purlsandmurmers

Vogue Knitting

I collect Vogue Knitting.  I think I have every issue except one, and I suppose if I were truly a collector I would be out searching for that one issue, but so far I just keep putting it off.

So despite the fact that very few of the patterns in the new issue thrill me, I am happy to have it.  And there were some interesting articles this month. I very much enjoyed the interview with Sandra Backlund whose work is fascinating although ultimately unwearable, at least to my eye.  I remain fascinated though, and there is some part of me that occasionally wants to throw some completely off the wall and yes, perhaps unwearable idea into the mix.

There is also an article about Sonia Rykiel whose work is much more wearable and just as interesting.  I've been a fan for a long time, although more of the kind of fan who just drools, face pressed up against the window.

So, what will I knit?

Well, I love this jacket.  The only reason I am not running right out to start it is because I have a huge cabinet full of other patterns I love for which I have already pulled out the yarn.  It might make it for next fall.  I see I shall have to make a wait-list for the queue, just to make sure things get on schedule when space opens up.

Now that is sad isn't it.  I have a waiting list for the waiting list.

There are also two pairs of gloves.  But as I have already mentioned I also want to knit some mittens, and the mittens really are going to be first off my needles, first off before gloves that is, not necessarily next in line.  I still have yarn issues.

These cabled gloves by Jared Flood are fabulous.  There are better photos over at his blog, Brooklyn Tweed, but then I am sure you already know that. That blog is truly drool-worthy; beautiful things exquisitely photographed.  

The picture here (like all of today's pictures) is scanned in from Vogue, which prints rather poor quality photos. They used to scan much better, but now the photos are all grainy.  I am sure it is cheaper for the magazine, but it is one of my two pet peeves about the magazine at the moment.

My other peeve is that they have started putting many charts on the website instead of in the magazine.  Yes I can see that this does make printing cheaper.  But I buy the magazine and save it so that I can have the patterns for the future as well as the present.  It is a pain to have to go download the charts.  I would be willing to pay more for a beautiful magazine with complete instructions including charts.  But I am probably in the minority here.

This is the other pair of gloves I would knit.  Aren't they elegant. This winter I have been wearing violet elbow length gloves with a black and white jacket I made a couple of years ago.  I really think I would love some more long gloves.  Again, something to add to the list.

French Girl Knits

Aack!

The posts keep piling up in my head but I am having a certain amount of difficulty (pure laziness) making that transition from thought to actual post.

I received the new book, French Girl Knits, last Tuesday, a week ago now.  And actually I suppose I am glad that I waited before writing anything about it.

I suppose my first impression was that it was interesting but much of it was not my cup of tea, which is actually my opinion of several of the French Girl patterns.  There are a few that I love and more that are lovely but just not my style. The sweaters are beautiful but I feel they tend to be a little too frilly and feminine for me.  There were several sweaters I loved but was not convinced I would wear, I have changed my mind about some of those.  And there are a couple I adore but would never wear out in public, but that doesn't mean I would never wear them.  I am rather fond of soft feminine things to wear in the evening at home, as long as they are feminine but not frilly.

But the more I looked, the more enamored I became of this book.  To begin with there are a couple of patterns which I outright loved on first sight, one of them being the cover sweater, shown above and this wonderful cropped cotton sweater with the buckle closure.

There are other sweaters of course, sweaters that are lovely and are growing on me more slowly. They are classically beautiful and wearable.

But even more appealing is the attention to technique. There is much to learn from this book.   Most of the sweaters employ seamless construction and there is all kinds of useful information in the book about knitting and construction techniques as well as fitting and how to get a sweater that is perfect. 

Now both of these sweaters are just lovely and would look attractive on me or many other people.  I am particularly drawn to the one shown in beige, but the lacy dark one is slowly worming its way into my heart as well.  They are both knitted without seams.  

The beige sweater, called Paloma, is knitted from the top down.  In the other sweater, Niobe, the sleeves and body are worked separately from the bottom up (in the round) where they are joined at the armholes.  

