swf

Do you enjoy reading about other people's nutty knitting pursuits (as I do)? About their, ahem, knitting obsessions? If so, read on ...

One of my favourite features on Ravelry is the 'friend activity' tab (where is it? under 'my notebook' click on friends and then it's the second tab along from the left). This feature allows you to peek in at what patterns and projects your ravelry friends have recently chosen as their favourites, what they are adding to their knitting queue, yarns they are purchasing (and a couple more things beside). This is where I am most often apprised of what's new and where I come across projects that I may otherwise have missed and where I first came across the fabulous 'morse code', an elongated cowl version of Laura Chau's Attabi wrap.

I rarely knit something in the yarn that the pattern indicates (it's usually way too expensive). (Except I did knit Kieran Foley's 'Kerchief' in exactly the yarns indicated and was even moved to try stranded knitting for the first time ever so it's an exception in more ways than one.) And I'm not sure that I've ever acually been moved to replicate someone else's project, that is until now.

Another thing I really like about Ravelry is being able to virtually paw through other people's stash and thereby acquire yarn that is not otherwise easily available or at a much better price (or both). That's how I came to own ten balls of Rowan RYC Baby Alpaca DK in Cheviot. Someone was selling nine balls on Ravelry and didn't want to split the lot and as it was the same cost as buying just five balls brand new and I couldn't get hold of any brand new, except for the ball that I had already bought on ebay to check out the colourway ... yes, ten balls. Ah yes, Baby Alpaca DK being the yarn from which 'morse code' is knit ...

There was no way that I could get hold of the other yarn, Viola Silky DK as the independent dyer is on a two-year break on a sheep farm somewhere, so started shopping around for a contrast. I ended up with some madelinetosh tosh DK in Betine, but that wasn't quite right.

Actually, the Cheviot also wasn't quite right - colours in photos online can be deceiving and it's much paler and greyer than I was searching for. Nor were either of the Road to China Light skeins that I bought (moonstone and dusky quartz) quiet the thing either, wrong composition for the main yarn which needs to be a matte, slightly fuzzy alpaca-ish yarn to contrast with the shiny smoothness of a silk blend. (But they are going to make a beautiful subtly striped hat or neckwarmer or something once I decide on it.)

Finally, I realised that what I want to replicate is the look - matte fuzzy alpaca with a contrasting (and lighter) silk blend. So I have settled on:

Classic Elite Yarns Mountaintop Vista, an alpaca blend in natural colourway '6076' and Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend in 3075. I hope it works well.

Along the way I also managed to pick up three skeins of Malabrigo Finito in colourway 'pearl ten'. I'm sure I'll think of something to knit with it.

remodelling

This is the current state of my Cladonia:

Yes, I frogged it. That is to say, took it apart, unravelled it, wound it back up into balls of wool. Sad. It's just that the shawl as it was was too small and the half-circle shape (as opposed to crescent shape) just didn't sit well for me. And the Loft is too precious to not be in active use.

So here I am, starting again. The shawl will still have eight sections but with the following modifications:

- knit garter tab as per instructions, which leaves 10 sts on the needles: 3 for the garter stitch edge, 4 for the body of the shawl, 3 for the garter st edge; work kfbf into first and last of the shawl body stitches (instead of just kfb) [eta: kfb into 2 intervening stitches]; 16 stitches (instead of 14)
- make regular increases every sixth row (instead of every fourth to make shawl deeper)
- make extra far edge increases every third row (on purl side thus) to make first and last of the eight sections double the width and the finished shawl thus two lace repeats wider.

I also think that I will transition from Truffle Hunt/Old World (brown/dark blue) striping into Blanket Fort/Old World (light purple/dark blue) striping before doing the edging in Blanket Fort which will obviate the need for that extra row of contrast that I so wrestled with the first time around. Yardage remains a question but at the worst will require a trip to Bainbridge Island to visit Churchmouse Yarns and Tea and the conveniently placed Mora Iced Creamery. Oh, I do hope I run out of yarn ...

oh the expense!

Yeah, didn't make it with that second ball. The first Gioiello contrast section used about 11 grams of my available 20 so there was no way I was going to knit the next, slightly larger section from what I had left over.

