What's a Knitter to Do...

...after two solid days of trolling Ravelry and looking through old knitting magazines and polling the blog and still not finding a cardigan pattern that jumps out and grabs her interest?

If you're this knitter, you become utterly disgusted with knitting, knitters, yarn, patterns, the internet, and life in general. Then you open your closet and look at previous sweaters for inspiration.

And if you're this knitter, you remember that sweater you knitted four years ago and loved knitting so much you promised yourself you'd do it again. And you realize it is one of the most frequently-worn sweaters in your wardrobe, and you would really, really like another one. And then you toss the stash, find some yarn, and cast that sucker on without a backward glance.

This is Ariann (from Chic Knits), which I knitted back in 2007. I had some issues with the knitting of it, exacerbated by the yarn (100% raw silk, which is a b*tch to knit), and the fact that I knitted most of it in the car on the way to and from Lake Tahoe, with two young boys and two large dogs mixing it up in the back seat the whole way. It initially did not turn out well, but after a rework a few months later, it became a favorite in my spring/summer rotation. Super easy to toss on when I'm trying to disguise the fact that I am wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt for the third straight day. I blogged it here (much better pictures).

I always wanted a second version in wool to wear in the cooler seasons. There is no way the Berroco Peruvia I've been dying to cast on was going to work, so I bit the bullet and set it aside. But I did find just the right amount of a nice, dark brown worsted weight wool in the stash, and quickly cast on the first sleeve.

I dearly love the stitch pattern for this sweater. It's quite simple and easily memorized and I can knit it almost as fast as stockinette, even while watching tv, but it's much more interesting to work.

I can hear several of you exclaiming, "But it's lace! Yarnhog hates knitting lace! Lace is the bane of her knitting existence! How is this possible?" My friends, I have no idea. Ariann seems to be the one exception to the Lace Curse. I don't know why it doesn't cause me to break out in boils and spew pea soup while my head spins 360 degrees, but it doesn't. Let's just keep this quiet, shall we? I'd rather the Knitting Goddess not get wind of it.

The second sleeve is on the needles now, and then I'll get to work on the body. One of the great things about this pattern is that, while it is bottom up rather than my preferred top-down, the body is knitted in one piece, the sleeves are then attached to the body, and the yoke is worked all in one piece from there, meaning there are only two tiny seams to sew under the arms when it's done. Love that!

I'm still on the lookout for my Perfect Cardigan for this year, and the opportunity to use my Peruvia, but for the time being Ariann is taking the edge off.

World's Easiest Lace Scarf--A Free Pattern!

I had the urge to knit a lace scarf out of some Sea Silk I had in the stash. Alas, we all know my unfortunate history with lace knitting. I wanted to actually enjoy the experience, and after a couple of hours on Ravelry, it became obvious to me that I was going to have to come up with something a whole lot easier than any of the lace scarf patterns available online.

It took just a few minutes to come up with this pattern. There are only two easy rows to memorize, and it is highly adaptable to any yarn and any needles. I used Sea Silk, which is a fingering weight, simply because that was the yarn I wanted to use. I used size 3 needles because I have a pair of Signature straights in that size, and I felt like using them. I would have preferred perhaps a size 5 needle with this yarn, but it's no big deal. I just have a bit denser lace than I would have liked.

I had a hard time coming up with decent pictures, as it is dark out and my kitchen lighting doesn't seem to be the best for this sort of thing. But I hope you get the general idea.

Without further ado, here's the pattern:

Cast on a multiple of three stitches, plus two for the edges. I used 47 stitches, which is giving me a scarf about 8" wide with my chosen yarn and needles. Your results will, of course, vary. If this matters to you, knit a swatch.

Row 1: K1, *P1, K2tog, yo*, end K1

Row 2: *K1, P2*, end K2

Knit until you're sick of it, or the scarf is long enough, whichever comes first. Cast off. Block it if you want to.

That's it. Really couldn't be easier, right?

The pattern as written creates a scarf that is entirely lace, with a single-stitch garter border. If you want more of an edge, cast on a few more stitches and work those in garter stitch. If you want a shawl, cast on more stitches; just make sure you use a multiple of three for the lace section. I think this would make a great shawl or throw in worsted, or even bulky weight, yarn.


