A Second Hitchhiker, with Beads!

This weekend I flew to North Carolina to pick up my older son and his car, then drive back home together. The son formerly known as Tuba Boy in this blog (who should now be known as Mandolin Boy) did a 10-week internship in the Chapel Hill area at the place where his stepmom works. It was a great experience for him, and I am so happy he had the opportunity!

It also gave ME the opportunity to visit my own stepmom, who I had not visited since Dad's funeral trip. I was rather anxious about going back to where Dad used to live, but the memories were mostly good (she did get me a bit weepy when she kept trying to force memorabilia on me. But it was good to see my family and many of Dad's old friends.

Most important to THIS blog, however, is that I took along my Beaded Hitchhiker, since it was small and would fit in my small luggage. I enjoyed the conversations that the project started on the plane and in the airport. A couple of nice elderly women described complicated projects they used to make, and one assured me that arthritis had not stopped her, though she now crochets mostly. That's good, too!

I got to the end of the first skein while on the plane, and continued on while chatting with relatives until I had 42 points on the shawl. That's how many the original instructions called for, and sure enough, it was a good size with 42 points.

I then decided to add a sawtooth border to the cast-off edge. I didn't have any knitting books with me, so I made one up. I'm sure it's very similar to a lot of patterns in books--I am not THAT creative, but I did make it to where each edge had a bead on it. I will write down the pattern at the end of this post. Anyway, here is how the two edges compare. They aren't the same, but they work well together.

The two edgings on the shawlette. Left is part of the original pattern, right is what I added. Each has a bead at the tip.

 Of course, even with figuring out the pattern, it didn't take too long to finish the edging, so on Sunday I realized the WORST had happened! I finished the ONLY knitting I brought with me! I was glad I brought my Kindle. But I sure could have gotten a lot of knitting done on my 12-hour car ride yesterday (Mandolin Boy drove yesterday, and I drove today, only 8 hours or so).

Finished product, folded in half

So, here is the finished item. The colors came out oddly when I took the picture at my stepmom's, but I tried to correct it. At the end there were some pools of orange, but I like them, so i kept them. I didn't straighten out the points, oops. Let's see, how about another picture?

Here is is outdoors and more spread out.

I like the way it looks with more points on it, at least from a distance. You can't tell the size difference so much. I am very impressed with how this particular sock yarn worked out in the Hitchhiker. It really made a nice even blend of the greens and oranges. And the two colors of beads I used also were perfect. They were the same muted green and orange. Really love this item and can't wait to wear it. 

What does it look like on, you ask? Well, I think I will be wearing it a LOT this fall. I happened to have on a coral outfit Sunday, so I put it on.

Suna looking haggard, but with a nice shawlette and a shiny shirt.

Wow, those wrinkles, that giant nose, those droopy eyes (another thing I inherited from my Dad is sagging eyelids), those bunny teeth--I was obviously pretty darned stressed out and not at my shiny, perky best, even with the shiny shirt on. But, isn't the Hitchhiker nice? I love the way the edges curve, and I love having the points on two sides. The smooth edge makes a great side to aim at the neck, too. I really look forward to wearing this often!

What's Next?

Well, I need a big project, since I finished the Shadow vest, and I need a small project, since I finished this one. I have things all lined up, or mostly.

My big project will the the beautiful Reine from the Brooklyn Tweed Wool People vol. 3. I've already got the yarn, Loft by Brooklyn Tweed in the Snowbound Colorway.

Yarn and pattern

I am sure that most "connected knitters" already know about this pattern and this wool, but if you don't know, the wool is from American Targhee-Columbia sheep and spun in the US in an old mill. I love that. It has nice irregularities and flecks in it. The cardigan has cabled edges along the front and pockets. There are really simple but classy looking purl ridges along the cuffs and on the shoulders. I'll be honest. I just want a bunch of cardigans to wear.

I also want more of these little drapy scarves. I ran across a pattern on Ravelry that I thought would be cool. Little did I realize at the time that half the people on my Ravelry friends list had already bookmarked or were making it (or so it seemed), including most of the people I used to knit with. Oh well, I may be the last on the bandwagon again, like I was with Hitchhiker, but I will make it anyway. It's Unleaving from Knitty's First Fall edition. It is also garter stitch but with a nice lace edging. I now just have to decide which sock yarn I want to make it with. I might just pick one of the ones with silver in it. Not sure, though. I will have to chase zillions of young adults out of the yarn room to find something! I do know I want a semi-solid, but don't want to use my brown one due to planning to use it as an edging on the fall shawl I am also still plugging away on.

