Scary Lace...

Is not so scary anymore!  I finally have cast on the lace project that inspired me to learn to knit lace in the first place, Shipwreck Shawl from the Spring 2009 issue of Knitty.  I admired it way back then but thought I would never be able to do something that complicated.  So I started smaller and kept learning about how to follow charts and that lace is essentially just making increases and decreases.  I am currently about 30 rows into it as of writing this blog entry and am sailing along quite nicely.

The trickiest part thus far was the cast on, I had to watch Fleegle's video of the cast on repeatedly before I finally realized what she was doing and got it done myself.  Normally it doesn't take that long for something to 'click' but for some reason this technique took awhile.  Once I had that done it was pretty easy sailing since I have already mastered working the magic loop (although dpn's could be used for this project just as easily, but who would want to!) and all the first rows required were knitting and yarn overs.  I already did the strawberry chart and it was a breeze, I am beginning to suspect that I am quite capable of knitting this project with little to no difficulty since I have been making lace shawls for over a year now and seem to do pretty well with them.

Admittedly I have no idea what I will do with this shawl once it is completed, I have never worn a circular shawl and don't know that I ever would.  This is one of those projects that I am attempting to do just for the challenge and the fact that the finished object is gorgeous.  Maybe I'll need to buy a piano just to put this shawl on for display!  Just kidding, because seriously, where would I put a piano, and I don't even play!

To err is human, to mend is divine

My dear brother Grumpy brought back to me a few months ago the fingerless gloves I had made for him for Christmas 2009.  He brought them back because some evil moths had gotten to them and eaten holes in them.  If you didn't guess where this is going, now I get to learn some new skills, namely mending holes in knitting.  The more observant readers out there probably  caught the timing in the first sentence, he brought them to me several months ago and I am only now getting to them, yes I am a bit intimidated by having to fix the moth larvae damage.  And no, I really don't want to do it I would much rather knit something new.  However Grumpy really loves the gloves and wants to be able to wear them again so mend I must.

now that's some moth damage!

First of all, right after he brought the holey things back to me my mind went bananas, screaming moths, motHS, MOTHS! over and over in an endless loop.  I mean, how dare Grumpy introduce moth larvae into my sterile yarn loving house?!  So I ran into the kitchen to find a ziploc of the appropriate size and crammed those suckers in as fast as I could.  Then I perused the interwebz looking for assistance as to what to do with the defiled gloves sitting in my kitchen.  First off I put them into the freezer for a few weeks, than I put them on the counter to bring up to room temperature before re-freezing again to kill any newly hatched bugs.  Then I forgot about them for awhile again before defrosting them again and then putting them in the microwave for 3 minutes on high.  Then they went back in the ziploc (can't take any chances with my stash or finished knits you know!) inside my knitting bag awaiting their turn with my undivided attention.

can barely see the mend on the side of the pinky finger, yea me!

One of the gloves had rather minor holes, the other was significantly worse so of course I decided to start with the easier one.  I used these articles from Knitty to help me figure out what to do.  Thankfully Grumpy wasn't particular about the gloves looking as they had when brand new so it didn't need to look perfect when finished.  And let me tell you, after I had some time with them to do my best to fix the holes, they do not look like new.  Thankfully I still had some of the yarn I used originally left in my stash so at least the mended holes aren't glaringly obvious.  However, they are quite visible.  Now that the first glove is fixed I need to suck it up and go after the second ones, they are just much worse (and thus are still languishing in my knitting bag as I write this!).

how the heck do you mend ribbing?!

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.

Isabella: a tangy tank for summer

When I first saw the images of the Stroll Tonal yarns from Knit Picks I knew that I had to have some.  Yet, I don't knit socks (yet!) so what would I do with beautiful yarn like that?  A quick search on ravelry yielded the lovely Isabella pattern that was in Knitty a few summers ago, I remember admiring it last year but felt it was beyond my abilities.  Well, no more!  I decided to further the difficulty by knitting this in the round, and not just in the round but using the magic loop method.  It took about 5 tries to get it cast on right, but now that I am about 7 rows into the project it is getting much easier.

Casting on was fine, it was the whole dividing the cast on stitches in half and pulling the cable into position while ensuring the stitches didn't twist or get super tight that was a total bitch.  I had actually given up after my first try, thinking maybe I should just stick to the pattern as written and not make things too hard on myself; but after another failed start I thought that if Granola-Mama can do the magic loop for two at a time socks, than by gawd I can do it for one bloody shirt!  Destructo-boy assisted a little in this decision, I had foolishly left my knitting on the couch where he could reach and he pulled all the stitches off one needle after I had started to knit the back piece back and forth rather than both front and back together in the round.  After that I decided to try the magic loop method once again (did I mention that I am also much slower at purling than knitting?).  I waited until the ankle biters were in bed and was able to get it started with a little bit of patience and a lot of luck.

Since the hem will be a picot edge I realized that is okay for the first few rows to look hideous as they will be folded under to be hemmed in place, which really allowed me to relax as I started working through my fear of this project/technique.  I don't know why, but whenever I attempt anything new it seems I have to work my way up to it, giving myself little pep talks just to get over the hump of getting it started.  For the record this is my first time working with fingering weight yarn and my first time using US 3 needles, and using the magic loop method of knitting, a lot of firsts for one project.  It will take forever (maybe I'll get to wear it by next summer!), but I am loving how the colors of the hand dyed yarn are flowing from one to the other so far. Maybe with a lot of luck and patience I'll even get it done in time to wear it by the end of this summer!

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!