Success!

Well, sort of.

I managed to knit almost all the presents I planned on for my family — all that’s left is the felting on my mom’s French Press Felted Slippers and to actually knit my dad’s hat. I want him to design the hat with me, though, since he’s pretty picky, so I just wrapped the yarn and later, we’ll go through my Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries and design the hat together.

As everyone opens their gifts tomorrow, I’ll take pictures of the finished projects and post them to Ravelry in keeping with one of my goals for the new year: be more consistent about documenting my hand-knits!

I really loved the hat I knit for my younger brother. I used Fuchsia’s awesome new pattern, First Encounter, which is PERFECT for any situation that calls for a quick knit. I managed to knit up the hat while watching “Under The Greenwood Tree” and most of the first episode of “Wives & Daughters”, and it was quickly claimed by our cat Emma:

I love this pattern and the finished project. I wasn’t really a fan of cables before I knit my dream sweater but First Encounter has solidified my new love for them.

It’s strange to be finished with my knitting and my wrapping so early, but I decided to not stress this year and if it didn’t look like I’d be able to finish, I wasn’t going to worry. Now, I have almost four hours till the late Christmas Eve service at church, and I plan on spending it knitting something totally decadent and totally selfish — Bitterroot, from the newest Knitty!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Housing Fantasies.

The older I get, the more I fantasize about interior decorating! This is ironic because, up until this point in my life, my only interior decoration goal was “Can I still walk through my room? Awesome!”.

I love my current room, but it’s very plain and has an odd set-up. My apartment building was once part of the Smith College dorms, but now it’s been broken (rather roughly) into apartments. My room has its own door into the main hall, but I get very little sunlight and I have no closet. My roommate, on the other hand, has three closets (and is kind enough to let me use one!).

I’ll have plenty of time off over winter break, since I won’t be working, so my time will be spent making the most of decorating my space:

+ Repainting my walls to a crisp, clean white.
+ Repainting my bookcases a rich turquoise — it’ll match my Ikea duvet and pillowcases!
+ Buying cheap picture frames from the local thrift stores, covering them with silver spray paint, and then printing out black and white pictures of marine life, like this arrangement:

I think it’ll look great with frames of different shapes and sizes, fitted together in a jumble all along one wall…perhaps over my desk?

+ When my grandparents moved out of their house on the Cape, we got their amazing braided rugs, made out of fabric scraps. I plan on snagging the biggest, to replace the cheap Wal-Mart rug I bought when I moved into my first apartment. It’s thick and soft enough for bare feet, and hopefully it’ll be warmer than the carpet I have now.
+ I think a wall covered in a mass of fabric yo-yos would look both logical and organic, like in this picture:

Maybe the wall directly over my bed? In different shades of the same color (like green!), it’d look stunning.
+ I’ll finally hang up my collection of prints of black cats!

That should take me the better part of the month to accomplish all of this, since I am not exactly the most motivated person on the planet. It’ll probably take me two weeks to just clean my room!

Dream Sweater.

That’s right. I finally got off my rear and took pictures of my Farmer’s Market Cardigan. I originally wanted to have this finished to wear to Rhinebeck, but I figured out that goal wasn’t realistic and that I didn’t want to rush through and be disappointed in the results. I finished it on November 12th, almost two weeks ago, and I’ve barely taken it off since then.

Guest appearances from my inability to stay serious and my double chin.

Pattern: Connie Chang Chinchio’s Farmer’s Market Cardigan, from the Fall 2009 Interweave Knits.
Yarn: ShiBui Knits Merino Worsted in “Bark”, about 8 skeins, purchased from Eat. Sleep. Knit.
Needles: Size 8 24″ circular from my Knitpicks Options.
Mods: I made the 43.5″ size, which is at least one size too large for me. I wanted a slouchy cardigan for layering, though, and my gauge was a bit tight, so I worked a larger size than needed to compensate. I also only increased up to 46 stitches for the collar, instead of 49.

