Knitasha von Stashenskeins

Refreshed

Back from my big knitting weekend with my best friend Rebecca.  So much fun!  We knitted our fingers to the bone, did a little shopping, and caught up on some serious gabbing.  It was just so nice to get away and be carefree.  Heaven knows when she'll get the chance again, she is due with baby number THREE in August.  So, I'm glad we managed to make it happen - nothing like a knitting getaway!!!

I will certainly be sharing pictures of my purchases (just for you, Asa!), but I'll save that for another day when I don't have knitting to show.  I always overestimate what I'll actually accomplish on a trip, but I did make some progress.

First of all, the Scale-Skin socks for the Hogwarts Sock Swap are finished.  Woot, woot!

I had my youngest model them.  My feet are bigger than my secret sock pal's, and I didn't want to stretch them out.  On my daughter, they are a little big, but you get the idea. 

Oh, I hope she likes them!!

I will definitely use this stitch pattern again.  It is very easy and everyone who saw these socks in progress remarked upon the texture.

I didn't have time to wind the Ruby Balance yarn before I left for my trip, so I packed my handy-dandy swift and ball-winder in my suitcase.  Surprisingly portable!  Our hotel room had a convenient vanity to clamp onto, so I wound up a couple of skeins to get started on my top-down v-neck tee.  (Rebecca was dazzled by the technology.)

There was absolutely no way to photograph this without it looking like a shapeless mass - sorry.

I am enjoying this yarn so far.  I am not a fan of cotton yarn, but the 50% wool gives it a nice soft hand and it slips easily along the wooden needles.  I hope it will be light-weight enough for warm weather.  My nurses keep our office freezing anyway, so a little warmth won't be a bad thing.

Close-up view so you can see how the color is faded and mottled, like old denim.  I'm digging it!

On top of the socks and the top-down sweater, I also added several inches to my miter concoction.  A  box of Denim Silk arrived from a nice lady in Alaska while I was away, so now I have plenty of yarn to complete my vision.

It is still very hard to see what is going on here, so you will have to trust me for now.  Once I get this front finished, I think it will make a lot more sense.

Here's a question:  since I am now making the back one solid color, should I bother to miter it, or just knit it side to side?    I've got a little time to ponder, let me know if you have a strong opinion.

On a final note, I got my Sockapalooza pal assignment today!  I got an international pal - she's from Australia!  I have already sent her an email from my super-sneaky anonymous email account.

Alison is very adamant on the official Sockapalooza 4 website that we should not send our packages early.  She wants everyone to get their socks right around the same day.  The problem is, I don't know how many in-transit days to expect between here and there.  Anybody got an educated guess?  This is my first Sockapalooza - I want to get it right!

Oh Dang!

OK, so I'm zipping along on my first Scale-Skin sock and I'm starting to get a little nervous.  The ball of the yellow yarn that I worked so hard to acquire seems to be shrinking at an alarming rate.  After a few inches of cuff, I couldn't take it anymore.  So I put the stitches on hold, so I could start sock #2.

Here's sock #1, patiently waiting.

And here's sock #2 with the incredibly pathetic scrap of a skein which I have left.

I can read the writing on the wall.  I am going to need a second ball of yellow.  My sock buddy seems sweet and accommodating, but I really don't think she wants socks that have cuff ribbing longer than the cuff.

I have a thousand things to try to get done today.  I'm leaving town for a big knitting trip with my friend Rebecca.  If I can manage, I will add a trip to Fiberworks to my to-do list.  I really want to finish these socks this weekend!!

In happier news, yesterday was my birthday.  My friend Carrie and I have a long-standing tradition for my birthday.  We spend the day in Ann Arbor visiting Whole Foods and Macaroni Grille and our favorite Barnes and Noble (so big it has an escalator!).  AND, we go to Knit A Round, a great yarn store. 

I usually hit Knit A Round like a drunken sailor on shore leave and make crazed impulse purchases.  (Like the six skeins of Denim Silk which has now required me to purchase seven more skeins from Ebay)

Yesterday, I had a plan.  I wanted DK yarn to make the top-down top from my new knitting book.  Period.  I gave myself permission to buy whichever yarn jumped out at me for that particular sweater, and I could buy as much as needed, and then I was supposed to stop.

Well, I didn't do too bad, considering.  I'd give myself a B.

