Mad Knitting

herbivore

2012-01-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

As with many of my FOs, this one was done and off the needles for a little while before I got around to blocking it. However, it is a gift with a deadline, so over the weekend I finally blocked Herbivore, hid the ends, and took a few pictures.

Pattern: Herbivore, by Stephen West
Yarn: Panda Wool (fingering weight bamboo/wool/nylon blend) by Crystal Palace, 2 skeins exactly. In fact, I had to tink the last row to do the bind-off early so I wouldn't run out!

I love the teal color of this yarn. You can barely tell from the pictures here that it is subtly variegated with shades of green.

It's amazing what blocking does for a pattern like this. The yarn already has very nice drape because of the bamboo content, but a good long soak before being spread out on a towel to dry did wonders for evening everything out and opening the lace portions.

The knitting took a couple of weeks, off and on, and because of all the increases on every right side row, it did feel a bit like a slog. It was worth it, though. I'm pleased with the result, and I hope the recipient is, too!

budding photographer

2012-01-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I asked Daniel if he'd like to earn a dollar. Oh yes, yes! was his enthusiastic response. All he had to do was come outside in the cold and take a few pictures of me wearing my new hat. If the pictures were no good, I told him, I wouldn't ask for a refund, but I would ask him to try again.

Here is one of Daniel's practice photos while he was waiting for me to get my boots on:

As it turns out, we did not need the do-over. I think he did pretty well for a kid who's less than two weeks away from his 6th birthday, don't you?

(ETA: I soooo look like my younger brother in the picture above. Wow.)

This one is my favorite, despite the fact that the flash went off so everything is a bit washed out....but I love how you look at this picture and wonder what I'm looking at? (Answer: staring absent-mindedly at the treetop. Not as enthralling or thought-provoking as you'd think, but it's the truth. Hey, it's been a looooong week.)

And the hat? The hat. The. Hat. Was supposed to be one of those quick-knit-it-in-one-or-two-days kind of things, but it ended up, well, not that way. I think I knit this freaking thing about four times. It started out as a plain cap with a long brim that would fold over, but I only had one skein and ran out of yarn. So then I tried a couple different slouchy beret-type patterns, and they looked kind of dumb. Finally, I settled on a plain beanie with a little extra length for some slouch (to use up all the yarn but not run out too soon), and it worked, but GAH. Talk about a not-quick project! Happily, the yarn held up magnificently to all the frogging and re-knitting, and I'm pretty happy with the result, which is cute and warm and my favorite color! (Note to self: knit red things more often!)

Yarn: Some chunky alpaca hand-dyed goodness, maybe by Cascade? I lost the label long ago. I know I bought it in Kansas at The Newton Beadery, which is sadly no longer in business.
Pattern: From my noggin, for my noggin. I cast on 80 stitches on size 7 needles, then increased to 84 and switched to size 8 needles for the main part of the hat. My gauge was 4spi. I knit until I was about to run out of yarn and did a 6-point decrease rather abruptly to minimize any cone-like shape and also because I didn't want to run out of yarn again and have to frog again.

off my game

2012-01-23T20:36:00.001-08:00

I seem to be off my game lately. Last week I hardly had any knitting time because I was in rehearsals every single night for this opera premiere. I was deep in the bowels of the orchestra pit a mere six feet away from a large, ancient furnace that was its own percussion section, so needless to say I really couldn't see or hear anything besides the conductor and the trombonist next to me, but by all accounts the show was a success, and I enjoyed working with such fine musicians. I'd nearly forgotten how much fun it is to work on new music, especially when the composer is present.

Anyway, in addition to having so little knitting time, it seems like everything I cast on gets ripped out. I started these Girdwood Mittens for Daniel twice. After the second attempt, when he still couldn't squeeze his hand into them, I realized my problem: I was misreading the sizing chart. I thought I was making a mitten 7.25 inches in circumference, when I was actually looking at the number for gauge: 7.25 stitches per inch for a 6" mitten. It's an understandable mistake to make once, but to get halfway through the same mitten twice before realizing I was simply making the wrong size? Duh. Ah well. As you can see from the picture, I hadn't picked colors with adequate contrast anyway:

Those two blues are exactly the same color as his winter coat, which would be clever and all if the color pattern showed up better. All is not lost, however. Now I know my gauge in color work with this yarn in two different needle sizes (Cascade 220 sport in 3.0mm and 3.25mm DPNs), and it turns out this size is just right for Anya. I just have to start all over in colors she likes. After, that is, I make Daniel's mittens in a proper size. I'm frustrated enough that I've put this aside for now.

Then this week I cast on a sweater in bulky yarn for Afghans for Afghans. They need lots of sweaters, and the deadline is next month. I was chugging through the body of a top-down cardigan this evening, feeling all smug that I can knit a whole sweater in just a few days, when I got to thinking "Hey, this seems a little big..." Yup. Too big. They need sweaters to fit kids age 7-16, and my sweater might have been all right for the older end of that range, but I didn't want to chance it. So I started over. The smaller size will go faster, at any rate.

This isn't the knitting I really want to do, though. What I really want to do is selfishly cast on a big comfy sweater for myself (I've got several in mind), and also try out that new mitten pattern Cloisonée, and make myself a warm, slouchy hat that actually matches my coat...must. resist. startitis.

Special Olympics Scarf Project

2012-01-14T16:28:00.001-08:00

Have you heard of the Special Olympics Scarf Project? I hadn't until a few months ago when my friend C (the one who made me those lovely mitts in my last post) told me about it. She has a relative with Downs Syndrome, so she contributes scarves and wanted to know if some of her knitting friends would be interested, too? Sure, I said. I'm always happy to knit for a good cause, especially on behalf of someone who is so generous. She even gave me the yarn for it!

Then, if I must be completely honest, I kind of forgot about it until a couple days ago when C emailed a picture of the scarf she had made! Maybe it was a friendly hint that I needed to get started? Seeing as the deadline for Wisconsin is next week, her gentle reminder was warranted.

So, how to knit a scarf that measures 6"x at least 54" in just a couple of days? Double the yarn and add a fringe. Fringe counts in the final measurement, fortunately. Here is my scarf:

It measures exactly 54" long, including the fringe. Whew.

This project is very specific about what yarn to use: Red Heart Supersaver (RHSS) or Red Heart Soft in certain blue and red colors. As long as you use both red and blue and make the scarf the right size, they will accept any pattern you choose (though some free patterns for both knit and crochet are linked on the site). I doubled the yarn and cast on 136 stitches on a size 10 needle, and to be honest, the scarf is a little stiff. I could have easily gone up to size 11 or 13 (aside: why isn't there a size 12 needle out there? Anybody know?)

I did not particularly enjoy knitting with this yarn. I'm not a fan of acrylic in general, and RHSS is not exactly high-quality, but it's what they want, and I am satisfied with how the stripes look.

knitted gifts for me

2012-01-12T18:07:00.001-08:00

I would be remiss if I failed to mention here the wonderful knitted gifts I received this holiday season! They came as a total surprise, though I've been knitting long enough (and giving away knitted things long enough) that it shouldn't have been such a shocker, really.

Winter has finally arrived here in Madison, Wisconsin. A little later than usual, but it's definitely here. This was the view from our (still new!) basement window around noon today:

And it's getting colder, so the squishy, warm fingerless mitts my friend C sent me from her winter home in Arizona have been a well-used accessory inside the house, where my hands are perpetually cold. Note the charming buttons on the side:

And then yesterday, these socks arrived in the mail from my mom:

They are my Christmas present, finished a little after Christmas, but the timing couldn't have been more perfect, considering the cold temps and today's snowstorm. They fit like a glove. She used Classic Elite Alpaca Sox and I don't believe my feet have ever been treated to anything so soft and warm and light. Totally worth the effort to hand wash!

always something to learn

2012-01-08T14:52:00.001-08:00

I am not normally a big fan of shawls - they are lovely to look at and even fun to knit, but I don't have much occasion to wear them - but Stephen West's designs are quite appealing to me for some reason. They just seem more scarf-like and wearable than those big lace numbers. Because of this, Herbivore has been in my queue for quite a while, and a couple of nights ago, I finally cast on.

I thought it would be a breeze, something I could whip up and off the needles in just a couple of days. After all, it takes about as much yarn as a pair of socks, or less, and the pattern only takes up one page and, well, it just didn't look that hard.

Hubris, hubris. Easy? How wrong I was. I knit a few rows, it looked like crap, I pulled it out. I cast on again, knit a few rows, it looked like crap, I pulled it out. I cast on a third time, knit one row, figured I wasn't going to get any further without help, and gave up for the night.

Because, you see, I had figured out my problem: I never learned the proper way to do a yarnover, yo (har). I vaguely remembered reading on a blog somewhere (Glenna's, I think) that there is, in fact, a right and wrong way to execute a yarnover in knitting, but since I hadn't ever had a project where it mattered enough to notice, I never bothered to look it up. Well, it matters in this design, my friends, and I know why: it's because the holes are made between knit and purl stitches. Sometimes you knit, make a hole, then purl, sometimes you purl, make a hole, then knit, and sometimes the holes are made between knit stitches. It turns out that wrapping the yarn around the needle any old way just won't do. You have to be consistent or it looks like crap. Since I'd never learned the right way in the first place, I finally googled it, found a picture tutorial, and had it all figured out in about 3 minutes.

Sometimes I love the internet.

Here's what I've got so far:

It doesn't look like much, but it sure beats the hell out of the frustration I was experiencing before.

Next I'll show you the 3-hour hat that took me a month and five attempts. Yeesh.

warm neck, warm head

2012-01-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

About three years ago I knit Daniel an orange hat with kitty ears for Halloween. I doubled worsted weight yarn so that I could get it done in one afternoon in time for trick-or-treating that night. The hat was too big for him then, but he eventually grew into it...and now he's grown out of it. I've made him other hats since then, but the orange kitty hat, for whatever reason, was his favorite. It's still in pretty good shape, too, after three years, all things considered, just a little fuzzy around the edges, but seeing Daniel's ears stick out the bottom before Christmas convinced me that this boy needs a new hat.

When I stumbled upon Windschief by Stephen West, I knew I had a winner. It's simple enough that a sophisticated kindergartener such as Daniel would like it, yet the tilted twisted ribbing section makes it interesting. Also, it would go fast, and after the sock knitting binge of the last few weeks, I wanted something fast.

Fast, indeed! In less than 24 hours, I completed both the hat and matching neck warmer. Daniel is pleased:

He wore his new duds on an excursion to a nearby park this afternoon, where we chanced upon the beginnings of a crude lean-to structure someone else must have started building over the holidays.

We added some sticks.

And then we went exploring, where Daniel found an old log to crawl on. Notice the lack of snow? The fact that we weren't even wearing heavy coats? Some people are happy about the mild weather we're experiencing, but I for one am ready for winter to arrive!

Pattern: Windschief, by Stephen West.
Yarn: Cascade 128 Superwash, about 1.5 skeins (leftover from a sweater I made for Stuart last year)
Mods: I used thicker yarn than the pattern called for, so I cast on fewer stitches and crossed my fingers that the gauge would work out. It did.

socks for MJ

2012-01-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

I'm still doing a bit of catch-up with the last FOs of 2011. If you're getting sick of seeing socks on the blog, well, too bad, because I've got more to show you! The FO post for these socks has been a long time coming, actually, because I finished them at the beginning of November. I finally gave them to my sister-in-law, MJ, for Christmas, so I've kept them off the blog until now.

I took these pictures on the back deck as soon as the socks were finished two months ago, hence the pretty fall leaves. Now the leaves have been mulched into the lawn and front garden, and the deck is covered in treacherous, frozen slush. Winter is off to a slow start...

But I digress. The socks:

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn Clark, from Favorite Socks
Yarn: I dyed the yarn myself with Kool-Aid a couple of years ago. I don't remember where I got the bare hanks (elann.com, maybe?), but it's standard fingering weight sock yarn with a bit of nylon. I could still detect faint whiffs of "grape" flavoring as I was knitting. My brother Joe tells me that MJ is fond of purple, and this seemed just right.
My only modification was to use the eye-of-partridge heel instead of the regular slipped-stitch heel called for in the original pattern. I just prefer the look of this one, and I find the garter stitch edge makes for a cleaner gusset with no holes:

What did I accomplish in 2011 knitting-wise? 8 adult sweaters (7 for me, 1 for Stuart), 1 sweater for Anya, 6 pairs of socks, 5 hats, 2 pairs of mittens, 1 scarf, and a community blanket for Afghans for Afghans (I didn't do all the knitting on that one, but I organized the project and assembled the squares). There's a pair of socks I finished on my birthday that hasn't made it to the blog yet. I also designed a hat for Anya, which is still her current favorite. I keep resolving not to buy yarn, but it happens anyway from time to time, not in a way that is out of control, but it's enough to keep my stash from shrinking much, despite all the knitting I do!

I should make some resolutions, you know, the standard ones about knitting from stash only and starting the Christmas knitting now...but it seems to me that resolutions are made to be broken. I half-heartedly tell myself that same stuff every year, and every year at some point I buy yarn I don't need or plan half a dozen baby gifts, only to start a sweater for myself instead. And you know what? The world hasn't ended. And if it does, I don't think my knitting-related resolutions will be to blame.

So, here's to 2012, whatever it may bring.

socks for dudes

2011-12-29T15:15:00.001-08:00

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally post pictures of Christmas knitting. I kept it simple this year, and made exactly three pairs of socks: one pair for Daniel, one pair for my brother Joe, and one pair for his wife MJ. That doesn't seem like a whole lot, does it? Well, it was enough. Every year I think I'll knit for everyone and get an early start, but every year I suddenly get inspired the week after Thanksgiving and I manage to knit just a couple of gifts. Ah well. The hand knits get around to everyone eventually.

Here are Daniel's socks:

I used Knitpicks Felici (fingering weight) in the "firefighter" colorway. The more I use this yarn, the more I like it. It's soft enough to be kind to sensitive little feet, but so far wears well in the wash. Daniel likes his new socks and has worn them several times this week already. However, he has recently decided that blue is his new favorite color, so could I please knit him something with blue yarn?

Here are my brother Joe's socks:

Both pairs are my own variation of a plain sock design, which I may or may not write up and post as a free pattern at some point. A pithy summary for those interested: work a top-down sock in 2x2 rib for a couple of inches, then switch to st st for the back half of the sock only, keeping 2x2 rib down the front of the foot and down the instep, using an eye-of-partridge heel and toe design of your choice (I use a 4-point spiral on kids' socks and conventional wedge toe with kitchener stitch for adults.)

Despite the apparent simplicity of this design, Joe's socks took a few tries, including a false start on a pair that I'm giving to Stuart, whose feet are a few sizes smaller. I'm a few rounds from finishing those, so I ought to have at least one more FO post before the close of 2011!

I ended up using Madelinetosh Vintage, (worsted weight hand-dyed) for Joe's socks, at a gauge of 6 spi on size 3 needles, which is the only reason I was able to go from start to finish easily in a week's time. The colorway is "badlands" and it's gorgeous. I wouldn't use Madelinetosh for just anyone, you know. Joe loves them, though he admits they are quite warm, just right for wearing around a chilly apartment or outside at those V-Tech Hokie football games, to which he has season tickets!

On a final note, what goes around comes around. My mom is making me socks for my birthday (I'm 33 today!). One is done, the other is still in progress. They are quite lovely.

mitten fail...then success...sometimes simple is the best

2011-12-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I had this bright idea to knit my friend a pair of mittens for Christmas. My brother Joe's socks were getting nowhere (gauge issues, sizing issues, and today I am finally on track, which is good since I only have a week to go!), I'd already made 4 attempts at knitting a hat out of chunky alpaca yarn (more on that later), and I needed something new and quick. (Ha. The 4-try hat was already supposed to be new and quick and it took 4 tries and no, it's not done, though once I get back to it I'll be able to finish it in an hour or so).

There's nothing like that sort of impulsive casting on for a project that you only have 3 days to finish. It pretty much guarantees you're going to be screwed.

In any case, I pulled out some Romney wool yarn from Yorkshire Rose Farm that I bought at the farmers' market this past summer. It's hand-dyed in a lovely "bronze green", and it's a dense 2-ply with a lot of sheen. It's a sturdy yarn, not for those with sensitive skin. I'd never make a scarf out of it. Romney is perfect for mittens, though, and this shade of green is my friend's favorite color. I've wanted to make the Woodruff mittens from Brooklyn Tweed

I knew there would be issues when I started swatching - at least I bothered to swatch - and I had to keep going down, down, down in needle sizes to get a stitch gauge close to what I needed. I started on 8s and worked my way down to 5s before I just decided to dive in and get started. A mitten is hardly bigger than a swatch anyway, right?

Ha, again. It took three tries to get past the cuff, which was enormous until I finally cast on with size 3 needles. I got this far -

- before admitting that the project was doomed. See that lovely green? It's ever so slightly mottled, which hides the twisted stitch pattern. And remember how I said the 2-ply was dense? It's very dense, and the plies have a lot of depth, which create a shadow on the yarn itself, so the added texture of the cables just kind of got swallowed up. I gave up just after working the bobble and realizing that it doesn't show up at all. It looks less like a bobble, more like a mistake.

This took the whole day. It was frustrating. At this point, I should probably have given up on the mittens and just baked her some cookies like a normal person, but I was starting to feel like the Universe was trying to kick my knitting ass and I wasn't just going to roll over and take it, so I kept on going. I kept the cuff (finally the right size at this point) and knit a plain old mitten on top of it on size 4 needles.

The knitted fabric on these is, I hope, warm, and quite dense. You could probably knock someone out with these things if you tried. I am pleased with how they turned out, though. See the lovely color variations?

Yarn: 2-ply Romney from Yorkshire Rose Farm in the color "bronze green"
Pattern: Just a generic mitten pattern from my head. I took a few notes in case I wanted to write it out here, but I don't think I need to bother. Just find a basic mitten pattern in whatever gauge you are working with and start with a welted cuff.
Sticks: size 3 (3.25mm) and 4 (3.5mm) DPNs

I gave the mittens to my friend this afternoon, and she loves them. Now I'm buckling down to knit these socks for my brother and have already gotten distracted with an idea for a hat...maybe I'll work on that after Christmas!

mint julep

2011-12-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

Finally, I can reveal the test knit I did last month! This is my Mint Julep by the fabulous Thea Colman of Baby Cocktails.

I used the yarn called for in the pattern - Quince and Co. Osprey - in a very dark heathered gray ("Sabine"). I didn't have this stashed and had to buy it for the project, which was kind of a splurge, but I must say it is worth every penny. Osprey, as many on Ravelry will attest, is a lovely squishy, woolly yarn, a pleasure to knit and comfortable to wear. I'm not particularly wool-sensitive, granted, but I am wearing the sweater now over a short-sleeved shirt and there isn't the slightest hint of itch.

I find this cardigan very flattering, especially with skinny jeans and boots, though you could wear it with just about anything but a cocktail dress. Probably someone out there younger and more fashionable than I am could pull it off with a cocktail dress, in fact.

There is a cable detail on the back that helps shape the sweater without extra increasing/decreasing along the side seams. This isn't a great picture of that cable, but it gives you the idea.

My only issue with this design is that there wasn't extra ease figured in at the bottom. As a result, it doesn't look good closed at the bottom because of the way it pulls tight over my bum. Had I knitted a roomier size, this probably wouldn't have been a big deal (you can see on the pattern page that the original sweater has more ease than mine), but as it is, I didn't even bother sewing buttons on the bottom half of the sweater. Honestly, this is the way I'd wear it anyway, so I don't care, but I think this has been fixed for the final version of the pattern.

