double down

I finished the sweet pea sweater and got the library book back on time.  Score!  Even had the time to knit most of a second sweater out of the book, a very simple one that went quickly and was no problem to finish without the book.  Wrapped them up and sent them off to the baby shower in Florida.  I hope she likes them!

Here's the finished sweet pea sweater:

 

I'm really happy with it.  I think it's so cute!

The other sweater is a little Chanel jacket style.  It doesn't look quite like in the book, it's a little shorter in proportion to the size, but I didn't check my gauge first, so may it's just that the body is a little larger around than it should be.  Anyway, even if it's a bit of a cropped sweater when she wears it, that works, too.  The yarn is a synthetic yarn which my friend who is the baby's grandma gave me because she couldn't quite figure out what to make with it.  I think it worked well in this sweater; I hope my friend agrees.

Next I've decided to pick up a project I started months ago.  It's basically a sweater from the book, Knitting on the Edge.  (The berry cluster pullover, find a picture of it about halfway down this page.)  I'm knitting it using Elizabeth Zimmerman's proportional sweater pattern, since I hate sewing seams, but I think I can make it look pretty similar.  I think I have the lower body (up to the underarms) done, just have to take it off the needles and make sure it's right so far.  I'm using the white mohair blend hand dyed with turquoise and lavender speckles that I got at Tess's clearance sale at last year's Sheep and Wool Festival.  I think that fuzzy, cloudy look is part of what appeals to me about the sweater as pictured.  Photos next time!

In garden news, the basement greenhouse is full of tomatoes, lettuce, beets, cabbage, etc. etc., it's going pretty well down there.  I bought onion sets today.  The weather was a bit rainy, so I didn't plant them, I'm hoping for a bit better weather tomorrow.  It's still quite cool, but not a problem for the onions, I think.  I did scope out the bit of garden where I want to put them and discovered that I have two parsley plants from last year that are coming back, and the garlic I planted in the fall have started to come up.  It's my first time trying garlic.  Best of all, I have crocuses!  This was taken in the front yard last weekend, when it was warm and sunny:

Hallelujah, it's spring at last!

 

Veggies

Working diligently on the sweet pea sweater.  The library book is due in 2 more weeks, after all!  I'm working up the hood now:

(Ignore the rocks, they're only there to hold the edges down.)  I'm liking this patterns, not least because all the seams are done as you knit.  For instance, no side seams, and the shoulder seams were done with a 3 needle bind-off.  The hood top seam will be the same way, and the sleeves seem to be knit right on.  I think the only finishing will be turning up hems.  Yay!

Took a hit on the plankton shawl this week.  At knitting group, Ralene and I were both knitting along when she says, "So how does it work on these asterisk rows?"

Me: "Umm....  Asterisk rows?"

Ah, the dangers of printing out color originals on a black and white printer.  Turns out starting at a certain point, every 4th row has a little trick to it, and on the pattern the knitter is reminded of this by a red asterisk on the chart.  Printed on a grey background.  Render that in black and white, and guess what?  The asterisk is almost invisible.  I remember noticing this before I started the pattern, but of course by the time I was 60 rows in and the asterisks started, I had completely forgotten about it!

Then came 20 minutes of dithering along the lines of, "will anyone really notice?  Maybe I can just start doing it now, and really, who will know?"  Well, fellow knitters, of course the answer is, I'll know.  So it's time to frog.  Fortunately I put in a lifeline just a few rows before the first asterisk row.  Hurray for lifelines!  I am so glad I didn't get too far ahead of Ralene.

This week's big excitement was the creation of the seedling greenhouse in the basement.  The tomato seeds I planted last weekend sprouted in 3-5 days (bottom heat really does work wonders in seed sprouting), so the pressure was on to get them a place to live.  The plant lights had already been mounted in a shelving unit in the basement, but the basement is a little cool for tomato seedlings, so we turned the shelf into a little greenhouse using clear plastic sheet.  A 40 watt bulb provides enough heat to keep the little enclosure warm, and a timer turns it all off and on so they get day and night.  Here is is:

and here are the little seedlings safe and happy in their new home:

Next week, lettuce.  Bwa ha ha!

Baby stuff and more stuff

Well, I finished the hat from the last post, but it has not worked out as I planned.  The lighter yarn around the ears was a bit slack, so I decided to wash the hat, hoping it would tighten up a bit.  I like a hat that hugs the ears firmly.  Unfortunately, the yarn that I hoped would shrink and felt a bit did not at all, the yarn with the cable pattern did (really fuzzed out the cable pattern), and the yarn on the inside came out just right.  It's Goldilocks all over again.  What that left me with was a crown that was too small and still that slack feeling in the ribbing around the ears.  Not good.  I think I'll try to salvage the inside layer and reknit the ribbing and outside.  But I haven't had the heart to face it yet.

