Project Roundup, Part 3

I just realized that I’ve been talking about my latest lace project for the past couple of weeks and have never posted a photo. I’ve updated my Ravelry project page as I’ve gone along, but never here. That’s what comes of trying to keep up with both, and doing a half-assed job of it at that.

The lace on the needles is the Peacock Feathers Shawl, a Fiddlesticks Knitting pattern by Dorothy Siemens. (Ravelry link here.) The yarn I’m using is Blue Heron Egyptian Mercerized Cotton, in the color Bluegrass. I bought the yarn from Kris at Sonny & Shear, and as soon as I got it I knew it needed to be a Peacock.

And here’s what it looks like now, at row 95 of the pattern.

I can’t say enough good things about this pattern. It does require a bit of attention, as the stitch counts change on a few of the rows, and the repeat markers shift back and forth frequently. However, the whole thing is clearly charted, and the pattern notes are quite explicit. Though the charts look quite complicated, they really aren’t. It’s one of those patterns that you just want to keep knitting, as it’s not just the same old thing on every row.

I also love this yarn. I’ve never used mercerized cotton for lace work, so we’ll see how it blocks, but the shine is just spectacular, and it takes color marvelously. It also looks like Jello. Here’s proof. John had a little procedure this week that required a clear liquid diet for 36 hours, and we made him some blue and yellow Jello. When the dishes were partly emptied, we just tossed them in together.

Proof that I’m easily amused.

And speaking of John, here’s a photo of several of my housemates out on the deck yesterday, enjoying an early fall nap.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Project Roundup, Part 2.1

Or, Over The Edge

I’ve finally done it. I’ve been making plain stocking stitch socks for almost as long as I’ve been knitting, straying into pattern stitches only a couple of times. Now I have not one, but two pairs of patterned socks on the needles. I feel like a lemming who has jumped off the cliff.

Here’s the first pair. That Irish Girl Arctic Circle yarn from a few posts ago just didn’t want to be a plain sock. The stripes were just a bit too weird even for me, so I fired up the computer* and printed out Cookie A’s Monkey sock pattern. I’m likely the only knitter on the planet that has not made a pair of these. I originally started the plain sock on 68 stitches, and because this yarn is what I would call a heavy fingering weight, needed to rip back and restart on 64 stitches. I still didn’t like the striping so ripped to the cuff and I’m now Monkeying around.

Irish Arctic Monkeys!

The second pair isn’t really my fault. I joined Sock Knitters Anonymous over on Ravelry, and the Sockdown challenge for September/October is to knit orange socks.** Well, boy howdy, do I have some orange yarn in my stash, so I couldn’t resist. I started this one as a plain sock too, but it was entirely too boring, so plugged in a stitch pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

You can’t really tell from that photo, but there really is a pattern stitch. It’s Stansfield #10 from that book, which I think is a really dumb name. I’m not about to call these my Stansfield #10 socks for the next 2 months. I think it looks like Morse code, so they are forever hereafter my Orange Morse Code socks. This is lovely Trekking XXL sock yarn, in the color 145. Otherwise known as Orange. Just go ask Debi, the Queen of Orange.

Actually both of these qualify for the current Sockdown challenge. You could either knit orange socks, or knit a pattern by Cookie A. So there you have it. When I go lemming, I go all the way.

Next time in the Roundup, the Peacock lace!

*That’s of course not really true. My Mac is always fired up. It behaves very well even when I leave it turned on indefinitely, so I only shut it down completely when we go on vacation.

**If you want to get on the good side of Debi, the moderator over there, post a photo of some yarn and ask her if it’s ORANGE ENOUGH?? Just don’t tell her I sent you.

Project Roundup, Part 2

Or, Not Cobblestone

Whatever did happen to that Cobblestone sweater, after all? I started this eons ago (January, actually), and it’s been in time out for awhile. You all know what it’s supposed to look like, right? Here’s a link, in case you’ve been living under a rock. Many fine knitters have made this sweater, and I think it looks great on nearly every one of them.

Here’s the rub, though. Most of those fine knitters have made this sweater for men, as the pattern designer planned it. Here’s another great example, by Tiennie, for her husband. Now for women? Not so many great ones. Hardly any, in fact, and I didn’t really think much about this when I started the pattern. Here’s one, by Lynda, that proves me wrong, though hers is modified as well, and quite lovely. Anyway, I just wanted to knit it, and it was time for a nice wooly sweater for me, and that was that. I didn’t take into consideration that this might not be so flattering on a woman, especially a woman with, shall we say, voluptuous curves in the top half.

This thing is knitted all in the round, in plain stockinette up to the underarms, with a wide garter strip for the side “seams”, then in garter stitch for a round yoke. That garter edge falls right at the “boobage” line, not such a great idea for those of us with a generous front porch. I got all the way to that point, decided that this wouldn’t be a good idea, and decided to drop that garter line down to where my waist would be, if I had a waist. Rip rip rip. Reknit, reknit, reknit.

I kept looking at this and looking at this. All those miles of garter stitch in a round yoke, even with the line of demarcation dropped lower, are going to do nothing but accentuate that front porch even more. This is a nice idea if you’re selling your house, not so much if you want a flattering sweater. It was time for some rethinking.

I’ve decided to keep the bottom half of the sweater as it’s written, up to the armpits. I’m dumping the round garter stitch yoke, and going with a raglan style knit all in stockinette, a la Elizabeth Zimmerman. This has required some serious consulting of a couple of her books, and a little math work with paper and pencil to rewrite the rest of the pattern. I’m also re-doing the sleeves. As they are written, the cuffs are very wide, with a circumference of twelve inches. My wrists
are six inches around (the only skinny part of me, and I’m damned proud of them, thank you). So while I had the EZ books out, I used her method of calculating sleeve stitches.

Rip rip rip. Out came all that garter stuff in the round that I had reknit. I’m now back up to the armpits, and I’ve started the first sleeve. I might just have this done for winter!

I will tell you that I love this yarn completely. It’s Classic Elite’s Skye Tweed, and I have no flipping idea why they discontinued it. Even after ripping and reknitting, ripping and reknitting, the stuff looks brand new. This sweater should wear like a champ, if I ever finish it. I just wish I’d bought a couple more sweaters worth of it while I was shopping.

Next time, Project Roundup Part 3, the latest lace project.

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.