Caryn's Knits

Socks, Socks and more Socks!

2011-11-21T12:50:00.001-05:00

It seems like all I've done recently is socks. I spent a chunk of the summer and fall knitting socks, and I have 5 pairs to show for it, with another pair on the needles. It started back in March, when I got a lovely sock pattern and some Tanis Purple Label in the Tanis Year in Colour club. It was the first time in years that I'd really done a pair of socks.

And I loved knitting them, and I loved wearing them. I'd enjoyed knitting the Pomatomus socks, years ago, but I didn't find them very comfortable to wear. I've now discovered that the foot on those is about an inch to an inch and a half too long, and that's why they're just not comfy.

Since I liked the Marching On's so much, I immediately turned around and started Viper Pilots. Those were also a lot of fun to knit - complicated, twisty cable stitches are fun for me apparently. I used Shiny sock yarn from Indigodragonfly, since I thought the theme required something sparkly. *g*

Once those were finished, I started a simpler pair of Plain Ribbed socks in 3x1 rib, in beautiful self-striping yarn from Dye Hard Fibre Arts. They were great for knitting on a plane trip, since no pattern was needed once you were started (at least until you reach the heel). The yarn was great to work with, and the stripes were fun, but O.M.G they were dull. *g*

It was a good thing for my sanity that I was working on my Staked socks, in lovely MCN Sock from Indigodragonfly at the same time. Now, these I loved. Knitting with soft, smooshy MCN, in a nicely complicated pattern - heaven!

Once those were done, I started another pattern from the Tanis Year in Colour club - Aquarium socks, in the colourway of the same name.

These were also fun to do - the pattern was just interesting enough to keep me involved.

So, that's 5! pairs! of! socks! in the last 6 months or so. Ooh, plus I did a pair of toe-up 3x1 rib socks for Mike, in Astermann Step.

He'll probably be getting more of these, especially if I can find some nice, plainish, grey and/or black colourways.

Finally, my current pair on the needles:

Revivals, in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight. Love the pattern, love the yarn, but I'm still not convinced that they're good combination. The subtlety of the pattern is getting lost in the changing colours. I may, eventually, end up frogging these. If I do, I'll re-do the pattern in something more tonal, and use the yarn for a simpler pattern. Or, I may just keep them. *shrug*

I think I may actually start a sweater next...

Marching On…

2011-04-04T11:58:00.001-04:00

The current package for the Tanis Year in Colour Club is lovely green of Purple Label yarn, and a Glenna C sock pattern. And it’s lovely.

I started last Friday, and I’m almost to the point of the heel flap ( I need to knit about another 1/2 inch, first). I’ve thought I’d give cabling without a needle a try for this pattern, since Glenna’s patterns tend to be perfect for that – the cables are all over 2 or 3 stitches, so I don’t have a whole lot of live stitches lying about.

My biggest issue with the cabling without a cable needle? The yarn keeps splitting when I try to pick up the live stitch. I think all I need to solve that problem is a needle with sharper tips. I’m using some Pony Pearls, which are the only needles I have in the recommended size, but I think that will have to change.

Other than that, though, it’s pretty straightforward. Glenna’s tutorials are really, really clear. And, it really speeds up the progress.

And, just a reminder, Sign-ups for IndigoDragonfly’s Smart-Ass Knitters Club end April 14th. I’m really looking forward to next year’s club offerings. Last year’s stuff was so cool; I regret not signing up for it a year ago.

Woe!

2011-03-04T14:27:00.001-05:00

So, a couple of weeks ago I sat down to finally finish off my Serendipity stole. It’s only been sitting there, waiting for me to kitchener the two sides together, for about a year. And I need my cables and stitch markers back!

So I waited for a nice, sunny Saturday morning, hauled it out, and…

found that it had suffered in the great moth infestation of the summer of 2010.

It wasn’t hugely damaged, so I must’ve gotten it into the freezer before the moths could do too much damage. Spreading it out on the table really showed the weak spot, though. There doesn’t seem to be any other damage, at least.

The eaten section as just at the top end of section 5, on the side where I knit section 6 (the middle portion). So, it’s fixable – I have lots of leftover yarn, so I just have to frog out back to the lifeline at the end of clue five, take out another couple of rows, and re-knit the section. The main issue is going to be not losing all the beads used in section 6.

It’s really pretty; I wish I’d done the kitchenering a year ago – it would have been protected, then, and in with my shawls (and the moth balls) and not sitting in my crafts room.

