Project Roundup, Part 1

But first, here’s what’s going on at our house this week. My sweetie, John, had surgery on both of his feet earlier this week. We planned this for a week that I had off, so I could wait on him hand and foot, or foot and foot, in this case. Here’s what he looked like the evening after surgery.

Those are icepacks on his feet, and would you just look at those fashionable shoes! He’s doing pretty well, all things considered. Here’s Lewey, consoling him.

In between running errands and fetching things, I have gotten some knitting done. I have three projects actively going right at the moment. First up is the new sock.

The yarn is from Three Irish Girls, from their Sock Yarnista monthly sock club. This is my first club shipment, and I am more than pleased. It’s very squishy, lovely yarn, and Sharon sent a coordinating contrast color for heels and toes if you’re one of those people, like me, who won’t use the included pattern. The club is a monthly offering, and has either a variegated colorway or a semi-solid, and you can choose on a monthly basis which one you want. The pattern this month is a lovely cabled sock that will look much better in the semisolid yarn, so I’m substituting, you guessed it, my favorite sock pattern over there to your right in the menu bar. I’ve decided to use the darker yarn for the tops, heels, and toes, just for a change.

And the needles, you ask? Those are my latest acquisition, sterling double points from Celtic Swan Forge. It’s hard to get a decent photo of them, but here’s an attempt.

These are just fabulous. They are not for everyone, I’d guess, though. They have a rather blunt tip, for one thing, which doesn’t bother me in the least, but some people might hate them. If you insist on a sharply pointed dpn, these are not your needles. They are also substantially heavier than any other double points I’ve used. They are also very expensive, so you have to really want them. And I really wanted them, so I got them. If you have a special occasion coming up, and need to give your significant other a gift idea for you, this might be it.

Next time: Whatever happened to that Cobblestone thing? Stay tuned to find out!

Hundertwassers!

OK. This is very embarrassing. I joined the Summer of Socks over on Ravelry at the beginning of summer. The whole point was to see how many pairs of socks you can knit during the summer. While I knew I wouldn’t win by a long shot, I had high hopes of at least not humiliating myself publicly. Oh well. Here they are, my first, and likely only, completed socks of the summer.

Project Details:

Yarn: Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn, color number 637A. The name is Wartende Häuser, or “Waiting House”.

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony dpns, size 2.25mm.

Pattern: Um, the same old sock pattern. Look over there to the right in the menu bar, you’ll find it.

Started: June 24th, 2008

Finished: August 26th, 2008

For: Me

What I learned: Opal is still one of my favorite sock yarns. It’s not as soft and squishy as some of the new kids on the block, but it is just a fabulous yarn. I also learned to let my matchy-matchy tendencies go on this one. The color repeat is really a long one for this colorway, so I’d have had to pull out close to a quarter of a sock’s worth of yarn in order to start the second sock at exactly the same place. I just decided to make them different. I like ’em!

Oh, and those socks are actually the same length, they just don’t look like it.

I also learned about the German artist, Friedensreich Regentag Dunkebunt Hundertwasser, who was the inspiration for this line of yarn. Check out my previous post for details. Here’s that photo again that inspired this color:

Next time, a Project Roundup! And while you’re at it, go vote in today’s Hunk contest. Rickman is having a hard time of it, again. These young whippersnappers seem to think they are going to take the title away from him.

Knitting Hunks, 2008

Just a quick post to let you all know that the Knitting Hunk contest is going on over here at Kim’s place. We’re already into round 2, and last year’s winner, Alan Rickman, really needs your vote. While you’re there, vote for Patrick Stewart in the second contest for today. I didn’t nominate him, but I wish I’d have thought of it after seeing today’s photo. This should provide entertainment for the next few weeks, so even if you don’t care, go check out the eye candy.

A real knitting update tomorrow, I promise!

Whitewater Shawl

Project Details:

Yarn: Alpaca With A Twist Fino, 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk, 1 hank, 100grams, 875 yards. And I used all but 1.2 grams of the hank.

Pattern: I put this together using Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles book. It’s 16 repeats of the Medallion pattern, then 3 repeats of the Ripple pattern, then the edging. The Whitewater name came from our river raft trip in June of this year. I knit part of the shawl on that trip.

Needles: Holz & Stein ebony circulars, size 3.25mm.

Started: February 2008. I took a class from Evelyn Clark using her triangular lace shawl techniques at the Madrona fiber festival in Tacoma. As I was working on the Langsjal Jóhönnu shawl at the time, this sat in hibernation until April.

Finished: August 1, 2008.

For: ?? Maybe me, maybe a gift. Who knows.

Modifications: Well, it’s all a modification, really. I didn’t deviate from Ms. Clark’s plan, though, except for leaving off one plain row at the end. I was running out of yarn, and just left it out.

What I learned: The cast on used in this book is rather clever. Basically, you provisionally cast on 2 stitches and knit a little 2-stitch garter strip for several rows, then pick up stitches on one long side, then those first 2 stitches. This gives you a garter “tab” that flows better into the top border.