And there are others that I also love, two that I mentioned earlier that struck me as perfect lounge-wear and another that has a very strong 20's feel.  I have always had a weakness for the 20's, although I probably can't wear the styles anymore.  

The book is definitely a keeper.

Linden is looking Good

There is nothing quite like being glued to the television, caught up in all the emotion of this really amazing day to get me to finish something.

I sewed the first sleeve in Linden and the sweater is looking good.  I like the fit and the length of the sleeve and it is looking really good.  It is possible that I knitted the collar just a tad to long, but I really won't be sure until I get the second sleeve done and sewn in.

The sleeve ended up being a little longer than I thought it would be and this was at least partly my fault as I was getting slightly fewer rows per inch than the pattern specified, but I did not alter the  directions for the increases to allow for the change in row gauge.  The original pattern was going to be a little short, my question was whether my simple solution would yield a sleeve of the correct length.   Chalk one up for the home team.

A less than flattering picture but the only one where I could get a good picture of the sleeve length and still keep the half-sweater positioned semi-correctly on my body.  It is longer than below-elbow, but shorter than bracelet length, I would guess about 3/4.  It is a nice length that I think I will wear a lot.  

Now to knit the final sleeve.

I didn't start it tonight, opting to finish another boot liner/leg warmer instead.  Now I have one sleeve, one boot liner, and one and a half socks in the pending projects basket.  Odd how things keep multiplying.

New Temptation

It seems like it had been months since I had been to my LYS for knitting group and so there were all kinds of things to look at Thursday night.   One thing that did catch my eye was a new book by Plymouth yarn called Earthworks by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton.

I was particularly attracted to the cover sweater and looking at the photo now I can see why I like it.  

I didn't buy the book though because I didn't really like any of the other patterns, and even more importantly there was a photo of the back view of this sweater that I thought was completely unattractive and ill-fitting.  I can't find a back view photo on the web because I would like to look at it again.

I didn't actually read the pattern so I don't know if if this is a problem or not, or something I can work with.  I only know that this pattern is really sticking in my mind and I can't quite shake it.  This makes it definitely worth another look.

I won't be making it in the original ecco baby camel yarn because although I would probably love knitting with the yarn the natural camel color makes me look like I have been out buried in the sand for far too long.

Anyway, I have successfully managed to fritter away my time today fretting over this pattern and ironing and pressing fabric for future sewing problems.  It was a good day to stand over a hot iron.

I really need to devote some time to seaming Linden tomorrow, so that hopefully I can knit the last sleeve, or I can rip and start the sleeves over.  At least I will be able to knit something.

On Queues and Stash and a missing pattern found

I have finally resumed the gathering, collating, and indexing of the project queue and I have passed that momentary phase of stash panic that came over me last week.  I am pretty happy with my stash, and pretty happy with my queue in fact.  As I start looking through everything again, and setting up to photograph and list things so I can post them to Ravelry, I am really happy, and I still want to knit every single project.  Rather than feeling overwhelmed, I feel satisfied.

As for the deep green Cascade 220, I realized that I had intended to knit a sweater from the fall/winter Anny Blatt book, but I didn't get around to pulling the book and looking it up until today.  I think it will be just perfect.

There had been another momentary bit of panic when I feared that I was planning a long cabled sweater when I also have some dark green Louet Gems Merino set aside for a cabled sweater.  That would not have been acceptable, but this pattern is perfect for the yarn, or at least I think it is perfect for the yarn.

As for the current projects, Linden and the socks, they are both poking along slowly.  I am almost finished with the first sleeve on Linden, and I intend to block it and assemble half the sweater before I knit the second sleeve, just to be sure I like the fit and everything.  I am in no hurry but I do want it to be just right.  I may have knit fewer sweaters last year, but I was happy with most of them and even the problem sweaters were minor problems (with one exception).