Catch-up Time

2011-02-27T17:43:00.001-05:00

The last little while, I’ve been working on little, one-skein items instead of big projects. I did a lot of Christmas knitting this year:

A set of Ringwood Gloves for a friend at work, a Noro scarf for my Mother-in-law, Wine & Roses fingerless gloves for another friend at work, a hooded cowl for my sister, and a beanie for Mike.

When the new year started, and I could start knitting for myself again, I found myself still working on smaller projects. I did a Saxony Scarf, which was quite possibly the neatest set of cables I’ve ever done. The fact that there are two different cable patterns on the two different sides of the fabric is kinda freaky, until you actually do it and see how it works.

I did a set of Gothic Gloves (ravelry link) for myself as well. Gloves are a nice, easy thing to do, I’m finding.

I’ve also joined two different Yarn clubs this year - Tanis Fibre Arts Year in Colour and Indigodragonfly's SmartAss Knitters/World Domination. I’ve received the first Year in Colour package already – SMA/WD won’t start until June.

I just, this morning, blocked that first project from the Year in Colour club. The pattern was kinda cool – it a decorative scarf-y thing – but I think my gauge was off, since there was no way I was blocking it as long as the original pattern specified. This was my first time using blocking wires, and I’ve gotta say, they do make the stretching part of blocking a lot easier.

The colour’s a icy blue, and not really not a me-ish colour, but the result is lovely. I just hope that when I un-pin it, it’ll be usable, and not too short.

And now, and I’m about to cast on a larger project for the first time in quite a while. A Featherweight Cardigan in Silky Viola’s Fancy Lace is up next.

Spring Mystery 2010 (Flora) – Complete

2010-04-26T07:37:00.002-04:00

I finished the Spring Mystery Shawl this week, and even managed to block it in a timely manner. Pre-Blocking, it looked like this:

After blocking, it looked like this:

I’ve said it before, but I love, love, love what blocking does for lacework. The beads really, really add a nice touch to the shawl. This is the first beaded project I’ve managed to finish, and I do wonder what it’ll be like to wear.

The only other beaded project I’ve ever done is currently in this stage:

That’s Pink Lemon Twist’s Mystery Stole 4, and it’s been waiting for me to get around to grafting it for about 6 weeks now. *g* I was gonna do it yesterday, but I had a crap night’s sleep, and I somehow think that much Kitchener is going to require that I be well rested and … patient. Maybe that’ll be next weekend’s project.

Which mean right now, I pretty much have nothing I really want to do on the needles. It feels…weird. I signed up for the GoddessKnits 2010 Anniversary Shawl, but I haven’t enough laceweight in my stash, so that’s on hold until I get some. I think I may hit the Knitter’s Frolic in a couple of weeks to get some.

Mysteries

2010-04-13T15:47:00.002-04:00

I’ve really enjoyed, over the last few years, doing Mystery projects. Shawls and/or stoles, they’ve been fun.

I’m starting to think, though, that they’re a little too stressful for me. I’m looking at the new Goddessknits Anniversary Shawl, which I’d really love to do – the Mandela (2008’s anniversary mystery) turned out soo cool, and I’m actually wearing last year’s Anniversary Shawl as I type this – but I just find them too stressful.

With mysteries, I have this almost compulsive need to “keep up”. This meant, with the last one (Goddessknits Spring Mystery), I managed to finish each clue before the next came out – each week, that’s more work, since there are more stitches in each clue. The first week, I had to knit clue 1 twice, since I screwed up the way the nupps were formed. The second week, I was out of town for the weekend, and so had to get the clue done on weeknights. And weeks three and four, it seemed like I never set the knitting down – I didn’t do housework, I put off some website stuff I’d promised to do – I did nothing with my free time but knit. Clue 5, since it’s the last clue, doesn’t come with a built-in deadline, so it’s a week and half after release, and I’m about halfway through the clue. It’s much more relaxing this way.

This is supposed to be a hobby, not a chore!

This is what my Spring Mystery looked like after end of Clue 3, by the way. It gets harder to take good pictures of shawls like this, as they get bigger and bigger. I do like the beading on this one, though, and the colour is a really great true purple. The beads are gilt-lined opal, and shimmer nicely. After clue 4, you can see the pattern and beads a little better, though.

