tangled up

It Gets Cold in St. Louis

My Uncle Jack, whom I love dearly, lives in St. Louis. Several years ago I was visiting him in December and he was out wearing one of the more ridiculous hat and scarf combinations I've ever seen. Can't remember the colors to mention, but they were garish, they clashed and they were ratty with age, the scarf particularly. He didn't care, he just wanted to stay warm when he was out walking the dog. The following season, I made him a VERY WARM scarf, I don't remember if it was 1X1 or 2X2 ribbing, but it had three strands held together, navy Manos, Koigu Kersti for a bit of color, and a third strand that I think was some kind of cashmere blend to make it really soft. I promised a hat, but never made good. There wasn't enough Kersti, I got distracted, I don't even remember my excuse at the time.

In time for the cold winter this year, and knowing that he was going to be here visiting last night, I finally made him the promised hat. It's all Manos and uses Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns pattern. I first tried the brioche stitch hat in Weekend Knitting but I was doing something desperately wrong. The hemmed approach will give him a double layer of warmth around the ears and it's extra long b/c he likes to pull it way down. Here's to you, Uncle Jack!

Pictures of Perkins

I took Perkins up to Woolwinders on Sunday. They promised to take pictures with buttons and all, and being modeled by Jacqui, whom it should fit perfectly. In the meantime, here are some photos I took in its all but final state:

I'm really pleased with how the collar and button bands came out but this photo really magnifies the unevenness of the single row stripes. I'm still not sure why they are so uneven. My gauge is generally pretty even and the yarn itself did not appear to change consistency -- it's a puzzlement:

Right before I finished knitting the edging -- about 8" before -- my hands finally understood the lace pattern and it went from tedious to fun. I think I'm most pleased about how it looks attached. The instructions say to attach it with slip stitch, which I interpreted to be crocheted slip stitch, and that was a total non-starter. I ultimately did it very carefully with blanket stitch along the edges in such a way that they butt right up to each other (flat along the back).

I love Rowan patterns and this one was very easy to follow. I think my recommendation to anyone else who is thinking about making this sweater: make it easier for yourself by changing the striping pattern, the single row stripes aren't quite worth the effort.

Have a great day!

Crowing

Quite a sense of accomplishment: Perkins is finished! I sewed the final edging on last night and it needs a little steaming around the seam then it's ready to go to Woolwinders. Checking to see what time they open so I can take it there this morning. Will post photos later.

Knitting Withdrawal

Amid a couple of months of very busy weeks, this week feels like the mother of them all.  Still in San Francisco a day after my intended departure; the current plan is to leave on the red-eye tonight.    In the meantime, I've had almost no time to knit.  And on top of that, my Apricot Jacket project is a bit of a disaster.  I've been knitting both sides at the same time and got to the point of creating the diagonal pattern.  Somehow, though, I did the edge stitch on the wrong side or something because the knits and purls aren't working out correctly.  If that sounds confusing, it has totally confused me and I just totally put it aside so I can refocus on it when I get home.

I've done a little better on the  Perkins edging.  This morning I got up 1/2 hour early just to do a little knitting -- it's my own personal yoga or meditation. The edging is now about 30" long (the totalwill be 41") and if I'm not totally spent by the time I get on the plane, I will be able to work as long as the remaining yarn lasts.  Flying back on JetBlue on what seems like a very crowded plane so I'm not exactly confident.  I so want to finish that sweater this weekend.

Gotta get back to my conference call....

Yarn Detour

Airport coach seating has become so uncomfortable that I squirmed for more of my flight to San Francisco than I knitted.   Had an inexpensive fare on United, but JetBlue is LOTS more comfortable.  I do have half of the Perkins edging completed now.    Not sure why it is going to so slowly.  I switched from the Pony Pearl dps I was using to Crystal Palace bamboo because the points are much sharper and that has helped a lot.

What has prompted me to write from the road, though, is this amazing visit yesterday that I took to ArtFibers.  It’s probably a good thing that I arrived only 45 minutes before they closed – I could have done a lot more damage had I been there longer.  ArtFibers calls itself a yarn mill store but the place that that name conjures up is not at all like that.  It’s more like a yarn boutique or atelier. The SF bloggers post about it all the time, but I wasn’t prepared for what I found – it was a delightful surprise.

