WIP Wednesday: Third Time's the Charm (Hyperion Pullover)

There are times when knitting can be frustrating.  Mistakes happen, it is inevitable. Some mistake you fix, some you just go on and learn to live with them, and some force you to scrap everything and start over.

And that has been the story with the Hyperion Pullover, twice. The first time, after about five inches in, there was an error in the lace. At first, I thought I could live with the error, but then I noticed the sleeves was going to end up being wider than I hoped. So, I decided to rip it out and start over.

The second time, I was moving along quite nicely, when it happened again. I noticed the lace pattern on the row I was working didn't look quite right. I powered through to the end of the row and did a stitch count. Sure enough, six stitches mysteriously disappeared.

Blocking can hide a myriad of sins, but six stitched in this lace pattern isn't one of them. So it was back to the beginning for me.

Third time's the charm, right?

FO Friday: Siobhan Part One - Yarn Travels and Love at First Sight

Every now and then, a project just jumps out at me. I see it and I know immediately that I need to make it. That was how the Siobhan shawl came about.

Last October, my mom and I took a trip to San Antonio, Texas. We did all the normal tourist things, saw the Alamo, visited the Spanish missions, went up the Tower of the Americas, ate barbeque and Tex-Mex, drove up to Stonewall, Texas to visit the LBJ Ranch and Texas Whitehouse, and took a ghost tour.* In addition to those things, we also shopped for yarn. I like to try to find a local yarn store whenever I travel; yarn makes a great souvenir. My mom is also a knitter, so she was up for doing some yarn shopping. We happened to be visiting during the 2016 Hill Country Yarn Crawl and made it to 5 of the shops on the crawl.

One of those shops was a place called Inskein Yarns, a cute little shop in Northwest San Antonio. If you are a fiber artist and in the area, stop by. The staff is amazingly friendly and helpful and they have a great selection of yarns.

While browsing, I came across a shawl up by the check out. Something about the shawl caught my eye, the colors, the texture, the design; I’m not sure what it was, but I knew I had to make that shawl in that yarn. I asked about it, the design was created by the shop owner and the yarn was from a local indie dyer. That was all I needed to know, I bought the yarn and the pattern on the spot.

Design wise, Siobhan is a simple shawl, with a couple of interested elements. The body of the shawl has a stitch pattern that creates a great texture that works well for hand-dyed yarns. The bottom of the shawl has these great little loops, which add so much to the overall look. Overall, the knitting wasn’t difficult and it was fun to knit.

Detail of the loops on the bottom of the shawl and the texture of the shawl body.

The yarn, as I mentioned before, is from an indie dyer in San Antonio, Irish Girl Crafts. The yarn base is called Tullamore and is a blend of superwash corriedale wool (75%) and nylon (25%). The color way, Amber’s Fire in the Sky, is a combination of white, purple, yellow, and orange (there may be another color or two in there) and is gorgeous! The colorway makes me think of Disney villains. It is possibly the combination of purples and blacks, or maybe the fact that I started knitting this project on my way to Disney World. Either way, it is a great color combination, I may have to watch the dyer’s Etsy store to see if she ever lists more for sale.

 

*On a completely unrelated note, I have participated in three ghost tours now, Key West, New Orleans, and San Antonio. I highly recommend checking one out if you are visiting a city that has one (there are lots). Even if you aren’t big on the whole looking for ghosts thing, it is a great way to see some forgotten corners of your destination and hear some local legends. I don’t know that my mom is big into hunting ghosts, and she still seemed to have a great time on the San Antonio one.  

WIP Wednesday: Clearview Cowl

Progress has been very slow and very uneventful on the Hyperion Pullover. The yolk is a honeycomb lace pattern, which looks very nice and will be delightful for a summer sweater, but is also rather time consuming to knit. It is also one of those stitch patterns where I actually have to pay attention when I'm knitting. That works great when Kiddo is sleeping and Husband lays claim to the remote, but on nights I'm watching something I want to watch, or when I'm taking my knitting somewhere, or for the hundreds of other times when I'm knitting while doing something, I need an easier project.


So I decided to cast on for the Clearview Cowl. It came in a kit that I picked up on a girls' weekend in Stillwater, Minnesota a couple of years back. I didn't really have immediate plans to knit it, the colors were wrong to go with my winter coat, so it sat in the closet for a couple of years.


However, this year, I got a new winter coat. It is a lovely shade of gunmetal grey, which is lovely and doesn't show stains, but is rather drab. However, handknit accessories are a lovely way to perk up anything.


