Where Were We?

We we last saw our heroine, she was mired deep in the frog pond.  Fast forward to today and she has not only climbed out, but is now skating along effortlessly.

As exhibit A, I give you the miracle of top-down, set-in sleeves.  My finger is on the shoulder, running left to right is the seam where sleeve meets the front - it's hardly visible.  This is the first time I've tried them and, I must say, I'm loving them.  They look perfect -- I can only hope they fit as well!  [The garter stitch is the frogged/re-knit collar.]

I used Paula Ward's video tutorial from easyknittingdesign.com.  Very clear and easy to follow.

Speed Bump

I was making great progress on my sweater -- zipping right along on the collar when I realized I'd calculated my modifications incorrectly.  Woops.  Too many short rows resulted in a too long collar.  So rip-rip-rip -- and I restarted the collar.  It looks more normal now...but it was quite a setback.

Motoring Right Along

The Cornsilk sweater is motoring right along.  Front and back are blocking......ready to add the collar and the top down sleeves.

Ignore the cat-claw pull.....

Birth of a Sweater

I'm starting a new sweater - Cornsilk by Amy Herzog.  For this one, I'm really pulling out all the stops.  Swatching and recalculating the instructions for fitting and gauge adjustments.  Amazingly enough, I've already finished the back - in record time - under three days start to finish.

Knits-a-long?

I'm not sure what the plural of knitalong is.  Knits-a-long sounds right though.

Anyway, I've joined a couple this spring/summer/fall with the hope of actually finishing some projects off.  I have to admit, I don't tend to have a lot of projects started......it's more that a) it takes forever to finish a project because I rip and fix, rip and adjust or b) rip and abandon.  So there's a lot of knitting - just not all in the forward direction.

But I finally finished my Through the Loops Summer Shawl KAL project.- this KAL required making any Through the Loops shawl between 19 Jun and 23 Sep.  I chose the Roma shawl and, as usual, had to tweak it a bit.  The lace portion is as written.  The striping portion is based on the color change of the basic version, with the stitch pattern and size of the alternate -- only with the garter/purl bumps in the main (solid) color.  I wanted to make the alternate edging, but didn't like the look of the variegated yarn in garter stitch, didn't have enough solid yarn to edge it with that, and didn't want the eyelet holes, so I just did an 8-row garter stitch edge.  I really like how it came out -- very fall-like.  Good for cool weather wear in an almost go-with-everything color combination.

Right near the end of that, I started my Foxfire Fiber Autumn 2011 KAL.  This KAL required the use of any Foxfire Fiber yarn to make any pattern of one's choosing between 4 Sep and 15 Oct.  For this I'm using one of my original sheep shares to make Jared Flood's Quincy hat.....I just hope I have enough yarn (I've already ripped it out once to adjust the size to squeeze out more of the yarn).

Funny how the tones of the two projects are so similar....and they aren't my usual colors.

Orange

Orange isn't one of my favorite colors....though I do love pumpkins, chrysanthemums, and brightly colored fall leaves. And the beautiful nasturtiums in our community garden plot.

Remember the yarn and fiber I bought at the MA Sheep & Wool festival this past spring? Well, I'm happy to report that not only have I spun that fiber, I've actually knit up all the yarn I bought too! Quite a milestone for me. I made another Toorie hat using Foxfire Fibers cormo silk alpaca yarn in the color salamander. This will be perfect for the fall (though probably not so perfect with my red winter jacket).


Hmmm. I think I need some practice using my tripod and timer for self-portraits.

Toorie

While there haven't been any finished objects for a while, there has been knitting going on. I finally finished my Toorie hat (I hope the link works) and love the funky, fun results. It'd be pushing things to say I'm cool and stylish wearing it, but I can pretend I am!

This was a great one-skein wonder in Malabrigo Silky Merino (in the color Indiecita). There wasn't quite enough yarn for pom-poms, so I went with a thin grosgrain ribbon instead. I might make another with pom-poms. I loved making the hat, the construction was unusual, but fast.

Normally I'd say May wasn't a great month for wool hats.....but that's not true this year. It's been quite chilly -- with well below normal temperatures.

Because I Can

I've been working diligently on my Dunedin Vest. And taking what I learned at the Fit to Flatter workshop into account -- doing a lot of customization. The back is complete, with its waistline shaping (love that look).

