KnitMe

Swathed in cashmere

I finished my Trellis scarf the other day. I am so delighted with it. It's the perfect combination of luxury and utility.

It ended up about 6 feet long and 12 inches across and used almost all of one cone of DK weight cashmere (really more of a sport weight when knitted up) from the eBay seller Colourmart (they also have their own website now, apparently). It took several soaks, in the skein and also at blocking, to get the spinning oil to come out, but it's very soft and beautiful now.

The pattern is easy to knit (even the odd maneuver with knitting 7 together into 5 is not difficult once you find a small enough crochet hook and get the hang of it) and I will absolutely knit it again. I didn't block it hard, because I wanted it to stay cushy and scarf-sized, so the lace is not as open as you might see in other photos of laceweight versions.

When I got to the end of the scarf, and finished the ending border chart of 13 rows, I was astonished to see that the end was not going to have points like the beginning. This totally floored me, so I put it down and googled to see what people had done. Turns out that this was a well-known 'feature' of the pattern that many others had already discussed. There appeared to be three schools of thought on the subject: Knit it as written and live with it having one pointy end and one flat end; knit it as written and block the bejeezus out of it; knit a second end like the beginning and graft it onto live stitches so the scarf will match.

Being me, I decided to try a fourth approach. I ripped back the border rows and improvised a solution as I went along that I believed would introduce points. I don't think I could tell anyone exactly what I did, but I think it worked quite well and if I can do it anybody can do it. I increased in the center of the plain stockinette sections, and decreased on the sides of them, and it magically worked out. You can see in these photos that there is a slight difference because I didn't realize for a few rows that I could put the yarn overs back in and get a better match, so there are a couple of holes missing, but I am really happy with how it came out.

I wore it this morning in the cold and wind and I'm just in love with it. My cushy ribbed merino scarf is just going to have to take a vacation while I bond with this one.

I finished our angora hats last week.

When I got all done, I wished I hadn't put the little blue edge on mine, but it's still a soft cushy warm hat. If that yarn (Elsebeth Lavold Angora) comes back on clearance at WEBS again, I will probably buy a little more.

I finished one of the Monkey socks and started the next one. It's looking very nice in that Tess yarn. Oddly enough, that sock is the only thing I have on the needles right now. I started knitting something with my brown bluefaced leicester that is not yet finished being spun, and after awhile it became clear that while it was making a very nice fabric, I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish the item. So, I frogged, and have to wait for the pattern I think is going to be my perfect fit for the yarn. I guess I will just knit my sock until something else inspires me...

Stymied

After having no winter for most of winter, we got one half of one inch of winter last night and today is a mess. Schools are opening two hours late. The neighbors who said Emily could wait with them when schools opened late apparently rolled over and went back to sleep. So I might as well get the blogging done since I have to be on vacation for awhile this morning. Not that there is blogging to do.

This weekend was wonderfully cold. Definitely sweater weather. Yesterday for some reason I didn't want to knit my wool sock, I wanted to work with something cushy. So I picked up some Elsebeth Lavold Angora that I got on clearance at WEBS and started a hat for Emily. The first picture is a better representation of the color and the second one is a better representation of the hat itself.

This stuff is making the most wonderful hat. I'm glad I also have two hanks in magenta for myself. It really is nice yarn, but I can see why it didn't take off the way Silky Wool did. The yardage is terrible (90 yards for an original retail of I think about $9) and a sweater in this would be hot and heavy. But it is the most perfect hat/scarf yarn, and now it's only 3.99 on closeout so it's a good deal for a really nice hat.

I am using my favorite hat pattern for it.

I have turned the heel on my first Monkey sock in my Tess yarn.

I think these are going to be pretty. I can't tell yet how the legs will fit.

I am keeping on with the Trellis scarf, which should be done this week. The nice thing about a rectangle is that the rows don't get longer as you go along....

Well, that's all I got. I need to go fret about when I'm going to be able to call my sleepy neighbors again. Argh.

Many many pictures

We have a day off today so I am catching up on all the things I haven't gotten taken care of around here. I forgot to post the mittens last week - they were done fairly quickly and finally have all the required parts.

To my surprise I find they are not all that warm. Maybe it's the fact that the yarn is very light and I am used to mittens done in heavier yarn. Fortunately this winter is not all that cold so it'll be ok, and next winter Emmy will get worsted weight mittens. Meanwhile, I bought a few more colors of the yarn (Knitpicks Palette) to attempt to recolor them in shades of pink and purple with an accent of grey. Since I am color impaired this will be a very interesting experiment. The yarn is a nice all-purpose fingering weight yarn that would make light-weight sweaters for those who do not live in an aran weight climate.