The pattern looks great from both sides, which I think is important in a scarf.

So...anyone feel like knitting along? I only have about eight inches done, so you have plenty of time to join me!

What Was I Thinking?!

I am an instant gratification sort of knitter. I like aran weight yarn. I like top-down knitting. I like no finishing. I like plain stockinette. I get the kind of rush from casting off a project that is usually reserved for heroin addicts. In short, I am a knitter of limited patience, which explains my aversion to knitting lace and socks. Or, heaven forbid, lace socks.

It does not explain why I thought it would be a good idea to test knit a lacy camisole in fingering weight yarn.

Somewhere around row seven bazillion, I realized I am essentially knitting the world's largest sock. With lace trim. Aaargh!

This is Cecily, which I've mentioned before I am test knitting for the designer, Snowden Becker.

Now, don't misunderstand: this is a lovely, lovely project. The design is just beautiful. It may, in fact, be the perfect knitted camisole.

The pattern is excellent, and the shaping is truly inspired. Check out the princess-seam waist shaping:




And the beautiful bust darts:

I have just started a third set of shaping at the top of the bust, but you can't really see it yet. And the straps are even bra-friendly without being chunky.

It's a gorgeous project. But if I have to knit any more stockinette in the round in fingering weight black yarn at 7 stitches to the inch, I may just lose it completely. Fortunately, I am almost to another set of...lace repeats. Oh, joy.

FO: Enchanted Wood

Just to prove that I actually have knitted a lace shawl, may I present Enchanted Wood (also know as Hell Freezes Over).

I did this as part of a Unique Sheep KAL in February. I did post blocking shots back then, but never got around to the official FO post.

The yarn is from the Unique Sheep, in what they call a "gradience" colorway, which is a series of specially dyed skeins that progress from on color to another as you move from skein to skein. I like the idea, but it works better in some colorways than others, and the progression is occasionally a little more abrupt than I would like. I suppose that's the nature of hand dyeing. (It didn't stop me from ordering another gradience colorway for their next KAL...which I dropped out of during the eternal and horrific cast on. But that's another story.)

This was also my first (and only) attempt at knitting with beads, and I loved it!

I haven't had an opportunity to wear this yet, but it does grace Bertha (the dress form) in my craft room, so I get to enjoy it every day anyway.

It remains to be seen whether I will (successfully) tackle another lace shawl, but at least I can prove I knitted one once!

FO: Knitting Sunshine

I've been remiss, as usual, in blogging my FOs. I had to dig through the blog archives to figure out when I started this. This is the one I named Knitting Sunshine. I knitted it back in April and I've even worn it in public, but this is its official blog debut.

Pattern: Multnomah. This is a free pattern written for one skein of sock yarn. I used 630 yards of dk weight yarn and added a few rows.

Yarn: British Mohair Kidd Silk. Absolutely LOVE this yarn! So soft and slightly fuzzy, and the most gorgeous shade of gold.

Needles: Knit Picks Options circs, size 5.

Mods: Just added a few repeats of the garter pattern to use up my yarn and adjusted the lace pattern for the edging accordingly.

Thoughts: A wonderful, warm shawl pattern. I would happily make this again and again, if I were the sort to repeat patterns. The dk weight yarn made a thick, weighty shawl, due to all the garter, and the fact that I used fairly small needles for the yarn gauge.

FO: Buggy

Buggy--otherwise known as Hey, Teach--is officially done!

The Details:

Pattern: Hey, Teach! by Helene Rush.

Size: Um. Small, I think.

Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed. No sir, I don't like it! This yarn was a pain to knit--literally. A heavy worsted raw silk and cotton blend with no give or flexibility at all; my wrists and elbows may never recover. It does make for a nice finished fabric, but not nice enough to go through that again!

Needles: size 7 KP Options.

Mods: I made the body two inches longer and did elbow-length sleeves. I also added buttons (6 instead of 4). I added extra ribbing to the neckline to bring it up a little higher and keep it from sagging. Oh, and I did twisted ribbing instead of regular 1x1 ribbing because I prefer it. Otherwise I followed the pattern on this one. It's a nice pattern if you don't mind seaming. Personally, I think I'm going to stick to seamless garments for a while!

