April 2007

Yesterday evening I pulled out an old friend:

This sweater is my second entry in the WIP Hall of Shame. I started this sweater in 2004 and shoved it in a plastic bag in the closet when we had houseguests… and it stayed in that closet for 6 months. At some point I dug it out of the closet, and since then the bag has made appearances all around the apartment but I haven’t worked on the sweater even though there’s not much left.

I sat there last night trying to decipher my old pattern notes, then banged out a few yoke rounds. I remember it was a fast knit since it is thick wool, so very different from the thin stuff I’m using for Lily of the Valley. I spent maybe a week of evenings swatching and designing it and then only 10 days or so knitting it to the start of the yoke. I am really enjoying the feel of the Icelandic wool in my hands again. It has a lot of lanolin still in it.

You would not believe how many sets of circular needles I found in the plastic bag with the sweater. Apparently I had all kinds of things on separate needles for trying-on purposes at one point. It’s nice to see all these tools again. I think I might have too many (!) size 5 circular needles now (not that you can really ever have too many tools).

Don’t worry; I haven’t neglected Lily of the Valley:

I finished two scarves recently. The first one is a scrap yarn scarf, made with all my scraps of white and off-white yarn. I held the yarn double throughout with a strand of thin mercerized cotton I got from my great-grandmother’s stash.

Here’s a close-up so you can see the different yarns I used:

Pattern: own - cast on 270 stitches and work garter stitch lengthwise, changing yarns on each row and leaving tails long enough to make fringe
Yarn: many! mostly wool, cotton, and mohair, with small amounts of rayon, acrylic, nylon, etc.
Needles: size 8 Addi Turbo circular
Size: 5.5″ wide x 74″ long without the fringe

This is the second scrap yarn scarf I have made. I had no idea I had so many whites and off-whites. Last year I made one in blue and had to get extra scrap blues from friends and my husband. Several of the yarns I used this time were not scraps, but balls of whites I bought last year in an attempt to knit a garter for my wedding. I figured the few yards I used here wouldn’t deplete the skeins too much to be used elsewhere. The scraps from the yarn I ended up using for my wedding shawl and garter are in this scarf, too.

Which brings me to why I really liked making this scarf: I got to revisit the joys of past projects. And some frustrations, too, but with simple garter stitch I got to forget the frustrations. So with each row, I got to remember a past hat, or a baby sweater or blanket, or the fishtrap aran sweater I made for myself. Some of these things I made years ago and just having the yarn in my hands again made those projects seem much more recent. The thin mercerized cotton I carried along on each row was yarn that was in my great-grandmother’s stash when she died and that my grandmother decided to give to me.

Last week’s bus knitting was another drop-stitch scarf:

Pattern: own; 5 rows garter stitch followed by 1 row of k1, yo2
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Eros, 100% nylon
Needles: size 9
Size: 3″ wide x 60″ long without the fringe

Or on the pink, rather. The Addi lace needles (with a pink cord to distinguish them from the regular Addi Turbos) finally arrived Monday, and none too soon because Lily of the Valley was ready to proceed beyond the border. I have to say the needles are great! The pointy tip allows me to execute the knit-5-togethers easily.

It is still light out when I get home from work and I had the bright (read: foolish) idea tonight of going up to the roof to get a photo in natural light of Lily in progress.

The roof is painted silver so I thought it would make a nice background. Today is really windy, though, and as soon as I laid my minuscule shawl down the wind grabbed it and blew it a few feet… along with the attached ball of yarn. I dashed after it, quickly since it was headed for the edge, and carefully, too, as our roof has nearly no lip at the edge, making it dangerous both for the knitting and for the knitter. But all was well, except the wind caused a slightly blurry photo and would not let me show off the lace at all. So here is the beginning:

That’s a startling title, isn’t it? It’s accurate, though: this post contains photos of spinning and a photo of eggs. Maybe it needs a comma: “Spinning, with Eggs.” Anyway…

We saw some lovely flowers in Golden Gate Park today:

We took a walk in the park so I could get a daylight photo of the red wool I plied Friday night. This roving:

Turned into this:

Fiber: assumed 100% merino wool from the way it handled (the roving had no label)
Supplier: Carolina Homespun
Quantity: 2 ounces, I think
Finished yarn: 1 skein, 2-ply, 337 yards, 18wpi (= sport weight)

The yellow and blue streaks in the roving don’t show as prominently in the finished yarn but they do make for an interesting red. This is the finest yarn I have spun so far; I am trying to work my way down to spinning 2-ply laceweight. This seemed very fine when I spun it but once plied it’s thicker, of course. My spinning skills are definitely improving. Having a good wheel makes a difference.

We also colored Easter eggs today. Mr. Mmmyarn made the orange one in front for me — it’s me, holding knitting needles. And on the back he drew a pair of properly symmetrical socks. Isn’t he great?

Is it me, or do the egg colors look a lot like the colors in the socks I posted yesterday? I may need to rename them the “egg socks.”

The Addi lace needles I ordered absolutely ages ago still have not arrived. Of course, I’m being completely unreasonable, since I just ordered them Sunday night and today’s only Saturday and they’re coming from a completely different coast. Still, the last postcard I sent overseas made it in 3 days, so why aren’t my needles here? Lily of the Valley is hanging out on the coffee table, waiting…

I really wanted my little reward in the mailbox, as it was a singularly frustrating work week. One of my co-workers is out on leave and another is on vacation, so only 4 of us are working in my department. Work days were rather frenzied the last few days and it’s going to be that way for part of the next week, too. I’m already pouting about going in Monday morning. Every night this week I stopped by the mailbox hoping my Addis would be in there (even Monday night, foolish me).

Why is it that waiting for something mail order seems like such a long wait? The postman did bring the little box with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s latest book (woohoo!) that I truly pre-ordered ages ago. That was a nice surprise yesterday. I have read half of it already.

The week wasn’t all bad. I did manage to ply the red singles last night, and also to finish my socks this week,  thanks to lots of waiting around outside work:

Pattern: own
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL; 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon; color 100
Needles: size 2 dpn

I really, really like this colorway. Trekking’s color changes spur me on just as Regia’s stripes do; I keep going simply because I want to see what comes next. Ah, to be so easily amused.

Instead of working on my red cabled sweater while waiting for the Addis, I started another simple TV-watching project, a scarf made with every white and off-white I have in my scrap bin:

Knitting progress is slow this week. I have a cold which makes it hard for me to concentrate on a lace pattern. I am about 3/4 of the way through the first Lily of the Valley border strip:

It does not look too great yet, does it? I usually knit with consistent tension and I find this is looking a little uneven.  Perhaps it’s my use of pins instead of wires for the photo.

I have to say the instructions sound a little daunting: more than 90,000 stitches in this pattern. This past week I was able to try out the Addi Turbo lace needles and decided I needed a pair for the remaining 89,500-ish stitches in Lily. The Internet came to the rescue again and my needles are on order. I prefer to shop at my local yarn shops (7!) but no one has these yet. Ugh, wasting valuable tool money on shipping costs.  

Socks are so automatic for me that my latest pair is proceeding at the usual pace despite my having a cold, although I did drop a stitch a few rows before the toe shaping that I did not see until I was nearly finished decreasing the toe. Still, reknitting a short bit of toe is not a big deal and got me through part of another bus ride. The second sock is nearing its heel flap:

And red singles are ready for plying: