It’s a Christmas Sweater!

Posted on December 28, 2011 by rycrafty

And not one of the reindeer kind, either.

My orange and purple Wollmeise sweater is finally done! I used the free pattern ‘Paulie’, Wollmeise yarn, and buttons from the yarn shop of my heart, Churchmouse Yarns & Teas.

I used almost every single piece of the two skeins of orange Wollmeise (colourway ‘Kurbis’). In the body of the sweater I alternated yarn balls every two rows, but I used just one ball on each sleeve. The button band/collar is a combination of the two balls of orange. I’m pretty sure I still have enough purple left for a pair of socks.

I personally can’t get the shawl collar to fold over like it does in the pattern photo, but I think it looks just fine flat as well.

I could do with a tiny bit more ease in the sleeves, but it isn’t unmanageable, I just probably won’t wear any but the tightest-fitting long-sleeved shirts under there. T-shirts work fine though.

There are 11 purple stripes in the body and 14 on the sleeves, and with the amount I had left from my two skeins of Wollmeise, I couldn’t have made it anything but a row, maybe two longer in the body, so it worked out perfectly!

I sewed the buttons on with some of the Wollmeise – I separated 3 of the plies, and used that as thread to sew them on. How perfectly do they match?! I didn’t have the yarn with me when I bought them, but I saw them and just knew. I think they’re shell, but the coating that makes them orange has an interesting rubbery finish. They’re almost too big for the button holes, but they do fit through, crisis averted there!

My very patient husband did this photoshoot with me yesterday afternoon. There may be snow on the ground still where we were, but Calgary has been having unseasonably warm temperatures for most of December, so it wasn’t too bad being outside in just my sweater. I was thankful to put my coat on when we were done though! I think P took some awesome photos with our new camera, and even had fun playing with the 4pm setting sun when I asked him to. Here’s a bonus photo of my lovely man looking very dapper in the hat I bought him for Christmas:

That Rhinebeck Sweater

Posted on October 19, 2011 by rycrafty

Rhinebeck being over and all, I thought I’d give you a little update on that sweater I’m making in honour of the wool festival I couldn’t go to this year.

It has a body! Right now it is a very nice orange-and-purple-striped vest. I got up to 11 purple stripes before it was about the right length.

Then a nice garter stitch hem to stop it rolling. I can’t wait until it is time to put the garter stitch button bands on, to stop the fronts rolling in like that!

And there is my proto-sleeve (and grey manicure!). The sleeve knitting started after that purple stripe, so I’m only a few rows in in the photo, but I’ve got 2 more purple stripes on the sleeve since then. Hopefully the sleeves go faster than the body, as they’re so much smaller, plus they get smaller as you knit – the bottom of the sweater increased after the waist so it just bigger and bigger.

I knit the garter stitch at the bottom on a needle 0.5mm smaller than the body, to keep it tight, as garter does have a tendency to flare out from stockingette when done on the same needles (at least it does at my gauge!).

My revised goal is to have this lovely orange sweater done by Halloween!

Wollmeise Sweater Updates

Posted on September 14, 2011 by rycrafty

Here is the bad news sweater update: Rhinebeck just isn’t going to pan out for me this year. Although I have the weekend off, the cost of going (even splitting the hotel room and car rental) prohibits it. P and I are planning an epic honeymoon to Costa Rica, which takes precedence over trips of the yarny persuasion. That, and most of our ‘fun stuff’ savings went to a new car in June.

The good news: the sweater is coming along and I love how the colours look together!

I took this picture just before purple stripe #5.

I won’t be abandoning the sweater, even though I won’t be wearing it to Rhinebeck. It’s a fun change to be working on a garment other than a sock. The next week or two is going to be a sparse on the knitting front – I’ve got a crazy work week starting up on Thursday.

I feel like this picture is a bit truer to the real colours of the yarns, at least on my monitor. On the tiny screen on the back of my camera, the purple stripes almost look blue when I’m actually taking the photos.

This sweater is great TV/podcast knitting because there isn’t too much shaping, and there’s no cables or lace or anything to remember. As long as I knit two rows with the purple after every ten orange rows, I’m golden. This is all I knit when I’m at home, and I’m not bored yet. I would like to get back to a shawl I started before the wedding in a bride-brain-induced fit of madness where I thought I could knit myself a wedding shawl in a month. It’s in the time-out pile right now, but I think I might finish knitting that next, then go on to the Little Yellow Birds sweater I talked about earlier. Who knows when that will actually be – most Paulie sweaters seem to have 12-13 body stripes, and I’m just about to start stripe #5. That sounds like almost halfway, until you remember that pesky pair of sleeves.

Yarn Heaven

Posted on September 5, 2011 by rycrafty

Last week, the Mr and I went to Seattle. The main reason for going to Seattle was PAX Prime, a gaming convention. He’d let me drag him around Sock Summit in July, so it was only fair. I spent some time with him and the other dudes (we went with two friends from here, and met up with a guy from Texas that he’s known online for longer than he’s known me) but a lot of it looked like this:

Me, my PAX badge, and my knitting. This was the first day of the convention, that small piece of knitting in my hands there looks like this now:

I spent the first half day with them, then went out to explore Seattle on my own. And by ‘exploring’, I mean finding yarn shops. I’d heard good things online about Churchmouse Yarns and Teas and decided Friday afternoon that that would be a fun adventure. It’s on Bainbridge Island so I got to get on a ferry for the first time since moving to land-locked Alberta. Did I mention that the first time I saw the sea on that trip that I almost cried? I grew up in the south-west corner of Canada on the coast, which is the same area as the north-west US. It was just so much like being at home. It put me into a very zen state on the ferry ride over – I just sat and breathed ocean air for 35 minutes.

The ferry terminal was very convenient to get to, it’s right downtown (I did this whole trip on foot, we didn’t have a car). The ride was lovely, and then it was just a 10-minute walk into town from the ferry terminal. I grabbed a cookie at Blackbird Bakery next door to Churchmouse before I went in. Then I stepped into Churchmouse Yarns and Teas for the first time.

(image from their website)

It was heaven.

It was light and airy and bright inside, and they had every yarn you could ever want to knit with. It was the perfect yarn store. I immediately decided that I wanted to buy a sweater’s quantity of yarn there, just because the shop was so perfect. That’s where I ran into difficulty. There was so much awesome yarn there, and I hadn’t planned on knitting a sweater any time soon (as I’d just started one back home) I had no idea what I wanted to knit. I wandered the store for a while and fondled all the yarns (Jared Flood’s Shelter! STR in a physical store! Rowan Sheep Breeds! Habu!) but I couldn’t decide. In the end I decided I needed to walk away from the store and think for a bit. Luckily, just across the courtyard is Mora Iced Creamery. An old-world, handmade, small batch ice creamery next door to a yarn store that is next door to a bakery? I’m still surprised I left the island! I had a waffle cone full of lavender ice cream (heaven!) and decided to head back to Seattle and our hotel, and look up some knitting patterns to see if there were any sweaters I wanted to knit. I will buy sock yarn indiscriminately, but I only buy sweater yarn when I have an actual plan. The plan for the yarn may end up changing, but at least I know I have enough for a sweater.

I did some research on Ravelry, and came up with these three contenders:

Little Birds, by Ysolda Teague (from the 2008 Fall Twist Collective)

Owls by Kate Davies

Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason (from the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits)

Saturday I went back to Bainbridge and straight to Churchmouse, with a notepad full of yarn requrements. I priced things out, looked closely at colours, debated about whether I could afford 2 sweater quantities of yarn (answer: I couldn’t), and finally decided. Here is what I bought:

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m going to make the Little Birds sweater. The main body will be grey (Sholmit), the birds will be yellow (Scotch Broom), and the branches will be black (Charcoal). I even found lovely black and brass shank buttons at the store too! I love grey and yellow together so I’m very excited about the combination. I’m being very good and putting this yarn away until I finish my Wollmeise sweater though.

Then as I was checking out, the craziest thing happened to me. The lady ringing everything up asked if I wanted some sort of loyalty card or something. I said ‘No, I’m not local, I don’t know if I’ll make it back ever.’ She asked where I was from, so I told her I was from Alberta, Canada. She said ‘Oh you must meet our owner, she’s Canadian!’. So I paid, and got introduced to the owner, and we chatted for quite a while. Then it came up in conversation that we’d gone to the same university for the same program! And the theatre department is quite small, it’s not like the tons of people studying English or whatever else. We weren’t there at the same time, but some teachers who taught her were still teaching when I went through, and some of her classmates became teachers that taught me! It was a lot of fun to talk to her and find out all the odd things we had in common. And apparently another grad of the same theatre program is behind Handmaiden Yarns! Madness. But it is exciting to think that I too might be prepared for bustling career in the yarn industry, should I ever chose it.

After chatting I headed back to Mora for an ice cream cone for the ~~road~~ ferry. Mint chocolate chip ice cream that is a lovely shade of white, rather than eye-searing green? Yes please!

Wollmeise Gets Results!

Posted on September 1, 2011 by rycrafty

Before I let you know what colour I chose for the stripes in my sweater, I want to have some fun with figures. I went through all the comments, and tallied up everyone’s first choices for the contrast colour. That graph looks roughly like this:

In this graph, I lumped both purples together into one column. Teal is the obvious front runner!

Then I went through and tallied up everything people said – meaning if someone said “I like teal the best, followed by the pale purple” I put one check in the teal column and one in the pale purple column. That graph turned out like this:

I found all the comments really interesting to read – people’s tastes are so different! I loved reading everything from the art majors who talked about colour theory, to “I’m not sure the deep pink in the first photo should ever see the light of day.”

While I read all the comments as they came in, I didn’t tally them up until I’d made my choice, and asked P’s opinion (I didn’t include our votes in the graphs, as we didn’t leave comments!). I think P and I definitely have an advantage over youse guys in internet-land because we can see the real yarn right in front of us. It is just so hard to take accurate pictures of colours this rich, not to mention all the difference various monitors make. For me, it really came down to two colours. The dusty pink was just out, I didn’t want to pull off the day-glo pink in the end, and the dark purple started to look blackish-brown when I held it up to the orange garter-stitch yoke. Even calling Kurbis ‘orange’ is a simplification, it’s rusty, reddish with the old gold tone orangey. I did the only thing a knitter should do when trying to work out problems like this. I swatched.

While waiting for comments, and waiting to make up my mind, I had knitted the yoke of the sweater up until where the first contrast stripe goes. I decided to try it with both the teal and the lighter purple (Lila Ludmilla). It’s a bodged-together mess of yarn in the back – I knit with the teal across one front, turned, purled back, did a few rows just across the teal stitches with the orange yarn, then knit all the way across the teal stripe and onto the arm, then repeated the process with the purple. It’s like short rows without all the wrapping and turning to neaten it up. Works well enough for testing colours though!