What I have been working on is baby stuff!  One of my coworkers became a dad for the second time a couple of weeks ago.  The baby was due around Feb. 18, so mid January I decided to start on a blanket.  She came two weeks early, the morning of the Super Bowl in fact (go Ravens!), but with diligent knitting I managed to get the blanket done by the time he came back from his 1-week "maternity leave".  Here's what I made:

It's a log cabin style, knitted from the center out with each square/rectangle knitted onto the ones before so no seaming at the end. I made a different stitch pattern in each rectangle.  I tried to use patterns that would look good from either side.  I think blankets need to be reversible.  I used Ralene's Jacob yarn, worsted weight.  If you wash it in the machine with lots of fabric softener it gets pretty soft, and so dense and warm that I thought it would be good for a February baby. 

Here's a detail shot:

The tree pattern in the upper right looks almost like the one Kate is doing right now!

Now that the blanket is done, I'm starting on a baby sweater for my friend Mardi's first granddaughter, due at the end of April.  Kate showed me the sweet pea sweater from 60 Quick Baby Knits (at that link, it's the light green hooded sweater) at the Library last time she visited, and I was hooked.  It's too cute!  All the patterns in the book use Cascade 220, but this baby is going to live in Florida, so I didn't think she would need a wooly sweater so much.  I found a worsted weight, machine washable cotton/acrylic blend at Knit Picks that looked pretty good, and when I found that it came in a color called Peapod, well, that was that.  It was the painting of the sun porch all over again.  I have the body of the sweater done up to the underarms, and I have to say, I am liking this yarn.  It has that loose texture of cotton yarns, not the nice spring of wool, but it is soft and knits up very evenly.  And the peapods are just as cute as they look in the book!

I also have a couple of other projects on the needles.  A few of us in my knitting group are doing shawls, and Ralene and I are doing the Diatom Shawl.  Mine is in black merino/wool laceweight, Ralene's is in shades of lavender fingering weight.  Very different looks.  I only work on it at knitting group, though.  Either Ralene knits very slowly or she doesn't spend much time on it, and I don't want to get too far ahead of her.  I think a knit-along is more fun if you're pretty much doing the same part at the same time.  No photos yet, either; you know how lace looks on the needles.  I think it will be good, but right now it's pretty funny looking.

Finally, for my traveling knitting (the project, usually socks, I keep in my purse for emergencies), I am knitting up the brown Malabrigo sock yarn I bought a couple years ago at Montoya in Evanston because Tonja raved about how much she loved Malabrigo.  Well, T, you were so right.  It is heavenly in the hands, and the subtly varied color is beautiful.  That was a good tip.

The most exciting news of the weekend is, it's the beginning of gardening season!  Never mind that we've had flurries for two days, it's in the teens tonight, and I can hear the wind whistling around the house.  It's time to start the tomato seedlings!  Peter and I put up the plant lights he bought me for Christmas.  I brought in the half frozen bag of potting soil from the shed, filled almost a dozen little yogurt cups, and put them on the radiator to warm up for a day or two.  Once they're ready, it's go, tomatoes, go!  I am also soaking celeriac seeds to start this week.  I read they germinate better if you soak them first.  It's a funny vegetable, and hard to grow, but I do love it. 

Think spring!

Winter knitting

What, let me ask you, is sadder than a dedicated knitter walking around in her winter coat without a suitable hat?  This conundrum plagued my brain recently when the weather here finally turned winterish and I dug out my winter coat.  The one I wore last year had gotten rather disreputable, so I found a nice coat in the back of the closet which I have had for years but never wore much.  Naturally my thoughts then turned to the proper accessories.  The way the coat is made, it doesn't really need a scarf, and one of the pairs of gloves I knitted with K1Frog2 last spring matched it well.  But I had no hat that matched.  In fact, I am down to only one winter hat, period, so clearly some hats are needed!

Time to ransack the stash.  Ooh, look, another skein of the yarn I used for the gloves.  That's good, but not enough.  Hmm.  Ah ha!  Some more yarn that goes with it (and the coat)!  Victory is mine!

So here's the hat so far:

Since the yarn is sport weight and I want the hat to be good for the coldest part of winter, I am making it double layered.  The top part is the outside crown.  Cables, knit bottom up.  I'm using dpn simply because I'm using my circular needles of the same size for a different project right now.  The light part covers the ears.  That's the yarn that matches the gloves.  2x2 ribbing, partly for a little extra thickness and warmth, partly because the yarn is a little larger than the other and I thought the ribbing might be needed to draw it in a little.  The fold between outside and inside is in the middle of the light part.  At the bottom I have started on the inside crown.  It's a k8p2 ribbing.  Ribbed for a bit of flexibility in the fit, but mostly smooth, which I think will work better for the inside of the hat.  I have tried it each time the color changes, and so far it's making me happy.  The 2x2 rib could be a little snugger, but I don't think it's because it's really too large, I think it's because it stretches very easily so does not hold very tight.  I'm hoping some washing and blocking at the end will tighten that up a bit.

