Proof Positive...

...that I haven't forgotten how to knit.

"Country Casual" from the ca. 1980's Patons booklet Knitting in the Round. Knit in Patons Decor, on 3.75 and 4.5 mm circular needles. Size 40" men's.

I finished this sweater for my brother, Chris, this evening. It's a bottom-up seamless pattern. This project has a bit of a story.

Back around last Christmas, my mom found a pair of matching sweaters she had stored away that my grandmother had knit many years ago. One was an adult size for my dad, and the matching child-sized one had been made for my older brother.

We tried the small one on his son (my oldest nephew, now four and a half), and though he still has a bit of room to grow, it will soon fit him. Sadly, the adult sweater was too small for both Chris and Dad, but we got kind of reminiscent, and Chris really liked the idea of a yoked pullover. A bit retro, nice and warm, a memory of childhood.

Luckily, one of my aunts, who lived with my grandmother and has never been known to throw out a pattern, managed to dig out the original pattern booklet. It's an old Patons booklet, complete with awful 1980's hairstyles. I remember that these yoked sweaters were extremely popular when I was a kid. Just about everybody at school wore one that their grandmother had made.

Happy to be able to make something that my brother wanted, I lucked into a half-price sale at Michaels after Christmas. He definitely wanted something hard wearing and washable, so Decor fit the bill quite well, while still keeping me happy with some wool content. Chris chose different colours (the original sweater was light grey with burgudy and black patterning), and a different geometric pattern than one that it was meant to replicate, but I think that this makes it even more modern and highly wearable.

Since Chris probably won't pose for a picture, Nick tried it on for me. (Obviously his arms are shorter!)


I get to present the finished project tomorrow evening and I can't wait to see him wear it. Chris likes to tease me when I'm knitting by calling me "Stella", my late grandmother's name, since she was also an incessant knitter. My response is always the same: "Tease away - you're comparing me to a good woman!"

Quick report on actually finishing something

Finished!

Lady of the Lake Jacket kit by Fleece Artist, size small (40", but my gauge was a little tight). Modification: sleeves decreased to 41 st, instead of 35 st.

Such a lovely texture, this fabric. And it took very well to blocking. I even managed to block in a little waist shaping. I like that the collar can be worn two ways.



Lassy, however, is unimpressed and wants his supper.

I caved.

The Lady of the Lake is a tempting gal. After I took the kit out to photograph it, I couldn't put it back in the cupboard. I have officially put Gatsby Girl into hibernation to await some cooler weather (summer is short in Newfoundland, so it won't be long before I'll want a long-sleeved wool sweater) and delved into the Lake.


The jacket is knit as one big piece, with sleeves added after. It's going very quickly. It looks very short, but through the wonder of Ravelry I find that several people have already remarked on how much this pattern grows in length during blocking. It still seems a bit bright for my taste, but I think that it's growing on me more and more. Time will tell...

July catch-up

Wow, I was doing really well there for a while with the blogging regularly, and then June happened....

My most recent adventure was a five-day camp with my Pathfinder Unit (Pathfinders are Girl Guides aged 12-15, and I have been so lucky to have ended up with the most amazing group of girls!). Even though the weather was crap-tastic and cold, we had a lot of fun. More adventures are planned this summer with a couple of weekend backpacking trips coming up.

So, back to the main theme of this blog... what am I knitting these days?

My main focus has been my Mystery Stole 3, which I abandoned last summer somewhere around my second house move. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and it is now my concentration knitting in front of the tv. Unfortunately, it just looks like a big black blob, so I haven't photographed it in a while. Further updates to come.

My mindless travel knitting has been this plain stripey sock. I bought the yarn on a whim on my last trip to Wool Trends, mostly because I loved the colourway - these are definitely my colours. The yarn is called Boston, and the company is Wisdom Yarns. I'd never heard of it before, but it's very similar in structure and price to Regia and Jawoll sock yarns. Nothing too special, but gee, I do love those blues and greens! Just one more sock to go.


