FO: Fern Glade, and the New Year

pattern: Fern Glade
designer: Megan Marshall
origins: Knitty
yarn: Manos Silk Blend (300M)
needles: US 4 and 6, circs

I don't think I have ever begun knitting a zine pattern the same season it was released. But I clearly have now, and I love this hat-- a rare thing to hear from someone who doesn't love hats as a rule. The pattern was an easy repeat over several rows, very intuitive to pick up. The silk blend shows off the texture very well, I think.

Of course, recently it's been too warm to wear hats, so it's been warming my dresser drawer.

Tomorrow's February first. I can't stand New Year's resolutions (they're so... annual), but I have been thinking about the fate of this blog. I've had a series of small crises over the past half year, and it's shown, in the ration of knits to posts. I'd like it also to be about more than "Hey knitters, see these pretty things I made?" but it's hard to make it more than that when you a) suffer from a surfeit of hobbies and b)don't have the time, hobbies aside, to sit down and work out a longterm plan.

I'll take suggestions. If I can't come up with a long term plan, I'll probably quit the blog (well, not entirely, as there's a couple free patterns available on it), just because I hate seeing things languish and fizzle. But we'll see. I think I'm motivated.

Persephone Gloves: the continued saga

This is a better picture of the Persephone gloves I finished up earlier this month-- cable-wise, at the least. Just sayin.'

FO: Persephone

I don't know if this is what you'd call a very good shot of the cables, but it was the best I was able to do with dark yarn and limited lighting-- one of the few downsides of winter. I suppose I could invest in a better camera. Or I could just wait for sunny days. Not that I'm likely to get either soon, what with the streets being so icy that I would probably not survive a walk to the camera shop.

So the photo's a little quirky, but I'm sharing it anyway, because I adore these gloves.



Pattern: Persephone Cable Fingerless Mitts
Designer: SmarieK
Origin: http://smariek.blogspot.com
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine, heathered blue
Needles: US 2

The cable pattern was easy to memorize but unique enough to still be a fun knit, and visually interesting besides. I did not actually follow the glove pattern: I winged that as I went, as I'm wont to do, just because the formatting of the pattern was a little overly long and I didn't want to waste paper. But it has more or less the same effect, just a different style of gusset.

The Ultra Alpaca Fine was also a pleasure to work with. It had a wonderful texture and a durability that many non-sock laceweights lack, but which is perfectly suited to gloves.

FO: Celtic Cable

It's been dark around here. Dark, dark, dark-- although I expect it will be lightening at least a little bit, soon, what with the incoming solstice.

It's also been cold around here, or at least cold as passes for cold in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. There's frost sometimes. And cold fog. And people wear water-repudiating gear. Usually I would be a muddle of jackets and scarves by now, but my body has taken an abrupt swerve toward being overheated all the time. So all my winterweight sweaters and scarves are sitting in a corner, being much neglected.

Including this one.



Pattern: Celtic Cable Neckwarmer
Designer: Lindsay Henricks
Origin: Storm Moon Knits
Yarn: Lush (Classic Elite)
Needles: US 6

It is, sadly, a bit too snug around the neck for me to wear about right now. But it's also soft, warm, and the cable zigged and zagged while being knit without actually taking much of my concentration, allowing me to do other things simultaneously. It's quite a cute pattern, and the chart's well-executed. The yarn will eventually, with substantial petting, nearly full itself, which is exactly what I want it to do (it gets even softer then).

Sooner or later I'll feel cold. And then I can wear it.

The buttons are etched faux mother-of-pearl. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a shot of them that does justice, but they were a better fit than the dark, hand-carved scrap wood ones I'd planned on using. I'm going to snip one off and resew it-- the row of buttons is a bit crooked, but I don't think you can tell here. Don't say anything if you can. I already know.

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

It's not that I haven't been knitting; it's that I've been knitting sweaters and want pictures of them being modeled on someone, and my friends all are a)too tall to fit my knits and b)bad at photography. This leaves me to my own terrible devices until I decide to knit something quick and simple.



Like this.