So yes, I bought another ball. Different dye-lot (50 instead of 20) which doesn't seem to account for much colourwise but strangely the texture is different - the metallic thread seems to be much raspier in this 50 ball. Thankfully, it will just be for these six rows down near the outer edge so shouldn't affect its wearability. I actually bought a ball of the 50 previously when I made the decision to use this yarn for this shawl and needed a second (and what I thought would be only additional) ball. I took it back and exchanged it for the 20 dye-lo and am glad that I did.

I have 479 stitches on the needle right now and another 80 or so to increase before the shawl is completed. All gathered up like this it reminds me of a sea creature.

oh the suspense!

So much for tomorrow! I never got around to sharing the other couple of knitting projects that I was embarking upon because I got completely engrossed in Whippoorwill (and umm, I've actually forgotten what one of them was). I made it to the very exciting first contrast section:

The contrast yarn is madelinetosh tosh merino light in the colourway 'well water' and it's going to work much better than the Rowan Pure Wool 4ply that I had previously considered. It is a really beautiful blue. I saw the madelinetosh colours described somewhere on the web the other day as 'glazed' and that is such a perfect term.

While this project has also been rather relentless stocking stitch, there have been some increase rows and eyelet rows and the contrast sections to work toward. Now I have two more sections to knit in the Gioiello and only 19.8 grams left. Last night I did some very exciting row count addition and some division and have determined that if the first of these sections takes 9.7 grams or less, then I will have enough yarn. If not, I will have to purchase a whole extra ball. If I manage to knit six rows of 450-odd stitches tonight, then I will know where I stand. Oh the knitting suspense!

return to usual knitting form

That is, in fits and starts. Although it takes me forever to actually complete something, I think that I am, indeed, happier knitting this way - a row here, cast on there, some ribbing here, a seam there.

Currently and variously:

Whippoorwill, which Ravelry so kindly tells me, I first planned about 18 months ago. And now it's finally on the needles, a wispy sort of confection knit from Filatura di Crosa Gioiello, a sort of (hush now) novelty yarn that for some reason just appealed to me.

 I seem to have become a shawl knitter and if you are going to make another one ('another one?', that's my husband's voice interrupting) then really you, that is me, I have to make them a bit varied. I don't have any lighter coloured shawls and as I wouldn't really be one to wear so much white close to my face, this wool/mohair/cotton/nylon/acrylic blend with the little strand of gold through it is a good option. My contrast colour will be the very pretty Madelinetosh Well Water, a lovely light blue, which I will showcase when I get to it. (thank you Di for the present!).

I've also decided that it's time to deal with all that leftover sock yarn. Something practical, like socks. The toe of these is the Fiber Optics Footnotes that I knit the Honey Cowl from, then a couple of rows of Grignasco Strong print, from which I several years ago knit the 'illicit sox'. Then I moved onto some Zitron Trekking XXL (purchased from the thrift store) which I've had in stash for a while, had only used a little in the Babette blanket and am really enjoying watching the self-striping pattern emerge.

I'm using Laura Chau's Delicious Knee socks pattern as originally I had intended these to be for me. But I either measured the circumference of my foot incorrectly or mucked up on gauge or ... whatever, these are now for Tim. When I get to the heel I'll swap over to the dark blue and green Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball that I used in my Kerchief. Tim is excited about his secret pink stripes (oops, not so secret now).

There's two more - tomorrow.

sweet honey in the rock

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Honey Cowl by madelinetosh, available for free. 
Size: I attempted to make the larger size, a cowl that could be looped around double. 
Yarn: Fiber Optics Yarns Foot Notes, 80 per cent merino, 20 per cent nylon in colourway 'black coffee no. 9', purchased at Rhinebeck last year. I used almost two whole skeins which is more than 800 yards of knitting. 
Needles: 3mm. 
Start to finish: 14 May to 8 June 2012. A 'quick knit' meaning that I didn't put it aside for six months at any point. I knit this pretty consistently (relentlessly), not starting or finishing anything in the meantime - unusual for me. 
Stash/recycle content: Hmm, well, the yarn was totally arbitrarily sitting in my stash ... 

