On my needles: Vagabonde

Last week I started the Vagabonde Wrap Cardigan because I needed something to do with my two skeins of Plymouth Mushishi, a wool-silk blend worsted that is extremely squishy and luxurious.  I knit my original swatch for Mushishi on needles that were way too large for the suggested gauge, but after blocking I fell in love with the loose, drapey fabric.  Ravelry to the rescue!  I found this pattern, which calls for a nicely variegated worsted weight mohair, and cast on.

Up until now the construction has been a very straightforward top-down raglan.  I added darts at the bust (learning, in the process, how do do that on a cardigan (found this article from Knitty extremely helpful) but otherwise made no changes.  Now I have reached the "do-I-really-have-to-finish-this" point (it usually sets in shortly after I separate the sleeves), and am grateful for the design elements on the back of the sweater that might hold my interest enough to carry me through to the coveted Finished Object.

I think that the reason I have so many UFO's at the moment has a lot to do with my confidence level at the pattern-choosing stage of the process.  When I look at the array of projects I've embarked on I see very little variation in terms of texture, construction, shaping, color -- you name it -- and I believe it's out of fear that I have limited myself.  It's gratifying, then, to make choices that are a bit more interesting and daring, and even begin to alter written instructions.  Knitting becomes a cerebral experience as well as a meditative one, and life is that much more satisfying.

On the studio floor

Preparing to knit Owls with Cascade 128 Superwash.  It's all about the process!

SCI Knitting -- July Update

Here is a sampling of the hand-knits we have received to go to the Seafarers at Christmas -- aren't they magnificent?

Some are done by veteran knitters and some by absolute beginners, and all were made lovingly and with great care for the intended recipients.  I am told there are plenty more in the works!

I think I admire most about this project is the zeal with which so many knitters have taken it up -- they are not stopping at one scarf; I get quite a number of hat-and-scarf combos, and often multiples.  Also, there have been several women who had not knitted a stitch before this project started but who have found ways to learn the ropes and have become amazingly productive knitters.

The deadline for our church's part in the SCI knitting project must be October 15, because of the work involved in putting together the ditty bags for the Seamen's Christmas.  With that in mind, it is time to start thinking about the future of our knitting group, and considering other causes for which we might want to knit.

I will be addressing this subject at the next Knitting Group meeting on July 21; please attend this meeting if you are able.  If not, you can drop me an email or leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the matter if you wish, and I will share them with the group.  

On my needles: Vacation knitting

Today marks the middle of our three weeks' vacation "down the shore."  I brought a ton of fiber with me, along with my entire collection of knitting needles and my spinning wheel!  Last year I wound up having to buy yarn and needles to work with, but I wasn't going to make that mistake twice.

I spent the first week swatching with Atacama yarn by Arucania, a discontinued DK weight alpaca that looked kind of skanky in hank form, but knit up into a lofty confection of a fabric with the big needles the Neck-Down Wrap Cardigan called for.

Yes, it took me a week to get gauge.  I knit three funky-sized swatches (which, incidentally, I did not wash because the ball band indicated that dry cleaning would be most appropriate -- I suppose I should have steamed them, but what's done is done) and alternated the boring swatch-knitting with some hippy-dippy crocheting.

The Rickrack Kerchief, in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, is right up my alley.  It's the right level of challenging, which means that I can watch TV or daydream while I work on it, and it's the right type of finished product, meaning that I will totally wear it when it's done.  And it has a ribbon woven Right Into The Headband.  I am completely mesmerized by ribbon these days -- buying it, saving it, making it, using it.  The Christmas packages are going to be so much fun this year!

So finally I finished the swatches and started on the wrap cardigan.  I had thought that I could not do another row of stockinette-with-raglan-increases when this number showed up.  There is something about this pink-cotton-candy knitted fabric that makes it such a pleasure to work with that I don't care if the knitting itself is uninteresting.  The yarn is fascinating and I cannot wait to see what it will do next.  The thought of making a little more of the fluffiness in my hands is enough inspiration to keep me going, and I hope this will  be a project where the process and the product are equally important -- I want to wear this loveliness.

I have also been reading a lot about knitting this vacation, and have many big ideas concerning fair isle, ganseys, log cabin knitting, organic cotton washcloths and multi-media knitting, but that's for another post.  What's on your needles this summer?

SCI Knitting News and Challenge

Thanks to those who have begun knitting for the Seamen's Church Institute.  Here is a little more information about the project:

• The hats and scarves we are knitting will benefit specifically the Seamen's Church Institute of Philadelphia and South Jersey, which "greets merchant ship workers at ports along the Delaware River and provides services to meet mariners’ practical, spiritual, and emotional needs."
• The mariner's scarf seafarer's scarf and watch cap patterns are available on the SCI of New York and New Jersey's website, but it should be noted that any items donated through St. Mary's Church in Burlington will go to the SCI of Philadelphia and South Jersey.
• Scarves are the most needed items.   If you can knit the mariner's scarf seafarer's scarf pattern with the ribbing around the neck, that is wonderful, but if not, a plain garter-stitch scarf is fine.  The watch cap is the most desirable pattern if you would prefer to knit a hat.  Solid-colored items only, please!
• Yarn should be worsted-weight machine-washable-and-dryable and of dark and/or "masculine" colors.  We gladly accept donations of yarn!  It takes about 4 oz. of yarn to make a scarf and 3.5 oz. to make a hat, so please keep that in mind if you are donating leftover balls of yarn.

