Across the Knitterverse

Just a quick drive-by post today, since tomorrow we are leaving to drive to Ohio for Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful that I’ve gotten my knitting mojo back, and have made some decent progress on Margot.  Just a few more rows of the front band of garter stitch and the body will be done!

(That ridge in the chest is where I added short rows.  Its hard to find a way to lay the sweater flat and not have that area look weird.)

I’m not thankful that all I have ahead of me is the sleeve knitting.  I very strongly dislike knitting sleeves.  But I like wearing sleeves, so I guess I have to suck it up and plow through.

OK, so no update photo for Margot.

I had a bit of a setback last weekend, and ended up ripping back several inches of work in order to reduce the number of short rows in the bust.  I am now beyond the point where I stopped to rip back before, but I have lost some ground in my NaKniSweMo schedule.  I should be 70% done by the end of the day according to my self-set schedule, but I think the most I can hope for is 60%.  I am trying to at least get the body finished and the sleeves started before Wednesday, when we leave for Thanksgiving in Ohio.  I hate knitting sleeves, which makes me especially nervous about my chances of finishing on time.

Just so I don’t leave you completely photo-less, I have a second project on the needles that I will show you.  My sister asked if I could knit a unisex baby hat for her to give as a gift to someone.  I had never knit a baby hat and after searching through my stash and through Ravelry, I ended up going with the Cabled Baby Hats pattern, using some leftover Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

I really enjoy using this yarn (the yarn is the leftover teal from these mittens I knit for my sister) and because it is not only a hat, but a baby hat, it feels like the fastest project ever.  I need to finish this for Thanksgiving, so I can give it to her.  I only have about 18 rounds left, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

This afternoon I am having some friends over to knit.  A couple of us would get together to knit every once in a while, and now we have decided to try to make it a more regular thing and expand it to include more friends.  Now I’m off to finish getting the house ready and then settle in for some quality time with Margot before everyone arrives.

Now that my knitting mojo has been back, I wanted to jump into a bigger than normal (for me at least) project.  I have a lot of sweater-quantities of yarn in my stash and a lot of sweater patterns in my Ravelry queue, but I’ve never really knit many sweaters.  I’ve always thought of myself as a slow knitter and sweater knitting has always felt like a big commitment to me.  I’m a larger girl, and there is more commitment involved in finishing a 46″ sweater than a 36″ sweater.  Plus, with the few sweaters I have knit, I don’t have the greatest track record of being happy with the fit in the end (there is a story there, but it is a story for another day).  But, you never improve if you don’t keep trying, so I decided to participate in the National Knit a Sweater Month (November).

I decided to up the level of challenge for myself by choosing a DK weight yarn  rather than worsted (my normal go-to yarn weight for most non-sock knitting).  I attended Stitches East in Baltimore last November (very very convenient for me, since the convention center is diagonally across the street from where I was working at the time).  Among my many yarn purchases was a full bag of Queensland Kathmandu DK, in a very autumn-y red-orange color.

Once I had decided on the yarn, I needed to choose a pattern.  Patterns in the running included the Sidelines Top from Interweave and Francis Revisited (a free download), but in the end I decided on Margot from the Fall 2009 Knitty.  I wanted something relatively simple, since I wanted to use this project as a lesson in making modifications to a pattern in order to get a perfect fit.  The stockinette provides a great blank canvas for incorporating modifications and the garter stitch detailing adds a bit of interest to a simple sweater and looks good in a tweedy yarn.

I swatched at the end of October and was ready to start on November 1st.

(my swatch and my first day of progress - finishing the neckband)

Now I am about 40% done, and right on track to finish within the month.  I’ve finished the raglan increases, divided off the sleeves, started the body, and added my first modification - short rows.  “The girls” are on the larger side, and I had read in many places about adding short rows to the bust of a sweater to make up for the vertical distance needed to keep the front hem from being shorter than the back.  I have done short rows many times when knitting the heel of a sock, but I wasn’t sure where to start in adding them to the front of a sweater.  I found this great tutorial while doing a Google search, took my measurements and got going on my short rows.  Once I finished I tried it on and I can definitely tell that it has improved the fit.

