12.16.07
Posted in Progress Report at 2:15 am by Karen
I cast on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 in the wee hours of the morning instead of going to bed. We’re talking dawn’s approach here, people. Who starts a new knitting project at four or five in the morning when they haven’t been to bed yet?
Someone who hasn’t knit a stitch in months, that’s who. Someone who heard the faint slide and click of Sharon’s needles on the She-Knits podcast, that’s who. It made me as twitchy as a cat with catnip!
On Ravelry I found Catherine’s Flower Garden Clapotis was made with 1 1/2 skeins of Knit Picks Shimmer yarn. She tells the needle size she used and how she adapted the pattern. So now I had a direction.
I tried to be good. I tried to put in a good day’s work and cast on afterwards. Well, four-five a.m. is ‘afterwards,’ isn’t it? Truth is, I just couldn’t stand to end the day without knitting. Not one more day wasted. Not one more day of dismissing and dishonoring my own soul-deep need.
Enough of that. Here’s a close-up shot of the first two dropped stitch columns.
This colorway is called Deep Woods, but I keep thinking it’s Autumn. Looking at the hanks, I kept thinking it was the color of oak leaves in the fall. But while I’m knitting it up, it’s making me think of chocolate and caramel and I’m loving it.
I took these pictures yesterday before knitting, so now of course it’s further along. I’ve done four dropped stitch columns. The first skein is mostly used up, so I’ll have to pay attention to what section repeat it ends on and consider that the half-way point. It’s getting late and I’m going to knit at least one more repeat before I pack it in.
If I make it to bed before dawn, I’ll be doing well. I’ll regain my balance here one of these days, and get my sleep as well as knit. Right?
Permalink
12.10.07
Posted in New Project, Knit Musings, Contests at 9:59 pm by Karen
I must say, it’s rather sweet to be a winner. I think I like it. Many big thank you’s to Julie at Passioknits. She has a knitting podcast, in case you didn’t know it. After you read this post, go listen!
Can you tell I’m not used to winning contests? Last time I won anything, it was a roll of lifesavers in Girl Scout Camp. We’re talking decades ago, people. About the time I first learned to knit.
Never mind. Here’s a close-up shot of the goodies that are now mine.
Nice, eh? I’ve been a bad girl, though. While I immediately planned to create a blog post all about winning the contest, showing the photos and tooting the horn for Passioknits, it didn’t happen. When did I win these two skeins of yarn? Today, this week, this month? (Hangs head in shame.)
My husband was appalled when he discovered I’d never even emailed her my thanks. He said, “You have no social graces whatsoever, do you?” Sigh. Apparently not.
But here we are at last. Guess what else? I haven’t knit a stitch since July 31.
Why? Because I started the third annual Thirty Day Challenge! If you want to learn how to make money online by having someone guide you step by step and do it for absolutely zero cost, go join! You won’t regret it.
Am I rich yet? Not quite. Why? Because I searched for and found a great niche—but it wasn’t something I’m passionate enough about. I’m to write articles and blog posts every day about the topic, creating content. Lovely. I created maybe a dozen pieces of content, then stalled out. I let my perfectionism kick in.
That little voice in my head piped up with, “Who are you to write about this particular niche when you know nothing about it?” Yada, yada, yada. Never mind that I was researching and learning as I went. I was doing just fine, then two months passed with no progress at all. Argh!
If you want to learn the extreme evils of perfectionism, visit Flylady. I’m battling this demon in my household, let me tell you! I need to stamp it out in my head.
So where was I? Ah! During the month of August my invitation to Ravelry came in. Now I may lack social graces, but I’m not stupid. I’ve seen knitters’ posts and heard their podcasts all telling me what a marvelous and wondrous thing Ravelry is—and what a super time suck it can be.
In August I was grabbing every spare minute to do the Thirty Day Challenge on top of my tailoring, eBay selling and everyday life needs. I didn’t dare dive down the Ravelry rabbit hole! So I’m saying to myself, “Just a minute. Soon as the month is over…” Yeah, right.
