Another Surprise

Check out what came in the mail today!!  Yep, a drop spindle and a pound of roving from HelloYarn.  I went with the undyed wool because I figured I wasn't going to get anything useable out of this batch anyway, so it wouldn't matter what color it is.  If it turns out that I do get some yarn that I want to use, well, I have always wanted to try Kool-Aid dying!

Below is what I managed to spin up on my first go.  You may notice that it is not undyed like the rest of the wool.  This little bit was some pre-drafted yarn that HelloYarn included in the package to practice spinning with to get the feel of what the roving should be like when spinning it up.  I'm not sure it worked.  As soon as I added some fiber that I drafted myself the yarn went from being somewhat worsted to a bulky weight and, well, it's not pretty.

Isn't it beautiful?!  (Read: ugly).  Surprise - spinning yarn is harder than it looks.

Baby Surprise

Do you guys remember this?

No?  I'm not surprised.  I started it way back in the beginning of February.  Now, it may not be the famous Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern, but it is for a baby and I am extremely surprised that I ever got around to finishing it.  Thus, I feel somewhat justified in referring to it as a baby surprise jacket of sorts.  Check it out!

I'm going to be shipping it off to my nephew on Monday.  I sure hope it fits him and that it's not going to be too warm for him to wear.  Of course, Minnesota still gets cold sometimes, even in the summer.  I knit this Duffle Coat from Debbie Bliss' Essential Baby (size 9-12 month) using seven balls of Knitpicks Swish DK in Mist.  I used size 6 Knitpicks Harmony Options needles.  Although I started this little project on February 1, I didn't finish it until May 1, even though before February was even over all I had to do was knit up the sleeves.  I ended up doing all of the seaming before doing the sleeves and then picking up stitches around the arm holes and knitting the sleeves top down in the round.  I finished the first one before my spring break, which started sometime in March, but the second one I didn't start until the end of April.  After finishing the second one, I then went back and ripped out a few inches of the first to make it longer, as my nephew apparently has long arms and the sleeve looked short to me.  I'll post pictures of him wearing as soon as I get some!

I also ripped out that lavender market bag that I was working on.  I was never going to use it.  I saved the bottom spiral to use as a washcloth, and then used what I had ripped out to make a second washcloth.

I was searching on Ravelry for things that I could make with this yarn, and came across this project and liked it, so I emailed the designer and she sent me the pattern.  It took less than two hours to make, which is exactly what I needed.  I have been wanting to do quick knits lately because the idea of starting something that is going to take months to finish is a bit daunting right now.

Speaking of things that take months to finish, here is something that you have never seen.

I started this lace stole last June while participating in the Mystery Stole 3 KAL put together by PinkLemonTwist.  Well, it is almost June again, the shawl theme is no longer a mystery, the pattern is for sale, and I am not even halfway done.  I haven't worked on it for months, but I feel bad that I haven't finished it yet as it has almost been a year and I promised my mom I would give it to her.  I have nothing else on my needles right now (except for that random project I started last night, and the Hemlock Ring Blanket that I am still halfway through binding off), so I am hoping to get a good chunk of this done.  I have joined another shawl KAL that starts this June, so I'm hoping to be done before then.  Wish me luck!

I'm In Love

With yarn.  Shocking, I know.

I just had to gush about my recent purchase that came in the mail today.  Just look at at!

(all photos taken with permission from TheyToldMeSew's flickr page)

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?  I bought it from TheyToldMeSew at her Etsy shop.  It is roughly 215 yards of handspun delicious in a heavy worsted/bulky weight.  I have never felt yarn like this, and it is wonderful.  I wouldn't classify this yarn as being soft and squooshy, but it is definitely a sturdy feeling yarn and I hesitate to say stiff, but it feels like it has a lot of substance, if that makes sense.  I am very pleased with it.  Now all I have to do is think of something to make with it.  What does one make with yarn that looks like this anyway?

Until I figure that out, it will just have to be on display.  My first piece of art!