So I guess what I need to figure out is how to do one of these mysteries without feeling a need to keep up. I like doing them, I like the result, but I don’t like the self-imposed deadlines. Maybe I need to deliberately not pick up the first clue for the next one until the second clue is out? That might keep me from going crazy. *g*

My once-a-year post :-)

2009-11-26T10:40:00.004-05:00

So, I've just about finished my first bit of Christmas knitting. It's a Little Cable Hoodie (Ravelry link) by Chrissy Gardiner, done in three skeins of Berocco's Pure Alpaca. It was lovely to knit up, the kitchener'ed underarms were actually easy (got them the first time! Whee!), and I hope my niece is gonna like it.

The Pure Alpaca actually gave my gauge a little smaller then the one recommended for the pattern, which, fortunately, is exactly what I wanted (my niece is 95th percentile height for her age, and only about 25th percentile weight; the girl's a beanpole, just like her Mom). The smaller gauge meant that I could easily knit the 4T size for height, and came out with the width halfway between 2T and 4T. I still have to sew in the zipper, and that may be an adventure, since I've never done a zipper before. I just hope it fits her!

Once that was done (and while I was waiting for an order to arrive from WEBS with the rest of what I need for my Christmas knitting), I actually picked up my Jaywalkers again.

After 3 years sitting in the stash, I actually turned the heel on the first one! Whee! These are being done in Dream In Colour Smooshy Sock, and maybe I'll actually manage to keep with them, this time. Although, I find I can't work on them for all that long at a time - my hands cramp up. I'm thinking the cramping hands are probably why I don't tend to knit socks very much. Over the last three years, I guess I'd forgotten.

Lace shawls and stoles, everywhere

2008-09-28T19:24:00.005-04:00

These days, it seems that all I've been working on is KALs for shawls and stoles.

For one thing, I've been working along on the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl 9. I'm a little concerned about actually being able to finish it, since most people who bought and used the recommended yarn ran short. I've finished clue four, and have 30 rows left to go. The good news is, the pattern is pretty easy to cut short from this point in - it's a 6 row repeat, done 5 times, so I'm going to put in lifelines at the end of each repeat, and if I run out, I'll rip it back and finish it early.

This is just one side of the shawl - it's got Faroese shaping, so the thing is actually huge. I wasn't willing to take it off the needles in order to try to get a complete shot. It's done in fingering-weight superwash merino, and I think it'll be wonderfully warm once it's complete. Without blocking, it's already long enough to fall from my shoulders to my wrists, so it should be quite snuggly when done. Plus, this is the softest wool I've ever worked with - it feels more like alpaca than sheeps' wool.

I've also been working on the Mystery Stole 4. This is my first time doing any beading, and I love the look of the result. I wasn't fond of the process, though. Placing the beads was a pain in the ass. I am a little concerned about how it's gonna look in the end, though.

I'm at the end of clue 3 for the first side, and the pattern is very obscured on the left side. Part of it seems to be due to the lifeline - the worst part is the row that's got the dental floss. I've gone back and checked it, and there isn't an error as far as I can see, it just doesn't seem to fall right. This is probably one of those times I'm gonna have to keep going and hope that blocking will fix it.

So, now I'm trying to figure out which of the two to bring to Stitch'n'Bitch tomorrow night. Both, probably :-)

Yes, I'm still here

2008-06-18T07:30:00.008-04:00

I've been working on a cross stitch pattern for my sister, since just after Christmas. Her first child was due at the end of March, and I thought I'd do up a "Babies don't Keep" cross-stitch for her. It's the first time in years I'd done any real cross-stitch - I even gave all my threads away a few years ago, thinking I''d never get back to it - and I've gotta say, I really liked doing it.

About mid April (a month after my nephew was born, so I was a little late finishing), I got to the point where all I had left to do was the backstitch and lettering:

It took me over a month to get all the backstitch done, (and I thought I'd get it done in a week. Hah!) but I gotta say, I love the way backstitch just transforms a cross-stitch pattern from blocks of colour to the finished project. It's a lot like blocking lace, I guess. *g* And, thank God the rosé wine that splashed on it as I was back-stitching the last corner actually washed out! If we'd been drinking red that night, I would've killed someone, I think.

And finally, here it is, mounted , framed, and ready to go - just in time for heading up to Ottawa for her son's Christening this weekend. I just wish I'd been able to find a gold frame at Michael's when I was looking - the silver's a little off with all the gold in the pattern and on the inner matte.

Welcome to the family, Richard. Get ready for lots of hand-knits from Aunt Caryn, over the next umpteen years. *g*

10 days late, but... done!

