SWS Obsession & Future Inspirations.

SWS Love.

There are some yarns that I go back to again and again. Paton’s Soy Wool Stripes is one of those. I love the soy/wool blend, the color selection, the self-striping, and slightly heavier than worsted, the feltability, and the texture. I’d like it to be a little softer, but it’s nicer on my neck than Noro Kureyon, so I don’t complain much.

Someone on the Ravelry forums posted that there are going to be new SWS colors! Hurray! No pictures yet, but we have the names – is Natural Natural the worst color name ever or what? There is also speculation that these may be SWS Solids (which kind of makes the name a misnomer.. unless they’re going to be called SWS which stands for Soy Wool Solids, which now that I type it makes a lot more sense). I’m on the edge of my seat.

When I was on the Great Movie Date of 2007 last week, the Boyfriend and I stopped by Joanns (ostensibly to get beads to knit Bauble, but how could I not say hi to the yarn?). And there it was: SWS Natural Green.

Borrowed from the Paton’s website.I’d been on a secret quest for this colorway for months. None of the craft stores near my apartment had it (and there are three craft stores within five miles of my apartment). I’d seen it online, I’d seen it knit up on blogs and Flickr, and it was calling to me. But could I find it anywhere? No!

I immediately purchased all they had (thank goodness that was only three skeins!), and now am planning what it will become.

I’ve made a few things with SWS – mostly I hoard it. I made a Calorimetry for my former boss Jessica which turned out beautifully, and a Fake Fair Isle hat for myself. I’d been holding out for the Natural Green, now it just needs the perfect project.

If they ever make self-striping Malabrigo, I’ll have to get a part-time job to support my yarn habit. Which is bad, because I already kind of need a part-time job to support my yarn habit.

Future Projects.

 

This is the Tilting Duster by Norah Gaughn, the cover of the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. I want to knit it a great deal. I have a pile of Cascade 220 in one of their heathered colors (a beautiful subtle lime), and think this would be perfect. I wonder if I have enough…

 

What did you think of the Fall IK 07 Preview?

Speaking of future projects, one of my favorite things on Ravelry is my ability to organize my queue, or future projects. It kind of gets me to plan a bit better, remember stuff I’ve been meaning to knit, and actually use my stash!

Here’s a screenshot of the first four items in my queue, for those who don’t want to log into Ravelry or aren’t there quite yet.

[click the picture for a larger version]

You can see I had destined the Lime Heather Cascade 220 for the Cardigan for Arwen. But I have changed its yarn destiny!

Other Projects.

Still plugging along on the striped not-Harry Potter scarf. It looks mostly the same, only longer.

FO: Knit Beaded Bracelet (Bauble), Faux Harry Potter, Entrelac Scarf

Movie Date.

I had a very nice date with the boyfriend yesterday.  We saw the Harry Potter movie in IMAX (with 20 minutes of 3D action!), had a nice lunch, shopped, and then saw Hairspray (no 20 minutes of 3D action, but AMAZING movie that you have to see – I might be a theatre geek, but believe me – I didn’t like the show nearly as much as the movie.  And the performances! Oh! I could go on and on).

 

Scarf in Progress.

I did something during both of the movies I’ve never done before – knit.  I had recently started a Harry Potter style striped scarf for the boyfriend, mostly because I wanted an excuse to purchase more Malabrigo after the scarf I finished last week.  I offered to knit him a striped scarf for the holidays, he choose the color, and we both decided on the style.  I have two skeins of each color, which should be plenty for a stockinette in the round scarf.  Oh, and it’s so soft!

 

 

I got a good portion done during the movies yesterday – I did pause when Harry Potter when into 3D though.  The two colors are Blue Graphite and Verde.  Since the Verde is a multi-colored yarn, it’s pooling a lot, but Dan seems to like the different patterns it is making, as well as the contrast between the solid Graphite and the wackiness of the Verde.

 

Finished Object: Bauble.

In between the movies, I visited Joanns, where I poured over their meager bead selection – I had somehow got it into my mind I wanted to knit Bauble, from the Spring 07 Knitty.  I got the right cord, the right seed beads, but their larger bead selections were very lacking.  Basically, I bought every single strand of beads they had that were labeled 4mm and 6mm (I realize I probably could have deviated, and will in the future, but for this one.. I was going by the book, so to speak).  So the color choices? Not really mine.  But I love how they came out!

 

 

The cool thing about this pattern is that it’s not the traditional knitting with beads approach – instead, you create a long strand of beads and use that as your yarn!  The beading took a while – a good few hours last night and today.  The knitting and overall construction of the bracelet took less than an hour, though.

 

 

I’m in love with the results, though.  I’m not much of a bracelet person, so this may become a present, but look at that sparkle! Those colors! It doesn’t look like an accident!  It’s so pretty.

 

 

Here it is on my wrist.  The color is off in this photo as the bedroom was a little dark.  It’s much more sparkly, and I’m not jaundiced.

 

In between stringing beads last night, I also soaked and blocked my entrelac scarf.  You may remember – I am following the Danica pattern from Knitty, but letting Noro Kureyon do all the work.  I used two skeins of two colorways – 164 (the green/brown) and 180 (the red/wine/aqua).  I rotated between the skeins, so the first was an entire skein of 164, following by a skein of 180, 164, then finished it off with 180.

 

 

Because Kureyon is a little itchy for me, after an initial soak in woolwash to get the excess dye out (the water was practically black!), I let it soak in some hair conditioner, to soften up the fiber.  I rinsed it well and hung it on my bathroom door.

