created

Focusing on the good things created during the week...

This week:  loving the process of making a felted wool blanket.

Making the initial cuts.

Seaming sweater scraps together.

Wait, what? There's no room on the worktable for new pajama pants now!

Pressing the seams on my new over-the-door ironing board -- small but mighty handy!

What can K and I make with all these little bits?

Some of the finished 14" by 14" squares -- start looking for someone to snuggle with.

There's still more work to do.  File this under "Works in Progress."

On my needles: The facing facts edition

On my needles this week are one project I have grown to love and one about which I have grown ambivalent.  On the right is a Pointy Elf Hat, for me, in the Strawberry Smoothie colorway hand dyed by Woolbearers in Malabrigo Gruesa.  I used this yarn to make everyone in the family such a hat at Christmastime except D and me, so now I am making ours.  The thick-and-thin merino is soft and luxurious to work with and I can't wait to put it on my head.  (Aside:  K gave everyone an "Elf name" on Christmas Day:  Grandma was the Cooking Elf, Grandpa the Sleeping Elf, D was the Computer Elf, Aunt S the Reading Elf, and Uncle A the Stinky Elf!  I, of course, was the Knitting Elf.)

The Shalom Cardigan, on the other hand, is turning out to be a bit of a disappointment.  Despite the many glowing comments I read about Cascade Ecological Wool on Ravelry, I am not entranced with the yarn.  I can see that it will make a good, sturdy, comfortable sweater but I am not falling over myself to knit on it.  I can see clearly that I will never make my end-of-February deadline with this sweater, and I'm having the occasional fleeting thought of frogging the thing and starting over with a chunky alpaca I have stashed away.  For the moment, however, I will persevere.  

If you have not already popped over there, I invite you to take a look at Soulemama's post for today, titled "an EZ set."  She has some whimsical and wise words to say about -- and quotations from -- the inimitable Elizabeth Zimmermann, knitter extraordinaire. 

On my needles

My February Challenge Sweater is coming along nicely.  I have finished the yoke and bound off for the sleeves, and am ready to begin the body.  I also found some buttons in my button box that I think will work nicely.  From here on it should be smooth sailing.

Things I have learned so far:

1. I love, love, love the look of garter stitch.  I'm looking forward to starting the Sonnet sweater from Knitty.com (well, ok, I already started it, but it's on hiatus till I finish a couple of other WIP's) which has rows and rows of garter stitch. 
2. Do buttonholes neatly.  The first time.  I am not going to want to go back and fix sloppy ones later, and it may not be worth it.  I plan on keeping my sweater buttoned most of the time.
3. Maybe I should not watch tv or listen to podcasts or music when I'm working on a pattern stitch, even a simple one as appears here.  I had to rip out the first tier of the yoke at least three times because of mass confusion in the second or third row, and it was only when I began working in complete silence that I got control of the thing.
4. I can weave in ends invisibly and firmly.  It's not hard to do that, but I need to take my time to do it right, which I never want to do when I'm frantic to get a finished sweater on my body.  I heard someone on a Knit Picks podcast suggest that weaving in ends as you go might be a good idea, and I wholeheartedly agree.
5. I am learning quite a bit about top-down construction and how miraculous and versatile this sort of design can be.  I rather think I'm going to prefer it from here on in.

All in all, not bad for a week's work.  What's on your needles?

On my needles

Making plenty of progress on my Tea Leaves Cardigan!

Sweaters on deck

My one fiber resolution for 2011 is to work primarily from my stash.  I have come to an understanding that this will involve a deep and honest evaluation of my yarn and UFO collection, and that some difficult decisions will need to be made.

This first decision was not at all difficult:  Frog City.  I hate it so much I may not even bother to unravel the yarn, I may just pass it on to the Goodwill in vest form.  It was meant to be a Berkshire Sweater from Weekend Knitting like the Violet Beauregarde sweater I made a year or so back, but the gauge was all funky and the yarn was not delicious and the whole thing was just sad.  I will need to think of something to do with the yarn -- it's Debbie Bliss Chunky Donegal Tweed -- or else it goes to someone else's stash, so ideas are welcome.

