November 2007 Archives

*Tap tap* is this thing on?

So, November was a brief encounter. With lots a family visiting over the last few weeks from such far flung places as India, Jamaica, and er- Iowa, I've barely completed a few rows worth of knitting. I do however have a back log of some things including these photos which I took about um, three weeks ago now.
On to the knitting (or unkitting as it is).

Ohh swatch, you filthy little liar you...

This is how far along I was on my Buckle Tank, divided for the armholes and onto the neck shaping. I was excited that it was almost done after such intermittent work and thus (expected) slow progress. You will notice the use of past tense here?
Now I'm somewhat amused that I joked at the outset of this that I didn't hold out any hope of finishing it in season but even still, this is a little more than I anticipated.

Gauge gauge, I should really know better by now on such a large drappy knit. In my defense this was my travel/knit while not paying attention project and with it being worked in the round it was all bunched on the needles. I usually would have stopped and really checked gauge closer if I had been at home with plenty of space to spread out. I recently heard the term "Optimistic knitting" on a Ravelry forum and think that's the best description I've heard yet. Thoughts such as "This looks a little big, but hey it's supposed to be slouchy so that's alright. It'll be fine." flitter through your head. If only I could apply a portion of this overzealous optimism to other areas of my life. (Hey I have 5 weeks worth of work at the office to complete in one week's time- but I'm sure I'll still have plenty of time to finish that deadline knit, yeah!)

Once half of the stitches were off the needle and it was spread out the truth was glaring. With a heartfelt whimper I ripped out almost all the blue section and started again on smaller needles and this is where it rests now. I feel like such a bad blogger starting things only to have them disappear from the blog for long periods that I hate to not jump back in on this but we'll see. I think it (or me) needs a time out.

When I first learned to knit I excitedly realized I could make myself some pairs of fingerless gloves to stave off the perpetual freezing office chill. Had I actually made myself a single pair since then? Nope. Now with finally a slight nip in the air (well some days) here in Texas I decided it was high time I whipped up a pair.

I've had these in my queue for some time. They're the Axel Mitts by Blue Garter and are one quick knit. I like the folded over ribbing which can allow for either more dexterity or more warmth depending on what you're doing, cozy!

The pattern calls for bulky yarn (handspun used in sample) but I had a good portion of a left over skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes which always seemed more on the corpulent side. I have mentioned I'm a little compulsive about using left overs right? This skein is from the Newsboy Cap completed way back.

This is also why I love my digital kitchen scale. Not only is it great for its intended application (*heart* Alton's Brown's books and metric weight cooking!) but it let me know I had exactly 76 grams to work with. So I figured I'd knit the first glove, weighting it until it reached as close to 38g as possible and see if it would be enough. Can you believe it worked out just near perfect? It helped I seemed to have a larger row gauge than the original.

See how much I had left over? Less than 1g, it didn't even register on the scale. Awesome.

It's been said plenty, but the versatility of knitting really is awesome. I'm so charmed with my new thimble/amulet bag; it's so wholly different looking and feeling than anything I've yet knit. Do not fear the tiny beads and 0000 size needles (yup that's right) - this little bag really was easy. The pattern was part of our Dallas Hand Knitter's Guild October program on Bead Knitting. Our presenter (and own guild member) Mary Jo Mundell stated she makes these in one day. While mine did take a little longer than that with intermittent spurts of progress it did go very quickly. Major bonus was Mary Jo sells kits for these with the beads pre-strung, praise be.

Oooh sparkley...

And speaking of Guild projects- here's the picture of dorky me, my Circumnavigated Cardi and my State Fair of Texas ribbon as promised.
Well I'm off to tonight's meeting on Steeking. I shall fear no scissors. Now if only for once I could get up to introduce our speakers and not forget half of everything I wanted to say on the spot, sigh.

Meet Luana; I'm very happy to be able to finally introduce her. This is the former 'blob' I showed earlier and is my babydoll-style swing cardigan design for HipKnits.co.uk. HipKnits specializes in handpainted luxurious yarns (cashmere sock yarn!). The pattern is now available for download here with a few updated features in addition to the origianl at HipKnits !

This piece is worked in the Aran Silk which drapes so nicely and was luscious to work with. Pairing the solid and variegated colors was fun and solved a lot of pooling issues for the yoke. Often sharp changes in stitch counts can cause the color splashing to look different than the body. The solid is then used as accents in the body and sleeve hems to pull it together. There are lots of possible color combinations as well. I'm planning on making a version for me with blues and greens.

The entire piece is bound off at the armhole point, and picked up in the solid. This forms a sturdier 'hanging place' in the fabric since the silk stretches more than a type of wool.

Sizes: 32 (36, 40, 44, 48)" bust circumference.
Yarn: HipKnits Aran Silk; main color (variegated shown in Knox) 3 (4, 4, 4, 5) skeins; contrast color (solid shown in Baby) 2 (2, 2, 2, 3) skeins
Gauge: 18 sts and 22 rows = 4" in St st. in larger needle
Needles: US Size 7 & 8
Price: $5.75
Format: PDF instant download