I was actually at Wool Trends to pick up this:


It's a Lady of the Lake jacket kit by Fleece Artist. I had been admiring these at my LYS for some time, but the only colour they had left was a bright turquoise. It was way too loud for my taste. But then I found out that Fleece Artist will custom dye kits to order, and that was just too amazing to pass up. This colourway is called Paris, and I chose it by looking through a piles of skeins of SeaSilk. It came out a little brighter than I expected in the kit (though still not quite as bright as it looks in this photo), but I think it will look great when the colours all get mixed up together. I haven't examined the pattern too closely yet, but I think that it's knit holding together strands of the two different yarns together - Curly Locks (or the right) and Kid Aran (on the left). Now I just need to decide which to start first, this or my Ivy League Vest.

Something I've been doing over the last months is trying to catch up on all those things that I wouldn't allow myself to do while I was finishing my thesis. It's been a strange experience, catching up with the rest of the world on a number of fronts. I finally read the last Harry Potter novel (Sigh. So good. Hard to believe it's all over), and continuing the trend of being last to the party, i joined Ravelry. I've actually been on there for a few weeks now, but I haven't had time to do too much with my page yet. Come find me if you haven't already - I'm KBH over there.

I've had several requests for kitty photos, so I'll try to get some of those soon. Lassy is doing well, and has started going outside now. He seems very happy running about the neighbourhood and checking out the neighbour's garden.

I can't promise that I'll be updating the blog too frequently in the coming weeks. I've got a business trip to western Newfoundland this week, and off to Calgary the following week. Hopefully I get lots of plane knitting accomplished anyway! I'll leave you with a FO photo of my latest Swallowtail. I gave it to Nick's grandmother on her 80th birthday. As a life-long knitter, I think she appreciated it.

Finishing up

The return to the foggy, chilly St. John's spring has been a bit of a shock to the system, but it's good to be home. Finally, yesterday, we got our first really nice warm spring day, and being Victoria Day weekend (when traditionally, you can start planting things in Newfoundland and not have to worry too much about frost), we spent yesterday planning and starting our patio garden. We inherited a pot of chives from the previous home owners, and put in some strawberries and shallots yesterday, and started seeds for lettuce, spinach, and zucchini. The peppers, tomatoes and herbs will have to wait until it gets a little warmer though.

After a good day of moving planters and dirt around, I sat down in the evening to put together Marjorie.

Marjorie from Knitty.com, size medium. Knit on 2.75 mm circular needle with GarnStudio Silke Tweed.

I really enjoyed knitting this sweater and the fit turned out to be just about perfect. It had just the right degree of intricate detail to keep my interest, and I knit on it almost exclusively from the time I started it. It took two months to finish, but since I haven't had a lot of knitting time lately, and it's a fine gauge, I think that's pretty good for me.

One word of warning about the yarn: it leached a lot of dye. See?


That's the first of four soakings, and even the fourth one still gave off a bit of colour. It's almost as if they didn't rinse the fibre at all at the factory after dying it. Strangely, none of it came off on my hands while knitting and the colour of the yarn didn't fade at all after all that soaking. I am going to have to be very careful about washing this sweater separately.

Now I have returned to knitting on Gatsby Girl and I also started yet another Swallowtail shawl during my flight back from England.

I'm just starting on the second Lily of the Valley border. It surprises me how fast I can whip one of these off now. Perhaps it's time I tried another shawl pattern... or finished up the Mystery Stole that I started last summer. Here's to clearing out some of the long-languishing projects while I'm in a spring cleaning kind of mood.

And then there were two

Two sleeves - count 'em.




This has been a lot of knitting. I hit the shoulder decreases on the second sleeve of Marjorie this evening and saw that the end was in sight, so I decided to push on to the finish. Probably not a great idea, since my right carpel tunnel is not so happy with the result. But I'm very happy to be done.

