Knitting Sutra

FO: Little Miss Muffet Beret

And another one down. Another one down.

Pattern: Rollin' Beret from Wooly Wormhead
Yarn: Misti Baby Alpaca Chunky, Aquamarine
Needles: 5.5mm DPNs
Size: Large
Mods: None really. The pattern offers you the choice of two sizes, with or without an I-chord tail thingy. I didn't need an umbilical chord coming off of my head, so I knit a little nubbin'. The last hat I made kept coming undone at the center, so I think the I-chord nubbin' will keep it together.

I've been lusting for this yarn for awhile, and generally keeping my eye out for something to knit with it. I don't need a sweater or a wrap, so I'd been a little stumped. Then cute berets and beanies started appearing on the knit interwebs, and of course Real Simple did the spread 'o ridiculously expensive machine knit hats.

It was a no brainer to run down to Knit Happens immediately, and I cast-on right there in the store. Many thanks to Holly for helping me to come to terms with the fact that not only was a baby blue hat going to match my own baby blues*, but it matches my brown coat too. People, I'm not a pastel kinda girl. This is huge.

Naturally I found the pattern on Ravelry. There's nothing much to knitting a beret, but it was helpful to find someone who'd typed up the maths for a chunky weight yarn. My only regret is that I didn't knit the smaller size. If I were to do it all again, I'd knit the smaller size, and I'd work more than 5 inches before starting the decreases.

The final result is a bit more milk-maiden than swingin' hep cat. But it's cute and warm, and it works. Another satisfied customer.

Yet... yet... there's a small part of me that is already thinking I might need to do this one over. If it's smaller, it might actually fit more like a beret. Baaaaah I hate frogging and starting over! But... but... I wanted a beret. I'm also a bit lazy, and I'm a far cry from a perfectionist.

Should I stay or should I go? What would YOU do?

Mail Call

I got a wonderful little package in the mail this weekend. Meghann, the sweetheart behind Radiant Twist Yarns, sent me two skeins of her superwash merino sock yarn in the Iced Mocha colorway, just enough for a snuggly pair of socks. Definitely check out her Etsy Shop to pick up some for yourself.

Thank you, Meghann! You're a doll!

Sadly, the yarn doesn't smell like a cuppa, but the creamy color more than makes up for it. Iced Mocha is part of her semi-solid, monochromatic collection, and quite honestly I'm not sure what to knit with it. I think I can do something a bit lacy because the colors won't compete with an intricate pattern, but then again, the colorway might be manly enough for B.

I've got three sock pattern books burning a whole in my bookshelf. I think I've got too much to choose from, and I haven't even looked around Ravelry for this one. Ya'll got any ideas?

Already In The Frog Pond

A few weeks ago I may have mentioned a certain pair of secret socks that I had underway. Well, the whole thing is still all in my head and ready to be committed to stitches, but wouldn't you know I had to frog the toes? Even though I swatched, I ended up with hugemongous socks that might have fit feet twice my size.

I haven't yet mustered up the energy to start them over again. Meh, they're just socks right? But you see, I'm the crazy person whose doing color work on two socks at once. That's a four-stranded tangled mess at every turn.

I apparently cannot, under any circumstances, knit one sock at a time. I knit my first pair of socks two at once, and I'll knit all socks two at once. I'm a stubborn ole jenny, if you know what I mean.

* I've taken poetic license here. In the interest of full disclosure I must confess that my eyes are actually steely-gray-blue.

Down In It

It's all happening, happening. Boxes, dust and pet hair from old apartment, freak rain storms, box spring too big to go upstairs, more boxes, more pet hair, eating cereal out of real bowls.

You probably guessed that our furniture, books, nick-knacks, and stash arrived from Holland on Wednesday. Almost all of it is unpacked, though don't get any crazy notion that it's all put away properly. That'll take a bit more time.

In the thick of it all I finished the bath mat, but cloudy skies and empty boxes on the porch are keeping me from getting a nice photo. It looks pretty much like the other photo, only bigger. FO! Ta da! heh

The scarf is coming along. The thinking on stranded color socks is coming along. Holiday knits on the mind. Itching to finish old works in progress. Can't decide what to do next. Need stash storage ideas. Help me, Target, you're my only hope.

Like these guys are helping any...

This and That

Knitting Around Town

We've been back in the States for a month, and I'm happy to report that we've settled back into our old life pretty easily. B's working gobs, and so am I, actually. I knit during TV time, or those times when I'm waiting in line or for my number to be called.