Comments: This pattern calls for a dk weight yarn and I knit it in a fingering weight yarn so I cast on a third (?) more stitches than suggested, that is, 330 all up. And then I knit. Then I knit 62,000-odd stitches. Knitting your way through two skeins of sock yarn is a very long knit, and a simple pattern didn't actually make it go any faster. I have spent years knitting my way through similar amounts of yarn in complex lace patterns. I prefer that! 
Verdict: Full credit to reader Leonie - the solution for interminable knitting is to finish it.

three cheers!!

Sewing trifecta - hats, tunique francaise and now this Nani Iro number:

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Dress U from nani IRO by Naomi Itou (isbn 4579111834 / 978457911183).
Size: I can't remember ... needless to say, it no longer fits the intended recipient (miss bear) but has found a wonderful home up the street with a three-year old.

Fabric: Linen/rayon blend salvaged from a White Stag bias-cut skirt (which was great because the fabric was already set on the bias), purchased at the thrift store.
Start to finish: Started sometime after we returned from Savannah in October 2010 and completed on 4 June 2012.
Stash/recycle content: 100 per cent - hooray! Button was from stash.

Comments: Again, it was the bindings that did me in. And the little square patch with some gathers underneath it there on the front. I also couldn't get the opening at the back to lie flat - maybe something to do with the dreaded binding? I also simply made my button loop out of the sewing thread rather than the fabric which i thought would get too bulky and couldn't, um, really be bothered with at this late stage anyway. 

Verdict: Very pleased that I actually finished it. The fabric was a great choice for this dress, the colour, the coin spot, the blend.
The front and back are actually cut from two pieces - in the photo of the back you can see the diagonal seam along the bottom corner of the dress. I think that this is design to make the most of the print on the fabric from which the dress is made in the book. It also serves to make the dress asymmetrical but I don't think is necessary if you are not emphasising a feature of the fabric print; that is, I could have cut the back and front in single pieces. I also wonder what might happen to the hang of the dress is that piece were cut on the grain instead.

I have another bias-cut skirt waiting to be up-cycled ....

tunique francaise - finis!

Two years later, I present:

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Tunique froncée from Intemporels pour Bébé: modèles et patrons de 0 à 3 ans by Astrid Le Provost.
Size: Umm, can't quite remember now. I think that I made the largest size (3 years) and lengthened it to use up as much of the fabric as possible.
Start to finish: Hmm, first mentioned on this blog on Thursday, 13 May 2010. I finished it on Monday, 28 May 2012.
Stash/recycle content: All of it - hooray! The paisley was a Goodwill purchase and the brown trim came from a dress that I bought at a yard sale and had previously used for some sewing. The shell button came from stash.

Comments: Not sure if the patterned fabric is really the right thing for dressmaking. I suspect that it is more quilting cotton than dressmaking cotton but hey, it's turned out well. I didn't end up making it as long as I had planned and instead sewed a deep hem on it, thinking that it might need some weight to sit well. And it does. Also, French seams - lovely.

And the amazing delay in getting it done? There must be something about my attention span and the process of sewing. Bindings come towards the end of the project (neck and cuffs in this case, and inserting elastic which I hadn't done before), right when my patience is wearing thin and that is enough to have me set something aside for a while. Turns out that it took two years for my attention to roll back around to this one. I have another girl's dress just waiting on the bindings - the only way that I can date it is that I'm using a linen/rayon blend from a skirt that I bought at a thrift store in Savannah ... (October 2010).

Verdict: Miss bear wore this three days in a row - definite success.

hooray again!

The Vital Statistics

Pattern: the Oliver + S Bucket hat again!
Size: small this time for baby b.
Fabrics: again fabric that I received in the handprinted fabric swap, this time the lovely Leuca from Ink & Spindle. And the same toile de Jouy for the lining but chose some more, ahem, boyish motifs - the dog, the foliage.
Start to finish: completed on 16 May 2012.
Recycle/stash content: Yes, handmade hat from handprinted and stash fabric.
Comments: Again, lots of fun to make - I used two layers of interfacing for the brim on this one but haven't found that it really makes a lot of difference.

may reading

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D.James - unfortunately, clumsy. 

A Life in Stitches: knitting my way through love, loss and laughter by Rachael Herron - long blog posts but good. 

Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo - again, too graphic but a good read.

for example ...

... my current preoccupation with Danish triangular shawls with tails long enough to tie around one's waist. Although I'm not really one to wear grey myself, I am completely enamoured by this one, knit by raveller pinneguri. So of course I can't wait to cast on. I'm doing some careful swatching first, Brooklyn Tweed Loft in meteorite above and Rowan felted Tweed DK in camel below, both knit on 4mm needles. I have a tendency to block the life out of my knitting as if everything were lace, so might try these again and treat them a little more gently.

Did I mention the huge swathe of garter stitch that comprises some 90 per cent of this shawl after that lovely lace edging is done? Garter stitch - my least favourite stitch to knit. Hmmm, I haven't told myself about that either.

endurance knitting

I don't think much about what I am about to knit. I think a lot about what I am going to achieve, what the final product will be, not so much about what it will take to get there. How many thousands of stitches lie between me and the object of my knitting desire.

Honey cowl - 27,723 stitches and I'm almost halfway there. Is there a cure for knitting foolhardiness?

babette's feast [of colour] part 2

Comments: Given how labour-intensive this project is, it amazes me that 762 people have crocheted their way through it before me (and that's just on ravelry) - truly a testament to its appeal.

To start with, yarn: the pattern calls for 17 different colours, and refers to them as yarns A through H, J through P, and R and S. And yarn substitution - yes, I did, as have many others. Out of the (currently) 1800 projects on Ravelry, only 250 have used a Koigu yarn (Premium Merino, the recommended yarn, or Painter's Palette Premium Merino). Seventeen skeins of the Koigu would set you back about US$230 so it's no surprise that people have used many other yarns. Crocheting completely from stash, mine was free.

On then to choosing what yarns to substitute in - I guess that if you are going to purchase yarn and can find a range with 17 different shades (and a good colour program, that is, the different colours go well together) that would take some of the guess work out of things. But if you are going to pull 17 yarns out of the cupboard (as I did), umm yes, there's a lot of guess work. I tried to get a grip on the overall colour scheme, I really did, by printing out and enlarging the blanket outline and buying 17 markers and colouring in the blocks. But no, it overwhelmed me. This was something that I only managed to get a grip on by doing.

What I learned: yarns A and B are contained in each of the 10- and 12-round blocks, and all but one of the 8-round blocks. And two rounds of A are recommended for the border. So if you are choosing your own colour scheme, these yarns are going to be prominent.

Unfortunately, not realising this, I designated self-striping yarns for A and B which I don't think are suitable for this project. They don't work too well in crochet and when used in the smaller blocks, the rounds are not long enough to accommodate the colour changes. Result for my blanket was that some blocks that contain the same self-striping yarn bear no resemblance to each other and there is little uniformity across blocks that contain that yarn. Also, my yarns, although all fingering weight, did differ in weight and texture, so that made my squares less regular.

Having said all of which, there was only one block, 12-1, that totally did not work and had to be re-crocheted (and of course, it was one of the largest). I didn't at all like the five to six rows that were all a similar pale shade, and didn't like the effect of the colour change in the self-striping yarn, from pale pink to dark brown suddenly. So I redid that one, utilising the inner part of one of the blocks that I accidentally duplicated (despite my best efforts to work methodically through the list of blocks, I still managed to crochet three of the blocks twice over. And completely missed two of the two-round blocks and had to fill them in after I had started seaming.) Again, I attempted to consider the whole blanket and the overall colour scheme and which colours were called for, and again I was totally overwhelmed and just grabbed the ones closest to hand. Worked out fine.

I also didn't follow the directions for the border - I chose two light colours, pink and yellow, and used these for the first round (and a little more, until they ran out actually). I swapped between the two in order to not be crocheting a pink border row across a block with an outermost pink row, and vice-versa for the yellow. Then I crocheted the rest of the second row and all of the third in a dark but bright yarn (Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn) and then a row of blue-grey.

For all that, the blanket only weighs 429 grams and I only managed to completely use up a few balls of yarn out of the 21 that I included.

