Hues Progresses

The body is finished, so time to strap in for some end weaving.

I am pleased with the two substitutions I used to cover for running out of yarn. In this picture you can see the original blue on the left and the substitute yarn on the right.

The original lighter green is in the two stripes on the left, and the substitute color is on the right.

I ended up with about 6" of the yellow yarn.

So, stash-busting success.

Hues in Horizontal

Hues in Horizontal from Knitters Magazine, Fall 2000 seemed to be an interesting stash buster. As I remember, I had two four ounce skeins of the dark green and magenta that make the main colors and single four ounce skeins of the rest. These were vintage worsted wool skeins that I had aquired during my eBay yarn rampage days.

I worked most of the first sleeve on a road trip to somewhere. Probably a Christmas or Thanksgiving to North Carolina to see the FIL. Then, I went into a several year knitting funk.

Finishing something is my attempt at crawling out, and I suppose I'm doing reasonably well. Both sleeves are complete and the body to the front is done.

I recognized that I was running low on the light green and blue mid-way up the body. I had been considering a V neck rather than the round neck in the model and making a deep V seemed to be a choice that allows at least the front to complete before running out of yarn. I've finished one side and here is what is left:

:I have managed to find another 2 ounces of the light green. This ball had been set aside as it had serious sun damage, but it will do for the back.

I also managed to find some contemporary yarns, which, in combination look quite like the light blue.

It would be a shame to get this far and not be able to finish, so I am mushing along.  Wishing myself luck.

Canyonville Sleeve

New project - Canyonville from Alice Starmore, American Portraits.  I bought the booklet when I saw one made up in a knitting shop over twenty years ago.  I think I swatched it several times, but could not get the gauge.

This time, I just decided to rework the pattern to the gauge I got.  I also prefer the raglan sleeve treatment that several of the people on Ravelry have used.

I'm using very vintage Bear Brand Deluxe Knitting Worsted that was purchased on eBay.  eBay purchases are of course why I have way too much yarn upstairs.

Hedera is done

So, here we are.  I spent Thursday working on it so that she could be washed and dried before needlework Monday.

The sweater fits nicely, however the sleeves are way too long.  They were meant to be turned back, but as pictured, they are double cuffed.

I wanted to put a closure on this, but I am reconsidering.  It looks great open, and seems to settle properly as well.

If I was to make it again, I would shorten the sleeves.  Other than that, a nice knit.

It is January 2013 now.

My yarn stash is all over the guest room, and has been for several months now.  I would like to have less yarn around, but when I go to thin out the stash, I end up loving it again.  Even the bright yellow worsted.

I have found that I prefer working in the smaller gauges.  I have also found that working outside of my likes increases my feeling of creativity.  If reducing volume is my goal, then this is the year of worsted weight.

To kick off, I offer the swatch for an almost finished Hedera jacket.  Hedera is from the Nancy Marchant Knitting Brioche book.  All the pieces are knit, and I started sewing it together on Monday. 

We are up to the armpits here, and looking good.

Vegan girl was on a field trip last week, and took her orange sweater. Now kids are uploading their pictures, and I can see that she really did wear it. It looks good, but maybe that is just me being proud.

I also took the orange sweater to my knitting group to show off. That was fun too. It was turned it inside out to examine the stranding, and to search for the seams that were not there. The other knitters in the group don't seem to do a lot of mulit color work. I bask in the admiration.

All done, and it fits. There is still enough cool weather, that vegan girl may wear it before the spring really happens here.

You can see, if you look that the body is tapered a bit.

I messed up the yoke a bit. Stupid, really. It was important to craft a decrease method to line the pattern up along the raglan lines. That meant three decreases every five rows. Like a moron, I just started out doing the every other row decrease that seems to magically work on raglan shapes. The little spots were growing farther apart. So, I ripped it out, and did it again.

I started my next sweater yesterday during the final games of 6 Nations rugby. We were in a pub with some friendly pub regulars, who all wore kilts to watch Scotland lose to England. Then we stayed for the Wales/Ireland game. Many beers later, we were escorted to a very nice restaurant by a friendly kilt guy - I had mentioned that I was craving French Fries. This restaurant had the best steak I have eaten in France. Then we returned to the pub for another cocktail, and then off to the train before service ended for the evening.

Oh, back to the knitting, I completed the 5 cm of ribbing, but it is just 5 cm of black ribbing. I will photograph it when there is something real to see.

Happy March

The orange sweater is comming right along. The sleeves are finished, and the body needs a little over one more patter repeat before I'm at the armholes. This is to be a raglan, so everyone becomes attached at that point.

I was in a panic when I finished the arms. Each one took just under a ball of orange to complete. I calculated that I had to be two balls short. Turns out, I was wrong, and I should have just enough.

I spent today weaving in the ends for the arms and body, in anticipation of putting the pieces together. For some reason, I had it in my head that I wanted the sleeves cleaned up before I attached them to the body. Since I don't really like doing this job, I feel very good about the project now.

This is what happens when you let a teenager choose colors. I like it.

This is the yarn I purchased in Germany. I've been able to get a tighter gauge than the ball band indicates, which suits me just fine.

I've had some not so successful experiences with cotton/cotton blends. With a sleeve finished, I think that this one will work out well.

Whew

The Flying Geese gansey is done. It fits. It looks great on my husband.

Almost a year for this one. It is not a hard or tedious pattern. I may even make it again.

I have started on a wild one. My daughter has become vegan. Thus all the wool, alpaca, silk, and mixes of these are off limits to her sensibility. I'm still her mother, and I'm still a knitter, and I still melt when I hear "Mommy, will you knit a sweater for me???"

She wanted cables or color. This tells me I need an acrylic or microfiber blend. Rowan designers may be able to pull off fair isle or cables with 100% cotton, but I'm not going there.

I'm not pleased with the selection or price of yarn here in Paris. Since we were planning a long weekend in Germany, I used Ravelry to look up a yarn store.

We ended up in the Maschenkunst store. Wonderful experience, and a very nice shop. We didn't get off the the best start, as their delicious selection of yarn was mostly 100% natural stuff, and that stuff wasn't vegan. It was January, so their summer cotton stock had not come in. So selection for vegan girl was limited. We all fussed around, and finally found some selection we could work with.

Now, what to do with it?

Daughter and I sat on their comfy sofa to look at some books, and for further negociations. We were offered coffee - very sweet. Eventually we were shown the new Isenberger book and daughter loved the Somer i Toyko design. Well, that's a start - we can change out the colors, adjust the gauge. We agreed that she would like it, and I would be happy knitting it.

So, the swatch is above, most of the calculations have been worked, and I've got about half of a sleeve on the needles.

Happy New Year.


I finally got Flying Geese put back together, and on his way again. What a pain! I should have just ripped down to the gusset, and added length that way. Even better, I should get it into my head the my husband of 21 years has a long torso, and I always need to add 2" to the body of his sweaters.

Review of 2008
* I significantly reduced my stash. I sold a lot before moving, and used stash yarn for all my projects.
* I finished four and 2/3 sweaters. The goal was 6.

Goals for 2009 -
*Only stash yarn
*Finish Flying Geese plus 5 more sweaters
*Blog at least twice per month

A longer than normal summer absence. I suppose moving to France has something to do with it. I do believe that my knitting goals are pretty well blown. Not a problem; knitting has been way down the list of priorities for the past few months.

The climate here favors wearing my wool sweaters way more than Houston. I suppose that is a big DUH. I've had Fern on most days this week. My other favorite is the Starz sweater.

Even after three months, I'm still settling in. I still need to find places for some of the things we brought with us, and re-arrange what I've already put away. Also, lamps - our little house is dark. Thus, not a lot of time, or even interest in knitting, and with no knitting, what is the point of a knitting blog?

