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February 28, 2008
A swooshing type of beast
Remember when blocking Mountainash took up my entire couch and then some?
Yet another beast has taken over my space, mwahaha! This one isn't as large as Sir Mountain, but my off-center placement of the shawl caused it to spill over the edge of the couch nonetheless.
I know: it's true gorgeousness, and I'm happy to match this shawl any day of the week ;). During the time I was busy knitting it, I think I matchy-matched at least twice!
In my opinion, the "swooshing" border is the most beautiful part - that Chrissy Gardiner, she knows how to work it! Yup, it's through her website that you'll be able to find the pattern later in the year, and you can always check the blog for little sneak peeks, like the one I'm sharing today!
Posted by Kathy at 10:28 AM | Comments (14)February 22, 2008
Contradictions
My family doesn't celebrate Christmas, and we have no use for Christmas stockings. Yet this stocking is precisely and particularly for Mr. Sweetness (he chose it himself!). The next one will be for me, and even Her Royal Furriness Princess Kitty will get one, in time.
Today is February 22nd, which means either Christmas is two months behind us, or a long ways away! But it's snowing today, which makes it a perfect day for a Christmas stocking.
Pattern: Judy's Colors Red Velvet Christmas stocking kit.
Yarn: Raumagarn 3-ply wool yarn.
Needles: US 4 Susan Bates 16" circular needle and dpns
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Knitting doesn't need to follow the rules of logic; it only has to make sense in our heads and hearts.
Posted by Kathy at 03:51 PM | Comments (36)February 19, 2008
Oh my cuteness!
The book is organized just like Knitting New Scarves. Each pattern is comprised of the author's description of the design, a diagram illustrating the basic geometry, a fantastic photograph (or several), and well-spaced, unhurried knitting instructions. There are a few "traditional" patterns, but somehow, somewhere, by some mysterious force, Robin Melanson was able to whip up a bunch of truly innovative designs. Just take a look!
My favorites (click for bigger):
I'm envisioning the Glaistig fingerless gloves (left) in a rose-colored silk, for when I'm feeling lady-like. Rusalka fingerless gloves (middle) are adorned with bugle beads, and the word means "mermaid" in Russian. Need I say more? Ceangaltas mittens (right) have a fancy knot which is continuous with the edging!
Three favorites, all green. Hmmm... But, yes, there are other colors represented in this book! (click for bigger)
Lovely, aren't they? I checked Melanie Falick's blog, and she hasn't mentioned this book there yet. But I suspect a knitalong and gallery will be on their way shortly...
Posted by Kathy at 05:40 PM | Comments (44)February 15, 2008
Eye Candy Friday: matchy-matchy edition
One of my many odd habits (a habit which my husband finds incredibly amusing) is my fondness for matching my socks to my top.
The question becomes: is it a mere coincidence when one finds herself knitting a project which matches her top? (and socks) (and duvet cover) Or is it the love of all things matchy-matchy?
Posted by Kathy at 05:07 PM | Comments (94)February 12, 2008
And you thought I was kidding!
Remember when I hinted-promised-threatened that I'd knit you a sweater? Did you think I was kidding? I wasn't!!!
I was approached by Cari at the end of December, with a request to finish a sweater that her mother had once started. We chatted back and forth, and here I am: knitting a cardigan sweater! I can hardly believe it myself!
Fortunately, in addition to earning a little pocket money I'm also picking up a new technique: intarsia. My process knitter side is thoroughly satisfied, and my anti-product side is thrilled that the sweater will leave my house once I'm done.
I know! You've probably seen that dude with a pipe on Stitchy's site at one point or another. But the way Cari's mom was working this sweater was a bit more refined - a slim-fitting raglan with fewer buffalo. In any case, I'm in it for the knitting, not the opinion-making ;).
This project is definitely keeping me on my toes. There's the pattern, Cari's mom's notes and graphs, the actual knitting she had already completed (a back and parts of two sleeves), and gauge to match...
...my response to which is BRING IT! This is an adventure! And also, a little fear and GULP!
I started with mimicking some intarsia at the bottom of the sleeves. The bottom bit was knit by Cari's mom, and the top bit was knit by me.
I think it's a pretty good match! I'm also certain that the yarn will block beautifully and hide many imperfections - it's Cascade 200, soft and lovely and forgiving.
So, tell me - am I an incorrigible process knitter, or what?!?
Posted by Kathy at 12:25 PM | Comments (57)February 10, 2008
Knitting up "sentimentality"
My biggest fear about working with Ingrid's yarn was that I was going to ruin it. That I was going to take something so, so precious to me, filled with so many memories and meaning, and knit it up into something seriously ugly. Especially if the process of knitting it up required chopping the yarn into a hundred little bits!
Fortunately I ended up with circles upon circles of fringe, deep and textured and lovely!
Pattern: Focus on Fringe scarf from The Elegant Knitter
Yarn: lovely DK-weight wool, about 6 ounces, Dyed by Ingrid!
Needles: 24" Addi Turbo, US 6
Finished size: about 6.25" wide, 86" long, with 4" fringe.
The scarf's multitude of dimensions - the two colors, the variegations of red and pink, the knits against the purls, the diagonal lines, the fringe - that's definitely my favorite part! I'm also glad that my limited and irreproducible supply of wool resulted in a pretty hefty scarf - I love wrapping the fabric round and round my neck, tossing it over my shoulder, looping it this way and that :).
