Hat With Braids

I decided to grow my hair long again. It's a cycle I go through every few years: get bored with it being short, grow it out, get bored with it being long, cut it short. Well, right now I'm in that awkward phase that makes it really hard for you to remember that you want it long, since you want so badly to get it cut so it doesn't look like a disaster all the time. The only thing to do is try not to think about it, and make yourself a cute Norwegian hat with braids, that will remind you how awesome it is to have long hair.


I've been craving one of these hats for months, since I first saw it on the Drops site. The other day I was searching for something in one of my storage boxes when I found some Woobu left over from my Jengu Woobu Aran. I immediately thought of how great it would be for this hat.

Turns out that the hat called for a heavier weight of yarn, so I held it double for the pattern, and ended up using a different gauge, which meant I had to recalculate all the numbers, and I didn't make it quite as long... but really, it's still essentially that hat. (Plus I used a lot more yarn than the pattern suggests, to make the braids, so they would be as thick as they are in the photo -- and as thick as they will be when I have finally grown my hair long.)

Don't you love it?

Waste No Time

Why wait to cast on a new pair of socks, when I have so many ideas and so much yarn?


I decided to try another of Cat Bordhi's ingenious designs, next -- her Coriolis pattern (ravelry) and started out by making a type of toe that I've never tried before. She calls this the Moccasin toe and it's pretty darn comfy. Hopefully the rest of the sock will follow suit.

Clapotis

As I've already been wearing it for several days (i.e. since the last Pub Knitting Night) it seems only fair that I finally show off some pictures of my finished Clapotis.


I made it from Blue Moon's Luscious Single Silk in the RSC exclusive colour My Blue Heaven, which is an amazing mix of blues and teals, with a dash of purple. The yarn is soft and silky (duh) and decadent. I loved knitting this thing. The weight of the yarn makes it a bit bulky to wear around the neck as a scarf (as you see in the original pattern photos) but not impossible.

I did one extra repeat of the straight rows, to add a smidgen of length to the wrap, but left the width as written. I had loads of yarn left over (like, half of the second skein) so I could have made it much bigger, but this way I have a little bit of the LSS left for a nice cowl or something.


I chose not to block this wrap, although I'd planned to all along. I thought it would help the dropped stitches to lose any kink that might be left in them, and also it would make the two ends of the wrap a little tidier and less pointy (since the natural shape of it is a parallelogram, not a rectangle.) After it was completed and I put it on the first time, though, I realized how great it is that the stockingette columns curl a little bit and give the whole thing some dimension. Also, all those little floats curve to the inside of the wrap, and are soft against the skin. I decided not to block it at all, even though the pointy ends bug me a bit.

I love this wrap. It is toasty warm and snuggly and beautiful. Now I know why ten thousand other knitters have made (at least) one.

After Years of Anticipation

I know you're probably all waiting to see how I have dressed up Miss Bennet for her inaugural project, but sadly, I am still waiting for a boat shuttle, some bobbins, and a sley hook, before I can get started. (Fear not, they are on the way.) Instead, I have occupied myself with some quilting, finally bringing the Wiz quilt back from obscurity and making some good progress on it. I have also dug out an old pattern from Knitty and started it.

Clapotis is a knitting blog classic.
There are over 10 000 of them on Ravelry. Seriously. Ten thousand. When I was still a wee beginner at knitting, I wanted to make this so bad, but the price of the Lion & Lamb it calls for was just too steep, yet that yarn is so beautiful that I couldn't bear to knit the pattern in anything less. Enter Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They have a yarn called Luscious Single Silk that is pretty similar to the Lion & Lamb. When I saw the colours in my Rockin' Sock Club skein, I knew I wanted to use it for Clapotis, so I ordered some of the Luscious Single Silk in that colourway.

I am nearly done the increase rows and ready to start the straight knitting. And loving every damn minute.

The Jengu Woobu Aran

Finished on Friday morning before work, but I didn't really get to rock it out until today. I am so so happy with how it turned out -- soft and snug and cabley.

As I've mentioned before, I made many modifications to the pattern, since the yarn I used was a smaller gauge (sport vs. aran) and the size I made was bigger than the pattern included. I widened the berry stitch section in the center by a couple of berries, to keep the overall stitch-pattern proportions right, then added a few stitches to either side of the front and back, to make the whole sweater a bit wider. I did waist decreases, bust increases, and short rows to lengthen the back ribbing. I lowered the front neckline by an inch or so (thank goodness.) I made the sleeves about an inch shorter than the pattern would have them. For the diamond cable on the sides, I stopped the diamond and made it into a zig zag after the beginning of the armhole decreases. (The pattern didn't say to do this, but the original pattern photo in Vogue Knitting has them this way, and I liked how it looked.)

I think that's about all the modifications I made...

The Woobu yarn itself is great -- soft and full. I wouldn't call it a sport weight, though, more of a DK to light worsted. I almost got gauge with it, actually, which saved me a lot of grief, math-wise. And knitting with it was so nice. I would totally knit with this yarn again, for more soft cozy sweaters. Only time will tell how it wears.

Overall, a very satisfying project, from beginning to end. Thanks for the sweater design, Michael Kors!

So Close

I headed out of town for a couple of days of R&R at my folks' place. There was much relaxation, jigsaw puzzles, knitting. Not to mention a hot tub. Pretty heavenly, really.


