KnitMe

Finishing Frenzy

We've had another finishing frenzy Chez Pink Tea this past week. I just love that feeling of finishing off TWO projects at once, so I think when I see things heading in that direction I work toward it on purpose.

Empirical Division is finished.

I was in such a hurry to wear this one that while it was still damp I laid it on the radiator to finish the job. It's wonderfully lightweight but also cozy. The Knitpicks 'Elegance' yarn is very nice. I used about 10 balls of yarn and found no knots, and only a very few little bits of spinniing errors. It blocked nicely too. You don't think much about blocking when you're using alpaca, but it really relaxed and smoothed out. That teeny garter stitch hem that I was sure would roll up like a cannoli lay down and behaved instantly upon wetting it.

I made a couple of changes to the pattern to suit myself. Although you could never tell from the photo Knitpicks uses in the catalogue (they need to put photos of PEOPLE WEARING this stuff), the necklne is VERY WIDE. I have quite broad shoulders for my size, and if I hadn't done a few things to this it would have fallen right off me. When I reached the end of the raglan decreases called for in the pattern, I continued to decrease, because I was hoping for a somewhat mitered look in the garter stitch neckband. I didn't entirely get that look, but the extra decreases were essential. I also did a crocheted chain stitch around the inside of the garter band so it would not stretch out and widen.

I liked the little garter ridges that separated the rows of colorwork on the bottom of the sweater, so I repeated them at the neckline and cuffs. I really like how that came out. And I did a double-start caston for the sleeve cuffs. It's difficult to see clearly but it makes a lovely edge, especially on garter stitch.

This is a caston based on long-tail, but on every other stitch you reverse the direction of the tail that's over your thumb. It makes for a nice over/under looped effect at the edge. (This caston can be found in the technical information in any Nancy Bush book.)

I stranded the color pattern instead of duplicate stitching it, because I've done enough stranding that it doesn't put me off.

Somehow my sweater seems shorter than was intended so maybe I misinterpreted a direction somewhere along the line, or maybe stranding the color changed the vertical gauge enough that it shortened the sweater. But I like how it fits so I'm not worried about it. I was not expecting a sweater with patterning along the bottom half to be flattering, but somehow the way those little division signs lie is actually slimming. Go figure.

This was a fairly easy knit, except for that awkward couple of rows you always have when joining body and sleeves to work a yoke. I started it on December 9th and finished it on January 24th.

At the same time I managed to complete Cutaway, my first sweater from handspun.

The fiber was "Emerald City" bluefaced leicester from Lisa, and the pattern was from Bonne Marie at Chicknits. I knitted from two balls of handspun, switching balls every 2 rows, so that I would get a more uniform gauge and break up any color pooling tendencies.

I really like the way this came out. It's lightweight and shiny and soft and drapey, and the color is just as luminous in the finished product as it was in the unspun fiber.

In the photo, it's pinned closed with an old NOW lapel pin, because when I went to sew on the button, I found that the button had no back. (What WAS I thinking when I bought these buttons??) But I think it's perfect enough for the sweater that I'm going to wait for some button backs to come in the mail from Sheila and get the button whipped into shape.

The buttonhole is a tad lower than in the picture on the pattern. This was my mistake as I was knitting the band, I didn't correctly spot the place where the neckline decreases started. I blocked accordingly to pull the shape out a little, and it looks almost like it was meant to be that way...

I started this on November 4th and completed the sewing on January 26th. I am not sure how much yardage I used but I think it is in the neighborhold of 900-950. I actually have an entire skein left - it happens to be the one skein that was spun a little too fat, so I have 200-some yards of worsted weight in this lovely color, plus about 150 in the finer sport/DK weight. I think it will have to be a hat, but not just ANY hat, so I need to seek about for a really nice pattern for it.

I made changes to this pattern too - this is getting to be a habit. I did my provisional castons at the bottom front edges the way I normally would instead of how the pattern specified. I bound off the shoulder seams and then knitted the ribbed band in one continuous piece from bottom right up and over the neck and down to the bottom left. I also did an Elizabeth Zimmerman one-row buttonhole for the first time - I can't say I understand exactly how it works but it makes a brilliant, trim buttonhole.

Too bad it's going to be 60 degrees today or I'd be wearing this one.

I also threw together a cute little hat for Emily.

