knitabit

I'm in love

I set aside the itchy tweed yarn and the goofy IK pattern and instead picked up my new wool/alpaca yarn and an Alice Starmore gansey pattern and I'm in love. This wool is so soft and pleasing to work with. And the pattern ("Lochinver" from Fishermen's Sweaters) seems to be very well-written and clear.

This is my first gansey and this seems like a really smart way to knit a sweater. I hate trying to seam together sweater pieces anyway (my finishing skills are poor) so I love the idea of knitting everything all in one piece and then sewing on a couple of buttons.

I started out knitting a size medium, but my gauge is a little loose (unusual for me) so it seemed like the finished product was going to be way too big. So I ripped out to start over again on a size small. And I'm glad I did because the second go-round, I used the cable-edge cast-on as recommended in the back of the book. I've never done this cast-on before, and I am very pleased with it.

We are headed up to my parents' cabin for the holiday weekend. The weather looks like it's going to be kind of marginal so I'll have LOTS of time to knit. YEA!

The Haul

I went to Showers of Flowers (www.showersofflowers.com) in Denver, and had a marvelous time. I was in there for more than two hours and my feet got tired from standing for so long. They really have just too much stuff to see in one visit.

Here's what I walked away with:

Clockwise starting at upper left:

Alice Starmore's "Celtic Collection" Gosh, one of these days I'll have the skills needed to do one of these.

Interweave Knits, Winter 2002/2003 issue for the "Saddles at Dusk" pattern (more about that in a minute.)

Denise's Interchangeable Needles So far, I just love 'em.

8 skeins of wool/alpaca yarn in camel For a sweater for me!

Oat Couture sweater pattern Maybe for the wool/alpaca yarn.

I've been waiting to get started on a sweater for my husband using the yarn I got from eBay - I thought "Saddles at Dusk" would be just perfect. After a couple of days of frustration, I might have to just sideline the whole project for a while. For one thing, I'm not so sure about the yarn. It seems very brittle and scratchy. This pattern hugs around the neck, and I know I wouldn't want this stuff actually touching my skin. And then the pattern...

I've never knit a sweater in the round before, but I can see that if you've knit socks on circular needles, you've got all the skills you need. However, this pattern is knit from the top down, so you do increases ("make stitches"), not decreases. And the pattern is silent on which type of increase you do - and it makes a difference, obviously, whether you slant left or slant right. Now I can figure this all out, but would it have killed anyone to at least give us a HINT in the pattern? Geesh.

The cast-on for the neckline was supposed to be a 'tubular cast-on' but it didn't make a very pretty edge with this rough and tweedy yarn, so after two tries on that I substituted my very favorite German Twisted Cast-on instead, and it looks very nice. The collar is supposed to stand 2 1/2" tall, but mine is probably twice that tall so I'm going to have to go back and see if I mis-read something.

Even though I knew the collar was goofed up, I kept going so I could see how the saddle shoulders worked. That's where I ran into the confusion on the increases. And I just don't like the way they look - I wonder if I would do my increases a stitch or two away from the stitch marker they might look better.

And stitch markers - I couldn't find them, so I am using an assortmnet of hoop earrings instead. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

So I'm going to rip the whole thing out and start over - I'll try to figure out where I went wrong with the collar and I'll do some experimenting on making those increases look nicer. And I might just find a whole different yarn to do this with.

In the meantime, I might get out the wool/alpaca and get started on my own sweater.

A reward for 13 years of hard work

This morning, I put ALL FOUR kids on the bus to go to school ALL DAY. EVERY DAY. I know many moms who shed tears at this momentous event but not me, baby.

As soon as the laundry's done, I'm taking off down to Denver to go to a really huge yarn store and I'm gonna get a set of Denise's needles, a past issue of IK that has a men's sweater pattern that I want, and maybe some yarn if something strikes my eye.

My house is quiet and I don't even have any music on. I will clean up the breakfast dishes and no one will make a mess until late afternoon. I will drink coffee.

Life is good.

One down, one to go

Here is the finished little girl's sock, as modeled by the little girl herself:

I'm about an inch down the top of the second sock. True confession: I have been knitting these little socks this week during the evenings while watching VH1's "I Love the 70's." I have been pretty disappointed by the near-constant bathroom humor, sexual innuendo, and foul language from the guest "commentators." But I have to watch it anyway; I really do remember wearing "gaucho pants" and watching "The Gong Show." Haven't thought about that stuff in years.

