New FO photos

A short post today to share some FO photos of my new lace top. As you can tell from my hairdo, it was a fairly blustery day!

Original design, in Zitron Polo, using 4 balls. Free pattern will be posted here eventually.

I haven't caught up on my blog reading yet. I've been popping in here and there, but haven't been commenting much. I have a stack of emails that need answering, volunteer work that I need to get around to, I'm two weeks behind on my Mystery Stole (just finishing Clue#4), and I don't even want to talk about my thesis progress - to which I will be dedicating the remainder of the weekend.

The posts may continue to be a bit sparse for the next few weeks - please bear with me while I try juggle everything. It's not so much that I have no free time anymore, but rather that my brain is being tugged in so many directions right now that I can't bring myself to sit down and try to write something at the end of the day. I'm lucky if I have the energy to concentrate on knitting a bit before going to bed most evenings! We just got the wireless internet sorted out and set up though, so there's hope that I may be online a little more.

A new era begins

Well. It's been an exciting couple of weeks. I don't think I'm going to re-hash all of the details here. Suffice to say that the move went well, the new job seems interesting even if I'm still settling in there, and life is pretty rosy right now. The flight, for once, was relatively uneventful, and even though little Molly the hedgehog had to travel beneath us in the belly of the plane (silly airline restrictions!), she seems to have fared well too. We lived through the tail end of a tropical storm that wreaked havoc on eastern Newfoundland last week, causing major flooding in some communities. Luckily, other than a little water in the basement and a bit of a treacherous drive to work, we weren't too adversely affected. Living in Newfoundland, you kind of get used to whatever Mother Nature can throw at you.

Here's a shot of half of our belongings sprawled across the parking lot of our apartment building in Ottawa. This is the first time I've hired professional movers, and it was a really nice experience. It was very pleasant to sit back with a cup of coffee and watch them load everything.

The first thing that we had to do in St. John's was to buy a car. Unfortunately, this city does not have a good transit system, and we really couldn't manage without one. It was as first-time experience for us, as we had been happily living car-free in Ontario for many years.

Here's the cute new Suzuki Swift, posing in front of Conception Bay, just steps away from Nick's parents' driveway. That's Kelly's Island in the background - not named after me though!

In amongst all of the craziness, there has still been some knitting happening, especially in airports and planes. I have started some new socks, and finished that little top that I was designing:

It obviously still needs a good washing and blocking, so I'll get a real FO action shot of it when that's done. I plan to write up a free pattern for this eventually, although I can't promise that it will be very soon. My life seems to have gotten very busy now all of a sudden. It could really be a while before things are back to "normal" for me and the blog.

But for now, it's off to my parents' for Sunday lunch.

The view from here

... is one of total chaos.

We've entered that fun stage of moving where we're trying to pack things, but not everything just yet, because we still have to live here for a while. So we get to discover junk that we didn't even know we had, and trip over boxes for the next week or two. Of course, it would help if the moving company would nail down the precise date that they're coming. My home being in a state of insanity is actually a good reason to spend a lot of time at the office, which is becoming more necessary all the time. I'm not allowing myself to even think about the new Harry Potter movie or book until my thesis is submitted. I really want to get it all finished before we leave next Friday. Eeek!

So, let's not talk about that anymore. Wanna see some knitting? I finally ripped out the Soleil tank and re-knit the top part of the front.

Soleil from Knitty.com, designed by Alexandra Virgiel.
Knit on 3.75 mm Denise Interchangable circular, with Elann.com Sonata, a DK 4-ply cotton, in Lilac.
Modifications: Cast off an additional 5 stitches toward the front of each armhole (for a total of 12 CO stitches in each armhole), and then decreased 5 stitches instead of 4 on the front armhole decrease.

This modification seems to have tamed the "wing" effect that I was getting before, but the front is still a little broad:


Not bad though over all. Other than the tinkering with the shaping, this was a pretty easy, fun knit, and is very economical. I made the 36" size and used less than 6 balls, for a total cost of about $13. Sonata is a pretty basic cotton, so for those who don't like the hard feel, or how cotton is hard on the hands, you might want to look for a blend. I love the lace on this top, but it really needs to be blocked out every time it's washed in order to keep the lace flat. At least it's machine washable.

Hopefully I'll have another new summer top to show you soon, if the Mystery Stole doesn't take over all of my knitting time!

Designing again

Proving yet again my inability to focus on any particular project longer than three days, I just had to dive into the new pile of yarn that I bought last week and start swatching and dreaming. Nevermind that my Soleil tank still needs fixing, or that I have a cardigan and two pairs of socks on the go - I can't seem to get beyond the new yarn smell that draws me to make a decision on a project.

Browsing through past issues of Interweave Knits, looking for possible summer tops in finer gauge, I came upon this ad for Nashua Handknits:


I don't know why I never noticed it before, but I really like this. I have a couple of store-bought tops in this style, in stretchy lycra fabrics, and I like the way they look over a tank top. I love the idea of a lacy summer top, and I think the shape will look pretty good on me. Rather than go looking for this particular pattern, I decided to try to design something similar myself. I'm still new to this whole designing thing, so I could use the practice.

