Some Catching Up To Do

Howdy! I'm back. My work should be over for a while so I should now have some more time to do things like reading blogs and posting to my own sadly neglected blog. I may not have posted much this summer, but I sure have been knitting. I've got a lot of FO pics to take and post about. Here are a few things to start us off.

First up, we have the Frost tank from Rowan 30. I made one of these last year for Daughter#2 (see pic in my gallery), but it was getting a little tight in the chest for her, so I decided to use up the rest of that yarn and make a bigger size. We passed the smaller one down to Niece#3 who seemed very pleased to receive it.

Daughter#2 and Niece#3 in their matching Frost Tanks.

Here they both are modeling their tanks which they wore to Tanglewood two weeks ago. We went to hear a violin concerto by Dvorak and Beethoven's 3rd symphony, but we got caught in the continuous POURING rain partway through the performance (we were sitting on the lawn). Luckily, we had raincoats and umbrellas ready, but still -- it was a drag. I got leg cramps from sitting all squished up under my umbrella, followed by a wet butt after getting up to stretch my legs and sitting back down again. Oh well, the music was great (particularly the violinist, Hilary Hahn) and we did get in a very nice picnic before the rain started.

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Next up, remember THESE annoying socks from early July?. The ones where my gauge was completely and totally off? Well, I ripped them back to the ankle and knit the whole sock on the 2.5mm needles (with LOTS of trying on along the way).

What did I learn from this experience? Well, let's hope I learned never to ASSUME that just because you are using the same damn yarn and the same damn needles that you will get the same damn gauge. [You know, it's stuff like that that just sucks all the fun out of knitting.] Anyhow, here they are finally, on Sister#1's feet. She seems to like them.

Trekking XXL, color 71, on 2.5mm ndls, with picot trim ankle.

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With regard to current projects, I am working on Meg Swansen's Super-Spiral Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I'm using some laceweight yarn I got this summer from handpaintedyarn.com. It's their Kettle Dyed Pure Wool Lace Yarn in the color Paris Night, which is sort of a purplish-grayish color.

This is a circular shawl that's worked from the center out. In this picture you can kind of see the center (bottom left) with the spirals moving out from there. I love how it's coming out so far. Sure, it's super monotonous knitting, but that's what I needed for the summer. Something I could just pick up and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit without thinking about it. And this shawl seems to be the perfect project for that.

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Oh, and I received by prize yarn the other day and it is WON-DER-FUL! That yarn in the upper right corner turned out to be Artyarns Ultramerino4 (as a couple of you guessed). Also, Melissa wanted to know the color nbr of the Lorna's Laces. It's #18, Watercolor. And, no, I'm not trading it. ;)

I have already almost finished a pair of socks with the Socks that Rock, and I am loving that yarn. I've also started some socks with the Knit Picks Simple Stripes. The yarn is a bit splitty, but I really like the colors. Hopefully, I'll have finished pics of those next time.

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Well, that's it for today. I'll leave you with some pictures my garden (which I should probably go water).

One final thought: Don't these flowers remind you of fried eggs?

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Oops, one more final thought: I signed up for Sock Wars. I'll be on vacation in Maine that first weekend so I'm betting I get killed before I kill, but it should be fun anyway.

In Need of a Stockinette Fix

Olympic Knitting Update: Two sleeves of my Rogue cardigan completed, body started, currently knitting the pocket area.

It took me a whole evening to cast on for the body and make the hem with my stupid new method. What a drag that was. This yarn is kind of fragile when split and therefore it broke a couple times while picking up all those hem stitches. Also, I am no longer convinced that this hem is deep enough to keep the edge from flipping up. Well, at least the hem is finished and I won't have to sew it up later.

Last night I knit the pocket area, which was mildly confusing with the cardigan modifications. You can see the pockets sticking up from each end of the needle in the pic above.

I have to say, I am not enjoying knitting with this yarn. It's kind of rough (almost crunchy?) and doesn't run through your fingers smoothly. It has a lot of natural oils left in it and after knitting for a few hours my hands smell sheepy and feel gross -- like I've been touching someone's greasy hair. Ick. But the color -- I'm still loving that. And my washed swatch did feel nice, so I'm not giving up hope yet.

However, the roughness of this yarn, combined with all the cables and stitch picking-up and whatnot, is wreaking havoc on my hands. Last night I started getting wrist pain so I decided it was time to give this project a rest for a couple days.