And, the final result after all this (un)scientific testing was….. Lila Ludmilla! Near the orange, the teal just looked like an odd, awkward green.

The winning combo, back when it was still in training.

Another factor, although I wouldn’t have let it put me off completely, was the difference in textures of the yarn. Wollmeise is super-duper smooth. Sometimes it almost looks to me like mercerized cotton, not wool. The Koigu (the teal) is a two-ply, and the yarn has a very different surface than the Wollmeise. My using my Lila Ludmilla, the sweater will be made in two more similar yarns (my Kurbis is 100% wool, the Lila is 80% wool/20% nylon).

And now the reason you’re all really here…. who will get skein number 3 of the Wollmeise Kurbis? Remember, you won’t get it until October, so you’re going to have to be patient. Cheering me on and keeping me accountable for this sweater are also welcomed.

And the winner is Michaela! Michaela said: “I have always loved the orange-purple combo, and I think your sweater would look nice with either Lila Ludmilla or Amethyst Dark as the contrast colour!” Rafflecopter uses Random.org to pick the winner, so there was no favouritism going on, but I’m happy the winner likes my colour combination.

Now I just have to go pull out the tangled mess of my stripe-swatches and I can get to knitting this thing properly!

Rhinebeck Wishing Sweater and a Giveaway!

Posted on August 15, 2011 by rycrafty

So this year, I have the third weekend of October off. This may not mean a lot to non knitters, but knitters know that the third weekend in October means the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, more commonly known just by the name of the town it is held in: Rhinebeck. I once described Sock Summit as “knitters’ Woodstock”. Really that title is much more appropriate for Rhinebeck, as Rhinebeck is about 30 minutes from actual Woodstock.

I’m not certain I can go yet, and won’t have a better idea until we can assess the state of our bank account in September, but I’m hopeful. (To help me get there, I’ve put some of my stash on sale too!)

A lot of knitters that go to Rhinebeck make Rhinebeck sweaters. Awesome knitted sweaters to wear around the fair are a great conversation starter, and a sign that you’re a knitter. Now as I’m not certain I can go, for a little while I wasn’t sure if I should start a sweater. Would it be some form of sweater curse to start knitting it before I knew I could go? Would it bring luck to me to help me go? I’ve decided to start one, because work is about to get in the way of my knitting time, and I can’t guarantee that I could knit a sweater in the time between deciding to really really go and getting there. And if I don’t end up going, I’ve got a nice new cardigan.

I think I’ve decided on the Paulie pattern:

It’s a free pattern, which is a plus considering the immediate lockdown I put on my wallet once I decided I needed to save for this trip.

I’ve got a main colour yarn already, Wollmeise Kurbis. I’m just not sure what colour I want to do the stripes with, so I thought I’d see what everyone else thought.

The main colour is the two skeins on the outside of the picture. They’re a little variegated, so I may actually do the ’2 rows from one skein, 2 rows from another thing’. Here they’re pictured with a deep pink Wollmeise in Himbeere. This would make a bright sweater, staying in the same general colour family.

Or I could stripe with purple. I have two purple Wollmeise skeins, Lila Ludmilla and Amethyst Dark. The photo above shows the differences in the purples. Out of these two I think I’m leaning towards the paler one, but I could be persuaded otherwise.

Or I have some teal yarn that’s a little brighter than I could photograph. This is another good contrasty combination. I have more than what’s in the picture for the teal, but it might be a close thing doing that last teal i-cord bind=off. This teal is Koigu colour 1500.

Or a paler, dusty pink from Zen Yarn Garden. This was an afterthought as I was pulling all my yarn out to see what would go. I think it could be interesting.

Now here is the fun part! I have a third skein of the orange-y Wollmeise. I shouldn’t need it for this sweater (I’m making the small size), but I want to hang onto it for insurance, because it would suck to run out during the bind off or something. If I do use any of it, it definitely won’t be much, and Wollmeise is generous with their yardage. So, if you leave a comment telling me which colour you think is best for the stripes (and/or why one combination is so heinous it should never be seen again) you will be put into a drawing for that last skein! You can also enter by tweeting about the giveaway (see below for details). I will mail the skein when I have completely finished the sweater, or if I give up on the sweater/don’t finish in time, I’ll mail it out to you on October 14th, the start of Rhinebeck. You can enter this competition up until I post a picture of the first stripe knitted into the sweater in my chosen combo on the blog. I imagine that will be near the end of the month.

And there’s a new kid in town trying to make entering contests easier for bloggers! The name of the service is Rafflecopter. I applied for an invite and it came through a little while ago, and I’m going to test it out with this competition. Once you’ve left your comment and clicked the “I did this!” button (don’t forget to do that, that’s what enters you in the draw!) you can also use the Rafflecopter widget to tweet about the giveaway once per day for another chance to win. If you want to comment but don’t want to be in the draw, comment away and ignore the Rafflecopter widget. This is my first go with Rafflecopter, and if it works well, I could probably be persuaded into doing some more giveaways.

(If you’re reading this in Google Reader or the like, you’ll need to hop over here to see the widget!)