Pattern: Shag
Designer: Lynne Barr
Source: Knitting New Scarves (free pattern from book)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Chunky, color 4, 3 skeins
Needles: 10.5 US

Trust me when I say that this was a quick and easy project. It's just garter rectangles, knit all in one piece with stitches picked up. I knit it during a movie marathon this weekend with friends, after a few froggings to get the rectangles to the desirable width and height. The yarn, being so bulky, is very warm-- a good January/February scarf. I think I should probably find a button and do a little buttonhole loop to keep it tied shut, as it is too short to wrap.

FO: Buttoned Necklet

Knit Buttoned Necklet
Designer: Lee Burrows
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Manos Silk Garden

My mom came to visit last week, and we stopped in at the store I work at on our way to dinner (delicious Thai food). I should know better than to propagate this sort of behavior, because one of the shop samples immediately caught her eye, and then she found some yarn to match it... and here's the result.



It's an eensy little thing, about 20" or fifty cm long. It still needs buttons, but I'm leaving those to my mother.

FO: Kiehkuralapaset

Kiehkuralapaset/Swirly Mittens (chart)
Designer: AnneL
Origin: Kultalankaa/Golden Thread
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift in Old Rose and Black (1 skein each)
Needles: US2, dpns

The Technical
The charts for this were nice and clear; the rest of it is my own number crunching. I worked a row in Old Rose for the cast-on before switching to black for the ribbing, and switched again to Old Rose for the bind-off. For the thumb gussets, I worked m1 increases in alternating colors until they reached the height I wanted, then bound off and continued. It makes for a very sturdy gusset, a little like knit armor. I worked different segments of the chart on each glove, so the spirals are 100% different from each other.

The Fluff
My knitting is not always practical. I mean, sure, socks and sweaters are imminently useful things. Even gag gifts have a use... the expression I'm awarded after handing someone a bacon scarf can keep me coasting happily for days-- it's like therapy in a tiny knitted package.

Occasionally I want to do things that don't have uses; that's to say, I will love every moment of knitting them but never, ever wear them, and never, ever gift them, because I know no one who will wear them. This means these knits will lurk in my closet, which I'm rather afraid of because that will soon mean knitted items will lurk in the 250 or so square feet of the rest of my living space. Elaborate traditional raglans are one of them. Scratchy colorwork gloves in Latvian or Scandinavian traditions are another one... a major one. They're tiny, right? So knitting lots of them can't do anyone harm-- they weigh a lot less than a sweater!

Except that I live in a temperate climate. And even when it is ostensibly cold out, I stick to gloves.

These are my compromise. They fulfilled that colorwork itch (I try to imagine what kind of colorwork I'd wear on a regular basis and my horrible sense of color combos comes up with... grey on black?). I cut them off just at the knuckles instead of knitting up the entire chart for a traditional mitten shape, so they're perfect for drab but not harsh days, and for typing in on very cold days. The chart is awesome-- kind of punkish modern in these colors. Chic. And I tailored them so they fit my hands like, well, gloves.

I think they and I will get along well.

FO: Manos, Scarf of Cables

Pattern: Cabled Lace Scarf
Designer: Meg White
Origin: The Kninja
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend, black, two skeins
Needles: US 10

This is actually a coworker's design and a shop pattern. It knit up quickly -over the course of two days, and I wasn't particularly trying- and the reversible cables have a great dimensional vitality that I think is emphasized by the lacy lattices in-between. The final dimensions are 8 inches by about 6 feet. It needs blocking but I'm reluctant to squish the cables.

Yes, the scarf is hanging out between the legs of a sculptural support. I was surprised I managed to pull off such a well-detailed indoor photo; I absolutely could not do that in my own apartment.

FO: Flight Mitts

I was down in California scoping out art schools for the sister with my family a couple weeks ago, and decided I needed a good quite autumnal project for the flight. Unfortunately, I forgot that teeny tiny keychain pocket knives are apparently flight risks.* They really push you to mail those things home for $12. I checked my luggage instead so I didn't have to lose the sentimental value of a $8 scissors/emery board/tweezers set my grandpa had given me.

This means, of course, that I got impatient on the plane and ended up working the fingers of the gloves by splitting the yarn with my teeth (classy). Ultimately I redid all the fingers on that one glove, because it turns out that plastic needles are inadequate for weaving in fingering weight ends. Which I suspected from the outset, but I'd already finished my book because I read to quickly.

