January 2007 Archives

Here are a few techniques we learned in last week's class -- a left- and right-leaning braid, and a two-color cast on.

This is a picture heavy post. If you're interested in any of these techniques they're behind the cut.

By now you all know I'm working on doing more knitting-related charity work this year. Colleen is running a knitting charity event of her own.

If you haven't seen it yet, she's holding a raffle for Rosie's Place -- a sanctuary for poor and homeless women. The weather has become bitter cold here in the northeast, and Rosie's Place offers up nutritionally-balanced meals, canned food, and emergency housing for women of need.

For any sized donation you get included in a raffle for your choice of a pair of your very own Charlie Card Mittens or a shawl pin from one of 2 other craftswomen.

Colleen's taking the time to organize the donations, and then even offering up her own time and yarn to make a pair of mittens for the winner. I just love it.

Life gets busy, but it'll only take a few minutes to donate via PayPal. She's so close to hitting the $1,500 mark. If you have the time and the inclination, go visit Colleen's site before noon EST to be included in the raffle.

This ended up being a very quick little project.

Specs:

Yarn Rowan Calmer, about 150 yards

Needles 5.5mm Knit Picks Options

Pattern Chemo Cap from Knitting for Peace

Thoughts & Mods My favorite part of the hat is the spiral top. I'm a sucker for a spiral top hat.

The pattern called for sport weight yarn so I adjusted for gauge. I CO 80 sts for a size small. I played it safe and made the small because the pattern called for 200 yards and a ball of Calmer only has 175. In the end I had 10 grams (approx 35 yards) left. I have a few more single balls of Calmer in my stash, so next time I'll make a bigger size.

I reversed the direction of the decreases and decreased into the YOs. So, for the single eyelet I did ssk, yo. And for the double eyelet I did ssk, yo, k1, yo, k2tog. I dislike the asymmetry of doing a k2tog before the YOs because it creates a line on the right side slanting up and to the right, but no complimentary line on the left. I was concerned that the eyelets would be misshapen but they're not. It's a small difference but I like it, and I plan to incorporate it in other similar eyelet patterns.

I had read somewhere that most cotton yarns shrink by 20% in length if you dry them. Since I wanted this cap to be easy care I knitted it 20% longer and then laundered it inside out. The yarn fluffed up really nicely and its finished measurements are right on.

I don't know what it is about Calmer but I have a lot of trouble knitting with it. No matter what type of needle I try it seems to stick, and I have to use a larger needle just to get gauge. This is the only yarn I've ever had this problem with, and it's stayed with me for almost 3 years now. I love the finished product but I'm unsure I'd be able to knit up a full sweater with it. A hat wasn't a big deal, but a sweater would take some effort.

The hat is what I had hoped for -- simple, soft, and easy care. I'm happy to make this knit for charity my first FO of the year.

I took a class on Latvian Wristers with Beth Brown Reinsel at Loop yesterday. I've never taken a knitting class before, and if it wasn't for Liz suggesting we both take the class as a way to finally meet, I probably wouldn't have.

I'm so glad I did though -- it was a great time.

Firstly, it was great to meet (finally) meet Liz. We met for lunch at Ten Stone beforehand. Liz got there before me and was at the bar drinking a beer. At noon.

I knew there was a reason I liked her.

When class started they brought out a big basket of Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport. We each had to pick out 4 colors. I quickly (and without hesitation) picked out 4 colors and sat down ready to cast on. I randomly chose which color was which, without even knowing where they appeared within the wrister. I was giggling to myself, thinking how Christy would never believe that I made the decision so quickly.

If only I could do that with St. Brigid.

In case you're curious, the colors are:

• Color A Peruvian Pink
• Color B Purple Splendour
• Color C Alpine Violet
• Color D Plumberry

We started out with a 2-color cast on using the long tail method. One color made the loops and another made the bumps along the edge.

Then we went into a couple braids -- a half braid in 2 colors, a half braid in 1 color, and a double (herringbone) braid in 2 colors.

2 color cast on and half braid

double herringbone

We all went at our own pace, and Beth was great at handling 10 women at 10 different points within the wrister. She encouraged you to go as slow or fast as you wanted to, and sprinkled some history in with knitting technique.

