Magic Carpet Ride

Sometimes all the basic hats and socks and sweaters have to give way for something a little more spectacular, something a little more shiny.  Even in winter, a girl needs a little bit of something precious and lovely.  This particular lacy bit of a scarf is not for me, but it's something I'd love to keep, if I could.

The colour is a bit off in the photo (and yes, I also know it's blurry; I'm terrible at this, sometimes.)  This is an amazing alpaca/silk blend in a beautiful teal colourway, with pretty coppery beads glittering throughout either end.

I had ordered nice matte teal beads for this project, initially, but once I started to knit, I realized that the beads were too perfect a match for the yarn - they were almost invisible, so what was the point of doing all that beading?  I frogged the knitting, went back online, and ordered a second batch of beads, this time in a beautiful metallic copper - sure to be visible!  I love the colour combination, and think that it was a much better decision to change things up.

The original pattern also has a column of beads up either edge of the scarf, which would indeed be beautiful, but I see the potential for those beads to be a cold shock against the neck when initially putting the scarf on, so I left those columns off.

It was a somewhat complex project, with several charts to work off at any one time.  It also seemed to take ages to knit this, but I expect that's just because I was working on a few projects at once, and most of them were smaller and simpler and used fatter yarns.  In the end, it's quite lovely, and should be warm, too, even though it's light as a feather.

Aphid Scarf

Getting all those placemats done opened up Miss Bennet for a new weaving project.  This time it was a lovely (and quick!) alpaca scarf.

Last winter, I made an alpaca scarf for my HLM, and I had someone at work admire it enough to offer to buy it from me.  Well, I could hardly give away his scarf, so I had to refuse the offer.  Since then, she's hinted a couple of times at wanting a similar scarf, something in houndstooth, in unorthodox colours...  So I decided to take her up on it and weave her a little something.

This scarf is made of sport weight fair-trade alpaca from Frog Tree Yarns, in a pale lime green and a cool grey brown, woven at 15 epi.  I chose an 8-shaft houndstooth, since I felt like it makes a bolder statement than a 4-shaft houndstooth would.  The houndstooth draft is a 4/4 twill, which gives long floats and lots of bias movement in the final cloth.  I fulled it a bit in the sink before laying it out to dry, to make the cloth more cohesive, and of course alpaca will naturally felt together with use, to stabilize the fabric even more.

It is light and soft and airy in the hand, but will be warm and cozy on her neck in the cold winter months.  Needless to say, I got myself enough yarn (in dramatically different colours, mind you) to make myself a similar one.

On the Needles

Although time may pass by without me posting, it is usually because I am working on so many projects that I don't take the time to blog. In January, I was pretty monogamous with my TFA knitalong project, the Ombre cardigan (pics soon) but once I finished that, I was anxious to get back to everything I'd put on hold while I worked on it.


First of all, I've been slowly plugging away on this alpaca cardigan for a long time - I've knit a plain brown stockingette body, and finally got to the more exciting bit, at the sleeves. The stranded work turned out pretty well, and I'm sure it will tidy up more with a good blocking. One more sleeve to go and I can knit the matching yoke and finish this up. Doesn't the colour combination make you think of Neapolitan ice cream?


Also in the pink vein (it must've been Valentine's Day) I have started a complicated pair of socks (i.e. my usual) with a lovely soft pink from Tanis Fiber Arts. Well, I started and restarted (and restarted) them, really. It took a few tries to get the fit right. I also finally got a better sense of the pattern by the third try, so now I can knit it without painstakingly following the chart, stitch by stitch. This is still the first sock, so I have a way to go with this pair.


Then there's a hat - not much to see yet, but just look at that fantastic yarn from Madelinetosh. So perfect and round and soft... and what a colourway! It looks so grey in some lighting, and so blue in other lighting. As my eyes also shift a bit from blue to grey, I think it will be a good hat for me. Because I need another hat.


Lastly, not really on the needles, but soon to be on the loom, another scarf. Because I also need another scarf. As you can see, it's going to be all rainbows, offset by navy (because one can't always go with black.) You can't really tell from the warp how complex and awesome the finished scarf will be, but it's going to be pretty cool, once I actually get to it.

Also, I just realized that I also have another cardi and a blanket that I didn't take photos of... so you'll have to imagine those, for now.

In the meantime, photos of finished projects coming!

Grey on Gray Twill Scarf

The greatest part of finishing the towels is that I finally got to start working on the scarves I had in my head. The greatest part about weaving scarves is that they are so darn quick. I put this one on the loom on Monday and finished weaving and had it off the loom by Tuesday night.