"...and that's your sweater, daddy!"

2011-12-08T17:08:00.001-08:00

Little kids have a funny way of spilling the beans, don't they? Our family has a well-known and oft-repeated tale of my younger brother sitting on dad's lap, pointing to a box under the Christmas and exclaiming, "That's your sweater, daddy!" The other day this innocuous and adorable gaff came full circle when Joe was chatting with Stuart via FaceTime on their iPhones and Daniel said, "Uncle Joe, my mom is knitting you socks for Christmas!" So much for the element of surprise.

Now that my top-secret knitting isn't so top-secret anymore, I might as well share just a bit of what I've been working on lately:

Joe, if you are reading this, the joke is still on you because I'm afraid these socks, as lovely and warm as they will be, will not fit you. A couple nights ago, I was just about to the toe, when I thought it a good idea to have Stuart slip it on his foot to check the fit. Alas, the sock fits Stuart nice and snug, which is good news for Stuart and not so good news for Joe because Joe's feet are a few sizes larger. I refuse to rip out a sock that is well-made and will fit someone, even if it's not the original recipient, so now there are two wonderful guys in my life getting socks for Christmas that will in no way be a surprise.

I take that back. The way things are going, it will be a bit of a surprise if I actually get the socks done in time for Christmas. However, hope springs eternal and I'm a pretty fast knitter, who, as it turns out, is on a major sock jag, so I'm reasonably optimistic.

I started another pair of socks for Daniel, too (told you I was on a jag!):

I'm actually planning to write up a pattern/tutorial for all these socks I'm knitting and post it here. There's nothing special about it, really, but I'm combining all my favorite elements of sock-knitting into one design, and I'll even crunch a few numbers for different sizes. Stay tuned for that.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2011-12-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

...there's another rainbow! (Anyone get the Arrested Development reference? Anyone? ...*crickets chirping*...okay, never mind.)

Once I finished Anya's rainbow socks, I couldn't get the next pair for Daniel done fast enough. I think it took me about three days.

I think he's pretty pleased with them:

He's already asked for another pair. I weighed the finished socks as well as the yarn remaining in each skein of yarn, and I have enough to make each of my kids a second pair, which would be lovely if I weren't starting to get a little tired of rainbow yarn! Oh well. My kids are worth every single stitch.

Pattern: None, just a plain sock with short-row heel and spiral toe.
Yarn: Knitpicks Felici (fingering weight) in the "rainbow" color way
Sticks/Gauge: size 1 DPNs; I used KP nickel-plated needles and got a gauge of 9 spi, which is why I had to cast on 64 stitches to make a sock to fit a skinny 5yo boy. (Aside: Yo, Knitpicks, how about some of this rainbow striped yarn in the SPORT WEIGHT version?)

For Daniel's socks, I tried a spiral toe instead of the grafted wedge toe, another departure from my usual modus operandi with socks. I've noticed that the wedge toe can get kind of twisted when one is putting on the sock, and the spiral toe helps avoid this problem.

Another change I want to try next time around is using more stitches for the short row heel. I used half the stitches, but the heel seems a little shallow. I recently read a suggestion (perhaps it was Clara Parkes? I don't remember) to use 60% of the total stitches for the heel instead of just 50% to help compensate for this problem. I still prefer a traditional heel flap, but the short-row heel really does work better for self-striping yarn, and I have to admit it's a little faster. When you're trying to churn out several pairs of socks for cold little feet, speed is of the essence!

I promise the next post I will pictures of something other than rainbow stripes! Variety is the spice of life, after all.

rainbow feet

2011-11-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here are Anya's rainbow socks:

She is very happy to have them:

Now Daniel is quite impatient for a pair. Good thing I ordered extra yarn!

Pattern: None, just generic socks. CO 56 stitches, short-row heel (not my favorite, but it preserves the stripes), wedge toe with kitchener stitch
Yarn: KP Felici fingering in the aptly-named "rainbow" color way
Needles: size 1, and my gauge was ridiculously tight, about 9spi. I think I'll have to CO 64 stitches for Daniel's socks to fit, and that is normally what I cast on for socks that fit me!

I'm itching to dig into another big and/or complicated project. I've been trolling Ravelry for good accessory patterns, and have become a little obsessed with designs by Mandy Powers from Zigzag Stitch. I have her book, as well as several individual patterns, and my only problem is deciding what to do first. And with what yarn. I've got all kinds of single skeins of worsted weight wool in my collection, perfect for color work, but with winter around the corner I'm tempted to try a pair of mittens or a hat in alpaca or at least an alpaca blend for more warmth. I may be over thinking this...perhaps I should just dive in!

test knit finished

2011-11-24T16:21:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Ours was lovely. We didn't travel or have visitors. The four of us enjoyed a lovely, somewhat unconventional meal of chicken adobo (so much easier than a whole turkey), risotto (because my kids don't like mashed potatoes, I kid you not), challah (we're not Jewish, but I do love challah), sweet potatoes and carrot sticks. Then we sat around feeling bloated for a little while before going to the park and enjoying pecan pie and apple pie with the family across the street.

The weather wasn't exactly nice today, but it was mild enough outside for Stuart to clean out the gutters one last time. I also sweet-talked him into taking some pictures of me in my new sweater, which is beautiful and fits wonderfully and I've been wearing it all week...and alas, I can't show you yet because it's a test knit and the pattern hasn't been released yet.

Daniel wanted in on the photo shoot and even brought out his camera on a tripod. I love the serious look on his face here:

Sometimes he really is just like a little grown-up.

rainbow socks

2011-11-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

I am so very close to being done with that test knit. Not that I could show it to you just yet, and in any case, I was a skein short to finish, so I had to order another. It pains me rather to pay so much shipping on a single skein of yarn, but the alternative is to buy a lot more and right now with the holidays coming and the giant stash I already have...I just couldn't.

Meanwhile, both of my children have asked me to knit them socks. What color? I asked. Rainbow! They both replied. I'm not a big fan of carrying along more than one strand of yarn for a pair of socks, even for simple stripes, so I thought I'd give Knitpicks Felici a try. So far I like it. I only wish the sport weight Felici came in colors that didn't look like ass. I'd like to make slightly thicker socks as well for those cold walks to school in the winter - not to mention circulating recall petitions all day in the cold, wet weather like at tomorrow's rally (like how I sneaked that in there?) - and you'd be surprised how hard it is to find sock yarn that is thicker than fingering weight. Believe me, I have looked!

Aren't these cheerful colors? I'm doing a short-row heel. I much prefer the look and fit of a heel flap, but for self-striping yarn, I knew the stripes would get all distorted in the heel and gusset area, so I opted for this instead. It took me two tries and a google search for a tutorial (I used this one and it was extremely helpful; I highly recommend it!) but now I'm cruising right along.

sewing corner

2011-11-14T18:33:00.000-08:00

I finally have a sewing corner in the basement! My birthday is at the end of next month, and even though it was a little early, I got myself my present last weekend, a sewing cabinet:

I have needed something like this for years. Up until last weekend, I could only sew on the kitchen table. Our kitchen is pretty cramped as it is, and getting the table cleaned off for long enough to get anything done on a sewing project is nearly impossible, especially when you have young, growing children who demand snacks what feels like every half hour. So frustrating. Even so, I kind of agonized over this decision. Sewing cabinets are rather expensive, and I had to convince myself that I deserve one and that it would be worth it.

Now that I have one, I don't regret it a bit. I love it! And already, I've used it a lot. Yesterday, for example, I made four pairs of PJ pants for my kids. That's right: four. That's in addition to two pairs I made for Daniel a week ago. I could do pajama pants in my sleep by now. Watch out, family! We might all get matching flannel PJ pants for Christmas this year. It goes a heck of a lot faster than knitting socks, I tell you.

Now on to the next issue. I'd like to expand my sewing skills, but my machine has one significant limitation: it's crap for buttonholes.

See this jacket?

I made this for Anya, and got all the sewing on it done several weeks ago (before the purchase of the sewing cabinet, even!), but for the buttonholes. And that's where I'm stuck. I thought maybe it was my own failing, but when I was shopping for the cabinet, I mentioned my buttonhole issues to the guy at the sewing machine place, and he said machines like mine just don't do them well. I thought maybe if I practiced on a scrap piece of fabric first, I could make it work, but the machine turned the fabric and thread into a mangled mess. It just wasn't happening.

There's no way I can afford a new machine now, nor do I want one. My little Bernette 60 has served me well for nearly a decade (it was a birthday present from my mom). It runs beautifully, it's simple, and we just have an easy friendship. How many buttoned-down shirts and jackets am I going to sew anyway? Realistically, not many. In the meantime, my mom has a machine that executes buttonholes just beautifully, so if I can get my act together, I'll sew up a few things and bring them down to Kentucky for Christmas and do all the buttonholes there. I think that's a good solution, at least for now.

Oh, and I've been knitting. Here's an obscure little peek at another test knit I'm doing for Baby Cocktails.

loving the hand knits. or not.

2011-11-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is the best time of year to wear knitted stuff. Lately, Anya is particularly fond of a blue sweater my mom made for her last spring:

I'm so glad my girl likes the things people make for her. She often asks to wear the brown sweater I recently finished, and occasionally she still stuffs herself into her yellow Sweet Peasy, though by now it really is too small.

Daniel doesn't have much use for hand knit sweaters these days. He has a fleece jacket to wear on the way to and from school on chilly days, and he's too warm inside to wear anything but pants and a t-shirt. It's not as though he has any fat to spare on him, either; little boys just run warm, I guess! Still, he fully appreciates all the hats, mittens and socks made for him by me and his Oma.
Also, he likes raking leaves. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Then there's my husband. Remember how I worked so hard to make him that zip up cardigan last spring? I even consulted him on pattern and yarn color. Well, he wore it a few times, but then it got warm and now I think he's forgotten he even has it. A few weeks ago he picked up a jacket at REI that is essentially the same thing - blue, long-sleeved, zippered - only it's made out of polyester fleece instead of wool yarn and he's hardly taken it off. I'm not too upset about this, actually. He never asked me to knit him a sweater. I wanted to knit him a sweater, and I thought that if I at least made sure to get his approval on pattern and yarn choice, he'd like it more than the over-sized fair isle monstrosity I made him more than a decade ago. I think it's fair to say the more recent sweater is at least acceptable, but if he rarely wears a sweater he ostensibly approves of, this may mean I am married to a man who simply doesn't like sweaters. I suppose it would help if I made that collar just an inch or two taller and put in a new zipper to accommodate, but even so, I doubt he'll wear it much. Okay, so now I know. I'll stick to making him the occasional hat or pair of mittens when he asks for them (which he has, once or twice) and save all my mad sweater skillz for me and other people in my family.

third time's the charm

2011-11-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

When my parents were visiting last week, my mom and I made more than one trip (I won't disclose just how many times we went!) to Stitchers Crossing, a lovely local quilting shop that also happens to sell yarn. Their selection is somewhat small, though very nice; they have quite a lot of Berroco, Plymouth and Blue Sky, including the full line of Spud and Chlöe. I hadn't intended to buy anything our first trip to Stitchers, but lately Anya has been asking for a pink scarf, so I picked up one skein of Outer, thinking it would be easy enough to whip up a soft, warm cowl in an evening or so.

Here's what I made:

It's a fail in so many ways. The original design is the very charming and clever Cambrian Cowl from the new Coastal Knits (which is a lovely new book by Hannah Fettig and Alana Dakos and I'm not at all sorry I bought it). I haven't even put this up on my project page on Ravelry and I probably won't at all because I botched it so badly I wouldn't want to sully the reputation of the original design at all. My first mistake was picking such chunky yarn. My gauge on size 11 needles was 10 st = 4", which is just too thick and cumbersome. Plus, that top section is too tall and gets in Anya's face. Third, the part at the bottom doesn't flare enough, so instead of sitting nicely on her shoulders, it just bunches up around her neck. Fourth, the buttons I picked out (not pictured) looked cute next to the unworked skein of yarn, but in reality just couldn't hold their profile on such chunky yarn.

Lesson learned. Beware thick yarn and its wily ways!

That said, S&C Outer is pretty expensive (on account of the organic content and the fact that it is distributed by Blue Sky), and since I had to go back and get a second skein to finish a project I should have known was doomed from the start, I wasn't about to let the yarn go to waste. So I started a hat:

The good thing about hats is that you can make just about ANY yarn work for a hat. Yarn so thick it makes a cowl look like a neck brace does just fine sitting atop the head. Alas, even though I had checked for gauge, I didn't think too hard about how many stitches to cast on, and I cast on too many.

Anya endured several tryings-on during a painting session the other morning before she started to complain.

Then I started sticking it on my head, and when I realized the hat would be loose even on me, I decided to frog and start over.

The third time seems to be working. I knit it up in about an hour yesterday afternoon while both kids were in school (still getting used to that luxury), but had to stop before hiding the ends to go pick them up. So the hat isn't quite done...plus it's terribly boring - just a plain hat in fat yarn. I think it needs a knitted flower to adorn it, or possibly bunny ears. I haven't decided.

I leave you with a serene picture of my morning with Anya. Messy paints, knitting, the sun shining through the window. Really, things could be worse.

halloween

2011-11-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween, I promise. But I didn't get a single picture of it, not even Daniel's homemade skunk costume (I sewed fake fur on a black hoodie and it worked swimmingly), because sometimes I just don't have my shit together. Also, the kids were off school for a teachers' convention and my parents were visiting and we celebrated my mom's birthday...so I was just too busy to get out the camera.

There was knitting. I finished a couple of projects. One is for Anya and it's crap so I'm going to rip it out and make something else with the yarn. The other turned out really nice but I have to keep it secret until Christmas. Next up is a test knit so I shall continue to be elusive about my current projects.

Meantime, I had some fun enjoying our last nice day of the season (I assume it's the last since we're in November already) in the back yard with Anya. We raked up a big pile of leaves and took turns burying each other in it. Good times.

talent

2011-10-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

People's perceptions of talent are so funny sometimes. I can't tell you how many times admitting to knitting something I'm wearing is met with the comment, "You're so talented!" Ditto for bread-baking: "You bake your own bread? You are so talented!" But music? Not so much. Maybe it's just because music is the professional part of my life, which is more a subject of work than of hobbies. Or maybe it's because when you tell people you have graduate degrees in music, the talent is just assumed.

It's funny to me because I think of knitting and baking as useful skills, not as talents. Coming up with original knitting designs or making up tasty new recipes require talent, but the mere execution of knitting a sock or following instructions for baking bread isn't talent. Those are just things you learn how to do.

I finished these socks last night. They took about a month of knitting, off and on. I didn't use a pattern, but here are the specs:

Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted fingering weight (bought on clearance from WEBS a year or 2 ago)
Sticks: size 1 DPNs (KP harmonies)
Pattern (quick and dirty version): CO 64 stitches, work 2x2 rib for 2", continue in 2x2 rib for front half of cuff and plain st st for the back half, eye-of-partridge heel with 3-st garter edging, cont 2x2 rib down top of foot until toe decreases

One new thing I tried is the eye-of-partridge heel. It's charming, especially in the variegated yarn. I may never do another style of heel again!

Would you believe my slate is completely clean now? No WIPs, though that won't last long. I'm going to cast on for a gift project tonight, and I've agreed to do a test knit in the next few weeks. This means I won't have knitting I'm allowed to make public for a while, and I may need to find some other topics to wax philosophical about in the meantime.

irish coffee

2011-10-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Irish Coffee is finished!

This sweater is awesome. I love it.

It's been a rather long and stressful week, and I'm kinda tapped of creative writing skills, so we'll mostly stick to the photos here.

Also, I'm having a terrible hair day and blotchy skin day, hence the headless shots! (But at least the kids are cute.)

Pattern: Irish Coffee by Thea Colman
Yarn: Peace Fleece heathers, just under 4 skeins (100g, 200yds per skein)
Sticks: size 8 circs and DPNs
Mods: I didn't do all the sleeve decreases because the sleeves seemed tight for some reason. Probably my kickin' biceps. Otherwise, I executed the pattern as written and it turned out looking just as nice as I'd hoped. I have to say that Thea's instructions are excellent for fit and modifications to best compliment one's figure. I don't have curves to accommodate, but I feel confident as I knit her designs that they will end up as successful, flattering garments. This is the second of her patterns I've knit (the first was the Gibson Shell, but I've got several others in the queue.)

summer in october

2011-10-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

It almost feels like summer here, with temps so warm I'm glad I didn't pack away all the summer shorts just yet. It was a perfect day for playing in the sandbox...

...admiring the changing leaves...

...and flying a kite at the park!

Also, this sock got a little bigger:

I haven't decided yet if I'm keeping these socks, but I'm inclined to. I could really use a few more pairs this winter, since my decade-old, beloved smart wool socks are finally getting holes in the heels!

I need to make my kids some socks, too. 80+ degree weather in mid-October or no, the snow will fly soon enough, and man, do those little feet grow. A few days ago, either Daniel or Anya (I can't remember which one) saw me working on this sock and said, "Mom, is that sock for me?" with such eagerness that I felt a little guilty (only a little, not a lot) about saying no, darlin', this one is my size.

like a ray of sunshine

2011-10-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Anya's scarf is finished. It is just right for her.

The scarf took exactly one skein (100g, about 200 yards) hand-dyed 100% Rambouillet wool from Yorkshire Rose farm. I picked up a pair of size 8 needles, cast on 20 stitches, and knit until the skein ran out. That's it. Sometimes simple is best, you know.

The truth is, I bought two skeins, so I have an entire one left. I wonder if she would like a hat and mittens to match?

is it october already?

2011-10-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is the good part of fall. Leaves are just starting to turn, the sun is still shining, there is a bounty of tasty produce at the farmers' markets, and the chill in the air is just enough to make a knitter's thoughts turn to wool...and also the fact that Christmas - and several family birthdays - are less than three months away. I've given some thought to what I might make for holiday gifts, but I had better decide soon how much to commit myself to handmade gifts.

In the meantime, I've made some good progress on my Irish Coffee:

A good chunk of that got done on Wednesday at the children's hospital while Daniel was in surgery getting his adenoids out and ear tubes put in. It's not a major procedure, but they put him under for about an hour, and it was pretty rough coming out of it. We got home several hours later than anticipated. Thankfully, it went well, it's over, and the rest of his recovery is going quite well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Daniel can go back to school on Monday...for one thing, if I have to play one more game of Parcheesi, I may go cross-eyed. (It could be worse. It could be Candy Land.)

simplicity

2011-09-24T10:39:00.001-07:00

Last night, after about five false starts, I finally cast on for the final version of Anya's yellow scarf. I looked through stitch dictionaries and contemplated patterns with bumps, bobbles, cables, reversible textures, ribbing, short rows, picture motifs, you name it. I started with moss stitch and decided the back-and-forth of knits and purls would be too tedious for a whole scarf. Then I started over with trinity stitch and decided that all the purl 3tog would drive me mad. Then I thought about cables, but couldn't find my cable needle and we were watching TV and I didn't want to get up and besides, cables only look good on one side of the fabric unless you do a fancy reversible stitch, but I didn't want to get that elaborate. Then I cast on for a textured pattern and decided it was turning out too wide.

I ripped it out once again and just looked at the yarn. What does this want to be? I thought to myself. It wants to be a yellow scarf, sure, but how can I make it right? Then I thought about Elizabeth Zimmerman and her love for garter stitch. Aha.