This represents the longest phase that I have worked on a single project in years, and it will also be my first finished sweater of 2008. I'm looking forward to getting home to give it all a good soak and blocking before seaming it up.

But for now it goes into my suitcase, and I start thinking about a lace project for the flight back. I think I should have wound the skein of laceweight before left home...

Travels with Marjorie

Forgive me for starting on a negative note, but I must once again voice my displeasure at the incomprehensible lack of logic displayed by the folks who run Air Canada. Air Canada, the airline that aside from having no concept of the meaning of customer service, no longer thinks that Newfoundland, the farthest eastern part of Canada, actually needs an air link to Europe. The details of the story are maddening, and I won't get into them here, but suffice to say that I travelled to Manchester this time around via London and TORONTO. Now nothing against Toronto. Toronto is a lovely city with a plethora of beautiful yarn stores, that I would be happy to visit on any other day. But I actually calculated the distances (believe me, I had plenty of time on my hands while I was flying over St. John's, a city that I had departed from only 9 hours before!), and figured out that this is approximately the same as flying from New York to England via Minneapolis. Ridiculous, no? Ah, but what can you do when you live on an island?

The upside to this inanity is that I am making excellent progress on my sweater, Marjorie. A 17-hour journey will do that for you! I took the one-and-a-bit sleeves out onto the balconey of my flat for a photo this evening.

I left the completed front and back at home, and will probably finish the second sleeve on the flight back (mercifully, connecting only through London and Halifax this time). I think that for the first time ever, I will need to find an alternate yarn with which to sew up the seams. The Silke Tweed is very nice to knt with, but it is fairly loosely plied and it breaks easily when you yank on it, so I don't think that it will stand up to the abrasion of all that seaming. I'm thinking I might be able to find a similar colour in a sturdy sock yarn to use instead.

Manchester truly is a lovely city. I feel safe here walking around by myself, and there's lots to see and do. Here's the view up and down the Rochdale Canal from the balconey:

Manchester is a city of canals, much the same way that Ottawa is (although the history goes back so much farther here). The locks in the photo above actually look just like those on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, probably dating from the same era.

I hope to bring you some yarn-related tourism over the weekend, when I have time to get out and about a bit more.

Sweater in a Sunbeam

I don't remember the last time that I worked exclusively on one project for this long. Going on three weeks now, Marjorie is not what I'd call an instant gratification knit.

But she sure is pretty.


With the back done, I'm now working my way up the front, with no signs of getting bored yet. Just as I start to tire of the constant cabling (on every right-side row), I get a nice long section of stockinette to break it up.

I'm planning to get this done to wear this spring. And with no signs of spring on the horizon yet (other than the occasional bit of freezing rain mixed in with the snow, but that kind of happens all winter long here), it looks like a reachable goal.

One fine-gauge sweater deserves another

Another couple of weeks have come and gone with scarcely a peep from me. I've been caught up lately in trying to spend some time outdoors, especially now that daylight savings has kicked in and there's still some daylight to look forward to when I get home from work. There has also been a little celebrating of St. Patrick's Day (we take our Paddy's Day very seriously here), my 30th birthday and my MIL's birthday (on the same day), and Easter, all within the one week. And then there's the spare bedroom that we're painting, a project that somehow managed to drag on for over a week. Finally finished this morning, thankfully!

So I certainly have not been bored.

Needless to say, there has still been knitting. Take for example my finished Jitterbug gloves:

Women's gloves in Colinette Jitterbug, colourway 77 "dusk", own design. Worked on 2.25 mm (cuffs) and 2.5 mm dpns.

These still haven't been blocked, but I've been wearing them for a couple of weeks now. This was one of those cases where I'm glad that I chose what the yarn wanted to be.

I have also finished the back and the first sleeve of Gatsby Girl. As the sleeves are entirely K1P1 ribbing, this was no small feat! At this point, I am convinced that the amount of stretch in the pieces should result in a sweater that I can wear. By that, I mean that I will physically be able to get it on. I am still not convinced that it will not look entirely silly on me, but I am wiling to continue the experiment in "negative ease" for the sake of a good learning experience if nothing else.

