Yarnmule

This was my third year at Rhinebeck, and I went in with my third different strategy.

The first year I went in almost completely planless, and let the veterans who brought me guide me around. I knew I needed a white laceweight, but since I didn't know what to expect, I didn't want to limit myself going in. I was completely overwhelmed, and I actually had to check the blog to figure out what I bought that year. As it turns out, I have knit all of it, so not bad.

Last year I went in with plans. I had a shawl and a stole I knew I wanted to make. I had to get something for a scarf for BBMM. I did quite well actually; I got those three items, and only one extra skein of sock yarn. Somehow, though, it wasn't as FUN as the first year. Or rather, the festival was just as fun, but my focus seemed to distract me from the pretty.

This year I went back to planless, almost. The fact is, I have several sweaters worth of yarn that I have plans for, but haven't touched. Sock Summit ensured that I have reached critical mass in sock yarn. I still have last year's stole on the needles, so no needs on that front. I just had no idea what I could possibly find to buy.

BWAA HA HA HA HA! Oh silly girl, of COURSE I found something to buy.

Anyway, although planless, I did go in prepared. I brought the Ann Budd's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements, and a calculator. I wanted to make sure if I found something that grabbed me, I would have enough to make whatever it told me it wanted to be. I got a hotel reservation for Saturday night. I didn't want to feel frantic (like I usually do); I wanted to shop slowly, browse copiously, and not brave insane crowds for some of the more popular booths. I will say that I will never, ever do this in one day again. Staying over is totally the way to go, and I'm booking the hotel for next year right away.

So, what was my haul? Small, but much beloved!

First, the pay-off for my strategy. We showed up right at 9 on Saturday morning, and headed straight to the A and B barns; yarn mecca as far as I'm concerned. The Fold's booth was already packed, although not as bad as usual (I have never once been in their booth, because the crush of people generally drives me away). We kept checking back during the day, and by late afternoon the booth was almost completely empty. And, there were some Socks That Rock mill ends left. Oddly, I have never, ever knit with this yarn, so I thought it was time I see what all the fuss is about.



This is the lightweight, and I'm really excited to knit with it. I've been using mostly semi-solids lately, or handpaints with very short color bursts, so this will be a departure. I think I know what I'm making, it just needs to wait for a quiet moment to get everything ready.

Next, something that just grabbed me. Another skein of sock yarn, in my usual colors. The colors reminded me of a very specific sunrise I saw a few weeks ago from my apartment window. I figure if something gives me an intense sense memory, it's really trying hard to come home with me.


This is from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. This is her wool/nylon base, and I really like it. It's a very skinny fingering weight, nice and squishy.

And finally, the big fall. Maple Creek Farms is one of the booths that grabs me every year. i think their colors are incredible, and they have such interesting yarn bases. Somewhere during the day, I started thinking about getting a sweater's worth of yarn, in something soft enough to be next to the skin. I found it here.



This is a superwash merino/nylon/donegal blend. Hmm, that content makes it sound like sock yarn, doesn't it? Yeah. I bought a sweater worth of fingering weight. That's a whole lot of yarn. I may be insane, but this stuff is irresistible. It's unbelievably soft; I keep squishing it, then checking the label to make sure it doesn't have silk or tencel or something in it. I couldn't get the real color of it in the photos; it's a little more teal than it looks. It's a semi-solid, so it's also got some grey and denim blue in it. I said that I wouldn't cast anything on until I finish another huge project I'm working on, but you can see evidence of my failure above. I actually wound the yarn Saturday night, knit the gauge swatch on my way back to the festival Sunday morning. You know, because I needed needles. Ahem.

I found the perfect pattern earlier this week, and I accidentally cast on Friday. My other huge project is not done. Whoops.

Labels: events, WIP's, yarn

Yep, I started Irtfa'a. In fact, I think I started within five minutes of my last post. Of course, it's nothing but a blob, and will remain so for a very, very long time. I think by next week I'll at least have enough on the needles to be able to pin out a section. In the meantime, I'm just pausing now and then to bunch it up and gaze at the colors.



