Ravellenic Games Wrap Up

I didn't challenge myself with a specific technique or a huge project this time, I just completed a large amount of projects in the two weeks, for me at least.  I started and finished 3 projects, also competing in three additional events.  All in all I feel pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish.

The three projects I completed in full were a Tropical Lily top for Lil' Miss, a Milanese Loop cowl for Missus Gordon's Christmas present and a pair of Autumnal Mitts for Chatty-Cathy's Christmas gift.  The Tropical Lily and the cowl I actually worked on while we were on vacation, almost finishing them within the week.  I did learn I can knit in the car on super windy roads as long as I don't look down to much, and wow is the 245 between Woodlake and Badger windy beyond reason!  I cast on the mitts after finishing up the top for Lil' Miss and realizing they would be the perfect way to use up some of the yarn left over after knitting a cowl for a Christmas gift earlier in the year.  They took only 2 days to work start to finish, and I didn't even work them two at a time on one needle!

For the remaining events I competed in the frogging trampoline by ripping out one of my first sweater projects, Scabbard.  It was just too warm and I didn't do well with the alpaca, it made me itch like crazy so the yarn is destined for a cowl neck vest instead.  I also participated in the modular relay by working two additional sections of the Babette blanket that is still in progress for Destructo Boy.  Finally I cast on two projects for the cast on trap shoot, Chrysanthemum Frutescens Socks (that I also got to work as part of the KAL in the Violently Domestic Fans group on Ravelry) and a heavily modified Castle pullover.  I completely changed the neckline to be a scoop shape rather than a boatneck, I am hoping to make the sleeves 3/4 length at least, and I moved the start of the lace to below the bustline.

It was so much fun to have my own goals while I watched the athletes compete, and chatting and seeing what others did on Ravelry added to the excitement.  I am definitely looking forward to Sochi in 2014!

Let The Ravellenic Games Begin!

I'll be quiet for the next 2 weeks as I will be busy knitting for the Ravellenics.  What are the Ravellenic Games you ask?  It is a friendly personal challenge competition held over at Ravelry while we enjoy the Olympic Games being held in London this summer, all the information can be found here in the Ravellenic Games 2012 group.

My projects competing in the Games are as follows:

• Castle pullover knit with Cephalopod Yarns traveller in san francisco bay, I'll be heavily modifying the neckline on this one to be a round neck rather than the boat neck in the pattern.
• Milanese Loop cowl knit with Knit Picks Capra in carnation, a holiday gift that I am attempting to complete in a week while on vacation.
• Tropical Lily using stashed Knit Picks comfy in sea foam and planetarium, this one is a n attempt to use up some leftovers creatively and to hopefully work on my intarsia techniuque as I'll be knitting all the garter border stitches in the darker blue.
• Babette Blanket, yes I already started this one but I plan on getting one of the huge sections of it done for the Games, especially as I haven't touched it in several months
• Silken Scabbard, I blogged about making this sweater when I first made it, but I don't wear it as it is really hot and the alpaca in the yarn makes me super itchy.  So this project is getting frogged and I will reuse the yarn to make myself a vest that will be work over shirts.

I am so excited to get started and have been prepping my projects for weeks, getting my yarn  all organized, swatching done for each project, and the biggest thing, planning out all the math for my Castle pullover.  The athletes all train for their events so this is me training for mine!  Excuse me now while I make sure my favorite knitting spot is all ready for me to plant my backside while I enjoy the best athletes the world has to offer doing their best and I knit along with them like a mad woman.  Mass cast on at 11:30 am my time (9:30 pm BST), it's time to begin!!!

Toes Up!

Got started at the beginning of the month with the KAL in the Knit Picks Lovers group on Ravely.  I am using the Toe-Up Socks With a Difference pattern by Wendy Johnson and am adding in the motif from Pillars by Lisa Stichweh.  For my yarn I am using some Knit Picks stroll tonal in the blue yonder colorway, I am absolutely loving how the colors are blending, such gorgeous blues, teals, and aquas.  It was a pretty easy start once I figures out the cast on.  One of the Ravelers posted this link for a video explanation of how to get TAAT started on magic loop, after watching it through twice I gave it a go and got my socks cast on with my first try.

I followed the instructions for the increases and then did an additional 4 rounds before starting the lacy motif on the instep.  I am really liking how they are coming along so far, but am worried about how to increase the gusset to make for a taller heel flap.  I was clued into this post from Wendy's blog (a great read if you love knitting!) where she describes altering her pattern (yes the one I am using, hooray!) to make room for a taller heel flap.  I think her adjustment may be a bit much for me, but it definitely gives me a starting off point to adjust the pattern to fit my feet.  Thank goodness for helpful knitters on Ravelry!  I wouldn't have had the guts to try toe up socks without knowing I could get their help.

