KnitMe

Hawaii WIPs

While Clementine is vacationing in the stash, I've been busy with other projects.

Something Bold

"Dazzler" handpainted tussah top from The Silkworker, 66 gm., 2-ply, 450 yd.

Something Sweet

"Gibson Girl" Silkworker tussah top, 64 gm., 2-ply, 465 yd.

Something Brilliant

"Ringmaster" Silkworker tussah top, 68 gm., singles, 960 yd.

Something Basic

Off to a good start on a working gansey. Stromness Gansey by Elizabeth Lovick,
custom sizing by Liz. Frangipani 5-ply Guernsey yarn, 3 mm. needles.

Something Blue

Fishermens Pattern toe-up sock by Elizabeth Lovick. Regia 4-ply, 2.75 mm needles.

Truly, spinning is a joy here on Molokai

Where the gentle trade winds play.

A beautiful place.

In the company of friends.

Aloha.

Mom ! Mom ! Wait for me ! ! !

The ends almost match!

This makes me inordinately happy. Try to explain that to the Muggles. This scarf was knit with handspun Wild Things merino, fiber from Lisa Souza (see sidebar). I split a 4 oz. bump down the middle lengthwise and spun each half on a separate bobbin. I wound the singles off into two balls, and plyed each ball back on itself. When I knit the scarf, I started the first ball from the inside, and the second ball from the outside. Voila! Scarf ends that almost match.

Fern is finished and got to go to Madrona with me - barely dry. I don't have a woolly board, so it took almost three days for it to dry.

From the sheep's back to mine:

This is Kim and I, high on fleece fumes at the Salt Spring Fibre Festival in July 2005. Kim helped me pick this gorgeous Perendale fleece, a goodly portion of which has now become Fern.

Fern is an Alice Starmore design from the Stillwater book. It is designed as a pullover with dropped shoulders. I get more wear from a cardigan, and I was aiming for more of a jacket style. I gave it square armholes because I'm not fond of dropped shoulders. I wanted to finish all the edges with i-cord, however, when that was done the neckline was too big and looked unfinished; it needed a collar. I used a provisional cast on and picked up the cast on stitches to knit the second half of the collar so that it would be symmetrical in the front. I used a provisional cast on for the fronts and back too, then picked up the cast on stitches and worked an i-cord cast off. The i-cord down the fronts was knit along with the fronts with short rows thrown in occasionally to avoid curling.

I like the feel of the sweater. It's warm and not scratchy and it hangs well. I have to say that by the end, I ws so very done with knitting grey yarn in the dreary grey PNW winter.

This is the Tabachek Mini spindle that my sweetie gave me for Christmas. It was purchased at my LYS, Knitopia in White Rock, BC, which now carries spindles, fibres and is a Majacraft retailer. The spindle weighs 26g., has a bubinga whorl and a hickory shaft, and it is a wonderful spindle.. I'm spindling some tussah silk from Treenway in the Desert Sage colourway.

Remeber this from back in December? This is the spindle spun, Navajo plyed silk/wool, just over 1,000 yards weighing about 4 oz. Sadly, it lost a lot of its sheen after I washed the skein. I was thinking about knitting an entrelac scarf with it, but it may be a bit too fine for what I had in mind. It's got long colour runs which I find so attractive in entrelac, so maybe I'll try it anyways.

More of the same

The knitting around here is just more of the same from last week. Here is the left front of the Swing Coat, in the brown handspun bluefaced leicester.

I'm really excited about how this is turning out, despite the fact that my knitting does not show knit/purl patterns well for whatever reason. I've made good progress on the right front too, maybe 6 inches.

The Lupine Lace sock is also progressing nicely and has part of a foot, but the photo of it came out so blurry that I'll just defer that one till next week.

Here is the Cats Day shawl - looking like a mushed up net bag now that I am knitting the border. It will look like this until I get it done. It's on a 40 inch circular needle and has 500 stitches per round and I'm about to begin knitting 70 rounds where I increase 8 stitches every other round, so it's going to go slower and slower and slower and slower...

I have a peeve with this pattern. If anyone is planning to make this shawl be aware that the directions for picking up for the border, if followed exactly as written, will have you knitting the border on wrong-side-out. Let me see if I can explain. She has you knit the center square, in stockinette lace, which means it has a definite right side (specifically states the wrong side rows are purled), then end the square with a wrong side row and begin picking up stitches down the side and all around to knit the border circularly. As I read it, that would have you picking up stitches clockwise. However, when I knit circularly I progress COUNTERCLOCKWISE. Therefore, I omitted the last wrong side row she tells you to knit on the center square, and picked up my stitches down the side beginning at the end of a right side row so that I would be knitting my right side rows of border with the right side of the center square facing.

