stash, knit, repeat

My in-laws leave tomorrow, so hopefully my online life will return to normal soon. Until then, here’s the sad and happy and elated story of my weekend.

On Saturday night, I was all set to steek the ladybug sweater. The hems are sewn, everything is blocked, it all looks adorable. I even knit a swatch, so that I could practice my stitching and steeking.

I daydreamed about showing the cute finished set to the knitters I was meeting at Stitches the next day. I plugged in my mother’s old sewing machine, got it threaded with some help (okay, I watched my m-i-l do it :), turned it on, and stepped on the foot pedal…

…nothing. Some time in the last 5 years, the machine has stopped functioning. So the ladybug sweater is on hold until my wonderful friend in San Jose loans me her machine. So very sad! Since the knitting for the ladybug sweater is done, though, I cast on for something new–the Peapod Baby Set (link in the sidebar) by Kate Gilbert. I’m doing it in the recommended Cotton Cashmere, and even in the pictured green. I finished most of the hat on the drive back from Stitches and it’s blocking now–totally adorable.

Stitches was simply amazing. My class with Lily Chin on short-row bust darts was one of the coolest experiences ever. There’s no mystery to the process anymore, and I feel totally capable of modifying any pattern I knit to fit me perfectly. I really just can’t describe it–take a class from her any way you can, you won’t regret it.

But you really just care about the loot, right? :)

The shopping was less overwhelming on Sunday, and I definitely found myself able to purchase a good deal more than I could on Friday. I stayed with a luxury fiber theme. This is 11 hanks of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk, in a gorgeous navy-violet color. This is the first sweater-yarn I’ve ever purchased without a specific sweater planned. I feel like I’ve crossed some kind of barrier and it will only get easier to buy yarn from here on out, and soon I’ll be hiding it in the cupboards.

400-odd yards of Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk, in the Forest Glen colorway. Definitely going to wind up as a simple scarf, maybe something like the Chevron that’s going around the blogs?

One solitary hank of Fiesta La Luz, stunning turquoise color. I bought it to get over a discount threshold and wound up getting this for around $3. I have NO idea what I can get out of 200-ish yards of this stuff. Maybe I’ll just ball it up and take a yarn portrait, a la Brooklyn Tweed, and then pet it until it disintigrates?

I stopped by the Habu booth and couldn’t resist this wool-linen blend. The color and feel are so perfect. This is the second sweater-yarn I’ve bought without a pattern in mind. Maybe a tank, something long and reasonably figure-skimming but drapey? We’ll see!

This is the first yarn I’ve ever purchased that I’m honestly not sure I could knit. Women’s size 6 thin wedding band included for scale. It’s 100% silk, it feels like slipping into cool water, smells like tea, and is the most amazing indigo color I’ve ever seen. It’s seriously as thin as thread. It’s my “dream yarn”. Maybe I’ll knit with it, maybe I won’t. But I couldn’t leave it behind.

So that’s the haul! Quite a bit to knit through, eh? I love each and every bit of it, though. And now I have to share my triumph with you, even if it feels like boasting. I wore my Forest Path Stole to Stitches, and got many nice compliments on it. It’s always really special to hear nice things about my knits from knitters, who really know the effort involved.

But one compliment in particular on Sunday sent me flying through the roof–I don’t think my feet touched the ground for the rest of the day. I brought my copy of Victorian Lace Today to the XRX booth to get it signed, and after Ms. Sowerby signed my copy, she noticed the shawl. She exclaimed over it (!), pulled over another person in the booth and showed it off to her (!!), asked where the pattern was so that she could knit it herself and made a note (!!!), complimented me on it again (!!!!), and moved on to the next woman in line. I was beside myself and I’m sure my face was a rather fetching shade of red to go with the cream shawl. I had to ask my friend later if it had really happened, and thinking about it still brings a goofy smile to my face.

Well, that’s enough rambling. Hope you all had a great weekend, and happy knitting to you!

