I'm feeellllting.

There is just something magical about felting. About how you can take a pile like this:


Throw it in the washer. And have it come out like this:





The purse is a simple cast on however many stitches--in this case 64, but it is a little wide and short--knit in the round until you are almost out of yarn and bind off and sew together--or you can get fancy and three needle bind off. The cord is just 3 stitch icord.

The flowers were perhaps my favorites--the sea anemones are cute, but the flowers... Well the purple is cascade 220 and the pink are Ultra Alpaca and I think the ultra alpaca with the pebbly way it felts up just looks almost like I bought them at a craft store.

We don't know what were going to do with them yet, but I have this terrible urge to knit more.

felting (and jam notes)

Last summer I whipped up a few things out of a skein of Paton's SWS.


But I didn't felt them because it seemed like a waste to felt so little. So I set them aside.

In my latest eh what to knit phase I had a chance to knit at a playground while my kids ran around with gobs of other first graders and I did not have a sock started. In fact I had nothing started, so I grabbed a skein of Noro Kureyon and some needles. In less than a week I had:



Also not felted because after I finished that, I realized I still had some scraps of purple wool (cascade 220, I think and only realized because I used some to finish the strap) that I could maybe make another flower from. But I couldn't remember where I got this pattern... and I found another felted flower pattern (from 101 one skein wonders which is where I thought the sea urchins had come from.) and started one in purple. THEN I realized I needed one in pink and realized that I happen to have some leftover ultra alpaca in pink. SO I think it will be a while before I start felting.

On another note, I'd like to say that this blog has saved me! Last year I noted that I had made 3 batches of Strawberry jam (and one peach and 1 sour cherry). Well the jam came out perfectly in terms of amounts and this year Strawberry season is here a few weeks early. So after making 2 batches of jam which came out to this much:


I wondered--how much had I made last year because I have 2 containers left and that's about perfect (I like to give away jam too to pet sitters, teachers, etc). I looked in the archives and lo and behold last July I mentioned I had made three batches. So future self--I'll be making batch #3 of Strawberry sometime this afternoon.

socks socks socks

I finally finished a pair of striped socks.


I love this yarn, which is Felici by Knit picks, and the pattern which is a plain jane toe up sock pattern I found in an issue of Interweave knits.



However, I'm a little bummed on socks right now. But I do have quite a bit of opportunity to knit in places where I need to be focused on something OTHER than the pattern. So I started a felted purse in a very simple, knit this puppy in the round until you are almost out of yarn, sew it up and add an i-cord strap and felt that puppy. Use a Noro yarn and whoo whee you've got a sweet small purse.

But, I think I'm going to be using my concentrate on the knitting and pattern time to work on this shrug from CECE knits. Short sleeve version in a yarn that is the same purple as in my dress. I know because I brought my dress to the yarn store. I'm just not sure how it will work because the yarn I bought (Debbie Bliss Baby cashmerino) is a bit thinner than the DK yarn called for. But that is what the swatch is for, I guess.

blah

I'm feeling like I'm in a knitting ... well rut isn't the right word. I want to knit something, but all that I have yarn for is socks... well and a sweater or two. So I knit a sock:


The yarn is Felici from Knit picks. The pattern is a basic toe up from interweave knits. The second one is on the needles now, but it suddenly got hot here in the North and so now if I wear socks it looks more like this:


Which honestly isn't making me wanting to crank out the socks. I have some laceweight yarn and Elizabeth Zimmerman claims shawls are the perfect summer knit. I love lace, but I'm not sure I'm a shawl wearer. Which is also making me less likely to want to knit a shawl.

I did however finish the Retro Redux shrug from Lace style:



And I really like it--especially with my new dress.



Right now the only thing I want to knit is another shrug or lace jacket or something in the purple of the dress. I have no yarn in that purple right now, and no way to get any until late next week. Plus I don't exactly have a pattern picked out. I'm kinda in a rotten mood about it too. I know I'd feel better if I knit, but I don't feel like knitting (well except for that imaginary perfect purple shrug-like thing). Kind of a catch-22.
I'm sure I'll snap out of it, just as I'm sure I'll be knitting socks all summer long.

