Simple Can Be Good

I got me some new yarn in the mail. As if I have time to knit anything else while working on that big ole blanket! But I saw this stuff and really wanted to make something out of it--it is Sprout by Classic Elite and it's 100% organic cotton. It's very light and has a fun texture. Plus it comes in these beautiful colors, which just happen to go very well in my home decor scheme. I got this from Kaleidoscope Yarns, which was the first place I ever bought yarn online, many years ago. I got free shipping and a free pattern for a baby blanket, which is what I intend to make, only I'll use it as a small throw. 

The pattern is pretty much "knit in garter stitch and change colors every other row until you are out of yarn," with the addition of leaving a fringe on the edges. Very simple. Some would say mind-numbingly so.

But, I don't say that. I am going through a phase where simple knitting feels good. I like building those easy mitered squares in the color-changing yarn. And I have a feeling I will like knitting a nice rectangle with this lovely textured yarn, too. And why not? Just because you CAN knit complex things doesn't mean you always have to. Knitting is not a race, as I tell students, nor is it a competition. My wish for all knitters is that they make projects that bring them joy and pleasure.

I was making so many complex things in the last few years that it was beginning to feel like a job, and I felt pressure (mostly internal, I assure you--no past knitting associates need get upset) to do better and better--to knit fancier projects in fancier yarn. I was being pretty hard on myself when I failed--like when I tried ten times to get that lace shawl to transition to the next level, or when my Shetland shawl self-destructed and I fell apart. Why do that to myself? I like knitting. I like using knitting to zone out and meditate. So, why not make some projects in garter stitch? It can be fun, and the results can be beautiful--I think this color combination will make for beautiful stripes. 

And I am making a sock when I need to do something portable. It is toe up, and with NO patterning on the foot. Just knitting. But look at this yarn! Whoa! It's Creatively Dyed Calypso, with 15 different colors that don't repeat regularly. Stockinette is what looks best with a yarn like this.

I'll probably do a simple rib for the legs. And I will enjoy it, especially since I also, on a whim, got two new types of size 0 needles to see if I like them. One's Kinki Ambari circular bamboo needles. They have a very flexible, clear cable and the bamboo is very, very nice. Haven't started using it yet (thus you see the old Hiya Hiyas in the photo--my Knitpicks size 0s broke when I um, accidentally whacked them in the hospital). The other ones are little teeny Addi Lace turbos. I hadn't tried the little ones yet. I will use those on my other socks in progress, shown here with broken needle and started many months ago:

It's Cookie A's Devon, in Fleece Artist Somoko. I started these last July, then went into knitting hiatus, so there has not been much progress. My bad. Can't do anything with them at all with THOSE needles, anyway! If I get a hankering to do something with yarn overs, I can switch to these, though.

(Ignore the Foo Fighters CD and mosquito repellent in the photo. I didn't style much. We can't find where all the mosquitoes are coming from in our house, but I am SICK of them, I tell you.)

I did want to share one more simple knitting idea for any of you who also want to see what you can do creatively with garter or stockinette stitch. One of the members of an email list I am on but am a bad ole lurker for send the link to this blog post from Annekata. It shows experiments the blogger has done knitting with sewing thread. Doesn't it look ethereal and different? And all it takes is simple stitches--it's the material that is interesting!

OK, I blogged again. I am so proud. Now I think I shall knit.

Undercover Escalator Sock Is Art

Undercover Escalator Sock
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I tried to write this weekend, honest I did. Life kept getting in the way (concerts, long drives in the countryside, a fascinating ordination ceremony of a young Unitarian Universalist minister...), coupled by my intense desire to work on my cable lace top. But, I did take the Undercover Escalator Socks on a field trip this weekend. It went to my kids' high school band concert, which was held in the really nice Performing Arts Center for our school district. There was also a really fun exhibit of art pieces by students in the district (Beccano had one exhibited in middle school).


So, since I hadn't taken any photos of the current sock in progress, I took some on the exhibits, to see if it was invisible or not. It wasn't. The view you first see here is a bit of the side with a scupture, but you can also see the center twisted stitches. It's a little blurry, but hey, I am trying to maintain some mystery about the design. But, don't you think the colors are weird? Well, I do. Still, I am "soldiering" on (ha ha, a camouflage joke) and have put a double seed stitch section above what you see here. We'll see how it all comes out. The second view features some lovely devils and a better view of the front of the sock. You can see the YOs escalating in a perky-esque manner.

On the other hand, I am very happy with how the Red Lace and Cable top is coming out. I am really enjoying doing the bottom part, which is in the round and quite fun. It's a relief to see that indeed, the weight of the bottom part does stretch out the top part, which was looking mighty skinny at first. The lace pattern has a tendency to compress itself, like an overly complicated ribbing. Luckily, the cotton yarn pulls the sweater down. I have a feeling this pattern would not be very successful in wool, but would probably be very nice in bamboo, with its drape. I am so tired after work lately that I can't knit much, but I think it won't be too much longer before I am finished.

That's it for my knitting progress. I did get a new book, the one on knitting with thin yarns. Of course I am blanking on the title. Mostly I am doing really well in cutting down on my yarn and book purchases, thanks to having a lot less money these days. I do have plenty of stash, so I am not suffering, honest! I have some fun projects I want to do with yarn I already have. it is helping me a LOT that the LYS owner has stopped ordering so much yarn, so I am less tempted when I go in there, too.

So, all's well. I just gots to find more time to post.

More on Why I Frogged This

Sideways Cardigan beginning
Originally uploaded by sunasak

You may be wanting more info on why I frogged my start on the sweater on the cover of the Spring 2008 Vogue Knitting. Or not, but I'll tell you anyway.