I made a bunch of progress on My So-Called Scarf last week while hanging out at the DMV and Social Security office. I was running around changing my last name. I've been married a year but I kept needing my passport, so I couldn't change it until now. Friday seemed like a good enough day to sit around, and sit I did.

Surprisingly, knitting was a popular activity in government waiting rooms. At the DMV, I sat next to a woman who admitted to working on one single afghan for more than 20 years. She started it when she was pregnant with her first son, and she still brings it out every now and then to knit a few stitches. She also admitted that it's an ugly brown and she'd never use it if she finished it. Yet, she plans to keep it and knit on it whenever the mood strikes. I love that story.

A woman next to me at the Social Security office was working on a fingerless mitt, knitting at lightening speed on four dpns. We eyed each other's projects, but it was actually her husband who asked me what I was working on. He also noted the Belatrix socks I was wearing, recognizing them as handknit. I'm not sure how to take that. Of course, I felt the need to apologize for their ugliness, to which he responded with a listing of his wife's crazy socks.

Anyhoo... here's a shot of my so-far scarf:

I started this on the airplane a month ago, though "start" is not quite what I mean to say. I knit a few inches over and over on different needles, realizing that the size I wanted was in my check bag.

I'm totally digging how the colorway, Krauterbeet, is zig-zagging up the scarf. And do I need to sing the praises of Wollmeise yarn? What can I say that hasn't already been said? If you haven't taken the Wollmeise plunge, Claudia's new online shop is now open, making it all that much easier to indulge.*

Chomped

The bath mat is just about finished, and would already be finished but for one minor set back - Nigel got a hold of my needle.

Most of the time he looks innocent enough, but don't let those floppy ears and doe eyes fool you. He's a little terror. Perhaps it's for the better anyway. I stopped by Knit Happens to replace my circular, and they only had metal needles in the size I needed. The metal combined with the pointier tips are making for a much nicer knit. It's a lot easier on the hands, and it's going even faster now. I should be able to finish it today. Woohoo!

Knitting my own bath mat is making me feel all super DIY lately. I'm having urges to make soap and start a compost pile in the backyard. I'm getting more in touch with how precious things, any things, are. We take for granted that someone else is putting her sweat and tears into our throw-away lifestyle. I have the yarn to make some wash cloths, and finally my copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting is en route from Texas. I look forward to decorating my new home with my own sweat and, hopefully, not too many more tears. Eh-hem, Nigel.

* When I went back to my post to add links, I noticed that her shop is currently closed for repairs. I'm sure it will be back up soon.

Musings on a Heat Wave: Super Absorbent Edition

If you live along the East Coast of the US, you can blame me for the heat wave. I'll take it. We barely had a Summer at all in Holland, so I was openly hoping for some warm weather when we returned to the States.

Boy did I get it. It's 90F and sunny! Hooray for July in October! I know most of you have probably been gearing up for Fall knitting, but at least one person out here is enjoying this second lease on Summer.

I won't apologize for the sunshine. It hasn't rained once in the nearly three weeks since we've been back. It's humid and sticky, and honestly I love it. The moisture is good for the skin, and sweating releases toxins. I look and feel years younger. Woohoo!

Knitting in the Thick of It

Throughout this year's regularly scheduled Summer, I read post after post about the stinking heat in North America. There were even a few spots in Europe that felt the full brunt of the Sun's rays. As I said just before, this was not the situation in Holland. I was merrily knitting (and wearing) wool sweaters and socks in July. As I read all these posts, I couldn't get my brain around all the fuss about it being too hot to knit.

Now I know. The So-Called Awesome Wollmeise Scarf that I started on the plane has been shelved for breezier days when the wool won't stick to my fingers. Thankfully my Peaches & Creme arrived from Elmore-Pisgah last week so I could get cracking on my 100% cotton bath mat.

I ordered three 1-pound cones of the double worsted weight in the mint chocolate colorway. The pattern calls for you to knit three strands together, creating the thickest mush of cotton you'll ever step upon. It's all luxury, and is so far a quick knit. Garter stitch! Yeah!

Experienced cotton knitters would not be surprised to learn that this knit is a bit tough on the hands. I'm hoping that it will condition my gnarly talons for climbing. As soon as the heat breaks, we'll hit the rocks.