It was a really good group (everyone had a similar skillset) so the questions were smart and thoughtful. If someone else asked a question I probably didn't know the answer either.

Beth also talked about how certain actions setup others. For example, on a herringbone braid, you do a setup row in the same colors as the braid. And that when you're purling, to think about where you switch colors so you get a solid or two-colored purl bump.

I haven't done much two-color knitting at all, so I seem to have mixed results. Yesterday's knitting looks better than it has in the past, although my tension is still too tight. See how hourglass the wrister is? It shouldn't be so curvy. Beth's was almost straight. The wet blocking did help a bit, but I still need to work on it some more.

After visiting Katy a few weeks ago and seeing Sue's (her mom's) Latvian mittens (thanks, Sue!), I was inspired to try some of my own. Hers were so pretty. After I got back home I went out and bought Lizbeth Upitis' Latvian Mittens. After yesterday's class I'm hooked. I need to make some Latvian mittens.

I just need to figure out how it fits in with the YFC. I don't think I have anything that I can use. I'm seriously considering blowing this month's allowable yarn purchase on yarn for Latvian mittens. Yeah, it's that bad.

BTW, I tried searching for sites online to demonstrate the cast on and the braids and couldn't find one. Is there one? If not, I might do a tutorial. Are you insterested?

As you all know, my big goal for my entire life this year is to be more reasonable in the expectations I set for myself.

I've made a real effort to stay true to this one -- so far so good -- but what's interesting is that I've found myself doing things and considering things I wouldn't have before this.

I was organizing my stash yesterday and came across lots of remnants and discarded balls from projects and ideas that didn't work out. At first I considered grouping them and selling them off -- just to get the house a little cleaner. But then I realized how well it all fit in with a decision I recently made -- to knit more for charity.

Kelly (my sister-in-law) gave me Knitting for Peace for Christmas. I thumbed through it and found this hat that I adore. I decided I would make it for Alex.

ETA: I did not make this hat. It's a pic from the book.

It has several cute and small projects in it (and some bigger ones too). I looked at it several times around the holidays and decided I would make a few things out of it for charity. They're small and quick so why not.

I've made a big effort to be reasonable in my goals for this year -- not just in knitting, but for my whole life in general.

For several years I've told myself that I'll clean the basement and organize it -- a very lofty goal. Instead, this year I promised myself I'd deal with 10 objects in the basement each weekend -- put them in their proper place, donate them, give them to a friend, recycle them, or throw them out. This is only the second weekend but I'm closer to 40 objects than my goal of 20.

The smaller goal actually made me progress more.

So I'm hopeful that the same will happen with my knitting goals.

There's The Pact -- knitting enough yarn to account for the yarn bought at festivals last year.

I'm doing OK on this one -- I finished a scarf and mitt combo and am more than halfway through 3 pairs of socks -- Railway Socks, Lattice Socks, and a pair of knee highs in STR.

Even though 2 weren't bought at festivals in 2006, they'll count for 2 hanks of socks yarn. I'm OK if I swap out one yarn for another -- the point is to limit the accumulation of new sock yarn. I can't control which yarn inspires me to knit it -- the yarn for the Railway socks and the Lattice socks have been in my stash for 1.5 and 2 years each.

I'm also doing well finishing up some old projects.

There's the Crazy Colors socks that were started back in early 2004.

And then, one of my favorite FOs ever -- Little Man Blankie.

In the past week I've had the urge to work on a warmer weather sweater for myself. I was SO tempted to buy some new yarn. But I've been so busy at work that I haven't been able to hit a LYS. So I pulled out Saffy instead. I lost steam on her last year when I realized I had built in too much negative ease for the denim yarn. It simply wouldn't fit. I've just gotten through the ruffle again, but my interest is renewed and I'm looking forward to wearing it this spring.

To help keep me in check I've joined Rebekah's Yarn Focus Challenge #2. It's a modified "don't buy new yarn" knit along.

In other words, it's reasonable as well.

It starts tomorrow and runs for 3 months. During those 3 months I have 1 free day per month to buy yarn. I think this plan is ingenious -- I can't randomly buy yarn for 3 months, but if I want something special I'll have a chance to buy it. It's like the difference between going on a liquid diet and making a goal of losing 2 pounds a week.