I finished up my feather and fan socks this week, too, and wore them immediately.

I really like this pattern (from the XRX book Socks socks socks) - it fits my leg very well and the pattern is much more elastic than I expected it would be. I didn't knit the heel flap as written and wouldn't recommend that to anybody - it's just ribbed, no heel stitch for durability. I suppose that is why it seemed to be so short - the pattern calls for 20 rows of ribbed heel, and 20 rows is usually the length of heel flaps I make for Emily. I lengthened it, but not enough, and I would lengthen it more next time I make the pattern.

The yarn is Fleece Artist sock (the 'fat' version) and it was perfect for the pattern.

I was thinking I would lay off sock knitting for awhile - I made 7 1/2 pairs for myself last year and 2 for Emily - but I have so much beautiful yarn and so many nice patterns that I started another pair right away. The picture didn't come out good so there isn't one, but the pattern is the 'Monkey' sock from the winter issue of Knitty, and the yarn is some Tessyarns sock yarn in beautiful shades of purple, medium blue, and blue-green. Oddly enough, it's bleeding blue dye on my fingers which I didn't expect from this yarn. I guess these will go into a vinegar and hot water bath before I wear them the first time. I love the colors and the way it's working up.

I also finished my Spinners Shawl (the new pattern by Evelyn Clark).

This was made from some of Lisa Souza's superfine merino in the color 'Wild Things', spun two-ply at a sort of dk weight.

It came out really big - it's almost four feet tall at the point. I tried to use up all the yarn, and came fairly close. The thing to know about this pattern is that the border is much deeper than you expect - the main pattern repeat is 10 rows, which you do as long as you feel like, but the border is almost 40 rows and eats up a lot of yarn. I knit the main pattern 13 times but it was clear about halfway into the border that I wasn't going to make it, so I ripped back the border rows plus two main pattern repeats and did it again and it was much better. I'd almost say the border alone takes half of the yarn. The border is quite pretty.

This is the softest, cuddliest thing. I seem to have a predilection for purple shawls. I have to say, though, that I think Flower Basket is her best all-purpose shawl pattern.

I continued knitting on the Trellis scarf with my cashmere yarn. I think it will be lovely.

The little maneuver where she decreases 7 stitches into 5 seems insane at first, but once you get the hang of it and knit the pattern repeat a few times, you can see how beautifully it works.

Emily has inherited my old 2 megapixel camera and is running around the house photographing me, cats, herself, furniture, etc. etc. This is her photo essay on mommy spinning.

"I wanted to take a picture of Mommy with the spinning wheel."

"I like to take pictures of Mommy because I like to see the yarn she's making."

"I like the spinning wheel."

"I like Mommy's spinning wheel because it's beautiful and I like the color of it."

Parallel parking

You know how when you parallel park, you go back, and forward, and back, and forward, and when you're done you're sitting still? That's what this weekend was like in knitting.

I knitted and knitted and knitted every night on my Spinners Shawl while listening to back episodes of Cast On, and realized about 1/3 of the way through the border pattern that I would NEVER have enough yarn. I briefly considered spinning more, then I decided I should just rip back. So I ripped out 10 rows of border, and two 10-row repeats of the main pattern, then started going forward again. I have now knitted 16 rows of the border, but this one is going to look the same as it did last week until it's actually being worn.

I turned the heel on my feather-and-fan sock #2 and knitted the gusset. While I was working on it during the week I suddenly thought - oops I've done too many gusset decreases - there are 16 stitches on each needle on the leg and I had gone past 16 on the sole needles. So I ripped back the extra decrease rows. Then on Saturday while knitting during Emily's swimming class, I realized that I was supposed to decrease down to 14 on each of those needles so I'd have 60 foot stitches. So when I got home I ripped out the one inch of foot I'd knitted and went back to add two more decrease rows on the gusset.

I forgot to take my photos until after dark, so they are not the pretty natural-light shots I've been getting since last month.

I kept spinning my brown bluefaced leicester. I knitted a swatch with it too:

This is moss stitch, on size 7 needles. It made a nice fabric, but I was shooting for 22 stitches and 28 rows over 4 inches and I got 21 stitches and 26 rows. Too big for what I was hoping to make with it. I had a brainstorm last night as to what pattern might work - we will swatch again this week and see if my guess is right.

