I have to say that I love starting new projects, so I am glad to be off and running on two right now. Touching new yarns, figuring out new diagrams...oooh what fun. Sigh, still gotta finish that sock, though. I can't ignore it. All I did on it yesterday was erase two rows.
The Former Tangled Mess (hey, I think that will be the scarf's new name, since it has such a dud name in the book) now looks like the photo you see. Nice picture taken on top the clean white laundry basket! It doesn't look too bad, even before blocking!
I spent a bit of time pondering whether to make it with three border repeats (two are depicted here) or four. The Victorian Lace Today book's photo is of the scarf with three border repeats, while the instructions make a scarf with four. I was worried that I would not have enough of the yarn if I did four, but when I looked up how much yarn is in the skein, I knew I'd be OK--pattern calls for 400-something yards and I have 560. I should have enough left over for wrist warmers for ME or something. Jody volunteered to bring a scale to the LYS tomorrow and weigh the yarn to find out, too.
Though every pattern I have looked at in the VLT book has some "issue," I can't complain about the charts. They sure are easy to use (once properly interpreted) and keep me from losing my place! I haven't knitted a wrong row yet!
I also worked a bit on the Shedir hat last night and it is coming along nicely. Nice that I am not using a cable needle as instructed by the author, because one-stitch cables done that way are a pain. I think I can go back and knit that sock pattern with all the traveling twisted stitches (Circle of Friends--I totally gave up on that one due to tedious twisting) now that I can do the no-needle traveling stitches so much better. See, always learning! The Calmer yarn really is calm. It is a treat to knit with, because it is so soft, and even though it's one of those many-stranded cottons, it has enough twist in it that I am not splitting the yarn at all, even with all those twisted stitches. I should have a photo at some point this weekend--I'd have it done in a flash if i weren't also working on the scarf and socks.
I look forward to part 2 of my sweater class (though I finished the sweater) tomorrow and to getting some good knitting done. It is still pretty cold, so I doubt there will be much Homecoming Game knitting tonight.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Yarn Happy
[I mention so many yarns in this post that I am bolding them all.]
To show how happy I am, here's some happy yarn, Maizy in a deep rose colorway. I also got it in a multicolored version called "menswear" in the Woodland Woolworks catalogue (they name all the colors, even ALL 200+ of the Jamieson jumper weight Shetland yarn). None of my usual sources had this yarn, so I am glad my favorite backup source had it!
Ooh, it is very soft and it has that "dry" feel that Panda Cotton has. It feels much nicer than the A-Maize-ing yarn we had at the LYS. I look forward to making something lacy with this pink stuff.
Yesterday, as a reward for my yarn winding patience, I also got myself a skein of Claudia Handpaints silk laceweight yarn. The LYS got a whole bunch of Claudia sock yarn in (which I already have plenty of) and a bit of this silk stuff. It's over 1,000 yards and very thin and shiny. What a nice stole or shawl that will make. Only two colorways came in, one blues and one rainbow. You can guess which one I got! All I can say is it had better wind nicely into a ball!
Success!
All the ladies at Chicks with Sticks who had read about my Schaeffer Anne issue were very sympathetic, and I appreciated it a lot! I was also happy to read the blog comment that said it wasn't just me--others have had issues with that yarn. I am HAPPY to report that all the yarn got wound up last night after I got home from choir practice, and I didn't have to break it or anything.
At lunch break I tried to start the Victorian Lace Today scarf with good ole Anne. It looked too loose on size 4 needles so I went down to size 3. Then I learned a new skill, the crochet cast-on (not the provisional one, but rather the one that looks like a bound-off edge. The pattern uses that so it will look the same on both sides and the slipped edges of the main scarf will also match it. Very slick. And a fun cast-on, once I found my hidden crochet hook. Too bad I mis-read the chart and was making it stockinette stitch when it is really mostly a garter-stitch border. Oh well, good practice and all that--I only did a couple of rows. I will re-start tonight.
It's my month for humbling knitting experiences, I think. I cast on with Rowan Calmer in a coral color for the Shedir cap I am making for a friend undergoing chemo. It felt great, but, sigh, my new KnitPicks Harmony size 3.25mm were sorta squirrely at first so I didn't notice until row 4 that I had mobiused it. Oops. Well, it can happen to anyone, I guess! I worked on it at choir (a lot of bass practice and little alto practice), so I got well into it the second time around. Lots of little traveling stitches in that one, which are good practice for my new cabling with no needles skills.
Look at me, all these years of knitting and still there is so much new to learn! And THAT, reader friends, is why I still knit: there's always something new to try.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Disgusting Mess
Remember that tangle of Schaeffer Anne? Here is what it looked like when I got home from work yesterday. You can see a ball and a tangled blob.
What is sad is that I spent at least 2.5 hours of one of my rare nights at home last night, working on that blob. I would love to report that I now have a ball of yarn, ready to be a scarf. Instead, I regret to say I now have a bigger ball and a smaller blob. Now, the blob is significantly smaller and still in good enough shape that I am positive I will eventually have a ball of yarn with no knots or breaks.
But, whoa! Was this skein of yarn a MESS!! Whoever skeined it must have been having a very, very bad day. And not only does the yarn go in, out, around and back with great frequency, the strands seem to have begun to felt a bit, so they don't separate nicely. That means that even in the rare places where the yarn would like to unwind smoothly, I have to go slowly so I can separate the strands. Yeesh!
