KnitMe

Bordhification

06.29.2009

After posting two weeks ago about my blue Johanna knee socks, I tried on the foot I'd completed, and just couldn't deny that it was coming out too big. That is the last thing you need for knee socks. So I frogged it, and restarted with two changes. First, I switched to size 0 needles. Then, I decided to "Bordhi-fy" the foot so that it was sure to fit. I had a little spreadsheet I'd gotten from someone on Ravelry, that you can use to figure out your master numbers for any gauge once you have found a set that work for you in one gauge, so I entered whatever stitch gauge I knew would come out to a 60 stitch sock, measured my row gauge on the plain part of the toe I had just completed, and Voila, the numbers to Bordhi-fy the foot of the sock.

You can see on the sole of the sock the increase lines that show it's being worked in the Riverbed architecture. Once I arrived at the end of the heel flap and went back into round knitting, it was just the Johanna pattern again. I have a much snugger fit in the foot now, and a narrower ankle. I can still switch to size 1 needles later as I go up the leg. I would rather start out with a sock that is a little too snug, than one that is already too baggy.

I also finished the back of Titania. This is going to be a very pretty sweater.

I like the yarn too - it is very lightweight. I used just over two balls of Longmeadow for the entire back. I am knitting the 36 inch size, and getting a piece that is about 32 inches wide at the underarms unblocked, so I think it will turn out about as I intended. The pattern has you do the front first, but after completing the midriff segment I decided to make the back first because that midriff pattern, with lace on both right and wrong side rows, took some getting used to, to be sure I slanted the purl decreases the right direction and lined up the lace correctly. I should get a slightly better looking piece on my second try!

We had an interesting spinning group meeting Friday night. Someone showed up with about 20 pounds of raw alpaca fleece, which had been sent to her by a friend who raises alpacas for fun and has no use for the fiber. We all rummaged in the bags and took home lumps of the fleece, which seemed very silky and reasonably clean. I may have ended up with a pound or two, it was hard to tell. I took some white and some grey.

Knowing absolutely nothing about preparing and spinning alpaca, I checked on the Fiber Prep group on Ravelry, and found that while some people don't wash alpaca, it is a good idea to do so because alpacas have a habit of enjoying a good roll in the dust on a regular basis... So I popped both into the washing machine as if they were sheep fleece. Boy did I get muddy water out of that! They are drying now and looking even better, although there is still a lot of vegetable matter (in this case, sticks and twigs) to comb out. I guess I will try combing the stuff and see what happens when I try to spin it.

Posted by Prudence at 08:06 AM | Comments (5)

Isobel

06.15.2009

The voting ran very close on the buttons, but I think the winner in the end was the blue sparkly one, and that was the one I also preferred. I tossed it into the mix as an afterthought (after all, it was BLUE and the yarn was GREEN), but somehow it took on the coloring of the yarn in an unexpected way. For this jacket I really wanted the buttons to blend with the color of the yarn rather than stand out against them.

The original children's pattern on which this is based called for only one large button, at the very top. The adult pattern amendment called for 5 buttons, but I decided that there was something almost random-looking about the placement of the bottom button - why THERE as opposed to anyplace else? - and I chose to use 3. I'm happy with the result.

This thing is very long. I already shortened it by 3 pattern repeats at various points in the shaping of the body, so if I had not done that it would have come to my knees. As it is, I wish I had shortened it one more repeat. It used 9 skeins of Galway, so it has some weight to it, also. It will be fun to wear in the fall.

I didn't notice until I edited the pictures that the collar wasn't lying right on the left side - but I didn't want to go back and take them all again! It was too hot on Friday to wear this any longer.

I finally got around to finishing and blocking the Estonian Lullaby angora/merino blanket. I did put it in the washer on "handwash" and let it agitate for a minute or two, hoping to seal in those floaty little angora fibers. I also put it in the dryer on 'air' a couple of times, and I did get a little lump of fine fiber out of it each time. I didn't stretch it too much when blocking because there was no point in trying to open up the lace when it had such a halo, so it could probably be bigger than it is - it's about 3 x 4 feet as it is. It didn't shed on me when I was photographing it, so maybe it was like my Brooks Farm shawl I made a few years ago, which shed like mad on me during the knitting but never sheds during the wearing. Which would be nice, because it is REALLY soft and weighs only about 8 ounces.

So with my newfound freedom I moved on to something new.

This is the beginning of the Johanna knee sock pattern, a design by Julia Riede that I found on Ravelry.

The yarn is the famous Wollmeise 80/20 sock yarn, and the color is 'Gewitterhimmel' - Wendyknits made a shawl out of this color and I was smitten with it. The yarn is very odd in the ball, it feels cottony, but it knits into a lovely dense fabric that feels like it would wear well.

I'm afraid this is going to be too big, though, and I'm going to have to frog a week's worth of work and start over. It's a short-row heel from the toe up, and I won't know till I finish the short rows whether I've made the foot too long. I am getting many more rows per inch than the pattern gauge, so I did knit more length before beginning the heel - I hope it won't be too much. Also I'm afraid it's going to be too loose around the foot, but again I won't know till I turn the heel. So this one may go to the frog pond yet. Luckily I am enjoying the yarn and pattern, although with the darkness of the yarn I have to be careful to knit it only in bright light. I made that mistake once - messed up one row - couldn't see it very well to rip it back, and ended up having to frog about 40 rows and start over.

I also started a design called Titania by Elizabeth Klett, a lacy cotton thing. It originally called for Cotton Fleece, which would just be too heavy for me - a lace sweater is not suitable for winter, and something heavy is not suitable for summer, in the climate where I live. So I swatched with Valley Yarns Longmeadow, a cotton/microfiber blend that seemed to be a bit lighter and less likely to droop. The pattern calls for a gauge of 5 stitches per inch and I got 6 in my swatch, so I cast on for the size 40 to end up with something about 34 inches around. However, after knitting about 10 rows of the peplum, I decided that I'd be kntiting looser on the actual project than I did on the swatch. (That is the lie my swatches always tell me, so I've learned to correct for it... I always relax a bit when into the actual project.) So I frogged and started over with the 36 inch size. I think it will be about right.

The yarn is smooth and pleasant to work with, although it's very splitty. So is the Wollmeise, so I'm doing all this knitting with splitty yarns. How did I get myself into that??

There is something else on the horizon that won't involve splitty yarn... but still will require attention.

This is Lisa Souza laceweight yarn in her new color Silver Lake. It's the perfect color to become this. I just want to get past that darn heel before I start something else....

Lisa is on the wheel too - this is her bluefaced leicester top in the 'Peacock' shade, on the Quebec. I'm pushing again to get real 3 ply sock weight yarn. We'll see. With my new high speed flyer I am making pretty good headway.

Posted by Prudence at 08:07 AM | Comments (12)

Which Buttons??

06.07.2009

Shell (left) blue sparkly (top), green and red (right), or none of the above?? Which ones for Isobel? I won't let on what my current answer is...I want input! Please leave a comment with your opinion.

Posted by Prudence at 07:59 PM | Comments (19)

Almost

06.01.2009

Everything is almost finished. I kind of like this, because it means in a week or so I can be working on all new stuff!

The fuzzy red angora/merino Estonian Lullaby is actually nearly done. I have started the edging on one end. It is so lovely and light and soft. It sheds EVERYWHERE, there is even red fuzz sort of knitted into the sleeves of Isobel that I tend to work on in the same knitting session. Anyone have any ideas about how I can finish this thing to minimize the shedding? If so, please comment!

The first sleeve of Isobel is finished and I'm about 2/3rds done with the second.

If you look very closely, you might be able to see the increase line of the underarm seam, wandering diagonally across the bottom half of the sleeve. Is it normal for moss stitch to bias when knit in the round? Or is it just that my knitting in particular makes moss stitch bias when knit in the round? I am hoping a good severe block will correct this tendency for the underarm seam to spiral out around the sleeve. Sigh. I do wrap my purls clockwise, but I do combination knitting, which I would have thought would correct for that. Maybe somehow when I knit into a stitch that was previously purled, I twist it somehow in the wrong way? But that would apply on the flat knitting too, and that lies fine. Well, I'm not going back and totally reknitting two sleeves, so it will be what it will be.

I finished spinning the hand dyed BFL that I got in my spinning group swap. It made beautiful yarn!

I seem to be stuck at 300 yards to 100 grams when I do a 3 ply yarn. I really wanted this to be socks. Perhaps if I knit it on size 2 needles, I could get a pair of socks. I think it came out quite handsome indeed, like a bed of lavender in summer.

Posted by Prudence at 08:12 AM | Comments (6)

Gone retro; back later, maybe.

05.18.2009

I finally finished ~~Clifford~~ the big red jacket ("Go Retro" from a Knitters magazine from last year).

It was a pretty fast knit although it is so large. I spent a bunch of time waiting - waiting for more yarn, waiting for the buttons.

I was lucky to find buttons so large in a fairly close shade, as no other buttons I could lay hands on were big enough. These are some FAT button loops!

You can't really tell, but the collar (and also the top inch of one sleeve) is knitted with Cascade 220 held double, and the rest is knitted with Cascade 109. You could only tell if you looked really closely, because the ply texture is different.

I loved the fat cozy texture of the garter-basketweave. And the sleeves naturally bell a little because of the needle sizes, even without the wider bottom that I omitted. It's going to be fun to wear, when fall comes around.

After that went to block, I made this year's teacher mitts. Fetching has been such a useful pattern!!

Isobel is coming along. Now that the mitts are finished I'm working on a sleeve. It's a long haul, all that moss stitch, but they will be nice. I'm knitting them on DPs so that I will only have to set them in, no sewing (the body is knitted in one piece to the armholes).

We had a fiber swap last month at our spinning group and I brought home this little lump of BFL, dyed by a group member. It made me think of the lavender bushes next to my front door. We'll see what kind of yarn it grows up to be.