For new knitters:  there are wonderful tutorials on the Knit Picks website to help you with tricky things like casting on, binding off and even that pesky ribbing on the mariner's scarf.

Now, for the challenge:

For those of you who are taking on this project with me:

Will you knit every day?

For half an hour while you watch the news, or half an inch while you watch the game, or fifteen minutes after you say your morning prayers, or however you decide you'll do it, will you make a commitment to work at this a little at a time, over a period of time, and see how much you can get done?

It's not for everybody -- and nobody will be able to do it perfectly.  I know there will be days I will miss and I can even predict some of them now -- but it's worth a try.  If you can use little bits of your time to finish one scarf to warm one neck this winter, think of that goodness.  There will be other things you will want and need to do, but see what you can do with this one, if it's right for you.

Note:  My apologies for including the wrong scarf pattern in the original post.  The link to the correct pattern, the seafarer's scarf, has been added.

created -- shalom!

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

It's hard to take a picture of yourself wearing the sweater you made, especially when the cat wants to get in on the act!

The sleeves I added are enough to keep me toasty without roasting me in alpaca.  A shout out to Myra at Woolbearers in Mount Holly for helping me work out how to do them nicely!

Knitting for Seafarers

At a friend's request, I am organizing an effort at church to knit scarves and hats for the Seamen's Church Institute.  They will be placed in "ditty bags" to be given to the seafarers at Christmas, along with toiletries and personal items that are, naturally, hard to come by during long stretches of time at sea.

Last evening we held a "knitting workshop" that was billed as "just for fun -- no commitment required" in order to encourage new and/or "out-of-shape" knitters to consider knitting a scarf.  Although turnout was low, we had a pleasant time, limbered up our fingers and got two beginners chugging along nicely.

Making progress

 

 

 

 

 

A giant box of yarn donated by a young parishioner!

Some questions for you:

• Can you knit/would you consider knitting for charity?  Do you have the time, money, willingness, the what-it-takes?  It's not for everybody.  I'm not sure that, in the long run, it's for me.  I want to explore this question more.
• Which organization(s) would you be willing to knit for, and why?
• Are there other crafts or services you would be willing to do/perform for charity, and why?

In my next post I will give information about how you might help out with our efforts, should you be interested in doing so.

OFF my needles!

My Shalom Cardigan, pre-blocking.

I'm calling it a success, if not an unbridled one.  The sleeves look like something a Tyrannosaurus-Rex might sport -- but they fit over my broad shoulders and that's what matters, right?  It is warm and cozy and will keep my back toasty, but something about the placement of the underarms means that my front may stay a little chilly.  Well, we'll see what blocking can help with and I'll model it for you then.

On my needles -- the Raring to Go Edition

I wouldn't say I'm exactly getting tired of my Shalom Cardigan.  I could never tire of the soft baby alpaca yarn, and the back-and-forth of the stockinette body is soothing and allows room for chatting, reading, watching Big Bang Theory or meditating.  But I am always itching to start new projects, so I am counting the rows until I catch up with my favorite cabled cardigan.  

 

It's really not so bad, when you allow for the curling at the bottom of the body.  Another four inches or so and I'll be adding the garter stitch border and wondering what on earth I'm going to do for sleeves.

My knitting class starts this Friday, and I have picked out a challenging (to me) cabled baby cardigan to bring there with me; I am looking at several other baby sweaters because I seem to have a surfeit of light fingering yarn; and I hope to complete a crocheted rabbit or three before Easter Day, about which we will have to see.

What's on your needles these days?

On my needles -- the Try It On For Size Edition

It's going to fit!

On my needles: the summer dreams edition

This week I have been working on a project from 'way back in last June, when we went to Wisconsin to visit relatives.  Our route took us through Madison, where I conveniently managed to find, right around lunchtime, a charming little yarn store that I can no longer remember the name of nor find on Ravelry -- what a shame!  I purchased some bamboo yarn there to start Claire Montgomerie's "smock top" from Easy Kids Knits for K.  The pattern is adorable, a little airy sleeveless thing with a picot hem and a seed stitch heart adornment, and I am afraid I am not doing it justice, but blocking will tell.  I still have a ways to go on this.

And then there is the ubiquitous Shalom Cardigan, this week in Cascade Yarns Baby Chunky Alpaca, a distinct improvement from the Ecological wool in both texture and stitch definition.  It is creamy-soft and luscious to work with and slips off my addi turbos like a dream.  My hope is that, with excellent yarn and pattern figured out, all will now be smooth sailing.

Look for my elf hat to come off the needles soon.  I am plotting some Pointy Elf Mittens to go with it!

