NaBloPoMo Day 5: something I never thought I’d want to knit

I am going to skip over my apologies for missing yesterday. Clearly, this is not going to manage to be a daily event.

There are a lot of patterns out there for knitted skirts. Lots of them are cute on the right figure and lots of them look like interesting knitting. I never thought I’d find one that looked like interesting knitting but also like something I could wear but I think I have. Dickson, by Norah Gaughan (of course). I won’t be knitting it in the alpaca/wool yarn it calls for but I have enough of a cotton/acrylic Berocco yarn called Love It to make it with that instead. It’s blue, just like the denim skirts I wear all the time.

I’m pretty excited about the idea of this but I need to finish my sweater first… right? I’m almost done with the first sleeve so I’m going to go work on that.

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the problem with non-wool

First order of business, I finished something!

It’s lovely and I really enjoyed knitting it. I expect to make another one some day.

I also cast on for a Clapo-Ktus. It’s a combination of the Clapotis (of which I have knit 5 or so) and Baktus, which I have not knit but I know lots of people have. I kind of love that someone combined those two patterns and gave it that name. Knitters rock.

The yarn is Handmaiden Sea Silk, which I think is just beautiful. I have a month to finish it. Woot, deadline knitting.

Okay, but really what I came here to post about is fingering weight yarn. There has been a trend in recent years towards using sock yarn for nonsock projects. First there were shawls and now there are sweaters. I am 100% behind the trend towards smaller gauge sweaters but it leaves me with a dilemma. I really want to knit one, in particular: Afterlight. The dilemma comes from the lack of yarns at that weight without wool that won’t break the bank. You can find lots of really lovely fingering weight silk yarns if you don’t mind paying $300 for a sweater. I do mind that though.

If anyone out there in knitting land knows about a good fingering weight nonwool yarn that I could use for sweaters, please tell me!

NaBloPoMo Day 7: is this a knitting blog?

In the past week I have talked about fabric, chickens, studying, and baking bread. Oh, and yarn. I have not talked about knitting. I don’t think I’ve actually done much knitting in the past week. All of my projects are stalled because of being in school, basically. That and having to use my evenings to prep for Arts Focus and my days to exercise, study, and try to keep my house from descending into a pit of chaos.

It’s a wonder that I ever had time to knit!

Anyway, I was recently given some yarn from a friend’s destash. The advantage of being allergic to wool is that when people have nonwool yarn to give away, they immediately think of me. I got these two yarns…

The shiny, coppery one is Tilli Tomas Asteroid: 100% silk with a strand with beads spun with it. It’s lovely and soft but only about 78 yards. I was debating what to do with it and the friend who gave it to me suggested pairing it with the above brown which is Blue Sky Cotton. So now I’m contemplating a quick project, on large needles. I’m thinking a cowl with the silk and beads on the edges. I want to swatch to get some idea of what it would look like but I’m afraid to use up too much of the silk and not have enough left. It doesn’t strike me as the type of yarn that would take well to being ripped back and reknit.

Perhaps I will find out! First, I need to wind these hanks into balls. Oh, and perhaps I should finish one of my other projects first.

NaBloPoMo Day 19: more books, progress photos

This morning, Cookie and I did this:

I think she said she had 240 books signed and padded and I put them in envelopes, she and I taped them and I labeled a few before I had to go off to pick up the kids. I think she said she could use my help for one more day of this kind of packing up and her preorders would be done. I have to say that I see the value in having someone else to do all of that for you! Although I think her having complete creative control over her book was a good thing. Have I mentioned that the book is gorgeous? I know I have.

As promised, I took progress photos. First of wedge.

I’m pretty close to the heel, I think. This yarn is turning out to go farther than I expected. Thanks to Jen C, I can whip out my cool tiny scale and weigh the ball at intervals to check how far into I am. I assume I’ll need slightly more than half of the ball for the foot. I guess I’ll find out the hard way if that is wrong assumption.

Next up is my younger nieces cardigan.

I cast on that sleeve this afternoon and knit most of it while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with my older son. I had to stop knitting to comfort him at one point. Even though he read the book he was still sad! He’s such a sweetie.