The exciting news of the week was that K1Frog2 and Blonde Knitter would like to hold this year's NSKO East in conjunction with the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  Mucho fun to be had there.  I am poised to put in my vacation request at work, waiting only to find out their exact travel plans.  Yay!

Christmas recap

I hope one and all had a good Christmas this year.  I sure did, got together with the whole family for lots of good food and company.  Got some Christmas knitting done, the rest was postponed by choice, no hard feelings there.  Finished the socks for Peter.  Also made a headband / ear warmer for mom, which she had requested.  And several more ornaments. 

Beads turned out to be quite a challenge, not the least of which was finding suitable beads to begin with!  Most of what I already had, had holes too small for yarn.  But I've been playing with them anyway, here are a couple I made with what I had.  I have also bought some craft beads with larger holes.

The one on the left has some crystals at the tips of the snowflakes, I'm not sure you can see it, but it sure catches the light.  I'm not sure about the "hula skirt" of pearls on the right.  It seemed like a good idea in my mind.

Not wanting to get slowed down too much by the bead dilemmas, I proceeded to knit these as well, from patterns in Arne and Carlos's book.  The one on top is a "Christmas pig".  It's a German thing, what can I say.  It was in the book.

And working from a pattern I purchased thanks to a link from Blonde Knitter, I came up with these.  We all love the mousie (left), but the bird (right) is not so convincing.  In the yarn I used, we all think it looks more like a lamb. 

My sister-in-law gave me another ornament pattern book for Christmas.  She just went on a trip to Germany, so it's in German, but if you click on the row of pictures on this web page you'll get the idea. They're very different, less about color work and more about stitch patterns.  Because many of them are lacy, they're worked over unbreakable metallic ornaments, not just stuffed.  More ideas to explore.  By next Christmas you may have to shovel your way around the house through the ornaments!

I'm off of work now until Jan. 2.  Time to knit!

Thanksgiving ornaments

More ornaments! Will it never end? Maybe not, I'm still having fun! This time five big ones. Three from the book, and in honor of the Thanksgiving day dog show, two dog themed ornaments using fair isle patterns from the little Vogue book of Knits for Pets.

Next: Beads! Stay tuned!

It's magical!

The knitted ornament frenzy continues.  Here's the latest crop:

Experimenting with different colors, yarns, etc.  I scaled the basic pattern down to make a medium size and a small size as well, and boy are those little guys cute!  And fun to make; they work up in just about an hour vs. about three for the standard (largest) size.

The Houdini socks have progressed, got the feet done.  I now have two closed tubes, each with a toe at each end.  Sorry, it just feels silly.

Tomorrow at knitting group I guess we'll steek the ankle openings and start up the legs.  I can't wait to see how they fit, especially in the heel.

Getting my holidays in the wrong order

Well, an interesting weekend it has been.  East Coast ravaged by Frankenstorm, Casa Bell/Lynn survives intact.  It rained, it blew, yes it was pretty amazingly stormy, but the old domicile proved its mettle once again.  Power stayed on, basement stayed dry.  No major tree loss.  Hurray!

College was closed for two days.  Boss called us in anyway to batten down the computer room.  Seems the roof has leaked before.  They say they've fixed it, but a bit of plastic over the top of the computer racks did seem like a wise precaution.  Today the weather was actually not bad, but a lot of things were closed to give people time to clean up roads etc.  Boss once again felt we should be making use of time.  With offices closed, I elected to spend some time catching up on "read this interesting thing" emails from boss and others and doing research on current projects.  You know, all those things you never quite get to at work because of all the other crises-of-the-day and impromptu strategy meetings that come up.  Ah, the bliss of working without interruptions.

Of course, a weekend full of clouds and rain also afforded some time for knitting.  I am having a ton of fun with these Christmas balls.  Here's the latest:

Hearts, probably the prettiest patterns in Arne and Carlos's book.

Trees, in timeout until I get some gold yarn to make the little stars at the tops.

I'm calling them scales.  I was intrigued by the idea of combining a regular yarn with the glitter eyelash I bought during the NSKO3.  Not a lot of contrast, but I think it will be lovely when it's done.

