February 2007

Although my stash has grown to about hip height, it is not the right time of year to be thinking yarn diet. In January I thought Wendy over at Wendy Knits had a great idea for 2007, Knit From Your Stash. I did try to apply this rule since the beginning of the year and created several lovely items using yarns that were in my stash (the additional skein of Kid Merino I needed to finish the Icarus Shawl was allowed) but I had lapses, too. Last month I went to Artfibers and they didn’t have enough of what caught my eye, so I ordered (Ordered! How far removed is that from the concept of a yarn diet? It’s not like grabbing a random skein by the cash register) a giant skein of beautiful Ming and this past weekend was Stitches West and I succumbed to the lure of a bunch of lovely wooly beasties. Yes, I went to Stitches West in Santa Clara. How can a knitter live this close to it and not go?

Having re-read Wendy’s guidelines, I feel my purchases in the Market on Friday were justified. She clearly states that her KFYS ends in September, right before Stitches East. Obviously, I can conclude that my KFYS begins in March, after Stitches West. Different coasts, different rules.

More on Stitches West later this week. Properly describing the giddiness takes time, plus I need to wait for the weekend to get a good photo of the loot.

Spinning Sunday two weeks ago was lots of fun. My friend has a drum carder. I refrained from using it because I was concerned I’d want to acquire another expensive piece of equipment and time-consuming side hobby if I had too much fun with it, but she kindly mixed me up a nice batch of random green wools with sari silk mixed in. She chops the silk with one of those rolling knives quilters use, then blends it with fiber and sends it through the carder. Here is a washed-out shot of it as fiber; it’s really a much nicer green:

I spun it into a short 2-ply strand. Here is the too-dark variant on the green:

Material: wool and sari silk
Quantity: I didn’t weigh it, but it ended up as 1 skein of 2-ply, about 10.5 yards, about worsted weight

I also finished spinning the Kona yarn I worked on off and on during January and February. Here it is as fiber:

And as singles:

And as finished yarn:

Fiber: 80% merino wool, 20% kid mohair
Colorway: Kona
Supplier: Carolina Homespun
Quantity: 8 ounces

The smallest skein is about 75 yards of 10wpi (=worsted), the medium-size one is about 107 yards of 10-11wpi (= worsted), and the largest is about 268(!!) yards of 12wpi (= double knitting). That large skein is the result of having a large plying head and large plying bobbin on the Lendrum wheel. So very cool! I despise tucking in ends when finished with a project, so a larger skein is a boon for me. This is the best spinning I’ve done so far (what a difference good equipment makes) but I learned that I still need to work on being consistent. This stuff is close enough in size that I could alternate skeins while knitting and make something.

At long last, here are the promised photos of the Icarus Shawl after blocking:

And a more jaunty pose:

Pattern: Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton, Interweave Knits magazine, Summer 2006
Yarn: 4 1/3 skeins Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino, 28% kid mohair, 28% merino wool, 44% micro nylon
Needles: size 4
Size: 6 feet across the top and 3 feet long

The rest of this post is the result of not posting for a number of days. Lots of stuff builds up when you knit every day. Back on January 17 I mentioned I was knitting Icarus on straight needles instead of circulars because the circulars were MIA. I found them, in a project truly worthy of the WIP Hall of Shame. The WIPHOS presents the reversible hat in its former sad, sorry state:

And looking much happier after grafting last week, when I told myself, “the heck with K2P2 rib, graft in stockinette!”:

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride, 85% wool, 15% mohair
Pattern: own
Needles: size 9
Size: Adult average

This hat was my first attempt at double knitting something with shaping. I made it in December 2002 for my boyfriend. Well, we’ve had time to live together, get engaged, plan a wedding, get married, and live the married life for a while and this hat still was not finished. Why? There’s no excuse, really. The hat was completely finished, but the orange stuck out too far on the bottom of the black side, so early in 2003 I pulled out three rows of orange with the intent of grafting one row back in. The trouble is, I never found a diagram or description of grafting K2P2 rib and the way the stitches lay on the needles it was impossible to tell what I was doing. Double knitting in the round doesn’t allow you to see the other side of something. So I gave up, stuffed it in the bottom of my knitting basket, piled other yarn on top of it so I wouldn’t have a constant guilt trip, and apparently left my size 4 circulars in it as a stitch holder. In its dark home I couldn’t see it as a WIP and therefore didn’t register it as a possible hiding place for size 4s. Two or three weeks ago I remembered my 4s might be in the basket, dug down to find the hat, and let it stare reproachfully at me in between nearly daily bouts of attempting to graft the ribbing. I was ready to chuck it back in the basket strung on yarn instead of needles when my brain finally registered that if I change colors in ribbing by knitting a row of stockinette there’s no reason to not graft in stockinette. Sheesh, it certainly took me long enough to reach that conclusion. “I am so smart, S-M-R-T.” (quote courtesy of Homer Simpson)

The black was the outside and the orange the inside while I was working on it. Shaping the crown decreases on the black side was easy; shaping on the orange side took some trial and error. In double knitting you have to pull stitches off the needle and reorder them to get them in position for each set of decreases, plus I had to figure out some kind of decrease that I could work from the purl side of the orange side to produce something that looked good on the knit side of the orange side. It’s been so long that I cannot remember what I did exactly but I’m still impressed at how good the crown looks.