2007-08-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I gave up on finishing it in time to wear it to the wedding, but I did, eventually, manage to finish the swallowtail shawl. Those damn nupps in the last section (create 5 stitches out of 1 stitch on the RS row, and then purl them all back together on the WS row) just about killed me the first row. It took me over 90 minutes to do a single WS row, and that completely blew the schedule. So, the next day I went out and bought a pretty little pashmina shawl, instead. *g*

I did switch the nupps from a five-stitch one to a three-stitch one for all later rows, though. I doubt I would have ever finished, otherwise - trying to purl 5 stitches together was just killing my hands.

So, I finished it last night, and blocked it out this morning. I do quite like it, and now I have a nice little shawl in a neutral shade that I can wear the next time something like this comes up.

Here's a nice, artsy view of it blocking, with the Pooka in the background. What's a blocking picture without a cat in it, after all?

And, a shot of the border stitches.

Next up, I'll probably either try to finish the Jaywalker socks, or I'll start swatching for the sweater I'm knitting Mike for Christmas. Swatching, probably - since I won't get to knit the sweater when I'm around Mike, I should probably use most of my on-my-own-time to work on it. *g*

Rollin' Along

2007-07-18T13:05:00.000-04:00

So, Another night's knitting, another chunk of the shawl done. I'm almost finished this section (two more rows to do), and I'm about to start the Lily of the Valley border. Yay!

I'm almost halfway there, so it's still possible I'll finish it by Friday night. I have to do some house chores tonight, though - pay some bills, iron some clothes, wrap my mother's birthday gift, stuff like that. Hopefully, I'll be able to get about another 20 rows done. Hopefully.

Knitting under the Gun

2007-07-17T08:43:00.001-04:00

So, I'm going to a wedding on Saturday. I bought a pretty little summer dress in maroon and white to wear to it, no problem.

And then I looked at the forecast for next weekend. A sunny day, sure, but the high is only supposed to be 23 degrees. And I'll be in a dress with little spaghetti straps - I'll freeze! This isn't supposed to happen in Southern Ontario in July.

So the only thing to do is get a little shawl, right? Well, I have shawls in purple, bright red, cream, and copper. I even have a Seasilk shawl in bronze that I just finished knitting as a gift for my mother, and could keep. They all clash with the dress.

So last night, I went to Mary's Yarns, hoping to pick up a skein of white laceweight, or something I could use to make myself a little something. They were closed. Argh. I could not wait another day to start, and have any hope of getting it done.

So, home to dive through my stash it was. I found some Jaggerspun Zephyr in a silver-grey - the stuff I used to make my sister a shawl last year. I found a pattern - the Swallowtail Shawl, and I cast on. I couldn't even go to Stitch'n'Bitch last night to work on it - this is not social knitting. I don't have time to make any mistakes, of any kind.

So far? I'm about 18% done. So every single free moment between now and Friday, I'll have needles in my hands. Hopefully, I can finish it in time to block it Friday night. Any bets?

I just hope the silver looks okay with the dress - the dress itself is out at M's, so I can't even do a comparison. Maybe I'll go pick up a white pashmina as a backup, just in case...

Recent FOs

2007-02-09T11:14:00.000-05:00

Ever since I finished my Christmas knitting, I've been working to finish all the stuff I had sitting around my apartment partly done.

First up? Finishing my first-ever set up hand-knit socks. I started Pomatomus Socks last April, believe it or not. Got the first one done in a couple of weeks, and then never got more than a couple of rows into the second one.

Well, I finally finished them!

The yarn is a pink and gold colourway in 100% Merino sock yarn, from Handmaiden Knits. I think you can see the colours a little better in this picture.

Next up? Learning how to do toe-up socks, and learning magic loop. I think both would make sock knitting easier. It was fun, though, and it's kinda cool to actually make something that will get that much wear.

Once the socks were done, I went back to the Desert Sun Shawl (the Mystery Shawl along #4, from Goddess Knits. This one is knit in a double stranded linen-mohair blend (Kidlin Pixie) that was nice to knit with, and an absolute bitch to tink. 'Twas a good thing i never had to tink that much on this one. Going back 10 stitches was irritating - having to go back an entire row would have been impossible.

I've never done a round shawl before, and the math of this is kinda cool. You can see the 5 different sections (before the border) with different lace patterns. Before each section, the number of stitches was doubled, and that keeps the shawl nice and round. Isn't geometry grand? *g*

Unfortunately, I don't really have anywhere to take a picture to show it off, after I unpinned it.