I am only a couple rows into this project, but I'm all ready a big fan. It is a rather mindless knit, a row of knits, a row of purls, with a color change at the start of each row.

All 250 stitches are scrunched on the needle, it will be much bigger when it is finished.

The yarn, though, THE YARN is what makes this project. I'm knitting it in the recommended Road to China Lace by the Fibre Co. It is an exquisite blend of alpaca (65%), silk (15%), cashmere (10%), and camel (10%). I really cannot overstate how delightfully soft this yarn is. The colors are gorgeous, too. I'm using rhodolite, a beautiful pinky-purple color, and grey pearl, a lovely soft grey.

The camera did a terrible job capturing the colors of this yarn.

I seriously love this yarn. It is super light (partially because it is a lace weight yarn), but I have no doubt that it will be super warm. I was so excited about this yarn that I went out and bought the sport weight version, Road to China Light, in the same colors to make some matching mittens.

Progress is going slow on this, mainly because it is lace weight yarn on tiny needles, but I am loving every single minute of it.

This shot captures the colors a little bit better.

WIP Wednesday: Doomsday Mitts

First and foremost:

a very Happy 8th Birthday to my niece, Sophie!

And now back to the regularly scheduled post:

One of the projects I’m working on right now is a dk weight fingerless mittens, that I’ve dubbed the Zombie Doomsday Mitts. The pattern, Rose Tyler Wrist Warmers (Ravelry link), were inspired by a pair of fingerless gloves worn by the Doctor’s Companion in the episode Doomsday. I’m working on them as a knit a long (KAL) for the Walking Dead fan group I belong to on Ravelry. Put those things together and Zombie Doomsday seemed a great name for them.


The mitts have a beautiful cable pattern that creates several large diamonds, filled in with seed stitch down the middle. The diamonds are flanked by a single cable on either side. I’m making them out of Silky Merino yarn from Malabrigo in a greenish-yellow color.

Knitting these as a KAL project has helped immensely, I’m pretty sure that they would have ended up frogged by now if not for the support of the group. I don’t know why exactly these have been so troublesome, I’ve done projects that were considerably more complicated before, but for some reason I have ran into problem after problem with them. Extra stitches have appeared on my needles, cables have been mistwisted, I started the pattern on the wrong row. The most current problem I have encountered has been large holes at the thumb gusset increases. I changed to the very nearly Invisible increase from the TechKnitting Blog, which seems to have solved the problem.

Now that I’ve gotten the hang of the pattern, things seem to be going a bit more smoothly. I’ve completely finished one mitt and have just finished the thumb gusset increases on the second.

 

Posted with Blogsy

WIP Wednesday: Bigger on the Inside

By now it is no secret, I love my iPad. For day to day use, it has replaced my laptop (though I still need the laptop for a couple of things, including printing). When I first got my iPad, I purchased a couple of accessories to ensure that it was protected (especially after the nasty screen-cracking-even-when-in-a-case incident with my Kindle…I’m still pissed about that). I bought one of those bendy magnetic covers that also props it up in a couple of different positions and a back rubber shell. I went all out and got the back piece that is designed to absorb shock when dropped (something I’m very likely to do) and holds the iPad on the hood of a car when driving 45 mph (something I’m not really likely to do, but good to know just the same). I figured that eventually, I would also get a sleeve for it, something I could pull over the two covers for that added layer of protection, especially when tossing it into a bag. But I wanted to take my time and be sure I found the prefect sleeve for my iPad.


Because I’m me, my first thought was to knit a sleeve, an idea I took and ran with. While browsing Ravelry, it hit me, a TARDIS themed cover would be absolutely perfect.

For those of you not in the know, TARDIS stands for time and relative dimension in space, and is the time machine/spaceship of a certain time traveling alien known as The Doctor. And if you are still unsure what I’m talking about, watch Dr. Who. Anyways, the TARDIS, because of a problem with the Chameleon Circuit (seriously, just watch the show) looks like a blue police box, the kind that were common in England once upon a time. And the TARDIS is bigger on the inside.

Now, my iPad is not very big, but inside it contains games, videos, documents, apps, music, photos, knitting patterns, and the entire internet. Clearly, it too is bigger on the inside. a TARDIS sleeve would be the perfect companion to my iPad.

I found a pattern through Ravelry, and made a few modifications to make it work for me. I’m making it out of Comfy yarn from Knit Picks. I’m up to the windows on it now, which is pretty good, considering I cast on Saturday and had to rip it out once.