Also started my socks for the Houdini Sock knit-along.  The sock looks pretty normal, but the construction is odd.  You start at the toes, knit the foot, then knit the toe again backwards for the heel.  At that point you have a closed tube.  Then you basically steek it and knit the tube for the leg.  So far I have the toe and a bit of the foot.  Pictures will be posted as it develops.  Steeking is scary!

Summer Socks

NSKO3 is approaching, which has put me in mind of what great friends I have.  Great partly because they are still my friends, even though I neglect my blog which I started so they can keep up with what I'm doing.  So thank you, friends, and here at long last is an update!

I've done a lot of sock knitting this summer.  I realized that I have finished 3 soon to be 4 pairs of socks.  Imagine, 4 pairs of socks which I have never worn languishing in my sock drawer.  It's enough to make me look forward to cooler weather.

Without further ado, here they are:

The pink ones were different for me.  I had to knit them top down.  My usual m.o. is to take whatever I find interesting about a pattern and adapt it to my favorite toe-up sock method, but these have a band of cabling that travels diagonally across the top of the foot, and I thought that was cool.  I pondered how to reverse it so I could knit it toe-up, and I decided it would require making some guesses about lengths and such which I wouldn't want to bet the farm on.  I decided my best bet was to actually follow the original pattern.  Here's a close-up.  All the cabling at the top cinched them up more than I expected, I hope they don't shrink too much!

The pair next to the pink ones are based on the Turkish Socks pattern in the Vogue Knitting on the Go Socks book.  These I adapted to my normal method, so they're much less folky than the originals.  I wanted to use up some of those odds and ends you have left over after finishing a pair of socks, and this was great for it.  They didn't actually use up all of anything I had, but they were so fun to knit that I can see just keeping a big basket with all the odds and ends and knitting up a pair like them any time I find some good colorwork patterns to use.  I like to do something different every time, so I wouldn't use exactly the same patterns again.  Here they are close up.  Don't you love the colors??

The blue pair are also based on a pair of Turkish socks, this time from Ethnic Socks & Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts.  I love this book, it has so many cool socks I want to make.  The blue ones have a pretty stitch pattern made with traveling stitches (kind of like cables).  That was some slow knitting, let me tell you, but it was worth it.  The effect is more subtle in person than in the photo below, and everyone I have shown them to seems to find them very attractive.

 The last pair is just a plain foot and ribbed leg made of some of the Cherry Tree Hill self-striping type yarn I got at the Sheep and Wool festival this year.  They were my traveling project for a trip to California with my mom last week.  We went to a family reunion.  The colorway is called Birches, and I do like the colors.  They're just a few inches from being done.  I hope to have them off the needles in time to start a new pair of traveling socks for the trip to NSKO3.  

Finally there's this little darlin':

My friend Mardi was asked by another friend to knit a "pumpkin hat" for her baby.  Mardi is an advanced beginner knitter, would be intermediate if she had a little more confidence.  She found a pattern but was a bit afraid, so we did a knit-along.  It is just so cute!  I love that you can make babies wear anything.

That's it for now!  See you soon!

Blacksmith Days

So here's what I did last weekend.  Peter and I went to Blacksmith Days down at the Farm Museum.  My fiber group does a weaving demo there every year.  This year the lady who normally leads the group could not be there, so I volunteered to head up the weaving demo, having done a little weaving myself.  The spinners prepared the yarn from the Jacob fleece Ralene gave us last summer, and I chose a pattern and planned the piece.  A couple of other weavers in the group helped warp the loom.  Over the weekend, I was the only weaver who actually made it to the event, so I sat in the log schoolhouse and wove the 6' long shawl.  Here it is:

(It got a little wrinkled in the car coming home.)  It was a LOT of weaving for one weekend, and I still have to finish off the ends (a medium length fringe, I think), but I'm quite proud of it!  It feels like a real accomplishment to have done it.

Spoils of War

Successfully navigated Sheep and Wool again this year.  Saturday I spent three hours volunteering in the T shirt sale booth, which was fun and netted me a T shirt of my own with the word "volunteer" printed jauntily across the back.  Bragging rights!  Then looked around a bit, but when even Tess's rummage sale (a rare event) could not tempt me, I knew it was time to go home and come again another day.  Sunday was much better for shopping, netting me the spoils shown here:

Three skeins of sock yarn.  The two on the bottom are from Cherry Tree Hill, always a nice place to shop.  It's hard to see the colors in the one on the left, but it's called Birches, and it has a warm white variegated with greys, greens, and golden browns that do remind me of birch trees.  It's subtle and quite lovely.

And the big purchase, from Tess's rummage sale (yes, I went back, how could I not?):

Hand-dyed (as all of Tess's yarns are) angora and merino blend, sort of a light worsted, about 1300 yards, which should be enough to make myself a sweater.  The colors are so me, and the yarn is so soft.  I love it.  Now to find a pattern.