Progress has been made on the striped baby sweater:

This little sweater was on hold for a few days because I need those aforementioned size 4s for the button bands and collar and they were stuck in the hat. When I finished the hat, I realized the baby sweater’s button bands and collar would be on hold a few more days (at least) because I’m delusional. I started my red cabled sweater in about November 2005 with the intent to wear it to Stitches West in February 2006. This week I suffer from the delusion that I can finish knitting the barely-started two fronts, block all the pieces, sew this puppy together, and add an i-cord border all the way around it in time to wear it to the Stitches West Market this Friday. Um, yeah… It’s Monday night now. Here is the back with the fronts on top:

The sleeves are done and all those safety pins you see in the back are buttonhole and v-neck spacing markers for the fronts. I added waist shaping in the hopes that this sweater will make me look curvy instead of like Spongebob Squarepants, its color notwithstanding. I based the shaping on a store-bought sweater I have that fits me reasonably well.

My homework for the class I’m taking at Stitches West is done, sleeping arrangements are settled, I have my driving directions and shopping list, and my cash is packed (cash is better than credit cards; I can’t overspend that way). Bring it on! Can you tell I’m looking forward to next weekend?

Yes, I mean 2006. I came across the photo I took of all of my loot from last February:

Although I am getting bored with my usual bus knitting of garter stitch scarves, I made another one this week:

Pattern: own
Yarn:  1 skein Lana Grossa Viale Print, 100% nylon
Needles: size 9
Size: 3″ x 48″

Why? Because of the photo from Stitches West last year. Last week I took stock of what I had actually used in the almost 1-year period since last Stitches West. I was surprised to see how much I had knitted up since then, considering I keep adding to my stash and using stuff that’s already in the stash. Starting at the top of the photo and going left to right, I read the books but have not used them yet. That white blob turned into my wedding shawl and garters (I made one to toss and one to keep).

Starting in the middle row, I use the little bag for small projects. The off-white cashmere turned into the horseshoe scarf:

The Manos became a hat:

The purple Mountain Colors became part of a hat:

I used up all the sock yarn; 3 pairs for me and 1 for Mr. Mmmyarn. I did not use the round ball of sari silk, the black glittery stuff, or any of that big pile of green wool. The aqua and pink Dune is now a scarf:

Onward to the bottom row: the black yarn and green feathers became the fluffy-topped bag in my January 21 post. I didn’t use any of the Zephyr yet or the white ribbon. One skein of the bright ribbon turned into the scarf at the beginning of this post and one skein of the blue ribbon is another similar scarf.

The 5 skeins of Koigu were a Charlotte’s Web for a glorious 10 days or so, then I unraveled it (it just didn’t look right):

The blue lace yarn is next on my list of major projects and I use the double-pointed needles and leather thingie all the time. All in all, not too bad. I have to think now what else there is to do with ribbon yarn. While I like how ribbon yarn looks in a breezy summer top, I sure am not going to wear it. 100% nylon? Ick! So why do I keep buying it?

I’ve made my shopping list for Stitches West 2007, coming up in just 2 weeks(!). Luckily I’ll only have one full day in the Market. The Danish Skra-Trojer class will fill the other two days I’m there.

I finished the colorful garter stitch scarf on Thursday, which means I had to paw through the stash Thursday night to come up with something to do on Friday bus rides. The dark mohair I fished out is not enough for anything but a scarf. It’s garter stitch again, but I’m including the Cat’s Paws pattern to make it more interesting for me. The question is, is the pattern standing out enough to make the effort worthwhile? 

I’m not so sure I like this idea. The cat’s paws don’t show unless this is up against a light background.  

The Icarus Shawl is damp, stretched, and pinned right now. I blocked it this morning. Damp, rainy weather outside means very slow drying inside, so no photo yet. Plus I want to get a picture outside so it may be a week or two before I can show it off here.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow the Lendrum wheel will take its first trip in its new carrying case, over to the East Bay for a day of spinning with friends. Woohoo! I only hope I can drag myself out of bed early enough as we’ll be out late tonight: Mr. Mmmyarn and I are going to see She Wants Revenge at The Grand.

Deliberately, that is. Here is the latest in bus knitting, another drop-stitch scarf:

Pattern: own: cast on 22, knit 4 rows, then work one row k1 yo
Yarn: Artfibers Alfabeto, 76% silk, 19% superkid mohair, 5% wool
Needles: size 7
Size: 5″ wide x 68″ long

I did try several different stitch patterns with this yarn but its floppiness and subtle color variegation led me to settle on a very simple stitch pattern.

Also in the works, a raglan baby cardigan. This photo is a little blurry but you get the idea: