Cloche craziness and cowl wip. September 14, 2008

So the felted cloche is finished. I’m not entirely happy with it. I was concerned with felting the silk garden, even before I started, but I did a little googling and the general consensus in the fiber blogosphere was that it really does felt, it just takes a bit longer. I found that it does indeed take A LOT longer and that it doesn’t felt quite as readily as I would like.
As a result, the cloche is just a bit too big. I gave it a half-hearted haircut (it was super fuzzy) but I’m not sure that it is wearable. Maybe if I find someone with a really big head. Like Shrek.
Here are the pics. If I were to wear it I’d cut down on some more of the fuzziness.

And another one:

I do like the way the striping worked out. I also really enjoyed the pattern and think I might try it again with a 100% wool yarn. I have some solid wools upstairs in the attic so I think I’ll give it another go.
I’m still working on planning an afghan. I’m considering doing something with mitered squares. I like the garter stitch squares in the premiere debbie bliss magazine — they are striped (and sort of L shaped, which is visually interesting, at least to me) and would make good use of all the scraps of yarn I have lying about.

Of course this is sized for a baby blanket. I haven’t the slightest idea how many squares it would take to make a decent lap-sized blanket for an adult. I suppose I could knit a test square and figure it out.
I need to stop perseverating and start something soon.

In other news, yesterday I cast on for the Abby cowl from the most recent issue of Knitty. I don’t believe I’ve ever cast on for a project so quickly after coming across the pattern. It’s a pretty, simple lace cowl and I wanted to try out the Sea Silk. It is everything I imagined it would be — soft, buttery yumminess in a skein. The colorway is called ‘indian summer’ and it is a variegated brown/gold/coppery pink. So pretty! I’ve finished 2 complete lace repeats and am about a third of the way through:

I love it! Quick and portable, this is a great SnB project.

Knitted cloche, autumn swatch. September 9, 2008

I swatched for the totally autumn afghan I intend to make Mimi for the holidays. I’m making this from her mother’s stash of vintage yarn and I have a few issues. First and most important, I don’t have enough of any single dye lot to make it. Well, I probably have enough in a solid color I’m not really crazy about (‘honey’). I have 4 skeins of a brick red heather, which won’t be enough, but if I couple it with the 2 skeins I have of cherry smash and do wide color repeats it might be ok. The colors are similar but not identical. It might be an interesting effect.
Or it might look stupid.
I could, of course, purchase yarn for this project but the point was to make her a keepsake item from yarn her mother had collected.
I swatched with size 11 needles and size 10s. I think I prefer the finer gauge. These are the swatches, in the pink yarn leftover from Tudora (size 11 on the left, size 10 on the right, and please overlook the glaring mistakes in both):

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I haven’t casted on yet because I’m still not sure what to do about the yarn issue.

I’m also working on a cool felted cloche pattern called Flowers on a Grave. The name alone appeals to my inner goth. I like the shape and I thought it would be a good birthday item for my sister who is crazy for hats this season. She is also impatient and has purchased a similar hat somewhere in DC. I imagine I’ll felt it anyway and see what I can come up with. I cast on last night, using Noro Silk Garden in a gray and brown colorway, and finished the knitting today. I will also felt it today if I can find the zippered pillowcase I use for most of my felting projects.
About halfway done:

Crown decreases:

Fin! (but ridiculously big):

The last one is a little blurry, mostly because I couldn’t see through the hat.

FO: Tudora. September 4, 2008

After all that knitting on lace ribbon, I was in the mood for a quick knit to go into my holiday gift knitting stash. I decided on this neck wrap for my fashionista Project Runway and Marie Antoinette loving sister. It’s high fashion with a bit of an elizabethan flair.

I used vintage wool for this; the first time I’ve used anything from the stash. I acquired boxes and boxes of wool when my friend’s mother passed away last year and hadn’t yet used it. I’m planning on making an item for my friend — I thought it would be a nice gesture to give her something handmade from her mother’s yarn.

Anyway, back to the story. I had the idea I would use natural/undyed wool, there were about 4 balls of this in one of the boxes. This wool was so old that it just fell apart while I was casting on. I set that aside and went with some Columbia worsted wool instead.

Details:
Pattern: Tudora by Cheryl Marling
Yarn: Columbia Minerva worsted weight in ‘Rose Dust’, about 1/2 skein
Needles: Harmony circs in size 6
Notes: Knitted as written. This was a super quick knit, even considering my inexperience with cables. I need to pick up a stylish button somewhere to finish it off.