In the meantime, the new spring editions of both Knitty and Interweave Knits appeared and distracted me into all sorts of daydreaming. The printed silk cardigan and the flutter-sleeve cardi from IK will definitely be short-listed. Knitty, for the first time in ages, contained several patterns that I want to knit for myself, but Marjorie caught my attention right off the top. So much so, that I have already started in on it.


Because just what I need to break up the fine-gauge cable work of Gatsby Girl is an even more cabled fine-gauge sweater! Why do I do this to myself?

Rather than the recommended alpaca, I decided to use stash yarn. It's Silke-Tweed by Garn Studio, another bargain find from Wool-Tyme in Ottawa. It's a silk-wool blend very similar to Elsebeth Lavold's silky tweed, with that wonderful crunchy feeling of raw silk. I think it may be discontinued, which is sad, because at 200 m per skein, the the mileage is excellent. I started thinking that I may have to chop the sleeves shorter to get a sweater out of the 7 skeins that I have, but I'm now thinking that I might have enough. On 2.75 mm needles, it's not exactly flying by, but for some reason I can't put this sweater down. I wake up in the morning wanting to knit on it. I've been working on it in the car. My wrist and elbow have been starting to act up, but it still holds its appeal.

I have also been scheming up some future projects and put in another Knit Picks order. I've got supplies ont he way to knit the Ivy League Vest, inspired by Glenna's lovely example, plus another sweater's worth of wool, possibly for Argyle. Luckily, or unfortunately depending on your taste, "sweater weather" never really ends in Newfoundland. It just happens later in the day during the summer. So I'm perfectly happy going on knitting with wool when everyone else is starting to make the switch to cotton tank tops and the like.

Thanks for dropping by!

Done!

Surprizing even myself, I finished my dad's socks in record time. They were done on Wednesday. Man, I should knit in worsted weight more often!

Men's plain stockinette socks (no pattern), in Red Heart McIntosh, 48 st on size 3.75 mm dpns

I used a regular gusset heel with an eye-of-partridge heel flap. This type of heel is really easy (simple instructions here), and turns out just as thick and sturdy as the more common slip-stitch heel.

The yarn (30% wool, 70% acrylic) was a little underwhelming, but that's what you get for buying emergency yarn supplies late at night at Walmart! Speaking of which, all three Walmarts in the St. John's area are now open 24 hours... I wonder how long that's going to last?!

I'm making good progress on the Gatsby Girl, now well into the herringbone lace pattern, and inching closer to the shoulder shaping. It still looks small to me, but it's very stretchy, so I'm going to trust the pattern measurements and my gauge and keep chugging along.


I went to a fun knitting lecture last night at The Rooms, a beautiful new facility that houses the Provincial Museum, Art Gallery, and Archives. Shirley Scott gave a really fun talk on traditional Newfoundland knitting. So nice to see someone else interested in promoting our local knitting heritage. I spoke with Shirley briefly after her presentation, and I hope I'll get to meet her and more local knitters soon at a knit night gathering. I have finally tracked down a local knit night (this Sunday!) and I'm going to try to make it out.

So far so good

The front (or back - they're the same) of the Gatsby Girl pullover. It looks very small, but those sections between the cables are 1X1 rib, so it has a lot of stretch. I opted for the smaller size, the 36", so let's hope this works!

The bottom edge is a facing to be folded back, so it should look a lot neater when it all goes together. I have never been so happy that I taught myself to cable without a cable needle - I'll never go back! Still loving the yarn very much, and looking forward to moving on to the the lace section soon.

This just might work...

Keeping up the trend of ignoring my well-intentioned list and going wherever my next whim takes me, I decided to break out some really nice yarn that I had been saving. I bought myself a little graduation gift when I was in Ottawa - 12 skeins of Silana by Lana Grossa in a pale blue. It's a beautiful DK merino-silk blend, soft like kittens. This is definitely the nicest yarn that I have ever had in such quantity - I usually just buy a skein or two of something lovely, and then I never know what to do with it! It was deeply discounted (possibly discontinued?), but still a splurge by my standards.

