And She Knits Too!

To Martha and Sarosh

It was an absolute pleasure to be invited to attend your wedding.  The ceremony was loving and thoughtful. 

It was clear to everyone that you are a loving couple who will enjoy life together with humour and thoughtfulness.  

The reception was fun--I learned to Bhangra, I was apparently the best dressed at my table (or the most daring since I had to Gangnam Style--very sneaky of you).  And the food was delicious (I was sad that the server took my naan--I was slowly savouring it).

I love that you both hugged everyone in the reception line.  Sarosh had never even met Craig but was clearly so happy that everyone came to your celebration.  

I hope you enjoy my gift to you.  I confess it is a bit of a selfish gift.  I *really* like making blankets and your wedding was an excellent reason for me to knit another one.  It wasn't hard to let it go (even though the kids wanted to keep it) because it was always intended for you.  

I wished I had been more organized and got the gang together to make this.  But you didn't leave us much time with your speedy engagement (which I totally admire and respect).  Instead there are yarn contributions from Keri W, Keri C, Kathleen, Tonya, Kim and Lettuce Knit.

May it keep you warm in a lifetime of snuggles.  

 

 

Border Ideas, I need them...

I am one short seam and a few ends away from finishing my Parcheesi afghan!

I think it needs a border. Mostly because some of the garter edges seem to be flaring out and a border will squish them in a bit.

Ideas so far:

1. Icord--I love the look, but that's a lot of icord

2. Log cabin the edges--easy, the bind offs will keep it tidy, but might be too much.

3. Crochet--that might be too little and look odd with all the garter stitch

4. Pick up stitches all the way around, then bind off.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

I have enough yarn to do either a red border or a teal one.  Since the squares are red I think I'll use that yarn.  I love how this Parcheesi was done but I can't tell how the knitter did the border.  I already borrowed the one colour outer edge idea so I think doing the border in red will work.  

In Progress

I am a one-project-woman and have been for many weeks now.  It has hit the very boring stage.

I seemed to have underestimated the amount of knitting involved in this blanket.

And the amount of yarn required.

I chose a lovely teal for the outer edges of the blanket.  Bought 440yards, knit 4 strips and then went and bought 660 more.  I think I will need only 2/3rds of this, but wasn't going to chance it.

I also had to order more yarn for the red squares.  Totally messed up the math on that one.  

Turns out I could have purchased 5 colours and did all the stripes.  This way there are less ends.  I pledge to do the math more carefully next time.

Hopefully the red arrives in the next few days.  It had to come from the US and it's been 2 weeks. This means I couldn't knit the edges in strips, but have tried where possible to put the teal on holders so I can just add the red.  This makes for less seaming.  It also makes for a funny in progress photo.

It's all coming together and will be beautiful (I decided to use a poorly lit photo so as to extend the suspense) but I'm ready to move on to something, anything else.

 

Achievement Unlocked: Weaving something spectacular

I've had my riddle-heddle loom for a good number of years now and I've dabbled at weaving every so often when something pretty someone else made caught my eye, or when I needed a quick gift. I consider myself just Okay at weaving--I still struggle with getting my selvedges consistently straight and working with colour can be tricky since things look quite different after they're off the loom and washed.  I confess I haven't done much experimenting and I know there's a lot I can do with this simple machine if I want to jump in and try stuff out.

My knit-pal Therese recently got a loom and jumped in with both feet and her stash.  She's making lovely things.  And she's very good at documenting her ideas, the sources of the techniques and her finished objects.  Her recent scarf really inspired me and I tossed the stash, found some yarn and got warping.

The technique described by Syne Mitchell here as The Painted Skein Warp, really maximizes the qualities of some handpainted yarns.  I say "some" because it all depends on how the dyer adds colour to yarn and the article describes what to look for in your stash.  The idea is that the colours are added in a particular sequence and by warping them a certain way, you can create an ikat-like effect on your piece.  Weavers sometimes achieve this look by painting the yarn once it's warped on the loom.  It's really pretty.

It turns out Blue Moon Fiber Arts uses this technique and I have a fair bit of it hanging around.  I dug out some very pretty Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana for the weft which matched nicely with the Socks that Rock Silkie Sock in Alley Oop!.

It took me a bit of figuring and some help from Craig to get the warp started right so that the colours pooled the way I wanted.  But when it was finished, it was WOW:

The colours lined up nicely (maybe a bit too nicely--note for the next time) and were just so vivid and lovely.

Then I started weaving.

I wasn't certain that I picked the right colour for the weft.  I worried it was too similar to the warp and the stripes would disappear.  It's really hard to tell since the yarn is under tension and most of it is wound up on the beams.  I just plunged forward and waited.

I chose the right yarn.

It was pretty nice once I got it off the loom.  It needed a wash, but first I had to twist 270 ends.  I love the look, but the twisting is mighty boring.

Then I gave the scarf a long soak in Eucalan and warm water and hung it to dry.

It's the nicest thing I've ever woven.  The yarn does most of the heavy lifting, but I'm pretty pleased with my selvedges and the drape and overall look.

Even with Emma's new DSLR, this scarf was being tricky with the camera.  It doesn't pick up the subtle bleeds of colours as they transition and the slight tweediness of the Silkie Sock.

I love the twisted fringe and that strange little dark stripe of purple at the bottom left near the edge.  I must have beat the weft too much, and yet it adds interest.

I'm already planning my next one.

Parcheesi Afghan and the rapidly disappearing stash

I'm cooking along nicely on my Parcheesi afghan which is good because it's a gift with a deadline.

I'm concerned about my yarn stores for this one though. I don't think I have enough colour diversity left for the striped sections so I'm taking a tactical approach.

