Category: Knitting

Fourteen Years!

It’s a good thing that my phone calendar has a reminder feature, or I’d have missed my own “blogiversary”. It’s actually tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure if I wait until then, I’ll forget to post something.

I’ve been a very neglectful blogger in the past year. I’m hoping to change that. I’ve got all sorts of new stuff going on in my life to talk about, so hopefully I can get back into the habit of writing here.

First up is my current projects.

That is Rogue. I have just a bit of one sleeve to finish, then the hood, which is full of pretty cables, so that should go quickly. I have a little fixing to do on the front right neck. When I pulled it out of the bag to take a photo, the stitch holder carrying the right front cabled stitches had come out, letting all of those stitches go. Fortunately Peace Fleece sticks together pretty well, and I have the other side to compare, so I should be able to get it together without too much of a mess.

This is Trillian, knit in Schaefer Anne. It’s a lot less garish and much more girly than that photo would lead you to believe. This is pretty simple “TV” knitting. You’d think that I would have it finished by now.

Next up is my Winter Solstice shawl. This is even less photogenic than a blob of lace usually is, I stopped right in the middle of the row to get a photo. I have about a billion rows left to knit.

Last but not least, my latest sock. I simply adore this yarn. It is from Trailing Clouds, the color is Mind the Gap, inspired by the 12 colors of the London Tube map. The shop has been sold out for awhile, but fortunately I have a couple other colors of this in the stash.

That’s it for today. Next time I have a knitting book review for you!

Sleeve Island, Part Eleventy-Billion

I actually have gotten some knitting done this past few weeks, though damned little. It’s been the usual holiday season chaos around here, with too much to get done and not enough time to just sit and knit.

I’m in that endless part of sleeve knitting, where it just keeps getting wider and wider, with ever longer rows. This Peace Fleece yarn is so lovely that I am enjoying it though. And that is a good thing, since I have enough Peace Fleece in different colors to make nine more sweaters. I keep looking at their colors that I don’t have (admittedly not very many!), but I really need to stick with the plan and not buy more until I use some of what I have.

On that note, it’s been nearly 3 months since my last yarn purchase. I’m going to try to get to a year again. We’ll see how that goes. When it comes to those pretty pretty colors, I don’t have a lot of will power!

I hope your holiday season is full of joy and peace!

Sock Project

I have been knitting socks almost since I learned to knit almost 20 years ago. Since then, I always have a sock in progress, as soon as I finish a pair,  I cast on another one.

My finished sock stash is starting to show its age a bit. I still have a dozen plus good pairs, but some of those are getting a bit thin in places. My hand knit socks far outlast commercial socks, but they don’t last forever.

I’m hereby declaring 2018 to be the year of sock knitting. God knows I have sock yarn to spare. I have yarn in those boxes upstairs to knit well over 200 pairs of socks.

Here’s what I am working on now.*

I’m thinking I could finish those with a couple of good football games on deck.

What about you all? What are your knitting plans for 2018?

*Just because someone almost always asks, the small red spool is Wooly Nylon. I use it as reinforcing thread for heels and toes.

At Least I Can Knit

I woke up early yesterday feeling yucky. I hate calling in sick, so I sucked it up, got ready and went in. It should have been a sign that the cup of tea I made before I got in the shower almost made me gag. Anyway, I made it through the morning, canceled my afternoon and came home. I’m out again today, let’s just say that nobody in my office would want me there spreading this to everyone else. It just pisses me off that I get this stuff, since I’m sort of a pathological hand-washer, especially at work.

I haven’t been accomplishing much besides zoning out, but today I was able to pick up the knitting. I didn’t work on my Rogue sweater all summer because, well, heavy wool and summer heat. But now that it is cool outside I want it done done done so I can wear it this winter.

That’s where I am right now. I’ve finished the back, and the front up to the v-neck split. I few months away from this almost made me forget how much I love Peace Fleece, and how much I love this pattern.

This is the left front, I just finished separating the two sides.

And here is that gorgeous cable up the sides.

The pattern is Rogue, the yarn is Peace Fleece worsted weight in the color Amaranth. They have this back on their website for sale, and it is on sale, if you need some. The color is really much deeper than my photos show. Anytime I take a picture of this it either turns out pink or bright red. It’s more of a deep garnet red. Here is the photo from their website.

At least on my ipad, that is much more accurate.

I’m off to try more tea and toast. Sigh.

Give Us This Day…

The Daily Bread:

1.5 cups white flour

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1.5 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon buttermilk powder

1 cup water

1 tablespoon molasses

1 egg

1 tablespoon yeast

More flour/water if needed for the dough

I am using a bread machine for this one. My hands have gotten old enough that I have trouble kneading dough by hand, plus it is just easier. I generally use the dough setting and bake the bread in the oven.

I use King Arthur flours, they are top quality and worth the slight extra cost. You can get buttermilk powder in the baking section of most supermarkets. The vital wheat gluten is from King Arthur as well. I use it with whole wheat flours (or rye) to help the dough rise. I use about a tablespoon of the gluten per cup of whole wheat.

The yeast that I use is Saf Red Instant yeast. It is foolproof, and you can just add it directly to your bread machine with everything else.

Bread machines vary, but I put in all the liquid ingredients, then the dry on top, then turn the machine on to the dough setting. Once it preheats and starts kneading, you should check it to see if the dough needs more flour or more liquid. If it looks just a bit wet, give it a few minutes, since the flour will absorb water gradually as the machine works. If you add too much flour at the very beginning you’ll end up with a brick.
Once it finishes the dough cycle, take it out of the machine, punch it down, form into a smooth ball and let it rest for a few minutes to relax the dough. Then shape it into whatever you want to bake and let it rise again until nearly double. Then bake. I’ll probably do an oblong free form loaf on a baking stone with this one. I put a bit of cornmeal on my baking peel, put the shaped loaf on it, wait for the rise, then slide it into a preheated oven onto the baking stone. Try to do that part quickly so your oven doesn’t drop in temperature too much. The cornmeal helps it slide off the peel onto the stone. Flour works too.
Baking temperature is more flexible than you think. I usually start at 400, but my oven runs just a bit cool. You may need to adjust if it looks like it is browning too fast. Baking time is around 20 minutes, but that depends on whether you are doing one big loaf or smaller rolls. It’s done when it is nicely browned, has a hollow sound when you tap the bottom, and I use a thermometer to check temperature. 190 F is about right for most bread.
Then the hardest part, waiting for it to cool before you cut into it. This is supposed to be part of our supper tonight, so I’ll try to save some for that!
Final action shot!

Winter Is Coming

I did finish binding off the 22 Little Clouds shawl yesterday, with 17 grams of yarn left. I’ll get it washed and then show a photo of it, but it is perfect.

Now it’s time to resurrect an old project. This is Rogue, done in Peace Fleece. That color photo is pretty close to the real thing (Amaranth is the color name). I’ve been working on this for almost two years, so I think it’s time to get this one done. I have the back done, and am working on the front. Then the hood and sleeves, and it will be my go-to winter sweater.

Here’s a close up of the side cable. This photo shows it much pinker than it really is. The actual color is a deep garnet, with little flecks of blue and black. The lighter color bits seen in all of my knitting are usually Corgi fur, with an occasional silver strand from me.

 
I know it still feels like summer, but it has been dropping into the 50’s here at night, so autumn and winter aren’t far off. What’s everybody planning for cool weather knitting?

Yarn Chicken

I am nearing the end of this shawl. This is 22 Little Clouds, and I’m making it in that cashmere yarn hand spun in Afghanistan. Obviously I want to use every bit of this lovely stuff possible.

The shawl is an elongated triangle shape, with a ruffle border. The instructions say to save 25% of the yarn for the ruffle and bind off. The ruffle section starts by doubling the stitches on the needles, so I have about 600 stitches per row. I have two rows left, and then the bind off, which will eat yarn like crazy. My last row used about 6 grams, and I have 38 grams left.

So I’m trying to decide if I’ll have enough to do FOUR more rows before the bind off instead of two. That really would be playing yarn chicken, I think, and having to undo most of a 600 stitch bind off if I’m wrong would take more whisky than I probably have in the house.

Stay tuned.

Ahhhh.