Peter made sure I ate my full quota of lamb sausages, and mom purchased this gem:

So fun was had by all.

The project now on the needles is a pair of socks, grey self-striping cotton/elastic blend with some decorative stitching I'm copying out of Ethnic Socks and Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts.  Still trying to knit socks that I can wear in the summer.  Sigh.  Here they are:

  Only one active project right now, my garden has been taking up the rest of my time.  Pix of that next time!

April madness

The shawl project has blossomed in a gratifying way.  I started the shawl, then took it to work and showed it to a couple other knitters who know the intended recipient and who are in on what's happening.  They were both very keen on the project.  They also knew of a couple more people to ask, and they joined in, too.  Then I even asked one more person who is a crotcheter.  I think he's going to try a crotchet edging for us.  He's never done anything like that, he said, but he would like to participate.  So we're off and running!  About a week to go, and with this group, I don't think we'll have any trouble having it done in time.  I'm so happy about it!

As the shawl makes its rounds, I am working on the ladder yarn scarf for mom.  It's coming along.  I have knitted 6 of the 10 balls she bought.  I'm sure one more will do it.  So, what to do with the extra 3 balls?  Any ideas?

NSKO East and more

The NSKO East concluded with much knitting accomplished, much enjoyment of each other's company, and me (at least) already looking forward to the next knitting vacation.  Here's the wrap-up:

Gloves, gloves, gloves.  K1Frog2 showed me how to knit them, and I made 4 gloves in 4 days.  To be honest, I was a bit tired of gloves when it was done, but I feel I have burned them into my brain to where I could sit down and do one any time I wanted (like my favorite sock pattern), and I love that.  It was well worth it.  And here they are:

The pair on the left are made from Sirdar Snuggly, a synthetic yarn with a nice, soft feel.  The pair on the right are Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk.  I really liked working with that yarn.  If the washability is as good as the label indicates, I may have found a new favorite all-around yarn.

After the first pair (Sirdar), we had to go to a yarn shop to get the yarn for the second pair (oh, the horror), and of course we found some unlooked-for bargains to round out the shopping trip.  After I got tired of gloves, I spent the last day of the NSKO swatching my finds.  First the Noro (I am a closet Noro addict, though sadly too poor to indulge my cravings):

 I seem to have thrown away the band by mistake, so I can't tell you exactly which Noro this is, but it's a variegated wool base yarn with shiny synthetic wrapped around it.  It sort of sparkles with the colors.  The photo above is before washing, the photo below after.  I have come to believe in washing all experimental swatches, even if the band says it's not washable, just to find out what it actually does when washed.  Most of the swatches I then wash again and throw in the dryer, just to see what that does.  The photo below shows the swatch after washing.  The base yarn felts ever so slightly, which I actually liked, but it does dim the color sparkles a bit.  There's a real trade-off there.  All in all, I think I prefer it unwashed.

The final yarn was not really mine, my mom bought it, but I have sort of appropriated the working of it.  She fell in love with a sample shawl in the shop made with a ladder yarn, then she fell in love with the ladder yarn when she saw some in her colors (a variegated sky blue / golden brown with silver sparkles).  The shawl turned out to be machine knit, so unfortunately I will never be able to duplicate it by hand.  But when she bought an entire bag of the ladder yarn it turned out to be half price, so we are forging ahead.  After looking at some patterns for ideas, we decided to make a scarf.  In this yarn, it will be very drapey, and she can wear it draped around her neck almost like a piece of jewelry.  When I first started knitting it, I was disappointed that it didn't look like the fantastic shawl in the shop, but as the scarf has started taking shape, I have become quite enamored of it.  It has a certain something in its own right.  Here's a photo, although I think you have to see it in person to really appreciate it:

The yarn is Skacel Tropicana.

That's the NSKO report.  This week I did start one new project, though.  After I returned to work I found out that one of my co-workers, an incredibly kind and sweet person, is undergoing tests to see whether she has ovarian cancer.  It shouldn't happen to someone so nice.  I have decided to knit her a prayer shawl.  I went upstairs to browse the stash for ideas on what sort of yarn to get for it, and in the first bin I pulled out there it was: a big bag of Lion Brand bulky weight organic cotton in a pretty light blue (she's blond and fair complected).  I took it as a sign.  I have started the shawl (sorry that it wants to load upside down):

It's the classic prayer shawl pattern, bulky yarn done up in seed stitch.  I hope to have it done before she goes in for surgery in about 3 weeks.  Lots of knitting ahead.  I think there's one person who follows this blog who also knows who I'm talking about, and if you would like to help me knit this, I think it would be great to do it as a shared project.  I'm not sure who else at work knows what's going on, but if you know of any other knitters who know or who you think it's okay to tell, my dream is that a bunch of us knit on this and give it to her to show that we are all rooting for her.  Let me know what you think.

