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October 29, 2007
Entranced
It's not the biggest shawl I've ever knit, but I think it's the most beautiful.
I won't be able to wrap my entire body with it on a cold night, but it's cozy just the same, because a dear friend will get to wear it. Plus, my uber-cozy Ene is coming soon, all the way from Seattle!
Let's take a little peek (hee!) at this gorgeous combination of yarn and pattern.
Pattern: Ene's Scarf by the venerable Nancy Bush from the Scarf Style
Yarn: directly from the hands of the Master, Sundara Yarn Somewhat Solid Silk Lace in Wine with Violet.
Needles: INOX aluminum/grey US 0 (2.0 mm) circs, 24" long. These weren't my absolute favorites, but they got the job done.
Finished size: 40" across the top, and 21" from top edge to point.
Thin yarn combined with tiny needles = a very small scarf, indeed. Though Sundara's silk comes in hefty 100 gram skeins, this scarf took up only a fraction of that amount - 39.0 grams, about 400 yards.
On top of that, I blocked very gently by steaming the fabric and spreading the lace with my fingers - Sundara and I agreed that we wouldn't over-stretch the lace, in an effort to avoid that stiff silk feeling. Steam-blocking worked wonderfully, and the scarf came out soft and supple. I'll be the first to admit that this blocking technique could have vastly improved the final appearance of my wafer-crisp Fir Cone scarf.
How can I tell when I'm truly entranced with a project? When I can't narrow down the photos to include in the FO report! When a "mistake" photo (you're seeing the wrong side) is so beautiful, it inspires me to explore more: shadow and movement in the wind. Enjoy!
Posted by Kathy at 10:46 PM | Comments (68)
October 28, 2007
Poppy sock details
Remember the poppy sock? The one which brought back all those childhood memories? It is done, and ready to go to my friend, who will knit it a mate!
Pattern: Leaf Lace Socks by Susan Lawrence from Vogue Knitting's The Ultimate Sock Book
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in poppy (50ns, 2 skeins), from Linda's store. Hands down my favorite LL colorway to date!
Needles: Susan Bates US 0 dpns, set of 5 (these ones).
It's quite a beautiful pattern, isn't it? All about the details: right up my alley!
We start out with the pretty picot cuff, and go on to the swirling lace along the instep.
I love the simple lace patterning on the back of the leg - it's easy to knit, but adds a lot of interest. The eye of partridge heel fits in perfectly with the rest of the sock.
I hope my friend appreciates all these little details as much as I do! I'm quite certain at least the color will be a hit!
A word about the book (since I haven't seen it mentioned too much) - Vogue's Sock Book
October 24, 2007
Drifting Pleats
I'm so glad to see that you share my enthusiasm for Knitting New Scarves
Promise me that you'll at least check it out, okay? At your public library, at your local yarn shop, at Borders... whatever.
So, was there any doubt that I started a scarf from this book right away? No doubt. I chose the Drifting Pleats scarf because, well, read the description. Plus there are three full pages of special instructions belonging to just this one scarf!
As soon as I cast on and started knitting the first... no, second row, I was like, OMG, WTF?
All these stitches at right angles to each other, all these needles, the yarn bouncing between all of them... Plus the pattern - it's just one of those patterns that, no matter how many times you read it ahead of time, you have to sit down and start knitting to actually get it. So I was trying to get it while juggling 5 dpns, 2 straight needles, and some stitches on top of that. Yeah.
But then it got easier, didn't it?
At this point, maybe 4 or 5 rows into the pattern, I'd say I was still a little confused. But seeing the pleats forming, the pattern, with all its crazy manipulations, was starting to make sense!
Here we are, at the "teepee" stage. This is what, ten or twelve rows later?
I know it looks like a total disaster, but for me, at this point, the pattern makes total sense. It's amazing! I can see how you knit across the pleats, then across the background, then shift the pleats, and do it all over again. Just like following the pattern for my tote, you have to actively think about the stitches. Following the directions blindly... I think that could be disastrous! But understanding the stitches hugely simplifies the directions, until they are more like "guidelines" than anything else.