Posted with Blogsy

The View from the Podium

Look at this:

That is a completed February Lady Sweater, it is done. And by done, I mean done, except for the buttons. Ends have been woven in, and it has been washed and blocked and I have already picked out and purchased the buttons, so I’m calling it done.

And, I finished with a week to spare as part of the Ravelympics. That gave me plenty of time to devote to my second Ravelympic project. For project number two, I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves. The pattern is called Zombie Vixen, which under any circumstances be almost enough reason for me to make them, but they are also super cute. This project is intended to be a gift, but I like the pattern so much, I think I’m going to have to make a pair for myself. Plus, I always need more fingerless gloves, I love fingerless gloves. The gloves went quickly, and I was able to finish those Friday night and wove in the ends Saturday morning.

However, success at the Ravelympic projects has come at the cost of progress on other projects, namely socks. My Michigan Lakeshore socks are idling at a standstill. I was almost to the heel of the second one when I discovered a problem that forced me to rip back to the cuff. Seeing as how those socks are my mom’s birthday present, and my mom’s birthday was July 27, I might want to get those done some day.

I’m not going to worry about those things now, instead, I’m just going to bask in my Ravelympic success.

I'm on the podium for several events:

WIP Wrestling

One Skein Sprint

Cable Steeplechase

And, Mitten Medly

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fibery Exhibitionism

I’ve been knitting for almost ten years now, and my skills have developed considerably from the time I started. Like any artist, I’m proud of my accomplishments and try to take advantage of opportunities to showcase my work. Usually this comes in one of two forms, either posting pictures on various social media outlets (primarily Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook) or dragging the knitted goods around with me and showing them to anyone who looks even remotely interested. This year, I took advantage of another method of showing off my work, I entered several pieces into the county fair.


I come from (and still live in) rural Wisconsin and I can remember while growing up, the county fair was an extremely big deal. It has lost some of its luster now, but still includes a variety of events, including a needle work contest. Every year, I think about entering items into it, but usually not until after the entry deadline has passed.

This year, I managed to be on top of things and got the entry form in on time (and by on time I mean the day before it was due). I decided to enter pieces in five categories (knitters are limited to one item per category). I entered my Invisibility Wrap, my Llama Chullo hat, my Spatterdash fingerless gloves, my Carry-All Tote and my Cubist socks shawl. That seemed to offer a fair cross-section of my knitting abilities.

By the time I dug out the pieces, washed and reblocked the ones that needed it, I was pleased with my entries. I felt there were a couple of pieces that had a chance of winning a ribbon. I dropped off the pieces at the fairgrounds and went back Friday after the judging had been completed.

I was surprised to find that out of five pieces, I had won five ribbons. Yup, every piece had one something. My Llama hat and my Carry-All tote both took firsts, with the Llama hat also winning a Special Merit Award. The socks, Invisibility wrap, and Spatterdash mitts all took seconds.

Entering the pieces in the fair wasn’t about winning ribbons, and with my prizes adding up to a grand total of about $9, it certainly wasn’t about the prize money. However, I would like to think that it wasn’t just about ego, either. For me, a big part of knitting is the tradition. Knitters today are doing basically the same thing that they’ve been doing for generations. We might be doing them for different reasons (because we want to rather than we need to), we might have newer tools, and a wider variety of materials available; but the process is still the same. Generations of knitters have been making socks, mittens, hats, purses, and other things. And generations of knitters have been entering their best work into county fairs and other exhibitions for the feeling of pride that comes from knowing that you have a skill and you are good at the skill.

And, a lot of it is ego.

 

Posted with Blogsy

It's the Most Wonderful Time of Every Four Years

Hello, my name is Nicole and I’m an Olympic Junkie. I love, love, love the Olympics. With the start of the summer games in London just hours away as I write this, I am looking forward to the next two weeks of Olympic goodness.

And with the Olympics come the Ravelympics, or the Ravellenic Games. Honestly, I’m not sure which one the official name was, weeks ago there was a big dust up with copyright and the U.S. Olympic Committee. I’m not going to get into the whole thing, but the USOC learned that insulting and upsetting knitters is not a good idea.

The Ravellenic Games are celebration of both the Olympic games and of the fiber arts held on Ravelry (a social networking site for fiber artists). Teams compete in such events as the Afghan Marathon, Sock Put, Work in Progress Wrestling (believe me there are a lot more too). It runs from the opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies.

