purlsandmurmers

Mittens for 2009?

One of the nice events of this holiday was going across the street for Christmas Brunch at the neighbor's house.  What started out as a holiday without plans and without any idea of what would be happening in our lives turned out really nicely with the possibility that a couple of new Christmas traditions have been started.  

One neighbor had mentioned previously that he had learned to knit when he was in school in Norway (do I remember correctly???) but had not knitted for many years.  He was thrilled to have gotten a copy of Selbuvotter for Christmas and was thinking about starting some mittens.

I mentioned that I had the book and had been thinking about mittens but hadn't knitted one yet.  Now I am thinking that it is about time I did.

Oh, I was all eager  when I got the book, and shortly afterwards, when Marji  was working on her beautiful mittens.  But my incentive got misplaced somewhere, probably in one of the piles of things I failed to conquer in this soon to be past year.

Now after shoveling snow and ice last week, spending what seemed like hours warming up cold frozen fingers, and having pulled the book off the shelf to read on Christmas eve, I have visions of mittens dancing in my brain again.  Besides I told the neighbor that I knew someone who could help if he got into trouble (are you reading Marji?) so perhaps I really should start knitting those mittens soon.

I am really, really tempted by some of the gloves, but I have never knitted mittens or gloves, except for fingerless mitts, which don't count as they are missing the fiddly parts, so I think it is better to start with mittens.

Loopy Thing

I indulged in a little instant gratification knitting this past week.

A couple of weeks ago I fell in love with a single skein of a multi-yarn blendy yarn called Alp by Feza.  The colors really spoke to me and I just had to indulge.  

I was told by others who had knit this yarn that I would have to knit the scarf lengthwise if I wanted the nice stripes around my neck and that it would make a long but very skinny scarf -- not exactly my thing.  

So I knit a tube.  I decided how long I wanted the thing to be by draping a circular knitting needle around my neck and then guessed at the gauge and cast on.  I added a few extra stitches just in case.  I also decided to knit in K2, P2 rib for no reason other than I felt like it.  I think the end result is just perfect.

Yarn: Alp by Feza:

Color: ??? pretty maroons, rusts and grays

Using a size 12 needle, cast on 60.  Work in K2 P2 until nearly out of yarn.  Bind off.

This photo is closer to the final color.

I love the resulting whatever it is -- loopy thing is my closest idea.  With a coat it will cozy up closer to my neck and keep me warm, but it could be work like this with a sweater or jacket on cool fall days.

Oh now I can't wait for cool weather.

Loopy Thing

I indulged in a little instant gratification knitting this past week.

A couple of weeks ago I fell in love with a single skein of a multi-yarn blendy yarn called Alp by Feza.  The colors really spoke to me and I just had to indulge.  

I was told by others who had knit this yarn that I would have to knit the scarf lengthwise if I wanted the nice stripes around my neck and that it would make a long but very skinny scarf -- not exactly my thing.  

So I knit a tube.  I decided how long I wanted the thing to be by draping a circular knitting needle around my neck and then guessed at the gauge and cast on.  I added a few extra stitches just in case.  I also decided to knit in K2, P2 rib for no reason other than I felt like it.  I think the end result is just perfect.

Yarn: Alp by Feza:

Color: ??? pretty maroons, rusts and grays

Using a size 12 needle, cast on 60.  Work in K2 P2 until nearly out of yarn.  Bind off.

This photo is closer to the final color.

I love the resulting whatever it is -- loopy thing is my closest idea.  With a coat it will cozy up closer to my neck and keep me warm, but it could be work like this with a sweater or jacket on cool fall days.

Oh now I can't wait for cool weather.

Purple Scarf

For some weeks at knitting group I would stare across the sitting area at a grouping of the luscious colors of a display of Road to China wondering what excuse I could use to purchase some.  There wasn't really enough of any one color for a sweater, and I am really more of  a sweater knitter than anything else.  I have oodles of scarves and believed I didn't need another until one day when I was sitting next to that particular pile of yarn and I noticed that one of the colors perfectly matched my favorite purple winter raincoat.  I bought the yarn that night, fully intending to start the scarf right away, but I put the yarn aside while I fretted about what kind of stitch to use and of course, it slipped out of my mind.

I started the scarf just before DH went into the hospital, figuring it was easy enough to remember under stress, but also just interesting enough not to be monotonous.  Last week was warm enough that I believed I might not wear it until next year, but it is plenty cold again today and there is a threat of snow mixed with our rain tonight and tomorrow.

Somehow just thinking about the soft snuggly scarf around my neck makes even the thought of snow seem  tempting in that I hope it is cold enough with just enough snow that I have an excuse to wear the scarf without it becoming a bedraggled mess.  Of course, I don't want it to REALLY snow, nor do I want the snow to stick around, I just want a hint of snow, a warm scarf, and then for the sun to come out and melt it all away.

