Since Moby Dick is really about rowing, why couldn't you have followed Herman's example? The Mysterious Island could so easily have been about knitting... Stranded on an island with (long, boring, cold) winters, with SHEEP! How hard would it have been to make a spindle and knitting needles? They made a felting machine, for crying out loud. (And a telegraph...)
I, on the other hand, have done quite a lot of knitting while reading about the castaways not knitting. My current socks (Twisted) aren't the best knitting for reading, so I started the Stripe Study Shawl, which is much more compatible: garter stitch, with lots of long rows. I'm using some slightly mysterious yarn which the very sweet Peaceful Knitter gave me for my birthday. Mysterious because the tag says only "Baby Camel Lace by School Products," which is all good as far as it goes... there are 2 skeins, one cream, and one with one cream ply and one tan ply, and I estimated that each has about 400 yards, so I should be all set for the shawl.
I wore both new sweaters last week, but still no pictures... one day!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Ready for Spring
I managed to run outside yesterday, only climbing over a few snowdrifts (people who STILL haven't shoveled your sidewalks... I am not impressed). Naturally, it's snowed again, but in that second of spring, I finally took off my coat outside!
Meet Shadow[]box:
I feel like I've said all of this already, but I knit it on size 10 needles, with a strand of Miss Priss and one of Baby Kid Extra. Cozy, but a little bit molt-y. Fortunately, the fuzz is white, so it blends in with the bunny fur. I mostly wear it like this, with the shawl pin, but it's also good open, as long as I don't think too hard about the invisible asymmetry situation.
And I'm looking back on it fondly as I slog through socks and mittens on teeny needles. I took a break last weekend to make an bulky infinity scarf, and then yesterday to make a bulky cowl. Same stitch pattern, which looks like plaid. They were fun and speedy to knit, so I'd like to pull them together into a pattern--just in time for spring!
(Maybe I'll save them for next year?)
Meet Shadow[]box:
I feel like I've said all of this already, but I knit it on size 10 needles, with a strand of Miss Priss and one of Baby Kid Extra. Cozy, but a little bit molt-y. Fortunately, the fuzz is white, so it blends in with the bunny fur. I mostly wear it like this, with the shawl pin, but it's also good open, as long as I don't think too hard about the invisible asymmetry situation.
And I'm looking back on it fondly as I slog through socks and mittens on teeny needles. I took a break last weekend to make an bulky infinity scarf, and then yesterday to make a bulky cowl. Same stitch pattern, which looks like plaid. They were fun and speedy to knit, so I'd like to pull them together into a pattern--just in time for spring!
(Maybe I'll save them for next year?)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Foiled Again
I've been wearing the purple sweater every week or so (sorry, coworkers! Hope you're not bored... at least I'm not there every day), in the hopes that I'll be willing to take off my coat outside long enough to get a picture... but no luck.
Same with the wine colored Adrift (which I've also been wearing at home on my work from home days, with the idea that I might somehow take a picture of myself). And I'm wearing Shadow[]box at this very moment.
I can report though that Shadow[]box is quite cozy and convenient, and that if you can get over the knowledge that it's asymmetrical but doesn't look asymmetrical when worn, the shaping is quite good at keeping the whole thing in place, but still letting the neck drape. I'm not sure why knowing that the sides are different but that you can't tell bothers me, but there you have it. I've had to tell myself several times not to worry about it. (Oddly, I have no problem with actual, visible asymmetry.)
Given my recent obsession with keeping my neck warm, it should come as no surprise that I've started Idlewood with this handspun:
But I may lengthen the sleeves if I have enough yarn.
I really love the yarn. It's partly mohair, and very silky and light. When I was spinning it, I was worried that the mohair wasn't more evenly dispersed--sometimes the single seemed to be entirely mohair, sometimes it seemed like there wasn't any for a long time--but plying seems to have evened things up.
Same with the wine colored Adrift (which I've also been wearing at home on my work from home days, with the idea that I might somehow take a picture of myself). And I'm wearing Shadow[]box at this very moment.
