And so it goes.

1. Ah, January. George Stromboloupoulous is back with new episodes (also you know what’s totally compelling? Being Erica. And it’s chock full of shots of Victoria College U of T), and the weather forecast is cold enough to freeze snot. 

2. Jojoland Melody, you may be pretty, but a robust superwash wool, you are not. If I revisit you it’ll be for sweaters or something that might survive, um, a season. Or something less lacey. (See the pilling sloughing off the foot in great huge fluffs? Yeah.)

3. It’s the biggest bandwagon since Clapotis, but: I welcome the beret into my life. Thanks (blog-free) Dee for this neat little treat. Curly-haired folks, it is so very nice about keeping your head warm while not squishing it. Hat-hair free experience!

4. First real projects of the new year were both Noro. My Streakers Shrug (pics still needed!) and this teeny little pillow with leftovers from the Iro Emerald cardi. (The classic 2-stripe repeat.) The crazy thing? I still have about a whole skein’s worth left.

5. Next knitting is some socks with nummy Lorna’s Laces from Christmas, and, well, a gift that’s been lingering for months. Stay tuned…

Year End

1. Streakers Shrug, 2. Kiri Shawl, 3. Mitred Mitts, 4. Feather & Fan Blanket, 5. Children’s Cotton Hat (LMKG), 6. Emerald, 7. Nereid Gloves, 8. Maine Morning Mitts, 9. Mini Cardi, 10. Top-down Raglan Take 2, 11. Noro Striped Scarf, 12. Forest Canopy Shawl, 13. Medrith’s Little Lace, 14. Laptop Cozy, 15. ICARUS SHAWL, 16. Thrummed Mittens, 17. Lion Brand Top-down  Raglan, 18. Sari purse, 19. Odessa Hat, 20. Chinese Charm Bag (And a few other bits and gifts I don’t have pics of…)

Skimming over those pics, and my Ravelry project pages, I think it’s been a pretty good knitting year. I tried new yarns and patterns, and knit a little bit of everything. Looking back at my post for this past New Year (in which I laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more about how I was going to “knit all my stash” this year… I probably managed no more than half of that list), I gave myself the resolution of mixing in big ticket projects with the more utilitarian ones. I think I succeeded more than I consciously thought I did, because I ended up with things like the Feather & Fan blanket and the Emerald Iro cardigan. They were both unplanned knits, but pretty well luxury knits too, and I enjoy seeing and using them. Feather & Fan is also a nice memento for the amount of lace knitting I did this year: I finished four shawls in total, branched into A Gathering of Lace, and spent a lot of imaginary knitting time in Victorian Lace Today (real knitting time to follow in the new year).

This year I made friends with Noro. I was very stubborn about Noro for a long time. I got bugged by the ubiquity. Then I wandered into Urban Yarns in Vancouver back in May and introduced myself to Silk Garden and before I knew it I was knitting a striped scarf. Then came some Iro on discount, and my mitred mittens really are the most cheerful thing to put on first thing on a cold dark winter morning. (Recognizable, too: they started an entire conversation about knitting the other day when the lady who was checking my groceries saw them and asked me if I was on Ravelry.) It’s not a yarn for every day or every use, but well-used when used well. After I finish the Streakers Shrug that’ll probably finish the current jag, but I’ll confess there are a few skeins of Silk Garden (which wears so very well) still snuggled in one of my stash baskets. 

And speaking of stash, well, I may have accumulated some of that this year too. (Why yes, those ARE drink parasols in my laceweight basket up there. There are several kilometres of yarn in that basket. They need to do something while they wait for their number to come up.) My friends enabled me to evil superfun things like yarn festivals, and sadder things like yarn store closings, and suddenly I had a collection. The end result is the last few times I’ve been into a yarn shop, I have a hard time coming up with something to buy since I know what’s already at home.

This year I’m happy to stop collecting and just think about the knitting. I won’t set any yarn diet rules for myself, but I’ll think first about the projects, and see what I can do with what’s in front of me. Truth is I’ll probably never completely get rid of my low stashing reflexes. So while planning for the unplanned I’ll try to knit a few high-yarn-volume monkeys off my back too.