I’ll be competing first and foremost in the WIP wrestling. My goal is to finish the February Lady Sweater, which I have not touched since March. If, by some miracle, I finish that, I’ll be casting on in the Sock Put event, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

I might be able to accomplish more than I think though. Next Thursday, Husband leaves on his annual golf trip. This means I will be left to my own devices Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. Even factoring in that I have to work at the bank on Saturday, and I am available to work at the grocery store Saturday and Sunday, there should be plenty of knitting time (especially when I factor in that I have Thursday off from both jobs).

So, if anybody needs me the next two weeks, and I’m not at work; you will most likely find my happily curled up on my couch, enjoying two of my favorite things, knitting and the Olympics.

Life is good.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wouldn't You Know It?

I'm a big fan of wooden knitting needles,they have a much better feel than plastic and are much warmer (and less noisy) than metal. With the exception of socks,* almost all of my projects are knitted on wooden needles.



But, one problem with wooden needles is that they can break. In my experience, they don't break often, just when you do things like step on them. Thankfully, breakage is usually pretty rare.

However, I'm knitting on a deadline right now. So, breakage was inevitable. Husband forgot that a house rule is to check for stray needles before sitting (though Husband would say that it was my fault for leaving my knitting of the couch). I was left with a broken stump of a needle, and a half finished sweater.

I was forced to order replacement needle tips, and of course, I had to include some yarn (I needed to qualify for free shipping after all). The package took about a week to arrive, so that forced gave me the opportunity to complete my Citron shawl. It worked out well, actually, I bound off the shawl on the same day the box arrived.

Still, that was a week with no progress on the sweater, and now the wedding is only 13 days away. I have divided for the armholes and have about seven inches left on the body, plus the sleeves, and the ruffle trim. As a precaution, today I ordered a cardigan that would also work well with the skirt.

*As a side note , I would love to knit socks on wooden needles as well, but when they are that tiny, wooden needles just don't withstand the wear and tear I inflect upon them (and yes, I'm reasonably certain that the problem is me, not the needles.

 

It's Going to Be a Great Day!

There are few better ways to start a Saturday than to find a box from Knitpicks waiting on my front porch. Contents include some Wool of the Andes Tonal in Gypsy Queen (red) for the Milk Run Shawl (Rav. Link) and some Comfy Worsted in Celestial (blue), white, and black for a Tardis iPad sleeve, and my replacement needle tips in size 8.

Life is good.

 

Long Overdue Sheepcote Photos

Okay, so I finished this sweater way back in March.

I just never got around to posting the pictures of it, which have been sitting on my camera since March. But here they are now. Late winter/early spring was a bit of a blah time for me, but hopefully spring and summer will renew my interest in both knitting and blogging and get me back on track with some other things as well.

Anyways, I am vey happy with the way the sweater turned out. It could have been a size smaller, but it is still very cute and wearable. There is something satisfying about finishing projects and about being able to say, "Thanks, I made it," to compliments.

I have two sweaters currently on the needles. The much anticipated February Lady Sweater is about halfway done. However, it is on pause as I race to finish another cardigan, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan (in yellow) for a wedding in the beginning of June. I also have the Citron shawl on the needles, but I'm waiting for another ball of yarn to arrive in order to finish it.

Hopefully, updates n those projects won't be so delayed.

 

Ambition or Insanity?

The other weekend, my mom and I went shopping. It was Mother’s Day and although it is one of the four days I have agreed to golf with minimal complaining and whining (the other three are my mom’s birthday, the Parent/Child Tournament, and a Breast Cancer Outing), we got through one hole when she decided she didn’t want to golf, so we went shopping instead (no complaints here). While shopping, I came across a really cute skirt, that I could justify purchasing for a couple of reasons: 1. I could wear it to work and 2. Jeff’s cousin was getting married in June and I could wear it to the wedding. In my head, the skirt would go great with a summer weight yellow cardigan. For the remainder of the day, I fruitlessly searched for that elusive cardigan, with no luck. Then I went home and searched online for the cardigan, with the same results.

Then it occurred to me.

I’m a knitter.

Why don’t I just find a pattern for the cardigan that I like and make it out of a summer fiber (as in cotton or linen)? That would be way easier than searching for a cardigan that may or may not even exist. After some digging on my Ravelry queue, I discovered that I had already purchased the perfect pattern, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan and purchased yarn to make the cardigan. And what kind of yarn did I buy? A cotton, model, silk blend in a light butter yellow. All the stars were in alignment.If I’m being perfectly honest, I must admit; the pattern isn’t exactly what I wanted and I envisioned a bright sun shine yellow, not a soft butter yellow, but those were concessions I was willing to make. So I dug out the yarn, set up the pattern in Knit Companion (which, by the way, I completely and totally love and must write an entry about it, but not today), cast on, and began knitting away.

