Ribbing....

So much more fun than garter stitch.

Stats:

Yarn: Bryspun Kid-N-Ewe (50% wool/50% mohair, discontinued) I think I've knit 6 balls into it so far.
Needles: Started on size 6's, but it went into deep hibernation and I forgot what size I used and picked it back up on size 7's. (Yes, you can tell. But it goes faster this way.)
Pattern: Mara

At last count, there were 697 stitches on the needle and it was taking 24 minutes to get through one row. It is really big. Like, it is 30" deep, and has a 62" wingspan. To give you an idea of how big it is, here is a picture of it on my full-size bed:

It was incredibly difficult to get a decent picture so I settled for this one. Sorry. At least you can see how big it is, even if all of the texture is completely lost.

Naturally, every RS row adds on four stitches and counting them just makes me sad. So I'm just going to knit two, purl two for 4 painful inches while thinking back on just about every other project I have ever knit. Especially the ones that were bright.

Whenever I'm not reminiscing about previous projects, or rhapsodizing about projects to come (hello, pullover!) I will be dreading the epic bind-off that looms ahead...

What are you working on this Wednesday?
Check out Tamis Amis for more. ^_^

Entrelac

I haven't forgotten my entrelac hat, though it has been pretty stagnant while I work on my mom's shawl. Every so often, when the epic blue garter stitch behemoth starts to get to me (when I start wondering if my mom even deserves a hand-knit shawl after all, for instance) I put it aside and pick up the hat.

It's pretty large, and I'm fairly certain that the second it hits water it will cease to be a large hat and become a small purse. Nevertheless it feels pretty cozy and I'm really glad I learned the technique. It will definitely be one of my most unique hats!

I'm on the second-to-last row right now, and I'm sure I can get that done by Friday, even if I am devoting most of my time to the shawl.

Obsession

A few days ago I found a sweater on a blog. It is an amazing sweater. I love the sweater. I want to knit the sweater. I want to wear the sweater. I love it so much I want to marry it.

The sweater is this orange cabled pullover from Untangling Knots. That cable just entices me. I seriously drooled all over my keyboard in "I Want To Knit That" awe. Unfortunately, the pattern is not available, and probably won't be until next fall. "No problem," I thought to myself, "She mentions the book where I can find the stitch pattern and then I can do the math for myself. I have a few skeins of wool that would love to be that sweater."

So where can I find the cable? Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's actually a book that has been on my to-buy list for a while, but right now I just don't have $30 to throw down just to make that inner me pipe down. ("I want the sweater! I need the sweater! I can't have the sweater without the stitch pattern! I NEEED THE BOOOOK!!!")

My solution was to pray I could find the stitch online.
The Walker Treasury Project (they knit swatches and photograph them in color, but do not release actual stitch patterns) informed me that the pattern is called "Lattice Diamond."
A simple search turned up nothing, so I headed to Ravelry, where I hoped I could find it in a free pattern. No luck. I did find some very nice cables, but my stupid heart was set on THAT one.

This sweater has been stuck in my brain since I first saw it. Every spare minute I've been reading amazon reviews for different stitch dictionaries. I went to my local used bookstore, my local Barnes and Noble, and even Tuesday Morning hoping that the stitch would be in one of their dictionaries. Which, of course, it wasn't.

I eventually decided I would have to use Eunny Jang's tutorial to reverse engineer it. I had a few similar patterns to work from: This hourglass stitch, this cable, and I even considered using Evenstar as an alternate.

Then, just as I was texting my friend about my miserable search and how I was going to have to do some crazy brain work with two 2-year-olds in the house, I FOUND IT.
Apparently if you look up "Latticed Diamond" instead of "Lattice Diamond" and it makes a huge difference.
Here it is, that beautiful stitch pattern. 22 stitches, 30 rows.

I want to do the body of the sweater in the round, so first I had to convert the written instructions into a chart. I wasted so much graph paper trying to do this!

I think my brain exploded a little bit.

I had to figure out all the symbols for all the twists and cables, and then I kept putting them in the wrong spots or miscounting. Finally I went online and found a place to make my own graph paper with bigger squares and then I had fewer problems. I also found some white-out, which was incredibly helpful.