I do have some detail close-ups, though:

The center of the shawl.

The outside edging. This was a typical knit-on edge, but the way the points were made to swirl to one side is a nice design touch. I wish I could have pinned the edge a little more evenly, but pinning in a circle's not that easy to do - especially on a pillow top bed. I think I'll need to invest in some sort of blocking board, eventually.

I'm also still working on the Irish Diamond shawl that I started almost a year ago. There's only 9 rows of garter stitch left, but there are 760 stitches in each row. It's a bit of a slog, at this point. *g* But I'm almost done!

Oops

2006-12-30T15:41:00.000-05:00

For anyone who's reading through the LJ feed - I just updated CarynKnits to the latest version of Blogger, and apparently it dumped everything into the RSS feed. Sorry about that!

Hopefully, the new version of blogger won't post everything every time I update by sidebars, though. That would be good. I think that's what caused everything to get posted to LJ the last time I tried modifying the side bar....

Gift Knitting!

2006-12-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

My gift knitting this year actually started with doing a Lace Wings shawl in a pink and gold colourway of Handmaiden's Seasilk yarn. (It was a birthday gift for mycrazyhair). I loved working with this yarn - it was great to work with, and the slight scent of the sea that rose from it was just wonderful.

The pattern is only available from Lettuce Knit as far as I know. I modified it slightly, to add a YO's on either side of the central stitch, instead of doing the M1 the pattern calls for.

Then, it was on to my Christmas knitting, and I actually managed to finish it all in time, yay! There were two hand-knit gifts this Christmas - an Emerald Isle shawl in Jaeggerspun Zepher, colour cinnabar (for crystal_diva), and the Pea Pod baby set from Interweave knit that was done in purple Zara fine merino (for my neice).

First up, the Emerald Isle Shawl, pattern from GoddessKnits. Unblocked, it looked like this:

After blocking (man, I love what blocking does for lace - it makes an ungainly mess of wool look like something quite cool) it looked like this:

I left the same paperback by the side of the shawl, to give you an idea how much bigger the shawl was after blocking. One last shot of the shawl, a close-up of the edge detail:

The Pea Pod Baby set for Chloe was the last thing I finished. This was my first attempt at doing real modifications to a pattern - the hat was a beanie style, and Mom suggested I try to make it more bonnet style, since, apparently, beanies are for boys and bonnets are for girls. Who knew?

I didn't really like the look of the hat anyway, so I took her suggestion and added ear flaps and straps for under the chin in seed stitch. I had to do a bit of math to get them sitting right, but I could manage it. *g* The set ended up looking like:

The buttons (little purple and white flowers that match the wool almost perfectly) are the best!

And again, ARGH!!!

2006-11-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

There I was, doing a stretchy bind-off on a pretty little one-skein shawl (pictures to come eventually, I promise) and ...

I ran out of yarn!
*sigh*

There were a grand total of 8! stitches! left to do, and I was down to approximately an inch and a half of yarn.

Talk about frustrating. I tinked back the entire bind-off row (took me about 90 minutes) and tonight, I guess I'll go back one more row in order to get enough yarn to finish it off.

I wanna block it this weekend, so I hope I can get it finished tonight.

In other news, the Eris is also almost done. All I have left is to weave in the ends and graft together the cuffs. I've been putting it off, because I don't want to do the cuff grafting. I made such a mess of the body hem. Maybe I'll take it down to Lettuce Knit and see if I can get some help. Hmmm. Or maybe I'll go over to Mary's Yarns on a lunch hour - I'm not sure if I can get help there, but it would be worth it to try, I think. They're usually pretty quiet over lunch, so hopefully I can get some help. I'm so close to having that sweater finished, and yet so far away...

Argh!

2006-09-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

I hate, hate, hate Kitchener Stitch.

I can do fancy lacework, cables out my ying yang, all that kinda stuff.

Kitchener just defeats me.

Instead of being relaxed, like knitting usually makes me, I'm tense, irritable, and yelling at my cat whenever he comes near me.

I think I shall put it away, and get back to it next week.

The Eris is now on hold, apparently.

3 hours on 12 stitches. Yeah, I'm done for now.

I don't need another project... Do I?

2006-09-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Man, I'm tempted.