I wanted to make a scarf for my HLM, since I have only ever made him one scarf (a rather impractical one I knit years ago, pre-blogging.) He mostly wears black and muted colours, like many guys, although he has started to branch out into colour in recent years. I decided to stick with a monochromatic scarf, to try to make it very wearable for him, so I chose two shades of grey in a luxurious soft alpaca. I made it nice and wide, so it can cover face and neck, and long enough to wind around the neck once and still hang down enough to tuck into his coat.


I wove it in a simple 2/2 twill, with both colours in both warp and weft, which creates a simple and masculine block design. It is similar to a gingham, but I assure you that I had this scarf planned out long before I decided on a whim to make a gingham towel. The sett is 15 ends per inch, which seemed great while I was weaving, but once I unwound the cloth from the loom, it felt so stiff that I thought I had woven it too tight. I washed it in a sink full of Soak (and was shocked at how filthy the water got during that wash) and laid it out to dry overnight. By yesterday morning, I knew it was okay.


Now that it's completely dry, the hand is great: it drapes well and has lots of movement on the bias. Some of the softness of the alpaca is constrained by the weave structure, but it will be interesting to see how the fabric changes with wear, as some of the guard hairs come loose to enhance the sensation of softness. As well, I expect the alpaca will begin to full together with use, as has been my experience in the past with alpaca garments.

In any event, my HLM seems pleased with it, and it will certainly keep him warm once winter comes again to the Great White North.

Snowflake Mittens

In case the last few posts have left you thinking that I'm only making socks, here is a completed pair of mittens to dispel that notion.

I'm sure that I've mentioned before that these are mittens based on a traditional Norwegian pattern. Decades ago, I had a penpal in Norway, and she sent me a pair of mittens for Christmas, one year. They were red and white (the negative-image of these ones, with red where I have white and white where I have blue) and warm sturdy wool, and I wore them for years. By the time they started to show some real wear and tear, I had learned to knit, so I got out some graph paper and sketched out the pattern. I've made several pairs since then, including one for myself out of red and green alpaca, and they lasted for years, as well. A few months ago, I discovered a hole at the end of one finger, and decided maybe it was time to make a new pair.


The alpaca I used before was Andean Treasure from Knit Picks, and the mittens were so soft and warm that I decided to stick with the same yarn. This time I went with a blue and white, and decided to reverse the dark and light colours to make the snowflakes white and the background blue. I am very happy with how they turned out, especially since the weather was so cold for so long. Thankfully it's warming up, now -- soon I'll get to put these away and enjoy the warm weather, but they'll be ready for me next winter, to keep me warm again.

I decided while I was knitting them that I should write up the pattern and post it as a freebie on Ravelry, so other people can also enjoy this simple and lovely mitten pattern. I would love to see some of you make some, though I hope you won't really need a pair until next winter.

download now

The New UFOs

I've had a handful of finished objects (aka FOs) recently, but don't believe for a minute that my total number of projects-on-the-go has decreased. I am nothing if not easily distracted, and I've cast on for another little project or two as the others came off the needles.

I finished my twisted cable socks, which left me with no socks on the needles. Shocking, you must agree. Although I am expecting a skein of yarn from Cookie A's sock club any day now, I knew that I wouldn't be able to wait patiently -- not when I have another quick and simple sock to knit up in the meantime.


I started another of Cat Bordhi's inventions, using her Riverbed architecture, which increases for the gusset along the bottom of the foot, causing the stitches to hug the arch of the foot along the bias. The photo shows the toe of the first sock, a few days ago. I am finished the first and almost to that point on the second sock, so you can tell it's a quickie.


I also finally cast on for my stranded alpaca mittens, when the temperature dropped again. I got past the first thumb gusset, but that's when I put them down to rededicate myself to the twisted-stitch socks. Now I have to rededicate myself to the stranded mittens.

So I'm back to having four (or five or so) UnFinished Objects to keep me busy. Ain't life grand?

I Died For Beauty

I Died For Beauty
by Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth, the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

The shawl turned out lovely, and was delightful right to the end. As the rows get shorter and shorter, it really builds up momentum, and before you know it, it's done. It didn't block out quite as big as the pattern says it should -- I think if I had blocking wires, I could have blocked it much more severely, and made it closer to those dimensions. I intended it to be a neck-scarf more than a shawl, though, so I don't mind if it's smallish. I'd rather keep it smaller and have the garter stitch stay squishy than block it bigger and have it flatter and more drapey.

