November 2007 Archives

One of the great things about my latest revelation is that I get to go shopping in my stash. It's a great way to get my creativity going.

I've had this yarn since MDSW 2005. It's so old it's not even in the fest stash sidebar! I think when I bought it the Clapotis craze was at a high and I envisioned this as a second Clapotis. But I've learned by now that there are *very* few patterns I will choose to knit more than once. Still, this yarn is *gorgeous* and I'm shocked it's stayed in my stash for two and a half years.

I still wanted the bias look and the single strand of yarn showing through, like it does with the dropped stitches of Clapotis. I must have tried six different stitch patterns before settling on the one you see here. It's patterned every row so the yarnovers show as single strands, and the offset k2togs give it a bias look too.

I do like the way the back looks, although I think the RS is the star with its strong knit stitches forming a diagonal. Still, I'm happy that the back looks acceptable, since a scarf will inevitably show its WS when you least expect.

Christy have no fear, there is something I do want to change (I don't like to disappoint you!). The edge is all wrong. It's not deep enough and it may also be too dense. I do like how it flares out a bit though, as well as the knitted cast on and the few rows of garter at the edge.

Once I'm done knitting the center portion I'll snip off the edge and figure out something else. Which, if everything goes as planned, should be later this week. I want to get past the 30 mark in number of skeins decreased in the stash during November.

Last year I published my knitting life list. I plan to reflect on it each November as a way to check in, celebrate what I've accomplished, and see what might need to be tweaked.

1. Approach knitting like a hobby and not a project that needs to be managed. In other words, keep it fun.Well, knitting St. Brigid was definitely more like a project than a hobby, but I'm really enjoying the end result. This may just be the hardest goal on my list. I'm so used to managing things, making lists and planning out projects that it just comes naturally.
2. Knit St Brigid or another Starmore aran. Done! When I wrote this list last year, I never dreamed that this would be the item that I'd cross off this year. I think I love St. Brigid now more than ever. Remember a few weeks back when I said I was bittersweet about it, and that there were things I'd do differently. Well, none of that matters now. It's 30° outside and I'm warm. In my own handknit aran. It doesn't get much better than that!
3. Start off each year with less stash than I did the year before.Not even close. See below for more details on my stash. Oy.
4. Knit something special for everyone special in my life. I don't mean a pair of socks here. I mean something unique and treasured -- the perfect thing for everyone who matters in my life. I've done very little gift knitting this year.
5. Keep the stash organized and catalogued. Done better than I could have imagined. As of this weekend I have everything input into my stash page on Ravelry.
6. Knit what I love, and love what I knit. I was faithful to this one, including frogging a few partially-knit project that I knew I'd never finish.
7. Don't forget to let go of the knitting occassionally. A corollary to #1.
8. Go to camp.Not yet, but someday
9. Knit a colorwork project. I'm not talking a hat here. Something large, but something I'd actually wear. Jade Starmore's St. Aula (love the hood!), and Kaffe Fassett's Brocade from Rowan 38 come to mind.I don't think this will be in the next year. I need to get better with colorwork before tackling a big project like this.
10. Share the craft with others. This could be through formal teaching, or helping out a friend, or even tutorials here on the blog. I've put together a few technique posts in the past year.
11. Publish some patterns. I realized this year how hard this is while having a job that takes a lot of my focus. But I know if I don't do this, I'll regret it. It may not happen for a while, but I don't want to lose site of the fact that I really want to do this.Not this year, but maybe next

I did pretty well with everything except #3 -- start off each year with less stash than I did the year before. In some ways I did OK. I haven't bought much sock yarn in the past year. But, I have bought several sweaters' worth of yarn, and I only knit one sweater. When I have bought yarn they've been (mostly) better purchases that I don't regret later on. And in the one case when I did regret, I didn't let my guilt of exchanging it stop me (yes, I've kept yarn I decided I didn't want because I felt guilty returning it).

But, I still have a lot of yarn. After returning from Rhinebeck this year I just couldn't ignore it any more. I photographed and catologued everything in Ravelry. So, here goes. Here are my stash numbers:

I am shocked at how large my stash has gotten. Back in February 2005 I catalogued all my yarn and I had 454 balls. That means I've bought approximately 100 balls of yarn per year more than I knit. What have I been thinking?!?

In the past month I've been stash swapping and selling on Ravelry, and I think this will be a big help. Firstly, I've both sold yarn and swapped yarn for something other than yarn (look at my cute little box bag!). I've also swapped yarn I knew I'd never use with things I think I'll use. So, I have a little extra in my PayPal account and a little less in my stash.