The pattern was entirely worthwhile, though. Straightforward, easily memorized lace pattern and nice gussets. I worked it up exactly as written.

Pattern: Snowflake Fingerless Gloves
Designer: Chris O'Brien
Origin: http://squeakyweasels.blogspot.com/
Yarn: Panda Silk, black
Needles: US1s, dpns

*I keep trying to picture this and fail; every time I visualize attacking some unfortunate flight attendant with the knife attachment, it bends in half on contact and then she flings me over the refreshment cart and proceeds to batter me with cans of soda. My house keys are more threatening.

Hello, September

I stepped outside this morning to take these pictures and the sky was evenly grey from one end of the horizon to the other-- that kind of pale mist grey that probably won't rain on you, but just might. Nothing irregular, but there's been a definite autumn twinge in the air for the past week, even when it's sunny and technically warm out. Fall's coming in a little quicker than normal.

I love this weather. I do feel like I didn't get a summer, though; I barely made use of my fan at all, and it's probably safe to pack it into its box for the year and pull out the space heater. My apartment walls didn't lose their natural cool until nearly the end of August.

I can't say whether Frida Kahlo* would have embraced this weather as much as I do, but she certainly posed patiently while I attached clothes pins to her and found a good backdrop. I was feeling headachy yesterday so I stayed at home and cut some cheap chiyogami paper into strips that I glued and sealed onto the pins. I might go find a varnish or lacquer later, but the craftstore I went to didn't have anything I was certain wouldn't discolor the paper.

*If you get a chance, go see the exhibit of her work that's traveling around right now. It's a good sampling of her art and shows a lot of the mixed media effects that you can't see in reproductions-- she often painted fresco style or on metal, and occasionally made frames part of her paintings as well. It's also accompanied by some comprehensive photo galleries about her life and her acquaintances.

Things As They Are

I do not seem to be doing enough with this blog. This is by and large because I've been busy with things of little concern. To keep you distracted from that, let me share this with you:



It's a little needle felting kit on sale at the store I work at; locally made and perhaps a little overpriced for what it contains, but with very clear photographic instructions. I think I'll be making this one up for my dad (it was either the penguin or the hedgehogs).

Now I am off to find out what is burning in my oven and finish unpacking all my luggage (friends, if ever traveling with me, book a separate flight so you don't have to hang around while my baggage is searched. Again. Just in case.)

FO: Noemi

It's the middle of August and we've had a stretch of hot weather and thunder-storms ... but all I want to do is knit scarves. I had designated this sweater season, to see if I could finish a last summer garment and start on a couple warmer tops for the winter, but all that sweater yarn is now hiding out in my closet so I don't cannibalize it for enormous winter wraps. I've been dreaming of thick winter scarves made from 1400 or so yards of worsted weight, and there isn't much out there to convince me that this is not a good idea.

So I'm writing this sunburnt from an afternoon spent paddle-boating on the lake, and a night spent watching trashy movies and thunderstorms. My apartment thinks it's an oven, which means I knit all the more because I don't have the concentration ability for anything else when I'm inside it (perhaps I should head out to a cafe so I can get something useful done).

The scarf is "Noemi," from the first Norah Gaughan collection. I knit it on US 9s with three skeins of Cash Vero in a cranberry color-- about 300 yds, which makes for a 7 foot scarf in this lace pattern. The booklet has some very nice charts in it, and this was one of them. I still need to block it, but that's going to wait until it's cooler.

Salon des Refuses...

Truth be told, I'm actually quite happy with these socks. It took a bit of a voyage getting to this point, though: I knit the first sock on US1s, which turned out to make the heel so tight I could barely force it up to my ankles. Then, after working it again on US2s I found that my picot bind-off was too tight, so I undid it, worked a sewn bind-off, and then sewed it down to form the picot. Then, of course, the office cat had a great deal to say about how I was photographing them, and would usually interfere so much as to completely obscure the socks, until I posed in such a way that he was satisfied.

But, you know. Overall, these are fairly awesome little summer socks.

