Yarning Around

Oh hello, it's me, your sometime blogger, back again after just a little break this time. I have been thinking about knitting a lot, and even doing some!

I was hoping to totally finish that twist front alpaca sweater this weekend, and was knitting along in the RV when I looked into the knitting bag.  Guess what I didn't see? Another ball of yarn, that's what. Yep, I had brought most of my life essentials other than that final skein of yarn I'll need to finish (actually, I may well go into the fourth skein...who knows. So, I had to stop when I was at this attractive stage of the front of the sweater:

A partial front of a sweater.

I think this is one of those project that will be very pretty once blocked and sewed together, and not a moment sooner.So, I will continue to enjoy how lovely the alpaca fiber feels and not worry about it. I have fetched the next skein of yarn and will get moving after I blog! Ooh, note that I switched to some Lantern Moon wood needles. They are very pleasant to work with, as they should be at $30 (yow).

So, since I ran out of alpaca, I picked up my poor neglected fall colors shawl and got quite a bit of it done. This is one of those projects that it's hard to gauge progress on. I know I put at least 3 or 4 inches on it, but it still looks small. Of course, the fact that the stitch pattern is that interesting double garter stitch that sort of bunches up doesn't help much. That will make it a warm one, though. So, here's how it looks now:

Two-ball fall shawl progress.

It's blending very nicely. No one who looks at it believes I am knitting with two colorways, thanks to how each has the same brown in it. I am thinking of making a brown border on the bottom, since I have a skein of brown from the same dyer.

Now that I look at it harder, yeah, I can see I made some progress. I will quit whining.

I Went to a Store or Two or Three

I alluded last time to some fun knitting thing I was going to do soon. Well, that fun thing was that a friend and I took a day off work last week and indulgently went to visit every yarn store in Austin (other than Yarnbow, since I am not sure it's still there). We were comparing and contrasting.

I think it surprised my friend (a new friend, not one of my usual knitting friends or my old knitting friends who would know better) that everywhere I went someone knew me. I really enjoyed getting to talk to Stacy at the Knitting Nest, whom I hadn't seen in quite some time (since I quit going to yarn shops to browse!). We enjoyed the way the decor is all thematic, and were impressed by the larger space they have now. It must be very pleasant to take a class there. And it's always fun to trek down to way south Austin for something other than Volvo repair (son bought a Volvo way down south, which he has already blown the engine on, but it's OK because I made friends that way). I  bought a tape measure and a book there. Turns out I already have the book, too, so it may go to the shopping friend.

I digressed again. Next we headed up to Hill Country Weavers, where I actually HAVE been lately or I would not be working on that gray sweater! Suzanne was helpful and chatty but not too chatty (so we could shop) and was glad I am enjoying that naturally dyed alpaca so much. I saw the other colors, too--dyed with beets, onion and cochineal, which made two different colors, I guess with different mordants.

I bought two books, one is the book about Judy's Magic Cast On, which has some fun projects in it. It has to be cool to know you invented a new knitting technique, so my circular hat is off to Judy Becker! The other book I got is Modular Knits, by Iris Schreier, which also has some good ideas, plus some complex stuff to really dig into at some point.

The only yarns I bought are these two:

Another ball of Alchemy Haiku, and a Zauberball

I really want to make another Paintbrush Lace cowl, this time in just the Alchemy Haiku yarn. The colorway I got will look great with black or blue, I think. My fingers are itching to start, just to touch that yarn some more. I also got a ball of, yes, sock yarn. But but...I want it to be a shawl. This Hitchhiker one, to be exact. There was a sample in a slightly different colorway at Hill Country Weavers, and it looked so perfect with jeans. Look at me, planning projects again. I am so proud.

After checking out with our groaning weight of purchases, then eating a fun lunch right across from Hill Country, we checked out a couple of fabric stores that are typically "Austin." Stitch Lab is the one I'd send you locals off to, if you aren't already cool enough to have been there. It is incredibly trendy, modern (or postmodern) and updated it almost hurts. But there is fun fabric and all the classes look very entertaining. The teacher leading a class of little girls was really charming and very much in control without dampening their enthusiasm. I got a catalog for Beccano and Leigh.

The other shop is also very, very trendy, but in a more elegant way. It is called Common Thread. It had the kind of good quality fabric for sewing clothing that you can't get in the usual places. Nice natural fiber knits, and some gorgeous cottons you could actually see yourself wearing. I came close to wanting to sew something...and we also visited an upholstery shop just for fun...

Then we finally hit Gauge, where I hadn't been in the longest time. I was very glad to see they had nice, new yarns in good quantities. The selection still isn't huge, but it is well edited, and I know I can go there if I suddenly need more Entrelac stitch markers. Whew. I did know someone there from the olden days, but I didn't know her well and she was grafting something--you can't disturb that. The owners had all left right as we walked in, so there was an interesting man holding down the fort and dealing with customers.

All in all it was fun to do a mini yarn crawl, though I'd still like to get back to Paige and Yarnorama sometime. I know my friend would love to see the spinning stuff that all my beloved old knitting friends are now so addicted to!

And speaking of new knitting friends, I am still enjoying the little yarn group at work. There are just a few of us, but we do keep showing up! It's a very relaxing atmosphere, and I do appreciate that now that my whole life has calmed down and I can relax a bit.

