January 2008 Archives

I've noticed a change in the types of projects I'm enjoying working on lately. While I don't foresee a time when I wouldn't want to work on something larger, I'm relishing these smaller projects right now.

On My Needles

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of projects that meet my goals and both of these cover several.

The socks are out of Tess Supersock & Baby that I bought at MDSW 2006. Every time I start a project with this yarn I wonder why all my socks aren't Tess socks. Nice, tight spin, gorgeous saturated colors, subtle variation, and probably the hardest-wearing socks I've made. I have two pairs of Tess socks already. They're in constant rotation (read: I wear them *every* week) and they look great. A little bit of pilling on the heel (the kind that pulls right off) and that's it. The color is true and the stitches still look great.

So this pair of socks is the Fancy Silk Sock for a Child of 5 or 6 Years from Knitting Vintage Socks, with my typical mods -- toe-up, Judy's Magic Cast On and short row heel. When I started these I thought they'd be my pub knitting project, but it turns out the yarn is too dark to knit it well in a dimly lit bar. So, these socks are growing slower than I expected.

The second WIP is Phiaro from Knitscene Winter 2007 / Spring 2008. I'm using the yarn I dyed a couple weeks ago and I'm on the last hank. The yarn didn't pool at all and the color variation seems to behave more like a Koigu than any one of those pooling hand dyeds.

Lest you think it's all roses and kitty cats here, I'm not thrilled with the overall color of the bamboo. A lot of the original pink dye washed out, so much of the area that was undyed by me is now a bumblegum pink. I'm withholding final judgment until all the sts are dropped, but I may put the whole scarf into a dye bath of a deeper red to tone down some of the light pink.

On My Mind

The next two projects in the queue are also smaller.

On the left is the Zippered Vest from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style. I'm subbing the Patons Classic Merino for Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Wool Cotton. I swatched and washed the yarn and the gauge is spot-on. The yarn isn't really living up to its Soft Touch name yet though. It will be fine for an outerwear vest, but this isn't non-knitter next-to-skin soft. Chawne suggested dropping it in the washer to simulate some more wear (and maybe soften it) and I think that's a great idea.

On the right is Norah Gaughan's Quicksilver Bag. Can you believe this will be my first knitted bag? I'm not a fan of felted bags, so when I saw this one I knew this would be my first. It uses leather handles and dowels from Homestead Heirlooms, and now that they arrived last night I can't wait to cast on.

Go check out their handle options for use with knitted items. I love these handles and I don't think this will be my last non-felted bag that I make with something from them.

I'm a little concerned about the color I picked though (color seems to be my problem today, huh?). I deliberately didn't choose black (because everything I own is black) but I'm feeling a bit like I missed out by not going with my initial choice of Tuscany Yellow or Orange (view their color chart). I think they both would have been fun color combos but I was afraid it would limit the usability of the bag. In the end I went with safe-brown, so I think a fun fabric lining will be in need to balance things out.

My second FO in what's just over 2 weeks of 2008. At this rate I'll have at least 45 FOs for the year (ha!).

This was a hard-earned one, but one that I'm very pleased with in the end.

pattern Marlande from Bouton d'Or Layette & Junior no. 13
yarn Patons Grace in Rose, Viola and White (3 balls of Rose, 1.2 balls of Viola, .8 balls of White).
needles Knitpicks Options 4.0 mm / US # 6
mods I didn't intend to make any mods, but one became necessary. I washed and dried my swatch, and was suprised that it didn't shrink in length.

you see where this is going, right?

Once I washed the dress, it shrank quite a bit so I needed to lengthen it. I added a white lacy edging below the ruffles, and I love it. I think it looks like a little petticoat peaking out from underneath.

Thoughts on the Pattern

Johanna warned me about Bouton d'Or patterns and she was so right. They have such cute designs but the patterns are odd. In my case, I found the pattern to be both highly-specific and vague. For example, they made sure to tell you to do your increases 2 sts inside the selvedge to make it smoother for picking up the edgings (nice!). It worked out beautifully. Then, they did things like instruct me to make a tr buttonhole for the button closure. I've never heard of a tr buttonhole, and neither had the writers of the abbreviations or general directions. I couldn't find a single mention of how to make a tr buttonhole. In the end I made a little loop and blanket stitched inside it to make a nice, firm outline. Worked fine.

I really enjoyed the embroidery bits, and plan to do more of it this year. And that button? Cute as a...hmm. Well, damn cute. The colors were chosen based on the parents preferences (pink, pink, and some more pink. The baby's bedroom is all pink, replete with satin and tulle. The viola was my addition because as much as I like pink, I needed some contrast.

The end result is really sweet, but all the little finishing work took quite a bit of time and was...less fun. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are a few numbers for you:

• total number sts CO: 400
• total number sts BO: 1,033
• total number sts picked up: 595

Crazy, right? If I had thought through all the steps before I started the finishing work, I could have reduced some of my effort. But really, all those edgings are going to be extra work, and there's just no way around that. I knit the body in 2 days. I finished the rest over the next 2 weeks.

But, it was worth it. I'm enamored with this little dress, and I think (hope) the parents will be too.