I wrote on an email list that I think I deserve the Patient Knitter of the Month Award for doing this. I sure hope the scarf works out nicely. I know it will be thinner than the one photographed in Victorian Lace Today, but I have seen other people's projects using various yarns for this scarf, and all look pretty good. I just want to swatch so I can see what size needles to use!!! Wah!
In happier news, now that it is finally blocked, I can wear the Surplice Top. I wore it to work today with a brown shirt under it, and it looks great. Blocking really helped smooth the neckband. However, I didn't get the bottom straight, so it sorta has waves. They look OK, though. The lace is so pretty all straightened out! What the heck, I will share the photo my son took of it yesterday, so you can see how much improved it is (yes, the picture is blurry--my son took it). You can see why I probably won't wear it without a camisole in the future!
And of course, let me thank everyone who's posting ideas for lacy wedding items. I am getting all sorts of good ideas. I guess I should ask on the lace knitters email list next. That will garner some ideas no doubt!
PS: Evelyn Clark
I saw on Lime and Violet's Daily Chum (a really good place to learn about all sorts of knitting-related news) a notice about a new website for Evelyn Clark's stuff. Since she is one of my favorites, I jumped to the site immediately. You may want to, as well! It has new patterns you can buy, plus a schedule of her travels. Now THAT is one designer I wish would come to my LYS!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Finished Mr Greenjeans and New Stuff!
I am happier that Mr. Greenjeans in Red is finished than I look in this photo. I promise to go outdoors and get a photo where you can actually SEE the sweater, too. It looks rather bulky in the photo (and I look sleepy, which I am), but actually fits well. I did block it out a bit, but I'd rather it fit like it does now than so tight I can't button it. Speaking of buttons, I sewed on the only one I own that is the right size, which is brown. I will be purchasing a different button!
Gotta say I am extra happy with this project. It fits, it has no glaring errors, it is pretty and it is warm. Since it has been rather cool the last couple of days, I am appreciating the warmth. The yarn is gorgeous in person--with it showed up better, but the light this morning was not good (photo taken before sunrise). [Edit: At left is a photo taken later in the day, where you can actually see the sweater, but I am a big glare.]
Now all I have to do is finish untangling that yarn and I can start the scarf! (I was out sitting at a football stadium where it was very windy and cold last night, so no unraveling for me--and little sock progress because my hands got numb and I had to put on gloves--gloves in sock yarn that I realized have not been photographed for Ravelry yet!).
Mail Call!
Yes, the letter carrier had left some things for me to find when I got home last night. First was an order from my old favorite online yarn shop, Woodland Wool Works. It is the place I ordered many dozens of balls of Plymouth Eros from in my scarf-selling days and where I got the yarn for my weird Annie Modesitt Vogue Knitting circular shrug.
This time I got Maizy sock yarn (it's made from maize!), because my neither LYS nor The Loopy Ewe has it, and I wanted to touch it. What a pleasant surprise that was! It feels a lot like Panda Cotton, which you know I like a lot and is mostly bamboo. Same manufacturer, Crystal Palace. It has a bit of elastic in it, but is mostly very soft and with a nice matte effect. I got rose colored yarn to make lace socks in, and a variegated one for some more plain socks.
In addition I got the roses color of Panda Cotton, because I liked it so much when my friend at Chicks with Sticks showed me hers. It matches my bathroom so well I wonder if I should make washcloths from it instead of socks! Ehh, no. Plus, I got some Opal, as if I do not already own enough of that...but I really wanted to get at least one skein of the Hundertwasser colorways, which were "inspired by the works of the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser" before they stopped selling them. I got the yellow one depicted here in someone else's stash.
I do want to try the Maizy soon, so that may be my next "me" one after the one I designed and the final holiday ones.
One more item came in the mail and I am SSSSOOOOO excited! The Cat Bordhi New Pathways book arrived! And Amazon had said it would not get here until March! Woo! They must have rushed out that second printing after all. Of course, I want to try one of THOSE patterns--guess I will make one of those baby socks Cat insists that you make first, then consider gracing my sister with a much cooler sock than she was originally going to get, hee hee.
But really, I am just as happy as can be to get a chance to learn about these interesting new sock-making methods--nothing's more fun than trying a new technique or learning a new skill.
Gotta say I am extra happy with this project. It fits, it has no glaring errors, it is pretty and it is warm. Since it has been rather cool the last couple of days, I am appreciating the warmth. The yarn is gorgeous in person--with it showed up better, but the light this morning was not good (photo taken before sunrise). [Edit: At left is a photo taken later in the day, where you can actually see the sweater, but I am a big glare.]Now all I have to do is finish untangling that yarn and I can start the scarf! (I was out sitting at a football stadium where it was very windy and cold last night, so no unraveling for me--and little sock progress because my hands got numb and I had to put on gloves--gloves in sock yarn that I realized have not been photographed for Ravelry yet!).
Mail Call!
Yes, the letter carrier had left some things for me to find when I got home last night. First was an order from my old favorite online yarn shop, Woodland Wool Works. It is the place I ordered many dozens of balls of Plymouth Eros from in my scarf-selling days and where I got the yarn for my weird Annie Modesitt Vogue Knitting circular shrug.
This time I got Maizy sock yarn (it's made from maize!), because my neither LYS nor The Loopy Ewe has it, and I wanted to touch it. What a pleasant surprise that was! It feels a lot like Panda Cotton, which you know I like a lot and is mostly bamboo. Same manufacturer, Crystal Palace. It has a bit of elastic in it, but is mostly very soft and with a nice matte effect. I got rose colored yarn to make lace socks in, and a variegated one for some more plain socks.
