Color Conundrums

Since Wool Leaves is already far too massive to leave home, I have taken to bringing a little scarf project to work with me. It is a lace scarf based on a motif written by String Geekery. The motif is wonderful, but I find that it’s getting lost in the Manos del Uruguay that I chose to try it out in. The Tanager colorway is gorgeous, but it is also very busy. I think I may have to split these projects into two.

I think Etude No. 1 is destined for a natural, off-white cotton that I’ve had sitting around for awhile. Or maybe my bright green Tosh Merino Light. I have plenty to make a nice length summer scarf with that.

Meanwhile, I have to think of something for this Manos. I know any cables will get lost in it. Also most textures will be useless, unless highly embossed. I think a very simple, repetitive lace motif would be my best bet. You know what that means… It’s time to consult with Ms. Walker!

I am sure I will find something there that will do the job nicely.

I May Have Underestimated My Own Skills…

So… You know how I thought Wool Leaves would keep me busy for most of the month of June?

I lied…

To myself…

I am over half-way done; four reps out of six to be precise.

To my defense, I am also working on another one of these with more reps in a DK weight. Understandably, that is taking a little bit longer.

But still.

I mean really.

This is borderline crazy. I kind of feel like the Hulk of knitting. I just don’t know my own strength…

…

I AM GOING TO GET SOOOOOOO MANY THINGS DONE THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!

 

Onward and Upward

After a harrowing six-day work week, I finally got a day off today and made a trip to my LYS for supplies for my next two big projects. I ordered some of Rowan’s Aran Tweed in Dent for a birthday present from my mother and picked up some Spud & Chloë Sweater in Grass.

It is great to have a new big project to start. I finished my Swallowtail Shawl last week and had all weekend to kill. So I picked up my Block of the Month and got caught up on that. Basically Block of the Month is a year-long project where you knit one square foot block of an afghan every month. At the end of the year, you have a nicely sized afghan. At my LYS, Amy writes the pattern every month and gives it free to anyone who buys their material for it from her shop. We all meet on the second Sunday of every month get started on the next month.

I’m using Green Mountain Spinnery’s Mountain Mohair. Since we’re knitting the blocks in columns of four, I am knitting them in a repeating pattern of three colors; Elderberry, Moss, and Raven. This month was honeycomb stitch, which is a pleasantly mindless motif after all the grief and frustrations of Swallowtail. Cables are my comfort zone. They are the first moderately advanced technique that I learned, and the repetition of CB4, CF4 had a soothing rhythm to it.

 

Now that I am once again stocked, I’ve started plugging away at my scheduled pieces. First up is Wool Leaves a new baby that is due to one of my oldest friends. She’s due in September, but the baby shower is at the beginning of July, so I’m trying to get it done by then. Wool Leaves knits up so fast, I don’t think that will be much of a problem. I just started today and I’m already a full rep in. Holding a worsted cotton/wool blend double on US 13 needles makes for a quick knit.

 

In fact, I may have time for a little side project for myself. Remember that Manos del Uruguay that I picked up while on vacation? Well, I have a plan for it. I found this lovely etude by the talented String Geekery, who is pretty genius, if you ask me. I think it will transform it into a long, skinny scarf. S.G. was thinking of it as an edging pattern that repeated horizontally, but I want to work it into a vertical pattern. I am trying to work out some variation of Jared Flood’s tubular cast on and slipped stitch edging that I loved so much on Afton. I’ve done the cast on and the broken ribbed border, but my math was wonky and I’m finding it difficult to blend this seamlessly into the etude. I’ll probably have to frog and recrunch the numbers… math… hmpf…

10,000 Hours Later…

I started knitting when I was a teenager. My grandmother taught me the basics and then I basically picked up the rest as I went along. I wasn’t terribly serious about it though until well into college; actually about the same time the neat little existence of my adolescence crumbled around me and I was forced to rethink everything I’d ever believed about anything. I finished my first scarf when I was twenty. I finished my first blanket when I was twenty-one.

