tangled up

finally flower basket and more

Finishing three out of four ain't bad, especially since I ended up working both Saturday and Sunday, and I made two separate yarn expeditions to take advantage of sales at both Woolwinders in Rockville (Saturday) and Stitch DC on Capitol Hill (on Sunday). The flower basket shawl, the Turino silk mini poncho and Bilboa from the Colinette Enigma book (although I used Giotto) are all finished!! That leaves the Matisse Charlotte's Web, hopefully for next weekend.

First, the Flower Basket Shawl. I blocked it by soaking in tepid water with a capful of Eucalan, and man, the dye from the Great Adirondacks Sierra really poured out. I rinsed it several times and "spun" it out in the salad spinner (my favorite new knitting accessory), but when I first laid it down, it was still bleeding. That's why I ended up blocking it on this towel, but not before some of the dye infiltrated the quilt on the bed in my guest room (aka my blocking spot).

None of the dye bled into the towel and it dried quickly. I really like how it came out, but I'm not sure about it's utility. It has sort of an Old West feel to it because it's just a shrug really, covering the shoulders and not much more. At the outset, I was envisioning it as something to wear as a scarf under or over a coat and I think it will serve that purpose well. But if I were to make it again (and I might), I think I would use cotton or another summer-weight yarn, because in size it's the perfect hedge against too much air conditioning. I had a hard time figuring out how to photograph it (and it still leaves a little wanting) because it really needed a white background to show off the pattern.

Thanks again to Sarah Elizabeth for starting the knit along and for her encouragement along the way.

Second, the Turino Silk Mini Poncho. Mom, I'm going to put it in the mail tomorrow and I hope you like it. You'll have to model it and send me a photo. If it's not what you were looking for, I still have the min-poncho experiment waiting (though frogging is probably more likely) and one panel of the vintage poncho. I'm going to find a different pattern for the yarn I got for Linda's.

Third, Bilboa, a cap-sleeved shell from the Colinette Enigma book. My pictures didn't come out very well, so I'm going to try again in daylight. I've got a bit to say about this project, but will save it b/c it's getting late.

Plus, I'm almost finished with the first back piece of Sheerly There and I've knit about five inches of the sleeves of the Yorkshire Tweed sample sweater for Woolwinders. Photos of both later this week.

In addition to sending off the mini poncho, my Secret Pal has a birthday this week and I'm gonna try to get my first package out to her.

Running out of steam and I've got an early morning so I'll end here, though I just know that there's something I forgot to say. There's always tomorrow.

blocking out the weekend

I have lots of knitting related plans for the weekend. My first goal is to block both the flower basket shawl and the Matisse Charlotte's Web shawl. The flower basket shawl looks pretty ratty now but I have high hopes for it after blocking. And yes, another Charlotte's Web. After this one is completed, that leaves only one more on the needles, the Noir Charlotte which I plan to take my good old time with. After blocking, the flower basket shawl will be finished. The Matisse, named by my friend Joannie who also named Seville and Provence, will still need its crocheted edge and fringe. The Koigu for Matisse was purchased during a visit to Denver, where Joannie lives, and fittingly, it will go back to Denver finished as a gift for her. Here is what they both look like BEFORE:

Two other pieces ARE going to get finished this weekend: the Turino mini-poncho and a lovely Colinette Giotto top for my friend Sonya. If I truly can get all that done, I will feel like I've accomplished somethng. I also don't want unfinished projects to go undone when I've got such a yen to start new ones. Big question that I need to research re: the mini-poncho -- how do you block silk? I've never done it (I never blocked anything before the last couple of years) and one expert knitter I asked said that you can't block silk. How can that be?

I've knit about 6 inches on Sheerly There and love how it's working up (pictures when there's more to see). The Koigu held together with the Kidsilk Haze looks beautiful and makes me particularly happy because I desperately need to find other uses for KPPPM beyond Charlotte's Web shawls. Now I just have to get enough of the mohair to do the whole sweater -- another task for the weekend.