And then it occurred to me.

I’m knitting a sweater for an event that is less than a month away.

That is a serious deadline. And I don’t always do well with deadlines.

I spent the next couple of days trying to convince myself that; while taking on the project was indeed ambitious, there were several factors that prevented it from crossing over into crazy. I kept reminding myself that the project was knit with a worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles, that would make it go quickly and the majority of the cardigan is knit in stockinette, which makes it a pretty mindless project, and I do have backups for what I can wear with the skirt, if needed.

So, I’m still plugging away at it, and with the wedding only 25 days away, I’ve gotten this much done.

Maybe I am crazy.

 

 

Relearning the Weekend



It will be a fingerless glove, someday.

I’m still getting used to the idea of having weekends free. For years, having a weekend day off when I didn’t have anything else to do was pretty much unheard of. Even during my brief teaching career, when I wasn’t working any weekends, it always seemed like we were going somewhere or doing something. Weekends last this last one are still new to me (though I will probably see more of them, I’m trying to arrange my schedule so that I have two weekends per month totally off from both jobs. Normalcy will be somewhat restored this coming weekend as I work at the bank on Saturday morning and at the store Sunday morning, but the following weekend should be free (which, if my calculations are correct, might mean I have to work the Superbowl, but that’s not going to happen, even if nobody I care about is playing)

Anyways, Friday night I closed over at the motor bank, and stopped on my way home for some Chinese food (yippee for working two doors down from the good Chinese restaurant). Husband was gone for the weekend curling with the local Lion’s club (don’t ask…I never do). I started working on my latest pair of socks, but the pattern/yarn combination wasn’t working for me. I browsed around and found a different pattern to try and set those aside. I did manager to get some more of the lacy flap on the Spatterdash fingerless gloves done.

One morning's progress.

Saturday, I slept as late as Pippin would allow, which turned out to be 8:30 (which is funny because he always seems to sleep later for Husband). I proceeded to spend the day doing what most would consider absolutely nothing, but I considered absolutely perfect. I knit, and knit, and knit. By the end of the day, I had completed the cuff and leg of the sock I started just that morning. I also enjoyed having complete tv control. I adore Husband, but we don’t always enjoy the same things. I tend to sit quietly and let him run the remote, and sometimes look forward to having the opportunity to watch what I want. I took advantage of this chance to finally get to check out the AMC series, The Walking Dead, which I had been hearing great things about. It did not disappoint, but then again, I’ve always been a fan of zombie apocalypses. Not really sure why, but something about being part of a heavily armed band of survivors battling the walking undead is appealing to me.*

Saturday evening brought dinner with my mom and stepdad, I’m not one to turn down a free steak when one is offered to me, playoff football on the television and a couple of drinks with a friend. Nothing too exciting, but a good day overall.

Sunday, I overslept and missed mass, and Husband was back from curling much earlier than I expected (but when you only curl once a year, your team doesn’t usually make it to the finals).  We headed over to my parents for the Packers/Giants game, where Husband decided that I wasn’t rooting for the Packers to win, which added to his sullenness and pouting.

Completed sock, three days start to finish!

At this point, I do feel the need to defend myself. I will admit it, I am a Giants fan, (not really sure how that happened, but even good kids from nice families go astray) but my first loyalty is to the Packers. Yes, it is close to a 50/50 split, but the Packers win out. However, I don’t really enjoy watching those two teams play each other, and won’t really cheer for either team, instead I used the opportunity to sit quietly and make additional progress on the sock. Husband interprets this as a sign of disloyalty to the Packers, and if you’ve ever encountered Husband after a Packer’s loss, you know better than to argue.

Husband was sullen for the remainder of the evening, both over the loss and my perceived disloyalty. I figured it wasn’t the best time to point out that if his theory was correct, he really was denying me the opportunity to celebrate that what he felt was “my team” had overcame the odds and is continuing on to the NFC championship, and a quarterback that I’m a fan of who gets a crap load of criticism any time he makes a mistake had an excellent game. And his denying me a chance to celebrate wasn’t really fair because I would have never done that had the Packers won (again, this is all just going along with the faulty logic that I would prefer a Giant’s victory over a Packer’s, which is not the case). Instead, I let husband stomp around the house muttering things about supporting the 49ers (which again, had his theory been true and the game went the other way, I also would not have done). That pretty much made Sunday night a big fail after a fantastic weekend. (I’m guessing some of you might be surprised that I would risk the wrath of husband by posting this on here, but he reads my blog maybe 50% of the time, plus I’m pretty sure he knows that he was being ridiculous.

