those cycles where early-in-the-semester-Melanie constantly screws-over end-of-semester-Melanie, and this me never gets to take out any revenge on that me, and so she never learns her lesson. Coincidentally, if you have an outline of Corporate Taxation Law lying around your living room... call me.

2 years, 5 months, 11 days

2011-04-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Did you ever read the Wayside School books as a kid? They were some of my favorite books when I was in the 3rd grade. One of the stories features a girl who draws pictures really fast, faster than everyone in the class. Sadly, a girl who drew slower always got more praise, even though she produced fewer pictures. Complaining to the teacher about never getting praised, the teacher explained to her that when you take your time to produce something, it usually turns out better than something that's been dashed-off with little thought--this is why master painters sometimes devote years of their life to a single work. Leaving to go home for the day, the girl said she would draw a picture of a cat. The teacher said he'd be glad to see it the next day. The girl replied that this would be her masterpiece and she wouldn't even be finished with one whisker.

Upon finishing a pair of socks that have been on the needles for... ~~2 years, 5 months, 11 days~~ quite a while... That old story popped into my head. I had taken... ~~2 years, 5 months, 11 days~~ much longer than average... to knit a project that a normal person could finish in a few weeks (and a fast knitter could finish in under a week.) I'm certainly wouldn't call them a knitting masterpiece, but they're not bad.

The pattern is Small Capitals by Charlene Schurch from the Sensational Knited Socks book. The book is great. It's basically a recipe book. It shows you about 100 different swatches. You pick the one you want. Then the book gives you instructions for a bunch of different gauges/sizes so you can use pretty much any weight of yarn and come up with the right size.

Here is a close up of the pattern. It's a 12 stitch 8 row repeat and I was never really able to memorize the pattern (which may have been why these were left unworked for so long... I had to have the pattern with me at all times.)

(You can also see from the picture that the heel is a little baggy... That's a product of the 12 stitch repeat, not as easy to size because you can't just take out a repeat or two like you can with a 4 or 6 stitch repeat.) The yarn I used is Noro Kureyon Sock. The yarn is everything that the worsted Kureyon is--bold colors, knots that lead to colors in a completely different part in the color repeat, vegetable matter, and a very ~~scratchy~~ rustic feel.

Normally I would never pair a color changing yarn with a texture/lace pattern but the very long color repeats of the Noro allow the pattern to show up anyway. I love the way these socks look. To me they look like scales. Even though the yarn is ~~scratchy~~ rustic they are nice and warm (we still haven't crawled out of the 50s here in Portland) and my feet really aren't that sensitive to the yarn. I'm glad I knit these socks, I think they look great, but I will never knit this pattern again. Ever.

(Yes, that is a dress with pockets. Most awesome article of clothing ever. I want an entire wardrobe of them.)

Intarsia Attempt

2011-04-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Years ago, when I first joined Ravelry, I queued several projects that were "out if my league" seeing as I was a brand new knitter. Looking back at those projects now makes me smile at what I originally thought of a "too hard." Some of my oldest queued patterns are: coronet, multidirectional diagonal scarf, and Bella shawl. Now that I consider myself a seasoned knitter all of these projects seem easily within my skill set.

One of the patterns I queued early on was Brainwash Bag. An felted intarsia bag by Brooke Snow. For Christmas, I got some yarn that I thought would work well for the project so I decided to give it a go.

The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in colorways forest heather (dark green) and pampas heather (light green). The yarn is held double stranded throughout and the project is knit on size 15 needles to facilitate felting.

Working on such big needles is a bit unwieldy even with the yarn held double. This makes the gaps in the intarsia especially prominent. I can't tell if my skills aren't what the should be, or if it's "supposed" to be like this, and all will be taken care of in the washer. The panel above is the front of the bag. I have to make an identical back plus a strap, then sew it all together, then felt it. The panel only takes a few hours because it is knit at such a big gauge. The problem is I have to be seated and focused on the project because of all the intarsia bobbins. I'll be sure to show you the FO once I get it done.

A gift

2011-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

When My mom came to visit Portland in December, she spent Christmas Eve with me at Yarnia since I had to work. While we were there she decided that she wanted to make some special yarn to be knit into a cowl/hood for her friend Nancy who will turn 60 this year. My mom used to be a knitter, but had forsaken the craft for cross stitching years ago (heresy, I know!) When I asked her if she was going to get back into knitting to complete the gift, she said "oh no, I'd have you knit it." Oh. I see. I'll knit it. Great.

This is the yarn my mom created:

It's one strand plum-colored alpaca, one strand pink-purple wool/nylon blend, and one strand lavender rayon. The yarn is very pretty, but I don't think it went with the pattern my mom picked out very well.

The pattern is Wavy Feathers Wimple by Caryll McConnell. It's written for either a fingering or lace weight yarn, I did the fingering weight version. The pattern is not charted, which for me is a bummer, but it could be charted pretty easily if you really need to work from a chart.

I don't think the yarn and pattern go well together because I think the lighter strand of rayon makes the yarn too tweedy to show off the lace pattern.

It also doesn't help that there's really no good way that I can think of to photograph a lacy cowl. It's either laying flat so the double thickness obscures the lace or scrunched up around your neck. If you have suggestions let me know.

This puppy is now taking it's chances with the USPS to get to New Mexico where it can meet it's new owner. The pattern is easy enough to memorize as the majority of it are plain knit rows. I would consider making it again, but I do wish it were charted.

It's done!

2011-04-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

The blanket that I have been working on for Ryan since November is done! Actually, it's been done since March 24 (or so Ravelry tells me, don't you love Ravelry for reminding you of such things?) but I didn't have the energy or time to blog about such a gigantic project immediately since I had an unexpected visit from my dad plus hours of research work dumped on me at the last minute. Anyway, you don't care about that. You're only here to see this:

That blanket is 4 FEET x 6.3 FEET. As you can see, it covers Ryan's entire futon. This monster is so big that I could barely back away from it far enough to get good pictures in Ryan's smallish living room.

(Look in the background of this picture and you can see Lucy the Triceratops who lives on Ryan's bookshelf.) The blanket is a knitted representation of the Golden Ratio, which supposedly produces the most visually pleasing rectangle. The ratio itself appears in nature in lots of ways, tree rings, nautilus shells, even human brain waves. The rectangle is made by organizing squares next to each other in a way that keeps the ratio 1:1.61803398... (That super ugly second number is phi, one of those irrational numbers the like pi or e that basically make the whole world work.) Each square gets smaller and smaller. Mathematically, this shrinking continues infinitely. Since I haven't yet figured out how to knit infinitely small, I had to fudge a bit at the center.

The golden ratio also creates a spiral, which I had originally intended to crochet on the top of the blanket, but Ryan decided he thought the stark geometric look was more his style. I used Swish Bulky yarn from Knit Picks (because I am no fool and knew that if this was ever going to get done I'd have to use bulky yarn.) It's 100% superwash merino wool and it's heavenly soft and squooshy and wonderful to handle, especially in plump garter stitch. The colors I used (from lightest to darkest) were: silver, hawk, stormy, coal. I ended up needing about 2,475 yards of yarn. That's 1.4 MILES! It would take me like 13 minutes of running to get somewhere as far away as the length of the yarn in this blanket.

That's a picture of me sitting on the blanket for perspective, lest you think I found a really tiny futon to throw it over. (Yes the blanket is wrong side up in this picture, Ryan had it like that when I came over. Funny to a knitter it seems like a horrible offense to a giant piece of knitting to have it displayed wrong-side up, but Ryan honestly can't tell the difference. I guess this is a good quality for a blanket which really is better without a wrong side. I'll take it as a compliment to my finishing skills.)

I wrote up a pattern for this beast, and also for two smaller sizes: stroller and crib. They are basically created by knitting fewer of the blocks. My blanket has 7 blocks, crib has 6, and stroller 5. I also included instructions for adding the spiral in case anyone wants the complete math-nerd effect. Right now it's being test-knit by some great Ravelers. When they get their feedback to me I'll publish it via Ravelry and let you all know it's there. You can also check out the Designs tab at the top. Right now the only thing there is Spring Breeze, but I hope to get a few more there shortly.