Today my younger son asked me to knit him a baby doll friend for his other doll. We have a gorgeous Waldorf doll that I bought for my older son when his brother was born but no one loves that one. Poor ignored doll. Anyway, I’m thinking of making this baby doll for him. i don’t know what yarn to use, though. I love the Lion organic cotton for the hair though. So cute! I’m thinking this should be a birthday gift because I don’t want him to think that I can just whip up a babydoll at a moments notice. That gives me until mid-January. We’ll see how that goes!

another rabbit?? and planning ahead

I knit another one of those adorable bunnies. This one is going off to my cousin's wife (along with the gift I knit for their baby that I have been meaning to send for months! shame on me) for her niece who was in an accident. I wanted to knit her something soft and cuddly for her recuperation. I read on my cousin's wife blog today, though, that she's diving off the couch to scare her parents already, so maybe she's done needing cuddly things. Hopefully she'll enjoy it anyway. The yarn I made it out of is Puffin by Crystal Palace which is like strips of microfleece. It's very soft. (Ravelry project details)

I've also been working on my Tomato again. I don't have another picture because it is not that attractive on at the moment. Since I'm knitting it out of Pakucho I have to account for a 10% shrinkage in length the first time I wash it. So for now the sweater is very droopy on me. I have faith that eventually it will look good.

The only other thing I've been doing is planning for future projects. I slipped at Purlescence today and bought 13 more balls of Rowan Purelife to make the No Gap Wrap sweater form More Big GIrl Knits. That wasn't why I went there. Darn those yarn fumes.

I also picked up some Rowan Damask to use as the accent yarn in the Slipstream Pullover, also from More Big Girl Knits. I knit it up in the garter stitch slip pattern with the hempathy I had to see how it looks. I like it. I just need to knit another swatch of the Damask to wash a few times to see how it holds up. The yarn label says it's very delicate, but I want to see what it really can stand.

swatches for sidestream

If I've learned anything from listening to Stash and Burn it's that sometimes fantasizing about knitting is as much fun as actually doing it.

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grrr!

I must make Grr from the new Knitty. Maybe twice, actually, one for each boy. Too cute.

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knitty spring surprise

Emy pointed me to the new Knitty patterns today. Particularly Vanilla Sky, which we both like, although we both said we'd add waist shaping. I'd probably leave off the pockets too. I'm actually considering doing it in All Seasons Cotton (SURPRISE!) since I have enough in several colors. I have a forest green, chocolate brown, cream and grape. I'm leaning towards one of the last two.

I also like Arietta but it is not nearly as tempting as the pattern for which I already have yarn!

Now, I just need to finish the cover sweater from the latest IK before I can consider starting a new project.

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more blanket, another baby

I am being oddly monogamous to my log cabin blanket project. I don't know why. Part of the reason might be that I am fairly certain I won't have enough yarn and I want to finish it before someone else buys all of the Cable Cotton at Commuknity. Now, I first bought the yarn for this project in June 2005, just last week I got some more of the light blue and white and it was the same dyelot. Obviousy, this yarn was not a big seller, I don't know why I am afraid there will be a run on it now. In any case, I haven't been knitting anything else, even though the 114 stitch rows are sort of trying.

even more blanket

Another friend of mine told me today that she is pregnant, that's five people, four of whom I definitely want to knit for.

I'm thinking of the Greenspun sweater (and maybe the knickers) from Nature Babies in Shine worsted, the turtle blankie from Little Turtle Knits in Cotton-Ease, another top down sweater like the one I knit for Stefan and … what? I might just make two of the Greenspun sweaters in different colors. It's so cute!

So much baby knitting to do!

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the blanket grows

I'm making pretty good progress on the baby log cabin blanket. It's getting pretty heavy though. I'm seeing now why it would be better knit in calmer than in this yarn. Oh well, hopefully Stefan won't mind.

I also bought the Giving Pixie and Rusty's Turtle Blankie patterns from Little Turtle Knits. I'm thinking of knitting a couple of those hats as some of the baby gifts I need for this year. I really like the blankie pattern but it's going to take a ton of yarn. I was thinking of trying it in Peaches & Creme but, like the log cabin, that blanket would weigh a ton. I need a light, non-wool, worsted yarn. I was thinking about using microspun, but it's not quite heavy enough. Maybe Cotton-Ease instead. 

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rogue it is!

There was an overwhelming vote for Rogue as the cabled sweater I should knit. (Okay, one or two people mentioned it.) Someone else also mentioned the cardigan modifications, which sold me on it. I bought the pattern and have it all printed out.

I did the measurements on myself required to calculate where to add some short row bust shaping, which I think will make it fit much better. I'm also going to do the hem modification to make a less bulky hem.

I'm still working on the blanket too. I realized today that the yarn I'm using is 93yds to the ball while the yarn they recommend is 175yds to the ball. Oops. Also, my original plan was for a smaller blanket. I think I'll be leaving off some of the strips and just making it smaller. I am going back to the store to get two more balls each of white and light blue because I only had two of each of those and that is not nearly enough. I'm not going to buy three more of each of the four colors though, because that is one expensive baby blanket! 

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