In addition I got the roses color of Panda Cotton, because I liked it so much when my friend at Chicks with Sticks showed me hers. It matches my bathroom so well I wonder if I should make washcloths from it instead of socks! Ehh, no. Plus, I got some Opal, as if I do not already own enough of that...but I really wanted to get at least one skein of the Hundertwasser colorways, which were "inspired by the works of the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser" before they stopped selling them. I got the yellow one depicted here in someone else's stash.
I do want to try the Maizy soon, so that may be my next "me" one after the one I designed and the final holiday ones.
One more item came in the mail and I am SSSSOOOOO excited! The Cat Bordhi New Pathways book arrived! And Amazon had said it would not get here until March! Woo! They must have rushed out that second printing after all. Of course, I want to try one of THOSE patterns--guess I will make one of those baby socks Cat insists that you make first, then consider gracing my sister with a much cooler sock than she was originally going to get, hee hee.
But really, I am just as happy as can be to get a chance to learn about these interesting new sock-making methods--nothing's more fun than trying a new technique or learning a new skill.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Soooooo Close to Completion
The weather has turned cool here in Texas, which makes me extra happy to have finished knitting Mr. Greenjeans in Red, pictured here in a very damp state lying brazenly on the guest room bed. I worked on it every chance I got over the weekend, which means it got grassy debris on it from sitting at the band hall waiting for errant buses to take us to band competition, and it got as bored as me, no doubt, at the annual pledge drive sermon at the UU church (I hope it enjoyed my quartet's lovely renditions of "Teach Your Children" and "You've Got a Friend (In Live Oak UU)" as much as I enjoyed belting them out). It did need a bit of blocking, to smooth out the ribbing at the bottom a bit, and to de-curl the edges of the sleeves and the neck band. The neckband did come out very nice, though, due to me actually picking up the correct number of stitches and knitting the correct number of rows. Once Mr. Greenjeans is dry, I will find and sew on a button, then wear and wear and wear! Finally I knitted something to wear that I like a whole bunch and of which I am not irritated by any parts.
Not only did I block this monster (and interestingly enough, it did not bleed out any color at all), but I finally blocked the surplice top, so perhaps nice photos of both apparel items will be available this week. The little irregularities in the neckband on this one seem much better now, and the lace panels look flatter. You may recall that the surplice top was made in naturally dyed cotton (Nashua Ecologie Cotton). It's fairly off-white, but it lost a lot of dye when I soaked it. If you make something with this yarn, be sure to wash it separately!
Frustration with Yarn
My happiness at soon having not one, but two wearable items made by me was dampened when I decided to get started on my next project. I plan to make the beautifully named "Scarf with the open and solid diamond lace edging from Weldon's, 1904" from Victorian Lace Today, out of Schaeffer Anne for my stepmother's Christmas gift. So, I hauled out my book, my needles and the yarn. I cheerfully placed the hank of yarn on my swift and started to ball it up. After trying both ends of the yarn it became very, very clear that the yarn had not been skeined skillfully. It doubled back on itself, twisted around itself, and generally did not act "nice."
But, the colorway is such a beautiful collection of shades of turquoise. I really want to use it. So, I listened to football on television for three hours and slowly but surely wound the yarn into a ball. I wish I could report that I have rewound it and am ready to swatch, but, alas. There is still 1/4 to 1/3 of the yarn left to wind. AAACK! This evening, I will see how far I get once I return home from the exciting "Festival of the Bands," which features performances by all our District's high schools and middle schools. It would be way more exciting if I hadn't already seen each of the other high schools' show at least once, and a couple of them twice. My Redwood Pagoda Lace socks will accompany me--who knows, I might get darned close to finishing them tonight!
Not only did I block this monster (and interestingly enough, it did not bleed out any color at all), but I finally blocked the surplice top, so perhaps nice photos of both apparel items will be available this week. The little irregularities in the neckband on this one seem much better now, and the lace panels look flatter. You may recall that the surplice top was made in naturally dyed cotton (Nashua Ecologie Cotton). It's fairly off-white, but it lost a lot of dye when I soaked it. If you make something with this yarn, be sure to wash it separately!
Frustration with Yarn
My happiness at soon having not one, but two wearable items made by me was dampened when I decided to get started on my next project. I plan to make the beautifully named "Scarf with the open and solid diamond lace edging from Weldon's, 1904" from Victorian Lace Today, out of Schaeffer Anne for my stepmother's Christmas gift. So, I hauled out my book, my needles and the yarn. I cheerfully placed the hank of yarn on my swift and started to ball it up. After trying both ends of the yarn it became very, very clear that the yarn had not been skeined skillfully. It doubled back on itself, twisted around itself, and generally did not act "nice."
But, the colorway is such a beautiful collection of shades of turquoise. I really want to use it. So, I listened to football on television for three hours and slowly but surely wound the yarn into a ball. I wish I could report that I have rewound it and am ready to swatch, but, alas. There is still 1/4 to 1/3 of the yarn left to wind. AAACK! This evening, I will see how far I get once I return home from the exciting "Festival of the Bands," which features performances by all our District's high schools and middle schools. It would be way more exciting if I hadn't already seen each of the other high schools' show at least once, and a couple of them twice. My Redwood Pagoda Lace socks will accompany me--who knows, I might get darned close to finishing them tonight!
Friday, October 19, 2007
You Don't Know the Answer to This, Do You?