I found the pattern an interesting challenge, especially the backwards lifted increase, which took me a while to suss out. But, it looked thin and weak in the Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton DK weight yarn (gee whiz, could they have made that yarn name any longer???). I kept looking at it and thinking it was just not as substantial as the picture in the magazine, even though I had the correct gauge. I finally came to the conclusion that I would like it a lot better in a thicker yarn. I had mis-read the pattern in the first place, and thought it called for the yarn I had, which it hadn't.

If you look at the picture, you'll see how thin it is. I tried to convince a friend who was making the #1 pattern in my same yarn, only white, that hers also looked a bit thin. I think she was agreeing with me, as we looked at her swatch.

Then I realized there was another pattern in the same issue that was done at least partially from side to side. And it was lacy. And the yarn used in that sweater was DK weight. It's #29, Lace and Cable top (link is to Ravelry--apologies if you aren't on there). It has a really fun and interesting lace pattern combined with a very fat cable. I am using my metal KnitPicks and really enjoying it. The yarn does split a bit, but the metal makes it go much smoother than the wood versions do. It's slow going because, well, I hate to say it, but I have been so tired in the evenings that I have not been able to knit much at all. Tonight may be a good knitting night, though.

My yarn shop friend didn't want to make this one because it is so full of holes. Let me assure you that, as a middle-aged person, I will be wearing a tank top under this blouse!!! My screamingly white flesh is not something I need to inflict upon the general public!

You'll have a picture of the work in progress soon, as well as the Frog Explosion sock I am knitting on the bus nowadays. I am over halfway finished with the second sock, so I guess I better photograph the first one, huh. I just haven't been home or awake long enough to take a picture.

Refresh My Memory...

Dishcloths for my sister
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Since neither project I am currently working on looks any different from a picture I already posted (that would be the beginning of my second green Walking Away Sock and the front of the surplice top, which has all the lace panel and about 1/3 of the first surplice done), I am sharing the only photo I can find of something that passes for a beginning knitting project: the dishcloths I made my sister for Christmas last year.

OK, so I made them from Schaeffer cotton yarn that retails at nearly $40 a skein, so they aren't beginner Sugar-n-Cream models, but they are simple knit-and-purl patterns. Loved the yarn, by the way. Made very sturdy cloths with a bit of sheen. All I can remember is that I had so much going on (sudden pick up in love life, for one) that it took me way longer to make 4 discloths than I had hoped--the Flickr site reveals I took this photo on December 25, so I must have not finished until the day I gave them away! I have leftover yarn enough for another, too, which would make the expensive skein actually crank out $4 dishcloths after all.

But, here is my dorky question. I got to yet another set of instructions (in the Nashua pattern book for the surplice top) telling me to decrease X number of stitches "evenly spaced" across the row. WHY can't they say "decrease every X stitches" so you'd know how often to decrease? Why do we have to figure that out for ourselves? And, have I forgotten the "magic" way to calculate this (I am just sure I read such a thing once). I know that if you decrease once on each end, that takes care of two of them. But what's the formula for figuring out how many stitches to put between each decrease?

Or, do they say this mainly because you have to do is somewhat irregularly? On mine if I knit the first two together and then K5, K2tog to the end, I came out with two few decreases. I ended up doing them on the next row, hoping the Knitting Police would not come by and see. I must have done that on the other side, too, but it was in June, so I forgot.

I am feeling a bit dim, but willing to learn (not willing enough to post this question to an email list, though).

I have a LOT of knitting time tonight and over the weekend, so I am hoping to make good surplice and sock progress. And I am working on the next beginning knitting teaching tips, too!

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UPDATE: Woo! Post and you shall receive! The kind and gracious Katie K has posted in the comments this helpful link to a calculator that will answer my questions (and yours, if you also wonder how to calculate decreases). Thanks to the Knitting Fiend for making this calculation helper, too. I just love the blogosphere and its helpful residents.

Surplice Top Progress Report

Surplice Top Back
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Regular readers probably remember me promising to get back to this project, the Surplice Lace Top, from Nashua Handknits American Designer Collection, in Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton, logwood colorway. I started it in June then went on a sock binge.

This week I finally managed to get the back complete. I don't get much of a thrill out of long stretches of stockinette--feels like it will never end. But the way this natural dye makes mottled effects certainly makes the tedium worthwhile. Thank goodness for football games! As of last night, I am well into the third repeat of the lace panel for the front.

I am glad I found encouragement for knitting the back and front each in one piece, rather than attaching the lace panel later. It looks just fine.

Of course, I messed up and had some challenges--that's the way knitting goes! I think I used the smaller needle rather than the larger one on the top, but the size is only off a quarter inch. Then I tried to use one of my new KnitPick harmony needles on the second lace pattern, but my size 4 set has one defective needle--it won't screw all the way in. Grr. Now I will have to test them all to be sure they work and return the ones that don't work.

I must say the new Kntipicks needles are pretty. They are quite slick compared to bamboo, but not so much as their metal needles. I am questioning my decision to get the smallest sizes in 16-inch models, thinking I'd use them on little projects. They still give my hand a cramp. Wah. I will order 32-inchers too.

I know I will really enjoy wearing this, so I will work hard to finish it. My other motivation is that I bought enough of my favorite Cascade 220 hand-dyed for making that beautiful little cabled one-button cardigan Greenjeans from the new Knitty (see previous post). It has jumped to the front of the queue, because I both love the pattern AND the black/red Cascade yarn that looks like dying embers.