Isn't it the cutest thing? It was so easy, it took about 2 weeks of spare-time knitting. I used about 1 1/4 balls of Knitpicks Andean Treasure in the most gorgeous shade of blue I've ever seen in yarn. This is NICE YARN. I want to think of something else to do with it. I knitted it at a pretty loose gauge but it just wanted to be cuddly and cushy.

The pattern was a very old Patons pattern that Melanie sent me - before the days when people knitted everything in the round I guess because I had to - you guessed it - change the pattern a little to suit myself and avoid having to do any seams. The principle was super-simple and the same construction as a sock heel - a ribbed neck in the round, then the center front stitches go on a holder and the back and sides are knitted up flat like a heel flap. At the top of the head, you basically do a big fat Dutch heel to turn the flap into a top and sides, then pick up down one side of the face, across the held stitches, and back up the other side and knit a ribbed circle around the face. So cute and easy. She loves it and wanted to wear it this morning even though we're having a spell of spring. I had enough yarn left to make myself a skinny ribbed scarf about 18 inches long.

Whew! With all that stuff finished, I enjoyed feeling like I could cast on whatever I wanted. I started Eris, in my white merino handspun from last summer.

This is the first quarter of the collar. It's really a feat of engineering. The short rows make a beautiful curve. The little slipped stitches make the neck edge of it turn under nicely. She has come up with more little ways to twist stitches while increasing or decreasing than I ever thought possible. I love how it's coming out. It also goes fairly fast, because the longest row is only 31 stitches, and when you are doing curves, the rows get much shorter.

I also started a pair of toe-up socks in some Koigu I had lying around, which I won from Mamacate last year. They aren't very photogenic yet. I googled around and it seemed that most people knitted their Koigu socks on size 2 needles so that is what I'm trying. I want to eke out as tall a leg as I can manage.

I want to cast on for Moscow Nights with my handspun cashmere/merino too, but I think I'll wait until I get the Eris collar done and get into the plainer part of the knitting. I'm also questioning my plan to knit one white project and one beige project at the same time, after all my greens and purples and pinks. I can always knit socks to spice things up, I have so many lovely sock yarns.

Well, we're all tired out here, thank goodness it's Monday and I can get some rest at work!

Meme myself I

Pink Tea being the sort of group effort it is, we are responding to the meme that's circulating these days in a group fashion. We sort of got it from Kerry and will tag the only people left that we know that haven't been tagged yet (as far as I can tell). There are going to be more than 4 items for most of these questions, being as how 3 people contributed to the list. We are a versatile bunch who would clearly serve up one heck of a potluck.

List 4 jobs you've had

Newsletter editor, COBOL programmer, systems analyst, file clerk, craft shop owner, financial analyst, administrative assistant, legal secretary, knitting instructor, ER admitting counselor.

List 4 movies you could watch over and over

Three Seasons, Brother from Another Planet, Dirty Dancing, Tango & Cash, Enemy Mine, The Usual Suspects, The Philadelphia Story, The Lion in Winter, Milagro Beanfield War, To Kill a Mockingbird

List 4 TV shows you love to watch

Antiques Road Show, Teletubbies (it's so weird), The Simpsons, the news (no kidding), CSI, Grey's Anatomy, The Amazing Race, the entire Food Network, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Inside the Actor's Studio

List 4 places you've been on vacation

Seattle, Ireland, Martha's Vineyard, Maine, Florida, Holland, England, Mexico, Arizona

List 4 websites you visit daily

All the fiber blogs to the left, dailykos.com, eBay, smirkingchimp.com, websudoku.com, FT blogs, the hunger site, Yahoo groups, bloglines, democracynow.com, mediamatters.org

List your 4 favorite foods

Peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream, pasta, pastries and anything with real whipped cream, rack of lamb, pear, brie & pecan quesedillas, any shellfish, salt and vinegar chips, olives, cheese

List 4 places I'd rather be right now

At home, at the Irish pub, in Maine, in Ireland, any place where a breeze can blow without making me shiver, Tuscany, in a movie theater, at a bookstore/cafe

List 4 bloggers I'm tagging

Angela Vanessa Elka Marti

Some things are finished

Ok I'm not the French Girl, but here's Margaux.

