FO: Dan’s Scarf and non-knitting faux-knitting knitting bag.

I started this when Dan and I went to a double feature in July.  JULY.  I knit through both of the movies, made some progress, and then have slowly been whittling away at it since then.  It’s a lot of scarf.

Based on the Harry Potter Scarves, it’s just a giant tube knit on a 16″ US8 Circ.  Stripes are 22 stitches long, and I knotted them together when changing colors, and tucked them on the inside of the scarf.  One end is sewn together – the other had some three needle bind off action.

 I was planning to keep on going until I had used all of four skeins of Malabrigo (2 of each color – Blue Graphite & Verdes), but Dan got cold and I got anxious, so it’s more like 1.5 skeins of each color.  Long enough to wrap around his neck, and unbelievably soft and warm.  Thanks, Malabrigo and double thick worsted weight fabric.

Dan really likes it.  I’m happy with it, too, especially to get it off my needles!  This is not a pattern I will be repeating.

The Blue Graphite is a Malabrigo True Solid, so there was no pooling or subtle kettle dyed variations.  The Verde had some pretty cool pooling going on that Dan really liked, so I just let it do its thing.

I was eager to get working on Lindsey’s chuppah wedding quilt, but I moved last week and couldn’t find me self-healing mat anywhere.  Which meant I couldn’t start cutting the fabric, which means I couldn’t start piecing.  But I really wanted to sew something.

Lindsey sent me a bunch of suggestions, and I picked out this Shoulder Bag.  I jumped into my fabric stash, and went to work!

The lining is lime-green fabric printed with a stockinette pattern.  The outside is some fabric I bought three years ago that has been wanting to be a bag for awhile.  I used some lightweight interfacing I had laying around to help make it a little more sturdy, and added a button from my new button stash.

Overall, I’m happy with it.  The tutorial was really easy to follow, and the results are awesome.  It easily fits over me, and I think will be a perfect supplementary knitting bag (i.e., in addition to a purse – so not tangled keys with yarn, and no more trying to shove my knitting projects into my purse).

My cable knit sweater is sitting there right now – all ready for a train trip up to Boston tomorrow.

Bonus Picture! Finished Koolhaas in Mineral Red Malabrigo!

I wake up when it’s dark, I get home when it’s dark…

Wintertime is not the best time for knit bloggers who don’t want to resort to using their flash.

I keep on forgetting to take pictures during my window of sunlight: the ten minutes between when I am ready to go to work and when I leave for the train.

So we have one picture to show.

The stripes are Needful Yarns Joy [on US9s, 21 sts] and the pink is Misti Alpaca Chunky [two skeins on US10.5s, 17 sts cast on – a PERFECT length and so soft!]

This is the pile of Mistake Rib that has invaded my life. Mistake Rib has always been my favorite go to non-curling stitch pattern for scarves, and I just keep on casting on and knitting long skinny scarves [Oddly enough, Crazy Aunt Purl posted recently about her new found love for Mistake Rib, too] .

My basic Mistake Rib Pattern:

CO a multiple of 4 + 1.

Row 1: *K2, P2. Repeat from * to end of row, K1.

Repeat. Every single row. Forever.

I like to slip the first stitch of every row knit-wise, for a clean edge, but that’s not required. It looks vaguely rib like, but actually reads like this across, stitch by stitch:

Garter, Stockinette, Garter, Reverse Stockinette.

Dan thinks I should be working on his scarf instead of continuing to cast on orphan scarves that have no intended owner, but I just can’t stop.

So far I’ve finished one (the pink blob in that photo), and am 1 ball in to the 3 balls of Needful Yarns Joy that will be another. They’ll make their way into the plastic tub I like to call “Christmas in a Box” until late November when I’ll thank myself for getting this knitting done so early.

I was actually going to veer away from the Mistake Rib for the self-striping scarf, and was all ready to cast on Striped Wedges from Knitting New Scarves, which Lindsey gave me for Christmas. It’s knit lengthwise, and I thought it would be really neat looking with the long stripes of the Joy. Except the Joy is kind of oddly constructed – it has a core of a very lightweight, woven wool, surrounded by lofty soft fluffy poofy wool. When I was casting on, when I got to about stitch 50 or 60 of 150, I noticed that the lofty wool had completely separated from the core, and was all bunched up and broken and bad looking.

So if you’re knitting with Joy, or planning to, the long-tail cast on for anything more than 20 stitches? Total pain in the ass. I tried to use the knitted or cable cast on, but I’m just so slow with them as opposed to the long-tail, and I wanted to start knitting! So mistake rib it is.