The one total act of ridiculousness I've already committed is using my aluminum Boye needles (both dpns and SPs
are required). With so much manipulation, and the weight of the metal needles, they slip out like nobody's business. The local yarn shops had bamboo needles galore, but that material is simply not for me, no matter how precarious the stitches. So, the metal Boyes will do for now, and I've ordered some Bryspuns from Paradise Fibers as replacements (I found they had super-cheap shipping).
And the pretty pink yarn? I'm so glad you asked! Because it is incredibly luscious, and meaningful!
This yarn feels amazing, smells even better (green tea!), and just like Ingrid's yarn, holds a lot of meaning for me. It's a gift from my dear friend Barbara, who knew me and my knitting (feeble attempts at knitting, at that time) way before this blog ever came into existence (hi, Barbara!). I've been hoarding this yarn for many months now, waiting for the perfect pattern - I have a scarf's worth, and I knew it wouldn't work well with a very complicated stitch pattern. Though geometrically complicated, like the Drifting Pleats, is a-okay!
Posted by Kathy at 12:49 AM | Comments (52)October 23, 2007
Three-dimensional scarves
With my recent choice to abandon sweater knitting in favor of knitting, well, everything else, two things have basically happened.
First, all of a sudden every sweater pattern started to look incredibly appealing. Mind you, there's no way I'll be knitting a sweater for myself, this much is definite. In fact, I've been actively seeking meaningful ways to rid myself of my completely-unworn handknit sweater wardrobe. But I can no longer exclude the possibility of knitting sweaters for others. I have the lovely yarns, the wonderful patterns, the recipients who'd actually appreciate my work (i.e., other knitters - will a surprise sweater arrive in your mailbox?!? You never know!), so why the hell not?!?
The second thing to happen since the great sweater-knitting boycott is a search for interesting non-sweater projects. Something that will provide the same commitment and intensity, but with a different product at the end. The Tote was a start, and the Focus on Fringe scarf is a move in the same direction (FOF, by the way, is coming along nicely, albeit on the slow side, since it's a totally non-portable project).
Do you remember the Dreamy Spiral Scarf from The Elegant Knitter
Why do most scarves exist in only two dimensions?
Certainly there are exceptions: there's this Dreamy Spiral scarf, Ruffles from Scarf Style
The moment I saw a review of Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs
Tell me, how can you look at these photos and NOT wonder how the scarves are knitted? You cannot. Nope. Resistance is futile!
Take the Tricorner scarf as an example. First, we see a clear picture of the scarf. Next, the author explains her inspiration and gives us a little preview of the techniques used. See those little red "arrows" at the bottom of the paragraph? Each scarf is accompanied by such a diagram, which illustrates the basic geometry of its construction! The actual pattern has all the basic pattern info, and when needed refers to an illustrated glossary of special techniques in the back of the book.
In addition, some of the designs have their own diagrams, which, frankly, get me unreasonably excited. Because when was the last time you knitted a scarf pattern which required a diagram with four labeled arrows? That's what I'm talking about! Scarves can be interesting, special, captivating, and entirely NOT mindless to knit! Which one will I attempt first? I'm at a loss! I suppose the one with the fanciest diagrams, right? ;)
Posted by Kathy at 12:20 AM | Comments (39)October 22, 2007
Snapshots
Until I have a moment to dig out my scanner and show you the latest book to completely blow my mind (!), allow me to entertain you with snapshots of my newest project.
Remember my desire to knit with rustic yarn? Linen, hemp, kitchen twine... whatever! Apparently an entire tote-worth of Hempathy wasn't enough. Two cones of Louet Euroflax later, I'm in linen-knitting heaven!
I just love passing this yarn through my fingers. It's decidedly different than the soft merinos, the silks, and even the cottons that I typically use. Also, this is my first time using coned yarn, which makes me sort of giddy in a kid-like way - look! It's a big spool of yarn! Hehe!