Laura has designed beautiful cardigan in Misti Alpaca Chunky, for Lettuce Knit. She works there, so the pattern will only be available at the store, I believe. (Scroll down near the bottom of the entry I've linked to for a picture)

I really don't need another project right now. But I picked up (as in held, not bought) some Misti Alpaca Chunky at Romni Wools last week, and I spent a good 10 minutes just fondling it, wondering what I could make out of it. It's wonderfully soft. And I love the cardigan - it's exactly the kinda of thing I like to have at my desk at work, for when I get cold.

And it should knit up quickly, seeing how it's a chunky wool.

But I don't need another project, right?

I think it may work...

2006-09-18T12:21:00.000-04:00

The Eris is now far enough along to try it on, to check for sizing.

And...

I believe it just may work!

Sure, it's a little bit snug, but I think it's dressy enough that being a little snug is okay - it's certainly not tight enough to be uncomfortable. It'll be a nice sweater that I can wear to work in the middle of winter, when the office is freezing. *g*

I am going to leave the lifeline in until the arms are done, however, just in case it does end up uncomfortably tight across the shoulders.

Now I just have to do the final 3/4 of the hem, and then the sleeves... But, progress!

That was a little steep!

2006-09-12T22:41:00.000-04:00

I've added the Pea Pod Baby Set to the "waiting in the wings" sidebar, since I managed to pick up some yarn for it finally.

I'm making it for my niece, and the one year size (she'll be 10 months at Christmas, so I figured 1 year was the way to go) calls for 7 balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere. I've had trouble finding it - Mary's Yarns in Unionville didn't have it, Lettuce Knit didn't have it, and Knitomatic didn't have it. I have seen Debbie Bliss' Cahmerino, however, and that generally ran $9-$10 dollars per 50 grams ball. I figured the cotton and cashmere'd be a little cheaper than merino and cashmere, say $6 or $7 for a 50g ball, making a it a little expensive for a one year old, but not totally outrageous, right?

Hah!

I finally found some, down at Romni Wools. Their prices are generally pretty good, but... wait for it... the stuff was $15 a ball! Whoever wrote the pattern was expecting me to pay upwards of $100 on materials for a sweater for a one year old. Call me crazy, but I think that's just a little insane.

So I looked around the store for a bit, and I came up with this...

It's a very pretty, very soft 100% merino wool in a lovely purple shade, and cost me about $9 a ball, but I only needed 6 balls of it. That is much better. I love my niece, but I do have something of a practical side, too.

Of course, with my luck, she'll turn out to be allergic to wool...

Knit, knit, knit

2006-09-10T16:52:00.000-04:00

I'm just circling round and round and round between three projects, now. I guess it keeps me from getting bored. *g*

First up, the Eris. I've finished the round and round and round and round straight knitting bit (yay!), and I'm about to start the short row shaping. At least the dull part is over, right?

The picture's a little dark, since I took it without the flash, but the sweater's comin' along. I'm still afraid it's gonna be too small, though. The white line of crochet cotton's my lifeline, so I can rip it back to where the difference between the two sizes begins without too much trouble, if I do decide to rip it back. Of course, my older sister's a little smaller than me, so I may just give it to her for Christmas, instead.

I'm also hoping that the pookiness around the collar can be solved with blocking.

I've also put in a fair bit of work on my Irish Diamond Shawl, too. I think because it's cooling down, and it's about the time I wanted to start wearing it, I'm motivated to work on it again.

I've got another set of small diamond to do before the pattern changes to a different motif. I've already got over 500 stitches on the needles, and I have another 250 stitches or so to add, 8 stitches every second row. This makes it all of 40% done. Finishing may take me a while, but it would be nice if I could actually use it out at Mike's this fall.

Finally, I've been doing more work on the Desert Sun shawl, when I don't feel like doing either of the other two. That means it got about 4 rows done this week. I did enough to finish of the ball of wool I was using, and wind up (and attach) the next skein, and then I put it down again.

This one's going really, really slow. I think it's because the yarn is so fuzzy and undefined - it makes it hard to see the pattern, hard to see how it will look when done. I hope it's okay after blocking, but there may be all kinds of mistakes in there that I didn't see as I was going along because I couldn't see any pattern. I'm no longer convinced this one's gonna look all that good, so it's hard to get motivated to work on it...

FO: Soleil!

2006-09-02T11:35:00.000-04:00

Finally finished the Soleil! Yay! Specs:
Yarn: Elann's Sonata, in Burgundy Rose, 6 balls. (The colour's a little darker than in the photo)
Needles: US 6
Time: it took me about 4 weeks to do the sweater, and then another 3 weeks to get round to finishing it. Sigh.