Continue reading →

Sweater at Last

Posted on January 5, 2010 by rycrafty

This knit has actually been done for a while – I just haven’t had a chance to take photos. And by ‘me’ take photos, I mean the boyfriend take photos. There’s only so much you can achieve indoors with an automatic timer.

All the details are on Ravelry, but in short it is the $1.50 Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. I used Classic Elite Classic Silk, which is a Cotton/Silk/Nylon yarn. It is really warm!

I put 4 buttons on it, but the top one is a bit too high for my liking. I think I’ll either take it off, or leave it and just never button it up.

I sort of wanted to take pictures outside, because all the snow makes a giant light reflector, but -28C (-19F) in just a T-shirt and holey sweater is a recipe for disaster. Disaster named ‘frostbite’ and ‘raging cold’.

The only thing I’m uncertain of (and which has sadly stopped me wearing the sweater as much as I want to) are the buttons. I sewed them on with leftover yarn – and I had to pull out a single ply of the yarn to get it through the buttons. Using just a single ply means that that ply is quite weak, and the buttons do feel a bit wobbly. I may have to find some embroidery thread in just the right brown to sew them on again.

I think I actually finished this in the summer, and just never got around to photos. I’ll try not to do that again!

Tulip Baby Jacket

Posted on November 27, 2009 by rycrafty

The baby sweater/jacket it done! I finished the knitting (well, just casting off) last night at work, and wove in the ends this morning. I love the pattern, and the yarn, and the convenience of buying it in a kit. I did run in to some yarn troubles, but I think I dealt with them neatly.

I was concerned about the amount of teal yarn I had, so instead of doing the body, then the body edgings, then the sleeves (like the pattern directs you to), I did body (with seed stitch edging left on a holder) then completed both sleeves. I took stock of the yarn I had after both sleeves were cast off. Then I made the button bands, as directed, in the teal colour.

That’s when I was certain I really didn’t have enough teal yarn to do applied i-cord all the way around the sweater, and for the tie. The front tie was an easy decision – I had lots of pink left, and the baby is a girl, so I went with pink for the neck tie.

Then I had to figure out what to do with the rest of it. I bandied about the idea of doing applied i-cord with the scraps of other colours, to give it a very Joseph’s Technicolour Dreamcoat look. I decided against that because I didn’t want to deal with the ends. I decided to try binding off the bottom edge in teal.

I chose to do a very elastic cast-off (my favourite: K2, *insert the left needle into the front of the 2 sts on the right needle and knit them together–1 st remains on right needle. K1, repeat from * until all sts have been bound off). After the first try, I had literally 1 inch of yarn hanging after binding off the last stitch, so I undid that, and did it again with the smaller needles called for in the pattern. It is a stretchy bind-off after all, so small needles shouldn’t really matter – and the didn’t! I was left with a longer tail to weave in properly, but it meant I was out of teal.

After much waffling, I decided to see if I had enough pink to bind off the front edges – it was either that or the orange, and that didn’t look so nice with the teal. Once again, I had the right amount!

Because the pattern was written to have continuous icord around all the edges, there was a funny little gap between the bottom seed stitch band, and the corner of the edge bands. That would easily be fixed by following the instructions for the borders, because it has you pick up some extra stitches in the corner. I could not do that, because of the yarn shortage. I ended up slipping the bottom edge stitch from each side to the bottom band’s needle, and treating them like they belonged there. That did just enough to get rid of the little gap.

All in all I’m very pleased with the sweater, and would definitely knit it again. I might even buy one skein of each colour, and make many, or matching hats or something. Someone else will have to have a baby though – the sweater is much too big for my Blue Bear.

New Love

Posted on November 20, 2009 by rycrafty

I’ve found my new favourite knitting project. They’re tiny, they’re cute, and because of the tiny, they’re fast. Baby sweaters.

I started this Sunday afternoon, at work. I knitted some more Monday night at game night at our friends’ house. Tuesday work, Wednesday work, and these pictures were taken Thursday morning. If it had been Thursday after work, there’d be half a sleeve too!

I bought this kit at Sock Summit over the summer, because I knew my friend Jilly was going to be having a baby (I can’t remember if I knew it would be a girl back then… I think I did…). The baby was born on Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving, this is not a time-travelling baby) so she’ll be 2 months at Christmas. I bought the 6-9 month size kit, instead of say, infant size, because I was worried about finishing before she was too big (HA!). And this is Canada, so a wool sweater will still be appropriate in April, when she’s 6 months. Realistically, I wear wool sweaters in every month of the year, so I’m not too worried about it being appropriate when it fits her.

I should finish the sleeve tonight at work. Luckily, this pattern is simple enough to knit in the dark. I even did the seed stitch in the dark, by Braille. I’ve found the best thing to do is weave in ends in the green room waiting for the show to start, then knit backstage once the show is on. It’s one of those shows where I have long stretches of nothing, interspersed with busy bits.

In paper crafting news, I bought a Cuttlebug today at Michaels with a 50% off coupon. Dark Side, here I come.

Spring Cleaning

Posted on March 18, 2009 by rycrafty

I love spring cleaning. I love clearing out stuff, making a giveaway pile, a recycling pile, and a garbage pile, and putting everything where it should be.

My boyfriend and I spent today emptying out our storage room. Our apartment-condo has a storage room actually in our house, and a separate storage unit too. Today we tackled the in-house one. I’m always amazed at the junk I think I need to keep. If I didn’t keep all that crap, I wouldn’t need to have clear-outs!