All my mistakes will become masterpieces

When I started this blog, I titled it Disasters with yarn, because I felt like I was having a streak of knitting disasters. But then I got wimpy and didn't actually write in it until I was past those "disasters". In actuality, they were mistakes and I don't mind mistakes as long as I learn from them. They play a song in my yoga class that has the refrain--All my mistakes have become masterpieces.

I'm not sure if mine have, but I have learned something from most of them, and this one is no exception. You see I had this sweater. I didn't knit it but I really liked it.


It is a nursing sweater so it has a flap in front that buttoned down and holes on the inside. I liked the color, I liked the yarn, and so I wore it even after I didn't need it for nursing Until at least it developed an "extra" hole:


Then a few months ago, I found it when I was cleaning my sewing room--I had put it down there thinking I could somehow repair it. instead I got this really bright idea, why not take it apart and make something else out of it. Something lacy and summery. And so I did--I took off a sleeve and that's when I learned something very very important.

When garments are constructed in factories, they are often surged, by which A tiny bit of material is sliced off and the edges are sewn together all nice and neat--look at any seam in any t-shirt you have and you'll see what this looks like. I even have a serger and I love it. However, when you cut the edge off a piece of knitting.....

So, yes every time I unravelled a row I had a row sized piece of yarn--and not great yarn at that--very loose splitty yarn. So now I think it might be time for plan b. I have no idea what plan B is though. I did learn though that if I ever go "goodwilling" for sweaters to tear apart to look to make sure they aren't serged together.

On the brighter note, I kind of had a small leap out of my knitting blahs and finished a shrug, which is proving impossible to photograph by myself, so I'll have to wait until I can get some help. I also received a gift from my globe trotting mother in law of some yarn from Ireland.


She didn't save the label I think--and all I know is that it is over 50 grams of a mohair boucle--each skein is over 50 grams. I have been dreaming ever since about what I will make with it. I envision something Lacy and scarf-like. Then my mother in law called--she also had gotten me a woven scarf but couldn't find it until she unpacked all the way. It has the same colors and is just gorgeous. Again, impossible to photograph by myself, but I wore it to target today with my white t-shirt and hey librarian sweater because you know when it is nearly 70 you need sweaters and scarves (and raincoats which totally ruined my look).

knitting blahs

I'm in a knitting rut. And a knitting slump

I think it started with the ill fated skirt. Then it moved onto a pair of socks that I was knitting that seem a bit snug. Then I thought why am I always knitting socks?

Well, I can save you many days of soul searching and tell you that I am always knitting socks for these reasons:
1) I wear socks almost every day
2) I have a ton of sock yarn
3) socks are portable
4) I have a ton of sock yarn
5) Socks are easy to do while watching TV
6) I have a ton of sock yarn.

You get the picture.
Seriously I spent 2 days trying to figure out something non-sock to knit. And I realized, I don't wear that many scarves or shawls, and I can't knit lace or anything complicated while I watch TV (looking at you dollar and a half cardigan). I don't have a lot of yarn for mid-sized projects--either socks or one-skein things or sweaters.

I have three balls of Muench Touch me, and toyed with a velvety scarf. And I could not for the life of me think about where I might wear such a thing in MAY. And of course I *could* save it for winter, but please, I want something I can appreciate NOW, not 5 months from now (oy, really 5 months from now I'll be wearing a scarf--yeah probably). I also have some leftover yarn--Briar rose Sonoma I think--that I have mittens and scarf from, but was thinking I had enough for some sort of hat-like thing. Again, 5 months.

Then it hit me. I have 2 skeins of Malbrigio silky wool In a beautiful purple. Surely I could get a small shrug out of it and certainly it would match the bits of purple flowers in the dress I bought to replace the ill-fated skirt. Well, yes and no. Yes, I probably had enough to make a small shrug. Like the small one in Lace Style which is not pictured in that link... But the purple wasn't quite the right purple. The purple bits in the dress are more red. And if I could tell that before I pulled the dress out of the bedroom (and into the sunny living room) then you know it was off. But I also noticed that there was some olive green in it too (and black and white--mostly black and white with a few purple flowers with olive leaves) and I have some olive yarn.