Well, I have finished this sweater for my sister in law. As you can tell, it is a companion sweater to the green one I made earlier in the year. I hope they enjoy them.

I have found the flying geese sweater, and will try to get that together and finish it next.

Where's Swatchy?
Has it been the normal summer slump?
NO!
Swatchy is moving to France.

So, knitters with large stash, consider this. Imagine that you will be leaving for at least two years, but perhaps quite a bit longer. Then look at your stash. You have three months to prepare your entire house, and you work a normal 40 hour plus week, and have a daughter to care for.

What do you do?

This is what I did.

First, I stewed, and cleaned a different closet.

Second
I took all the yarn that I didn't love. I bought a lot off of EBay for 50 cents per ounce or so, plus shipping. Since I was a motivated seller, I decided that the 50cents per ounce mark was good. I was lucky enough to be able to attend an annual knitting guild yarn swap. I also volunteered at a workshop and sold more at lunchtime there as well. A Ravelry lady bought some too. Two or three large bins gone, and I made more than $100. (ummm, you do the math on the volumes) Great!

Message here is that local knitting guilds and clubs rock. I quit going because it conflicted with Girl Scouts. When the troop quit, I never got back to going. I should have.

Third, I thought about my basic stash problem. I don't use this because it goes with that, and there is enough of that for a whole sweater.

I bought a lot of those canvas/plastic sweater bags at The Container Store. I took all my yarn where I had enough for a large cable sweater, and put two sweaters worth of yarn in each bag. I'm liking to do two color Norwegian type sweaters these days, so then I took two color combinations and stored them the same way. And so on. I ended up with 18 bags. Now, since I knit about six sweaters in a normal year, that amounts to six years of knitting.

Message here - I let my purchasing get way out of control. Hence, the yarn diet. Looks like a six year yarn diet.

There was still more yarn. Nice yarn. Some of my favorite kinds - the vintage Wool/Shetland wool. Hmmm. We decided to keep our house, and to have an "owners closet" in that house. So that is where it went.

Then, what to do with the books and patterns? When I was pulling yarn for the bags, I also noted ideas for patterns when I had them. I pulled all the books and magazines where those patterns lived, and a few more that I especially liked. They also went into the shipment. Over the years, I have marked a number of magazines up with sticky notes where I really liked a pattern, so it was pretty quick to find those pages again. The rest went to storage.

Message, Sticky notes in magazines are handy.

Fourth, or maybe some time in the middle, I had to think about what I was bringing with me. There will be six to eight weeks from the time all is packed until it shows up on the other side of the pond. I took the three project that I have in progress, and one more. So, one of my suitcases is about half full of yarn.

I haven't looked at my projects for about five weeks because I have the rest of the house to work too. But, now it's done. The packers came and packed. The container was filled, and is at a warehouse, getting re-arranged for shipping and storage. The ship sails on July 9th.

I'm tired.

Dang

It's too short. Not a little short - like - I can block it longer short, but really too short. Three pattern repeats of the flying geese patterns too short. A whole skein and a half short.

My husband has a long torso; I know that. I had to snip and lengthen the Hardangervidda. The Starmore sweaters are usually sized really large, and I figured the measurements would be ok. Just to be safe, I pulled out Hardangervidda. My husband LOVES this sweater now. I put the geese on top, and this is what I saw.

I'm glad I did a compare before adding the sleeves. I will have yarn of the same dye lot to use.

After pouting, I decided to snip between the ribbing and the beginning of the pattern. Pick up the ribbing, re-do the body increase, then do three pattern repeats. Then, use my new awesome grafting skills to stick it back together. I have a lot of other work to do at home, so I can't dedicate myself to fixing this, so I have a three week plan as a goal.

Week one - snip and pick up

Week two - knit the three pattern repeats

Week three - graft

So, by the weekend of June 7th, I should be able to start on the sleeves.

Flying Geese has a front and a back now. Measurements seem to be what I was going for. I think it will block a bit larger, and that is fine.