I’ve also been attacking the stash, and my UFOs. I sold 3 skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot to a lady in town, and 4 knitting books to her too. I still have a few skeins left up on Ravelry. I’m also doing a trade with another Raveler, we’re trading some yarn. It works out so well, because I get yarn I want, so does she, and we both get rid of stuff we’re tired of!

The thing I’m most proud of though, is dusting off my $1.50 cardigan again, and actually commiting to finish it.

I started this back when the magazine came out, so Spring 2007. I got most bits done, then stopped. I dusted it off September 2008, and had finished all the bits by November 2008. Then it sat in the box again, until yesterday! I got out the bits, seamed the fronts to the back, and even picked up the button band!

It was also a great chance to test other functions of my Stitch Marker Revolution markers. I had a hunch they’d be more useful than regular stitch markers, and I was right. They open and close, so it was easy to slip them on the needle at the right points once I’d figured out where the buttons needed to go (the teal ones in the pic above). I also changed the button holes from what the pattern says. Pattern says to do a yarn over, but because I have big buttons, I did a 4-stitch one-row buttonhole instead.

They were also very useful for dividing up the fronts into quarters so I could pick up stitches evenly for the button band (Lavender in that pic). I usually use safety pins for that, but these are more fun. I found it easiest to stick the connector part through a stitch or between stitches.

I even used them instead of safety pins to baste the pieces together. No pictures of that, I’ll take some when I do the sleeves. But you just poke the connector through the edge of one piece, then the other, click it closed, and there you are!

These are the small size, and they worked very well. I think the big ones would be too loose to baste edges together.

Upstairs Downstairs Knitting

Posted on September 27, 2008 by rycrafty

I’ve been knitting away on two projects recently. I’ve found a system that I can only implement here, in my parents’ big house. My newest project (cast on as soon as the Annetrelacs were done) are my Druid mittens, and they are my basement project. The long-neglected $1.50 cardigan is my upstairs project.

The mittens get worked on when I go down to the basement to watch TV after dinner. The having cable thing is great; I get to watch Iron Chef, and Mythbusters (I would love to work with Jamie and Adam)! On a side note, these Discovery Channel ads doesn’t get old.

The cardigan gets worked on when I curl up in the chair in my bedroom and listen to podcasts, or watch things on my computer (like…. all of Heroes Season 2).

The mittens are fairly slow going, what with all the cabling. I’m using 2mm needles, and the fabric is quite tight, but that’s good in mittens because it will keep the wind out.

What I’m finding interesting is that I seem to have a different row gauge on the back of the mitten than I do on the palm. The back of the hand is all cable-y, and the palm is a slip-stitch pattern, and somehow I am much tighter doing the palm pattern. It is actually causing the mitten to want to curve over. Luckily, that’s the shape hands naturally are, so hopefully it won’t affect the finished product too much.

I took these photos on the ferry. I had to get away from the house for a day or two, so I went to Vancouver and visited some friends. Waiting for the ferry, and being on the ferry gave me lots of knitting and reading time.

Finished Two-Tone Shrug

Posted on August 2, 2007 by rycrafty

Finished Two-Tone Shrug, started July 11th, 2007, finished July 18, 2007
Pattern: Stephanie Japel’s Two-Tone Shrug from Fitted Knits
Yarn: 1 skein Dream in Colour Classy in ‘Wisterious’, 1 skein Cascase 220 Heathers in ’2441′
Needles: 3.75mm for the ribbing, 4.5mm for the body
Dimensions: 35.5cm (14″) shoulder measurement (I measured armpit to armpit across my back)
Pattern Notes: Exactly as written!
Would I knit it again? Definitely!

I finished this in the afternoon at work, and wore it on the plane to see my parents that evening. The airline stewardess commented on it, saying it was really nice. I got a few more compliments when I wore it out in Victoria too.

I did EZ’s sewn bind off, so it would be stretchy. I’m glad I did that, but it took AGES. And, because that long length of yarn went in and out of every stitch, it was really sheddy by the end. I felt very allergic, just because of all the teeny yarn particles.

And you guys have to know how much I like you all. It was 29C today, and not only did I put on a pair of wool socks to photograph, I put on a wool shrug! Immediately afterwards I had some medicinal ice cream.

All photos of the shrug courtesy of my camera’s self-timer.

Weekend Startitis

Posted on June 18, 2007 by rycrafty

I got a nasty case of start-itis over the weekend.

I had been knitting away on the right front of my $1.50 cardi, when I decided to hold it up against the back piece. The armholes were at totally different heights. I was suddenly thrown off my “this-will-be-the-best-knit-ever” horse. Then I realised that the back was all crinkly and shrunk from the stitch pattern, so I stretched it and measured. The front would also be a different size when blocked, so I tried to stretch that too. I didn’t have enough hands. So I decided to block the back piece to make measuring easier.

Even with the back all blocked, the front armhole still starts lower. But then again, the front needs to be stretched too, to open up the lace. I hope that between stretching it up and sideways, it’ll grow that little bit it needs. If not, oh well, I’ll just frog back.

I’m also getting slightly concerned about running out of yarn, but we will not speak of that.

Friday these length worries had gotten to me, so I found a ball of sock yarn, and brought that and some needles to work to swatch for the Sidewinder Socks. I got gauge, but couldn’t actually start at work, as I had no waste yarn, and I got gauge on needles I only have as DPNs. That was put away until I could get to my LYS.

