Knitting Sweaters & Sitting Still

Half Dozen

2012-01-22T11:19:00.001-06:00

I’ve gone to town on the Christmas balls these past two weekends, and I’m caught up on my ball-a-week schedule that I set back in mid-December.

The patterns in the group are grouped in themes. The first five comprise the chapter called It will be Christmas soon and are all snow-themed. In order, from left to right, the patterns are called Snow Crystal, Frost, Snowflakes, New Snow and Snowman.

Last night I made the first in the next section, Children’s mittens. They are all taken from motifs found in mitten patterns. The first one is the Eight-Petal Rose, and is from a pattern on a child’s mitten that the authors found in the handcraft shop of the Norwegian Handcraft Association in Kristiansand.

I’m not sure if the knitted-in beads are working quite the way I expected. Close-up, they are always a little off, either sitting above or below (usually) the stitch that’s squished through them. You can see this with the silver bead in the center in the picture of the Eight-Petal Rose ball on the right. I’m hoping that when these are on a lighted tree, they’ll provide sparkle in the right places. Close up, they kind of create a blurred, jittery effect that I hope won’t be as noticeable from a distance. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much.

So far, the Eight-Petal Rose has been my favorite. I think it’s the balance of red and white, plus, I like symmetry. The Snowman was the first one that wasn’t symmetrical from the center of the pattern, so, despite it’s spare-ness, it took a bit more concentration. Also, there were some crazy-long floats to manage in that one.

I’m still working on the men’s sweater, although the more increases I put in, the longer it takes to get across each row. The mittens, alas, are on hiatus for right now.

Learning to Knit a Men’s Sweater

2012-01-18T19:54:00.001-06:00

I’ve already knit sweaters for myself and Jeff, so I have knit a few men’s sweaters, but not like this one. There a lot of techniques that are new to me in this pattern, and I’m learning a lot already.

The design is called Learn to Knit a Men’s Sweater and was created by my good friend, knitting buddy, and foster mom to our sweet, sweet Pona, Staci of Very Pink.

Staci uses a very cool teaching and pricing model for her designs. She offers videos for free, some for basic techniques, and some specific to patterns she produces. So if you buy the pattern, you have high-quality, ready-made videos at your fingertips to help you along. It’s a great idea, and I’ve already found the videos quite helpful. Here, Staci introduces the techniques and tutorials at her Very Pink YouTube Channel:

Very Pink Channel Intro

I’m making the extra-large version, and I’m using around 16 balls of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed in Prussian Heather. This picture skews a bit toward the purple, but the color is really more of a slatey-blue.

There is so much to this pattern that is new to me in a sweater – top-down construction (not very common in the men’s patterns I’ve seen), an I-cord edge that is knitted as you go, and that new method of knitting the zipper in, rather than sewing it. I can’t wait to get to that part!

Three projects on the needles at once. I’m out of control.

One Down, 54 To Go

2012-01-15T13:32:00.001-06:00

The yarn for my Christmas ball project finally arrived, and I got started yesterday. Today, I have my first one finished. A little behind schedule, but I’m happy that I’ve begun.

Arne & Carlos, in their book, suggest gluing what they term crystals on to some of the designs to give them a bit of sparkle. I can’t imagine anything glued to knitting actually staying. Also, this looked a bit like bedazzling to me, and I wanted something classier. I’d run across a technique for adding beads to knitting using a crochet hook, so I decided to do that. Thing is, I don’t know squat about beads.

Luckily, Donna, a friend and work colleague, does know about beads. So we went shopping yesterday afternoon at Nomadic Notions and got some very nice glass Czech beads in red, clear/silver and gold. I have some very tiny crochet hooks that once belonged to my great-grandmother and were given to me by my aunt, and they’re doing just the trick. Some of the beads’ holes are too small for the hook, but I have enough beads that this shouldn't be a problem. In any case, I’ve been pleased with the results so far.

I used some acrylic stuffing for the balls, although Arne & Carlos call for using wool batting. They claim that it makes for a more uniform filling. I did have a few lumps and bumps in this one, so I might try that. Also, my crochet chain for the loop at the top is twisting in on itself. Do any crocheters know what this means? Wrong hook size? Do I need to go up or down in size? Not a problem when it’s actually hanging from a bough, I imagine, but it would be nice to know.

I’m going to start another one right now.

Meanwhile…

2012-01-12T16:44:00.001-06:00

I’m really excited about two projects that I want to get started, but the yarn hasn’t arrived. In fact, although I ordered it nearly a week ago, it still hasn’t shipped. Grrrr.

So, because I needed something to work on, I decided to tackle another pair of mittens from the Woodland Winter Mittens kit, which I purchased from the same company that hasn’t shipped my order. What strange power do they have over me?

This is the 4th of the 6 winter month patterns – March. Regular readers will know that I’ve already completed October, January and February. October, November and December are my favorite designs, but I’m saving the latter two for later. I do really like the color palette of the March mittens. Very brown and green.

The March pattern features bulbs pushing out of the ground. The picture here shows the patterned palm side. It’s not easily memorize-able, so I’m having to pay close attention. But, I started this Tuesday afternoon and have been able to get this much done in two evenings of knitting. As in the October pair, I’m going to try and add a few stitches to the thumbs to make them a little more roomy.

Unmatched Game 2012

2012-01-08T12:39:00.001-06:00

As I took this final picture of the pair of Movember Mystery Socks, which finished this morning, I immediately realized that the two skeins of one-of-a-kind Lorna’s Laces sock yarn were each one-of-a-kind. Although they use the same colors, one of them definitely has more of a darker shade to it. They’re not the same color at all. It wasn’t noticeable at all until fabric was knit up from the two skeins. Kind of maddening. But then again, it’s only noticeable in bright natural light, so I’m just going to ignore it. I don’t think anyone will notice, especially when they’re on my feet and in side a pair of shoes.

Give this free pattern a try. It’s very clear, and the instructions are both charted and written out, depending on your preference. I usually prefer charts, but I found that I switched back and forth – I found the charts easier for the leg, but switched to the longer written instructions for the patterning across the top of the foot. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I really like how the little ogee motifs grow out of the ribbing. Integrating the ribbing at the top into the pattern is a very clever design move. There are a few holes created by an increase that makes three stitches out of one in several places, but they don’t bother me too much.

I was finally able to order some yarn for the Christmas balls. I had planned to get started on that weeks ago, so that year-long project is already several weeks off schedule. At the same time, I ordered some blue yarn for a sweater for me based on a Staci Perry design. I can’t wait to get started on both! Stay tuned for pictures and details…

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T19:51:00.001-06:00

I started off the new year by finishing a sock. The first Movember Mystery Sock in the mystery Lorna’s Laces colorway is done. I almost knitted it twice.

When I last mentioned this sock. I was almost down to the toe shaping. I’d tried it on several time and was okay with the fit, but the last time I tried, I just had to admit that it was too big. So I ripped the whole thing out and went down from the 2.25mm needles I’d been working with to 2mm. Much better, although the fabric is a bit dense.

So much to love about this sock. I like how the ogee-shaped mustache motif starts in the ribbing, and then continued down the leg in just two places. The first version of the sock had 4 pattern repeats; this one has 5. I don’t mind the little eyelet holes created by making three stitches out of one. This picture shows the foot of the sock a bit distorted so that you can see one of the mustache motifs right on the top of the foot. And the toe decrease is not like one I’ve ever done before. It happens in thirds, and one of the decreases is centered on the bottom of the foot. It’s fairly abrupt, so it has to take place faster than the usual toe one does.

One modification I’m considering for the second sock is doing the improved ssk (slip 1 as if to knit, slip 1 as if to purl, then knit the two stitches together through the back loops) for the travelling stitch down the foot. I don’t think the traditional ssk is matching up well with it’s opposite k2tog.

KnitFlix: State Fair

2011-12-28T16:54:00.001-06:00

I caught State Fair (1945) on Turner Classic Movies recently, and noticed that Fay Bainter’s character, Melissa Frake, was knitting in one scene. I’ve seen this movie plenty of times, but I suppose not since I’ve started knitting. Otherwise, I might have noticed earlier.

In this scene, Ma and Pa Frake are relaxing, high on their recent awards for their prizewinning mincemeat (Ma) and boar (Pa). Ma uses that dainty overhand pencil-holding technique that seems to have been how women learned to knit back in the day, and which I’ve seen in other films before.

Cultural note: I don’t think many women refer to their husbands as “gay dogs” in this day and age any more.

According to the IMDB, Fay Bainter had been on the stage since the age of 3, but she must have found the time to pick up knitting somewhere. She clearly knows what she is doing and is able to act at the same time. But I can’t figure out why she would want to knit a mile-long garter stitch scarf on such tiny needles!

If you’ve never seen this film, it’s kind of interesting. The Technicolor will make your eyes bleed, although it’s fun to see mid 1940s fashions in color rather than black & white. The palette is pretty darn jazzy! And notably, this the only musical that Rogers and Hammerstein wrote for the movies. A newer version came out in the early 60s with Pat Boone and Ann-Margret, but that version was set in Texas, and although, as a Texan, I must say that our state fair is a great state fair, if the film isn’t set in Iowa, you don’t get to hear the film’s best song: All I Owe Ioway!

Always. Be. Knitting.

2011-12-26T19:15:00.001-06:00

Being at loose ends is a sorry state for a knitter. There are, of course, the loose ends that must be woven in at the end of a project, but there are also the ones that occur when you’re just not sure what to start next. Late last week, I found myself facing the latter type. I have a few projects in mind, both of which involve yarn that won’t be available for order for a few days. Knowing I would have time on my hands while in the wilds of the Texas Hill Country, I was almost in a panic trying to decide what to knit next. I hate not having something on the needles. To paraphrase Alec Baldwin’s character in Glengarry, Glen Ross, a knitter should Always. Be. Knitting. Coffee is for knitters. Oh, and second prize is a set of steak knives. (If you want to watch a clip of the scene I’m referring to, do so at home and away from little ears!)

Just when I was at wit’s end, Janelle sent me the Glengarry equivalent of the new leads – a free Ravelry pattern for the Movember Mystery Sock. It’s fun, has little mustache motifs all over it, and is perfect for the green Lorna’s Laces yarn I rescued from Kate’s yarn-hating jaws. Turns out this was just the perfect little Christmas miracle combination of yarn and pattern. I managed to get half of a sock finished over the past few days. It was chilly and damp during our little trip to the west, and it was comforting to be swathed in handknits (sweater, socks, slippers, scarf, hat) while making yet more. Always! Be! Knitting!

Postscript: Here’s a holiday-themed parody on the classic Glengarry Glen Ross scene that appeared on Saturday Night Live a few years back. Enjoy!

Be-Scarved

2011-12-23T11:19:00.001-06:00

Be very be-scarved.

I surprised myself by finishing up my Pavement Scarf yesterday. I still had a good part of the 4th and final ball to go when I sat down to knit, and I just flew through it. After dinner, I gave it a good soak and pinned it out on the floor in our spare bedroom with some blocking wires. Thanks to everyone who commented about just doing this. It’s how I used to block things before I had a blocking board – don’t know why I was reluctant. I left the ceiling fan on full blast overnight, and this morning, I had a nice cozy scarf to keep my neck warm while walking the dogs. It so light and airy, and I love it.

As mentioned before, Shelter is a great yarn to work with – it doesn’t split and feels nice in the hand. And, despite it’s rugged aspect, isn’t all that scratchy against the skin. It did puff up a bit after blocking. The reversible cables are genius, if a bit difficult to get used to at first. I did some math; there are 336 cable twists in this scarf, which ended up being 8 inches wide and 75 inches long. The medium size was supposed to be 7.25 inches wide and 72 inches long. If this had been a fitted garment, my gauge would obviously have caused problems, but who cares with a scarf, right? It’s much longer than the Henry scarf I made a few years back, and the color is perfect.

Scarves are one of those things that beginning knitters learn to make – and some knitters never move beyond. Typically, they don’t involve shaping, although this one did have a row each of increases and decreases. They’re fairly easy to make and fit isn’t usually an issue, so they make great gifts. If you’re going to learn to knit, you’re probably going to end up making a scarf. And you’ll probably end up giving one to someone else.

Just this weekend, Jeff and I were watching Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the end of the World (2007), wherein we saw a well-worn and probably hand-made scarf on volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, as he stood on the rim of the quite active Mt. Erebus, on Ross Island, off the coast of Antarctica, probably in December at the height of the Antarctic summer. I liked the thought of him packing this hand-made thing and taking it with him to the ends of the earth.

Here’s to staying cozy and warm this holiday season, wherever you’re spending it!

Scarfing Down

2011-12-17T15:53:00.001-06:00

Just a note to show a bit of progress on the Pavement Scarf. Still loving the pattern, and still making mistakes from time to time. Love this yarn – if I do have to rip out, the stitches just sit there patiently, not unraveling, waiting to be put back on the needles.

I’m a little shy of 3/4 of the way done. I was worried at first that this scarf wasn’t going to be long enough. That is no longer my concern. What keeps me up at night lately is trying to figure out how to block something that is 76+” long on a blocking board that is only 30-something inches long. Do I do it in sections? That seems wrong and not very manageable. Do I just pin it to the carpet in the guest bedroom and make that space off-limits for a while? Anyone with expertise in blocking extra-long things, feel free to chime in.

Today, I spent the morning with friends, eating too much and laughing. The hostess with the mostest gave everyone some luxurious hand cream, which is totally amazing. Then, I got home to find more goodies on the doorstep from my brother and his family, shortly after talking on the phone with him about his recent trip climbing Andean volcanoes. Tonight, we sing in our men’s chorus concert, and then it’s a week of downtime before the Christmas weekend.

Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying this wonderful time of year as much as I am.

Who’s Got the Buttons?

2011-12-13T11:10:00.001-06:00

Answer: me. Yesterday, I replaced the burnt wood buttons on my Kerouac Sweater -- for a few reasons.

First, the color just wasn’t quite right. Although the wooden buttons gave it a certain 70s vibe which I liked, ultimately, I thought they pulled focus from the sweater. It was starting to look like buttons with a sweater around it. Second, they were a bit large. I began noticing how much friction occurred when buttoning the sweater up, and I could envision the wooden edges eventually slicing through a strand of yarn. Not good. Third, they were a bit heavy, and when the sweater wasn’t buttoned, they dangled off the front like so many sow’s nipples. Not attractive.

So, I went to the fabric store, and got some very plain gray/taupe plastic buttons to replace them. Switching them out didn’t take long, although there was a moment of panic when I sliced through the knitting with my scissors. I have no darning skills (I could have used your help, Janelle!), so I just tied the snipped strands together, as they were going to be behind a button anyway and wouldn’t show. You can’t even tell from the front. Whew! The new 3/4” inch buttons fit better than the old 7/8” buttons, don’t distract, and won’t be as hard on the button holes. I’m thinking of reinforcing them, though, just to learn how to do it. If anyone knows of any excellent tutorials for this, let me know.

When I started this sweater, I didn’t envision it becoming a laboratory for learning so many new skills. Usually, when I finish something, it’s done; I don’t think about it again. But for some reason, this one calls me to experimentation.

Splice Splice Baby

2011-12-11T15:20:00.001-06:00

Today was a day for tying up loose ends, so to speak.

A few days ago, I looked down into the craft bag that I keep beside the chair I knit in , and was appalled at it’s sorry state. Needles everywhere, half-wound balls of yarn, torn up ball bands, color cards, DPNs everywhere – it was a mess. So today, I dumped it out and cleaned house.

I pulled out the straight needles and put them in a vase (I’ll find something better later), threw out a LOT of useless ends and scraps, made sure all the right circulars were in their correct bags, organized my DPNs, and put together some things to donate. This mess you see here is not neat and tidy and only 1/3 full. Maybe now, Kate won’t be tempted to stick her nose in there to see what she can find.

Which leads me to project number two and this post’s title. Last winter, when Jeff and I were out of town, Kate got into some of my knitting. Some of the stuff she ate I didn’t really care about, but she did manage to mangle a hank of Lorna’s Laces in a one of a kind color. Seriously, the color number is 000, but strangely, it has a dye lot number of 34… I started to toss it, but it had a pristine mate, and knowing that it was irreplaceable made me a bit more dogged (so to speak) in my determination to fix it. So I put this sad shredded mess on a swift, and spent a few hours gently teasing out the pieces and splicing them together. It turns out there were only about a dozen pieces, and two sections were quite long, so I think it was worth it. I’d kind of forgotten about this yarn, but now I’m already thinking of possibilities.

And finally, progress was made on the Pavement Scarf over the past few days. It’s a satisfying pattern, easily memorized within a few pattern repeats. The numbers 6 and 7 figure in the pattern a lot, and it’s clever how it’s reversible – a handy feature for a scarf. Unlike most cabled figures, there is quite a bit of purling into knit stitches and knitting into purl stitches, but once you see where things are going, it does make sense. It is a bit lacier than I thought it would be, and the whole thing could be done on smaller needles, but the drape will be nice and I’m hoping it will fill out when blocked, which this garment sorely needs.

This was to be my over-the-winter-break knitting, but I may finish this faster than I expected. I’m really digging the color.

I Wish You Shelter…

2011-12-08T20:06:00.001-06:00

“…from the storm, a cozy fire to keep you warm. But most of all, when snowflakes fall, I wish you love.”

Not exactly appropriate, as these lyrics are from a breakup song, but I think of this tune when I think of Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter yarn. If you’re unfamiliar with it (the song, not the yarn), there's a video of Judy Garland singing it on her early 60s TV show at YouTube. Go ahead and watch it. The blog will be here when you get back.

For months, I’ve lived only 2.5 miles from one of the few places that carries it (the yarn,not the song) but some reason, I’d just not gotten around to getting any. If you’re not familiar with this yarn (yes, there are a few non-knitters who might be reading this!), check out some information on this yarn line’s background. Interesting stuff on how it’s made and some beautiful photography, too.