The Dashing Impulse

I think I have learned a lot about myself as a knitter over this past week.  Here are a few things that I have come to realize:

1. Although I may have multiple projects going at once, it has been proven impossible for me to work on more than one at a time.  I tend to ignore most - if not all - of my WIPs for one reason or another (see following realizations).
2. I get bored with projects quickly.  This becomes a particular problem when it is a gift knit, such at the baby sweater I have yet to finish for my nephew (all it needs is a sleeve.  WHY CAN'T I KNIT ONE FREAKIN' SLEEVE?!).  I lost interest in my Hemlock Ring Blanket while in the middle of the bind off, and I have a lace project dating back to last June that has been sitting patiently in the bottom of a drawer, waiting for me to get back to it (which I will soon, I promise).
3. Sometimes a quick, simple knit is the best kind.  And with this third point, I present to you my first true impulse knit - Dashing.

This project marks the first time that I have ever grabbed a skein of yarn and knit up a random pattern for the sole purpose of making something quickly to soothe my restless knitting mind.  It felt great!

Started: April 16, 2008,  Finished: April 20, 2008

Yarn: Almost 1 full skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in "Willow Leaf"

Needles: Knitpicks Options, size 5 (3.75mm)

Pattern: Dashing, from Knitty, Spring 2007

Size made: Larger

I modified the pattern a tiny bit to use thumb gussets instead of, well, instead of doing what the pattern told me to do.  Cotton Fleece may not have been the best yarn choice for wrist warmers because it is, as the name implies, cotton, but I had the yarn, I had the needles, and I had the urge to knit, so I went with it.  I'm not sure how often I'm going to wear these, but I do like them and they were a wonderful way to use yarn that was sitting in my stash and to distract me from my WIPs for a few days.

I plan to try to finish most of my WIPs before starting any new, long-term projects.  I like the idea of not having anything looming over me while I knit on something that interests me.  I think this week I discovered that although knitting multiple projects at a time sounds wonderful, it may not be the most practical or realistic thing for me to do.  Hopefully armed with this new knowledge I will be able to tackle my pile of projects and start something new and wonderful very shortly.

As I said previously, I have yet to finish my Hemlock Ring Blanket, which means that my friend won the friendly competition we were having to see who could finish first.  This is her beautiful creation:

The color is actually much more wonderful in person.  It is Knitpicks WOTA in Lake Ice Heather.  I will include details of the pattern and yarn and needles and all that good stuff when I post about my blanket.

Until next time, happy knitting!

Long Time, No See

I can't believe that it has been almost a month since my last post.  It makes me sad to say that I haven't been doing very much knitting during this time, although I sure have been thinking about it a lot!  I kept waiting to post until I had more FOs to show, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon, so I thought this would be a nice little (picture-filled) update about how I have been able to occupy my time with knitting without having anything to show for it.  :)

To start out, I finally finished those Blue-Stripey Socks that I am in love with, and I am still in love with them!  I think I got a bit too excited to finish the second one and may have started the toe a few rows before I should have, so it is a bit snug, but that's no problem.  I also had no intention of trying to line up the stripes.

I took a few pictures to show the cuff and those fun loose stitches where the gusset meets the instep, aren't they cute?  Here's how it went down:

Started: February 11, 2008,  Finished: April 1, 2008

Yarn: 1 and 1/2 skeins of Knitpicks Felici sock yarn in "Atmosphere"

Needles: Knitpicks Harmony DPNs, size 0 (2.00mm)

Pattern: Basic sock construction (more detail below)

Finished Size: To fit my feet, I wear size 12 shoes

I loved knitting these socks.  I thought I would be extremely bored knitting socks in plain stockinette, but I was always excited for the next color change and I actually enjoyed that I could bring them anywhere and kind of zone out while I was knitting because there was no pattern.  For the cuff I knit 15 rows in a twisted rib (k1tbl, p1) and then I knit ten rows in plain stockinette before I started the heel flap.  I did the heel flap in a heel stitch with three stitches of garter on either side for ease of picking up stitches for the gusset later on.  All in all I think these socks are amazing.  They are super soft and comfortable and seem to come with their own heat source.  It's a bit strange, but they instantly warm my feet when I put them on.  Wonderful!  I knit most of the second one while on another tour around the Midwest.  I knit in Wisconsin and Iowa and Nebraska...  What a great way to spend 23 hours on a bus, I'll tell ya.