The biggest lesson learned here is to trust the designer, at least a little. After finishing knitting the sweater, I was certain it was too big, that it would gape horribly around the armholes. I was dicouraged enough that I didn't bother to do the row of crochet around the edges, and just put it aside. Well, when I got around to finishing it up, I did two rows of crochet around the armhole edges, and it fit just fine. So, if I'd just kept going when I finished the knitting I would have had a pretty little sweater to wear for the last part of the summer. Oh, well.

I really like the lace around the bottom. The little bit of waist shaping it has is another nice touch - makes for a really nice fit to the top.

I need to figure out how to take better pictures of the finished items, though. I actually managed to use the remote for my camera to get this one, but the angle's a little wonky. It's much easier to take pictures of things when I'm not wearing them. *g*

Decisions, Decisions

2006-08-25T08:44:00.000-04:00

Once again, I'm stalled on a project.

I've been waffling back and forth on which size of the Eris to knit, ever since I started it. I've just hit the first row that's different between the two sizes.

So, do I knit the smaller size, with about 2.5 inches of ease, and definitely enough yarn?
Or do I knit the larger size, with 5 inches of ease (the preferred size, I think), but with only 5 metres of yarn to spare? This is the problem with buying yarn from a smallish company (it's Elann's house brand). If they don't have any more, there's nowhere else to go to get it. In the case, it's not even a dye lot issue - they just don't have any more of the color. I wouldn't have this problem if I'd either used a big brand name wool maker, or if I'd started knitting as soon as I got the wool, instead of waiting 8 months. I really don't want to get halfway through the second arm and run out of wool...

I'll probably run a lifeline where I am right now, and knit the smaller size. If it's just too small, I'll frog it back and knit the larger size. The smaller size may be big enough - I just don't know. This has to be the worst thing about knitting sweaters - you can't tell until after the work's done whether or not it's gonna fit!

The good news is, since I stalled on the Eris last night, I went back to the Soleil and put two rows of single crochet around one of the armholes. I tried it on again, and the gaping problem was solved! So I have the SC around the neckline done now, too, and I'll get the last armhole done tonight. Once it's blocked, that'll be something moved off the "in progress" list, and a pretty summer top for myself finished just in time for fall. *g*

I really should learn to trust the pattern and not panic until I'm actually done.

Miscrossing

2006-08-22T22:44:00.000-04:00

Friday night past was spent swatching for the body of the Eris, and then realizing that, although US6 needles were closest to gauge, I had none long enough. So I switched over to do a little lace, and finished off section 6 of the Desert Sun shawl, ready to double the number of stitches in the shawl so I could start section 7. Unfortunately, I didn't have a circular needle long enough for that, either. I've never done a circular shawl before, and the construction - doubling the number of stitches every time you double the number of rows - is quite cool. It is, however, just a big ball of wool at this point - I can only take a picture of a very small section, since I can't spread it out enough to do anything else.

So, that's the lace in section 6. It looks like crap to me right now, but it's lace, so it's all about the blocking, right?

Saturday, I went to Knitomatic with crystal_diva and neeuqdrazil, where I got the nice, long circular I needed for the Eris. And then, I went to town on that over the weekend.

Now, this sweater is a miracle of construction. There are cables along the raglan sleeve increases, with the increases themselves hidden inside the cable. It's a nice touch, and means you've got pretty detailing along the seam instead of the usual holes from yarn overs.

However, when you miscross a cable in this and don't notice it for another ten rows? This is very, very bad.

I wish I'd taken some pictures of the process, but I ended up dropping about ten stitches above the cable and letting them ladder down to the mistake. I then, very, very carefully re-built the cables, complete with increases. I had 5 active needles at some points. *g*

This was the result:

It's a little bit fuzzy, from the wool being overworked, I guess, but at least the cables are no longer crossing the wrong way. Yay!

Eris Step 1, Complete!

2006-08-17T22:47:00.000-04:00

I finished the collar of the Eris sweater last night. Woo-hoo! The pointed part (the front of the neck) just killed me though. For some reason (might have been the raspberry martini I was drinking), I just kept making mistakes, and having to tink back a little. It seems like I made a mistake on almost every row. It looks okay now, though, so I don't think I actually missed correcting any mistakes.

And here's a picture with me actually wearing it. This is good, since it means I should be able to get the finished product over my head...