*I feel the need to offer a bit of a side note hear, if my posts sometimes seem disjointed and rambling, it is usually because I don’t really edit them too much. Posts are usually a bit of a dumping ground for whatever is going on in my head. I tend to get off of the topic.

Project Talk: I'm Going to Go Ahead and Blame the Weather

Cubist Socks-Done!

The weather around here has been absolutely ridiculous, it is early January the temperature is going to be almost 50 today. Global warming, the beginning of the apocalypse, forewarning of the impending zombie uprising, or freak weather abnormality? It is hard to say. Most of the people who come into the bank seem to be enjoying this freakish weather, but I am not most people. I love winter, I want to look out my window and see snow drifts, icicles, and frost; not brown wilted plants and dreary gray skies.

Because of the unusual weather (or not…most likely not, but hey, we all need something to blame), my knitting funk has continued. I’m doing better than I was, but I was focusing almost exclusively on the Cubist Socks. As of Monday, I have these socks completely done and off the needles. Which, of course meant that I had to base my outfit choice for Tuesday solely on the new socks.

I’m learning from past experiences, and decided to frog and reknit the Spatterdash fingerless gloves using a size bigger needle. I've roughly gotten to the point where I was when I decided to frog, so they are moving along well now. And, I finally got a picture that almost accurately represents the colors in the yarn.

Close Up of Spatterdash

I still haven’t even cast on for the second sleeve of the Sheepcote sweater (or taken the first sleeve off of the needles for that matter). I don’t know if there is an actual reason besides my laser like focus on the socks. I have discovered, however, that both Ms. Bode and Ms. Lily are big fans of the yarn I’m using for this sweater (Valley Superwash Merino, I’m a big fan too, it is super soft) and are willing to climb things and dig in baskets to obtain said yarn. That is going to make completing the sweater very interesting.

Today, I also spent some time on Ravelry and decided on the next pattern and yarn combination for socks. I'm going to knit Brainless (rav. link) by Yarnissima, I'm knitting them out of Knit Picks Essential (now called Stroll) in the colorway called Peacock Multi, a combination of purples, blues, and greens. Hopefully the yarn/pattern combination works out.

According to the weather reports, things should be returning to normal (or at least closer to normal) over the next couple of days, so I'm going to run out of excuses for not knitting. That should mean more pictures of finished products up here soon!

In other news, the new job is still going well. I’m feeling more and more comfortable, and have to ask less and less questions about how to do things. I’ve actually engaged co-workers in conversations (or at least attempted to, small talk is nowhere near a strength for me), which is a pretty big step considering my chronic, acute shyness, and have still managed to avoid letting them know that I have the sense of humor the your average fourteen year old boy, or a massive fear of birds. But we all know I can’t keep that one hidden forever, at some point, my true colors always show.

Project Talk: In a Slump

Lately I’ve been feeling rather blah about my knitting. Well, actually to be fair, I’ve been feeling rather blah about a lot of things, which just so happens to include my knitting. Not sure if it’s holiday stress, weather, the fact that I’ve been sick, or something else, but things are just very blah.
Usually for the holiday season, I plan on knitting an impossible combination of gifts and decorations. This year? Zero, zilch, nada. I thought about knitting something for my mom, but never got beyond the idea in my head. (Sorry, mom, maybe for mother’s day, or your birthday, or next year)
There’s nothing wrong with the projects that are on my needles. In fact, I’m pretty happy with the projects. I’m hoping that over the next few days, an increase in family time equals an increase in knitting time, the trip to Lambeau field not only provides several more hours of knitting time, but also serves to inspire me to translate a couple of football related ideas from my head to actual knit goods (or just to paper, before the ideas leave my brain for that matter) and writing about the projects serves to inspire me to pick up the needles and knit more.

So here’s what is on my  needles right now:
  
Socks, of course. Currently, I’m working on Cookie A’s design, Cubist socks. As the name implies, it has a geometric pattern that resembles cubes. I’m knitting them out of Malabrigo sock yarn in the colorway Abril, which is some beautiful shades of purple. The pattern looked a little intimidating at first, but really isn’t too bad. I’ve gotten past the gusset decreases for the first sock.