It’s been a bit chilly this week, and while I like my Henry scarf that I made several years ago, I’ve wanted something a bit heavier and a bit longer, with more wrapability. So this evening, after we walked the dogs and while Jeff started making supper, I snuck over and bought 4 hanks of Shelter in the color Long Johns. I’m planning on using this Brooklyn Tweed yarn to make a Brooklyn Tweed pattern, Pavement.

I’m looking forward to many long hours of satisfying knitting, working with a cool new yarn, and ending up with something to keep me toasty. I’m going to wind up a ball and get started right now. Try and stop me.

The Year of the Balls

2011-12-04T18:41:00.001-06:00

Librarians like to be thorough and systematic. And I am a librarian. So, if you think transitively, (or if you’ve ever met me), you’ll know that I like to follow a path and finish what I start. Keeping all that in mind, I’m trusting you’ll tell me if you think I’m biting off more than I can chew here.

Last month, I got a copy of 55 Christmas Balls to Knit, and I’ve enjoyed perusing it since then. This weekend, I got to thinking – Christmas 2012 is about 55 weeks away. What if I set a goal of knitting one of these things a week for the next year? Then, when it comes time to decorate the tree I’ll have over 4 dozen new ornaments!

I made one yesterday as a prototype to see how things might work. I had some leftover Stroll fingering weight yarn from the Border Socks I made, so I cast on and quickly knit up the first design, called Snow Crystal. It didn’t take all that long, and I found that using Stroll with 2.75mm dpns seemed to make a good sized ball. But, unless you’re seriously into 70’s era sweat suits, I don’t think this color scheme is going to work. I’m thinking of doing all of these with a white background and red for the patterns. Stroll comes in an un-dyed white, and I want to use either Scarlet or Barn Red. I’m leaning toward Barn Red. What do you think? I find that the colors I see on the Knit Picks website and what arrives can be quite different, and Knit Picks doesn’t provide color cards any more.

Also, the authors suggest gluing on little rhinestones to give these some sparkle, but I was thinking that it might be fun to use that technique where you put beads on the stitches using a crochet hook. If anyone has done that and wants to comment on whether this is advisable, I’d sure appreciate it.

It was cold enough to wear a sweater today!

Party Down

2011-11-27T17:08:00.001-06:00

Today was the big day for Jeff’s little cousin. She’s a year old this week, and celebrated in high style with family, friends, and rides around the front yard in her little red wagon.

It was so good to meet her. She was just a delight – so beautiful, and curious and learning things left and right. She absolutely adores her uncles – as any smart niece does – and even took a shine to some of her older cousins. She has only recently learned to walk, but she’s getting good at it fast.

While the hat I made was a bit small, the jacket fit perfectly, with some room for growth. She seemed extra interested in the buttons, of course, but I assure you I sewed them on extra tight.

Such a beautiful girl and such a fun day. Pinks and purples are definitely her colors! I’m so glad I got to make this for her and so pleased that she seems pleased with it.

Quelle Surprise!

2011-11-24T15:35:00.001-06:00

Just a quick post to show you some finishing details I’ve made to the Baby Surprise Jacket for Jeff’s little cousin…

I added these pink buttons this afternoon. They’re yet another shade of pink – and the thread with which they were sewn, stolen from my mother-in-law’s sewing kit, is yet another shade of purple. Five separate colors that go great together! The buttons have six holes. I wasn’t sure what to do with all of them, so I decided to mimic the ridges of garter stitch and do little bars across. The top and bottom holes don’t connect to the sweater – I just ran the thread threw them a few times to make them match the rest. My advice – do not look behind the buttons.

I also added a mitered collar based on instructions I found. I didn’t pick up as many stitches as instructed – they just weren’t there to be picked up – but I think it turned out fine.

I’m hoping to have a bit of time and yarn left over to make a hat. I have a pattern picked out. We’ll see how the rest of the weekend goes. The little one’s birthday is Sunday. I’m hoping I can get some modeled shots to post then.

Ooh – dinner is ready. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Surprise!

2011-11-20T19:48:00.001-06:00

Jeff’s little first cousin (once removed), for whom I made the Tamarix Quilt last summer, turns 1 soon. We were invited to her first birthday party on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so after my knitting group met Saturday morning, I went and bought some yarn and got cracking on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket, as written up in The Opinionated Knitter.

Folding a Baby Surprise Jacket

This evening, it’s all over but the buttons – and possibly a collar. What can I say? I had a lot of time on my hands this weekend – a rarity in the fall.

There are many ways you can tackle this project – just check out the over 6500 pictures of this project in Flickr. Janelle has made at least two beautiful examples using self-striping yarn – one in pink and one in green – that are just lovely. I would definitely recommend doing this – striping on your own is pretty tricky. I followed a beautiful design that I saw in Ravelry using gray, mustard and green. But I was in the mood to make something ultra-girly, so I went for pinks and purples. To be more accurate, Berocco calls the colors I used Mochi (pale pink), Dewberry (reddish purple) and Petunia (dark purple). Knitting pal Melissa helped me pick out the colors. Thanks, Melissa.

A knitting buddy, Jene, advised me not to mess with EZ’s math or get too creative with this pattern. She knows what she’s talking about. Early on, I decided to do a slipped stitch chain selvedge to make a neat and tidy edge, but then I realized that this would causes problems with seaming later. EZ would have mentioned it if she though it advisable. All hail, EZ!

After I was done knitting, I couldn’t figure out how to seam horizontal garter stitch to vertical garter stitch. I found some pictures that the Yarn Harlot had posted when she made this several years back. They were quite helpful, and I think my efforts turned out nicely.

What a fun, but mind-bending project – it’s what knitting must be like for being in higher dimensions. I bought some cute pink buttons that I’m going to add on later, and I’m thinking of adding a collar, too. I’ll post more when it’s finished – and maybe even some pictures of it being modeled!

My favorite line from EZ’s instructions for this garment: “Hope you are still with me.”

Borders

2011-11-17T20:10:00.001-06:00

I finished the Border Socks this evening. I think, that with these socks, I can consider myself a confident stranded knitter.

In the past, I tended to dither about the stranded work – I could only do it while focusing on nothing else, I was nervous stranding in public (although I did it), I worried about changing colors. But after all those mittens and the vest I made last summer, I just kind of flew through this project. I didn’t bat an eye when the color work came up. Granted, this is much simpler than those projects, but I was pleased with how natural the stranding began to feel – not some special maneuver to be tackled, like Kitchener stitch. I’m still not throwing as comfortably as I pick, but overall, progress on this project was silky smooth.

I may have mentioned this earlier, but these are pretty bulky socks. They’re knit on 2.75mm (and 3.25mm for the stranded part), whereas I usually do socks on 2mm needles. So they’re looser. Plus, the Knit Picks Stroll fingering weight yarn that I used is a bit bulkier than what I usually make socks out of. These will be more for wearing around the house or in a pair of boots. They’re not going to fit into shoes very well.

Now I just have to wait for it to get really chilly. Well, what passes for chilly in central Texas, anyway.

Tallent-ed

2011-11-13T17:45:00.001-06:00

Today, my men’s knitting group met up at The Knitting Nest, shortly after a class had concluded. The staff asked the teacher, Stephannie Talent, to hang around and show us some of the samples she had brought. Lucky us – we saw some really amazing designs and knitting.

First up, we got to see several of her mittens. She has a pattern booklet out with many of her designs, called, appropriately, Mittens! I tried on these green ones, which amazingly, fit me. I liked the sideways cuff, and although I don’t know about buttons for a guy, I was really drawn to these. They were made with yarn from Blackwater Abbey, which I’ve always liked, but have never ordered. Might have to now. Stephannie uses intricate cables and creative edging in her designs, and I was blown away by several pairs of mittens that incorporated beadwork. They were really quite exquisite, but at the same time, seemed very do-able.

In addition to her book on mittens, Stephannie is about to publish a new book, California Revival Knits. This book features designs based on California Revival décor. Like the mittens, these garments incorporate all kinds of techniques – cabling, beadwork, intarsia, stranded knitting – the whole gamut. I was drawn to these fingerless peacock mittens. Hard to see in this picture, but the peacock has a beautiful red beaded eye. It reminds me of one of those rhinestone-studded purses that my grandmother used to use in the 1960s – but way cooler. Also not visible in this picture, a row of over a dozen little pearl buttons fastening up the side.

There were larger garments, too. This beautiful top had really nice beaded work all the way around, and a pretty hemmed picot edging. For some reason, the camera didn’t get the color right – this is actually a beautiful chocolate brown color – which probably goes a long way towards explaining why I liked it.

I’m so glad I got to see all of this. It’s always gratifying to see a range of a designer’s work and get to talk to her about what she loves to do. If you have an interest in beautiful designs that require a wide range of techniques, you’ll want to get your hands on these patterns. Thanks for sharing, Stephannie – we appreciated you hanging around to show us all your beautiful work!

Clear and Normal

2011-11-08T20:14:00.001-06:00

A brief diversion from the knitting while I share some good news. First, some background.

Fanconi Syndrome is a kidney condition that affects Basenjis. The syndrome causes problems in glucose and acid levels in urine, and can lead to kidney failure. It usually doesn’t manifest itself until a dog is between 4 and 7 years of age, by which time some dogs have already had offspring. Thus it has passed down from generation to generation. It affects somewhere around 10% of the U.S. Basenji population. It’s a nasty disease, but if caught early, it’s treatable. Catching it early, for us, involved holding Clinistix urine testing strips under (Pona) or behind (Kate) our dogs once a month to see if they had high glucose levels. Fun!

Until recently, there was an indirect test for the likelihood of a dog developing Fanconi later in life, called a linked marker test. They could look at several indicators and calculate probability, but as yet, they hadn’t identified the exact mutation. In late August, Dr. Gary Johnson of the Dept. of Veterinary Pathobiology at the University of Missouri, was able to sequence the complete genome of Miranda, a Basenji with Fanconi Syndrome and compare it to other dog genomes. He identified the exact gene causing the problem. As far as Dr. Johnson knows, it’s the first first inheritable dog disease problem solved through genome sequencing. Dr. Johnson’s recent presentation to the Basenji Club of America is available and rather interesting for those who want all the nerdy details. Thanks, Dr. Johnson – and Miranda!

All this is to say that we sent off for DNA testing kits from the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, swabbed the in side of the dogs’ cheeks (more fun!) and sent the samples back. I checked the website today, and here’s what I saw:

Wonderful news! Oh, and because this is a knitting blog, I guess I can share with you that I’ve finished the first of the Border Socks.

Odd Balls

2011-11-04T19:35:00.001-05:00

Even though I had just started a pair, some yarn I’d ordered came in the mail and I just had to get going on another. A few days ago, I cast on for the Border Socks from the Fall 2011 issue Interweave Knits.

I’m treading on dangerous ground with these (figuratively, not literally, because they’re not anywhere near finished) since I didn’t swatch. Hey, it’s sock yarn – what could go wrong? Here’s what could go wrong. I normally knit socks on size 0 or sometimes size 1 needles. This pattern calls fro knitting on size 2, with the colorwork done on size 3. The circumference for the medium size is 72 stitches which is what I usually cast on for the smaller needles. Still, these are looking about right. The Knit Picks Stroll yarn that I’m making this with is a bit on the thick side as sock yarns go, so the drape seems right, too. I’ll try them on soon to check. Right now, I’m having too much fun knitting them.

Yesterday was my birthday. My age now matches the number of chromosomes in each of my cells. Shouldn’t we all celebrate that? It was a great day – I did an orientation for a very attentive class at work, got several nice cards and email greetings, and came home to find a wonderful present waiting for me – 55 Christmas Balls to Knit by Arne Nerjordet & Carlos Zachrison. What a hoot! Arne & Carlos are a couple, living in Norway, who, in addition to fashion design and knitting, are into gardening, home renovation, doll houses, and raising chickens. I love the picture on the cover, a sort of modern gay Scandinavian version of American Gothic. Check out the book trailer featuring this quirky duo:

I really wish Pete Schweddy had written a blurb for the jacket. And I’m wondering – couldn’t Arne & Carlos have created one more design to come up with an even number?

Where There’s a Will

2011-10-30T19:48:00.001-05:00

Today, my world took a bit of a shift from the canine to the equine – I went carriage riding with my friends Amy & Kristi. Amy has a couple of beautiful Morgans housed on a farm east of town, named Will & Blessing. Will and Amy are a rather accomplished carriage driving team, and we got to see them go through their paces together. Will is a beautiful animal – smart, affectionate and obedient – that is, when he’s not being Will-full. But he was on his best behavior today, and I really had a great time. I learned a lot about carriage driving – and like any interesting craft, it has layers of complexity that can keep the practitioner learning for a lifetime.

Will hauled the three of us around the property, exhibiting model control. He walked and trotted, turned lovely circles, and we even got to stop and visit a few of his buddies during the trip. There are a half-dozen or so enthusiastic dogs around the farm (so, actually, it was a MORE canine-y day than usual!), as well as a lovely flock of hens. So not only did I get to spend a lovely fall afternoon with friends human, canine and equine, I came home with a dozen fresh eggs. Win-win-win-win! Thanks, Amy, for a wonderful afternoon well spent.

I’m waiting on some yarn to arrive for some socks I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while, but I needed something on the needles in the meantime, so this weekend I started a pair of socks from a pattern called Rudy Got Sole. It’s a pretty simple basket-weave pattern made with alternating squares of stockinette and garter stitch. It’s perfect for this yarn I bought in Granbury a while back. It’s easy while “reading” the work to knit the garter stitch sections as reverse stockinette, so I’m really having to pay more attention than I would have thought.

Update: Check out Amy's post with picture of me and Will -- and Blessing! -- and some of her thoughts on the day.

Black is the Colour

2011-10-27T18:15:00.001-05:00

I quickly whipped up a Windschief hat for myself with the yarn I bought in Louisiana last week. I cast on for this project Tuesday night, finished it Wednesday night, and got home today and took some pictures.

I made the medium size this time, but didn’t check for gauge. It’s still a tiny bit bigger than I wanted it to be – I wanted this thing to be very snug – but I’m still happy with how it turned out. Because it’s so fast and easy to knit, I can try again some time if I really want to. But for now, I’m good. This is such a great design, simple, but with that cool dramatic extension of the ribbing that slants diagonally across one quarter panel.

Jeff took this picture of me wearing my Geek Eyewear glasses that came free with my fancier ones. Sometimes, good guys wear black.

Oh, and remember the October Woodland Winter Mittens? I gave them to the woman who inspired me to take up knitting. Thanks, girlfriend!

Like Sands Through the Hourglass

2011-10-23T18:21:00.001-05:00

I spent a big chunk of this day of our lives finishing up my Twisted Hourglass Socks. Because I’d gotten some long-deferred yard work out of the way yesterday, today was just for me, some PBS shows I needed to catch up on, and lots and lots of twisted stitches. Some more twisted than others.

At least twice, I found that one of my running twisted stitch lines was going off in the wrong direction. Rather than tink back a few rows, I undid the three or so stitches that were mis-ordered, laddered down a few rounds, and then worked my way back up. This is kind of tough to do when the middle stitch is a purl stitch, and I had to wrangle the “working” yarn in front to execute them. The stitches in these repaired sections are a little wonky, but I’m hoping that they’ll even out over time.

I can definitely recommend this pattern. It may seem a little intimidating at first, but hang in there. The pattern is easily read from the work and I soon found myself not having to look at the pattern much. The designer, Robin Griffiths, is kind enough to warn you when things might appear weird. It’s comforting when designers give you that personal aside, patting you on the shoulder and saying “I know you wouldn’t normally do this here, but trust me.” Much appreciated by someone given to second-guessing himself. Most of the cabling or twisting is simple enough that it can be done without a cable needle – my only exception was the seven-stitch cable down the side. I managed to do it once, but that was enough to scare me back to standard practice.

So now, I have nothing on the needles! I haven’t been in that state in a very long time. I do have plans for a Windschief hat for myself, plus there were some nice stranded socks a few issues back in Interweave Knits that I’d like to try.

But that would mean buying some yarn. Like that’s a bad thing.

Knitting on the Road

2011-10-19T19:06:00.001-05:00

I just drove back from a conference in Baton Rouge. While I got to visit with several knitting medical librarians, I didn’t get as much knitting done as I’d like and I didn’t get a chance to visit a local yarn shop. There was only one, and it wasn’t open except for my busiest day at the meeting.

So, on the way home today, I decided to stop by a shop in Lafayette. I got to The Yarn Nook about the time it opened on a glorious fall morning, right after the owner propped the doors open.

It’s very roomy, with a wide variety of yarns. From the store’s website, it looks like they host a lot of knitting activities in the shop, and I can see why. About half the store was filled with large comfy chairs that invited one to sit and knit a spell. After my embarrassingly carb-o-rrific breakfast at an old favorite breakfast joint in Baton Rouge, I kind of wanted to kick back in one of them, but I needed to get back on the road. I snagged some Cascade 220 in a heathered charcoal, which I’ve used before (see my Cobra Sweater and Tea Cozy), to make myself a Windschief hat and headed out after all too brief a stop.

If you ever find yourself in Cajun Country, you should take time to stop by.

Sitting Pretty

2011-10-13T20:27:00.001-05:00

After three long years, the piano bench cushion -- and the pillow made from my initial attempt -- are finished. I picked them up from the upholsterer’s shop today. I couldn’t be happier with them.