I finished the sleeves for the Jengu Woobu Aran, while I was there. I did both at once, and they were quick -- they took a handful of hours, from start to finish. When I got home, I blocked the back and sleeves of the sweater on the floor, and when my HLM saw them, he thought the sleeves looked like I had knitted a pair of panties. Warm wooly aran panties. Hmmm something to think about...

I would love to keep chatting, but I have a sweater to put together. Stay tuned!

This Week Chez Crafty

Well I had my last weaving class on Monday night, and none too soon, since my favourite Local Boy Turned Screen Star**, Nathan Fillion, has a new tv series starting next Monday. Yay! I am super-excited about it, and hope it catches enough interest in the fickle public eye that it will last a while.

Meantime, I don't have much to show off, just more of the same -- I have finished and blocked the front of the Jengu Woobu Aran (photo included for proof)
and made a lot of progress on the back. Another week or so and I should have this one ready to wear.

In related news, we had our first meeting of the Post-Apocalyptic-Readiness Knitting Guild at the pub on Sunday night: there was food, beer, knitting, conversation and hilarity, and a few knitterly mistakes. Much fun was had, and it seems like it will be a regular thing. I think it is in my best interest to bring simpler projects in the future, though -- the aran designs might be a bit much for a brain saturated with Guinness.

**Lest we forget the other precious Local Boys, like Callum (did I ever casually mention how he popped by my work one day?) or Bruce.

A Weaver is Born

So I spent an hour or so making a twisted fringe on my woven scarf, and then I wet-finished it (which is basically the same as blocking in knitting, but by a different name.) Now it is dry and lovely. As with knitting, the finishing makes all the difference. When it first comes off the loom, it is quite stiff from being made under so much tension. After it is soaked thoroughly, the fibers can all move around a bit and get comfortable with their neighbours. Now that it's dried, it is very soft and has a lot more movement. (Hard to explain, but if you felt it before and after, you'd know what I mean.) As I suspected, the camera doesn't really pick up the iridescent quality of the fabric. If you see it in person, it's quite something. (Click the photo for a ridiculously big image, where you can make out the pattern more clearly.)

Secondly, here is a little progress shot of my Jengu Woobu Aran.
I have just bound off a few stitches for the front neckline. A few more inches and it will be done and I can start the back. It's been a bit of a challenge to keep three different stitch patterns (which all have repeats of different lengths) straight, as well as adjusting the shaping of the thing to fit me. Hopefully it all pays off in the end.

A New Hope

My yarn parcel from Blue Moon Fiber Arts finally arrived. It contained (among other things that we'll talk about another time) three big beautiful skeins of their Woobu yarn (a wool & bamboo blend) in the colour Jengu, which is one of their Spirit colours, thusly named because it is a sort of 'barely there' colour, just a pale pale tint. The idea came upon me a while back to use one of these colours to make an aran sweater, one that is almost but not quite the traditional natural colour of sheep's wool.


I wanted to make the chic little aran sweater (ravelry) designed by Michael Kors for Vogue Knitting Holiday '05 (yes I am four years behind in my knitting queue... what's your point?) I made a handful of generously sized swatches (very out of character for me, I know) because the gauge of my chosen yarn is different than the recommended, and because the size I'm making is one not included in the pattern. After a needle change and an extensive knitting/measuring of the various stitch patterns, I finally cast on for the front, yesterday morning.

I had to make charts for the three stitch patterns, since there are only written directions in VK. My chart cheat sheet is only in the photo so you can see how the yarn is just baaaarely blue. It is slightly variegated, but I'm not sure if it's apparent in the picture or if I'm just imagining it because I know it's there. The yarn itself is soft and sproingy. Enough bamboo to make it shine and give it some weight, but still a lovely soft and elastic wool. And the skeins are huge. I couldn't even use my ball winder, since they are so big. I wound one whole skein by hand the day they arrived, and was shocked at the size of the ball. Don't believe me? Here is a photo of it beside a well-known landmark, to give you some idea of the size:

Huge.

I have dubbed the sweater the Jengu Woobu Aran, which I think is great mostly because it sounds like something George Lucas would come up with. (I may be a geek, but at least I'm consistent.)

Socks that Really Rock

So this year I decided to treat myself and join the Rockin' Sock Club over at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Basically what happens is that every two months, they send me some of their amazing yarn and a pattern by an amazing sock designer. It's all a mystery until it arrives. The yarn and pattern are exclusive to the sock club, and are unavailable to anyone else all year. For me, it's the surprise-package-in-the-mail aspect of it much more than the exclusivity. I have been wanting to join this club for ages, so this year I finally took the plunge.

My first package arrived just prior to the distraction of my Noro Silk Garden scarf, right as I was finishing up the sweater. Not only was there some incredible yarn inside (all shades of blues and teals and lavender) there was also a little bag of opalescent beads and a beautiful pattern by Sivia Harding to bring them all together. I dug a little deeper and found a sticker and a lapel pin and a keychain... honestly, this is the best sock club ever.


Having finished my other works in progress, I swatched and started the socks the other day. The yarn is gorgeous, variegated but solid enough to really let the pattern shine. It is lightweight sock yarn, but still very round and even. The pattern is simple but ingenious. Squishy and lovely and snuggly socks, coming right up.