 

I am actually a bit past where I was when I took the pictures, I am just about ready to start my increases for the gusset.  Wish me luck as I try to figure this next step out!

Sock Resolution

I'll admit it, I am addicted....to knitting socks that is!  I already have completed one pair, the ever popular Monkey socks by Cookie A., and am currently working on my second pair, Carolina by Monkey Toes.  Wearing handknit socks just makes me feel so decadent!  Probably the same feeling some women get from wearing fancy underwear.  I will admit, I felt a pang of jealousy at the last image in this post on Mooncalf's blog, oh to have a sock drawer like that!  So that's my goal, well at least one of them, to knit a sock every month (I know my limits and my level of laziness so a pair each month might be asking too much) so at the end of the year I'll have an additional 6 pairs tucked in my drawer to keep my toes nice and toasty.

My dear MIL got me off to a good start with my Christmas gift of knitting books, one of which was Sock Innovations by Cookie A.  Squee of excitement from me when I opened that little bit of joy!  Then later on Grumpy and Chatty-Cathy gifted me with some sock blockers and a skein of Imagination sock yarn, double squee!  I think they must have known about the goal fermenting at the back of my mind even then.

I am going to be joining in the toe-up sock KAL planned for February in the KnitPicks Lovers group on Ravelry also, which will be my second knit-a-long ever.  I just am a bit concerned about that style of socks fitting my freakishly high instep, remember my bitching when knitting my Monkey socks?  Anyway, while perusing the forums on Ravelry when girding my loins to start those socks I found a number of knitters cursed afflicted born with high insteps who reported that the heel style of toe-up socks didn't work for them.  However I have voiced this concern and am eagerly awaiting feedback from my fellow knitters as to how this obstacle shall be overcome.

Check out the nifty eye of partridge heel!

That said, I think a bit of cheating rule-bending may be in order, meaning the pair I have started and am working on will count as the first of my socks!  Since I haven't even finished the first sock that shouldn't be too much of a cheat, although they are on hold at the moment as my gauge has changed.  I may need to start them over anyway on larger needles.  So, do you have any resolutions for the new year?

WIP: Pembroke vest

This was a planned project, actually queued it quite some time ago that has ended up being a KAL (knit-a-long) in the Knitting For Boys group on Ravelry.  A KAL that I somehow seem to be nominally in charge of, how did that happen exactly?  Not sure, but I think it may have something to do with all of us interested in doing a project together but no one knowing quite how to begin.  I made a few suggestions and ended up setting up the discussion thread that resulted in my personal choice winning.  No, I did not cheat, I simply waited and hoped!  Once we had picked out the pattern I happily set  a discussion for us to all to support one another as we worked on our creations for our little guys.  It is fun to see what others are doing, especially any solutions they may have found for any problems with the pattern or suggestions to improve it.  Destructo-boy will be the lucky little guy to eventually wear this vest, hopefully by turkey day as that was my original plan. 

For my Pembroke I decided to mirror the cables, I think it is just so much nicer looking that way.  This involved some white out to redraw some symbols on the chart, but it is coming out beautifully.  Unfortunately I didn't really pay attention to one of the most common comments/notations on the pattern, that it runs small.  Meaning even if you attain gauge as noted, the finished garment will be smaller than that indicated in the pattern.  I realized it was coming out a little short after I did the cast off stitches for the armholes.  Since for ths pattern you need to start on a particular row for the cables to line up properly with the v-neck, I couldn't just add more rows.  To make the body longer I would have to tear it all out and begin over.  Yeah, not happening.  Instead I added on 1/4" to the length of the armhole and consigned myself to the fact that it may be a one year garment.  Oh well, at least I already have a worthy little one that hand me downs can go to!

Then I had a little problem at the armhole cast off for the shoulders, they came out totally uneven, in the way of six stitches uneven.  So I adjusted the cast off for the shoulders so they would be even, on the neckline shaping row, I cast off 4 stitches as in the pattern and then knit 12 stitches (13 live stitches now) put these 13 stitches on a stitch holder, cast off to 16 stitches from the end with 1 stitch on the right needle, total 17 stitches live. Pretty much followed the pattern from there and the two shoulders are now even.

Next to cast on the front and hope it goes as well!

All those teeny, tiny stitches...

