Finished Objects

A number of things were finished over the last week or so. The biggest and best of those was Yarn in the City: The Great London Yarn Crawl (V1.0). It was a fantastic day, with ample stash enhancement of all sorts and loads of yarny goodness displayed at the pub afterwards. Our amazing volunteers shepherded their teams around London, despite the vagaries of London transport (I'm looking at you Central Line...), and kept everyone together and happy throughout what was a very long day. And Alli and I are pretty sure that we will be doing this craziness again next year, so if you didn't manage to come this time around, keep an eye out for V2.0 next autumn!

In the final run-up to the Crawl, I spent what precious little free time I had frantically finishing up my Christmassy-cowl, out of Romney Ridge Farm yarn I purchased on my Downeast Yarn Crawl over the summer.

I tend to find entrelac too fiddley for my taste/patience level, but it was just the right thing for me to knit last week - mindless but requiring a bit of focus. I kept going until I was almost out of yarn, and then did a 3-needle bind off using the last scraps and then a bit of leftover yarn from a different project when I ran out.

After the crawl, I spent most of Sunday morning spinning, but then turned to my wee baby cardigan - I finished the knitting on this more then a week ago, but (as always happens) I stalled out putting on the buttons. Not because I didn't have buttons, but just because I couldn't be arsed to pull them out and sit down and sew them on.

Now the buttons are all sewn on, and it's ready to go. Sadly, there won't be FO photos on the blog for quite a while because it's a Christmas present*. Here are the pertinent details:

Pattern: Right as Rainbow Baby Cardigan by Stephanie Lotven
Yarn: Spud & Chloe Sweater, very small amounts for the stripes and edging (Firecracker, Grass, Aqua, Lake and Grape Jelly), Brown Sheep Cotton Top (discontinued) in Natural for body and Brown for last stripe.
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 4 September - 14 September for the knitting, 22 September for actual sewing on of buttons.
Comments: This was a lovely, straightforward pattern, with the only complicated bit coming in the decreases in the yoke to make the nine points. Otherwise the perfect TV-watching, stressed-out event organizer knitting. I may or may not have piles of worsted/aran weight yarns decorating my office, waiting for me to cast on the next one.

In which I bite off more then I can chew

aka: porpoise is easily distracted and prone to startitis, which is not necessarily a good thing.

So. I mentioned a few posts back that I had decided to join a knitalong for Stephanie Lotven's Right as Rainbow baby cardigan. This is a super cute little baby sweater, with the opportunity for loads of bright colors, and it just so happens that I have a super cute Wee Nephew who lives in an appropriate climate for a wool-cotton blend sweater. So I shanghied Allison's Spud and Chloe sweater scraps, and started off.

After a disastrous (at least from my perspective) last-day-of-summer-vacation trip to the cinema with Boo (note to NPH: you are dead to me now. DEAD!!!! I am still weeping from the inhumanity of it all..), I had one sleeve done.

After some much-needed brainless knitting over the end of last week, I had two sleeves.

Now I have much of the body up to the armpits done - I'm going to keep going until I run out of yarn on this one.

I needed a couple more colors, so yesterday I fell down in Mrs. Moon, and got two more skeins of S&C Sweater to finish off the stripes on the yoke:

So, so, so soft and squishy. I love it. I wish it weren't quite so pricey, but for Wee H, no expense will be spared. I got Grape Jelly and Lake to go with Firecracker, Grass and Splash from Allison, and Brown Sheep Cotton Top (long discontinued!) in Natural and a darkish Brown. There will, thankfully, be enough Grape Jelly and Lake to make another sweater or two, although probably at a smaller size. Then I'll just need to find babies to give them too...

Baby blankets, as far as the eye can see

Since my secret baby blanket has now touched down in Houston, I can share the vast number of pictures I took before I entrusted it to the vagaries of the mail service.