Of course, the placement and rate of increases/decreases are customized for me. That was fine.....but when I got to the front with its pattern.....and wanted to do comparable shaping....things got a little trickier. But nothing that a little Excel couldn't help me solve. I charted out the entire front pattern section from the hem through the shaping. The zig-zags seem to zig and zag correctly and the decreases/increases are roughly in the same place as on the back.

Now the proof will be in the knitting. Why do I do this? Because I can!

Hats for Haiti

Things have been really busy lately. But I did have a chance to contribute some hats to the "Hats for Haiti" drive organized by Estella. It's always a good feeling to know you can help.

So I made a couple new hats and added them to those I had waiting for a home. It was interesting....I tried a bottom-up (lower blue) and top-down (upper blue) version of the (basically) same hat. To me, the bottom-up version looked much better. Experimentation is a good thing.

The Never-Ending Shawl

This shawl could be termed a learning experience. Or if not learning, re-affirming things I knew about myself.

I like to knit from charts (vice word instructions). I like being able to see where I came from and where I'm going graphically. I also don't "wing" things well. Fudging by adding a stitch here, deleting a stitch there is just not something I do.

I really liked the look of the In the Pink shawl -- so I decided to make it -- even though it didn't have charts. The main body of the shawl went OK. Things seemed to look OK, so I figured they must be OK. I just couldn't get the border to be right.....so I just substituted a plain stockinette border, increasing to get a correct multiple of stitches. The edging it probably my favorite part -- thought it took forever. FOREVER. A few times I felt like stabbing myself with the knitting needles it was so excruciating. There are 88 points on the edge -- and each one took 10 rows to do (give or take -- the end ones were less). Roughly speaking -- 875 rows.

But I do love the way it came out. Definitely one of my favorite finished objects. And it's huge -- 54 inches side-to-side, 42 inches top-to-bottom. Yarn used was Lang Yarn Jawoll Magic in shades of blue. I really thought it was black....and even bought additional black yarn before I figured out that it was really blue.

Sneak Peak

I finally finished my In the Pink shawl (or in this case, the "I've got the blues" shawl). A sneak peek of the blocking shawl.


Speaking of peeking.....Camellia likes to peek out of her hiding spot...keeping her eyes on the Little A who sneaks out to eat her food.

Saved!

Thanks to Michelle's comment on my last blog post, I was able to finish my scarf without any real frogging! She suggested using a bindoff that use the existing knitting loops. So I just undid the bindoff row (as far as I'd gotten) and put the working stitches on a circular needle. Starting from the non-working yarn end, I used a crochet hook to pull the stitches through (left stitch through right stitch) one at a time to the end. Although a little tighter than a normal bindoff, it worked perfectly. It just looks a little different. After some blocking and a little sunlight, pictures of the finished object. The yarn is Tahki Yarns Tango Wool Blend.

ARRRGGGHHHHH

Seems like there's a whole lot going on, but not a lot is getting done. We've been painting my office and trying to get it organized (ha!). I have too many projects started -- and that means nothing gets finished......and I want to help Estella by making a few Hats for Haiti.

So I'm buckling down and finishing those projects that are "almost" done. First up was a version of my own design First Down in commercial yarn (the original was in my handspun). There I was, ready to cross that finish line.....arms outstretched......when I ran out of yarn with just 25 stitches left on the bindoff row. ARRRGGGGHHHHH.


What to do????????? The options are a) buy another skein of yarn (not happening since I'm trying to reduce my stash), b) try to use the ends from the long-tail cast-on and joins (really ugly), or c) rip back 5 rows and start the edging back further (time-consuming, especially since I already did this once, knowing I'd run out....I just didn't rip back far enough). Sigh....the correct answer is c....but it hurts.

What's That?

I needed to take a break from the never-ending shawl and work on something a little more portable and mindless. Since my Fit to Flatter workshop, I've been looking for a sweater pattern that might look good and for which I could use yarn that I had in my stash. The Dunedin Vest just fits that bill. I even had a sufficient quantity of the recommended yarn (Madelinetosh Tosh DK -- in the color lichen). I'll need to make a couple mods, but that's what it's all about.

I even swatched (gasp) before starting - fortunately, the gauge worked out perfectly -- and I've already cast on.