So Friday night, my cardi was blocking and awaiting analysis, my LYS closed before I got off work, and my boyfriend was at work. What’s a girl to do? Cast on for a lace shawl, that’s what!

It’s the Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis pattern from Victorian Lace Today (on page 54). The pattern calls for a size 6 needle, but my yarn is a bit thinner, so I started on size 5s. I knit a bit that night, and a bit more at work on Saturday. I got 9 rows done.

Sunday, I went to my LYS to pick up a needle for those Sidewinders, and a needle for the shawl (my Denises were snagging the yarn at the joins). Addi (which is the circular line they have) doesn’t do 2.25mm needles. bah. I picked up a 2.0mm instead, as with socks, you should probably err on tighter gauge than looser. Then, while looking at the bit of shawl I had knit with Amy, I realised it was much, much too open for my tastes, so I bought a 3.25mm (US 3) for that one. Sadly, they had none of the lace Addis in that size. I bought a Natura, because I do like the bamboo.

So I got home, and cast on for the Sidewinders, and worked on that for most of the rest of the day.

I don’t want to leave the cardi behind in the dust, but the different sizes and stitch patterns and blocking sizes were making my head all exsplody.

Shortness of Yarn

Posted on June 13, 2007 by rycrafty

When I left the house this morning, I swept my knitting into my purse. I had put it on the coffee table last night, in a neat pile, so I wouldn’t forget anything. I had done a good bit of knitting the night before!

I arrived at work, and found a Post-It informing me that I would essentially be on my own all day. I was happy, and pulled out the knitting. Then I realised that I only had a very small fraction of a ball left. All this morning, I’d knit a few rows, then surf the internet, the knit a row or two more. I just ran out of yarn, and I have 3 hours left in my day. ‘Tis tragic.

The good news is, I’m doing the neckline shaping on the right (cabled) front of the $1.50 cardi, and now I’m also ready to start the sleeve decreases too. It’s looking a little long, but I console myself with the fact that the lace needs to be pulled/blocked sideways, which will make it shorter. I hope it all works out.

I bought a watch yesterday, which was exciting. A pretty one, not just one that has all the functions I used to ‘need’ (glowing hands or face, date display). I’ve got my cell phone for that type of thing. I discovered this when my old watch broke back in October, and I didn’t have the money for a new one. Cell phones are wonderful, they glow, they have times, they tell you the date. So I bought a pretty watch. The face is pale woodgrain, and about an inch wide and framed in brushed stainless steel. The band is pale brown leather, and also about an inch wide. It’s sort of cuff-like.

I’ve been trying to find stuff to entertain myself with now that I’m out of knitting. Can you tell? Ramble ramble.

Something cool I want: I’ve thought Blik wall graphics are very cool for a while now, but I could never quite decide which I wanted. I was always leaning towards the Paisleys, or the Flock designs, but they just put out a new one that eclipses all others: Me, Myshelf, and I. I think our bedroom needs it. Not sure my boyfriend would agree though, so I’ll refrain from buying.

If you like your decor a bit more indie, there’s an Etsy seller doing similar work (love the chandelier!)

I’m still pining over Yarn School. Sadly, flights to Kansas City are about $400-500.

I think if I get out of the office today without buying anything over the internet out of boredom, it will be a miracle.

The Importance of Reading Patterns

Posted on June 10, 2007 by rycrafty

I’ve been working on one of the fronts of the $1.50 cardi, the cabled side. But for some reason, every time I look at it, I think it is a sleeve, and then I think ‘that’s too small for a sleeve!’, and wondering why the directions tell me to knit for something like 15″ without any shaping for my little arms. Then I remember that I am in fact knitting the front of a cardigan. Then the next time I pick it up, I go through it all again. It’s a vicious cycle.

The other mistake I made was in the lace pattern. There are no stripes on this side, just a cable and lace around it. For the stripey part of the sweater, you do the lace rows in a certain sequence. I did that for the lacey part of this front, and found I was getting an odd stockingette stripe in my lace, for just one row (well, rows 7 & 1). It was small, but noticeable. I re-read the front directions, and it seemed like I was doing it right. Then I re-read the lace directions, and found that it said ‘repeat rows 3-6 for pattern’. I see now that you just do the other rows when you’re about to finish the lace pattern, so it isn’t lopsided or anything. At some point in my knitting life, I would’ve just left it, because it wasn’t a glaring thing. But I want to have more confidence in my knitting, and be more likely to wear things out, so I ripped back. It felt good! I’m not scared of ripping out any more either, I now have enough faith in my self to rip back to the right place, and pick up all the stitches.

I’ve been good about not buying yarn. It’s hard now that I know Pudding Yarn is so close to me. I practically walk by it every time I go to rehearsal. It’s hard not to stop in, but I haven’t. The last thing I bought there was Rowan 40. I love the foresty rustic style of the the cover photo, and the ‘story’ that piece belongs to. I want to be more woodland in my style of dress. (I also find I like a kind of Victorian street urchin style for winter. Men’s style trousers, vests, fingerless mitts, leather shoes, all very pretty. Not that I have much like that, but I like to imagine. I want a good pair of brown leather boots for next winter. See also HotPatterns’ Artful Dodger line).