Some years ago I somehow gave up on obsessively carrying my knitting everywhere.  It seemed I hit a point where I felt guilty if I wasn't knitting and it had become a crutch of sorts.  I realized that I didn't want my knitting to define me, and it came as quite a relief  to allow myself to knit only when I felt like knitting.  Sometimes I knit a lot, other times less although usually at least a little bit most days.

There are however too many UFOs and they weigh heavily.  I have amassed them all in one corner and I have subsequently managed to go out of my way to avoid them.  I really don't like having so many things in process at the same time.  Once I finish one of the two current projects, I will move on to assessing and cataloging the UFOs.  Those that I still want will get finished and those that have passed their prime  will simply go to UFO heaven, I can't be bothered with finishing something just because it is there.

After that, I will finally catalog the remainder of the stash in all its glory. I really do want a stash catalog.  It is really no burden to me, but I would like to know it all, and I do think I forget things.  Out of sight really is out of mind, and a photo record would help.  And I will probably order some yarn for those planned mittens because I was out shoveling snow this morning  and really wishing I had those mittens.  But other than that I don't feel any great needs for yarn, or any great urge to move more quickly with my projects, just satisfaction and an urge to relax and enjoy the process.

Plan Interrupted

The year has just begun and already I am unfaithful.

I swear it was my knitting that rebelled, not I.  I managed to get the right front of Linden on the blocking board but somehow my tool bag, the one in which I had unwisely put ALL my stitch holders, had disappeared.   So Linden was still on the needles, the circular addi turbo I had available in the correct size.

I did look, but the tool bag was not to be found.  

And there, sitting right beside my knitting chair, not yet introduced to the rest of the stash was this lovely blue Froehlich special Blauband sock yarn.  Not only that, my first pair of socks accidently got entangled with my husbands pants and he threw them all in the wash together.  Apparently a fierce battle ensued between one sock and a zipper/hook and eye combination.  The poor sock was outnumbered and emerged mortally wounded.

Obviously it was time to start knitting a new pair of socks.  When I looked at the yarn I knew exactly which pattern I wanted to use: I who swear that plain socks are best,  wanted to knit the Fancy Silk Sock pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

I am having a grand time knitting these, although I still have to have the pattern in front of me so it is not really a traveling project despite its diminutive size.  I am probably going to go back Linden soon anyway.

A stitch marker leapt off my knitting today and rolled away.  It was very small, 1/2 inch in diameter or so, and I have yet to find it.  The search did however turn up the missing tool bag, which had gotten itself lodged way back behind the sofa.  I wonder how it got there, I certainly didn't push it, and unlike a stitch marker, I don't believe it rolled.  

Now I am lured away from responsibility by the call of two projects.  Thank goodness the rest of the UFO piles remains muzzled.

Meltdown

It seems that the line between just right and too much is very very fine.

Now I have a stash, and I love my stash.  I am happy to have my stash and I am very very rarely overwhelmed by it.  It is all put away, I love looking at it, absorbing the colors, and I love playing with my stash too.  I never purchased any yarn with the intention that it should go in a stash although it all too often happened that way.  Every skein came with a dream, a vision of what I might knit.  Its just that my eyes are obviously way bigger than my ability to knit up those visions and turn them into reality.

But something happened this weekend that just tipped me over the edge.  Actually it was a couple of small things.

Remember how I said I was organizing a queue of projects, that I had them all together, but I didn't yet have a coherent list.  Well, I thought I would work on that.  I knew there were a few stray projects hiding in corners of my office, and a few small bags of yarn, but I knew what they were and I thought I knew what they wanted to be.

That is I thought I knew what I was doing with all my yarn. That was until I came to this pile of Cascade 220.  I remember buying it.  I remember talking to some friends in knitting group about which color would be best for a particular sweater, I just don't remember what that sweater was.

And it was driving me crazy.  Suddenly it was all too much.  I had yarn that I knew I bought for a particular purpose, the fact that I can log on to ravelry and find all kinds of wonderful ideas that would be perfect for this yarn was beside the point.  I wanted to know why I bought this yarn,this yarn which was sitting in my yarn closet, this yarn that I had no place to store.