Back in the early 1970’s, my great-grandfather decided to buy pianos for his piano-playing granddaughters who didn’t already have one. They came with only one very tight piano string attached – they had to be American-made. So my mother went shopping and picked out a nice little spinet made by the Everett Piano Company. I don’t know if he ever knew that within a year or so the company was bought by Yamaha…

Some of my fondest childhood memories surround this instrument. My mom learned to play the piano at a young age. I was about 6 or so when she got this piano, and I remember being amazed on the day it arrived when she just sat down and started playing. I’d never seen her do anything remotely like this and suddenly she was making the most amazing sounds. She was drawn to it when she was stressed or just needed to clear her mind – she seemed to be able to play just about anything, but she mostly loved hymns. I always admired how she could play without looking at the music much and while holding a conversation. Later, both my sister and I learned to play it, and just about drove our brother crazy with our constant practicing.

Back in the day, it had a thin elastic-edged cushion stretched over it made of green silky fabric with gold lamé stitching. It didn’t last long, because of the pointy edges on the bench and the wiggly rear-ends that were always scooting back and forth on it. Once, when fighting over who was going to play, we managed to snap off one of the legs. My dad repaired it, and so far, it’s held up. I think the upholsterer’s idea to use Velcro straps was spot on – this cushion should last a good long time. If nothing else, I’m not as fidgety as I used to be.

Now the piano is in our house, although I still think of it as Mom’s Piano. I don’t play it as much as I did as a kid, but I do love having it around – just seeing it there in the corner is comforting, bringing back warm memories. And now, with its new cushion, the bench is just a little more comfortable -- and comforting -- too.

“You Are Too Beautiful” by Rodgers & Hart

A Tiny Twisty

2011-10-08T14:09:00.001-05:00

Work progresses on the Twisted Hourglass Socks. This pattern is just different enough to really keep me on my soon-to-be-grafted toes.

One thing that’s a bit different is that after getting the gusset reduced, the stitches aren’t divided evenly between the front and back – there are more on the front. I assume this is to accommodate the cables. And even though this was clearly stated in the pattern, it took a while for my brain to process it.

Cleverly, the 7-stitch cable along the side of the sock splits into two 3-stitch cables, one running along the top of the gusset, and one running along the heel flap. They don’t exactly look the same, though. I think that’s because I’m knitting into the back of the knit stitches on these cables. In cables twisted one direction, the twisted knit stitches work with the cable, but in the other direction, they work against it. Still, it’s really a neat way of designing this.

The main hourglass pattern is pretty easy to follow. Out of the 16 rounds in the pattern, stitches are flipped in only 6 of those rounds. The twisting of the knits really makes these lines pop – almost a 3-D effect if the light is just right. And although I was worried that the extra stitches and the US1 (2.25mm) needle I’m using (I usually use a US0) would make these socks too big, it seems to be fitting just fine. Oh, and I love how the travelling stitches and cables grow organically out of the ribbing at the cuff. So much to love about these!

One thing that is always the same, though: anxiety over whether I have enough yarn for the second sock…

KnitFlix: The Red Tent (1969)

2011-10-05T12:30:00.000-05:00

We’d had this disc sitting on our shelf for a couple of months and only got around to watching it Saturday night. I’d put it in the queue because of my obsession with the exploration of the polar regions. It’s a dramatization of Umberto Nobile’s tragic 1928 airship voyage to the North Pole.

The Red Tent is not a bad film, although they really wanted to get their money’s worth with all the B-roll they must have bought of icebreakers, polar bears and calving glaciers The movie is a joint Soviet/Italian production, and it’s kind of cool to see strangely inserted Russian scenes, one of which was filmed in Leningrad.

It’s set up as a dream tribunal with the aged Nobile being confronted by and reliving the events with some of the expedition’s participants, both airship crew and would-be rescuers. Sean Connery plays Roald Amundsen (who actually died trying to find Nobile), although he’s pretty much there because he’s Sean Connery.

The main reason to watch this film, though, from a knitter’s point of view, is to see all the large-gauge chunky knits that the cast wears throughout the film. Scarves, gloves, hats, balaclavas, and of course, sweaters, are everywhere – most knitted with ultra-maxi-super-chunky-mondo yarn on needles in their upper teens. It probably only took one employee in a Tromsø sweatshop two hours to make any one of these garments.

Above, Valeria, a nurse played by Claudia Cardinale, hugs a soiled scarf that used to belong to her love interest, the expedition’s Swedish meteorologist, Finn Malmgren. Malmgren, played by Russian actor Eduard Martsevich and shown in the lower picture, sports a herd’s worth of wool and a roll collar that just won’t stop while doing shots with Nurse Valeria in a Spitsbergen honkeytonk.

Is it wrong to want to live somewhere where you can wear this stuff?

Windschief

2011-10-01T14:40:00.001-05:00

I didn’t think this would take long – and it didn’t. It’s pretty straightforward with easy-to-follow directions. I did manage to fake myself out and make myself think I’d made a mistake, but immediately after frogging back from the crown decreases to the ribbing, I realized I hadn’t made a mistake after all. Sigh. So I kind of made this hat 1.75 times.

I made the large version (didn’t even check gauge), and while it fits my melon head, I think, if it I were to make it for myself with this same yarn, I would make the medium version. I think I would want a more snug fit. It’s been handed of to Jene, and should soon be winging its way to Afghanistan. I hope it keeps some Marine over there nice and cozy.

This hat is angled in the photo so that you can clearly see the 1/4 panel of 1x1 twisted stitch that grows organically out of the edge ribbing. Most of the hat is in stockinette, as you can see behind my left ear. Again, thinking ahead to possible difference for a version for me, it might be fun to have two sections of 1x1 twisted stitch ribbing on opposite sides. But maybe not. A lot of the appeal of this design is the asymmetry and the different places you can move the panel around your head.

Finding myself at – well, not exactly loose ends; woven in ends? – I’ve decided to cast on for a pair of socks. I ran across a hank of Cascade Heritage sock yarn in a colorway called Walnut that I’d stuck in a drawer and forgotten about. I wanted to do something cable-y, so after digging around on Ravelry, I settled on a free pattern for Twisted Hourglass Socks. They look complicated, but really aren’t. Most of the cables are really Bavarian-style twisted stitches that can be maneuvered without a cable needle – with the exception of a few 7-stitch twists (see far left in the picture). There’s some calf shaping in this, which I haven’t done in a while. Should be fun!

October Leaves

2011-09-27T18:11:00.001-05:00

Just a few days ago, I wrote that I was hoping to get these done before October. Um, well, they’re done!

I did modify the thumbs a bit to make them wider. I had a lady with lady thumbs try them on, and she reported that they fit fine. They’re still very snug on my meaty thumbs, but the stitches don’t distort like previous pairs did on me. I inserted four stitches evenly around the thumb in the midst of some even-numbered motifs, making them odd-numbered. I just had to remember where they were – which wasn’t as hard as it sounds – and had to deal with two extra stitches in the draw-through at the end.

There were fewer long floats in this pattern, so I didn’t have to catch the yarn as much. Consequently, the caught yarn doesn’t show through as much as the last pair. I did have a bit of a blocking issue – I’ve made the left glove slightly longer than the right. But another blocking should get that fixed. And a few places my gauge freaked out for a stitch or two, but overall, I’m very pleased with these.

My next project is a quick one, requested by my friend Jene. She has asked a bunch of her fellow knitters to make hats for the boys in her nephew’s unit in Afghanistan to keep their heads warm during the upcoming winter. I’m using some Berroco Vintage (a nice acrylic, wool, and nylon blend – washable!) in a color called Cracked Pepper to make a Stephen West design, Windschief. I’ve made a bit of progress already, and hope to have it done in a few days. So far, I like it. I may just have to make one for myself.

To the Upholstery Hostelry

2011-09-24T17:51:00.001-05:00

I was out of town last weekend, so today was my first chance to see about getting a piano bench cushion made out of the Big Dotty fabric I finished up a few weeks back.

There are a couple of upholsterers in my part of town, but I settled on The Upholstery Shop, mostly because it had some good reviews on Yelp. Based on my experience so far, all those people were right, and I’m really glad I chose them.

Veronica, who helped me this morning, really listened to what I wanted and clearly explained some options. She came up with an ingenious solution for attaching a cushion that still allows for opening the lid to the storage area – a few thin straps running from the bottom of the cushion and under the lid, fastening with velcro. She suggested this when she noticed that there was a bit of clearance on the front and back edges when the lid is down. Genius!

We chose a green canvas fabric for the backing that matches the darker green in the fabric I knitted, and she’ll make a pillow with my giant swatch to match. Veronica really listened to my questions and answered them patiently. Oh, and her prices were very reasonable. She was a complete joy to work with. I wish more business transactions worked like this. I can’t wait to see them – stay tuned for the unveiling in a few weeks.

Since my last post, I haven’t been knitting regularly, but have managed to make a bit of progress on the second of the pair of October Woodland Winter Mittens. I’d say I’m a little over halfway done with the body. I’m really liking the patterning on the back of this – perhaps more so than on the first. I especially like the little darker leaves along the cuff. But I’m going to have to quit dawdling if I want to get these finished up before October.

Leafy Greens (and Browns, and…)

2011-09-14T18:50:00.001-05:00

I was going to wait a bit before posting mitten progress, but I was able to get most of one mitten done in a weekend! It was so addictive, and I didn’t have much else on my plate, so I was able to just knit around and around and…

Before I knew it, I was done. I’ve made these with the cuff in the large size (only 4 more stitches in circumference) and the body in the small size (about .5 inches shorter. Not much difference, really). I’m going to start the second mitten before adding the thumbs – I still need to think through how I’m going to make the thumbs wider.

This is a beautiful design. It seems realistic and abstract at the same time. The dark background gives the impression of stained glass, especially in the pattern that runs across the palm, while the leaf pattern on back of the hands is very tapestry-like. The color scheme is more to my liking – lots of green and brown. Very October-ish. Ah, October – only a little over two weeks away. I sure hope it’s cooler than it was today. We’re still over 100 in the afternoons. But the light is starting to take on that fall-ish quality, which is one of my favorite things about this time of year.

I’m so looking forward to rain and coolish, if not downright cold, weather. In the meantime, close your eyes, relax and listen to this rendition of Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole. It helps a bit.

Nat King Cole – Autumn Leaves

Cushion Squooshin’

2011-09-11T12:31:00.001-05:00

Amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. Just two weeks ago I decided to re-tackle the piano cushion that had been lurking at the back of mind – and in a cardboard box -- for three years. And today, it’s all over but the upholstering.

I finished knitting it yesterday afternoon, and last night I washed and blocked it. First, I wet it in the sink and knocked it around a bit – I’ve always heard that linen softens up a bit when treated roughly, so before popping it in the machine I whacked it against the side of the tub a few times. No need to call Flax Protective Services – it seems to be just fine. I’m not sure if it expanded or fluffed up the fibers any, but it doesn’t look like it hurt anything, either. One thing that is quite apparent – the colors weren’t spun the same way. The light green yarn was noticeably thinner. I hope it’s not too noticeable in the final product.

It’s just the size I wanted it to be – this time. As you can see in the picture, it’s quite a bit larger than it’s former version. And I never even had to access the second ball of yarn in the non-white colors. My plan is to take the fabric and my piano bench to a nearby upholsterer and see if this can be turned into a fitted cover with just a thin padding underneath. I’d like it to be sort of elasticized around the top, because the seat lifts up for a shallow storage area. The example in Mason Dixon Knitting shows a cushion tied to the bench, but I’d like to avoid that if possible. I’ll see what the upholster can do. It will be a few weeks before I can get around to that project.

So in the meantime, I’m tackling the 3rd pair in the series of 6 Woodland Winter mittens from my Knit Picks kit. I was originally going to do the March mittens, but since October is rapidly approaching, and because the pattern is my favorite, they’re the ones on the needles now. The leaf pattern is just starting to appear. I’ve got a bit of a plan for modifying the thumbs so that they aren’t quite so narrow. And, I’m not catching floats nearly so often – I’ve been a bit dismayed at how much they’ve shown up in the previous two pairs I’ve made.

Knitting on the Road

2011-09-03T18:09:00.001-05:00

This weekend, we’re visiting my in-laws’ in the north Texas town of Granbury. I had a hankering to visit a yarn shop, but, since Dot’s closed several years ago, I’ve had to drive to Fort Worth – which has at least one great yarn store. But I didn’t want to roam that far afield.

So I plugged yarn into Yelp!, and ran across Artèfactz on the square right here in Granbury. It’s one of those shops that does a lot of things – from art glass to baby clothes, but the whole upstairs is dedicated to the fiber arts, with an especially local spin on things. Apparently, the area is crawling with alpacas and those who love their fibers, as this little tableau attests. There were examples of hand-spun alpaca in the store, and even some hanks of Buffalo Gold from nearby Burleson. And, for such a small space, there was an amazing variety of yarn, books and other knitting accoutrement.

I bought some heathered Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine sock yarn in a colorway called Peat Mix, because you can’t ever have enough green sock yarn. Not exactly local, but in the spirit of things. The shop owner told me that Artèfactz was part of an association of arts groups and stores that do demonstrations on the square in the evening on the last Saturday of each month. She’s says a lot of spinners show up and the fiber fairly flies around the square.

Looks like we picked the wrong weekend to come to Granbury. I’ll definitely be sticking my head in the door on future visits.

Sasqswatch

2011-08-31T18:40:00.001-05:00

This weekend, I turned what I thought was a failed project into the world’s largest swatch – all in preparation for getting back on that horse and tackling the project all over again. I need to ride this wave while I can.
This is my version of the Big Dotty cushion from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I started it three years ago and made way too much progress before realizing that it was about 3” too narrow. So I threw it in a box. This weekend, I dragged it out and weighed it – 180 grams. Then I weighed the linen yarn I still had left over from the project – over 600 grams. I had plenty to start all over. I had thought that I’d have to cannibalize the first attempt to have enough yarn for the second, but since that clearly wasn’t the case, I bound off what I had, threw it in the washer, and blocked it. Very inspiring and motivating – it blocked out so nice and smooth. I might use this “swatch” to make a pillow or something.
I’ve made about 6 inches of progress on the new version already, and, although the dots on the new version seem slightly larger, I think it will pull in nicely once I’ve washed it and blocked it. I’m really happy that I was able to get back to this and that I have enough yarn to complete it. I can now remove those embarrassing zzz’s that have been floating over the icon in Ravelry!
In other news, my local men’s knitting group (Guys in Austin With Yarn in Ravelry) celebrated its first anniversary this week. One of the guys made some de-lish cupcakes and the shop that hosted this week’s meeting brought a delicious cake as well. It was so thoughtful. I always get a kick out of knitting with these guys – a diverse group of very talented knitters and crocheters. Here’s to more good times knitting, crocheting and laughing together. And to more cake! Plus we had a visitor from San Antonio, Dino Foxx, who is involved with the yarn-bombing Yarn Dawgz of San Antonio. He’s a nice guy and his group does the coolest stuff. If you’ve seen that Prius commercial, he’s the guy in the hayloft.

Birds in the Hand

2011-08-27T13:30:00.001-05:00

A long-sleeping project was roused from its slumbers this week and completed. Lately, it seems I’ve been tackling Lazarus projects left and right. This week, I worked on and finished the February Woodland Winter Mittens.

These are the second pair I’ve knit from the kit of six patterns from Knit Picks. I finished the January ones back in February, and I’ve finished the February ones here in August. Not a great track record, but I did get them finished. As I was finishing them up, Jeff’s sister came by to visit, so I asked her to try them on. She really liked them, so they’re hers. She seems really excited to have them and even agreed to model them outdoors on this day when it’s predicted to reach 108° outside. Texas women are tough!

I’m not really sure why these languished for so long. I just kind of lost interest. Of the six patterns, I’d have to say this is probably number 5 on my list of pattern preference. I think it’s the colors more than anything else – a bit bright for me! But upcoming patterns fall more along my palette preferences, so maybe the pace will pick up. I realize I don’t have to make ALL the mittens in the kit, but I kind of want to.

I cast on for a third pair (March) this morning, but since the cuffs on all of these look the same, there’s not much point in a picture right now. However, I’m motivated to bring back yet another purgatorial project. More on that next time…

Deliciously Dizzy

2011-08-22T17:57:00.001-05:00

I worked like crazy on my Chocolate Spiral Socks over the weekend, and finished them up yesterday. After much turning and turning, I think they’ve come ‘round right.

I didn’t add the heel until after totally completing the rest of the second sock. Since I knew how big it needed to be, I didn’t need to fiddle with the length of the foot as I did for the first sock. All in all, I think they turned out great. My only real regret is that I didn’t do the toes in the same contrasting solid brown yarn as the heels. I supposed I could chop the toes out and put some in, but I’ll leave them alone for right now. I’m going to do contrasting heels and toes for the next pair I make – I think it will look cool. What I like about contrasting heels and toes is that no one can see them when you’re wearing shoes. It’s a weird thing to get thrilled over, but sock knitters will understand, I’m sure.

I can really recommend afterthought heels. It’s a good technique if you’re worried that you don’t have enough sock yarn for your project. They’re also perfect for when you don’t want to interrupt a pattern of self-striping yarn. That wasn’t the case with this yarn, but you can still see it works fine. Having the decrease lines running diagonally from the heel to the instep looks unusual, but I can’t feel it. I’m also surprised how seamlessly the two yarns work together, even though they consist of different fiber combinations.

When I got in my car today to leave work, the thermometer registered 112. By the time I got home, things had cooled down to a balmy 109. I took these pictures quickly on the front porch and got back inside before all this delicious chocolate melted away.

Much Thought After

2011-08-13T15:26:00.001-05:00

My recent knitting project polygamy is slowly getting reined in as I get projects out of the way. This week, I returned to the Chocolate Spiral Socks that I started several months back.

I’m using a new technique (for me) on these – the afterthought heel. Not exactly an appropriate name, since, as executed, it does require some planning ahead. In theory, I think you could whip out your scissors à la Elizabeth Zimmerman and just whack out a row of knitting, but I like this method better. I chose this way because some of the original yarn was eaten by one of our resident basenjis, and I thought I’d use a contrasting yarn (Cascade Heritage Silk) at the heels to make sure I had enough of the main yarn. If I’d really thought about it, I might have made the toes in contrasting yarn, too.