Feeling marginally better today, I've been doing some swatching. I think that I have decided on a pattern: the Gatsby Girl pullover from the Fall 2006 IK.


With more than enough casual wear it my closet, I've been looking to knit something nice enough to wear to work. I think this will fit the bill nicely.

My only hesitation is in trying to decide on a size. Every one of my measurements falls exactly in between two sizes on this pattern, and it recommends an exact fit for zero ease. I don't really feel like tweaking the pattern, so I can't decide whether to go for the size that's an inch smaller, or play it safe and go an inch bigger. Since I usually err on the side of too big and end up disappointed, I'll probably try the smaller size. I like my clothes fairly fitted, so it shouldn't be a problem. But why then is it so hard to take the risk?!

Gift Knitting

I have discovered yet another reason that I love our house: we're on the up-wind side of the street. I have spent a good deal of time these last few days digging out from successive dumpings of snow, but the folks across the street definitely have it worse. The wet snow has made for heavy shoveling, but it does make the neighbourhood look pretty.

The view across the street.

I have a number of FO shots to share with you, so I thought that today I would give you a round-up of the Christmas gifts. I tried to keep it under control this year, inspired by memories of casting off a scarf last year at 2AM on Christmas morning! The red sweater that I designed and knit last spring was a gift for my aunt, an accomplished knitter herself, and she was delighted with it. And my mom really likes her Swallowtail shawl.

This touque, in Smart Superwash, was a requested replacement for a similar gift last year which, sadly, was lost. I knit a different pattern this year. making it up as I went along, out of the same yarn to match the scarf given last year.

Gift toque, in Smart Superwash, 90 st with cabled ribbing, modeled by yours truly.

Then there was the rescue knitting for another aunt. She had knit this lace sweater up to the armhole decreases, but given the challenges of decreasing in pattern, combined with a really poorly written pattern, she passed it off to me to finish. The yarn, Mandarin Petit, is a fingering weight multi-ply cotton. It's quite nice and soft, and I would definitely use it again. The pattern though, I hope to never see again.

The rescue knitting sweater, pre-blocking.

And then, there were the jackets for the wee ones of the family. I chose to try out the Accordion pattern from Knitty.com in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Accordion jacket, size 2 Toddler, in Knit Pick Swish Superwash.

Gauge was interesting with this project. I thought that the recommended yarns were worsted weight, but I had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge with the Swish. I think my jackets have a lot more drape than the pattern version as a result, but they are cute and warm nonetheless. I added an inch of two to the measurements to account for the notorious vertical shrinkage with this yarn, and washed the pieces before seaming. The only problem this caused was difficulty finding zippers in odd lengths, since it was difficult to predict the finished length of the garment until after it was washed.

It was on this last jacket that I fell down in the gift knitting department. I didn't finish it in time, and I still haven't gone shopping for a zipper - maybe later today. It will hopefully be finished in time to be a New Year's gift. The recipient won't know the difference - he's three!

Accordion Jacket, Size 4 Toddler, in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Must go finish off the shovelling. Happy New Year to all!

Taking in strays

Wow, how did three weeks go by so quickly??

Today I bring you a little rescue knitting that I've been working on. One of my aunts, who is quite a good knitter, started this lace pullover for her daughter. Despite her uncertainty and lack of experience with lace charts, an employee at our LYS convinced her that she would be able to tackle this pattern. And it probably would have been alright if the pattern was at least well written.


Alas, the pattern (from a back issue of Knit 'n Style) has many errors and ambiguities, and doesn't really explain how one is supposed to alter the charts when faced with armhole decreases, neck shaping, ad sleeve increases. In the interest of getting this gift finished in a reasonable time (I think that it was originally intended as a gift for last Christmas!), I decided to take it in and work on it in my spare time (whatever that is!). It came to me with the biggest part of the knitting already done - both the front and back up to the armholes. I actually just have one sleeve cap to finish now, but it looks like I have to go track down one more ball of yarn.