Who knew that simply putting pink beads on would make it so girly? It is such an adorable bit of fluff, and reminds me of one of my favourite things in the world: red velvet cupcakes with their pink and white frosting (aka Scarlett O'Hara, from Fuss cupcakes -- feel free to pick one up for me, if you're ever in town.)

Now that I have this little alpaca obsession out of the way, I can get back to some of my other projects. I've made a bunch more little crocheted sock yarn hexagons recently, and good progress on the back of my red wooly cardi. I even did some *gasp* sewing!

Emily Dickinson is Holding Me Ransom

Of course I mean that I just can't put down my Emily Dickinson shawl, in the last few days -- I have gotten as far as the beaded portion, and the pink beads make a subtle but lovely sparkle through the lovely alpaca haze of garter stitch.

I have also realized how ingenious the design is, since the rows are going faster and faster as they are slowly decreasing down to nothing. With the bottom-up design, you get the slower and more fiddly rows for the edging done at the beginning, and then everything gets faster and easier as you carry on.

I can really forsee me making another one one of these, in the deep lovely red alpaca laceweight that I have leftover from my previous Ruffle shawl & Veyla gloves. All I have to do is decide what colour of beads to use...

Something New

Since my self-imposed restriction to only use up yarn from the stash this year, I have certainly felt some frustration at the limitations of it. There are many projects that I have seen and admired, many yarns and fabrics that I would love to stock up on, but alas. It certainly hasn't curbed my impulsive nature -- that part of me that makes me want to cast on new things constantly, that disregards my well-made plans to instead skip the queue with any little new project that comes along.

I haven't felt much like finishing things, lately. My suede tote bag is sitting here, probably an hour or two of fiddly hand-stitching away from being done, and while I do look guiltily at it every day, I haven't yet girded my loins and done it. My lovely twisted-stitch sock is also waiting patiently for me to finish the foot and toe.

Instead, like a raven, something sparkly and new has caught my eye.


When I saw the simple and beautiful Emily Dickinson shawl on Ravelry, I was enchanted. It just so happens that I have some laceweight Alpaca sitting around (yeah, I had planned to use it for something else, but sometimes you have to follow your heart) that would be just enough to make it. I went out and bought some lovely rose pink beads and cast on, the other day. It is an interesting shawl, in that the construction is reversed from the norm: for this one, you cast on at the bottom edge and decrease your way to the center top. A bit intimidating, I must admit, when the first line of the pattern is "cast on 545 stitches." Yikes. I am past the lacey points at the bottom, which has cut the stitches by half already, and into the lovely mindless garter stitch body. Have I mentioned how much I love garter stitch? So simple and beautiful and squishy. And this yarn is just completely the softest butteriest alpaca you can imagine. I am really looking forward to wearing this one, which must be why I have been working on it pretty exclusively since I cast it on.


On Tuesday night with the knitters, over a long in-depth analysis of The Wire Season Three, I managed to knit six inches of 2x2 rib for the back of my new wooly cardigan. I am really hoping that this one will turn out as good as it is in my head. The swatch for it looked really good, and the yarn is very soft and round merino, so as long as it doesn't pill horribly (cross your fingers) it should be a winner.

Maybe one of these days I'll have something finished, to show off.

Urban Hat

There is a famous pullover pattern by Patons, the Urban Aran pullover: Jared took it viral several years ago by altering it into a cardigan. Funny thing is that there is a hat in that booklet that goes with that pullover (it's in the photo, if you look.) It isn't even on Ravelry, so if anyone bothered to knit it, they haven't been bragging about it.

What can I say: I am a wimp, in wintertime.
I spend six months of the year shivering, with chattering teeth, bundled up under layers of woolens. Even though it hasn't gotten terribly cold, yet, I have felt the impending winter. Wind has been squeaking past my legion of hats, to chill my ears. I decided to do something about it, and I remembered this Urban hat. I had a couple of skeins of Berocco's worsted weight alpaca in my stash, and thought that surely a double layer of ribbing made of alpaca, knit at a nice tight gauge, would be sure to keep out the wind.

Mmmm nice and snug.

This is a Hat

I am telling you that because no one in their right mind would look at this firm little tube of ribby knitting and think they were looking at a hat. Nevertheless, it is one, and it even fits my big head. I've checked. Several times.

All will become clear when it is finished, little grasshopper.

Veyla

Ysolda has started a new little collection of knitting projects, her second, called Whimsical Little Knits 2. I love her style and was immediately sucked in by the little lacy fingerless gloves, called Veyla.


