to FO or not to FO...

Well, blocked and worn, here's DONNA! The sweater didn't come out exactly the way I wanted. I had hoped for a a bit of a fitting, va-va-voomy sort of sweater and instead I got a slouchy, kind-a-roomy sweater which fits and will be a good comfort of a sweater to wear come this fall. The short rows ending up giving me too much room in the bust and the ribbing on the side didn't pull it in in the waist as much as I had hoped. But c'mon, let's remember that a sweater is not a shaper, if ya know what I mean.

Pattern: Donna
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed in "Cedar"
Yarn enabler: Webs
Knit on: One 36" Knitpicks Size 5
Time I spent knitting this and about 4 other projects: Three months! Good god, that's a long time for a stockinette sweater. I must have been distracted by the socks!

Hey, it's an FO. And it's going might be the only one around for a while....

Say hello to my ball and chain. It's a gift for someone else's attaching of a ball-and-chain. I say that with more bitterness than I intend because I certainly don't think of marriage as a ball-and-chain affair and because I find the knitting fairly enjoyable. I'm mostly bitter because this is an UFO whose emotional rush of completion is a LOOOONNNG way off. This little panel represents one complete repeat of 22 rows and almost two skeins of knitting. I have 24 more skeins to go and I'm worried that the afghan will be too short and that I may have to throw myself on Knitpicks' matching dyelot mercy. I think the afghan will feel lovely, be beautiful, and be a project full of affection for the marrying friend. In the meanwhile I've decided that whenever I knit at home it has to be on this project and not any other or I'll never finish it. I've already conceded that I won't finish in time for their August 5th wedding, but I refuse to use up the entire year past the wedding in which it is still polite to present the gift. And I have to finish this up with some alacrity as I have another friend marrying in October...

Yup, this is my out-of-apartment knitting. It calls to me regularily because I know with just a few
hours of knitting I could get the rush of having an FO. God, I love that rush. I think I knit and finish things fast because I love that rush so much. But know I must be disciplined...and perhaps knowing that I can knit on it when I'm exercising or hanging out at a cafe or with knitters or while on a subway means this little beret has in its power to get me out of the house.

Here's my future...part of my buying spree was the acquisition of all these Interweave issues from when I wasn't so so so obsessed with knitting. The embossed leaves socks are in there, the Pearl Buck jacket, the Hepburn pullover...new projects to obsess over... to wait patiently in line while I enter the afghan black hole.

And have you seen this? The Knitting Circle Shows Its Chic.

Smarty-pants

NYEAH!

See--here's the thing. My stashing declaration says nothing about knitting accessories or knitting books. So I go online, shop all I want, remind myself it's not yarn, and then buy like crazy. I think this tendency may be where the suppressed yarn desires go to die.

Exhibit A:

The goody box I received from Knitpicks.com today. THREE BOOKS! And two of them don't really even have patterns in them--I'm reading them just for knitting fun. The Vogue book in particular is full of great pictures of great sweaters with NO patterns. Argh. That's ok, though, because there's lots of other useful stuff in the book. And, c'mon they're having a 40% off all books sale! What can a girl do.

Then there's the plastic space bags to handle my stash. I know my stash is not extensive, but it includes yarn for whole sweaters and an afghan, so it's a little out of control right now. I got a yarn cutter because I nearly ripped my hands up trying to break the Wick yarn when I was doing scissorless airline travel.

And then notice how there's THREE Knitpicks color cards? Those evil Knitpicks folks are trying to get me to break my stashing vow. I only ordered ONE color card for Shine Sport. Why did they also send me cards for Telemark and Palette, then? Hmm. pure evil. I already have one for Wool of the Andes....

Exhibit B: Some time two weeks ago, on my NC vacation, Interweave Knits was offering back issues for 5 for the price of 4. I think I got like 10. Ok, maybe 5. That box of shame hasn't come yet.

I'm outta control. I've got to come up with some sort of means of self-discipline when it comes to books and accessories.

In the meanwhile, I'm also feeling like a smarty-pants because I managed to negotitate my way through beginning this entrelac beret/cap. It was full of newish and BRAND-new techniques for me.

1. Tubular cast on? Yessiree bob! I got a tutorial that I love for that.

2. Excel spreadsheet to figure out the right amount of stitches to cast on and work into the base triangles for the entrelac? Check. But I haven't really figured out if the numbers I got for the decreasing in the spreadsheet actually make sense. I felt so, well, math-y, putting things into Excel!

3. Entrelac in the round? With two colors? Uh...I tried a the IK-Eunny Jang tutorial. Didn't get it. I tried following the directions in the pattern. Didn't get it. Finally after getting past the base triangles, I just took two triangles off the main needles and put it 'em on one double pointed needle and looked and fiddled until I taught myself entrelac. Go me!