It’s funny – I've become more of a yarn snob than I realized -- my preferences are often predictable by brand:  Rowan, Colinette, Great Adirondack, Wool in the Woods, etc.  I also generally shy away from synthetics – the Merino Stretch I’m using for the Apricot Jacket gave me initially pause because it’s a wool/acrylic combination. Everything at ArtFibers is ArtFibers.  They have beautiful whole fibers – merinos, mohairs, alpaca, silks but they delight in man-made fiber too and mix with impunity.  Each type of yarn has a great name – it would be really fun to be the person who names them.   It will be a test of my skills at description, but I’m going to list my purchases (in no order of preference):

Toto (1) and Catnap (1) – this nylon tactel microfiber tape is about the softest stuff  I’ve ever felt.  The Catnap is a pure teal blue and the Toto is a subtly variegated version of the same color with darker shades of blue and almost black.  I’m going to use them for a pair of fingerless gloves that they gave me a pattern for – a birthday/Hanukkah present for a young friend.  They recommend these yarns for baby things and Catnap comes in baby colors – it is easy to envision as baby clothes or a blanket.

Sage (2) is a super baby alpaca/wool mix from Uruguay that they said would felt very well.  I’m going to use it to try to fashion a couple of felted bowls to make for holiday presents.  The color is a soft variegated combination of steel blue and lavender.

Sherlock (3) caught my eye because of its color, again a softly variegated combination of dark purple, aubergine, brown and black.  It’s a mix of extrafine merino and silk, enough to make a scarf or some other small project.

Babushka (2) is an extrafine merino wool spun as a bulky chenille.  It will  make a great mobius scarf.  The color is mostly black with deep eggplant highlights.

Sinbad (3) and Houdini (1) – I was totally carried away by the color combinations in these variegated yarns so I’ll describe it first.  The website calls the Houdini color “Antiquity” and it feels like it belongs in pre-Renaissance Europe (Great Adirondacks Fluff comes in a colorway not dissimilar in feel called “Old English”).  It is a mixture of blues, purples, greens, and golds that is almost indescribable.   Houdini is a superwide nylon ribbon and when I say superwide, I mean it – it’s ¾” wide.  Sinbad is a bulky 80/20 merino/nylon loopy yarn that has flecks of glitter in it that have been dyed along with the yarn, glitter in a very sexy, not garish way. 

While everything I bought could be described as pretty muted in tone, ArtFibers appears to specialize in very bright colors, beautiful bright colors.   I arrived close to closing and there were only a couple of other customers; I’m sure it’s regularly a lot busier.  Both of the women working there could not have been nicer or more helpful.   If you’re visiting San Francisco, don’t miss it.  You can order yarn from their website, too, but without having been to the store, it would have been hard to get the true sense of these amazing fibers.  It's located right downtown so it's very easy to get to.

After I click “post” on this entry, it’s time to get to the work I traveled here to do, but I can’t wait to get home to work with these yarns.

stretch-y stretch-y

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends who are really my DC family. With kids as helpers, baked pies and rolls. Not having to do everything left more time for...knitting!

I didn't attain my goal of finishing Perkins. I got about 11" of the lace edging finished after ripping pieces of it out several times. For some reason, I keep making mistakes. I will take it on my flight to San Francisco tomorrow and hopefully between the flight out and the flight back get it done. I dragged the sweater with me to size the edging that way (for SF, I'll have to measure) and used the occasion to get one of the girls to try it on. It really looked nice. If it were anywhere near my size, I think I would just pay for the yarn and keep it. As it is, I really look forward to giving it to Jacqui and seeing it hang in Woolwinders (if you don't notice links here, it's because I've gone on strike making them on the Mac when Movable Type makes it so easy to do on Windows -- I just have to call this up on a Windows machine and add them later).

I also made progress on the Apricot Jacket. The stretch merino gives it a very funny shape that I imagine will change when the wearer is wearing it. The ribbing pulls in much tighter than the stockinette. It's moving pretty quickly. I've started both sides of the front, working them together like sleeves. See how far I get on those this trip.

I'm not going to have much spare time while in SF, but I did notice that ArtFibers, which isn't far from where I'm stayiing, is open until 6 on Saturday. I should be able to get in from the airport, check in and have some time for shopping before they close. Seems like a waste to travel without checking out a local yarn store, especially one so storied as ArtFibers.