This really is my dream cardigan. The yarn is heavenly — the color of chocolate, silky and cuddly — and Connie’s pattern is genius. GENIUS, I tell you. I kept squee-ing to my boyfriend about all the little details of shaping and how amazing they were. She made me feel brilliant, just from knitting the pattern.

I finished up a cowl and a pair of Fetching, too — both from one skein of Madtosh Worsted in “Oxblood”, with which I am completely obsessed. I cast on 112 stitches on a size 6 16″ circular needle, worked six rows of garter stitch, then popped in the lace pattern from the Embossed Leaves Socks from the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits for the cowl, and finished up with six more rows of garter stitch. It took me all of a day to knit up the cowl AND the Fetching — but they’re darned hard to photograph.

Most of what I have on the needles currently are projects meant for Christmas presents, so I have to keep those under the radar. I’m selfishly knitting myself another cardigan, high off the success of my Dream Cardigan — I’m working on the Bel Cardigan from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitty. I’m working it up in Madtosh Worsted in “Baltic”, and it is dreamyyyyy. Hopefully I can finish it over the long Thanksgiving weekend!

Hurrah for swaps!

I just took part in an autumn swap with some members of my favorite Livejournal community, Stay Sassy. I’m sure I’m breaking the first Sassy rule by posting about it, but I have no fear! I got my swap package this morning as I was heading for the bus, and I was too excited to leave it in my apartment to open after work. I opened it at the bus stop and, I’m sure, annoyed everyone waiting for it with my squeals of glee when I saw this:

 

 

You can only imagine how I felt when I saw that my swap pal had sent me The Yarn Harlot’s Knitting Calendar:

 

…and 4oz of merino roving from A Tree Hugger’s Wife in “Pumpkin Jack”.

 

I’ve heard amazing things about A Tree Hugger’s Wife but I haven’t tried her roving yet. Now I can! I’ll be doing a lot of practice spinning this weekend before I give this a try — I really want to do it justice! Perhaps yarn for a pair of socks…

Last but not least, check out these adorable stitch markers!

 

Black cats! And snowmen! BLACK CAT STITCH MARKERS! I am overjoyed and will be using them as soon as I start the second Monkey sock tonight.

Thank you, swap pal! You are amazing and a great cure for Second Sock Syndrome

Spinning!

It took all the strength in my body not to make a pun of my title, using a certain well-known 80s’ hit single. Whew!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to take Barbara Parry’s Introduction to Handspinning class at WEBS. I’ve been knitting for five years, and while I’m far from knowing everything there is to know about knitting, I’ve been feeling like all of my projects are a little stale. I felt this way about reading way back in high school: I felt like I was just punching into work every time I opened a book. It had gotten to be the same way with knitting. It’s my hobby and my passion — it shouldn’t be a drag!

What I realize now is that once you read or knit enough, you’re going to feel the need to create your own stories, your own yarn. They’re almost the same thing; yarn is a story that begins with the plant or the animal which is the source of your fiber and ends with you, running it through your fingers and looping it around sticks to make something beautiful. In either case, you start with a lot of raw material and inspiration, and end up with something that will keep you warm and make you think.

The class itself was lovely — Barbara Parry, the instructor, owns Foxfire Fiber and Design up in Shelburne, so she lives and breathes fiber, quite literally! There were seven of us in the class and almost all the other students had previous spinning experience, so I was bottom of the class from the first moment (Remedial Spinner, that’s me). We started out on drop spindles, which was a great way of observing how the twist of the spindle, the size of the whorl, and the fiber all combined to create yarn.

The wheel-spinning was really hard for me. I used a Louet S10 double-treadle wheel for the first day and a combination of not drafting enough (pulling apart the fibers so they don’t simply twist over and over on each other, turning into a thick ropy mess ask me how I know) and not maintaining a consistent treadling speed really set me back. I was grumpy, tense and frustrated through most of the first day. Barbara Parry had to sit with me and treadle while I drafted! So embarrassing — but she’s a wonderful instructor, and so patient.