The pattern: a most unique union of yarn and fabric by Annie Modesitt from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays
You start out with six 21" square linen napkins. Each napkin is bordered by handknit lace, then the six are joined together, and an edging is attached around the whole perimeter.
Ever since I noted Hannah's Tablecloth on a Ravelry forum, and saw Blacktabi Liz's version in real life, I've really wanted to make one! I think it's the whole linen tablecloth aspect that had me hooked - growing up, linen linens (hehe) were a staple in our household, and I wouldn't be lying if I said my mom still uses them on a regular basis, 30 years later!
The 21" square napkins were a special order from LinenMe (though the vintage selections on eBay tempted me sorely for a long time, too), and the coned Euroflax came from Lanas de Libelula, and the needles are nothing fancy: just Susan Bates circs.
Yet somehow, with every stitch I knit, I keep thinking, "I'm knitting a family heirloom. I will use this for many years. My grandchildren might touch this fabric. Ooo!" Such simple ingredients, such a meaningful project.
Posted by Kathy at 03:25 PM | Comments (22)October 19, 2007
Friday: Kitty! LOL!
Posted by Kathy at 10:24 AM | Comments (26)
October 16, 2007
Swinging my tote
Yes, I look grumpy, but I certainly wasn't feeling grumpy when the photo was taken! Saturday was such a sunny day, and I was merely squinting in the bright sunlight while promenading with my new tote!
Pattern: The Bag by Wendy Wonnacott from No Sheep for You
Yarn: Hempathy by Elsebeth Lavold, 41% cotton, 34% hemp, 25% modal. I used 4 skeins of Vivid Green (017) and 3 skeins of Sunflower (014) (from the Fuzzy!).
Needles: US 3 Susan Bates 24" circ
Finished dimensions: about 14.5" wide and 16.5" high.
Extras: most of the doodads are detailed in this entry - the handles, the grosgrain ribbon, the fabric lining, and so on.
I can't believe it took me more than 3 months to finish this project! I guess there were some moments when I set it down in favor of other projects. Or maybe it took a while because the fabric is very dense, requiring many more stitches and rows than may seem at first glance.
I think Hempathy worked very well for this project - it has a wonderful rustic quality without cramping the body after a few hours of knitting. The yarn is quite soft in the skein, but becomes even softer and more supple after machine-washing and drying. The two colors I used are vivid and lively, though somewhat muted when placed next to each other. I think the teal lining fabric and colorful grosgrain brighten things up a bit.
The stitch pattern is simple and intuitive (as long as you mark your sections), and I think knitting this bag is comparable to knitting a simple sock. Not so bad in the portability department, either. The actual bag pattern didn't do it for me - I ended up converting my bag to a tote, and omitting the flimsy garter stitch handles. But those choices are yours to make after the knitting is finished - the knitting part is the same regardless of the final shape.
Speaking of shape... It was important for me to make my tote stable, so I made a quilted lining and used flexible plastic to hold up the top edge. Now I can swing my tote all I want, and it won't morph into a pile of yarn ;).
Posted by Kathy at 08:10 AM | Comments (55)
October 14, 2007
Open season
Let the season of sock-knitting for grandma begin! No, she hasn't officially asked for a pair, and no, she's not expecting to receive these. But the air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and I declare the season open.
Pattern: Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury from the Favorite Socks
The first printing of the book has a mistake in one of the charts - make sure to check the corrections! (p. 41 for this pattern)
Yarn: Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, ivory colorway, 1 skein. Purchased from Tidal Brook Yarns.
Needles: Susan Bates US 0 dpns, set of 5.
I hope my interpretation of the pattern makes the socks more appealing than their photo in the book ;). It's a lovely pattern - pretty and easy to memorize, with the potential to shine even through lightly-variegated yarn.
At the end, despite the pre-treating and soaking and scrubbing and spraying... the Gatorade-induced stains did not come out. They're quite visible on the first sock (on the right in the photo above), but the little orange bits knit into the second sock don't stand out. In any case, I'm not fretting because I know my grandma won't care ;).