For the last couple of years, I've coached my friends daughter and her two friends on their history fair project. They're really serious about it, work hard on it and last year ranked 7th nationally in the documentary category and won the overall African American History prize. We've been working on this year's project for the past month or so and knitting has become a regular topic -- all three want to learn to knit. One of them turns 15 this weekend and I got her a copy of the Teen Knitting Club book -- it's perfect for kids their age, filled with projects they're all really interested in. I'd definitely recommend it.

Unlikely that I'll get to post again until December 2 when I'm back in DC. Hopefully I'll have lots to write about then.

stretch apricot

This my second attempt at this post -- Safari froze up on me the first time, incentive to download and use Firefox. Our office had the first day of a two day retreat today and I needed a knitting project that I could work on while keeping my eyes on my co-workers. I took the opportunity to start the Apricot Jacket, a design in Rebecca #27 that I've been eyeing for quite a while. A number of other bloggers have done beatuiful versions -- it seems like it's about the most commonly knitted sweater lately that doesn't have its own knitalong. I've seen a number of them in Rowan All Seasons Cotton (Froggy's is particularly great) and I like using All Seasons Cotton but I was looking for something that would have a slightly more wintry feel.

I settled on Schoeller Stahl's Merino Stretch in a color of blue that you'd probably call Marine blue. I ordered it a couple of weeks ago from elann.com, my very first purchase there. The sweater style seemed appropriate for the stretchiness of the yarn, but now that I've started I'm not quite sure. The sweater is for a friend who is very small, probably 30/32 instead of the 34/36 that's the small size in the pattern. My gauge is somewhat higher than called for, which should make the sizing work out right, but the stretchiness is making it appear absolutely tiny. If it works, it will be great, but right now, it's not obvious that it will work. It is moving pretty quickly, though. You can't tell from this picture, but I got about 9 inches of the back finished today:

I'd love to have taken the Perkins lace edging to work on, but that requires entirely too much concentration. I have a flight to San Francisco on Saturday, and this looks to be the take along project. Hopefully, Perkins will be finished and in the hands of her rightful owner by then. Just occurred to me, but I need to look into whether there are any SF yarn stores open on Sundays...

Almost Perkins

This is the longest time for me between posts since I started this blog in August. Travel will do that, I guess. Travel this time gave me little time to knit, so I don't have too much to report, except....

Perkins is just about almost finished. And if I say so myself, she's looking pretty good. All that is left is to complete the lace edging around the bottom (in progress) and attach it. My goal is get the whole thing completed before next weekend so I can take it up or send it up to Jacqui before I start traveling again next Saturday. Jacqui, if you're reading this, start thinking about buttons -- the sweater needs seven.

There will be lots more pictures (maybe incentive to update my photo album), but here's just one in the meantime.

Ugg-a Ugg-a

This weekend wasn't very productive for work or for everything I hoped to do around the house, but I did get a lot of knitting done. In addition to completing Lara, I made some good progress on Perkins -- finished the buttonhole band, the collar, and started knitting the lace edging. I also made some adorable baby booties that will make great gifts and took just a few hours.

Candi Jensen has a couple of books of crochet patterns for babies and tots that have miniature versions of cool, popular clothing items. I even bought one of the them, Candy Babies, to see if I could convert some of them into knitting patterns. Well, it seems she's already done that, at least with a couple of them. Available on the DIY Network, these Ugg booties and a matching hat were part of a show that she did. The construction is simple and ingenious. They use Suede and Plush yarns by Berroco, which knit up to look exactly like their names. The pattern for the booties is here and the hat is here and here.

La La La La Lara

FO Alert -- Today I spent sewing up Lara and after a few false starts, she's finished! And she's wearing the first of the labels I ordered last month, which prove more than anything else that sewing is not my forte. This was a really fun sweater to knit, the Cash Iroha that I used worked with the pattern very well, and now that I'm finished, I'm not sure I'll make another, but it's definitely something to consider for the future.

The finishing for this was simple compared with Perkins, which is also coming along. By the end of the day, the sewing, the buttonhole band and collar should be complete with only the lace edging on the bottom to knit and attach. The end is really in sight.

Spending part of the afternoon organizing the stash that has been accumulating on my guest bed, actually, all over the guest room, so that it doesn't overwhelm my nephew when he shows up this week. Gotta finish while the daylight is still bright...