There is nothing clever or innovative about this scarf. I just cast on 20 stitches and am knitting every row, slipping the first stitch to make a neat edge. It will be a plain and simple scarf, nice and narrow to comfortably fit a little girl's neck and keep it warm through the winter. The yarn is lovely Rambouillet wool in a perfect, bright yellow. If I knit neatly and consistently enough, garter stitch is all that's necessary to make this scarf. Not everything hast to be a challenge. Garter stitch in knitting is like scales and arpeggios to a musician: it requires nothing more than good, clean technique and lots and lots of repetition.

Sometimes simplicity is best. I think this will be just right. (Though I may end up making rainbow pompoms and sewing them on later. We'll see.)

progress and plans

2011-09-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

With Anya's sweater finally off the needles, I didn't wait long to start something new. I have a drawer full of sweaters for myself already, but that didn't stop me from beginning another. I've wanted to make Irish Coffee from Baby Cocktails since I first saw the design a few months ago. A couple of nights ago, I dug up some yarn and got started! It's a top-down design, and you can see what I've got so far posing by Daniel's hilariously creepy jack-o-lantern. (We seem to get an early start on jack-o-lanterns chez Madtown Mama.)

The yarn is Peace Fleece worsted that I bought a few years ago for something else. The gauge is right, and the yarn is not too dense, though very warm, so I think it will work nicely for this design. Since Irish Coffee is a long sweater, I wouldn't want anything heavy and stretchy.

Next, I finally got my sock mojo back! It's the chill in the air, I think, that did it this time. I'm not sure who needs socks more badly, me or my kids. I have all these smart wool socks I bought over a decade ago from a camping outlet, and they are finally wearing holes in the bottom, so I need warm replacements. My kids' feet grow so fast they can't wear any socks from last year, but they don't need absolutely everything to be hand knit by me, do they? I'll probably just buy my kids all their socks this year.

You see, I'm trying to be more judicious about what I commit myself to making. I'd love to make everyone baby gifts and Christmas presents and winter socks, but there simply isn't time. I'll do what I can, but I have to be smart about it. Same with buying yarn. I have reached saturation point and don't want any more until I can use some up. It's not even so hard.

Weeeell, almost. There's one exception: A very sweet woman at the farmers' market sells yarn and fleece from the wool of her own sheep. She has the wool spun in a Wisconsin mill and then dyes it herself. I bought a few skeins of Romney wool from her earlier in the summer with good intentions to do some colorwork mittens. Romney is a bit scratchy, but hard-wearing and should be good for mittens. Those have yet to materialize, I'm afraid, but they are still on my radar. Last week, I noticed she has started selling 100% Rambouillet yarn, which is reportedly as soft as merino. She didn't have any colors I wanted, but she offered to dye some for me. I let Anya pick out a color to make her a scarf, and of course she chose yellow - bright, sunny, beautiful yellow.

This is what I brought home today, specially dyed just for me!

It's soft and bright and beautiful. Not a color I could wear in a million years, but Anya loves it. I think I'll do something extremely simple, like moss stitch. If I think too hard about choosing stitch patterns and making it extra-special, I will get mired so deep in indecision, the scarf will never get made. Anya's been asking for a yellow scarf for quite some time (since last year, believe it or not - this girl is nothing if not tenacious), so I need to get on the ball. For adornment I could always make a knitted flower and attach it later. I can't wait to get started.

liesl

2011-09-17T18:41:00.001-07:00

Liesl: I finished this weeks ago. I've worn it at least twice, even got a couple compliments on it from people who are reasonably fashionable. Why it took me until today to hand my husband the camera and ask him to pretty please take a few photos, I don't know. I guess it's because I feel a little dorky posing in the back yard. Since I'm a giant dork already, I'm not sure why it matters.

Anyway, here it is!

I really like this sweater.

It's really comfortable and, as far as I know about these things, stylish.

Mostly, it's flattering, though the shape and loose knit quality means I have to wear a cami underneath, and this accentuates the flatness of my bust-line.

The only other drawback to this design is that the heaviness of the fabric, especially with the fullness at the bottom, pulls the sweater down, down. It's already rather oversized, so the loose fit doesn't matter, but those armholes didn't start out that deep, I promise. Hopefully a trip through the washer and dryer will pull it back into shape. I'm still contemplating a crochet edging around the neck and arms, and I wonder if that will help keep it in the right shape a little better. Thoughts, anyone?

The pockets are simply too much fun...though the first time I wore it, my son Daniel pointed to them and said, "Mom, are those cup holders in your sweater?" Ha! No, I replied, but wouldn't that be handy?

I think I need a better necklace to wear with this, something with bigger, chunkier beads. Maybe something long. I'm not really a jewelry collector at all, so this red one is the best I've got.

Pattern: Liesl (from cocoknits.com)
Yarn: sportweight linen yarn by Louet, 3 skeins. I thought the yarn would be annoying and stiff, but it wasn't, happily. It really and truly softens up with washing, too, just like they say.

This photo is just self-indulgent. Humor me.

just in time

2011-09-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I finally finished sewing the zipper into Anya's new sweater. Just in time, too - this morning the walk to school was chilly!

Fall arrives so abruptly here. Monday we were still wearing shorts, and today you could see little puffs of breath as children and parents made their way up the hill to the elementary school.

This sweater was barely adequate to keep her warm (it was about 40 degrees), but she kept moving and only complained a couple of times.

Pattern: Liv's Coat by Megan Grewal
Yarn: Valley Yarns Superwash DK, plus a little bit of something else in cream for the i-cord edging (Rowan DK wool, I think)
Sticks: size 6 circulars and DPNs for most of the sweater, plus size 3 for the garter edging on the sleeves and bottom of the sweater body

The sweater features an asymmetrical cable pattern. One line of stitches in the cable is knit 2, the other is a single knit stitch. I'm still not completely sold on this design feature; had I the energy I might have swapped out a different cable pattern with more symmetry and thickness, but this did stretch me a little, and I'm generally pleased with the result. The instructions were at times a little bit unclear, but there was nothing I couldn't figure out by just looking at the work and doing what seemed the most logical. The biggest problem I had with the sweater was the i-cord edging around the front and hood. I think it pulls in too much, as though I should have picked up more stitches for it. I certainly don't feel like taking it out, especially now that I have the zipper sewn in. Anya has already worn her new sweater and is quite fond of it, as you can see.

As you can also see, there's not really a whole lot of extra room there. My girl is growing fast. I need to figure out what to make her next.

current projects

2011-09-07T18:55:00.001-07:00

School has been in session less than a week, and it's going well for the kids. Daniel is enjoying kindergarten very much, and Anya is adjusting to preschool just fine. As I predicted, having two kids in two different schools, one only part time, doesn't give me a whole lot of free time, but it's definitely more than I've ever had. I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of all the volunteer hours, but now that I've figured out I really can't do much work for pay until two years from now when Anya's in school, I've embraced it. Yesterday I spent an hour in Daniel's class helping with math activities, and tomorrow I will participate in a rather more unusual activity: chopping kohlrabi!

One of the parent volunteers is spearheading a healthy snacks initiative, and she got a local organic farm to donate 90 lbs of kohlrabi to the school, and they need volunteers to chop it up and distribute it to the classrooms, so after school tomorrow I plan to set my kids loose on the playground and head to the teachers' lounge to join the kohlrabi chopping party. Kohlrabi, if you've never had it before, is a funny-looking vegetable, but it's delicious. It was one of my Grandpa's favorite things to grow in the garden and eat with his dinner. To eat it, just peel off the tough skin and slice into sticks, much like you would a carrot or a turnip.

Anyway, today in between dropping off one kid and picking up the other, I had a full three hours by myself, which felt amazing. I spent part of that time eating lunch and running errands, but I also squeezed in a couple crafty activities. First, I took a picture of Anya's sweater in progress:

I've got about half the hood left to knit, plus the i-cord edging (which, if you look carefully, you can see I've already done on the sleeves in a cream color). I didn't have time to do any actual knitting on the sweater, alas, but at least I got the picture taken. I spread the sweater out in the front yard and quick snapped a photo before running back inside. For some reason, I felt less self-conscious about doing that than taking the picture in the back yard while the next door neighbor mowed the narrow strip of grass in her driveway wearing only a swimsuit and yelling at her dogs...

But I digress. The other thing I accomplished was cutting out a jacket for Anya:

I don't know if you can tell in the grainy natural light, but I did all this on the floor of our newly finished basement. I have all my supplies down here now, where it is spacious and well-lit, especially in the afternoons, and I'm just tickled pink to have a workspace.

When I was a lass in 4-H sewing (the coolest extra-curricular activity in town, of course), we learned to cut out our patterns by first checking the grain line, then painstakingly pinning the paper to the fabric and cutting out the pattern slowly and meticulously, being extra careful not to let anything slip. In the last year or so, I've discovered what I think is a better way: weighting the paper pattern pieces down and marking the pattern directly on the fabric with a tracing wheel and wax-free transfer paper. It's a brilliant method. You preserve your pattern pieces, which comes in handy especially if you have growing children and want to preserve multiple sizes, and with the line traced directly on the fabric, you don't have to worry about anything slipping out of place and screwing up the project. I mean, there are so many ways I can screw up a sewing project, it's nice to have this one crucial step go a little more smoothly.

You know, it's possible everyone already does this and I'm the last one to the party, but I don't care. I'm having fun anyhow. My favorite pattern weights are coffee mugs:

Sewing takes a lot of patience for me. Once I get going, I can make fast progress on a project, but finding time to work uninterrupted can be an elusive process. I should have a couple hours Friday afternoon while my kids are in school (it still feels a little weird to say that - or blog it - out loud!). We'll see what the rest of the week brings!

i have no idea what to call this post

2011-08-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Next week school starts, which is of course the Big Topic around here, at least for parents and teachers. Those of us with first time kindergarteners are both anxious and excited. Since Anya will be in part-time preschool this fall as well, I might actually have a little time to get some things done...maybe.

I had hoped to be able to pick up some more paying work accompanying, most likely at the UW SOM (school of music), but today as I thought through our weekly schedule for the school year, I realized that I won't have much time at all. For one thing, those of us parents who don't work a full-time paying job outside the home are expected to put in some volunteer hours. I am not at all opposed to this, of course, because I believe parental involvement is really important for a successful educational system. With one kid in elementary school and another in a separate preschool, this means I'll have to put in double the hours. On top of that, the education system in Wisconsin has borne the brunt of some pretty severe budget cuts, which means cuts in staff and programs, so the schools are more dependent on parent volunteers than ever.

What it comes down to is this: I'll be lucky if I end up with more than one part of an afternoon every week to get any work done. This is very frustrating to me and makes me wonder if I should just give up on the idea of ever finding paying work in my field that is worthwhile. I ran into a friend of mine today who has two kids roughly the same age as mine (one starting kindergarten, one starting preschool) with the same school schedule, and we were lamenting the lack of free time we'd actually have and I said, "Maybe I should just drop the idea of trying to find work and just go running instead," to which she replied, "Well, that's my whole plan."

Equally frustrating to me is the feeling that with the economy being what it is, I should be grateful for what I have and just keep my pretty little mouth shut about my own problems. I have two beautiful children, a roof over my head and a husband with a stable job, so what right do I have to complain? I do, honestly, feel guilty about this, because I suppose there are people who envy my position. But here's the flip side: I'm 32 and all I've ever been in my adult life is a student and a mother with just enough actual professional gigs to make me almost a grown-up. I'm starting to feel like my chance to have my own ambition and career and adventure is past and gone and now it's time for me to move aside and do what I can for my kids and hope they turn out okay. It's a frustrating and lonely thought.

And now that I have bared my soul to the internet, I'm going to switch gears completely and get back to the crafting. Which is something I do in all that vast free time that I have, you know.

I want to do some sewing this fall. Summer kind of took some of the knitting mojo out of me for some reason (we had a couple of hot spells, so maybe that was it), and while I didn't stop knitting entirely, I did slow down a little. I am, however, working diligently, if slowly, on a sweater for Anya, as per her request. She wants "a brown sweater with a zipper," and because she is my sweet daughter who loves everything I make for her, a brown sweater with a zipper she shall have. Here it is so far:

I've got about 1.25 sleeves, plus the hood, i-cord edging and a zipper installation to go. If I don't get distracted with other knitting projects, it ought to be done by the time she needs it for cool fall weather.

Next on the laundry list (yuk yuk):

Corduroy and flannel, flannel and corduroy. I love a good corduroy. I bought some in a couple colors to make Anya some pants, and enough red to make a jacket for me, which is probably waaaay ambitious, but if I want to learn to sew for myself, I've got to learn somehow. The flannel is to make PJ pants for Daniel. I've just given up on finding acceptable PJs for him, and until he asserts a stronger opinion about wanting to wear branded (re: ugly) pajamas, I'm going to buy plain undershirts and make the pants myself.

What's on your to-do list for fall?

towels

2011-08-05T17:56:00.001-07:00

I made these towels today.

They are a gift, and haven't actually been given yet, so I probably ought not post this yet, but if I don't do it now, I'll never get around to it. Plus, I won't mention the intended recipient, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this very often. In any case, I'll take my chances.

The nice thing about sewing projects is that they often go quickly. I made these from start to finish today.

The sucky thing about sewing projects, for me at least, is that the only place I can set up the machine is on my kitchen table, which is usually covered with things like dirty dishes, sticky jam smears, half-eaten snacks and the like. Finding a block of time when I can work uninterrupted is truly a challenge, and since we sit down to eat at the same place I sit down to sew, well, it's just very inconvenient. Today, oddly enough, my children not only got along with each other, they were also not very demanding of me (usually I spend most of my time breaking up arguments, fetching snacks, and assisting with whatever game or building project they have going with the couch cushions), so I was able to make these towels in a couple of hours, and only part of that was while they were parked in front of the TV. I don't expect my luck to hold.

Anyway, back to the towels. I got two yards of white linen/rayon fabric and cut it into six pieces roughly the same size. The only waste was selvedge and raw edges I had to trim off. I'm not sure how big each towel measures out to be, maybe 20"x24" after hemming.

For the appliqués, I found fabric with a really large, wild print design at Stitchers Crossing and just cut out around the designs. The coffee-themed fabric in the top picture is leftover from some project several years ago, but all the other appliqués are from another fabric.

The idea isn't mine originally. I have a sewing book with instructions for appliquéd kitchen towels with cupcake and fruit shapes, but I thought following the lines of a large print would be easier. I followed the same basic instructions, though. For the appliqués, I used this peel-off iron-on paper and it worked quite well. You iron the paper on your fabric, sticky side on the fabric, cut out the shape, peel the paper off, place the shape on the background fabric (the linen towel, in this case), iron again, then stitch around the edges with a tight zigzag. It's like making giant stickers out of fabric. The result is a little stiff, but not nearly as stiff as double-sided interfacing, so hopefully these towels will actually be useful and not just pretty (well, I think they're pretty).

I'm really quite pleased with how these turned out. I hope the recipient likes them!

did you miss me?

2011-08-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Lordy Lordy, it feels like I haven't had time to sit down all summer. First, there was the rush of finishing up the basement and moving everything down, and then we had visitors for most of July, Stuart was out of town for work for a couple days, and last weekend we said good-bye to some long time friends moving to Ohio. In a few days we're driving to Kansas, where we'll spend a week visiting family and going to my cousin's wedding, which I am doing all the music for, not that I've had much time to practice.

Alas, knitting has taken a back seat to everything else going on. I finished the Liesl tunic a long time ago, but I still haven't blocked it. I was hoping to take it along on our trip, but the tunic is so loosely knit I'll need to wear a camisole underneath. Since it's been 100+ degrees for the last 36 days (once as high as 114!) in central Kansas, I'll probably just leave Liesl at home. What a shame! I've also been working on a fall sweater for Anya, and I'm about halfway done but have no pictures. I do need to figure out travel knitting, though. I find it's a good idea to have at least two, if not three, projects along on a long car trip in case I finish/get bored with/screw up one of them.

But enough of my life and excuses for not posting. Let's move on to an actual project, shall we? Last week, after realizing that Anya has grown several inches since last year and no longer fits the one dress she owns, I went shopping to find her something to wear to the wedding. No luck. Everything was too ugly, too fancy, too expensive, or all of the above. So I made her a dress.

She loves it, and this is saying a lot for a child who normally refuses to wear dresses.

She probably loves it because it's yellow.

She also loves it because I made it for her.

The first thing she did when we went outside to take pictures this morning was pick a tomato out of our front garden and start eating it.

I sure hope this dress makes it to next weekend.

---------------

More details, for those interested:
Pattern: McCalls 5838, view B
Fabric: some quilting cotton I got at a sale outlet in Newton, Kansas last fall when I was in town for a performance, and I used pretty much every last bit of 1 and 5/8 yards (partly because I made a mistake cutting out one of the bodice pieces)
Comments: Anya usually wears a size 4 in store-bought clothes, but experience with giant patterns wizened me up to sizing issues - finally - so I looked closely at the listed measurements and decided to make a size 3 from the pattern. Wouldn't you know, it worked! The dress fits her pretty well. There's not really room to grow, but that's okay, because she really needs it for next weekend. (After that, she can wear it and eat as many tomatoes as she wants.) The only sizing problem was that the length was just right when she tried it on before I hemmed it. A regular hem would have made it too short, I didn't have enough fabric left over for a ruffle, so I made an evening trip to Joann's to get that wide eyelet trim for the bottom. It fancies up the dress, which is nice, and I think now the length is about right.

If I'd had more confidence in my sewing abilities, and if I'd had time to look for better fabric, I would have chosen something lighter like a batiste or cotton lawn. This quilting cotton is fine, and it certainly wasn't expensive, but the bodice and midriff sections of the dress are lined, and with the gathers and extra layers, it came out just a little on the stiff side. I'm sure if I'd been using more expensive fabric, I would have had some unsalvageable screw-up, because that's just how it goes, right? As it is, my zipper installation was less than stellar, and I had to improvise a little bit on the straps, so it's good that I had a practice run.

I have a little more confidence now, and I'd like to sew some other things for Anya, hopefully with results as good as or better than this dress!

2 weeks!

2011-07-17T11:06:00.001-07:00

Holy cow, has it really been two weeks since my last post?! It's been crazy busy chez Madtown Mama what with the basement just finished and a week-long visit from Stuart's parents. Plus, we're at the beginning of a nasty, energy-sapping heat wave that has slowed down - though not completely eliminated, happily - my knitting mojo.

I'll be back soon, I promise. I've got a tunic finished but for blocking and crochet edging, and I started a sweater for Anya for fall.

stuff

2011-07-02T18:47:00.001-07:00

As of yesterday, our basement project is finally and totally done! Friday morning the carpet was installed at the same time the gutters were being replaced, which is actually an unrelated project, but it made for quite a noisy morning. We are all totally thrilled at the finished product; Daniel even got up early this morning just to roll around on the new carpet.

Now, of course, the task begins of getting Our Stuff in order and figuring out where it's all going to go. My in-laws are coming for a 10-day visit next weekend, so we have a hard and fast deadline, and I think it's going to take at least the whole week to get situated. I have to admit that the whole prospect has been rather stressful for me. We're a family of four living in a very small house, and while a finished basement with a second bathroom (oh, how we love the second bathroom!!) makes things a whole lot better, it doesn't exactly give us unlimited space. Lately I've been feeling anxious about how much Stuff there is and Where it's Going to Go, and this being me, I have been reflecting a lot on consumerism and excess and the American lifestyle...and really, there's nothing new to say about that. Basically, it boils down to this: I don't want to have too much stuff, excess bothers me, but damn is it hard when you have two kids.