I’m terrible at resolutions but getting better at thinking about what changes might help areas of my life. For this year, I’m going to work on two things: to enjoy my knitting as much as I can, and knit something big that’s for myself. I’ve gotten much better at taking my knitting with me and getting knitting in where I can, but in the last few months it turned into less fun and more of a buffer between me and the drag commute.

I need to get away from knitting being just a to-do list, and remember that it’s the reason I get to end up with happy things cozy lace blankets and bright mittens. So after I’ve finished the last few things hanging around we’ll see what’s in store. Happy New Year everyone.

Kiri Shawl (FO)

Wow, so the midpoint of the holidays has just passed. I have one precious week left to squeeze in as much visiting and knitting and reading and food and drink as is humanly possible before the real world comes back and as soon as I had a few hours to sit by myself I wanted to knit this and read that and maybe eat some of those and do it all and then it became too exciting and oh let’s have a nap instead. My entire family had a ton of fun on the Wii this week too. Glenna and I played a lot of Dance Dance Revolution, which must be the most fun you can have without leaving your living room. (We’re barely into Basic level though. I think if you want to succeed at Expert you need to have something like a controlled seizure.)

I really limited myself on Christmas gift knitting this year, because my time available and rate of knitting ebbed to an epic low. But this was the big item I completed, a Kiri shawl for my aunt:

Pattern: Kiri, by Polly Outhwaite
Yarn: S.R. Kertzer Ovation (mohair/silk), 2 balls plus a little of a 3rd
Needles: 4.5mm circular
Size: 68 x 35 inches after blocking (here it’s scrunchled up a little like a scarf)

This is some of the Ovation I bought at Cloth and Clay last year (over the Christmas break actually). I’d queued the pattern months and months and months ago, but of course it’s the deadline that invites starting more than anything else. The only thing I wasn’t totally happy with was that the variegated yarn is not a very good match for the pattern. The mottled colouring obscures most of the pretty bits of the pattern. (But, if you’re looking for a good variegated yarn that avoids weird pooling, this one is for you.)

I still love that the experience of knitting lace rewards future lace knitting. One chart repeat was enough to understand what was happening, and the pattern itself is not challenging. It was one of those ridiculous sort of projects where the end half went faster than the first half, possibly because once you just sit yourself down and knit through chart repeat after repeat, it just grows. 

The only thing that would hold me back from recommending it as a first lace project is if you were also new to mohair yarn. (Learning lace on mohair would be exactly like trying to learn to drive on a stick shift: you can do it, but how many challenges do you want to give yourself?) And there are so many other yarns this would work with too. I love Jen’s version in Alpaca Fino laceweight.

Super Handy Blocking Tip That Is So Useful I Can’t Take Credit For It:

Thanks Rochelle for this piece of advice which works like a charm. For a triangular shawl, while still wet, fold it in half down the centre rib around a blocking wire. Slide another wire through the top edges and pin at a 90 degree angle. Pin each point together with its mirror image. This means you can use less pins overall, and you are assured of producing a perfectly symmetrical blocked piece. Super-fantastico.

Next I’m going to work on finishing the Streakers Shrug this week and finish up a few bits and pieces that have been hanging around. Then a whole new year of knitting starts.

Sleighbells ring

Signs that Christmas is only a few days away:

• Those leftover shortbread cookies and fruitcake slices sound like a perfectly good breakfast, actually
• You switch your morning beverage from tea to hot chocolate
• Gift knitting is almost finished blocking next to you on the floor
• You’ve already had three Swiss Chalet festive special dinners and see no reason not to go for a fourth or, nay, even a seventh
• The annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is complete
• Your friend who is about to visit from Vancouver asks if you survived the Snowpocalypse and is just calling to tell you he’s packing all the wool he owns
• You’re so far ahead with gifts that you start to wonder what you could possibly have left out, and hope the discovery comes when the stores are still open

Gifts are on the go, one last shopping trip is up today, and after tomorrow I might do something crazy like knit something for myself or read a book. I can’t live at this speed.

Fa la la la

1. Please let me introduce the following recipe (adapted from everywhere) into your life, for it has vastly increased the quality of mine:

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
large pinch salt
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix/cream together butter and sugar. Original directions say to do this with an electric mixer until “fluffy.” (I have no electric mixer, but I do have a wooden spoon, really soft butter, and a good knitting mixing arm.) Mix in vanilla and salt. Mix in cornstarch and flour until it comes together into dough. Mix in butterscotch chips. Press into ungreased 9×9 inch square pan (or whatever is closest). Bake for 12-14 min or until golden brown at edges. Score into squares before baking, or before baked shortbread has fully cooled. (Or, break warm shortbread into cookie-sized pieces.)