I like it so much I think I’ll make one for my other sister.

FO: lace ribbon scarf

Let me start by saying that, start to finish, this is the longest I’ve ever spent on a single project. I started it in early April, thinking I would finish it in time to take on vacation to Alaska. Not so much. I did take it with me, and knit a little on the plane, and when we returned from Alaska I sort of forgot about it until a week or so ago. It seemed tedious. The pattern is fine and it’s even intuitive — one you realize the yarnovers stack up 5 on each side you don’t need row counters or even the charted pattern. I felt like I was knitting forever.
Now that it’s blocked I realize I was knitting forever. This is the longest scarf I’ve ever made. Even the clapotis doesn’t come close.
Details:
Pattern: Lace ribbon scarf by Veronik Avery
Needles: size 5 harmony circulars (not that this project required circs — just a knitterly preference. I never use straight needles anymore)
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold silky wool in colorway 30 (gold), 3 skeins. I think I got this yarn from an LYS going out of business in Asheville but I couldn’t swear to it. It might have been Lancaster. YAY for knitting from my stash!

One other note: this yarn is a beautiful autumnal gold. It doesn’t photograph well next to the blond wood of my dining room table. But here’s some pics anyway (for pre-blocking picture, see header):

And the money shot:

I’ve asked for a new, better camera for my birthday (next month). So hopefully in the future I’ll have better photographs to showcase my knitting.

Amazing lace swap (and other things). September 3, 2008

I’m on an odd schedule. I’m not sure my time stamp on this post is correct (actually, looking at it I’m quite sure it isn’t, it says there that it is nearly 6 am, which is about 4 hours ahead) but I’m up blogging at 2 am. This is because I’ve recently taken a night position at work. It is a 3 day a week, 12 hour shift position. I worked last night, came home and slept until almost 3 pm and then woke up and drank coffee like it was a proper morning.
I guess, for me, it was.
I left the house only to go to Target and pick up some Method laundry detergent (I love this stuff) and came back to do eleventy million loads of laundry.
The positive aspects to this: I completed 1.5 repeats on my lace ribbon scarf. Apparently the last time I was knitting it I stopped after row 12, so I finished that and did another complete repeat. I’m on my last skein of silky wool and probably have a third of it left. I’m not sure how many more repeats I’ll get out of it but I like to wear my scarves doubled so I’ll just knit until I’m out of yarn and then give it a good blocking. The other positive is that, well, the laundry is done and put away and that’s always nice.
The negative? I had to do eleventy million loads of laundry.
As a reward to myself I am now drinking a ridiculously large amaretto sour.

I joined the amazing lace swap on Ravelry. The sign ups were closed yesterday (well, Sept 1 which is technically the day before yesterday now) and our packages go out Oct. 10. The idea is we purchase a pattern and enough yarn to make it and send THAT to our swap partners along with anything else we’d like to include. I think the monetary limit is $50. No knitting required although I think I’ll knit up something small to include in my package. I’m excited about this swap. I really love lace knitting and I feel like I’m ready to move on to a stole or a shawl, something that is more complicated and perhaps something that requires beading. This is the only swap I’m signed up for at the moment and unless something REALLY catches my eye, that’s how I plan to keep it. I’m going to finish this scarf, knit something small for this swap, and then I think I’m moving on to a garment of some kind (as yet undetermined). I still want to try socks and I have yarn all rolled into a big smooshy cake and some beautiful DPNs for that.
So much knitting in my queue, so little time!

Hello world! September 1, 2008

Hello, all. Welcome to my knitting blog. I used to have a blog listed over at blogger but, in a spasstic snafu entirely my own fault, I deleted all my archived posts and had to start over. One lone post hung out over there and mocked me from my ravelry profile page. I’ve finally had enough and will delete the site today and will blog here exclusively from this point forward.

I’m a newish knitter. I’ve been knitting for about 2 years now, I think, and have recently discovered how much I enjoy lace knitting. So there will be an emphasis on that. I’m also looking forward to moving into garments and will soon cast on for my first sweater.

The header here is the lace ribbon scarf from Knitty I’ve been working on. I cast on back in April, I think, and knitted it while we were cruising in Alaska. I then promptly forgot about it and have just recently been working on it again. I vow to finish it this month so that I may look stylish and carefree this fall season.

I want to talk about swaps and future projects and all kinds of things but I will save that for the next post. Thanks for hanging out with me.