Instead, I was craving a simple knit. . . Something with soft yarn. Something knit in the round, in all stockette. Hmmmm . . . I know, those stupid argyle socks!

Well, I dug them out and I've been cranking along on them quite happily. I've decided I need to keep one easy stockinette project going as a way to rest my hands (cuz you know I can't just not knit). I'm hoping to finish sock number one tonight. That will make my dad happy since I promised these socks to him almost a year ago (pathetic, I know).

Hey, guess what today is?

Why it's my knittiversary. Three years ago today, I was taught to knit by my mother-in-law. I was hooked immediately. In fact we went to the craft store that day and I bought some cotton yarn and a book of knitted dishcloth patterns. I was so excited that I cast on for my first project right away. I knit during the entire two-hour ride home from my in-laws' house. And I created..... THIS:

My first knitted object -- isn't it lovely?
Ummm, no.

It used to be yellow, blue, and white but is now dingy from use. Still, you can see the hallmarks of a beginner's knit: the cast-off that is much tighter than the cast-on, the basket-weave pattern that gets accidentally reversed 2/3 of the way up the dishcloth, the crappy weaving-in of the ends. This dishcloth needs to be put out of its misery.

Anyhow, thank you, Marcia, for introducing me to the wide and exciting world of knitting. I am eternally grateful.

A Tale of Two Rogue Hems

How are you all progressing with your Olympic challenges? Me? Eh, not so hot.

Here is the story of how I spent my weekend, deep in hem-analysis. [Beware, super-anal post ahead...]

To review, I'm making Rogue (with the cardigan modifications) in the small size, using Bartlett yarns 2ply on a US 7. I decided to start with a sleeve, since if I mucked it up there would less to rip (and therefore less bad language involved). Good thing, cuz muck it up I did.

I decided follow the modifications for the smaller hem, and so this is what I did:

• used a provisional cast-on, knit 5 rows in stockinette with US5, then did the purl turning row,
• switched to US7 and knit 5 rows of the body (with the increases and the cables),
• then knit up the cast-on stitches with the next row of the body. Since there were more body stitches than cast-on stitches (cuz of the increases), I had to knit some body stitches solo (I got the idea for this at String or Nothing). This was a royal pain when combined with having to follow the cable chart at the same time.

I'm sure this would have looked good in a lighter-weight yarn. But it just didn't cut it with this aran-weight yarn. The hem was big and bulky.

Witness Exhibit A, the thick ugly hem:

I wish I had noticed this sooner, but I was madly knitting away, oblivious to the lumpiness. At the beginning of the sleeve cap, I temporarily seamed it up to check the fit and discovered not only that I didn't like this hem, but also that it was a little snugger at the wrist than I wanted (probably cuz of the thick hem), and that I had accidentally made an extra increase 3" back. Sigh. Three reasons to rip the whole thing.

You know, upon beginning this project, I really was going to try rein in the persnicketiness and just GET IT DONE. But. . . three problems? I just had to rip.

And I'm glad I did because after spending much time perusing my trusty Principles of Knitting by June Hiatt and messing with different hem options, I found a much nicer option.

First of all, I decided to split my 2-ply yarn and use only one ply of it for the hem facing to help eliminate the bulk. This was kind of a pain, but the facing really didn't really use that much yarn so I didn't have to split very much. I tried doing the recommended hem with the purl turning row with the split yarn as facing but then the edge flared too much.

So, I kept using split yarn, but switched the method of hem construction, so I was picking up the facing from the cast-on row (instead of knitting the facing first and folding in half). This finally resulted in A HEM THAT I LOVE.

Here's what I did, step-by-step:

BEGIN SLEEVE:

• Cast on sleeve stitches PLUS 4 (so 43 sts) with US8 using long-tail method.
• Sleeve Row 0 (WS) - [This is an extra row WS row.] I just followed the directions for row 2 of the sleeve as given by the pattern, but with an extra K1 on each end (which accounts for 2 of the extra cast-on stitches). The other 2 extra cast-on stitches replace the two make-1-purls on the chart (which would have happened if I had followed row 1 as given).
• Sleeve Row 1 (RS) - Followed the directions for the real row 1, but again with the extra K1 on each end and purling existing sts instead of doing the m-1-purl.