2. Anyone else on Facebook addicted to GeoChallenge yet? Fricking Slovakia/Slovenia/Croatia. AND SURINAM/BURKINA FASO.

3. I’m so far behind on my very very small amount of Christmas knitting it is too laughable even to post about. So I probably shouldn’t have cast on for something entirely un-gift-related yesterday (the Streakers Shrug, with stashed Silk Garden). Oh boy. FOs next time for sure.

Mittens for This Winter

I’m going to try not to admit how long it’s been since my last post because then I’d have to actively admit how my slow my knitting has been crawling for the last few weeks. And even though you’re bound to get whiplash after finishing such a huge project, oh, if I admitted just how long it took me to get these mitts out I’d have to put myself on strict course of yarn therapy to heal. Like, stash it in random coat pockets, take some out of your desk drawer to pet when things look rough. But the truth is the weather’s been so up and down about settling in to winter I wasn’t in a hurry to get them done until this week when daytime highs got to subzero and the fingerless mitts weren’t cutting it.

Basically, a few weeks ago I realized I had two skeins of Silk Garden that didn’t match anything else but themselves, and realized they’d make perfectly good mittens, so I turned to my brand spanking new copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac with the Mitered Mittens, or, “Mittens For Next Winter” assuming we knit them in May when no one cares about keeping hands cold so you can knit pressure-free. I worked the I-cord edging option, which is cute and neat even if it does flare up a little. The stressful part was snipping and unraveling stitches for the afterthought thumb, which I know is totally legit and should not scare me, but you know. Baby steps.

This was my third Noro project (after Emerald and the striped scarf) and the mittens are a perfect application for Silk Garden. It’s nice and dense, you get a nice burst of colour to put on for a cold gloomy winter morning, and it’s a small treat for a premium yarn. 

They’re very “mitteny” mittens in the sense they turn your hand into a paw-like appendage with the pointed tip smooshing your fingers together. But the flat shape also means you can still grasp pretty well and do things like hold a steering wheel. (Instead of that poofiness and batting around you’d get from thick thrummed mitts.) It just means when you want to grab for things you end up feeling like a fish with a flipper. 

I can tell this won’t be my last E Zimm project. I also stocked up on The Opinionated Knitter and I’m coveting a couple bits in there for future knitting far far away. I get why she’s attractive now, for those who like her. It’s all knitting from first principles which is hard when you just want to follow a pattern, but there’s enough of a scolding tone to put you in your place and just do it. Cause really, why can’t you? Thousands of knitters before you have.

 

Anyway now I can move on to more lacy, gifty things. Mmmmmmmohair.

Feather & Fan Blanket (FO)

Woohoo! Done and done.

Pattern: Feather and Fan Shawl by Eugen Beugler (from A Gathering of Lace)
Yarn: Jamieson’s Shetland Aran, 15 balls (approx 1500 yards), with the last ball for the crochet chain bind-off.
Needles: 6.5mm circular, up to 150cm long
Size: 76″ blocked diameter, 56″ unblocked

In the end it did work out to a nice 6+ feet of blanket, which seems enormous until I think that it took only 131 rounds of pattern to get there, and on 6.5mm it ain’t nothing but a thang, y’all.

Not everyone out there is a fan of Feather & Fan. The good news is on this weight, it doesn’t go on for very long. This pattern also has two major advantages that made it go fast: (1) no purl rows, being on the round, (2) there are 3 plain knit rows for every pattern row. The only thing that made reading the pattern in any way hard was remembering which row I was on after picking it up and putting it down so often during September.

When I was dragging carting this project around, the first question I got from knitters was, “ooh, whatcha making.” This was followed by a pause, and “so how are you going to block that?” The answer is, “on the only patch of carpet available in my apartment. (I was never glad for a carpeted unit, until this week.) I took out my 200+ pins, waited til I had a whole evening free, dumped it in the bathtub with some Soak wash, put a sheet down to cover the floor, and got going.