Making the fringe was (honestly) a little tedious: leaving the strands of yarn at the end of every row, pulling them taut, tying the knots, cutting the ends evenly. Well, the cutting part was pretty quick and fun, especially considering how much trouble I had the last time around!
straighten out the damp fringe, aim, and cut (carefully)
Anything is possible with a rotary cutter and cutting mat!
The movement of the fringe in the wind is also quite cool ;)
Posted by Kathy at 01:38 PM | Comments (64)
February 05, 2008
Reducing the fabric stash
When your trashcan looks like this,
and your desk looks like this,
it means some quilting is in the works!
Lately I've been quite good at controlling my yarn stash, but all hell breaks loose when I go shopping for fabric. If I need 1 yard of cotton for a new ironing board cover, I walk away with no fewer than 5 yards of various fabrics, plus some thread, and sewing machine needles.
But I hardly ever use my fabric! I make little things: some clothes, little toys, accessories... the input into the fabric stash is definitely higher than the sewn output!
So I decided it was time to make something BIG. Something that would actually put a dent in my stash! My very first quilt! Only one (self-imposed) rule: all fabric comes from the stash*.
I decided to make String Quilt Set on Point from Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts
Gwen is an advocate of "doing whatever feels right," which doesn't entirely jive with my personality :). But in this book, the instructions are quite precise and the quilt has a structure that I find very pleasing.
I was also very much inspired by the Lopsided Logs Quilt in the sadly out-of-print Liberated Quiltmaking
You can see that it's the same idea: patchwork squares set in a diamond-like arrangement, except here the squares are log cabin rather than string.
Gwen Marston's books are inspiring for many reasons: (1) the quilt blocks are constructed beautifully and creatively, (2) the sheer volume of work is striking - "Oh, look, this book has 50 quilts all made and hand quilted by Gwen herself!" and (3) the author's color sense is amazing.
When we're instructed to work with 8 or 10 or 15 different fabrics, and they are all cut up into little strips, the colors can become overwhelming. How do we make it look colorful, but not garish? Interesting, but not discordant?
Gwen has no problem in this area, and all her quilts are marvelous. She's a pro, after all! Me? Not so much. I'm constantly concerned about the combination of colors, especially because it's sometimes hard to tell what the end product will look like until... the end! It's quite nail-biting!
Take a look at some of the squares I whipped up for my quilt.
As you can see, I went with greens and blues for the string block, and yellows and oranges for the borders. I actually wanted something a bit more subdued for the borders - similar to the gently-patterned white and yellow in the original - but didn't have anything quite like that in my stash. So, I made do with what I had. I just hope the finished quilt won't make me want to poke my eyes out! Aye caramba!
(The fabrics? Yup, you've seen some of them before, here, here, here, and here.)
*Now that I'm well into the project, I've amended this resolution to allow buying some fabric for the back of the quilt: I'm running out of complementary colors!
Posted by Kathy at 06:23 PM | Comments (40)February 04, 2008
And another thing (an amazing thing!)
While the honeymoon blanket was absolutely fantastic for hammock knitting, I had a smaller, more mindless project tucked away in my bag for airport and airplane knitting.
Pattern: simple 56-stitch stockinette sock with a picot edge (à la Claudia) and short-row heel (à la Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Sock Hop Yarn, 100% superwash merino, two skeins of Ain't No Mountain High Enough, handspun and hand dyed by the talented artists at Crown Mountain Farms.
Needles and gauge: 7 sts/inch and 10 rounds/inch using Susan Bates US 1 dpns from this set.
The yarn is everything it's hyped up to be: soft, colorful, captivating, texture-rich and remarkably sturdy (I frogged a few times before getting the circumference just right). And even with two grandma-sized socks eating up 98 grams of yarn, I have 45 grams of yarn left over! That is, 2 skeins of Sock Hop Yarn are enough for 3 average-sized socks!
But here's the amazing thing... the ridiculous thing!
Once upon a time there was only one wooly yarn which my body tolerated without any complaints: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Baby Cash is magic: I can wrap it around my neck, bury my nose in it, stick it under my shirt (!), and nothing happens! No itchiness, no discomfort, no panic-like "get it off of me!"
Sock Hop Yarn is the second! I put on those socks, and I did not feel the urge to rip them off five minutes later! If you're sensitive to wool, you know what I'm talking about. Seeing that this yarn is 100% wool, I'm convinced that it's not only the specific type of wool that determines whether a yarn is tolerable to me; it also must be the way the fiber is processed and/or spun!
Whatever it is, Sock Hop Yarn gets a "thumbs up" from me and joins the previously-lonely Baby Cash category. Mmm-hmmm! And, as I mentioned, I have 45 grams left over... maybe I can finally score myself a pair of wearable wooly anklets?!?
Posted by Kathy at 12:00 PM | Comments (51)
February 01, 2008
Eye Candy Friday: dye lot edition
We've all experienced the woes of the dye lot. You run out of yarn, you go back to the shop, there are no more skeins of your dye lot. You squint, look at the balls of yarn under every possible source of light, and select the skein which is the closest to what you were originally using. Only to realize that, once knit up, it stands out like a sore thumb.
Alternatively...
You raid your stash and are thrilled to find two completely different reds for your next colorwork project! The newer stuff is still in the skein, the color is called cranberry. The older stuff is... left over from what? A quick visit to the FO gallery reveals that you used it for those cute Sockapalooza socks. You read the entry, and... what?!? It's also cranberry?!? How could those two entirely different reds be the same colorway?!?
It's true. This is the beauty of hand-dyed yarn. Each lot is entirely unique!
What is the biggest difference you've ever seen between dye lots?
Posted by Kathy at 08:08 PM | Comments (42)