(Remember, if you want to know what I am DOING all the time, visit the Ursula Lumbers blog, starring our bulky old RV, Ursula! There you can see me interact with horses, donkeys and cattle, and see a lot of pictures of farm and ranch land...someday there may well be sheep or alpaca on the ranch!)

Thinking about Gauge and Swatching

There's not a lot to show in my knitting at the moment. Just think "stripier" and you'll get the idea of how the Kauni jacket's coming along. It's gorgeous, but not fascinating enough to photograph right now.

But since I seem to be talking about techniques on Fridays, I thought I'd share things about gauge that I've been talking to friends about lately (along with a big close-up of some stitches for you to imagine practicing the determination of gauge for). It seems like some of the ideas that I pass along are new to some folks, though I am sure that I have read all of them in one source or another. So, in the spirit of "maybe some blog readers might get something out of this," here goes!

1. Some things you don't need a gauge swatch for. Duh, you say, a dish cloth will work no matter if it's 8 or 8.5 inches wide. And many scarves, afghans and shawls have a lot of leeway as to finished size. But, think about this! I rarely do a gauge swatch for a sock. Why? Well, the gauge swatch is pretty much the beginning of a sock, anyway. So, I take a stab at what I think will work, cast on, and knit the ribbing and an inch or so of pattern. Then I put it on. Does it go over my heel? If yes, it is not too small. Does it stay up when stretched over my calf? If yes, then it is not too big. Most times I get two "yes" answers and can keep on going--my gauge swatch becomes the sock. I would, however, be a LOT more careful with anything involving cables, slipped stitches and stranded colorwork. I'd want to be really careful the eventual sock could get on once it was made.

2. You do not have to make a separate swatch for each different needle size you try. I'm sharing this, since it was news to some people I know. When I am looking for the right needle size for a particular yarn, I usually cast on 35 or so stitches with my best guess then knit a couple of inches and measure. If it is too small, I get a bigger needle and keep going. I use a row marker (a marker you can slip over a completed stitch) to indicate the last row knit with the needles that didn't work. I knit another few inches, then measure again. If that's off, I try again. The most I've ever had it take is 4 tries. Eventually you get gauge or something really close. And I only have one square to unravel and re-use (or to save for another use).

3. Some yarns just won't get the gauge you need for a project and look good. Yep, sometimes you would end up knitting so loosely or tightly with a yarn that it does not look its best. This tells you to go find another yarn or a project that is better matched for the beloved yarn you want. I am truly hoping that will NOT be the case for my Bridget cardigan. Buttons for it are coming. I want to get gauge!

4. If you can't get EXACTLY the right gauge, try what they tell you to do in most garment directions and wash, block and dry your swatch before measuring. You might be able to block it to the exact right size. When I get just a teeny bit off and am using a yarn that has fibers that block well, I assume I can block the finished garment to the right measurements. And, if I have yarn that will stretch a lot, I need to REMEMBER to not make the garment too big in the blocking, like I did on my shiny green sweater I made a couple of years ago and may have done in the recently finished orange sweater. Re-blocking may help. I am thinking of re-blocking the green sweater to make it smaller.

5. Learn whether you knit tightly, loosely or average. This will tell you which direction you'll probably need to go to get the right gauge. I know I knit loosely, so I often need to use two sizes smaller in needles. However, see #6.

6. Gauge for a knitted item is not set by some magic "perfect knitter" who used the exact perfect average tension for an Ideal Knit. No, gauge is set by whoever knit the sample garment. This came as news to me, when I first heard it, but of course it makes perfect sense. If the designer's a tight knitter, what she did on a US size 6 needle I might need a size 2 to duplicate! Remember, regular humans, like you and me, test knit patterns. Some may be 100% average and some may not. This one right here is why you NEED to do a gauge swatch for most things, even if you KNOW you are average and think you "always" do just fine if you use the needles specified in the pattern. You would have a very bad experience if you did that with an item I was the test knitter for! (Actually, when I write instructions, I just go down two sizes from the needles I actually used when I specify the recommended needle size, and so far that has worked well.)

7. Don't forget row gauge! On many patterns, row gauge is not too vital, because you keep going until you get to a certain length, rather than counting rows. But, if you are making something, like my orange sweater, with a motif that needs to finish at the right length for a sleeve to end, or a neckline to start, you'll want the right row gauge. And, of course, if you are knitting a sideways sweater, which I did a couple of times last year and am doing now, row gauge needs to be taken into account. And sometimes you get stitch gauge (width) and not row gauge (height) with a particular set of needles. Figure out which is most important to the pattern you are making!

True Confessions (I am so full of them lately)

I admit I don't often go the whole 9 yards and knit a swatch containing the entire repeat of any lace or cable used, bind it off, wash it as I will wash it in the future, block it, dry completely, then measure the gauge (followed, no doubt by wailing and gnashing of teeth because it's off). But, in any garment I publish a pattern for, I DO give the gauge after washing and blocking. Now, so far, that's just socks and the scarf the top illustration came from, because every sweater I design is too hard even for me to reproduce, as shown by the weirdly colored and multi-patterned example photo. But I WILL be careful to get the finished gauge, not an in-progress gauge when I do publish a garment pattern!