A very busy November

This is what I've been up to this month.



My felt scarves will soon be available at the A Verb for Keeping Warm workshop in Berkeley. The sock is being knit from handspun from a Pigeonroof Studios roving. The sweater is Fylingdales from A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd. The beret is my first attempt at making a handmade felt hat from my own felt. It's not perfect but it worked and I will be making more.

RIP Ada

I hoped against hope that in the end Ada would turn out to be the perfect throw on sweater. Alas, I was mistaken. Last night, Ada and I bid farewell. And this morning, Ada went to the frog pond. Ada, it was fun while it lasted.

Experimenting

I've been busy experimenting with natural dyes. Last weekend I dyed up the last of my white BFL with cochineal and marigold. Here's what it looked like before I overdyed it.


I'd been inspired by some lavender growing in my neighborhood. So I overdyed it with logwood grey and got this.
I like the soft colors a lot.

I also experimented with an improvised wool hackle made from a hair pick and a table vise.

It works and is a lot less expense than buying a hackle. I'm going to keep playing with this set up until I decide whether or not I really like blending on a hackle enough to sink some money into a better set up, which will probably be homemade as well. Here's the first roving I pull off of the hackle.


Right now Ada is blocking. I used my Knitter's Blocks and steam blocked the top. I'll have to block the garter portion separately. I'm half through knitting the first sleeve and so far, so good.

Hello, Ada

I started knitting the new Article Pract pattern "Ada" while on vacation. My gut told me that there was a mistake in the stitch marker placement--of course, I ignored myself. I knit almost 10" of the body before I accepted that my gut was right. I ripped it out and started over after I contacted Christina at Article Pract to see if, indeed, the pattern had a mistake. She is posting the errata on the pattern page over at the Article Pract website.

Oh, and I'm knitting it out of the wine colored merino handspun I spun last fall.

Don't judge too harshly

This is the architectural rib pullover on. It fits closer than I thought it would. I got gauge and thought I picked the right size according to my measurements. My daughter says it looks better in real life than in the photo. I hate having my picture taken and never hold my body in a natural way when I know the camera is on me. So forgive the wrinkles above my bust.

Fighting Tofu

I have been in an ambivalent frame of mind when it comes to knitting. As Natalie Goldberg writes in Writing Down the Bones, I was fighting the tofu. Fighting the tofu gets you nowhere.

The conversation in my head goes something like this:
"I want to spin."
"You need to finish knitting Caitlin's sweater."
"I'll knit later; after I've spun for a little while."
"You'll knit right now!"

So while my head talks to itself, nothing gets done. I don't spin nor do I knit. Goldberg goes on to say "If those characters in you want to fight, let them fight. Meanwhile, the sane part of you should quietly get up, go over to your notebook, and begin to write from a deeper, more peaceful place." So for the past couple of evenings, I've let my head fight it out while I picked up my needles and knit. I don't have pictures yet. The knitting is easy; I can do it without looking. And, after awhile my head stops fighting and begins to enjoy the creative process.

This sweater which has taunted me since the end of January is practically knitting itself because I've stopped resisting the process. I've got my knitting mojo back. It's not come back in a blaze of fire. It's just back and I've stopped looking for reasons not to knit. I didn't really do anything special to get my mojo back. For the first time in a very long time, I let my life take its course and did what felt right.

If spinning felt right, that was fine. I spun. I even thought about the sweater, but I always brought myself back to what I was doing at that moment. I just took note of the command to get knitting and filed it away. I kept spinning.

A few days ago, I picked up the sweater thinking I would knit a few rounds. And those few rounds became a few more. Tuesday night while knitting at a friend's house, I enjoyed the conversation and let my fingers feel the knitting. When I got home I was surprised to see that I had knit about 3 more inches of the body.

Yesterday, I was reading Goldberg and came across the phrase "fighting the tofu." It seemed to perfectly describe what I've been going through with knitting. Now, mind you, I've read this book a few times and this never jumped out at me before. I really like it.

And, I'm going to stop fighting the tofu.

Oh, and this is what I've spun when I haven't been knitting.