I could have dug out some ivory sock yarn to make a classic lacy glove, but instead I dove into the stash for some leftover Dicentra laceweight alpaca in a fiery, racy red. Since it was too thin, I separated it into two balls and then wound them together, to double it up. The result is a completely airy featherweight fabric, lighter than air and twice as soft.

The pattern was easy enough, despite looking as though it might be somewhat complicated. I blocked the lace cuff before picking up stitches for the hand, to make sure I got a nice sharp lace from it. Ysolda suggested blocking after completion of the glove, which I think wouldn't open the lace up enough. After I finished them, I did block the hand while keeping the cuff dry, which seemed to work well enough, and evened out the stitches admirably.


Sewing on a handful of buttons was the final touch. I also had the buttons in my sewing stash, so overall, this was (in a sense) a free project, as well as a nice distraction from the cotton cardigan (which I finally picked up again last night.)

Starry Summer Affair

I did make it to the yarn store, and they did have another skein, and I did finish the last eight rows (yes, only eight rows from the second skein) of the shrug yesterday morning. Of course it's oppressively hot here today, so I hope you appreciate me putting some alpaca on my overheated self to show it off.


This design was originally called a Summer Affair, but since I changed the lace pattern to the aforementioned Estonian star stitch, I changed the name, too. It makes me think of a starry summer night, just starting to get a bit of chill in the air, and me putting this little shrug on as I take a romantic stroll along the banks of the Seine with, like, Idris Elba (or maybe a stroll along the banks of the North Saskatchewan with hometown boy Nathan Fillion?)


Anyway, it turned out quite pretty, although I won't point out to you the things I did wrong, which are glaringly obvious to me. I will mention that I shortened the peplum a bit by decreasing the short rows a bit faster than the pattern called for. I also sort of wonder if I shouldn't figure out a way to block the lace edging. It looks sort of cool all ruffly like that, but I could block it to make more of a scalloped edge, although blocking it would be a bit of a pain, if I really want to do it right. As yet undecided.

All in all, it is a cute and quick little project (would have also been inexpensive had I not had to buy that second ball of yarn, but now I guess I have lots left over for some other little bit of alpaca froth, when the weather cools down again. I'm thinking a reversible cable scarf on teeny needles...)

Starry night

What's that you say? You didn't believe that my alpaca lace was going to look all that much better, when blocked? Feast your eyes on this:

Oh, estonian star stitch... almost too lovely to be real.

The New Projects

I've been puttering away on a couple of cute summer projects. One of them is a pullover from Verena Knitting magazine (ravelry) in aran-weight cotton which I got with a birthday gift certificate in May (thanks to my sisters.) The yarn is fat and soft and squishy -- it really fulfills the promise of its name: Cloud Cotton. Of course knitting with it is much faster than knitting with the DK, sock, or laceweight that I've been using in my other projects. I'm already finished the back of this pullover. Don't get your hopes up for a really quick finish, though -- I still have the front and two long sleeves to go.


In the meantime, I've been using that gorgeous alpaca laceweight yarn I got at the Fiber Festival to make a little shrug (ravelry) that I fell in love with. Mind you, I didn't fall in love with the lace pattern used in the design, so I spent a day or two swatching different patterns with different needles until I found something I liked. This is an Estonian star pattern (which I borrowed from Knitty's Laminaria shawl pattern) done on a huge needle (US9, or 5.5mm.) It has an interesting three-dimensional texture right now, and doesn't look like much, but as is the case with lace, it should open up and flatten out and show its beauty with a stern blocking once this piece is knit. Then comes the real fun -- the seaming, the peplum, the lace edging, the showing-off.

The Garter Stitch Cardigan

So I finally managed to snag my photographer for a few minutes, tonight, and get a few shots of the completed garter stitch cardigan.

This cardigan was a really simple knit -- not much for shaping or anything -- but is pretty satisfying once it's finished. The whole thing is garter stitch, so I didn't have to purl once the whole time: great tv and pub knitting. And it's a nice light weight, since it is made of sock yarn.


When I decided to make this cardigan, I went to my LYS and poked through their sock yarns for a while, trying to find the perfect one. They had the yarn called for in the pattern (Garnstudio Fabel) but not in a colour scheme that appealed to me. I found another one that I liked, but alas, not enough in stock. Then I fell in love with the colours in this Supersocke. The combo of greens with pinks has always been a favourite of mine, and these ones really pop. The repeat is nice and long, so I knew I would get beautiful stripes.