NSKO East

The theme of this year's NSKO East is...gloves! My first pair ever!  Thanks, Kate!

Christmas Knitting

Well, it's Valentine's Day, about time I posted my Christmas pictures.  So here they are!

Sweater vest for Peter: basic, classic, just the way he wanted it.  Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.  Used a pattern to help with the neck and armhole shaping (although I had to knit the neck 3 times), but mostly just knitted it to match a sweater vest he already has and likes.  It was simple enough.

And the piece de resistance, Aran sweater for mom:

She picked the pattern at last year's Sheep and Wool, and I knitted it from Ralene's Jacob sport weight.  Once I washed it, it fluffed amazingly and looked more like a worsted, and the texture softened up delightfully.  The fluff effect really covered any unevenness in the stitches.  I'm very pleased with it.  And it knitted up surprisingly quickly!

Current projects: 2 baby blankets.  A cousin of Peter's and a friend from Chicago both having babies this spring.  The cousin's blanket is Loops & Threads Country Loom, acrylic and amazingly soft, knitted in the classic washcloth pattern (corner to corner diagonal, garter stitch with a narrow border).  The friend's blanket is Caron Simply Soft in a basketweave pattern made with knit and purl stitches (not Entrelac). 

I took the second blanket to work on at my fiber group meeting this week.  It didn't occur to me until I got there that taking acrylic to the fiber group might get me some funny looks.  But they were very nice.  Honestly, it's just hard to find a natural fiber yarn with the washability of synthetics.  And for babies, it's got to be washable!

And Starting...

Serious preparations are under way for the NSKO.  I can't believe it's less than two weeks away.  I'm getting excited.  I am preparing three projects to bring with me.

The first project on the packing list is an Aran fisherman sweater for my mom.  It will be made with the sport weight Jacob wool I bought last summer from my friend who raises Jacob sheep.  Mom bought a pattern she liked at the MD Sheep and Wool festival.  I have cast on the back and knitted about halfway up.  It's a fun pattern and I now know it by heart, but it does require constant attention, so this one is for periods of serious knitting without too many distractions.

The second project is a jacket with an entrelac yoke.  I bought an amazing variegated blue yarn with silver highlights (they say genuine silver, but I think it's Mylar, it has never tarnished) at Sheep and Wool two years ago.  Way too expensive for my pocketbook but sooo irresistable.  Only enough to be an accent in some larger piece.  This summer I developed the notion that it would be fabulous combined with another yarn in the entrelac in this jacket, so I bought some solid blue worsted wool to go with it.  This week I have been knitting gauge swatches to decide what size needles to use.  This weekend I'll buy the needles I need and then I can get started.  I have knit enough entrelac lately that I think I can do it with only minimal brain power, so this might be the one to do while travelling.

The third project I haven't started at all yet.  I decided that since I'm making something for mom and something for me, I should also make something for Peter.  I have some tweedy brown wool I bought almost a year ago now at a sale at a Jo-Ann superstore because it said "Peter" to me.  I think it will look good worked up into a plain, ragg style sweater.  I think I will take that on the trip as the simple, work on it while the flying Wallendas are taking over the living room project.  I'll use EZ's proportion method as the pattern, maybe do something decorative on the yoke when I get that far, but at the beginning I should be able to work on this one in my sleep.  Perfect for socializing.

As for shopping on the trip, I need to look for some yarn with fabulous stitch definition.  I just found another man's sweater pattern which I just love, with some really interesting stitch patterns.  Not complicated, but cool.  I want to make it.  I need yarn that will show all those neat looking patterns.  It will be good to shop with a purpose.

Finishing!

Today is a good day.  I finished something last night, just in time to show it off at knitting group today.  It makes me happy.  Here it is:

It's a baby blanket for someone I work with.  She's having a boy in October, so I got it done in time!  It's entrelac done in garter stitch.  The yarn is a variegated 80% acrylic 20% wool.  It went through the washer and dryer flawlessly and feels soft in the nice way that wool can feel soft.  I'm very happy with this yarn.  It is lying on top of a twin size bed, to give you an idea of size.  Large for a baby blanket, I guess, but several mothers have told me it will be marvelous as a blanket to spread out on the floor and put the baby on with room for a little squiggling around.  Works for me!  I can tell you that the worsted yarn in garter stitch is nice and warm, also good for winter.  I'm glad the weather cooled off as the blanket got larger -- holding it on my lap to work on it in warm weather was a challenge!

