Category Archives: knitting

Around the block

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I’ve just finished a cute mini-wrap using the Citron pattern (LGT Ravelry). I used some of the lovely mocha-colored yarn that my grandmother gave me (spun from a blend of her alpacas’ wool, although sadly not by me – more on the spinning front in another post…).

The knitting on this one went really fast – I finished it in two otherwise pretty crazy weeks – and only involved a small amount of cursing (mostly limited to the time I accidentally pulled a ton of stitches off the needles). The pattern itself is pretty AND pretty straightforward, but does require blocking the project at the end. I’ve never blocked anything and was little daunted by the idea, but it had to be done.

But… how to do it? A quick search on Google reminded me (with apologies to Tolkien): Go not to the webs for council, for they will say both no and yes. Some people say hot water, some people say cold water. Some people say dunking, other people say spraying. Some people say special equipment, some people say a towel and straight pins.  In the end, I based my plan of action on this really helpful page at Yarn Harlot. I will add to the chorus of comments at the bottom of that page that the yarn-through-the-top thing is genius. Pure blocking genius.

Here are the before, middle, and after shots:

Another ruffley success

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I’ve just finished another ruffle scarf, and I (obviously) love this pattern. The thing that I can’t get over is the transformation that happens between when it is on the needles and when it finally comes off. It basically looks like a lumpy snake to start with:

But, then the ruffles emerge stitch by stitch as you bind off, until you get this:

(Ugh – the colors are all over the place with these pictures – the first picture is the best match to the actual color!)

This particular pattern uses Yarn Overs to expand three times, going from 256 cast on stitches to 1024 bind off stitches in just a few rows. This also creates some very pretty, lace-like holes in the final scarf:

Despite carefully following the pattern’s guidelines about yardage and weight, I still had to run out to my LYS to get another skein of yarn half-way through the row just before binding off. Ugh. So I added a row with the sudden bounty of yarn at my disposal, which actually gives the outer edge a little more weight – a nice touch, I think. So, it was a blessing in disguise in the end, but still annoying that I simply can’t get the yardage right in my projects right now (more on the cursed market bag another time – let’s just say I was a little sheepish as I admitted I had not one but TWO skeins I needed to match dye lots on).

Further adventures with felt

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I never actually admitted what happened to my (in hindsight over-) enthusiastic offer to knit Redbeard whatever he wanted, did I? Hmm, well, the good news is that I have found the perfect yarn for making a felted scarf. It is soft and pliable, even after being felted. Not stiff in any way, or even scratchy.

Too bad I was trying to make a glasses case with it.

Actually, even setting the yarn aside, this thing was just not the right shape for glasses. On the upside – it IS the perfect shape for knitting needles, so I now have my very own needle case….

 

Feeling All Spindly

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A couple weeks ago a friend of mine and I were talking about how fun it would be to learn how to spin, and now, lo and behold, we spin! She invited a veteran spinner (and spinning teacher) to our small knitting group (average size = 4) and away we went. Our teacher was great: patient, low-key and, most importantly, patient. I came away with a spindle of a pretty green and surprisingly yarn-like substance:

The stuff on the right is what I spun. Me! And it started like the stuff on the left! It was kind of magical. It even – and this is the importantly part -continued to work outside of the knitting group. Amazing! Why am I still sitting here typing when I could go spin?

Hitchhiker

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Now that it has been revealed to its recipient, I can release pictures of the hitchhiker scarf that I’ve been working on. This was a lot of fun, though a bit “back-loaded” such that the rows get longer and longer in a kind of ever-lengthening tunnel of garter stitching. Luckily, I had picked a yarn that I loved and so it was fun to watch the patterns in the colors emerge:

This is a pretty light-weight scarf, so I needed to give it to my mom in the summer so that she can actually use it. (Ah, Vermont….)

 

Airplane knitting

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Greetings from Charlotte Airport! I’ve got an insanely long layover here on my way to France (!) for a conference. I’ve got a presentation for the Real World that I really need to get ready, but the 8-hour flight plus 4-hour layover still gives me plenty of time to knit, too. I’ve got two airplane projects: Another ruffle scarf  (Why yes, I do re-re-read my favorite books, too, thanks for asking!) and a NEW pattern (gasp!) – a very cool looking Hitchhiker scarf (LGT Ravelry).

Hitchhiker is up first, using sockyarn for the first time with teeny tiny needles. Okay, US 3 needles, which I know really only qualify as tiny OR teeny. Possibly toony. Definitely not tinny. BUT, I usually knit worsted weight (because I’m impatient and like immediate results) and so I feel like I’m knitting in miniature.

Though, at the moment I’m enjoying a beer. There is a local brewery that has a presence at Charlotte Airport that is almost  entirely unlike a pub. Still – I’m having a pint of Carolina Beer Company’s Blonde and planning to get some knitting in.

Another scarf completed

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I finally finished the Keyhole scarf, tassels and all. I’d hoped that doing the second keyhole would seem so much easier after all the knitting I’ve done, but apparently I’m still not cut out for keyhole knitting.