Since that point, I have finished a few more inches on the body, including starting my next modification - changing the waist decreases.  I have a somewhat hourglass figure, which is something I try to emphasize, (yes, I have watched a lot of What Not to Wear in my past).  The pattern as written only decreases 12 stitches for the waist, and I wanted a bit more of a decrease (and in part to save some yarn, since I used extra yarn to add the short rows).  So I am doubling the number of decrease rows, from 3 rounds of decreases (done every 4th round) to 6 rounds of decreases, and starting them earlier in the pattern so that the waist still hits at the same point.

I don’t have an up-to-date photo, since it has been too cloudy to get good photos, but here is my progress through the short row section.  The bit of a ridge you can see (caused by the cord holding the stitches on the back side of the sweater) is slightly above where I started the short rows.

It looks like it will be a rainy few days here, and it looks like the Steelers game will actually be televised here on Sunday (thank you Monday night Ravens game), so it will be a good weekend for knitting.  I hope to have some new progress photos for you on Monday.

I’m back.

I apologize for falling off the face of the earth.  I kind of lost my blogging mojo at the end of last summer, then was really busy last fall, then my computer got kind of whacked out at the beginning of the winter.  I spent most of the spring and summer being worried about the possibility of being laid-off, which resulted in a lack of knitting mojo.  So all of that resulted in a good 14 or so months of no blogging.  Its really easy to get out of the habit and start to feel too behind in posting to want to catch up.  I just logged in to my Wordpress dashboard and Statcounter for the first time in a very long time and was amazed to find that people still have been visiting and posting a few comments even with no new content.  That has provided some of the push I needed to start posting again.

The other push to start blogging again comes from the fact that my spring and summertime fears were realized this fall when my employer (an architecture firm) announced that it was closing.  I have been officially unemployed for about a month, prospects for a new job are few and far between, and I have started to feel a little bit cut off from the world.  My knitting mojo is back and I hope that a return to knit-blogging will help me feel more productive and connected with others.

There’s no way I’ll ever be able to catch up with everything I’ve done/knit in the past 14 months with blog posts, but at some point I will update my 2008 FOs tab up at the top of the page and create a 2009 tab.  I am still on Ravelry (username: amy) and my project notebook has been kept fairly up to date if you want to see what I have been working on.

I finished these a few weeks ago, but at the time I was kind of frustrated with them, so I didn’t do a FO post right away.

Pattern – 9 to 5 Socks
Yarn – Fleece Artist Nova Sock Yarn in an unknown colorway, purchased at French Creek Fiber Arts
Needles – Knitpicks 40” US size 2 circular
Started – April 14, 2008
Finished – July 18, 2008

Back in the spring, I really wanted to knit with this yarn, and I went on a search for a suitable pattern. After a false start or two, I went with the 9 to 5 Socks pattern, which had been in my queue for a while. It is the kind of pattern that needs to be knit in a solid or semi-solid yarn and I really like the way the cable twists continue down along each side of the heel flap.

Now that I have knit with this yarn, I’ve decided that I have a bit of a love-hate thing going on with this yarn. I LOVE the saturation of the color combined with the bit of shine in the yarn. The label claimed that it is 100% merino, but I’ve never seen 100% wool with so much shine to it. While very pretty to look at, the yarn turned out to be very splitty to knit with, which made the project a bit less enjoyable.

I knit these from the cuff down, one at a time, using the magic loop method. I’ve never had a problem with running out of yarn while knitting socks, so I didn’t bother to split the skein in two before starting. When I got past the heel on the second sock, I realized that I might run out of yarn before reaching the toe. I started to knit faster, which seems to be a common response to the fear of running out of yarn. And it turns out that I did run out, right at the start of the second toe. I thought about frogging a bit of the cuff of each sock to scrounge enough for the second toe, but I decided that I was mad at the project and didn’t want to put in that much additional work. Instead I went through my stash of leftover bits of sock yarn and found something (Duet Middy yarn I had left over from the Peacock Plume Socks) that pretty closely matches the weight and the twist of the original yarn, since none of the yarn in my stash came close to matching the color. I figure that most people don’t see my toes anyway, and I was just ready to be done.

