That is well aged yarn. It is Old Maiden Aunt, a lace blend of alpaca, silk, and cashmere. Who knows when I bought this, the date on the photo in the database is from 2012, but the dye lot on the ball label is 2009. Knitting from stash, what a concept.
The color name is Whisky Galore, which is no doubt why I bought it, but it really is just the loveliest shade of Scotch whisky.
And what might I be making with this?
How about this?
A Hap For Harriet, by Kate Davies. The pattern calls for Old Maiden Aunt lace weight, though one of the heavier lace yarns from that line. The Whisky yarn is a bit finer, and has the silk and cashmere so will be more drapey, but I think it will be a good match. I also have more yardage (1189 meters) than the pattern calls for, but Kate is nice enough to have instructions in the pattern as to how to up or downsize the shawl to fit your yardage.
And there you have it. The last time I bought yarn was exactly one year ago today. I actually thought the anniversary was tomorrow, but I checked the receipt for that last purchase, and it was March 15th, 2014. It was this gorgeous Peace Fleece lace, which I still haven't finished. I got as far as swatching and knit a few rows, and it has been a UFO since. I am not one bit sorry I bought this yarn, since they sold out of it quickly and it hasn't reappeared since.
That will get back on the WIP list at some point, if I ever finish the Evenstar thing that I showed in my last post.
Now, about not buying yarn. This has been very instructive. The first few months were really tough. It has gotten easier as the months have gone by, though I found myself doing a lot of internet window shopping the past few weeks, thinking “Yay! I made it a year! Now I can buy yarn!”. But I haven't really found anything I need, and when I find something I WANT WANT WANT, I go look at the stash. Still at 336,405 meters of yarn. That doesn't count most of the handspun that I've made. It's pretty clear that I mostly buy yarn just to have it, not really to use it for anything.
So I'm in for a little while longer. Who knows if I'll make it to 2 years and the pretty pink badge, or 3 years and a platinum badge. But for today, I don't need to buy more yarn. I'm off to do a few rows of Evenstar.
I posted a photo of my Evenstar on Facebook yesterday, and got a nice “I love the cream color” comment. The problem is that it’s not cream, it’s a pale aqua blue. Of course then someone had to ask “is it really blue or is it white”, which cracked me up. But I’m easily amused.
It is notoriously tough to take photos in the Pacific Northwest in the winter time and end up with anything close to the right color. Fortunately we’ve had some gloriously sunny early spring weather here, so I dragged my lace outside and got a few photos. There are some shadows from the trees, and our patio table is filthy, so I covered it with a white towel, since I am way too lazy to clean it now when it’s not going to be warm enough to eat out there for awhile.
I’m posting all of those, since I can. Of course it’s not blocked, so you really can’t see the lace pattern all that well, but that is pretty close to the right color. Click on those to make them bigger so you can see the beads!
Beads! Thousands of them! The edging to this sucker is taking forever, and it is very boring, let me tell you. It’s knit sideways onto the shawl, it’s a simple 20 row repeat, I have about 22 repeats left. Each repeat has 50 beads. Yes, I know how many rows and beads that is. It is going to be stunning once it is done, but this is just the really boring part. And I sort of have to pay attention for a couple of reasons. First, it is fine thread, and it’s a cashmere silk blend, so it has no memory and wants to jump off the needles if it gets a chance. And then I have to focus on putting on each bead. So it’s not really good TV or movie knitting. It’s not really whisky knitting either for the same reason.
If it looks like there is a stray white thread in there, there is. After I finished the body of the shawl, I put in a fine lifeline since I’ve never done a knitted on border before. I figured if I screwed it up, I’d have somewhere to go back to. I probably should put one in now after one of those repeats as well. When I get all the way around the circle, I will have to graft the beginning and ending of the edging together, so there will be a lifeline there as well.
And just because I can, here is Lewey. He wandered outside while I was taking photos.
By the way, Wintergrass was a total blast. We had a great time. There were lots of great bands, including some old favorites and new-to-me groups. My favorite of the weekend was Mark O’Connor, who is a terrific fiddler/violinist. He is originally from the Seattle area, though has never been to Wintergrass before. He is a fabulous musician, and plays in multiple genres, including jazz, swing, classical, bluegrass, and American folk. I have been following his music career for years, so it was fun to see him perform. And we got to meet him after the show, he is as nice as he is talented.