Here's what I have done as of last night:

I've knit the centre strip using the colours I have, which includes some tiny bits where I have enough to use it on a stripe once or twice.  Now I will do the inside striped bits because I believe I have enough to maintain some colour variety.

I'm pretty sure I will be down to 6 colours once I get to the outside section, all of which I've used in the big squares and in the striped sections: yellow, orange, dark brown, natural, dark natural and navy (the colours in the top left square plus navy and natural e.g. the bottom right square).

I should have enough of the red to do all the squares so I can maintain that aspect of the pattern (which is something I really like) but I need to decide what to do with the outer border.

Option one is to buy a few colours of Cascade 220 which creates leftovers, but allows me to add in a few different colours.  Considering I will need about 50m tops of each colour, it seems a bit silly. 

Option two is to buy 2 skeins of one colour and do the outside sections in just that.  I like this idea because it's easier to knit and it really worked out nicely in this Parcheesi .

The issue is what colour to choose?  It would have to be something not used in the blanket already. (I have enough cream colour but would need to change the border on one of my squares and I don't think I have enough of any colours to do that.)

I was considering something like deep burgundy which is the main colour of my Ella coat. (I used this swatch in the blanket!)

Or teal blue similar to this (but not a handpaint) from my Ahni sweater and used up in this blanket.

But they both seem pretty dark. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.

I'm also thinking a yellow-green like the one in some of my squares could work. Or a darker natural colour which would mute things a bit.

Any suggestions?

My plan is to knit the rest of the stripes, sew it up and take it to the yarn shop.  But having a good sense of what colours to look for would make me stop obsessing about this!

Doing it all (fibre-fun edition)

There aren't a lot of weekends where I get to do it all.

I just about always knit:

That's the second sleeve of my Tangled Yoke Cardi in Bugga (Lubber Grasshopper).

A few weeks ago I literally washed the dust off poor Martha Matchless and resumed spinning up some superwash merino destined to be 3 ply sock yarn.

This is the last 3rd of the batt

And, I found time to warp the loom.  Here's a peek.  This warp is so nifty it deserves it's own post.

And we were dog sitting Ruby.  Who got lonely and wanted to be right on me while I wove.  She wasn't even very upset about all the movement, she just kept muscling her way back in.

I didn't get much accomplished on any of these things, but I got to do them ALL so it was a great weekend.

I Love Garter Stitch

I love garter stitch. I love it's squareness where the row gauge and the stitch gauge are the same. I love the way it looks. I love the ease of knitting and I love the squoosh.

Life is busy right now and garter stitch is just what I need--it's knitting that doesn't ask much of me except my time.

Not one to think small, this time I'm making a blanket. The pattern is called Parcheesi Afghan. It's a bit of log cabin and a bit of striping and a great stash buster. I'm using the leftovers from my Ella coat and odds and ends of similar worsted weight wools from my stash and any donations from knitpals. I'm into my fourth square and I can't stop knitting it.

My only concern is that I don't have enough different colours to really make this blanket pop. I don't really want to buy more full skeins of yarn so ill be hunting around for people's cast offs.

Oh, and that I'll get so engrossed with all this garter stitch that I won't knit anything else.

 

Ethel

I treated myself to a new project bag.

Meet Ethel.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She's a robot with a sparkly gold dress and killer glasses.  Just large enough to hold a sock-in-progress.  When I see her hanging out in my purse she makes me smile.

Made by Robot A Day, Ethel is a one of a kind sassy pouch.  There are so many other great robots--animals, zombies, smart-asses--they're silly fun.

See all the robots here on Etsy.  I can't go look or I'll get another one.

Book Review: Knit Accessories

I have a healthy stash of oddballs and am genetically programmed to really feel the winter cold. I like hand knit accessories, to knit and to wear and am happy to see that Kate Atherley has written an excellent book filled with simple patterns and great tips.

Knitted Accessories: Essentials and Variations, the follow up to Kate's must have guide Beyond Knit & Purl, again uses her no-nonsense, easy to understand style guiding the knitter through projects to create useful accessories like scarves, cowls, hats, mitts, socks and legwarmers. A cold-weather intolerant person like me, she knows the importance of bundling up and offers all the patterns in various yarn weights, shows how each pattern looks in solid vs variegated yarns and provides tables and advice on creating one's own accessories using different yarn weights.

Throughout, Kate provides advice on how to tackle things like knitting in the round, getting the correct fit and how to knit for someone else when you might be unsure of her size.

These patterns are also a great starting point for a lazy person like me who doesn't want to think too much before diving in, but who might want to improvise a bit along the way. I can choose a basic pattern and add a different stitch or throw in a cable and make something pretty.

Knit accessories is a great edition to my library. I have it on my iPad which means its always with me. I highly recommend this book for both new and experienced knitters.

 

Owls at 14

On January 14th, my baby turned 14.  Champagne birthday.  Full-on teenager. 

Whoa.

She's now taller than me, growing up to be a great person and she's a riot.  

To celebrate she had her two best friends over for movies (Dirty Dancing, Perfect Pitch and Strictly Ballroom), music (from A-ha to Florence & the Machine), boy chat (the cast of The Outsiders and boys in popular culture that I have no idea about) and not-much sleep.

Emma, may your life have lots of moments like these:

In a nice coincidence, I also finished the sweater I was making for her in the wee hours before her actual birthday.  It wasn't a surprise, but it was still a nice gift.

It's Owls with some modifications.  Emma wanted a loose sweater so I made the 38" size with no waist shaping.  By request, I also made the extra long cuffs with thumbholes.  It's two colours of Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed chunky because that's what I had in the stash.  I rather like it.

My silly teen-model likes it too:

It still needs to be blocked and Emma decided she wants all the owls to have button eyes. 38 buttons.

Good thing I love her so much.

(and the sweater fits me too!)