For years I have been what I would call a hobbyist. I dabbled in a little technique here and there, but nothing too serious. I didn’t really learn how to follow a pattern until I was twenty. It was just a thing that I did to keep my hands busy. Then, almost six months ago, something clicked. My brother bought me a gift certificate to my LYS for Christmas. I had been in a few times, but for the most part I had been buying my supplies from soulless superstores like Jo-Ann Fabrics. Somehow, this time was different. This time was the turning point. I wanted to do something really special with Charlie’s present. What Red Purl offered, was not just something to keep your hands busy during your idle hours; it was an opportunity to display craftsmanship, attention to detail and self-expression. It was an opportunity to make art. So I walked out with three skeins of Malabrigo and a Brooklyn Tweed pattern and I was off to the races.

Improvised Cowl in German Herringbone

Ever since that fateful January afternoon, I have experienced a new fire in my desire to knit every spare minute that I get. Each new project is a new lesson in technique. I learned consistency in making a pattern twice. I learned precision in crafting my first fitted garment. I learned creativity in improvising my own pattern off of a swatch that I found in a book. Every stitch brings me closer to mastery. Every yard makes me a disciple of my own hands.

They (whoever they are) say one must practice a craft for at least ten thousand hours before one can master it. I don’t know how many hours I have spent knitting. Frankly, I don’t want to know. What I do know is that I just finished a lace shawl in ten days. I may not be a master yet, there are still many things that I need to learn, but I feel safe in saying that I am now a journeyman knitter. I have left the term hobbyist behind me.

Knitting is not my hobby. It is not the thing I do in my spare time. Knitting is my craft. I am a craftsman. A craftsman work shapes her body until it is part of her. I feel my fingers and wrists grow stronger and nimbler. I feel my posture improve to prevent cramping. Knitting is literally changing the way I carry myself. And I am ready for the next 10,000 hours.

Oh, and you can check out my featured FO, Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark on Ravelry.

All Good Things…

I spent the past two days lazing about on a lakeshore with some of my oldest friends and closest family members. There was good food, good wine and good, clean air. The sunshine was soothing and the sunsets were romantic. I came back a few pounds fatter and a little pink on my cheeks and shoulders. All in all, it was perfect.

But in case you thought it was all lazing about with my eyes closed, you would be wrong. I made great headway on Swallowtail. I am about half-way through the Lilly of the Valley border and then all I have left is the scalloped edging.

I must admit that the fingering weight was much easier to deal with in the heat of the midday sun than anything in worsted. So, points for lacework! What? I didn’t just say that… Oh, and there was some boating and tubing of course. Subsequently, my shoulders aren’t working today.

The Unforgiving Delicacy of Lace

This one is going to be fairly short, because I have a lot to do today. But, since I haven’t updated you all in a while, I felt I needed to at least post a few thoughts.

First thought: lace is rough. I knew there was a reason I had avoided it for so long. This Swallowtail Shawl is kicking my butt every inch of the way. I got a little mangled in the edging for about two reps, but now I’m back on track again. It doesn’t look too tragic, so I’m just going to leave it. I could spend the rest of the summer frogging and reknitting this stupid thing. At one point you just have to say good enough and keep on knitting. I just finished my first skein and it is beginning to take a coherent form. I can finally say, I’ve grown about an ounce of pride in this thing about halfway through that first skein. Now, only four more to go…

 

In other news, I am attempting another pass at a baby blanket for my little cousin. She’ll be a year old in September, and I didn’t finish a blanket for her in time for her birth, so she’s getting one for her first birthday. I chose Jared Flood’s Wool Leaves pattern, which I think is very pretty. I am a tad nervous about the material though. I bought it back before I knew better and it’s Bernat’s Softee Baby. It’s all acrylic and all salmon pink. The mom helped me pick out the color though, so I will struggle through. Hopefully the end result will do justice to the pattern. One of my best friends will be having a baby around the same time, so I’m actually off to the yarn shop to pick out a soft, fluffy cotton for my second pass at this one.