Ugly Betty's Socks

I'm sure that even if you haven't been watching "Ugly Betty," you at least know the premise of the show. My Bellatrix socks are a bit like Ugly Betty herself. They smack of "what were you thinking?" Yet... I like them. They're warm, squishy, and oh-so-soft. Once you look past their garishness, they're definitely cool to hang out with.

My FO photo did a good job of showing off the splotchiness, but today I set my mind to getting some decent close-ups of just how ugly the colorway is.

Behold, the better-lighted look at my fugly Bellatrix socks. You'll see that they're not red and black, but red and everything else.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Progress. Progress.

My step-mother-in-law's socks are well on their way to donedom. They'd be done already if I hadn't poked a teeny hole in my right index finger. I took one for the team, yo!

I've also spent a few hours here and there slogging through the Ogee Skirt. It's about 70 percent-ish done. Ta da!

I'll go on record saying that I don't like all this lacey knitting on floppy circular needles stuff. If I didn't want the final object so badly, I'd have ditched this long ago. And what a mess it is! With the provisional cast-on, the lifeline, all those ends... ugh.

Anyway, it's getting there. Slowly, but surely.

The Bad

Addi needle makers, I dunno how you did it. You sly devils, geniuses of marketing, you.

There I was lamenting the splittyness of a certain Panda Cotton, when it dawned on me, "The new Addi lace needles are supposed to be pointier. I'll get me some of those."

I ordered. They came. I went to cast on, and uhm...

The one on top is my regular 2.5mm circular. The one on the bottom is the new 2.5mm lace needle. Do you see a difference? Aside from the color, I mean.

I don't either. The lace needles are no pointier than the regular ones. That is, unless you consider that the lace one tapers just a hair more than the regular one. But the tippy-tips, they are not sharper.

I they aren't any pointier, then do their other claims (suppler chord, lighter weight) ring true? I decided that I needed to conduct some more experiments.

Supple chord test: I squeezed, squished and flippy-flopped both chords. Conclusion: I don't find the lace chord to be any suppler than the regular one.

Weightlessness test: I also held one needle in each hand and made a scale-balancing gesture. Conclusion: The lace needles are not noticeably lighter than the regular ones. They might actually be, but then the difference would be so slight as to be not worth mentioning.

Shame on you, Addi. Shame.

The Ugly

I couldn't help myself. I cast on another pair of socks. No I haven't finished anything else. You gotta problem with that? You wanna take it outside?

This is that old pooling Colinette Jitterbug. You'll see that the pattern, Belatrix, isn't doing much to combat the pooling. And let's face it, this is ugly yarn. However, the overall affect seems to be working so far. I'm going for a heroine chiq/cat fight in the alley behind CBGB's kinda look.

Don't ask me where I'll wear this pair of socks. My punk rawk days are long gone. I'm making them anyway because, all together, I knit what I want! And for some reason, I really want these ugly socks.

Summer Knitting Goals: September Outlook

Schedule Movers. Check.

Book flights. Check.

Needle the customs office at Dulles about transporting pets. Check.

Throw out miscellaneous junk in the bathroom. Check.

Organize yoga teaching gigs for Fall session. Check.

Organize freelance Web work so we can afford DC-area rent. Check.

Photograph electrical appliances that we can't use in the US. Check

Post classified ad for TV. Check.

As you can see, I've been a busy little beaver this week organizing our little hovel to get ready for the move. We touch down in Dulles on September 18. And I'll tell you this much, I'll be hitting the ground running.

I Knit?

You can probably guess that I haven't been knitting too much this week. In fact, I didn't tell you that we snuck off to the South of England last weekend to visit some friends one last time. Late night marathons of Monopoly (I won, yeah!) and Canasta (Team Ginger Hair spanked The Brunettes, yeah!) kept me from knitting there as well.

I've managed an additional inch or two on my step-mother-in-law's socks while catching up on the Daily Show, but they look basically the same as the last time you saw them. I'm setting aside some time to work on the Ogee Skirt today because of all the things I really want to finish before I go, that's the one.

About Those Summer Plans

At the beginning of the Summer, Ali dangled great prizes in front of us so we'd organize our Summer Knitting Goals. I've actually done OK, considering that I added things to the list. But the adding of such things (I'm looking at you Jemima and Ogee, you scamps) means that the items I really should have finished got pushed to the side.

I won't make another such list for the Fall. I'd rather just knit what I feel like knitting when I feel like knitting. My life, especially the life I'll pick back up in DC, is pretty scheduled. I'd like to keep the knitting more freeform.

Let's take a look at how I'm doing. All is not lost on a couple of these projects, but yeah... you know.