Well, that is a terrible explanation, but I hope at least somebody knows what I mean. I thought I was nuts so I asked this question on a list I'm on, and at least one person responded to me that she had the exact same problem with 'Rosy fingered dawn' and would have had the border on backwards if she hadn't realized what was going on, ripped, and figured it out on her own. So, don't be afraid to use your own judgment at times like this. You know how to knit.

Thanks for all the kind comments on little Bridget. She was the best cat ever, and we miss her a lot. I hope that you didn't miss the Monkey socks in the knitting entry posted the same day, they came out quite lovely and I recommend the pattern.

PS the handspun fix of the week at the Yarn Museum this week is my yarn!

Bridget 1987-2007

Ni bheidh a leitheid aris ann.

Season whiplash

We are not without knitting content despite everything.

After the lovely intermission in Hawaii we're back to winter in the continental US...sorry...

Last week I wouldn't have had too much in the way of progress to show you, but this week I do.

I finished the Monkey socks last week.

I am really happy with how these turned out. I like the basketweave effect that the stitch pattern gives, and the short color runs in the yarn avoided striping and pooling nicely. The colors are beautiful and intense, and each run was pretty much one row around the leg so it turned out very nice. They fit pretty well too - the stitch pattern is elastic and when it relaxes it reminds me of the 'bubble' socks that Irish dance students wear - it poofs a bit but doesn't fall down really badly.

I did lengthen the leg - she says to knit 6 pattern repeats and I knit 8. I wish I'd knit 9, but I think that would have pushed me dangerously close to running out of yarn. I've sort of evolved a way of gauging how I'm doing with yarn consumption, given the size of my feet, whereby I need to use just less than 25 grams for the leg if I'm working with 100 grams of yarn. I have pretty small feet from what I understand, so your mileage would definitely vary... but having worked out that general statistic, I can weigh my ball of yarn as I knit and not be totally in the dark about whether I'm pushing my luck too far.

I started knitting my brown bluefaced leicester, Sam found me the perfect pattern and because it's new there were not many places that had it - I found it at The Mannings.

It is coming out very lovely - it's going to be heavy because my yarn is heavy, but that is the kind of thing it's supposed to be. I ordered 8 extra ounces of the dark bluefaced leicester fiber from Copper Moose on eBay in case I run short of yardage.

I have to admit that this kind of pattern (where the primary design element is drawn in knits and purls) really plays to the weakness in my knitting. I don't know exactly what this weakness is or I'd fix it - but it seems that I am incapable of working a pattern like this and have it look like, say, a chevron - it always looks like a muddle of disorganized bumps. Maybe someday I'll have the time to ask some expert to look at my work and figure out why this is. Until then, I may not tackle a fabulous gansey project...

I also have been working for 2 weeks on the Cats' Day shawl. I wanted to show you my 8 ounce ball of laceweight yarn stuffed into a 1.5 liter tupperware box but I don't think I have the photo here... so instead you get to see the lace.

Maybe the box shows at the top right of that shot?

The pattern starts off very easily, it doesn't feel like you're beginning work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Provisional caston of 127 stitches to knit the center square, and the pattern is simple so it goes quickly. I am about 2/3rds done with the center square. Here's a detail of the pattern - each section of the pattern represents something about the life of cats in the Shetland islands, and in the center, cats sleep in pairs under fir trees.

Isn't it darling? After the center square is done you pick up all around the outside of it and knit the border in the round - that will be about 500 stitches so we will be embarking on the Sistine Chapel ceiling then... Thank goodness I got that 40 inch cord for my Knitpicks needles...

The one evening that I was without a pair of socks on the needles, I couldn't sit still, I felt like I had to be DOING something, so I cast on for Evelyn Clark's Lupine Lace socks, using some Knitpicks Gloss yarn (merino and silk). My yarn is sort of wine-colored, which is a bit contradictory to the lovely easter-egg colors chosen for the pattern photo...

The photo was taken in bright light so it washed out the color just a little, it's a nice dark garnet shade. Some folks have said they have not liked this yarn, but I'm liking it. It's plump and shiny - a little dry to the hand because of the silk content, and I have a feeling these will be somewhat delicate - but it is pleasant to knit. Unless something nasty happens later in the knitting, or in the first washing, I think I would buy more of this yarn.

Spinning and Knitting in Hawaii

Aloha from Molokai.

I brought my spindles, my needles and wheel.
I brought my patterns and books.

The skein.

The plan.

The WIP.

Which grew.
And sagged, and sagged.
And sagged.

The RIP.

This week has got to be better.