purlsandmurmers

Rhinebeck 2009

This is the first year that I regretted not taking a camera to Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool festival.  Usually I don't miss it.  Even when I carry it I don't tend to use it.  I don't take pictures of other people, I don't take pictures of myself.  Usually I take pictures of things that inspire me and this is the first year that I really missed having my camera.  Note for next year.

So all you get, as usual are pictures of the haul.  

I went in saying I wasn't going to buy anything, which I knew was a lie, that I would buy something.  I think I did well.  I bought more than I intended to buy but I am okay with it.  I only came out with one bag of yarn and many years I have done far far worse.

The first purchase came within a few minutes of arrival.  We stopped at Tochay's Rainbow Yarns, where I have purchased yarn in the past.  I was happy to see them as they were not there last year, at least not there on Saturday, and I missed them then.  Unfortunately I did not expect to see them this year and I don't remember what I wanted last year or what project I had in mind.  Nonetheless I bought something.

Although they have mohairs and yarns in a variety of gauges, it is the big thick yarns I love from this vendor.  I love the color, I love the way the yarn knits soft and drapey; did I say I love the colors?  I fell in love with the muted plums in this yarn but there is not much of it, only about 250 yards, even at 1 1/2 stitches per inch  it will probably end up being only a scarf.  I might be able to get a shrug out of it, doubtful, but I might find a way, perhaps using another yarn for the edges.  I went for it anyway.

They had another yarn that wasn't out yet.  I didn't plan on two yarns, but the second one was so lovely.  G like both and couldn't decide and frankly neither could I, so both came home with us.  There is a tad over 400 yards of this one so I know I can knit a shrug or short cardi.  I just have to figure out what I want to do.

It is nice to have a spouse who likes to go to sheep festivals and look at yarn and I am not complaining that he came with me.  Sometimes he backs me up when I am feeling doubtful about something, and he has a way of reading my mind:  "not this, yes that".  There were probably some things I didn't look at because he was around but at the same time he kind of egged me into buying a few things I had sworn to ignore, such as this small batch of roving.

I have several boxes of roving at home which I have neither spun nor felted.  I sometimes wonder about spinning.  I would like to learn, but I doubt it will ever be a major interest, I mostly want to spin just to use my grandmother's spinning wheel.  Felting is more interesting but wet felting is a lot of work and also requires a good bit of time, something that has been in short supply lately.

But G really liked the colors in this roving, and as I looked at I was struck with the perfect inspiration.  I did not need much, a small handful, and I believe the final result will be lovely and even something I am likely to get to in the near future, by which I mean before next year's Sheep and Wool festival.

I met my knitting group at the Fairgrounds and we spent most of the day Saturday wandering around.  Several of us admired a felted scarf at one vendor and bought a skein and a couple of us bought a hank of merino/tencel to give it a try.  

We stopped in Briar Rose Fibers because one of my group had purchased some gorgeous yarn there last year.  I ended up with yarn despite myself.    I just love the shades of green in this yarn.  The yarn is called Legend, it is between sport and dk weight; I already know exactly what I am going to knit.  Stay tuned.

Rip and Reknit? or not

I've been going through the sweater closet, going through what fits, what doesn't, and what I need.  I've frankly been dreading this, although so far, and I have only barely begun it hasn't been to bad.  

The first sweater on the reject pile has been the rice stitch cardigan that I knit out of Karabella Super Cashmere back in 2007.  Here is a picture of me wearing the sweater when I finished it, and here is a link to the relevant posts.

Now the sweater was fine then.  But I am about 20 -22 pounds lighter now, and about 4 inches smaller through the bust, 8 or 9 inches smaller through the waist, and far less barrel shaped.  The sweater literally hangs on me in a most unflattering way.  

My decision now is whether to rip it and reknit it, or just give it away.  I am inclined to rip and reknit for several reasons.

1. The yarn is really nice, fairly expensive, and I used a lot of it (20 skeins I believe) and it was a joy to knit.

2.  I love the color.

3.  It looks like it has held up really well, there is no apparent piling or fraying of the yarn even though I wore this sweater quite a bit over the winter and long spring last year.