It's going well; the yarn is amazingly easy to work with, considering it's lace weight. It's not prone to splitting or snagging at all. The pattern looks hard, but is actually really intuitive, so I'm not as glued to the charts as I thought I'd be. I've only felt the need for one lifeline. Markers though? Those I'm using plenty of.

Labels: WIP's

It's nearly 70 degrees outside today, so I thought it might be a good day to start Christmas knitting. Heh.

This is actually a re-do project. A very long time ago, as one of my very first knitting projects, I made Christmas stockings for the family. Everyone coming to Christmas at the cabin got one. I used these patterns (which are fabulous). Unfortunately, I also used a popular discount-store worsted weight acrylic yarn (whose name I won't bother to denigrate here). The colors were a little garish, but that wasn't even the worst part. If you've ever done any colorwork, you know that you want your yarn to have a good deal of spring. Acrylic doesn't play that game. So what I have are stockings with a slightly different gauge for each section of patterning. I also have stockings that won't stretch to accommodate all the little gifts I want to stuff them with. So I had a Christmas fit over the weekend and decided they all needed to be re-done.

I ran off to my favorite LYS and picked myself up a bunch of Cascade 220. I've got a lovely heathered forest green (color # 9447), a nice warm cranberry red (8884), and a naturally sheepy heathered oatmeal sort of thing (2442). I'm swatching tonight, and will be knitting by tomorrow (if I can wait that long). The last time I made these, they went very quickly, and I like to think I am a better and faster knitter now. The only way I won't finish in time is if I succumb to another fit of cast-on-itis. Which, given my recent track record, could happen the moment another knitting magazine shows up at my doorstep.

Oh yeah,my last project is finished, and soaking as I write this. Next time, there will be pictures of a FO.

Labels: WIP's

So I've gotten a pretty good swath of knitting done in the last few weeks, but as I mentioned last time, it's still blobby.

I recently got a subscription to Interweave Knits, and when my first issue arrived, I was immediately smitten with the Mosaic Yoke Jacket (Ravelry link). This was one of those that I had to cast on Right Now. I had an approximate bushel sized load of black Bernat Lana in the stash, so I grabbed a skein and went. In less than a day I had continued the stash-dive, come up with a whole new set of colors, and was on the way.

The original pattern has black and dark grey as the main color: I had those. The colored yoke called for a whole mess of colors I didn't have, didn't want to wait for, and didn't particularly love. So...



Instead of the rust/gold/white, I went with red/beige/white. And where the original had black/beige/blue, I went black/blue/light grey. Was I afraid of the red/blue transition? Yep. But you know what, I think it works, in an Eddie Bauer Americana sort of way. The blue should go well with the jeans that I will inevitably wear with this. All of the colors except the black, red and white are heathered, which I think softens the transitions a little.

I've been doing a lot of small needle knitting lately, so this worsted thing flew by. I think I finished the knitting in about two weeks. It's been at least another two since then, and I'm still crawling my way through the finishing. The hems are all doubled and sewn, and the tedium may kill me. I haven't even allowed my mind to wander to the weaving in of ends yet. Ugh. My current plan is thirty minutes every evening until I'm done. Except maybe tonight. Writing about finishing fulfills that quota, right?

Labels: WIP's

I have absolutely nothing interesting to show you. I finished the stole, and then seemingly took a break from interesting knitting.

I am still working on the Brooks Farm Chevrolace, but that's about it. You've seen the Chevrolace about a billion times, so I won't bore you. I will say this though; that Brooks Farm is some pretty, pretty stuff. I'm worried that it won't hold up in sock form; it's very soft and very loosely plied, and I am afraid. I am knitting it as tight as my little fingers can handle, so that should help. It's also knitting up to be quite a thick fabric, so maybe they will be house socks. So if I can avoid wearing them with shoes, and I can keep them out of the dryer, they might be OK.

