Stash January 2, 2009

Dicentra Designs sock yarn in the delightful shade of Paprika.

I have four projects on the needles right now, and I’m none too taken with any of them.  The first is the alligator scarf from Morehouse Merino.  The increases and bind offs demand your undivided attention, something I just don’t have right now.

The second is another Noro beehive hat in browns and blacks.  The third is using the same Noro colorway in sock weight about 60% through a pair of Jaywalkers – sick of the pattern, sick of the yarn.  The fourth is what I’m actually working on this week, a pullover in a squeaky acrylic boucle.  The needles I’m using are new and without the lanolin of wool, the yarn has it’s own ideas so it’s a bit of an arm wrestle moving the stitches across the needles.  Should have used aluminum needles.  Should have used wool.

I have a $25 card for my LYS, the reward for being a frequent flier at that shop.  This is the third time I’ve cashed out to the reward and I’m embarrassed to tell you how much you have to spend each time (cummulatively) to get the reward.

I’m thinking of using it for a truckload of Dale and starting on Whistler.  I think I’m going to go with black, olive green and light grey.  I was all excited about it until I bought the pattern and saw the needle sizes: I’m sorry, did you say a #2 needle? For a sweater!? It cooled my jets ever so slightly.

Moorish Vixens September 17, 2008

Silky Leaves continues and will be done in the next few days. Next, I’ll start swatching for this:

SheWhoMustBeObeyed’s* Lindisfarne. I have a lot of production knitting to do – Christmas knitting, things people have asked for, etc., – but then I’ll be ready to take on a challenge. At this point, it’s a toss up between Lindisfarne and Dale of Norway’s Whistler pattern (that may or may not be the sweater of the 2010 Winter Olympics).

Can Dale of Norway promise that if I knit their sweater I will find myself wandering the fjords at dawn’s early light? Because with Lindisfarne, I shall find myself combing the moorish lowlands in a cape:

Note to self: purchase jodhpurs. Also black leather gloves.  Wear ring on the outside.

 

* Name redacted to avoid shrill e-missive.

What entomologists knit September 12, 2008

The Entomology pattern by Adrian Bizilia of course!

I have been thinking about this hat since I first stumbled across it on Ravelry, and then I went out and bought the book a few months ago but had too many other things on the needles to begin it. (The Pinwheel Blanket pattern is also from this book.)

This week I used my fully stamped discount card at my LYS for 6 skeins of Dale Falk in wine and oatmeal, and I took up my circs, and I knit. Stranded colorwork is so satisfying. It’s hard to put it down when the picture starts to emerge.

The model is Babe-o-licious, a cat our neighbors left us. He’s a beautiful, if bitey, specimen.

The ridges you see are where the pattern repeats begin and end, but it’s not lumpy (see picture below). I’ve tried to be very careful with tension as I’m a white knuckle/tight knitter but you can see the floats across the top of the circular needle, and they’re quite loose. (Is ther such a thing as too loose? I’ll be finding out.)

I like this braided edge. It’s made with purl stitches where you twist the colors as you knit and it makes a nice clean edge. Very good detailing, I think.

No stranded project may be discussed without pictures of the wrong side. I sighed a little when I saw the pattern in reverse on the inside.

This hat is part of a gift set for my mentor. She doesn’t need to know that I kept putting the hat on and squeeing while I was working on it. I suspect I’ll be making a few of these sets. I love this pattern.

Noro and Vanilla September 8, 2008

The beehive hat is at about 90% and this morning as I was lying in bed (because I had left it overnight on the nightstand where I could see it) and counted on my fingers how many months until I could wear it comfortably. Five. This is not a fall hat. It’s a dead-of-winter hat.

And the vanilla orchid bloomed. This isn’t the species that sets the beautiful beans, but it’s a beauty nonetheless. The leaves are bigger than my hands and nearly as thick. The flowers have no scent, but check out the ants at the base of the petiole. They’ve been there since before the blooms opened, and they don’t go into the flowers, they just hang out down there at the base. This plantlet was a cutting from a monster mother plant at the university greenhouse – it’s over 10′ tall and grows in a planter made out of a 3 pallets. It’s a beast.

On the needles September 5, 2008

Ah Silky Leaves…a lovely little* lace scarf knit up in Frog Tree Alpaca on #5 needles. I knit so many socks it seems like a novelty to use straights. The pattern is a little challenging and I’ve noted on Ravelry the errata I’ve discovered:

• The chart begins on a WS row. If you paid careful attention to where the numbering was, you would know, but if your habit is to begin in the lower right corner as is customary, think again.
• Second, after the repeats, you need to work a WS row before beginning the rows with written instructions. That would be a WS row between rows 8 and 9, which are both RS rows on the pattern.