You see, yesterday I found these pictures of me in July 2005, wearing a silk/wool poncho I had made and was quite proud of. I should have been--that's Alchemy Yarns of Transformation Silk/Wool expensiveness you see there, and lots of it. I don't have any really good photos of that item, so I cropped some conference photos and used them (in this picture I am actually teaching Tuba Boy, my son, how to knit, and Edie Eckman, who wrote the Crochet Answer Book is right behind him!).
The deal is that the poncho is slipping off my shoulder. That irritates me. One side stays up, because it has a jaunty attached scarf on it, but the other side falls down. Practically every garment I knit falls off my shoulders. The Juliet sweater, the Cindy sweater, Althea (my Hempathy top), my ribbon shrug...the list goes on. So my question is: am I just knitting the wrong things or do I have defective, overly sloping shoulders? Am I ... gasp ... deformed??
No, I don't think I am deformed, perhaps just poor of posture. But I do hope that the lone button on Mr. Greenjeans will keep the darned thing ON me. And in case you were wondering, I did get to work on him some last night, and got at least halfway through arm #2. I may well have me a cardigan by Monday! I sure hope so.
I may get to start new socks, too. I am turning the heel on Redwood Pagoda Lace socks and they are looking good. It's interesting that no one has said anything about my pictures of the first sock (perhaps because it is on a scuzzy tour bus in glaring light), but everyone who sees the socks in person gets all excited about them. Expert knitters, people who want to learn to make socks, and even non-knitters comment on both the yarn and the pattern. So, while not the Sock of My Dreams with respect to pattern/yarn compatibility, I know it will be a good one that people will enjoy seeing me wear--and the yarn feels great. (There is more interesting new sock yarn in candy corn and neopolitan ice cream colors over at Knitivity if you want to take a look, by the way.)
Jody and I are having a big debate as to whether I should wear a fitted top, a shrug or a shawl for the wedding item. She loves shawls and thinks a shawl pin will save me from the dreaded dropping of the shawl on the ground while hugging a zillion people event, which I foresee if I wore one of those. Opinions welcome. And I am posting more and more options on my wedding project blog entry.
The deal is that the poncho is slipping off my shoulder. That irritates me. One side stays up, because it has a jaunty attached scarf on it, but the other side falls down. Practically every garment I knit falls off my shoulders. The Juliet sweater, the Cindy sweater, Althea (my Hempathy top), my ribbon shrug...the list goes on. So my question is: am I just knitting the wrong things or do I have defective, overly sloping shoulders? Am I ... gasp ... deformed??
No, I don't think I am deformed, perhaps just poor of posture. But I do hope that the lone button on Mr. Greenjeans will keep the darned thing ON me. And in case you were wondering, I did get to work on him some last night, and got at least halfway through arm #2. I may well have me a cardigan by Monday! I sure hope so.
I may get to start new socks, too. I am turning the heel on Redwood Pagoda Lace socks and they are looking good. It's interesting that no one has said anything about my pictures of the first sock (perhaps because it is on a scuzzy tour bus in glaring light), but everyone who sees the socks in person gets all excited about them. Expert knitters, people who want to learn to make socks, and even non-knitters comment on both the yarn and the pattern. So, while not the Sock of My Dreams with respect to pattern/yarn compatibility, I know it will be a good one that people will enjoy seeing me wear--and the yarn feels great. (There is more interesting new sock yarn in candy corn and neopolitan ice cream colors over at Knitivity if you want to take a look, by the way.)
Jody and I are having a big debate as to whether I should wear a fitted top, a shrug or a shawl for the wedding item. She loves shawls and thinks a shawl pin will save me from the dreaded dropping of the shawl on the ground while hugging a zillion people event, which I foresee if I wore one of those. Opinions welcome. And I am posting more and more options on my wedding project blog entry.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Thoughts on Finishing
Speaking of finishing, I had almost finished blogging the photo of this yarn on Flickr when my browser aborted. Goes to show me that the glitches of the past couple of weeks are NOT over just because I feel a bit better emotionally.
So, to reconstruct my brilliant earlier thoughts...look at that yarn. Isn't it pretty? The colorway is called "Playing with Matches," and I just love the twists in it. Reminds me of the way people ply their hand-spun yarn and get that great effect of two colors changing at different times. This is one of the lovely things I got at the last Loopy Ewe sneak up. I also got two colors of Yarn Love with bamboo in it: Romance and Violets (I love violets almost as much as pansies). And to top it off I got two colors of ShibuiKnits Sock, which is incredibly soft merino. They are dusty greens and a very bright colorway with red, orange, turquoise and avocado colors.
I really want to knit with the Urban GypZ stuff, but it will have to wait its turn while I get to the shiny blue sock and holiday gift socks that must get done. Maybe when I finish Mr. Greenjeans I will do two socks at once.
Finishing
In the past week or two I have noticed multiple knitters bemoaning the fact that their knitted items were good until they did the finishing, which is when something went wrong. They are so disappointed that all their hard work led to a less-than-satisfactory product. I must admit that this has also happened to me, especially before I learned some finishing tricks.
Finishing is often neglected in knitting classes. This is inevitable in some ways, because usually the students finish projects after the actual class is over, so the teacher no longer has the student's undivided attention. That's why in an ideal world, I think, LYS owners would schedule finishing classes at least once a month, so that students would have ample opportunity to learn skills such as mattress stitch, three-needle bind-off, stretchy bind off options, grafting, skillfully sewing in sleeves, weaving in ends, and things like that.