The Almost-Finished Chart
(I did one last version but didn't take a picture)

Towards the middle, I was working on it in the living room and rather than looking up an easy chart symbol, I just threw in a happy face.

Yes, they make me smile when it's time to do that part of the chart.

Anyways, I now officially have started my swatch!

Yes I do plan on fixing the direction of the lattice twists when I make the actual garment. The written pattern I have told me to do a purl twist that made no sense at all, so I kind of winged it and will have to...re-wing it.

Much more magic math do be done, but I am so excited I just had to share ^_^
My brain is seriously stuck on this project, and I'm so glad I didn't have to spend $30 on the book before I could begin! (Though I have heard so many good things that I will have to buy it eventually.)

Unfortunately, after my swatch is done I can't start the real thing until I finish a few items. Mainly the entrelac hat and my mom's shawl. Then the obsession can continue ^_^

WIP Wednesday

On Sunday morning I received an update on my Facebook from Craftsy- their entrelac beanie workshop was on sale.

I have always wanted to learn entrelac, and the one time I tried- from this pattern in Hip Knit Hats- it was an utter disaster. In fact, I have often looked back on that failure and thought of it as proof that I am not a "Real Knitter."

So what did I have to lose? I signed up for the class. I have taken one other Craftsy course (also during a sale) and enjoyed it quite a bit. The $9.99 for the workshop was only $4 more expensive than buying the pattern, with the added benefit of being able to take part in discussions and asking questions of the designer (in my jammies, no less!). For a normal pattern, I don't think I would shell out the ten bucks, but this was entrelac!

As it turns out, entrelac- just like cables, just like kitchner stitch, and just like short rows- isn't as hard as I made it out to be.

Skeeter Beanie

I am really enjoying the workshop, so far, even though when I first signed up I was under the impression it was a video class like the one I had taken before. (Fit Your Knits class with Stephanie Japel.) It is not a video at all, just a series of well-taken, well-described photographs with very clear details to what your next step is. Not what I expected, but still useful.

I think my favorite part is that I learned how to knit backwards!

Project Stats:

Cascade 220 Wool

Yarn: Cascade 220 from the partial-ball bag
Needles: Size 6- down one size from the pattern
Mods- I did one extra tier before starting the decreases, because I thought it was looking short. Now that I think about it, that may have been a mistake because the rate of decreasing is much different in an entrelac hat than in a plain stockinette. If it turns out to be a bad idea, I'm not sure I will go back and fix it. It would be much easier to find someone with a big head.

Holy crappy webcam Batman!

I don't know. I'm barely at the first set of decreases and it is already pretty big.... And I know from experience that Cascade blocks out huuuuge. But I was thinking I wanted it to be sort of slouchy. We shall see. It is not, after all, about having a knit hat. It's about learning new techniques and facing up to your challenges.


So does having entrelac under my belt make me feel like a "Real Knitter"? Sorta. But only because I made the effort to learn something new. I love that about knitting!


Thanks for reading and check out more WIPS at Tamis Amis. ^_^

Tiny Feet

I am an auntie once again.

Welcome to the world, baby C

We've been waiting for this little girl to make her debut, and she decided to grace us with her presence 10 days late.
Of course I have a few baby knits for her: The Hello Baby Cardigan, and The Gigantic Pink Blanket have been done for a while now. But the second I heard the news (I got a text message at 5:30 am) I got the hankering to make some little booties too. It may have had something to do with the fact that my brother sent me a picture of her tiny little naked feet.

After a bit of rummaging though ravelry and stash, I decided to use some Koigu Premium Palette (purchased for my BKQ) to make the Saartjes booties.

The buttons kind of overwhelm the whole thing, but rummaging through my button stash produced nothing smaller. Well, that's not true, there were some pink buttons but I liked the contrasting blue.
Even though that makes them look kind of like a shocked Homer Simpson when you turn it upside down.

I did modify the pattern in that, instead of working a long-tail cast on for the straps I got lazy and just did a backwards cast on. You can see the adverse effect of that in the corner between strap and bootie on the left. I plan on just tightening that up later on. You know, when I'm not so sick of weaving things in. It's shocking, actually, the number of ends to weave in for these tiny little shoes. I'll post a picture when I finish the second one.