BEGIN HEM FACING:

• Facing Row 1 - Now, using a US7 and my SPLIT YARN (half the thickness of my main yarn), I picked up and knit 41 sts (2 LESS than I did above) from the purl bumps on the WS of the cast-on row of the sleeve. I did not pick up stitches from the 1st and last purl bumps of the cast-on row since those stitches would just be part of the seam anyway and I didn't want to add unnecesary bulk.
• Facing Row 2 - I purled all of the facing stitches.
• Facing Row 3 - I knit all of the facing stitches, then cut the SPLIT YARN.

RESUME SLEEVE:

• Sleeve Row 2 (WS) - [Here I joined the sleeve with the hem facing.] I picked up the sleeve yarn again and held both the sleeve needle and the facing needle together like I was going to do a 3-needle bind-off. I purled 1 sleeve stitch all by itself. Then I followed the instructions for row 2 of the sleeve, but by purling (or knitting) BOTH the sleeve and facing stitches together. I ended by purling the extra sleeve stitch by itself.
• I then followed the rest of the sleeve directions as given (except for my extra 1 st at each end), however, I did my increases on RS rows instead of WS rows, and I eliminated the final set of interior increases to get back on track with the given nbr of stitches.

OK, that was long, and probably very boring, but I really love the resulting hem. It seems to lie flat, it's not bulky, and it's still kind of stretchy. Big difference from my first attempt.

Witness Exhibit B, the hem comparison:

After all that hem business, I finally got down to some serious knitting and managed to finish the new sleeve yesterday (the snowstorm helped). Here it is.

Now on to the next one...

Lookie what I got

I was in New Hampshire this past weekend visiting my mother, and since I was in the general vicinity I just had to visit Patternworks, and you know what THAT means... Goodbye, resolutions. Hello, yarn.

However, I did have a very good reason for breaking my resolution against buying more yarn. I'm competing in an Olympic event! Yes, it's the 2006 Knitting Olympics, hosted by Yarn Harlot.

I have decided to make Rogue for my main event. The yarn I bought for it is Bartlettyarns 2-ply 100% wool in the color called Scotia. I just LOVE this color. The pic does not quite do it justice -- it's darker in person.

The yarn is a bit rough, but I was thinking that a more rugged yarn might work for a hoodie like Rogue. I did a little swatch to check gauge (right on with a US7) and to check that the fleckiness of the yarn doesn't overwhelm the cable pattern. I think it might be OK, but I'm not sure. Anyone have any experience with this yarn or care to comment about how well cables show up in a flecky yarn? Looking for some input here...

According to the official rules of the Knitting Olympics, I'm allowed to swatch, but I can't actually cast on until the start of the Winter Olympics on Feb 10. So I have some time before I need to make a final yarn decision.

Check out the other lovely items I got for myself while at Patternworks -- a new knitting bag and a matching circular needle case. Oh, and the 4th Barb Walker book at half price. Now I will no longer be toting my projects around in a dirty old canvas bag.

Molly Bolero

I'm soooo close to being done with my Mom's scarf. Can't wait to have another Christmas gift done. Planning on finishing it tonight -- will post a finished pic tomorrow.

In the meantime, to give you something to look at, here is a picture of something I finished a couple of months ago.

Pattern: Molly Bolero from Debbie Bliss Junior Knits

Size: biggest size (ages 9-10)

Yarn: Laines Du Nord Dolly Maxi in Dusty Rose, used 9 balls (from Elann.com)

Needles: US 9 (and US 8 for edging)

Modifications: The body and sleeves of this bolero are knit as one piece (see diagram below) and then the edging is picked up and knit. I used short rows to shape the sleeves rather than using the stair-step cast-on and bind-off specified in the pattern. I used a provisional cast for the sleeves and kitchenered them together to avoid seams. I then knit the ribbed edging on the sleeves in the round (instead of flat, as per pattern). I sewed the short side seams before working on the body edging so I could knit that in the round too (yes, I'm an "in the round" freak, apparently). The edging around the neck uses short rows and the pattern did not say anything about wrapping the turns, but I did it anyway (and I found that it is not easy to hide the wrap in ribbing -- which is probably why the pattern ignored the wraps).

Comments: This bolero came out rather large, but it seems that Debbie Bliss sizes many of her children's patterns to be oversized, and I guess I forgot that. My daughter is 9 and it is pretty big on her (in fact, it fits me, although it did have a tendency to split.

except that the sleeves are a little too short). I probably should have made the ages 8-9 size. The Dolly Maxi yarn was soooo soft. I enjoyed working with it,