All in all I am happy with the scarf and happy with how it turned out.  I had 4 skeins and each skein yielded about 10" of scarf so I have enough length for cozy warmth but not much excess.  The only problem is there was a little trouble with the dye on some of the skeins.  I know the yarn is kettle dyed and I expect some variation in the color; that adds to the charm, but there was one section of two skeins where the color seemed more variable than the rest, although all skeins were from the same dye lot.  When I blocked the scarf, and got it wet, the variation became much more noticeable:

It is not quite as visible in this photo as it appears to me, but DH tells me he can't really see it when I am wearing the scarf.  If you look to the left of center in the picture you see sections where the variagation in the yarn is not just lighter and darker shades of the same color, but actually a different shade of red.  I didn't see this when the yarn was in skeins, and actually it didn't look this red until after I got it wet, almost as if some of the color washed out in those places.

It is not a major disaster, but an annoyance nonetheless.  I don't think it is going to stop me from wearing the scarf but that tinge of disappointment remains.

More hats

I had a post written in my mind on Thursday but it languished there and never found escape. 

I had another post on Friday, but was too tired to write, probably because I came home from knitting group/class and then sat up knitting until 2:30 before finally going to bed and having to be rousted up by workmen 5 hours later.

There has been a little bit of knitting, but not enough.  I did however spend a lot of time on Ravelry, beginning to add some kind of accounting of my yarn stash -- a truly daunting process. 

And I have spent a lot of time looking at patterns, and my yarn, and thinking about what projects I will have to work on while I am also working on Vancouver; you know, the kind of projects that I need for time spent in the car, or those evenings when I am too tired to think while I knit, or for jut plain old-fashioned escape knitting.

In the meantime I am still knitting hats.  They fit my purposes at the moment:

There is a child's wool hat knit from a leftover skein of something or another:

This will go in my box of hats, scarvse, and mittens that I donate to Morse school in Poughkeepsie every year.  It is not fully populated this year, that box, so perhaps it is a good thing that I think there are several more hats in me before I get tired of knitting them.

I also knit two hats for Owen

The brown one is leftover Karabella SuperCashmee about 2/3 of a skein that was left over from my rice stitch cardigan.  The cotton hat matches a little sweater I knit Owen last year, before he was born but which just about fits him now.  I dont' usually think about knitting winter hats out of cotton, but it may be more appropritate for a Tennessee winter than the heavy cashmere.  But then again, nothing is too good for one's grandson now is it?

Hats for Alex

After I read Marji's  September 26th post I immediately sorted through my odd lot bag for some yarn for baby hats.  I wrote about the first hat here.

It took me a little while to get back to this project but I finally did, knitting one hat on Thursday and another yesterday evening:

These hats are knit in remnants of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton and are ready to be shipped off, along with the first hat, on Monday.

It had been a while since I had knitted a hat and it has been perfect knitting therapy, short and sweet and easily knitted when one is tired or just a little scatterbrained.  I seem to be avoiding casting on for a more major project right now, just as there are several projects lined up in need of finishing.  I am sure the need to knit something more complicated and interesting will resume, but for the moment these hats are the perfect thing.  I have started another one, this one out of lilac superwash wool, but this one will be larger, a child's size, to be donated to a local school.  I think all the local schools accept hat, scarf, and glove donations but I tend to give mine to the Pre-K to 2nd grade magnet school in Poughkeepsie, a school that serves a large inner city and welfare population, and never seems to have enough hats and scarves to go around.  Although it still seems unseasonably warm, winter will come and I hope to have something ready.

Almost

I decided to knit a baby hat.  I had one skein of a superwash wool.  Surely it would be enough.

Almost:

Although there may have been enough yarn to gather the remaining six stitches, there was not enough to suitably anchor the end and no one wants a hat unraveling on their baby.

Luckily I found something close enough in the lone-ball-bin and the job was finished.

Donegal Scarf and Hat

The garter stitch hat and scarf are done.  I had more than enough yarn for a child-sized hat and scarf, so I ended up making the scarf longer and re-knitting the hat in a larger size.  They are now mine, but not to wear with Rogue:

I like the width of the scarf, it is about 5 inches, actually narrower than I would normally make it, so it is  extra long.  I will have to make a note of this for the future,  It wraps easily multiple times around the neck and is not too bulky.

There will be no photo of the white-faced and red-nosed Mardel showing of the scarf and hat.   I have been holed up with a cold or flu, I am not sure which, as I have had symptoms of both; whatever it is I seem to be on the mend and will be back to normal activity early in the week.  I should have realized I was coming down with something when I came home from Knitting Group Thursday night and went right to bed, sleeping over 9 hours, an almost unheard of feat for me.