Love/Hate Hat

2011-03-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

First off, what do you think of the new look? I'm still deciding. It's a much happier look than the old brown. It makes me smile, but doesn't that sort of counteract the grump-theme that is my blog/life? Weigh in.

Second, Spring Breeze, which I introduced to you last time, is live on Ravelry! I debated whether or not to charge for it. Part of me thinks that no one will want such a simple project designed by me, a totally unknown loser-hack. The other part of me got all indignant at those thoughts and told myself that I worked hard to put it together, spent time considering each element, carefully wrote out the instructions, tried to lay them out in a way that would be accessible to any knitter (as opposed to the indecipherable scribbles I knit my test version from), organized a test-knit, charted, graphed, and did math... that's got to be worth something. I settled on $2.

Even if you don't have a Ravelry account, you can buy it by clicking this link and using paypal.

Third, the love/hate hat.

This is my second Jacques Cousteau Hat, the first is here. I hate knitting this hat. The pattern is totally fine, there's nothing wrong with it, it's easy to follow, it's exactly what you'd expect to find from a ribbed hat pattern. The hatred is entirely personal. Also, possibly my fault. Both times I've knit this pattern, which calls for DK weight yarn, I've used worsted weight but continued to use the recommended size 4 needles because I wanted a "dense" fabric... Read "dense" and finger-numbing, wrist-pain inducing, impossibly tight stitches of death. I know, I did it to myself, but it still created an intense feeling of hate.

I knit this one holding two strands of Pattons Kroy Sock held together. The colorway is called "Gentry Grey." I would call it "Nothing-Speical Grey" but maybe that's just the hate from the project carrying over.

The reason this hat holds such sway over more than 2,000 knitters is probably the way the decreases spiral at the top. (That, and it qualifies as "manly.")

The decreases are worked by knitting two stitches then passing one stitch over the other. The stitch that has been passed over then strangles the other stitch making it nearly impossible to knit on the next row. Normally I love doing increases/decreases because they break up the monotony of straight knitting, but I dreaded each of these.

Where is the love? you ask. The hat is for Ryan. He's even modeling it, which is why you get so much hat and so little model in the picture... camera-shy that one. Ryan loves this pattern. I knit it for him once before. He wore it non-stop during the end of winter/beginning of spring last year, then sadly lost it just as fall was turning to winter this year. (Yes, I totally still measure my time in school years. I can't comprehend the beginning of the year being in January, my new years start in September thank you very much. Such is the life of a perpetual student.) He was very sad about the loss. To cheer him up I went to the stash, dug out some more gray yarn and cast on. There's the love. I hate this pattern, but Ryan's a pretty wonderful dude and I knit it for him again and again. (With a bit of under-breath muttering.)

My first pattern!

2011-03-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all. I'm really excited to show you this today! It's the first pattern I've designed! I call it Spring Breeze Shawl.

I designed it because Yarnia is going to start offering a class on knitting triangle shawls and I'm going to teach it. I can't tell you how excited I am about this! (Though the exclamation points might be giving you a clue.) I kept the pattern mostly stockinette because the class will be focusing on basic construction elements. This would be a great first shawl/lace pattern because it's geared toward beginners.

This sample will be living at Yarnia, hopefully generating interest in the class. It was knit from less than one cone of one of the Yarnia house blends called Noni. The yarn is two strands gray merino, two strands soft almost-white-but-really-seafoam-green merino, one strand lavender rayon, and one strand lurex to give it a little sparkle.

I'm currently looking for people to test knit the pattern, so if you're interested leave me a comment and I'll shoot you a free copy of the pattern for you to check my work. It takes ~ 350 yards of fingering weight yarn (any cone of Yarnia sock yarn should work) and size 8 needles. The finished shawl is about 48" wide by 22" deep. I think the big swath of plain knitting would be good for variegated yarn because the stitch counts across the row change so fast it should combat pooling and the lace at the bottom is simple enough that it wouldn't be overpowered by a strong yarn.

Once this has been tested and I'm fairly sure there are no glaring mistakes I'll put it up on ravelry and come back and add a real life pattern link. SQUEE!

Backpack project

2011-03-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

I like to keep a very simple project in my backpack all the time. That way if I have a weird half hour block of time that's not really good for working, I can pull it out and get some knitting done. (Or if I'm really stressed, I can blow off steam knitting in lieu of studying, which strangely enough does reduce the stress.) These backpack projects take a long time to complete because they only get a little work done on them at a time, they usually only get worked on on school days, and I don't have spare time every school day. My last backpack project was Ryan's blue beanie and it took about a month and a half to finish. Here is my new backpack project:

Please ignore the chipped toenail polish, it has not been sandal weather and so I have not been vigilant. It's a plain sock in a Yarnia house blend called Boylston. This is an extremely popular house blend. It's one strand of navy bamboo (50%), one strand of navy merino and one strand of bright blue merino (27%), and one strand of gray alpaca (23%). As you can see it makes a great dark heathered blue and is a color that could totally be used to make man things. (I usually tag plain socks with the Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe pattern, even though I don't really "follow" it, I just make a sock. Cast on a number of stitches that seems reasonable, knit some ribbing, knit until I think the leg is long enough, flap heel, gusset, knit until 2" before toes, shape toes. Since this is basically what the Yarn Harlot pattern is, I tag it for convenience.)

I have several requirements for backpack projects.
1) It must be small enough to fit in the front pouch of my backpack.
2) It must not require me to look at a pattern, read a chart, or count rows/stitches.
3) It must be a pattern I can knit without looking; this includes garter stitch, stockinette stitch, ribbing, and things like seed/moss stitch which are basically just ribbing so long as you know where to start.
4) There can't be any shaping, and I should not have to pay attention to what row I'm on.

Given these criteria some projects can go from being backpack projects to not at various stages. A project may start out small enough to be a backpack project then grow too big. Ryan's blanket was once a backpack project, now it takes up my whole living room floor. A project may have a pattern or shaping only a certain times. This project was in my backpack for the whole leg, but had to come out until the heel and gusset were finished because that involved counting rows and paying attention to decrease placement. Now they'll stay in the backpack until it's time to shape the toe. Do you have a take-everywhere project?

Quickie (HA!) scarf

2011-03-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

This scarf is supposed to be really quick to crochet. I think for a normal crocheter it would be pretty quick... I'm on the slow side. I also think that for a slowish crocheter who practices some degree of project monogamy it would be quick. Monogamy (toward fiber projects) is ~~impossible~~ not my strong suit. So here is my quickie scarf, completed in just under three months.

The patter, which is super easy, is here on the Yarnia blog. I used on cone of a Yarnia house blend called Union. It is comprised of one strand of honey brown plushy rayon chenille, one strand of shimmery gold rayon, and two strands of honey brown wool. I just worked until I didn't have enough yarn to do another full repeat. (I know it's the kind of pattern that you can stop in the middle of a repeat, but that just feels weird.)

This give a pretty accurate picture of the depth of color the three different materials/colorways give the finished project. This scarf is super plushy due to the combination of the chenille and the natural plumpness of crochet. Sadly, while just a few weeks ago we had freezing temps, the weather has warmed here (of course it got warm, I just finished a scarf) and I don't know if I will get to wear this before next winter... I'm always finishing projects such that I get to wear them the season after I finish them, never right away. Sigh.

Damson

2011-03-10T18:03:00.002-08:00

This project was very nearly frogged back into a pile of kinky and forlorn yarn. Not because it's not pretty. Look at it!

This is Damson by Ysolda Teague. Her patterns are so adorable. I've also made her Ishbel shawl (who hasn't.) The yarn is String Theory Caper Sock in colorway Didgeridoo. This yarn is a luscious 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon blend. And the colors, as you can see, are amazingly deep and complex.