Sunday afternoon on the lake, me, my knitting, and the cat. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I’m still working on the same projects, slowly but surely. The lovely stuff in the photo is the Afghanistan cashmere, I’m knitting 22 Little Clouds with it.

For those of you following my attempts at not buying yarn, I caved yesterday and made a purchase. I’ll post a photo when it gets here, but here is where I got it from. I’m sure you would have given in as well. I made it a few days past 8 months this time. Go sign up for her newsletter, and you’ll be tempted too.

Ooooh!

After I finished the Ruffles shawl, I needed to cast on another semi-mindless project. I mentioned in my last post that I might do another Hitchhiker shawl, so I started rummaging around in my yarn stash for the perfect yarn.

I found this.

I bought this from Peace Fleece about a year ago, and it’s been sitting in a lonely yarn box ever since. The Peace Fleece owners contracted with a group of women from Afghanistan and bought some of their hand spun cashmere to sell. I snapped up two skeins of this lovely ivory yarn. It is 500 yards of about sport weight.

This stuff is just dreamy. It’s like knitting with clouds. I’ve never knitted with 100% cashmere before, this may be a dangerous discovery.

I didn’t think this would necessarily work for a Hitchhiker, so I pulled out another Martina Behm pattern, 22 Little Clouds.

The yarn and pattern are a perfect match. This is simple stockinette with a ruffle at the end (I guess I’m into ruffles this year!), with nothing to distract from the softness and beauty of the yarn.

As I’m sitting here knitting, thoughts of Maliknoz are on my mind. Her life is undoubtedly much different than mine, but I’d bet that she gets just a little bit of the same joy in spinning this beautiful fiber as I do in knitting with it.

New Socks!

And they’re done.

Project Details

 
Pattern: My same old vanilla sock
Yarn: Lang Jawoll Superwash Solids, Black Watch. I think the real color “name” is actually a number.
Needles: 2.25mm sterling double points
For: John
Started/Finished: Started 1/23/17 Finished 5/28/17.
Modifications: None
What I Learned: I keep tinkering with my sock formula to fit John’s feet better. He has very high arches and a genetic foot thing called Charcot Marie Tooth syndrome. With these, I did the gusset decreases at a slower rate to provide a little more width around his ankle. These are a bit snug but are better than just the standard gusset shape.
 
Yes, he has weird feet.
 
Now I get to pick my next sock yarn!

Endless Garter Stitch

That’s my Wool Peddler shawl. I finally finished the bazillion rows of boring garter stitch and have moved on to the lace part. Lace always seems like frosting to me. You eat the boring white cake just so you can justify getting the chocolate frosting.

It’s a pretty easy lace pattern, and in DK weight yarn (moose lace!), so it is still mostly a mindless project.

This is really squishy soft yarn, and the color is growing on me. It’s a nice neutral that will go with almost everything I own. I might not over-dye it after all.

It’s finally warming up enough around here to get outside without being bundled up in wool. We had our first brunch on the deck this morning. This is my afternoon project:

Baby herb plants! Those will get planted today.

Souvenirs

After a long travel day Friday, we’re back home from our cruise. Getting through Seattle traffic back home was the worst part of the trip. We got off the ship around 9:30, and didn’t get home until around 5PM (usually about a 4 hour drive). We stopped in Bellingham for lunch, which accounts for part of that, and also picked up Lewey, which was a bit of a detour, but the whole trip back was just painful. Traffic around here is painful at best, and on Friday afternoon turns into horrifying.

I did stop at one yarn shop in Bellingham, but I swear I didn’t buy anything. I wasn’t really even tempted. Next week I’ll hit 150 days with no yarn buying, and the six month mark is coming up.

We didn’t do any significant shopping on the trip. I bought a few books in a shop in San Francisco. How can you NOT buy books in a nice bricks and mortar book shop with real people running it? Of course, I don’t need those any more than I need more yarn. It’s those little personal recommendation cards written by the book shop staff that get me every time. And yes, I have a Kindle, and use it, but there is something about “real” books that I adore.

Here are the other things I bought. We did a tour of the Queen Mary in LA, which was a bit cheesy, but fun.

A Queen Mary tea mug, and Queen coasters!

And what is that little blue thing peeking out in that photo? Could it be a finished Hitchhiker?