Pattern: Granny Stripes, by Lucy of Attic24
Yarn: Patons UK 100% Cotton DK, 230 yds/100 gr skein, less then one skein each of white, red, brown, turquoise, green and yellow.
Hook: US G/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 25 January - 7 February 2013
Comments/Modifications: This is my first crochet project bigger then a potholder, so I spent a fair bit of time trolling the web for reasonably straightforward baby blanket patterns. Lucy's blog is chock full of clear tutorials, beautiful photography and so much enthusiasm that I'm a bit surprised I haven't burned my knitting needles in effigy. (OK, maybe not that last bit, but it's a great blog.) Since her tutorial was much more a recipe then a straight pattern, I had to do a bit of swatching and planning of the color sequence.

I ended up working six repeats of the following color sequence - white, yellow, red, green, brown and blue - and then added one more white stripe to make a bit more symmetrical. I also wanted to some kind of border, so I picked up stitches all the way around the edge and worked a border with a stripe of each color in half-double crochet (or double crochet if we want to stay true to the UK terminology). The final blanket was approximately 26 inches wide by 36 inches long.

At each corner I chained stitches to bridge the gap, increasing one stitch at each corner on each subsequent row. I probably could have done more chain stitches, or done increases in the stitches from the previous round - this treatment resulted in corners that don't lie perfectly flat. In fact, the whole border ripples laong the edges, proof positive that my crochet gauge is probably not that consistent yet.

I loved doing this blanket. It was quick, relatively straightforward for this beginning crocheter, and I'm really pleased with the results. As is the impending new mom, which is the most important thing!

I sent it off to Houston along with a Peapod Cardigan I knitted a while back but hadn't found an ideal model for yet.

And the best news? Now that I've finished my second crocheted baby blanket, I'm well into my third.

That was my beginning on Friday night, and now I've got 15 16 stripes done. Total. Crochet. Addiction.

Easy sweater gratification

Sweaters are so satisfying to knit and wear, but at some point in the process, things definitely start to drag, and it seems like you're a) not making any progress, and therefore b) never going to finish and get to wear the beautiful creation you've been slaving over. In the last two weeks I have discovered two solutions to the problem of sweater doldrums.

Solution #1: Use bulky yarn.

Pattern: Top-down raglan, a la Barbara Walker
Yarn: Handspun Porpoise Fur Shetland/silk in "Magpie", approximately 500 yds/1 lb of bulky, squishy 2-ply.
Needles: US 11/8.0 mm and US 10.5/6.5 mm
Start/finish: I started spinning on 10th Feb, finished the singles on the 11th, finished the plying on the 12th, and started knitting on the 13th I think? Stalled out on the 19th by running out of yarn, but finished up yesterday and blocked it last night. It's still drying...

This is my barter sweater, and it was started and finished (spinning and knitting) in less then two weeks. It would have been done in about 9 days, but I ran out of yarn and had to spin up a bit more, so that stretched it out a bit longer. Still, 9 days for the whole project, and about a week to actually knit the sweater, is pretty hard to beat for almost-instant sweater gratification.

I wanted to get it blogged today, so the pictures are somewhat less then stellar. I'll try for some better ones tomorrow if the weather cooperates...

Solution #2: Knit baby sweaters.

Pattern: Henry's Sweater by Sara Elizabeth Kellner
Yarn: Adriafil Duo Comfort Classic, 131 yds/50 gr, the 3-6 month size used less then two balls.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Start/finish: 15th Feb - 18th Feb 2013
Comments/mods: talk about instant gratification! My new nephew arrived on Valentine's Day, I started on Friday after some frenzied stash diving, and the knitting was done on Tuesday. Boo and I bought some buttons yesterday and I sewed on the snaps and buttons today.

I did a few mods. First, I did fewer short rows on the shawl collar because I didn't want it too get too long and floppy. I like this mini-shawl alot.

I worked the garter stitch edging on the sleeves back and forth instead of in the round. It was only 5 rows or something, so sewing up that tiny bit on the end of the sleeves wasn't a big deal.


I also skipped the buttonholes, choosing instead to sew on the buttons on the outside as a decorative element, and using snaps to hold it closed. I think this will work better for getting the sweater on quickly and for keeping it closed.

I'm sorely tempted to put leather elbow patches on, since the baby's Dad is a professor. I think in the interests of getting it sent off to the States quickly, I'll forgo that, but wouldn't it be adorable?