I reached some kind of critical mass a couple days ago where I was so itchy to knit I was actually twitching. I hunted up my Ravelry invitation, logged in and started searching for what other knitters have done with two skeins of Knit Picks Shimmer yarn. I was a bit ginger about it, knowing the time suck factor could get me at any moment. I looked around a bit, saw some lovely photos and got the heck out of Dodge.
I went back the next day. You knew I would. And this time I was a little more organized and discovered exactly what I was looking for. And you’ll never guess what I’m going to knit with my prize winnings.
A Clapotis!
Ha! Years ago I looked at the pattern, saw the cost of the yarn and sprinted away. That was back when I didn’t know quality yarn from a mud pie. I thought I might very well be an outsider in the knitting world, one of the few knitters who would never knit or own a Clapotis. I consoled myself with how some knitters abandoned theirs midway when they got bored.
Huh! Back before August when I lost my knitting bearings, I joined Elizabeth’s Year where we would knit a new project each month from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. In July, it was the Pi shawl. I knit TWO of them!
So I think I can knit a Clapotis. We’ll see, I guess. And this is more than enough blabbering. Can you tell I missed posting about knitting? Yikes!
Permalink
08.01.07
Posted in Contests at 9:39 am by Karen
Did you hear about this? I’m wondering about doing it. There are a couple “what am I thinking?” aspects, though. One: I’m already in Elizabeth’s Year where we’re doing a project each month following Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. I did a Pi shawl. In fact I’m about halfway along on a second one. What??
Second: what are the qualities of yak yarn? What’s it like? Might do some research and see. How about you?
Powered by ScribeFire.
Permalink
03.10.07
Posted in Saving My Bacon at 1:55 am by Karen
Warning: If you’re under a lot of stress today, maybe you don’t want to look at this picture. There’s an awful lot of confusion here. Back out now.
Still here? Brave soul.
Did you ever read that knitting in the round isn’t as tight a tension as knitting back and forth? I just found out that’s true for me with this sweater. Maybe it’s the first time I’ve had a project that went from knitting back and forth to knitting in the round. I imagined I would be the exception. Ha.
I fought to hold the yarn tighter as I knitted, trying to make the tension remain the same, but after a few inches of that, the knitting just kept feeling looser and looser. I stopped and eyeballed the sweater and thought it looked like larger stitches. I measured. Yup. There’s a longer distance between crosses on the ribs.
I don’t know if going down one needle size will work exactly right, but it’s got to help. If it starts knitting slightly too tight, I’m okay with that. I wanted a lightweight sweater with a nice close knit, not all open and airy like it started to feel the last few inches.
So I’ve been stalled for a few days waiting for two size one circular needles to arrive in the mail. They came today and I uncoiled them in the magic way of dipping them in boiling water for a half second. Tickles me the way that happens. Maybe I’m simple.
Then I sat and worked a size one needle through the row of stitches where I started knitting in the round. At the halfway point, I changed to the second size one. These are only 24″ long and I need the room because there are a mondo number of stitches back there. I’m not convinced I have each and every stitch exactly right, but I can tink back another row or two if need be to get myself all straight and true again.
Anyway, now that the size ones are in place and marking the switchover to knitting in the round, it’s even more obvious that the stitches got bigger.
Here’s the back. Notice how some nervous nelly has the size one needle tips rubber-banded together. There’s enough confusion what with the sleeves being on waste yarn and putting my stitch markers back where they belong and whatnot. I can’t stand the thought of stitches slipping off the back if I sneeze or something while fussing around on the front, or vice versa.
Tune in again, folks, and see if I save my bacon or not. I likely will. The question is how much swearing might happen.
Permalink
03.02.07
Posted in Knit Musings at 2:21 am by Karen
Here’s a photo of the four Kidsilk Haze Nelly shawls bagged up and ready to block for Christmas 2006. I want to talk about how different each color felt while knitting.
