stash, knit, repeat

I am triumphant today, for two good reasons.

I finally have an FO entry for you on the Fir Cone Lace Cardigan.

Pattern: Fir Cone Lace Cardigan from Vermont Fiber Designs. Knit in the Large size for my grandmother.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool, I believe color 21. Used just over 6 hanks.
Time Elapsed: Just over three weeks, I think?
Thoughts: This was a very easy and enjoyable cardigan to knit. The lace patterns are extremely easy to memorize, and produce a very pleasing design.

Be warned that there is zero waist shaping in this pattern, and the lace isn’t going to pull in like a rib does. Now, my grandmother (bless her) went through almost a dozen pregnancies, and I think the square fit and slightly dropped shoulders are going to do good things for her figure. But for someone like me, with 8″ of difference between bust and waist, it bags kind of unattractively.

Further, the construction doesn’t really provide an easy way to add waist shaping, since it’s knit in one loooooooooong row to the armhole. I’m not sure how you’d decrease attractively.

Even so, it’s extremely comfortable and classic in look. The heathery quality to the Silky Wool marries well with the lace, and I love how airy and light (yet very warm!) the fabric is.

Merry Christmas, Grammie! I’ll share a photo of her wearing it after the holidays. More information and photos and rambling, as usual, in the FO pages listed in the sidebar.

***

I’m so glad to have that FO shoot done for two reasons. One, it’s extremely frustrating to try to get good shots of a sweater made for someone who doesn’t have your measurements. :) Two, I finished the Shoalwater Shawl today. It’s blocking right now, so I only have a wrinkled pruney unblocked lace photo for you. And “picot” is another synonym for “hell”, and yes of course I ran out of yarn, and it’s 20 rows short, and I had to hunt all over the house for the few yards of sample I had just to finish binding off the damn thing, but…

…even with all that, I think it looks damn fine.

That darn fir cone lace cardigan simply refuses to be photographed.

Well, okay. It’s not so much the cardigan’s attitude at stake, here. Hopefully soon! Gnaaahhh!

***

I’m on the last lace repeat of shoalwater and I’m starting to get mighty nervous about the yarn shortage potential. So I brought her into my LYS to get advice from the shop ladies. They’re of the opinion that:

• I miiiiiiiiiight squeak through and be okay,
• They have some nice Misti Alpaca in a soft brown that would work if I want to bind off in a contrasting yarn,
• It’s not strictly necessary to end on the exact row Evelyn Clark specifies. (The instructions: 4 full repeats, then rows 29-50 once more. Why? I have absolutely no idea.)

So at least I have options! While I was there, I found this:

How could I resist? As homesick as I am for a New England fall? It practically leapt into my hands, I tell you.

***

As I was inwardly cursing myself late last night for falling behind on my Knitting Schedule, wondering how I’m going to get all of this holiday knitting done, plotting out exactly how much holiday knitting I can do once we go back East in 2 weeks, and who I’m not seeing until after Dec 25, and etc. etc. etc., I had a realization.

This is my hobby. And being a full-time parent of a particularly active toddler means that I only have one. If I’m not enjoying this, I’m doing something wrong. So I let myself accept the fact that I am simply not going to do even a fraction of the knitting I’d hoped to do. I don’t even want to work particularly hard at this. I’m going to finish the shoalwater shawl and the phyllo pullover, both of which are already on the needles, and then I’m going to knit precisely what and when I want.

Loved ones in my life, expect great knitted things to arrive out of the blue at random points over the next year, rather than in one fiber-crazed orgy at the holidays. Because I’m having some fun with my knitting, over here.

Seriously, I get bored on your behalf even thinking about an update entry. There’s the fir cone lace cardigan, which is now done but is still waiting for a proper photo shoot:

There’s the shoalwater shawl, which is another repeat closer to being finished but still, unblocked lace vomit:

And there’s the phyllo yoked pullover, which is currently still in the “miles of stockinette” stage.

Ugh.

There is one nail-biter issue with the shawl, actually. The pattern calls for “About 1200 yards lace-weight”. The Andrea silk has 1093. Now, in the pattern as written there’s an applied I-cord border at the top of the shawl, so I have an easy way to reduce my yarn requirements. The problem is, will it be enough? Anyone have any guesses?

I’ve been a busy little bee. The Fir Cone Lace Cardigan remains in the sidebar only because I haven’t gotten buttons yet. Everything else is done. Expect a FO report this week, but here’s a little preview.

Remember my lace query? It was for this:

That’s Andrea 100% laceweight silk from Schaefer Yarns. Hand-dyed, picked up at a Schaefer trunk show, in this most luscious colorway that reminds me of these wild roses that speckle Maine’s beaches. The perfect color for one of Jacob’s grandmothers, who just happens to need a fabulous shawl for Christmas this year. After all of your wonderful advice in comments and email, I decided to look for the simplest shawl pattern I could find (that wouldn’t drive me to tears with boredom). I chose The Shoalwater Shawl, which seems custom-made for busy variegated yarns.

The first repeat (of four) took me about three days. Unblocked-lace-looks-crappy photo:

Trying-to-stretch-it-out-on-a-throw-pillow-photo:

I’m really excited about it. Alas, it’s a terrible project for my spare moments during the day, because the rows are already taking forever, and it’s moderately fiddly. So, I cast on for another project. Well, honestly, I’ve only swatched so far. But rest assured, I will be well into the back before this weekend is out.

Because it’s knit in Calmer.

Now I know, various knitbloggers have been extolling Calmer’s virtues for awhile now, but until today I had managed to avoid the draw. I bought some for Knitting Nature’s Phyllo Yoked Pullover this summer, since my closest female friend covets the sweater, and it just sat in my yarn closet, waiting for me to get to it. It could afford to be patient, I suppose. Because now I may never go back.