Spatterdash Fingerless Gloves. I’ll admit it, I’ve become a convert to fingerless gloves. At first, I thought they were useless, but after making a pair, I’m hooked. I had a beautiful pair of End Paper Mitts, but they are now happily on the hands of a friend, so I needed another pair. This pattern, Spatterdash found on knitty.com, combines buttons and ruffles, so I can’t go wrong. I’m using Knit Picks Imagination sock yarn in the colorway Wicked Witch for those. The green in the yarn looks like it will match my winter coat beautifully, so I’m happy so far. I am a little concerned that the gloves might be too small, and I might need to start over with a bigger needle, but I really need to get more done before making that decision (Yes, I know, this is usually a recipe for me griping in a couple of weeks wondering why I didn’t just rip out and start over when I first suspected they might be too small, but this pattern for gloves is different than any I’ve done before, so I’m honestly not sure).

Sheepcote Pullover. This one started out as a love story. I saw it in the Twist Collective and had to buy the pattern, immediately went out to find suitable yarn and couldn’t wait to get started. It immediately jumped ahead of the February Lady Sweater, which has been next up forever (but things seem to keep budging ahead in line…I really need to do something about that). So I casted on, over a month ago, and have completed one sleeve. I still like it, and I’m not sure what the actual problem is. Maybe it is that sleeves just aren’t that fun and things will get better once I get to the actual body of the sweater, either way, progress has been slow.

Of course, there are some perpetual works in progress out there on the needles. The Scrap Sock Yarn blanket, which may very well never be finished, and the Yggdrasil Afghan; which, without a deadline, just gets neglected. I might buckle down and make it my Wednesday night project to work on while husband is away at Lions and basketball.

So that’s what is on my needles, hopefully I will be able to report some actual progress sometime soon!

Project Talk: Finishing Work

The Mythos Cardigan is finally knitted, off of the needles, blocked, grafted together, i-cord applied, and blocked again! In other words: It is finally finished!

Finally done!

The sweater was intended to be a quick little knit, and a perfect little cardigan for chilly summer nights. It never intended to be a warm cardigan for late fall wear. But the cardigan somehow took five months to complete and I now have a charming little summer sweater all ready to wear in late October in Wisconsin. Sigh, the best laid plans.

However, it is still a cute little summer sweater, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Mostly, I was impressed that it could go  two shapeless pieces of fabric, neither one remotely resembling an article of clothing (ok, husband said it kind of looked like a giant thong), into a perfectly wearable sweater.

In other words, it transformed from two of these:

The first side, knitted, but unblocked.

To this:

The pictures of me wearing the sweater aren't the greatest, but keep in mind that they are pictures of me taken by me (and I had no make up on and hadn't done anything with my hair, thus the cutting off at the neck).

Most non-knitters, and some knitters don't realize the amount of work that can go into a finished piece of clothing even after the main part of the knitting is done.

The first step in the process of finishing most freshly knit goods is a nice soak in warm water and wool wash. I usually use Soak Wash, which requires no rinsing and smells absolutely wonderful. I'm also a fan of Kookaburra Wool Wash as well. This particular sweater got a bath in Kookaburra.

Then I drain the sink, letting gravity do the first part of the water removal. Wool can soak up a lot of water, and can take a long time to dry, so it is best to try to get as much water out of it as possible to speed up drying time.

Then you wrap each piece in a bath towel, carefully rolling up the towel. I usually walk across the towel a couple of times to squeeze some more water out of it. After that both towels go into the washing machine and ran through the spin cycle.

Yes, I know you don't usually throw hand knit goods into the washing machine (at least I don't). But that is why they are wrapped up in a towel and run through for only the spin cycle.

After the bath, it is time to block the sweater. Usually this is only done with natural fibers, as blocking acrylic doesn't really work all that well. The method used for this sweater is called wet blocking, because you pin it out when the knitted pieces are still wet and let them dry that way (creative name, right?). There are other methods of blocking, but wet blocking is usually what I use whenever the knit fabric will allow.

Blocking involves pinning the pieces out to the correct measurements. So I headed upstairs with a bowl full of rust proof pins, some towels, a tape measure, and the sweater schematics from the pattern.

I decided to pin the pieces out on towels laying onto of a mattress. This method works pretty well for larger pieces. It is nice because you can just stick the pins straight into the mattress. I also have blocking mats, but those work better for smaller piece. This sweater was pretty lightweight, and the pieces were symmetrical, so I just pinned them right on top of each other (this would never work for a heavier sweater, it would take forever to dry).