And final thought, I happened to drive by the little town where I lived during my undergrad years. The Island Weaver in Winona Lake, IN is a sweet little shop. I only visited it once or twice during my college years, but it was worth stopping in again. The owner is a delightful weaver and she has her shop set up in thirds. The front room is for FOs by various local artists. The middle is full of yarn and pre-dyed and un-dyed roving wool for sale. The final back room is her own studio where she weaves beautiful blankets, scarves and rugs on her various looms. It is an absolute delight and she is super friendly. I picked up three skeins of Manos del Uruguay in the Tanager color way. This is an artisan’s collective of women all over the Uruguayan countryside that spin and dye wool for sale in the US. The proceeds feed directly back to them and help them support their families. The wool has a fun, raw texture and a bit of a thick and thin nature to it. And the colors are just glorious. I think these are going to be made up into a pretty little scarf.

 

 

So much for being brief…

Vacation Knitting Binge

Due to certain perks of my job, I have the next eight days off. I don’t have enough money to travel far and there’s not a whole lot to do around here, but I do have quite a bit of knitting that I would like to get done. The good news is that both Oshima and Afton II are finished. I’m sending Afton II to Moura in a day or so and Oshima still needs to be blocked, but they are both off the needles! I even wore Oshima to work on Sunday. I wish I had made the torso and inch or two longer, but now I know. My torso is a tad long and I’ve learned that I need to compensate for that in judging dimensions.

I had a single skein of dark purple Malabrigo Rasta that I’ve been struggling to find a use for for weeks now. I finally decided to give it a whirl and improvise something of my own. I landed on a cowl, since it’s a short project that enables you to easily try out a new stitch and knit it up quickly. Looking through Barbara C. Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting, I found a German Herringbone Rib stitch that I quite liked. I did four panels of it and repeated the pattern seven times on 9mm (US 13) needles. Since I only had that size of needle in straights, I knit it flat and plan on seaming it together after blocking is complete. I like the results so far.

 If I did it again, I would change a few things. I almost ran out of yarn and there are a few things that I could have done to change that. I would have done a simpler cast on, instead of long-tail, because I feel like that used extra yarn. (Though it did give the bottom edge a very nice crispness) I would have knit in the round, and I would have sized the needles down by about a size or two. I’ll give it another pass some day and actually publish a pattern. The rib looks terrific in bulky yarn and I feel like it will be super cozy when wrapped around one’s neck. This one is probably destined for my Etsy shop once I finish the seaming.

Once that was done, I was left with an empty basket and a monumental stash of yarn with no clear idea of where to start next. I finally decided on a Rowan Fine Tweed in Reeth that I picked up at my LYS earlier this month. I bought enough for having a go at Evelyn A. Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl. I’m not a huge shawl person in general. But I’ve been meaning to get better at lacework and reading lace charts. I also need to knit something besides Brooklyn Tweed patterns at some point in my life. As my guru and LYS owner told me, Clark is old school, but in a good way and it would be a good step in my development as I begin to take the plunge into journeyman level. And reading her patterns will help in developing my own voice as a designer. You can master a lot of great basics under the tutelage of Evelyn A. Clark. Plus, I can always wrap the damn thing tighter around my neck, and BAM!, asymmetrical scarf.

 So far, there have been a few grumbles as I tried to figure out the rhyme and reason of her charts (which were not automatically apparent). Clark, unlike Flood, assumes you know what the hell you’re doing and does not take the time to parse out the delicacies of how her charts piece together into a whole. She expects you to just know these things. Speaking from experience, you can follow a Jared Flood pattern even when you’re about two beers into the night. Whereas with Clark, even when you’re stone cold sober, you still find yourself squinting in concentration. I’m a little over ten rows in and I’ve finally got the hang of it, but it still looks a bit garbled. A little voice in my head is worried that the yarn is too busy for the pattern, but I think once it’s blocked, it will look much better. I just have to trust myself for now.

