Knits

I know, big whoop. I don’t really know why I’m on such a dishcloth kick right now. I guess it’s because they’re quick (get them mostly done in a night) and satisfying really. It’s not really using up my stash in a hurry, but it is decreasing the numbers slowly while making usable things. Maybe I should just knit a bath towel hahaha. The above is the Lacy mock cable dishcloth.

I’m still addicted to Ravelry, but am getting better at not spending endless hours there even doing the volunteer editing thing. I added a lot of my stash and still have more to go; I may get around to adding some older projects too.

I’m home again because I started seeing flashing lights last night. It was like power surges or light bulbs popping, but it’s all in my head (I hope). I get migraines, but usually they are absolutely throbbing pain with a bit of light sensitivity and the only thing to do is take some meds and fall asleep until it passes. This is, hopefully, a migraine without the pain although it’s been going on for more than 12 hours. It’s not so bad this morning, but last night it was sort of constant until I went to bed at close to 1am. I say it’s hopefully a painless migraine because the other alternative is a retinal detachment which sounds absolutely disgusting and frightening. I am not a squeamish person, but when it comes to things involving the eye, I am. I wear glasses even though I could easily get contacts because putting something on my eye freaks me right out.

Oh I am into the single digits in my blog reading so that’s good. And, via Ravelry, it’s rather exciting to see people add my Flutter-by socks to their queue (I can’t see who has them queued). There is one person actually knitting them and has posted some in progress shots and that’s totally exciting and humbling. I can’t wait to see how others turn out.

Marigold was just finished. Literally under an hour ago. Okay, the ends aren’t woven in because I want to make sure the length suits my sister and her fat head so when she gets here next week she can try it on and if all’s well and good then it will be totally done. I had to reknit this hat in near-entirety because I dropped some stitches and despite a yarn that is 100% baby alpaca, it’s not particularly “sticky” so it unravelled quickly to a point where I couldn’t reconstruct the lace pattern.

I think I can see why people get addicted to lace knitting. I mean a lot of the patterns look too complex for me (serious ADD issues) and I’m not a shawl wearing girl so it doesn’t really leave much reason for me to knit lace, but this simple pattern was easy to memorise, went quickly, and I really couldn’t ever set it back down because I’d say ‘oh but the next round is easy’ and on it went. I’ll write fuller details on it’s own page, but the mods I did included changing needle size for the main part of the hat and adding an extra repeat because of a length issue. I did have to reknit the crown decrease because the overall length was too short - that’s when I added the extra repeat. However, I had laid the hat down Friday night before beginning the decrease and had the intention of putting in a life line, JUST IN CASE, in the morning, but of course forgot in the morning. I ended up tinking back 7 rows before starting the last repeat. That took AGES. LIFE LINES people - use them when knitting even simple lace. I’ve left the life line in this time in case I still have to add more to the length.

See, the life line. Good job, Shannon, good job.

The yarn is really beautiful and soft. It’s Misti Alpaca worsted weight. I think it barely qualifies as worsted weight. The ball band gives no indication of gauge or recommended needles. It actually turned out to be good that I dropped those stitches and had to reknit the hat as I think the other one was too loose; I much prefer the resulting material. Despite the softness and beautiful colour of this yarn, I doubt I’d use it again for a project - definitely nothing larger than a hat! It splits incredibly easy and if you drop a stitch you have to react quickly unless you enjoy correcting rows and rows of dropped stitches as there’s not much “stick” to this yarn. I do have almost an entire ball left (probably 100 yards) so suggestions on what to knit with that? I have a lot of bits (some very large) of yarn from the hats I’ve made my sister (about 8 now) so I need to figure out what to do with them.

Completely not knitting related, but I thought these honeysuckles were very pretty because of all the different colours. If I dyed wool I’d definitely be finding my inspiration from the way nature blends colours together.

Other news… I owe a couple of people letters. I wrote one today and my writing was absolutely atrocious. I tried to use a regular ballpoint pen and it was hard! I tend to use fine point pens (this one wasn’t) and Sharpies in particular. Whenever I go back to the states I get Sharpies (although I haven’t had to the last couple of times because a friend gave me obscene amounts about 18 months ago). They are beginning to sell them here, but only in red, black, and blue and only regular points. Boo. It’s okay, really, because like everything in the UK, they mark up the price to absurd amounts. You know, if they didn’t mark things up to ridiculous amounts in this country, there’d probably be less poverty… Anyway, sorry for that tangent. I might be able to get the other letter done tonight.