Also, more living space means less storage space, so despite the many discussions we've had about where this and that will go, and how much room to allow for a computer desk downstairs and is a second TV and sound system really necessary? really? and whether or not I will get a corner to set up my sewing machine, I have kind of avoided the issue of The Stash. It's kind of like the elephant in the room, by which I mean, if you piled up all the yarn I have it would be a mound approximately the size of an elephant. Maybe a baby elephant, but still. It's a little much. I am not going to feel guilty about it because my stash gives me inspiration, and I've never been irresponsible about spending, but given the reality of our living space and how much yarn I've got, it might be time to pare down a little. I could probably still be inspired with a little less yarn, is all.

I'm not sure yet if this means I should do another give-away, or try and sell some off (I don't do ebay because I don't want to ship to strangers, and I have varying success with craigslist) or just not buy yarn for a while. I haven't bought much lately anyway, but going cold sheep might be in order while I figure this out.

In any case, the vast majority of what I've got has been sealed up in the shed outside since last fall, so maybe what's old will feel new again!

poolside stitching

2011-06-28T18:22:00.001-07:00

Today at the pool, as the kids and I sat on a bench and had our post-swimming lesson snack, I spotted a pair of boys on a lounge chair nearby. They looked like typical boys you see at the pool - probably about nine or ten years old, skinny, tanned from swimming, barefoot, short hair, dressed in swimming shorts - except for one thing: they were both working diligently on something in embroidery hoops. Each had his own hoop and package of needles, plus a small, rather tangled, mound of thread in different colors atop a crumpled beach towel. Presumably they were passing the time waiting for their own swimming lessons to start. From where we were sitting I couldn't tell what kind of stitches they were doing (cross stitch? embroidery?), and I didn't want to interrupt their concentration. I can't help but wonder what sort of motif a young boy would bring along to stitch at the poolside, though I suppose it could be anything from superheroes to butterflies. They ran off before we left (to swim, I'm guessing) and I would have sneaked a peek if I hadn't gotten distracted looking for Daniel's goggles in the lost and found.

two new hats

2011-06-26T17:13:00.001-07:00

What a busy weekend: lots of biking, a bit of gardening, a dinner guest, some work on my part including staining cabinets in the basement and a little professional accompanying work. I've had little time in between for knitting, but this afternoon I finally got Stuart to take some pictures of me wearing the hats I finished a few weeks ago.

The first is from the new Elizabeth Zimmerman book Knit One Knit All. This isn't a hat so much as a bonnet, the Diamond-Back Bonnet, to be precise.

At this time, I'm the only person on Ravelry with one as a finished project, and I hope I'm not the last. It's a fun knit with intriguing construction - no surprise coming from Elizabeth Zimmerman! The diamond pattern is made with traveling slipped stitches, and the shape at the top is a clever series of decreases. And of course we have i-cord all around for a neat edge. Quite honestly, this isn't the most flattering hat I've ever come across, at least on me, but I love it anyway. EZ can do no wrong.

I'm especially happy with the yarn I chose, some Jacob wool I nabbed at the farmers' market earlier this spring from a vendor who primarily sells goat cheese (delicious goat cheese at that!). I couldn't resist the skeins of wool neatly stacked in a basket next to the table full of cheese samples. I actually bought two skeins, and this bonnet took less than one, so I've got plenty left for something else. I just have to decide what. I'm thinking mittens, maybe a pair of EZ's garter stitch ambidextrous mittens from the same book.

------------

Next up: Wurm!

I love this hat. I love it way, way more than I thought I would. For one thing, it kind of looks good on me, which I wasn't anticipating. I thought the design was fun and a good match for the yarn (Farmhouse Yarns silk blend, bought on impulse not long ago from Woodland Studios), so I cast on, figuring if it didn't work for me, I'd chuck it on the gift pile and find someone who'd like it. But it's mine, all mine!

I've only got one thing on the needles at the moment (the Liesl tunic), but lots of sewing projects on my to-do list, including some gifts with deadlines, so crafting-wise it ought to be an interesting summer. I'll leave you with my silly pose for the day:

"purses"

2011-06-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

The other day I was at a bookstore with Anya, and she blurted out, "But I don't have a purse!" This was relevant to absolutely nothing in the preceding conversation. I asked her what kind of purse she wants and she replied "Umm...Purple!" and then I said okay, we'll think about that, maybe sew one to her liking or drop some strong hints with one of her grandmothers. In any case, I explained, this particular store doesn't sell purses, so we're not getting one today. She was fine with that, probably because we were already getting her a book, and I let the subject drop.

Then yesterday I made the mistake of taking the kids to a fabric shop (a fabulous one that deserves a post of its own) after a full day of swimming lessons AND a trip to the children's museum (I know, I know, what was I thinking?). It's not that I like taking tired, overstimulated kids to retail establishments in the middle of the afternoon, but I wanted to go there, it was all the way across town, and we were halfway there already from being downtown and - oh hell, I'll admit it was mostly poor judgement on my part. And all things considered, they did okay, but we didn't last too long. We were there, in fact, to look for some more fabric to make Daniel PJ shorts (he has two pairs and needs more), and he was on board with this plan at first, but was quickly distracted by Anya's increasingly insistent requests that I make her a purse. Then Daniel starting asking for me to make him a purse, too. He ignored my questions of "What about this for pajama shorts? Do you like this?" and found some black quilting cotton with different color polka dots that he liked.

(Aside: I love that my kids like me to make them stuff. This won't last much longer, so I'm trying to enjoy it for now, even if it makes me kind of a sucker for punishment.)

I have to admit something here that I am not proud of. I hesitated for a moment on the purse thing, and I'm not sure why. I certainly would never say "No, you can't have a purse. Boys don't have purses," because I am troubled by these sorts of statements from other people. I believe all people, including kids, should wear what they want and carry around whatever kind of bag they want and call it whatever they want - purse, bag, tote, whatever. Maybe it's because he's starting public school this fall, and I'm afraid of what the mean kids would say if he said he had a purse of his own. I might be a grown-up, but I remember quite clearly how mean kids can be and I'm not sure I could stand the heartbreak of his hurt feelings.

Maybe this is just my imagination running wild. There is still plenty of gender stereotyping out there, don't get me wrong, but it's not unusual to see boys with painted nails and pink clothes and pierced ears and stuff that used to be almost entirely the domain of girls. A couple months ago, he wanted his toenails painted like the babysitter's toenails and that didn't bother me in the least. I'm sure he wants a purse because I carry one and Anya asked for one and for heaven's sake, why not? It's just a bag you carry stuff in anyway.

Calling it simply a "bag" didn't fly. "No, mom, not a BAG, a PURSE!"

This coming from the child who has decided he'll never learn to knit because he wants to be the kind of daddy who doesn't knit (remember?) He also refused to play with a pink toy watering can at the pool one day because it was "for girls." Go figure.

Not to worry. I got over it, and today we made Daniel his purse. I didn't use a pattern. I just asked him how big it should be and how he wanted to carry it around (handles or shoulder straps, and he chose the latter), and I took some measurements and made a small tote bag with the bottom corners stitched up for depth and lined it with some lightweight cotton from a tea towel. He loves his new purse and spent a little time this afternoon deciding what to put in it before he and Anya and I went for a walk outside.

He packed: my keys, an old iPod he pretends is an iPhone (like daddy has) and my camera (because you know I'm going to take pictures.) This meant that I didn't have to carry a purse or shove things in my pockets. It was really quite convenient!

Here's a better look at the bag:

It's a neat fabric, actually, and there is plenty left to make that pair of PJ shorts for him. Here is a detailed shot of the stitching, though if you look too closely you'll see how inexact I am with stitching lines:

Daniel chose the thread color and specifically requested the zig-zag stitching. He LOVES helping me with the sewing machine. I let him plug it in, turn on the switch, put the bobbin case in the machine, and even hold the pedal down when the bobbin is winding. I suspect this was half the reason he wanted a purse in the first place, was to help with the machine. (Daniel is the sort of child who is obsessed with anything that plugs in, requires batteries, has lots of buttons, and/or lights up. He keeps changing all the digital clocks and setting timers and alarms. It's driving us batty.)

Anya didn't get her purse made today, but we have some fabric for it, a twill cotton in buttery yellow (she changed her mind from purple). Maybe tomorrow we'll get working on that, but in the meantime, here's a picture of her in a sweet yellow hat:

This was meant to be a short post about a quick sewing project, but it turned into something else. I'm curious to know what y'all think. I'm not happy that my gut reaction was in such direct conflict with what I want to be as a parent. I'm glad I didn't say no or insist that we call it simply a bag instead. Didn't I recently just whine about obnoxious gender stereotypes on kids' pajamas, which led to making them myself, which led to the trip to the fabric shop in the first place? Am I a hypocrite?

it's been a while since i've posted an FO

2011-06-20T20:35:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted an FO, but I have my reasons:

1. It's summer. I'm still knitting, but the thought of modeling anything made out of wool for a photo, even for a few minutes, is extremely unappealing. I've got a couple hats that have been done for a while now, and I just need the motivation to sweet talk my husband into taking a few pictures of me wearing them.

2. I started a new sweater, a summer tunic-tank thing called Liesl. The pattern and yarn were an impulse purchase a couple of months ago, and I finally got around to casting on last week. You start off with a gazillion stitches, so it's been a little slow-going.

3. Our desktop computer has been having strange problems for several weeks, rendering it unusable. A couple of trips to the Apple store and much diagnostic work by my husband finally revealed a problem with the video card. This is easily fixed, fortunately, but I can only use the laptop for now, which has a smaller screen and is kind of uncomfortable to type on. This means I am spending less time on the computer and thus less time online. This is probably not a bad thing, but it means I am blogging somewhat less.

4. I was working on a test knit for a couple of weeks, and had to keep it secret until the pattern release. Well, the pattern was just released today, so now I finally have something to share! This is the Gibson Shell, by the fabulous Thea Colemann of BabyCocktails.

I probably ought to get some better pictures, now that I can post about it, but the sticky summer weather has kind of killed my motivation for it.

The designer's version has little buttons on the back of the split collar. It's very cool and retro. I want to copy her, once I find the right buttons.

Pattern: Gibson shell, by BabyCocktails
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, just over 3 skeins. I only had to use the 4th because I made the sweater a little longer than the original pattern called for. I love this rich red color; it's my favorite.
Needles: size 6, circular and DPNs
Mods and comments: I made the sweater slightly longer, just because that's how I like to wear my tops, comfortably over my hips. This meant I added an increase to the body shaping to accommodate. The cable on the front was, I think, meant to be a little lower, but I'm so small-chested that this placement works fine. Those more endowed than I would probably want it a tad lower. The pattern is very well-written; as I mentioned before, I was a test knitter and I had no problems with the instructions. The back neck looks weird before you knit on the collar and sew down the pleats, but it all works out, trust me.

Next up: a couple of hats! As soon as I can stand to wear them, that is.

knitting conversations

2011-06-13T10:53:00.001-07:00

We are sitting on the bed (not the couch, because the couch cushions are currently in use as a living room fort...), and I am showing Anya the knit stitch. She wants to make her toy puppy a blue sweater for his birthday. Anya is 3 and 1/2, so you can imagine how this is going...puppy will be waiting a little while for that sweater.

Daniel is watching and chattering away. He says, "Mom, I never want to learn how to knit." "Why not?" I say. "Because, mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a daddy," he replies. "So?" I say, "There are daddies who knit." "I know," he says, then continues, "There are all kinds of daddies out there, but I don't want to be the kind that knits."

the pajama problem

2011-06-10T19:55:00.001-07:00

I have some serious issues with the sort of clothing available for kids these days. All the gender stereotyping really bugs me - and Anya's still in toddler sizes, so we haven't even hit the disturbingly suggestive stuff out there for girls yet! When it comes to regular play clothes, I can find enough tops and bottoms that are suitable. It helps that Anya likes to dress plain (like me!) and Daniel generally prefers solid colors and stripes, so I've mostly been able to avoid the messages that I find most offensive.

But for some reason, it's impossible find acceptable PJs. Part of the problem is that kids' clothing sections just have fewer pajamas than regular clothes, so you've got less to pick from in the first place. I really hate the flame-retardant synthetic fabrics (because they are made from petroleum, and the extra chemical treatment creeps me out, plus they just don't look comfortable), so that cuts out 50% of the selection right there. What's left, then, are the handful of snug-fitting cotton pajama sets that inevitably have stuff like "TOUGH GUY" in army camouflage print for boys and "DADDY'S LITTLE WILD CHILD" in sparkly pink letters for girls.

I looked around a bit online, but the only pajamas I could stomach were $50 a set. Lovely, but way too expensive.

This happens every change of season, at those times of the year when the kids need a new set of weather-appropriate PJs because they have outgrown the ones from the year before. Every time this happens I look for acceptable PJs at a handful of stores, and leave either empty-handed or with a set or two that barely pass muster.

It's so discouraging to find that retailers and clothing companies reinforce these annoying and, dare I say, damaging stereotypes. It wouldn't be so bad if there were other options. Many little girls love to dress like princesses and wear t-shirts that say "Daddy's little sweetie pie", just like many little boys want to look like rough 'n tough football stars. But not all of them want to dress like that, and not all of us parents are the sort of clueless nitwits that will dress our children that way.

Last fall my mom got the kids matching superhero pajamas that made them look like Batman and Superman without the capes. They love those PJs, but of course they came straight from the boys' section of the store because, you know, why would a little girl ever want to dress like a superhero?

Rather than drive all over town and visit every store in the mall in search of kids' pajamas that didn't make me want to set my bra on fire, I decided to just buy them some plain undershirts and make pajama shorts to wear for the summer.

Great idea, right? Well, yes, for the most part. Except that now I have a new topic for ranting: pattern sizing. Below is my first attempt at pajama "shorts" for Anya:

I think the pattern is Simplicity, but it doesn't really matter. It's just plain-jane cropped pants with an elastic waist that took about a half an hour to put together from cutting out to sewing the final hem. I made a size 4 because her measurements matched with size 4 on the envelope and she wears size 4 in all of her purchased clothing and fits it all perfectly. But these? Are HUGE. Adorably so, but still.

I got smart on the next pair and cut out a size 3, chopped off an inch from the waist and shortened the legs by a good 3 inches. Much better, but as you can see, still plenty roomy.

Daniel needed some shorts, too, so of course I made him a couple pairs. I used a different pattern, but had the same problem. When I cut out what was supposed to be his size, those shorts would have pulled up all the way to his armpits if I hadn't chopped out several inches from the crotch. The length is okay but I would take out some of the fullness in the legs if I could do it again.

What sort of giant kids are they making these patterns for, anyway? The shorts turned out all right, and the kids are happy with them, so in the end it has all worked out.

heat wave

2011-06-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

We're having a hot week up here, with temps well into the 90s and heat advisories everywhere you turn. What happened to spring, anyway? The growing season is late this year because we had such a cool, wet spring and now we've launched straight into summer. The last few, sweltering days I've been ever-so-grateful for the following things: the swimming pool, water balloons, our newly-installed ceiling fans, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. That last item was a fun experiment this afternoon. Daniel, as it turns out, is a champion lemon-squeezer, and Anya takes her role of supervisor very seriously. "Thanks for squeezing my perfect lemons into lemonade!" she exclaims.

Surprisingly, I haven't really lost any knitting mojo during the heat wave. It helps that I finished up a sweater last week (that test knit, and it's lovely, but I can't share it yet) and have moved on to some smaller items that don't weigh so heavily on the lap. Also, I recently got my hands on a copy of the new book from Schoolhouse Press, Knit One Knit All, a posthumous collection of Elizabeth Zimmerman's garter stitch designs. Or rather, I should say more of her garter stitch designs; her Baby Surprise Jacket and Tomten sweater are well-established classics in the knitting repertoire.

Maybe I'll do a full review of the book some other post, but for now I'll just leave you with a photo:

This is called "Diamond-Back Bonnet" and so far, I'm the only one on Ravelry with a project for it! I'm using some yarn I bought at the farmers market last month: natural brown wool from Jacob sheep who safely graze at Dreamfarm. It's a good match of yarn to pattern, I think. Would EZ approve?

lightweight pullover

2011-05-30T18:37:00.001-07:00

At long last! The lightweight pullover!

This was supposed to be a quick knit, but like many of my projects, it got set aside for other things, so after going gangbusters on it for a few weeks, the last 15% or so dragged out for a while. After not touching the sweater for several weeks, last night I cast off the sleeve, hid the ends, and gave it a soak, which took all of, oh, twenty minutes.

I put it on for a few minutes this morning so Daniel could take a couple of pictures. He did a pretty good job, don't you think? For a five-year-old, I mean. Once we got the pictures, I went right inside to change to a t-shirt. It got up to almost 90 degrees today, and the rest of the week is supposed to be pretty warm! Looks like I won't want to wear this sweater for a while. Too bad, because it fits very nicely, and I do like the color, a dark heathery teal you don't see too often.

Pattern: Lightweight Pullover by the fabulous Hannah Fettig of Knitbot.com
Yarn: Dzined sportweight, a wool/hemp/mohair blend that is among the first yarn I ever stashed. Each skein is about 400 yards, and I had less than 1/3 of a skein leftover.
Mods: I made the body longer, something I've been doing lately on sweaters for myself. Do I have a long torso or something? Or are designer making things shorter? In any case, it wasn't a difficult adjustment to make.

weekend knitting

2011-05-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

How many people go to the mall on a rainy Sunday afternoon? A LOT. We learned that the hard way today. Our big computer (a Power Mac that's about five years old) suddenly started having weird problems that even Stuart, who is pretty much an expert, couldn't figure out what was wrong. He made an appointment at the Apple Store, and because it was raining and we felt cooped up and bored at home, we all decided to go along. I don't think I've set foot in the mall in at least six months, and I'd be happy if I never went back. It was teeming with people and little kids and so noisy I couldn't hear anything, which isn't helped by the fact that my left ear is all clogged up from an ear infection, my second in as many months (shouldn't I be too old for those by now?) so for the last three days it feels like I've been walking around with a bubble over my head. Anyway, the diagnostic for the Power Mac took a little while, so I actually got a good bit of knitting done on my Wurm hat, which is the perfect portable project, a.k.a. small and easy.

I'm nearing the end of my test knit. I think it's okay to show you this little hint of the back (there's still a collar to knit on there, which will make what looks like a pair of knitted lips look much better!):

The finished project will be a nice little sweater, and would have, in fact, been perfect to wear in today's cool, rainy weather, but I do have a few hours of knitting to go first. For that matter, I still haven't finished the lightweight pullover, even though I'm so very close to the end. Maybe I'll get that done and blocked tonight...

i'm still here

2011-05-24T09:23:00.001-07:00

Happily, one day of rest seemed to do the trick for my injured hand. I suspect it was a case of "mommy thumb" (tendonitis around the thumb joint that mothers of young children often get as a result of putting pressure on the L-shape of the joint when they pick up their kids) as Jenn-Jenn suggested. It's not like I can just go a day without using my hands, but I was careful not to put undo pressure on that joint, took a little ibuprofen, and by the next day it felt normal. What a relief!