 

This sweater is another no-brainer.  It's the Millie Cardigan from Vintage Crochet and it's so close to done!  I just need some concentrated quiet time to get the counting right.  I can't wait to wear this!

 

Okay.  This is just what it looks like:  a pile of Lopi yarn in a bunch of colors I thought looked pretty together.  It was way on sale.  I'm thinking of something in garter stitch, maybe vertical stripes?  Input is, as usual, appreciated.

And this is where I broke my no-new-fiber rule.  Because I found the Blizzard yarn that I made my original Violet Beauregarde out of in a warehouse sale for, once again, way cheap.  And I have a bunch of modifications that I want to try with the sweater to make it more attractive and comfy to wear.  Nuff said.

 

Another pile of Lopi yarn, this time destined to become knitty.com's awesome Sonnet sweater.  I'm going to have fun looking for buttons to go with this one.  Have I mentioned that I love working with bulky yarn?

And, at last, my current fave, Madelintosh's tea leaves cardigan, done in Cascade Eco Duo that had been meant for an EZ seamless yoke sweater which I was simply not ready to tackle.

I would love to stay and chat but K's birthday party is this afternoon and I am using up precious knitting moments.  Until next time!

Second Sock Syndrome

 

I started a pair of Cozy Toes Socks on our New Year's trip to visit family in Wisconsin, and knitted the first sock happily by the fire with Aunt Mary.  What a joy, to work up a sock in no time with creamy soft alpaca yarn.  And when I tried it on, it fit perfectly and was cozy indeed!  As we packed for home, I began the second sock with all good intentions -- but since then, have I knitted a stitch on it?  And they're predicting snow for the weekend!  Clearly I have my work cut out for me.  Time to push past Second Sock Syndrome and finish the pair so I can enjoy them (and start a new pair, of course...)

UFO: Busy Stripes Quilt

I have no idea why this little quilt has been sitting in my UFO box for two and a half years.  A little stitching in the ditch, a little binding and it will be all set to go to a little fellow I know who will love to snuggle under its flannelly goodness. 

UFO: Slice Twice Sorbet Quilt

This one has been in progress in my studio for ages, and was meant to be bound and done last spring, but summer happened and I have been slip-stitching sporadically all these months.  It's the Slice Twice -- Isn't That Nice pattern that I picked up at Olde City Quilts with a Moda Sorbet layer cake. Something like Two. Years. Ago.  I sewed about 3/4 of the top together, let it sit for a year, and then came back to it when the guilt hit me like a ton of bricks.  I finished the top, made the sandwich, did some machine quilting and put a tie or two in each block for good measure, and sewed the binding on the front.  All in record time.

 

In the next few days I will be diverting as much creative energy as possible to stitching the rest of the binding onto this quilt I have come to love; then I will finally get to show you the finished product!

Wonky Blocks

I'm sorry for disappearing these last few months; it has been a crazy summer, with trips to visit aunties and Alma Maters, a lovely vacation at the beach and many weeks of driving long distance to (totally worth it!) day camp in the Pinelands.  Thankfully, school starts up again tomorrow and things are settling down again.  I have many projects to show you! Let me start with my latest passion, the "mystery quilt," to which I will give the working title "Wonky Blocks."  (An appropriate homemade gift will go to the person who can guess the actual name of the quilt before it is finished -- I will be dropping hints along the way!)

I am working entirely with pieces from my scrap box and from pre-cut (homemade) charm squares and jelly roll strips so far -- I will need to purchase fabric for a border, backing, and possibly for binding as well.  The process of making the blocks has been quite liberating -- I started making geometrically precise little blocks with the pre-cuts, and finished by sewing the tiniest scraps together in any way they would go and cutting the results into squares.  I'm loving the results!