The yarn knits up wonderfully, and I'm happy to have worked with it for a second time. Do I favor it over Lorna's Laces? Mmm, probably not. Currently a certain poppy-colored sock is clouding my mind when it comes to all things LL ;).
Posted by Kathy at 09:50 PM | Comments (41)October 11, 2007
Finishing The Bag The Tote, part II - the sewing
Previously on: After laundering the wonderful Hempathy fabric, and knitting a rectangular bottom for my bag, I reconsidered, changed my mind, and decided that The Bag was really meant to be a tote. Some knitting corrections followed.
This episode: I sew a lining! And take many pictures detailing the process - hope you find them helpful! A three-ring binder from Staples may have been hurt during production. Huh?!? Click on the extended entry to read all about it!
Next time: I finish attaching the lining to my tote, and do an FO photo shoot. Stay tuned!
Click on pictures for bigger!
Knit fabric, especially the drapey Hempathy kind, has a way of sagging and stretching, unable to fight gravity on its own. Figuring that the top edge of my tote would not remain straight if I just attached the handles, I decided to stiffen things up... using a buck forty-nine Staples binder.
I cut 1" strips of the plastic, rounded the corners so that they don't snag, and enclosed them in the folded hem as I stitched it down. I used a total of 4 strips - two in the long sides, and two creased in half at the folds. Now the top holds its shape!
I quilted!!! Following the suggestion of my sewing teacher, I decided to line the bag with something more substantial than just a sheet of cotton. I made a quilt sandwich - some nice cotton batting between two pieces of happy cotton fabric. Leaving the batting naked on one side would have been a bad idea - it would pill, roll, and bunch from the friction of the nubbly Hempathy. The layers were basted together (the pink thread), I chalked a diamond pattern using my favorite Clover chalk wheel
, and stitched everything together on my machine.
That gigantic growth emanating from my machine is an Even Feed Foot (aka walking or quilting foot), which I love to pieces. It has its own feed dogs, so all the layers of fabric are fed through at the same rate. If my "$88 Targé special" Singer machine can learn to use such a sophisticated piece of equipment... almost anything is possible! Click here to see the finished lining fabric (yay!).
For me, totes are never about pockets. But I had some scraps of cotton left over, so I cut a few rectangles and stitched them to the lining. I placed a few important items into the half-finished pockets to show the size and depth ;). The edges of the pockets were conveniently sealed when I folded the lining in half and stitched it together - no extra work for me!
I trimmed the excess fabric at the seams of the lining, and made tiny little miters at the corners. I finished off the top edge by undoing some of my quilting and folding a flap of inner cotton fabric over the raw edge of the batting, then stitching it down, of course.
I attached the magnetic doodad (confession: on the third try!) for keeping the tote closed. Following my sewing teacher's recommendation, I used grosgrain ribbon to attach the twisted bamboo handles - very sturdy stuff that doesn't stretch! I had quite a few options left over after finishing my Brilliant Retro, and fortunately one of them matched the lining fabric perfectly!
The last step is trivial! I placed the finished lining inside the bag, pinned, and handstitched! I'm pretty psyched to be done, and eager to bring you some fabulous FO shots... next time ;).
October 10, 2007
Poppies
My childhood was amazing. I have so many vivid, spectacular memories. Now that I'm older, I realize that many of my early days consisted of transforming very simple living into something incredibly meaningful. I remember running through the clotheslines on hot days, feeling the coolness of the wet linens against my skin. I remember pillaging my neighbor's yard for mint leaves, and while I was at it, feasting on some "almonds," which were actually the pits of unripened peaches. Or was it feasting on some unripened peaches, which were actually the fleshy outsides of almonds? I remember diving in the Black Sea and collecting hermit crabs, then unceremoniously relieving them of their shells and setting them back into the water; the shells becoming necklaces and bracelets.