I mentioned that I've agreed to do a test knit. Well, it's cruising along, but not yet finished. I can't say anything more about it, but just to prove that my needles haven't been quiet, even if the blog has, here's a little peek:

injured

2011-05-17T18:34:00.001-07:00

I think I've incurred a knitting injury. My area on my right hand between my thumb and forefinger is a little swollen, and it hurts when I have to grip things, like getting a full jug of milk out of the fridge, or digging up a particularly aggressive dandelion, or lifting up one of my children for whatever reason. This has happened to me before, but rarely. I knit all the time, so I'm not sure what caused it, but I suspect it's the culmination of several things: going gangbusters on a test knit with KP Zephyrs, carrying Anya around for at least half an hour during Saturday's protest when she got cold and tired, much digging and weeding in my front garden, and the general tension I always carry in my neck and shoulders. Fortunately, this sort of thing doesn't affect piano playing, which doesn't require any grip. Still, I have a performance this weekend, so it's probably wise to lay off knitting for a couple of days just to be careful.

We've been spending a lot of time gardening this week, the kids and I. They are particularly fond of helping me water the plants. Notice the bandanas! I wear one to protect my scalp from the sun. They like to copy me, so there you go.

so what's next?

2011-05-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my current WIP pile:

Rather modest, yes? I've been doing pretty well lately with having only a few projects going at a time. It's not even that I think there is something wrong with having lots of works in progress. Knitting is knitting, and a knitter should do what he/she wants, whether that means one project at a time or ten. For me, though, I'm most comfortable with two or three projects on the needles at once. Just one gets monotonous, and more than three (or four...) is too distracting.

The big teal blob in that photo above is my lightweight pullover, still about 3 rounds of sleeve ribbing away from being complete. It was hot and humid earlier this week, so I wasn't inspired to finish it, but now I wish I had because today it's cold and wet and feels like March again - perfect sweater weather!

The red swatch is for a project I agreed to test knit, my first ever! That's kind of exciting, but it means I'm on a deadline of sorts. I'd like to see how quickly I can get it done. Maybe a week?

And finally, my latest "cast on quick so I have something to knit in the car/at the park/on the porch while the kids play in the sprinkler" project:

It's a Wurm hat, and there are like a gazillion on Ravelry. I wish the pattern had a little more information about sizing, but it's a freebie, so I can't really complain. I'm using Farmhouse silk blend, a really interesting yarn with a sort of rag-wool quality. It's rustic, which I like, and all American-made, which I like even better.

My next post ought to be an FO. Seriously, 20 minutes of knitting is all it's going to take to finish that teal sweater!

first day of summer?

2011-05-10T13:39:00.001-07:00

It's not really the first day of summer, but it suddenly feels like it - sunshine, temps in the 80s. Less than a month ago, there was snow and ice on the ground; it's a little surreal!

Not surprisingly, a lot of my knitting mojo has been channeled into gardening over the last week or so. There has been much weeding and planting and digging and pondering over what should go where. I have big plans this year as always, plans involving herbs and vegetables and butterfly-and-hummingbird-friendly flowers and a community garden plot. I am nothing if not ambitious.

Also, how to keep the bunnies away? This is a huge challenge. I was just chatting with a neighbor, whose backyard vegetable garden was recently invaded by a mama bunny. She chewed through his fence, hunkered down in the middle of his garlic patch and then promptly gave birth to a bunch of baby bunnies. He ended up spreading some raw hamburger over the garlic nest, which attracted a flock of crows, who in turn, um, took care of the little bunnies. (With apologies to my readers who might be overly sympathetic to animal rights: this is nature, folks. There are too many rabbits and not enough predators to keep their population in check. At least he had the decency not to poison them.)

I haven't planted anything rabbit-friendly yet, but when I do, there will be a strong fence around it. I like my beans and lettuce nibble-free.

Unfortunately, Daniel has been under the weather for a couple of days, so we haven't made any grand and glorious outings to the outdoor places we normally like to visit in the spring, like the zoo and the Arboretum and the botanical gardens. By midday today, at least, he was starting to perk up, so I let him and Anya put on their swimming gear (glad I ordered that early this year!) and turn on the sprinkler.

Miraculously, my knitting didn't get wet. Yeah, I did remember this is a knitting blog. Here is my lightweight pullover, just a few rounds of sleeve ribbing away from being finished:

I've tried it on and it fits just right. Of course, it's possible I won't have the chance to wear it until September, but then again, this is Wisconsin. We could be back in hats and mittens by the weekend.

finished socks and eye candy

2011-05-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

I finished the Jelly Beans socks!

What a nifty pattern. I think the only thing I would change is the garter stitch at the top of the cuff. It feels kind of loose compared to the rest of the sock, which has a lovely, snug, textured fit.

I really need to learn how to use the nice camera. It's a DSLR we got when I was pregnant with Daniel six years ago, and I still don't know how to take good pictures with it. The socks look more brown in these pictures than in real life.

I've decided not to keep these, much as I like them. I'm not saying where they're going, just to a worthy recipient.

Pattern: Jelly Beans Socks by Green Mountain Spinnery
Needles: size 1 (2.25mm) DPNs. I used KP Harmony needles. They're nice, but this is the first pair of socks I've made with this particular set of needles, and one already has a nick at the end. Good thing they send you six of each size in case one breaks.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, in a gray color I think is called "Tabby". I had lots of this left over from making my dad birthday socks a couple of years ago. There was plenty for these socks, and enough, I think, to make a pair of socks for these little feet:

And just for fun, here's my little girl eating yogurt on the deck:

It seems as though today spring has finally, finally arrived.

wordless wednesday

2011-05-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

sock progress

2011-04-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

We have had an unexpectedly nice day here. I was expecting clouds and possibly rain, but instead the sun was out and it was mostly warm, a bit over 60 degrees. We spent quite a bit of the weekend outside and were surprised to see tints of sunburn on our necks and foreheads. With snow less than a week ago, it just seems too soon for sunscreen, don't you think?

One thing we did over the weekend was sprinkle grass seed over part of the back yard, which is rather balding and pathetic. Daniel made a couple of signs, "Please keep off (heart) (heart)", and I really wish I had a better picture:

And I'm making good progress on these jelly beans socks. I had to rip the whole thing when I discovered I was doing the stitch pattern wrong (one minor detail makes a big difference, as it turns out) but now I'm cruising:

I think I'm really going to like these, but I haven't decided yet if I am going to keep them!

lousy smarch weather

2011-04-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Snow in April makes me cranky, yo.

It's not just snow, either. It's wind and thunder and ice pellets hammering down so hard it feels like a shotgun from the sky. What's worse, this is spring break for Daniel's preschool (yes, they have two spring breaks), and since we're not going out of town for this one, I was really hoping to spend the week having picnics and visiting the zoo and working in the garden. Obviously, that's not happening.

Last evening I was digging through the stash in the shed for some sock yarn. I am eager to have my yarn back in the warm, clean house, but at least it's been safe and dry out there. Anyway, I went out to the shed with no particular pattern or yarn in mind, just the intention to pick something out for socks. I came back with this:

Gloomy and gray, this yarn is the color of Wisconsin skies in mid-April. It's lovely yarn, though, some Dream in Color Smooshy leftover from my dad's birthday socks from a couple years back. You can see the color variations are subtle enough for a fancy stitch pattern, but I didn't want anything too complicated. Something about those shades of gray call for a pattern with texture, yet simplicity. I started flipping through pattern books and soon found just the thing: Jelly Beans Socks from 99 Yarns and Counting (though if you click on the first link you can buy the individual pattern online). The stitch pattern is so simple I don't really have to think about it, but there's a garter stitch short-row heel and ribbing on the bottom of the foot, all of which should keep things interesting.

finished! zip up for stuart

2011-04-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finally finished Stuart's birthday sweater.

His birthday was March 12.

I also got him a bottle of scotch for his birthday, so I didn't hear much complaining that his sweater wasn't done. (No, that's not scotch in his cup. It's coffee.)

He might have refrained from complaining about not having a new sweater because he was afraid it would be a flop.

It wasn't a flop. It actually worked out rather well! Though I did sweat over it a good deal. First, I thought it wouldn't be long enough, so I added a couple inches to everything. Then it turned out everything was a couple inches too long, and I had to do surgery on every piece to fix it. Then the sleeves didn't fit into the armholes and I had to pick out the seams and rip back a little bit to add length to the armholes. In the end, everything worked out, but for a little while there I was worried that all the work would be for naught and I'd have to donate the sweater to charity.

I love this goofy GQ pose:

There's only one teeny tiny problem: the zipper is a little short. I didn't think my husband would want to zip it up all the way, but it turns out he does, so I'll have to pull it out and sew in a longer one. This kind of makes me want to cry because sewing in a zipper is a lot of work, but it's better to fix the detail that annoys him. These finishing details really are what make or break a sweater, I think. If I could do it over, I would probably add a little more to the collar, too, and as long as I'm re-doing the zipper, I may go ahead and do that. But I'm still calling this finished for today!

Patterns: Zip up cardigan, by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: Cascade 128 superwash, about 9 hanks in dark navy blue
Sticks: Size 9 for ribbing, size 10.5 for everything else. I used KP Zephyr interchangables. (I like them. The see-through aspect of the needle tips didn't bother me.)
Mods: None, as it turned out, though I thought I had to adjust the length.
Comments: This is a lovely design. The fact that it's a man's sweater that my husband likes and will wear says a LOT, since he is incredibly picky about his clothes (re: the plainer the better). I'm not sold on the superwash yarn, though. It's very soft and lovely, but it stretches like all get-out when you wash it. I had to stick the whole thing in the dryer for at least 30 minutes to get it back into shape, which worked, but doing this a lot will wear out the sweater pretty quickly. It's also expensive. The only reason I bought this instead of non-superwash was that I couldn't find enough of any other bulky yarn in the right color!

All in all, I'm pleased - and relieved - with how this sweater turned out, but I'm ready to knit something small now. Like maybe socks. I think it's time for more socks.

wordless wednesday

2011-04-13T20:19:00.001-07:00

mama said there'd be days like this

2011-04-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Now that one kid is finally getting over his ear infection, the other came down with one last night. Another trip to urgent care, another 'scrip for antibiotics, another batch of yogurt, another beautiful day spent inside in front of the TV. As for me, I'm doing just fine except for the sleep deprivation, and even that wouldn't be so bad except that we're having major plumbing work done today so the water is off and I can't make any coffee. Let me tell you, I could really use a cup of coffee right now.

Then there's the matter of Stuart's sweater. I had the length issue taken care of, but when I sewed the sleeve caps into the armholes, it just wasn't working. There is a good inch extra sleeve cap over the top of the armhole and after much measuring and staring and head-scratching, I still can't figure out what went wrong. I even checked my row gauge, and it's spot on with the pattern. No one else on Ravelry who has made this sweater (there aren't many, maybe a dozen) has had this problem, so it must be me. I'm going to try making the armholes a little deeper to accommodate the sleeve cap, and if that doesn't fit him right I'm going to cry a little, drink a glass of wine, and give the thing to charity (after it's finished of course). Then I'll find a new pattern and start over.

I'm so mad at that sweater that I'm stepping away from it for the moment. Maybe I'll tackle the armholes later tonight, I don't know. But in the meantime, I do have one project that is going all right. Remember the lightweight pullover? I finished the main body of it yesterday (while I was stewing about Stuart's failed sweater) and tried it on:

So far, so good.

sweater surgeon

2011-04-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting this sweater for Stuart. I never posted any progress pictures on the blog because, well, it was mostly just a growing blob of navy blue and not very interesting.

Last night it appeared I was finally on the home stretch, so I partially sewed up the pieces and held it up to Stuart to see how it's going to fit. The good news: taking his measurements paid off and I chose the right size. The bad news: every dang piece is about 2" too long. It's ironic because I intentionally lengthened every piece - the back, the fronts (it's a zippered cardigan) and sleeves - by about 2". I had measured one of Stuart's favorite shirts and adjusted the length of the sweater to match it. When I held it up to him, though, the body hung too long like a tunic and the sleeves covered his hands up to the knuckles.

It turns out my husband is NOT, after all, an orangutan. I didn't want to re-knit the entire sweater, so I decided on the next best thing: surgery.

This is major surgery, actually, as it affects every piece I've knitted. First I threaded a long circular needle (currently using KP Zephyrs, which I like quite a lot) through the row of stitching where I want the new ribbing to start.

And then, I cut, snipping two rows below where the needle was threaded. After cleaning up the bits of yarn (which were everywhere), I took the amputated bit of knitting and unraveled it, using that to knit on the new ribbing.

Carrying this out on a sweater already about 25% sewed up is awkward, to say the least, but it's worth the trouble. If all goes well, Stuart will have a new sweater in a few days!

Now, how about I make up for those lousy photos with a couple of cute kid pictures? We had a bizarrely warm day today, and spent most of it outside. (Poor Daniel is fighting off his second ear infection in as many weeks, but he wanted to be outside with us; I fear we let him overdo it a bit.)

Day 7

2011-04-06T05:53:00.001-07:00

Day seven: Your knitting and crochet time.
Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

I don't often knit in groups. I have a couple of knitting friends (we used to be a "group" but several moved out of state, and we're down to just three), and we try to meet a few times per month, but I almost always have Daniel and Anya with me, which means, ironically, that I can't knit when I'm with my knitting friends. I've also been involved in trying to revive a knitting group with the church I am a part of, but we've kind of derailed the last couple of months because everybody has been so preoccupied with protests and the political situation here. (I feel like I can't emphasize enough the impact of this on daily life in Madison, at least for those of us who pay attention to such things. And the people at my church - knitters and otherwise - do pay a lot of attention.)

Most of my knitting is done in the evening in front of the TV, usually with Stuart, though sometimes he gets involved with a programming project and I just watch whatever's on PBS, or sometimes trashy crime shows when I really want to zone out. When it gets gross I just look down at my knitting. Sometimes if the kids are playing nicely without demanding my attention, I can sneak in a few rows or rounds during the day, but these opportunities are rare. I'm still waiting to be the mom who can sit on the park bench and knit while the kids run around on the playground, but there seems to be no end to the demands to play tag or push the swing or watch while Someone Climbs a Tree.

I do knit in the car, and long road trips are an excellent opportunity for this, since Stuart generally prefers to do the driving.

I often wish I had more time to knit, but I find it nearly impossible to just sit and knit. I need to have something else going on, even if it's just listening to NPR, or having a conversation with someone. Those rare moments when I have the house to myself, I usually spend that time doing housework because knitting just feels like wasting the opportunity. Isn't that sad?

Day 6

2011-04-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

Day six: Something to aspire to.
Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.

In knitting, as with music, and come to think of it many other aspects of life, I don't think you can ever get to a point where there is nothing left to learn. I'm a fairly experienced knitter and by this point I think I can figure just about anything out on my own with a decent set of written instructions. There are a few techniques I haven't tried yet, though:

1. Entrelac. Mostly, this is from lack of interest. I have yet to see an entrelac sweater design that didn't look lumpy and awful (Spring '11 IK, I'm talking to YOU). It's okay for bags, but I never knit bags. Maybe one of these days I'll try it in a scarf or something.

2. Steeking. I admit I'm a little nervous about steeking, but I'm determined to try it. I'd like to try a steeking project this year, maybe a sweater for Anya (I've been wanting to do a little girl-sized Rockaway in shades of lavender and purple since the pattern came out!) or the Frost Tapestry neckwarmer from Twist Collective.

3. One-row buttonholes, a la EZ. I've tried these before using Zimmerman's instructions, but they don't turn out right. Next time I knit a cardigan calling for one-row buttonholes I may need to find a video tutorial or consult an actual knitting expert!

I'm sure there are more than these three gaps in my knitting knowledge, but that's what I can think of for right now.

Knitting and Crochet blog week, day 5

2011-04-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Day Five: And now for something completely different.
This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.

Uh, yeah. I don't have the energy tonight to "push my creativity" on the blog, but I think haiku and limericks are always fun, even when they suck, so here we go.

My daughter loves yarn.
She cuts it up and spreads it
all over the floor.

I learned the hard way
don't leave knitting and scissors
near a three-year-old.

There once was a knitter named Sue
who made a sweater for her darlin' Stu
The fair-isling was sloppy
and the sleeves were too floppy
(At least now she has more of a clue.)

There once was a sock from Nantucket...

(Hey, just be glad I didn't decide to do a whole post of knitting puns. That would have been baaaaad.)

2011-04-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

Day Four: Where are they now?
Whatever happened to your __________?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

One project from the past that turned out well at first and seemed so promising ended up a big, fat disappointment: my Popped! socks .

They were beautiful (note the past tense there). The yarn is a subtle hand-dye in shades of lavender by a local dyer. The socks were a fun challenge to knit, though all the twisted knit stitches grew tedious near the end.

Alas, the socks did not hold up at all in the wash. The yarn was labeled 100% superwash, but after the first laundering, they looked a little fuzzy and felt a little tight. In fact, I only wore the socks a few times before they had gradually felted to the point where they were completely unwearable. The last time I tried to wear them I had to lie down and tug hard with both hands just to get one sock over my foot, and I gave up. It was really disappointing. The yarn was, shall we say, appropriately priced considering it was hand-dyed locally (in other words, not cheap), and the pattern was a lot of work to knit.

Even though those socks are no longer intended to be worn, I couldn't just give them up. I stuck them in the wash a few more times and put them in the dryer to felt them on purpose, which sort of worked, and now I have them stashed in a bag of thrift-store sweaters intended to be made into felted potholders or other fun recycling-friendly projects. We'll see when I get around to that!

Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week, Day 3

2011-04-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Day Three: Tidy mind, tidy stitches.

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Well, you're not going to see any pictures of my stash, not here and not on Ravelry. It's too big for me to own up to publicly and most of it is currently stored in the back yard shed during our ongoing basement work. I have large plastic tubs that are more or less organized by type of project the yarn is intended for. I've got a stash of yarn for kids' sweaters, a small stash of sock yarn, a tub full of single or double skeins for accessory projects,a whole bunch of worsted weight wool in various colors for colorwork projects, and a substantial collection of yarn for sweaters because in my heart, that's what I am: a sweater knitter.

As for needles and other supplies, I tend to be anal retentive about putting things away and keeping things organized, and I still find myself tearing apart the house looking for this or that particular needle while everyone is waiting in the car for me. I have a roll-up fabric holder I sewed long ago that holds smaller DPNs, a larger roll-up needle holder a friend gave me for Christmas, a hanging fabric holder for some of my circular needles, some interchangeable sets that came with their own cases, and an old video box to hold all the other odds and ends like pom-pom makers and T-pins. I have probably a half dozen measuring tapes. I put one in every knitting bag and on every bookshelf, and I can never find one when I need it. I think evil elves steal them in the night. Or possibly my children. They love playing with measuring tapes, especially the retractable kind.

I would love to say that when the basement is done I'll have a lovely craft area to call my own, but alas, it's probably not going to happen. I'll make due with stacking my plastic tubs in the unfinished closet area underneath the stairs and I'll do my best to use up the yarn faster than I accumulate it. Really, in the grand scheme of things, it's not so bad.

Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week, Day 2

2011-04-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

I learned to knit when I was about 8, and while I never quit being a knitter, I picked it back up with serious fervor nearly a decade ago. The big revolution for me was when my friend taught me how to knit in the round on DPNs to make socks. It was like a mystery revealed, a door unlocked. Fortunately, this was also a time when knitting was becoming more popular in general, so there was an explosion of books being published and the beginnings of patterns, instructions and tutorials available online as well.

I've known how to knit almost as long as I've been playing the piano (I started lessons in Kindergarten). While these two things play entirely different roles in my life (one is a hobby I try not to spend too much money on, the other is something I have worked long and hard to become professional at and could theoretically earn me money if it weren't for the whole "taking care of my kids" thing!), they are both skill sets that I have been developing and studying since childhood, and they are both subjects with infinite possibilities for learning.

So what have I learned about knitting in the past year? I haven't had any major revelations, to be honest, though I've picked up a few new techniques here and there.

