stash, knit, repeat

Guess what’s done?

Patterns: Peapod baby set by Kate Gilbert (free on the Interweave website); Ladybug baby set by Dale of Norway (I have a pamphlet collection, but I hear it’s been published in a book, too).

Yarns: Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere, 4 balls total for the smallest size; Dale of Norway Baby Ull, quantities specified in the 6-month size

Time Elapsed: Under a week for the Peapod set. It’s a very quick, enjoyable knit. Knitting time and finishing time combined on the Ladybug set ran around a month. There is a lot of finishing.

Modifications and Notes: I didn’t make any intentional modifications to either set. I had a few minor “adjustments” here and there, but nothing really worth writing up or repeating.

I really enjoyed knitting the Peapod set. It was fast, the construction is fresh, the yarn is really very soft for cotton, and the end result is cute as a button. There’s not that much to say about it, really, and since it’s so quick the FO page is a little sparse, too. There are some close-ups of the buttons over there, though.

Really, I have more to say and more pictures to show for the ladybug set. I am very pleased with the finished product, but I can’t say that I enjoyed knitting this set. I prefer fair isle without long floats, and with only 2 colors per row. I find it very zen, and I’m in love with the complicated-looking results you can get without any difficult work. The ladybugs were basically the opposite of that–simple looking little bugs that took a lot of finagling and still aren’t as even as I’d like them to be. I’m also not generally a knitter who avoids finishing, but even for me the task was a little much on this project. All edges have faced hems that need to be knitted and then sewn in, the steeking and associated sewing/facing are another couple of hours of finishing, the pompon… oh, and while this is fine for me, it’s all on US1 needles. So just know what you’re getting into, if you choose to knit this project.

(iPhoto unwedged itself and I managed to save some of the steeking pictures after all, by the way–they’re at the FO page.)

All that said, though, it’s by far the most special baby gift I’ve ever knit. It has a tremendous wow factor.

Hopefully I’ll get pictures of both babies wearing my hand-knits, but until then? Bear play-date!

*****

And tonight, I drag my sleepy toddler onto a red-eye to fly to Maine. I cast on for Seraphim last night, to knit while I’m there. Actually, I cast on for a swatch. I know, I know, finished size doesn’t matter. But I wanted to get familiar with the lace pattern and make sure I like the fabric before committing to it. I’ll be without regular internet access in Maine, but don’t feel too sorry for me. I’m knitting Seraphim in the Cherry Tree Hill fingering-weight silk hubby got me for my birthday last year:

Speaking of the silk, the two hanks are from different dye lots. They don’t look that different to me, but do you all think I should alternate, just to be sure?

See you all on the 20th!

I took hundreds of pictures. iPhoto (which I have used happily and error-free for literally years, by the way) took one look at the roll of steeking pictures TOTALLY FREAKED OUT and crashed, hard. This is all I have left to document the steeking experience.

The very first practice seam on the very first practice steek on my swatch.

SIGH.

I heartily apologize for the lack of photos. The sweater is fine, I’m in the process of sewing in the sleeves and doing the seeming-hundreds of small finishing tasks on it right now. It’s really a busy little sweater pattern. I’ve pompomed, I’ve hemmed, I’ve sewn and sewn and sewn. I hope to have an FO shoot to show you tomorrow or the next day.

Steeking was an interesting experience. I would do it again, but I wouldn’t say it was fun. I actually got a little sick to my stomach, looking at the ladybug sweater before making that first cut. But sewing knitted fabric wasn’t actually all that difficult, and it’s not like the seams need to be perfectly straight, since they won’t show in the end. So I guess the recap is: Not as bad as I feared, everything came out fine, but I did have a celebratory glass (or two) of champagne once it was finished because it was pretty nerve-wracking.

I finished the peapod set (holy CUTE, Batman!), and should have an FO shoot for that, as well. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day, because Wednesday night Jacob and I hop a plane to Maine, where I will have little internet access. We’ll be back the 20th, so keep blogland warm for me while I freeze my butt off! I’m looking forward to some great knitting on this trip, though. I should get to meet my best knitting friend from nursery school for a couple of knit-dates, and I’ll be knitting up my birthday silk from last year into Seraphim. I *can’t wait* to see this gorgeous stuff knit up!

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!

…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.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that you wanted to see the inside of the ladybug hat, since I always want to see inside others’ colorwork. But it never even crossed my mind. Here’s the inside of the hat:

Those are some really long floats, right there. And some fairly tight knitting, too. It’s not pulling or anything, but when I do the sweater I definitely need to loosen up a bit.

Now, the color piece is folded up to make the brim of the hat–at some point you turn your work and the WS of the work becomes the RS. So none of these floats will be up against any skin, and in fact if blocking doesn’t fully take care of the curl I might even tack it into place. Thus, the 9-stitch floats in parts of the work are totally okay for the hat. I’m not sure they will be in a sweater, though–what’s the prevailing wisdom? The gauge is 8 stitches to one inch. An inch of float doesn’t seem that long to me, but this is only my second colorwork project. Thoughts?

I really need to just cast on for some socks when I finish the hat tonight, because I’m a little skittish about this sweater. There’s the float issue, and when I read through the pattern today I noticed that the armholes are machine-stitched and then steeked. (!!!)

I have never steeked before. It’s my one irrational knitting fear. So, this project will be good for me, and I really enjoy fair isle, but I might need a little confidence-building first. And I haven’t knit Jaywalkers yet, and there’s that beautiful CTH sock yarn that Marlena gifted me this holiday season.

…What? Avoiding? Of course not. I’m a Knitter, truly.

(Well, maybe I’m avoiding just a teeeeensy bit.)

The big bad swatch, the big bad swatch… I’m taking a page from the EZ craze and “swatching” with the little hat, which seems like an entirely sensible approach to me.

Please excuse the crappy, curling-like-the-dickens, unblocked colorwork photo. It’s cute, but full of annoyances so far. It curls like crazy, the yarn has already broken in one place and I have a quick-n-dirty fix just holding it all together until the break is a little further from the needles. I’m not entirely sure what to do about the break, honestly. I guess just duplicate stitch around the hole?

The ladybugs are adorable but require either long floats or finagling to keep the carried-along color from showing. I think the recipient of this set will swoon, and it’s awfully nice to be doing something a little complicated again, but I don’t think this will go down in history as my favorite knit ever.

(The shaped v-neck just might, though. I finished it up tonight and hope to have an FO post tomorrow or Wednesday.)