[By the way? Knitting New Scarves is a kind of awesome book. It shows a lot of different structures of scarves, but not a lot of stitch patterns – they’re all basically ribbed or garter stitch. It’s cool because it’s all about the technique of construction. I have a few skeins of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton begging to be this Shawl Collar and Meandering Stripes! That is, if Dan doesn’t get mad at me for casting on yet another scarf…]

[And while we’re discussing knitting books, I have to recommend The Knitter’s Book of Yarn.  I know it’s been all over the knitting blogs recently (well, a few months ago), but I got it a little bit before Christmas and it totally lives up to the hype.  Not only does it have great information on the different fibers and stuff that go into yarn, but it goes into yarn weight! and construction! And includes super cute patterns!   I love the XOX Vest, HelloYarn’s mittens (both of them!), and the Scaruffle.  So not only is it an interesting reference book, but the patterns aren’t too shabby either.]

FO: Bye, Second Sock Syndrome!

Hair’s looking a little better.

I knit the first Elegant Gauntlet in less than a week. I immediately cast on for the second one, knit about four inches on it… and then put it aside. For two months. [Oddly enough, when I knit my first pair of Elegant Gauntlets back in2004, I did the same thing – finished the first one in less than a week, and then put the second one aside for nearly three months. This is why I don’t knit socks!]

Like my prop? That’s the roving Lindsey gave me in September! I found the other 2 ounces, spun it up, and plied it. I thought I might get a better picture if I had something to hold [like my face – see above]

This afternoon, I picked it back up again, and decided to finish it up. Except… I couldn’t find The Purl Stitch anywhere.

So I looked at the one I had already finished, I counted carefully, and I played it by ear.

And nothing exploded! I still had a thumb gusset and that oh-so-elegant degree of shaping (as Sally Melville says) that make them perfect.

See? Slightly awkward with nothing in my hands. But oh so lovely stripes! They don’t match up, but I’m not a match-y kind of girl, so it’s all OK.

The lowdown: This is less than two skeins of KnitPicks’ Felici sock yarn. The pattern is from The Purl Stitch by Sally Meville. I used US2 DPNs, and knit a size in between the two in the pattern (as the sizing is done by obtaining different gauges).

I love them. They’ll keep my hands warm, but free for train ticket and iPod fumbling on my commute.

In other news, Dan’s Aran is blocking!

Evidently, a pile of heavy worsted wool in seed stitch takes a long time to dry. I was hoping to seam it tonight, but it will have to dry til Monday.

And Grandma’s scarf continues.

Please excuse my foot.

It’s all scarves, all the time.

Look! It’s scarf weather!  Scarves have emerged from the box in the closet and now I wear them everyday!  Lovely!

And I’m knitting more.

Not for myself.  These are my three current WIP scarves.

Dan’s Harry-Potter-Inspired monster of a scarf – four skeins of Malabrigo, one US8 16″ circ, and a lot of stockinette.  I’ve been working on this since July (!), and I’m probably 60% done.  It’s a lot of stockinette.

The other is Grumperina’s Shifting Sands, for my grandma.  Lovely squishy soft Malabrigo.  I took it with me to work so I could work on it during my commute.  It actually only curls on the bottom, like in the photo – I think some gentle blocking and some fringe’ll fix that.

The third is a secret! It’s for my Ravelry Scarf Exchange pal.  It’s due on Dec 1.  Oops.  I’m almost half way done with it.  All will be revealed in time.

Sadly, while scarf mania ensues, other projects have fallen to the side of the road.

Don’t worry, Elegant Gauntlets, I’ll come back to you.  One day.

Cumin Cotton Bag, entrelac update, and segway into holiday knitting

First of all, thank you for the comments on my Cascade Yoke Sweater! It is, by far, my favorite sweater I’ve knit so far. I’m just so psyched it fits me! And I feel so clever for finding that great two color pattern. It made me want to knit the entire sweater that I took the pattern from. As I mentioned, I’ll be wearing it this weekend, so I’ll get some modeled pictures then and post them!