So, then I was onto knitting gauge swatches for the back-and-forth part of the sweater. That's easier to do than complicated cables when a little tipsy (*g*), but I haven't found the right size yet. The 3.75mm needles were a little small, so I guess I'll try the 4.25mm needles tonight. Swatching's just not all that exciting, but if I can't buy a cable needle in the right size long enough tomorrow morning, I'll be stalled until sometime next week. This would be why I need to get myself a set of Denise Interchangables (or maybe the new Knitpicks set), but I prefer using bamboo needles over metal ones, and neither come in bamboo.

I've got to remember to stop reading ahead in the pattern, though. The instructions make perfect sense when I'm actually doing the work, with the needles in my hands, but reading ahead scares me. It just seems complicated!

More work on Eris

2006-08-14T12:03:00.000-04:00

I managed a few more hours of work on the Eris sweater yesterday, and managed to get the right-hand side of the collar complete. I'm loving the way the cables are popping with this wool, by the way.

They're just lovely. See?

So, then it was onto the first of the "pick up stitches" sections. There are a few things about this pattern that are cool, and the fact that finishing seems like it consists of weaving in the ends and nothing else is one of them. This occasionally means doing unusual things during the construction, like picking up the beginning stitches to knit in the other direction at the back of the neck.

I appear to have managed the feat there, but I'm not sure. 10 rows in, the join is, to my eyes, a little too... obvious.

That jagged bit is just a little too pronounced for my eyes. I mean, it's the back of the neck, so it'll usually be covered by hair, and I'll certainly never see it... but the fact that it's there bothers me. I'm not sure I can make it better, though. I've done what the directions said, and picked up the stitches through the middle of the existing stitches - unless my definition of "middle" isn't what the pattern means. It could just be happening because the stitches are now going in the other direction, and I have to live with the one off row.

To Frog or not to Frog? Hummmm.

Too many projects

2006-08-10T11:42:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, I swear I was project-monogamous. I started something, I finished it, I started something else.

Now? I have 5 items in the WIP file, and that doesn't include things like the baby sweater that just needs buttons or the scarf I don't really like so I just... stopped knitting it.

I love planning projects, picking out the wool, finding the right needles. I cast on, all excited, and then the pattern starts to take shape, and that's even better. But somewhere in there, the excitement kinda goes away, and I start looking for something else to do. Once I get near the end, I usually pick up steam again, but the middle? such a slog. *g*

The Soleil is stalled because all that's left the the crochet edging, and I'm not all that sure how to do it. And because, when I tried it on after seaming the shoulders last Saturday, it didn't fit properly. It gaped - badly - along the armholes. I'll do the crochet edging anyway, and see if that helps at all, but the thought that I may have to frog the whole thing, do it in a smaller size, and add short-row shaping to the bust is just really, really irritating. I was looking forward to wearing it, too!

The two shawls aren't really stalled - I did two rows of the Irish Diamond shawl on Saturday, while watching Stargate: Atlantis, and 3 rows of the Desert Sun Sunday afternoon while trying to distract myself from the Soleil issues. They'll just keep coming along, I think, a couple of rows at a time, when I don't want to work on the Eris for some reason. The fact that they're going so slowly is actually a little weird - I love knitting lace. One of them should be the first thing I reach for, when I'm looking for something to do.

Maybe I should just not start anything else until everything I currently have in the works is done. I wonder how well that would work, especially with Christmas coming up - gift knitting will have to start soon, after all!

Eris Pullover, Day 3

2006-08-09T23:39:00.000-04:00

I began Eris on the weekend. I actually swatched for the smaller size needles (Wow, imagine that! *g*), and then cast on to begin the cabled collar.

I'm about halfway through the right hand side of the collar. The short rows to shape the curve in the neckline is quite cool. I gotta say though, this is undoubtedly the most intimidating pattern I've ever tried. 41 pages long! The legend for the cable charts alone is 4 pages. ..

The yarn is Elann's Peruvian Collection Sierra Aran, in slate. Which, surprisingly enough, is actually knitting up purple. I thought I was getting gray, but I do like the colour, so it really isn't a problem.

It's Aran-weight wool, and US3 needles gave me gauge, so I think this'll be thick enough to stop a bullet when it's done.

I'm enjoying it so far, but right now it's just cabling. I think picking up the stitches for the body of the sweater should be fun. *g*

Testing, Testing...

2006-08-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd try keeping blog specifically for knitting/projects I'm working on. Expect lots of pictures of works-in-progress, comments on different types of yarn that I'm using, pattern notes, stuff like that. *g*