This is a project that you really need to have a plan of attack for! I chose to crochet the squares yarn by yarn, that is, I started by crocheting every block that contained yarn A, followed by every block that contained yarn B and so on down the alphabet. For me this had the advantage that once I had finished all for the blocks containing yarn A, I could put it away and that was one less ball to carry around in my project bag.

I didn't weave in the ends as I went, nor did I seam as I went so yes, I had a long end-weaving session and an even longer seaming session, followed by more end weaving, but that was ok for me. My initial reason for not seaming as I went was that I thought I might rearrange the squares a bit but as the blanket came together I was so overwhelmed by the overall schema that I dropped that notion very quickly. Stick with the schema!

And an observation, the pattern is actually laid out in a spiral, although I don't think that the current colour lay out highlights this. It might be interesting to repeat a colour as either the centre or outermost round that would trace a spiral through the sections. Just an idea.

There is also a gallery of each of my individual blocks, should you like to examine them more closely!

Verdict: It's wonderful, but I do wish that it were bigger. Would I do it again, in a heavier weight yarn? the question really is, could I do it again? I'm not sure.

babette's feast [of colour]

I fear that Babette would have a tummy ache.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Babette Blanket by Kathy Merrick.
Size: Ah, there's a reason this is not called the Barbara Blanket - it's tiny!! Mine measures 84 x 76cm which indicates that I didn't achieve the gauge recommended by the pattern (which gives a finished size of 109 x 101.5 cm). Usually I wouldn't be so concerned with gauge on a project like this, although I am a tad disappointed that it didn't come out larger.

Yarn: Lots of them!

• Patons UK - Crocus  in black; a vintage yarn purchased at Lake City Value Village
• Cleckheaton Merino Bambino 4 ply in 2158, a mid-blue
• Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply in 26 (yellow) and 20 (purple), previously used for my kashmir shawl
• Patons Australia Patonyle in a steel blue which I used to finish Tim's dad's socks
• Rowan 4 Ply Soft in a burnt orange
• Ski Yarn Fingering (中細) in 1876, a beige, purchased at Capitol Hill Value Village
• Zwerger Garn Opal 4-fach / 4-ply in a pink/blue/white colourway, unravelled from a baby jacket purchased at an op shop in Benalla
• Zitron Trekking (XXL) in 126 and 81, purchased at Capitol Hill Value Village
• Rowan Pure Wool 4ply in '449 - vintage', '436 - kiss' and '450 - eau de nil', also used in the kashmir shawl
• Rowan Scottish Tweed 4 Ply in '20 - mallard'
• Louet Gems Fingering Weight in sage
• Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn in '01 - blues in the night' which I received in a yarn swap and used for breaking the waves
• Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid in 'manzanita' with which I previously attempted the In the Pink shawl
• Heirloom Baby Wool 4 ply in 415 (light blue) and 407 (dark blue)
• Grignasco Strong Print in a blue/pink/yellow colourway, previously used for my illicit socks
• Grignasco Bambi in 416 'camel', previously used for the acorn hat, knit for life cupcake and rhubarb pie liza

So, twenty-one separate yarns.

Hook: 3.25mm for the motifs and 2.75mm for the edging. 
Stash/recycle content: Oh hooray, all of it! Yes, crocheted entirely from stash. Yarn previously purchased for something else, yarn left over, yarn given to me and yarn bought at the thrift store.
Start to finish: 9 March 2011 to 24 May 2012 - actually not so long. It felt like longer ...

I'm so desperate to get a photo of this finished project out there, and I have so much to say about making it that I need some more time to think: to be continued ...

hooking on the edge

No, not an exposé of the seamy side of Seattle crafting but more in the vein of Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet. I am a very happy crocheter and have almost finished the edging on my Babette blanket. That means that I have finished all of the squares, woven in all of the ends, seamed them all together and woven in those ends too.

Maybe later today or tomorrow!!

woof!

Ok, I know that barkcloth has nothing to do with dogs but really, there aren't many situations in which a female can 'woof' without there being a negative connotation (which I have now invoked in my blog post but anyway ...) I bought this wonderful piece of fabric at an estate sale on Saturday, along with some books about lace, block printing, woodcut printing, samplers, a candlewicked bedspread and rather dilapidated but irresistible pin cushion.