What I did on my summer (non)vacation

Anyone who has been reading this blog from the beginning may remember that I started it at the urging of my friend Kate.  I know that during the summer she does not have good computer access, so I get lazy and let it go.  Now I have been reminded that summer is over, and it's time to pick it up again.  So here we go!

Lots of fun knitting happened this summer, although I can't say I have actually finished anything.  Well, that's typical.  However, I did spend the time working with the yarns I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which is what I said I would do, so at some level I consider the summer a success.  The first project was the beige organic cotton.  Here it is:

Looks finished, doesn't it?  Well, I knitted it a little large, so I decided to take it in on the sides and (gulp) cut away the extra the same way you do steeks.  So I sewed up side seams (was surprised that they came out looking pretty nice) and have not had the courage to actually cut into my knitting.  I have to do it though.  The sides are too bulky otherwise.

I have photographed the top along with the skirt I am making to go with it, also almost finished.  The skirt is from a modern adaptation of a 1940's pattern.  It has pockets with cute V-shaped top openings.  If you look, you can see them there.  I love this pattern.  It also fits well and makes me look shapely.  It is from a company called Decades of Style.

Here's a close-up of the neck edge and cabling.  It was knitted top down with raglan shaping.  Garter stitch neck edge. 















Then in June I took a class on entrelac with Gwen Bortner.  If you ever get a chance to see her or take a class with her, do it.  She's a great teacher and a fun person.  Since then I have been totally enamored of entrelac.  So I started the next project, an entrelac top in pink and brown:

As you can see, it's still on the needles.  It's just a bottom up entrelac tube, seemed simple enough for a first project.  Now I'm up to where I have to do some shaping.  It will be simple, just split the sides and knit to the shoulders to make a cap sleeve (a style I'm particularly fond of) and then a square neck.  Seems to be the right shape to go with this pattern.

I have staged the top with the fabrics which inspired it, a brown linen which will probably become a summer dress I can wear under the top and an art deco look cotton velveteen I bought ages ago at Vogue Fabrics.  I have always thought it would make a fun jacket in a simple unconstructed style.  I thought the diagonal quality of the entrelac would be interesting with it.  I didn't buy the yarns to go with the fabric, but when I realized I had yarns in the right colors already, it seemed like fate.

Not being one to have only one or even two projects going at a time (!) and being hotly curious to see what the Noro lace weight I bought at sheep and wool would work up like, I also started something called a mananita (that first n should have a tilde over it, it's Spanish) from the book Shawls and Scarves.  You can see some pictures of someone else's finished product here.  Mine is about 2/3 done, and like most lace, it doesn't look like much but a mess right now.  Can't wait to block it and see how it looks!

The first weekend in August I went to the Knit-Out at the Mannings with my knitting group from school.  It was a bit rainy, but I took my pop-up shelter, and we were able to stay sufficiently dry.  That day I started my final project for the summer: a baby blanket for one of my part-time workers, who is due in October.  The ultrasound says she's having a boy.  At the Mannings I found a nice variegated washable worsted weight yarn in shades of blue and teal.  Being still enamored of entrelac, I decided to make the blanket in entrelac.  Since I like blankets to look the same on both sides, I decided on garter stitch instead of stockinette, and since I wanted the blanket to have some drape, I decided on a larger square for the entrelac, about 3 inches.  It will be a substantial blanket, but I figured an October baby can use a warmer blanket.  To make it somewhat more interesting to knit, I also decided to knit some stockinette hearts into some of the squares.  They're subtle, but they're there.  So here it is so far:

The colors in this photo are a little too gray, but you get the idea.  I think it'll need a little blocking to square up the squares.  I think this yarn turned out to be a little short in the color changes for really good entrelac, but anyway it'll be fun and functional for a baby.








So those are the current projects.  My goal is to finish the two tops for the NSKO, and of course finish the baby blanket before the end of Sept.  I think my big project for the NSKO will be an Aran sweater for my mom made from some Jacob sheep sport weight purchased from my friend Ralene.  Here's one of the preparatory swatches for that:

Okay, enough of writing about it, gotta go knit!

Summer projects

Summer, and the blogging is...well...intermittent at best.  However, I have been knitting, so here's an update.

First, a short review of the relevant stash.  At the Sheep and Wool festival last month, I concentrated on yarns for making some summer tops.  I got some organic cotton, some mercerized cotton, and some laceweight Noro rayon blend.  That last is not so summery, as it is blended with some fuzzy fibers.  But my limited experience with Noro has been great, so I wanted to try it.  The day before Sheep and Wool I also took my visitors up to the Mannings in PA, where I got some linen/cotton blend yarn.  That day we also went by Chicory Lane Farm and I got about 2 lbs. of sport weight Jacob yarn from my friend who owns the farm.  Not summery, but fun.