Wanna see what I have up for trade? Go take a look at my trade/sell page.

Does this mean I'm declaring a yarn diet? I don't think so. I know that may sound ridiculous but hear me out. As soon as I tell myself I can't buy yarn, I become obsessed with buying yarn. Any yarn. All yarn. Sale yarn. Yellow yarn. Mohair boucle yarn. With sparkles.

Okay, maybe no sparkles, but you get the point. So instead, I'm going to be very mindful of what I'm buying. For example, in my last post, I pictured the start of Roam. Well, I've knitted about a third of a hank and have determined that there's no chance I'll have enough yarn. Instead of buying 2 more hanks, I'm going to frog the little bit I have knitted and save the yarn for something else (I'm thinking maybe a vest?). I think some of you may be thinking this is a bit extreme, but I have many other lovely yarns that I could use for Roam, and I don't want to buy more yarn just so I can make it in the berry color. So, Roam will go on the back burner for now, and I'm just fine with that. Instead, I'll daydream about different vests that I can make with the yarn instead (I'm thinking something with a colorwork band across the upper chest might me nice?).

I really do want to knit through more of my festival stash too (you can see it listed on my sidebar of my home page). Again, I'm improving, but I still have a long way to go.

So, if this year was the year I tackled St. Brigid, this next year will be the year I tackle the stash.

What about you? How do you feel about your stash? Any stash-busting tips you'd like to share?

I've been working on lots of projects this week. It's been fun to play with different yarns, needles, and colors. I'm not certain that all three projects will stick, but that's OK. Sometimes the experimentation is all that I need.

And, they're all out of stash yarn, so all it cost me was a few hours' time.

On the right in the bright orange is the almost garter scarf by Norah Gaughan (free pattern on her blog). I'm alternating 2 shades of Tess laceweight (held doubled) and plan to use all 7 shades. The next shade to use is that fuchsia color just above it. Not the most riveting project but I'm really looking forward to the FO. I can't wait to see what the whole thing looks like when it's done.

On the bottom in seed stitch is a swatch for Roam. I saw Diana's WIP and I had to blatantly copy her. The swatch is in Araucania Nature Wool in berry.

And finally, the colorwork is the Latvian Fingerless Mitts from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style. I loved this one immediately and bought the yarn for it while working on St. Brigid. However, my tension is too tight so I'll have to restart. I don't think I have the heart to rip this though, so I'll just put it in my swatch drawer as a gentle reminder to go up a needle size for colorwork.

I wasn't kidding the other day when I said I was trying to be more focused with the number of projects I had going at once. While there's no chance I'll become a one-project knitter, I am going to try to be more deliberate and committed about what I knit. I like the process, but I definitely enjoy the product too. Since this one is a gift, there wasn't anything to think about changing. I just knit, and that was very freeing.

specs

pattern dragon scarf kit by morehouse merino in Huff (red)
yarn morehouse merino 3-strand in cardinal -- 1.5 hanks
needles knitpicks options 4 mm / US# 6 (not the best choice -- read below)
mods slipped the first stitch of each row to make a neater edge.

thoughts
I love the finished object. The yarn is super-drapey and soft.

But, I didn't like knitting this yarn. 3-strand yarn is basically three unspun plies of yarn just placed next to each other. If they're plied together at all it's very minimally. It's like knitting with three thin strands of roving.

While I think the yarn would be splitty regardless of needle choice, the very pointy knitpicks options that I used just exasperated it. But, I couldn't locate another 4 mm needle (yeah, I need to organize the needle storage a bit) so I knit on with the knitpicks options.

Add to that the fact that I had to pull VM out of practically every row of knitting, and it made for a not so fun knitting experience.

The other issue I had with this kit is that they don't list a row gauge -- just a finished scarf measurement. The instructions are explicit (no "knit until scarf measures X") so there's no obvious place to adjust for length. After I bound off, the scarf measured 52", but the finished length was supposed to be 62". I soaked it and wet blocked it and wouldn't you know, it came out to be exactly 62". It worked out in the end, but it would have been nice to know what I was aiming for while I was knitting.

I mentioned that I thought there was an error in the pattern. After reading it several times I've determined that there isn't an error, but the directions are written very strangely. Or, at minimum, the didn't make sense to me initially. While I ended up doing the same thing they instructed, at first I thought I was doing something different. I just did what seemed to make sense given that I knew I was trying to make one of the spikes going up the dragon's back.