 

 

There it is, in its entrelac-y glory.  I’ll have better photos of it later this week, when it’s all dry.  I love how the colors meld together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

FO: Calorimetry & Scarf and the magic of entrelac

Finished Objects

I bought two skeins of super soft, very cuddly, worsted Malabrigo a few weeks ago, and decided that it needed to be a scarf. It’s a lovely semi-solid in a bright green – they call it Lettuce. I call it love. I cast on about 25 or so stitches on my favorite scarf needles (US8 16″ bamboo circs), and 1×1 ribbed it till I had used up all of one skein. I took a break there, and, with the second skein and US6s, I knit up a Calorimetry (from the Winter 06 Knitty). Then I reattached the remainder of the skein to the scarf, and knit till there was no yarn left. The results? A super soft, luxurious scarf, with a good amount of length and a matching headband.

Isn’t that button neat? I got it at M&J Trimmings last winter, when my winter coat had lost all of its buttons. I didn’t find any that I liked for the coat, but I picked up some for future use.

 

For a variety of reasons (you’ve seen 1×1 ribbed scarves before, you’ve seen Calorimetries before, I was wearing pajamas, the sun was down, and it was 90+ degrees outside), I don’t have modeled shots of these. I do have some lovely close-ups. For fun.

I don’t know if I quite captured how soft this scarf is. Think clouds. Think kittens.

Entrelac + self-striping yarn = magic

 

This is following the Knitty pattern “Danica,” but it’s just basic entrelac, which looks a whole lot more complicated than it is.

 

 

 

I have plans to use four skeins of Noro Kureyon for this scarf – two of two different colorways, striped throughout. So after I finish this skein (of 164, isn’t it pretty? it’s supposed to include some cream/gold in there, but this skein didn’t have any. boo!), I’m going to knit with a skein of 180, then a skein of 164, then finish with the 180. I’m already into the 180 (after I took these pictures), and the colors just… meld together. It’s kind of cool. The 180 has gold and wine and maroon and purple and aqua in it.

Two Finished Objects!

I had two days off this weekend. Yes, that’s right: two days off. IN A ROW. It was awesome.

I knit a lot. Also slept a lot.

And my mother came over and cleaned my kitchen. And ate tacos.

Did I mention it was awesome?

This is where my knitting leaves when it is not strewn around the apartment. After taking this picture, I felt like I had too much out, and I put away four hand-dyed rovings, and a pile of worsted-weight wool. It looks exactly the same.

I also finished not one but two projects.

Project Number One:

Noro Scarf!

Noro-licous.

 

Work the camera, baby (I just personified my scarf. I’ve gone off the deep end. Add into that the fact that I hate using “baby” as a term of endearment. I need some caffeine)

 

I love the colors next to one another.

 

The redux? Three skeins of Noro Kureyon in #182. One giant center-pull ball, two ends, stripes, a US8 circ, and 39 stitches of 1×1 rib per row. First and last stitch of every second row slipped for a nice, even, clean, pretty, colorful edge.

Project Number Two:

Lacy Ribbed Bolero!

When I saw this lacy shrug on 10 Feet High last week, I knew I had to knit it. I guess it helped that I have more cotton/acrylic blend yarn than someone who doesn’t really like cotton/acrylic yarn should have (at least three sweaters worth – all projects I never began or quickly ripped out).

I immediately cast on. One and a half skeins of old school Candy Blue Cotton-Ease, two days commuting, and one Saturday… and I was done. I calculated that I need to cast on 110 stitches. I worked the SSKs as K2TOG because I HATE how my SSKs look.

I knit until it looked big enough, cast off, seamed it, and I was done.

Dan was at work, so I had fun with the self-timer.

 

 

 

 

I’m happy with it. If I do it again (which I probably will), I’ll use a smaller needle for the ribbing, as it didn’t hug very much and kept on slipping off (but that’s the cotton, also).

And, on top of all of this! I finished the toe for Dan’s socks, which I’ve been putting off for a week! All in all, a very knitty weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, yarn.

How I adore you. I really, really don’t know what it is – but, more and more, I think my knitting obsession is simply the most logical step in my yarn obsession. Because if you don’t knit or crochet or do something with all of that yarn you start to accumulate… people may think you are kind of crazy.

At the same time, I love creating objects and clothing and wraps and things out of yarn. But most of all, I love when I’m finished and I can put it down and step back and look at it. Because it’s like the yarn, but better. Like yarn destiny.

Anyway.

I’ve decided that I’m not really a sock knitter. Personally, I don’t want hand knit socks because I’ll wear them out, and I do just fine with the 10 for $5 packs from Target. And I try to wear them as little as possible, either way.

But last year, I bought Dan a pair of super soft mohair socks from a vendor at Rhinebeck. They’re squooshy, soft, lime green, and hand wash only. Dan loves them. He takes care of them, making sure they don’t go through the wash and keeps them clean. He likes the splash of color they add to his mostly black and khaki wardrobe, and loves how squishy and soft they are. He said he’d really like a pair of nice red ones.

So I offered to knit them for him.

It was all an excuse to buy yarn. I won’t lie.

Mmmm.. baby alpaca

That’s Blue Sky Melange, a heathered 100% baby alpaca sport-weight yarn. Delicous. Unfortunately, I miscalculated (Dan has big feet), and I need another skein of yarn for the socks.  On my day off last week,  I ventured to the nice yarn shop and got a skein of Frog Tree alpaca in a sport-weight blue.  I have a gauge swatch, and I’m already to go.

Are you wondering if there was anything else in the box? Of course there was!

Four skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton in ‘Cumin.’ For me. I’m thinking a mini-sweater.

Oh, and these random skeins of Dyed Cotton? They’re just along for the ride (and are destined to be gifts, I belive).

Also Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky Hand-Dyed was on sale, so I got a few skeins of that (you can see it in the picture with the Melange up there – that’s the orange it’s resting on). I think I’ve gushed about how much I adore WEBS before, so I won’t do that again. I’ll just state that I love them.