A few months ago, I got some beautiful Alchemy Bamboo in a trade on Ravelry. The yarn is gorgeous, the yardage is enough for a nice accessory (600 yards) but the color, not so much. So, when I made the trade, I did it with the intention of overdyeing the yarn (I have Kristy to thank for the idea).

I did some research online and I couldn't find a resource that talked about handpainting bamboo yarn Handpainting (wool) yarn, sure. Dyeing bamboo yarn, sure. But nothing that talked about how to do it in a non-submersive way. Now that I've dyed my yarn, and I'm happy with the results, I thought I'd share with you all what I did.

ETA - the instructions I found for immersion dyeing bamboo yarn can be found here on Halcyon's site

Step 1: Scour the Yarn

I soaked the yarn in hot water (140° F / 60&def; C) with Synthrapol and Soda Ash for about 15 minutes. I used 1/2 tsp Synthrapol and 1/2 tsp Soda Ash per pound.

To get the water warm enough, I started out with hot tap water in a stove-proof container, dissolved the Synthrapol and Soda Ash, added the yarn and cooked it on low for 15 minutes once it hit the right temperature. To check the temp, I used a candy thermometer locked in a Ziploc bag so it didn't get any chemicals on it (I wasn't sure if the Ziploc would hold, but it was fine!

Note: My yarn was already in hanks that were tied off in figure 8s in three places along the hank. If your yarn isn't tied off this way, make sure you do so before getting it wet -- wet fiber sticks to itself and makes it much harder to work with. You'll have a big mess if you don't.

While the yarn was getting cleansed, I mixed up the dyes.

Step 2: Prepare the Dye

I used Procion Dye in #78 Navy. I wanted a nice variation of color, so I mixed three strengths -- 2 grams, 4 grams and 6 grams of dye for 1 cup of water. In the end, this step was completely unnecessary, as I found I could easily control the saturation of dye just based on how light or heavy I was with the paint brush, and how much dye I picked up with my brush. So, save yourself a considerable amount of dye and just mix up 2 grams for 1 cup of water.

Step 3: Finish Preparing the Yarn

After the 15 minutes were up, I rinsed the yarn. I was shocked at how much red dye came out in the rinse.

After that, I prepared a Soda Ash bath for the yarn by mixing 3/4 cup of Soda Ash with a 3/4 gallon of water. Note - I started with cold water this time and the Soda Ash hardened as soon as it hit the water. So, use hot water so it dissolves easier. Once the Soda Ash is dissolved, add the yarn and let it soak for about 5 minutes.

Remove the yarn from the Soda Ash bath, wring gently by hand, and place it on a protected surface (I used a double layer of kitchen garbage bags.

Step 3: Painting the Yarn

Put on some waterproof gloves, and using your paintbrush, paint the yarn. Use a heavy hand for very saturated areas, and a dry brush and lighter hand for a more mottled effect. Be sure to get the dye into the areas where the hanks are tied together, and once you've painted one side, flip them over to paint the other side.

You shouldn't have any dye liquid pooling around your yarn -- natural fiber has a wicking property, so if it finds any liquid it will soak it right up and you'll be left with an uneven dye job.

Step 4: Curing the Dye

Wrap up the yarn in plastic (I used the garbage bags that I painted on as the wrapping). I folded it up into a nice package and let it sit for a few hours.

From what I read it only needed to sit for 90 minutes or so, but I ended up letting it sit for 8 hours or so. This didn't seem to have any impact on how the dye set, although I've read that the dye needs to stay wet.

Step 5: Washing out the Dye

I unwrapped my yarn and dumped it in the sink (I have a black cast iron sink so I wasn't worried about it getting dyed), and ran cold water on it to wash out any loose dye. Very little dye came off.

Next, I put the yarn in a stove-proof container with 1/2 tsp on Synthrapol and brought the temp to 140° for about 10 minutes. The water turned very blue. I rinsed the yarn and returned it to another Synthrapol bath. This second time the water stayed clear.

I rinsed the yarn, gently wrung them out by hand, and hung them on a hanger to dry. I was afraid of dye dripping from them so I placed a couple of old towels underneath them, but they didn't drip at all.

Step 6: Admire Your Handiwork!

Step back and admire your beautiful work!

if anyone uses this tutorial and has an issue, question or suggestion, feel free to leave a comment!

ETA - Great comments, everyone! Several of you have asked where all this talk is taking place. I recall a thread about FO-only posts in someone's comments (it was before Christmas, I think?) -- but I can't remember which blog it was on.

You may also be interested in this thread on Ravelry Knitting Blogging: steam running out?, where opinions run the gamut from blogs are a dying breed to fewer people are commenting to I'll never stop blogging.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the state of knit blogging. Should you stop writing WIP posts in favor of FO-only posts? Has Ravelry killed blogging? Has Flickr killed blogging?

For me, the answers are No, No, and No.

The whole discussion of WIP posts versus FO-only posts just seems silly to me. I like to share my FOs, but that's not the only reason I blog.