Now that I am no longer "competitively" knitting, I don't know what's popular with all the knitters who hang out together or spend a lot of time reading blogs, hanging out on Ravelry, or participating in email lists. I realize that I am just fine with that--I am knitting what I want to, when I want to. I am not trying to make the fanciest or hardest thing--I am making things I think I will enjoy making and use when I am done. Whew. I think I have attained my own "gold medal" for knitting enjoyment.

And yeah, I am watching the Olympics, even if I am peeved over the "Ravellenic Games" thing. I just am no longer into competitive knitting!

A Silken Shadow

It was a good knitting weekend, since my friend Pouri (mom of our house guest Elmira) was here cooking amazingly delicious Persian food, and she also knitted a bit with me. She was trying to make a simple-looking cable scarf, but the "free" instructions from Michael's were all in prose, plus she wasn't familiar with American knitting abbreviations and terms. It was slow going. I KNOW if I'd had a graph, it would have been easier for both of us!

Because I had knitting friends, I got a lot done--so much, in fact that I actually managed to finish something! It only took me a month to make the Shadow vest out of Shibui Heichi (raw silk). Here's a nice photo of the yarn.

You can see all the extra colors in the yarn. And dog hairs. Thanks, Scrunchy.

The yarn looks great in seed stitch, and it has a really nice rustic texture. However, it is a bit hard to knit with. You really have to tug to get the yarn to go all the way through the stitches, as I think I mentioned before. I think I managed to make adjustments so there aren't any big ugly holes. The small amount of yarn in each skein meant a LOT of ends to weave in, too. I may actually end up dabbing Fray Check or something on the ends to make sure they stay put.

After I finished the vest, I took a picture of it, which was spectacularly unsuccessful. It's a rather large three-layered rectangle, and you can't see the nice row of cables going up the side, either. Here it is, against one of my now-traditional loud-patterned tablecloths.

Shadow on the table. Hey, there is my foot!

Well, that's just not a great looking item. It does show you just how much seed stitch this thing entails! I sure am glad I knit continental! So, I guessed that, even though it was 100F outside and it is the blazing middle of summer with incredible humidity, I was gonna have to put it on and get photos.

My dear spouse did try to take some pictures inside the house. While I look smashing, other than my giant humidity hair, you can't really see the garment.

That's me in skinny jeans in a blurry vest.

So, we reluctantly went outside and stood in front of the neighbor's garage door to get better photos. Now you can see the vest. I wanted side views, too, so maybe the cables would show up.

Side view. Can't see the danged cables because of my arm. Why do I have arms? Oh I need them to knit.

I look so festive. I like how the vest hangs, so it does not look so square.

Why yes, this IS the front view. Ah, do I feel a little nip of fall in the air? Why no, I don't.

The back. Wow, my hair is long, and wow, it looks like I have chicken legs, just like my son does in his skinny jeans. Only his legs are a lot longer.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tour of the Rusty Shadow vest. I was about to pass out from the heat, so I also hope you appreciate the sacrifice I made.

With that project over, I am actually STILL plugging away on the second Hitchhiker shawlette. I usually work on it in the car or at meetings. Next weekend I am going to North Carolina to pick up the older boy, who's been there all summer doing an internship. I will also be visiting my dad's dear widow, Flo, so I predict lots of knitting time. Since I'm flying, I will just take that small project with me. I probably mentioned already that I am going to give her one of my place mats.

I did finish weaving the two jewel-toned place mats in my second batch of mats, and am starting one of the yellowish sock yarn. As I do these next three mats (repeats of the first bunch), I am trying to figure out what size I want the matching napkins to be. I could make little 10" x 10" napkins (I have some that size that I bought in Mexico), or I could make bigger ones. I have to practice actually making a square!

The weaving is improving. My edges look a lot better on this batch.

So...what's next in knitting? LATVIAN MITTENS. That yarn is sitting over on my dresser LOOKING at me, so I better make up four cute little Latvian colored wool balls and get to work on those. I love the color and patterns so much! I know I don't have lots of reasons to wear mittens. But I sure do love to make them.

Challenging Weaving, Happy Knitting

Announcement: I have a huge sense of empathy for all the people I have taught to knit or crochet who have been frustrated at how often they wrap the wrong way, drop stitches, accidentally increase, or whatever. It had been so long since I learned the basics of these crafts that I forgot how challenging it can be to start out.

Starting out with weaving has taught me a lot! I do think now I will have to work hard to find a new wrong way to warp a project, but it won't surprise me in the least if I do something weird again next time!

In the good news department, I did finish weaving a starter scarf. I did go out to Yarnorama in Paige again, where the ever-patient Susan did NOT laugh at how I had the warp winding the wrong way, which explained why the ratchet dogs weren't ratcheting. She got me wound the right way, and even gave me some cut-up plastic mini-blind blades to make the tension good. Hooray for her! Here's the project in progress. By the way, this worsted weight wool comes with the Cricket loom. I didn't want you to think I chose the colors.

My first weaving project. Extreme close-up

I did not do too swell of a job on the selvedges, but I got better as I went along. I also missed a couple of warp threads, even though I tried to fix them when I saw them. I guess it's a learning process. One good thing is that weaving goes pretty quickly, so I got this out of the way in just a few days. It's also fascinating to cattle, which I discovered while weaving in the pasture at the ranch.

After I finished off and washed the project  I realized a couple of rows (picks) had gotten pulled in tightly somehow. I'm not sure how that happened, but it does not enhance the final product. It's also very long, because I mis-measured the warp. Oh well, it will serve as a scarf. Some people even say it looks pretty good.

Finished scarf. I think this is before washing and ironing it.

Of course, I wanted to start a second project right away, but I dawdled a bit and waited until last weekend.  I wanted to make the project I'd gotten the yarn and instructions for when I bought the loom. It's a collection of chenille washcloths, and both Susan and Deana said they were great beginner projects, because the chenille is forgiving. A couple of other customers at the shop (really GOOD weavers) said they had enjoyed doing the project--they came back for more!

This is when the comedy of errors commenced. My biggest issue is that I refuse to put a set of large photos of how to warp a loom next to me while warping. Well, make that a past refusal. I will from now on. The PDF of the Cricket manual was on my computer, so I kept walking back and forth to and from that, being too lazy to go find the nice book I had gotten, The Weaver's Idea Book (go buy it if you want to get a Cricket loom and make stuff!), which has nice, big photos and clear instructions.

First mistake: I got a nice cheap vinyl mini-blind and measured it against the heddle (the thing that you use to move warps up and down so weaving is easy, and that you also use to "beat" or press down your weft). I cut about half of them before realizing that the part of the heddle (see below, thanks to the blog of Spinninglizzy for the image)...

Rigid heddles

...that is 15 inches is the white part, not the wooden part. So I got to cut most of them twice. Lots of little pieces of plastic all around. Why the mini blinds? Susan says they work better than stiff paper or anything else she has found to insert in the wound-up warp and keep the threads nice and tight. Anyway, eventually those were all good.

Second mistake: I wound the warp around the large back beam, not just the little bitty apron rod. I discovered this after winding a whole bunch of it, and sticking a whole bunch of pieces of mini blind in there. This meant I had to enlist my patient spouse's help to unscrew the back bean so I could slip off all the loops and put them around the apron rod instead. Of course I twisted some of the loops, which added to the fun. And I totally missed a couple the first time. But eventually, I persevered and got the warp attached to the correct thing. I managed to attach the other end fairly successfully, and wound it all up.

Parts of the loom, from Cricket Loom Assembly and Weaving, by Schacht

Third mistake: After all that winding, I realized that I had strung the whole thing backwards. The end that should be on the "front" of the loom was on the "back." If I had looked at the picture, I would have known. As it is, I didn't realize it until I tried to weave. There was no space to insert the shuttle. Sigh. Luckily I realized that all I had to do was wind the WHOLE thing again, the other way. I didn't have to take anything off the loom. So, in the end, what should have taken about a half hour, warping the loom, took an hour and a half. I did not weave at all on Sunday, but the dang warp was ready!

I did successfully pull threads through the central holes with only one or two small glitches. Oh, I rock.

I came home last night and finally was able to weave. I got the waste yarn on, which took care of some of my weirdly twisted warp loops, then I survived a recalcitrant yarn winder and got the hem yarn wound into a ball and then onto a shuttle. I made a hem! And the selvedge is not horrible! Then, gasp, I wove some of the chenille! Here it is:

washcloth, in progress at last

KNITTING!!

I have not stopped knitting.  However, I don't have any great photo of the Heichi #5 cardigan in progress. I think it's going to be a good one, though. I made it through the underarms and got the left front done. I am over 50% through the back. It looks like another good spate of knitting (perhaps I will be stranded at an RV repair place for a couple of hours like I was last weekend!) and I will be finished with the body. The sleeves are 3/4 and knit by picking up from around the armholes, so they won't be hard to do at all or take long. There's a crochet border that doesn't look like rocket science, either. So, maybe I will have this project to wear at the office when it gets chilly--soon!