As I dropped my husband off at work this morning, I remarked to him that it was probably pretty crazy to drive 1.5 hours just for some yarn shopping. “The thing I don’t understand,” he replied, “is that you’re taking a class at this Stitches thing on Sunday, and you can shop then. Why do the extra driving today?”

I told him that I was worried I wouldn’t have time to shop at all on Sunday, between the two classes I was taking and a lunch date with other knitters. But the truth was that I was terrified there wouldn’t be any yarn left on Sunday. No special yarn, anyway. No yarn that was worthy of my first knitting convention. What if I got to the market at 2:30 on Sunday (it closes at 4:00) and the only stuff remaining was yarn my LYS had in stock? The horror! I understand that my fear was completely irrational. Intellectually, I knew there was no reason to be afraid of a yarn shortage. And yet, I couldn’t help myself.

So, I made the long drive up the 101, radio soothing me with NPR while the baby slept in his carseat. It was a perfect California day, snow-capped mountaintops wreathed with fluffy white clouds, a crystal blue sky overhead. The sun was shining. I’d shop for an hour, I figured, then meet my friend in San Jose for lunch. Rationally, I poked fun at myself. How big and special could a knitting convention possibly be, after all?

Well. The Santa Clara convention center is HUGE, people. And my first tip that my expectations were about to be trampled like a muddy piece of paper was that the normal parking for the convention center was full. FULL. At 10:15am on the first day. I was shunted into overflow parking, and figured there must be another event going on. No bother. Then I noticed that in every car around me, the woman driving was wearing something hand-knit. ALL of the cars headed into the overflow lot were knitters. I am pretty confident there were thousands of people there. Certainly there were hundreds of cars. Each one carried her knitting bag and wore or carried a piece of their craft, it seemed. (Right. Note to self: Wear Forest Path Stole on Sunday.)

Beginning to be daunted, I got baby into his stroller, picked up my own knitting bag, and set out on the walk to the convention center. The line for tickets was long, but since I was taking a class I simply got my badge and went into the Market. Three thoughts immediately went through my mind.

Oh my god.

OH MY GOD.

I need a bigger budget for Rhinebeck.

I was overwhelmed (the exhibit immediately opposite the entrance was Jane Sowerby (!!!) with her samples from Victorian Lace Today). She was chatting with knitters and signing books. A little bit of panic set in. I think I let out a shrill little giggle. I gave Jacob some Cheerios, looked at my shopping list (Handmaiden Sea Silk, DK weight for the Debbie Bliss Cable and Rib jacket, Astrakhan for the Slimline Jacket), and set out into the throngs. And it really was throngs. There were so many people I sometimes had trouble winding the Maclaren through them. (For the uninitiated, that’s a mighty tiny stroller.) As I walked through, I saw booth after booth after booth of gorgeous fiber. Yarn, raw fiber, tapestries, hand-painted, every weight, configuration, fiber imaginable. Buttons, hand-carved knitting tools, jewelry, bags and bags and bags. Books. Patterns. And everywhere, more yarn, each more tempting than the last. After about five minutes, a few more thoughts forcibly pushed their way into my brain.

I might not make that 12:00 lunch date.

No *way* am I spending my Stitches budget on Debbie Bliss I can get locally.

I wonder if I will even be able to *find* the Handmaiden before Jacob flips out?

In the hour and a half before Jacob flipped out, I think I saw perhaps 1/3 of the market. I spent 60% of my budget on three items. I didn’t even get *near* the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth. The line there was completely ridiculous. I didn’t find the Handmaiden.

But. Uh. I chose quality over quantity.

Handpainted Claudia lace-weight silk, color “Ink”. 1100 yards. 10:30 in the morning on the first day and I got the last hank.

Three ounces of overdyed 100% cashmere laceweight from Springtide Farm in Maine. The color is a devil to capture. It’s more muted than the above picture: Turquoise over Taupe. It is the softest thing I have ever felt. I want to wrap it around my neck and never take it off.