I love estate sales. (Quick note for non-US readers who may not be familiar with the phenomenon, as I wasn't before we moved to Seattle: estate sales are the sale of the contents of a house that takes place in situ so you get to stroll through someone's home where everything is for sale.) I love the opportunity to enter houses that I would otherwise perhaps never have visited, I love to get a glimpse of other people's collections and peruse their books, wondering if they were ever read.

Of course, estate sales mostly occur after someone has passed away or moved to long-term care and no longer has any use for their worldly possessions. And of course, seeing as many of my books and household objects have been purchased at estate sale, it leads me to wonder what will happen to all of my belongings one (very distant) day. Will half my yarn stash still be sitting there? How many of those textiles and art books will be there, collected but still unread? Time to get knitting and reading.

silver bells

... and cockleshells! I do love Kate Davies' Betty Mouatt Cowl (from textisles issue 2) and have had several different plans to knit it since the pattern became available, including an grey/brown version in Brooklyn Tweed Loft (have purchased the yarn for that) and wondering how it would self-stripe in Noro Kureyon Sock. Or in Schoppell Wolle Zauberball, colourway ' schokocreme' of which you can see a small portion above.

Thing is, the Betty Mouatt Cowl is knit from the outside in, outer edge to centre that is, and finished with a  whole lot of grafting. I am not so opposed to grafting, but I do want the centre of the cowl to be pale and since I cannot calculate how to end up on pale yarn at the very end of the project, I have decided to knit the cowl from the centre out, starting with a provisional cast-on (I'll use Judy's Magic Cast-on). As such I have had to rejig the chart to be upside down, a swatch of which is pictured above, knit on 3mm needles. Not sure whether to go down a size.

Now I just have to decide whether I want to cast on the full 546 stitches for the larger version. Working from the centre out may obviate the need for grafting, but that's a cast-on of 1092 stitches ...

your opinion please?

I think the prognosis is good.

the honey cure

Will it actually work?

I've heard it said (ok, my friend Kathie told me - I'm holding you to this) that the madelinetosh Honey Cowl design is the remedy for variegated yarns. I actually didn't think that this Fiber Optics Yarn Foot Notes in 'Black Coffee No. 9' that I bought at Rhinebeck was going to be such a problem ... it looked fine in the skein. Ah, a disappointed knitter's famous last words.

So, obviously this yarn never worked out as Line Break which was its initial manifestation. I didn't like the stocking stitch variation and in garter stitch, once it was stretched out, it just reminded me of camouflage which is one of my least favourite looks.

As the original pattern is written for a dk weight yarn and I want it to be a big, double-loop kind of cowl, I have cast on 330 stitches on 3mm needles and have so far worked seven rows. That's some 2300 stitches already. This had better be efficacious knitting.

kittyville

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Official Kittyville Hat by Kitty Schmidt, kindly available for free.
Size: There's only one size. The pattern calls for an aran-weight yarn and I knit it in something lighter to size it down for a six-year old birthday gift. 
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in shade 893 (0.7 skeins) and a tiny bit of Debbie Bliss Angel in shade 15006.
Needles: 4.0mm and a 1.75mm crochet hook. Oh, and a medium size Clover pom-pom maker! 
Start to finish: Quick knit - 9 May to 12 May 2012. 
Recycle/stash content: All of it - the Cascade 220 was given to me by a friend and the Angel came from Goodwill (99c).

Comments: Fun to knit, great result. The pattern is a bit clumsy but I'm guessing that is to make it an easy knit for those who would be attracted to wearing a kitty hat. I'm not personally but it was perfect to knit as a birthday present. I made a few changes - I knit the ears in the round and did paired decreases (k2tog and ssk) at the very edges of each side of the ears. Likewise for the decreases on the ear flaps which would be nicer if knit all in one with the hat instead of attached later by picking up stitches. I also added the fuzzy inside of the ears by crocheting a triangle from the Angel and sewing it on (also helped to reduce any inadvertent resemblance to a devil hat).
And the pom-poms! I haven't made pom-poms since I was a child and then I used a piece of folded cardboard. Which is what I could also have done this time but why let the opportunity to purchase a Clover gadget pass you by?
Verdict: Purrrr!