I can report though that Shadow[]box is quite cozy and convenient, and that if you can get over the knowledge that it's asymmetrical but doesn't look asymmetrical when worn, the shaping is quite good at keeping the whole thing in place, but still letting the neck drape. I'm not sure why knowing that the sides are different but that you can't tell bothers me, but there you have it. I've had to tell myself several times not to worry about it. (Oddly, I have no problem with actual, visible asymmetry.)
Given my recent obsession with keeping my neck warm, it should come as no surprise that I've started Idlewood with this handspun:
But I may lengthen the sleeves if I have enough yarn.
I really love the yarn. It's partly mohair, and very silky and light. When I was spinning it, I was worried that the mohair wasn't more evenly dispersed--sometimes the single seemed to be entirely mohair, sometimes it seemed like there wasn't any for a long time--but plying seems to have evened things up.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Recycling
Despite having plenty of new yarn in sweater quantities, fixing the purple sweater (note to self: take pictures!) has inspired me to fix other sweaters which aren't quite right.
Till Thursday, this was a bottom up raglan cardi with asymmetrical buttons, lower edge, and neck. I liked the hem and the moss stitch trim (especially on the cuffs), but I wasn't crazy about the rest of it: the neck was a little big, the body was a little short, and the sleeves a little long. I thought about knitting it again to fix the problems, but I didn't think I'd have had enough yarn from shortening the sleeves to lengthen the body and sort out the neck.
So, rip!
(I warmed up for ripping on Monday, unraveling the sweater I made from the very first yarn I ever bought online! I loved the sweater for years, but each time I washed it it got imperceptibly shorter--and eventually, that added up to too short. I think it wants to be a gigantic infinity scarf now).
I've been obsessed with gigantic neckwear lately (could it be because my desk at work is cold, and my desk at home is cold, and the walk between them is also cold?), so I'm putting the grey yarn (Schaefer's Miss Priss, in the ash colorway) together with Filatura di Crosa Baby Kid Extra to make a Shadow[]box, a big cowl that's bog enough to cover the upper body to the elbow, with extra drape-y fabric at the neckline. The fabric is awfully cozy--I can't wait till it's finished.
Till Thursday, this was a bottom up raglan cardi with asymmetrical buttons, lower edge, and neck. I liked the hem and the moss stitch trim (especially on the cuffs), but I wasn't crazy about the rest of it: the neck was a little big, the body was a little short, and the sleeves a little long. I thought about knitting it again to fix the problems, but I didn't think I'd have had enough yarn from shortening the sleeves to lengthen the body and sort out the neck.
So, rip!
(I warmed up for ripping on Monday, unraveling the sweater I made from the very first yarn I ever bought online! I loved the sweater for years, but each time I washed it it got imperceptibly shorter--and eventually, that added up to too short. I think it wants to be a gigantic infinity scarf now).
I've been obsessed with gigantic neckwear lately (could it be because my desk at work is cold, and my desk at home is cold, and the walk between them is also cold?), so I'm putting the grey yarn (Schaefer's Miss Priss, in the ash colorway) together with Filatura di Crosa Baby Kid Extra to make a Shadow[]box, a big cowl that's bog enough to cover the upper body to the elbow, with extra drape-y fabric at the neckline. The fabric is awfully cozy--I can't wait till it's finished.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Upgrade
I acquired 2 new things in the last week that I'd been resisting forever: interchangeable needles and my very own rowing machine.
As it turns out, they're lovely. Even though the front hall is just about the most boring place ever, erging is so much more pleasant when the erg isn't broken. The ergs at the gym face the wall anyway--at least the wall at home is clean. (And as long as the erg can hang from the bike hooks in the winter when the bikes can go in the storage unit, we won't have to move!)
The needles are great too--I haven't really taken advantage of the interchangeable-ness yet, but Knit Picks is a significant improvement over whatever random needles I'd been using (Susan Bates?). A couple of years after the rest of the knitting world, I've just discovered that KP needles are really pointy and smooth! The join doesn't catch! The cord is flexible! Hurray!
I'm like a Soviet gymnast who's just discovered that the rest of the world has been tumbling on springy floors for decades. Imagine how excited I'll be when I finally see the shampoo aisle in a capitalist grocery store!