As I have not been up to much but mindless knitting and light reading there is also progress, slow but progress nonetheless, on the purple sweater.

Moving on

Looking at the ripped and wound yarns that I had planned to use for Twisty Turns, I seriously doubt my powers of observation or attention to detail.  These two skeins could not possibly work together:

bright autumn

muted plums.

What was I thinking?  I have trouble believing that they looked at all similar in the skein either and am inclined to think I was blinded by love and fiberly over stimulation.  That I didn't notice while I wound them up is another matter, but it was late afternoon and I was in a hurry to run out the door, yarn in hand.

Needless to say they are now destined for entirely different and separate projects, perhaps hats and scarves for the children at Morse School.  I will be happy to have knit them into something used, if not loved, by someone.

Most of Thursday knitting was spent unknitting, rewinding, and then winding sock yarn into skeins.  I took the Hydrangea  sock yarn from Sundara, thinking this might be a possible travel project as well, although I am still planning on working on Mermaid's sleeves as well.

I had a great deal of trouble untangling the yarn from the skein, getting it on the winder, and winding it into a center-pull ball.  I had enough trouble with the first skein that I asked for Theresa's help with the second and she grumbled a bit as well.  But we managed. 

I absolutely love knitting this yarn!!! However I have little progress to show yet:

I had started on the recommended size 2 DPNs, knowing better of course, but as usually hoping beyond hope that it would work.  The first sock top came in at 6 stitches/inch when it should have been 8.  I am not following the pattern exactly, I am sticking on my now favorite picot edge top and then perhaps I will follow the pattern, no commitments have been made as yet.

But back to gauge: I was 2 stitches too loose which means I need to go down 4 needle sizes, or at least that was what I was taught as a mere novice knitter, and I have found that advice to be pretty good so far. 

But I balked.

I immediately realized that I would have to knit on 000 needles.  I don't mind knitting tiny, my other socks have been 7 1/2 to 9 stitches per inch, but not yet on 000's.  I own the 000's and even 0000's but no 00's, so the triple 0's had better work.   

So far it looks good, but I don't have enough to really tell.  The fabric is firmer which is good as the first sock was too floppy.  My only complaint is that I can't find tiny tiny needles in 6 inch lengths, which I prefer, and I find the 8 inch 000's a bit more cumbersome to work with.  My only other caution at this point is that I am not sure if I can knit these socks on these needles on the plane, but I don't have two circulars this size.  I have never had problems with knitting on flights, but then I have never tried carrying 5 long narrow pointy 8" size 000 double points either.  They look like weapons to me.

Today's tasks are to get a little further on my sock and confirm that I am on gauge and also to seam the body of Mermaid so I can measure and start the sleeves.   Once I have decided on the travel knitting, I can move on to packing those other, less necessary items.

Love is Blind...

...and disappointment often follows.

I have hit a wall on Twisty Turns:

The first skein was wonderful knitting.  I loved the color combination and knitting the scarf.  Even though it was looking increasingly likely that the purple/orange/maroon combo was looking, overall, a little too much on the orange side to be my best color, I couldn't help but be enthralled with the colors and how they were knitting up.

Then I started the second skein  (left above).  The first think I noticed was a little bit of green that I hadn't seen in the first skein.  Then the differences became more obvious.

I checked the labels, I know I bought them from the same hook at the Decadent Fibers booth.  The labels are the same.  There had been three skeins, the first skein, the orange purple was the one I fell in love with first.  I picked the companion that looked most similar in the relatively dull light inside the barn at Rhinebeck.  Perhaps I should have picked the second two skeins and put the first back, but it was the first, the orange/purple, that I truly love.

Will it work out?

1.  I should have knitted alternately from each skein and I could rip out and do that still.

2.  It is possible that the way the wrap goes together they will look OK in the end, I think the entire wrap will end up with a wide row of skein 1 next to a wide row of skein 2 all along the wrap but I don't have the directions here.  I left them at Yarn Central last week.  I think I seam the thing along the length to make the twisty wrap. -- but I'm not sure if I like them together or not, sometimes I think yes, but when I look at the photo it is a definite NO.

3.  The problem isn't just the color.  The  first skein was pretty uniform in thickness throughout.  The second skein is much variable and most of it is much thinner than the first skein.  I do not think I am getting the same gauge.  But then again, it might not matter.

4.  Perhaps I should just wrap the whole thing in a plastic bag and throw it in the back of a closet and forget about until some unspecified future date.

If I don't work on Twisty Turns, what am I going to do at group tonight???