And oh, baby. Three hanks of Pure and Simple, and one of Rock Star. For this. The short-sleeved version, although I’m going to lengthen them a bit. I’ve been able to ignore this yarn before because I’ve only seen it online. And silk is nice, yeah, but it’s expensive and I’ve seen some fairly ugly Simple Knitted Bodices. But in person…

…the colors. The beads. My understanding of the necessity of negative ease, with heavy silk. I just couldn’t walk away. I would have fought someone for this yarn. Luckily, I didn’t have to. Several vendors carried it.

And by the time I’d bought the cashmere, Jacob was really done. So we went to the car and I brought out the yarn, petting it a little before heading to my lunch date. I was only a half-hour late, after all.

…at the ladybugs’ picnic!

So, hubby’s father remarried when he was in middle school. Stepmother-in-law is a wonderful lady who led an extremely exciting, globe-trotting life. Around the time hubby and I graduated from high school*, she decided she wanted to be a mother, after all, and they adopted a little girl. Since then, they’ve adopted 2 more children and seem to be having a fantastic time being a family and globe-trotting.

(* Yeah, we’re high school sweethearts.)

Said family of five is currently staying with us for a 2 week visit. I’m already rather behind on blog reading, replying to my comments, not to mention knitting–I ask your lenience for the next 10 days.

Despite the general craziness of having 5 additional people in a fairly modest house, the body of the ladybug sweater has been blocked!

I really can’t say enough good things about the Baby Ull. It’s a teensy bit splitty, but it is pure wool, machine-washable, and softens up to… well, something *very very soft* when it’s washed. Jacob wouldn’t stop petting it.

(A future knitter, if I’ve ever seen one. It all starts when you can’t stop petting the yarn, and the next thing you know you’ve got a whole closet devoted to the stuff and are eagerly looking forward to your first knitting convention so that you can buy EVEN MORE. Ahem.)

How well did blocking even up the work, you wonder? It definitely helped. It’s definitely not as tidy as the hat, sadly, but I think it’s good enough to still work as a gift.

Thus I’ve moved on to the sleeves. They’re really not as bad as I feared–practice makes perfect, maybe? I’m about halfway through the first, and I expect I’ll be done with both tomorrow. Then comes the insane amount of finish work on both the hat and the sweater. I still hope to be done with it by Stitches–I’m ready to start and finish the other baby gift I need to knit up and knit a shawl for me!

I could show you another picture of a wrinkled mess of ladybugs, or yet another wrong side shot, but I’m almost done with the body of the ladybug sweater and I really want the next picture to be of it blocking. I really can’t wait to even all of those terrible stitches out, and I’ll need the motivation to tackle the sleeves. (Same 3-color fun, now on dpns!)

So instead, look what came home with me the other day!

It feels beyond divine, it really truly does. The label says only 5% cashmere, but it must just be modesty. And it was cheap! Cheap cheap cheap. So I really can’t be faulted for breaking my “diet” (read: saving up for a huge Stitches binge). I got enough to do the Cloverleaf shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I can’t really find a good picture of the shawl online except in Grumperina’s wonderful review of the book; it’s the 8th one down in the left column.

I seem to be gearing up for another shawl, which is good since I have roughly 8 gazillion miles of laceweight and plan to get more. Seraphim needs to be next on the shawl list, because I’m anxious to use up my birthday silk from last year before my birthday yarn arrives this year! But I’m also looking forward to Icarus, and doing something with that BMFA silk, and maybe some Handmaiden that I’m hoping to pick up at Stitches…

…so yeah. It’ll be awhile before the Gentle gets used, I think. But aren’t the dreams one of the greatest parts of knitting?

(I updated the version of WordPress that runs this blog, by the way–let me know if you have any problems!)

I’ve recently acquired both the Spring Interweave Knits and Rowan Magazine 41. I love both of these magazines generally, even if they’re often hit-and-miss for projects I’d actually wear. Lots of future projects this time around, though! I’m absolutely making myself the Dollar-and-a-Half Cardigan, Bonsai Tunic, Slanted Neck Pullover, and Swan Lake Cardigan from the Interweave. I’m interested in modified versions of the Cable-Down Raglan and the Ruffled Surplice, and I think the Bauhaus sweater might even be muted enough for hubby. Rowan has Lords and Ladies, The Anice Shawl, oh-my-god Spice, a slightly-modified Dixie, perhaps Coastal… it’s been a long time since I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed leafing through the new magazines.