1. X Knit at least one pair of socks per month for Socktopia and Summer of Socks 2007. I didn't finish any socks in June, and copped out a bit in July. Yet, I did manage to complete a pair in August, so maybe that's not so bad after all.
2. DONE! Start and finish no-wool socks for my mom. Woohoo!
3. DONE! Finish B's flapjack socks before I go crazy or get repetitive stress syndrome.
4. Finish B's sweater. The back is done! Woohoo! But there's no chance I'll finish this during what could technically be called "Summer."
5. Finish Daisy Scarf . Daisy what?
6. DONE! Start Cabled V Neck Sweater. I swatched. I feel OK about this.
7. DONE! Knit and felt my first bag.
8. DONE! Find a project for the umpteen skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 501 that were a sweater. I chose Wicked, and I confirmed I have enough yarn.
9. DONE! Decide if I will actually knit the Hanami Stole for my mother-in-law or for my mom or both for Christmas. I'm not going to. I have something else in mind instead, and I have the yarn for it already.
10. DONE! Finish Jemima.

11. Make three peace cranes (one for me, two for friends). Now that we're moving in September, there's no chance these are going to happen.
12. Make the Ogee Lace Skirt from Interweave Knits, Summer 2007 to wear over yoga pants. In progress... I really want to finish this before I go because I start teaching right away. No one needs to see my horribly out of shape lump of a rump in my yoga pants.

BTW, I took those photos last weekend near Poole, England. It was a bit strange to see a lamb so late in the season.

Here She Comes

Jemima is seamed and waiting so sweetly for me to sew the buttons and buttonholes. I owe so much to Janette down in Australia for helping me figure out how to apply the mattress seam to the raglan sleeves. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Janette!

The seams would look better if I'd done the increases one or two stitches in from the edge, but they look wearable, purposeful even. I've already tried it on, and it fits. It fits pretty well, though the sleeves are a bit baggy. But not too much. Woohoo!

I had hoped to finish Jemima completely today, but I have run out of time. I have train tickets to buy. B and I are going somewhere tomorrow. Some place really cool, where I'm hoping to get a money shot of me looking too cool for school in my new sweater. Weather permitting. Yesterday was chilly enough for a wool pullover (don't get me started), but it's a bit warmer today. And we're heading South. Four hours by train. I can't wait!

Till Friday...

A Little Sniffle; A Little Progress

I've been a tad sick. It hit me last Saturday, and is still hanging around. It's probably not the ridiculously smokey, Dutch bar that gave me the cold, but that probably didn't help. I'm not on my deathbed or anything, but my head feels like it weighs 20lbs more than usual. The couch and I are well acquainted now. Not that we weren't before, mind you.

There has been some knitting progress.

My Sweet Jemima

I've generally been too sniffly, sneezy to work on sewing Jemima up since last week, but I've made a little progress. I did some more research on raglan seaming, and I pretty much came up emtpy-handed. Well, except one thing that's a bit of "too little, too late." Word to the wise: do the raglan shaping a couple of stitches in from the edges, and cleaner seams you shall have.

Yesterday I managed to sew about three inches over the course of two hours. One step forward, two steps back. I'm not going to win a ribbon at the 4H fair with this one, but I think I will be able to wear Jemima out in public sans shame.

Socks On The Edge

I've worked the gussets on my Mom's socks, and I'll turn the heel as soon as I wrap up this post. You can kinda sorta see how the gussets work in the sock on the right. You work M1s every other round, and *woosh* gussets appear.

The heels are turned by working decreases. You'll see. I can't say enough good things about how this heel looks and feels, but dang if the math isn't a big turn off. I'm trying to work out a formula, but I have to channel my old high school self, the one that was in the Math Honor Society, to do this. That girl's been asleep for a long, long time.

As extra incentive to push through, I wound the hank of the red Colinette Jitterbug into balls last night. The needles I need are tied up in my Mom's socks. You see. I'm so keen to knit with the Jitterbug; the colors are so vivid and the yarn so well plied. *Swoon*

Oh Gee!

I've finished the first 28 rows of the Ogee Lace Skirt. Along the bottom you can see the bits of waste yarn I used for the provisional crochet cast on. I haven't crocheted since I was 9 years old. Thankfully it'll be ripped out later because those are some wonky chain stitches.

You can also see little bits of additional waste yarn along the top. I recently read about "lifelines" on a couple of blogs, and what light bulb moments those were! Dude. This is a gift from the knitting gods for lacy projects: Thread some waste yarn through your work so that if you have to frog back, you don't have to rip the whole bloody thing out. Brilliant.