This coming weekend is a 3-day weekend and I think it will be spent hanging out with my boy as after that we won’t really get to spend any time on our own for a month. I’ll get a little knitting done since he has to be put down for a nap in the afternoon ’cause he’s old. HAHA. Like I can talk, I like to nap too, but I can’t “nap” like he can.

Oh, oh, and I joined Sockapalooza 4 - I think, I mean I did, but I don’t see my name in the participants list unless there’s a typo as there are several Shannon’s. Found it - it is under the Beginner’s list since I’ve not much experience and I’m a bit slow. This is the first true knitting thingie I’ve joined. Eep! I’ve just got my secret pal info! I sort of hope I can use something in my stash, but of course I won’t balk at having to buy new yarn since it won’t be staying with me.

Posted by Shannon at 18:24 | completed projects, hats, marigold | Permalink | Comments (4)

If I hadn’t been distracted by the Chunky ruffle beanie, a bib, and my boyfriend, I probably would’ve had Bad penny done… or nearly done. Alas, it is not the case. I got one sleeve done (with cuff) and have tried it on. I’m really fearful that the extra ball of yarn I had to buy will not be enough!

I made the cuff a bit shorter than the pattern says because it just seemed like it was about to go into looking unbalanced since the green is so bright. The body only covers my boobs right now and I should get another 3.5 inches out of the extra ball of yarn I bought plus the waist band which will add another 3 inches. This should make the body (measuring from under my arm down towards my waist) 13.5 - 14 inches which sounds like a lot, but considering that the 7.5 inches of body now just cover my boobs, I’m a a bit worried that it will still be too short! I’ll just have to knit this other ball and try it on again and see how it’s fitting. I have to order another ball of yarn for Ms Marigold anyway so I’ll get on it see if I need the other ball of Binario.

For whatever random reason, I decided to cast on for the Petal bib in One skein. I even had the recommended yarn! I’d bought the Rowan Handknit cotton for a hat for my sister last year, but I found it difficult to knit with so I didn’t use it. Seems like this bib and maybe a wash cloth would be good use as I still have a lot more of it (amateur buying of far more yarn than I’d actually need for a hat). For full details, see its very own page.

Okay, I knew this would be quick because it’s 1. a hat and 2. knit with chunky wool. I just didn’t quite expect it to be that fast. It didn’t even register on my WIPs. It only got a mention in my previous post!

It’s the Chunky ruffled beanie from Easy knitted accessories. I bought the Twilley’s pictured in my last post to knit a couple of these hats. Or at least one and if it came out then I’d knit another one, otherwise the yarn would go to the Kitty Pi which is still awaiting more feltable yarn.

I decided to cast-on late yesterday afternoon thinking it would be something I could take with me to work today for my lunch time knitting with my co-worker. I cast-on and did the edge and realised the needles were too big even though I’d already gone down a size (something I automatically do). I cast-on again and it looked good. Except that I had cast on using circular needles and joined it all up and got the different coloured panels going… then the reality of it hit me. It’s knit flat for a reason. I thought I was being clever and avoiding the seaming just as I have with other items I’ve knitted from this book (as several of the items in the book are knit flat and seamed when they don’t need to be like gloves and other hats - I’m guessing because it’s aimed at beginners). Well unless you have lots and lots of spare yarn, you need to knit it flat otherwise you’ll end up carrying a lot of yarn around unnecessarily which is both wasteful and will create a very thick hat.

Now they aren’t joking when they say this yarn will felt. I had to be very careful when ripping it out. Anyway, away I went and before I knew it, I was done. Because I had to go down two needle sizes to get a material that wasn’t lacy, the gauge was off only slightly. Luckily I have a small head so it wasn’t a big deal. I had to do a little adjustment for the length, but it’s okay. The hat fits fine now and with a blocking it would probably fit perfectly.

I had been disappointed with one of the yarn colours as it appeared very differently on screen than it does in person. On screen it looked just like the acid green in the variegated yarn, but in reality it is closer to the pale green / blue in the variegated. Seeing as they didn’t have the acid green in stock (and therefore had removed the picture which is annoying in retrospect), I just went ahead with it. And it’s okay!

Full details here.

Zephyr Style got my email as they’ve updated the spec page for Ms Marigold. I thought they’d also send me an email directly to tell me the correct information and thank me, but that hasn’t happened. Looks like I’ll have to buy another ball of yarn… Grrrr (honestly Grrrr).