In general, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, if I can ignore the toe issue, which was not the fault of the yarn or the designer, but rather my lack of planning. The fit is absolutely perfect, which makes me look forward to wearing them, once the weather cools back down.

Knitters are everywhere, and I think that is so cool.

On Friday morning before work, Brian and I waited out in front of our local AT&T store in order to get our hands on the new iphones. We were prepared with Starbucks, chairs-in-a-bag, a book (for Brian), and knitting (for me) to keep us comfortable and entertained. And guess what…I wasn’t the only knitter there. I got to meet Lexthegeek (Ravelry user) who was in line right in front of us, working on some socks. In the nearly 2 hours we waited, I got a few more repeats done on the Marigold socks. I’m starting the gussets and am on my way to turning the heel.

The Summer of Socks knit-along has already been in progress for a few weeks, and I’ve only just started my first pair of SOS socks. I was actually holding off, trying to finish my 9 to 5 socks before starting a pair for SOS, but with a good portion of SOS already over, I started to get concerned that I would run out of time for SOS knitting. Plus, I had new and unique yarn calling to me, so I was very much ready for a new sock project.

I was lucky enough to snag some sock yarn from the most recent update on the Twisted Fiber Art website…the Playful yarn base in the Netherfield colorway, along with a ¼ skein of coordinating heel/toe yarn.

Netherfield is a really interesting colorway…it’s a variegated yarn…it’s a self-striping yarn…it is both at the same time. The colors of the variegation shift as you knit along, creating a gradual striping effect. And not only is the effect really cool, but the color combinations used to create Netherfield are totally gorgeous. I’m a big fan of pink and green together (this colorway ranges from peachy-pink to deep rose and from light yellow-green to olive, with a bit of brown), so this is a great combination for me. It reminds me of a rose garden part in sunlight and part in shade.

Since I knew I wanted to use this yarn, I went looking through my queue for a pattern that wouldn’t get lost in the striping, and hopefully a pattern that might even enhance the striping. I think I have just the thing – the Marigold Socks pattern by Pamela Wynne. I started knitting two socks at once, toe-up on one circular needle (magic loop) and I’m past the toe and three repeats into the pattern on the foot.

The pattern is just a little bit lacy, and includes a ridge of purl stitches every 7^th row. The way the yarn-overs and decreases stack up on themselves cause the purl ridge to have a bit of a wave to it, making it almost look like a little ruffle. The combination of the lacey/ruffle-y pattern and the colors in the yarn seem to be making for some very girly socks. I’m not normally into things that are super girly, but I think I’m smitten with these socks. I’m excited to keep working on them to see how they turn out.

A longer-term project finally came off the needles this past week. I had pretty much stopped working on anything else in June in an effort to make one last big push to the finish. I’m so glad to be done.

Pattern: Icarus Shawl from the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in the Velvet Grapes colorway (2 skeins), purchased at Birds of a Feather in Avon, Ohio
Needles: US 4 Addi Turbo Lace circular needle
Started: March 2, 2008
Completed: July 2, 2008

Before this project, I had knit lace patterns before, but I had never before completed a project that was what I think of as “real lace”… a lace pattern knit in a lace-weight yarn. I have a lot of lace shawl patterns in my Ravelry queue and one of my goals for this year was to knit more lace. I’ve had this issue of Interweave Knits since it was first released, but I don’t think I was all that interested in this particular pattern until Interweave released the book The Best of Interweave Knits, with this pattern pictured on the cover.

I chose this lace shawl pattern over others because it looked very simple and fast to knit.  Well, I guess for me “simple” easily becomes “tedious”.  The knitting really dragged through Chart 1 (the stockinette section with columns of yarn-overs) but seemed to pick up a lot for the latter charts, even though that was the point where the rows started to get really long.  I think the thing that really kept me going in the beginning was the yarn — I really love this colorway.  It really does seem to have a “velvet” quality to it (the color in the photo above is more accurate than the one below, and even in the one above, the colors contrast a bit more than in real life).