The pink line of yarn you see in the photo above is where the afterthought heel is going to be inserted. I used some excellent videos posted at YouTube as a guide, created by my good friend Janelle. They’re quite clear, and very helpful.

In a nutshell, you put in a half-round of waste yarn along the sole of the foot where the heel is to go, and then just keep knitting what amounts to a tube sock. You can do this either cuff down, or toe-up. I’m doing this toe-up. Then, when you’re ready, just take out the waste yarn while picking up the stitches on either side, and then make like you’re decreasing and grafting a toe on a sock. In a typical sock for me, I’m usually grafting around 10 or 12 stitches across the toe, but since a heel is wider, I grafted 16.

Unfortunately, when I tried this on, I found that I’d made the foot of the sock about 2 inches too long. When I put my heel where the heel was in the sock, my foot was swimming around in the rest of the sock. So I ripped back. A little annoying, but at least I’ll have more yarn for the cuff.

Places, Everyone!

2011-08-10T11:51:00.001-05:00

I can finally put this project to rest. All eight of the Twill Stitch Placemats are now complete. I finished the last two, made of the leftover ends of the original three balls, in the past week since we’ve returned from our vacation. The last of the Espresso-colored ones came up an inch short, but I’m okay with that.

We’ve been using some of these as I finished them, and they’re working well. They are stretching a bit with use – which is a good thing, in my opinion, although I haven’t yet tried washing any of them. That’s coming up soon, because we’ve already had a few spills.

In these pictures, I’m using some cool crystal goblets with stars on them from the early 60s that we got from Jeff’s parents. They were given to her by a friend, and she passed them on to us. The set has iced tea glasses, water goblets, wine glasses, sherbet cups and cordial glasses. We’ll have to come up with a fancy dinner that includes all of those some day.

The dishes were my paternal grandparents’. My grandmother hadn’t wanted to mess with fancy china, but my grandfather insisted that they get some while they were stationed in post-war Germany. In the end, I think she was glad that they did. I know I am. That wheat pattern never fails to make me think of Thanksgiving -- which is still several hot months away.

A placemat for everything, and everything on its placemat!

Peabey

2011-08-06T16:10:00.001-05:00

I promised another creature of the ice last time, didn’t I?

Meet Peabey the Polar Bear, designed by Snowden Becker, and knit over the last few days by yours truly. Snowden even sent me the yarn with which to make him, a very interesting yarn of unknown origin – other than the fact she picked it up at a neighbor’s yard sale and it had probably been sitting in a California attic for decades. To find out the story behind the yarn, check out Snowden’s blog.

I’m totally blown away by this pattern. This isn’t just a generic bear – but very definitely a polar bear. The sleek, sloping head, the long neck, the turned-in rear toes, the fat backside – it’s a polar bear’s anatomy through and through. He has a very life-like stance, too. Snowden did such an amazing job with this. Her instructions call for cotton yarn, but I really liked knitting this in angora. As I knit for myself mostly, I’ve never used angora. It was fun trying out a new fiber. I was amazed at the lightness of it. And even though I had to break out the lint roller a few times, it was worth it. It gives him a nice, fuzzy halo.

The pattern is easy to follow. Absolutely no seaming, and just five little Kitchener grafts. I’m still not confident in my ability to embroider, but I did manage some decent, if beady, French-knot eyes, and at least the nose and claws are recognizable.

As we head past 50 days of 100+ degree heat this summer, it’s nice to have the company of someone from cooler climes.

Sonja’s Sweater

2011-08-04T13:22:00.002-05:00

While waiting to climb Mt. Marcy during our rain-delay in the Adirondacks (was it really only 6 days ago?), we spent the day in nearby Lake Placid, seeing the sights. We did a little tasting of some Finger Lakes wines, enjoyed the rarity of precipitation falling on one’s person, and visited a quite interesting museum that grabbed my interest on many levels.

The 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympic Museum was kind of hard to find, buried in the bowels of a building that housed the ice arenas built for the two Winter Olympic games held in this small town. I didn’t know that the 1932 bid, paid for almost entirely through local bond efforts, was spearheaded by Godfrey Dewey and his aging father, Melvil. This just warmed the cockles of my librarian heart. Both Deweys were active in the local Lake Placid Club and the Adirondack Mountain Club, from whose Adirondack Loj (Dewey aficionados will understand the unusual spelling) we started our Mt. Marcy hike.

Anyway, in the museum, I ran across this beautiful hand knit sweater, once owned and worn by Sonja Henie, the “Pavlova of the Ice.” I’d heard her name, but didn’t know much about her. Quite famous as an athlete, she later parlayed her skills and beauty into a Hollywood career of ice-skating films – a sort of frozen H₂0 version of Esther Williams. She won the gold medal in ladies’ single figure skating in 1932 (and in 1928 and 1936, for that matter), before moving on to the big screen.

The details in the sweater are beautiful, and it looks like it could have been knit yesterday. The little buttons are perfect for it, and there seems to be a red placket-like lining behind them. Also, the choice of red and gray was quite stunning and seemed a bit unusual to me. I was also struck by it’s smallness. It’s perfect. Just look at those neat and tidy, uniform stitches.

I had to share this. It makes me feel better thinking about flying along the ice in something cozy, instead of looking out the window at the scorched earth that is central Texas these days. Next time, I’ll post about yet another beautiful creature of the ice…

Adiraindacks

2011-07-29T15:08:00.005-05:00

We Had planned to tackle Mt. Marcy today, but the weather conspired against us. Tomorrow promises to be clearer, so we changed our plans a bit.

We spent the day wandering around a soggy Lake Placid. One highlight was the Winter Olympics museum -- I was fascinated by all the examples of medals and relay torches they have there. Plus, they had a hand-knit stranded warm-up sweater that used to belong to figure skater Sonjia Henie -- cream with red and gold yolk and cuffs. I took a picture with my "real" camera, so it will have to wait for later.

I also dragged Jeff into Adirondack Yarns on the north end of town. It was a very warm and welcoming place, with coffee and some of the best store samples I've ever seen. Ah, to be able to dress oneself in garments like that for 9 months out of the year!

I thought the be-mittened bear out front was a nice touch. Here's to not running into any tomorrow, mittens or no.

Knitting on the Road

2011-07-26T17:15:00.006-05:00

Not much knitting happening while on our Northeast Holiday. We've seen yarn shops from time to time -- Bee's Yarn, Sweaters & Candy in Bar Harbor, ME, for instance -- but they've all been closed.

Today, I got lost trying to find a laundromat in Stowe, VT, and looked up to see I was in front of Stowe Fabric & Yarn. The nice proprietor pointed me in the right direction, and after I got my load started, I went back to visit before closing. They had a nice selection of yarns, including some locally grown alpaca and Romney wool. I could sit on that porch and knit all day...

Oops. The dryer beckons.

107

2011-07-16T12:35:00.001-05:00

One hundred and seven. It’s the 28th prime number, the element number for Bohrium, and darn close to what the temperature around here has been lately.

It also has other magical properties. Turns out, it’s exactly what one of my new placemats weighs in grams. And, after making three in one color with brand new balls of yarn, the three small leftover balls add up to…..107 grams. So I should just be able to squeeze out a fourth placemat in both of the colors. If it gets close, I can always cheat the final placemats by a few rows. We’ll see.

In a few days, Jeff and I are going on a trip out of town for a few weeks. I imagine I’ll stumble upon a yarn store or two. If so, I’ll post reports. I don’t know how much (or if much) knitting (or posting) will happen on the road, but I plan to take a few sock projects along just in case the opportunity arises.

I’m so looking forward to climes with temperatures below 107.

Swealebrity

2011-07-12T13:55:00.001-05:00

At my men’s knitting group on Sunday at the Knitting Nest, we had a surprise (and delightful) visitor. I just have to share.

We had noticed some people sitting and talking at the big table, and thought it looked awfully like an interview. Afterwards, one of the group, came by to ask us what we were all knitting. The topic of stranded knitting came up, and she pulled out The Sweater.

The maker of this fine garment was Adrienne Martini, author of Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously, which outlines her crusade to complete an Alice Starmore fair isle sweater in a year. The pattern she chose was Mary Tudor. It’s gorgeous – all the more amazing to realize it was her first big stranded knitting project. Talk about go big or go home!

I’d first heard about this book and this project when Adrienne was interviewed on Brenda Dayne’s Cast On Podcast (Episode 77). And there it was in front of us – we got to put our grubby paws all over it. So amazing to see an actual artifact that’s been documented so fully. Kind of like all the sock samples I saw from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks at the sock summit a few years back.

It was great meeting Adrienne. She had been in Houston giving a talk, and decided to come by Austin to see old friends and grab a bite at Threadgills. She was witty, knowledgeable, and friendly – like most excellent knitters. Now I really need to read her book .

Oh, and last night, when we were deciding where to go for dinner with Jeff’s parents, the first thing I thought was, “Threadgills.” It was de-lish.

Perfect Fourth

2011-07-09T17:12:00.001-05:00

Not much to report knitting-wise this week. In between reading classic science fiction, preparing for an upcoming trip, and working on de-cluttering the office, I’ve managed to squeeze in a few moments of knitting on the Twill Stitch Placemats.

This week, I managed to crank out two more. Placemats seem to be the “it” project in these parts. Check out the nice granny circle placemats that Meg is making. Nice – nobody takes better pictures of her craftiness than Meg. And those colors she picked for the edges are perfect. They remind me of a set of anodized aluminum tumblers my grandmother used to have.

Back to my vivid brown masterpieces. I have four complete, two in each color. I’m trying for eight, at which point, I’ll need to get a card table, pick up some canapé recipes, and learn how to play contract bridge.

A Place for Everything

2011-07-03T14:41:00.001-05:00

So far, the placemats are turning out great. They’re fast to knit, easy to pick up and put down without losing one’s place, and, being cotton, they’re not causing my thighs to break out into a heat rash while knitting in this horrific heat. Which is probably more detail than you wanted, but there you go. The Espresso color look especially good with our Silver Pine china. I can’t quite get the pale turquoise color to come out right with my camera, but it looks especially nice against the dark brown.

Now that I’ve got the system down, it’s just knit, knit, knit. Actually, this pattern actually has a lot more purling in it than knitting, now that I think of it. I bought a ball for each placemat that I planned to knit, three of each color for a total of six. But I think that with the leftovers from the first three, I may have enough to knit a fourth in each color. That way I can set the table with alternating placemat colors, or go all in with or the other. We’ll see if I’m still as gung-ho after knitting six of these things. But two done so far!

Fur Piece

2011-06-30T13:50:00.001-05:00

My vacation got off to a rocky start.

When I got home from work yesterday afternoon, I heard a hissing sound by my garage. Not a snakey hissing (which would be bad), but a watery hissing. Either my house or the front yard retaining wall shifted, breaking our main water line right where it enters the house. It wasn’t exactly spewing, and I’m pretty sure that it hadn’t been doing that when I’d left in the morning, but it was pretty disconcerting. Jeff got a plumber out (at after-hours rates, grrrr) and we had it fixed by 8. At 10, we were able to turn the water back on, so all’s well that ends well. Still, scary.

Jeff and I went out for breakfast this morning, and then, while he headed to campus to finish up his grading, I went to Joann’s to pick up some more Lion Brand for placemats. I accidentally turned down the wrong aisle and ran into a wall of “fun” fur. Yikes! It was all so weird looking. And funny. And sad. I like to think I’m not a yarn snob – knit with what you want, I say. But I just do not get the appeal. It may be fast, and you can use giant needles with it, but how they heck can you see what you’re doing? Any beginning knitter starting on this stuff isn’t doing him or herself a favor. I think fun fur’s time has come and gone, but it can still be found. It almost always seems to be on clearance, though. That’s gotta be saying something.

Back to the placemats. They only had three more balls of the Clove color in the dyelot I’d purchased earlier. And the dyelots were radically different. So I’ve decided to knit three placemats in Clove and three in a new color I picked up, Espresso. You can see what I’ve got so far, here. I’m hoping that the Clove and Espresso will go well with each other and the widely divergent colors of plates that we have.

So things are much more relaxed today than they were yesterday evening. Here’s to calm days ahead.

Plan B

2011-06-26T11:16:00.001-05:00

The Tunisian crochet just wasn’t working for this yarn. It was taking way too long and it was way too fiddly. I’m blaming it on the cotton. It’s still a really cool technique, but not for this yarn.

So I’ve switched to knitting and using the twill stitch. It’s a four-row repeat over a multiple of four stitches plus one. For these placemats, I cast on 49 stiches. It turns out they they are only about a half-inch narrower than my existing placemats. I’m knitting these from the side across. I may do all of them sideways, but I’m also toying with the idea of making half of them from the bottom edge up. Here’s the pattern:

First Row: KPKPKPKP…….K
Second Row: P
Third Row: KPPPKPPPKPPPKPPP…….K
Fourth Row: P

Not too complicated. Easy to read in the work, and great for mindless TV knitting. The yarn is Lion Cotton in a semi-solid color called Clove (136). The website describes it as a “dark burnt orange,” so it makes sense that my local Joann’s in Austin had tons of it. My goal (which is really more of a wish at this point), is that I can squeeze one placemat out of one ball. I’m about a third of the way through the current one – and it looks like I’m a third of the way through the ball.

This could be a race to the finish…

Tunisian Uprising

2011-06-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

So, sweater finished, it’s on to other projects.

First up, a set of new placemat. I’ve been using the same old raggedy placemats for too long. Time to knit new ones. But how?

Ever since seeing the video by my good friend Staci, I thought I’d like to try this crochet technique called Tunisian (or sometimes Afghan) stitch. Tunisian crochet uses these freaky frankenhooks that are basically crochet hooks, but really, really long and with a stopper on the end. In Tunisian stitch, you pick up stitches across the face of the fabric, and then chain back across. Here’s a one of Staci’s helpful videos that shows you how to do it.

Tunisian Crochet

Simple, right? Except I figured out how to make things difficult. Because I want to be able to wash these things, I decided I’d make them out of cotton. And it’s just not working for me. To start with, the cotton wasn’t very forgiving when trying to cast on – which involves picking up stitches from the spine of a crochet chain. And since then, I’ve just not quite gotten the hang of it.

Here’s what I have so far. It’s not bad, but it’s just not good. It’s hurting my hands, and it’s going very, very slow. Crochet is supposed to go fast. I still really love this technique, but I’m thinking it may not be the way to go with this project. I’d like to make at least six of these things, but I’m just not feeling the love.

I’m considering switching to knitting and using the twill stitch that I used when making my Whitfield Jacket. What do you think?

Sweater

2011-06-19T10:40:00.001-05:00

Was there ever a more appropriate name for a 100% wool garment worn on a day when it’s projected to reach 104°? Or the person modeling said garment?

By the time we got outside with the camera, just before 10:00am, the heat index was already at 92° with 67% humidity. Not to mention the mosquitos. It’s not even summer yet! I suppose we must suffer for our art…

But the rewards are great. I’m really happy with how this sweater turned out. Long stretches went by without working on it this spring and the whole project took entirely too long to complete, but I’ve got quite a sense of accomplishment now that this is finished.

The place I originally wanted to get buttons had either shut down or moved (I got conflicting reports), so I went by an LYS. They had nice buttons, but not any appropriate for a nerdy cardigan. So I went by Hancock Fabrics, which had a surprisingly wide selection, plus they were having a 30% off sale. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I freaked out several fellow customers by soliciting their opinions. After they calmed down, we eventually all agreed that I would go with wood. Nice, no?

Now, like any project, there are a few flaws. There is a school of thought that, kept to oneself, these flaws will never become apparent. But I’m the type to be wracked with guilt unless I confess, so here we go:

The buttons are not evenly spaced – they’re a little closer together at the bottom than at the top. The button band isn’t quite even with the bottom edge on the right side. I knit where I should have purled (or vice versa) in one place on the sewn-on button band. The necks or shanks behind the buttons are a bit tall; I did that so that they wouldn’t bite into the button band, but they look a little funny and dangly when not buttoned.

I feel better.

Now to put this away until it gets cold, if it gets cold, many many months from now. My plan is to wear this at work in my chilly corner of the library. Now to obtain and learn how to tie a bow tie…

I Got the Beets

2011-06-12T20:40:00.002-05:00

Another slow week of knitting – meaning I didn’t knit a stitch during the week. But I did manage to work a bit more on the Chocolate Spiral Socks during my knitting group on Saturday morning. This morning, I buckled down and finished the button band on the Kerouac Sweater, while catching up with a bunch of PBS episodes of Frontline, Independent Lens and Secrets of the Dead that had been cluttering up my DVR for a while. I’ve tried it on, and it appears that all systems are go.

Two things left to do. One is blocking. There are some areas around the sleeve cap that need special attention. I think I’m going to go the steam route rather than full immersion. Secondly, I need to go shopping for buttons. The last time around, I had Snowden to go shopping with. We went to Silk Road and got some great buttons for my Whitfield Jacket. Sadly, she’s moved away, so I’ll have to be a big boy and pick some out myself. The holes are kind of small, so I should have plenty of options.

This afternoon, I got to knit with some of the guys from our men’s knitting group. It had been WAY too long since I’d done that, and it was good to get out. I always have a good laugh and learn something. Those guys are always trying out something new – a pretty fearless bunch as knitters go.

Oh, and one more thing. A picture of food. Yummy, yummy, food. My knitting buddy Jene had some extra food from her CSA this week. I was the proud recipient of some peppers, potatoes, and these delicious beets. I found a recipe for Sweet-and-Sour Beets with Apples in The Joy of Cooking, and voilà! Very tasty, indeed. Thanks, Jene!

I’m Still Knitting!

2011-06-05T15:32:00.001-05:00

Um, hi.

Yeah, it’s been a while. An embarrassingly long time, in fact. And the reason is, I haven’t really been knitting.

I’ve only been knitting in fits and starts. I’m kind of monogamous with my obsession. Usually, I’m either knitting or reading. However, my reading and knitting were both recently derailed by a chance genealogical breakthrough that grabbed my attention for quite some time.

A class and get-together with some knitting friends seems to have shaken me out of it for a bit, and even though the thermometer hit a hundred today (before a freaky much-needed thundershower), I picked up my wool Kerouac Sweater and worked on the button band a bit more. I’m at the part where you have to sew the band on a bit, and then work a buttonhole, then sew on a bit more band, etc. I’m sweating like crazy, but it’s nice to see some progress. A few more hours of sewing and knitting, and then it’s all over except for getting some buttons and a bit of blocking. Just in time to put it away for six months while I wait out the hotbox that is Texas in summertime.

Last month, Jeff and I made a short trip to Big Bend National Park, one of our favorite getaways. We did some hiking, saw some spectacular desert scenery and wildlife (no bears this time), and I cast on for some toe-up sock. I’m using the yarn I dyed with Doug and plan to use my first afterthought heel, courtesy of some excellent videos posted by Janelle. The pattern is the Broad Spiral Rib from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Knitted Socks.

So I’m back at it.

Resurrection

2011-04-24T17:47:00.001-05:00

I feel like I’m starting anew on my knitting, perhaps finally climbing out of what appears to be my annual spring knitting slump. Easter seems an appropriate day for it.

I’ve been working on the button band for the Kerouac Sweater. It’s knitted separately, and when it’s about 3/4 done, it’s sewn on. Then, buttonholes are added as it’s sewn so that you can get them in the right position. I’m a little nervous about that, but I’m getting a pretty consistent row gauge of 8 rows to the inch, so I should be able to estimate when the time comes. It was fast to knit – kind of like a very skinny ribbed scarf – but I just haven’t been able to get excited about sewing it on. I got started this morning. I’ve already put it down, but at least it’s a start. When it’s in the 90s outside, I don’t feel much of a sense of urgency in finishing a wool sweater.

And, because I needed something a bit more portable and less fussy to knit on away from home, I finally started back on the Woodland Winter Mittens. Well, they’re still fussy, but at least they’re more portable. I finished the Right February mitten, and I’ve begun on the left. This one won’t be as complicated and should go by pretty quickly. I was surprised at how quickly I remembered all the little things about the increases and patterning, despite not having touched this project for over a month.

I don’t know what it is about spring, but there’s always so much that takes me away from knitting – lots of yard work, extra chorus rehearsals for our spring concert, big projects to wrap up at work before the end of the semester. After this week, things should start settling down so that I can get back at it.

Sit on a Cushion

2011-04-10T10:17:00.001-05:00

This weekend, I managed to sew a fine seam, but it wasn’t all strawberries, sugar and cream.

I managed to seam up the second sleeve, and I did much better than the first. On the first, I had to do a bit of 2-to-3 seaming at the end to make everything come out right, due to earlier sloppiness. But I managed to get the second one to come out perfectly. If you look at the two edge stitches that got tucked into the seam, you can see that either my first or last stitch of each row is way tidier than the other. I’ve never noticed that before. However, the seam looks quite nice from the wrong side. These sleeves are rather slender and much more fitted than I’m used to, but they’re sure to keep me warm in my chilly wintry library. That’s the plan, anyway.

But sleeves don’t really work unless they’re attached to the sweater (with the possible exception of the look rocked by Brittany of Glee), so I still had some seaming to do. This was slightly more problematic. Despite some good advice I received, I still had an issue because the sleeve cap shifts from a selvedge edge to a cast-off edge. The sleeve caps were sewn into the body sides which are all selvedge edge. At some point. I had to shift seaming strategies, and there’s a little bump where there this shift occurred. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to minimize it with a bit of judicious steam blocking.

I got started on the very strange (to me) button band last night. That shouldn’t take much time at al to knit. But it’s sewn on, so there is another seam in my future. Here’s hoping I can manage to sew it finely.

Pup With Pups

2011-04-06T21:21:00.002-05:00

Henry, the boy for whom I made the three Pile-able Pups back at the beginning of the year, made his debut about a month ago. Recently, Meg, photographer extraordinaire, took some pictures of Henry surrounded by and/or wearing the lovely hand-knits he hauled in at his shower. They turned out great and both Meg and Kristin (now known as “Henry’s Mom”) gave me their blessing to post one of them here.

This little dude is a doll. I got to hold him a few weeks ago and he was just the proverbial bundle of joy. All stretchy and jerky and squirmy and sleepy and sighing and whimpering and all those things that little babies do. He’s definitely made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Although he’s already grown noticeably, right now the Pile-able Pups are almost as big as he is. But he’ll be in charge soon enough.

Welcome to the world, Henry! It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.

Slow Going

2011-04-03T18:07:00.002-05:00

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but then, I haven’t gotten much knitting done in the past few weeks. When it comes to extracurricular activities, I’m either reading or knitting. I hit a perfect storm of books that came up on my request list at the public library, so I needed to do a lot of reading in a short amount of time. I’m caught up, though; you can see what I’ve been up to literarily in the sidebar. So I’m back to knitting.

I’ve managed to finish both sleeves, and now I’m in the sewing phase. I’ve sewn up the shoulder seams. The number of stitches didn’t match on the two sides, but I made do. I was tired of reading the sleeve cap instructions and wondering whether I was getting them right. They might be a bit off, but they are at least symmetrical. There was no way I was going to re-do them.

This morning, I sewed up one of the sleeves. I need to sew up the other one and then attach the sleeves to the body. So far, it seems that the fit is going to be good. I’m looking forward to knitting the button band and collar, which is knit in a long strip along 15 stitches. I think I’m going to try and see if I can remember how to knit backwards so I don’t have to do a lot of sliding stitches and needle flipping.

Knick-Knack Kerouac

2011-03-16T11:29:00.001-05:00

Give this dog a bone, cause this old cardigan is rolling home. There’s naught left to knit but the sleeves and button band/collar.

I’ve managed to complete the body of the sweater. Both of the fronts are now done, although I’m not entirely clear that I did it correctly. I was almost done with the right front part of the sweater, when I consulted a cryptic note that I’d made after completing the left front part of the sweater, reminding me where to begin a certain decrease. I was already well past that point, and by now I couldn’t see the logic of the original instructions – it had just been too long since I’d written it down. But I ripped back and followed my notes, and holding everything together, it appears I did the right thing. I’m just not sure how.

For something that looks so simple, I’ve had a dickens of a time trying to parse out the instructions. They’re quite clear, but the manner in which they are written doesn’t mesh well with the way my brain works. I kept forgetting that binding-off and decreasing, while having the same effect of narrowing fabric, are not the same thing at all.

I had to draw little diagrams for each row, keeping track of the binding off and the decreasing and all the various knitterly activities that I was instructed to undertake AT THE SAME TIME. These words are written in all caps to draw the knitter’s attention to them, but the my state of mind conjures up visions of someone leaning over my should and shouting those words at me. I’m not in any way faulting the designer for this – it’s just the state I’m in, I suppose.

But I’ve started the sleeves, and I’m feeling better about the whole thing.

A Bird in the Hand

2011-03-09T21:38:00.001-06:00

It’s worth two in the bush, but still doesn’t quite measure up to having two in the hand. So to get my money’s worth, and to keep some poor soul’s two hands equally toasty, I better get started on the second.

Overall, I prefer the abstract design of the January mittens over these more figurative designs. I enjoyed watching the picture build as I knit, though that branch hanging over the bird’s head looks kind of like a claw hammer to me. Watch out, bird! And, of course, the brighter colors don’t sit with me as well. The effect reminds me of a sunrise over snow. I don’t have much experience of that, but that’s what I’m going with. These hues remind me of some jumbo-sized day-glo crayons that were available back in the 1970s. I never really liked them. Even then I was more of a traditionalist. Anyone else out there miss Raw Umber? Anyone?

The thumbs on this mitten, if anything, seem even tighter than the thumb on the previous pair. I’m going to try and remedy that in the blocking, but I really think the design could have stood to have 4-5 more stitches of room. Like the first pair, I’m drawn to the geometric design on the palm of the mitten. It’s quite mesmerizing.

I’ve got more wonkiness in my knitting going on with this pair than the previous pair. Maybe it’s just more visible because of the lighter background? But I have several stitches that lean in strange directions and places where the captured floats are quite visible. I keep taking deep breaths and reminding myself to trust in the miracle of blocking.

The second mitten features a jay or a cardinal in outline, and it takes up more of the mitten back. I’ll get it started on it soon.

Tonight was all about getting back to the Kerouac sweater. And messing it up. I did six rows of decreases across the middle of the back, counted, and found out I had one too many stitches. I patiently tinked those rows back, only to find that I’d started with one too many stitches. I’d messed up in the binding off a few weeks ago. I used a crochet hook to bind one more off at the edge. The gauge is small enough that I don’t think it will matter.

A Person Very Rarely Sees…

2011-03-05T16:45:00.001-06:00

…a poem as lovely as 99 trees -- all covered in yarn.

Yesterday, our men’s knitting group (Ravelry Link) set up our contribution to Magda Sayeg’s art installation in the Blanton Art Museum’s courtyard entitled A Knitted Wonderland.

Now, I have to admit, right up front, that although I cringed and whined about the color spectrum that we were asked to use, I have to say that the effect is really quite stunning. If the color palette had been any less vibrant, I don’t think the effect would have been nearly as dramatic. It was amazing seeing all of these trees all gussied up in snuggly warm yarn. The range of techniques and ways of combining color were really quite amazing. Several groups included pockets, appliqued snake-like things and all manner of knitting and crochet stitch patterns. So I stand corrected – this really does look quite cool.

Doug and I got there around 4:30 and got to seaming our group’s contribution to Tree #65. I think that Guys in Austin with Yarn should be pleased with the job we all did. Ours was the penultimate tree at the northern end of the installation, really closer to both UT’s Jester Dorm and the Perry-Castañeda Library than the museum. The diagram to the left shows the area of the 99 trees, and the little yellow star shows where our tree is. In this position, we were uniquely positioned as unofficial spokesmodels for the installation, fielding questions from all the curious passersby. Several people commented on how the whole thing had a Dr. Seuss vibe. I have to agree. Magda came by at one point and told us how pleased she was that we had participated and what a great job we had done.

Doug was prepared, of course, armed with all the tools we needed for seaming our creation, plus a step-ladder. We came up with a plan for attaching the whole thing together and got cracking. It was a snug a fit in a few places, which was our plan. It only took a little over an hour of using crochet hooks to pull all the loose ends up through the selvedge edges and knotting strands together at the color changes to make sure that it all stayed put. I’m quite pleased with how it all turned out. All five of the guys who worked on this (plus Doug’s mom!) should be proud.

When we left, there were still a few trees that had yet to be bedecked. I’m going to try and get down there in the next few weeks to take some more pictures with something besides my phone. The pictures I’ve taken of this can all be found in my Knitted Wonderland Flickr set. It’s up until March 18th, so if you have a chance to check it out, do so.

Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up

2011-02-27T17:35:00.001-06:00

Much like the weather around here lately, I grow weary of the grayness, and am yearning for a little color. Shocking, no?

I made great progress on the gray Kerouac sweater this week, finishing up to the armpits, and then the front left side. It was one of those patterns that has AT THE SAME TIME written several times, and many sizes with instructions written in parentheses – eg., bind off 1 (2,3,4,5,6) stitches 3 (0,2,5,6,7) times over the next 2(4,6,8,10,12) rows – that sort of thing. I had to map it out, and I’m still not entirely sure I got it right. But I made notes so that if I did screw up, I’ll be sure to screw up the other side in exactly the same way. Good thing, too, because the instructions for the right front of the sweater are basically to do what you just did, only backwards.

Having made it this far, I just had to set this aside and work on something else. Normally I’m pretty monogamous with projects, but I got an itch. I decided to turn to the next pattern in the Woodland Winter Mittens. I noticed this kit isn’t available at the Knit Picks website. Maybe they ran out of some of the colors? I’m tackling the February pattern this time around. It’s not one of my favorites, but I kind of wanted to get these first three done in the first three months of the yearn. It’s the librarian in me. I did start this in the last few days of February. So that counts, right? The back sides of these gloves feature two different birds. In the picture here, you can see some branches. I think the beginnings of the tail might be in the small checkerboard pattern on the right yellow (cornmeal) section.

The pattern that runs across the palms is quite nice. I almost like it better than the patterned section across the backs of the hands. I’ve managed to make it up to the third color change today, and the thumb stitches are already off the needles and waiting patiently on that pale blue scrap of yarn. There are some truly long floats in this pattern – I counted 19 stitches once -- so I’m doing a lot of catching of yarn as I go. I thought that the dark yarn behind the light would be more noticeable, but I think the light yarn shows more behind the dark. Also, I’m carrying the dark color (bittersweet heather) in my left hand to make the images and patterns pop.

Finally, some very good news, today! Little Henry, the boy for whom I made the Pileable Pups last month, has made his arrival. Welcome to the world, Henry! And congratulations to Kristin and Josh. That’s one kid that should never, ever be cold.

Inch by Inch, Putting it Together

2011-02-20T19:10:00.002-06:00

It’s come to this – a whole blog post about switching to a longer circular needle, and how that has changed my life.

I’ve been slowly slogging away on the sweater. 288 stitches of stockinette – a lot of knitting and purling, and every once in a while fixing that weird thing that I described a few posts back. It’s still happening, but I’m catching it more. I’m on my sixth ball of yarn – for the main part of the body, I’m averaging about 3 inches of length with each 50-gram ball.

This afternoon, I thought I’d take some picture and post about my progress. To prepare, I thought I’d put this temporarily on a long Size 1 or Size 2 needle so I could spread it out a bit. It just looks way to bunched up on the 24-inch Size 3 I’ve been working, and frankly, it’s been kind of hard to work with. I dug around in my knitting bag and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a Size 3 needle – with a 47-inch cable. How much easier my knitting on this sweater will now be!

But the thing is, I knew I had this needle. Once again, my brain outfoxed me – on two fronts. Part of my brain thought the fabric should be bigger than the needle – if you’re knitting in the round. That part of my brain didn’t remember that I wasn’t knitting this in the round. Then another part of my brain remembered that I’d had to borrow a longer Size 3 needle to work on the Vaila Slipover, but that part forgot that I’d needed a size in between the 24” and 47” inch versions I had. Now all these parts of my brain are reconciled and working together – right when I was about to do a lot of binding off and separating to create the armholes on the sweater.

Thanks, brain.Sometimes, I wonder what my brain would look like if I knitted during an MRI. But then I remember that I’d have to use non-metal circular needles, and it hardly seems worth it.

Gay Teen Ideas!

2011-02-15T21:36:00.001-06:00

My friend Cliff ran across a campy knitting pattern cover and forwarded it to me last week. To my delight, this pattern book is available from various sites. I had to get my hands on a copy.

Yesterday, my copy of Gay Teen Ideas for Knitting and Crocheting arrived! It was published by The Spool Cotton Company, distributors of J. & P. Coats, Clark’s, Chadwick’s Red Heart, and Crown Zippers. The copyright date is 1944. I love everything about this cover – the Technicolor palette, the vintage bike, the position of the balls of yarn, and the subjects’ matching hair-dos!

There are tons of patterns in here, heavy on the accessories – lot’s of headbands, fascinators, coke (that’s right, small-c coke) bottle cozies, placemats, etc. But there are pretty small-gauge sweaters, too. The instructions are written in such a tiny type that they’re almost unreadable, but I’ve managed to peruse a few and, in general, I was able to follow them.

Some of these “teen” models seem a bit mature. But boy, are they active! Playing records, skiing, riding carousels, bowling – these gals are the epitome of “on-the-go.” One of the photo spreads mimics diary entries, making notes recording how pleased the writer’s friends were to receive their knitted gifts. A sample: “Wore the new vest. I finished it last night. Midge was delirious about it!” That Midge – she’s never had a high level of self-control. In another entry, the writer asks her diary, “These crocheted luncheon mats are simply a knockout, don’t you think?” And as Ginger, pictured right at the bowling alley (apparently, she has confused bowling with soccer), states, “Simply couldn’t get along without this super cardigan that pals up with all my skirts.”

The copy throughout is an amazing time- capsule of mid-century ad-speak. Here’s an extended example:

“Listen, something pretty pulsating is going on. The coke crowd’s going to town with its very own knitting and crocheting Teen Fashions, smooth and super with plenty of paprika to make those beaux’ eyes blink. One swift look-see inside is enough to make any girl with an oz. of get-up-and-go in her veins take to her needles. Want a ski outfit that will make you Queen of the Snow Carnival? Try your hand at Chilly Sauce on page 12.Looking for some glamour-drama. The P.M. sweater on page 15 is your dish. Get a load of the New-some Two-some jerkin and beanie that’ll make you a Scenic Distraction!”

There is also a kind of advice column by someone named Cathie Wells that offers the following words of wisdom:

“Let’s start with that prize possession, P-O-I-S-E. It’s one part being sure of yourself and that comes from good grooming – omit pins in the hem, thank you, snow-white collar, shining, clean brushed hair, a lovely, clean, fragrant smell (deodorant dept, please note!). The other part is knowing how to stand and walk. Most people haven’t learned the simple art of holding their spines straight, and they develop torsos that look like the bumps. Try this for size. Stand ten inches away from wall, knees slightly bent, arms at side. Lean back against the wall and settle the small of your back smack against it. Now poo-osh the back of your neck against the wall, keeping chin in and down. Make sure there’s no daylight between the small of your back and wall. Now slowly raise your arms straight over your head to wall and bring ‘em back to your sides without budging that back. Repeat ten times, A.M. and P.M.”