Goooooooooal!

Oh, wait, the World Cup is over, isnt' it?

I don't care: Buggy is done!

The KH and Older Son have been gone all week (at Civil Air Patrol boot camp--more on that later), so last night Younger Son and I had breakfast-for-dinner, we popped in a movie, and I settled in for a marathon finishing session. Buggy is blocking on a lounge chair now, and just needs buttons to be well and truly done!

Now...what to cast on next?

Seamingly Endless

You know that point in knitting a project when you're just ready to be done? Sometimes you get lucky, and it doesn't hit until you're almost done. I recently participated in a lace KAL where I hit that point during the cast on row. The yarn and beads are still stored neatly in a bag in my knitting room, probably never to be seen again. Rarely, you might finish a project and still want more. With Buggy, I reached terminal disinterest about halfway through the back, with two fronts and two sleeves to go. Lately I've been having that problem a lot, which is why my collection of UFOs is growing at a distressing rate. I was determined not to let Buggy go the way of so many others, so I've been soldiering on, despite my loss of interest in the project and my active dislike of the yarn (Rowan Summer Tweed--I tried to like it, I really did, but I just hate knitting with it).

Last night I finished the knitting and put it aside with relief. Today I realized I really, really want to cast on another sweater, but because I know myself well, I made it a condition of casting on that I first finish Buggy. Please, someone remind me the next time I choose a project that's worked in pieces just exactly how much I dislike sewing seams. I have been seaming Buggy for two solid hours now, and I'm not done. In fact, I still have both the side seams AND the underarm seams left to do. The two hours only got me through the shoulder seams and setting in the sleeves. (Could someone please remind me how much I hate setting in sleeves, too?)

Once the seaming is done, I still have to pick up and knit the button bands and the collar edging, but at least that's knitting and not seaming, right?

One more thing...could someone please remind me that I love knitting?

As Promised...

...here are blocking pics of The Enchanted Wood shawl!


We got home last night. After unpacking, doing laundry, reorganizing the storage room so we could get in to put away the ski equipment, and getting all the gear and clothing put away, I took a few minutes to soak and block this. [I sometimes read about people spending hours blocking lace, which leads me to believe I am less than particular about my blocking, because it never takes me more than a few minutes. But I digress.]

The pictures are, as usual, not great. The guest room, where I do my blocking, has poor lighting, and it's a grey day. That will soon change (the lighting, not the day, but more about that in another post), but for the time being, this is the best I could do.

Modeled pics coming soon!

Still Enchanting

These aren't the best pictures, but I wanted to show you I am still working away on the Enchanted Wood Shawl:

This picture was taken after I finished clue 3; now I'm about halfway through clue 4 and coming up on the finish. I think there is only one more clue left. The yarn is gorgeous (once again, my camera fails to do it justice) and the beads are a delight. I only wish I had started with the opposite color. I really wanted a shawl that was more green than blue, but since this is a mystery shawl, I had no way of knowing that the pattern was heavily weighted in favor of the starting colors, with a much smaller portion of the later colors actually used. Ah well. Live and learn. The blue is lovely, too.

In the closeup, you can see the pretty beads. They're really iridescent, with blue, purple, and green, just like the yarns. Once I get it blocked, I'll get some better pictures...I hope!

Enchanted Wood Spoiler

Just to prove that I am, in fact, knitting a lace shawl--successfully!--here are some crummy progress pictures. I took them indoors, at night, with my point and shoot, and this is the best I could manage. You'll have to take my word for it that the yarn and beads are so much prettier than this in person.

I'm about halfway through the second clue and working on my second skein of gradience dyed yarn. These pictures don't show the gradual color change that is starting to happen. This is a much better picture of the yarn:

I started with the blue yarn on the far right and I'm working toward the green on the left. The structure of this shawl is odd (to me). The cast on consists of the two short legs of the triangle (which will become the bottom of the shawl), and steady decreasing at both the middle and the edges draws the edges steadily together to create a triangle as the work progresses upward toward the long, straight edge at the top.