And what's that?
Oh yeah, that's right: I learned how to graft garter stitch.
Helluva lot better than the slipper I made for myself!!

Where I was too lazy to even look up HOW to graft garter stitch.

It actually turned out to be much easier than I had expected. Easier, in my opinion, than stockinette kitchner, which is very interesting since I must have done "regular" kitchner at least 100 times more than I have done it on garter.

Also, I just want to say how much I appreciate having a knitting blog. It means that when I want to jump on my facebook and shout out to the world, "I can kitchner on garter!!!" I no longer have to deal with the inevitable "what?" "huh?"s and instead can just post it here. You know, for the people who know what the hell I'm talking about.

Anyways.
One bootie down.

I have a DMV adventure today before I get to meet my new niece, so I'll be using that time to work on the second one.

The Mara Shawl

So I think it's time to tackle my longest-standing WIP.
I knitted myself a Mara shawl in June of 2010, and it was so quick and is such a wonderful shawl. I made it with bulky yarn and it came out really big and cozy.

(Really big.)

It's one of my favorite knits to wear, and I love that I can wrap and tie it around my waist so it stays put.

Not incredibly classy, but very warm.

Ain't goin' nowhere.

Anyways, the reason I'm showing you this incredibly old finished object is because of what happened once I showed it to my mom: "OH! Ceci, make me one!!! .... But bigger."
Well, of course, she's my mom and I love her and I was high on new shawl and I thought it was the most charming pattern in the world and I happened to have a bunch of yarn in the stash that would be perfect so.... on June 8th 2010 I cast on for the second Mara shawl.

Knit with Bryspun Kid n Ewe on size 7's

I'm sure you can guess what happened: The pattern quickly lost it's charm.
There was the sensation that I "totally just knit this" and that "it's quickly turning into summer so who needs a huge wool/mohair shawl anyways?" and to top it off, "garter stitch is making me insane!!"
But I worked on it steadily for about a week, knitting a few hundred yards into the thing before realizing I dropped a stitch a few inches back, trying and failing to pick it up cleanly and eventually frogging an entire ball's worth of yarn and throwing it into the closet.
Where it has sat.

I stole the needles for other projects on several occasions, but mostly it just sat.
And sat.

And now, finally, it is time.
I have forgiven it for the dropped stitch, and for the mohair being slightly itchy, and for being miles of endless garter stitch. This shawl has seen so many projects cast on and bound off while it has sat miserable in the closet. After finishing a cabled sweater in less than a month, I just... I don't know, I guess I just feel bad about it. Not to mention my mom's birthday is coming up in April!

So here is where I am at, in comparison to my monstrous shawl (which my mom has stolen on more than one occasion, perhaps as a reminder that I haven't finished hers.)

It needs quite a bit more before I can start the edging. I'm not sure how much bigger to make it, especially since my mom is smaller than myself, but I have plenty of this yarn so I'm thinking I'll knit 2 more balls into it before the ribbing. The rows are pretty long already, and it's sort of driving me nuts. I am so glad they invented TV. Also I'm glad it's rainy outside because it makes a nice snuggly couch project.

So that's what I'm working on.... Miles and miles of garter stitch.

Yep.

Finishing....

Today I finished up the front of my I Heart Aran, grafted the shoulder seams, and worked on the short row collar.
Then I botched the seaming job on the set-in sleeves. (I swear every time I seam a sweater I have to mess up the first time. It's like an offering.)

Then I pulled that out and chewed on my lip for a while.
Then I watched an episode of Go Diego Go with my son.

And that's where I'm at.
Here's how it looks all laid out together, though.

I hope by the end of tomorrow it will be a sweater.
Like, actually.

WIP Wednesday

So due to being a gigantic ball of stress this week, I haven't made much progress on my I Heart Aran. I did get sidetracked by some tempting sock yarn and the relaxing knit knit knit around in a circle, and also cast on a garter stitch scarf. (I cast on 42 stitches, hoping that by the time the monstrosity is finished I will understand the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.)

But I really am ready to start another large project, and I wanted to finish I Heart Aran first, so I dutifully went back to it and still have hopes that it will be finished by Friday.