Why then, you ask, would I come so close to frogging this? Because I ran out of yarn on the second to last row. You see, the patterns calls for one skein of Malabrigo sock yarn. I took this to mean that any 100g of fingering weight sock yarn should be sufficient. WRONG. Malabrigo Sock has 440 yards per skein. Caper Sock has 400 yards per skein. Those 40 yards matter. Don't be arrogant! If you are making this pattern, make sure you have all yardage required.

How is it that I managed to finish, you ask. Did I lay down $25 for another skein? No. That would, in effect, make this a $50 scarf, and I'm not OK with that. I went on ravelry and looked at all the projects that had been made with this yarn. Then I narrowed the search to just this colorway. Then I contacted people who had recently completely projects with this colorway and begged for their yarn scraps. CraftyPancakes totally came through for me. She made these super cute socks and had some leftovers, which she kindly sent me. It was just enough to get me to the end. I love her this week.

Here it is all pinned out. I mostly wear it like in the second picture--wide part in front, tails pulled around the back and hanging down the front. It's so soft and squooshy that I love having it up against my neck/face. It even smells good (that may be the SOAK.)

I just think this picture's pretty.

Yarn Crawl part 2

2011-03-09T15:16:00.003-08:00

Yesterday I covered the first 6 stops on my adventure participating in the Portland Yarn Crawl, today you get to hear about the last 6. This should be a shorter post since as the day went on I had to move faster through the shops... believe it or not there is such a thing as wool-overload and by the end of the day I definitely had it.

Stop 7: Make One in Milwaukie, OR (yes Wisconsinite friends out here they spell it with ie instead of ee, it drove me nuts the whole first year I was here.) The yarn selection here was extremely picked over by the time I got here (around 3:00) I don't know how the managed to get through the whole weekend unless they were rationing their stock.

Make One does happen to be one of the stores that was chosen by Knit Picks to carry the Knit Picks needles--apparently KP is testing out having their needles carried by LYSs. This is awesome! I often feel like I want more cables or a certain needle tip size but don't want to pay for shipping on such a small order. I got nickle-plated tips in size 7 and 8 and more 24" cords. I also picked up the KP needle sizer. No pictures of those, go to the KP site if you really need to see what their needles look like. (I am not responsible for any money you spend if you click that link.)

Stop 8: Pico Accuardi Dye Works. This isn't actually a shop in the strictest sense. It's the studio where two local dyers create amazing hand-dyed yarn and roving which they sell on consignment through other local shops. For the crawl they opened up the studio (and offered 20% off everything purchased there) for knitters to come see their workspace. I bought this roving.

It had no label (that freshly dyed!) so I can't tell you what it's officially called. I've been calling in Blueberry because that's what it reminds me of. It's 4 oz. of 100% Blue Faced Leicester roving. It's so fluffy! Sometimes roving comes all squished down and dense from the dying process that you have to fluff it up and pre-draft a bit before it's easy to spin. This feels like I can pop it on the wheel and begin.

Stop 9: Knit/Purl. I don't love Knit Purl. They carry some good lines (they have the Brooklyn Tweed Shelter!) but it's in the Pearl District (which is sort of a fancy boutique-y neighborhood near downtown Portland) and I usually feel like my smaller purchases are frowned on--like I should always be buying $100s in yarn. Really, I would if I could, but you don't need to ask me "Is this all for today?" while looking down your nose at my single skein of sock yarn, then rolling your eyes when I say yes. It's a yarn crawl for goodness sake! I went to twelve shops! How much do you want me to spend in your shop before you are nice to me?! Here's the offending single skein.

It's Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in colorway Grove. It's that scummy yellow-green-brown that I seem to have been obsessed with on Friday. Lest you think I'm nuts, this one is more green, the Smooshy from yesterday is more yellow and the Eco + from yesterday doesn't have the "scum" quality... that makes them all completely different.

(You might be thinking: Why if you know you don't like Knit/Purl and they have *&^$%# customer service, did you go there and spend money? The raffle baskets that's why. I wanted my shot at a giant basket stuffed full of yarn-y goodness. As for why I spent the money, it IS a yarn store. When you walk in it's full of yarn. The desire to have the yarn competes mightily with the desire to shun the business. It's hard for me to feel bitter around that much wool. It's only after leaving the shop that the rudeness hits me and I realize that, while it is full of yarn, I don't like those people and can get equally good yarn elsewhere. I figure I won't be back till next year's yarn crawl so it's not like I'm the one keeping them open.)

Stop 10: Urban Fiber Arts. This is the only shop (that I've found) with a truly GOOD selection of spinning materials. They also carry yarn--really nice yarn--but I love them for the spinning selection. I got some fiber. This is the last of my fiber purchases from the day. I spin even more slowly than I knit so this should hold me for quite a while.

This is Black Trillium Fibre Studio Blue Faced Leicester Roving. The colorway is called Emerald City. If you know of my obsession with the Wizard of Oz, you know that once I saw the name of the color I could not resist it. I've never actually spun with BFL (though my collection is growing) I basically went from Targhee to a Merino/Silk blend and a Merino/Yak blend. It will be interesting trying to go back to a long-staple fiber.

Stop 11: Dublin Bay Knitting Company. This store has a lot of luscious fibers and lots of good crisp rustic wool that makes you feel like you should be knitting ski sweaters or a gansey. It's not the most budget friendly shop though, you're pretty much looking at laying down over $100 for a bigger project (there is NOTHING wrong with this, I would do it all the time if I could, I just can't... pout.) I did manage to find these though:

That's Frog Tree Merino Worsted. The first one is colorway Charcoal, the second is Teddy. This is a single-ply merino. I'm thinking it will make good hats (I have a man who loves beanies) or fingerless mitts for me. Most of my yarn tends to be very colorful so adding some neutrals to the mix is a good thing.

Stop 12: For Yarn's Sake. I love this shop. I go here all the time. It's dangerous that it is literally right down the road from me. The customer services was a bit dodgy at first (I think I get more bad service than most people because I am young and sometimes where a big hoop nose ring... maybe some people think that makes me look unknitterly... I think this is Portland and I look way more conservative that many local crafters. The shop is in Beaverton though, so maybe they don't get the full brunt of the eclectic Portland crowd.) Now that I've been going there for quite a while they know me and are great. They always check in on what I'm working on, ask me what I'm planning, and remember what I said I was working on the last time I was there.

This is Nashua's Best Foot Forward sock yarn. The color is called summer sunset. It's from the color line designed by Kristin Nicholas. It looks nice and fallish, totally appropriate for knit socks. I showed Ryan and he said "ew" and threw the ball. I think you have to have a certain personality type to like pea green.

This bit of magic is Fleece Artists Peter Rabbit in colorway Ivory. It's exactly as fluffy and amazing and squishably soft as it looks. I made the fatal mistake of brushing past this on my way to the sock yarn and as soon as it touched my bare arm it was over. I picked it up and didn't put it down. I had a hard time handing it over so that it could be rung up... what if the sales lady felt it and decided not to give it back? She did. Now it's mine and I have to puzzle over just the right project for it. It has to be perfect.

The best for last. (It was really hard to decide if this beat the Peter Rabbit, but I think it does by the tiniest photo-finish-type margin.) This is String Theory Caper Sock in color Tavikki. I just finished my Damson (I will blog it soon) out of this yarn in a different colorway. This yarn is amazing to work with. It has amazing stitch definition. It's sproingy and wonderful in that way that only wool is. It's super soft from the merino/cashmere. The colors are so rich and deep. It smells good. It blocks amazingly. In shawl-form it drapes amazingly.

I would compose a love letter to this yarn if I wasn't afraid someone would have me locked up. (Also, it might start some insane conservative vitriol about how if we go around allowing gay marriage, the next thing you know, crazies in Portland will be demanding to marry their yarn and we don't want to start down such a slippery slope... I am related to many of these whacked people, I know how they reason. Better not to give them any ammunition.)