I’ve actually finished this hat three times! Go me! The first time it came out very pointy. The second time, it came out slightly pointy. And the third time, it was just right. How very Goldilocks…

The hat is knit in two parts - the band which is knit flat and then seamed together, hopefully invisibily, and then picking up stitches, you knit the crown in the round. I had a couple problems with techniques used in this pattern. First, I had never done a provisional cast-on and as I was a bit eager to get this going and done pretty fast, I had a couple goes at the provisional cast-on and it was just too wobbley so I cast on as normal and would unravel / cut the waste yarn when it came to joining the two ends of the band together. I know that’s not an elegant solution, but it mostly worked for me. I say mostly as I expect that even if I had done the provisional cast on, I would’ve had the same problem with recovering the live stitches as I had with my method - I find it only a little difficult since that first row is not just knit, but in pattern stitch which includes yarn overs.

Second, the edges of the band are done with an Annie Modesitt technique where you k1 sl1 w/ yarn in front, k1 (on the right side). I can’t remember what name this has actually been given, but it’s been given a name! Anyway, for some reason this worked just fine on the right column (w/ right side facing), but the left side ended up really loose. I tried tightening it up and it just didn’t want to.

Third, a common theme in my knitting, my gauge must’ve ended up way off because I had to pick up fourteen more stitches than in the pattern meaning I knit a whole repeat extra. I think my stitch gauge was right, but my row gauge off. Anyway, it looks fine in the end although the crown does seem short. Looking at the sample picture, it’s the same there and I don’t know how much I really like it. It looked okay in the picture, but in person, I just don’t know!

I’ll post this to my sister tomorrow - hopefully she’ll like it and get use out of it. I feel a bit guilty that the two patterns she chose, I haven’t actually knit yet - the Amelia Earhart cap and Shedir. I just can’t get the Amelia cap to work. I need to practice wrapping for one, but I don’t know what it is w/ that pattern. And Shedir, well I still haven’t bought the replacement Rowan Calmer I need - I did try the other day, but they were out of stock.

And just a note on Bad Penny. I got through the raglan increases and a couple rows into the main body and had already used up two of the four balls of the main colour! Once I finished the third ball, I measured how much body that got me and discovered I would need a fifth ball. Well, I bought this yarn a year ago so I didn’t want to start on the fourth ball until I knew if I would be able to get a fifth ball in the same dyelot. Luckily the place I ordered it from still had some from the same dyelot! Phew. In doing a bit of googling, I found that others ended up short on yarn too. And I’m knitting the smallest size! While I was waiting to hear if they had the same dyelot, I started on the contrasting colour on the sleeves. That yarn is very hard to work with! 100% microfibre. I did a few rounds and decided I didn’t like how it looked where it joined the main colour so I ripped it out - I’ll knit that first round and then start in the 1×1 ribbing. I’ll also knit in the round versus flat - I’m not sure why it says to knit these flat - the less seaming the better! I’m nearly done with the fourth ball so then I can go back to doing the sleeves and collar while I wait for the fifth ball.

I’ll add pattern details about the hat later as I need to get going right now! I’ve decided that with each finished object, I’ll make a page about it so I can include all the details there and notes. I may retroactively do the other items, but for now, here’s the info on a touch of whimsy hat

I need to stop looking at Jillian’s blog. She always posts links to patterns that I want! She’s done it again - sort of. She’s pointed to a new cardigan design and along the left are some other patterns available. And now I must knit the Sizzle top. It is even boyfriend approved: “You need more plunge tops,” he said. The problem is the yarn it calls for - doubtful I’d find it in the UK, but I’m not thrilled by any of the colours anyway. I’ve had a slightly quick look for substitutes and many are too light (weight-wise) and when I find something suitable, the colours are dull dull dull!

So I wandered over to KnitPicks. I’ve never used their wool and of course they won’t ship direct to me, but that’s not a problem - I have connections! I am considering using their Andean Silk & Andean Silk Twist in one of the shades of green. Have any of you used this yarn? What do you think? I’m looking at either Lettuce or Leaf. What about another substitute for the yarn called for - Silk Bijou/Shizuku by Olympus. It’s not like the UK is extremely hot, but I imagine a yarn that is 75% wool is going to be quite warm - especially if I want to take said top on holiday to a sunny clime where I might get to bare my arms! I think I’d end up baring more than my arms should I wear that top in the Mediterranean in the summer! Other options: Rowan’s Summer Tweed (lots of nice colours, but the tweedy affect might be too weird), Rowan RYC Luxury cotton (none of the colours really thrill me), or Debbie Bliss Cotton cashmere (I’ve knit with this before and it’s nice and has nice colours). Thoughts?