The yarn is Elle Aran gold and it is acrylic. I've knit with it before though and find it to be a lot sproingyier than most acrylics. In fact I made a whole sweater from it, which I actually still like and wear on a regular basis (wore it this week even). Of course it was a dead match for the olive in the dress, how could it not be. How could my expensive really want to create something lovely from it yarn be so far off as to be funny, and my cheap (purchased at a LYS closeout sale) acrylic match perfect? Well that's the way of things. Plus I had enough for the retro redux shrug pictured in the link above.

I was intrigued. I was interested. I swatched. I started dreaming of how I would look the NEXT time I wore that dress (which is in 10 days most likely). And I cast on, more excited about this project than I have been since I messed up the toe on that last sock and it the wall with my sewing.

Although, if anyone has a non scarf option for the lovely purple Malbrigio silky wool--I have 2 skeins which makes about 300 yards (274m) of a dk weight yarn, leave it in the comments. Oh heck, if you have a scarf pattern that I can wear in early fall--say September let me know about that too.

two things I learned.

This is probably the space I should be telling you about the fabulous and cute skirt I made and then wore to a banquet and got a tremendous amount of compliments. And in fact I did wear something new to said banquet and got a ton of compliments.

First though I should say that as in knitting, in sewing I am learning all the time. In fact for this project I learned two very helpful things.

1) the grain lines on the pattern pieces should be straight and parallel to the selvedge edge. "otherwise your clothes will never hang right" so says the video I watched the clip out of. And as it turns out I always tried to get them straight but when I followed the video's helpful instructions: measure from the top of the arrow to the selvedge edge, pin, then measure the bottom of the arrow to the selvedge edge, I learned I can't eyeball straight. In fact my "eyeballing" was a good 2 inches out of whack. And indeed, this skirt went together so much easier than any halloween costume I've ever made.
Which makes it really too bad that I also learned:

2) Simplicity is on crack with sizing.
I usually wear a size--oh let's say 14. And I realize that sizes are different, look at the measurements blah blah. I did this and actually it looked like the simplicity 14 would be way too big int he waist, but ok in the hips. Well, my skirt doesn't fit. It is too short (which I could fix) and too small--which I maybe can fix. But seriously, I think I'd need an 18 in Simplicity and 14 in regular clothes, how is this not in anyway not messed up?
But it very well could be that I messed up. Perhaps I always thought I wore a certain size, say 14 because even though practically every other size 14 out there in the whole world fits me, I've been tricked by vanity sizing and I really wear an 18. But I must say... in vanity size (aka Liz Claiborne) I wear nearly an 8.

So, I slipped the skirt on when I was ready to put in the zipper and discovered that no way was it ever going to fit me. At least not unless I found a way to expand it somehow. Which was really too bad because up to that point things were going super smooth. I think I have a way to fix it. I think I can throw in another panel of skirt and then figure out how to expand the waistband and then I'll have a really short skirt that fits and I'll have to wear leggings under.

But I've learned my lesson for skirt #2.

And I also managed to find a dress for the banquet. By all accounts it looks good on me.

tap tap is this thing on?

Whoops, I didn't mean to not update for almost a whole month. Being sick really put me behind on lots of other stuff around the house and I guess I've been a little off my game because until this month, I don't think I could have said that I didn't knit anything for more than a day. Coincidently, I also didn't watch much tv....

But I did finish (again) some socks:


They don't match and it bothers me just a little, but that's what happens when you get a knot! in your self striping yarn.


Also, if you have been reading for any length of time, you'll know I am terribly indecisive about ... well everything. So, you know some serious time has passed when I can announce with great decisiveness a new project.

After tons of looking through stores for just the right skirt, I finally caved to the four or five people who said--just make one. And so tomorrow, I'll be cutting into this:


To make view E of this: skirt. Although it shouldn't surprise you that I went on a day patterns were 99 cents and I bought another one, which I'll show later if I actually decide to make it.

I'm not all decisions decisions, I also bought material to make a second skirt because I couldn't decide at the fabric store!



This is also a big thing for me because I don't think of myself as an accomplished sewer. Sure, I quilt and make halloween costumes (and pjs) but real clothes that people wear? nope. But I think I can handle this. If I can't I have more shopping ahead of me.

Oh and I'm back on the knitting horse, knitting some socks (of course) and obsessing about the next knit project.

oops

I don't consider myself a sock knitter. But I knit a lot of socks. I think this is because I like to wear hand-knitted socks and the only person in my life making them for me is, um me.