I also got some 100% cashmere yarn in a light DK weight from the eBay seller 'colourmart', enabled by Jan... Because it came oiled on the cone, I hanked and washed it before knitting so I would actually get some enjoyment out of the process. It still needs more washing, but after 2 or 3 soaks in Dawn about 60% of the oil seems to be out of it.

I wanted to knit something special - something light, not cabled or ribbed, and with a little lace, but not a LACE item necessarily... I ended up starting the Trellis scarf, by Evelyn Clark from a back issue of Interweave Knits.

I think this will be just right - I won't block it hard or fight its tendency to fuzz, so it won't be the perfect lace, but I think it will be quite pretty.

That's all I have today. Here is a cuteness shot of a little old kitty having her nap.

Happy New Year

This is a bit of a catch-up entry, as I had a bunch of pictures last week that I didn't have time to post.

This is the Marseilles pullover, in use. (Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits)

I have had trouble getting the red to really show up. It's a nice deep blood-red. I don't know why my camera wants to make it yellower, like a fire engine. This is a new camera, and what I'm finding is that it does wonderful things with natural light. I am not forced to use the flash like I was with my old camera. It adjusts nicely to the level of natural light and I am getting much better pictures because of it.

This was made in about a month -- I started in mid November and finished in mid December. I used 10 balls of Valley Yarns Lenox (alpaca and merino) from WEBS and made the second-smallest size (38). I knitted this yarn on size 7 needles, which is 2 sizes smaller than the ball band called for, and I am glad I did as it made a nice fabric. It ended up a tad shorter than called for, but it isn't a problem and I preferred to keep the integrity of the cable pattern and where it was supposed to end for the neck.

I didn't quite follow the pattern at the neckline - it called for only 11 stitches to be attached together for the shoulders, but I looked at the photo (which supposedly represented the size I was knitting) and it was clear that more stitches were joined than that. So I used 17 stitches for the shoulder, the number used for the largest size. I wish I had used more - the shape of the neck is lovely, but alpaca does sag a little, and it's not quite practical for a sweater this weight to have a bare neck. I am going to end up wearing it with a sleeveless mock turtleneck underneath. It is quite soft and comfortable. Oh, I also shortened the sleeves an inch, and I wish I had shortened them at least another half inch. Who on earth has these long arms these patterns are designed for?? I have very long arms for my height and I still have to shorten sleeves most of the time.

I finished spinning and plying another skein of bluefaced leicester before Christmas. This is the current stash.

It's about 18 ounces, so I have 14 left to go. Each hank is 3.5 to 3.8 ounces and about 165 meters. I am going to have to wind up a hank soon and start swatching to see what it wants to do on the needles. I have a sixth hank ready to ply if I have time today or tomorrow.

I also made a lot of progress on the new Evelyn Clark pattern 'Spinners Shawl' using some merino dyed by Lisa Souza in the 'Wild Things' colorway. I spun this quite awhile ago but just now decided I wanted to use it. I am a much better spinner now than when I made this yarn, so the colors are all over each other, but for a cushy shawl it will be just fine.

I have about 600 yards of pretty much worsted weight yarn so I am using size 8 needles and this is going to be very big.

While we were at my mother's house for the holiday, I sat and knitted all day while Emmy plagued her grandmother to play cards, so I got a lot done.

I turned the heel and did the entire foot on my feather-and-fan sock, and I knitted one entire Northern Lights mitten.

Things started to go wrong when we got home and I decided I wanted to knock out the second mitten quickly. Things went along well until I was about to graft the top of the mitten hand together and noticed that I had inexplicably stopped the cuff ribbing six rows too early. Some panic ensued before I decided to just live with it, as the rest of the mitten was done above it. So I grafted the top and then sat down to make the thumb. That's when I noticed that the rest of the mitten was NOT FINE. Something Else Was Wrong. (Warning: the following pictures may be too harsh for the young or inexperienced.)

Note: You cannot do an afterthought thumb in two-color knitting.

So, the scissors came out and the mitten was beheaded and the cuff is back on the needles and now has the right number of rows. Luckily I have a boatload of yarn and don't need to try and painfully unravel the damn thing.

Despite this fiasco, I like this pattern a lot and am thinking of recoloring it in other shades of Palette. I'm thinking a purple and pink theme, kind of springlike. We're driving down to visit Liz today and she has the Palette sampler box, maybe I will sit on the floor and see if my ideas could work.