Anyway, you really came here to see some pictures…

Here it is - another terrible photo, but it is the completed Cinnabar scarf. I am rubbish at blocking. I did it, but I was rubbish at it. And I didn’t actually have anywhere to put it to dry so I had to sandwich it between two towels to keep the cats off it. It didn’t work. They thought I’d laid out some sort of luxury bed for them! They were fighting over who got to lay on it!

Details:

Pattern: Cinnabar scarf from December 2006 MagKnits (by Angela Hahn)
Needles: Boye interchangeable circulars US 4 (used them as straights ’cause it’s easir to carry circs)
Yarn: Rowan RYC Wool cotton in Limestone - 4 balls (slightly less)
Gauge: ??
Finished measurements: just shy of 6′ x 5.25″ (it grew a whole foot after blocking!)

Modifications: None intentional… I just found myself missing parts of repeats so I incorporated that into my version as, you know, design features. I did nine repeats of the cable pattern and a single repeat of the seafoam pattern between each of the cable patterns with the exception of the space between cable repeats one and two and eight and nine where I did was the pattern read!

And I also started on the Touch of whimsy hat for my sister. I’m using the same wool as in the Cinnabar scarf, but in a dark green. It is moving along surprisingly fast. In fact, if I hadn’t been busy both last night and tonight, I’m sure I would’ve finished the hat. Grrr. I would’ve liked to have finished it and put it in the post before I head off to Prague tomorrow!

So I’ll see you all next week! I need to go figure out what knitting I’m packing - forget about the clothes!

I am finally done with the Cinnabar scarf. I have weaved in the ends and it is now blocking and then I will trim off the remaining bits. I wanted to get this done before I went to Prague on Wednesday because I don’t really have a nice scarf anymore. The one I have was nice, but I use it daily for cycling so it’s stretched out and probably slightly smelly and it’s not a nice neutral colour either.

This was probably the most challenging thing I’ve knit thus far. I don’t know why that is because it’s not a complicated pattern (despite my rocky start with reading the chart). The last repeat (I did nine) and the end bit of the ’seafoam’ chart took me serious amounts of time. I don’t know why. Maybe because I was so eager to get done and I could see it right there in front of me and I just wanted it done! I can now say I’ve knitted a scarf though - something I never did.

Because I’d put the thing down so many times, I couldn’t quite remember what I did each time so my version has a lot of, uh, design features. Namely, between each of the cable repeats there is only a single repeat of the seafoam pattern instead of 1.5 repeats. I made a number of other mistakes too, but they aren’t really noticeable because I continued to make them (ON PURPOSE - okay only after I realised I was making the mistake did I continue with it - consistently ‘wrong’ is better than sometimes wrong, sometimes right I say). As I said, I did a total of nine repeats of the main cable pattern. Before blocking the scarf measured just a couple inches shy of five feet. I’ll have to measure it once it’s dry to see where it’s ended up.

I can’t recall if I mentioned already, but I’m not going forward with Shedir until I get a different colour of Calmer. The black is well, too dark. I know that sounds completely retarded, but I’ve not done tiny cables before and they just don’t really show on black. I’ll get one of the green shades since that’s what my sister would prefer anyway.

I’ve decided to cast on another hat for her (still have a lot of them to do!). I had great success with pattern for Lonnie’s sport socks from Becka so I am going to try her Touch of whimsy hat. I am also going to cast on, I dunno when exactly, for Cosmicpluto’s top-down raglan cardi v.2.0.

I’ll provide a picture and details of the Cinnabar scarf once it’s done done. Until then, more delicious wool I got - this time it’s for a baby blanket and a hat and / or booties for my brother and his girlfriend who are expecting in May - that means I have a little bit before I need to get knitting this. It’s is sooooooooo pretty - wonderful colours and soft and fluffy.

Another finished object! This actually didn’t even register on my ‘in progress’ posts or page because it was relatively quick. It took me a few days of off and on knitting (this was my “I can’t really stay focused because my head is filled with snot” knitting) and then I had to go find a button because what I had on hand didn’t really work. I know that a lot of people could’ve knit this in a matter of a couple hours or so, but I told you, I am slow.