The second day was much easier; something clicked and I was spinning! Not well, but there I was, making my first real single, which was quickly followed by my first real two-ply:

Leicester/Alpaca Two-Ply

Romney Roving Single

Most of the yarn I’ve made is badly over-twisted; it’s almost completely unspun roving in places, fragile cobweb in others. It’s mine, made with my own hands, with fiber and help from people I now consider friends.

The yarn feels like home.

There and Gone Again.

My boss has been alerting me every time the sun comes out. Sad, isn’t it, that we have to celebrate when we see the sun?

I took advantage of a sunny afternoon to take a few FO pictures.

First up:

Pattern: Burnished Leaves Cowl by Chrissy Prange.
Yarn: Alchemy Synchronicity in Foxglove, purchased from Purl.
Needles: Size 6 circular.
Mods: None!
Ravelry Page

I love this pattern. LOVE IT. I managed to knit this up in two cold afternoons and I wore it through most of the spring, even if it didn’t match my outfit. All of the pictures of me wearing the cowl are sad demonstrations of my second and third chins, so any shots of me modeling my FO will have to wait.

The yarn, Alchemy Synchronicity, is heavenly. It’s a wool/silk blend, a perfect mesh of the warmth of wool and the sheen and drape of silk. I’m not used to knitting with yarn that has any silk content, so it was a little hard on my hands. The result was well-worth any discomfort (I’m also just a baby when it comes to sore hands, heh).

I also knitted up another pair of Monkey Socks, the most popular sock pattern on Ravelry — 9727 projects! Why am I even bothering to commemorate these?

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn.
Needles: Size 2 DPNs.
Mods: I slightly shortened the heel flap, from 34 rows to 28. A lot of knitters have found that the heel flap is too long for them. I shortened the heel flap on my first pair of Monkeys, too.

I’ve found a new yarn obsession — Malabrigo sock! It’s so smooth and refuses to pill. I’d already worn these socks at least four times before getting around to taking pictures of them, and they look brand new!

Next up: pictures of two Ishbels, an Ishbel beret, stripey socks for my boyfriend, and an Aeolian shawl. This rainy weather is good for knocking out plenty of FOs!

What Summer?

I woke up at 7:30a today to see a somewhat-clear blue sky outside the window. I felt a crash of joy! — and then a sudden drop into despair. The entire western half of the sky was dark grey and full of looming rain clouds. As usual.

We haven’t had much of a summer here in New England. It’s been rain, rain and more rain. It’s been perfect weather to sit inside, read, and knit, but I haven’t been doing much of that. I’m taking a creative writing class three nights a week, and working 40+ hours on top of that. I’m always exhausted but luckily I only have three more classes to go, and then all of my evenings are free! I foresee much more knitting in my future.

I made a goal to read at least 30 books this summer. That’s not a huge goal for me; I read voraciously, all the time, anywhere. The class has absorbed a lot of my reading time, but I’ve decided to cheat and use the books I’ve read for the class towards my total. I’ve read about 18 books so far. I reread the Harry Potter series in preparation for the sixth movie, but since I’ve read them so many times before, I’m not going to count them towards the finished total.

There has been knitting; since February, I’ve finished up a pair of Monkeys, a February Lady Sweater, and an Ishbel. I started and frogged a pair of stripey Koigu socks for my boyfriend (his feet are spoiled), and currently have four rounds of ribbing done on them. I’m ashamed of myself; I haven’t kept up with any of my knitting goals for this year and I’m going to have to hustle my bustle to get them done.

I am pretty proud of that FLS, though.

Toe-Up Pomatomus Pattern.

I know I’m not the first person to make them, but I wanted to share my pattern notes for my Toe-Up Pomatomus socks. I cobbled them together from lots of different sources, and now it’s one of my my go-to sock patterns. Enjoy!