My other favorite, which was one of those new-to-me groups, was Steel Wheels, a band from Virginia. They are very high energy, and great musicians. They were a crowd favorite, so hopefully they will be back. Give them a listen, this was one of my favorites that they did.
And another one. This is not as good of a recording, but this was simply electrifying live.
If you want to see some photos, check out my husband’s blog, One Eclectic Guy!
Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, color Violet Vyehchyeerom, 6 skeins. Close enough to BLUE.
Needles: Swallow Ivore straights, 5.00 mm (4.5 mm for ribbing)
Started: August 1, 2013
Finished: February 7, 2015
For: John
Modifications: the pattern as written has ribbing on the bottom, but a rolled hem on sleeves and cuffs. I did ribbing to match for all, and did a tubular cast on and bind off. I also brought the neck up a bit, the pattern as written has a bit wider and lower crew neck.
What I Learned: Well, it’s a pretty simple sweater pattern. I don’t think I like the dropped shoulder construction so much in this heavier yarn, but John loves it. I finished the neck last night and tossed it his way, I’m not sure he’s had it off since. And I adore Peace Fleece, but I already knew that. I suspect this will be a well-loved and well-worn sweater.
This is one of those knitting tasks that most people hate, as evidenced by the growing popularity of top-down, knit-all-in-one-piece sweater patterns out there. No finishing! No seams!
Where's the fun in THAT, I ask? Hand sewing seams is one of those things that is easy to do once you learn to do it properly. It also provides some structure to your sweater, especially if it is knit in a heavy wool yarn. And if you have the right tools, it's a snap. Those clip things do wonders to get things lined up and hold it all together while you are sewing. The brand name of these is Knit Klips, by Susan Bates, you can find them in many knitting and craft shops.
Here's my favorite book for instructions as to how to do a variety of seams.
The other handy tool is a perfect sewing needle.
Mine is a sterling silver handmade needle from Celtic Swan.
It's hard to get a good photo of that, here's another one.
And yes, since you are wondering, I do have a couple sets of the sock needles in silver as well. I covet everything in her shop. And she is local, from nearby Lopez Island.
I have been working away at this one for a long time. You wouldn’t think a plain stocking stitch heavy worsted sweater would take so long. I finally finished all the knitting today. Here it is (minus one sleeve-not enough clips!)
Now it goes into the washing machine for a soak, then blocking, then sewing together. I think my old friend will look dashing in his Old Friend!
I've been trolling around online yarn shops again. I almost caved once or twice in the past week. It's been a bit of a stressful week or two at work, which I'm sure is part of the trigger for retail therapy.
Fortunately, next week I hit the nine month mark without buying yarn, so I stepped away from the computer. Instead, I trolled around Ravelry and found a nice new shawlette pattern. After a false start or two, I found the perfect yarn in my stash to match.
The pattern is Heaven and Space, by Martini Behm. It calls for sport weight yarn, and this is a bit finer than that, but it's all good. It will just be a bit more scarf-like.
And yes, I'm supposed to be studying instead of knitting (or drooling over yarn online). You know what they say about all work and no play.
It is just time to finish this one. This has been on the needles long enough. It's not exactly television knitting, so it might take a bit, but it needs to be done.
Color Affection is becoming the bane of my existence. Don’t get me wrong, this is going to be a shawl I will love once it is done. But I’ve been plotting ever more interesting ways to destroy it for the past few weeks. I was even a teeny bit joyful when Will the cat tried to make a bed out of it earlier today.
Here’s where I am.
I’m finally on the border. At least while I was doing those three-color stripes I had the fleeting second of “interesting” when I did the short row turning bit on every row.
“Oh, look! The short row sections are getting longer!”
Now I’m just knitting the red border, in boring red garter stitch. It’s a very pretty red. But I currently have 528 stitches on the needles, and a couple of repeats of the four row pattern to go. And every repeat adds another 10 stitches to that total. I thought seriously about stopping and just binding off now, but this is going to be huge, and that puny one inch border stripe will look stupid.