Pattern: Impressionist Socks
Designer: Closca de nou
Origin: nunanit.blogspot.com
Yarn: Regia Mosaik Color
Needles: US2, double-points

FO: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Lace Ribbon Scarf
Designer: Veronik Avery
Source: Knitty
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug colorway "Velvet Bilberry," 320 yards
Length: about 4 feet

First of all, a correction: the yarn used is a deep purple verging on black. I couldn't get a good shot of the scarf that was also color-accurate, and I didn't want to bother for a long time in Photoshop.

I love this pattern; I'd do it again, longer, and perhaps a little wider as well. It's mindless lace, perfect for working on while, well, working, and it has a great dramatic result.

I am unlikely to buy Jitterbug again without unskeining and combing over the entire skein carefully. It's not a horrendous yarn, but for a yarn meant to have a smooth consistency it had far too many slubs and, also, the connection of a different -and very strikingly different- dye lot. I don't think the difference is visible in the picture; it's more striking when the color is accurate. It also didn't feel like it would hold up to feet (I'd initially planned to knit a pair of socks from it). These problems are common in the yarn and I'd heard about them before but conveniently forgot about it when I saw the colorway. I like the scarf quite well regardless, but if I ever want consistency from something, Jitterbug's clearly not the way to go.

C'est la vie, and a rather lovely life it is, too.

My favorite top...

Pattern: Green Gables
Designers: Sarah & Rachel (zephyrstyle.com)
Yarn: Hempathy
Needles: US6 and 4

I'm delighted by the way this knit up. It was more or less a mindless knit, kept alongside my laptop while I read or worked on other things. In the way of things, this means it took me longer to finish than it otherwise might; I tend to prioritize more exciting knits. But it's a perfect look for me, which I'll some day prove when I can pin someone down to give me a photo shoot.

Modifications: I knit for the size 40-43, but had to rip back to a slightly smaller size because I would have swum in it at the 43-inch mark. I left off the ribbing on the bottom edge in the interest of a stockinette roll, to mimic the slight roll on the back of the neck.

Maneki Neko

One of my blogging motifs, I know, is the amount of time I spend vexing about how I knit pranks and gifts and end up feeling that in nine out of ten instances, my effort was expected, or not appreciated, or, hell, not even understood. Another motif I'm sure everyone easily recognizes is how I then belabor the point.

But -you don't have to hold your breath!- this is not one of those cases. This is a gift for someone I know I can knit for.

This doesn't mean he's easy to knit for, mind. Not a scarf guy. Not a hat man. Socks and sweaters? I'm too lazy. This leaves me two options: fingerless gloves and cat-themed miscellany. And they have been appreciated, by which I mean worn out and worn some more, and he gets the time, and the effort, and thinks that that I did it in the first place is worth compliments years later.

The look on his face when I handed him this was deeply cheering. He's waiting to find out whether he's gotten into grad school, and the results are coming in right around his birthday, so I figure it was a gift of necessity. I don't believe in luck as a force, but well wishes are well wishes.

The pattern, by the way, is by Justine Turner, and can be found here (pdf). I worked it on 10s with bulky Armytage, carried with Merino Stripes for the stripes along the back. The accents are done in some FrogTree Alpaca (ears), Sunday Best by Reynolds (collar), and a blue single ply (fish) I think was put out by Karabella yarns but lost the label since it was scrap for a hat for my mother a few years back. The face is embroidered with cotton crochet thread. I made a few changes to the pattern, knitting the crown of the head differently, and knitting the pink panels on the ears.

When There Are Just Too Many Choices In Life

I am the kind of person who gets annoyed in grocery stores because she's been asked to pick up a bag of chips for a party, and then soon after finds herself standing in an aisle lined wall to wall with not only twelve different brands but a hundred different flavors among them. Often this results in panic and departure without chips, followed by a trip to the tiniest gas station convenience store known in the hope that they will only have two or three varieties.

I used to think that meant I had some ingrained taboo against variety, but that's actually rather far from the case. In fact, if I don't get enough of it, I get a little rabid and start developing nervous twitches and a sudden yen to travel miles on foot.

This has been damaging my creative life recently. I multi-task as a matter of due course, so it's pretty typical for me to have two or three knitting projects and two or three active fiction pieces going all at once, and maybe a linoleum block print under the knife, too. My hobbies abound, but I'm used to it, and once one of the stories/knitting projects hit critical mass, I stop working on the others until I've finished that one.