Since I don't have much in the way of a stitch dictionary (I really should invest in some), I started browsing lacy patterns to find something that I could adapt. After swatching a few different variations, I settled on a lace stitch that I borrowed from the Convertible pattern at Knitty. So far so good:


I'm going to knit the bottom without any shaping, as it will be kind of loose and drapey, and then decrease for a garter stitch band under the bust before working the top. I'm kind of dreading the shaping for the top - it's probably going to take a few tries to get it right.

So far, I'm loving the yarn. It's Polo by Zitron, which I believe was recently discontinued, but is still widely available on eBay. It is so soft that it feels like chenille. It's a cotton-acylic blend, and is machine washable. The swatch that I washed came out looking exactly the same with no shrinkage, and the lace blocked nicely. I have five balls of this colour, but if that's not enough, I have the option of doing the top part in blue. I'm pretty excited about this project. I hope I can get it to come out the way I want!

Tonight is my last trip to our monthly neighbourhood knit night. I wish that I had discovered the group a long time ago, as I've only been to a few events and now I'll be moving. I must try to find something similar in St. John's. I can't find anything official online, but I hear rumours that there's a weekly knit night at The Ship Pub... I'll have to look into that. We bought a pile of boxes last week, and plan to start the packing next week. I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it, and in the meantime, I still have a thesis to finish. So on that note, back to work!

Why does my knitting hate me?

Well, my Soleil tank top is finished.... sort of.

I tried this on a few times while knitting and tinkered with the pattern a little. I added an inch in length because it was looking a little short when I got ready to start the armholes. This alone is a little strange. I'm barely 5'2", so I'm usually shortening patterns, not lengthening them! I also started the division for the v-neck a little higher up than the pattern calls for. I didn't see the need for a neckine that plunges six rows lower than the armhole bind-off - it's perfectly low enough now, beginning at the same row as the armholes. I thought it was going well, but sometimes you really have to sew up the seams and block something to see how far off it really is.

Don't let the camera angle deceive you. The upper fronts are way too wide for me. In fact, the extra fabric has sort of rolled under in the armholes. See?

I've got wings!

Now I'm not one to rip out my knitting because of the tiniest little mistake, but there's no denying that this is really taking away from the look of the top, making it look and feel rather frumpy. I'm also not one to want to show off my underwear to the world. I chose this particular pattern because it seemed to offer a little more in the way of coverage than a lot of knitted tank patterns that you come across. (News flash - cotton stretches and sags, people!) But this is a little more fabric than even I wanted.

I'm going to bite the bullet this time. I plan to rip it back to the armholes and re-work it for a thinner front "strap". Oh well, at least the back fits well.


P.S. Do you like my snazzy office decor? Nothing says "bomb shelter" like unfinished cinder blocks!

Progress shots

Not much time to chat today, but here are a couple of shots of what I've been working on.


Soleil is almost finished. Once I get the knitting done, I'll just have to seam the shoulders, crochet an edging, and block it. I have a new summer skirt that's going to look great with this!

And I'm also making progress on that baby blanket. Unfortunately, I just looked at the photo and realized that I got the Q and the O in the wrong order! Argh. I think I'm going to let it go though. The acrylic stash is significantly reduced, but I did have to go out and buy a little more to do the border. If I survive the monotony of the long moss-stitch borders and don't get distracted into starting another new project, this should be done soon too.

Multi-tasking

After finishing a bunch of long-languishing projects this spring and beating myself down to only two works-in-progress, it appears that I must have let my guard down. A bunch of new projects seem to have lept into my knitting basket when I wasn't looking. 8 projects of the WIP list?! How did that happen? And I think there may be one or two small unreported ones besides! Obviously this is getting out of control. The latest offender:
I'm still on a quest to clear out odds and end from the stash. I had a huge bag of mismatched acrylic bits, which seem to have morphed into a pretty psychadelic baby blanket. I pulled these out one night, and thought of knitting more mitres, but instead I found an old pattern for a girl's alphabet sweater, with intarsia blocks. Pulling colours at random, I knit this in verticals strips that have been mattress-stitched together. I think it still needs about two more columns, taking me up to R, but unfortunately the pattern that I've been using only goes to L. So I need to sit down and try to graph a few more letters in the same style in order to continue. I also ran out of interesting images from the sweater pattern early on, so I've been pulling them from different sources. Nursery Knits by Debbie Bliss is great for that, and my favourite, the lady bug, is from Animal Knits by Zoe Mellor. I think I will knit a mitred border in moss stitch, similar to the last baby blanket I showed you (the animal one). The finished blanket is destined for the Warm Woolies donation box, and will just about fill it up. The latest addition to the box:


Again, this was a response to my recent obsession with getting rid of yarn ends. Cute, no?