I just checked. As of right now, there are 12,600 Color Affections listed on Ravelry. Only 9345 of those have been finished. The rest are “in progress” (a euphemism for “I’m bored out of my mind here”), “hibernating” (a euphemism for “I hate this but can’t bring myself to frog it”), or “frogged”. Those last brave souls were at least honest in their boredom.
I have a couple other three-color combos in my stash that would make nice Color Affections. If any of you see any hint that I am rummaging through the yarn boxes to put together another one, please come over here and give me a nice head slap.
I’m thinking a TV marathon. Anybody have any good suggestions for mindless TV shows? If so, let me know.
And no, I haven’t forgotten that after I knit another eleventy billion stitches, I’ll have to bind the whole thing off.
Please send whisky.
* In case you are wondering about France, and don’t follow me on Facebook, we had a terrific time. John is blogging it so I’ll let him do that. Here is his first post.
We've been on vacation this week! We rented a house in Seabrook on the Washington coast, and the kids and grandkids joined us here for a week of last-of-the-summer fun. They're all here till Saturday, though I have to work this weekend so I'm headed home tomorrow.
We've had good food, lots of fun and games, and beach fun. Lewey just loves beach fun. He also loves sleeping.
And of course there has been knitting.
Everything I brought with me seems to be red.
What all is in that pile?
There is a pair of socks.
That is the sweater I started a few weeks ago. I'd be farther along if I hadn't screwed up and had to rip back about 3 inches.
There is Color Affection!
Last but not least, some spinning. This is a wool-silk blend that I have been working on forever. I think there were about 8 ounces of this in batt form, I have a few ounces left to spin.
I head home tomorrow, then “get” to spend the weekend working in the hospital. But it's my last few hospital shifts for the near future, I'll be 100% clinic based from now on, which is a good change for me.
This new sweater has a very interesting construction. So far it doesn’t look much like a sweater.
Here’s a photo:
It’s just a big rectangle so far. Here’s another photo to show you how it’s put together.
That faint line down the middle shows where the original cast on starts. The stitches on the needles are the back and sleeves, just started. The top of the photo is the ribbing at the back and sides of the neck.
So you cast on along that line using a provisional cast on, then knit the right neckband and upper yoke, then put those stitches on a holder. Then you undo the provisional cast on and knit the other half of the neckband in the other direction. At some point you get to add in the front sections, though I can’t see it just yet. This is one of those patterns where you just have to have faith that it’s going to turn into a sweater someday.
I’m also doing some dyeing this weekend for the first time in a long time. No photos yet, but yesterday I prepped some yarn with an alum mordant. The dye pot is full of onion skins that I have saved up for months. The yarn is about to go in. I’ll show photos when it’s out and dry!
Sweater knitting requires careful swatching for gauge planning. Every single time that I skimp on this step or skip important parts, I end up ripping out four inches of sweater because it's either going to be too small or huge.
I knit a not-huge swatch, but big enough that I can get a good four inches of width to measure my average gauge. Remember, the gauge gods will lie to you and try to get you to talk yourself into mistakes.
“Oh, sure, I'll just knit for an inch or so, squint sideways, and it will work. If I just scrunch it together a bit, I can make that look like 22 stitches in 4 inches!”
Rip. Rip. Rip.
So here's my gauge swatch for my new sweater, unwashed and unblocked, with four inches marked off by the pins. 24 stitches. Drat.
But let's wash it and see what happens. Do this just like you would wash and block the real thing once it's done. Let it dry before you measure again (you're not going to wear it wet, are you?). Here you go.
22 stitches per inch. Just what the pattern calls for. Perfect. Even the row gauge matches up on this one.
As a reminder to myself, this swatch was knit with 3.5mm/US 4 needles.
Honest, I have been working on that big heavy wooly square sweater. But there is only so much heavy wool knitting I can handle in July. What's a knitter to do?
Of course, cast on something new! OK, I didn't really cast on, that's just the beginnings of a gauge swatch, but it counts.
Next modification to the pattern. For some reason, the sleeves on this sweater use a rolled stockinette edging, which doesn’t make sense, since the body edging is ribbed. I hate rolled edges anyway, so I dragged out this old post with my mini-tutorial for a tubular cast on.
Please send me a rum drink. I have at least a gazillion miles of plain stocking stitch left. Cocktail umbrella optional.
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