A new friend, an old friend

Architectural Rib Pullover

Pattern by Norah Gaughan in The Natural Knitter

Yarn: Alice Starmore Dunedin in color 999

Used 7.5 skeins

Started 12/23/2007

Finished 1/27/2008

Yes, I'm lifting the format from Brooklyn Tweed. I followed the pattern as written since the construction is a bit unusual. If I were to knit this again, I would make the collar about 3/4" shorter. This is a relatively easy pattern, using make 1 increases and k2tog and ssk decreases to provide the shaping. The center front and back rib panels are knit as one piece. You pick up stitches along each side for the sides and sleeves. It only has two seams. This is the first Norah Gaughan I've knitted and I love how clever this is.

In addition to finishing the sweater, I started teaching my daughter to sew. We picked out fabric for a pencil skirt at Piedmont Fabric. I came home and got an old friend out of the closet.

My Bernina, which has not seen the light of day in about two years. Which is somewhat surprising because I used to make most of my clothes. Before we started the sewing lesson, I got my fabric stash out (it's quite small and fits in a large storage bin, which was not the case years ago). We looked at the stashed fabric and my daughter claimed several pieces for herself, which is fine because someone should use it. I got out some fat quarters for her to practice sewing seams on. Then we moved on to the pattern stash, which sadly is very small compared to the stash I had before my divorce. The best find in the patterns was a discontinued Vogue pattern by Issey Miyake for a raincoat. I don't think the sewing machine is going back in the closet for a long time because I want to sew!

3/4 of an architectural rib

This is the Architectural Rib Pullover with one side and sleeve completed. It has been a pretty quick knit so far. I didn't work on it for a few days last week because I had the awful flu that seems to be striking everyone I know. The days I didn't knit, I slept. I seem to have recovered and am thinking I might be able to get a goodly portion of the second side and sleeve done this weekend.

This is what the sleeve and side look like laid flat plus a close up of the sleeve ribbing.

Oh, and I've been spinning. This is the targhee I bought in September. It was a dream to spin. The fiber was ultra clean and drafted easily. I loved the way this felt in my hands. Little fluffy clouds of softness. I had 6 oz. so I spun up three bobbins of singles and then made a 3-ply yarn, which yielded approximately 210 yards. I had some left on two bobbins and made that up as 2-ply, giving me approximately 80 yards. I would really like to spin more of this fiber. Not that I need to add any more fiber to the stash!

Not much to look at

I've finished the center panel of the Architectural Rib Pullover and picked up the stitches for one side and sleeve. And, as you can see, it looks like one big nothing. I was hoping to be a bit further along. Friday we lost our power for almost six hours. Since it was pouring rain and the sky was very gray, I had very little natural light to work in. Well with black yarn, it was a little difficult to see the stitches and I was still working the center panel where I needed to increase. So I needed to look at my work. I can't wait until I can see the shape a bit more clearly.

Archtectural Rib Progess Report

I've started on the back of the center panel. This has been fun to knit so far. I can't work on it too much at night because it is hard to see the stitches since the yarn is black. Hope to have the center panel done by Sunday.

Beginning of Archtectural Rib Sweater

I've made more progress since this photo was taken; about 26 rows until I work the cable row. It's kind of fun to watch the ribs merge and the hem take shape.

Riffing on patterns

This is my version of the Parallelograms scarf from Knitting New Scarves. It's for my daughter, the scarf queen. This was a fun, easy knit; perfect for BART knitting or while watching over the caramel pot (I made caramels on Saturday). I used two skeins of Noro Silk Garden on US 8s. It is about 4 inches wide and 6 feet long. Perfect for the child who believes that one must wrap your scarf about your neck multiple times.

I used the Tweed Beret pattern from IK Winter 2006 as the basis for this beret. I used an aran weight blue face leicester yarn I bought from Kristine earlier this month. This took one skein plus a little bit that was left over from knitting the Maine Morning Mitts. I started with a four stitch i-cord; increased to eight stitches and then increased 8 stitches every other round until it was the diameter I wanted. In the next round, I knit 2 together all around. I finished it off with 1x1 ribbing, knitting the last two rounds in the contrasting color.

Late last night I cast on for the Architectural Rib Pullover from The Natural Knitter. I'm using some Alice Starmore Dunedin I've had in my stash forever. I haven't gotten very far, so I haven't taken a progress photo yet. Besides it's black and I'm not sure a photo would show all that much detail.