Caroline asked about the contrasting color of the hems – it’s a really easy trick that adds a beautiful detail to a simple sweater.   I was inspired by the Seamless Hybrid Sweater by Jared of Brooklyn Tweed (scroll down to see his hems!).  I used a provisional cast on and smaller needles, and knit for about an inch with the contrasting color.  I switched to the larger needles and main color and knit one row.  After that, you knit a turning row – usually a purl row, but I did a picot edging [simply a row of k2tog and yos] – then knit until the section past the turning row is the same length as the section before.  I unraveled the provisional cast on, put them on a needle, then did a giant super row of doom.  Which translates to carefully doing a three-needle bind off/knit two together action, taking a stitch from my current needles and a stitch from the cast on and knitting them together.  Much better tutorials on the technique can be seen here and here, as well as in the Brooklyn Tweed post I already linked.  I love love love the clean, rib-less edge it creates, and the professional look it gives the sweater.

I finished up the sweater on Sunday morning. Even after a good soak and blocking, I still had an entire day devoted to movies and knitting. So, even though I have a lot of holiday knitting going on, and a lot of projects on the needles, I cast on for the Everlasting Bagstopper from the Summer 2007 Knitty suprise.

Two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Cumin (to the last bit!), some US5 and US10.5 needles, Running With Scissors, Hard Candy, another movie I can’t remember, a commute, and some Monday night television… and it was done!

I didn’t change much. I did an i-cord for the handles, instead of the ribbon called for in the pattern. I left four stitches live four stitches in from the edge of the front and back as I cast off, then picked them up, knit an i-cord with a double strand of the yarn on a US5 or US6 DPN I had laying around, and grafted it to the other set of live stitches on the edge.

I used the double strand of yarn because I wanted the straps to be really nice and sturdy – I left a little bit of extra yarn at the beginning, and used the extra yarn at the end of the i-cords to weave in the ends very securely, adding another layer of strength to the straps.

The other change I made was to use a provisional cast on. The pattern calls to knit a rectangle in garter stitch, then pick up the stitches all the way around to form the base of the bag. I used the provisional cast on so I didn’t have to pick up the 44 stitches from the cast on row, and knit the rectangle until it was 14 garter stitch ridges high, which made picking up the stitches along the edge very easy. It was a little tough to knit those first few rows of the base, with the rectangular shape, but once I got into the lace portion – smooth sailing.

I couldn’t be happier with how this came out. I love the color, the softness (this cotton yarn is so soft when knit up at a tight gauge, like the bottom of the bag), and how fast it was!

In other news, I wore my entralac Noro scarf today, since it felt like scarf/no jacket weather. When I got on the elevator, I discovered something odd about it.

I had never woven in the ends. Oops. So I did it on the train.

I was going to use this scarf as a holiday gift, but the only person who I thought would like it already has a crazy Noro scarf I knit. Plus I really liked it. I guess I can never have too many scarves, huh?

 

Next up? The Shifting Sands scarf by Grumperina in Polar White Malabrigo (modified to 42 stitches for worsted weight yarn) for my grandma for Christmas. Then the sweater vest for my stepfather!

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Shots: Dan’s Aran & Noro Scarf

Dan’s Aran

I put it aside for about a month, but once I picked it up again, it was like I had never put it down. Two days off, some DVRed Knitty Gritty and OnDemand bad movies (John Tucker Must Die? Awful.), and the second front was done! Per the directions, I kept the stitches live and did a three needle bind off to the back, forming a nice strong seam (and less actual seaming for me later!). Later, I’ll go in and pick up the button bands and collar.

The sleeves are knit down from the armholes. I picked up the stitches, and started in with the seemingly endless seed stitch. And that’s where I am now. It’s a little bulky, but still so satisfying to knit. I just LOVE the cable on the front (I’m a little sad that all of the major cabling is done for the sweater, as the sleeve only has a simple four stitch cable down the middle).

Noro Scarf

You may remember when I had a bit of yarn blow-out in Boston a few months ago. This Noro Kureyon [Colorway #182] was from that. Inspired by the beautiful Noro Striped Scarves I found browsing Flickr, and, more specifically, this scarf from Brooklyn Tweed, I wound the three balls of Kureyon into one giant center pull ball, and then started knitting, alternating two rows in 1×1 rib from the inside and outside of the ball. I slipped the first stitch and last stitch of every other row purlwise for a nice, even edge.  I’ve got a few yards left and just a handful of rows to finish it up, but I just can’t seem to do it.  It’s very odd.  Excessive photos follow.

See?  Look how little yarn is left!  I could have that pesky scarf finished by now!  It’s a shorter scarf, as it’s only three skeins.  I’m using US8s.

Isn’t it cool how the colors look next to each other?  And it’s all the same yarn!