On the right is the yarn I chose for the top.  It is called Balance, the yarn company is O-wool, and the O is for organic!  This is 50% certified organic merino and 50% certified organic cotton.  They had at least 20 beautiful colors.  After much agonizing, I chose "Ruby", which is redder than it looks in this picture.  It is soft and has lovely flecks, and I can't wait to see it knitted up.

The yarn on the left?  In my defense, let me say first that this was on sale, only $4 a ball.  It is called Katia Magic - 75% acrylic and 25% wool.  It is also DK and I'm hoping to use it for another top, although probably not the same pattern.  It is a ragg-type yarn, with one strand of gold plied with one strand of a variegated magenta/purple/blue.  I think the subtle stripes will be gorgeous.

To get to the register at Knit A Round, you have to pass by their sock yarn.  They have gorgeous sock yarn and they have tons of it.  Given the coolness of the yarn and the sheer volume I was faced with, I consider it a personal victory that I only walked out with one ball of yarn.

This is Online Supersocke in Tropic color.  I took a close photo so you could see the label photos.  Is that some fabulous self-striping or what?  I am jazzed about this yarn; it just may be cool enough for my Sockapalooza pal.

So, a day later when the smoke has cleared and I'm looking at my birthday yarn in the cold light of day, am I still happy with it?  Oh yeah!

Lots of knitting to show you when I get back.  Have a great weekend!

Back in the Groove

Good weekend for knitting.  George Winston concert Friday night, two girls' basketball games Saturday and two more today, AND the NBA playoffs are underway!  (Not a good weekend for laundry.)

My Hufflepuff sock for the Hogwarts Sock Swap is progressing nicely.

It's 83 degrees and sunny today, so I couldn't resist getting a picture of the sock sunbathing.

I'm knitting these toe-up so I can be very careful about the finished dimensions.  I don't like short-row heels very much; they always seem too tight to me so that it is hard to pull the sock on.  Standard heel flap/heel turn/gusset heels look goofy upside down, especially if you change colors.

Charlene Schurch to the rescue!  Her first sensational sock book has directions for what she calls a "Forethought Heel".  It requires a provisional cast-on (love those provisional cast-ons!) and a little Kitchener stitch to finish it off.  I've used it before for self-striping yarn knitted cuff-down, but it is completely reversible, so it works perfectly for a toe-up sock as well.  I'm very happy with the results and I accurately guesstimated when to start the heel so that my foot is desired length.  Yay!

This stitch pattern is called "scale skin".   If you squint at it, it looks a little like snake or dragon scales.  (This is the part where you humor me.)  Even if my sock buddy doesn't think they are particularly scaly, I'm hoping she'll think they are pretty.

The Louet yarn is working out well.  I'm using size 1's and I'm getting about 9 stitches to the inch.  It is a teeny bit splitty.  This pattern includes passing a yo over two stitches and I have to be really careful that I don't miss part of the yo.  Beggars can't be choosers - yellow machine-washable sock yarn is not easy to come by.

I didn't start the top-down sweater yet.  These socks have been holding my attention, so I might as well stick with it and get them done.  The work week never allows me the knitting time that my weekends do, but I hope to have a finished sock photo for you soon.

Flailing

Since I finished my sister's felted purse, I seem to have fallen out of my knitting groove.  I know from experience that this is only temporary, but it is frustrating while it lasts.  I flail around for awhile, looking for inspiration and unhappy with everything I start.

I went back to the Moorish Stripes socks, but my enthusiasm for that project is currently non-existent.  I have to look at the chart for every row, so it is not the portable, low-maintenance knitting I usually prefer.  I do think I'll finish these socks eventually, but for now I've set them aside.

From the socks, I bounced to some Berroco Denim Silk that I picked up on sale somewhere.  This is a silk/rayon ribbon yarn with a nice drape and I thought I might make a warm-weather top.  Apparently I am miter-crazy at the moment, because I settled on adapting a mitered vest pattern I found on the internet.

On the plus side, this is fun to knit and I am enjoying the colors.  On the minus side, there is no freakin' way that I have enough yarn to pull this off.  Even better?  This yarn had been discontinued, which is why I got some on sale in the first place.

Arggh!  Next thing you know, I've got an Ebay account and I'm bidding on a seven-skein bundle of denim silk in a taupe-y beige.  If I get it, I figure I finish my multicolored front and use the beige for the back and maybe some little short sleeves.  If I get really lucky, I'll have a little of the colors left to edge the sleeves to pull the look together a little.

If I don't get it?  I stuff this into the back of a drawer and wander off, I guess.