My question is how well does cashmere hold up to rippng and reknitting?   Good quality wool holds up pretty well, so I am assuming good quality cashmere does as well.  If it were alpaca I wouldn't even consider it, alpaca can be difficult to rip just to reknit a problem area in a project that hasn't yet been blocked or worn.

If you have thoughts or experience please advise.  

I will not be knitting the same sweater.  Much as I loved this sweater, it is fairly firmly knitted and hangs straight without much drape.  It would not flatter me now. I do expect to have some yardage loss in the ripping process but I should still have plenty to knit something quite nice, something in a looser, softer gauge.

Garment District shopping 2 -- Mood

I haven't forgotten that I promised to post all my fabric from my trip to the garment district last month.  

To tell the truth I wasn't prepared for the "new" Mood.  I have shopped at Mood for years, but it was always a huge disorganized, almost higgledy-piggledy place.  I found great pieces there, but it was difficult if you were looking for something in particular.  Well that has changed.  Now things are well lighted and beautifully arranged with signs pointing you to particular fabrics.    I fell in love with far more pieces than I anticipated, but I regret nothing.

There was a fabulous selection of silk knits in solids and prints -- fabulous fabulous prints.  I was pulling them out and sighing with pleasure, but when I saw the one pictured above I knew I had to have it.  While my friends talked I rapidly took it in hand and had it cut before I could change my mind (or anyone could steal it out from under me).

Here it is draped over the fabulous Matilda.  This will be a dress, although not in the immediate future.  Although I want to sew things that I can wear now at the weight I am now, this piece will wait.  Besides it says Spring to me far more than it cries out for Autumn wear. 

Although I told myself that was "it", I said that before I went upstairs to look at the wools.  I found my favorite salesperson from my years at shopping Mood, and I found an entire collection of lightweight wool challis and gauze, which just took my breath away.  

There was this dusky-mauve-rose which just took my breath away.  This is the perfect soft neutral color for me and this fabric is a lovely dress weight.  

That was before I saw the plaid wool gauze.

My immediate thought was for a dress, so I purchased ample.  I was originally thinking something inspired by Vivienne Westwood, but even before the fabric arrived I was wondering if I would wear a plaid dress or if it should become something else -- a skirt and a vest perhaps, things I could wear with other pieces.  

I could wear the pieces together but I probably wouldn't.  I tend to like mixing my dramatic pieces with my more classic and neutral pieces.

Here is the plaid on Matilda.  Having seen it on the dressform I am once again uncertain about what I will actually make. It actually is not as "much" as I feared, although I am still leaning more towards pieces than a whole head-to-toe look. 

I adore the combination of browns and greys and wine colors.  This could go with almost anything.  

And yes, there is still more.

This piece was also found with the wool gauzes and it is only a remnant, about 3/4 of a yard.  I don't know what it will be, it will need a supporting fabric and I am thinking it may end up being the front of a cardigan or short jacket.   As you can see it is a very sheer netting or gauze with a pattern made from a thick and thin yarn that has been stitched to the background fabric.

 I just had to buy it. You can see the detail better in this second photo (without Moisés.)

As you can see I went to town. 

There is one more fabric, a beautiful blue and red super 130s menswear suiting with which I intend to make a dress.  This is the only fabric in the group for which I have a specific vision, although I haven't picked the pattern yet.

Garment district shopping 1 -- Metro Textiles

I promised to reveal the fruits of my shopping trip to NYC.   

The fabrics arrived from Metro Textile on Wednesday last week, a week ago today, and I just now got a chance to really look at them beyond a cursory glance.  For the most part these are basic fabrics that I intend to be making up fairly soon.

This first fabric is a woven, a lovely deep gray wool, which will become a pair of pants, once I work out the details of refitting my TNT pants pattern that is.  The shiny fabric underneath it is bemberg lining, a lovely weight of bemberg lining which seemed very reasonable at $5.00 a yard, reasonable enough that I bought a few yards even though I don't always line pants.