This was my first attempt at steam blocking a project, but the results just don’t do it for me. I don’t know if I didn’t do something right or if I was just generally not thorough enough, but the edges still seem a bit on the curly side and the lace pattern doesn’t pop as much as I expected it to. I’m afraid to wet-block this yarn because any time I’ve wet-blocked Malabrigo worsted, it has become fuzzy and lost its stitch definition.  So while I’m generally happy with the results of this project, I know it could look better than it does…but I’m afraid to mess with it too much and make it look worse.  Any advice on blocking Malabrigo Lace is welcome.

Its been a long time with no posts here at Across the Knitterverse. I’m hoping to make up for that with a few FO and general update posts, and then after that I will try harder to post at least once a week.

First up we have a new finished object — one that was never really discussed on the blog because it was a secret. Now that it has been given to the recipient, the details can be revealed.

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann from the Opinionated Knitter
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL in colorway 104
Needles: Knitpicks 40″ US 4 circular (first time using Knitpicks needles and I am amazed by how nice they are for the low price…nice smooth needles and very flexible cords)
Started: May 22, 2008
Completed: June 15, 2008 (it only took me a few days to knit, but a few more weeks to find and attach buttons)

This was a gift for my cousin who has her first baby due later in the summer. They aren’t finding out the sex so the sweater isn’t “blue for a boy” its more like “blue because I know the mother would like the color”. The yarn was originally purchased as sock yarn, but once I decided on this project, I decided that this yarn was much better suited to become a BSJ…and I think I was right. I love the way the color changes emphasize the shaping of the garment. Here’s another photo (pre-buttons) with more accurate colors…

I had a lot of fun knitting this project. The pattern is about as entertaining as garter-stitch can be — the combination of the unique construction and the self-striping yarn keep it interesting, and the project knits up quickly.  I see more of these in my future, again in self-striping yarn. There aren’t any more babies on the horizon, but I’m already prepared with my next BSJ yarn… a self-striping yarn in the Giles colorway from Twisted Fiber Art…

I try to blog when I have pictures to go with my blog post.  I haven’t had the time to get pictures of my knitting lately, so I’ve been short on blog material.  Sarah did this meme in her blog, so I thought I would do it here.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I had just finished my 3rd year of college.  I was living in Atlanta with my aunt and uncle for the summer while doing an internship.  I didn’t know a lot of people there, so I did a TON of reading that summer — thinking back, if I had known how to knit back then, I could have finished lots of projects that summer.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
empty the dishwasher
place an order with Bluestone Perennials (very small plants but dirt cheap!) for some things to help fill in our landscaping
load some more knitting podcasts on my iPod (I’m looking forward to trying out the Manic Purl podcast)
work on my Icarus shawl
watch the LOST season finale

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Tortilla chips with salsa, carrots with hummus, grape tomatoes with FF ranch dip

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel a lot.  Knit a lot.  Read a lot.  Live in a bigger house.  Not work at all.

5) Places I have lived:
Elyria, Ohio
Muncie, Indiana
Duluth, Georgia
Columbus, Ohio
Baltimore, Maryland

6) Jobs I have had:
(going really far back with a lot of these)
newspaper carrier
hostess/cashier
cleaning carpets/doing maintenance stuff at some schools (2 different jobs/summers)
part-time landscape architecture intern/part-time Taco Bell employee (that summer was the worst)
full-time landscape architecture intern (2 different jobs/summers)
part-time computer lab assistant (best/easiest job ever!)
Landscape Architect/Land Planner at a landscape architecture firm
Landscape Architect/Land Planner at an engineering firm
Landscape Architect/Land Planner consultant
Landscape Architect/Planner at an architecture firm

7) People I wanna know more about:
If you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged.  Let me know in the comments if you do it and I’ll come read your responses.