Frog Tree 100% alpaca yarn is so soft and buttery to work with. It’s slightly fuzzy but doesn’t split too easily and it doesn’t obscure the lace pattern in Silky Leaves. Unfortunately though, it makes my neck itch. This is not a pressing problem as the scarf is not for me, but I wonder about the recipient. This is a gift for my advisor** as I am graduating this December and she has been professional and diligent when our department has made things difficult for all of us. So I thought I’d knit her up this hair shirt beautiful scarf and maybe she’ll be like me and wear it on the outside of her coat. This person is very petite and that works for this scarf; it’s proportioned for a smaller person when knit in DK or sport weight.

I also have gift knitting on the needles, but I don’t post pictures of that stuff until the recipient has received it in case they cruise over here to the blog and ruin the surprise.

Next up after the gift knitting which must be finished this weekend is the Noro Beehive Hat. Swoon.

First, the yarn. Oh god, the yarn.

Not everyone likes Noro, but I think it’s the shit.

It’s a Japanese-made yarn in slightly twisted singles, and it’s slubby and rough, and the skeins frequently have grass or twigs in them, lest you forget that wool comes from sheep. The colors are saturated and wild and with this particular yarn, Noro’s Kureyon (which always brings to mind ‘Carry on my wayward son’) the color changes are long – you get a good amount of one color before the transition to another. And all that makes it possible to create the Noro Beehive Hat, which you can see here, here, or here. The last link is in the same colorway as the yarn pictured above.  I started the hat but then tore it out to begin again because although I seem to have a pinhead in relation to other people I know, the hat was too small on #7s and even on #8s. I’ll need to pick up a #9 circular and begin again and in the meantime, maybe my gauge will loosen up a bit.

I’ve had to tape my fingers while I knit socks on metal DPNs because of my death grip. How else to get 12 spi?

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* Really, it’s tiny. 3.5 inches across before blocking.

** Horticulture program = leaves scarf – get it?

I’m trying to be Zen about it June 13, 2008

Jaywalker is not working out. Last night, I tried to slip it over my dainty heel -> not happening. And the intended recipient is also in possession of a heel but, to boot, she sports a modest cankle from an old injury. This sock is over. Note that snazzy heel I told you about though, and how this pattern makes use of this otherwise wretched Opal colorway. Off to find a pattern that is stretchy and shows nasty stripes to their best advantage. When I’ve found it, I’ll have the strength to rip back this sock and start again.

Field Kit + Knitting June 12, 2008

Initially I pictured field work framed by this bucolic and pastoral haze, and certainly there is some of that feeling. When the morning fog burns off and my research subjects start flying in earnest, that quickly ends and the day takes on a hot, sticky, smack-the-back-of-your-neck feeling…it’s just not what I envisioned.Nevermind, some excursions allow for plenty of knitting time.

This is the Pinwheel Blanket in progress for M’s bun in the oven (but because she won’t see it for a few more weeks, this post will not appear until after I’ve mailed her package). I was able to do a fair amount of work on it, and it’s finished now, just waiting for a warm enough day to dry after washing and blocking.

Yarn = Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, 5 skeins
I can’t say enough nice things about this yarn, which makes me swoon.

Footsy June 12, 2008

Another pair of socks finished, and I’ve already decided that I’m not going to knit that pattern again. It’s time to move on and try new things…

Like Grumperina’s Jaywalker which I call ‘Frantic and Indecisive’ after the infamous Onion headline:

This pattern has already taught me something interesting: that a Sl1, K1 heel flap is a far thicker and likely more durable than a Sl1, K-across heel flap. One of the things I really enjoy about knitting is the knowledge that the learning curve is going to be a lifetime ride.

I had hoped to enter some things in the county fair this summer, but I’ll be away on a research trip and anyway, would you entrust your handknits to a publicly accessible display over a weekend of tractor pulling and Budweiser? Perhaps not.

Yarn (top) = Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, ‘Mountain-something’ colorway, 2 skeins
Yarn (bottom) = Opal Hundertwasser, 1433 colorway, 1 skein

Spring Gems May 27, 2008

A friend’s carefully reared Orchid Mantis…isn’t she lovely?

Wild Fritillaria spp.

Kettle dyed handspun single ply wool silk blend…..mmmmm.

Ripening blueberries.