Wow. Now, I don’t know if I really need any glamour-drama in my life, so I’m not likely to be whipping up any of these patterns any time soon. But if anyone is interested, I can send copies of any of these patterns. I’m going to try and get this framed soon.

Twisted Mister

2011-02-12T23:03:00.003-06:00

Janna asked in the comments to my last post if I could get a picture of the problem I’d described of strange bumps on the wrong side of my stockinette fabric. Well, I managed to make the same mistake this evening, and I got a picture of it.

My suspicions were correct. I was indeed knitting into the stitch below, as you would do in fisherman’s rib. In this picture, you can see the problem right in the center. The stitch in the center is the one that was knitted into one row too low. You can see the double-strand that was created as the stitch above it was obliterated. Clicking on the picture will take you over to Flickr where you can see notes and explanations ad nauseam.

I don’t do this often, but right after fixing this, I found one in basically the same row just two inches over. As you can see the problem is most apparent to the left of the column of stitches were the error occurred, so it’s quite easy to ladder down the wrong column in trying to fix it. Which results in the twist being carried across two columns. I’ve managed to perpetuate the stitch over several stitches in the past, but now that I know what to look for, perhaps things will go smoother. I’m very carefully feeling along the back of the fabric as I knit, trying to catch these little problems before they’re too far away from the needles.

On a lighter note, my colleague Donna pointed me to a blog post at a website that discusses copyright issues. In this post, the author highlighted public domain pictures of people wearing sweaters. Several were of curling teams put on Flickr by the Galt Museum and Archives in Lethbridge, Alberta.

These sweaters are awesome – clearly made by skilled knitters with care and love. I really like the ones that feature intarsia curling stones.

Count Twice, Cast On Once

2011-02-09T19:00:00.001-06:00

I’m kind of paraphrasing the old carpenter’s rule of thumb here – knitters know what I’m talkin’ about.

I’d been having some issues with that weird thing that happens in stockinette where every once in a while – like once every 2 or 3 thousand stitches, I’ll get the lines twisted. It’s like I’ve knit into the row below or something, and it results in a weird bump. If I try to fix it but choose the wrong column to ladder down, I ended up twisting two lines of yarn over multiple stitches. It’s bad. I’ve whined about it before, but can’t find any evidence of this happening to any other knitter on the planet.

After one such game of Crochet Hooks and Ladders, I decided to count my stitches, just in case I might have accidently created one or knit a few together – you know, the kind of spot check one does. I was 5 stitches off! I went back and counted several times. Instead of 288 stitches, I had 283. And I had done this on the cast on row!

Here’s what I think happened. As I cast on, I added markers every 50 stitches to ease in double-checking (hah!), when I got to 250, the digit 5 got stuck in my head, and I thought – “I need to add 33 stitches.” But of course I needed to add 38 to make 288. Because I was off by exactly 5 stitches, and because the start of the sweater features 2x3 ribbing, it looked right. But it wasn’t. I suppose I could have soldiered on, but I didn’t’ want to have to deal with all the weird little adjustments I’d have to do later to make sure that decreasing, and sleeve holes, and sleeve sizes, and all that stuff matched up.

So, I ripped back all that work and cast on again. Repeat after me:

283 ≠ 288

Snow Day

2011-02-06T12:07:00.001-06:00

On Friday, we enjoyed a rare thing here in central Texas – a snow day! The snow wasn’t really a hazard (although that’s enough to make most people around here freak out), but before the snow fell, we got a nice glazing of ice that was a cause for concern. So I got to stay home and work on these! On Thursday night, I cast on and finished the second cuff. Friday, I watched some movies and got 2/3 of the way up the hand. Saturday, I finished the hand and the thumb and blocked it over night.

I think they turned out great. It wasn’t until I got these laid out next to each other to take this photo that I noticed that the pattern continued across the back of the hands. The wearer wouldn’t normally see this when they’re on her hands, but you and I might if she were playing peek-a-boo. I didn’t quite have gauge – these were closer to 3.75 inches wide rather than the required four, but I was able to square that away in the blocking. Now I just need to find someone with dainty hands – and possibly a birthday in January – to give these to. I have someone in mind. Stay tuned.

In non-knitting news, Jeff and I took our dogs Pona and Kate (and ourselves) out for a bit of socializing. We attended a basenji birthday party. Basenjis only go into estrus once a year (most dogs do so twice), and around the same time, which results in most basenjis being born in either December or January. So a bunch of people from the local rescue organization put together a little party. I was a little worried about Kate’s behavior – she can be a bit snarly with other dogs. She did that a bit, but soon settled in. It was hilarious seeing a dozen basenjis running around being basenjis. Although I forgot my camera, my friend Yawpers took some excellent photos. Below are some of the ones featuring Pona and Kate, but if you have time, take a look at the whole set of photos – there are some amazing photographs there. And some beautiful animals.

So, so fun. I hope this become an annual event. More often than that would be even better.

I did work a bit on Kerouac Sweater this week. Not much, though. It’s the boring part – the ribbing is done and it’s just knit a row, purl a row, for the next several inches. I’ve decided to forgo the pockets. I wouldn’t have used them anyway, and I think pockets in sweaters tend to make things (like me) look kind of saggy. It’s a little hard to take pictures of this – there are 288 stitches crammed on to a 24-inch needle, so things are squished. If I don’t watch it, the end stiches have a tendency to make a break for it. I’ve used 2 of the 18 balls of yarn I purchased for this sweater, so I think I’ll have enough yarn to complete it. I need a break from the mittens, so maybe I can be monogamous with this project – for a while, anyway.

Stay warm!

Invert

2011-02-01T19:09:00.002-06:00

A blog I follow (but the advice on which I seem incapable of following), Put This On, recently posted about an entry in yet another cool blog, Nerd Boyfriend, which features cool pictures of the famous and not-so-famous wearing interesting clothes, and then points viewers to sites where they might obtain similar objects as those in the pictures.

The Nerd Boyfriend post featured a picture of Truman Capote skating at Rockefeller Center and taken by photographers at Life. What caught my eye was that Mr. Capote was wearing what appears to be a Fair Isle sweater – inside out. I love the contrast between the free spirit on the ice and the rather drab and robot-like people observing from the edge of the rink.

If anyone could have carried this look off, it would have been him. According to the information at the Life website, this picture was taken in 1959. He cuts quite a dashing figure, very different from the In Cold Blood period, or from his appearances on afternoon talk shows in the 1970s, which is what I remember him from. In these pictures, he hasn’t yet donned the cravats and floppy fedoras of his later years.

Do yourself a favor and read Capote’s The Grass Harp if you haven’t already done so. Or even if you have. There’s something to be said for looking at life unconventionally.

Today Was a Good Day to Dye

2011-01-30T19:42:00.001-06:00

I had fun today doing something with yarn that I don’t normally do – changing it’s color. In my early knitting days, I experimented with dying using Kool-Aid, but hadn’t done much more than that. Doug, one of the movers and shakers of our men’s knitting group (Ravelry link), has recently gotten into dying and is making quite a go of it. He set up a workshop today at an Austin LYS, Gauge, and invited people to come try their hand at dyeing. He had a lot of takers! Everything was well organized and I walked out of there with some lovely sock yarn in brown. But a very vibrant brown!
Doug does really cool things with dye. He combines colors in cool ways and isn’t afraid of the bold and bright – like some people I know. What I really love about Doug is how enthusiastic he is about dyeing, and what a great teacher he makes – drawing people in, getting them started, and then letting them run free with their ideas.
He’s done dyeing sessions for his mom’s friends, and his dad even put together a little device to help portion out yarn for dyeing in striped patterns – I’m sure it has a name, but I didn’t catch it. His dad even drove it up from Houston this morning just so Doug could use it today. Nice! Doug has started a website where you can find out about his dyeing and perhaps snatch up some of his lovely work. You can see some samples above, but also check out White Bear Fibers – I’ve added a banner in the Look! section on the right.
I got to Gauge late-ish, and a lot of the activity had dyed (ahem) down, but I got to see a lot of the work other people had done – neat stuff, in some really cool colors. I loved seeing it all outside, drying in the sun. And yes, northern readers, it got up into the low 80s on this, the penultimate day of January. I’m sitting here writing this after 7:00pm, hoping the open windows will cool the house down a bit. I just can’t imagine turning on the A/C in January. Winter is supposed to come back in about 48 hours, but today sure was lovely.
My brown yarn turned out quite nicely. I dyed the whole skein in a watered down version of the chocolate dye, to get kind of a mauve-y effect. Then, I over-dyed a few sections in a slightly less watered down version. Finally, I used a brush to add some full on chocolate-y low-lights. I did miss a few sections here and there, but all in all, it should turn out good. My skein is hanging up in the bathroom right now – I’ll wind it up in a few days. I can’t wait to make some socks out of it.
Thanks, Doug, for a very fun and creative afternoon!

Beginning, Middle and End

2011-01-27T19:49:00.001-06:00

I worked on several projects this week, finishing one, reaching the halfway point on another, and just getting started on yet a third.

My section of the men’s knitting group contribution to the Blanton tree-covering project turned out better than I would have thought. I made sure that the pink and orange didn’t touch, which helped. I knit three colors in four rows, and then then the fourth color in either 7 or 8 rows. It made a nice flow. I decreased by binding off. In my last post I wrote about getting the yarn. By 9pm that day, I was done. Which is a good thing, because my eyes were hurting.

On Tuesday I managed to finish the first of the January Woodland Winter Mittens. The thumb is nice and long, if a bit narrow. While I can get the rest of the mitten on snuggly, it’s difficult to wedge my meaty man-thumbs into that little tube. I reversed the yarn dominance on the thumb because I wanted the black lice pattern to pop. I like how the colors carry across and match between the thumb and the body of the mitten. I have to do a little bit of weaving in around the crotch of the thumb and for the cast-on, but then this one is basically done. Now normally, I’m a fairly monogamous knitter, but Multiple Mitten Malaise is a possibility here, because Tuesday night I cast on for a…

…new sweater for me! The pattern is called Kerouac by Jenn Jarvis and it’s in the spring 2009 issue of Twist Collective. Don’t snort when you look at the picture of the model. Mine will be a larger size, should have more ease, and I’m planning on making it a bit longer. Also, I’m not messing with the stripes. I’m making mine in a nice gray (Cobblestone Heather, actually) using the new sport weight of Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks. It’s a small-gauge sweater, which was my goal with this. But be careful what you wish for; this thing is made on size 3 needles. It could take a while, but I ain’t scared.

I’m knitting the sweaters, but definitely not sitting still these days.

Mitts & Bits

2011-01-23T16:55:00.001-06:00

The January Woodland Winter Mittens are rolling right along. This picture doesn’t quite show current progress, but I’ve just about gotten to the decreases at the top. I think I’m on track – I got to try them on a real live woman with lovely hands and everything. All systems are go.

I’ve definitely changed colors for the last time on the main part, which should speed things up a bit. Then it’s the thumbs – and then another mitten. There must be a mitten equivalent of Second Sock Syndrome, and whatever it’s called (Multiple Mitten Malaise?), I feel it setting in. I’ve enjoyed knitting this mitten, and realize that a mate-less mitten is just about the saddest garment in the world, but I kind of want to knit the other patterns now. Must. Knit. Second. Mitten…

At my men’s knitting group this afternoon, I got my bits of yarn and knitting instructions for my part in our group’s effort to wrap a tree at the Blanton Museum as part of Magda Sayeg’s art installation. Man – these colors. Any combination of two is within the realm of normality, and really, even any three colors can be made to work. But throw in the fourth, and it’s all quite jarring. I’ve knit with pink before, but this is P-I-N-K. Eye-watering, retina-searing, vision-blurring, glaucoma-inducing, migraine-making pink. But knit it I will.

I get to a geek out on a bit of math to figure out how to do the decreasing I need to do – I’ve been assigned a section that involves a knot on the tree’s trunk – so it’s going to be fun for all that. Plus, we get to arrange the colors in any kind of strip combination we want. Oh – and we do not have to weave in any ends. Who has ever had a pattern with the instructions, “Don’t weave in ends. Someone else will deal with that.” ? I’d buy that pattern.

Janus

2011-01-20T18:56:00.001-06:00

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways, gates, beginnings and endings. An apt name for this month. And, as it so happens, the theme for my latest project.

This week, a package from Knitpicks arrived, containing a bunch of yarn for a cardigan I’m planning to make, plus a kit. Yes, a knitting kit. I’ve never knit from a kit before, but I saw the Woodland Winter Mittens kit in the catalog, and because I love me the dark colors, stranded knitting and the cold times of year, I had to try. It’s quite a bargain, too. Yarn for six pairs of mittens, plus the pattern, for under $30.

Each month’s mitten features a different winter-themed scene on the backs of the hands and a different geometric pattern on the palms. So all of the months bear two faces in these mittens, not just January. The “winter” months in these patterns run from October to March – a bit of a stretch, I know, but if you had to pick six months for winter, those would be them. And “winter” sounds better than “the months where you don’t necessarily sweat every day,'” as they are known in these parts. I really do like all the colors, although I’m a little meh about March. I decided to start with the January pattern since we’re soaking in it right now. Not sure if I’ll be finishing before the end!

I began this first pair on size 1 needles as called for, but quickly figured out that I was under gauge, so I switched to size 2. Things are better now. I’m having a bit of a time with the needle changes using magic loop – I may switch to DPNs to see if that works any better.

(In My) Solitudes

2011-01-17T13:15:00.001-06:00

Apologies in advance to the late, great Duke Ellington.

I finished up my Solitude Socks. Very squishy and very warm. Here’s the recipe, in a nutshell.

I started with a 32-inch size 2 circular needle, then using Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-on, I started with 10 stitches. Using the magic loop method, I knit a row, and then increased every other row until I hit 22 stitches per side, 44 total stitches in circumference. I knit two more rows, then started 2x2 ribbing on the instep of the sock – the row starts and ends with two knit stitches.

When I got to where I wanted to do the short row heel, I used double wraps and started the heel on 8 unwrapped stitches. This is the only part of the socks I wasn’t entirely happy with. Despite double-wrapping the short row stitches, I still ended up with little holes. Janelle suggested trying the no-wrap short row heel technique at Happy Knits. I’ll try to remember this for next time.

After the heel was completed, I knit 15 rows as I had for the foot of the sock, and then switched to 2x2 ribbing for the remainder of the cuff. As mentioned earlier, the front of the sock started and ended with two knit stitches– now the back of the cuff started and ended with two purl stitches. I knit until it looked like I was running out of yarn, then I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off.

And that’s it! Now I have a nice, thick, warm pair of socks. Thanks for this yarn, Janelle!

Brickerworks

2011-01-15T14:22:00.001-06:00

I finished up the red Bricker socks on Thursday evening. I think they turned out great. Earlier pictures I’ve taken of these give the impression that the yarn is more of a peachy or coral color. But I tweaked some of the photos using Picnik via Flickr and it got them to look more like what my eyes see when I look at them. I wish I could get my camera to do that.

Speaking of “what I see,” about a month ago I decided that what my 45-year-old eyes were seeing up close was not ever going to come into focus again and my arms were just getting too short. So I got some reading glasses. I haven’t been wearing them consistently for knitting – so much of that is done by feel – but it’s amazing how much better I can see when I wear them, especially for reading.

I’m stunned that this change happened so quickly. Having never worn anything but sunglasses all my life, it’s taking a bit of getting used to. But once I started using them, I was addicted immediately. Now I find myself dealing with all the things that veteran spectacle users are probably quite used to – smudges, positioning them just right, and mostly – where the heck did I put those things?

I’ve got a couple of things coming in from Knitpicks (mail already came today – so much for this weekend) for some projects I’d like to start, but in the meantime I’ve decided to start – what else? – another pair of socks. While digging around for some extra placemats a few weeks ago, I stumbled across some yarn that I’d put away in a drawer to keep away from curious basenjis. Janelle gave it to me as a gift several years ago. It’s Solitude sport weight in a Suffolk/Dorsett blend mixed with nylon.

Suffolk and Dorsett are sheep breeds used more for eatin’ than knittin’, but according to Solitude, they grow a “fine springy wool that is perfect for sock yarn.” Is it any consolation to a Suffolk or Dorsett sheep that they are so versatile?

What I’m making is a pair of toe-up socks in this beautiful midnight blue yarn. Because of its thickness, I’m using size 2 needles, although the resulting fabric is still pretty dense. These will make excellent around-the-house or hiking socks. It’s tough, without being too scratchy. It will definitely hold up to wear. Now I need to remember how to do a short-row heel. It’s been a while since I’ve done one…

Chin Picks Win

2011-01-12T22:50:00.001-06:00

I nearly spilled my beer when I saw knitwear designer, yarn maker and the fastest crocheter in the world, Lily Chin, on tonight’s episode of Top Chef.

While watching people line up for portions of the Elimination Challenge dishes, I saw a face that looked somewhat familiar and I said to Jeff, “That looks like Lily Chin.” He just ignored me, because I’m always mouthing of during TV shows and movies along the lines of “That’s the guy that played the _________ in “____________”. Jeff is a very patient man.

But then, moments later, she appeared on screen again, actually sitting at the same picnic table with Tom, Padma and Gail. Then she spoke. That clinched it.

I’ve always found Lily Chin intimidating. When I’ve seen her on TV (Knitty Gritty, Knit & Crochet Today, etc.), I just stare in fascination. She speaks and works so quickly and with such confidence. I’m always amazed at her total mastery of all things knitting and crochet-related, and know that I would just be a total butterfingers if I ever had to knit in her presence. I’m sure she’s a very nice person, but there’s just something about her that scares me a little.

Not only does she know yarn and have mad knitting and crochet skillz, she also knows a good piece of fish when she tastes one. She was commenting on Carla’s Smoked Blue Fish with Lettuce Wrap, Pickled Watermelon Rind, Shallots Radish, and Bagel Croutons – the winning dish of the challenge.

