Annie Knits

Progress

I've gotten the back of the Print o'the Hoof Cardigan finished.  A mistake in the last post -- no one on Ravelry has knit and documented this piece.  Four people have knit the pullover.  

The back measures 18 inches at it's widest point, which is 6 inches up from the cast on, pre-blocking.  But remember, this yarn is a silk blend.  

After a warm bath?  It's 24 inches wide.  Yep.  And a lot less firm.  Luckily, that's just what I was hoping for, because 6 inches is a huge change -- like this thing grew by a third of it's original size.  That's something you've got to plan for, baby.  

How did I plan for this?  I knit a large gauge swatch, like 50 stitches by 6 inches.  I measured it before I washed it and after.  The washed gauge is what I used to choose the size of the sweater.  I learned that this yarn doesn't grow a whole lot lengthwise after washing, so I knit to the pattern as far as length rather than adjusting it for a washed gauge.  Except I added 2 inches in the body of the sweater like I always do because I'm long-waisted.  

Kind of a controlled crap shoot really, but it worked out so far.  

So this month, in the controlled crap shoot category, I'm hitting at about 50%.  (Gisela is still in time out...)

Batted 1000 with these pumpkin muffins this morning though.

Sweetened with sorghum rather than sugar so that the butterscotch chips and turbinado sugar on top don't make for a too-sweet muffin.  Yum.  There are 23 left.  And counting.

My luck extended even to the eggs I opened up to bake with this morning.

I love green eggs.  Don't you?

Because That's How I Roll!

Last week, I finished two kids' sweaters and a scarf.  I also put a sweater for me (Gisela) into hibernation, hoping that the hibernation faeries will make it fit better.  Actually, I've knit a series of short rows onto the front of the thing, giving it kind of a handkerchief front and I need to block it again, since it's all sewn together.  But I just can't face the fact that it might not fit the way I want it to.  So.  Hibernation faeries, please grant me this wish:  when I pull this sweater out again, block it and finish the fronts and the collar, make it fit.  : )

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Dyeabolical Sops I got from Rachel in July have been grumbling at me to knit them up already.  

I looked and looked for a cabled sweater pattern.  I swatched and surfed Ravelry.  Nothing caught me until late Wednesday night.  Pairing this yarn with the wrong pattern would be very sad.  Disastrous really, and I had to get it just right. 

So, what do I choose?  A sweater pattern from an old book with only 4 projects on Ravelry and no pictures of the whole thing knit up, of course.  'Cause that's how I roll.  

Gladys Thompson's book was originally published in 1969, and the title didn't include a reference to Aran sweaters.  When reprinted in the late '70s, the Aran reference was added.  The book explores the knitting of working men's sweaters in the British Isles (Guernseys or ganseys and Jerseys) as well as the later, less utilitarian Aran sweaters made popular in the '20s.  There are pictures and loosely written patterns, mostly in one size.  What's not to like?

I'm knitting the Print o'the Hoof Gansey pattern, and it'll make up into a 40 inch sweater.  Other's have commented that Aran weight yarn knit at this gauge makes for a lovely, waterproof sweater worthy of bike rides and outer wear.  This Polwarth silk blend yarn lets me block that out to more like 42 inches and knits up into a much lighter fabric which will be fine for indoor wear.  Probably perfect.  ; )

The problem with the book, and frankly why I hadn't knit from it before, is the fact that the pattern repeats are written out rather than charted.  I can't knit this way.  I get lost in the verbiage.  That whole page is 16 rows of knitting written out stitch by stitch.  Makes my eyes cross.

I took 40 minutes early Thursday morning -- Bacon still gets up really early, like 4 a.m. early -- and voila.  This is a really simple pattern and the cables and traveling purls and welting line up in easy repeats.  It'd have taken me days to figure this out from those paragraphs in the other picture.  The chart freed me from the pattern completely in a way the written words couldn't have done.  Whew. 

I'm about 10 inches in and I need 19 before doing the set in sleeve decreases.  Piece of cake.  

This picture is a pretty good representation of Rachel's genius.  Remember, this yarn is a mistake.  Yes, Rachel used about 2500 yards of a Polwarth silk blend to wipe up a dye spill in her kitchen and then threw it in a dyepot, so the story goes.  The resulting grays and olives variegate slightly, but not enough to obscure the pattern.  Makes a traditional piece more modern, no?  

Last night, we attended a party in the neighborhood called Martinis at the Mansion in support of a local park.  Notice the plural there?  Martinis?  I had a plural number of basil Mojito martinis.  Lucky for me, all that's on the calendar for me today is knitting on this sweater.  And maybe grilling a chicken later.  

Pairing

I've been thinking lately.  I have a large number of unfinished objects languishing in various bags and cubby holes around the house.  I think a lot of us do.  I wonder why.  It's not economical -- those UFOs are hogging up my needles and my stash space and, most especially my brain space.  I worry about them.  I wonder when I'll get back to them.  I ponder the yarn and pattern, having loved both enough to cast on for a project.