It's pretty cute and I actually already wore it once, on Saturday when it was warm and drizzly.

I think I'm going to add another button and loop up at the base of the hood. Because the fabric is not very firm, the garter band at the base of the hood stretches all out and hangs down on my shoulders. So it needs another button, or maybe I can move the bottom button up to that location.

I also got around to plying the cashmere/merino. Here's the whole lot.

The new hank is in front.

Altogether I think I have 1000 or 1100 yards here. I plan to cast on for Moscow Nights as soon as I clear off my WIPs a little. I should have both Empirical and Cutaway done very soon - they are both quite close to finished.

I started spinning some 85/15 merino/silk in a lovely color called 'Teal swirl' that I bought at Maryland 2 years ago. This picture makes it look very blue, but it is a really nice mix of turquoise and green with the white silk throughout. I tend to think of teal as an ugly boring color (think uniforms) but this is coming out quite nice. I only have 8 ounces so I'm trying my best to stretch it out for yardage.

I also cast on for a hat for Emily but there's not much to see there yet. Next week's pictures should be much more interesting!

I have a dream

"And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I was driving to pick up Emily at 5:00 yesterday and they played an excerpt from that speech, and they juxtaposed it with some damnfool sound byte of the Preznit speaking at some observation of the day, and I literally cried. The dream isn't dead but they've sure stomped on it.

* * * * * *

Yesterday was my day off and I spent it working on computers. There's no justice. Actually I was migrating to a new PC and it went pretty well, it just took longer than I thought, so I only knitted 4 rows. Luckily things had progressed enough in the preceding week that you still have some pictures to look at.

I have 3 1/4 sleeves done and only 3/4ths of a sleeve to go, so the sleeve season is winding down.

I have joined the sleeves to the body of Empirical and am knitting the yoke. I can't wait to wear this, the fabric is so smooth and lush.

The second sleeve of Cutaway is coming along, but it's not too photogenic at this point. Perhaps in a week or so I will be assembling that one at last.

I spent a fair amount of time knitting on Margaux this weekend, it's starting to look like what it's supposed to be.

I have been puzzling over one aspect of it, as I knit along. The very first instruction is to cast on 49 stitches with a provisional caston for the hood. The intention is that the top center of the hood will be grafted together later to form a seamless fabric. I decided right off the bat that I had no intention of grafting something done with yarn held double - talk about making oneself nuts. So I just did a regular caston and will fudge something at the top for a decent look. It dawned on me, though - how on earth does one graft something where there is an odd number of stitches?? If it was 48 or 50 and I folded it in half, it would work. What's up with that??

I finished spinning and plying the cashmere/merino, but the plying didn't get done until late last night and I was so frustrated by the number of barfglobs that came out of the center pull ball that the floor around the wheel was strewn with little clumps of knotted single that I just ripped off. It was only a gram or so of single lost, when I got right down to it, but I decided I didn't want to look at it again just yet so it's still sitting on the bobbin.

My reward for that is going to be to spin some silk/merino that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2004. I want to practice up before I tackle this.

Isn't it just heavenly? It's Lisa's silk/merino in Sky Drama. Every time I open a package from Lisa it's even more wonderful than I expected. It's impossible to photograph how this stuff shines.

Here is my photography assistant.

She gave the whole endeavor a nice rhythm. Lay out sweater, move cat, take picture. Lay out sweater, move cat, take picture.

There was some afternoon sun for the first time in awhile so I tried to take some pictures of Liz's sweater.

I've been wearing it a LOT - it's a wonderful medium weight that's perfect for throwing on when the evening is cold. Toby seems to really like it, for whatever reason, he gets up on my lap and starts kneading the front of the sweater like a nursing kitten.

Started and Finished

The sun peeked out for a few minutes last weekend here on the wet coast (24 straight days with precipitation) so I ran for my camera to get a picture of the freshly blocked shawl that I finished on New Year's Eve. This is the Hanging Garden Lace Stole designed by Sivia Harding for KnitPicks, and test knit by me. There was not enough time to wait for the Alpaca Cloud yarn to be sent from KnitPicks, so I used stash yarn. It's Jaggerspun 2/7.5 waxed wool put up on a cone, purchased from Elann a couple of years ago. It would have been beautiful done in Alpaca Cloud, much softer.

I recently bought a lovely shawl pin from my fibertraditions friend Rosemary Hill that goes perfectly with this stole. See?

This picture shows the yarn colour better too.

Inspired by Prudence, I've been working on Arches, again using stash yarn acquired from Elann. It's Peruvian collection Pure Alpaca, colour 1321. The alpaca doesn't show the pattern stitch as crisply as the Cotton Fleece does. I decided to start with the icord edging (spool knit, remember that?) and then pick up the body stitches from the icord. Let's hope it works as well as adding the icord at the end.

The back is done and the front is at the point of dividing for the neck. The body is a bit longer than the pattern calls for and I have added some shaping to accommodate my derriere. Also, based on Prudence's experience, the body pattern has been carried on past the armholes for four more repeats before starting the lace pattern.

And here is the handspun Petroglyph merino scarf in progress. I really like watching the colours unfold. It's incredibly soft so I'm not expecting any complaints about "scratchy wool".

In pieces

Everything I'm working on is in pieces. (Isn't there a Rolling Stones song about being in pieces? I hear a snatch of it in my head every time I think about these projects.) I'm faithfully knitting all sleeves all the time (well, almost) so I can be rewarded with sweaters.

I have one sleeve done on Empirical and have started the second.

I've made an embellishment of my own on the bottom of the sleeves - one garter ridge in pink, to mimic the ridges on the patterned part of the sweater. I also decided to use a double-start caston and I'm really glad I did, it looks pretty. I'll get into more details about that when I show off the finished sweater.

I must admit that this is sort of cheating. Since this sweater's upper half is knitted as a raglan yoke in the round, the sleeves only have to make it up to the armholes to count as done. And since they are 3/4 sleeves it's even more cheating.

I have one sleeve done on Cutaway (I finished it last night after taking my photos). Here are the three pieces of the body. Keep in mind that this is all stockinette and rolls like a sumbitch. It really is all a little wider.

I was not entirely capable of dedicating myself entirely to sleeves, so in a wacky experiment I started knitting this.

I'm not sure why I thought it would be advisable for a woman of a certain age, such as myself, to knit something described as "the French Lieutenant's Woman meets Little Red Riding Hood," but I was smitten the minute I saw the pattern. The problem then became, what to do about yarn and needles? I have no intention of buying Rowan Ribbon Twist at $13 per 100g, and I have no intention of ever knitting anything ELSE on size 15 needles. How could we make do?

I'm using some lovely old BioSpun Perendale yarn in a beautiful raspberry color, held double, on size 8 circulars held double (hey, 10mm = 5mm + 5mm, right??). It's not as annoying as you'd think once you get used to it. The yarn is NOT velvety but it's a wonderful color, and I'm getting row gauge and almost getting stitch gauge. It's worth a try. This yarn has already been knit and frogged once, I made a shrug with it about 4 years ago that ended up too long and so always flopped down around the bottom of my ribs. So we're trying it out again on this pattern. I pick it up for a few rows whenever I can't take the sleeve grind anymore. We'll see.

I did have a little spinning time this weekend and spun up a few fistfuls of my remaining cashmere/merino. This weekend was crammed with stuff to do, and Emily has a birthday party to attend every Saturday for the remainder of the month (January is a big month in her preK classroom). Maybe while she's at all these birthday parties I can get some spinning done. Gotta figure out what presents to get for 3 5-year-old girls...

What I can do when I don't have to go to work

Now that I've had a full week off, for the first time since last winter, I can conclusively prove that if it were not for having to schlep to work every day, I could accomplish a lot.

Exhibit A: a complete pair of socks, knitted in a week.

OK, granted, this is Mountain Colors Bearfoot so it's knitted on size 2s instead of size 0s. But still, it's a new pair of socks in a week.

These are the 'Friday Harbor' socks from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. I am having a Nancy Bush fest, I think I'm going to knit socks out of her books on an ongoing basis until I run out of steam. Her patterns are so beautiful.

As for the Bearfoot, I love this yarn so much that I was sorry to finish the socks. (Now, I also probably knitted a total of 3 socks, with all the ripping back because I was trying to knit, read, and chat at the same time... so the fact that I was STILL sorry to finish really says something about the yarn.) It's gorgeous and I see more of it in my future. The photo doesn't really capture the deep jewel tones of this shade, which was called 'Garnet'. Yep, call anything 'garnet' and I'll glaze over and buy it.

