Cured

This past Monday I tweeted that I was sitting in a coffee shop, working on my Color Affection shawl. What I should have said, was that I was binding off my Color Affection, and feeling somewhat bittersweet about it...

Pattern: Color Affection by Veera Valimaki
Yarn: Countess Ablaze Lord of Silk in "Grey Skies in Manchester", "Antique Rose" and "Only When Invited". I ended up using  278 yds of grey, 168 yds of pink and 238 yds of muticolored.
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 19 October - 12 November 2012
Comments/mods: well. For comments, I think I'm not alone in saying this is a lovely, well-written, and completely addictive pattern (if you like garter stitch). Once the trauma of choosing a color combination was finished, the actual knitting was fabulous - not too fiddly (good TV knitting), but enough going on that it was interesting. I'm sure others have also succumbed to long hours of garter stitch, just to get the next set of stripes done!

Mods: two major modifications to the pattern. First, I used a garter tab to start the shawl instead of a straight cast on as called for. Second, I knit Section A as written and found that the edges were really tight. Ripped back and added a yarn over between the first two stitches of every row (in the garter border), that got dropped on subsequent rows so the stitch count didn't change. That added enough extra yarn at the edges that it curves into a lovely arc.
 
At some point in the short row section I stopped and counted stitches, and didn't have the number I was supposed to have. Instead of driving myself over the brink and trying to figure out where I'd gone wrong and fix it, I said "What the hell!" and soldiered on. It's garter stitch. It's a scarf. No. Big. Deal.

I'm a bit surprised by the amount of yarn I used of the various colors. Unlike Brenda, I used mostly color A and color C, with color B coming in at the least yardage required. Hmmm...to be fair, I didn't weigh the balls before I started, so I'm not 100% that they were full skeins. But they should have been.

As a scientist, I feel obligated to try to reproduce my yardage results for posterity and the good of the general knitting public. Therefore, I am going to make the sacrifice and knit another Color Infection Affection shawl. Now the question becomes, what colors? Help me decide people!

This is a portion of my sock yarn stash. There are a few skeins secreted here and there, and none of the handspun is in here, but this is what I'm starting with. I've tried a few combinations - see what you think.

#1 - Hello Orange!

#2 - The Manly Subtle Version

#3 - Teal + Sparkly Purple + Grey

#4 - Teal + Sparkly Purple + White

#5 - You Won't Lose Me in an Avalanche

#6 - What goes with Yellowy Green?

#7 - Ugh. In Retrospect, No.

#8 - Rocky Point, Mexico

#9 - Predictable

#10 - I Think My Subconscious Wants to Get Rid of That Orange Yarn...

If you have other suggestions, please do post a comment. Infection 1.0 is currently drying on my guest bed, so modeled shots will have to be for another time.

Baby present #2

Some good friends of ours had their first baby six weeks ago, and it's been so much fun to whip up teensey tiny sweaters in a few days. This particular project took a bit longer, but not much...

Pattern: Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket by Celeste Young
Yarn: Stylecraft Life Aran (light blue, 75% acrylic/25% wool), approximately 530 yds, and Stylecraft Special Aran with wool (dark blue, 80% acrylic/20% wool), approximately 420 yds.
Hook: US H/5.0 mm
Gauge: after sending through the washer and dryer, 5 dc/4 rows per 1.5 inches.
Start/finish: 24 August - 9 September 2012
Comments/mods: my second real crochet project completed - hooray! This was a good second project - similar construction to the potholders (crocheting around and around and around and around and...), similar techniques (changing colors), but on a much larger scale - the finished blanket was 41 inches across from point to point.

But...the whole thing is constructed entirely out of double crochet stitches with a few chains thrown in at the points. It was really useful to me to do something that didn't require worrying about different stitches so I could focus on how placement of the stitches altered the shape of the blanket.

The trickiest bit was the center, but after the pattern was established, it was clear sailing.

I don't usually use mostly-acrylic yarns, but having lived through two babies, the ability to throw anything associated with them straight in to the washing machine and the dryer is just too important. This yarn was fine to use - no discernable squeaking! - and softened up really nicely after going through the wash. I'd use it again for baby stuff for sure.

Neglected FOs

OK, school has started, some of the school run bugs have been worked out, and I suddenly have a bunch of hours in my day when I'm not being called upon to feed anyone or read books or mediate in the latest round of she-took-my-toy-she-touched-me-she's-looking-at-me! There are a number of things that I finished up over the summer but never blogged about, which does tend to make me feel like they're not actually really finished.

Up first, Lady Stark's Clapotis.


So named because of the colorway of the fiber.