Portland Yarn Crawl

2011-03-08T20:44:00.004-08:00

This past weekend was the Portland Yarn Crawl. It's exactly what it sounds like--a bunch of crazed knitters hopping from yarn shop to yarn shop and getting drunk on yarny-goodness. There were 20 (yes TWENTY!) yarn shops in the greater Portland that participated this year. The point was to try to get to all the shops in one weekend. Each shop had a basket full of awesome goodness that they raffled off (no, I didn't win) and most of the shops had special sales and door prizes going on as well.

I had to work at Yarnia (it was packed!) on Saturday and Sunday so I had to get all my crawling done on Friday. I hit TWELVE shops in one day. It was amazing! There was so much yarn (and I bought bunches of it) and so many knitters. If you don't want to see what I got, stop reading. This post is all about the new stash I acquired.

Stop 1: The Naked Sheep. I got this bag. I can't believe how cute it is. I love the color, I love the sheep, it's wonderful. The shop was small, and the selection was small, and this bag is blatant advertising for the shop (which was only a mediocre shop) it's so cute that I just don't care if I lead people there unintentionally, at least they can get a super cute bag.

And this Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama (it's so soft!) I'm thinking a slouchy beret type hat. Or a cowl. I don't know. I think Alpaca is super soft on the skein but next to my skin sometimes it drives me nuts. Since llamas seem pretty close to alpaca a cowl might be risky. We shall see, I may throw caution to the wind.

Stop 2: Close Knit. I got this yarn. It is called BFF B Sock. The color is called Anzu (which means apricot.) It is hand-dyed by a woman in Vancouver, WA (just across the river from Portland) and it's so springy and happy and it was a gray drizzly day and I could not let go of this yarn once I picked it up. The dyer was there and I chatted with her and she was wonderful and you should check out her etsy shop.

I also got this Malabrigo, colorway Cypress. It's malabrigo, do I need to justify this purchase any further? Ryan has already claimed it as "beanie yarn" (the man loves beanies). It's greener than it looks in the picture--basically a black-green (such colors can't normally exist but in Malabrigo they can.)

Close Knit is one of those yarn shops that's stuffed with yarn. There's so much yarn that there's not much room for people (especially on a day where all knitters in the greater Portland area are out hunting yarn) It's all the way across town from me, but if I lived closer I would probably stop by to pet the yarn frequently, it's basically jumping out begging to be petted.

Stop 3: Gossamer. This isn't what I would call a "yarn shop" in the strictest sense. It's more of a "craft shop." It's got a little bit of everything. I do mean a little bit. Very small selection. They do have fiber though and there are not that many shops that carry spinning fiber (which is weird since it feels like there are a ton of spinners in Portland.) I was one of the first 20 customers so I got this skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece as a door prize. It's a good thing I like pink. I think I'm going to make one of the Rebecca Danger Monsters with it.

I bought this fiber. It's 3 little 1.5 oz batts of corriedale wool in a natural-undyed brown. I'm going to try to spin it for socks. We shall see if I can make a nice Navajo-plied 3-ply.

Stop 4: Twisted. The sock yarn wall is pretty impressive (it is an entire wall covered in luscious hand-dyed sock yarn.) Maybe this store has just been so built up by all the ravelry hype about it, but I was sort of disappointed. I was expecting some sort of knitting Mecca based on the way I've heard this store described by adoring patrons, but really I didn't think it was any more special than some of the other perfectly wonderful shops I hit. That didn't stop me from picking something off the sock yarn wall though. This is Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway Strange Harvest. I'm always so drawn to this scummy yellow-green-brown color. I think it's pretty and ugly at the same time.

Stop 5: Happy Knits. Easily my favorite stop on the crawl. This really is a happy place. It's a very good thing I don't live closer--they only carry the pricey stuff. Here I got Stephen West's new pattern book. West Knits Book Two. I also spent about 15 minutes gushing with the man behind the counter about how awesome Stephen West is and how amazing his patterns are. Oh, and I bought this.

A cardigan's worth of Cascade Eco + in colorway Butternut Squash. Can you see what kind of a color mood I was in on Friday?

Stop 6: Yarn Garden. I've decided I don't really like Yarn Garden. This is the second time that I've been there, and each time the shop has felt very unwelcoming. That didn't stop me from buying something though. This is... I'm not quite sure, the label is in German. It seems to say Järbo Garn Gästrike 1-ply. I can tell that it is 100% wool and that it is 600 meters of laceweight.

That is half of my adventure. I will post about the second half later in the week. If you found this post incredibly dull, don't bother reading that one either.

Test Knit Mitts

2011-03-03T11:16:00.002-08:00

In February I was given the great privilege of being able to test-knit Anna Sudo's new pattern Spiral Staircase Mitts. The pattern is exceptionally well written. Even though the pattern is intuitive after the first few rounds, Anna has each round carefully written out so that if you think you might be lost (or if you are constantly picking up and setting down projects like I am) you can easily find exactly where you are. Here are the palms of the mitts.

As you can see, these are long mitts, that go about halfway up the forearm. The 1x1 twisted ribbing is slowly replaced with stockinette in a spiral created with simple YOs and decreases. (As usual, the Portland spring has supplied no sunshine for picture taking so you get nasty inside fluorescent light photos.) The spiral continues around to the back of the hand and stops under your pinkie finger.

One of the things I really like about these mitts is how far up your fingers they go (especially for me since I have small fingers.) It provides maximum warmth while still allowing your fingers to be free. I did find that it was hard to type while wearing them because they don't allow your fingers to spread out far enough, but my solution to this was to simply fold the top down while typing.

One of the things I don't really like about these mitts is that the YOs on the left mitt make very large holes, whereas the YOs on the right mitt make very small almost invisible holes. I think this is because on one mitt they are placed before the decrease and on one mitt they are placed after the decrease. I don't really like holes in my mitts (seems impractical to me) so If I made these again, I would probably correct this by doing all the increases with a backward-loop M1 which would produce no holes at all.

My mitts are made from Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in colorway Bittersweet Heather which looks black in some lights and brown in others. It's leftover from the Into the Woods kit. I decided that I'm not making the mitts that came with the kit, so the extra yarn will be cannibalized as attractive projects present themselves. I used 1.5 skeins for these mitts.

New Beanie

2011-03-02T15:56:00.003-08:00

Not too long ago I ordered a skein of hand-painted sock yarn that I thought looked pretty awesome online. When I got it, it was much less impressive in person than it had looked online. Ravelry to the rescue, I just went to the Knit Picks board (it was one of the Knit Picks handpainted colorways) and offered up my skein for a comparable amount of sock yarn in a different color. I was offered one of the discontinued kettle-dyed colors and made the swap.

Ryan was around when the new skein arrived and fell instantly in love with the color. Basically as soon as it was out of the envelope he was asking me if I could make a beanie for him using it. This is the result.

Ryan is blog-shy so only his forehead is appearing today. The pattern is Ski Beanie by Terra Jamieson and is in the Son of Stitch 'n Bitch book. The yarn is Knit Picks Essential Kettle-Dyed (discontinued) in color Jay.

Ryan flips the bottom of the hat up to have a folded brim. I would wear this type of hat like this to get maximum ear coverage:

Please excuse the crappy webcam photo, the angle makes my head look huge, and the lighting is terrible, but the point is, the hat also works as a no-brim beanie as well.

I altered the patter quite a bit since it's written to be knit flat and in DK weight and I wanted it to be knit in the round in fingering weight. I cast on enough stitches for 5 extra pattern repeats (as the hat is decreased in 5 sections) and dropped my needle down to a size 1 for the 1x1 ribbing and 1.5 for the body of the hat. (Side note: it takes FOREVER to knit a hat out of fingering weight yarn on size 1 needles. At least it feels like forever when you're used to the speed of a worsted weight beanie that can be worked up in an evening.)

Since this is a super simple two-row pattern is was easy to change the rows that originally would have been wrong-side rows into right-side rows for knitting in the round. I followed the decrease directions as written except that I had one extra pattern repeat between each marker so I had to do more decrease rounds.