All pinned out.

Once all pinned out, it was time to let the sweater dry. Minerva, being ever helpful, decided to supervise the drying process. Perhaps she felt that being named after the Roman goddess of weaving also gave her responsibility when it came to knitting. Also, cats, mine at least, love to help with the entire knitting process.

After the pieces were dry, it was time to start the assembly of the sweater. First I sewed the sleeve and side seams. Seaming always seems to require stretching and squishing the pieces to get them to match up. I don't like poking sharp pins into the pieces to hold them, but I've discovered that bobby pins actually work beautifully. They clip the pieces together without damaging the fabric and are easy to put on and take off. So I pinned and sewed the side seams and sleeve seams. I wouldn't usually post a picture of sweater pieces pinned together, but I am pretty proud of my new use for bobby pins (yup, just like MacGyver).

My brilliant idea.

Then came the back seam. This pattern called for leaving the back stitches live, and grafting them together using a method called the Kitchener stitch. I've used the Kitchener stitch for the toes of socks before, but never on this scale. The first part of the back looks a little wonky, but by the end I was pretty good at it. Then, I used applied I-cord to add trim around the neck. Applied I-cord is tedious, but gives a very nice edge. I whip stitched the bottom hem, and the piece was ready to block again.

So, the piece went back into the sink, was wrapped in a towel, and took another spin in the washing machine. Then it went back upstairs to the mattress. Thankfully, it looked a lot more like a cardigan when I pinned it out this time.

Again, I left it to dry overnight. In the morning, I came back for it, shooed the cat off of it (Bode this time, not Minerva), unpinned it. There was nothing left to do but try it on, and attempt to take some pictures.

The sweater was knit out of Stroll Tonal from Knit Picks. The colorway is called Pearlescent. It combines shades of ivory, light grey, and medium grey as well as some light shades of platinum and silver. It is actually a pretty combination of neutral grey tones with some warm undertones. In some light, it appears to have some hints of a pinkish undertones, but in other light seems to be purely grey tones. It is a hard color to accurately capture on camera. In my opinion, the color is closest in the picture where Minerva is sitting on the sweater pieces or in this last picture.

All in all it turned out pretty cute. I'm excited for next Spring to roll around so I can actually wear it outside of the house. 


What's next?

I'm taking a brief break from large projects and making myself some new fingerless gloves, using Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts pattern. I'm also determined to finish husband's hunting socks before the opening of deer gun season (practically a holiday in Wisconsin). Then maybe I'll start thinking about Christmas knitting...maybe.

Project Talk: Seriously, WTF?

I consider myself an experience knitter. After all, I've been doing this awhile. However, believe me, I still make mistakes. Mostly the normal, run of the mill knitting errors, not reading the pattern properly, dropping a stitch, purling when I should be knitting, the normal stuff. But, every once in awhile, I make the sort of mistake that makes me sit back and say, "WTF?"

I did one of those today.

I was on hold on a phone call, so like any good knitter, I put the phone on speaker, set it aside and picked up some knitting. First, I grabbed my slippers, which have taken priority over everything else since chilly October weather has now arrived in Wisconsin. After a couple stitches, I figured that this pattern involved counting and short rows. Not the best for knitting I may need to put down at any moment (or be working on into the latter half of this century, given how being on hold usually goes).

Instead, I grab my mythos cardigan, where I currently knitting a long block of stockinette stitch. So I happily knit away until it was time for me to finish my phone call and set it down midrow.

Underwear or Uterus? You decide.

Later, I decided it would be best to finish the row, so I picked it back up and knitted to the end of the row. I held up the sweater to look at the progress, and ponder why I had so much faith that something that resembles either a giant pair of gray underpants or a really big knitted uterus would eventually turn out to be something pretty.

And that's when I saw it. In the middle of the last row I knit, there were two pieces of yarn dangling from two stitches right next to each other. It looked kind of like I had joined another piece of yarn at that point, but I hadn't.

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what I might have done. I traced both pieces of yarn to see where they ended up.  One went back to the ball of yarn and the other connected to the end of the working yarn at the end of the row.

Close up of the mistake.

There was only one possible explanation. For some reason, somehow when I picked up the knitting to continue the row, I left a length of yarn dangling. I have no idea how or why I would have done it. The important part was that I had found the root of the problem, I was able to fix it.

The solution was to tink back to the mistake and reknit the remainder of the row properly. It is all fixed now, but I'm still left wondering how on earth I actually managed to do it. After all these years, knitting can still be a mystery.