Never-Ending Shawl

I'm still working on the i've-got-the-blues in-the-pink shawl. I had problems with the border and finally just changed the pattern to plain stockinette cause I just couldn't get the patterns to line up (in my eye, at least). Now I'm on the edging....the never ending edging. There are approximately 850 rows of edging................and I'm only at 300+ after 1.5 weeks (that includes frogging about 50 rows because I made a mistake and didn't notice it for a while). It's a good thing I like the way it looks!

Fit to Flatter

Last Sunday I took one of Amy Herzog's (knit, stash, repeat) Fit to Flatter classes. I've made three sweaters/vests since resuming knitting a couple years ago and only one of the three is even close to flattering. Not surprisingly, it's the only one I actually wear. [I hate to admit that one looked so terrible on that I never, ever wore it -- the finished sweater looked fine, just not fine on me.]

I loved the class and highly recommend it.....although the front/side view pictures she took and we used to evaluate our shapes were absolutely horrifying. Trying on different sweaters was eye opening....who would've guessed that the different styles would make such a huge difference. A sweater that looked fantastic on one person might do absolutely nothing for another.

When I got home I scrubbed my Ravelry sweater queue and deleted at least half of them, keeping and/or adding only those that had a chance of looking good or had interesting design features I could use. Now to try to match up some patterns with yarn already in my stash (there's really not much sweater quantity yarn there).

As for that never worn sweater? Frogged. The yarn has already been washed/reskeined -- looking for a new, more flattering pattern. That post-frogging feeling is so freeing!

Test Knitting

I'm very much of a process knitter. I love to try new techniques, yarns, patterns, etc. Many times I end up with a finished object for which I have no real use -- it just goes into my box of finished objects, waiting for an eventual home. Sometimes I sign up to test knit an item for a designer (via the Ravelry group Free Pattern Testers). I just finished a new hat using Fionnghuala Doran's Green Cable Beret pattern. Test knitting a project is always challenging. There's a time limit, you must complete the item, and sometimes there are mistakes in the pattern. In this particular case, I was having problems with gauge -- mine was very different from the designer's prototype -- while no gauge was given, but it didn't take long to realize there was a problem --- my hat was HUGE. So I had to frog the first attempt and make a series of modifications to reduce the size while still keeping the pattern intact. Ta da -- my first finished object of the year. And it used the natural wool I bought at a local farmer's market from Signal Rock Farm. The wool was quite rough and scratchy, but softened up considerably when washed/blocked.

I Got the Blues....

This has been one very snowy winter. And everyone's got the winter blues. Lots of snow days for the schools. And lots of snow blowing and shoveling. This is the view out the front door this morning. Lots of snow plus an avalanche off the roof.

I've been knitting away on my shades of black "In the Pink" Shawl. Unfortunately, after watching the rapidly-shrinking ball of yarn remaining and reviewing other knitter's projects on Ravelry, I realized that I don't have enough yarn to finish the edging. So off to my local yarn shops I went -- with just the ball band. Neither had the same yarn in the right color. So I decided to go with a solid black from the same manufacturer. When I finally put the new yarn near the unfinished shawl something didn't look right...... So I looked more closely at the shawl in daylight....only to discover that it's shades of navy blue, not black! Argh.

Webs came to the rescue.....and another skein (of navy blue) arrived in the mail yesterday. It's funny how the shawl looks so blue in the picture.....but not in real life.

Snow Day

There was a whole lotta snow in New England yesterday. Enough to close schools, businesses, etc. A good thing because it snowed all day and then took hours (and hours) to clear the patio and driveway. Even this morning there was more on the ground and the dreaded mountain at the end of the driveway where the plows plowed us in. But the sun is shining today and hopefully some of it will sublimate (not much melting going on).

Snow blowing is messy business and requires lots of hats, scarves, and mittens. One of the most useful things I've made is a pair of felted mitten covers (circled) -- do my hands stay warm in those!

In between bouts of shoveling...I finished the right wing of my "In the Pink" shawl. That was fast. Now on to the left.

In the Pink (or Black)

Once again, I took on what is probably an unreasonable challenge. I'm trying to make 11 shawls in 2011 (didn't make 10 in 2010 either). My niece gave me some fingering weight yarn in shades of black/gray with long color runs for Christmas -- so I thought the "In the Pink" shawl would be perfect. In my case, it's more like "in the black."

I finished the center medallion this afternoon. Hopefully the side pieces will go as easily/quickly.