It's a nice yarn to work with : Mandarin Petit by SandnesGarn. I think I counted 7 plies of cotton. It's quite soft, and about a sport weight. Makes for some fine detail on a sweater.

The other "stray" that I've taken in lately is a cute little cat who has been hanging around the house for the past six weeks or so. Molasses ("Lassie" for short) was a skinny little black thing when she first wrapped herself around my ankles as I was hanging out clothes one Saturday morning. She had no collar, and seemed very hungry, so we've been feeding her and fattening her up a little, and Nick and I intend to take her with us when we move into our own home. Which leads to the next exciting news....

We put in an offer on a house in downtown St. John's this morning, and the offer was accepted! We still have to go through home inspection, and the deal won't close for a full month. But we're well on our way to having our own home! We're very excited. After a full month of searching and viewing houses, this one, though a little bigger than we really need, seems like a place where we will be happy to put down roots. We loved it from the first minute we stepped in the door. And we'll be able to walk to work.

So, lots going on here, with precious little time for knitting. Next time though, I hope to bring you photos of the first finished Accordion jacket - almost done!!

Actual knitting

I finally managed to take a little time to myself this weekend - a little guilty pleasure for the holiday weekend. And nothing goes better with a work-free Sunday afternoon than a new knitting project. I haven't done that in a while! To say nothing of writing two posts in one weekend.

I dipped into the Knit Picks yarn that arrived a couple of months ago, and started an Accordion jacket for one of the very little people in my extended family. I may not do too much holiday knitting this fall, but I do intend to make two of these for the boys. This is size 3 years in Swish Superwash, which is worsted weight, making it a fairly quick knit. I've already done the back and half of one of the front pieces.


So far, I love the yarn. This is my first Knit Picks purchase and above all, it's very soft. I am allowing for a little bit of vertical shrinkage, as this yarn does have a bit of a reputation for that. Just to be sure, I plan to machine wash and dry the pieces before assembly.

After a couple of years of experience knitting for the babies and toddlers of the family and receiving feedback from parents, I have learned a couple of important things. Firstly, all members of my family are genetically predisposed to having large heads. Even the babies. This means that pullovers are much more likely to go on if they have a button closure on the shoulder. Secondly, most little boys really hate to have you put anything over their heads. Struggling with an uncooperative kid with a big head means that short zippers in the front of the neck are especially out of the question, as they usually end up stuck in somebody's eye. I hope that this jacket will be loved and worn for a long time because it will involve minimal hassle to get it on, and the ribbed texture makes for a very stretchy jacket that should give quite a bit of room to grow.

Now that I know the yarn will work with the gauge for this pattern, and KP has introduced new heathered colours for this yarn, I plan to order a little more. The second Accordion will be a slightly bigger size 4 years; I'm thinking squirrel heather grey with Dublin green trim. And while I'm ordering, this might be the perfect opportunity to finally get me some good lace blocking wires. But that's all. Really.....

Lola is done!

And she's really comfy.


As you can see, the sleeves didn't make it as far as I had hoped, but I think I'm okay with it. It's a nice sweater for wearing around the house this time of year when it's still a little chilly. Actually, I've been living in it all weekend. The fabric is fairly thick and very stretchy. Cosy. I still have to pick up a button for the neck.

It didn't take me long to get into a few new things. I love hunting through my now finally shrinking stash and trying to find projects for the many odd balls and abadoned yarns. I started a summer shrug out of Schachenmayr Piazza (the same yarn that's been frogged out of two different sweater attempts!). The pattern is the ribbed shrug (link to pdf) by Pam Allen from the IK staff projects, summer 2005. I'm working at a much smaller gauge than the pattern since the yarn is approximately sport weight, so I've adjusted the pattern quite a bit.