This in-progress picture really shows off the kettle-dyed nature of the yarn. I was worried at first because it looked like I hadn't made it wide enough, but I blocked it over a balloon (the BEST way to block hats!) and it loosened up nicely and fits wonderfully now. Ryan has confessed that on the 1-10 scale of warmness it's only about a 3 (um yeah, it's fingering weight) but on the 1-10 scale of looking-good it's an 8. I know most of the credit goes to the awesome color of the yarn, but as the knitter I'm claiming that 8 for myself.

Hardly worth mentioning

2011-02-20T16:10:00.002-08:00

Today I am sick. Apparently a super nasty flu has been floating around Portland. Right now, I just feel like I have a head cold, but I have been feeling increasingly worse as the day goes on... let's hope that now that I am in bed with some good tea that this is as bad as it gets and it doesn't escalate into the death-bug that so many others have had this winter.

That is why this will be a quick post to show you a little project that doesn't need much explanation (or deserve much praise).

It's a crocheted pot holder. It's made from di. Ve Fiamma which is a super bulky think-thin wool. I didn't use a pattern, just the instructions for crocheting in the round from the Stitch n' Bitch Happy Hooker book. It's felted a bit. I put it through one wash cycle which shrunk it about 15%, though most of the stitch definition is still there. Now it is slightly firmer making it more suitable for it's purpose. Here it is before felting/shrinking... Can you see the difference?

My brother has been using an old t-shirt as a pot holder/oven mitt for a while, so I gave this to him when he moved to his new apartment as a housewarming gift. He said the blue made it a sufficiently masculine pot holder to warrant a place in his kitchen, though he expressed his desire that if I make another it incorporate dinosaurs in some way. If I didn't have so many other projects on the needles right now, I might step up to the challenge.

What's on the needles Wednesday

2011-02-16T15:14:00.003-08:00

Possibly by participating in Kerry's What's on the Needles Wednesday I will be sufficiently kicked in the butt to finish something. Therefore, this Wednesday, the project on my needles is this:

That is Ryan's blanket. Right now it's just over 4' x 4' but it needs 20" more of black before it's finished. I try to devote one hour to it a day, but some days I just can't bring myself to garter for that long.

It's based on the golden ratio rectangle. When it's finished, it will have a big red spiral surfaced crocheted onto the top.

Lotus

2011-02-01T22:21:00.005-08:00

I have recently been expanding my hat wardrobe. I have decided that hats go with most of my casual day to day wear and are a great way to 1) stay warm and 2) cover up a bad hair day. My newest addition to my hat wardrobe is this.

It's the Lotus Hat by UptownPurl and it can be found free on her blog. It's a very simple 8 row zig-zag lace repeat that makes beautiful vine-like motifs running up the hat.

I made a few changes to the pattern as written but they were so minor and mostly based on other ravelers' suggestions. I did the 1x1 ribbing as twisted rib instead of normal. I did the ribbing for 10 rows instead of 6. I knit 4 repeats of the pattern before decreasing instead of 3 to make it come down over my ears. That's all. Not minor changes, but worth mentioning if you want your hat to look "just" like this one.

This is the hat blocking over a balloon... my new favorite way to block hats. A bag of balloons was less that $2 at Target (in the area with the birthday wrapping paper) and it's so much faster than blocking by laying flat. I just blew up a balloon to 21" circumference and put the hat on it. No having to constantly flip the hat to make sure both sides are drying, no having to rotate how the hat is laying so that it doesn't dry with a crease, AND it drys 3x as fast because the wet layers aren't sitting on top of each other keeping the moisture in.

The best part of the hat is the crown where the decreases make the vines spiral together beautifully.

I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in colorway Black Forest. According to my yarn scale, this took 50.5 g of yarn, so just a bit over half a skein. This was leftover from my earlier Botanic hat, where I used it as the secondary color, and even after both hats I still have 33 g left. I'm thinking I will just be able to squeeze a short pair of fingerless mitts out of it.

Action shot! Also, a picture of my fuzzy mitts from last post where they can be seen in actual use... and in sunlight no less. Much thanks to the Portland weather gods for sending a bit of sunshine our way.

Warm hands, warm heart

2011-01-27T21:52:00.003-08:00

My grandma always says "warm hands, warm heart" which I think means that having warm hands is proof that you are a "warm-hearted" person. This does not bode well for me because my fingers are always cold. Recently I've been craving a pair of fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm and still allow me to use my computer (my school says they're being "green" by keeping the classrooms freezing cold, but I suspect is has more to do with being cheap...) I was in my LYS, and they had a sample of this simple pattern, and it stole my heart.

This pattern is Brushed Suri Mitts by Merri Fromm. I used the exact yarn called for Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri. The yarn is 67% baby Suri alpaca, 22% merino, and 11% bamboo. It's a halo yarn like Kid Silk Haze from Rowan or Suri Dream from Knit Picks. There is a "core" to the yarn that fuzzy alpaca fluffs out from. The pattern only takes about 75% of a skein.

It's not super clear from my bad photos (we had a week of gloom w/ no natural light at all when I took them, now that the sun has returned I should go outside and take some more) but one mitt is actually about an inch shorter than the other. That is because after you knit the thumb gusset you are supposed to knit straight for 10 rounds before actually separating the thumb... I forgot to do this on the second mitt. I love this bunches, so I bought another skein and I will make one long (correct) mitt and one short (leaving out the 10 rows) then then have a pair for myself and a pair that I can give away (or a backup).

This photo is blurry, but it shows the halo coming off the gloves well. I was worried that I would find them itchy because of the high alpaca content and because of the halo, but they're pretty much the softest most comfortable thing ever and I wear them all the time.

You've been flashed

2011-01-17T10:56:00.003-08:00

You've just been stash-flashed. That is a giant pile of all the yarn I own as of the new year. Actually, it's not all the yarn I own because there is still some at my parents' house in New Mexico that has never made it up to me...

I decided that my previous stash organization of "shove yarn in closet or under bed" was not working so well because when I wanted to work from stash I had to comb the apartment looking for the skeins I wanted all with added uncertainty because the yarn might actually be in the New Mexico stash.

I decided to take action. I pulled out every skein of yarn in my apartment and piled it on the floor to survey.

Then I organized it by weight into big plastic tubs. In the end I filled four 66 gallon tubs plus one and a bit of two 45 gallon tubs. I would like to say that this experience has staved me off of ever buying yarn again, but it has not... There is a Knit Picks order on its way to me as we speak... In my defense, two of the skeins coming are needed to finish a project that I underestimated yardage needs for (and the other 15 were being clearanced.)

If you would like a detailed accounting of what exactly is in my stash, my ravelry stash is completely up to date as of last night.

Adam's Hat, part 2

2011-01-05T14:52:00.004-08:00

Before Christmas, I showed you the hat that I was working on to give to my brother Adam, but it wasn't very far along. I managed to finish it, even with law school finals happening all the way up until December 23rd and my family arriving and needing entertainment on the 23rd... (that is a rant in itself that you're likely uninterested in.) The 24th I finished the last of the seaming, and voila:

One silly hat for Adam. The hat was a kit from Knit Picks called "Into the Woods" and it's still available as of this post, but is "last chance." The yarn used is Red and Bittersweet Heather Wool of the Andes for the main colors and Oyster Heather Wool of the Andes and Natural Suri Dream for the inner ear flap. The Suri Dream is carried along with the Wool of the Andes to make the ear flap fuzzy and soft.

Like most of the Knit Picks patterns I've encountered this one has, what I would consider, too many spelling, grammar, and technical errors for a pattern that is paid for. Also, for the earflap, the pattern is completely unhelpful. The ear flap has to be knit back and fourth. Rather than cutting the yarn and moving it I just used it from where it was. Sometimes this meant knitting a row with the red, then needing to do a bittersweet heather row but the yarn wasn't on the end of the fabric to set up a purl row... in these cases I just went back to where I started (you must have a circular needle to do this) and knit a second row rather than cutting the yarn and moving it to the other side to do a purl row.