As it turns out, they're lovely. Even though the front hall is just about the most boring place ever, erging is so much more pleasant when the erg isn't broken. The ergs at the gym face the wall anyway--at least the wall at home is clean. (And as long as the erg can hang from the bike hooks in the winter when the bikes can go in the storage unit, we won't have to move!)
The needles are great too--I haven't really taken advantage of the interchangeable-ness yet, but Knit Picks is a significant improvement over whatever random needles I'd been using (Susan Bates?). A couple of years after the rest of the knitting world, I've just discovered that KP needles are really pointy and smooth! The join doesn't catch! The cord is flexible! Hurray!
I'm like a Soviet gymnast who's just discovered that the rest of the world has been tumbling on springy floors for decades. Imagine how excited I'll be when I finally see the shampoo aisle in a capitalist grocery store!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Endless
I made Adrift (a top-down raglan sweater with extended, drape-y fronts) for my sister for Christmas. Possibly you remember me complaining about the long rows of stockinette stitch in laceweight?
Well, I clearly don't--
Because I'm making one for myself. My sister's was sage green superwash wool from Madeline Tosh, this one is the rest of the alpaca from Peru--I'm going to keep knitting till it's all gone, no matter how many times I fall asleep. Since it's colder here, and my yarn is finer, I'm using it doubled and I think I'm going to make long sleeves (good thing, or I'd have to knit myself a bathrobe to use it all up!).
In other news, I'm knitting some black socks--also endless--and thinking about other socks I'd rather be working on. And other sweaters I'd rather be working on, for that matter. Somehow, I've ended up with enough yarn for four sweaters (plus the current WIP)--which is odd, since there have been times in the past couple of years when I haven't even had enough for one--so at least I have plenty to think about.
Well, I clearly don't--
Because I'm making one for myself. My sister's was sage green superwash wool from Madeline Tosh, this one is the rest of the alpaca from Peru--I'm going to keep knitting till it's all gone, no matter how many times I fall asleep. Since it's colder here, and my yarn is finer, I'm using it doubled and I think I'm going to make long sleeves (good thing, or I'd have to knit myself a bathrobe to use it all up!).
In other news, I'm knitting some black socks--also endless--and thinking about other socks I'd rather be working on. And other sweaters I'd rather be working on, for that matter. Somehow, I've ended up with enough yarn for four sweaters (plus the current WIP)--which is odd, since there have been times in the past couple of years when I haven't even had enough for one--so at least I have plenty to think about.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Scraps
After I finished Kevin's socks on Christmas Eve, I was really ready to make something for myself. Alarmingly, although I hadn't planned on this project at all, I had enough yarn and the right needles to make these mittens (the Portland Mittens, from New England Knits) with me (the book itself was a present from my sister). I cast on after we finished opening our presents, and finished them on the 26th--speedy!
I had to wait till we got home to make Hedgie (also known as Ysolda Teague's Smith), since I didn't have the pattern (and hadn't put it in my Ravelry library... that'll teach me!)
The gray and cream yarns are both Berroco's Ultra Alpaca (yum!), but I found the brown at the fair we go to every August. It wasn't a fiber event at all, but there were a few dozen skeins of yarn at one booth, and I found them. (I'm pretty impressed that my ability to sniff out the only yarn from miles around wasn't affected by all that fair food!)
It's lucky I included those gray sections in the mittens (there are 2 on the other hand), and even so I ran out of the brown and had to shorten Hedge by 2 rows of spikes. Poor thing!
I had to wait till we got home to make Hedgie (also known as Ysolda Teague's Smith), since I didn't have the pattern (and hadn't put it in my Ravelry library... that'll teach me!)
The gray and cream yarns are both Berroco's Ultra Alpaca (yum!), but I found the brown at the fair we go to every August. It wasn't a fiber event at all, but there were a few dozen skeins of yarn at one booth, and I found them. (I'm pretty impressed that my ability to sniff out the only yarn from miles around wasn't affected by all that fair food!)
It's lucky I included those gray sections in the mittens (there are 2 on the other hand), and even so I ran out of the brown and had to shorten Hedge by 2 rows of spikes. Poor thing!
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