I also learned a lot about how triangular lace shawls are constructed. Ms. Clark’s book makes the whole process very simple, and takes all the guess work out of it. The book has a lot of instructional material, then pattern charts (also written out, for you chart-o-phobic types) for four different laces. There are instructions on how to knit the transition sections between one lace type and the next, then one edging stitch chart. You basically pick which laces you want in your shawl, decide the order and how many repeats, then put in the appropriate transitions to make it work. This works whether you are making a small neck scarf or a ginormous shawl.

The book is by no means comprehensive as far as lace shawl construction. I would have liked to see more information on how to take this method and run with it. She doesn’t really explain the process of taking stitch patterns with varying stitch counts and making them work together. I think that after one or two of these shawls, you’d get tired of the four stitch patterns and want to branch out. I love the finished project though. And the yarn is divine. It has enough silk to really glow, and the alpaca has just a bit of a halo.

And a few more photos, because it’s my blog, and I don’t finish something every day:

Whitewater Blocking

Before I get to that, it’s 56 degrees here today. In August. Our furnace came on this morning and John looked at me suspiciously and asked, “did you turn that on?”

No dear, it’s just fracking cold here.

The lace is done, ends woven in, and it went for a swim this morning. As I’ve said before, I believe in full-immersion blocking. Besides, this one went down the Green River and the Colorado River, and needed a bath.

I use Kookaburra wool wash, and soaked this for about half an hour, then rinsed. I’ve used both the regular and the delicate versions of this product, and really can’t tell much difference.

Ready for the pinning ceremony:

I used a combination of blocking wires for the straight top edge, and pins for the side points.

Yes, that’s a lot of pins. It would be even more ridiculous without the wires on the top edge.

I’m going to find a wool sweater to wear. Project details and the requisite artsy photo when it’s dry.

Lace Cam 3.5

2.1 grams left, but the plan has changed. At our last post, I had one plain row, then the bind off row, and 3.1 grams of yarn left. In an uncharacteristic turn of events, I actually stopped to think before I did that plain row. I generally do a very loose cast off for lace, which chews up way more yarn than the usual “knit 2, pull the first stitch over the second stitch” cast off. I decided to skip the last plain row, and just wade into the binding off part a row early.

Here’s the bind off I’m using: Knit 2, put your left needle through the front legs of those two stitches, and then knit them together through the back loops. Knit 1, repeat, loosely. It makes a nice stretchy bind off for lace.


So I’m half way through the bind off row, and have 2.1 grams left. The
last row had 565 stitches, by the way. I should have about a gram left
at the end, which would have been short if I’d knit one more row.

Lewey says, “I knew that, if you’d asked me.” Or maybe he’s saying that it’s time for supper.

*See the previous several posts to find out what the heck I’m talking about.

Knitting on the Edge

Once again, it’s been awhile. Happy August! Just so I can bitch about it publicly, the temperature has gotten up to a steamy 61 degrees here today, and it’s raining, again. Where the hell is summer?

Actually, we have had a little summer weather, but only in bits and pieces. We had friends over a couple weekends ago for beach fun and barbecue, and to try out our latest toy.

Meanwhile, John managed to convince Riley that riding in the canoe is a good thing.

And after a tough workout on the water, a nice hearty dinner of barbecued ribs and all the fixings.

A closeup of the ribs:

Yum, they were really good. I bought John a smoker a couple years ago, and thanks to his southern heritage, he makes the best barbecue in the west!

Now, on to knitting. The title of this post has nothing to do with the knitting book by the same name. I’ve finally finished the body of the Whitewater alpaca silk shawl, and am about half way through the edging rows. I may or may not have enough yarn to finish.

6.5 grams. That’s how much yarn I have left, with half of the edging to go. I love the excitement of knitting, let me tell you. Fortunately, I placed a lifeline many rows back, after the second to the last repeat of the main shawl body. If I don’t have enough to bind off, I can always rip back to the lifeline, then knit the edging and have lots leftover. Where’s the fun in that, I ask?

Stay tuned next time to see how it all works out. Any guesses as to how much yarn I’ll have left?

Oh yes. The Elizabeth Zimmerman book in that photo has nothing to do with the shawl. I’m still working on that damned Cobblestone sweater that I’ve had on the needles for years (not really years, but it seems like it). I’m doing yet another bit of jerry-rigging of the pattern. I’ll tell you about that later, too.

Sock Pattern! Free!

Ok, this is really a knitting update of sorts, but first, there is a free pattern over there to your right, in the sidebar. It’s Lorette’s Wordy Generic Sock Pattern, now new and improved! This is just my cobbled together pattern that I’ve put together over the years. It has instructions for both a picot top and plain ribbing. I just put it up today, and hopefully it is relatively error free. It’s just a plain vanilla sock, so don’t expect anything fancy.

Now for the update.

Here’s one of those Generic Socks. I haven’t gotten much done on this since my last post, but I am done with the gusset decreases on the first sock. I still love this yarn. It’s endlessly amusing to me to see what color comes next. For the curious who want to know, the end of the first repeat in the color sequence was just in the middle of the heel flap. I have no idea if I’ll be able to match the second sock exactly or not. Oh, the suspense!