We all know which one wins out in the long run there.

YFC 07 also has a charity component to it. We all need to knit one chemo cap by March 1st. It's a very reasonable goal and good for the soul too.

I'm enjoying my knitting as much as I ever have, I'm meeting my (reasonable) goals, and I'm giving a little to charity.

Getting older certainly has its advantages. I never would have written this kind of post in my twenties. And yet, it's exactly what I had in mind when I wrote this year's goals.

I've had a really busy time at work lately. I had to scale back my normal 1.5-2 weeks off at Christmas to just a single day.

The knitting time? Not so plentiful either.

While I have lots of ideas for sweaters, I just don't have the capacity for them now. But socks, they're just my speed.

After finishing the hem on my first lattice sock I went with something new. It's another long-time member of the stash.

I've been working almost exclusively with hand-dyed yarn lately, and this machine-dyed yarn is a nice change of pace. It's behaving so well -- no pooling, no flashing. Hand-dyed is beautiful, but a little distraction can be a good thing.

Oh, about that lattice sock pattern. I've kept notes, and I'll probably release a pattern at some point. The lattice makes fit a bigger challenge (less stretch, but you still need a good amount of cling so the sock fits right) so I'll need to write up a pattern in several sizes and have it test knit first. Given my schedule I don't see that happening for a while, but if you're an experienced sock knitter and interested in test knitting it let me know.

I've been in a girly mood lately. Can you tell? Smocking, lace, eyelets, picot. It's so girly it's almost too sweet.

The yarn -- Hand Jive Knits' Nature's Palette Sock Yarn in the colorway Odd Duck #1 (Odd Duck indicates their variegated colorways). I bought this yarn at the Stitches 2005. A true stash yarn.

The pattern is something I made up as I went along. I knew I wanted the smocking, and then I wanted some eyelets, then some lace, and finally a picot trim (which isn't quite sewn down all the way yet). Here's a closeup of the top half of the leg. I'm very happy with how the different stitch patterns work with each other. The lattice reduces the stretch though, so the sock has about 10 more stitches than normal to compensate.

True knitter that I am, I finished knitting the sock on Monday, but it's remained in this partially-hemmed state since then. This is one of the rare moments when I think knitting a sock cuff-down is better -- no picot edge to sew down, and kitchner is way more fun.

Another new year, another fresh start.

I try to learn from each year's goals and make more reasonable and better thought out goals the following year. So let's get to this year's goals.

1. Less stash enhancement, more stash knitting - I'm getting better at this, but I can always improve. I wrote about The Pact back in October, but I only have one FO to show for it. If I'm going to enjoy Maryland I best get going on this one.
2. Less deadline-focused knitting - I don't have a lot of free time, so knitting on deadline creates a lot of stress. Hobbies aren't supposed to be stressful.
3. Knit What I Love, and Love What I Knit - I wrote about this back in November when I was working on a sock pattern I really didn't enjoy knitting, and then Scout wrote a similar post yesterday. There are a few old UFOs that I have that I'll never finish. I'll be frogging them soon. I sure don't need that weighing me down.
4. Go to Rhinebeck, again - Rhinebeck 2006 was probably my favorite girls' weekend ever.
5. Knit more socks, again - I only finished 3 pairs in 2006. If I'm going to make any sort of progress on The Pact then this shouldn't be too hard.
6. No Knitted Christmas Gifts - I did it this year and it was so liberating. If I want to give a gift I'll just knit something for someone. None of this holiday craze.
7. Garden more - I used to love gardening, but the garden really suffered once I got back into knitting. Starting this spring I want to spend a little more time in the garden. I started an herb garden in 2006, and I want to finally have the vegetable garden I dreamed of starting when I bought the house in 2000.

There are a few goals that I was tempted to add but didn't. I'd like to try a large stranded project, and I'd really like to publish a few patterns. But I'm not putting them on the list. If they happen, great. And if not, it's just a hobby. It's OK not to do everything.

As for today, I'm making sure I start off the year right. I "slept in" (until 7 AM), I'm watching the Monk marathon, cooking some good food, sharing the day with my closest loved ones, and of course, knitting.

Have a great 2007!