Slip Stitch Swatches

If I adhere to my goals list, Canyonville should be the next up. But, I don't feel like cables right now. I did go find a cable needle, so I will count that as progress. 

Instead, I did a stash dive. 

I struggle with the notion of doing a project to use up yarn stash versus creating a project that I enjoy and want to make.

I first looked at some blue yarns. I have about 300 grams of two colors and figured I could add a brown or tan sort of like Jeanie on the Berroco free pattern site. After looking at the yarns for a few days I concluded they were nice but I wasn't excited enough about the pattern. It felt like a "use up" project instead of something I really wanted to do. 

I tried a slip stitch pattern with the chosen yarns to see how they played together. I was surprised how bright the two blues read. The tan was meh, and made me think about orange. I liked the nubby texture. I liked slip stitch.

This is the next try. It is the Kiyomi pattern which I have admired. The light orange was OK, but the choices in the model worked because they were closer in shade and tone.

Well, hello, this works.  

Oh, and the color is more representative of the true color than the previous picture.

The Kiyomi model features a wide center welt of the main color yarn. I do not think I have enough yarn for that and I don't wear cardigans much anyway. So, a pullover, probably using the Ann Budd Grand Plan pattern. 

I like the slip stitch pattern from the failed blue/tan swatch for the bottom, wrist and neck edging but I will fiddle with the color order.

For the record, I am starting with 434 grams of the dark rose, 324 grams of the orange and 178 grams of the pink.

Done and Done

I'm so pleased that the Winter garden sweater is finished. She waited so long for me to find the patience to pick out the flubs and put her together. The knitting part was entertaining, and I may try the design again.

I finished the knitting on Dream bird over the weekend. I fiddled with the edge finishing as I did not always remember to carry the feather yarn down the cast of edge. I ended up with an I-cord that covers up the boo-boos. I encountered a suggestion to old the interior cast off stitches for an I-chord edging too late to implement, but I think that is an outstanding idea. I don't wear shawls much, so this will likely be a one and done design.

So, this project is next up. When visiting yarn shops I have a habit of picking up luxury yarn from the bargain bin with no idea what I will do with it. This is Urban Silk. I have four skeins of the tan and the chocolate. I tried a number of projects, but the aran weight and slippery nature did not comply.

Some research indicated that I have enough yardage for a sleeveless top. I'm using a brioche stitch, and am pleased with the way the yarn is holding together. It is a little heavy, and I'm expecting it to stretch lengthwise. I started with the Pebble Tank as a guide, but brioche stitch needs double decreases to keep in pattern for the shaping. I'm pretty sure that I can work out the rest.

So far, I've used 2 1/2 skeins of each color. I'm feeling confident that there will be plenty of yarn to complete the project.

Wintergarden - Forever Finishing

Well, we are coming along with this project. The second sleeve is now 8 1/2 repeats and attached.

I pulled out the hem and we spent some quality time with the steam iron. It seems better now.

The sleeve edges need to be redone, as one has a broken thread right at the picot, and I do not see a lot of value fixing over picking it out and knitting the edge again. This time I will work from the edge out, and try to bind off back where I picked up the stitches. We will see how well that goes.

So edges, and some ends to work in on the inside, and this one is done.

Wintergarden, What Happened?

Oh dear. I started this project in 2011, I believe. It has been sitting about since late 2012, almost done. I remember that I was in a funk about the picot edge around the hem. It was too flippy. So I cut it, knit it again, and was planning to graft it back to the body.

I picked up the project last week and discovered what must have tipped. First, I started grafting in blue, and about a quarter way around realized it should be a white stripe. Then I really looked at the piece being grafted and discovered that the last row of the pattern was missing two rows below.

URG. So, more picking than a banjo player, and not a lot of smiling.







Then, I redid the picot hem and it still curls. I'm not sure there is enough steam in the world to make it lie flat. I'm puzzled because I've done this sort of hem before with no problem whatsoever.


Check out the chevrons. Can you see the graft?  At least that went well.

Then, I looked at the sleeves. Picot edges there too. One sleeve had 8 1/2 pattern repeats and the other had 6 1/2 pattern repeats. Some knitting to be done to finish then. The body already had the steeks sewn up, and the longer sleeve seemed ready to go, so on it went.

So, here we are.

I'm not so happy with the way the collar sits either. Maybe I will remove all the picot edges and the collar and replacing them all with a rolled hem.

Dreambird

So, we find Dreambird almost done. There are 19 feather repeats. I think I have enough of the multicolored yarn for one or two more. I started this a while ago and have picked it up and put it down several times. Not sure why it gets put down, as I enjoy working on it.

I think that many on Ravelry have suggested that the pattern could be improved. I certainly agree but I am feeling far to lazy and uninterested to do so.

Between finishing Hues in Horizontal, this happened. I purchased these yarns for hat projects. Neither project worked out. The skeins popped out during a recent stash review. I'm not really sure why. I needed a quick hat during a cold snap in January so I made one with the brighter color. It is some sort of micro-fiber like polar fleece. It was OK, but not really great. So, Monday, I pulled it apart and over Monday and Tuesday did this. It is brioche for the body until I ran out of the black/green novelty yarn. Then I went to ribbing until I ran out of the fleece. I like it much better.

Hues Complete

Hues in Horizontal is Complete

After several sessions dedicated to weaving in the ends, resulting in a pile of ends. Then setting in sleeves and sewing the seams. Last, ribbing around the "V" neck. Great fit, great project.

To recap, the stitch/texture pattern followed "Hues in Horizontal" from Knitters Fall 2000. The yarns were vintage worsted gathered during a many year eBay yarn binge. The patter/shape used the "Grand Plan Pullover" published in Interweave Knits in 2002.

Next up is DreamBird.

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.