4. Knitting backwards? YES! I don't know if I'm doing it properly or even in the most efficient way possible, but the resulting stockinette is convincing. Yay! After knitting backwards in entrelac while riding a exercise bike this morning (so proud of myself...like an extra-smart hamster or something), I decided to look at a tutorial for knitting backwards, and it makes my head spin. I figure if it's working, I'm not going to mess with my ill-gotten technique, right?

Lastly, before you all throw knitting needles at me for my flying FOs, know that I'm about to embark on endless projects, and I may never have an FO again for a long time. I have friends getting married in August and October (sadly, during Rhinebeck...jeez. It's a good thing I really like them.) and I have wedding afghans as presents lined up as projects. I know I know, there's always the Bloomie's registry...

So yummy it's...WICKABLE!

Though these socks were conceived in the crucible of air travel from the Southeastern US, I think they will bring me nothing but good memories to come!

It's nice to not have to worry about moths or lack of durability with this crazy-fiber yarn (soy and vaseline? not that's not it. bamboo and cool whip? nope...bungee cord and hemp? I can't remember.) The yarn was actually pretty nice to knit with, though I may have picked the wrong needle size (basically because that's the only size, other than a size 0, that I had with me on my travels), so knitting was a little 'stiff' for this loose knitter. The fabric, on the other hand, is fluid and of a good density for socks.

And look at those toes, heels, and cuffs! I had never made socks with contrasting extremeties, and now I find the effect particularily charming esepcially with the fresh, clean, fun colorway of this yarn!

Pattern: Beaded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Wick in #429 Sea Gold and #676 Ocean; (soy and polypropolene)
Yarn enabler: Yarn Paradise in June, 2007
Knit on: One 36" Knitpicks Size 5, Magic Looped.
Time I spent knitting these while stranded in airports and sitting in AC: one week.

For a small city in a fairly warm climate, Asheville did not lack for places to buy yarn--good places. Yarn Paradise was a great store, outside of 'downtown,' but in the middle of the cute Biltmore Village which sits at the entrance to the Biltmore Mansion and has lots of great shops and places to eat. Yarn Paradise is a house filled with yarn--that's my favorite kind of yarn store! I could have spent hours in there, and I'm sure they would have let me, but I went there to find my very picky mother a pattern and a yarn that I could use to make a sweater for her for her birthday. I say that she's very picky in order to extol the virtues of this store--we must have looked at 15 possible yarns in every shade of red and in every combination of fibres, and every time she dinged a (perfectly lovely, IMO) yarn for being not the right kind of red or too scratchy, or too heavy, the proprietors were able to find another possibility for the Katherine Hepburn cardigan. Verdict? They had a lot of great yarn in a million colors. I was even offered some perfect sportweight cashmere at a reduced price, but my mom couldn't see letting me spend $200 for yarn to make a sweater, and I agreed, though I was tempted. The Wick yarn that I bought there was on sale for about $7 a skein. And I left behind tons of Colinette Jitterbug and Koigu in wonderful colors that tempted me to break my stash vow.

*Late added PS because otherwise Annie Knits and Harlem Purls will continue to think I'm some sort of stash weirdo: In addition to the Wick, I did end up buying a Katherine Hepburn Cardigan's worth of yarn. It's the "Merino Sei" that's over there to your right in the sidebar on my stash list. I bought yarn--but I had saved space for it in my stash list-the vow remains unbroken!

Ewe-phoria!

I've found a place to grow!

Mission accomplished!

Welcome to the sunny North Carolina mountains where life is so quiet and placid that knitting gets done all of its own accord. Here are the Dungaree Socks I cast on on Wednesday (after I had finished knitting the entire back of the Donna sweater on Tuesday during the long day of delayed airline travel). These socks are enjoying the view of the Smoky Mountains from the vantage point of my parents' front deck. It's not at all like the view from my Brooklyn apartment. duh.

Ok, so in NC everything moves slowly except knitting because by Thursday night/Friday morning (while I waited for my husband to arrive in NC after a TWENTY-SEVEN hour delay,) I had this:





Pattern: Dungaree Socks
Yarn: Louet Gems Fingering in Violet and Purple
Yarn enabler: Knit New York in January, 2007 Knit on: One long Knitpicks Size O, Magic Looped. Time I spent knitting these when I had nothing else to do but talk to my parents: 3 Days

What to say about these socks. They were a down-and-dirty effort that served their purposes for me: 1) To use the Louet yarn which I am pretty much in love with for stitch-definition, feel in the hand, and color. 2) To have a small project to finish knitting quickly. 3) To work on two-color knitting. In this case, it was mosaic knitting.

Ok, let's talk about this mosaic knitting with two colors for a moment and how I am not at all a good knitter. I picked two colors that were (on sale, to be honest) harmonious but whose values (is that the right word?) were not different enough to provide sharper contrast in this wavy pattern. Also, I haven't mastered how to do the tension right for the slip stitches in mosaic technique. When I read this tutorial, it said that things should be loose, which is easy for me since I'm a loose knitter to beat the band. The other thing I got from the tutorial is that things will work themselves out in the blocking. I never block socks, but I blocked these because the colorwork looked like a puckered raisiny mess when I finished. They don't look so bad now, but the pattern is still not as sharply defined as I would've liked and the lovely definition of the Louet yarn is showing off my knitting inadequacies quite well thank you. Oh, well. That's what happens on your first attempt at a new technique, right?