I’m not talking the physical sensation of the yarn passing through my fingers so much as the emotional feel of each color. I don’t know whether I was responding to the color itself, or if thoughts of the different recipients was the big switch each time. I just know that every time I started knitting with a new color, there was a period of adjustment.
The first one I made was the white one that’s labeled “cream.” It was the color that gave me the most trouble, but then it was the first time I ever knitted with Kidsilk Haze. Getting used to knitting with such fine yarn was one thing. Realizing that I needed different needles was another. I had such a death grip on the first needles that my hands cramped. I had to hold them tight as the needles felt slippery enough to just slide right out of the stitches.
When I used bamboo needles, I was able to relax my grip and knit with far more ease, especially once I realized, “I’m knitting with cobwebs.” That thought set me right on track. Not to say I didn’t encounter trials along the way. I learned that ripping back with Kidsilk Haze is something you just can’t hurry. Sometimes each stitch was a separate issue and a triumph when successfully disentangled.
I was making it for Grace, a young woman who was embarking on a second chance at life by going to college at age 38. She was excited and nervous and relieved. I’d heard about the Red Scarf Project where you knit a red scarf for a foster kid heading off to college, because these kids don’t have “people” to do that for them. She was a divorced orphan on her way to college, so that fit nicely, but she loves silk and the color white, so she didn’t get a red one. I put into it all the love and support I felt for her, even when I cussed at the ripping back. The creamy white seemed pure and new and innocent, a fresh start, untrampled snow. Something like that.
Next came the gray one labeled “smoke” for my daughter Jill. It seemed much thicker than the cream yarn, much easier to knit. But I was experienced by now, so that might have been a factor. The gray matched her black coat and the gray fleece hat she had, so I thought she’d like it.
She’s my best friend and the best daughter on the planet. I might be prejudiced, but still. What a great young woman she is. She knows her own mind, knows what she likes, plans ahead and creates what she wants, which includes learning to run a thriving eBay business, rearrange furnace pipes, electric and plumbing skills, machine embroidery–anything she sets her mind to. Love that gal. I’d like to be her when I grow up. Knitting hers went much more easily. The gray felt just right somehow–maybe because she has a much-loved cat that color?
Third was the black one labeled “wicked” which makes me smile because it was for my husband’s 85-year-old aunt. She’s a tiny thing with a great, loving heart and she worked for years as a hostess in a restaurant so she loves to dress with drama or something unique in her outfit. With her dark hair and dark eyes, this color was perfect and dramatic. The yarn seemed very thick and incredibly hairy. I had to sit in a strong light to see the stitches. I was torn between knitting her a black one or a red one, but black won. Bold, classic, always right, just like a little black dress.
I’d planned to make only three shawls, but couldn’t resist making a blue one for myself. I knew I’d be giving the others away and in a year or two wouldn’t remember ever knitting these at all. This is a memento for me and also, why not have one myself? I’m a person and just as lovable, right? Never mind that I almost never dress up. That could change at some point. I could wear this somewhere, sometime.
It was the easiest and fastest of all the shawls, in a color that had a good weight much like the smoke color, and less hairy than the wicked color. It matches my main staple of dress—blue jeans. By now I had the pattern long-since memorized, of course. I still had to count off each and every stitch in my head as I knit to keep from misknitting anything. I don’t think I had to rip back at all on the last couple, much to my relief.
I don’t know how interesting this is to anyone but me. I guess the colors had their own qualities, sure enough. It was intriquing how different they felt while knitting–and I’m sure the recipients counted for some of the difference. I know I feel a bit differently when I sew for someone I like versus someone I regard as a pain. Ha.
Permalink
02.25.07
Posted in Tips & Tricks at 12:26 am by Karen
Here’s my fourth and final attempt at knitting my denim blue alpaca bamboo rib top-down V-neck raglan sweater and I’m finally quite happy with every stinking detail.
After knitting about four or five inches of length, I got tired of counting out the 8th row, and the 16th row, and the whatever 8 more rows is, on and on so I’d know where to put the increased stitch at each end of every 8th row.