If anyone needs to work their thigh and butt muscles, I really recommend crouching on the floor for an hour blocking a 6 foot lace shawl. It’s fun. No but I kid. This was the part I was looking forward to, almost since casting on, and it didn’t disappoint. It took the whole next day to dry completely. Mmm. I love the smell of wet wool in the morning. 

It covers the (double) bed pretty well. I think if you wanted to cover a queen size you’d need closer to 2000 yards. It’s actually much less heavier than it looks. I’ll use it as a couch throw or a lightweight blanket for really cold days, since my building runs so warm in the winter months I never anything too big.

I still like this as an alternative to Hemlock Ring, and I really enjoyed putting the Jamieson’s to use on something lacy. It’s real sheepy wool, not too scratchy at all, and its rustic side shows off the lace very well. Two things I prefer about this to Hemlock Ring are that the centre flower makes a bigger statement, and the large sizes are already built in to the pattern (no need to expand any charts).

I don’t know if I’ll knit this pattern again, but if I tried it on laceweight I can see it wouldn’t be as massive an undertaking as I had previously thought. (But then again, it’s always the final 10% that kills you on a project that grows with each row.) I still have about 7 balls of Jamieson’s left. This might be enough for a throw-sized Hemlock Ring, or I could do some straight-up mitts, hats and scarves. 

A totally satisfying and relatively painless knit. That was frakking fun.

We who are about to bind off

…Do solemnly make peace with our dear and fluffy knitting Lords, for they are fickle, winter is upon us, and there is still blocking to be done.

I’ve knit 1400 yards of Jamieson’s (closer to 1500 by the time the bind-off is done) and it’s measuring out to about 50 inches diameter unblocked. Smaller than I’d hoped for (I’d wanted more like 6 feet, and it had been stretching to a comfortable 65-70 inches on the needles), but I should be able to get a good 5+ feet out of it.

I remain hopeful. And prepared. (Don’t tell the knitting, it’s too happy as blob on my lap. I’d hate for it to live with disappointing me.)

New Knit in My Life

(Thank you all for the lovely comments on Emerald. And thanks to Sarah for the blog shout out. You are a ray of cheer in the blogoverse!)

Well over the last month I sort of had a falling down and lost my blogging (and knitting, for a bit) mojo while getting used to the new job and commute shook up my routine. The short version is I have an interim faculty position which doesn’t include teaching classes but a lot of everything else. But part of the reason for the ennui was I’ve really only had one major WIP on the go this whole time. I’ve been knitting it in stealth so far, secretly plotting to finish it in record time then explode onto the blog with a FO of EPIC PROPORTIONS. Then I realized 1) I am still constrained by both the laws of time and space and my own knitting speed and 2) I hate not having anything to post about.

This is the Feather & Fan Shawl from A Gathering of Lace, blanket-ified. The inspiration came back in August when I was staring at a tote bag full of yarn from the Needle Emporium tent sale last summer that has been haunting me for over a year. I realized that if I could get this out of the way I could eliminate one of last vestiges of stash stress of last year. (Because in my new crazy world outlook, if I can’t handle my stash, I can at least handle last year’s stash. Follow? Don’t worry, I don’t either.) I think the thought process went like this:

1. I had 22 balls of Jamieson’s Shetland Aran to make a sweater.
2. 22 balls (2200+ yards) is actually way too much for a sweater. I’d still have leftovers.
3. “Hey, this looks an awful lot like the yarn Brooklyn Tweed used for the Hemlock Ring Afghan.”
4. But Hemlock Ring only needs 700 yds. Y’all, if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go all out.
5. “Hmm. You know Hemlock Ring isn’t all that different from Feather and Fan.”
6. Hemlock Ring is a free pattern but Feather and Fan is a pattern in a book I own and have been ogling for some time.
7. Sounds crazy but it just might work.

And away we went just casting on one August day while I was enjoying the lull between finishing my course and heading out for holidays. I did my very first circular cast-on, dragged out every length of 6.5mm circular needle I could find, and since then it’s been going pretty steadily. Obviously I’m not going to use all 22 balls (unless someone out there has a 500cm circular needle and bus that needs doily-ing), but I’m just going to keep going until it seems like a good bed-covering size and see where I stop. So far I’ve done 10 balls and it’s about 4.5 ft in unblocked diameter.