I remember a childhood game I'd play with my girlfriends. We would gather unopened poppy blossoms, sticky milky poppy juice getting all over our hands. We would make a wish, then guess the color of the poppy inside the blossom - white, pink, or red. Slowly we'd peel back the furry green outer leaves, and if the poppy was the predicted color, our wish would come true! I remember the feeling of the nascent poppy petals - silky, smooth, fragile.
I remember the color of the red poppies, my favorites - neither coral, nor red, a tint of orange running throughout. And here it is, captured beautifully:
The folks at Lorna's Laces have done it again! For me, personally, this is the favorite color of LL I've ever used.
A sock for a friend. Being that she's a knitter, I plan to let her knit the second one herself - that should be fun! The yarn is knitting up beautifully, as always, and my memories of poppies make it even more special.
Posted by Kathy at 10:56 AM | Comments (40)October 04, 2007
Froggy ball
From a bunch of froggy pieces...
...to a completed froggy ball!
Pattern: puzzle ball from Joelle Hoverson's Last-minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts
Fabric: a sweet cotton surprise from an eBay auction!
Finished dimensions: based on the ball's circumference - 13.25" - the diameter is approximately 4.25", and I'm an enormous dork.
The pattern is really quite simple. It's in the "4-8 hour gifts" section, and I think that's just about right! I had to wait for all my joann.com stuffs, and that's the only reason one week passed between the project's introduction and the FO.
It was through joann.com that I purchased both my pearl cotton and the poly stuffing
. What can I say? I was too lazy to get off my ass and walk two blocks to Pearl, where I'm certain both of these products are carried.
Plus I really wanted to try EQ Printables (seems way more sophisticated than making labels using iron-on transfers!) and the Clover Hera Marker
. Because clearly I am a slave to the purl bee: I will get each and every little thing they recommend.
But I did go against the book's recommendation with the poly stuffing. Of course this was only after consulting with Maritza, softie-maker extraordinaire and birth-mom to Chuckie. She recommended poly for a more squeeeeeezable toy!
I wish you could hold this little project in your hands! There's something so satisfying in its construction and geometry. No matter how the puzzle ball plops down, it doesn't roll because every side has a facet. And there are all these little grooves, perfect for grasping by little hands... or paws ;)
Posted by Kathy at 12:12 AM | Comments (30)October 02, 2007
On second thought...
As if I wasn't already crazy enough about Hempathy, laundering the bag really sealed the deal for me. Wow. It is so soft, the stitches are so even, and somehow the fabric manages to be substantial, yet pliable at the same time.
After washing in warm water and tumbling on low, the material shrank by about an inch in both directions. I kind of expected it would - it's mainly cotton, plus I think I must've read that online somewhere ;).
I was also expecting that after washing, the bag would take on a more rectangular shape. This was not so much an expectation as wishful thinking, because there really wasn't a single reason why this should be so. Sure the bag looks rectangular in the book's photo, but that's achieved by sewing gussets, not the way the fabric is knitted. And I did add the rectangular bottom, but it doesn't have enough substance to force a different shape to the rest of the bag. And, yes, the pattern has four "transitional" regions, two of which end up being at the sides, but they don't have any special features to cause a fold and naturally become "sides."
I don't know what I was thinking... why I believed laundering would magically transform the fabric. It didn't. Let's try that again!
Taking a step back and examining the actual results in front of me, it was clear that The Bag wanted to be nothing more than... a tote! Just two sides, not four! I took out the bottom, and joined the two sides using a three-needle bind-off.
Yup, just like that! I'm so much happier with how things are looking now. I did stitch tiny gussets in the corners, just to round things out, not so much to alter the bag's shape.
Now I think I'm ready to tackle the fabric lining!
Posted by Kathy at 08:52 PM | Comments (13)October 01, 2007
Through Chuck's eyes
Chuck would like to show you something:
What? You can't see anything beyond his awesome fingerguns? Me neither!
Why, it's the prize for submitting the gallery's 800th Jaywalkers!!!
Congratulations, Pamela! I know your two Jaywalkers striped differently, but I bet they're super comfy because they're knit out of Lorna's Laces! And so, I hope you enjoy some more!