Putting the quilt-block puzzle together is exciting and hurts my head, and is taking up the living room where D will want to set up with his computer as he is working from home today, and I am not half done yet.  There may be turf wars to come.

Still to do:  piece quilt; determine a size for the quilt (how wide do they make quilt batting, anyway, and can you sew two lengths of batting together to make a larger one?); determine type of border to use and amount(s) of fabric to buy; and so on, and so on. 

On my needles: Snowbound edition

Several of the yarn stores near me had Super Bowl Sales this weekend -- but they might as well have been Blizzard Sales, given what the weather has been doing. I snapped up several sweaters' worth of super bulky yarn, which is my weight of choice despite the fact that most of the patterns I see call for worsted or DK weight yarn. I think I'm going to need to learn how to design my own sweaters because of this, but I've been listening to the Knit Picks Podcasts quite a bit lately, and Kelley Petkun's ramblings have given me enough inspiration that I kind of think that might not be a totally hopeless undertaking.

I got the light turquoise Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed at Woolplay in Haddonfield, and I originally intended to use it with a second strand of teal, but that turned out to be a bit too chunky. So I started the Berkshire Pullover (yes, another one) with the intention to stripe the teal and turquoise, but chickened out, and now I'm working on a solid turquoise pullover which I'm very happy with. The label calls for a size 10.5 needle for 3 sts/in., but I'm using a size 13 and getting a much larger gauge and a soft, stretchy fabric. I think if I had a size 11 I'd have tried those, but it started snowing and all. And the idea was to make a light, airy version of the Violet Bearegarde -- which I love but can't wear very much because it's so incredibly dense -- and that's working for me.

I still have my socks on the needles; they'll be my out-and-about project; and I am joining the Mitten Knit-A-Long on Knit Picks (where I will be knitting with pretty red Cascade 128 Superwash Chunky yarn instead of the recommended worsted, of course) -- I need to pick up my 32" size 9 circulars to knit them with the Magic Loop method, a first for me! I will want to be starting the white ribbed sweater too, and I have picked up the alpaca "cashmere" unisex knock-around sweater again. So many projects to keep track of! Not to mention additions to my stash that I haven't even mentioned! I have some serious labeling and prioritizing to do.

I am also itching to get back into the studio now that the sun is shining and it is not so all-blasted cold. I have added some gorgeous vintage bedsheets and chenille to my collection that cry out to become something beautiful, and D has put up an inspiration wire for me to fill, and my Amy Butler quilt cries out to me, and my fabric stash is begging to be sorted and reorganized for Spring (yes, Spring!)

Busy day

Found lovely St.-Mary's-Blue patterned flannel in several designs, now have a handful of ideas to try and may actually be able to bring something to the Episcopal Church Women's annual meeting on Sunday where I'll be asking for folks to volunteer to help with the Baptism Blanket project -- I will be getting to work on that shortly.

Purchased lovely deep pink variegated pearl cotton to hand-quilt the yellow-green silk dupioni with a cerise cotton backing. It's all so soft and beautiful, I can't wait to start! I need to buy a hand-quilting frame before I can work on that, though.

Finished knitting the first mitten in a pair of beautiful blackberry wool tweed and was unimpressed with the result, but am so confident halfway through the second one that I'm fairly certain I'll be able to complete mitten #2 and rework mitten #1 into wearable (if not even giftable) pair by the end of the weekend, assuming other projects don't distract me.

Loving being immersed in art and craft -- this is living my dream!

Knittin' Mittens

Project of the day: Super Mittens, Weekend Knitting

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Cascade 128 Tweed, Blackberry, 90% Peruvian highland wool, 10% Donegal (tweed)

Challenge: Learning to knit with double-pointed needles

Thoughts: Pointy sticks everywhere! Like eating a flaming shish kebab!

Dreading: Thumb gusset

On deck: Washed silk quilt; Look-back leggings; Cozy armchair socks