Now for the anxious part. I started with 16 skeins, and I have used 11 1/2 for the body. That leaves 4 1/2 for the sleeves and collar. This seems like not quite enough.

This color is not discontinued, so it is possible to get some more, but probably not the same dye lot. There is a pattern break about the elbow of the sleeve, where I could add on in a different dye lot, and if there is a slight color change, I don't think it would take away from the work.

We shall see.

Happy 5 year birthday, blog.

The front is finished on the Flying Geese gansey. It was politely admired this weekend while I was at camp.

I started teaching my very first basic sailing class this weekend, and my students all did very well. We had great weather, and all that they need to do is test off their skills next weekend.

Learning to sail is pretty hard. If the weather is bad, the students don't get enough time on the water to practice. This weekend, we had to start late on Sunday because of too much wind, and Saturday, cut the session short because the wind and current conspired to sweep our beginners all over the bay. So, all who could sail in were sent to the beach, and the motorboats rounded all the rest up. We had a damaged spar set, and a few freaked out sailors, but all were safe, and the weather was better in the afternoon, so we sailed again, and it was great.

I was leaving feeling very satisfied. In the parking lot there was a mother yelling at her daughter. The girl looked to be pretty young; probably just old enough to take the class. The girl apparently needed to come back next weekend to finish testing out, and to get her card. This is very normal, and the fact that she was invited to come back indicates that she was one of the ones that just ran out of time. The ones who don't seem to be intereested are simply allowed to leave. This mom was screaming about how many times she had to drive to camp, and how this girl should have tried harder. She ended up with how she was tired of wasting her time on this girl, and no more camp, and no more Girl Scouts.

I did nothing. I've had enough parenting challenges to perhaps be over sensitive to people who know nothing about my circumstances to butt in. However, I don't know if I could ever tell my child that I was wasting my time on her. It made me very sad.

The geese have flown, and all that is left is a lot of knits and purls. I started this about a month ago, as a vacation project. I was almost done with that big green fair isle, and I didn't want to pack a huge sweater that I wasn't going to wear to Europe and back. I didn't have the patience to put together a few baby projects. So, I grabbed some skeins of nature spun, and got on the airplane.

Upon returning, the sweater didn't want to be photographed on the circular needle. She didn't think being all bunched up was flattering. I suppose I had to agree, as I have waited until now to take her picture.

This pattern really looks nice, and isn't all that difficult. I really like the way the bobbles nestle into the little cable. Maybe I'll post a close up when my camera battery is recharged.

Big Fair Isle is done.

Just in time too. While we are enjoying wonderful weather in Houston this week, we have had some episodes of summer heat and humidity.

Last year, I dumped my "Fern" project until it cooled down because I just couldn't bear to work with the wool.

gingbox
Originally uploaded by SwatchyKnitter

I suppose if you have to think inside of a box, this is a way to do it.

Ah, it is April now. First quarter is finished. So many reports to do. Let's do a fun one

STASH USAGE Report

Charlie Brown Sweater - Complete
Florida Baby Sweater - Complete
Green Fair Isle - 80%
Brilla pullover - 50%
New Gansey - 30%

Gold Wool/Shetland Wool - 8 skeins; 16 oz
Black Debut - 1.5 skeins; 2.8 oz
Avocado worsted - 2.5 skeins; 10 oz
Pine Green worsted - 3 skeins; 12 oz
Brilla print - 5 skeins; 8.8 oz
Nature Spun sport - 5 skeins; 8.8 oz
Cotton odd balls - 5oz

Q1 Total
1 adult sweater
1.6 unfinished sweater equivalents
1 baby sweater
25 skeins of various weight.
63.4 oz, or almost 4 pounds.

That feels like success.

Look Ma, One Arm

onearm
Originally uploaded by SwatchyKnitter

Back from vacation, and there is a new project started. More on that, later. For now, we see that this fair isle is about ten days from being finished.