Of course, if I designed such a class, I'd have a section on "ways to avoid icky finishing techniques." During this time I would extol the virtues of top-down knitting, circular knitting and this topic...
How to Avoid Grafting
As a grafting-challenged person (say it with me, awwwwww), I tend to do things that let me avoid that skill. That's one reason to favor toe-up socks, though a skillful three-needle bind-off can do fine for cuff-down socks unless someone has very sensitive toes.
I also would be incredibly pleased if designers, especially designers of long lace shawls, would change from having you knit two halves then graft them in the center to using a provisional cast-on and knitting from the center outward in each direction. That is so much easier and less likely to end up with some ruined lace. True, some directional patterns would need to be re-done to go the other way and other just wouldn't work starting from the center and going down, but lots of shawls would be fine done the way I describe. I know I have converted more than one item, myself!
Blocking
There is one more important finishing technique that sometimes gets neglected, and that is blocking. I know some people never block knitting. I guess if you are a polyester lover you rarely have to! Of course you need to block lace, but cotton, wool and other natural fabrics of all types can benefit from blocking. That is why I NEED to block the surplice top I "finished" a few weeks ago. It really won't be "finished" until I take the time to block it a bit, especially around the collar edge and lace section. It will lie down better and have the "swing" it should have, once I block it.
Now I feel very guilty for watching a Weird Al Yankovitz (perhaps this is misspelled?) movie last night instead of blocking that top! Well, maybe over the weekend...that will be my next free period block of time!
Moral to this? Blocking is important. Do it. Finishing techniques matter! Learn them!
Resources:
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancy Wiseman: Very thorough reference with good illustrations.
Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters: Give Your Knitting that Professional Look by Sharon Brant: Even more thorough, but more advanced, so there is a lot of stuff to plow through.
The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Margaret Radcliffe: This is the one I use most, because it is compact and has very clear illustrations and examples.
Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Kartus: This is about fixing mistakes, but it also covers finishing mistakes. You should own this if you are not a total and complete expert.
KnittingHelp.com: If you want to see little movies and stuff so you can learn that way, this one is great. Many people are extremely devoted to this site.
So, to reconstruct my brilliant earlier thoughts...look at that yarn. Isn't it pretty? The colorway is called "Playing with Matches," and I just love the twists in it. Reminds me of the way people ply their hand-spun yarn and get that great effect of two colors changing at different times. This is one of the lovely things I got at the last Loopy Ewe sneak up. I also got two colors of Yarn Love with bamboo in it: Romance and Violets (I love violets almost as much as pansies). And to top it off I got two colors of ShibuiKnits Sock, which is incredibly soft merino. They are dusty greens and a very bright colorway with red, orange, turquoise and avocado colors.
I really want to knit with the Urban GypZ stuff, but it will have to wait its turn while I get to the shiny blue sock and holiday gift socks that must get done. Maybe when I finish Mr. Greenjeans I will do two socks at once.
Finishing
In the past week or two I have noticed multiple knitters bemoaning the fact that their knitted items were good until they did the finishing, which is when something went wrong. They are so disappointed that all their hard work led to a less-than-satisfactory product. I must admit that this has also happened to me, especially before I learned some finishing tricks.
Finishing is often neglected in knitting classes. This is inevitable in some ways, because usually the students finish projects after the actual class is over, so the teacher no longer has the student's undivided attention. That's why in an ideal world, I think, LYS owners would schedule finishing classes at least once a month, so that students would have ample opportunity to learn skills such as mattress stitch, three-needle bind-off, stretchy bind off options, grafting, skillfully sewing in sleeves, weaving in ends, and things like that.
Of course, if I designed such a class, I'd have a section on "ways to avoid icky finishing techniques." During this time I would extol the virtues of top-down knitting, circular knitting and this topic...
How to Avoid Grafting
As a grafting-challenged person (say it with me, awwwwww), I tend to do things that let me avoid that skill. That's one reason to favor toe-up socks, though a skillful three-needle bind-off can do fine for cuff-down socks unless someone has very sensitive toes.
I also would be incredibly pleased if designers, especially designers of long lace shawls, would change from having you knit two halves then graft them in the center to using a provisional cast-on and knitting from the center outward in each direction. That is so much easier and less likely to end up with some ruined lace. True, some directional patterns would need to be re-done to go the other way and other just wouldn't work starting from the center and going down, but lots of shawls would be fine done the way I describe. I know I have converted more than one item, myself!
Blocking
There is one more important finishing technique that sometimes gets neglected, and that is blocking. I know some people never block knitting. I guess if you are a polyester lover you rarely have to! Of course you need to block lace, but cotton, wool and other natural fabrics of all types can benefit from blocking. That is why I NEED to block the surplice top I "finished" a few weeks ago. It really won't be "finished" until I take the time to block it a bit, especially around the collar edge and lace section. It will lie down better and have the "swing" it should have, once I block it.
Now I feel very guilty for watching a Weird Al Yankovitz (perhaps this is misspelled?) movie last night instead of blocking that top! Well, maybe over the weekend...that will be my next free period block of time!
Moral to this? Blocking is important. Do it. Finishing techniques matter! Learn them!
Resources:
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancy Wiseman: Very thorough reference with good illustrations.
Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters: Give Your Knitting that Professional Look by Sharon Brant: Even more thorough, but more advanced, so there is a lot of stuff to plow through.
The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Margaret Radcliffe: This is the one I use most, because it is compact and has very clear illustrations and examples.
Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Kartus: This is about fixing mistakes, but it also covers finishing mistakes. You should own this if you are not a total and complete expert.
KnittingHelp.com: If you want to see little movies and stuff so you can learn that way, this one is great. Many people are extremely devoted to this site.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Knitting Ups and Downs
It was a very long weekend. And much knitting was done, though not all that much to show for it. Sigh. Took a major dip in the scummy old frog pond...
But, in good news, here is the Redwood Pagoda Lace sock #1 in Knitivity Redwood colored sock yarn, fresh off the needles in a rather scuzzy tour bus. I spent over 24 hours with the high school band on a trip to Arlington, Texas for a competition. I would have gotten a lot more knitting done if both the trip up and the trip back hadn't been during normal sleeping hours. I finished the sock while the rest of the folks were out procuring dinner in a locale full of preferred vendors: fast food, pizza and Starbucks. I stayed in and breathed diesel fumes and finished the sock.
I worked and worked on Mr. Greenjeans in red during the many hours we spent in a church rec hall between the preliminaries and finals of the competition. I made almost an entire sleeve but then realized that, sigh, I was making the size XL sleeve, not the L, and I would never hit 60 stitches before my arm length was reached at the rate I was decreasing. So, yesterday in my sleep deprived fog, I frogged the entire sleeve and redid it. Perhaps this time I decreased too briskly but it looks OK and I got down to where I want to start the ribbed border for the cuff. But it sure felt bad to re-do the same knitting twice. I did enjoy crafting with other band mothers, though, so I had good camaraderie with the crocheters and beaders who were also chaperoning.
I have nifty new yarn to post, perhaps tomorrow, thanks to the latest Loopy Ewe sneak-up. A couple of very interesting ones! And KnitPicks sent me a replacement #4 pair of tips for my Harmony set (you may recall, one original didn't screw in properly), so I now have one bonus 4. Good, I like that size. So, all is not lost--I just feel like I lost some productivity (yes, knitting is a process, and I should REJOICE that I get to knit twice with that nice Cascade 220, yup). But I have new things I want to knit!
Not much knitting time today, but tomorrow I hope to get on to sleeve #2 and more done on sock #2.
I hope you all had better knitting weekends than I did!
But, in good news, here is the Redwood Pagoda Lace sock #1 in Knitivity Redwood colored sock yarn, fresh off the needles in a rather scuzzy tour bus. I spent over 24 hours with the high school band on a trip to Arlington, Texas for a competition. I would have gotten a lot more knitting done if both the trip up and the trip back hadn't been during normal sleeping hours. I finished the sock while the rest of the folks were out procuring dinner in a locale full of preferred vendors: fast food, pizza and Starbucks. I stayed in and breathed diesel fumes and finished the sock.
I worked and worked on Mr. Greenjeans in red during the many hours we spent in a church rec hall between the preliminaries and finals of the competition. I made almost an entire sleeve but then realized that, sigh, I was making the size XL sleeve, not the L, and I would never hit 60 stitches before my arm length was reached at the rate I was decreasing. So, yesterday in my sleep deprived fog, I frogged the entire sleeve and redid it. Perhaps this time I decreased too briskly but it looks OK and I got down to where I want to start the ribbed border for the cuff. But it sure felt bad to re-do the same knitting twice. I did enjoy crafting with other band mothers, though, so I had good camaraderie with the crocheters and beaders who were also chaperoning.
I have nifty new yarn to post, perhaps tomorrow, thanks to the latest Loopy Ewe sneak-up. A couple of very interesting ones! And KnitPicks sent me a replacement #4 pair of tips for my Harmony set (you may recall, one original didn't screw in properly), so I now have one bonus 4. Good, I like that size. So, all is not lost--I just feel like I lost some productivity (yes, knitting is a process, and I should REJOICE that I get to knit twice with that nice Cascade 220, yup). But I have new things I want to knit!
Not much knitting time today, but tomorrow I hope to get on to sleeve #2 and more done on sock #2.
I hope you all had better knitting weekends than I did!
Friday, October 12, 2007
All Raveled Up
I have spent a lot of my spare time uploading information to Ravelry, now that I am actually in it! Mostly I am doing it for my own reference--it sure is handy to be able to quickly see where something I made came from, what yarn I used, etc., without having to plow through all the reference materials. It will also be nice to catalogue all my books, once that works (right now, well, not all the books I have are there, and I'm not talking about weird ones--I do realize that's not a high priority, and it's fine).Also it's a bit altruistic. I like it that others can see my FOs, so they can decide if a project will work out for them, or read about what issues I (or others) had with a pattern or yarn.
I now have 87 projects catalogued and 37 balls of yarn in my stash photographed and described. Uh, yowzer, I still have a LOT of that stuff left. Who knows when or if I will take pictures of all that sock yarn?? I have run into old friends, made new ones, and learned things on the forums, even though I am no Miss Violet, who seems to post on EVERY forum.
Why am I going on about something many of you can't see yet? I'll tell you, but first go there and get on the waiting list. You do not have to categorize everything you own. There's lots of ways to use it. But if you don't sign up, you will only be able to browse once it goes live, not contribute. The waiting list is moving along briskly now, so you won't have to wait long to join! (And there are no special favors. "Famous" bloggers and designers had to wait just as long as everyone else if they didn't sign up immediately.)