I've been on a bit of a yarn binge and I was unrepentantly planning to continue that this weekend, but I'm less certain now. Woolwinders is having a big sale but from their blog, it sounds like most of the sale items are already out the door. I had been planning to get some Big Kureyon but that's definitely already sold out. I will probably still make the trek up there anyway, but I will have to lower my expectations. According to their newsletter, Yarns International has put out their new Koigu and that's a regularly scheduled stop for me on Saturdays anyway. I need to put together my holiday list before I go so that I'm not just randomly purchasing yarn that strikes my fancy. Somehow, though, that's what it usually gets down to -- the question is, can I change?

the new camera works

It's going to be the weekend before I can do a real download of the last week in knitting, but I couldn't resist posting a few photos before I leave for work (which should have been 30 minutes ago).

The first picture I took with my new digital camera was of Seville Charlotte's web stretched for blocking:

I still haven't figured out how to restore the color, which seems to fade a bit when I save photos for the web. Need a photoshop tutorial... here's a close-up of the Charlotte:

Now for the flower basket shawl. It hasn't been blocked, but I was wearing a white t-shirt and stretched it across my back so Joannie could take a quick picture:

Finally, this Plymouth Turino Silk is what I'm using for the current (and final) mini poncho for Mom:

Have a great day!

quick update

after a week away there's so much to say, but unfortunately, no time right now. got back yesterday evening later than i'd planned after having to drive through much of what was left of tropical storm Gaston. and this morning, i've unexpectedly got to go to NY for the day for a meeting -- dreading having to go to the city during the Republican convention. taking the shuttle instead of the train in order to avoid the convention area, which means less opportunity to knit on the trip. since this space is for knitting and not for politics, i won't say anything more....now.

the flower basket shawl is finished!!! well, not quite, it still needs to be blocked, but i think i'm going to be happy with how it turned out and i should have enough yarn left over to make a hat. took a picture with it stretched across my back while wearing a white t-shirt (will post later) and the pattern does pop out.

also finished the red and black charlotte's web, the shawl previously known as athens charlotte, previously known as #2. my friend joannie took one look at it and renamed it Seville Charlotte, which seems to fit it quite well. turns out she has quite a talent for names that i have to admit i don't have.

visited a wonderful yarn store in Southport, NC, which i'll write more about later. a poncho was hanging in the window that i think is exactly what my mom is looking for (sorry, mini-poncho experiment), the owner was extremely knowledgeable and unbelievably helpful, and i came away with yarn to make a poncho for both my mom and my sister (a lot of attention to ponchos considering i don't think much of them myself), wool to make a felted bag that should felt better than my Kureyon did, and a pile of old Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits and Knitter's magazines, with lots of ideas of stuff to make this winter. Joannie bought a beautiful worsted weight alpaca/wool blend called Jazz by Artful Yarn. i don't remember having seen it before and while it looked nice on the hank, i really fell in love with it while helping her wind it into a ball.

gotta get moving. more tomorrow.

UFOs

spent some time this morning working on the flower basket shawl. i'm on the 6th repetition of the lower flower basket chart and it's starting to shape up nicely, the pattern is discernible to me, though, it probably still won't photograph well, i've learned it well enough to correct my inevitable mistakes, and the yarn choice/color scheme is starting to feel less sketchy. i'm not even half way through the skein and am now thinking about whether i might want to go beyond the 8 repetitions i was originally thinking of (the pattern calls for 7 before doing the final edging chart). now that i've gotten so far, i'm eager to keep going.

it's time, though, to finish the three Charlottes in waiting. i'm going to spend a few days at the beach in North Carolina next week and I want to take them with me to edge and fringe. that means blocking them this week. putting a striped sheet on the bed in my guest bedroom worked well before, and i'm tempted to block one of them on a 5X7 dhurrie rug that seems to hold the T-pins pretty well. photos to follow.

i've got several other projects in various stages of completion that are going to enjoy the ocean air. Now I just have to figure out which ones.