I'm so scatterbrained because of all the stuff going on in my life I couldn't really keep up with the decreases and chart rows until I wrote them all out. No, seriously, you're going to laugh.

I even messed those up, and put the decreases in the wrong place. (And yes, this is during naptime when my house is quiet as church.)

So anyways, that's my WIP Wednesday. I really hope I finish this sweater soon, because I feel like it's guilt tripping me from it's little WIP bag.... Which... I mean, I have a lot of WIPs. I guess this one is just more persistent? (Let me tell you, that garter stitch shawl from last year sure is meek.)


Check out more with Tamis, as always.


PS.

If you are one of those people with a super keen eye for spotting mistakes in cables, please don't mention it if you see any. I am not the Yarn Harlot, (even if we do share a birthday) and will not do any crazy sweater surgery or ripping. I am terrible at seeing mistakes so I will never ever know... And I'm okay with that.

Socks

I cast on two new projects yesterday.
And you know what? They're both socks.
I know. I'm crazy. SOCK CRAZY!!!! 0_o

So the first pair is going to be a nice ribbed-for-your-pleasure-sock, and it's made with my favorite sock yarn: Knit One Crochet Too's Crock-O-Dye.

I'm using size 1's for these and I'm pretty sure they're going to be tucked away into the Christmas pile for a good friend. (Even though I totally already want to keep them.)

The second pair is made with my second-favorite sock yarn: Cascade Fixation. I seriously love this yarn and have been meaning to do a review on it. It is so stretchy and totally awesome for anyone with a wool allergy or sensitivity. I knew right away when I found the yarn that I would do stripes, and I was toying with the idea of reversing them somehow when I found the perfect pattern. It's called Love Socks and it's pretty much what I was imagining but even better.

I'm loving it. The colors actually remind me of a flamingo, and then once you add in the heart and the fact that the second sock will have reversed colors... it just sort of adds up to a very Wonderland-esque feel. Which I'm quite fond of. I feel like the Queen of Hearts just now.

And, as I'm sure you can probably tell, no I am not working on my sweater at the moment. Apparently doing cables while watching Doctor Who in failing light isn't a great idea (Who knew?) so my I Heart Aran is sitting in a basket waiting for a bit of frog-and-redo. It's only a few rows, and I have high hopes that it will be done in time for next FO Friday but for now? Socks.

WIP Wednesday

My beautiful, glorious, wonderful package from Miss Babs arrived on Monday.

Don'tcha love how it looks like a Subway sandwich?
(Yes, I took a mock-bite.)

So now I have a total of 1680 yards of "Luna Granite," which is more than enough for my Cardigan.

And check out the little freebies she threw in. There are 10 yards of "Yummy" in Chocolate, with a note attached saying, "Swatch me!"and a little packet of Eucalan in Grapefruit.

But alas, I cannot cast on for my Calligraphy Cardigan right away because... Well, because I have 2 sweaters on the go (technically three) and I think it would make me cry.

So I have been working steadily on my Vine Yoke Cardigan:

(I'm finally at a point where I don't have to pay attention for a while.)

And I've devoted a good chunk of time to my I Heart Aran:

Much less pink in real life.

I am knitting this one exactly as written. No mods, because it's not for me. I have no idea who it is for, I just really wanted to knit it (don't look at me like that!).

I am working my way through the front right now. ^_^

Funny story: I was knitting this in public when I suddenly realized I didn't bring a tape measure with me and I needed to measure it to see if I could start the armholes yet. After judging it against a piece of paper (there were some looks) and against my body, I eventually decided I just couldn't tell how far along I was and would have to wait until I got home. So then I started thinking: Would it be weird to tattoo a ruler on my leg?

So anyways, that's what I'm working on this week.
See more WIPS with Tamis Amis.

Can't Win 'em All...

Cast on a new project today, completely ignoring all my WIPs. (My reasoning? It's too hot to knit an alpaca sweater! .... completely ignored the two sock WIPs.)