This project is revealing interesting insight into why I knit. For me, it's probably 8 parts end result, 2 parts process. I'm really not enjoying it because the fear of messing it up is stressing me out a too much. Even with the lifeline, I just don't want to frog. At all. So I'm obsessively counting each pattern repeat, slowing myself way, way down. If I didn't want the end product so badly, and I really do, then I'd have given this up after the swatches.

I'd like to give special thanks to everyone who posted comments to get me through the swatching. Silly me, I didn't know you were supposed to follow the chart in both directions. That made a huge difference. Also, mad props to Jean who suggested using post-it notes to keep track of where you are in the chart. This helps immeasurably.

Don't Do Me Like That

Why, Jemima? Why?

Yesterday I blocked the last sleeve. I decided to lightly press the pieces, and I'm glad I did. Much wonkiness has disappeared. :)

The first step is to sew in the little strip of white where the buttons will go at the top of the left raglan sleeve. That went really well, and the seam is quite clean.

However. This is a big however. I am having a miserable time trying to sew in the raglan sleeves. In short, they look like crap. I've pulled out the seam three times and have yet to come up with something that looks even remotely presentable, much less professional (who am I kidding?).

I'm at a loss as to what to do to make these seams look any nicer. This isn't rocket science, and these aren't even my first raglan sleeves. I dunno if I should start the seems further into the work or what. Any ideas? This is not cute.

Ogee Dokey

Meanwhile, two Ogee Lace swatches are are quietly blocking on a towel. Interestingly, the Rowan Bamboo Tape is really floppy and drapey dry, but feels just like stiff, wet jeans after soaking the fabric. The Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits has a short article on bamboo yarns, and they mention that it's a bit delicate when wet. I second that. More on Ogee in the coming days.

Famous Last Words

Finally, I'm ready to work the heels on my mom's socks. That's not super exciting unless you've been waiting for me to write up the instructions for the "no pick-up gusset" heels for toe-up socks that I promised back when I finished the monkey socks. I'll finish writing it all up as I work through the math for my mom's socks. Expect that in the next day or so since I'm putting Jemima down to let her breathe. Or me breathe. Or something.

Time to Get Cereal

Dear, dear lace knitters, I need your help.

You may recall that I planned to start the Ogee Lace Skirt while I'm here in Berlin.  I have the Rowan Bamboo Tape, the pattern and the needles.  I should be good to go. 

Yesterday I made multiple attempts to work a swatch.  I failed miserably.  A swatch.  It doesn't look good for me if I can't get past the swatch.  If you have Interweave Knits,  Summer 2007 kindly turn to pay 112 for the gauge notes.  For those who don't have the magazine, it says to work 20 sts and 28 rows of lace repeat.  Now turn the page to 114 for the chart. 

I can't even get started b/c charts mess with me.  I see Egyptian hieroglyphs.  But never mind the symbols, because there's just something off about what I'm think I'm supposed to be doing. 

There's a red box around 20 columns in the chart and the notes say that that's the "pattern repeat." 

First question:  Am I supposed to work the pattern in the red box for my swatch?

However, I don't think this pattern works if I only knit 20 sts per row.  The following "chart" is similar enough to illustrate my question:

_ = k on rs, p on ws
x = p on ws, k on rs

________________________________________
|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|_|4
|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|x|_|_|_|_|3
|_|_|_|_|x|_|x|_|_|_|_|_|x|_|x|_|_|_|_|_|2
|_|_|_|_|x|x|x|_|_|_|_|_|x|x|x|_|_|_|_|_|1

Notice that there are 5 knits before the 3 purls in the first row.  After the last 3 purls there are only 4 knits.  On row 2, I'm supposed to then purl 5 times.  Here's the catch.  If I purl 5 times, I'm not really lined up with the pattern, since I only just knit 4 stitches.  Does that make sense?

To get around this weirdness, I figured I'd knit a 21 stitch swatch and just account for that when I measure it.  But here's the other catch, on the edges of the real pattern repeat are these funny sl1 psso stitches.  So the more I knit of the pattern, the more off my stitch count gets. 

Second Question:  How are you supposed to swatch a lace pattern? I'm not super keen to just knit 20 rows of the full pattern before I figure out my gauge. 

What do you guys think?  Maybe I should see if this Addi "needle" will just knit the whole thing for me.