Has anyone heard about Yarn School? I would love to go, but I either have to fork out $400 airfare, or drive for 25+ hours. ick to both! If it was within a day’s driving distance, I would so go, it looks like it’d be wonderful. I wouldn’t pay the fee plus the airfare, even though it would be fun. If I’m spending that much on a vacation, I want to spend it with my loving boyfriend.

And because no post is complete without pictures, here is some All Things Heather sock yarn:

I donated to a book fund on her blog a few months back, and I got this in the mail in return a little while ago. Green and purple, two of my fav colours! yay! I’m thinking of Horcrux socks. Vinnlands first though, and I’m not casting on for those until I have at least this front of the $1.50 done.

Rambling Rose Redux

Posted on June 8, 2007 by rycrafty

I finally picked the buttons off my Rambling Rose, and put on the new ones. I also solved my end-weaving-in problem. When I did it before, the ends just worked themselves out again as the yarn is slippery. This time, I separated the plies into two groups, and wove them in different directions. And now, a show! (all photos taken with self-timer. I prefer to think of them as ‘artsy’ rather than ‘dude, weird angles!’)

I’ve finished the back of the $1.50 sweater, and started on the cabled front half. But omg, I just remembered I need to check the errata for the pattern, because isn’t there something wrong with the fronts in the magazine? Hmm, I should go do that.

I’ve been knitting and watching House on DVD in the evenings when I don’t have rehearsal. I love House. Such a great show. I’m re-watching Season 1 right now.

My boyfriend bought flowers today when he went grocery shopping, they’re pink and sitting right next to me right now. *heart*

Status update

Posted on June 4, 2007 by rycrafty

So I didn’t get much knitting done over the weekend, I was too distracted by my wonderful new blog. I still can’t believe I have my own domain name! This is endlessly amusing to me.

I’ve got about 5 pattern repeats to go on the foot of my 2nd Monkey sock. I’ve been doing 6 repeats, and I have about size 8 (sometimes 8.5) feet. For reference, about 9.5″ long. I hope to finish that sock this week. My next sock project will use the wonderful Fleece Artist yarn you see to the left. It is going to become the Vinnland socks from the Anti-Craft.

But first, I think I’ll work some more on the $1.50 cardi. The Monkey socks weren’t supposed to take all my attention away from it, but they did. I’m at the start of the shoulder decreases at the back, so I’m almost done the big annoying piece. The fronts are different, so that’ll be fun to do, and then I just have one sleeve left! I think putting all that time inbetween sleeves helps eliminate that boredom of Sleeve Island. As long as you take good notes on the first one, so they can match.

I also want to tell you about a wonderful thing I discovered for printing patterns off the internet. The booklet function on my work printer. I was poking around, trying to find the ‘print double-sided’ setting, when I noticed a box that said ‘booklet’, I tried that, it is is great! It prints it out, 2 pages to a sheet (so yes, the text is kinda small. I can still read it easily though) and double-sided, so if a pattern would be four pages normally, this uses only one piece of paper. You just need to fold in half, and possible staple if it has more than 4 pages. They’re just such cute little books! And they fit better in a knitting bag than an 8.5″x11″, they’re little 8.5″x5.5″ booklets that are just too cute. And so far, on all the ones I’ve printed, the cover page has worked out perfectly with just the title, picture, and designer’s blurb.

So if you have a fancy printer with a booklet setting, I say use it! You’re saving paper too!

I bought buttons!

Posted on May 27, 2007 by rycrafty

I wandered out for a walk today, to the knitting store that is 4 (sigh) blocks away from my house, and bought me some buttons. I haven’t worn my Rambling Rose sweater at all since I finished it, partly because I really didn’t like the buttons I put on it. I got them in a grab bag of cream-coloured buttons from a local quilting store. Today I went in to the knitting store (Pudding Yarn) and spread my sweater out on the table, and played with all their tins of buttons. I picked out some replacements. Here are the before buttons:

They aren’t bad buttons, they just don’t look quite right.
Here are the new buttons, placed out (not sewn yet, maybe tomorrow night!):

Genuine horn, apparently. I think they look much nicer. The others were just that much too light. In the store, it came down to these horn ones, and some shell ones. The lady in the store really liked the shell buttons. Because of the reflective surface, they picked up the red, and there is a shell pattern along the cuffs. I almost went with those, but at the last minute decided they were too shiny. I think I like my choice.

I also took a sleeve of the $1.50 cardi, to check out some buttons for that project. Found some gorgeous ones. I realised when I got there that I just had the sleeve, and no pattern, so I didn’t know how many or what size to get. Then the lady pointed out I could just pick ones I liked, and then make as many button holes as I need. Smart knitting lady.

They’re rustic and wonderful. And more than I’d ever expected to pay for buttons, so I only got 4. The store has a whole range of these buttons, not a size range, but a colour range. They all have the dark brown bark around the edge, but the inside can be blue, green, red, orange, the natural I bought, and I think a few other colours. I was very tempted by the green, but the brown buttons will make the final sweater more wearable, I think.

Then I came home and sat down to finish my Monkey sock. I think it is a tiny bit long. You can start the toe on either row 1, 10, or 11 of the pattern. I started on 10 (well, 9) but I think row 4 or 5 would have been perfect. It’s not too big, and this way it’ll fit perfectly once I’ve washed it.
As soon as I had grafted the toe, I put it on the scale. Finished sock = 1.7oz. Leftover yarn (for sock #2): 1.8oz. Hurrah!! For the record, that was with only 1/2″ of ribbing, and 5 (instead of 6) leg repeats.