Tart

The top down sweater is really, honestly finished. I've wet blocked it and it is drying as I write. Once I stopped over thinking the math to get the shape, it fairly flew along. I started this version Sept. 21 and finished knitting and blocking it October 14. And one of the best things is that the rainy season has arrived a month early. It is cooler, damp and sweater wearing weather.

This is the Sunday Spinning potluck tart before baking.

This is after baking and before being putting in a fancy-dancy banker's box lid for transport to Maia's on Sunday. Kristine was there with her beautiful hand dyed yarn. As was Linda and Kathleen. Maia's husband Roger was there for a short while entertaining us with a story about Independence, MO. Even though we were a small group, we had a grand time. I got to model Maia's shetland sock. It is the most amazing shetland I've ever felt--soft, squishy, yummy. I wanted to take this sock home with me. Alas, only one has been finished. I started spinning up some Chasing Rainbows merino tencel I bought from Carolina Homespun in Boonville last month. It is so lovely to be with a group of like-minded people and spin, eat and drink coffee. I can hardly wait for next month.

Close to finished

I'm almost finished with the top down sweater. I've got about 5 more rounds of stockinette before I start the bottom ribbing. I hope to finish it in the next few days.

This is the progress on the Flame Wave sock so far. After one full repeat of the pattern, I decided to substitute a yarn over for the make one the pattern specifies. It makes the knitting go just a bit faster and I prefer the openness of the yarn over. I'll see how I feel about it when I've worked a bit more of the leg.

Off to make apple tart for tomorrow's spinning potluck and listen to Springsteen's new cd, which I'm liking a whole lot right now.

Fourth time is a charm

Or, I hope so. The top down sweater is progressing nicely. Apparently, I had to have many duh moments for the process to gel for me. The Misti Alpaca worsted has held up well considering one skein has been re-knit four times now. I'm past the neck shaping; although you can't tell from the photo because being stockinette it is curling like mad. I've got the front, right sleeve and back holding on two 32" circular needles while I knit the left sleeve.

I started the left sleeve on a 16" needle and just changed to dpns.it's going pretty fast. I haven't fully decided on how tapered the sleeve will be. What I like about this method of sweater knitting is that I can make that decision later. Just I can adjust the body length based on how much yarn I have left to work with when I get to that point. I can see using this method with my handspun for that reason.

Kinda, sorta catching up

In my last post, I wrote about this sweater. It's Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere from my stash. I haven't gotten around to sewing the buttons on yet even though I've worn at least three times. If I were to make this again, I would lower the neckline about an 1" to 1 1/2". I learned a lot about knitting pattern composition, like not be scared of the math. I use math everyday in my professional life, so why be scared of it in my knitting life. I'm not terribly happy with this yarn though. It kind of itches; so I don't consider it terribly next to the skin friendly. You would think that a yarn that is primarily cotton would be comfortable next to the skin. It has made me wonder if the cashmere content is really cashmere, perhaps it is mohair? Which would explain the itch factor.


This poor yarn has been three different sweaters--really, two sweaters. I knit the first one a second time because I didn't like the fit. I decided after the second go-round that I really didn't like to sweater on me. So before I even wove in the ends, I unraveled it. It was liberating to do so. I was not going to let the yarn defeat me. Then I found the slouch sweater in Greetings from Knit Cafe and knew that this yarn was going to be happy as a slouchy, casual sweater. When this is on, the fronts curl onto themselves making a spiral, which I like. I like that it is casual without looking like a "mom sweater" or something that is better suited for my daughter.

I recently finished the "Indigo Ripples Skirt" from IK Spring 2007. I knit it in black cotton so it doesn't photograph so well. I wore it for the first time today and felt very girly--in a good way--in it.

Here is some recent spinning. The green is spun from a roving from Chasing Rainbows colorway "More Teals" 80% merino 20% tussah. I got 330 yards two-ply out of 2 oz. I'll probably knit a lacy scarf. The multi-color is from Nancy Jane Campbell and is 80% cormo 20% soy silk colorway "Floral Suite". I bought this at Lambtown last year. I gave about 1 1/2 oz. of this to my daughter, leaving 2 1/2 oz. for me. I got 576 yards of two-ply. I don't know what I'm going to do with this.