The pattern makes a huge hat (I knit to pattern gauge) that sits up really high, sort of like Elmer Fudd's hat. I could never see wearing this hat for anything other than using it as some sort of prop, or trying to win a silly hat contest... Adam is all dressed up in these pictures because they were taken Christmas day and we're about to go to a dinner party. He wore the hat through most of the party.

Interesting Construction

2010-12-18T12:33:00.002-08:00

I love projects that have interesting construction. Things knit on the bias like the Delancey Cardigan; things folded origami-style to get the finished object like the Baby Surprise Jacket; Things knit sideways like the spread spectrum socks... Coming up with a cool new colorwork or cable pattern is awesome, but coming up with a whole new way to make something is particularly amazing to me. That's why I loved knitting up the Kinetic Cowl over the past week.

The pattern is by Amy Polcyn and it's in the Winter 2010 Interweave Knits.This has a very fun construction. It's knit in one 116 inch strip and then the strip is seamed together in a big coil to make the cowl. The strip is only 8 stitches wide (and knit on the bias!), so I found that I could knit about a foot while watching a 1-hour TV show. Knitting this was great for working on at Yarnia because it was easy to pick up and put down as customers needed help.

The yarn is Coos Bay from Yarnia 72% Bamboo/Nylon 28% Wool. The bamboo/nylon has really long color repeats, making it a great choice for this project. My cowl ended up a lot drapier than one pictured because of the bamboo. It makes a nice fall/spring cowl, but it wouldn't be good for the really cold temps. Also, if you make this pattern, be sure to crochet very very loosely when you do the seams, otherwise you'll never get it over your head. I thought I was being very loose, but it was still a tight squeeze until I steamed it.

Happy Holidays!

Adam's Christmas present

2010-12-11T01:26:00.002-08:00

My brother Adam does not read my blog, so it's totally safe to show you this. My brother is 20 and loves ridiculous hats. I've made him some pretty great ones over the years. This is the progress on the one I'm working up for Christmas this year.

This came as a kit called "In to the Woods" from Knit Picks. The kit creates a Elmer Fudd type hunting hat with brim and ear flaps as well as a matching pair of convertible mittens. The kit comes with 4 balls of Wool of the Andes (100% Peruvian Wool) in Red, 2 balls of Wool of the Andes in Bittersweet Heather, 1 ball of Wool of the Andes in Oyster Heather, and 1 ball of Suri Dream (74% Alpaca, 22% Wool, 4% Nylon) in Natural. The Suri Dream is a halo-y yarn that is super soft and it is carried along with a strand of the Wool of the Andes to line the earflap of the hat and the hoods of the mittens.

I don't think this kit sold very well (I got it on sale) because I can't see many people wearing this in any serious fashion-y sort of way. It works really well for my silly hat needs though, so I'm glad it was offered. I'll make sure to post a pic of it being modeled after Christmas.

Away from home project

2010-12-10T00:51:00.003-08:00

This spindling was started some time ago, but until now I haven't had a chance to show it to you because it lives at Ryan's house.

It's amazing fiber. It's from Abstract Fibers and it's 50% Merino 50% Yak. It's super super super (did I say super) extra soft. The colorway is "solid green" though I'm sure you can tell from the picture that it's beautifully kettle-dyed and anything but solid.

This lives at Ryan's (in my cupboard, I have a cupboard, I can keep anything I want in it, so naturally... fiber) so that I always have something to do when those inevitable timing snafus pop up. I'm a much more patient loving forgiving girlfriend if I can sit and spin while waiting for something. Especially if I'm hungry, if I'm waiting and I'm hungry, fibery things are the best way to stave off the Grumpasaurous Rex I can become (i think that might translate to "grumpy king of the lizards" which makes me smile.)

This fiber blend has been difficult for me. It does not have a long staple at all so I've had to try to adjust to shorter drafting, but there have been many dropped spindles in the process. You probably can't tell from the photo, but the spinning is actually pretty consistent despite my challenges. As you can see from the picture, I have quite a lot of fiber left to practice with.

Finally

2010-12-05T22:48:00.003-08:00

I finally cast off a project that has been on the needles for almost 18 months last night. I started my Mojo socks (pattern by Donyale Grant) when I fist moved into my apartment in August 2009. I got past the heel (they're knit toe-up) of the first one and it sat forever. Then I decided to buckle down and finish them in the spring. I made pretty good progress, got through the first sock and most of the way through the second. Then, for no reason, I stopped working on them.

This is how they sat for almost six months. They're so close to done! Usually when I get so close to the end of a project I get caught up in cast-off excitement and plow through to the end but not this time. They just sat. Finally, I pulled them out yesterday and knit the last 30-ish rows that were left.

The yarn I used was Regia Silk 4-Ply, which is 55% wool, 25% nylon, and 20% silk. They're black so as to be manly and also function as dress socks. The yarn is buttery soft to the touch, but it pills like crazy. It started pilling on the ball just from being taken in and out of my knitting bag. I probably won't use it again. Most pilling doesn't bother me, and I'm quite comfortable using my sweater stone, but this was truly excessive.

The bind off on the first sock seemed tight (Ryan was able to get it over his foot but he did comment on its tightness) so I bound off the second one useing Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off which is exceptionally stretchy, but that's why the two cuffs look different. JSSBO has sort of a ruffly look to it... Ryan didn't seem to notice at all so maybe it's just something only detectable to the knitterly eye.

I made these complete opposites. One toe is knit side out, the other is purl side out. The sock with the knit toe has a purl heel and the one with the purl toe has a knit heel. This means not only can each sock be worn on either foot, they can also be warn inside out. I'm hoping this will make them last longer since the wear will be distributed differently depending on how they are worn.

Happy 5th night of Hanukkah.

3.5 hour hat

2010-12-02T10:23:00.002-08:00

Recently, Ryan misplaced his Cousteau hat that I made him last winter. He felt very bad and was very grumpy when he realized it had gone missing. I maintain that it is somewhere hiding in my tremendously messy apartment (no time for cleaning until after finals) but he's convinced that it's gone for good. Since we've been having sub-freezing temperatures on a regular basis here, I decided that until it turns up, he needed a replacement to keep his ears warm.

This is Close Knit Waffle Hat by by Leah Bandstra. The pattern is free and can be found by following that link. The pattern calls for bulky yarn and size 10 needles so it knits up very quickly, 3.5 hours in one night for me (while carrying on conversation and watching TV.) The pattern has a short and long option, and I chose to make the long because I prefer hats that completely cover my ears (probably should have consulted Ryan's preferences rather than my own, but he hasn't said anything about it's length and this way I can borrow it if need be...)

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Bulky in the color Hawk which was leftover from the blanket I'm making for Ryan. It is a 100% superwash wool. I love this yarn, it's so soft and squooshy. It does have ugly matted joins maybe once a hank though... I wish they would just tie knots instead of trying to do felted joins on superwash yarn, but at least they can be easily cut out and there's never more than one per hank.

Ryan does wear this, but he did inform me that it's "borderline girly." I never would have thought that a gray beanie would seem particularly girly, but I've been told that the texture of the hat seems to make it less manly... I showed him a picture of a cabled hat and he told me that it was "girly" as well, so I think he's adverse to pretty much all texture other than plain ribbing. If the Cousteau hat doesn't turn up in the post finals cleaning I'll cast on a new one (in gray again...) so that Ryan can have a hat he's truly happy with rather than one that just meets the minimum requirements of being warm (and gray.)

Pushing boundaries

2010-11-30T11:57:00.002-08:00

Generally, I would say that I'm not a superstitious person. I have, on occasion, been accused of treating the scientific method as a religion in itself. However, there is one superstition that I absolutely do believe in: the sweater curse. For those of you not familiar with the sweater curse, the basic premise is that if you knit a sweater for a man (or woman) you are not currently engaged to/married the relationship will end shortly thereafter. A couple of years ago, foolish young me knit a sweater, and a couple of months after it was finished, relationship over. I'm a believer.