An added frustration this week was my inability to find yellow sock yarn for the Hufflepuff socks I'm going to make for the Hogwarts Sock Swap.  I ordered some yarn from Knit Picks, but what looked like a nice yellow on my computer screen turned out to be tan.  So, I headed to the Yarn Haven after work last night, figuring it was better to see the colors in person than get burned again.  Nice theory, but they didn't have any yellow sock yarn, not one lousy skein.  The shop owner (who does not knit socks) tried to convince me some yellow worsted weight Encore would do the trick, but I resisted this delusional sales pitch and headed for home, convinced the knitting universe was conspiring against me.

I woke up today resolved to find yellow sock yarn or die trying.  Heaven knows how far I might have driven in my quest.  Thankfully, another less-local LYS had something that will work.

This is Louet Gems in super-fine fingering weight.  It is 100% merino wool and the label assures me it is machine washable and dryable, which is something my sock pal specifically requested.  She also asked me to get a somewhat softer yellow than the traditional Hufflepuff gold, to avoid getting a pair of socks that will make people think of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

Pretty, right?  My tentative plan is to work the top ribbing, heel and toe in the black and work the rest in yellow in a pretty textured pattern.  I even found a pattern called "Scale Skin", which should evoke all the dragons and snakes in the Harry Potter books. 

I'll get out my trusty ball-winder and swift and then maybe I'll take this yarn with me tonight.  We're going to a George Winston concert!

When I got home from the yarn quest, there was a package on the front porch waiting for me.  Yay!  And it was a book I ordered.  Double yay!  And not just any book, a knitting book!

Check that out!  Does that look cool or what?  Just flipping through the pages, I could feel my knitting mojo coming back to me.  There are some really cool patterns in here.  I think the biggest challenge will be choosing which one to try first.

This one is a promising candidate.  I like the textured stitch pattern, I like the v-neck, I like the little sleeves.  It is also season-appropriate, as it appears that warmer weather has finally decided to grace us with its presence.  (Knock on wood!) 

Of course, I won't be making this in dirt brown.  In a brighter color, it could be just the ticket to snap me out of my funk.  I feel a stash-crawl coming on!

Finishing Touches

Q: When is a knitted bag like a gansey sweater? 

A: When it has a shoulder strap!

Using Beth Brown-Reinsel's Knitting Ganseys as my guide, I knitted a 9 stitch wide garter strap onto the edges of the front and back perpendicularly to join them without any seaming.  I slipped the first stitch of each row and knitted the last stitch of each row together with one stitch of the front or back.  (SSK on right side, P2tog on wrong side)

Here's another view to help you picture the whole maneuver.  I worked really well and did not take long to do.  I started the strip with a provisional cast-on at the top of the bag and worked the strip in one piece down one side, across the bottom, and up the other side.  Then I unraveled the cast on and worked a garter stitch edging around the top of the bag with 10-stitch "buttonholes" centered on each side for handles.

  As I was weaving in ends before felting, I found a place I goofed.  There are two vertical lines of slipped stitches in the picture.  On the left, at the top of the yellow section, two or three slipped stitches are missing because I was joining the "shoulder strap" incorrectly.  Time to rip?  No way, Jose, we are not turning back now.  Leave it as is? As if!!

 

Duplicate stitch to the rescue!   There was even a nice length of yellow yarn handy on the wrong side, waiting to be woven in.

This picture is "upside down" in relation to the last shot, so the duplicate stitches are the bottom couple of yellow ones in the right-side vertical .

Would anyone have noticed the absence of those two little chain stitches?  Unlikely, especially after felting.  That's OK, I noticed and I felt better after I fixed it.

Here's a picture pre-felting, with a CD added for scale.  Because I wasn't worried about the final size of the purse, I didn't bother to drive to a laundromat to felt it in a top-loader so I could check it every few minutes.  I just threw it into my front-loader (zipped into a pillowcase!) with a couple of towels and ran it through a short wash cycle with hot water and no spin.

It actually didn't felt enough for me the first time around, so it went back in for a second cycle.  At the end of that, I had a nice firm fabric I was happy with.  I gently squeezed some water out and then stretched the purse over a big medical textbook to dry.

Here's the post-felted picture.  In retrospect, I wish I'd made the handles 12 or 14 stitches wide, but they'll do the job.

Now I'll find a few little goodies to put in the bag and get it in the mail.

Back to the Moorish Stripe socks?  Well....