You will be happy to know that I did not start tearing the sewing/yarn room apart.  I am particularly proud of myself about that.  And I did, by browsing through this blog and my lists of sweaters I liked, remember what I wanted to knit with this yarn, or at least I think I remember.  I haven't actually pulled the pattern out.

But suddenly, I had too much yarn.

Now I haven't bought new yarn for a couple of months, or almost a couple of months.  Some yarn came in December that I ordered way back in the summer, but that was bought months ago, and I have some yarn on hold at Yarn Central, which I actually meant to buy 6 weeks ago, but I haven't been to the store during that time.  But I haven't bought yarn.  And I am not sure I want to buy yarn because I really need to knit some of the yarn in that yarn closet to make more room, and I have more UFO's than I even care to think about.

But I also looked in my stash for yarn to possibly make some mittens.  I found two perfect colors of yarn.  I can imagine mittens out of each yarn.  I looked in the Selbuvotter book and I looked on Ravelry and I know exactly what I want to knit.  But the yarns don't go together.  I can envision a mitten with each one of them, but not the same mitten.  To fulfill these dreams I need to buy two more colors of yarn to go with the yarns already in my stash, so I can make two pairs of mittens.

There is a kind of odd logic to it, isn't there?

Once upon a time I would have said that buying yarn to finish a project from stash yarn doesn't really count as buying "new" yarn.  Self delusion is an important human survival tactic, no?

I do want to knit the mittens, and we are talking about very small quantities of yarn here.  But I just can't quite do it.  I am still in full overload mode.  

Perhaps next week.

2008 Hits and Misses

2008 was a pretty good knitting year for me.  My output was not as ambitious as some years, but most of my projects were successful and I enjoyed knitting them and wearing the finished results.

The obvious winner of the year was Granite.  It looks great, it holds up well, and I just love wearing it.  The fact that I also get compliments every time I wear it does not hurt either.

It is probably about to be retired until the weather warms up again, as it is not really a winter sweater.  But then, winter that is too cool for Granite is just perfect for Dreaming of Spring, my second favorite sweater from last year.

I am using all the scarves I knitted as well and am quite fond of them as well as the fingerless mitts and the boot liners, which are crying out for a second pair as they are in quite heavy rotation.

There is only one real miss in the 2008 output.  Compare and contrast looked nice in theory but I didn't like wearing them together on me.  They did look good on Matilda, the dressmaker's dummy, but she doesn't really get a say.  In retrospect I should have put some shaping in at the bust on the vest, as it gaped open every time I wore it even though there was enough room all around.  I wore the under-sweater  several times over a tank or a turtleneck, but it seemed to catch on everything and snagged very easily.  Once at the mall I caught a sleeve on something and made a long rip up one arm and at that point I just gave up on it.  

Two other sweaters are almost successful:

Rage Management is beautiful and warm and snuggly but I have lost weight since I made it and it is truly a little big.  The neckline no longer stays in place (it did when I knit it) and it borders on sloppy more than comfy and cool.  I haven't yet decided if I will reuse the yarn and knit it again, but The yarn is rather fuzzy and I am not sure if it will hold up to reknitting.  This may be given away.  

  

Lilac Serenade is also turning out to be a bit of a disappointment.  The problem is not with the sweater pattern or its shaping.  I love this pattern and will make it again and again.  

Here the problem is due to my own pig-headed choice.  The yarn pills badly and there are always long yarn worms appearing on my sweater as I am wearing it.  Now I did check ravelry and this was noted by many users of this yarn, but I just ignored their advice.  I bought this yarn because I just fell in love with the color.

That said the sweater has been versatile and I have worn it a great deal.  It too is getting a little loose and baggy looking.  This yarn will not be salvaged however, and it still looks good enough to see me through a couple of months, at which point I will simply say good riddance and toss it.  I will be making this pattern again, in several different yarns as it is just the perfect versatile cardigan for me.

That's it for 2008.  Not a bad year at all.  Hopefully 2009 will be even more productive.