Why, yes!
Project Details
 
Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martina Behm
Yarn: Wollmeise Pure, color Bluebell
Needles: 3.25 mm Knit Picks Harmony
For: Me
Started/Finished: Started 2/16/16 Finished 4/20/17. Yes, I know that’s ridiculous. It was in time out for months.
Modifications: None
What I Learned: I am likely the last person ever to have made one of these. As of right now, there are 26,921 projects listed on Ravelry. I can see why. This is a great pattern for fingering weight sock yarns, and it’s very easy.
I also learned that my drug dealers scale doesn’t work on a rocking and rolling cruise ship. I was trying to use as much of the yarn as I could, but my scale wouldn’t give me a readout so I just guessed at how much yarn I needed for the bind off. I thought it might be dying on me, but when I got it home and tested on a solid surface, it works just fine. As it turned out, I could have knit a few more repeats, but it’s long enough.
Pattern Rating: ***** This is a well written pattern, no errors, and very easy to follow. I will definitely make more of these, since it’s not like I don’t have any sock yarn hanging about here.
 
You aren’t getting an action photo with me wearing this for now. The other fun souvenir that I brought home was a wicked upper respiratory infection. I’ve been sick for the past 4-5 days, and I look (and feel) like something that a grizzly bear dragged around the back yard a few times. I’m just hoping this is better tomorrow, since I’m supposed to be back at work. I’m one of those people that tries to drag myself to work even if I don’t feel good, but if it’s something infectious like this, not so much. All my little old people patients really don’t need to catch this. It sort of figures that I’d make it through our horrendous cold and flu winter season and then get this in April on a cruise.
 
Sigh. I’m off to make a cup of tea for that pretty mug up there.

Cruising

John and I signed up for a Princess cruise several months ago. This one leaves and arrives back at Vancouver, so we were able to drive up instead of flying, which made it a bit more economical.

It also had the attraction of four and a half sea days, which as you all know, means four and a half KNITTING days. I was very excited to see “Knitters and Natters Get-Together” on the daily program. There are a half dozen or so crafters on board, mostly knitters. We’ve been meeting every sea day morning and having a great time.

Our ports of call so far have been Long Beach, Catalina Island, and Santa Barbara. My favorite has been Santa Barbara. Catalina is lovely, but I’d been there once before so knew what to expect. Santa Barbara is a gorgeous city with miles of beach front. We were lucky enough to have a sunny day yesterday and took a trolley tour of the city.

We land in San Francisco this afternoon, and will be here all day tomorrow as well, then two more of those lovely sea days to get us home again.

I apparently am knitting all blue things. The projects that Sweetpea is helping me with up there are my Hitchhiker, which I may finish one of these years, my new lace shawl, and a pair of socks for John. I finished the first one earlier on the cruise and am well into the second one. I have a spare ball of Opal sock yarn “just in case”, but that’s likely optimistic. I also brought two spindles with me.

Here’s a photo from our day in Santa Barbara.

Old Ben is an even slower knitter than I am. He wasn’t much help.

We’re off to lunch, then an afternoon in port!

*And no, I haven’t done any yarn shopping so far.

Reward Challenge

All done except for  buttons.

I’ve been getting myself through the last bit of this with little rewards*. On Friday, John and I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer AKA Major Knitter for dinner. We had a fine time, and she brought me a yarn** gift as a party favor.

Here’s the yarn:

That is 1600 meters of stunning lace weight yarn, enough for a huge shawl. And I have just the pattern for it.

I’ve had that shawl in my pattern library for years, waiting for the right moment and the right yarn. It is Longest Night, by Lori Law.

I’ve been rewarding myself for each little step of that baby sweater with a little teaser. I now have the pattern all set up in Knit Companion, ready to go when I sew on the last button. I don’t really “need” a new lace shawl on the needles right now, but I’m doing it anyway.

Jennifer and I did wear our Faery Ring sweaters to the restaurant. Here we are.

I’m off to sew buttons!

*Sort of like “Survivor”. “Wanna know what you’re playing for?”

**No, that doesn’t mean I fall off the Cold Sheep. Unsolicited yarn gifts don’t count. Now, if I gave my husband a list and said “why don’t you buy me a yarn gift”, THAT would end the no-buying streak.