The remainder of my purchases from Kashi were knits.  A charcoal grey wool double knit is on the left.  It looks beautiful with the wool above which means it might make a lovely sweater set, or perhaps I will use it for a dress.  I am sorely feeling the need for dresses about now, so we will see what it becomes.

The blue and black is also a wool double knit.  It is a blue/black marl on one side with black on the other side.  You can see both the blue and black yarns on the blue side.  I don't quite know what I am doing with this one yet either, but I am sure the right pattern will materialize.

This lovely deep plum knit is another wool, this one much lighter in weight, almost sheer, but not quite, with more of a hint of translucence than transparence.   This will be some kind of top.  

Last but by no means least is this gorgeous knit.  This was my "inspiration" purchase at Kashi's.  The other pieces were all lovely functional basics that I knew I could use.  This piece was purchased just because it is beautiful.  It will be a dress.  Did I say I am yearning for dresses?  Hopefully this will be a dress that makes my heart sing.

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.

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.

More, More, More

There was no knitting on Monday and precious little yesterday or over the weekend -- not for lack of desire.  I love knitting with this Rowan Bamboo Tape and I love the weight, drape, and feel of the knitted fabric.  I am about 30 rows shy of finishing the front of Granite and I would dearly love to get it on the blocking board today but the simple little contracting job that was supposed to take one or two days has evolved into something that takes all week, and I have to go out on a little hunting mission today before the carpenters get back tomorrow to see if I can find something to solve a little problem.  Par for the course I know, but hey, I've got knitting calling my name.

And I need to knit.  The queue is piling up to alarming proportions and the little indulgences that cropped into my internet shopping carts during the frustrating stage before I ripped Granite out and reknit, are starting to arrive.

When I was looking for yarn to make that fabulous short sleeve cabled cardigan that I told you about here, I happened upon this fabulous short bolero in bulky yarn.  I am fascinated by the orange color, I am in something of an orange phase right at the moment, and I hoped to stop by the store to look at the yarn.  Orange is really not a color I should wear close to my face, but since I am really hot for orange mixed with lavenders, purples and grays right now, I thought I could pull it off it was the right shade. 

We didn't get to the store, and they didn't have an appropriate substitution at my LYS.  As a consolation prize I ordered the book and this really pretty aqua/teal color, which will probably go with more things in my wardrobe. At least I know of at least two potential outfits which have their hearts set on having this cardigan to complete them.  We still have to see if the final result works.  Hearts are so easily broken.

The day I didn't get to the yarn store we were at a concert and at some point or another I was bored and let my mind wander.  I will say that my thoughts were concert related as I was thinking about what I would wear to the next 5 concerts in the series, and it occurred to me that I really needed a lilac cotton or light to mid-weight cardigan.

Once home, a search of the stash did not yield the right yarn.  Why do I have so little lilac?  I wear enough of it, you would think I would have scads.  Actually I do have a lilac sweater, way to big at the moment, and out of a handpainted yarn so it is not quite what I had in mind.

I was also perusing the Elann website looking at something a friend had ordered, when I happened upon the perfect lilac yarn, which happened to arrive yesterday.  The new Filati Handknitting also arrived, and it has some cute designs, but I think I should hold off on perusing this issue as I am already overwhelmed with choices, quite a few of which I want to knit immediately.

So the lilac Jaeger yarn will get delayed, probably until closer to spring, and the Aqua Gedifra has jumped up the list to be next in line (for simple mindless knitting anyway).  I do also need to resurrect quite a few unfinished and pending projects, most of which require more thoughtful knititng.

A storage place for the knitting queue

I am still working on Granite slowly but surely.  There is nothing really to show at this point, although I am almost finished with the back.

I have also spent some time cleaning out an old junk closet with the purpose of turning it into a yarn and fabric storage area.

I have been partially successful.  I have managed to move some things into the closet and have been happily spending bits of time here and there organizing them.  