Here you can mostly see the beads. It's not nearly as difficult as I imagined to knit with beads, but it is time-consuming. It's also really, really fun! They're like sparkly little stitch markers you don't take out.

I definitely foresee more beads in my future...and maybe even some more lace, too.

Counting to Ten

I started winding the yarn for Enchanted Wood last night, but I couldn't resist jumping ahead to the cast on. Which took three hours. 375 stitches, double-stranded lace cast on, working with two ends of the ball and using beads. None of these things caused me any trouble. So why did it take three hours? Apparently I need to return to kindergarten for a little brush up of my counting skills. The cast on was mostly just "cast on ten, place bead, repeat." Alas, mine was more like, "Cast on ten, place bead, cast on...wait, how many was that? Is this bead before or after that stitch? Uh, oh. I must have messed up back here. Rip, rip, rip. Cast on ten, place bead, cast on ten, place bead, cast on ten...why don't I have the right number of stitches? Let's see...ten...nine...or is that ten? Where is this bead supposed to be? Is that one stitch or two? Damn it! Where are my glasses?" And so on and so forth. But I did get the cast on finished and--wisely, I think--stopped there. I'm hoping I've gotten the stupids out of my system now and the rest of this will just jump off my needles. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Let the Madness Begin!

The yarn for the Enchanted Wood mystery shawl KAL just arrived in my mailbox--only four days from England!--and it is just lovely. I'm so excited to get started on this. I'm also more than a little worried that all I'm going to make with this beautiful yarn is a huge mess. I've been reading the threads about this on Rav, and I don't even understand the questions, much less the answers. I've decided to just take it in little baby steps. My goal for this evening is to get the yarn wound. If prior experience holds true, this will be more than enough to deal with.

Anyone else working on this? I could use a little company.

New Year's...Goal

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. Never have. If you're going to make a change, just make it, whatever the time of year. Who needs all the extra pressure of announcing at the beginning of a brand new year, "I am going to do this or be a failure"?

Still...there is certainly something to be said for reflecting on the past year and setting some goals for the new year, or at least contemplating what one would like to achieve in the privacy of one's own mind--or blog, as the case may be. [Case in point: I had privately decided to try to go this whole year only buying sock yarn, because I have enough sweater yarn to keep me busy through the next ice age. My resolve lasted until I saw that Beaverslide had some $12.95 merino/mohair on clearance for $6.00 a skein, and I typed in my paypal password so fast there was smoke coming off my keyboard. Now, had I publicly announced my intention, I would have been rather embarrassed at crashing and burning so dramatically on January 4th. As it is, though, I will be happily adding a few more grains of sand to the yarny beach that is my stash room, if you'll excuse the labored metaphor.]

My checkered history with lace knitting has been well documented on this blog. (If you somehow missed my pathetic inability to knit lace without the aid of note cards, stitch markers, row counters, charts, and copious amounts of alcohol, search "lace".) I've never felt any particular desire to conquer this failing, as it were, because although I love lace, I thoroughly enjoy knitting sweaters and don't feel I'm missing out if I don't also knit gorgeous shawls.

Or at least, I didn't until a few days ago. As I was meandering through the destash offerings on Ravelry, I came across a set of six skeins of lace yarn that had been "gradience dyed" so that each skein progressed gradually across the blue-green range of the color wheel and all six taken together completed the journey from blue to green, rather like one very large skein of very long repeat variegated yarn. I was struck by this. Really. Just...struck. I couldn't stop looking at it. This particular set of yarn was a kit for a mystery lace shawl KAL called "Enchanted Wood" from The Unique Sheep that begins on January 10, and it came with a set of color-matched beads. Now, knitting with beads is one of those things I have long looked at and thought, "That way lies madness." Beautiful, absolutely. But like lace times ten. So it makes no sense whatsoever that I justhadtohaveitrightnow and immediately bought the kit and signed up for the KAL. And, for the record, I'm not a KAL kind of person. It's like group exercise to me: public embarrassment adding insult to the injury of painful physical activity. Only, you know, without the exercise part. Which makes my almost giddy excitement over this KAL all the more perplexing. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the yarn and already have the swatch instructions in hand (although I expect to come down with all the grace of a water filled blimp once I actually start to swatch). I will document the experience here, for those of you who are interested in commiserating...or laughing your heads off at my ineptitude.