Somewhere in this house is a little box of these clippy kind of stitch markers, but it’s hiding. Luckily I had two of them attached to a knitting bag handle. Here’s what I came up with and it’s working great. I put a stitch marker through a stitch near the center of the last two increase rows so I can easily see when I’ve arrived at the proper distance to make another side-increases row.
Life is good. Once I got the ribbing established in the first few rows, this pattern became just right for keeping me interested without being so complex I need to hyper focus.
As I cast on for this sweater (How many times? Never mind.), I yearned for one like this in a raspberry color. Now as the rows keep getting longer and longer, thinking of doing sweater number two like this is too daunting. Just focus on this one, please. I don’t even remember if there was a raspberry color in this yarn on eBay.
Permalink
02.23.07
Posted in Finished Object at 11:47 pm by Karen
I promised something fun to break up the monotony of watching my alpaca sweater grow. Here’s one.
After making four Kidsilk Haze Nelly shawls for Christmas, I needed a quickie project. I saw these on Elliphantom Knits, but when I went to make some, all I could find in the store were wooden spools. They were slightly smaller than the corks and the “sweater” ribbing is under the spools, but I like how they turned out anyway.
It was suggested to put the bells on one side at the bottom of the hat, but I wanted mine on top. Too cute.
Permalink
02.20.07
Posted in New Project at 11:58 pm by Karen
Did you ever wake up too early in the morning and have to get up because you suddenly realized there might be a mistake in your knitting?
Or is that just me?
As I tried to go back to sleep, I got to wondering HOW I was making the V-neck increases. I wanted a knit stitch to stay along the edge of the knitting for a smoother edge instead of stair steps from the increases. I figured it might be easier to pick up stitches for the neck ribbing that way. But that led to some confusion again. I feared I’d started building from that edge instead of building out from the sweater’s pattern.
I was right. I was doing it wrong. I only had to ladder down a few rows of knit stitch and and a few rows of purl stitch on each side. Being so close to the edge was a little tricky. I didn’t want to make a mistake and mess up the selvedge edge. I’ve had to rip back knitting more than once after fouling up edge stitches. I find them too confusing to reconstruct.
So I’m on track again, building out the pattern from the sweater side, not the selvedge side. Phew!
Don’t worry. I won’t show daily progress shots of this sweater. It’s done on smaller needles with thinner yarn than I’ve ever used when making a sweater, so this project is liable to take me awhile. I notice already how long it takes to knit a row and I haven’t even reached the shoulder ends yet.
I’ve got pictures of other things to liven things up a bit. I’ll rest easier tonight—until or unless I think up something else to worry about. Ha!
UPDATE: I was doing it right the first time. Sheesh!
When I went to increase again, I did it my second-thought-way and it’s just wrong! Really I should just forget the knit stitch along the edge. It’s only confusing me all to pieces. I’ve got about four inches knitted, though. From time to time I’m tempted to rip the whole thing out and start over. Then I wonder if I can just fix the edges. Without touching the edge stitch.
What? You mean the edge stitch that is the very problem? Yeah, that one. Sigh. One more goof and I’m likely ripping back and starting over. I can take a hint.
Permalink
Posted in New Project at 2:34 am by Karen
Here’s my new project, up and running after three false starts. It may not look like much now, but it’s tickling me no end now that I’ve ironed out a bunch of glitches.
It’s a new yarn for me, my first alpaca project. The label says “Mystic Alpaca, quality texture from nature” and I got it on eBay from peru4less. I hoped it would be soft. It is. I didn’t know what weight it would be. Seems to be sport yarn. I didn’t know what needle size to use and decided to try whatever the label said. It said nothing!
So I played around with it and discovered after some swatching that I like what I get on US size 2 needles. And I envisioned a nice lightweight long-sleeved body skimming v-neck sweater that would keep me warm like alpaca promises to do and yet be lightweight. I recently discovered how warm and wonderful a thin silk sweater makes me feel, so I’m into exploring natural fibers.
It took me quite a while to settle on a stitch design, then hit me all at once one day while I washed dishes. It made me smile to realize I could use the bamboo rib pattern from The Encyclopedia of Knitting. I knitted socks for my daughter a couple years back and we both liked the bamboo rib socks the best.
I figured I’d invent my own pattern, but got hung up over how to knit from the top down with a V-neck. I googled it and discovered Wendy had just what I want in her Essential Stripes pattern. I knew that. I read her blog all the time. Just slow about connecting dots because she’s talking stripes and I’m talking a solid with textured knitting. Duh. Still works a treat.
So why three starts? Well, first I jumped in with both feet and started knitting without too much attention to how the ribs would work out. I bought two circular needles in size 2 when I discovered I had none, then I started knitting with one despite it being much like a corkscrew from living in a package forever. I decided to ignore that.
Wendy assumed I would be knitting plain stockinette and said to increase by knitting in the front and back of a stitch. Fine. Except it was very confusing to do that while trying to maintain my bamboo rib pattern. Then about two rows too late I realized I was supposed to do the cross rib part of the pattern. That was mistake number two. Too much for me. I started over on the second needle.
This time I looked up the pattern to make sure I was right about the pattern being a multiple of 8 plus 2. It wasn’t. It’s a multiple of 8 plus 6. So I cast on the number of stitches I needed for the repeat, once again fighting the corkscrewed coil. About two inches of knitting later, I realized the pattern has to match up when I start knitting in the round below the armholes, not at the neckline. And by then I was really tired of the confusion every time I needed to increase a stitch. While taking a bath (does water have magical properties?) I realized if I knit one stitch before and after every marker where I’m to increase, and Make one stitch out the side of that resulting rib, life would be so good. And I tried it, and I loved it.
So that led to start number three. I smartened up and put a small amount of water on to boil, dipped my stiff new circular needles in it for half a moment and almost squealed. It’s like magic how the coil relaxed. So here’s my knitting on a relaxed needle, with the suggested number of stitches, minus one in the center back for the sake of my ribbing needing 32 instead of 33, and using the Make 1 increase In Pattern as needed. It’s so much fun now! I just want to knit all day.
I love it when a project catches fire and makes me want to knit, knit, knit. Don’t you?
Permalink
02.01.07
Posted in Finished Object at 1:12 am by Karen
See this? My daughter has a cat named Sootsie who is this exact color, a cat who aches to bite me every time I visit, and he has to be caged while I’m there—but I didn’t grind him up into this hairball. Honest.
This, believe it or not, is a Kidsilk Haze lace shawl in the color Smoke. Two balls worth. Fresh washed for blocking. Scary, isn’t it?
Here’s what it looks like finished. Phew!
I made it from the lace shawl/scarf pattern called “Nelly” as a Christmas gift for my daughter. She loves it. Maybe not quite as much as that cat, but she likes it enough to wear it to a party.
In fact I made four of these things for Christmas, in four different colors. It was insanity. They were my first experience with kidsilk haze. I had real difficulty at first getting used to knitting such fine yarn. My needles were too slippery at first. When I finally used bamboo needles, the knitting went much better. What really clinched it though was the thought, “I’m knitting cobwebs.” When I realized that, suddenly I was able to knit it like I knew what I was doing.
As my first post on my knitting blog, I suppose I should have introduced myself, but I couldn’t resist using this picture. Those are my hands. The rest will come later.
I know the world likely doesn’t really need yet another knitting blog, but *I* need to do this. I want more knitting in my life. I want to track what I knit so I can come back and see what I’ve done. What if I want to knit something similar in future? I can find the info about it here far more easily than I could any other way.
Not to suggest my house is a mess. Suggest, heck. I’ll say it right out loud. In this house, when I put something down, it vanishes under other stuff that pounces on it. I swear.
Not like that cat of my daughter’s likes to pounce on me and gobble me up, but close enough.
Permalink