So far, in my experience, it's only sweaters that are cursed. I've had no problems with socks, mittens, hats, scarves... They don't seem to have any relationship ending potential. So now I'm taking it to the next level.

That is the beginning of a blanket for Ryan. If it looks like the Golden Ratio rectangle, that's because it is. (Or at least it's supposed to be... I did the math myself.) Ryan is a huge math nerd and requested this blanket. I'm hoping that means it's safe to knit. Each new square is picked up from the squares before log-cabin style. I will surface crochet the spiral on at the end when I have finished.

The yarn is Swish Bulky from Knit Picks. It is 100% superwash wool. It was the only yarn line I could find with 4 shades of gray/black (Ryan's favorite color for knits apparently... everything I have made him so far has been gray or black.) Since this is basically a 4'x6' rectangle of garter stitch it is fantastically boring to knit, but I can work on it while I study/watch TV. Right now it's just under a third done, we'll see if I can finish before Christmas.

Whirligig

2010-11-25T21:50:00.003-08:00

In September I finished test-knitting Whirligig Shrug for Stephanie Japel. The pattern originally appeared in Interweave Knits Weekend 2009 but was only sized for babies. Stephanie decided to up-size it for children, and eventually plans to release an adult version as well. I volunteered to test the Child size 6 (in the hopes of getting a free copy of the adult sized pattern once it is released.) I have no idea about children's clothes sizing so have no idea what age of child a size 6 would fit. It's pretty cute though.

I used a DK weight yarn called Soft Sea Wool from Reynolds. It's 100% wool, so it may have been an impractical choice for a child's garment since it's not machine washable... Also, it's a 2-ply yarn so it's a bit nubbley and doesn't show off the seed stitch or the cables as well as it could. If I knit it again I will be sure to use a more balanced 3- or 4-ply yarn for smooth stitch definition.

I couldn't get a good picture of the front because I couldn't hang it and get a picture, but here it is flat against a dark background. (I figured kidnapping a child just to model handknits for me might be more trouble than it's worth, so you're stuck with this mediocre picture of the front.)

I can absolutely vouch for the pattern and say that it is error free (at least as to size 6) and very quick to knit. I found working the small circumference of the arms a bit tedious, but I assume it would be that way for any child-sized garment with arms. Probably this will end up donated to the charity that provides clothes to the homeless here in Portland.

Long term project

2010-11-24T20:38:00.002-08:00

Compared to knitting, crochet is easily a "less-favorite" craft. It can be fun for making amigurumi which are usually pot-bellied and adorable, and I did make a pretty cute summer dress, but it's not my go-to craft by any means.

However, there is one thing that crocheters can make that knitters can't really replicate. Granny Squares.

I know some people think granny squares are tacky (and they kind of are) but I love the way they look. Recently I picked up 200 Crochet Blocks and started picking out blocks just to experiment/brush up on my skills. The yarn is cheap-o Red Heart mostly because it's cheap and machine washable so cat-hair accumulation won't be difficult to deal with. I'm using a pretty big hook (size K) so my blocks are coming out about a foot square. I bought 4 skeins, the three colors you see above plus a burnt orange. I'll make blocks until I feel I have a sufficient number for a good cozy blanket or I run out of yarn.

My holiday knitting has put this on the back burner for a bit (probably until after new year) then I will pick up the hook again. I really enjoy making these since each one is like a mini project in itself and brings its own feeling of accomplishment when finished.

One Christmas gift down

2010-11-22T16:20:00.002-08:00

Last year I didn't do any Christmas anything until about December 20th because I was so busy with school. This year, finals go all the way until December 23rd (yeah! I know!) so I'll have to cram in cleaning, celebrating, and gift making/buying alongside my finals preparation. While working at Yarnia, I managed to whip up my dad's Christmas present in about 4 days.

This is the Windschief hat by Stephen West. This is my third Stephen West knit, and like the other two, the instructions were well written and the finished product looks great.

I used a pre-made Yarnia yarn called Santos which is which is mostly rayon and acrylic with a tiny bit of cotton. I wanted to go for machine washability since my dad is a runner and will like get this all sweaty and gross on a regular basis.

I love the color of this yarn. "Oatmeal" would be a good word to describe it, with just a hint of sheen from the rayon. I asked Ryan and he assured me that it counts as a "manly" color, so dad should like it.

I only used about 25% of the cone on the hat, so I'm thinking about whipping up some convertible mittens to go with it. One of the benefits of buying yarn by the half-pound cone.

Akimbo

2010-11-16T10:33:00.003-08:00

Recently, I cast off another store sample for Yarnia. I made Akimbo since we carry most of Stephen West's patterns in our shop. All of his patterns are fabulous. This is the second one I've made (the first was Botanic) and it is well written and well charted.

The pattern calls for a fingering weight yarn, but I made mine is a DK to give it some more weight/size. I created the yarn at Yarnia. The main color is one strand of spice colored silk, two strands of pumpkin colored wool, and one strand of variegated cotton that changes from Dijon yellow to spice to rust to brown. The contrasting color is one strand warm brown alpaca, one strand reddish brown wool, one strand cold brown rayon, one strand warm brown rayon, and one strand cold brown silk.

I used size 6 needles instead of size 4 because of the heavier yarn I chose. The shawl grew about 20% after blocking which was surprising, I didn't expect plain garter stitch to grow so much.

This was a really fast knit, it only took me so long because I was mostly working on it in Yarnia when things were slow. Right now it's on display there to help give people some fall/winter knitting inspiration. It will come back to live with me in the Spring.

I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone who wants to try a basic triangular shawl without also having to keep track of a lace pattern, or someone who likes to be warm, but doesn't like the look of lace at all. I am anticipating knitting many more of Stephen West's great patterns.

Another hat

2010-11-14T19:53:00.004-08:00

Back in September I got my hair cut, and got bangs for the first time since the 3rd grade. I love them, I think they look great, they totally suit me. However, they do take a modicum of styling attention... not much, but some. However, as finals creep closer and closer, I'm finding the need to roll out of bed and get out the door quickly more and more pressing. Since I usually shower at night sometimes my bangs can end up drying in some pretty weird bed-head type positions, e.g. 90 degrees from my forehead. This has made me come to appreciate knit hats in an all new way. It doesn't matter what my bangs look like if I shove them under a hat and leave them there all day.

I've been wearing the Bashful that I made in August quite a bit, but as the temps have dropped, the drappy lacy open nature of the hat isn't keeping me warm in the same way it use to. Also, I just have the one, so it limits my clothing choices on bad-hair days to things that go with purple. So I decided to make another warmer hat so that I could have more all around fashion choices.

A quick Ravelry search led me to Slouchy Hat with Pico Edge by Jan Wise which is a free pattern. The first 25 rows are knit on size 4 needles, the rest of the hat on size 8s. This makes the part around your ears nice and snug but still lets you have the wonderful slouchy hat look. Other than a row of eyelets around the brim, it's mostly stockinette with purl rounds every so often to add a bit of texture.

On the day I took these pictures my bangs were mostly behaving, so I let them be in the picture. It is nearly impossible to take a picture of yourself that is both flattering, and shows off knitwear well.

The yarn I used was leftover from a pair of convertible mittens I made over a year ago. The yarn is Cascade Rustic 79% wool 21% linen single-ply. It's medium-soft to work with, but after you wash it, it softens up much much more. This hat took less than a single skein. I wouldn't use this yarn for anything other than "plain" projects though because I think the yarn would hide any texture/pattern pretty completely.

When I showed the finished hat to Ryan he said, "It looks Slavic." I would have preferred, "It looks pretty," or "Wow, you're a talented knitter," but I'll take Slavic. At least they know how to get through some cold-ass winters...

