stash, knit, repeat

I’m beating it back to Boston again tonight, this time to spend one and a half crazy days changing our condo over from one tenant to another. You know what that means: More plane knitting time! The Cable Yoke sweater is coming along well, although working with such heavy cotton does wear on the hands after awhile. Plus, men are big.

It’s enough to turn me into a lemming!

Hope you all have a great weekend–see you Monday!

I had big photoshoot plans for these socks, but I just couldn’t get good pictures of them and my local beach together. So, boring back porch photo shoot it is!

Pattern: The amazing Nona’s Sidewinders

Yarn:Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, lightweight, Pebble Beach colorway

Time Elapsed: About a week. Maybe a little less–these were hard to put down!

Modifications/Notes: The only modification I made was to add two sets of short rows to accommodate my ginormous calves. This was extremely easy to do. One of the biggest things I love about this pattern is that it’s very very clever, but also very understandable. The way they’re constructed just makes sense.

Start with a provisional cast-on, decrease for the heel, increase for the toe, decrease for the toe, increase for the heel, graft. Super-easy and hella fun.

The other thing I love about this pattern is what it does for pooly sock yarn. It doesn’t entirely stop the yarn from pooling, but somehow minor pooling looks better to me when it happens in a vertical stripe along the foot. And that’s a good thing, because the pooling was so bad I was starting to despair of wearing this very special yarn.

I bought the yarn while pregnant with Jacob, shortly after I visited the Monterey area for the first time, to console myself since we would never be able to live near Pebble Beach. (Jon had gotten some feelers about an academic position here, so we decided to check it out on our vacation.) After Jacob was born, we all realized just how much we wanted me to stay home with our kids, and we re-investigated that academic job offer. Turns out that it was feasible after all, and here we are in Pebble Beach! Life is funny, sometimes.

Now that we’ve lived here for a year, of course, we’re dying to get out–the fog bank is just too depressing. Hopefully soon we’ll be moving to a sunnier part of Monterey. And now, through this move and any others we make in the future, I’ll have some fantastic socks to remind me of our time here.

If Jacob ever gives them back, that is.

(You bet your bottom dollar I did a FO page–Check it out!)

This week has been a doozy, what with the yarn urchin turning two and all, but I did manage to block the shawl and take some pictures.

Pattern: A curved shawl with diamond edging, from Victorian Lace Today

Yarn: Lacey Lamb, in Blueblood Red, under 1 ball

Time Elapsed: Around 2.5 months, although I knit other stuff during this time

Modifications/Notes: I didn’t make any changes to the pattern, including the yarn and even the color of the yarn! I love the way it turned out. Maybe I’m being influenced by the book, here, but it’s a very proper shawl and seems to cry out for a crisp white shirt, charcoal business skirt, and some knee-high boots. Of course, I don’t work in an office anymore, so it’s more likely to be employed in a rather casual ensemble.

So, okay. Given that I just love (loveloveLOVE) the finished product, here’s the thing. Those adorable tiny little circles? Mean almost two hundred four-row repeats.

Said repeats involve double decreases, and so knitting this shawl was at once boring enough that I craved television, and fiddly enough that I couldn’t watch it. The border was the same way–50-ish repeats over 16 stitches. So while the finished product really is everything I’d hoped, I just can’t recommend the pattern unreservedly. Be prepared for some major slogging. There. I said it.

Mostly, I should now tell you about the yarn and the needles. LOVE the Addi lace needles. Just love them. They kept my stitches in place when I wanted them in place, and still allowed them to slide freely. But more than I loved the needles, I loved the yarn. It’s thin, true, but I’ve never in my life felt something so soft (at least for under $200). It feels like cashmere mixed with silk mixed with clouds, even though it’s only merino. The shawl is lofty, floats in air, and still manages to give warmth. I couldn’t get it away from Jacob.

That’s that! Eight billion more pictures, as usual, on the FO page.

*****

(Pssst! I finished the Sidewinders, too. Hopefully pictures today!)