It's basically a rectangle with a frill at each end that will be partially sewn into a tube. It's mindless knitting, in K1P2 ribbing. I'm finding that I'm really getting into mindless knitting these days!

Earlier in the week, I whipped up a lacey headband (free downloadable pattern from Knitpicks).


I've been growing my hair out for almost a year now - it was really short before. It keeps getting in my face, so this is a good solution. The pattern calls for DK cotton, but I knit it in some leftover sock wool, Lanett Superwash I think. I left out the buttons and just sewed it into a loop. I think I may make more of these. I certainly have enough ends of sock yarn that I can use, and they're really quick. I think it would be fun to try adding beads.

And one last thing to show you. I found this great free slipper pattern over at Sock Pixie's blog. Also a very quick little knit. This is actually vintage tapestry wool. Four little 25-g skeins will get me a pair of slippers. Cool huh?


It still needs blocking and end-weaving, and a partner. There may be more of these in my future too - a knitter's family never has cold feet!

Second time's a charm?

Aha! I have managed to wrestle that unruly neckband into submission:


The solution was to switch to a smaller crochet hook, and to skip a few stitches while working around the neck. It's just a single row of single crochet, leaving out the second eyelet row that the pattern suggests. I think with a few small buttons, this will work nicely.

With that sorted out, I've gotten going on the first sleeve. How long it's going to be is still anyone's guess!


I've also started a new sock. Eunny's Bayerische Sock pattern is just about the most complicated cable pattern I've ever tried, and I'm having fun with it so far. With 96 stitches and intense concentration required, I can only do a few rows in one sitting. Here we are after the first 16 row-repeat.


I'm knitting it in Regia 4-ply, colour 536, which sadly is discontinued. I think this is my favourite sock yarn these days, not that I've tried a lot of the higher-end fancy ones. I really like the way it wears. One of my favourite pairs of hand knit socks is in this yarn. I've been wearing them non-stop for the last three years and they still look great. It doesn't pill or get fuzzy, and it feels nice on the feet.

I hope that this pattern is still intriguing when it comes time to knit the second sock. I have a feeling it's going to take a while!

Lola progress

I've been working away on Lola in little spurts over the past week, with the song by the same name stuck irreplaceably in my head (Lo Lo Lo La Lo-La...). Tonight I managed to leave the office at a decent hour for a change, and put in a few solid hours to finish the front. What I decided on, after considering a few options (thanks for your ideas!), was to keep it as a pullover, but change the neckline slightly to add a keyhole where I can place buttons. To me, this makes it feel like a slightly warmer-weather sweater. The colours are not as bright as they appear in the following photos - flash wash-out.

I grafted the shoulders and safety-pinned the sides together to try it on, and wonder of wonders, it fits! I have slightly more than one 100 g ball for the sleeves, so I think I'm going to try to divide this into two equal balls by weight, and then knit the sleeves as long as I can get them. In order to do this, I guess I have to figure out how to change the pattern to knit the sleeves top-down, right? Perhaps that's a job for tomorrow night.

Right now, I'm fussing over the neckline. This is attempt #1, following the pattern instructions for a crocheted edging:


Ugh. It won't sit flat, and looks really silly on me. And no amount of blocking will fix it (remember, it's acrylic). So I'll be ripping this out tomorrow and trying something else, probably a narrow knitted band of some sort.

There's so much stuff going on in the rest of my life right now, some of it sad and scary, as I alluded to before, and some of it amazing and fantastic and exciting, but I can't really talk about any of it here yet. Argh! Suffice to say that Nick and I may very well be moving in the next few months, and there are a lot of big changes happening all at once. I'm lucky that I have any time for knitting at all!

Biking home from the office today, I noticed that the daffodils are finally blooming - spring is here at last! Enjoy the weekend. I know I will!