It seems odd that I'm not working on anything else. Well, I am, but it's a secret, and so far it's just scribbling; no stitches have actually been formed yet. That makes for the most boring blogging ever.

I do have a possibility though. This. I think I got this issue of Interweave at last year's Mets Stitch n' Pitch. I've been eyeing that tank ever since, and it's finally hit the point where I must knit it. I am attempting to use yarn from the stash, and I do have a couple of possibilities. This means, of course, a multitude of swatches.

Sigh. At least next week I can show you those.

Labels: WIP's

All I've got for you this week is a progress report, sans pictures. It's a doozy though.

The body of the stole is complete! All that's left is the edging, and I should have no problem finishing this week.

Now that I've cursed myself with THAT deadline, I might as well go full steam ahead. Next week, there will be pictures. They will probably be blocking pictures, but at least I'll finally get to stretch it out and show it off! I've realized that you haven't seen pictures of it since January, when it was at the halfway point. The poor thing is just crying out for attention.

Labels: WIP's

As expected, I ripped out the stripes and re-did them.



Mary left a comment in my last post with a link to this; it's an explanation of why knitting the first row of a color change (instead of purling) eliminates the ugly. You can see there is one place above where I couldn't do it; there's a wee bit of ugly at the single-round red stripe. There was the single red round, which I knit. But the next round was another color change, and had I knit that it would have been two knit rounds in a row. That would have interrupted the ribbing, which I thought would be worse than a little bit of dotting. All in all, it's quite an improvement.

Again I'll marvel at the speed at which worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles works up. I will always love knitting the socks, but the sweaters are good for my ego; at least I can think I'm a fast knitter once in a while. I worked on this for most of the weekend, and the knitting itself is done. This does not mean the sweater is done. There's still all this:



If you'll excuse me, my needle and I are going to go have a party.

Labels: WIP's

I dreamed about knitting the other night. I'm a little obsessed over a new project and I actually dreamed about knitting it. In the morning when my alarm went off, I had a bizarre moment where my dream and reality collided. In my dream, I was saying "just one more row" over and over again. In reality, I was hitting the snooze bar.

This is my new obsession:


Admittedly, it's not much yet. When it grows up, it's going to be a boxy raglan turtleneck with ribbing all the way up the sides and a wide multi-colored stripe.

I bought a ton of Suss Cotton when they closed the NY Suss store. I ended up with four jumbo (182 yard) skeins of red, two (118 yard) skeins of brown, one of teal and one of khaki. I thought this would be plenty for a sweater, but at the time I was thinking v neck. When I decided to do a turtleneck instead, I had to calculate the amount of red yarn I would need very carefully. I am praying my math will work out, otherwise it may be back to a v neck after all.

Here's the body; four inches of 3x3 ribbing at the hem. About six inches worth of ribbing travels up each side, otherwise it's plain stockinette. It won't finish getting striped until both sleeves are ready to attach.



The first sleeve is done to the armhole. Again, the hem is four inches of 3x3 ribbing, but only three inches continues up the inside of the arm.



I've discovered the first flaw in my evil scheme here. Stripes + ribbing = ugly.



None of the ends have been woven in yet, so it might get a little better, but not much. I haven't decided if I can live with it yet. I'm guessing I can't. So I'll rip back and try the trick of knitting all the way across the first round of every color. I don't think I can do that when I only have one or two rounds of a color, but at least the bigger blocks would look better.

I think I just figured out what I'm working on this evening. I hope I don't dream about it.

Labels: WIP's

I think I vaguely remember saying something about extra posts last weekend... not so much, huh?


Frankly, I only have the vaguest of updates. I did, in fact, get both of the baby sets finished, wrapped, and given away. Unfortunately, the finishing happened at about 1:30 on a Thursday morning, so I didn't get any pictures. You can look here for details on the first, blue set. Then envision in a lovely beige and you'll get the idea of the second one.