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 -- the On-again-off-again Edition

I finally cast on for my Shalom in Ecological Wool on size 10 1/2's last Friday, then promptly lost track of it as I scrambled to finish K's quilt in time for Valentine's Day (which, as you can see by the lack of a corresponding post, I did not do.)  I felt kind of iffy about the extremely loose and stretchy fabric of the garter-stitch collar at the start.  Then I had some trouble with the twisted-rib portion of the yoke, which I knew I had been doing incorrectly in the original and which I wanted to set straight.  Between one thing and another, I decided to frog it.

I have started knitting again on a size 10 needle, and things are looking up.  Meanwhile, I have learned:

1. I was doing the M1 increase all wrong!  You lift the little bar with the right needle and place it knitwise on the left, and then there is no hole after the increase!  Hooray!
2. To do the twisted rib, you twist the knit stitches on the wrong side and the purl stitches on the right side.  Voila!

Even if I don't finish this sweater by the end of February (and I still very well might!), it will have been well worth making for the lessons it is teaching me.

(Just like) starting over

I'm over my lost weekend with the green Lopi yarn and it's time to start rethinking the Shalom sweater.

Frogging was a disaster.  Apparently Lopi is pretty apt to give in and fall apart when you tug on it with any force, and it clings to itself fiercely, so reclaiming the wool I used was not an option.  I might have enough left to finish a 3/4-sleeved sweater with, but there's no way to be sure, and I really want this sweater to work.  Off to the LYS, where I purchased 2 enormous skeins of Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool, then home to wind the yarn into balls and crunch the numbers.

 

478 is a lot of yards to wind.  It took at least an hour before I was ready to start swatching.  The yarn called for #10 needles but the pattern called for #10 1/2, which is what I used.  

 

Before blocking, my swatch gave 4 stitches to the inch, and the same was true after blocking.  Using Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system from Knitting Without Tears and my favorite yoked sweater (not a cardigan, so I added 4 stitches for the button band), I calculated that I would need:

• 88 stitches for the neck
• 186 stitches for the chest
• 60 stitches for the arm circumference at the underarm
• 15 stitches at the bottom of the underarm (to be cast on after placing live arm stitches on waste yarn)
• 45 stitches for the arm to be placed on waste yarn and picked up when working the arms.

That was the easy part.

 

The number crunching got ugly after that.  I had to ask for help from an expert (thank you, D) and consider several courses of action before deciding that I would work the pattern as follows:

• Cast on 88 stitches
• Follow rows 1-7
• Complete row 8 as given; 142 stitches
• Follow rows 9-19
• Row 20: k5, m1, k2; (m1, k4) until 7 stitches remain; m1, k2, m1, k5; 170 stitches
• follow rows 121-131
• Row 32: k5; (m1, k4, m1, k3) until 11 stitches remain; (m1, k2) twice; m1; k5; 217 stitches
• Follow rows 33-44
• Row 45: k20, place 45 sts on waste yarn, k87, place 45 sts on waste yarn, k20; 127 stitches
• Row 46: k5, p to first armhole, cast on 15 stitches, p to second armhole, cast on 20 stitches, p 15, k5
• work in stockinette stitch with garter stitch border until desired length; knit 9 rows of garter stitch; bind off all stitches (note -- no waist shaping!)

I have not yet decided how I am going to work the arms -- I have seen several designs that I like and I want to try on the body before I make a final decision about that.  Also I want to get this yarn on my needles and get to work!

Frogging

Well, I had a premonition but I didn't want to say anything.  The neck looked a little too small, the sleeves a little funny, the chest not quite chesty enough.  And (oh, shame) I had not swatched.  I got about three inches into the body and had started inserting some desperate little increases when I noticed three little links on the Ravelry Shalom Cardigan page:

Shalom Tips 1

Shalom Tips 2

Shalom Tips 3

Oops.

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?

February challenge: Shalom cardigan

On the first of the month I began working on the Shalom Cardigan in Lopi Wool, having finished all of the interesting parts of the Tea Leaves Cardigan for a while -- I have miles of boring stockinette stitch to finish there.  And, while I am still devoted to Tea Leaves, I got to thinking how I love working in bulky yarn, and what fun the Shalom pattern is to knit, and could I?  Maybe?  If I really pushed myself, could I get the Shalom sweater finished by the end of February?  I think maybe I could.

 

It's going to take some discipline, particularly since I want to follow Soulemama's lead and add sleeves to the finished garment (where would I be without her creative guidance?), but I think it's doable.  Look for updates here as I work hard to create an actual finished garment -- we process knitters have to do that occasionally -- and feel free to add your own comments and suggestions along the way.  Won't this be fun?

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!

One mitten

Remember my handspun angora?  From away back?  My beautiful, bulky, teal, thick-and-thin, fuzzy, wonderful handspun angora?  Here is what I made from it:

 

Yes, that is correct.  One K-sized mitten.  I know I should have made a scarf, I knew when I began the mitten that I would not have enough yarn for two.  I was banking on my provider having -- or being able to dye -- some fiber to match the fiber I had already spun.  Lesson learned:  do not bank.  So I am left with one bunny-fluff mitten to hang on the Christmas tree next year.  I think it will look natural there.