I also tend to make a lot of plain socks in fun sock yarns. In a way this is because I tend to buy fun sock yarns. Really, I know of few other projects that I would use a lot that take only one or two skeins (I actually have three one skein project books in hopes that someday I might use up all the other one skein things I have bought over the years). So I tend to buy a lot of sock yarn.

I've recently become quite taken with toe up socks. Nothing fancy, just double pointed needs, one at a time, with a heel done the way Ann Budd told me too in Interweave knits (the one issue that is very much used at my house). I think I've knit well I've lost count, I'm sure ravelry would tell me, but lets say more than 6 pairs of socks from this pattern. And always I dutifully follow the directions and designate which stitches are for the heel and which are the instep. Until now.

I've been working on this pair of socks since November. I've stopped along the way and made Christmas gifts and panda sweaters and bee sweaters and olympic projects, but I've always had these socks going. And Wednesday night I finished them. I prepared to wear them to work on Thursday. There's a smart knitter out there who knows where this is headed.



Yep, somehow I managed to knit one of them crooked. So when I put the sock on my heel the toe goes across my foot instead of across my toes. That morning I was convinced I had to rip the entire thing out and start over. Thankfully I had to go to work. After I had woken up a bit--ok after lunch--I remembered that I only had to rip out to just past the heel--I only had to re-work half the sock! I is smart.

Olympics

So, the knitting olympics. Well, when I picked my project and decided I'd participate, I was just getting over a really bad cold. I figured I'd finish the bee sweater, make the repairs on the panda sweater and still have time for the project (pretty thing by the Yarn harlot). In fact I remember thinking, and if I finish this early I'll attempt to finish these socks I started.

Pardon me while I laugh.

First, let me say that I had what might be called an unforeseen injury. Two days after the olympics began, I broke out in the worst case of hives I have ever had. EVER. I itched, I swelled, I hurt. The culprit turned out to be one of the antibiotics I had taken for my secondary infection (brought on by the cold).
I lost 4 days to those hives.

At any rate, I soldiered on. I made an error that set me back a day. I made several more that set me back several hours. I thought about trying cheese since it seemed to work for Lindsey Vonn.

In the end, the closing ceremonies were on my birthday (and my daughters') and though I was a mere 7 rows from the end, I opted instead to talk with my mom and brother on the phone, eat dinner with my family AND have ice cream afterwards.
It was a tactical decision and made it so I did not finish until about 11am this morning. And that's only if you don't count blocking.

I bought a special 16 inch us 3 addi turbo circular for this project and used Buckingham which is a alpaca silk blend. I only used half the skein, but I think it might be cutting close to attempt another out of it. Maybe if I cut it down a few rows. At any rate, I had what Bob Costas might call the "agony of defeat" when after binding it off, it barely went over my head. But barely is the word and it went.

bee sweater

I'm glad I set my Knitting Olympic bar low. Here it is day four and I've barely cast on my designated project. Instead I spent the part of the opening ceremony finishing up the bee sweater.



I am very pleased with how it turned out. I did have to learn a new technique, for the color changes so they wouldn't have jogs. I chose the technique that has you slip the first stitch of the new color (on what would be the second round of that color) and for the most part it worked. I can only see one place where it doesn't look seamless.



My daughter was also pleased and she wore it immediately to a birthday party, then wanted to know if it was out of the laundry yet for school Monday. She also decide that her 100 day collection of 100 things was going to be 100 pieces of yellow and black yarn leftover from her sweater.

But all is not real happy... we had an incident with the panda sweater in which the white yarn felted slightly. And as a result, it is now too short. I was very surprised because a) the yarn is superwash wool (knit picks swish worsted) and b) it was only the white--a color that is notorious for NOT felting. So, since I have extra white, I decided that I'll put off my knitting olympic project and take out the bind off and maybe the ribbing and extend the length of the panda sweater. I know that the yarn won't look the same, and I'm ok with that. I haven't decided if I want to rip back the 1.5 inches of ribbing or just start more ribbing until I get the length I need. I'm leaning toward ripping. It is not too badly felted at the ribbing, and I have enough length to add (would you believe at least 2 inches) that I think that might be best.

Knitting Olympics!