My hope is that this will somehow magically lead to some sort of lace-knitting breakthrough that will allow me to whip out heirloom cobweb shawls in under a week without even looking at the charts or using a single lifeline. Or at least that I will successfully complete this one lace shawl without anyone needing to stage an intervention or break out the tranquilizer darts. Just don't call it a resolution; I can't take the pressure.

Lost and...

Found!

Phew!

For those who are wondering: car trunk. Where I'd already looked twice. Must be one of those space/time continuum things.

Cosmic Smack-Down

I knew I shouldn't have risked lace.

When the cast on couldn't discourage me, the ripping couldn't break my spirit, and the p5tog learned I was more persistent than previous evidence would indicate, the Knitting Goddess had to take a new approach. I discovered a whole new way to screw up lace.

I LOST IT!

Yep. I lost an entire shawl in progress, yarn and needles still attached. Somewhere between spinning group on Friday and sitting down to knit Saturday evening, it disappeared!

%&*$#@!

A Successful Lace Project

No, it's not Swallowtail (although I have high hopes for that one--I'm on the first border chart). It's not even knitted, which is undoubtedly why it was successful.

I trimmed a lavender plant this afternoon and couldn't bring myself to toss out all that lovely cut lavender, so I turned it into a giant lavender sachet for the yarn closet. This lace heart is about a foot across. I used a piece of scrap lace that used to be the bottom of a too-long curtain. I put it aside years ago when I shortened the curtain. My scrap happened to have a scalloped bottom that was perfect for the bottom half of a heart. I drew the rest of the heart on a piece of paper, pinned it to the lace, and cut it out. I sewed it together on the right side using some red embroidery floss and stuffed it with chopped lavender. It took about 30 minutes and it smells wonderful. Now that's an easy lace project!

Knit, Rip, Repeat

You'll notice there is no picture of my progress on Swallowtail today. That is because, despite several hours of knitting, it looks exactly the same as yesterday. I knew I shouldn't have taunted the Knitting Goddess.

I happily knitted quite a few rows with apparent resounding success. I was even marveling over how quickly it was going. I was thinking, maybe I've finally kicked my lace knitting curse. And then I noticed I had one stitch too many at the end of a row.

Now, a sensible knitter would look at that, see that the error wasn't obvious, knit two together, and move on. At least, that's what I now think. At the time, I thought a sensible knitter would spend three and a half hours trying to track down the error, discover an extra yarn over, carefully tink back, realize the yarn over was actually two rows down, ladder down to the extra yarn over, remove it, work back up, discover that the stitches were far too loose, carefully tug the extra yarn from stitch to stitch, distributing the extra over the entire row, finally smooth out the work to see how it looked...and realize she had removed the wrong damned yarn over. Guess which sort of knitter I am?

Of course, when I moved on to the actual wrong yarn over, and attempted to repeat the procedure, a hole opened up in the space/time continuum and the universe collapsed in on itself, taking my knitting with it.

By the time I extricated it, half the shawl had been ripped back and my husband was giving me his wary lion-tamer look and suggesting I "just put it down...just for a little while. You can have it back tomorrow."

And now it's tomorrow, and I'm back to where I started yesterday. Somewhere in there, I must have crossed over the International Date Line.

Still Alive!

Yes, I'm still alive, but I don't blame you if you wondered. Blogger didn't even recognize me when I signed on. The kids are on Spring Break this week, and if you have kids, you already know where I've been. Between feeding them (and all their friends, who have also been here all week), shoveling laundry, breaking up fights, and running Mom's Taxi Service, I haven't had time for much else.

We celebrate both Passover and Easter (both this week), and--oh, yeah--our good friend is turning 60 on Saturday and my parents' 50th wedding anniversary is next week, and guess who gets to throw the party? Remind me to tell you all about that family drama sometime...when it's all over.