The yarn came! The yarn came! I got my Tivoli Irish Bainin Tweed Yarn today, and I really like it! The photo on eBay didn't show the little tweedy flecks very well, so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package and took a good luck. As soon as I post this, I will be a good eBay-er and give the seller some nice feedback. Now to decide exactly what to do with this stuff...

Suggestions, anyone?

Camping was a bit damp...but we had a mah-velous time. There were otters in the lake we were fishing at - I've never seen them in the wild before. They were fighting over fish - so much fun to watch.

I got as far as the short rows on the heel of a Regia sock for my daughter. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

On the pretext of going grocery shopping, I detoured over to Borders books to get the latest knitting mags and browse for knitting books. I got "Cast On" - the second and last time I'll purchase that one. I also got "Interweave Knits" in spite of the fact that it was shrink-wrapped. There's a couple of things I like in it. Then I picked up a copy of Alice Starmore's "Fishermen's Knits." There's LOTS of stuff in it that I'd like to knit, but I think my skills have to advance a bit.

About 15 or 20 years ago (geesh, has it been that long?) my parents and little sister went to New Zealand and brought me back some yarn. It is Scheepjeswol "Thorobred Pure Wool Brushed." Yardage is 165m per 50g ball, and I have SIXTEEN balls. It is a very fine yarn - almost a fingering weight. It is pretty fuzzy, almost like a mohair.

I have been wondering for years what to do with it. Should I knit as is, or double it up? The Starmore book has a pattern that would accommodate this yarn. I knit up a swatch to see how it would look. The fuzziness makes this yarn a bit difficult to work with. I had to knit the swatch on NUMBER ONE needles to get gauge. And even then, the design area throws my gauge off considerably - I must need to pull a little tighter on the purl stitches. Also, my swatch was knit back and forth, not in the round, so I suppose that makes a difference on gauge as well.

This sweater is knit in the round - you cast on 352 stitches to start. AAUUUUGH! My fear is that I would learn to hate the sweater before I even make it halfway up.

Here's a close-up of the swatch:

If anyone has a good suggestion for how to put this yarn to good use, I'd love to hear it.

Camping trip!

Last night after dinner, my husband and I decided to go camping this weekend. Uncharacteristically spontaneous for the two of us...

He and two of the boys left a short while ago to reserve a site before the campground fills up; my other son, my daughter, and I will head for the mountains after soccer practice.

Shapely Tank is still sitting in an unshapely mass on the couch, waiting for the side seams. Guess it will have to wait until next week. I'm taking along a bunch of socks for camp-knitting: the unfinished Ribble sock, the Koigu sock, and a little girl's Regia sock that I started last night (a very stripey candy-colored thing.) I will also bring along the new issue of Vanity Fair that just arrived - it's all about European royalty which for some dumb reason has always been a fascination of mine.

Shapely Tank nearly done

I will probably post a picture of the finished Shapely Tank tomorrow.

I don't like it much.

For one thing, I really can't stand knitting with cotton. I have crocheted with cotton and didn't mind it, but knitting is different. I will think twice before knitting with cotton again. I don't know, maybe it's just the particular brand I'm using (Sinfonia.) Little threads are constantly separating away from the main strand.

And the pattern...I will check my finished measurements tomorrow and see if it's me or the pattern. I think the neck opening is too wide-set.

And finally, my attitude took a dive towards the end of this project and my finishing techniques were not up to par.

I will be glad to finish this one up and get back to my Koigu socks. Plus I've got the eBay yarn coming soon; I'll swatch some up right away and figure out what to do with it.

I'm starting to think about fall/winter projects, maybe sweaters for the kids?

New name for weblog & site

Faithful readers of this weblog (ha-ha, all two of you) have noticed that I have changed the name of both the weblog and the website.

A little explanation is in order...

Whenever I knit at family gatherings, the running joke is "knitting...ah-and knitting...ah-and knitting..." which is from "Pee-Wee Herman's Big Adventure" (which by the way is a really great movie for adults and kids alike, in spite of what you might think about Paul Reubens and his criminal escapades.)

I wanted to call my knitting website "knitting...ah-and... knitting" but you can't really capture the essence of Pee-Wee in mere written words. (I've got a little Pee-Wee off to the right here, and you can click on him to hear him say it. Turn your speaker volume down if you're easily embarrassed.) So I decided to give up on the "knitting...ah-and knitting..." thing altogether until such time that an alternative name came along.

Somehow last night, "knit a bit" came to me and I decided that's good enough. I stuck with the sunflower thing, just because they were so pretty out in the fields this summer. I will probably change the graphic from time to time as the seasons progress.

So there you have it. The birth of knitabit.

Breaking News!