Another satisfied knitter

2010-11-11T23:46:00.004-08:00

Back in August, out of pure curiosity, I cast on Elizabeth Zimmerman's infamous Baby Surprise Jacket. According to Ravelry there have been over 13,000 of these little baby sweaters knit. I'm sure the reason why is the interesting construction. The little sweater is knit flat in garter stitch (no purling!) and then two little shoulder seams are sewn, buttons are attached, and a sweater magically appears. Here is what it looks like just after cast off (the red stripe is the cast on edge the yellow strip is the bind off edge.)

The weird ruffled shape comes from what, as you're knitting, feels like completely incomprehensibly placed increases and decreases. Then the folding happens. Magically you have something that looks like a sweater.

The seaming didn't take long at all. The seams are sewn from the neck to the end of the sleeve on the top of the shoulders. Buttons took me a little longer. I ordered some great polymer clay buttons from Orly Rabinowitz on etsy. The buttons took a while to get here since Orly is in Israel, but they're so cute and work so well that it was totally worth the wait. Also, I got to procrastinate on finishing without feeling guilty.

The variegated yarn comes from a Knit Picks Sock Blank that was dyed for me by schknitz on Ravelry for a swap. I used two strands together, so it was basically a worsted weight. The contrasting yellow was added as an afterthought when I did the math a realized that I was certainly going to run out of the main color. It's leftover Encore Worsted from way back when I knit a baby sweater for a boss who is a huge Green Bay Packers fan. Here is what the Sock Blank looked like before it was knit.

Now that it's done I have no idea what to do with it... I don't have a baby. I don't know anyone who has a baby. I don't know anyone who is in the process of making a baby. I think I might donate it to one of the charities to support the homeless in Portland. It's starting to get pretty cold here. If Bear can be this cute in the sweater, imagine how adorable it will be when it actually gets wrapped around a baby.

Pride!

2010-11-07T15:18:00.004-08:00

I'm so proud of this little project. It's made from my very first skein of handspun yarn.

The pattern is Cherry Garcia by Adrian Bizilia and it's free through ravelry. The second picture shows the color better, but the first shows the cable pattern. I only had enough yarn to make it two cables tall instead of three, but the yarn is so bulky it is the right height anyway.

I'm guessing my handsupn was only about 80 yards because some of it was so bulky. Here is what it looked like in the skein.

It's very hard to take pictures of yourself without making weird faces...

Also, with my face shape, a cowl might not be the most flattering winter garment... it sort of gives me that "fatface" look since it doesn't hug my neck. Fatface aside, I love this project and will be wearing a lot this winter as the temps dip lower.

Great hat pattern

2010-10-28T10:51:00.004-07:00

Hi friends, I'm so excited that I can finally share this project with you. It's been done since August, but I'd been sworn to secrecy until the pattern was publish! (Well not really sworn, but asked politely.) This is Bashful, a new hat pattern by Marlaina Bird. I was lucky enough to be a test knitter for the pattern.

It took me about 3 days of mild knitting to finish this hat and it took just one skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (though I only had about 1.5 feet of yarn left). The yarn is 45% wool, 35% silk, and 20% nylon. It's nubby and squishy and wonderful. The nubbyness gives the hat a softer look. If you look through the patterns, the lace on some peoples' hats has a much more crisp defined look.

The yarn already has a lot of drape, but when knit on size 8 needles (larger than recommended for DK weight) the result is a very slouchy hat.

I'm always so surprised when I see what my nose looks like in profile!

This is my go-to hat when I'm having a bad hair day, which now that I have bangs seems to be way more frequent... I will probably end up making more in other colors because as it is I have to plan my bad hair days for when the shirts that match this hat are clean. DK is not the most common yarn weight it my stash, so I may have to go yarn shopping... Damn...

By the way, this is the 2nd FO from the challenge I presented myself with back in August... Clearly that didn't motivate me at all... Mostly because I've pretty much decided to buy yarn when I feel like it (without putting myself in the poor house). I live alone, I have 3 jobs, I answer to no one financially, and I can have a closet full of yarn if I want to!

Fiber Adventures

2010-10-03T18:44:00.002-07:00

Way back when Sock Summit came to Portland I decided that I wanted to learn to spin. Student loan budgets being what they are, I decided to learn on a drop spindle. I bought the spindle and some fiber that looked pretty.

I didn't get to far with it though... I had a hard time getting a hang of drafting while the spindle was spinning and was getting frustrated. I later learned that Targhee (that's what the fiber was) is knowing for being trickier to draft and isn't the best "learning" fiber. I set it aside for a long time and pretty much gave up on spinning.

Then in August I got the idea into my head that I would tie up all my loose end projects. I got the spinning back out to finish it. Something clicked this time, and I blew through all the fiber and wanted more.

The end result is certainly not perfect, but it was quite fun to make.

This is 3 0z. (I used one oz to make thrummed mittens) of 100% Targhee wool. It ranges it weight from super bulky in places down to light fingering in others.

The color is much more like the top photos, a happy pink rather than the muted coral of the last picture.

At that point I pretty much decided that I was hooked on spinning and I jumped into the deep end and bought this:

That is a Babe Fiber Arts Fiber Starter Double Treadle Spinning Wheel. I bought it on eBay. It is made of PVC pipe and a wheelchair wheel. It is perfect for me. Cheap, easy to use and maintain, and pretty near indestructible. The cats have not been able to do any perceptible damage even though they are completely obsessed with the wheel. The wheel came with 8 oz of mystery wool fiber which I promptly spun up. It's way over-spun in some places and pretty thick and thin but it was great fun to make. I'm sure I'll just knit something to felt that way it won't show. I've been stashing fiber ever since.

Last weekend was the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and I somehow managed to convince Ryan that it would be a good idea to take time away from our law school studies to drive an hour over to Canby and spend the whole afternoon looking at yarn and fiber. I think Ryan was expecting a few tables with a few piles of yarn on them since he still has a hard time believed that there are actually people in this world that get super excited over yarn and fiber. It was glorious. Every building of the Canby fairgrounds was packed with booths and the entire lawn/picnic area was covered with outside booths as well. There was easily 250 vendors present. I walked away with a fantastic new fiber stash and, this is the most amazing part, I only spent $75! Yeah for local products!

These are each 4 oz of 70% Merino and 30% Tussah Silk. The top picture is colorway Sea Mist and the bottom picture is colorway Red. This fiber is fantastic. I've heard the phrase "drafts like butter" bandied about on the Ravelry forums but with my Targhee experience I never really believed it... until now.

This is only my second wheel-spun project and it's so even. It's drafting down to almost lace weight. I don't know if I'll ply it or just work with it as a single, it's spinning so evenly it would work well as a single and I would have more yardage. I love the subtlety of this color. "Mist" is the perfect word for it.

This is 4 oz of 70% Merino 30% Tencel blend. The picture makes it look like its silver and that's because it is. Yeah, that's right, SILVER yarn. I don't know how the dye looks so metallic, but it's wonderful.

This is dyed by the same woman. It's 4 oz of 70% Merino 30% Yak. That's right, Yak. It's wonderful. It's harder to draft than the Merino/Silk but easier than the Targhee was. It's on my spindle now. I don't have a picture of it because it lives at Ryan's house so that I have a project to work on when I'm there. Ryan seems to understand that having something for me to work on at his place is necessary for keeping me sane.

This is 8 oz of 60% alpaca 40% wool. It's super soft and I love the earthy colors. This will be interesting to spin since I've never spun from a bat before, only roving.

These are 4 oz each of Blue Faced Leicester. They were $5 each. Amazing deal. I love the colors. They will make something fun to wear during the bleak Portland winters

This is so shiny it's impossible to get a picture of it. It's the softest thing I've ever felt in my life. It's 2 oz of pure silk. I don't think I'll be able to get any real yardage out of it, so I don't know what I'll do with it, but it's worth it just to feel the fiber.

I haven't really don't much knitting. I've finished one project since my last post... (and I can't even show it to you since it was a test knit and the pattern hasn't been released yet.) I have several projects that will only take an hour or two to finish but I can't bring myself to do the boring bits like weaving in ends, sewing on buttons, ribbing, etc. Hopefully, I'll get something off the needles this week that I can show you.