Well, I can say one good thing about spending so much time on my tush in tin cans this weekend. It helps me bypass second sock/sleeve syndrome pretty easily.

(Two sleeves for my friend Neil’s birthday sweater, one completed Sidewinder, one in-progress. Boo yah.)

The Sidewinder pattern didn’t exactly make the STR behave. It still pooled and streaked a bit. But, as it turns out, that sort of thing looks a whole heck of a lot better when it happens vertically on the foot instead of around. So I formally declare the Pebble Beach hank saved, and I’ll look forward to wearing these socks for years. The sock fits very well, and the construction is so very interesting. I should have the pair done in a day or so.

Until then, obviously, we’ll just have to have some fun with the first sock.

The weekend went well, overall. It was the first time Jacob and I had been apart overnight before, and I have to say he seems to have handled it a whole lot better than I did. I did get used to it, though, and now my last worry about Rhinebeck is totally gone, and I can’t wait for October.

By the way, this is the pattern I’m using for Neil’s sweater:

It’s modified drop sleeve, which is so weird to me since I don’t think I’ve ever done anything but set-in. I like the way it’s looking so far, and the cotton isn’t hurting my hands too badly. I hope I can finish the rest of the sweater quickly, because I’m all excited about my holiday knitting. I can’t believe it’s almost September!

I’m headed to Maine for the funeral this weekend, and my travel itinerary (bus, plane, andtrain!) is a little nightmarish. Fortunately, I’ll have my knitting with me, and even more fortunately, this is no longer among my knitting:

Blocking will have to wait until I return, but hooray! The darn shawl is done done done!

Jacob wasted no time in appropriating it for himself. Shawls make fun toys, don’t ya know.

Up next in the queue: Sidewinders (and if they don’t make that STR behave, by golly, there’ll be another darn giveaway) and the cable-yoke sweater from “Wish You Were Here”, for my friend Neil.

See you Tuesday!

Sometimes, when it’s been a really rough week and you’ve had to rip out a few hours of work on an incredibly dull lace shawl border, you just need a little breath of fresh air.

Pattern: Chevron Lace Top, from Debbie Bliss’ “Wish You Were Here” collection, 2-3 year size

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Hempathy, 2.5 balls of color 13

Time Elapsed: Under a week

Modifications and notes: There’s really not much to say about this one. The lace pattern as marked has a small error (a row ending in k1 when it should be k2), but otherwise it’s a clear and simple pattern, very easy to knit. I love the little details that Debbie Bliss puts into her patterns, especially for babies and children. There’s a little decrease detail at the middle of the v-neck, the sleeves are set in, the top will look great over a tank in summer or over a turtleneck in winter.

Really, the story with this top is the yarn. I have wanted to try Hempathy for awhile now, but just got around to it with this project. The yarn is obviously splitty, when you look at it, and it feels somewhat rough in the ball. My tension, which is usually very even (if I do say so myself), was somewhat off with this yarn just off the needles. But the color is gorgeous, and any trace of roughness or uneven fabric goes away with a good soak. This is one of the softer, silkier things I’ve ever knit. The drape is incredible. I’m very excited about the 6 balls of a tweedy tan I picked up in Maine for a modified version of this top.

So that’s it, really. (Well, aside from the usual on the FO page.) A sweet, quick, easy top to clear my mind and get me rejuvenated on the shawl.

It’s going much better, this time around. And I may have started on something else, too…

I figured, the yarn’s been in time-out for over a year. It’s probably learned its lesson, right?

(Thank you all so much for your lovely comments about the cardigan. Each and every one made me smile.)

When I came up with this post, and took the pictures, I had a lot to tell you about rushing to try and get the border done on my shawl, making hugely noticeable mistakes, and having to rip it out.

And getting so frustrated that I had to cast on for something else or I’d lose my mind.

And taking the border nice and slow, and being thrilled with the results, even if it’s going to take another week or two to complete it.

But instead of talking about any of those things, let me tell you about my father’s mother, Lois.