Brickworks

2011-01-09T17:24:00.001-06:00

It’s a nice, cloudy, damp chilly day here in Austin – perfect knitting weather. I put on Jeff’s Irish Moss sweater (one of the earliest FOs featured on this blog), and headed down to my men’s knitting group to get some knitting done. I hadn’t really touched the needles since finishing up the Pile-able Pups earlier in the week, so it was good to get back to the Bricker socks. I’ve finished four repeats of the cuff pattern on the second sock. I start the heel after six repeats. I ‘m doing this second sock totally by magic loop, unlike the first sock, the first half of which I did on DPNs. Not this time. I just hate not being able to try socks on myself when I use DPNs.

In other news, our men’s knitting group is going to participate in an art installation put together by Magda Sayeg. She’s known around these parts for covering things in knitted fabric (see example, right), and this time around her aim is to cover the trunks of the 99 trees in the courtyard of the Blanton Museum of Art in early March. Doug went to the organizational kick-off meeting and snagged tree number 65 for Guys in Austin with Yarn.

We’ll be making a trunk cozy out of four colors of Red Heart yarn, including a garish pink, the colorway of which one of my fellow knitters suggested should be dubbed “amoxicillin”. I suspect that may be it about halfway down the third pillar back in the photo above. The colors and fibers (acrylic for maximum outdoor durability) have been chosen for us, but we get to decide how thick we want the horizontal stripes to be. It’ll be kind of fun to be part of a local fiber-y art installation. I’ll post info and pictures as things develop.

Snips and Snails

2011-01-05T17:45:00.001-06:00

I finished the Pile-able Pups! I’m off work this week, so I had time to knit pretty steadily over the past few days. There are a lot of weird roadblocks with these – remembering how to do all those little things that you only do every once in a while – sewing on toy limbs, embroidering, seaming horizontal onto vertical fabric, etc. But, boy, oh boy was it fun. I kept giggling to myself as I finished them up. Luckily, I finished while there was just enough afternoon winter daylight left to get a few pictures. My unpile-able pups were running around outside, and I hoped they might be interested enough that I could get them in a picture, but a squirrel put in an appearance and they had other priorities.

Some things I might have done differently: I don’t see why you couldn’t keep the stitches live across the opening and Kitchener stitch it closed after stuffing it. I don’t really mind sewing a cast-on edge to a bound-off edge, but it does put that little ridge under the fabric. Maybe it helps with stability? Also, I wish my picked-up edges were neater and tidier. That might have to do with the extra tight tension I used so that the stuffing wouldn’t show through. Perhaps if I’d not tensed up so much around the edge stitches they wouldn’t appear slightly puckered like they do.

My Pile-able Pups are pretty roly-poly and not as box-like as I expected. I was a bit dismayed that they didn’t seem pile-able at all right after sewing up the bodies. In fact, they were about as pile-able as three Russet potatoes. Others’ I’ve seen on Ravelry seem much more like bricks. I suppose that’s where the legs come in. If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be any piling with these three fat puppies – or “less active” as it says on the dog food bags – as if dogs would have their feelings hurt by advertising copy.

I hope little H.J., due in a few months, enjoys playing with these little guys as much as I enjoyed making them.

And I hope he likes green.

Puppy Pile

2011-01-03T17:01:00.001-06:00

I’ve started working on some Pile-able Pups for a baby shower next weekend. I’ve always thought these were cute. Janelle knitted a pile-o-pups recently, and I thought this would be a cute toy to knit for a new little boy who’s due to arrive in a few months.

The pattern calls for size 5 needles, but I had size 6 DPNs, so I’m just knitting very tightly. Janelle is right – knitting all those little parts is tedious, but it’s good TV knitting. Here, my very un-pile-able pup, Kate (she likes her space), models a paw. Pona is much more pile-able, but only with people. For the last few evenings, he has spent most of his time curled up on Jeff’s lap. But get out a camera, and he takes off.

The past few evenings, Jeff and I have been watching episodes of Speed Racer on DVD. Because we’re little boys from the 1970s. They are a hoot. In the episode Challenge of the Masked Racer Part 1, Mom Racer knits!

Chim Chim decides to play a prank on Spritle by putting Mom’s ball of yarn on Spritle’s snack plate to see if he’ll put it in his mouth. He does, mom yanks vigorously on the yarn (as one does), and Spritle goes flying. Chim Chim, of course, is quite amused.

Later, Mom sends the boys off to bed as she finished up a few more rows…

Go, Mom Racer, Go!

Red

2010-12-30T16:03:00.001-06:00

A world about to dawn!

I put away the Oliver socks. They’ll just have to wait for some other day. Instead, I started on another pair of socks using a pattern I bought at the Sock Summit last year and yarn I purchased a little over a year ago in Tulsa.

First the yarn. It’s Cascade Heritage, which I’ve used before and has some of the best stitch definition of any sock yarn I’ve ever knit with – right up there with Malabrigo sock yarn. The colorway -- near as I can tell, since I’ve misplaced the ball band sometime between this morning and now – is the very utilitarian and easily recognizable “red.” Not crimson, scarlet, candy apple, fire engine, chianti, vermillion, nor even a color of nail polish my mother used to use, I’m Not Really a Waitress. Nope, just red.

It’s well on its way to becoming a pair of socks using an Anne Hanson pattern, Bricker. As I mentioned, I purchased this at the Sock Summit from a booth (can’t remember which one, although I’m leaning toward the Briar Rose booth – can you remember Janelle?). I’d been waiting for the right yarn to make this with, trying to keep to my mantra of busy pattern / plain yarn. I’d forgotten I’d picked this yarn up in Tulsa. I stumbled across it when I started a rather faint-hearted attempt at getting some of the yarn stacked up next to my chair tidied up and out of basenji reach. As soon as I found the yarn, I abandoned the tidying project, wound this ball up, and got knitting.

I'm having fun with this, using DPNs, which I haven’t done for a while with socks (I’m a big fan of magic loop), and just enjoying following the pattern. It reminds me a lot of the Moya Cowl I made for my sister, which in turn is based on a scarf. The pattern looks different and more brick-like when stretched out. Hopefully, you’ll get to see them soon. I’m itching to get back to them right now.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for 2010 to be over and looking forward to 2011. If I don’t post again in the next few days, here’s hoping that all of us have a happy new year!

Some Decorum Restore, I Implore

2010-12-28T17:02:00.001-06:00

Repeat after me: I love my dogs, I love my dogs, I love my dogs…

We got back from our trip yesterday, and the dogs’ sitter informed us that Pona had gotten a bit “chewsy” about some of my knitting. Seems he got a hold of the first of the the pair of Oliver socks that I’d started some time back. It’s what I was working on in locations and situations where working on The Blanket was impractical.

You may recall that I attempted this pattern once before, only to find that I’d gotten shortchanged on the amount of yarn in a hank that I’d purchased for this project. Now, it seems that this pair with this yarn is doomed, too. I might be able to pick up and finish the end with the yarn I have remaining, but I’ll have to think about it. I would spend much of the second sock worrying whether I had enough yarn left. I may just start a different pair and put this pattern to sleep for now.

The crime fits the personalities, though. Kate is usually only interested in balls and skeins of yarn – they look like dog toys. Pona has a darker bent and seems to only be interested in mauling FOs. My fault entirely for not properly putting this away before I left, but still….Grrrrrr!

Boxing Day

2010-12-26T20:08:00.001-06:00

We’re halfway home. We left Steamboat Springs early this morning (-3 degrees Fahrenheit!) and drove to Amarillo today. I’m really going to miss being in the mountains. The views were so stunning. Well bundled in handknit goodness that I so rarely get to enjoy in Texas, I wasn’t ever truly cold. It was so nice to wear handmade socks, sweaters, hats and gloves every single day for a week. And, I found that 10 degrees in the still mountain air is way more comfortable than 45 degrees in a Panhandle gas station parking lot with a 25mph wind! Should be home late tomorrow afternoon.

Here’s a picture of both socks finally on Gracie’s feet. I spent a good chunk of Christmas Eve making the second one. She decided she’s going to wear them on her first day back to school next week. I gave them to her on Christmas Eve, and I don’t know if it was a newfound appreciation of handknits or just the idea of someone getting something someone they didn’t, but my nephew Michael asked for a pair of “green socks with white stripes.” The color he pointed to when I tried to narrow things down was a Kelly green. Yikes. And my niece Kathleen asked for a long scarf, like they wear in the Harry Potter movies. She also wanted green. When I asked her if there was any significance to that color, she just got a mischievous glimmer in her eye. Watch out for that one. So I have a few orders that I’ll have to fill.

Everyone liked their cowls and gaiters and modeled them proudly. I’ve only now realized that due to the scattered nature of our locations on Christmas day (some of us skied, some of us didn’t), I never got a picture of everyone wearing them. But all seemed pleased. Speaking of pleased, I heard from Jeff’s mom that his cousin was very happy with baby blanket they got in the mail last week.

I’ll call 2010 a good year, well knit.

Gracie’s Blues

2010-12-23T18:58:00.001-06:00

Just a quick post to show progress on a pair of blue socks that I’m making for our niece Gracie. I’d made one for her at Thanksgiving, but it was too small. This one is fitting her much better.

When I tried this on her last night, I asked her if it was long enough. I, of course, was just thinking of the length of the cuff. She very politely agreed that it was long enough, but then added that “it would be nice if it went all the way down to my toes.”

The cuteness!

Skiing had been fun. I decided to hold off on the gifts until Christmas day – the gaiters and cowls I made for them really wouldn’t be doing much good at cutting the wind like the store-bought ones they’ve been using. Gracie has been very curious about all the colors in my hat – I think she’ll be surprised.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I’m very happy to be spending time with and being surrounded by the people I love. It’s the best any of us can hope for.

Look, I Made a Hat

2010-12-17T14:21:00.001-06:00

Where there never was a hat!

Jeff and I watched an old PBS version of Sunday in the Park with George as I was, well, finishing the hat. Watch it if the first few words of this post don’t make any sense.

I made a chunkier version of Jared Flood’s Turn A Square Hat for myself out of the leftover bits of Berroco Vintage Chunky that was used for all the cowls, gaiters and neck warmers that I’ve been knitting over the past few weeks. A little something for me to enjoy. I’ve only taken it off to sleep and get a haircut since it came off the needles. I’m going to get a kick out of seeing whether anyone catches on that all of the colors in their various garments are in this hat. It just worked out that there was room for 7 two-round stripes on the basic background color.

I modified the pattern to a chunky yarn. I figured out the gauge and then came up with a number, divisible by four, that would get about the same circumference – 64 in this case, as opposed to the 96 in the original pattern. I also didn’t mess with changing needle sizes between the ribbing and the main body, nor did I do any increasing. I wanted this to be snug. Other hats I’ve made for myself have been to big – I think I overcompensated for what I perceive to be a larger-than-average melon – so I wanted to keep things on the small side. At the point where there were to be 26 stitches between the four decrease points, I had 16. Everything else pretty much followed the pattern.

I love it. Some commenters over at Flickr asked if I was going to knit something for Jeff from some of this yarn, but he took a pass. He generally thinks that handknit things are too scratchy for wearing next to the skin – and believe me, hats are touching a lot more skin than they used to for both of us. So this one is mine, all mine. I’ve started calling it The Precious.

Think about it. It has all the colors of the cowls and gaiters I’ve knit over the past few weeks, so it must have some sort of power over them, like Tolkien’s The One Ring:

Two cowls for the in-laws through sis and bro
Two for the siblings, younger of three
Four for niece/nephews on slopes of snow
A hat for the knitter – that would be me
In the land of mountains, where the skiers go
One hat to rule them all, one hat to bind them
One hat made from them all -- for him who entwined them

Closing Act

2010-12-16T15:20:00.001-06:00

With the casting of and sewing up of this last piece, Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest 2010 officially comes to a close.

The final garment is for my sister-in-law, Suzanne. It’s very different from the others, in that the stitches run horizontally rather than vertically. In essence, it is a short scarf with the ends sewn together. The unevenly spaced cables combine with this ocean-y color to create a nice wave effect, I think. The part near the seam is a little wider than the other part, but I don’t think it will be noticeable when worn. This garment is more loosely structured than the others – it was made on 10.75 (7mm) needles, and being sideways, gravity has more of an effect.

Because of the slow start, I was worried that I might not get all these done, but I finished last night with a few days before we head up to Colorado. I still haven’t decided whether to give these to everyone when we arrive, or wait for Christmas. They might be nice for the cold weather, but truth but told, they’re not very wind resistant and not exactly practical for keeping necks warm while swooshing down slopes. I’ll keep thinking about it.

Now I need to get cracking on those blue socks that I promised Gracie at Thanksgiving, and I have an idea of what to do with the leftover yarn from all these projects…

Koolhaas Kowl

2010-12-15T15:50:00.001-06:00

Again, I’d queued up a pattern in Ravelry that just didn’t float my boat, so I improvised a little.

Even though I didn’t do I good job with the fit, I’ve enjoyed the Koolhaas Hat designed by Jared Flood that I made for myself a few years ago. I’d worn it the other day, and it got me to thinking that I could use that same stitch pattern for a cowl for our youngest niece. I dragged out the 2007 Holiday issue of Interweave Knits and got going.

I like the results. It pulls in quite a bit, but then our niece is 6 years old, so she doesn’t have much neckage. I made a mistake at one point that required slipping all the stitches off the needles and unraveling back a few rows – I just couldn’t figure it out otherwise. This really is a fun pattern to knit, and if you can manage the two-stitch cable twists without using a cable needle, which isn’t all that difficult, it goes that much faster.

My major modifications from the hat pattern:

I only cast on 64 stitches
I only did four rounds of 2x2 ribbing before beginning the pattern since I’m using a chunky yarn
I didn’t do any of the decreasing

One more to go! This next one promises to be quite different…

Honeycomb Cable Cowl

2010-12-14T13:09:00.001-06:00

Come to the Honeycomb Hideout! Cowl number 6 is off the needles.

This one involved improvisation on a couple of levels. I’d originally queued up a much simpler cabled cowl in Ravelry, but right after casting on I realized it was going to be boring to knit and look at. So, I grabbed a stitch dictionary I have. It ain’t no Barbara Walker treasury, but it does have some interesting things in it. I’d always admired honeycomb cables, so I thought I’d give them a try.

The book’s pattern has the honeycomb cable in a motif covering 22 stitches – the cables themselves are over 16 stitches, and the rest cover the field of purls from which the pattern pops, plus a little staggered garter line that runs up the middle. I cast on 66 stitches to make three repeats.

Originally, I’d planned this for my sister-in-law Suzanne, but it ended up being a bit small, forgetting that cables tend to draw fabric inward, so this one is going to my niece Kathleen. I think it will look quite sharp on her. A pessimist would say that the holes created behind the honeycomb pattern will let in the chilly mountain air. An optimist would say that these will allow one’s neck to breath.

Two more to go. Here’s to optimism!

Moya Cowl

2010-12-13T10:04:00.001-06:00

I keep getting faster and faster with this cowl and gaiter knitting project. I’m worried that I’ll start feeling the effects of time dilation and look up to find that everyone around me is 90 years old.

This pattern is Agness Kaku’s Moya Cowl. It starts with a picot edging made with yarn-overs. I ended up knitting or purling (more purling!) the cast on edge folded behind the work together with the stitches in the fourth round of the pattern. It was kind of fiddly. I couldn’t manage getting the yarn back through the cast-on stitches with my needles. I had to resort to using a crochet hook which really slowed things down. And I always manage to twist the stitches when doing this sort of thing. Still, I’m glad I did it. I remembered how much I disliked sewing to get the same effect around the hem of the Samantha Dress I made last year [Flickr] [Ravelry].

The pattern is basically Kristen Kapur’s Puzzle Scarf knit in the round. It looks like there is shaping at the top, but that’s just the pull and drag of the different knit and purl bands. It makes four evenly spaced crenellations around the edge in which to place one’s chin, ears and pony tail (should one possess such an appendage). I think Susan will like it.

Now that I think of it, I will probably be aging at the same rate as everyone else today. Lots of errands to run – including finally getting that baby blanket in the mail! But I imagine I’ll get some knitting done, too. Five days until we leave and only three projects left. This really is do-able!

Snow Day Gaiter

2010-12-12T12:11:00.001-06:00

The boys’ gaiters are finished with this fourth one, a Snow Day Gaiter for our nephew Michael. A simple yet elegant design: six rows of garter stitch on either end, filled with rows of garter stitch ribbing – alternating knit rows with rows of K2P2.

The original pattern called for casting on 72 stitches, but since I’m making this for an 8-year-old neck, I thought I’d reduce it a bit to 52. The last gaiter I made was on 58 stitches, which, with the yarn I’m using, was stretching the limits of what could be knit comfortably in the round on my shortest cable from my Addi Clicks set. So I switched to the largest cable and did this using a magic loop.

For getting such a slow start, things are really moving along! And now, to tackle the cowls for the women and girls. It might seem odd that I did all the gaiters for my male relatives first. It’s just that I’m going through the order in which I queued these up in Ravelry. I looked for the men’s pattern first, thinking they might be a bit harder to find.

Wonky

2010-12-11T13:55:00.001-06:00

Gaiter/Cowl #3 was on and off the needles in about 19 hours. I cast on yesterday evening after work and started the bind-off at the morning’s knitting get-together, finishing at home. This one is for our eldest nephew, Christopher.

The pattern is Wonky from the Summer 2009 Knitty. I modified it a little bit. The pattern calls for three 8-round repeats plus 7 rounds. I did five repeats instead, to make this one similar in length to the gaiters I knit for my brother and brother-in-law. I did reduce the circumference a bit by reducing the number of stitches in the stockinette section (i.e., the wonky part) from 12 to 8, for a total of 58 stitches cast on. And rather than doing a regular bind off, I did Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off after consulting with some fellow knitters.