Finally some photos

Posted on May 8, 2007 by rycrafty

I suddenly have free time in the evenings again, so I took a few photos to share, and update everyone on the (riveting, I know) status of my various knits-in-progress.

Finally photos of the Roza Socks! I love them. Haven’t worn them yet, as it hasn’t quite been wool sock weather (for which I am very thankful).

While I was knitting, I kept thinking that the greens were very similar. Once they’re together I realise they aren’t, but I just had to show these shoes. I love these shoes. They’re springy and pointy and that wonderful shade of green.
A photo with a couple notes and the wonderful gaping-ribbing-thing fixed is here.

Progress on my Dollar and a Half cardi. The sleeve was a sort of uber-swatch. I blocked it when done, just to make sure the sizing would be all right. It’ll make a sweater that is between the two smallest sizes in the magazine, which is just right for me. You can see the lifeline I put in, in case I had to rip back. Any excuse for less ribbing.
You can see the difference in the blocked vs. unblocked fabric. The big wobbly thing is about half of the back. There are 4 lace stripes on it at the moment, so if you look at the sleeve, you can see how much length is all squashed up in there, waiting to be blocked.
I think I may end up pining this out. When I blocked the sleeve, I soaked it, then just patted it out on a towel. It got rid of most of the Michellin-man effect, but not all. Either that or an iron? But ironing a knit sounds wrong.

Blocked vs. Unblocked.

In other news, it is gorgeous outside, and I’m freezing in an over-air-conditioned office. There was a natural gas leak this earlier this morning apparently, and while it is safe to be in here now, there is still a lingering smell. We’ve been told to turn the heat right down so the AC comes on, which will bring in fresh air. brr.

Earlier in the year I said I was going to knit from my stash. I did. Then I got bored with said stash, so I ordered yarn. My yarn km count is now ebarassingly high, but all that new yarn is for specific projects, and the list of projects will last me quite a while, even with this knit-friendly job, so I’m happy. Some time in March (the last time I updated my stash tracking spreadsheet) I had about 6.2km of yarn. Now I have, well, almost double that. But it isn’t like I’m broke or can’t pay the bills or anything (thank you, job), and I won’t need yarn for at least another year, probably two.

Hotel Blogifornia

Posted on April 21, 2007 by rycrafty

At the hotel, been here since Tuesday. It’s not bad, we have a teeny kitchen, which is nice, and two double beds, which is silly. I’d much rather have another table, as the current kitchen table is hidden under a desktop computer, and my laptop.
Today was a day off for me, which was exciting. I don’t get many of those. Tech week starts soon, which means almost no knitting, blogging, or sleeping time.
I didn’t take pictures of the Roza socks today, I didn’t want a hotel bedspread as the background. Those things all look the same, no matter what hotel.

I’m about halfway up my Dollar and a Half Cardi sleeve. My gauge is a bit small, so I’m making the 36″ size, and it should come out somewhere between the 32″ and the 36″, which is perfect. I also haven’t blocked my swatch (gasp!) because the sleeve is my swatch (double-gasp!) I figure a sleeve doesn’t take terribly long, and if I manage to block it to the size and look I want, I’ve got one of the 5 bits done already.

I’ve half been thinking about taking up podcasting. I know. Scary. I’ve found all sorts of links recently that I like and want to share. As I don’t have a mic, or the know-how (the actual recording and content stuff doesn’t scare me, but what do I do with the file when I’m done? I have no clue) right now, I want to share some links. Maybe I’ll just make the blog more podcast-y, and have sections. This can be my first linksharing bit. I just need to think up a clever name. The Link Menagerie? Possibly.

Knits a Beautiful Life a blog by a fellow Canadian! We’re in the same province even! I’d say ‘a fellow Albertan’, but still consider myself a West Coaster. Tangent aside, she has just finished a project from Fitted Knits that looks very nice. And the website! Beautiful. I wish I knew more about such things. Although, I’m fairly happy with this layout.

Kathryn Ivy another new-ish blog on the block, but this one sprang up with free patterns and a pattern for sale already there! Again, I love the layout of this one, and I love the tabs across the top so you can look at reviews or patterns. I want to review more things.

Pieces of String an online shop, with the BEST price around for Mountain Colours Bearfoot. Yes, I have ordered yarn for the Swedish Heartwarmer Shawl. I’m not entirely sure how the colourwork will be done (stranded? intarsia? a combination?) but I figure I’ll cast on and figure it out from there. That’s how I approach most projects.

CROQ Zine I just heard about this on CraftyPod and I’m so tempted to subscribe. And order the back issues. It’s quite cheap, which is what is tempting me…

Etsy.com. We all know Etsy, but I have just rediscovered my love for it. So many amazing things! How cool is having an old hardcover rebuilt into a journal? I love the inclusion of pages that aren’t blank. And couldn’t you just plotz from the cute of these knitted-then-felted critters? I have to admit… I did buy those patterns. They were too adorable to pass up. I also think that you could practice needle felting on them, for the faces and things. That’s something else I want to try.

Buying from Etsy always makes me feel good, because the money is going to someone like me, just a random person who likes to make things. It’s like spending money on myself!

Rycrafty

I knit, I stamp, I colour, I craft. I bake. I make.

Category Archives: Sweaters