The Cedar Leaf Shawlette (which I still wear all the time and still get lots of compliments on) was my first time doing a knitted-on edging.

I learned the sewn bind-off when I made my first Ptarmigan:

I greatly improved knitting with two hands when I made MJ's Tremblant mittens for Christmas:

Same with the Polar Chullo, plus I did my first applied i-cord edging on this hat:

And last, but not least, I took a gander at using charting software to write up a pattern for Anya's bobbly hat:

(That was particularly fun. I need to do more of it!)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

2011-03-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

I know I'm pretty late to join the game, but I've read some interesting posts on other blogs relating to Knitting and Crochet blog week, and I have nothing for show-and-tell at the moment, except for a navy blob of plain st st that will one day - hopefully soon - become a sweater for Stuart. So here goes Day One (about three days late!)

Day One: 28th March - err, make that 31 March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Good gracious, I feel like I've tried so many yarns, and yet there are still so many out there I haven't experienced! I am quite eager to try out several North American-produced yarns, like St. Denis, Quince and Co., and Shelter, but I am really trying to knit from stash for a while. (Except for that one 30% off sale in another state where a friend picked up something for me, but honestly, how could I turn that down?)

For this post, however, I'll stick to two yarns that I've actually used recently: Misti Alapaca Chunky and.

Yarn #1: Misti Alpaca Chunky. I bought a bunch on sale from WEBS at least two or three years ago, intending to make something else with it, I don't even remember what. I wound it into balls and then it sat in the stash until recently, when I decided to knit it up into an Aidez cardigan:

I have to be very careful with alpaca. For one thing, it's extremely warm, especially in thicker weights, so you can't make a turtleneck tunic out of it unless you're planning a trip to the Arctic. For another thing, it lacks the elasticity of wool, so projects can stretch out of shape pretty easily. The inelasticity is often made up for in drape, however. Also, I can tolerate all manner of wool on my skin, but alpaca yarn feels pretty itchy to me. I thought that was the case with absolutely ALL alpaca until I finished the Aidez cardigan and started wearing it nearly every day with nary a twitch. I suppose it's the superfine quality of this yarn that makes it so soft and tolerable for me. I think the yarn was a good match with the pattern, too. There are cables, but the sweater is meant to be long, so if it stretches a bit, I don't mind. And the open-front design keeps it warm without being unbearably hot. The best part about this yarn is that knitting with it was pure pleasure from a tactile perspective, so soft and forgiving.

Guess what else? I was smart enough (or self-indulgent enough, whichever way you want to look at it) to pick up a bunch in a second color, so I can make another warm, luciously soft, cozy sweater in cream whenever the fancy strikes!

Yarn #2: Unidentified natural laceweight. Shetland, maybe? Or Icelandic? I have a bunch of this delicate, woolly stuff from my mom, who inherited it from her cousin Ruthie. Ruthie died of breast cancer in the mid-1980s, and a few years ago I made my mom and her twin sisters each a lace project for their birthdays: Cocoon stole, Twilight stole, and a triangular shawl for which I apparently never did a proper FO post or got good pictures, but this will have to do.

This yarn took some getting used to. It's kind of crinkly, full of bits of vegetable matter, and extremely delicate. It's hardly spun at all, and there were sections that just sort of fell apart. Sadly, I didn't figure out spit-splicing until partway through the projects, so I had some ends to weave in that wouldn't have been necessary. But I liked the yarn, in large part because it's vintage and unlabeled (though it was in skeins, so it was probably obtained commercially, and probably in Scotland, where Ruthie lived for a time) and just felt kind of mysterious and unique. I have a lot left, so I could make several more lace projects, should the mood strike. I don't know if my mom and her sisters wear their tribute shawls or not, but I know they appreciated getting them.

polar chullo

2011-03-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ta-da!! The Polar Chullo is finished!

It's so beautiful I almost hated to give it away, but this hat couldn't have gone to a more grateful recipient. I made it for the director of Daniel's preschool because, well, she asked me to. She loves the Toboggan Noggin I gave her before Christmas, and requested another hat with ear flaps. I sent her some links to a few patterns and she chose the Polar Chullo. She's a non-knitter and offered to pay me, but for a project this intricate and complex I think even minimum wage for the hours it took would have cost at least $200. Of course I wasn't going to tell her that. I made it because I wanted to, pure and simple.

Knitting this hat was really, really fun. Except for those earflaps, which were a complete and total pain in the ass because of the back-and-forth in fair isle, but even those didn't take long. It's just so fun to see all those patterns take shape, especially the polar bears marching around and around. The only other annoying part was all the ends I had to weave in at the end. K wants to line the hat with fleece (she tells me she does this with all her hats), so fortunately the inside with all those ends and stranding will be all covered up.

My one modification was to add beads for all the noses. I didn't want to strand along the black yarn for one stitch in the middle of the polar bear motifs, plus beads are fun. I sewed them all on after the rest of the hat was done, but one of these days I'll figure out how to incorporate beads into knitting without having to string them all on the yarn ahead of time.

I'm proud of this hat. I'm trying to get more adept with colorwork, and with each project I see my tension get better and knitting with two hands gets easier and easier. Next fair isle project I might just grow a pair and try steeking, who knows?

Pattern: Polar Chullo by Mary Ann Stephens from Twist Collective
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in the colors black, white, jay (dk blue), blue (med blue) and pool (lt blue)
Note about this yarn: I like it. It's really very inexpensive (about $2/skein) and comes in 100 colors, so it's great for this sort of project. I have a lot of Palette, actually, because I've got some serious ambitions to make fair isle mittens for me and everyone I know, perhaps for next Christmas. It's a 2-ply yarn, and I wish it were plied a little tighter because as I was knitting and constantly untangling the skeins, the plies threatened to come undone. It's soft, though.
Needles: size 2.75mm, 16" circular and DPNs for a gauge of 9 stitches per inch!

I gave the hat to K today at preschool drop-off, and she squealed with thanks and put it on right away. I think that's an affirmative that she likes it. I did get a picture of her wearing it but forgot to ask permission to put it up here, so that's why you only see unmodeled shots here. It's only about 34 degrees out there right now, which is unseasonably cool even for Wisconsin, so she'll have plenty of opportunity to wear it in the next week or so!

i-cord

2011-03-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm nearing the end of the Polar Chullo.

Except for those earflaps, knitting this hat has been really, really fun. It's good to know this about fair isle: even if the gauge is dauntingly tiny, working the color patterns is interesting enough to move things along.

The finishing work is taking forever, though. Two nights ago I began the applied i-cord edging (a first for me!) and I declared to my husband, "I don't know why people complain about i-cord edging. This is actually kind of fun!" Half an hour later when I'd ripped it out twice and it still looked like crap, I retracted that statement. I finally got it right (choosing the right size needle helped a lot - who knew?) and finished the i-cord last night.

Now I still have about a thousand ends to weave in, tassels and pom-poms to make, blocking, and oddly enough, some beads to sew on. The pattern doesn't call for beads at all, but I thought it would be fun to use them for the polar bears' noses and eyes. I really want to get this hat finished by tomorrow to give to the recipient (one of Daniel's teachers at preschool) because even though it's technically spring, it's still plenty cold enough for warm wool hats here!

new sweater for anya

2011-03-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

Anya benefits greatly from having both a mama AND an Oma who like to knit for her. My mom just finished up a new sweater, and Anya graciously agreed to model it this morning:

She wore it until it got too warm and she had to remove it. And her socks. And her shoes. And eventually, her shirt.

See the daffodils there? They just bloomed today. I've been in my hometown in Kentucky this week, where I brought the kids for a visit while Daniel is on spring break. It's been nice and warm and relaxing, but we're returning home to Wisconsin tomorrow, where the daffodils won't make their appearance for a little while!

this is only the beginning

2011-03-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

Despite ranting and raving all day long about the political events in my state, my city over the last 30 hours, I don't have much left to say. I am not surprised that the budget repair bill eventually went through. I am not surprised that the Republicans in the state Senate resorted to desperate and illegal tactics to bring it to a vote.

I am also not surprised at the public uprising in response to the whole situation. Folks, it is about damn time we as a public do something about the decades-long attack on the middle class and the poor in this country. This piece from The Guardian lays it out brilliantly. And for once it doesn't blame Barack Obama for not undoing more than thirty years of anti-union anti-middle class public policy in just two years of presidency. This paragraph, in particular, stands out to me:

Undermining and destroying collective bargaining rights is one of the most important structural reforms that any rightwing government in a developed country can win. And it is not just because, as has been widely noted, that unions contribute money to the campaigns of Democratic candidates. It is much deeper than that. Organised labour is relatively weak now, but for more than a century, it has been the most important force for positive economic reforms in the United States, from the eight-hour work day, to health insurance and Medicare, social security, pensions and minimum wages. The labour slogan, "Unions: the folks who brought you the weekend", is a true but vastly understated historical reality in America.

Once again, I went downtown with my children to join the protesters - determined, angry and cold. Since the public was denied access to the Capitol yet again (even state representatives and the Reverend Jesse Jackson were denied entrance for a little while), we didn't stay long before Daniel and Anya both cried and complained that they were cold and miserable. It's okay, I assured them. This isn't over, far from it. We don't have to stay right now.

Well, you all have better sources than this insignificant corner of the blogosphere to find out what's going on here, so I'll jump ahead to the knitting now. This morning I finished another hat for a Democrat:

This one goes to Josh Zepnick, a representative in the state Assembly. I don't even know where he hails from, but by golly, he's getting a hat.

Yarn: Plymouth Galway tweed something-or-other, leftover from Stuart's Valentine mittens
Pattern: improvised, but there was really nothing to it. I cast on 112 stitches on size 6 needles, knit a couple inches, did a round of purl, switched to size 7 needles, did an 8-point decrease at the top, sewed up the hem and called it good. I wanted to do a red duplicate-stitch Democrat Donkey on there, but I ran out of time.

It's a nice hat. I was rather sad to give it up, though you can see that it's a little big for me since it's meant for a man's head. In fact, I've discovered I'm fond of the turned-under hem on hats. I have yet to do this on a sweater, but I expect I'd like that, too.

Stand up, Wisconsin, and stand strong. Keep fighting for the public good. I stand with you.

red hats for democrats!

2011-03-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

I have joined an effort with some other knitters to knit hats for the Democrats in our state legislature. Thanks to social networking via Ravelry (esp since I don't do Facebook!) and one intrepid local knitter-activist (craftypuppylover on Rav), volunteers from Madison and beyond have volunteered to knit a hat for every one of the Fab 14 and all the Assembly Democrats. There may even be enough of us knitting to include the four Republicans who voted no (in the middle of the night!)

So all other knitting was more or less set aside for a couple of days while I knocked this one off the needles.

Pattern: Squared Away Ribbed Watch Cap (Rav link to free pattern)
Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton in the color "red" (obviously!) from the stash. Not the stash conveniently located inside my house, I might add, but stash that was packed away in airtight containers in the shed in the backyard (oh, for a garage...). I had to put on a jacket and snow boots and go hunting for it on a cold afternoon.
Needles: size 7 circs and DPNs
Mods: I didn't really follow instructions for the decreases. It was confusingly written in the pattern, so I just kind of did my own thing. I think the original looks better, but this is all right.

My kids were both eager to model this for me, as you can see! They sat by the only window letting in good light on this chilly, cloudy day.

This hat is intended for Assembly rep Mark Pocan. He's not my rep, but I really admire his actions of the last several weeks supporting protesters and his efforts to keep the Capitol building open to the public.

I have a backlog of projects I need to finish soon, namely a sweater for my husband and that Polar Chullo hat for a friend, but first I've got to make another hat for a Democrat. I promised to knit two!

knit-in at the capitol

2011-02-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

I spent many hours this past weekend at the Capitol, joining the protests against Scott Walker's budget repair bill. (For more pictures and ramblings, see the last bunch of posts on Madtown Mama...) I don't shy away from expressing my political opinions on my blogs, but they tend not to show up on this one as often, because most of the time, you know, knitting is just knitting.

Come to think of it, though, working knitting into my political/activist life isn't entirely a new idea. In 2004, I was still in graduate school and a member of the TAA when we went on a 2-day strike over contract negotiations with the state of Wisconsin. I remember sitting outside on a warm April day with a ballot box, collecting people's strike ballots, knitting squares for an afghan to donate to A4A and someone came by and made a comment about Madame Defarge. Not that there were any real parallels to draw between me and her, you understand, but Madame Defarge being the most famous fictional knitter in literature, it was hard not to say something.

I've been knitting for A4A for a long time, too, as you can see. For me, that's a political statement, though I suppose it doesn't have to be. I knit for Afghan citizens because I want to alleviate the suffering my country's military has inflicted upon them, even if it's a drop in the proverbial bucket.

And now, even as I write this, history is happening here in my city. (If you are late to the game, read this summary of events leading up to last weekend. It's better and more comprehensive than anything you'll find in the national media.)

I've been to the Capitol many days over the past 2 weeks. On Saturday, I joined crowds more than 100,000 strong (some reports say 70,000, but I was there on the previous Saturday when there were 70,000 and I guarantee you there were way more last weekend) in the freezing temperatures and falling snow to protest the bill. I marched. I held my sign.

After several hours when my toes were so cold they hurt and my fingers were numb, I went home and made dinner.

Sunday, I was back. I joined a few dozen other knitters for a knit-in on the 2nd floor of the Capitol. We didn't have any clever signs (though one from Friday night read "Knitters think this bill should be unraveled!") but we attracted a lot of smiles and pictures and pleasant conversation - what could be heard over the din of the continuing chants and drumming in the Rotunda, that is! I only stayed a couple of hours. I had a great time meeting other knitters and I spent a long time talking to this fine lady, who works for the Historical Society and wonders what will happen to the amazing plethora of signage covering the Capitol walls (she wants some of it to be archived):

The Capitol was supposed to be emptied out at 4:00. By the time I left at 2:30, things were getting a little tense, as rumors flew through the building that police were starting to slow the flow of people coming inside, allowing only one person in for every two going out. Pamphlets were aflutter with information about civil disobedience, the phone number for ACLU lawyers (with the instructions to write it on one's body with a permanent marker) and how to peacefully resist arrest (go limp).

This is what it looked like outside - lines of people stretching to the street, waiting to go inside the Capitol, chanting "Let us in!"

Police standing in solidarity:

...and standing quietly by the doors to the building:

Even a snowman was protesting:

I'd forgotten to eat lunch or even bring water along, so on my way out, I stopped by the world's most famous pizza stand (see this article in the NYT and you'll know what I mean):

When I got home, I checked in with my family and then immersed myself in live footage and twitter feeds, anxious to know how everything went down after 4:00pm. The good news is that no arrests were made and that the chief of police decided to let several hundred protesters stay the night, continuing the vigil that has been going non-stop for two weeks. They also cleaned the first floor of the building, and let me tell you, that needed to be done! People have been extremely conscientious about picking up trash and being as considerate as possible, but when you pack thousands of people in that building every day, it starts to smell like an old gym locker. Just saying. The bad news is that the governor still won't budge (though the news broke last evening that one Republican Senator has announced that he opposed the bill.* We just need two more to vote it down.) Memo to Walker: LISTEN TO YOUR PUBLIC! WE ARE NOT BACKING DOWN!!

Well...I guess this post really wasn't much about knitting at all, was it? I thoroughly enjoyed the knit-in. It was nice to have people to talk to, and have something to do during those hours of protest. I made some good progress on Stuart's sweater, too. More on that soon.

*ETA: I spoke too soon. Republican Senator Dale Schultz won't say whether he's voting yes or no on the bill.

fair isle friday

2011-02-25T13:34:00.001-08:00

I don't think I'm going to make "fair isle Friday" a regular feature or anything, but I enjoy the alliteration, so here's a peek at my latest project:

Those are the earflaps for a Polar Chullo. I'm knitting it for one of Daniel's teachers, who liked her Toboggan Noggin so much that she asked me to make her another hat. She specifically requested earflaps. I kind of wanted an excuse to make a polar chullo, so I suggested this pattern. That might have been crazy because the gauge it calls for is approximately a zillion stitches per inch, but it looks like fun, so I'm going for it.

The first part is driving me bonkers, though. The earflaps are knit back and forth, and they have fair isle, too, which makes for quite a mess on the back:

I considered adapting the earflaps to be knit in the round somehow, but decided against it because the recipient wants to line the whole hat with fleece, and I'm afraid the earflaps knit double-thick would make it really unwieldy and bulky. So I just suffered through. The fun part is yet to come.

new mittens for stu

2011-02-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

This week, I have spent a good deal of my mental energy engaged in thought and action regarding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair bill." If you follow my non-knitting blog, you've read my thoughts on the matter. I am not alone; I spent the entire afternoon marching around and in the state Capitol with thousands upon thousands (50K or more) of union members and supporters in a peaceful protest against the bill. One poor guy got kicked in the groin, but there wasn't any rowdiness other than that. Of course, the Crazy Train brought a few Tea-Party-Movement/Walker-Supporters into town, but believe you me, they were vastly outnumbered. (I'm sure Fox News would have you believe otherwise.) Every so often, about a half dozen of them would walk through the crowd going the wrong way; we politely let them through, but drowned out their chants of "Pass this bill!" with our own "Stop the bill!"

Yeah, so this whole thing has me so distracted this week that I haven't done much knitting. Not serious knitting, anyway. And having a sick kid didn't help much, what with being up several nights in a row with a coughing, feverish little girl. But I did manage to finish Stuart's mittens, on Valentine's Day no less!

Hooray for Stu. He happily dropped me off and picked me up downtown (I don't mind the bus, but it would have taken me MUCH longer to get home to fix dinner) and took care of the kids all afternoon so I could participate in the protests. He is a good man and understands my passions. He is getting a sweater for his birthday, too...that happens to be in less than a month...guess I better get cracking!

wordless wednesday - in solidarity!

2011-02-16T06:27:00.001-08:00

valentine's day miscellany

2011-02-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

It's Monday. How about a bit of random?

1. You know how I was spouting off about how lately I'm all about project monogamy? Well, I think all it took was stating it publicly in a blog post to make it not true anymore. In the last week I've started about three more projects and planned several more. Halfway through binding off the bottom of the lightweight pullover, I decided to try it on, and discovered that I really want it to be a couple inches longer, so I frogged all the ribbing, put it back on the needles, and that's where I stopped. This is, in part, what prompted my latest bout of startitis.

2. I knit a little mitten (pictured in last week's Wordless Wednesday post), which is really not so much a mitten as a gauge swatch for a fair isle hat I'm doing by request for someone else. I didn't get the gauge I need, and the little mitten, while lovely, has approximately one gazillion ends to weave in, plus I think the thumb might end up too small, so I haven't even decided if it's worth finishing, much less make the second one. If nothing else, I suppose I could sew a loop on the end and call it a Christmas ornament.

3. Stuart commented one day last week that he wouldn't mind having a pair of lightweight mittens. He's got some nice heavy-duty waterproof ones my parents gave him for Christmas, but they're too warm for the thawing weather we're having now. I took some measurements, chose some yarn, and cast on last Thursday, optimistically thinking I'd have the mittens done for Valentine's Day. Not that we really celebrate Valentine's Day, but it seemed like a reasonable deadline. I almost made it:

As you can see, I've just got a bit of thumb left, so by this evening sometime Stuart shall have his new mittens. I've stalled, though, because I don't know exactly how long his thumbs are, and I don't want to guess. I left him a phone message at work asking him to measure his thumb length, which I'm sure he'll find a little weird, but we've been married almost 10 years, so by now this stuff doesn't faze him much. In any case, if he calls back with a measurement, he'll have his mittens by suppertime, and if not...he'll have to wait just a bit longer!