Upcycling and Commission Deadlines

I didn’t get nearly as knitting done as I would have liked today. I woke up around half past noon, which was ridiculous. So, there went half my day. I did manage to get my hair cut, which was much needed. I also stopped by Goodwill and picked up some old men’s sweaters to harvest yarn out of. There was not a single piece of wool in sight, it being May and all, but I did find four lovely cotton pieces. They are extra large too, so plenty of yarn to be unravelled from those suckers.

 

They also inspired me to continue ripping out my old red sweater. It’s a wool/cotton/silk blend and very soft, but there was a massive hole on the yoke, so I’m ripping the entire thing down to the yarn and I’ll knit it into something even better. I’m almost halfway there and I have two decent sized balls to start something fun with. Considering all the tied off ends, I’ll have to make some kind of pullover with it. Before I start ripping apart my next sweater, I really need to teach myself how to make a Russian join. I found a tutorial on Pinterest from Knitpicks, so we shall see how that goes.

 

Meanwhile, I am almost done with my first serious commission. A coworker asked me to make her a scarf like my Afton that I finished back in March. Her Afton has been on the needles since late March and it’s high time that I had it finished the darn thing. I am only about a rep and a half away, so the end is in sight. I really want to have it done by the end of the week. The color is gorgeous and I will be sad to say goodbye to the soft feel of the Malabrigo between my fingers. However, I will not miss the way the indigo has a tendency to rub off on my fingers. Amy, my knitting guru has suggested I soak it in a vinegar solution before I block it to keep the color from bleeding more. I certainly don’t want Moura’s neck to turn blue!

Achievement Unlocked!

The sweater blocking turned out well as I could hope. The shape is crisp and there are no dramatically out of proportion sections. I sewed the bits together Thursday night and tried on the whole body for the first time. Aside from the torso being a little shorter than I would normally wear, it came out perfect. It is comfortable. The sleeves are plenty long, which is much more of a concern for me.

 

I started in on the neck that night and continued working on it throughout the following day. The main problem was, that day was jam backed with family responsibilities and I was knitting on the move and kept losing my place markers. I love brioche stitch, but doing it in the round is quite the challenge. It is very important to know when your row begins and ends. By the end of the night, it was all discombobulated. I tried to make it work, but as I sat down to it tonight, I stirred up enough gumption to frog a good four inches and pick back up in the right spot. There is still one minor kink, but I honestly don’t have the heart to go back and work that out, especially since it will be on the inside of the cowl where no one will see.

 

I am so close to finishing! I can see the end cresting the next hill. By the end of Monday (my next day off) I should be able make an elated FO post, and show you all how it fits.

Alphabet Blocks Confuse

After a little over a month of hard work, my first sweater is almost complete. It is currently blocking on the floor of the spare room and I am holding my breath, and crossing all my fingers, until I actually stitch it together tomorrow and add the cowl neck. I have never blocked anything with this level of seriousness before. With hats, I normally just soak them and use a plate to block them out as they dry. When it comes to scarves, cowls and blankets, let’s face it, I just can’t be bothered.

But when it comes to sweaters, proper blocking technique could not be avoided. So I hauled my butt over to a supermarket and bought myself some of those foam alphabet tiles from the toy section. I giggled to myself and had to take a picture when I put them in my car. I don’t have any children, so the blocks seemed so anachronistic, nestled in my back seat. Only a complete obsession, like knitting, could drive me to this level of absurdity.

 

I also must confess, that until that day, I did not own a steamer. That little red box you see beneath the blocks is a little travel steamer that I had to pick up as well.

Even after getting the blocks home, I was  bait hesitant to start, but this afternoon I finally built up enough courage to start. After almost an hour of obsessively measuring and pinning, measuring and repining, and measuring again, I finally coerced the pieces into dimensions that vaguely reflected the measurements in the schematic. I ran the steamer over them once and then had to run to dinner with the boyfriend. After getting home tonight, I gave them another once over. I’ll try and stitch the seams tomorrow.