This post is brought to you by pink SRK yarn

I just recently realized that I'm only knitting with Kertzer (SRK) yarns at the moment. Strange coincidence since I've never tried them before. First, the bramble leaf lace scarf you've seen before:

It's pretty fuzzy, but mohair is hard to photograph in low light. It's just a big ball of fuzz right now. Incredibly soft fuzz, but still. This is SRK Collection Ovation in the Purple Haze colourway (discontinued). I'm well into the second ball now, but luckily I managed to find a supplier, in Ontario no less, who still had some in stock. The fine folks over at Knitters Attic have set me up with another ball, which should get me a respectable length of scarf. I intend to knit some kind of edging at least on the ends, but I haven't yet decided what one. Hopefully Knitting on the Edge will come in handy here.

Also this week, I finally started Lola:


The yarn is James Brett Marble, also by SRK, in Berries. I like the sort of gradual striping effect, but the colour somehow looks a lot brighter knit up than it does in the ball. But that's okay, I could probably use some brighter colours in my wardrobe. The back knit up fairly quickly, but then I set it aside to think a bit. I'm knitting the smallest size, which is going to be pretty clingy on me. I'm trying to get over my irrational need to make everything bigger "just in case", and ending up with baggy sweaters. The ribbed fabric is really stretchy, so I think it will look okay, and end up as the kind of sweater fit I typically go for in a store-bought garment.

Warning: mindless rambling ahead.
The problem is, I'm not going to have enough yarn for the long sleeves that I had planned - I thought that 4 X 100g of DK would be plenty, but I've used almost 1.5 balls on the back. Since this is a stash project (and acrylic at that), I don't really want to buy any more. I could manage cap sleeves, but then would I wear a short sleeve acrylic pullover? I don't know.... I've considered converting it to a cardigan, as I do wear short-sleeve cardis in the summer but since it's going to be stretchy and on the tighter side, then I wondered if buttons might pull it out of shape and look rather funny unless I used a lot of buttons... There's always a zipper I suppose but then I think I would want a different neck stlye.... I don't know. I'm kind of at a loss right now. So it's back to the lace knitting for a bit while I ponder the possibilities. Your suggestions would be most welcome.

It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster of a week. I spent yesterday showing family friends around town, which was very fun - but they're in town for heart surgery for a six year old next week (who by the way, loved her new teddy bear). We're hoping for the very best for their family. And now we've had some really scarey news about the health of a family member back home, and Nick and I are worried sick. At least lace knitting is good for taking your mind off of things. I can't say the same for school work though! As my friend ms. m has pointed out, the thesis is my biggest WIP right now, and the sooner I can get it done, the sooner I can get on with my life. It's just hard to stay focused sometimes with so much on your mind.

Thank you for the kind comments about my finished vest. It fits very nicely, and I have already worn it a couple of times. It was fun to knit and I should get a lot of use out of it.

Three of three

Remember how I finally seamed up those three sweaters last week? Well I never did show you the third one. This is the little red cardigan, created as part of the Red Sweater Knit-Along. (The colour is truest on the first picture.)

Original design, in vintage Bear Brand Town 'n Country, 2 ply, DK weight, 100% wool (purchased from eBay, in the "big box of happiness"). Used almost 8 full balls (12 oz). Size 4 mm and 4.5 mm straight needles.

It turned out pretty baggy on me, but I knew from the start that this would be a learning expreience - it's my first sweater design. I'm going to put this one away for a gift (I know who it will fit just perfectly!), and try to eventually re-work the pattern to fit me better. Maybe even with waist shaping next time.

Aren't these the cutest buttons?

I discovered a great little fabric and button store downtown on Bank Street, and they had a wall of buttons to choose from (which given my indecisive nature, took me forever!). I really liked working with this wool too, not that I'm likely to ever find it again. It is soft and light, and blocks beautifully.

And here's a shot of the back, showing the bagginess:


After that frenzy of sweater finishing, I'm happy to be working on some smaller projects right now. The vest is coming along nicely in the little bit of knitting time I'm allowing myself these days. It's end-of-semester crunch time.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend, everybody!