Can eventually add up to something nice!  I am making progress on my two current projects both of which use fingering weight yarn, it's slow but they are coming along, Haruni & Isabella that is.  Just finished chart A on the Haruni, it has gone much faster than I envisioned (remember this is a Christmas present folks, wow did I overestimate the time it would take!).  For some reason I thought lace equaled many hours of frustratingly, painfully slow knitting, but not so!  I realize the next chart takes up about half the yarn yardage, so I'm guessing it'll take about half the time too, but I am quite happy with how this is going so far.  Based on my time assumption I may have Haruni done in another two weeks at my current pace.  I will admit to being officially hooked on lace and am pondering the next shawl already, maybe Gail?  With beads next time too?!  Wouldn't that be frustrating and bewildering fun!

Isabella is also moving along quite nicely, I have separated the front and back (remember, I have been knitting this in the round because I hate seaming!) to shape the armholes and am rapidly knitting up the back, I have about 3 more inches to go before the neckline shaping.  I am doing more decrease rows than the pattern calls for as I really don't like the extra wide shoulders most of the completed projects on Ravelry have (reminds me of 1980's shoulder pads, I barely survived that decade the first time, let's not do it again okay?).  The top of the shoulder seams stick out beyond the shoulder of the wearee as the pattern is written and to me looks a little goofy and ill-fitting, so I decided to narrow it up a bit.  Hopefully this doesn't backfire on me!

And yes, I am already pondering my next project.  I have yarn for several items in my queue (hats, gloves, a few winter cardigans that are pretty but would be hot to knit during the summer) but of course there is something else I want to make for which I do not have the yarn.  That something would be the Lilas cardigan by Hilary Smith Callis from The Yarniad.  It is beauteous, and from the pictures of finished projects posted on Ravelry it looks equally good on many body types.  Simple, chic, and versatile, this looks like the garment for me (as if I could ever actually be chic, now that's funny)!  I want to try some Spud & Chloe sweater yarn for Lilas, (yummy!) but do I really need to go buy more yarn when I already have stash boxes bursting at the seams?  Hmmm, have to think this one over...

Hey Mom cardigan's done!

Only took me 30 days, but I got my Hey Teach! done, and the weather is still appropriate to wear it!  Unlike my scary scabbard that I finished just as the weather warmed up to the point where the alpaca yarn made it much too warm to wear, sigh.  My new cardigan should get a lot of use over the summer in the evenings when it gets cool outside from our ocean breezes (I have thin California native blood, I even got cold in Hawaii of all places!).  Have I mentioned yet that I love Knitty, their patterns are fantastic and they provide them free of charge to us all, hooray (just gotta remember to click on their advertisers to keep the good stuff comin')!  I am still kind of surprised that I was able to complete this so quickly, for me at least!  I think I still have the summer of the ice blue bamboo shell in my head, that sucker took all summer to finish and it was not that complicated of a pattern.  It was however, the first thing I made that was more complicated than a scarf or an afghan.

For my cardigan I used Knit Picks shine worsted in the serrano colorway on US 8 needles.  I cast on all three pieces at once as I detest sewing seams and for this garment it didn't seem that necessary as it was cotton and would stretch (hopefully) as I wear it anyway.  It came out a little shorter than I'd like but as I think it will stretch some while being worn I'm not too worried, I can just block it out a little bigger if wearing it doesn't get it to grow.  I didn't have much trouble working the lace pattern over the decreases as some knitters have commented on as being troublesome on the Ravelry forums.  For some reason I was able to wrap my head around it fairly easily with the help of the handy dandy lace chart (I am beginning to think I really, really like charted patterns!).  Overall it was a fairly easy knit, just enough difficulty to keep it interesting but not so much that it required my undivided and total concentration.  If you are looking for a nice summery cardigan, look no further this one is great!  I was even able to get the buttons for my cardi on sale at Jo-Ann's, as all their buttons were half off, yea!

I really liked the yarn, nice and soft with a really lovely sheen, gee that's why they named it shine!  As it is mostly cotton,  60% cotton and 40% Modal (beech fiber), it didn't give a whole lot but it was light years better than Sugar n' Cream (which I like for washcloths but not much else).  I don't know how it will wash up and wear yet, but to knit with it, it does give off some fuzz that will end up on you, your hands, and unfortunately up your nose.  I spent some time sneezing while knitting this sucker let me tell you!  The finished garment does have some weight to it, I used approximately 8 1/2 balls of yarn so that is about 420 grams, just under 1 pound of fabric.  It is pretty and soft and I'm thinking I will be enjoying this creation for years to come as long as I take good care of it.