Here’s a quick test: can you tell which keyhole was first and which was last?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, me neither!

Oh, well. The whole thing still came out pretty well as a whole scarf – even the tassels. 🙂

 

Knitting AND beer updates

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A rare occurrence – something to say about both of the topics of this blog at once. Alas, I have not yet figured out how to knit beer. BUT… Redbeard and I just took possession of a kegerator (did I just say that?) – thus completing our transformation from wine snobs in our 20s to frat boys in our 30s.

In hindsight, it was inevitable that we’d get a kegerator eventually. First, bottling is the least-good part of brewing, particularly because the yeast does insist on having CLEAN bottles to work with. So, now we can keg our own brews, which I am already looking forward to. Second, two of our three local breweries, including the one just a few miles away, don’t offer a lot of their brews in bottles. And our LBS (local beer store) stopped doing growlers recently.

No home brew yet, but you can’t leave a kegerator empty. Even though I’m new to this, I know that’s just not right. So, Redbeard went out yesterday and bought a keg of Swamphead’s Cottonmouth, which is one of my favorite summer beers. Light, but still full of tasty goodness. We made fish and chips for dinner, because, well – if there was ever a dinner that went with beer, this is it. But, we just got a lot of foam instead of actual beer. The crack team of experts we consulted (i.e. the tubes) suggested that the beer was too warm or over-pressured (perhaps this makes the beer too anxious?). The beer did seem a little warm, so we adjusted the pressure and will see tonight. With much willpower we resisted the urge to have beer for breakfast. Though, now that we have a kegerator, all things seem possible.

KNITTING! I have learned a very important new thing. Don’t tuck in your loose ends until you are 100% sure that you will not need them ever again. Which for me means do not tuck until 5 minutes before you give the project to its intended recipient. Luckily, I am a crappy tucker, and so it was irritating but not impossible to untuck as I frogged the handles on my felt bag project.

More happily, I have also just got Sandra McIver’s new Knit, Swirl! book and have been drooling over it, trying to maintain some sense of perspective on my knitting speed and free time (I found five sweaters in five minutes that I want to make for five people). I am torn between knitting one for myself first (selfish, but only I will have to suffer any mistakes) and knitting one for someone I love (who will thus have to love the sweater regardless of any mistakes). As far as I can tell the technique and pattern itself seems very straightforward – I will have to learn a couple new things, including how to cast on one billion stitches and how to join them into a round without twisting. But, this seems very doable, even for my meager skills.

So, I am knitting like crazy on my Magic Thief scarf (almost done!) so that I can justify starting a new project. Which I can do with an endless supply of beer to sustain me.

An analogy

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I’ve decided that knitting has some important similarities to baking. Actually, I’m sure that there are lots and lots of similarities, as I think about it just now. But, the one – the key one – that matters right now is that if you’re going to go off-recipe, you need to think through all the other things that might need adjusting to deal with your crazy off-recipe plans.

So – I’m making another felted bag and decided to modify the same pattern I’ve used before. I wanted to make the bag oblong instead of circular, though, and change the sizing a bit, so I knew that I’d end up with a different number of stitches. No problem. When I got to the point last week where I needed to start the handles, I got out a pencil, counted my stitches and worked out how to adjust the pattern.

The circular bag pattern calls for K25 and BO25 back and forth, so that you have four patches of 25 stitches awaiting four spiffy handle straps to be knitted on them, which will then be paired and kitchener stitched together for two handles. That equals (carry the 1, cross the ‘t’…) 200 stitches. But my oblong bag only had 152 stitches, so I dutifully recalculated – I wanted the handles to be the same width, so I shrunk the BO stitches to accommodate 150 instead of 200. I dithered a little about having the smaller gap, but decided it would be good. So, off I went…. I do the first the first handle strap. Ta Da! I do the second and then stop to think about whether I want to attach this strap to the one that I just knitted because… (anyone see where this is going?) I want the handles to be oriented like a tote bag, and so I need to make sure that the right… straps… are stitched… togeth- oh, crap.

Yep – I’d kept the equal spacing of the circular bag pattern. So, I’ve got bag straps that just sort of randomly sprout up around the bag. I have seriously considering just rolling with it, and having a crazy freak bag that only a mother could love. But, no… I’ll frog it back down the rim tonight and try again. This time I think I’ll use a calculator… (because that is clearly the problem here, nothing to do with my logic-type thinking abilities)

Who cares that it’s in the 90s?

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I finally just wrapped up Project #2  from my mom’s visit – Morehouse Farm’s alligator scarf. This was too hard to resist, despite the already ridiculously hot weather. I bought the baby alligator version of the pattern, which is the perfect size for three-year-olds, such as my son. It’s also the perfect size for the moms of three-year-olds, as well as their sisters, dads, friends, and cousins. In fact, especially here in Gator-central, there is no actual limit to the number of people who this scarf is perfect for.

As an added bonus, it was shockingly easy to knit (so long as I was paying enough attention to actually count my stitches).