Not right now. Oh god, not right now. My life has been stalled by too many options. My knitting queue is all a tangle. Example: the yarn I wanted to use for something of my own design would look simply splendid in another pattern, unlike the yarn that I was actually going to use in that other pattern, which is for all other practical reasons perfectly good yarn well-suited to that design, but it's just not striking me the right way even though it did two months ago when I chose it after three weeks of deliberations for that design. And, of course, that yarn would be sadly inadequate in the design I have planned. Now, take that example and multiply it by three different sweaters.

To top it off, this problem is so painfully irrelevant in the long or short of things that it's embarrassing just to admit to it.

But! I keep knitting.



Pattern: Clover
Designer: Kate Blackburn
Source: The Inside Loop
Yarn: Happy Feet
Needles: US1s

A quick and pleasant knit. I didn't have any conflicts about this one, except now that it's done, and I'm no longer certain it should be the appointed partner sock to the Fruitloops sock I finished in antique denim Claudia handpaint.

That said, it's a good pattern and was a fun knit. It should not be blamed for my indecision.

Summery Scarves

My mother is chronically cold. Always, always, always cold. Half the time I think I've inherited her base temperature, but fortunately for the rest of the time I seem to get along fairly well in normal people clothing. For the best, because otherwise I would have to knit summer scarves for two people.



Half a Haruha
Pattern: Haruha
Designer: Tikru
Source: Made by Myself
Yarn: Frog Tree Pima Cotton/Silk
Needles: US6/4mm

Since the original pattern called for fingering weight, and the yarn I used is most definitely not, I reduced the stitch pattern to just one repetition. It's a short thing, too-- only wraps around one. Anathema to my idea of a scarf, but, well, if it makes mum happy...

Edited to add: err, and here's the direct link to the English version of the pattern. Despite perusing the blog occasionally, I'd managed to blank that it's largely in Finnish.

The Fall

The weekend before last, I went with a couple friends to see The Fall, which is beautiful, sometimes slightly hair-raising, and highly recommendable.

Today, I carried home a bag full of pale periwinkle/lavender Kathmandu Aran. The two are quite linked.

That said, late spring still thinks it's winter here. "June-uary" is being bandied about, and the description is not terribly far off. Right now it's dark out for the time of year (it should be light until nearly 10) and the wind's blowing hard outside the windows. I did manage to take some pictures Saturday, though, so I'd like to introduce you to the esteemed:



Pattern: Fruit Loops
Designer: Kristi Geraci
Yarn: Claudia Handpaint Fingering, Antique Jeans
Needles: US1, dpns

Right now this sock is all alone in the world. I'm feeling a little out of balance right now, so I'm going to "match" it with a sock done in a similar lace pattern but in very fiery red Happy Feet. That said, this was a nice, straight-forward, not too fussy pattern. The Claudia fuzzed a little on me, but not badly (although I had to reinforce a couple segments due to negligence). I really like the look of this sock, although the stitch pattern was repetitive enough that I probably won't knit it again, unlike, say, Fire-starter or Mad Color Weave.

March (May) of the socks

My plans to switch from machine-knit to mismatched handmade socks is in high gear. I now have four pairs.

They machine wash well so far, and I'm wearing them two days a week. Upsides: they wear well. Downsides: I suspect they will be too hot in summer, and unfortunately my danskos, the best for showing them off, are also prone to snagging fabric on their buckles. This bothered me less when it happened to machine-knit socks.



Pattern: Mad Color Weave
Designer: Tina Lorin
Source: Sock Madness
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Needles: US1s, double-points

I tried out a new toe, with fewer decreases-- it's comfortable, but very boxy. Otherwise I followed the pattern more or less exactly. Here's a better shot of the texture:

In additional knitterly news, I've finished my first sock from Cat Bordhi's "New Pathways to Sock Knitting." It's a Cables & Corrugations toe-up sock knit in Maizy. I'm also working on a Fruit Loop, from the most recent knitty.

I was meaning to ramble at length about my notions-related purchase at the Ave Fair in Seattle, but I'm feeling a tad laconic, so I think I will save that for another day.