Yarn: handspun BFL/silk from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club (July 2011 offering), colorway "Night Gathers" (Thank you GRRM!), 460 yds of DK/sport/fingering weight singles (8 oz).
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm, I think. I forgot to put that little detail into my project page on Ravelry, and I finished the darn thing three months ago, so I have no idea.
Start/finish: 17 May - 3 June 2012.
Comments/mods: this is the second time I've knit this pattern. The first time (also in handspun) I did some mods as recommended by the intarwebs (i.e. knitting the first and last stitch of each stockinette band through the back loop to keep it tighter). I did a similar mod this time around, although only on the right side. I worked the increase section, weight the yarn, worked straight until I had enough (by weight) to work the decrease section, and ended up using every last inch. Mostly I spent my time hypnotized by watching the colors appear...






Is that too many pictures?

FO: Mini-oak cardigan

Pattern: Little Oak Cardigan, by Alana Dakos, from the Coastal Kids collection
Yarn: iKnit or Dye Superwash Merino sock, 366 m/100 gr, 1 skein in "Bachelorette". I ended up using about 3/4 of the skein, so maybe 280 meters total? I'll have to weigh the remainder to be sure.
Needles: US 3/3.25 mm circulars, for a gauge of 28 sts/~40 rows per 4 inches.
Start/finish: 17 July - 2 August 2012 -- gotta love the baby sweaters for (mostly) instant gratification!
Comments/mods: This was a really nice pattern. Worked from the bottom up, easy stockinette body, fun yoke pattern at the top. I like the development of the oak leaf pattern at the top - it wasn't clear to my mind's eye how that was going to end up looking, but I really like it.

The pattern was pretty straightforward, but I did run in to one minor issue (mostly of my own making): the pattern is laid out with the chart on the second page. What isn't clear however, unless you read ahead (which you should always do, and I didn't, so it's my own damn fault), is that there are some shaping instructions for the body before you start the chart. What I did was knit the body and the sleeves, start working the chart, and then discovered the shaping instructions and started doing those. We'll ignore, for the moment, the fact that I didn't actually need to do any shaping for the size I was knitting (6 months) and just say that this is a pattern for which it would behoove you to read ahead and make sure you understand what supposed to happen when.

Yesterday, the girls and I went out on a button-mission. I'm happy to say, I am once again living close to a yarn store, and this one happens to have a fabulous selection of buttons stashed away in the back. They helped me pick out some lovely silvery buttons with red edges, which work really well with the yarn.

The yarn: this was one of my long-neglected club yarns for the iKnit Sock club that I've mentioned before. It ended up as a lovely subtly variegated fabric, nice and soft and cozy, but hopefully washing-machine friendly. I will be recommending the delicate or wool cycle to the New Mum, but I think this is going to be a great sweater for the wee lad-to-be. Who now has full permission to arrive at any moment, because his sweater is done. His blanket, on the other hand, is a big plastic bag of yarn in the attic, but he can't wait until I get that finished, or poor N will explode!

Quelle disaster!

Over the Easter holidays, we took a lovely long weekend trip over to Paris, via the ever-fabulous Eurostar. On our previous trip to Gay Paree, the girls were three years younger, and it was the end of July (which means the end of Le Tour!), so the city was hot and mobbed. It's a much nicer and calmer place to visit in late April (with a 5 and 7 year old vs. a 2 and 4 year old), and spring was everywhere.

Devil had so much energy that she managed to get caught on some ironwork outside of Notre Dame, and tore a hole in her Sprout Tappan Zee that her Mummy so lovingly knit for her last summer. Argh!


She managed to not only put a hole in it, but also to snag and snap the bind off in several different places...


We came home and the sweater sat on the shelf in my wardrobe for about five weeks - I just couldn't face it. Then, last week, on the eve of a trip to chilly, rainy Somerset for part of the half-term holiday, I decided to get on with it already and fix the damn thing.

First step: remove wee hedgehog button and insert a circular needle through a row of stitches above the hole (note appropriate beverage companion).

Second step: unravel the bottom edge, picking out the little scraps of unusable yarn, and spit-splicing (with appropriate beverage) the rest.


Third step: pause and admire your handiwork (conveniently not documenting how off you were in the row of stitches you picked up).

Fourth step: reknit the bottom two inches of cardigan. Don't forget button hole. Reblock, and then pack still damp sweater in the back of the car to finish drying on the way southwest.

Wiktory! I had a big ball of yarn left over that I had ready to draft into the bind off if needed, but I think I ended up knitting a couple of rows less this time around, so I had plenty for the bind off.

Dev still seems enamored of the sweater, and Boo is looking longingly for another cardigan, made of softer yarn. Must sort through handspun stash and see what would work for her.

Question: does this count as an FO post? Methinks so...