Down below I have what one would call a "swatch".  That's right, I made one.  After seeing BrooklynTweed's version of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Saddle-Shoulder Aran Cardigan I had to make one of my own.  Of course, the pattern was more a set of guidelines.  I liked the cables that Jared used on the back of his cardigan better than the ones in the pattern, but being new to all of this I couldn't figure out how they were made and so I went searching through my knitting books to find any cables that I liked that I could incorporate into the pattern.  I think I did pretty well.

I am so glad that I knit this swatch.  It was kind of a pain because I decided the best thing to do would be to draw out the entire chart for the swatch.  This was, of course, after figuring out my "key number" and planning out the entire layout of my sweater.  Well, I knit the swatch, washed and blocked it, and measured it.  Turns out it was 4" smaller than I had predicted!  No big deal.  After a mini panic-attack, I did the math and figured out that I was going to have to add 46 more stitches to my sweater.  I simply decided to make some of the cables larger and put more filler stitches in between them.

Who knew that planning to knit a cabled cardigan as your second sweater based on nothing more than a few sketches and a sparse set of directions would be so... (time consuming, difficult, stressful) fun?  I think I can finally actually cast on to knit this thing, which I'm really looking forward to.  I haven't really planned out the sleeves or any of that stuff yet, but at this point I think I'm just going to go with it and figure out how to make it work when I get there.  The cardigan is knit in the round and then uses a steek to open it up.  The swatch was annoying because I had to do cables on the wrong side, which just confused me.  I am not longer using a cable needle and there will be no more of that wrong-side-cable-knitting for me!  The color of the swatch is actually just leftover from when I knit BrooklynTweed's Cobblestone Pullover.  I'm knitting this cardigan in a nice dark brown color and it is going to be amazing, just you wait!  I'm done redrawing the larger cable patterns and am hopefully going to cast on sometime this week.  More updates soon!  (I hope...)

Speaking of BrooklynTweed, I am still chugging along on that Hemlock Ring Blanket.  It is taking a rest right now as one of my Knitpicks harmony tips had a bit of a malfunction and I need to wait for the replacements to arrive.  I suppose it happened at a good time, as it let me spend my time planning out this wonderful cardigan that I am most likely going to be working on through the hot summer days (what poor planning).

 

I don't think these have been seen yet.  They are some cabled socks that I knit for my brother so that I could get more experience knitting socks and doing cables.  Of course, I used a cable needle the entire time, which took a while, but I'm glad that I am free of that now.  The socks are knit out of Knitpicks Ambrosia (which is now discontinued), and it is a blend of 80% baby alpaca and 20% cashmere.  So, as you might imagine, I was a bit horrified to come home for my spring break to see them lying on the floor - pilling, covered in dirt stains, and being chewed on by my dog.  Turns out my brother had just worn them on walk along the Mississippi River.  This is what they look like now.  I have no before picture to show how wonderful they once were (although they don't look entirely bad now.  They just need to be washed and pampered.)  I guess when he said he wanted nice, soft, warm, thick socks to wear around the house he was really hoping for a pair of sturdy, thick hiking socks.  I'm using wool next time.  ;)

To finish it off, here are a few action shots of those hideous green things that I made for my sister.  The verdict?  She LOVES them!  She wore them for four days straight and kept talking about how warm and comfortable they were.  It almost makes me feel bad for instantly throwing away all of the extra yarn that I had, but not bad enough to take it back out of the trash.  I can't wait until I make her some socks out of yarn that is actually nice.

Happy Tuesday!

And Then There Were Two...