4. We got word from the contractor yesterday that he'll be ready to start up basement work in a couple of weeks. The next steps are wall framing and very messy plumbing work, so we have to get Everything Out. This includes the stash. Now that I've relocated it ALL AT ONCE I realize - yet again - just how much there is. I love my stash, I love my yarn, but it takes up a fair chunk of real estate in our little house. I'm trying very hard not to get into a guilt spiral about all of this but I do think it's time to think about reducing. Or at least not expanding. Not to mention, taking sealed plastic tubs out to store in the shed sent me in a bit of a panic about planning the next few months of knitting (impossible because I always change my mind about what to knit next) and keeping everything accessible in case I need it immediately. Not that I can't get to the stuff out there, but it is certainly not easy.

wordless wednesday

2011-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

on the needles

2011-02-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

The last few months, I've been on a monogamous knitting jag. I'll focus on just one project at a time until it's done, and then I start another. The only recent overlap was the Christmas knitting, when I had two projects going: MJ's mittens, which were colorwork and therefore not portable, and my brother's socks, which were easy and were mostly knit away from home or in front of the TV.

Now I'm back to doing one thing at a time, and I'm not entirely convinced that's a good thing. Having too many WIPs can be overwhelming, of course, but it's nice to be able to go back and forth between two or three projects to keep the creative juices flowing, to prevent one project from going stale.

At the moment, though, I'm just chugging away on the Lightweight Pullover, which is going surprisingly fast considering its small gauge. The design is so very simple and straightforward that I can pick it up and work on it pretty much whenever I want. I've been knitting while the kids play in the living room, while I'm talking on the phone, even while reading bedtime stories (I put the Little People to work holding the books and turning the pages, and this makes Them feel Very Important).

Even though I haven't started anything new, I've sneaked in a bit of swatching. Here's my current knitting basket:

You can see I've already reached the ribbing on the bottom of my sweater. When that's done, all I have left are the sleeves. When I started, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't have enough yarn for long sleeves, but I'm not even through the second skein (each is about 400 yards), so that is no longer an issue.

The blue yarn you see resting on the top is Valley Yarns Northampton Bulky, which I just bought to make a sweater for Stuart (I was serious about owing him a sweater!), but alas, it's not going to work out. I'm having gauge problems, which I can get around, but the real problem is the color. It's called "navy" but the color is just a little too bright; he pretended to like it, but I can just tell it's not right for him. I really want something darker and more subtle. Ah, the perils of buying yarn online unseen! (I've already got an alternate plan for the yarn, though. I asked Anya the other day if I could make her a sweater, and she asked for a blue one. I found this pattern on Ravelry, and I think it's a good match.) I've already placed an order for another yarn, which hopefully will work out (this is how the stash...er...collection grows!)

And last, do you see the brown tweed peeking out? That's some kind of tweedy wool I bought for a project - I've already forgotten what, though perhaps it was something for Anya - a couple years ago. I was even considering donating it to a community center when I saw the latest pattern release, Jetty, on Winged Knits, and I had an aha! moment. The pattern and yarn seem to be a good match, and I think I have exactly enough.

That's a lot of sweaters in the line-up. My husband's birthday is next month, and I really really want to make him a sweater, so that takes priority. But aside from that, who knows where the shifting winds of my knitting mood will take me once I'm ready to start another project? Socks? Colorwork? Baby stuff for the rash of birth announcements we've received lately? I've had the attitude lately that I knit for my own joy rather than obligation, so...we shall see. We shall see.

by the way...

2011-02-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

By the way, Jessi rocks. She sent me this a few weeks ago:

It took me this long to take even this not-so-great picture, but I wanted to share my appreciation publicly. It's a crocheted neckwarmer in the most beautiful heathery shade of jade or teal. I could tell immediately that it was made of 100% wool because it's nice and warm, and happily not one little bit itchy. My favorite thing about this neckwarmer is that it's one big loop, so I can double it up to wrap it nice and warm around my neck without the annoyance of ends coming out and needing constant adjustment. (I'm not saying I don't like a good scarf, but there is something appealing about the practicality of something loop-shaped.) Anyway, I wear this all the time and it goes very nicely with my espresso-colored coat. Bonus.

(I am really enjoying the ongoing conversation about stash. Thanks for your comments, everyone!)

food for thought, and a new project

2011-02-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I discovered this blog, and a recent post (and subsequent comments) about the term "stashbusting" really got me thinking. If you read through the comments, there's a pretty interesting discussion going on. I'd never really thought about "stashbusting" as a negative term before (and I'm not sure that I do now, to tell the truth), but I've been pondering how Stash and Guilt and Consumerism and Creativity get all mixed together in a messy pile, and how that's not really a good thing.

Yesterday morning, I ventured to the basement with an assortment of odd skeins and leftover yarn to put away, and as I opened various tubs of yarn finding space and trying to keep organized, I caught myself thinking several times, "Good grief, there's a lot of yarn here." I felt guilty for a moment, because of course having a lot implies that I have too much, which means there is something wrong and I should take some kind of action to rectify it. Or that I should find some way to justify what I have.

I wonder if this is partly a gender thing that goes like this: because I'm a woman I enjoy shopping and accumulating stuff, but I'm supposed to feel guilty about it later. At least, that's how the stereotype goes. And specifically, as a knitter, I should feel guilty about having more yarn than I can knit up in the next week or month or year or two years (or whatever deadline you want to put on it) and therefore I should berate myself privately and on my blog, and joke about how my stash demonstrates how I have no self-control or discipline and then I should resolve to knit only for charity for a year to use up stash so I can allow myself to go buy more and then it all repeats. You see the vicious cycle here?

I'm not saying I'm immune to this narrative. Once upon a time I announced I'd go two years without buying yarn. That was more than two years ago and it was an epic FAIL. I remember telling my mom about it, and she laughed at me. Because she is wise and she herself has a substantial stash of quilt fabric and knows how these things go. I think it failed ultimately because putting limits on one's creativity is a stupid and useless thing to do. (I'm not talking about actual neuroses like hoarding or compulsive buying, by the way. Those are wholly different issues.) Knitting is a wonderful thing, and I should knit because I enjoy it and can make beautiful things that are often useful as well. I should not knit just for the purpose of using up yarn. Then it's a chore, and I have enough chores to do already.

You should know this about me: I am a very responsible, disciplined person. I'm also fairly organized (I think it would be a stretch to say "very" organized...) If I weren't extremely well-disciplined, I wouldn't have been able to finish a doctorate in music. If I weren't responsible, I'd be a lousy mother. If I weren't reasonably organized, the household would be in chaos, but it's not. I get things done, my kids are lovely (you know, except when they aren't, but that's cause they're kids), and I also happen to be a very creative person who knits all the time...so tell me why, exactly, I'm supposed to consider it a personal shortcoming that I have a lot of yarn?

My brief moment of guilt in the basement yesterday did result in my picking out a couple skeins of sock yarn to donate to a community center for their knitting group. That was a good feeling, actually.

What do you guys think?

Oh, yeah. And here's a peek at my new project:

It's the top third or so of a Lightweight Pullover, using, oddly enough, some of the first yarn I ever stashed, or collected, or whatever you'd like to call it. I'll expound more on that later. Right now it's time to knit.

aidez, and a seaming manifesto (well, sort of...)

2011-01-29T14:05:00.001-08:00

Me: Hey Stuart, could I impose upon you for a really big favor? Please please?
Stuart: Mmmm?
Me: Could you come outside in the snow for a couple minutes to take pictures of me in my new sweater?
Stuart: If you grab me a beer afterwards.
Me: Deal.

I offer you the above conversation merely to explain why all the pictures of me in stuff I knit are taken in the back yard with fences and neighbors' garages in the background. Maybe in warmer weather I'll haul the nice camera to the park to make a better setting. By then I doubt I'll want to model warm sweaters, though.

In any case, I present to you - Aidez! Pour moi!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I liked this design the instant I saw it. The actual knitting did not disappoint, either. Not one little bit.

For one thing, the gauge is listed at 15st = 4" on size 10 needles, so it goes fast. For another thing, each piece of the sweater has a different cable pattern, so it never gets boring. Also, the back neck is just knit as an extension of the fronts, so there is no picking up stitches; once you knit the back and sleeves and front, you're done but for the sewing up.

Speaking of sewing up, I'm going to offer up my opinion here about seamed vs. seamless designs. For experienced knitters reading this, it's an old debate, so feel free to skip ahead to more pictures, such as they are. However, for non-knitters or new knitters reading and interested in learning more, please continue.

Two of the greatest knitters of the last century - Elizabeth Zimmerman (may she rest in peace) and Barbara Walker (still going strong at 80+!) - were advocates for knitting sweaters in one piece, either from the bottom-up (in the case of EZ) or the top-down (Walker wrote a whole book about that). Lately, many designers have followed suit, acknowledging knitters' desire to avoid things like too much purling, or having lots of work assembling a sweater after all the pieces have been knitted. There are, certainly, some advantages to knitting a sweater in one piece. Knitting stockinette stitch in the round is all knitting, and is usually faster than going back and forth between knit and purl rows. If it's done from the top-down, for example, you can try it on as you go, and things like adjusting length are easier when you're doing it all at once. And then there's the issue of seaming. A lot of knitters hate it, or think it's difficult, so they avoid it.

Now, I have made my fair share of sweaters in one piece. Anya's Owl Sweater from a couple years ago was a bottom-up design. I've made approximately a zillion and one top-down plain sweaters from Knitting Pure and Simple patterns for various children, including mine. My Equinox Raglan and Lace Leaf Tee are both top-down designs, and they are two of my personal favorites.

BUT. You have to be careful with one-piece designs, especially those large enough for adults to wear. Put another way, seams definitely have an advantage when it comes to certain issues like s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Seams provide structure and stability to a garment, which is particularly important for sweaters large enough to fit adults, sweaters made out of non-elastic yarn (like cotton, or even alpaca), and sweaters with cabled and/or textured designs that add bulk and weight to the finished item. I like seamless sweater designs for the following:

1. Children and babies. Seams add ridges that could cause discomfort to delicate skin. Smaller sweaters are less likely to stretch out of shape, and if they do, so what? Kids grow so fast, it hardly matters.

2. Plain, stockinette designs. Without cables or lots of texture, a plain st st sweater is less likely to be so heavy, particularly if it's made in a light, lofty yarn (see above re: Equinox Raglan).

3. Colorwork and fair isle. I confess I have yet to make a whole sweater with colorwork, but there are several in my queue, and I hope to get to one soon. I have, however, made hats and mittens aplenty with fair isle designs. Long ago, I made Stuart a sweater with a fair isle pattern on the top which he wore twice...I've learned a lot about his taste in clothing since then...lesson learned...anyway, it was done in pieces with colorwork back and forth, and let me tell you, that was a HUGE pain in the tush. Never again.

Another potential drawback to knitting a sweater in one piece is that if you screw up, there's that much more knitting to rip out to fix the mistake.

But now, back to my Aidez.

I didn't mind the seaming at all. With the different cable patterns on each piece, doing everything at once would have required a lot more concentration than it took to do just one at a time. And - not to beat the dead horse or anything - since this design has so many cables, it's denser and heavier than a plain st st sweater would have been, so the seams add to the structure of the overall sweater. This is particularly true for mine because I substituted a 100% alpaca yarn (huzzah for stash-busting!) for the regular wool yarn the pattern called for, and alpaca is prone to stretching out of shape.

Pattern: Aidez, free from the Berroco website.
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky in a pale, heathery blue shade. I bought it on clearance at WEBS at least a couple of years ago without a plan (something I almost never do), and thought that this design seemed like a good match. I was right. I don't regret the yarn substitution (the original calls for Peruvia Quick) for a second. Knitting - and wearing! - the yarn is heavenly.
Mods: My gauge was slightly off, 16st = 4" instead of the called-for 15st = 4". I didn't want to knit looser, so I followed the numbers for a larger size. It's a smidge tighter than I had planned on, but I hate floppy sweaters, so I'm actually quite happy with the fit. I also made the whole thing a couple inches shorter than the original pattern.

I leave you with the silly shot from this afternoon:

wordless wednesday

2011-01-26T15:22:00.001-08:00

i have a new sweater!

2011-01-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

...but here's just a little preview, since I won't have a chance to take better photos until the weekend.

Now, would you believe I don't have any WIPs? (Let's ignore a couple of years-old projects that I'll probably never finish). I'm chomping at the bit to start something new. But what? I'm rather paralyzed by indecision, so tonight's knitting may be a simple sock or swatching for future projects.

i blame da packers

2011-01-23T17:53:00.001-08:00

Before I show you my latest screw-up, allow me to share a couple of silly kid pictures. Here they are watching the TeeVee yesterday; evidently, Daniel finds Clifford more interesting upside down.

Here's Anya all bundled up on the way to the grocery store, wearing a smattering of handknits, including my stolen teal Ptarmigan, a black hat with kitty ears I made for Halloween two years ago and never blogged, and yellow mittens that match her bobbly hat:

And now, back to regularly scheduled knitting. I've been smitten with this cardigan since it was published as a free pattern on the Berroco website. Less than two weeks ago, with my Urban Aran fresh off the needles, I cast on. I think this may be just about the quickest sweater (adult-sized, anyway) I've ever made! Or so I thought...

You see, this afternoon during the Packers-Bears game (w00t!) I cast off the final piece, the left front (I knit in this order: back, sleeves, fronts). When I went to block everything a little while later, I noticed the fronts didn't exactly match, and to my frustration, I realized why:

Despite the lousy quality of this photo, you can see that I left a couple of rows out in one of the repeats of this particular pattern. It's the piece I just finished knitting, and while the mistake is probably a couple of days old, I'm going to blame the exciting football game for the fact that I didn't notice until I had everything all pinned down and dampened with water. Now, I normally don't watch football or even pay attention, but yo, it's the Packers against the Bears (age-old rivals!) in a playoff game...I couldn't help but see this one.

When my husband is done watching the Steelers/Jets game (I've seen enough football for today, I think) I'm going to settle down with my cup of tea in front of PBS and knit...what? Oddly enough, I've been knitting one project at a time, and since that sweater piece with the mistake has to dry before I can rip and reknit it, I'm a little at odds about what to do next. I could really use some socks. I really want to make these mittens for Daniel, not because he needs them, really, but because I really want to make them. There are a few new babies (friends near and far) I ought to knit something for, if only some squishy balls from Itty Bitty Toys.

In any case, I better decide soon, because Stuart tells me there is about 10 minutes left in the game before it's my turn in front of the television!

little rascal winding yarn

2011-01-21T15:50:00.001-08:00

(It's good to have a helper.)

giving wordless wednesday a try

2011-01-19T14:56:00.001-08:00

urban aran

2011-01-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

At last, an FO post for my urban aran cardigan!

The story of this sweater is really more of a saga, starting with getting the yarn. It's just Cascade Eco-wool in one of the natural shades (brown so dark it's almost black). Two years ago, my MIL gave me a most wonderful birthday present: a gift card to the LYS in her town in central Kansas. We were visiting for Christmas, so I went to use it right away, and one of the things I bought was 3 skeins of eco-wool for the urban aran cardigan. I'd been wanting to make one for ages. Alas, when the store owner began to wind the yarn for me, it came apart, as though someone had taken a scissors to the middle of the skein and just shredded it. No matter, she had an extra skein...but it exhibited the same problem. Whether someone had vandalized the yarn in the shop, or it had just been shipped with that terrible flaw, we'll never know. She took down my address and promised to mail me some more when a new shipment came in.

So I waited, and waited and the yarn never came. I called the shop, and she said new yarn hadn't arrived yet. I waited several weeks more and called the shop again. This time, yes the yarn had arrived, but she had forgotten to send it. Profuse apologies followed, with the promise to get it sent right away.

Still no yarn. I gave up.

Then my friend and piano partner, who is also an avid knitter and knew about this whole yarn saga, noticed the shop was having a big sale and offered to pick up the yarn for me at a discount and send it. A week later, I finally had my yarn and was more or less all set to go.

(I'm not naming or linking the shop because I don't want to damage their business. Yes, they were disorganized with this particular situation, but they carry a beautiful selection of yarn, and it's the sort of local business I want to succeed in a small town.)

It still took me about six months to get this sweater done, despite the relatively big gauge and straight forward pattern. I had gauge issues and kept getting distracted with other projects. I think the actual knitting time was only a few weeks, though.

One setback was that I knit the entire back piece twice! I had it all done and finished when I held it up to myself and noticed that those slanting cables on the sides were placed very unflatteringly, causing the knitting to pull in right at that part of my middle where the postpartum bulge will never disappear. So I frogged it down to the first couple inches of ribbing and re-knit it, moving the cables up to form a natural waist shaping. It was totally worth it.

Otherwise, I made no modifications except the ones already specified by Jared Flood, making the sweater into a cardigan (the original pattern in the Patons booklet is a pullover) and adding a couple of decreases in the collar around the shoulders so it won't flare too badly.

You can see my kludgy sewing job on the 2-way zipper. I couldn't wait for the one I'd ordered to arrive, so I just went ahead and installed the too-long one I bought at the craft store, folding over the excess and tacking it down inside the collar. It doesn't look fabulous, but it'll do. If I ever zip it up too enthusiastically and pull the zipper tab off, though, I'll have to go to the work of sewing in a new one. When/if that happens, I think I'll just use a regular separating zipper. I was so determined to have a 2-way zipper (just like Jared's! I'm such a fan girl!!)...and now I'm not so sure. The look is nice and I like the versatility of zipping open the top and bottom to accommodate my comfort level, but I have to slip the sweater on and off over my head. That's kind of a nuisance, and it's made the ribbing stretch out a little at the bottom already, something that I suspect wouldn't be a problem if I could get it on and off like a regular cardigan.

My kind husband agreed to a short photo session this morning - "short" being the operative word here, seeing as it was all of 12 degrees outside! We both went running earlier today, which wasn't so bad, but standing still in the snow to take pictures gets really cold really fast.

Pattern: Urban Aran pullover from Patons booklet Street Smart with Jared Flood's modifications to make it a cardigan.
Yarn: Cascade Ecowool, just over 2 giants skeins (I have lots leftover!)
Needles: size 9 for ribbing, size 10 for the main knitting, maybe size 8 for the collar, but I don't remember exactly
Mods: In addition to the cardigan mods, I moved the slanty side cables up 2" to make the sweater more flattering...or slightly less unflattering. There's still an annoying pooch in the front that may be from shoddy zipper installation or floppy ribbing from pulling it on over my head. Still, I love this sweater!

here goes nuthin'

2011-01-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

Well, everyone. Here goes nuthin'!

I've spent the whole evening writing up the pattern and charts for a yellow hat I made Anya over the summer. I meant to publish the pattern here months ago, in time for fall knitting, but I wanted to make real charts and didn't have the software. I tried using Excel, briefly, but it just wasn't working for me. So on a recommendation from Revknits, I sent my husband an email with a link to Intwined Studio and the simple message "I want this!" and lo and behold, I got it for my birthday a couple weeks ago!

This evening is the first time I've really had a chance to sit down and play with the program, and boy is it nice. I'm not great at navigating unfamiliar software, unfortunately, but this program is fairly intuitive. My only problem now is that I don't know how to get everything into one whole document; the text and charts are all saved as separate files, which is kind of annoying. Also, they look tiny on this blog post, and I'm not sure what to do about that. If you click on the images, though, you'll get something regular-sized to look at.