Sock Swap Syndrome

The felted purse-to-be is progressing.

Second verse, same as the first.

This side is going a little slower because the wheels fell off my week about mid-way through and I haven't quite got it all back together yet.  Being on-call this weekend isn't helping any, but I am hoping to tread water until Monday when I'll get a day off and get my sanity back.

Why does the first week back from vacation always have to be so psycho?  I feel like the universe feels obliged to punish me for taking some time off and having some fun.  Maybe my life is always this psycho but a week on a cruise ship managed to convince me otherwise?  Either way, I need a nap!  (And a personal assistant.  And children who clean up after themselves.  And self-laundering towels.)

Back to the purse.  I am using a provisional cast-on with waste yarn to start each miter square to make it easier to pick up stitches for the next square.  It works really slick and avoids any need for yucky seaming.  I think I've brainstormed a way to unite the two sides of the purse that is also seamless - we'll see how that works out.

I also took the time to put buttons on the Baby Surplice Jacket.  I just dug some out of my button stash.  Usually I enjoy a good button hunt at the fabric store, but my week was too busy to allow it and I just wanted the jacket to be done.  The ones I found are a decent match.

These are another pair of my Mom's Sculpy clay buttons.  I like how they have some streaks of orange.

The construction of the jacket means that one point of the front needs a button that faces out and one needs one that faces in.  Well, you know how I am about symmetry!  I put matching buttons on the right sides of both points and a smaller button on the wrong side of the outside point.

Here's the inside button.

The nice thing about this design (one of the nice things) is that it is adjustable.  For a slim baby, you overlap the points a lot so that the buttons are far apart.

When a baby is a bit more...zaftig, you can overlap less and have the buttons closer together.

This picture shows it buttoned for a chubbier baby.  I don't have a real baby to model it for me, chubby or otherwise, but I think you get the idea.

In a stunning display of madness self-delusion enthusiasm, I have joined another sock swap.  I couldn't help it!  Grumperina had a link to Sockapalooza on her blog yesterday and when I checked it out, sign-ups were only going to be allowed for a few more hours.  There was no time for reflection; I had to act!  I have been so jealous of Sockapalooza participants in the past that there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to get in on it.

The Sockapalooza deadline is August 2nd and the Hogwarts Sock Swap deadline is July 21st, so I really have plenty of time.  My Hogwarts sock pal is a Hufflepuff, so I ordered some black and yellow sock yarn from KnitPicks this AM.  I have to get some of her preferences before I choose a pattern, so my next challenge is to sign up for an anonymous email account.  Gmail, maybe?  We'll see if I can figure it out.

Wore the Pinwheel Sweater to work yesterday and it was a hit.  One of my nurses said, "I like to watch her walk away," which I am taking as a compliment to the back of the sweater and not a general desire for me to get away from her.  : )  I wore a clasp to hold the front edges together, but it still had a tendency to slip off my shoulders.  I will have to fiddle with it and find a better solution.  Pictures of the front of the sweater are very rare, so I'm not sure how anyone else has worn it.  Brilliant suggestions are always welcome!

Busy, Busy, Busy

So much to show and tell today!  I'm not sure where to start.  How about with a finished object?

Here is my finished pinwheel sweater blocked and drying on my dining room floor.  Is that the weirdest thing you ever saw, or what?  It is so funny looking that even my family, who are so used to sweaters blocking on the floor that they don't even see them anymore, said "What the heck is that?"  It was finally dry enough this evening to slip it on briefly and show them I'm not quite as crazy as I look.

My hubby snapped this picture of the back of the sweater as he was heading out the door.  He was in too big a hurry to tolerate any art direction, so you'll have to forgive the way the bottom is bunched up.  Pre-blocking, the sleeves were really short, but I just got 'em wet and stretched the heck out of them.  Blocking is my favorite knitting trick, it can fix so many little glitches!

This sweater is still damp, especially the sleeves, so I've stretched it out again to finish drying.  I may get to wear it to work by the end of the week so I can confound and astonish the dishcloth gang.  This is definitely a "conversation piece" sweater.

Remember my Regia Silk Fair Isle sock?  It has been temporarily set aside as I suddenly came to my senses and realized that my little sister's birthday is less than 2 weeks away.  Ooops!  So, I dug out my new Plymouth Boku yarn and started knitting a purse that I intend to felt.  No pattern here, I'm just winging it.