As far as my other knitting, I should be working on the wedding stole. My day job, however, has been kicking my butt for a couple weeks, and I just don't have the mental capacity to knit lace. I managed a couple dozen rows this weekend, but I also made several counting errors, so I decided it's best if I set it aside for a while. I've switched to easier, more non-thinking projects.


First up, since I finished the Pumpkin Socks, another portable, subway knitting project was in order.




You have probably guessed already that these are socks. And you would be right. It's the construction of these that make them fabulous. I do want to wait until I'm close to finished before I reveal more, but know that argyle is my new favorite thing.


This still leaves the stole as my only at-home project, and that just wouldn't do. I needed something for TV and movie watching. Again, you only get a glimpse:




Ah yes, stockinette and wide ribbing, in the round. Worsted weight yarn. So simple, and soothing, and speedy! Projects like this make me feel like a knitting master. If it continues to move at its current pace, I should be able to have a REAL update for you next weekend.

Labels: WIP's

The baby sets are due Thursday. This was kind of a last minute decision, but in lieu of a baby shower, we are having a "Valentine's lunch" on Thursday at work. Both of the bursting-with-baby mothers will be given gifts in our best "it's not a shower but we love you both" sort of way. This means sets need to completed before I leave for work Thursday morning.

Here's where I'm at:

The blue set is completed, blocked, in a box and ready to be wrapped. This would not be the problem.

The taupe set:

1. The fronts and back are done, blocked, dry and waiting to be seamed.
2. The sleeves are pinned out (remind me to write a post about the joy of blocking wires. i heart them) and still wet. They should be ready for seaming when I get home tonight.
3. The booties; main section are also drying.
4. The i-cord for the booties has not yet been started.
5. The hat is two earflaps and some seed stitch ribbing. No actual hat part has been knit.

The way I figure, all knitting needs to be completed and given a bath before I go to bed tonight. That's one hat and about 24 inches of i-cord. Then, everything will be dry when I get home from work tomorrow. I can spend tomorrow evening seaming and wrapping.

Did I consider calling in sick today? Yes, I did. But in the end, two of my six employees have strep throat, my boss is leaving town tomorrow morning, and there's just no way.

But if you see someone on the subway today knitting i-cord and tearing up, that would be me.

Knitknitknitknitknit.

Labels: WIP's

This weekend, I finished the first half of the wedding stole.


We're on the home stretch! I had long ago picked out the provisional cast on and put it on a spare set of needles, so I'm ready to start knitting the second half right away. First though, I had to admire the details. Please note: this is NOT the world's worst job of blocking. I just pinned it out a little so I could see the stitches. No stoles were harmed in the making of these photos.

Let's start at the top; this is the center motif, which will get mirrored so the center is symmetrical.


It's my favorite part; I love the flowing lines that surround this section. And since this is for a wedding, the hidden hearts are perfect.

Here's the whole thing again, but pinned out so you can see the middle a bit better.


Again, flowing graceful lines that pull your eye down the length of it.

Here is the edge motif:


More hidden hearts, more graceful curves.

And then, the latest to be completed, the edging.



My newest stunning realization about lace; knitting on edging is fun, fast, and really gratifying.

I have today off, and the only difficulty I'll face is what to knit. I should start the second baby set, but the lace is calling me.

Labels: WIP's

Yet another new project jumped onto the needles last week. This seems to happen any time I don't have to go to work. Hmm.


So this time around, Katie announced she was pregnant. Carrie pulled her aside and said she was too. They compared due dates, and this time they are due within a week of each other. And of course, they are both having boys. They are due in early March, but Katie was almost a month early last time, so I thought it might be time to get cracking on a little baby boy cuteness.