It’s turning out to be a project that is quite accepting of the timescale it will take to complete it. Possibly the robust, hardy, sheepiness of the wool from whence it came has instilled in it a very Strong Character. But instead of all those needy times Icarus and I had together, the afghan and I tend to get along like this:

Afghan: *sits stuffed in tote bag along with its flock of unknitted yarn brethren*
Me: *sits down in knitting chair next to which said tote bag semi-permanently resides*
Afghan: *looks up* “Oh hello. You’re back. It’s quite sunny today and it’s making your spot comfy would you like to sit?”
Me: “Yes. Yes, that sounds like a good idea actually.” *picks up afghan out of bag*
Afghan: “Oh! Oh we’re knitting! Oh that’s splendid.” *while in mid-air* “Whoops I see you dropped the ball I’m still attached to, did you want me to get that for you… oh, oh never mind I see you’ve got it that’s fine. Oh, this lap’s nice.”
Me: *arranges growing pile of wool over lap*
Afghan: *sploosh* Ahhhhhhh. *relaxes all over*
Me: *consults photocopy of knitting pattern to resume chart* Oh you’ve really grown, haven’t you.
Afghan: “Yes, aren’t the rounds long? Onto ten balls now…” *lazily* “It’s fine, I’m comfy here.”
Me: “Ugh, it’s on an eyelet row. This is going to be long.”
Afghan: *yawns* “Oh but that’s fine I’ll just stay here. We know when you get to the 3 knit rows you make up for the time so don’t..” *yawns* *nods off*
Me: *knits*
Me: *knits*
Me: *knits*
Afghan: *accumulates bunched up stitches on the needle*
Me: *poke* “Sorry I have to tug you again, the needle’s getting crowded.” *sighs* “Happening a lot more often isn’t it?”
Afghan: *groggily* “Sorrywha…?” *is flipped and pulled and reoriented* *sits back down* “Okayzzzzzz…”
Me: “Oh and if you’re okay with it we might go out for dinner or knitting night. You can still fit in your tote bag so you can come.”
Afghan: “Mmmkay call me when we… have to…” *…* *rolls over and falls asleep*
Me: *ticks off another row*

Before you ask, no, I’m not counting the stitches. I’m saving that to the end. Because I’d cry. But mostly, I just can’t wait to block it.

Next: Drooling over Glenna’s review copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting 2. It’s been very productive for my Imaginary Knitting Life.

Iro Emerald (FO)

Done! (Two FOs in two weeks. I don’t know what’s happening either.)

Pattern: Emerald, by Amy Swenson.
Yarn: Noro Iro (wool/silk, bulky), #43, about 7 skeins. (I knitted from 8 but there was some editing for colour sequence along the way.)
Needles: 6.5mm (for the stockinette), 6mm (for the ribbing) circs.
Modifications: Added some stitches to the width and knit an extra inch in the body, and extra couple rows before the raglan decreasing for fit.

This pattern is super. It’s one piece (no seaming for the win), and on bulky yarn it goes pretty fast. It’s simple enough that it’d be doable as a beginner sweater, but there are bits of interestingness like the cables on the raglan shaping and the short row shawl collar that make it more appealing than a basic cardi. I really like the wide collar and button band, and would even say I’d go for a wider shawl collar if I were to knit it again. You could totally knock this out in a couple weeks. The only reason it took me two months was I kept putting it down. There were a couple nights where I just sat down and knit straight through and knit up a skein worth of the Iro. If you are thinking “gosh I would really love a bulky sweater right now,” this is for you.

It fits pretty well just right. I was convinced it was going to be small as I was knitting it, but then it blocked out just fine, the Iro bloomed just enough, and now it’s good. Just watch yer gauge. (Seen here in my obligatory I-don’t-know-how-to-pose-for-an-FO-pic pic!)

The only part I’m not sure about are the colours in the yarn, which knit up a little differently than it looked in skein form. It’s pretty psychedelic. On the one hand, when I was in the end-knitting stages and got up in the morning to see it sitting on the coffee table, the colours cheered me up. On the other, it’s possible a rainbow barfed on me. (This could turn out to be a good thing when we’re in the cold dark suck that is February.)

It’s technically the last weekend of summer. Thank god, now we can get our winter knitting on. Now I’m going to go make a hat.