Eureka.  I think I've figured it out.  At least for myself.  Many of my UFOs are destined to be unsuccessful and on some level, my subconscious knows this and isn't letting me waste my time on them.  Most often, I think, it's an ill-conceived pairing of yarn to pattern.

Gisela probably falls into this category and I just haven't admitted this sorry fact to myself yet.

As a point of illustration, I have today's Finished objects.  Yum.

First up is a Wingspan scarf knit out of a new-to-me yarn by HiKoo and distributed by Skacel.  It's Timidity, a highly-textured wool/acrylic/nylon blend.  I used color number 3, a hot red and brown blend.  It knits up nubby and lacy and it's not what I'd call soft.

But pair it with a short-row pattern that lets its long color repeats stack up and swirl around?  Dayum.  I love this thing.  Even hubster, who generally has to be prompted to notice knitting triumphs, commented favorably on this scarf.  It's a statement piece.  

I have to admit that I started the scarf with trepidation.  I didn't particularly like the examples of it knit up in various variegated yarns on Ravelry.  I kept at it primarily because I wanted a garter stitch piece to work on at knit night.  But as the thing grew, I knew I was onto something, albeit unintentionally.  Yay me.

This pairing of my hand-spun yarn with Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket was intentional.  It's almost become what you'd call a traditional pairing.  Yarn spun from dyed roving often has this striping heathered quality and the BSJ is a pattern made to take advantage of the striping.

This roving was, I believe, a Romney wool.  It's a Hello Yarn club colorway, but I don't know which one.  It's luverly.  Once I make a hat from the rest of the yarn, I'll do the finishing (probably i-cord) and gift it to a newly adopted little guy at church.  

What do you think?  Are your unsuccessful (or maybe just uninspiring) projects often a result of bad pairings?  

Time Out!

A knit night friend is adopting a little girl who is 18 months old.  Such exciting times!  The baby shower was Saturday and I thought I'd not be able to attend as I had a sweater class to teach.   I sent in my RSVP as a maybe, hoping I'd be able to go anyway. 

When the class hadn't formed as of Thursday, it was time to start knitting for that baby shower! 

I bought the yarn, Anzula For Better or Worsted with a kid's sweater in mind as there are several in the chute, so to speak.  (Kids and sweaters as a matter of fact.)  It's a superwash merino blended with a little cashmere and nylon, all pulled together in a tight twist.  It's lovely stuff. (Sorry, non-Ravelers.  All the links are Ravelry today.  Just sose ya know.)

This sweater, A Pod of Cetaceans, has been on my favorite list for awhile.  You know when things work?

As of Saturday morning, I had gotten this far.  I'd have finished the darned thing if I hadn't had to rip back the body and reknit from the ribbing to the armpits due to fussiness over mixing the two balls of yarn.  Darned kettle dyed stuff -- even within dyelots, mix your balls of yarn.  How many times have I told customers this?  Every time I sell them kettle dyed yarn .. probably hundreds of times.  At least.  Did I do it myself?  No.  Did I pay for it?  Yes. 

Anyhoo... I took the sweater to the shower like this and then brought it home again.  Classy.

Come Sunday morning?  Time to cut this bad boy.

I used Eunny Jang's crocheted steek method, where you crochet a stabilizing chain up the sweater on either side of the stitch you plan to cut.  By the way, I learned, at Vogue Knitting Live, that Alice Starmore coined the word 'steek', which is Gaelic for 'gate', in an article she wrote about Fair Isle knitting in the '80's.  Like the 1980's.  I always thought it was some old Norwegian name for the process.  The stitches were always called 'cutting up stitches' before.  Now we've kind of verbed the noun, but the way to refer to the process is apparently to talk about cutting a steek or gate, rather than steeking (or gating).  A little aside there.

I turned the sweater inside out, so the bars I want to cut would be more prominent and I snipped away.  This is a pretty good view of the steek stitches, which were a knit, a purl, 8 knits, a purl and a knit.  Plenty to fold over for the placket.

All done.

This steek was a little dicier than usual for two reasons:  not so much colorwork where you kind of end up weaving the yarn together on the back of the sweater so it really holds together;  and superwash wool is slippery and doesn't want to hold together anyway.  All that stockinette in the body tends to want to unravel at the steek.  It's all fine now that the placket is tacked down good and tight.

All that was left to do was pick up and knit button bands and weave in the ends.  When the light's better later this morning, I'll snap a few finished product pictures.  

This is a sweater I'd knit again.  Quick and fun and very cute.

Which is a good thing, because there are three more little ones who need sweaters before the end of October.  

Gisela is practically done.  All but side seams and front plackets.  I'm afraid to try her on...  You knew that was going to happen.  I'm sure if she sits in a bag while I knit sweaters for these little ones, she'll be ready to behave when I take her out to work on her again.  

Next up, a BSJ out of handspun for another newly-adopted 18 month old.  Rachel inspired me.