Then I started knitting swatches, washing them to see what would happen, and looking at patterns.  Here's the current state of affairs:

The organic cotton washed beautifully, much to my surprise, not shrinking at all.  I then washed the swatch again and threw it in the dryer, where it shrank a little, but still looked good.  It is a little rope-y in feel, the way cotton usually is to me, but acceptable for a summer top.  I have started a top-down raglan sleeve pullover with short sleeves and a cable pattern down the front.  It's in a book called Brave New Knits, which I got from the library and like a lot.  The yarn is a medium beige, ostensibly its natural color due to some scientific genetic manipulation.  A little creepy, but interesting.  I have some sky blue, beige, and brown striped denim in my fabric stash which I think will make a good skirt to go with the top.  I think the vertical cables will complement the stripes in the denim.  I'm really happy about this project.

The mercerized cotton was the surprise of the bunch.  On the cone, it seemed kind of rope-y and didn't look like anything special.  I mainly bought it because it was cotton and the price was so good.  Once I knitted it up, thought, it produced a fabric with a luscious drape, amazing stitch definition, and minimal shrinkage.  Definitely a star player.  I don't have a definite pattern for it yet, but the fabric stash turned up a cute black denim with dragonflies in blue and a rosy pink printed on it.  The pink matches exactly the color of the cotton yarn.  So again, I'm dreaming of a skirt and top combo.

The linen/cotton blend also worked up well, nothing remarkable but very respectable, with good washability.  This project is the most vague.  No definite pattern, no definite garment to go with it.  One intriguing possibility is a pink, brown, and grey Art Deco print cotton velvet.  Maybe a jacket to go with the knitted top.  Reply hazy, try again later.

The Noro has me the most puzzled.  It knitted up easily, shrunk when washed as you might expect, and produced a fabric that intrigues me.  I knitted the swatch on size 0 needles, so it is fine gauge and fuzzy.  I decided to make something that would not be washable, so not a top.  I hate dry cleaning items too often.  Since it's lace weight, I looked through my shawl patterns.  I found a cute little number that's basically a poncho-type pullover shawl (called "mananita magic", in the Best of Knitters Magazine Shawls and Scarves book which Blonde Knitter and I both have).  I have the first few inches knitted, but I'm very uncertain about it.  The yarn is that long repeat variegation that Noro is known for, and it is making a horizontally striped lacy poncho.  I'm not sure it's the look I was hoping for.  I am thinking of frogging it and trying a serape style wrap instead.  Maybe knit side to side, to get really long rows and less of a striped effect, and using the small needles in a plain stockinette stitch to get a fabric like the swatch.

The Jacob sport weight is for an Aran sweater for my mom.  She found a pattern at Sheep and Wool which has a "wishbone" pattern element which I hadn't seen before.  It's a fun one to knit.  I made a couple of swatches on different size needles.  When I washed them, they didn't shrink much, just a little in the length, and the yarn fluffed up and looked much more like a light worsted than a sport weight.  I think it will make a nice Aran sweater.  I think I have decided on a needle size.  One final swatch with the right size needles, then whatever fiddling the pattern might need to fit my exact gauge, then I can start.  I will probably leave it for later in the summer, though.  It's not the type of garment that will be comfortable to knit in the summer heat once it gets too large, so I'd like it to be September by the time it gets well under way.

That's the news from the eastern front, happy knitting, all!

Hoping for rain

Sheep and Wool last weekend, but I haven't worked up the energy to boil all that down into a reasonable sized post.  Let's just say, Blonde Knitter and K1Frog2 were here, we went, we saw, we petted wool, it was a great time.  For the first time I made it around the entire festival, and all in one day.  Intense!

This week it's back to my somewhat neglected garden, although mostly what I have to do right now is wait for the ground to warm up for the last of the seedlings to go out, and hope for some nice rain soon.  Here are current pix:

Baby romaine lettuce above, slightly older mixed loose leaf lettuces below.  You can also see the snow peas growing at the end of the box.  They're starting to go faster now.

The roots in the other box have also sprouted, but the sprouts are still too small to take a good picture of.  When I asked one of my gardening teachers why they're going so slowly, she said, "It's cold this year!"

The center of the bed above is being saved for the warm weather crops still in the sun porch: eggplant, watermelon, tomato, basil...

and okra!  See the seedlings in the small pots below, sitting in the big pot with the indoor lettuces.  Still have about half of the indoor lettuces left.  Hope I get to put these seedlings out soon.  It just isn't quite sunny enough on the sunporch, not enough hours of sunlight on any one side, so the seedlings are rather leggy.

That's today's update, happy gardening!