I got this idea off of someone on Etsy and ‘guessed’ how they did theirs. There are some problems with my version:

• The fabric is too loose after a light blocking. If I make another, I’d go down a needle size. I thought I’d already gone down enough, but this was the first time I’ve ever actually properly blocked something so there’s a lesson learned there about how much something can stretch.
• It’s a bit too wide. Blocking didn’t really increase the width much (less than a quarter of an inch) so it was too wide from the start. This sort of makes it difficult to put on and made it difficult for me to figure out just where to put the button.
• The button isn’t right. It takes a bit of fiddling to get the neckwarmer to sit right-ish. I think I will have to add a second hidden button on the reverse of the piece with the button hole to help the piece stay right once I’ve got it on. I do like the button very much. It’s just what I’d envisioned (shape and colour) when I was knitting so I was glad I found something!

I’m still slowly working on Shedir. I don’t know how other people have managed to knit that over a weekend. I get really bored with it. I have yet to rip out the too big socks and start again. Maybe that’s something for tonight. I also got my Texere wool order last week. It includes a couple of sock wools, some aran weight for a scarf (would be good if I finished the other scarf hahaha) and two lots of different wools to try my hand at dying - one in 4-ply and one in a chunky slub. I’ll try both the kool-aid dye and some professional quality food colouring.

Tomorrow is the second instalment of the work ‘knitting line’ (there’s only two of us) at work. My co-worker is just re-learning to knit after having been taught as a child. She wants to knit some cushion covers for her new house.

Details of the neckwarmer:

Pattern: My own (sort of)
Needles: Clover bamboo 4.5mm (US7)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran in colour 300202 (duck egg I think it’s called) (the entire ball)
Gauge: 21sts x 27 rows in pattern
Finished measurements: 5 1/8″ x 22 1/4″

Hurray! I finished something - ends woven in and everything! I’ve even just tossed it in the wash quickly.

It’s the first of five (I think) hats for my sister. It’s the Lace-edge women’s hat from the Head Huggers web site (a site devoted to hats for chemotherapy patients). I used a finer wool than suggested which meant figuring out the cast-on numbers. I tend to be able to knit stitches to gauge on the ball band if I go down a needles size or two, but can’t ever get both the stitches and rows in line with the ball band or suggested pattern gauge. And I am lazy and almost never swatch. Turns out I didn’t get gauge according to the ball band or pattern (the pattern I knew I wouldn’t obtain gauge since I was knitting with a finer wool) so oops. I got a bit nervous about it, but in the end I think it is fine.

All that said, I ended up casting on 138 stitches. And despite the simple lace pattern for the brim, I kept losing stitches! Not as bad as the first go I had with this pattern, but it was still a bit annoying. Luckily I was able to add the stitches back in relatively easily without it making much difference to the pattern. It’s not as lacy as it looks in the sample, but maybe that’s because it’s not fully stretched out? It looks pretty though. My sister wanted a hat she could wear when they go out for a nice dinner as she doesn’t wear a wig. I’ll be knitting Shedir too (already had an attempt and was getting close to being done, but I didn’t like how it was turning out).

The rest of the hat is stockinette so it went quickly, but still, I am damn slow! I had to figure out when to start the decreases and how to do them which was new for me. I ended up dividing the stitches into six groups of 23 and placing markers. I then did a ssk just before the marker and k2tog just after the marker with a round of straight knitting between each decrease round. From the way the hat turned out, I think I should’ve started my decreases sooner and had them over more rounds as the body of the hat looks very square I think. Perhaps once she puts it on her meaty head it will look better. I tried it on, but it doesn’t fit me because I’ve got a smaller head. Maybe the washing will help it out too.

I’m quite please with how the decreases look though. Very neat and tidy and I don’t think it’s evident where I went onto DPNs which is a first for me (the lack of DPN evidence I mean). Hurrah! The only bit of the decrease that’s a bit funky is at the top. I wanted to decrease until I had as few stitches as possible left and I ended up with five or six (I can’t believe I’ve forgotten and I finished this about a half hour ago! - memory like a sieve I tell ya). I think I should’ve stopped with whatever I had prior to that decrease round as it has ended up being a bit puckered. I hope I can fix this when it gets out of the wash!

Oh and I have to say, I love the Addi turbos and I love the stitch definition in this!

The details:

Pattern: Lace-edged women’s hat from Head Huggers
Needles: Addi Turbo 3mm and Prym Bamboo 3mm DPNs
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in colour 340503
Gauge: 30sts x 38 rows