I blog because I like to record the evolution of a project. I enjoy going back and seeing how it progressed, and being reminded about the challenges I encountered, or the decisions I had to make, or the frogging that was necessary to make it "just so".

I blog because I like to share with my readers. I like to let everyone know if I've found something useful (or not) and like to share my thoughts. I enjoy writing up tutorials and I love it when someone comments with a different (but well-thought out) perspective as well. And judging by the number of referrers I get from Google I think that you all appreciate it too.

I also blog to help me think through something. Sometimes I'll post a WIP shot and ask for opinions. Or sometimes, the activity of writing the post helps clarify.

And finally, I blog because I enjoy the writing. I spent most of my school years avoiding writing at all costs. I consider one of my best "mistakes" in life was my decision to attend a liberal arts college for my Math and Computer Science degrees. I despised those classes then, but I look back on them fondly and know how helpful they really were in preparing me to be an effective, persuasive communicator -- both very necessary skills in just about any profession you choose.

What this means is that I love the format of a blog, and all that it brings together for me. I can't imagine *not* blogging.

This Ravelry and Flickr Business

Ravelry and Flickr are great, and both meet needs that the knitting community has had -- needs that blogs alone couldn't meet.

I've read that some bloggers are considering closing (or have closed) their blogs, moving to Ravelry or Flickr instead. In my opinion, this doesn't speak to the fact that blogging is being replaced by these services, but rather that blogging wasn't the right fit for them to begin with.

Ravelry is an information aggregator. Want to knit a pattern? Check on Ravelry to see who's knit it and what they thought. Have 10 balls of yarn in your stash and no ideas what to make from it? Check on Ravelry to see what people have made with the yarn. Looking to make a scarf out of fingering weight yarn but don't have a pattern in mind? Ravelry's your answer.

The forums are a nice tidy way to get at a lot of information. I'm a member of several designers' fan groups, specific knitting techniques groups, and local groups in NJ and Philly. The groups are a great way to have discussions with knitters who share a common interest.

And finally, my most-favorite part of Ravelry, the friends activity page and the queue. Oh my, if they don't just make me want to quit my job and knit all day! and I still wouldn't have enough time to make everything. I've discovered patterns I never would have considered otherwise, and blogs I never knew about before. It's greatly enhanced my knitting experience, but it hasn't replaced my blog reading.

Same goes for Flickr. Flickr is another great resource to augment my online knitting experience. The groups are great. Looking for some really beautiful FOs? Try Knitting Art. Want to see handknits modeled on people? Flip through Handknit Street Style. I love how interactive the comments are. Blogging isn't as conducive to comment threads, but it works really well in Flickr.

I also like the speed at which I can post to Flickr. Take a pic, do a little post-processing, upload, write a small caption, and done! I'm participating in Crafting 365 and Flickr is the perfect medium for it. I get to see a lot of creativity, meet some new people, and look at my own crafting in a different light. I'm really enjoying the commitment to take a picture a day of my crafting, and the creativity it inspires. Look for a longer blog post on Crafting 365 periodically as the year progresses (see? more cross-medium uses...)

As I've said before, this is a really interesting time for the internet. It's saturated enough to make niche sites viable, make the wiki model feasible, and make internet communities successful. It's not often in our lives that we'll be able to witness something grow and evolve at this kind of pace.

I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

My first FO of the year!

yarn lana grossa mega boots stretch, color 715 (bought at MDSW 2006 -- yay for more fest yarn!)
pattern basic toe-up on 60 stitches, increased to 68 about 2 inches before the top
needles knit picks 2.75 mm / US # 2

What can I say about these socks? They're really simple -- toe-up, Judy's magic cast-on, stockinette foot and leg, short row heel, a couple inches of 2x1 rib, and a decrease bind-off.

Even though they're so simple, these socks are really special to me.

They meet several of my 2008 goals:

• Stash yarn - I bought this at MDSW 2006!
• They're socks - I really want more hand knit socks this year.
• Finishing what I started. Being able to wear what I knit - priceless.

  Up next is finishing up Gigi's dress. The birthday party is in a few weeks and let me tell you, that innocent little dress has hours of finishing in it.

We have a birthday party to go to in the middle of the month. I had considered making something for the birthday girl (she's turning 1) but decided it was just too close to get something done in time.

Then, yesterday, I found myself going through pattern books and stash yarn. I was inspired!

I couldn't have come up with a more suitable project for my first of the year. It covers several of my 2008 goals:

• Stash yarn (the pink Patons Grace). I had to buy the single ball of lavender and white, although I did use store credit which somehow seems less stash-y.
• Using a book I already own. I bought this book -- Bouton D'or #13 -- almost 2 years ago. The children and baby patterns in this book are fantastic! Full of little details -- colorwork, lacy edgings, intarsia duckies and pink witches. What's not to love?
• Mixed media project -- those little embroidered flowers.

I didn't want to give the parents a hard to care for garment, so I washed and dried a swatch to see how it behaved. It shrunk quite a bit in width but not at all in length (which surprised me).

I can't wait to get to all the little details. Ruffles! Garter stitch edges! Embroidered flowers! This is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote up my goals list.