They are both getting Trellis, but if different colors. This is the completed back and fronts of the first one. It's knit in Lerke, a new yarn by Dale that's a merino-cotton blend; perfect for spring. This one's a pale aqua color, and the other will be in a heathered beige. The yarn is great to work with; all the softness and sproinginess of wool, with the beautiful cable-popping definition of cotton. Speaking of cable-popping, here's a close-up of the front cable panel:



Lovely, no? The back is essentially same, but with a seed stitch panel down the center back, bordered by twisted knit stitches. Oh, did you want to see that too?


This weekend it's all about the sleeves. While they're blocking I'll be able to work on the collar, and then the seaming party will begin. If I have time, I'd like to make some matching hats and booties, but we'll see. The wedding stole is crying out for attention, so I may need to soothe her for a while before moving on...

Labels: WIP's

This afternoon, I hop on a plane to Minnesota. Somehow, some way, the Christmas socks are right on track.

I made it through the foot and heel on Sunday. Since then, I've worked two 11-hour days and two 14-hour days, missed Wednesday night knitting group, taken car service home from work (losing valuable subway knitting time) and still, they will be done.

Ten rounds left on leg. Twelve rows of ribbing. A little sewn bind-off, two ends to weave in, and I finish with time to spare. I can't fathom how I did it, but I'll just allow it to defy expectation and be grateful.

The only other knitting I'm bringing on this trip is the pumpkin socks. When we gt back, the wedding stole will gt picked up with a vengeance. I can't wait to get back to working on that; I've missed it terribly.

There will be FO shots when I get back. I just have to convince the SIL-to-be whom I barely know that photo shoots in the cold and snow are FUN!

Labels: socks, WIP's

One down, one to go.




I finished the first sock almost exactly one week after I started it. If the second sock moves at the same rate, I should finish on the plane on my way to the intended recipient's home. How's that for pushing the limit?

No other knitting has happened since I started these. Not a single stitch on the stole, not a single stitch on the pumpkin socks. I got nothing.

I do, however, have a winter storm blowing through the city. Perfect excuse to stay in and knit like the wind.

Labels: socks, WIP's

I wasn't going to do any Christmas knitting this year. I've knit under pressure a few times (I remember in particular staying up until 3 am Christmas morning to finish a scarf) and it's just not so fun. This is supposed to be a hobby, after all, and once you throw in a deadline it tends to turn into work.

Labels: WIP's, yarn

I had myself a very knitterly weekend, staying inside and hiding from the cold. I've been trying to restrict myself to two projects; the stole, and the latest pair of socks for travel knitting. As it turns out, progress shows quickly when you're not spreading it around so much.

Labels: WIP's

You know what everybody always wants to see? Pictures of a white blob. Oh wait, you know what's better? Really poorly lit pictures of a white blob. Fun!

Labels: WIP's

So Bob Dobbs, despite my doom and gloom, is moving along swimmingly. The duplicate stitch is not nearly as difficult as I expected, and it looks quite good. I would say I'm about 2/3 of the way done with it. I actually thought I might finish this weekend, so when I packed up for the weekend I brought the wedding stole ingredients with me, just in case.

Saturday night I sat down to work on it, only to realize I had left the chart at home. Terribly upsetting. So I did the only thing a knitter can do to console herself; cast on for something new!

Yes, the wedding stole is now officially a work in progress. I'm only about 20 rows in, so it's an inch worth of mangled blob, not worth showing. What it is though, is absorbing, exciting, fun knitting. It's also, I'm sad to say, going to take forever. Twenty rows per weekend = 28 weekends plus edging. That's over six months, with no breaks. This is going to dedication worthy of a marriage!

My plan at the moment is to only work on it on weekends, or the random day off when I am absolutely alone. It really does require tremendous concentration; no TV, no chatting, not even radio. Frankly, the phone ringing once on Saturday was enough to nearly give me fits.

So weekends are for stole, weeknights are for Bob Dobbs, and I hope to be finished with that by the next week (yes, I am being overly optimistic). I will say this about Bob; I laugh every time I look at it. It might be the kind of funny that only I can understand. Stay tuned, and you too can decide if I'm insane!

Labels: WIP's