You see, once upon a time I consulted with a company that built online communities. Did a lot of work for them. Helped them tweak the user interface, helped them tailor the content to the particular audience, wrote a zillion-page wiki help system for them...and it really seemed like it could be a nice community. They had guidelines, nice reasonable ones, and lots of options that, if they were used, could really enrich the lives of the intended users.
But, it didn't turn out that way, for various reasons internal to the politics of the organization where I worked. Now I hear of so many people refusing to use the community because they think the developers were spying on their private groups, or it was made by the wrong bunch of people...and that all made me sad.
So I was thrilled to get to participate in Ravelry. There are no private groups, and though that might cause some problems for people who worry that their interests might offend or upset others, it does avoid other pretty unpleasant potential issues. It's a heated debate right now, but I think the developers (sweet 30-year-olds with a cute dog) made a good decision to be as open as possible.
I have not stepped up and said, "Hey, I used to be an online community developer," because I have had enough nasty feedback and over-inflated expectations, but I do wish the volunteer editors and helpers well, and am happy to see all the support the knitting and crocheting community is giving. That is what I like to see in an online community. People who appreciate the chance to have one, and will help out if they can. By being able to contribute, you get ownership. That's a good thing.
I'll be out of blogging range for a couple of days. Please think good thoughts as I try to knit Shedir, finish that cardigan, and if possible, get close to finishing the Redwood socks!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I Had Blog Ennui
I haven't written anything in a couple of days, because nothing knitting-wise has really gotten me all excited. And I recently read about this very useful concept of blogging without obligation. The fellow who thought it up has a great point--it's a good idea to leave my blog right NOW and click that link. His main point is that you should blog because you have something to say, not just to make sure you get hits, inspire new subscribers or whatnot. I agree with that, so even though my hits have taken a tumble, I didn't write for a couple of days when I didn't get much knitting done and what I did was on the same old projects.
My projects are just fine, thank you. None of them are moving along very briskly, due to that pesky old "real life" getting in the way, but Mr. Greenjeans is over halfway through the cable section, and Pagoda Lace Sock #1 has at least grown a bit. The Knitivity sock yarn is coming out very soft--feels great--but it's a bit "splitty" and that makes it hard to re-do when I make a mistake in the lace. I ordered some ShibuiKnits semi-solid yarn from the good ole Loopy Ewe that I may try this pattern on again.
Speaking of yarn, I will have to photograph my two newest preciouses. One's a skein of 700 yards of fingering weight yarn from Knitivity in a collection of denim shades. I was going to make my stepmom her holiday gift from it, but then I saw this Schaeffer Anne in shades of turquoise that will look better in the pattern I chose (one of the rectangular shawls in Victorian Lace Today). I am going to make that really simple triangle shawl from VLT out of the denim for my own use.
I also got my first knittable sample from Color My Yarn Crazy, my friend Jody's soon-to-launch yarn biz (no, there's nothing much about it on the blog). It is an almost-indescribable color in sock yarn of my favorite highly twisted type. Both Lee and Beccano declared the color looks like a chocolate cherry cake, so I hope that helps. It is really a very dark mottled orange. My friend Saranda labeled it Rust. Someone nameless called it "poop brown" but if that is the case, it is VERY pretty poop! I will use it to make the frogged Diamond Waffle pattern. It will look good in this semi-solid.
At the LYS yesterday I purchased some Calmer in a coral color to make the Shedir (warning, PDF link) hat (photo is from a nice site with lots of chemo caps on it) for an acquaintance with breast cancer. I'll make that on the bus for the endlessly long band trip this weekend (where I have some crazed idea that I will finish ALL my WIPs). When I got the Calmer yarn and said I was making a cabled hat, Jody said, "Oh, you're making Shedir." My-o-my that woman has an encyclopedic memory for knitting pattern names! I was sure glad she made it to the shop, because talking to her and a couple other nice and friendly knitters really made a crummy day better.
I guess I have written enough that I don't have to go on and on about the weird patterns in the Holiday Vogue Knitting. At least there were 2-3 a person could wear in public without being laughed at or looking like a sausage. I must be too, too, old.
My projects are just fine, thank you. None of them are moving along very briskly, due to that pesky old "real life" getting in the way, but Mr. Greenjeans is over halfway through the cable section, and Pagoda Lace Sock #1 has at least grown a bit. The Knitivity sock yarn is coming out very soft--feels great--but it's a bit "splitty" and that makes it hard to re-do when I make a mistake in the lace. I ordered some ShibuiKnits semi-solid yarn from the good ole Loopy Ewe that I may try this pattern on again.
Speaking of yarn, I will have to photograph my two newest preciouses. One's a skein of 700 yards of fingering weight yarn from Knitivity in a collection of denim shades. I was going to make my stepmom her holiday gift from it, but then I saw this Schaeffer Anne in shades of turquoise that will look better in the pattern I chose (one of the rectangular shawls in Victorian Lace Today). I am going to make that really simple triangle shawl from VLT out of the denim for my own use.
I also got my first knittable sample from Color My Yarn Crazy, my friend Jody's soon-to-launch yarn biz (no, there's nothing much about it on the blog). It is an almost-indescribable color in sock yarn of my favorite highly twisted type. Both Lee and Beccano declared the color looks like a chocolate cherry cake, so I hope that helps. It is really a very dark mottled orange. My friend Saranda labeled it Rust. Someone nameless called it "poop brown" but if that is the case, it is VERY pretty poop! I will use it to make the frogged Diamond Waffle pattern. It will look good in this semi-solid.