I'm also continuing to work on the second Hitchhiker shawlette. It's my "portable" project, and I carry it in a cute Lantern Moon bag. Here's what the shawlette looks like:

Hitchhiker with beads, and my office chair

The colors really mix up nicely. Not too much pooling at all. And the beads really are perfect, though hard to see in this photo.

I probably have something else to say, but need to work now. Lunch is over! Oh, if you get a chance, look at the latest Interweave Crochet. The modern Irish lace photos in it are just stunning.

A Shawlette to Hitchhike In

I really have had a hard time knitting lately, since we have remodeling going on in my bedroom and bath. It will be nice, though, and my hand knits will have storage space! We got two under-the-bed storage boxes, plus there is a lot more space I can USE in the closet, or will be when they are done. I got rid of about a third of my clothing, and packed things I won't be wearing anymore into neat boxes labeled "long-term storage." So, some of my ancient knitted items are now there, stored for posterity.

This, however, is a finished shawlette!

Hitchhiker!

I got 40 little points on the end of my Hitchhiker shawlette, using the Zauberball Crazy sock yarn. I love the stripes. All lovely shades of blue that will go with denim nicely. I used size 3 needles, so it's loosely knit (remember, I use 0s for socks). I truly enjoyed the pattern (it's on Ravelry so you can buy the pattern and make one, too). And it is quite easy. The only trick I had to do was learn to count four garter stitch ridges so I'd know when to bind off to make the points. I can count to 4!

And here's what it will look like when I wear it:

Me ready to Hitchhike

There are so many options--but it looks fine with a white t-shirt! Wow, my hair has gotten long.

I wanted to start another one and put beads in it, but now I think I'll just make another plain one. I have two balls of the yarn I am thinking of using, so I will make a bigger version to throw dramatically across my shoulders, and perhaps end up with yarn left over for mitts or something.

What? Did you ask why there are no finished gray alpaca wrap sweater photos? I am still almost done with it. I have knitted some more, I think up to 34 inches of the endless 38 inches of stockinette for the front. I do hope this weekend will be the weekend of finishing.

Blocking is another issue. I can't find my blocking mats. Nor is there any flat space in the house right now, because we are sleeping on the guest bed, and the college kid's bed has all my clothing on it. I have two shawls to block for my friend Diane. I even have some new pins. But nowhere to block. I really hate it when I let people down (and wow, do I do it sometimes!). She really needed a shawl blocked last weekend, and I couldn't do it. Sigh. It will look good eventually, and so will my alpaca sweater. No need to be hard on myself.

I've been telling a bunch of people to not blame themselves for other people's issues. Well, I need to admit my shortcomings and just do my best, anyway. We are all fine folks who slip up occasionally, right?

Enthralled with Hitchhiker

I am supposed to be finishing the lovely gray alpaca sweater with the big twist in the front. May I just say, in way of excuses, that 38" of plain stockinette can get tedious? There I did say it. I have over 30" of it, though. I was hoping to buckle down and finish it while traveling this weekend, but we may not get to do that. It's hard, though...

...And the reason it's so hard is I am enjoying knitting the Hitchhiker shawlette or scarf I could not resist casting on for. WAY too much. Once I started it, I could not stop. Here it is started.

 It is amazing how many different shades of blue are in this one ball of Zauberball Crazy sock yarn. I have done 30 points on the Hitchhiker, and nothing's repeated yet. Such fun yarn. I don't have a great photo of it, but here is is, posing next to Scrunchy, making it clear that he has exactly one eye now, thank you very much.

Scrunchy complements the white stripe in the Hitchhiker very well.

It's getting pretty long--and it looks to me like there's enough of the yarn left to get twelve more points out of it. In any case, I think it will end up plenty long enough to drape jauntily around my neck.

I want to make about five of these. Beginning knitter? Don't let that stop you--it's pretty darned easy! And everyone who looks at it get a glazed and jealous expression on their faces. Men and women. What a great gift this would be!

However, I'm keeping this. Since I have LOST a bunch of my shawls in the Great Wildfire Scare of 2011, I need some warmth. (I know my shawls are in this house somewhere--just can't find where I put the shopping back full of hand knit and hand spun goodness.)

I must get back to the knitting. I would vow to not work on this blue beauty until the Drape Front sweater is done, but I can't. I do vow to try my best to finish it this weekend.