Toe-Up Pomatomus

I began with a provisional cast-on (using the directions found at Knitting at Knoon (http://www.knittingatknoon.com/provisional.html). I started with 36 stitches (half the number needed for the foot of the sock), and using the short-row method, decreased to 12 stitches.

Here’s how I worked the short-row toe (instructions taken from Wendy’s Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern, found here.

1. Knit 36 stitches. Move the working yarn as if to purl. Slip the last, unworked stitch from the left needle to the right needle. Turn your work.
2. Slip the first, unworked, stitch from the left needle to the right needle. Purl the next stitch (you will have wrapped that first stitch around its base with the working yarn) and purl across to the last stitch. Move the working yarn as if to knit and slip last stitch. Turn.
3. Slip the first stitch and knit across to the last stitch before the unworked stitch. Wrap and turn.
4. Slip the first stitch and purl across to the stitch before the unworked stitch. Wrap and turn.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’ve decreased to the desired stitch width of your toe – I decreased to 12 stitches. Want a wider toe? Don’t knit as many short rows. A narrower toe’s more your style? Knit a few more!

To finish working the toe and to create the little “pouch” for your toes, follow these steps (also taken from Wendy’s Generic Toe-Up pattern):

1. Knit across the 14 live stitches across to the first unworked, wrapped stitch. To work this stitch, pick up the wrap and knit it together with the stitch. Wrap the next stitch (so that it now has two wraps) and turn.
2. Slip the first (double-wrapped) stitch and purl across to the first unworked, wrapped stitch. Pick up the wrap and purl it together with the stitch. Wrap the next stitch and turn.

Continue working these two rows till you’ve increased back to 36 stitches across.

Now you’ll need to unzip that provisional cast-on and pick up those held 36 stitches. I recommend picking up each stitch individually first, instead of unzipping the entire row – it’s painstaking, but much better than trying to pick up dropped stitches. Make sure both your needles are pointing in the same direction if you’re using Magic Loop.

Next row, knit around the entire row to join the sides together. You’re now ready to begin the pattern!

On the 36 instep stitches, work Rows 1-22 of Chart B twice, then Rows 1-11 once more (knit the 36 sole stitches). I have a size 8.5 US foot, so you can adjust the pattern to fit your foot. The nice thing is that you can try the sock on as you knit – so you can stop at whatever row you’d like. Work till you’re two inches away from your heel. You’ll now work a short-row heel using the 36 sole stitches.

It’s easy to work a short-row heel – just follow the directions for making a short-row toe. Work as many rows as you want, depending on how wide or narrow you want your heel to be.

When you’ve worked all stitches and you have 72 live stitches once more, join for working in the round and continue with wherever you left off on Chart B – for example, if you stopped on Row 11 of Chart B, start with Row 12, working around on all 72 stitches.

If you stopped working on Row 22 of a repeat, begin your ankle stitches with Row 1 of Chart A. You’ll work the pattern repeat 6 times each row.

Work Rows 1-22 of Chart A for the desired number of chart repeats, until the sock ankle is the length you’d like. I knit two full repeats of Chart A for my sock ankle.

Next, work an inch of twisted rib – knit 1 tbl, purl 1, rep till end.

Finish with Russian Bind-Off:

1. Purl the first two stitches together.
2. Loosen the stitch.
3. Move the stitch from your right needle back to your left needle and purl the next two stitches together.
4. Repeat Steps 1-4 to end.

Weave in ends; block lightly if you’d like.

I’ve used Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino for every pair of Pomatomus (Pomatomi? Hm.) that I’ve knit. It’s slightly thicker than your average sock yarn — almost a light fingering weight — but I love the smooth hand and drape when knitting KPPPM with size 2 needles. I use Magic Loop when knitting from the toe-up, but you can easily adapt the pattern to use DPNs or two circs — whatever your preference!

Happy knitting.

Off To A Good Start…

Look at me, sticking to my goals! Maybe this semantics game is the key to my success.