I so much want to participate in the knitting olympics. I've been struggling for the last 2 days about what my project should be. What will be a sufficient challenge for me to knit in the next 17 days, but won't make me crazy.
I doubt I could pull off a pair of socks. I think I could make another bee or panda sweater--although I'll be finishing the neck on the bee sweater tonight as everyone else is casting on for the olympics. So really I'll be knitting 16 days.
I also didn't want to make it too easy, which is why I didn't just want to finish a pair of socks that I've already started.

In the end, I decided, because this is a fun thing and not a SERIOUS thing, that I would attempt to knit "pretty thing" and should it prove too easy--I'll attempt to also finish that sock I've got languishing.

Let the games begin!

the bee sweater

Cinnamonamon once told me she was too sick to knit. I mocked her terribly. How could you be too sick to knit? And then in the middle of the bee sweater I was felled by some germs. Some evil germs.
I have gotten some knitting in, but not like what you would expect of someone who has spent the last 3 days on the couch. Part of it is that I am so tired, that basically I read for an hour and then sleep for an hour.



I have apologized to her. I am trying to eek out a couple of rows every day. And I'm starting, very slowly to feel better.

Knitting fast and furious

On Friday, as predicted, I finished the panda sweater


And Saturday I started the bee sweater


must.
knit.
fast.

Back to it.....

panda sweater progress

I've been working away on the panda sweater and have made quite good progress.



And most importantly--it fits her! I wish I'd had the camera out when I tried it on her (for length mostly, but I was glad it fit everywhere). I was kind of nervous given that I am working with a "homemade pattern." Which is funny because I often have better luck with the more organic patterns.

Since I took that picture, I've knit even more and finished both sleeves and am starting on the collar. I'm hoping to have it finished tonight, so I can start the "bee" sweater.

I realized, that I've never explained this sweater, although it feels like I have because of the "lost" post.
The pattern:
I had wanted to buy a pattern, but I couldn't find a top down raglan that was for kids. At the LYS, I talked to Martel who suggested that I could use the woolworks pattern. I don't know why I always think I'm going to mess up some math thing, I have a calculator and I know how to use it. But for some reason I do. But this time, I just took a deep breath and swatched. Now that I know that it fits, I'll feel more confident starting the next sweater--because it will be roughly the same size.

The Yarn:
I'm using knit picks swish worsted which is 100% superwash merino and it washes up soooo soft. (Size 7 needles if anyone cares) I underestimated how much black I'd need for this sweater--which turned out to be 3.5 skeins. So the other day, I bought some more, so I can do the bee sweater. I hated to spend the money for the shipping, but I have both girls pushing me along (knit faster mama!) and so waiting for any reason just wasn't going to work.

The Plan:
Finish the panda sweater tonight and start the bee sweater tomorrow and knit like crazy.

panda sweater

I started this whole post on how I am knitting a sweater that looks like a panda for my panda crazy daughter.


I wrote about how It was helping me to get better about relaxing and breathing and just diving in at knitting. About how I am taking the leap of faith of plugging my own numbers into a pattern, doing the addition and multiplication and trusting it to come out.

I wrote about how my concept of black sleeves and white middle to make my daughter look like a panda, but how she kept asking where the face was going to be. I said sweater, she heard, evidently, costume. So I'm kind of on tap for a hat with ears. I might have even written about how I think between the panda sweater and the striped "bee" sweater I'm afraid I need a few more skeins of black.

But then I got called to dinner, saved my post and... well it didn't save.
I think I swore more at that than anything I've done for the panda sweater. And when I get over it, I'll fill in the details.

holiday decompress

Time to decompress from the holidays! And time to show off the socks I made for my MIL. She's been hinting for a while that she'd like some handmade socks, but has been hesitant because most of the sock yarn I buy is wool. I understand that she probably has this wool=itchy thing going, but in my opinion superwash wool is a whole different thing. Plus all you have to do is feel some lopi and some super soft merino and you'll be wondering how two different things can both be called wool. Anyway, I found some cascade fixation in some nice bright colors and viola!


Also nice that she didn't balk at my photographing her feet.

