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!