Haruni, my oasis in the stockinette wastelands

Something that isn't stockinette, oh happy day!  Having just finished the Twirly skirt for Lil' Miss (which she is prancing around the house in as I type!) it is time to cast on a new project that doesn't require miles of knit stitch.  My new project of choice is the absolutely lovely Haruni shawl designed by Emily Ross for which I will use the fantastic new stroll tonals yarn in royalty by Knit Picks.  As I am not sure just how long this sucker will take (I have never done a whole lace shawl before, or even a partial one for that matter!) and it is intended as a Christmas gift for Chatty-Cathy I decided to get started on it now.

First off I needed to wind the skein of yarn into a workable ball so I can actually knit with it and I thought you all would be very intrigued by my oh so fancy ball winding accessory (can you smell the sarcasm?).  As I don't even have the luxury of willing little hands to hold my untwisted skein carefully, I draped it across their chair, ain't it fancy!  Who knew that the family heirloom built for Mister Vonkysmeed's great grandfather would come into use someday as a skein holder for me?

Funnily enough, after complaining about doing too much stockinette in an earlier post, now it seems almost all of what I am doing is lace.  My Hey Teach! has now progressed to the lacework section, and on Isabella I have started the all too brief interlude of the lace panel  in the midst of miles of stockinette.  So my Haruni that was cast on with the intention of being my oasis has very quickly become more of a quagmire rather than an oasis you could say!  Anyway, for some reason I found the Haruni pattern totally terrifying, let me be blunt, it scared the crap out of me!  But since I want to have it done in time for Christmas gift giving (did I mention that already?!), there was nothing left but to knuckle down and get started!

Now that I am a few rows into chart A on this sucker I wonder what my angst was all about?  I am familiar with using charts, having knit and crocheted with them before, and I have used all of the stitches required before so nothing new there, plus the yarn and needles are familiar to me having used both before.  Yet in spite of all this I was anxious to the point of sweaty palms while getting it started, why, I guess I'm just weird that way (or is that wired?!).  Of course now that I have essentially said the pattern really isn't that difficult I am probably going to make some sort of foolish mistake and have to rip it all out, I just know it!

I think I will use lifelines as recommended by the knitters in the Beginning Lace Knitters group on Ravelry (can I just say how relieved and happy I am to have this resource if I come across any trouble whilst making this shawl?) as a way to preserve my sanity.  When it comes to lace it seems to me that the difficulty factor comes in when you need to remember where you are in the pattern and being able to repeat that pattern correctly across an entire row of knitting, as I discovered with my Hey Teach! the other night.  I performed the S2KP incorrectly, so ended up having to frog out 6 rows of knitting once I realized it would take more time (and much more patience than I could ever claim to have) to fix each error one by one rather than just going back to where I messed up in the first place.  Maybe I should use a lifeline on that one too!

Here's to hoping I can get this Haruni finished and blocked in time for Christmas gift giving!   I know, it's a long way off but I am nothing if not a worrywart...

A case for Options

I have become addicted to the interchangeable Options knitting needles offered by Knit Picks, specifically the harmony needles.  I love these things, you can change needle sizes or cable lengths easily and quickly, the cables in combination with the little end caps work great for holding your stitches for you as you finish off another part of the project.  It is also very easy to try a garment on using these as I discovered while knitting my hell-sweater.  I am also quite happy with the fact that I can fold them up rather easily to fit into a little project bag to take with me just like fixed circulars.  The needles are constructed of laminated pieces of birch wood that have been stained different rainbow colors, really quite beautiful to work with; and if I am going to be spending that much time creating something shouldn't my tools be just as beautiful as the finished object?

They have just enough grip to hold my yarn without it falling off but are slick enough that the yarn will slide off when you need it to.  Plus they are nice and quiet, I hate the click-clacking of metal knitting needles, drives me absolutely batty!  A number of ravelers have complained of the needle tips coming out of the metal sleeve that attaches to the cable or of the whole needle unscrewing from the cable whilst knitting but I have had none of these difficulties.  I use the tightening key every time I attach the needles to a cable and make sure it is nice and tight thus eliminating any loosening problems;  and I suspect the metal sleeve issue arises from holding the wood while twisting the needle onto the cable rather than holding onto the metal sleeve itself.  I really can't say enough nice things about these needles, except that I want one in every size and I don't have them all yet!