I shall call him Mr. Swatchie. I will love him and pet him and hug him and squeeze him…

I am totally a winner.

This beautiful scarf arrived today from Grumperina, and I’m even happier now that I entered her contest. The scarf is luscious and an extremely welcome addition to my wardrobe. It’s even big enough for two, in a pinch!

Thanks so much, Grumperina!

No pictures of the fir cone cardigan today–gotta save my bloggable material. The second sleeve is around halfway done, and the blocked body is lovely. I’m really excited about giving it to my gram. This gift sweater knitting is making me think once more about a dressform…

Living in a place without any dramatic season change has me all messed up. The sunny 65-degree weather we’ve had for the past couple of months is totally lulling me into a false sense of security. How can Thanksgiving possibly be just a couple of weeks away? How can Christmas be right around the corner? It’s beautiful outside!

Good thing I’m so crazy about knitting, because urgency is utterly lacking here.

The body of the cardigan is pinned and blocking on our table. The fir cone lace part really wants to bump up, so I’ll need to press it before the garment is finished. It’s really turning out well, though. I think my gram will be thrilled.

Why block the body now, you ask? I need a little motivation to hike across Sleeve Island, because let me tell you, the pina coladas are nowhere to be seen.

I’d be a lot further along on Sleeve #2 if I hadn’t had to restart it three times today. That whole nursing-brain thing isn’t a joke, I tell you. My head is full of mush.

Of course, I’m already fantasizing about what I’ll do after the holidays. It’s been literally years since I’ve knit myself a sweater, with the pregnancy and the associated weight gain. But hey! I’m on a diet, and it’s working well, and I’m starting to get my old body back, and one of my favorite bloggers is starting a Debbie Bliss knit-along for after the holidays. Sign me up!

Now, what to knit… what to knit… what’s that? *How* many weeks left until winter holidays? Oh, crap. :)

You can’t win if you don’t play, the saying goes, and I guess it’s right. I usually don’t enter blog contests, but when the multi-talented Grumperina ran a photo contest for a very long scarf scarcely a week after I took this photo, I couldn’t resist.

And what do you know? I won! *does the little happy dance* I’m going to receive this gorgeous rose alpaca scarf. Just in time, too. The fall weather here in coastal CA isn’t cold enough for me to drag out my coats, but neither is a sweater quite enough. I’ve been wearing my pooling colors scarf, but a little variety will be a very very good thing. Thanks so much, Grumperina!!

(The best thing about winning this contest is that I got the email in the midst of my last-minute elections research, just when I was good and tired of useless, uninformative official candidate pages. It definitely gave me mood boost I needed to sift through piles of campaign crap.)

*****

The fir cone cardigan is really coming along.

(Unblocked lace: There’s nothing quite like it. Thank God.)

I’m basically done with the left front now; I should be sipping some kind of froufy drink on sleeve island this week. I still love the fabric, and the lace repeat has a nice rhythm to it. Next up is a shawl, though, and I’m anxious to get to it. Go, go, gadget lace!!

Wow, that was a busy week. Even though I’m home during the day, daylight savings really seems to have cut into my photo time. Or maybe it’s just because Jacob thinks naps are for weenies. :) Either way, I present to you a belated FO roundup:

Pattern: Classic Harry Potter scarf in Gryffindor colors.
Yarn: Cascade 220, scarlet and gold, 2 hanks each.
Modifications: Added 2 purl stitches, see below.

This scarf is knit in a tube to avoid both curling and a wrong side to the work. This results in an extremely warm, thick scarf. I wanted the scarf to stay flat nicely so I changed two of the knit stitches to purls, to help the scarf keep a shape. It seems to have worked, although I haven’t made a totally knit one so who knows?

As you’d expect, this is pretty boring to knit. But, I will say one thing for stockinette in the round: It makes for some truly mindless knitting that you can do anywhere, and hence I got this scarf done in record time. (I think 10 days, including blocking and fringe?) Despite the length. Seriously. It makes a good fence cozy.

FO gallery in the sidebar–you can see all of the nature-tastic pictures I snapped of the scarf while Jacob was playing in our front yard.

*****

I’m zipping right along on my gram’s fir cone lace cardigan, but still no pictures for you. I have to save them out, since even moving along quickly it’s going to take me some time to finish this puppy. My favorite thing about the cardigan so far is the construction. I’ve split for the armholes already, so those loooong rows are behind me and there’s no side-seaming to do! The sleeves will be interesting this way, though, I think.

HP Scarf is finished and happy! FO entry and sidebar updates, etc. later this week for sure. I just haven’t had a solitary few minutes to shoot. (And Jacob, though cute, just isn’t a tall enough model!)

My gram’s cardigan is also well on its way. I chose the Fir Cone Lace Cardigan from Vermont Fiber Designs, and got gauge with the Silky Wool instead of the Cotton Fleece. It’s looking lovely so far. I love the fabric, the color (a vibrant deep blue) is perfect, it’s a neat construction. I tried to take a picture of the swatch for you, but again had too much help.

The cardigan itself pretty much just looks like an enormous ruffle at this point. It’s knit in one looooooooong piece until the armholes, which are then divided. Despite the small gauge, I’m managing to make good time on it.

So why the title of this post? I wrote down a list of all of the holiday knits I’d like to do, and realized I’d have to knit and finish one adult sweater every week. HAH. I may be staying at home, but His Highness sure doesn’t let me get that kind of knitting time! So I suppose it’s time to think about birthdays and what presents I want to knit the most.

Here’s a question for you, regarding that: A very special lady in my life needs a lace shawl. I have some gorgeous Schaeffer handpainted laceweight that I’d love to use, but it’s in a fairly bold colorway. What lace shawl patterns work best with a high-contrast variegated yarn?