One of the more successful endeavors has been getting a pile of yarn off my sewing room floor and organized so that now I have an actual queue with yarn and patterns organized and grouped together so that I can find them.  That should avoid those "I have a house full of yarn and nothing to knit" panic attacks that tend to hit me occasionally.

The closet has not been completely reclaimed yet.  There are still several shelves full of stuff to sell on Ebay or otherwise recycle, but I am making good progress.

Don't the colors just look so pretty?  Just looking at them makes me smile.

Re-organization

Although the knitting on Passel is continuing at a good pace given how little time I am devoting to it, that is all about to change.  We are driving down to Knoxville tomorrow for a few days with DSD and baby Owen.  I am not sure how much knitting will be accomplished on the trip as I may end up doing a lot of the driving but there will certainly be knitting time available once we arrive.  I have packed the entire thing in my bag, naive I am sure, because I doubt I will get the entire sweater knitted as I am only about 1/2 way through the back.  But it seems best to plan for the best case scenario.

Anyway, in my spare time, instead of knitting, I have finally started reorganizing the old yarn stash.  As you will recall, I lost the previous spreadsheet, and finding anything has driven me up the wall.  I literally had no idea what was hiding in various closets and boxes.

I toyed the idea of building a database with pictures, but quickly gave up on that idea as I just don't want to spend the time setting up a database the way I want it.  This spreadsheet will work just fine.

What I am finding as I go through things though, aside from a few bits of yarn that can be added to the every growing e-bay pile, is that each time I see the yarn for another sweater I fall in love with it and want to start knitting it right away.  There are about 20 such projects currently milling around my brain and I am seriously wondering why I never got to them the first time around.  Oh I know the answer, but now  I want to knit each and every one of them now.....at least until the next pattern book comes.

(Where are you Vogue Knitting!)

So I am somewhere between 15 and 20% through the stash, and I am going to organize books and patterns as well so there is really a lot more to do.  I am really excited about the process however, and I think there will be a great benefit to the work. 

Oh yeah, and as the new pattern books have come in I have found projects for at least 3 yarns that have been languishing in my stash.  Now I just have to get those projects knitted up.

Summer Knitting??

A few weeks ago, when I was looking for a new project, I started piling up yarn in a corner of my studio, in the hopes that I would make a commitment to a project.  The yarns have been sitting there ever since and I have made a few additions to the pile as well.  Today I sorted out the yarns into their individual projects, made a rough inventory, and tried not to laugh hysterically.  This is more than summer knitting.....

I won't go into the details.  You will hopefully see some of these yarns emerge from this pile before the summer is over, perhaps even one or two before the summer officially begins. I am intentionally leaving the pile here out in the open where it can taunt me at those times when I sit down and don't feel like doing anything. 

Most of the yarns are summer weights.  For example the bag in front is Rowan's Summer Tweed purchased for a Kaffe Fasset cardigan LAST summer.  I am determined to start it this summer, but it will not be a carry-along project as there are too many yarns, so it will likely be in process simultaneously with at least one or two other projects.

I also received part of my Anny Blatt order and those yarns are also in the pile.  The order is not complete, but here is what I have gotten so far. 

This sweater is(was?) high on my list because it just seems perfect for my mood this summer:

Unfortunately two yarns are missing, the blue Victoria ribbon and the blue Muguet.  I will call the store on Tuesday to check on their status.  These yarns are used at the very end of the sweater so I could start right away, but I hate to get something mostly underway and then have to struggle to find the finishing touch, or have to consider doing something different.  I could use different yarns for the blue/green stripes, but I might not find something that I like with the pink muguet pictured above.  So this sweater is still on hold.

The yarn for Padirac is complete:

But although this sweater is also white, it does not strike me as so explicitly summery.  I think I could wear it in the spring and fall also with the right clothes.  It is light but could be easily dressed up to go to a concert or nice evening out.  Besides this is another relatively complicated project that cannot be easily hauled around as multiple yarns are used in each row.  This will compete with the Kaffe Fassett for my attention.