This morning I had a doctor's appointment I scheduled last month that absolutely had to happen exactly today...so of course, my husband got an emergency case two days ago that went to trial when? Yep. This morning. I left my children alone together for the very first time. I have left them each home alone individually before, but never together (they're nine and eleven). Today I just didn't feel like I had a choice. I posted my cell phone number by the phone and held my cell phone in my hand through the entire appointment (although what I could have done for them with my feet in the stirrups, I don't know). And then the doctor was unable to complete the procedure, and I have to go back this afternoon to try again (nothing serious, I assure you, but rather time-sensitive). I'll have to take the kids with me, too, since one of them has to be at a violin lesson less than an hour after my scheduled appointment time...

Just to demonstrate how crazed I've been, this is what I cast on last night:

LACE!!!

If that isn't proof of my complete loss of control, I don't know what is. That's Swallowtail (do I really need to link to it?)--again. I think this is my third attempt at this pattern. The others are best not spoken of in polite company. This time, it only took me four tries to get the cast on right. *sigh* But the yarn is sort of my reward for the struggle. The picture does not do it justice. This is my own handspun, and, at the risk of throwing my hubris in the face of the Knitting Goddess, I can tell you this is the best yarn I have ever made (which admittedly is not saying much). It's the only yarn I've ever been able to spin that might actually make decent lace, although it's really somewhere between fingering and dk weight. But Swallowtail is a tiny shawl, and I wanted something bigger, so that's okay. So far, I seem to have slipped under the KG's radar with this one, but it's still early in the game. Stay tuned for the rest of the saga! And now I have to run. The doctor is waiting.

FO: Sligo

At long last...Sligo:

You may remember when I started this one, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, way back in the spring. I fell in love with the pattern at first sight, and I had the perfect yarn, hand-dyed for me by the amazing stitchjones, just waiting for the right project. But alas, the path of true love did not run smoothly (is this a theme, or what?).

I struggled with the stitch pattern, which incorporates complex cable stitches along with (shudder) lace. I struggled with gauge issues that caused me to rip and reknit the back three times. I struggled with my ability to follow the pattern, causing me to rip out half the front. I struggled with the yarn, when I ran out and had to have Sharon attempt to match the earlier dye lot, a process that eventually required the sending of swatches up and down the West Coast to achieve something that would work. And then, in the final crowning inglorious moment, I realized I had sewn shut the side slits, and in attempting to reopen the seam, I cut the wrong thread and the lace hard-won lace began rapidly unraveling across the front. This last crushing blow was it for me. I stuffed the entire sweater, completed but for the edging on the side slits, behind the sofa. And there is has remained.

A few days ago, as I was working on a remake of another project that displeases me, I abruptly decided it was time to finish Sligo. Before I could reconsider, I pulled it out and set to work. In less than an hour, I had the side seams open, the lace repaired (or at least confined), and the side slit edging picked up and knitted. I wove in the last few ends and put the whole thing in a warm bath to soak. A gentle blocking, an overnight drying, and it is done. I can't believe I waited so long to address the problem, and how little trouble it was to fix. I'm going to look on this as a much-needed reminder that it is better to face one's demons than to hide them away behind the sofa.

The damage to the lace and the subseqent repair is barely visible. See?

If you look carefully, you can see on the lower left edge that the left side of the lace repeat is incomplete. This is the part that I mistakenly cut, and the best repair I could manage was to tie off and weave in the cut ends and then pick up and knit the edging. I figure no one will ever see it, so I can live with it.

The details:

Pattern: Medallion Pullover (Ravelry link) by Gayle Bunn from the Spring/Summer 2008 Vogue Knitting
Yarn: Stitchjones hand-dyed superwash worsted in the colorway "Sligo" (about 1500 yards)
Needles: Size 6 and 5 KnitPicks Options circulars
Mods: I made mine a couple of inches longer than the original, both in the body and the sleeves.
Thoughts: I can't say I really enjoyed knitting this one. The various problems I had with it made it more a matter of determination than pleasure. But I do like the design, and I do think I will wear it. Mostly, I'm just glad to have this albatross off my neck!