In the way of things in (poor, rural) Maine, all of the women in my family were avid crafters. I got the knitting bug from my mother, and my mother’s mother’s craft of choice was crochet, but all of the women could do everything. Lois could knit well, and crochet well, and cross-stitch, but her passion was sewing. She made lots of clothes for me and my cousins, she made quilts, she made stuffed bears with movable heads and arms, she made my prom dress, she made my wedding veil.

I inherited my perfectionism from her. Everything she made was flawless, even my first quilt (badly pictured above). She patiently guided my clumsy hands on the machine, showing me how to create straight seams and graceful curves. We spread the filling and backing out on her living room floor and cut it together. I was the only grandchild to really get interested in crafting, and it created a bond between us. When I picked up knitting in earnest after my mother died, she gave me supplies and patterns for knitted dishcloths as good quick beginner projects. I still have several that she made.

When I was a child, I liked playing in her sewing room almost better than anywhere else in the house. An old couch was lined with bears and other animals she’d made, the closet was full of fabric, and the noise and smell of her sewing machine (always running, it seemed) comforted and soothed me. As she worked, she would tell me what she was doing and show me how to pick seams, cut cloth so that it wouldn’t fray, properly stuff an animal, hem pants, anything.

She was strong, opinionated, stern, and caring. My mother may have helped me understand the joy of crafting, but Lois helped me understand pride in a well-finished object, that hand-crafted items could be heirlooms, that process and product can provide equal joy. I owe a lot to her, and I will try very hard to be worthy of her sewing machine. She’ll be sorely missed.

Well! That took awhile. I don’t know how it’s possible that one sweater could live up to all of your expectations, but here it is!

Pattern: The Shawl-collared Cardigan from Jo Sharp Knit 1, 39.5″ size

Yarn: Zara Merino DK, charcoal gray

, 12 balls (with approximately 3 yards to spare)

Time Elapsed: Overall, 2 months. But I’d say this has only taken between 3 and 4 weeks, actually–the shawl has been much greedier of my time.

Modifications and Notes: I knit the entire sweater without a single modification, aside from the yarn swap. When I cast on for the project, I’d never seen the Alpaca Kid Lustre in person, and I was pretty afraid of another alpaca sweater being way too warm. So I went with a good workhorse merino, and I’m not sorry I did. But having seen the Alpaca at Ellen’s the last time I was in Maine, I may just have to knit it again. The stuff is luscious.

The Zara grows enough when it’s wet that I need to remember to shape the sleeves a little short–this time through the wash/dry cycle, they hung off the edge of the table and are about 1/2″ too long. But it’s easy enough to avoid that, and when I’m not a total dork they are the perfect length. If you’re knitting with this yarn, though, do be sure to wash your swatch before checking gauge.

The sweater is the perfect length, too, and I love how simple it looks from behind.

The tiny little row of purl at the bottom is enough that the sweater doesn’t look sloppy, but minimal enough to keep it modern.

And that’s how I feel about the sweater, too–modern, simple, basic enough to do whatever I need to do while wearing it.

Stylishly, to boot.

The sweater is simple and pretty fun to knit, actually. Yes, there’s lots of stockinette. But the construction is somewhat lively (you knit the plain pieces first, block and seam them together, and then knit and seam on the ribbed collar), and the details are so classic, and after all when would we get to watch television if not for stockinette? The waist shaping is extremely flattering, as are the sleeves (no tapering to the hands). I may reposition my little clasp to be an inch lower–we’ll see how I like it over time.

It goes with literally everything in my wardrobe, which is great. A cardigan is a year-round must here, and my closet has been sorely lacking in them.

Finally, lots more pictures (especially of the seams, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who enjoys seaming!) can be found at the FO page. Which is a testament to the greatness of this sweater, in itself–I’m usually hard-pressed to find 3 or 4 FO pictures I like. Today, they all seemed to turn out well.

I guess there’s not much else to say but hip, hip, hooray!