I think Christopher will like it.

While enjoying coffee outdoors today, we knitters were visited by an 11-week-old English Bulldog named Buster. The cuteness was off the charts. He had a little bell around his neck that was perfect for the season. Such huge paws. Such sharp puppy teeth. No problems socializing him with people, that’s for sure. His owners were very kind to let us ooh and ahh over him so much.

And now it’s on to Gaiter/Cowl #4 for our nephew, Michael James.

Fisherman's Rib Gaiter

2010-12-10T08:56:00.010-06:00

Attendance at the Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest is light so far. This week has been filled with events every single evening running until 10:00pm. I've had time to run home for a quick bite after work before having to head back out for chorus rehearsals and our nephew's winter concert. It's been hectic, and I've only been able to grab a little time here and there to do a few rounds.

Not a good pace, I admit, but today is the last day of classes and the needles of progress will click on. I was able to bind off this gaiter after breakfast and before work. It's a simple 1x1 fisherman's rib over 64 stitches. I had seen a pattern for something similar in Ravelry, but it involved a totally reversible Fisherman's rib -- meaning that one alternated rows of knitting into the stitch below with rows of purling into the stitch below. A little fiddly, yet doable -- however, it seemed to be eating up too much yarn so I ripped back and did a one-sided version. It's not quite as long as the first one, but it looks kind of cool. Sort of a turtleneck without the rest of the sweater.

Six more to go!

Cowlapalooza and Gaiterfest 2010

2010-12-05T12:30:00.003-06:00

Over Thanksgiving, Jeff and I were invited to go skiing in Colorado with my brother’s family. My sister and her family will be there too. And, while I generally try to avoid the hassle and bustle of that phenomenon known as Christmas knitting, I decided that I needed to come up with something warm and cozy for all of the family to wear. So I needed to come up with a plan for handy garments that I could knit fast.

My first instinct was scarves – great for stash-busting and quick to knit. I even got started on one. But since I need 8 garments, I slowly realized that I may not be able to get everything done before we head up. After talking with some of my fellow knitters yesterday, I settled on making cowls and neck gaiters. They knit up quick, there are tons of free patterns available, and you can make them from one skein on large needles. Thanks, Snowden, for suggesting this!

So I headed over the Hill Country Weavers where I had a credit from a return I’d made a few weeks ago. I dithered around for an hour or so, grabbing skeins here and there, before I was pointed toward a pile of Berroco Vintage Chunky. Great for size ten needles with good yardage, nice heathered jewel tones, and totally washable.

The next step was figuring out what to knit. There are TONS of free patterns in Ravelry. I just grabbed some that looked like they would fit the eight people I’m knitting for – two adult women, two adult men, two boys and two girls. I’m going to have to do some adjusting for the some of the kids’ cowls to make them fit, but because most of the patterns are fairly simple, it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust them.

First up, is the Cowl’d and Frosty Morning, which I’m knitting for my brother-in-law. The pattern is basically four rounds of seed stitch, followed by 11 rounds of stockinette. Repeat that two more times, and then add four final rounds of seed stitch. I used Jenny’s Surprising Stretchy Bind Off from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitty, and all was done. I cast on last night and finished this morning. I think my plan is going to work.

One down, seven to go. Admittedly I started with the most simple one. My knitting time is going to be limited next week as I have something going almost every evening, most of them associated with the chorus’ winter concert. But I think this is do-able.

Wish me luck.

Tamarix Terminatio

2010-12-03T17:01:00.001-06:00

It’s done! It only took me a little over three months, but I’ve put the finishing touches on the Tamarix Quilt. There was nothing so satisfying as going over to Ravelry and putting this project to rest status-wise.

We got a call from Jeff’s dad earlier in the week. His little first cousin once removed did indeed arrive on Monday. So she’s four days old today. I haven’t seen any pictures yet, nor, sadly, do I know the little one’s name! However, I have it on good authority that she’s gorgeous – as I knew she would be.

I was able to get the applied I-cord edging done during the evenings this week. I tweaked the pattern a little bit with this feature. The pattern called for a five-stitch I-cord, but after reading someone else’s comment in Ravelry, I decided to scale this back to a 3-stitch I-cord. I didn’t want the blue-ness to be too overwhelming and wanted a trimmer, less floppy edge. Also, rather than using the method suggested in the pattern, I used the method outlined by Elizabeth Zimmerman in The Opinionated Knitter and which I used when making the garter stitch throw for my in-law’s last year. Here’s the video if you want to refresh your memory. The main difference is that EZ calls for a yarnover which seems to do a good job of hiding the underlying color (green in the photo above) from peeking through.

I’m so happy to have this finished. And although it was frustrating at times, and I lost my mojo halfway through, I’m pleased with the results. I have enough yarn to crank out something else – while I’m on a garter stitch kick, I should try a Baby Surprise Jacket…

But alas, I have other knitting to do. It turns out I’m going to be spending my Christmas holiday somewhere much colder than here with Jeff and eight other relatives. Relatives who will need to keep themselves warm in the cold and snow. More on that next time.

Delivery Imminent

2010-11-27T16:31:00.001-06:00

I got some news recently that reminded me of the episode of Keeping Up Appearances in which Hyacinth is expecting the arrival of her new three-piece suite which is an exact replica of one at Sandringham House and is to be delivered by a van displaying the royal warrant. In order to make sure that her neighbors (especially that nosy pseudo-hyphenated Mrs. Barker-Finch at number 23) know all about it, she directs poor Richard to set up traffic cones in front of their house, along with a sign reading, NO PARKING. DELIVERY IMMINENT.

No parking, indeed. Because it turns out the baby for whom I’m knitting this blanket, originally thought to be arriving sometime in mid-December, will now make her appearance on Monday, November 29. Two days from now. As in day after tomorrow. Imminently.

Well, the blanket will be getting there some time after that – a not-quite- so-imminent delivery on my part. I finished square number 100 just a few minutes ago, but I still have to re-weave a few of the early ends I wove in before I tried a new method that I’m happier with, and I still have to attached the applied I-cord edging. But the end is very much near.

And, I got a rare request for a handknit item this holiday weekend. My youngest niece requested a pair of blue socks – so that her feet wouldn’t be cold. Gracie hates being cold. I’m happy to oblige! One evening while she was here, I whipped up a prototype. All I had was a dirty machine-knit sock snatched from her dirty clothes pile to work from for a size reference, and I’m afraid it turned out a bit small. But the cool thing was, I totally knit it while watching TV for a few hours, and didn’t consult a pattern once! While it didn’t fit, she adored the color, so it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something she likes.

A-Minus

2010-11-21T17:45:00.001-06:00

I’ve finished 9 of the 10 rows – 90%! It’s actually starting to feel like this project will be finished.

Plugging along. I got to work on this during the week more than I thought I would – plus at various knitting groups meetings. One of which was at my house. So fun to have everyone here. All I had to do was make some coffee. We talked about all our crazy families, Thanksgiving plans, and the bizarre phenomenon of TV shows about people who don’t know they’re pregnant. It was the general consensus among us all, although only a couple of us have ever carried children, that one should know these things.

After everyone left, I caught Miss Mess relaxing quite comfortably – on the blanket! Luckily, she wasn’t interested in pawing at it, chewing on it, or otherwise molesting it. She was more intent on the squirrels that were taunting her outside the window. But it was a bit of a wake up call. It’s so easy to get complacent about such things, and although Kate is by no means an evil dog, it is in her nature to be inquisitive around un-anchored soft things.

As I’ve mentioned before, I sometimes have to knit the squares into a corner. Because I couldn’t quite figure it out, I’ve been knitting them separately and then sewing them in. The seams look a bit different, but they’re acceptable to me. But today, the inevitable happened. I sewed one of the squares in with the wrong side showing. It took nearly an hour to pick out the woven in ends and re-do it. But it’s undetectable at this point.

I’m hoping that I can get the final row (and dare I hope the I-cord edging?) done during this long holiday weekend.

Seven Tenths

2010-11-13T17:42:00.002-06:00

For reasons that are murky to me – but probably have something to do with guilt – I picked up the Tamarix Quilt again this week. And, I was able to add a whole row. This row had four squares that had to be sewn in by hand, due to my inability to knit squares into the corners, so I might have even been able to crank out more. I’m hoping to get some more work in on it tomorrow

In other knitting news, I’ve had a hankering to make myself a button-up cardigan. My office gets cold. It’s on a northeast-facing external wall. I’ve been using an old cotton hoodie for those times when it gets a bit chilly, but that needs to change. I need something a bit more librarian-y and Mister Rogers-ish. The pattern I’ve picked out is Kerouac by Jenn Jarvis. I’m not going to make mine striped, though. Gray is the color being considered. I wanted to knit something on small needles, and this fits the bill. I did get some yarn last week for my birthday, but it didn’t quite work out. It was a bit thinner than sport-weight, so by the time I got gauge, the fabric was too loose. I’m thinking of doing some shopping over at Knitpicks. If anyone has a favorite sport-weight yarn that would work for this, speak up!

On Friday, I attended a meeting of local academic librarians. One top of getting great ideas, I was pleased to see that two other librarians brought their needlework with them. One was using Tunisian Crochet to make a scarf. I totally want to use this technique – I think it would be great for place mats. Staci used this technique a while back to make a most awesome baby blanket, and has recently put yet another one of her helpful instructional videos on Tunisian Crochet. Everyone should know how to do this. It’s so easy, and the results are so cool.

Medical History: Diagnosing with Yarn

2010-11-02T11:23:00.005-05:00

Today, I depart from the usual tediously detailed ramblings on knitting to bring you a little story about how colored yarn was used in early research into color blindness. Interesting, no?

I'm currently reading Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, by Guy Deutscher. It's quite good so far. In the early part of the book, there is a section about how the vocabulary of color arose (or didn't) in various languages and what that might have to say about cultural development. As it happens, at the same time that linguists were talking about color vocabulary, the concept of color-blindness was recognized.

And an early tool in the diagnosing of color blindness was something called the Holmgren Test for Color Blindness. Devised by Swedish professor Alarik Holmgren after a horrible color-blindness-related train crash, this test was used to determine color blindness in employees of occupations related to public transportation and shipping and other trades where being able to discern color accurately was of great importance. This tool was also used in cultural anthropology research to test the detail of color vocabulary amongst various groups -- for instance, noting whether a language discriminated between blue and black, for instance.

In the color-blindness application, those being tested were asked to choose from among the available scraps of yarn for the 10 pieces that best matched, say, a light green. Clicking on the image above will take you to the web site for the the UK's Science Museum's website on the history of medicine. From there, clicking on the image takes you to a very large version where you can read the tester's instructions inside the lid of the box. I think it's cool that some of these original 19th-century kits have been preserved -- and that the pieces of wool inside are still so vibrant -- assuming those are still the originals.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Boo!

2010-10-31T18:04:00.001-05:00

In both senses of the word. Boo! – it’s Halloween! And also, Boo! -- I haven’t posted to my blog in for-freakin’-ever.

This morning, Jeff and I celebrated Halloween by baking oatmeal in pumpkins. Such a cool idea. We used this recipe from Baking With My Kid. I think I saw this originally on Boing Boing. It was fairly easy to make. I love carving pumpkins, but hate dealing with all the mess. This is a great way to get your carve on, and then eat the results! The only thing I wish we’d done differently was perhaps to bake it just a bit longer. I would recommend getting smaller pumpkins. Our oatmeal mixture didn’t nearly fill the pumpkins as much as I thought they should. And we should have halved the recipe. One pumpkin is plenty for two. But we baked two, and now I have a couple of breakfasts all set for next week. I can definitely recommend giving this a try, especially if you’re an oatmeal freak like me.

The Tamarix Quilt is resting peacefully right now. I haven’t touched it in three weeks. Things got a bit intense, and we both decided we need our space. I’ll get back to it soon. In the meantime, I picked up my Oliver Socks and got back to them. This weekend I finished the heel flap, turned the heel and am almost up to the toe decreases. I really like the cool traveling decrease pattern that comes to a point at the base of the toes. I’ll do a modeling shot later. It’s been a while since I’ve worked on socks, and they’re just the thing to get me back to knitting. I got a lot done this weekend at both of my knitting groups – I think I may be back on track. I’ll try to get back on track with blogging, too.

In the Hood

2010-10-09T17:09:00.003-05:00

Today, I rode my bike to my knitting group in this glorious weather we’ve been having. Riding was a little dicey. A rather large music festival is taking place about a mile from my house, and cars and pedestrians are everywhere, despite the “No Event Parking in Neighborhood” signs posted at the end of every block.

While chatting along with my Saturday morning knitters, I accidentally attached a side that I wasn’t supposed to. I forgot that that the first square on a new row should only attach along half of the cast on. I was just so used to attaching on a side that I did it without thinking. This basically attached my new square to the row below along two edges, forming a cup. Someone suggested that this reminded them of those little hooded baby bath towels. Well, that’s all it took for things to devolve into silliness. Snowden texted me this picture from her camera, for which I’m grateful. I know there are others out there.

I’ll post updates if they appear. UPDATE: This one has reared it’s be-blanketed head – thanks Steph!

Not much happened knit-wise this week. Essentially, I’ve done half a square on the blanket since I checked in last week. The next week or so will be very busy with the meeting I’m helping to host, but I’ll try to squeeze in some knitting when I can. My fellow knitters have threatened to come knit at the hotel where my meeting is being held, just to rattle my nerves. I bet they’ll do it. On the upside, they might get to meet some of the other knitters I know, and that could only be a good thing.

I’m thinking of giving the blanket a bit of a rest and getting cracking on some socks. I restarted the Oliver socks over a month ago, getting the first one down to the heel. But they’ve been languishing while I work on the blanket. Maybe if I blog about them and get a project on them started in Ravelry, I might get them done.

As the Days Dwindle Down

2010-10-03T14:45:00.001-05:00

I used to post on days other than weekends. Really, I did. But not lately. I suppose it’s when I have the time. And, as the days dwindle down (as the song says), it’s easier to take pictures on weekends than in the evenings during the week.

Yesterday, knitting friends and I spent a glorious morning knitting outdoors. It’s only just now gotten to where it’s consistently comfortable to do so of a morning. Yummy scones (ginger!), good coffee, and lots of laughs. Snowden had some of Brooklyn Tweed’s new Shelter in the colorway Tent. I, of course, loved the color. Um, it’s kind of green. It looks like it will knit up beautifully and wear well. It does seem a tad on the scratchy side, so probably not appropriate for next-to-the-skin stuff (like Snowden’s awesomely beautiful Cecily Camisole, which was modeled for us). It is kind of cool that one of the nine physical retail stores chosen to sell this yarn is right here in Austin.

The grass has finally slowed down enough that I think I can get away without mowing and doing other yard work this weekend, so I spent much of the morning and early afternoon outdoors working on the Tamarix Quilt and catching up on podcasts. I’ve finished 60 squares and with the center motif finished (center left in photo), I feel like I’ve hit a milestone. I’m going to try and get as much as I can done in the next week or so before a big professional meeting that’s being hosted here in Austin. Although I’ll be busy, one of the great things about this meeting is that there are usually several knitters in attendance. I’m looking forward to seeing them!

Hold My Hand and We’re Halfway There

2010-09-26T18:13:00.002-05:00

I just finished my 50th square on the Tamarix Quilt, and so now I’m halfway done. Or nearly so – I keep leaving out the applied I-cord edging in my percentage calculations. So let’s leave that out of the equation for now. Counting it just throws everything off and makes the whole how-far-do-I-have-to-go issue messy.

Work on this is uneven. It was a busy week, so Monday through Friday I made one and a half squares, and this weekend I made eight. It’s been like that. As I go along, the temptation to put this aside and start something new and shiny grows, but so far I’ve managed to remain monogamous.

50 bottles of beer on the wall, 50 bottles of beer…

Real Quilters of Austin

2010-09-19T17:59:00.001-05:00

I’ve been working on this Tamarix Quilt fairly diligently, but progress is slow. I’ve finished the fourth row, and started square 41. I had to rip out the smaller brown portion upon realizing it was supposed to be green. Almost always, yellow and brown are paired in the squares of this quilt, and I got lazy. But I’m back on track.

Yesterday, I got to see some real quilting. I, along with Jeff, my sister, my niece and my Aunt June, attended the 2010 Austin Area Quilt Guild Show and Sale, “Changing Gears.” I thought while I was sitting by the phone waiting to hear whether I’d won a beautiful quilt in the show’s raffle, I’d go ahead and do a quick blog post. Get on the phone, people – fall’s a-comin’!

The show is held biannually and Aunt June tries to come up for it each time. We had a good time wandering around all the wonderful works. There was some true talent on display. There was one quilt made of 1440 blocks, each of which was composed of nine tiny squares! I’ll think of that the next time grumbling about 100 squares. There were so many beautiful colors and styles, and I really enjoyed reading the stories behind the quilts. I ran into friends and neighbors, including a colleague at work who, unbeknownst to me, has her own quilting business set up with her sisters. All in all it was a great show. Aunt June got a glint in her eye and asked me when I was going to start quilting. I don’t know that I will. But I did tell her that it looked interesting and that it looked like it would be fun to do, which were almost my exact words over five years ago when I saw my friend Janelle knitting…

I took one picture of a quilt. I just loved it. Among all the log cabins and double wedding rings, cathedral windows and pinwheels, there was this charming little piece called “Friends.” The creator wrote that she thought that all the possible quilting motifs had already been explored, and she wanted to go in a whole different direction. Boy, did she! She also wrote that this quilt was “simultaneously repulsive and cute, gross and comforting.” It was fun watching people see it and trying to figure out what it was. I thought it was innovative, humorous, and well done. I didn’t get the border in the picture but the quilting stitch pattern mirrored the fabric pattern used for the border. I just love this thing. But don’t expect an intarsia version anytime soon.