This is side #1.  It has consumed nearly one of my three skeins, so I figure I'll use skein #2 for side #2 and then the third skein for a narrow strip to join them and an edging around the top with "buttonhole" handles.  Even if I fall short, I know I can get another skein at Yarn Haven, so I'm not gonna sweat it.  I just started this yesterday afternoon, so I think it will go fairly quickly.  I can't wait to see how the colors look felted.

In other news, I have joined a knitted sock swap!  And not just any sock swap, the Hogwarts Sock Swap!

"A sock swap to occupy our fingers while we wait for Book Seven to be published..."

Laugh if you must, but I must tell you, the snorting is unattractive.  I heart Harry Potter and I don't care who knows it.  And I'm excited about getting a hand-knitted pair of socks from some other knitter like me.  I joined the swap just in time, as I see that they have closed it to any more participants.  Just 99 other Harry/sock fanatics and me.

Part of the deal is that I post the Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire on my blog with my answers, so here it is:

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?   Ravenclaw

2. Shoe size?  US ladies size 9

3. Foot Length?  10"

4. Foot Circumference?  9.25" at widest point

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.  Clover, Brittany, Lantern Moon  (really anything wood/bamboo)  I like size 1-3 for socks and I prefer the 8" length.

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?   Sure, I'm a wild and crazy gal.  Surprise me.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?   I must admit I like the film colors better, but if someone gives me a new pair of hand-knitted socks they made just for me, I'm really not going to complain!

8. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?  Yes, that would be fun.

We get our secret sock pals May 1st.  Once I know what house my pal is in, I'll choose colors and come up with a pattern.

A final note: I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at this sweater kit today.  Talk me out of it before I pull out the credit card!  (Color combos 6, 7 and 8 are my top three choices.)

Back To Reality

Whew!  Made it home in one piece with all luggage accounted for.  My family members are relatively unscathed other than some sunburn and everyone is still talking to each other.  You really can't ask for more than that from a family vacation, right?  I have vacation stories (and photos) to share, but they may have to wait for another day.  This trip was fairly eventful and I want to describe the various slings and arrows accurately - it will take more time than I have to spare this morning.  (And I'm not sure I'm ready for the flashbacks memories.)

In the meantime, how about a little knitting?

My first ever EZ's Surplice Baby Jacket!  I started this on Sunday and finished it Thursday night.  Knitting time was erratic and less plentiful than expected, so the actual hours spent on this sweater amounts to far less than 5 days of knitting back in the real world.

I used almost all of three skeins of Tatamy Tweed worsted, working on a size 9 needle.  I have to say that I enjoyed this yarn.  The acrylic softens up the hand quite a bit, so I didn't feel like I was fighting the yarn like I do with 100% cotton.  The finished fabric has a nice "cottony" feel without being stiff.

I still have buttons to add, and then this baby goes in the box for Dulaan.  My finished dimensions are 14" from neck back to lower edge with 11" sleeves and chest circumference of 28" when front points are completely crossed over.  I would guestimate it will fit a 4 or 5 year old.  Of course, the beauty of the sweater is that the bottom edge is all yarn-over buttonholes, so the amount of wrap can be adjusted for a wider kid.  I wish I had made the sleeves a little longer, but I'm hoping the garter stitch fabric will "grow" a little with use.

I loved this pattern!  I have made several of EZ's standard baby surprise jackets and I always struggle to get a stripe pattern I like because my brain can't comprehend what part of the jacket I'm knitting until it is all done and folded up.  With the surplice pattern, I could tell where I was and it was easier to manage the stripes.  It was also really easy to put the sleeve stitches aside and then pick them up to knit cuffs.   I will definitely be making more of these.

Once I finished the jacket, I had time to start a sock.  I decided to go with a Fair Isle pattern, so I'm working with the Regia Silk.

This is the "Moorish Stripe" pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.  She suggested working top-down for this pattern, so I'm venturing away from my standard toe-up sock recipe.  It is going pretty slow, as to be expected when working two-color stranded knitting at 7.75 sts/inch, but I am very happy at how the self-striping yarn is working with the stitch pattern.  The calf looks large to me, but I almost always make socks with the whole leg ribbed, so it is hard for me to gauge.  (Of course, if I were making it toe-up, I could try it on.  Just sayin'.)  The colors are probably manly enough that I could give them to my Dad if I have to, but I'm selfishly hoping they will fit me.

Gotta get to work.  I will leave you with one vacation trip photo as a teaser, although with temps in the 30's in Northwest Ohio today, I think I'm the one being teased.