This is going to be a quick post.  I just got back at 3am from a tour of the Midwest with my University's Wind Ensemble where we performed in Iowa and Nebraska at the College Band Directors National Association North Central Division Conference (whew, that was tough to say).  So what does all that translate into?  Lot of knitting time on the bus of course!

I did the math, and I spent about 23 hours sitting on a bus driving from place to place.  I didn't utilize as much of this time knitting as I wanted to (partly because it made me feel a little sick and partly because I was usually sleeping or watching a movie), but I did use enough time to FINALLY finish these eye-sores.

The one on the right has yet to be washed or blocked, but I wanted to take a picture to prove that I did work on them and they are done. done. done.  (Note: I don't normally block the socks that I make, but the yarn for these ones was so stiff and scratchy that I needed to wash them just to soften it up a bit.)

Here are the official stats:

Started: December 3, 2007, Finished: March 13, 2008

Yarn: 1 (and a bit of a second) skein of Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in "Deco Lime"

Needles: Knitpicks Harmony DPNs, size 1 (2.25mm)

Pattern: Six-stitch Cloverleaf Eyelet Cable from Sensational Knitted Socks

Finished Size: Hopefully the perfect size to fit a seven-year-old's foot

I am never ever going to use this sock yarn again.  I absolutely hated working with it.  I know I've ranted about it before, but it's worth doing again.  The yarn is awful.  There is definitely not a shortage of choices for sock knitters, so there is no reason I should ever need to resort back to this yarn again.  In fact, I am actually (gasp) thinking about throwing away what I have left (yes, throwing away yarn.  It's that bad).  Oh, also, when I washed the first one, the color bled a bit as well.

I really do love the needles though.  I have used Clover bamboo and Brittany birch DPNs before, but they both seem very flimsy and tend to deform after using them for too long.  These needles, though flexible, feel very sturdy and I haven't yet had any problems with them staying bent or breaking.  Sweet!

That's about it for now.  I also started and am nearing completion of my second Blue Stripey Sock, but now that I am back I need to get working on the Duffle Coat again.  Deadline? Before Easter.  Can I do it?  Um, yes.  If I feel like it.

Knitting in Circles

It seems that I have developed a recent theme in my knitting lately that encompasses all things circular.  I realized this morning that every project I am currently working on is being knit in the round.

These ugly socks are on their way to completion, although I still have a few distractions preventing me from finishing them.  My goal is to be done with them in two weeks.  Very easy.

Another project, which I haven't shown here yet, is one of the market bags I am making as part of an event at my LYS (see: Oops, I Did It Again!).  I knit the bottom of the bag first, based on a circular decrease that I learned while knitting the Mod Beanie from Never Knit Your Man a Sweater*.  I then picked up stitches all the way around the edge and began knitting up using a modified lace pattern from this top.  So far I'm not too happy with the way it looks, but I'm hoping that once I get a little more done and once it's blocked things will look a lot better.  If not, well, here's one for the frog pile.

I'm knitting this bag using Rowan Handknit Cotton.  It's my first time using cotton yarn and I'm not too excited to continue doing it.  After knitting for a while, my finger gets sore from the yarn slipping over it and I don't like the way it doesn't have any stretch.  Living in the Midwest finally has its advantage with the fact that wool is almost always an acceptable fiber to knit with.  We'll have to wait to see whether or not this project makes it to the finish line.

On a much happier note, last night I began knitting the Hemlock Ring Blanket designed by Jared Flood.

I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night.  I didn't think WOTA was going to be as nice of a yarn as it is.  It is much softer than I expected and I think it's going to make a very nice, warm, light blanket.  I am definitely going to use this yarn again.  As for the pattern, it is so fun!  I couldn't stop knitting because every row is something different and it's always so exciting to see what the next one is going to look like.  I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun knitting this blanket.

I am also knitting the sleeves on the Duffle Coat using the magic loop.  I somewhat wandered from the directions so that I wouldn't have to knit the sleeves flat and then sew the seams.  This way the sleeves are knit from the top down and in the round so that I will eliminate much of the finishing that would have been needed.