a picture is worth...

a thousand words only if you can take a decent photograph. my next task is to figure out how to take photos that better represent these knitting projects and to learn photo shop well enough to correct the color for posting to the web. these photos of my second charlotte's web shawl capture a little bit of what is my favorite charlotte, but don't really tell its story. i made this charlotte to dress up an outfit for a January wedding at an inn north of new york city. i never got there because of a death in my family but the setting seemed like a fairy tale, the people getting married were both very special to me and i just had to have something realy special to wear. intended to be worn over black velvet, the deep greens and reds had a winter-y, heirloom quality to them. i don't keep many of the things i knit, but even if i had intended to, this one i couldn't give away.

sad thing is, you can't really tell it from the photos. they were taken with a great camera borrowed from my friend Charlotte (no kidding), so i can't blame the camera phone. i just ordered a digital camera as my birthday present to myself and hopefully, when it arrives, i can learn to do better. thing is, between tinkering with photos and knitting, i'd rather be knitting.

update on my flower basket shawl: it's recovering from a rough week. i noted earlier that i did a repetition of each chart on US8s and wasn't happy. i then did a repetition of each chart on US7s and wasn't happy either. so i frogged both. i dragged my entire stash out of the attic for a long overdue organization and to see if i had anything else fitting so i could start working on it immediately. i thought a lighter colored, singled hued yarn would work better b/c it would show off the pattern. i now have a much better idea of what's in my stash and much of it is better organized, but there wasn't a substitute on hand. i was determined to get started so i went back to the Sierra and started again on the US7s. i'm now through the third repetition of the lower flower basket chart and i believe that when it's blocked, the pattern will emerge. thanks for your encouragement, sarah elizabeth. i'll try a camera photo over the weekend, but it might have to wait until the new camera arrives.

time flies

i sat down at the computer at 9:00am and am just now writing this post after messing around with photos and other stuff for what turns out to be 2 1/2 hours. where does the time go?

at the end of a nice afternoon yesterday, i wandered into Knit & Stitch = Bliss, which has the benefit of being close by and staying open until 5:30 on Saturday. i was looking for space dyed yarn to possibly use to make the pooled color scarf in the new Interweave Knits. Didn't find anything suitable for the scarf but a very helpful and knowledgeable salesguy pointed me to some beautiful Great Adirondacks 100% alpaca in Sierra Copper. I already have several skeins of the Old English colorway in my stash waiting to become a sweater this winter, but the deep coppery brown and aubergine combination, touched with gray, was really appealing (see the flower basket shawl photo album). an expensive impulse purchase, but what the hell....

when i got it home, i looked through piles of books and magazines to see what it should be and landed on what had been my first thought, the Flower Basket Shawl in Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. because the skein has 600 yards, it's about perfect for a smallish shawl. there's a flower basket shawl knit along started by Sarah Elizabeth at Knit One Spin Too (still need to figure out the linking thing) and i thought it would be fun to be a part of that.

winding all 600 yards at once made me grateful to have gotten a swift and ballwinder this summer -- two knitting tools i'd highly recommend. some small doubts crept in when i swatched it. to get the right gauge, i had to move up to US8 but the stitches looked a little loose to me. US7s were getting me 18st/4 inches rather than 16st/4 inches. i went with the US8s.

i went though the first chart and the first repetition of the second chart pretty quickly. the photo posted here is just of the first chart because that seemed to be closest in terms of color (i'm back to the camera phone again). the yarn knits up beautifully, is unbelieveably soft, but because of the way it's dyed, the pattern is almost undiscernible. that might work itself out as i get farther along, but it might not. i'm going to try starting again (without frogging the current piece) on the US7s to see if that makes the pattern any cleaner looking.

separately, i haven't abandoned the mini poncho experiment. if i can make up for the lost time sitting at the computer, it will be complete today. i'm about 85% finished. problem is, it doesn't look right now like it's going to be a success. there may be an option or two to salvage it, but i've got to complete the primary knitting first. photos tk.