Exhibits B and C didn't get photographed, but they would be the body of Empirical Division, up to the armholes, and both fronts of Cutaway. I now have 4 sleeves to knit, as a reward for my dedication to those projects. One sleeve of each is about 1/3 done.

I finally got to ply the second hank of cashmere/merino. The new hank is in front.

It's about 375 yards, and the first one is about 425, so I have about 800 yards of yarn here already. I have about another 2 1/2 ounces left to spin. I'm changing my mind about dyeing it now, and thinking that I will knit Moscow Nights with it in its natural maple-walnut shade. I'm pretty thrilled that I'm spinning such a fine yarn.

We went to visit Liz for awhile on New Year's Day (does two years in a row make a tradition?) and I used the opportunity to finally finish that Shetland that's been hanging over my head. It spins very fast if I just take the time to deal with it. Two hanks, about 2 ounces and 120 yards each.

This is, to be perfectly honest, not a very nice yarn. It was an ok fleece but so full of hay that I could barely stand to comb it, let alone separate the two coats. It's a bit coarse and not that attractive. I think it would make great felted mittens for shoveling snow. I think my total yardage on it is about 500. I am now cured of my desire to deal with Shetland fleece. I will let other people do Shetland for me, should I have a desire to spin Shetland.

I have spent zero time combing the color-blended top froom my dyed rambouillet but I have this to spin now that I've freed up the upstairs wheel.

I think I am probably the world's worst carder. It just doesn't come naturally like combing did. But that doesn't stop me, and I have about 2/3 of my little bag of Targhee carded and ready to spin. I have never spun from rolags before, so this will be interesting. Or maybe not. A friend of Emily's was over on Friday and when she spotted these, she grabbed a fistful and held them next to her chin and started singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

When we were at Liz's on Sunday she gave me a sweater she once designed for a yarn vendor, which she says will never fit her again. I did some mending on it (hope it was cat claw damage, not moth eating...) and gave it a nice wash. It's a wonderful huge floppy tunic (it was a tunic on her and she's a good 6 inches taller than I am) with an interesting cable design on it, and it's very difficult to photograph because it's a subtle grey with light green running through it. I will get it in bright light one day soon. This is a shot of the bottom edge.

She started the cabled design at different levels at the bottom of the sweater in a really interesting way. I can't wait to wrap up in it on a sleety evening. Thanks, Liz!

Happy New Year!

A very happy new year to one and all! Yesterday I finished knitting a shawl. Isn't that a great way to end the old year? It just looks like a scrunched up pile of crumpled knitting now, but I'll post a picture when it has been blocked.

This is the alpaca silk blend that was on the Little Gem when I last posted in November - time flies! I love the way the silk shines through the soft matte of the alpaca. It's so soft and drapey.

And from start to finish, this is superfine merino in the colour Petroglyph, hand dyed by Lisa Souza. Lisa's fibre is so well prepared that it's a dream to spin.

The photos just don't do the colours justice. I love the loft in this yarn. It feels as light as air. There are 417 yds. in this 4 oz. skein, and it's going to become a scarf.

Some folks don't appreciate hand knit gifts. My son's fiancee is not one of them. Is this a happy face or what? The scarf is knit with Madil Kid Seta (kid mohair/silk) from the Fiber Trends Estonian Garden Wrap & Scarf pattern. It was a hit, and that made my day.

Here's the scarf border. This is the first time I've knit nupps and I like the way they look in this pattern. I had to be extra careful to catch all the loops when knitting all the yarn-overs together.

And finally, here is the long-in-the-making Cables and Lace Cardigan. The yarn is Elann Den-M-Nit unmercerized cotton. Since my swatch shrank more than the pattern suggested it would, I knit a size larger than usual and pulled it out of the dryer wile it was still damp. The next time I wash it, I will dry it completely because it's a tad big on me. I passed on the crochet border and did garter stitch front and neck bands all in one piece, and added a clasp closure. The sleeves were knit from the top down instead of cuff up. Sice the body is knit in one piece to the armholes and the shoulders use a three needle bind off, there was no sewing up to do. The sweater is very comfortable and I think it will be one that will get plenty of use.

Best wishes to all of you for a happy and healthy year!