BUT, you guys get a free pattern out of deal. With charts! And now that I'm having so much fun with it, I plan to re-write a couple of my older patterns because really, those line-by-line instructions for cables make me crazy.

Without further ado...

Anya's Bobbly Hat

Description: This little topper knits up easily in a DK weight yarn for your favorite toddler! Sweet bobbles and a bold rippling cable make for interesting knitting that is easier than it looks. Really. The decreases at the top of the hat are a little more complicated, but were designed to preserve the swirl of the cables as they approach the crown. Consider sizing up the gauge for a hat that would fit an older child or adult.

Finished size: approx. 17" circumference unstretched; cable pattern allows for considerable stretch!

Skills required: knit, purl, knitting in the round, working cables, working bobbles, make one, decreasing with k2tog and p2tog,
reading charts

Materials needed:
2 skeins Valley Yarns Superwash DK in "soft yellow" (50g, 137 yards superwash merino wool); the hat actually requires just over 1 skein Circular needles: size 3 and size 6, each 16" long, plus one set size 6 DPNs for crown decreases Cable needle

Gauge: 22st = 4" in st st on size 6 needles, 28st = 4" in pattern st on size 6 needles

Note: on Round 14 of decrease chart, the first p2tog requires that you use the last stitch of Round 13 for the decrease. The
missing stitch is shown on Round 14 on the chart.

Instructions for hat:
With size 3 needles, using method of choice (I always use long-tail), CO 124 stitches and join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches.

Work in k2p2 rib for 3.5", or desired length of brim.

Changing to size 6 circular needles, work set-up round as follows: (p2, k5, p5, k5, M1, p3) two times, (p2, k5, p5, k6, p3) four times. You now have 126 stitches.

Begin working Chart One. The 21-stitch pattern repeats six times each round. Work all 12 rounds of Chart One twice.

Work the 20 rounds of Chart Two, noting that on Round 14 of decrease chart, the first p2tog requires that you use the last stitch of Round 13 for the decrease. (The missing stitch is shown on Round 14 on the chart.) Switch to size 6 DPNs when the decreases make working on a circular needle too difficult.

After Round 20, 12 stitches remain. (k2tog) 6 times. 6 stitches remain. Break yarn and pull through remaining stitches. Weave in ends and block hat as desired.

I almost have a new sweater

2011-01-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Check it out:

I have been working on this Urban Aran Cardigan/Jacket for a long time, off and on since last spring. Gauge problems, a badly placed cable pattern, warm weather, and various other distractions caused me to set it aside several times. So what should have been a quick knit turned into a ridiculously long-term project! Once the Christmas knitting was done, I was itching to get some selfish knitting done, so I decided to wrap this up. Since I picked it back up last week, it's been going pretty fast. The fact that most of it was knit twice (see above re: gauge issues and badly placed cables...) meant that by the time I got going again, I hardly had to look at the chart; I think I got the left front done in about 24 hours.

In fact, if I would stop putzing around on the computer and get back to the knitting, I'd have the collar done and the sweater ready for a good soak yet this evening. All that's left after that is the zipper...and therein lies the problem. I really want to install a 2-way separating zipper, just like Jared Flood did in his version of this sweater. Last time I checked at Joann's, though, 2-way zippers only come ready-made in a few lengths, starting at 26", which is considerably longer than I would need. I'll have to custom-order one or find one online in the length I need, probably 22-23", depending on how much or even if the sweater grows after blocking. The impatient side of me is tempted to get a regular separating zipper so I can have a new sweater sooner, but I think the 2-way zipper would be a lot spiffier. I suppose it's worth the wait.

community blanket

2011-01-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Shortly before Christmas, I heard a story on NPR that made me weep. A high school teacher noticed a pair of sisters walking to school in the cold with one coat. When they were halfway to school, the one wearing the coat would take it off and give it to her sister. The teacher asked them quietly why they were sharing a coat, and the sisters admitted that their family couldn't afford for them each to have one. They shared the one so that neither would have to walk in the cold the entire way to school. The teacher then went out and bought a second coat, along with some gloves and hats for them because she thought it wasn't fair that any child should have to walk to school in the cold without a coat, especially right before Christmas. Now, I rarely cry, but for some reason this story hit me right in the gut and left me sobbing quietly in the kitchen while I peeled carrots for dinner that night.

Warmth is a most basic human need.

Also, there is nothing like hearing about people who are cold to get a knitter going.

For the last few months, a friend and I have been organizing a small knitting group from the church we attend (she regularly, I occasionally). When Afghans for Afghans announced their latest campaign, I printed out some information about it to share with the other knitters and try and drum up some interest in putting together a community blanket. If you've been reading for a while, you may remember I did something similar nearly two years ago. As it happens, knitters are a generous bunch, and thanks to the contributions of at least a half a dozen knitters (both financial and knitting), this one got done in about a month.

I went with the same basic design as the last community blanket - log cabin garter stitch squares - but I made a few changes. This time, we used bulky yarn instead of worsted, and this time we made 10" squares instead of 8". This made for faster knitting and fewer squares to sew up. Also, with the help of my mom, I did a single crochet border all around the edge; it helps pull the colors together and makes the edges more stable.

The finished size is 40"x50". It's very warm.

Choosing the yarn was fun. See all that dark orange? That's a whole bunch of Cascade 109 LE Bulky I ordered on clearance from WEBS two years ago to make a blanket for my brother's then-girlfriend-now-wife when she was diagnosed with Hodgkins and had to go through six months of chemo. When the yarn arrived, I decided the color wasn't right and ordered a bunch more in blue to use instead (see that FO here). So the orange yarn sat in the stash waiting to be used up or given away. When I saw how much enthusiasm there was for this blanket project, I decided it would be a good way to use up this yarn I didn't really want. We chose several complementary colors of Berocco Peruvia Quick, which is the same weight and fiber content, and every participant got a hank of orange and a hank of something else, plus instructions for knitting up the squares.

I quite like the result.

There was even some leftover for hats. I would say that making the hats out of leftovers meant that no yarn was wasted, but that would be a bit less than honest: I've got enough dark brown for one more, and even though a simple garter stitch hat on size 11 needles only takes about an hour, I have to admit that I've completely lost my mojo after doing these five! Still, another hat means another head kept warm, so maybe I'll just do it anyway.

this one's not for anya

2011-01-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Do you remember my teal ptarmigan?

Anya stole it! Our first big sledding excursion of the winter, she complained about her neck being cold before we'd taken even one ride down the hill, so I gave her my ptarmigan to wear...and now it's hers. She insists on wearing it every time we go out in the cold, and she won't give it back.

I have been forced to make do with other neck coverings, most of them quite inferior. Until very recently, that is, when a good friend of mine, who was so amused that my three-year-old daughter stole an angora cowl from me, gave me two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk in a gorgeous greenish sapphire color to make a replacement. And as soon as I finished up the Christmas knitting, that's exactly what I did!

Usually alpaca makes my neck itch, but not the Alpaca Silk. Oh, it's wonderful.

This is, of course, the second time I've knit this pattern and I enjoyed it every bit as much this time as the first. That Jared Flood, he really knows what he's doing.

This project knits up so quickly. I got more than halfway done in the car on the way to Rochester, MN, for my brother's wedding, and finished up on the way home the next day with an hour to spare.

Pattern: Ptarmigan, by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: Alpaca Silk, by Blue Sky Alpacas, in the color "sapphire", just over one skein.

I was hoping to write this post yesterday, since the Ptarmigan was my last FO of 2010, but the weather was so awful and dreary I couldn't get any decent photos. Today is bitterly cold and extremely windy, so I had to take pictures inside (props to my mom for taking the pictures!) but at least there was some natural light we could make use of. I've got a couple smaller projects for Daniel that haven't made it onto the blog yet, and there's a community blanket for Afghans for Afghans I haven't mentioned at all yet that was one crocheted border short of making it into the FO pile before the new year! I've also got a sweater to finish and a new baby to knit for, so there should be lots of fun posts coming soon.

happy new year!

2010-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

To my fellow knitters and muggles alike: a Happy New Year to you all! Whether or not you make resolutions, I wish you hope and cheer in the coming months. I myself am not a huge fan of resolutions. More often than not, I either can't stick to them, or I just forget about them. Still, I've made a few. And since nasty, gray, wet weather is preventing decent photos and therefore a blog post of all my end-of-year knitting (perhaps I can get to that this weekend...), I'll share my modest resolutions with you:

1. This is entirely unrelated to knitting, but it's my big resolution: run more and quit griping about the weather. My husband and I have recently invested in some high-tech running gear, so now I have no excuse for taking four months off in the winter. It used to be that I thought the only running gear worth spending any money on was the shoes, but lately both of us have discovered the benefits of moisture-wicking-insulated-recycled polyester shirts and silk underwear. A few weeks ago, Stuart bought himself some yaktrax for running on the snow-packed streets, which fit my shoes well enough to borrow. And for Christmas, I asked for and received insulated running tights. I've also got silk long johns and plenty of hand knit hats, mittens and socks, so I'm all set. (Except for running in the rain, which I absolutely hate. As it happens, we're having freakishly warm, wet weather up here, which feels entirely un-winter-like. All the snow is melting. It's unnatural!) Wouldn't you know, you CAN go running when it's below freezing outside? Even in the single digits (I have yet to run when it's below zero)?

Now, then. On to the knitting resolutions:

2. Knit something with steeks. I consider myself a fairly advanced knitter, but I have yet to execute this technique. I think it's time. I've even got a couple projects in the mental queue (and yarn aplenty to give it a try), so there's no reason not to take the plunge.

3. Write up some patterns WITH CHARTS to publish/republish on the blog. I hate line-by-line instructions, and yet the few patterns I've put up on Mad Knitting have not included charts. This is because I don't charge for patterns and didn't know how to do charts, and I didn't want to bother. Well, now I want to bother. So for my birthday (2 days ago), I asked for some charting software and my kind and attentive husband got me just that, so I plan to make use of it. I want to rewrite every pattern with cables that I've put up here, plus finally write up the hat and mittens set I made for Anya several months ago and publish them here, still for free since I don't really know how to write for different sizes.

So there you have it: my modest resolutions for the new year! Notice how I didn't resolve to knit only from my stash, or not buy any new yarn? I'm always resolving to do that and failing, so I'm saving myself the grief this time around.

What about you?

holiday knitting: socks for the groom

2010-12-26T10:32:00.000-08:00

My poor brother Joe. I took him to urgent care this morning to get meds for his third case of sinusitis in as many months, and his student health insurance from V-tech is so crappy, who knows how much if any of the appointment will be covered. We're just hoping those pricey pharmaceuticals kick in before his wedding tomorrow!

In any case, he can't complain about cold feet (heh).

I made him these socks for Christmas after he commented to me on the phone that the socks he was wearing at the time had holes in the toes.

I haven't seen him wearing the socks yet, but he did try them on to confirm that they fit, and he seemed pleased.

Pattern: I didn't follow one, but I'll credit Glenna C for her basic 3x1 ribbed sock pattern. I think this is about the fourth pair I've made this year.
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I purchased at Lakeside Fibers the day after I decided to make Joe socks for Christmas. I've raved about Mountain Colors yarn here before, and once again I have to say this yarn is worth the price. I bought 2 hanks in case one wouldn't stretch enough for a whole pair of men's size 12 socks. I certainly didn't need all of the two hanks, but I was planning on making Daniel socks from the leftovers (those are almost done). What can I say? Those guys are worth every penny and every stitch.

holiday knitting: tremblant

2010-12-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's a jolly day. We have (more) new snow outside, my house is full of people and presents and littered with wrapping paper and coffee cups. The kids are beside themselves with excitement at having Uncle Joe and Oma and Opa here. A gingerbread house has been baked and awaits assemblage and decorating. We've all eaten too many cookies. It's just as Christmas should be!

Best of all, as of the Solstice, I have a new sister-in-law! The wedding ceremony with family and flowers is on Monday in Minnesota, but she and my brother went to the Justice of the Peace on the 21st, so in the eyes of the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia, they are officially married. MJ stayed here one night on the way to MN (where her family is gathering, and hence where the nuptials will be held), and before she left, I gave her her Christmas present:

Pattern: Tremblant, from the Winter 2010 Twist Collective
Yarn: Dale of Norway Heilo in dark red and white, from the stash
Comments: These mittens were so much fun to knit. You can see from the design that there is essentially no repetition in the pattern, so it was never boring! I knit them up in just a few days at the beginning of December. The only tedious part, actually, was picking out the provisional cast-on edge and sewing up the hem, a task I put off for several weeks after the rest of the knitting was finished. I became much more adept at two-handed knitting: holding the white yarn in my left hand, and the red yarn in my right.

Tried as I might, I could not keep the knitted fabric from puckering. It's just part of colorwork knitting, at least for me, especially in the sections with those long color changes. I think I need more practice. Fortunately, a soak in warm water and Eucalen made a huge difference!

holiday knitting: ruffles

2010-12-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

At last, I can start sharing some of my Christmas knitting with the blog!

Unfortunately, this is the best and only picture I've got of this Just Enough Ruffles scarf, which I will be gifting this afternoon. It's for a singer I've been working with for the past six or seven months. A couple of weeks ago she was really admiring my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, so I decided to knit her something similar for Christmas. This is my third time knitting the Ruffles scarf! I have so many other patterns, I ought to branch out a little, don't you think? Still, when you're knitting for other people, you've got to stick to what works.

Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau from Cosmicpluto
Yarn: Berocco Lustra (50/50 merino/tencel in worsted weight), about 1.5 skeins. This was my first time knitting with Lustra. I liked it, but I'd never use it for anything getting heavy wear. The yarn is soft, but delicate, and all the tencel content makes it stretch out of shape really easily. The drape is beautiful for this scarf, though, especially after a soak in warm water.

sewing tutorial: lavender project bags

2010-12-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

Did you know I sew just a little bit? Yeah, just a little. Anyway, about a week ago, a fellow knitter showed me a project bag someone had made for her. It's small (the perfect size for small projects like socks) and has a round bottom filled with lavender. I couldn't get it out of my head, so over the weekend, I decided to try and make one myself!

It turns out that sewing anything with a circle is rather tricky, so after I finally finished one bag successfully, I made another and took pictures along the way for a tutorial here. Just for kicks, you know.

Materials:
- about 1/2 yard, or a little less, of two contrasting fabrics, one for the outside and one for the lining; I used plain white muslin for the lining
- matching thread, and a bit of contrasting thread for basting
- 24" of narrow ribbon or other string for the drawstring
- between 1/4 and 1/2 cup dried lavender; I got more than enough for two bags for less than $2 at Whole Foods, but coops and natural food stores should have it as well. I remember finding paper sachets filled with lavender in the laundry section at Trader Joe's once, too.

Tools:
- scissors
- rotary cutter, mat and ruler (scissors will work, but the rotary cutter makes it easier)
- compass (remember sophomore geometry? I do...barely. But I still have my compass.)
- needle for hand sewing
- sewing machine (not absolutely necessary, but boy it helps!)
- iron
- safety pin for the drawstring

Here we go!

1. Cut a rectangle 19" long x 11" high out of each piece of fabric.

2. With the liner fabric and wrong sides together, match up the short edges and sew together with a 1/2" seam. With the outside fabric and right sides together, match up the short edges and start sewing together with 1/2" seam. About 2" from the top, backstitch for reinforcement, cut the thread, leave about 1/2" gap unsewn, then finish the seam all the way to the bottom. This will be the hold through which you pull your drawstring.

3. Press the seams flat. See the little gap?

4. You now have 2 tubes 11" tall. Place the liner tube inside the main fabric with right sides together. Stitch the two pieces together all the way around the top with a 1/2" seam. Turn right side out and press. Topstitch along the top, about 1/8" from the edge (this isn't totally necessary, but makes things look a little neater). For the drawstring casing, topstitch all the way around from the top of the gap you left in the outside fabric, then again 3/8" below that.

5. Using the compass, trace a circle with a 3.25" radius on a piece of paper for a pattern, then cut a circle out of each of your fabrics. I actually doubled up the lining fabric because what I used was so thin, but you may not find it necessary.

6. Pin the circle cut out of lining fabric to the bottom of the main part of the bag. This is kind of a pain. You may need to manipulate the fabric to make things fit the way you want.

7. By hand, baste the lining circle to the main part of the bag. You will be sewing through all layers, and the raw edges will be on the outside.

8. Sew the seam by machine, then trim.

9. Machine-stitch all the way around the circle cut out of the main fabric 1/2" from the edge. With the iron, press the edges toward the middle, following that line of machine-stitching. Then clip almost all the way down to the stitching.

10. By hand, whipstitch the circle to the bottom of the bag, hiding all the raw edges inside. When you are about 2" from finishing up, spoon the dried lavender into the pouch created, then finish sewing up.

11. Using a small safety pin, pull the narrow ribbon or cord through the casing for the drawstring. Tie a knot to keep the ends from pulling through, and voila!

I gave these bags to my two best knitting buddies yesterday. We got together to bake cookies and drink tea (not a whole lot of knitting going on...), and we had a modest gift exchange as well. It was very cozy. I tell you, it's good to have friends like these!

my wrists could use a little rest

2010-12-15T14:43:00.000-08:00

Between shoveling snow for a solid 45 minutes Sunday morning (hardcore shoveling, at that, heavy snow over a crusty layer of ice) and knitting these hats in 3.5 days -

- I think my wrists could use a little rest.

Daniel has had such a wonderful experience at his preschool that I decided at the last minute to make hats for the director and the two afternoon teachers. I wasn't going to originally because I thought I would keep the holiday knitting simple and low-stress this year, but something about all the snow and plummeting temperatures kicked my Inner Knitter into overdrive. Last Friday I found myself at Lakeside Fibers looking for something I could knit up real quick as a thank you/holiday gift. Lo and behold, the small display of Mountain Colors Twizzle sang its siren song, and within 10 minutes I was walking out of there with three skeins and a copy of the pattern for the Toboggan Noggin (that's a Ravelry link to the free pattern). My goal was actually to get these finished by Friday, but once I started them, I knit so obsessively I couldn't stop.

The pattern couldn't be easier. You just knit a tube with a row of yarnovers at the top to pull a tie through. The yarn is so gorgeous (handpainted merino with a bit of silk, too), it calls for simple designs.

The Toboggan Noggin is an ingenius design, really. You can loosen the tie at the top to let in more air, or remove it entirely and wear it as a neckwarmer.

I'm not sure my rushed pictures, taken just minutes before we left the house to drop Daniel off at preschool, do the hats justice, but I really am pleased with them. I hope K, H, and L are pleased as well.

Pattern: Toboggan Noggin, by Amy Anderson (free download on Ravelry, or here's a link to the pdf from the Madison Knitters' Guild)
Yarn: Mountain Colors Twizzle. This is possibly one of the nicest yarns I've ever used. It's smooth and soft and the colors are brilliant. Most handpainted yarns are pretty in the skein but look like a mess when knitted up, but not this stuff. I wouldn't want a whole sweater out of it (the colors are too busy), but Twizzle is perfect for smaller projects like hats and mittens. It's more durable than you'd expect from a merino/silk blend, too. Before Anya was born, I made a set of hat and mittens for Daniel out of Twizzle in another colorway, and they have held up beautifully. I know. Gush gush gush...but this yarn is also fairly expensive, so I wouldn't buy it unless I really did like it!

Colorways from left to right: Clover, Red Willow, Lodgegrass

can't blog. must knit.

2010-12-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

...because this pile of yarn:

needs to be three hats by Friday. Think I can do it?

Lots of FOs and a sewing tutorial coming soon!!