Turns out that the length of the repeat was a blessing and a curse. While it looks great on one half of the cardigan, and on the opposite sleeve, the body of the right side got a little funky. The repeat wasn't long enough to stripe there (since every row goes all the way from the front hem up over the shoulder and down to the back hem) so it started to pool. As I mentioned in a previous post, I started to alternate two balls at that point, to try to minimize the pooling. It worked well, but the stripes along that side still were very thin and random, rather than nicely defined like the rest of the sweater. I could obsess about this, but I'm choosing to look at it as a design element, instead.


The one alteration I made with this cardigan was to narrow the sleeves a bit. I mentioned somewhere along the way that they were way too wide and baggy, so I narrowed them by a bit on the first side I knit (right side.) Then I just revamped everything a bit to account for that, and measured twice (or three times) as I replicated my changes on the left side. Frankly, I made it a bit harder than it needed to be, but I like the sleeve as it is now: a bit loose but not hanging in my soup.

The sweater is finished off with a cute little crochet edging out of a double strand of bright pink alpaca. I am not much of a crocheter, but it still went fast, and I am really proud of how it turned out. I think it makes a nice finish (and of course is silky soft.)


Lastly, I thought of some sweet buttons I had in my sewing box, for a sewing project that I gave up on long ago. They were the perfect shade of green and really look fantastic on this. Blissful.

the Aftermath

I managed to leave the fiber festival with only a few things: a knitting pattern book, a weaving pattern book, a couple of sets of buttons, and a lovely cake of laceweight alpaca. I have a plan for this little bit of yarn, and it will be lovely.

Last night, after a Herculean session of sweater finishing, I managed to complete the garter stitch cardigan. I have to admit that I usually choose projects that don't require much finishing, so sitting for hours sewing pieces together isn't something I'm used to. I don't have photos of it yet, but it turned out pretty awesome.

All I can leave you with today is a photo of the gauge swatches for my next two cottony summer tops.

Onward.

Totally Worth It

The shawl is off the needles, after a hand-cramping evening of casting off. Of course it took many hours to do so, and I was starting to panic about running out of yarn on the skein I was using (not that I didn't have another skein left over, but it was unwound, and I didn't relish the idea of winding a new ball just to finish the cast off row.) After all my worry, I had just enough to finish. It looks great; the ruffle itself is super ruffly and awesome, totally worth the time and effort, in the end. It seems smallish, but once I block it, it will grow substantially. After all, I always take Elizabeth Zimmermann's advice to "block shawls severely." Photos will follow.

For now, I'm going to have a relaxing bath and catch up on some reading.

The Monster

Though I am nearing the end of the Red Ruffle shawl, it is pretty slow-going, now. The lace portion is completed, and I am working on the ruffle, which requires several intense increase rows to start it. Having finished the increases, I'm left with slightly over 2200 stitches per row. Yikes. And it isn't even mindless stockingette at this point, but more like a K15-P15 ribbing, which requires some attention to keep from screwing it up. Enough attention that I can't drag it to the pub for Knit Night. My progress has been steady, but slow, since each row takes something just short of two hours. And I have many more rows to go.


I haven't been posting much progress on other projects, since I have been concentrating on getting the shawl off the needles, but rest assured that I have other things on the go. I have cut out a cottony springtime skirt that I've been meaning to make for ages, and I cut out all the triangles for another hexagon quilt (but we'll talk about that later), and I've even measured out a couple of warps for my next stashbusting weaving project. Things are happening behind the scenes at Chez Crafty, and patience will be rewarded.

Red Ruffles

During the last opera season, I convinced my HLM to go see Carmen (under the mistaken impression that we were actually going to see Carmina Burana, which goes to show just how friggin' cultured I am) and we both enjoyed it a lot. While watching the sexy spanish siren do her thing, I quickly realized that I needed a hot red shawl like the one she had.

Do you know how hard it is to find yarn in just the perfect shade of red? I have been trolling around online yarn shops for months, squinting at all shades from poppy to cherry to magenta to wine... trying to find the shade in my imagination. I stumbled upon it (some decadent alpaca laceweight) on etsy one opportune day, and fortunately it arrived here the same shade as it was on my computer screen. Gorgeous.

The shawl pattern I chose is lacy, romantic, and has a sexy ruffle that apparently moves "enticingly" as you move. Sounds very 'Carmen' to me. I am really loving knitting it, even though it's the first time in a long while that I really have to concentrate on every single stitch in a knitting project (like, did I mention that I made four mistakes just knitting the gauge swatch?) Honestly, though, I forgot how much fun it is to knit lace.

On an unrelated topic, have you seen the Sock Summit website is up? Talk about enticing.