My recently aquired ADD has also manifested itself in starting a new cardigan design. It's a pretty plain little black cardigan with lace edging in Patons Fresco, which I have ooodles of in the stash. I'll try to get some photos next time I pull it out. Having a cat in the house these days means I can't leave too much yarn lying around in open view, so most my WIPs have been carefully stored for the time being. She did manage to shred a little ball of acrylic that I left lying around one night, so I'm not taking any chances!

And of course, the knitting continues in fits and starts on mansock #2 and on the Soleil tank top.


Somebody stop me before I start something else!

Inspired by the sun

The wonderful, summer-like weather that we have been enjoying in Ottawa this week has got me thinking about summer knits. The time had come to break out the cotton I had stashed for a summer tank top.


This is the start of Soleil from Knitty.com. For once in my life, I'm actually using the yarn that the pattern is written for: Elann.com Sonata, in Lilac. It's actually on the pinker side of purple despite the very blue shade in the photo above. I haven't done a lot of knitting with cotton, other than dishcloths and some cotton-acrylic blends. It is a bit hard on the hands and wrists, as I've often heard. However the knitted fabric seems softer than the yarn in the skein. I suspect it will soften up even more with washing. I hope it fits, because I think I'm really going to like this top.

I also started a new sock yesterday. Marianne asked recently about the Bayerishe socks. In the interest of full disclosure, just after the last time you saw them, I made a huge mistake. I missed three out of four cable crosses in one round, and then continued for several rounds before I noticed the mistake. I can't fathom the idea of taking that crazy sock off the needles and ripping back - too many tiny twisted stitches to deal with! So I'm going to have to tediously tink back row by row. As I'm sure you can imagine, we needed a little time apart to get over this little inconvenience. I will get back to it as soon as I have the patience to deal with fixing it. In the meantime, I thought I would make my dad some socks for Father's Day.
The yarn in Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch, which is a wool, polyamide, elite (elastic) blend with subtle colour shifts. This was the most "manly" colourway I could find at my LYS. I don't usually knit stockinette socks - I feel that ribbing helps them stay up better. This is a bit of an experiment to see how the elastic affects the knitted fabric. So far so good - although it's a bit slow. I'm knitting 78 st on 2.25 mm needles. I could have gone with bigger needles, I know, but the yarn is actually pretty fine when stretched out. Definitely finer that the Lorna's Laces that I just finished knitting. So to make a nice durable fabric, I kind of felt like it needed to be small. Next time I knit men's socks, I think I'll use DK yarn!

lessons learned

Thank you all for your positive comments about the bear. I've grown quite attatched to the little guy!

Today I bring you the saga of one of my long-negelcted projects, which sadly, will be seeing some ripping.


This is the "Go with the Flow" shell/tank top from Inspired Cable Knits. The yarn for this top has some history. Last summer I was living with friends in a rather remote suburb of Calgary, away from home and my yarn stash. Within a couple of weeks, I grew tired of the sock yarn I had brought with me, and was itching for a new project. With limited public transit options and very few places to buy yarn I decided to finally try out mail-order with Elann.com.

I found a free pattern on the Elann site that I liked; a short-sleeve cotton t-shirt with a textured diamond pattern. The pattern was created by Schachenmayr, for it's cotton-blend yarn Piazza. I downloaded the pattern and ordered the required number of skeins for my size. I was delighted with the fast service, but when I started knitting, it became evident pretty quickly that 6 skeins was not going to be nearly enough. And the yarn was no longer available. I used up three and didn't quite have the back done. Lesson 1: always order one or two extra skeins. You never know.

Then when I was in California in August, I picked up a copy of Inspired Cable Knits, and fell in love with several of the patterns. I thought this little shell would work with the amount of Piazza yarn I had on hand, because, hey, there aren't even any sleeves to knit. The yardage seemed about right. I knit away on it for a while, and began to get a sinking feeling when I realized once again how quickly the yarn was disappearing. I decided to put it away and ignore it for a while.

I took it out yesterday while re-evaluating the pile of UFO's in my basket, and knit a little further on it. And now it's time to face the fact that it's just not going to make it. This is where the front is at after three skeins:

I haven't even made it to the shoulder shaping on the first side yet. It appears from my exhaustive search over several months of local shops and on-line retailers that there is no more of this yarn on the face of the earth. (except a few brown and fuschia skeins on eBay). Lesson 2: know when to cut your losses.

When I actually stopped to really look at this, I wondered why I was making the large size, when the medium would probably have been more than big enough to fit me. Oh, right. I started this before I learned that pesky little lesson about measuring yourself and actually believing the measurements and not choosing the larger size "just to be safe"! So, I think this is bound to be ripped out. It's going to be hard though. I really liked those little cables.

Eventually, I may try this pattern again. With an overly-cautious yarn supply. And in the right size. And maybe I'll even add a little waist-shaping to it. I can't believe how much I've learned just since last September!

Oh, and the yarn? I'm going to tuck it away for a future baby project. If I can't get a baby sweater out of it, then I'll know that it's completely cursed!