I now present to you my first FO of 2009!

Pattern: Side Slip Cloche from “Boutique Knits”.
Yarn: Valley Yarns Deerfield, just over 1 skein.
Needles: Size 4 circular and DPNs.
Date Started: January 3rd, 2009.
Date Finished: January 4th, 2009.
Notes: I really enjoyed knitting this pattern! The directions were excellent, concise, and the pictures of the pattern give you a great idea of the finished project. The alpaca has just the right amount of halo but the silk content keeps it from shedding too much. It’s a quick, luxurious little project. I’ll probably make another one in black.

I feel a bit like Zelda Sayre in this hat, and that’s never a bad thing. Girlfriend was staying sassy, even during the Depression.

Just when I was feeling like my current success was a fluke, another FO popped up. Granted, this one was started back in 2008 and was meant to be a Christmas gift (sorry, Sean!), but an FO is an FO, no matter how you slice it.

Pattern: My own, a simple k2p2 ribbed sock, with contrasting heels and toes.
Yarn: Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in dark and light greys.
Needles: Size 2 circular for Magic Loop, and DPNs for turning the heel and working the heel gusset.
Date Started: December 18th, 2008.
Date Finished: January 9th, 2009.

Sean (my boyfriend) loves them, and I’m so glad they were finished in time to be worn on a very important day for him. I’ve started a second pair, in the opposing color scheme. There’s nothing like having a hand-made gift be received so happily. Sean is guaranteed to keep himself in hand-knitted socks for a long, long time.

One question: should these socks count towards my goal of knitting 16 pairs this year? I started them in 2008, but I finished them in 2009. What do you think?

That’s all I’ve got for today, but I’m working the new students’ orientation all this week, so I’m guaranteed to have some horror stories to share soon enough.

2009 Goals

I am notoriously bad at resolutions. I am so bad that by the end of January, I have broken them all, generally in a fiery, shameful tempest of failure that leaves me guilt-stricken until May. Not this year!

For 2009, I’m just attempting goals. If I get there, great! If not — I’ll keep trying! I’ll start here with my knitting goals, as this is still ostensibly a knitting/craft blog, and because I love planning what I’m going to spend the year knitting.

1. Knit at least four adult sweaters. I have yarn in my stash for approximately ten sweaters. Ten! I haven’t knit a sweater in years. Well, to be quite honest, Pasadena is quite close to being finished, if I stick with the pattern and don’t do any of my planned mods (cabled button bands, a hood). I just need to make up my mind and finish it. In any case, I want to knit at least four adult sweaters. I have several in mind for myself, and two in mind for my boyfriend. First up:
Interweave’s Woven Bands Pullover for my boyfriend. I’m intrigued by the construction and I love Cascade Eco Wool — a perfect match!

2. Knit at least 16 pairs of socks I always have at least one pair going, so this should be easy.

3. At least 8 pairs of those socks must be for me. Yay avarice!

4. Upload progress pictures of all my projects to Ravelry .

5. Design at least one large garment (sweater, shawl, skirt).

6. Submit at least one design to online magazines. Popknits, Knotions, Twist Collection, Knitty — the choices are varied and filled with talented designers. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t try.

7. Take a spinning class at WEBS. WEBS is within walking distance of my apartment, and I want to learn how to spin. This will have to wait till the fall, after I have some money saved up after working all summer.

8. Knit from the stash as much as possible. I think I may have alarmed my boyfriend when I dumped out my entire stash on top of him. It may have been the threat of asphyxiation, but just in case, I’m going to cut down on my yarn spending.

9. Update this blog at least once a week, about anything.

They’re all good goals, and I’m looking forward to accomplishing them. I’ve been knitting for almost five years, and I feel ready to challenge myself. My design goals are the most important ones I have this year, as vague as they are. My mom, who taught me how to knit, would be so proud to see my designs out there.

So there we have it, my 2009 knitting goals. Here we go!

Next up: my first 2009 FOs!