Next up is my alpaca lace shawl. Here’s where I am:

I did end up taking this with me on our Utah trip, though I didn’t take it on the second leg of the trip down the Colorado. I had dropped a bunch of stitches before we went on the trip, and finally got the whole thing straightened out and back on the needles. I pulled it out one night sitting around the campfire, and did exactly the same thing, dropping about 15 or 20 stitches off the needles, then spent the next two nights before dark getting it fixed yet again. For the record, the first time I did this, I just frogged back about 20 rows to my last lifeline. Getting those stitches back on the needle, even with a lifeline, was sort of a bitch, to say the least. The second time, I decided not to frog. I just got as many of the dropped loose stitches back onto a spare needle as I could, then patiently tinked back row by row, until I got to a section where I had everything back on the working needle with a correct stitch count. It was actually less painful than ripping all those rows again.

For those of you not following this saga, this is made using Evelyn Clark’s book, Knitting Lace Triangles. I did the whole first section with the Medallion stitch pattern, and have just switched to the Ripple pattern for the next section. This is a 20-row repeat, and I think I’ll do 2 or 3 repeats, then the edging, then it’s done.

And the shawl finally has a name: Whitewater Shawl. Of course, it was obvious, once it came to me. I’ve decided that the Ripple section represents the flatter sections of water, I think the Medallion part looks like the rapids. There isn’t anything in the pattern that represents me nearly drowning in Cataract Canyon, but you can’t have everything.

Hundertwassers

After looking at my new sock yarn, John asked me where the name “Hundertwassers” came from. I didn’t really know, and did a bit of research. Here’s what I found.

Opal designed this line based on some of the artwork of Friedensreich Regentag Dunkebunt Hundertwasser (not his real name, check out this article for the derivation of his name). He was an architect, painter, philosopher, and a free spirit. Several of his paintings, with bright, abstract colors, were used as the inspiration of the Opal Hundertwassers Werk line of sock yarn. Read the Wikipedia article for more info on the man and his work. Here are a couple of examples of his architecture:

That one is the interior of a women’s toilet in a public restroom.

I was wrong, my Opal sock yarn does have a name, not just a number. It’s “Wartende Häuser” which translates as “waiting house”.

Here’s a photo of the painting that inspired this particular colorway.

And my sock:

In case you need some of this, Webs has several of these colorways left in stock. Little Knits has some that are deeply discounted, but only a very few.

And don’t forget Claudia’s MS ride tomorrow. There’s still time to donate, but NOT MUCH! Get over there now! There are great prizes, but more importantly, lots of money to raise for a good cause.

Opal

I know you’ve all been in suspense since my last post, waiting to see what I would pick out of that immense pile of sock yarn for my next pair of socks. I have to admit, it would be easier if I only had four or five hanks of yarn to choose from. In the end, I just randomly picked a color that appealed to me, in a brand I haven’t knit with for awhile.

Claudia described my sock yarn stash as “biggish”, which I think was a bit of an understatement. Laurie asked how many there are. 162. There is enough yarn there for 162 pairs of socks. I’ll let that sink in a bit.

OK, here’s what I picked.

Opal Hundertwassers, color 1434. I just love the creative names these guys give their colorways. And I love Opal sock yarn. It’s not the “squooshiest” sock yarn out there, and is a bit finer than some, but it is well-made, not splitty, and wears like iron. And the colors are fabulous. This is the kind of stuff you keep knitting just to see what comes next.

Pretty, eh?

In case you’ve been napping, Claudia is doing her MS Ride this weekend, and there is still time to donate to the cause. There are lots of swell prizes to win, so get over there and empty out your wallet. Last year, knitters donated enough to win Claudia’s team the right to wear the #1 jersey this year. What are you waiting for? Go!

I’m off to see what comes after that orange band.

Finished!

Since the Summer of Socks 2008 started 3 days ago, you might think I’d have started a sock for the knit-along by now. The rules say that to qualify, socks have to be started on or after the beginning of summer. Well, I already had a half done pair on the needles, and thought briefly about starting a second pair and setting those aside for later. Instead, I lined up a bunch of Tivo’d JAG reruns last night, and did a sock marathon, finishing the Three Irish Girl socks I had going. Here they are:

Project Details:

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn, color Eire. Boy, do I love this yarn. It’s nicely spun, and the colors are fabulous. I like it so well that I joined their Yarnista sock yarn club.

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony dpns, size 2.25mm.

For: Me

Started: May 19th, 2008

Finished: June 24th, 2008

Pattern: Standard 68 stitch stockinette sock, with picot tops and standard heel flap and gusset. The usual.

What I learned: This yarn is my new favorite. It plays very nicely in the yarn box. And I learned that I can knit a whole sock foot (women’s size 10 1/2, thank you!) in an evening of mindless JAG reruns.

I’m off to cast on the first pair of SOS ’08 socks. I have to choose the yarn first, not so easy, given the multitude of choices I have available. I posted these photos on the Ravelry SOS group, and I’ll post them here as well. This is my three box-loads of sock yarn. How many seasons of JAG were there, anyway? I clearly need to knit faster.

Stay tuned next time to see what I pick!