I showed you all the scarf I made for the first grade teacher. I made it from silky wool on US size 4 needles. I was mighty sick of it by the time I finished. I ended up using 2.5 skeins, but could have used more and made it longer, if I hadn't run out of time. I was going to knit until Friday of that week and block Saturday and give on Monday. However, I ended up with so much other stuff to do that I quit knitting earlier in the week and blocking Friday. I blocked it at MIL's house since she was away and didn't need her kitchen floor. The pictures I took were all while it was blocking. My blocking board that several people liked is actually a set of Sesame Street foam puzzle blocks that my girls got for Christmas when they were two. They were headed for Goodwill when I spotted something similar in the knit picks catalog. Now they live in my knitting corner and every once in a while the ladies will get all bent out of shape that I'm using THEIR toy.

Anyway, there are already projects on the horizon. I got a ton of yarn for Christmas and the panda and bee sweaters are the next order of business.

done

I finished the scarf. It did not turn out the be 80 inches. I got busy so it turned out to be 76 inches. She seemed to like it. Details later:






I had to block it at my MIL's because it turns out that I don't have 70+ inches of long space that won't get run over 20 times a day.

72 inches

72 inches. That's how long "the scarf" is. The pattern says, repeat pattern until scarf is 80 inches long or you get very very tired of it has reached desired length. I did end up needing that third skein of silky wool, so I was glad I worried enough about that to buy it. I have decided that I am going to 80 inches or Friday night whichever comes first. I'm binding that puppy off on Friday, and blocking it Saturday so I can gift it Monday afternoon.

After that, I guess it is back to socks.

I don't consider myself a sock knitter, but I do happen to have a LOT of socks in my journal at Ravelry and just generally. I like wearing handknit wool socks in the winter, and now that I have 6 or 7 pairs I'm pretty happy. I also like having a sock going just for traveling and for fun. In fact I have one now that I started and got the heel turned before I started in on the Scarf. It may be just the intermediate project between the scarf and the next big project.

For Christmas, I asked for yarn to make both of my girls' sweaters, and I'd like to start those as soon after as I can (how can I be sure I'm getting the yarn? Oh come on, I put yarn on my Christmas list and I get it because my family KNOWs that I love yarn. They don't understand it exactly, but they do know it. Plus if I don't, well I'll buy it.)
I've had this idea in my head for one of my daughters, she loves pandas. I thought wouldn't it be fabulous to knit a colorwork panda into her sweater! I mentioned to my husband a panda sweater and his idea was different, he thought make the arms and top black and the main body white and actually that sounded easier and cuter. I have in mind a top down raglan, but I don't have a pattern. I'm pretty sure such a thing exists though.

It did present a problem, about what to do with her sister, who doesn't really care for pandas. So I asked her, since it wasn't going to be a surprise or anything and she immediately said she wanted a bee sweater. I'm not sure what style that will be, but right now I'm thinking just a plain set in sleeve would work great. They both want hats to match. I suppose if I left it up to them, they'd both want socks to match too, but we won't go there.

That's where things stand, 72 inches, very tired of the lace pattern, finishing on Friday regardless, and working on socks until I open my Christmas yarn.

Project process

Despite my frantic knitting away, and the space between these entries, I have nothing to show.
So instead of showing, I'll write out my knitting project checklist that I seem to use for each and every project. In between each and every one of these you could insert--check ravelry

1) Choose a project
2) dither about project
3) consider about 20 yarns for project
4) reject 15 yarns
5) debate merits of remaining 5 yarns
6) choose a color
7) decide color sucks, choose another
8) decide just to buy whatever color I can find in an appropriate yarn
9) Worry about amounts purchased
10) swatch for project
11) reject first swatch,
12) reswatch
13) start project
14) worry about yarn amounts
15) worry about size
16) finish project

Usually there are also abut 10 steps between 13 and 14 which include curse pattern, rip back, and decide to use different needles.

I decided on pattern, yarn and needles for the teacher's scarf and have already made it to #14. Today I just decided to suck it up and buy an extra ball of the yarn. I think I'll need it. I'm also adding, worried about finishing this in time.

I decided on lace ribbon Scarf In black because it goes with more stuff. If it comes out right it could work an inside scarf too. I went with Silky Wool. I had a ball from a while back that was all silk and wool--now it seems it has nylon in it as well. Honestly, I am not enamored with it. Also--it is going really really slow--and I've made more mistakes than I care to admit.
Right now I'd estimate I have 30 of the 80 inches. stay tuned.