Leafing through magazines is almost all that I’ve managed this week, sadly. With hubby at a conference for work, I was a single parent all week and you can pretty much guess how much knitting got done. I’m glad this is a baby project, because that means it will be over quickly, and I won’t be tortured by my wonky pre-blocked stitches for months.

Seriously. My stitches have never been that uneven. It drives me completely crazy. Thankfully the work isn’t puckering or anything, so I think it’s just uneven tension that will pretty up in the washer. I miss the neat pattern the long floats made on the WS, too.

But, no tiny baby fingers will get snagged, and I’m sure the set will be the cutest thing this side of a pile of puppies when it’s done. Which will hopefully be soon. ;-) In fact, I should get back to it… right after I weave in the current batch of ends.

Thanks again for all of the nice comments on my sweater. I’ve worn it a few times already, and I’m so,so pleased with it.

I started out yesterday rather less pleased with the ladybug sweater.

Not only is it slow as molasses to knit, while watching Hubby play FFXII Friday night and knitting (exciting life, eh?) I screwed up and had to rip out three whole rows. UGH. In a fit of pique I wound up some CTH in gorgeous fall colors and printed off the Jaywalker pattern. But, then, yesterday afternoon, I blocked the little ladybug hat.

(Want a close-up of that ladybug detail? Sure you do.)

And it’s wonderful! The cast-on edge is a little frilly, so I think I’m going to tack it in place, but I’m already so happy with the hat. It’s soft as can be, the machine-washing really evened out my stitches, the ladybug brim isn’t too tight, and the infernal curling is totally gone. It’s just perfect for a little newborn.

So, of course I dove back into the sweater. Twisting in the off-colors every few stitches is preventing those long floats I was worried about, but hoo boy does it make for a hideous WS.

Seriously. The little gold-and-black bits at the bottom are so neat and well-behaved, and the WS of the actual ladybugs is like the black sheep alcoholic sibling who only comes home to hock the silver. Also, fair isle with long stretches of color in rows with three colors? …definitely created by some demon or other.

But all I have to do is look at the hat, and I know it will be worth it. Besides, I’m on a little crusade with this sweater, now. There’s no way it’s going to beat me.

Two sleeves? Check.

Some kind of collar treatment? Check.

Blocked and totally done in every way? Check!

Pattern: Pure and Simple’s Shaped Neck-Down Cardi, pattern 241.
Yarn: Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca, color rust, just over 6 hanks?
Time: About three weeks from start to finish
Modifications/Thoughts: Plenty, this time. Aren’t top-down patterns written to be modified? The first modification I made was to lengthen the distance from the top until the closure. As written, the pattern had it falling well above the bust, and frankly my bust doesn’t need to look further from my collarbones than it already is. So, in my version, the clasp is at the fullest part of the bustline.

I also eliminated the ties called for in the pattern, opting to use a clasp instead.

Let’s see… I widened the sleeves a bit since my arms are large, and doubled the waist shaping since my waist is proportionally small. (I did this by adding two darts on the back of the sweater, about 1/4 of the way in from the sides.) The sweater has a decent amount of ease, but the added shaping definitely keeps it from making me look like a sack of potatoes. (This is important for me, since I really really dislike how much nursing has increased my bust size and I’m pretty sensitive about it.)

I’m really just thrilled with the way it turned out. I would probably knit the 40″ size and increase the bust with short rows rather than knitting the 44″ size, if I were to do this again–the front of the piece isn’t really shaped at all:

That’s a minor nit, though, on what is truly a fantastic sweater. The yarn is soft and warm, the sweater supremely comfortable, and the fit is better than any other sweater I own. And the color! Many, many thanks to Ellen at Purl Diva for helping me choose it. This is destined for frequent and regular wear.

Finally, as always, more information and pictures in the FO gallery.