At the LYS yesterday I purchased some Calmer in a coral color to make the Shedir (warning, PDF link) hat (photo is from a nice site with lots of chemo caps on it) for an acquaintance with breast cancer. I'll make that on the bus for the endlessly long band trip this weekend (where I have some crazed idea that I will finish ALL my WIPs). When I got the Calmer yarn and said I was making a cabled hat, Jody said, "Oh, you're making Shedir." My-o-my that woman has an encyclopedic memory for knitting pattern names! I was sure glad she made it to the shop, because talking to her and a couple other nice and friendly knitters really made a crummy day better.
I guess I have written enough that I don't have to go on and on about the weird patterns in the Holiday Vogue Knitting. At least there were 2-3 a person could wear in public without being laughed at or looking like a sausage. I must be too, too, old.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Progress Report B: Redwood Pagoda Lace Socks
I did get some progress made on my socks, though not much, thanks to concentrating on the cardigan. Here you see the Redwood Pagoda Lace Sock, in progress, along with some cute li'l flowers in the grass. I managed to finish the heel last night, without having to re-do it endless times or anything! And I am impressed that I managed to end on a complete repeat, with the foot fitting just fine!
It's hard to see the lace in this view, but there's another picture on Flickr, if you want to see the top view. I wanted to show my odd little gusset, that I put two stitches inward, just to be different..
Other knitting news...I didn't get to go on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl over the weekend, due to so many other things going on, but I did show up at the LYS at my usual time, and help out people who came in with questions, so the other staff could sell yarn. I felt good that I helped a lady who misunderstood how YOs worked, so her lovely afghan can grow up nice and pretty. I felt bad that I forgot to bring in the damaged afghan I was going to return to its owner, but felt better once we all decided to try to fix it if she could find the original yarn (she might be able to). Later I felt bad that I left the shop just before one of my students who needed my help showed up and ended up very confused, but I stayed later than I'd originally intended to, anyway--really had to go tend to the family (they are supposed to be my priority ya know!). I hope to help that lady today, since we missed each other yesterday, too.
I also would have sold a scarf pattern, but the LYS had sold all of them and I didn't know. So, I will print more of those and email the lady a copy for herself. I need to decide whether I want to sell that pattern in the future or offer it for free from the blog. Thinking.
Another thing is that I am thinking hard about a pair of thematic socks I have designed in my head, chosen yarn for, and want to make next, so maybe I better knit harder on these socks. I will do better if my old friend who works in the same building I do doesn't ask me to join him at lunch too many times this week--I end up talking to him and not knitting (hmph, actually paying attention to the person I am talking to...what's with that?). Perhaps I will also get to those over the weekend of bus knitting.
It's hard to see the lace in this view, but there's another picture on Flickr, if you want to see the top view. I wanted to show my odd little gusset, that I put two stitches inward, just to be different..
Other knitting news...I didn't get to go on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl over the weekend, due to so many other things going on, but I did show up at the LYS at my usual time, and help out people who came in with questions, so the other staff could sell yarn. I felt good that I helped a lady who misunderstood how YOs worked, so her lovely afghan can grow up nice and pretty. I felt bad that I forgot to bring in the damaged afghan I was going to return to its owner, but felt better once we all decided to try to fix it if she could find the original yarn (she might be able to). Later I felt bad that I left the shop just before one of my students who needed my help showed up and ended up very confused, but I stayed later than I'd originally intended to, anyway--really had to go tend to the family (they are supposed to be my priority ya know!). I hope to help that lady today, since we missed each other yesterday, too.
I also would have sold a scarf pattern, but the LYS had sold all of them and I didn't know. So, I will print more of those and email the lady a copy for herself. I need to decide whether I want to sell that pattern in the future or offer it for free from the blog. Thinking.
Another thing is that I am thinking hard about a pair of thematic socks I have designed in my head, chosen yarn for, and want to make next, so maybe I better knit harder on these socks. I will do better if my old friend who works in the same building I do doesn't ask me to join him at lunch too many times this week--I end up talking to him and not knitting (hmph, actually paying attention to the person I am talking to...what's with that?). Perhaps I will also get to those over the weekend of bus knitting.
Progress Report A: Mr. Greenjeans in Red
Today will mostly be progress reports on what I got done, or didn't get done, over the weekend. Most of the weekend was spent on Mr. Greenjeans in Red, pictured here. My insistence on knitting things at a finer gauge than some people would means that there is a lot of yarn in my knitting. Whew. I feel like I have been knitting on this forever, and was really relieved when I got to the cable rib border, because it is less mind-numbing than row after row of back-and-forth stockinette.
I got 1/3 the way through with the border. It needs to be 12 inches long, and I have 4 inches (60 cm/20cm to metric people). I sure like the way it looks, and it should be nice and warm. The Cascade 220 hand painted does seem to attract hair like a magnet. Both dog hair and people hair.
My guess is that by the end of next weekend this will be done, since I have very long bus rides and lots of sitting around to do for a lengthy band trip on Saturday. I'll keep plugging away whenever I am home this week, and get another skein of yarn, just in case I need it.
I got 1/3 the way through with the border. It needs to be 12 inches long, and I have 4 inches (60 cm/20cm to metric people). I sure like the way it looks, and it should be nice and warm. The Cascade 220 hand painted does seem to attract hair like a magnet. Both dog hair and people hair.
My guess is that by the end of next weekend this will be done, since I have very long bus rides and lots of sitting around to do for a lengthy band trip on Saturday. I'll keep plugging away whenever I am home this week, and get another skein of yarn, just in case I need it.
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