In the meantime, airline travel sucks except that it provides lots of knitting time for when your head is exploding from the travel delays of bad weather, broken airlines, crazy gate agents (well, just the one who luckily went away. The other Asheville gate agent was a prince--I should have taken his picture and gotten his address so that I could send him the socks I was working on), and line-sitting while you try to get back to NY. My parents told us that there's a Chinatown bus that goes from Asheville-NYC. As far as I'm concerned, I'll take the vagaries of Fung Wah over Delta's Atlanta hellhole any day.

All total, here's what I've knit in the last week: one entire pair of socks, the back of a sweater, the sleeves for the sweater, and the feet (well, almost) of another pair of socks. Yikes--I'm a fast knitter, but let me reiterate that NC is a little slow (ie, boring) and that Delta travel is even slower.

Donna has been seamed up and is awaiting a neckline, and then I'll show you her mysteries and give you a quick insight into yarn shopping in Asheville another day.

What a little focus can do.

I loved these enough and am proud enough of these to show you my bare knees. That's some pride and love, doncha think?

Pattern: Wyvern Woman's Socks
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Sock Yarn in "Doublemint"
Yarn enabler: Woolgirl in May, 2007
Knit on: One long Knitpicks Size O, Magic Looped. (I love Magic Loop.)
Time I spent knitting these when I should have been cleaning the floors: 10 Days, June 16-25


Yeah, yeah, I know these weren't supposed to be knee-his, but I loved the color of the yarn and they went toe-up, so how could I not use all the yarn. I have about a yard of yarn left- you know how I love usin' it all up. The sock can have the pattern go all the way around the leg or have ribbing in the back. I have these crazy calves, so I'm all about ribbing and increasing the ribbing so that they fit all the way up my leg. And they're never falling down, believe you me.

The pattern is pretty fun and intuitive to knit--a lot like Monkey socks somehow I think, but without any purling. I also did the MI by doing a grandma increase (pulling up from the row below) on the edges of the front (so I wouldn't have ladder problems) and then did the ladder increase, twisting the loop as I went to do the 'seam' in the middle of the front of the sock. I'm a loose knitter so these kinds of increses made the pattern work out really well. If I could figure out how to take a picture of the back of my legs by myself, I'd show you those, but whatever--now you don't have to look at my, uh, shapely, calves.

I loved the color way at first and then when I started knitting I thought omigod they're baby-color socks and will be stupid. Now that I have them done I LOVE the colorway again. The yarn was a little splitty and hairy--it is a wool-nylon blend (my preferred choice for sock yarn)--but I am confident that I won't have any durability issues with these.

Yay! Now I have more space on my stash, which is great because I'm off for vacation tomorrow. I'm heading to Asheville, NC where I believe there are just a few places to do some vacation yarn shopping. Now, vacation yarn does count as stash in my book, but I've got some space, so yay! If you have any Asheville fiber insights to share, please do. I'm going to be knitting like crazy because my parents live on a mountain and like to golf, so I don't have a lot to do while I'm there. I plan on finishing that Donna sweater that's been languishing in my "yarn and patterns in play" list in the sidebar, and maybe, just maybe, I may start some more socks. I know, what a surprise...

Share and share alike.

You see it's not all knitting a cardigan for me, knitting socks for me, buying yarn for projects for me.
My friend, Otto the owl, is a little giftee for my friends' 2 year old. I was told she was obsessed with owls, so of course I had to make Otto. Of course, the young recipient is two, so obsessions could come and go, but maybe she'll love Otto anyway.

Pattern: Otto the Owl from And So to Bed, by Lucinda Guy
Yarn used: Berroco Ultra Alpaca. You gotta love this yarn--so soft, so squishy. I love alpaca. sigh.
Yarn enabler: Knit-a-way
Time it took to knit when I should have been: Well, I shouldn't have been doing anything else. This was my illicit project--I knit on it when my hands started hurting from knitting mercerized cotton for this. I never put the yarn on my blog. I never showed the wip because I wanted it to be a surprise. But all in all, about a month or so of intermittent knitting.

I think he's awful cute. The seams were a pain to sew up. All his little appendages are fast but kind of dorky knitting, but the yarn was a pleasure to knit. Lots of good projects in this book, might I say. I think there are some more gifts to be knit up....


Secret Secret Feet revealed. Back when my knitting group had a secret feet exchange, one pair of feet went uncovered for a little while, and they just needed some sock lovin'! My yarn pusher--um--group leader got some lovely Koigu that I made into these lovely Jaywalkers. No need to blog-blather on the ubiquitous Jaywalker or on the merits of Koigu, right? Anyway here they are--I hope Ms. Secret Secret feet liked them!