Recently I have found that a way is needed to store my rapidly growing collection of these suckers and with Mister Vonkysmeed being currently out of work we really don't have the funds for me to go out and buy a mass produced case for my lovelies.  Also, I like to try to create for myself if at all possible and since I made my own knitting bag, accessory pouch, knitting needle roll, and assorted project bags I decided to use what I already have and make my own case for the options needles, can't be that hard can it?  After looking at many, many images of cases for interchangeable needles online I had a design in mind, a trifold case with the needles in the center portion, the cables at one end, and a zippered pocket on the final flap to store the tightening keys and cable caps. I assembled it roughly the same way a needle case is constructed (sorry for the minimal pics of it in progress, promise to do better next time!), layering together outside fabric, then interfacing and light batting, than the inner fabric, than the pouch pieces.

First I made prepared the fabric I would be using to make the pockets for the needles and cables by sewing a 9.5" x 11.5" piece of fabric in half (I basically made a tube), pulling the right side out and then sewing the tube to the lining fabric and the interfacing {measuring 11.5" x 18.5"} along the bottom of the future pocket.  I then made the little pockets to hold the needles by sewing straight lines about every inch along the strip of fabric I just sewed onto the lining (I sewed these lines only along the pocket fabric, lining, & interfacing, this way the seams would not be visible from the outside of the case).

April was very productive!

Owls vest for Destructo-boy

Since I had already made a few summer items for Lil' Miss I was feeling a bit guilty that Destructo-boy didn't ave anything made for hi for summer yet.  After a request for help on the Ravelry Knitting For Boys group for summer knit ideas, I was given numerous suggestions of summer clothing items I could make for Destructo-boy.  This Owls vest was by far my favorite and was a really quick knit.  the pattern was originally designed for babies but with some modifications to needle size, yarn weight and adding in some stitches and rows it ended up being a bit big on the boy.  Oh well, he can wear it next year too!

Victory is mine!

Success!!  The scary scabbard sweater has been completed, and with minimal errors towards the end.  Once I got past the armholes for the last time it went much more quickly.  I adjusted the quantity of pattern repeats to have the hem hit me at my hipbones, a much more flattering length on my post-babies body.  So, for the body of the sweater I worked about 3 fewer repeats then were called for before increasing for the morphing of the side cable from a braided cable into a horseshoe cable.  Then I was only able to do 3 repeats of the pattern for the horseshoe cabling rather than 5, but it still looks pretty good to me.

For the hem I followed the pattern and did a tubular cast off on the bottom hem which I have used successfully before.  Not this time though!  I seem to be forever casting off as though I am attempting to restrain a would be assailant.  I COULD NOT get the thing over my hips, it was a struggle just to get it back off over my shoulders.  Need I say just how frustrated I was at this point?  Yeah, just a bit.  So with Mister Vonkysmeed's urging I decided to work on the sleeves before fighting with the hem again. 

I made the unusually wise decision that as I had only 1 skein left, dividing it in half might be the best plan for ending up with sleeves of identical length.  But do I have a kitchen scale with which to scientifically make 2 out of 1?  Nope, so I had the great joy of unwinding that last ball of yarn all over my family room.  And guess who wanted to join in the fun?  If you guessed Destructo-Boy, than by George, you are a winner!  So I had Mister Vonkysmeed hold onto him in the back half of the house until I managed to tame the yarn beast into submission.  Trying to madly wind balls of yarn with an 18 month old screaming at the other end of the house is not exactly relaxing let me tell you!

Fighting the sweater monster!

I have been arguing with my Silken Scabbard pattern off and on now since March 4th. The argument started even before I cast on any stitches with the Knit Picks website picture of the Aegean color of their Elegance yarn being completely WRONG as to the actual color of the yarn. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely shade & I am still using it, but the color is nowhere close to what I expected based on the website image. As for the beginnings of the actual sweater, I'm going cheat a little and copy and paste from my project details on Ravelry so you can see what has happened thus far. After starting on March 3rd, and getting the joy of re-reading each line of the pattern about 5 million times to understand it, this happened on March 14th:

Getting ready to put the sleeves on waste yarn after knitting only 6 repeats of the raglan increase pattern (pattern calls for 7 1/2 repeats). I am concerned about having enough to go around my upper arms for the sleeves, (should have listened to that inner voice!) but I don’t want the neckline creeping up any higher, I may end up ripping some out if it seems to high to do less raglan increases. We’ll see how it goes! Later: Yup, as feared the collar was much too high so I frogged back to 5 raglan increases, I’m afraid if I drop it to 4 repeats the bra straps would show and that’s just tacky!