I just won some yarn on an eBay auction. Here it is:

I put in a bid on a whim; it's 100% wool - enough for a man's sweater for less than $50. Well, it beats a trip to Boulder, that's for sure. I have been oscillating between elation and regret, I guess I just won't worry about it until it gets here and I actually get to touch and feel.

Koigu Sock

I was up at my parents' cabin this weekend, and although I brought along the Shapely Tank to finish up, I decided to start a pair of Koigu socks instead (more about the Tank later.) Oooh, do I love this yarn. It's almost too good for socks.

I thought about doing a toe-up sock, but I really like the edge that the German Twisted Cast-on gives, and I don't mind grafting the toe, so I decided to stick with the leg-down method. I also tried a short-row heel (without a heel flap), but that kind of heel is a lot smaller than my regular heel. The ribbing - which I am extending down to the toe - came down way too far into the heel area. So then I tried a heel flap without the slip-stitch reinforcing. It looked very nice, but just seemed too thin. So I ripped out that heel and went with the regular ole' heel flap. I would be very sad if these socks wore out prematurely because I failed to reinforce the heel. (I've only started knitting socks since late this spring, so I've had very little opportunity to actually wear them. I have no idea how they will hold up.)

So here it is, with the third heel attempt being the one I'm sticking with (this photo really mutilates the beautiful Koigu colors - the actual colorway includes a lot more purples, blues and greens than what this miserable photo shows):

I was knitting the Shapely Tank only because I signed on for the Knitalong group at yahoogroups. I've since decided that this group isn't for me. Their next project is a felted bag - I just finished one and am ready to move on to something else. I don't really need to move with the herd in order to be satisfied with what I've chosen to do.

And that Shapely Tank has been a real bugger. Last Thursday night, I was finishing the straps on the back side. I laid the back on top of the front to see how things matched up. I had already bound off the stitches on one of the back straps, but it was too long. So I picked up the front side by mistake and pulled out a couple of rows and only then realized that I was working on the wrong piece. That's what I get for knitting too late at night. And that's what I get for not counting rows and writing it down. So now I'm mad at the whole thing and I will have to have an attitude adjustment before I get it out and work on it again.

The new issue of Vogue Knitting

The new issue of Vogue Knitting arrived a few days ago. I subscribed to this magazine to support a fundraiser at the kids' school.

While it's fun to browse through the magazine, I doubt that I would ever knit most of the patterns. If you have a copy, check out the vest thing on page 77 (pattern 11.) It's like 70's shag carpeting gone bad, I don't know... Or the shrug thing on page 97 (pattern 32.) I would be afraid of public ridicule if I wore this outside my home. On the other hand, the two patterns on pp. 84-85 (patterns 18 and 19) are just beautiful, and I'm seriously considering no. 19.

I find that I'm as interested in the advertisements as I am in articles, which isn't the case with other magazines I read. This issue, the cover is matte instead of glossy, which I think makes it a more comfortable magazine to hold in your hands.

Oh, and I don't really need a celebrity on the cover of a knitting magazine. The article about Daryl "I don't even know how to purl" Hannah was pretty worthless.

Regia socks are completed!

At long last, the Regia socks are done. Here they are on my feet:

And here they are laying flat on the floor:

I had a couple of false starts on these socks; my regular "recipe" didn't apply when the instep is ribbed, so I had to cast on more stitches than I usually would. For this pair, I used Size 1 needles and I cast on 72 stitches. I worked the top 7 rows in a 1x1 rib, then the rest of the leg in a 4x1 rib. The cast on was the German Twisted Cast-on, which makes a really tidy yet stretchy top for the sock.

Next: I'll be finishing up the Shapely Tank - maybe within a couple of days. It feels so good to get these projects completed and crossed off the list!

Knitting Website updated

I have created and uploaded a newer version of my knitting website to coordinate with my blog.

My new knitting website was my first venture using Macromedia Dreamweaver. Until now, I have done all of my website design with Microsoft Front Page (YUCK!) It's always hard switching to a new software package, and with Dreamweaver I just had to dive right in because just reading about it wasn't getting me very far.

Here is a better image of my felted bag:

I might get real close to finishing my second Regia sock tonight.

Up and Running

OK, here's the new blog! I've sacrificed a lot of knit time to get this dang thing up and running. Still a few tweaks I'd like to make, but I'm sick of tweaking and will live with it the way it is for a while.

I got the entrelac felted bag done, and I'm very happy with it. Here's a pic:

It looks much better sitting down, as opposed to hanging, so I will post another pic sometime soon.

I'm about halfway done with the 2nd Regia sock. The Shapely Tank and the Ribble sock are still waiting for action.