It's Ysolda Teague's Not-So-Tiny Slippers from Whimsical Little Knits 3. (Random side note: Has anyone else noticed that while the patterns in this book are very fun, the book itself smells a lot like funky Play-Doh?)
Anyways, I seriously messed this slipper up.
Like so bad.
There are the horrible gaping short row holes.

There are the I-don't-really-know-what-happened-heres along the side.

And all of that would have been forgiven if I had just gotten up off my butt for 10 minutes to look up how to do kitchner in garter stitch.

Instead I just flipped it inside out and worked a regular kitchner, leaving this terrible seam at the bottom.
So yeah.

My "practice slipper" is done.

 What did I learn?
1) Don't be lazy- go double check that you're doing your short rows right. Especially after you do a few rows of them and think they look "funny."
2) Don't be lazy- learn the new technique!
and 3) Ysolda really is a flippin' genius: I never would have come up with this on my own! I especially love how the slipper is picked up from a length of I-cord. ^_^

I'm starting to think maybe this slipper disaster served a purpose: perhaps it is a lightning rod?
After all, every time I've tried to knit a sweater with my current WIP's yarn, something goes terribly awry. This time, however, everything is just sailing along. Maybe I had to screw something up miserably, and it might as well have been a completely unrelated object. I hope it's that. I offer it up to the knitting gods, I humble myself, and I will go back to knitting my sweater.

True story.

Have you ever seen the Bear that Wasn't?

That was the first thing I thought when I ripped out my sad little hat and realized I would have to present The Blog with this:

The Hat That Wasn't.

The fact is, with all the blocking, tugging and re-arranging in the world, this hat just wasn't working out.

I had hoped that once I put the pom-pom on, the weight of the pom pom would miraculously make the hat endearing. Make the sewn bind-off a better choice, make the twisted ribbing less constricting, and make the abrupt decreases less awkward.
Luckily, I hate making pom-poms and did not waste the yarn to find out.
Rippit Rippit!!!
     (o)(o)
     ( __ )
     ( uu )
At least now I have pink yarn in my stash...
Pink yarn..... that would make an excellent hat.

WIP Wednesday: Everyone is fond of owls.

So I realized I have been crocheting a lot. Fellow Ravelers noticed, saying "you've caught the crochet bug!" My ex-boyfriend, after I noted aloud how much he's changed, laughed "I've changed!?" And he pointed at my crocheted slippers.

Something had to be done: I decided it was time to cast on something new.

Perhaps the reason for my stagnancy with knitting was not because crochet was too clever, too quick and too fun but because my current knitting projects were not clever enough, not quick enough: boring.

So I decided on something small, cute, easy and fast: a hat. I wanted to use the charts from these fingerless gloves, so I did some simple math and cast on.

Then I knit and knit for a while, and felt very happy about my bubblegum pink yarn. I thought about how much I would love my hat when it was done, then I watched a very engaging episode of Star Trek while I did the charts, and then....
Well...
It was probably about at that point where I realized my colorwork was a bit tight.
And I thought to myself, "Cascade 220 always blocks out nice and big; It will be fine."

And I kept on going. Yep. I kept going along and I did the decreases and I closed the hat and swished it in water and I waited.

I'm sure you can guess what happens next. The dumb hat is far too tight in the band of colorwork and in spite of it being very cute it Simply Does Not Fit.

CHUBBY owls :(

The tightness in the middle plus the extra-floppy ribbing at the bottom made for a very strange fit,  so my WIP for today is FIX THE HAT!!!

I have a few options:
1) Cut above ribbing, decrease by 12 stitches, do ribbing on smaller needles: make hat for a toddler
2) Cut above ribbing, continue knitting in stockinette for a few inches before doing ribbing on smaller needles: make a very strangely slouchy hat.
3) Frog back and fix the problem area by knitting owls on bigger needles.

I am lazy: I'm going with option 2. (The only thing preventing me from choosing option 1 is lack of toddlers who abide wool in my life- also I really want to wear this hat.)

I figure if I could add some length in between the colorwork and the ribbing, the owls will no longer be squeezing my brains. The less brain-squeezing the better.  And then I'm hoping if I add a giant, floppy pom-pom it will look like the slouchy thing was totally on purpose.
...
Or something.


Anyways, check out more WIPS at Tami's Amis.