I have a second kit in green to make a miniature version for my nephew, so I'll be knitting with this yarn one more time. After that, if anyone wants a dragon scarf, I'll use the pattern but sub the yarn. No more morehouse 3-strand for me.

durability

Given the unspun quality of the yarn, I'm concerned about durability. Will it pill? Will it hold up to a good amount of use? It feels sturdy but I'm not convinced. I'll have to check in with my sister-in-law to see how it holds up over time, and look for a follow-up post at the end of the season.

I haven't read much (any?) negative posts about morehouse, and I'm left wondering if my experience is unusual. It's not often that I complain about a project this much, but I really wasn't impressed. If any of you have had a contrary experience feel free to share -- I'd love to hear that I'm wrong. Did I miss something? Do you think I have unfair expectations?

Has it been two weeks already? Wow, I didn't anticipate how long it would take to write my next post after St. Brigid, but in a lot of ways I needed the break.

In my last post, I mentioned that knitting St. Brigid taught me a lot about my knitting. It's taken me a couple weeks to really gather my thoughts. What I'm outlining here is what I'm thinking for myself -- and may or may not apply to yourself.

1. Quest for Perfection - Finishing the sweater has been bittersweet for me. With over 3 years of dreaming and planning about it, in my mind the sweater was going to be perfect. But it's not. In particular, I would narrow the shoulders another inch per shoulder (the weight of the sleeves pull at the shoulders), I would deepen the V neck by another full repeat, and I would taper the neckline more. It's still a very wearable sweater, but if I could do it all over again, I'd make those adjustments.
2. Sweater Bulk - All those cables are heavy and add to the bulk. While I expected this to be the case, seeing it in person made a much bigger impact. I've been looking toward finer gauges and less cabling to manage the bulk.
3. Fashion versus Art - As beautiful as St. Brigid is, I find myself obsessed with more wearable designs lately. I'm unclear whether that's a current obsession or more of a permanent thing. Either way, I've been focused on finding sweaters that are fun enough to knit, functional enough to use, and fashionable enough to wear. That's a lot of requirements but when I look back on my FOs versus UFOs, in most cases it's those three items that separate the two.
4. Mindful Colors - While knitting with all kinds of color sounds intriguing, I know I'll make something more useful if I stick to my core colors -- black, reds, greens/blues, pinks and grays. If it's a color I wouldn't buy RTW, then I'm not buying yarn to make a sweater in it either. Accessories don't count though, so socks, scarves, and wraps are safe for all colors. Oh, and I'm currently test driving purple -- until last week I didn't own a single thing in purple but I think I might like it. I bought an inexpensive sweater to see how I feel when wearing it.
5. Mindful Stash Usage - I've spent a lot of time photographing and inputting my stash into ravelry. In the process I frogged several partially-knit projects that I had no interest knitting, and even made 4 trades with other ravelers! Cataloging my stash renewed my interest in many of the yarns I already have, and stash trading satisfied my desire to shop without spending a dime.
6. Project Focus - I'm still not sure where I stand on this one. On one hand, I knit a huge sweater in under 10 weeks. But on the other hand, I was dead tired by the end of it, and my hands ached. I like project variety but there also comes a point when too many projects is just plain too many. I still don't know what that number is though -- is it only one sweater on the needles at a time? Only one pair of socks? Max quantity of WIPs that I can't go above? I'm torn by this one because a hobby should be fun, but I also want to be able to wear and use what I knit. There's got to be a good way to balance the two.

So where does all this leave me? For the past couple weeks I haven't knit much. The only thing I've worked on is the dragon scarf. I spent a lot of time with my stash though, and my Ravelry queue grew quite a bit. Seeing all that yarn again, and having some time to contemplate has really sparked my interest again. If I could cast on for all of these today I would. And this pic is only a sampling of what's enticing me right now. I haven't been so excited about knitting in a long time.

click for more info on each design

Some of you may notice that a couple of these designs don't look exactly like the originals. That's because I've been playing with color a bit.

left: original; right: color corrected for me

I've noticed that the color something is featured in plays a bigger role in my interest level than I would have expected. Seeing other people's FOs in colors that I like a lot more was really eye opening. I'm going to try to pay more attention to this. Coral is probably my least favorite color, and yellow-neutrals are right behind that. So it's no wonder I passed right by these two. But as knitted items, in the color of my choice, I love them.

So what do you all think? Do you have the same problem when something is knit up in a color you don't like? Or do you just instinctively know?

And as for Bianca's Jacket -- if anyone has any Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in color 19 please let me know. I'm so obsessed with this cardi that if I had enough in my stash (I only have 2 hanks) I would cast on right now. right. now.

This getting my groove back...damn, it's a good thing.