Going gray

Picasso had his Blue Period, and apparently I'm in a Gray Period. To whit: in the last week, I have purchased this,

and started this.

I finally started knitting Design #3 that's been percolating in this,

and started knitting a DK weight protoype of Design #2 in this.

Hmmm...one might be forgiven for thinking that the recent rash of Absolutely. Spectacularly. Sunny (but cold!). Weather. is inspiring me towards typical London autumnal shades in an attempt to fool the weather gods in to keeping the clouds away for a bit longer.

Handspun patterns

The 4! Oz! Challenge! ends tomorrow, and I'm happy to say that I finished my patterns and got them submitted before the last day (a miracle in and of itself, seeing as how I am the Queen Procrastination). Here they are*:

Lisbon Cloche**, superwash merino in "Thunderstorm" from Spunky Eclectic

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Shelburne Falls Beret, Targhee in "Garland" from Hello Yarn

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This was a really interesting process for me. Usually I spin without much of an end product in mind (although the TdF did change that a bit). For these, I had four days in between trips in August to spin up the yarn, and I knew two things: 1) I was going to chain ply both colorways to keep the colors intact, and 2) I was going to knit hats, but I didn't want them to be really obviously stripey.

For the SE merino, I ended up spinning a really fast, thick single. When it was plied up, the yarn ranged from 6-10 wpi and was super squooshy. I used a slipped stitch pattern (same as in an eye of partridge heel flap) to break up the striping, but since the colors didn't contrast very much, that was sufficient.

For the Targhee, which I spun second, I was a bit rushed - the final yarn was a wee bit overplied. But...there wasn't a lot I could do about that while on vacation, so I soldiered on. Since the colors in that skein were much more contrasting, I needed to take "extreme" measures to try and break up the striping. The stitch pattern I chose has two rounds of slipping the same stitch, which is then crossed over two stitches on the third round. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

The patterns include details about spinning the yarn and a whackload of specs (i.e. singles wpi/tpi, plied wpi/tpi, twist angle, etc). Both hats are knit from the top down, starting with i-cord in waste yarn, and can easily be adjusted in size as you go (patterns are written for only one size). Enjoy***!

* Please excuse the goofy pictures, but it's really hard to take pictures of your own head without looking like an idiot.
** Named for the towns in which the respective dyers (Amy of Spunky Eclectic and Adrian of Hello Yarn) are located.
*** If you knit up one of these in a commercial yarn, please let me know how it works out and I'll add that to the Ravelry pattern pages. Thanks!

New projects

Writing down a list has definitely helped me prioritize my knitting activities. For example,

The finished prototype for the hat in my three piece collection. I did this a bit differently from my usual design process, which is think up an idea and knit it, then go back and try to write it up after the fact. That procedure usually results in my having to knit another item after I've finished writing the pattern, just to make sure I've got it right. This time I put a bit more thought into the pattern ahead of time, did the chart and then knit from that. I've still got to finish up the pattern writing, but having the chart done ahead of time meant that I could knit the hat as a test knit of the chart.

Priority #2: Ironman's Aran. When I went back to my parents' a few weeks ago, I scored a huge stash of new needles. My aunt, who has previously sent me destash stuff in a potting soil bag, had brought up a bunch of needles and yarn she wanted to pass on. None of the yarn was particularly useful for me, but the needles...

Oh yeah...in addition to this absolute honking pile of straight needles, there was a bag of circulars and crochet hooks. And stitch markers. And stitch holders. Etc, etc. You get the idea. As a result, I now have a new favorite type of needle.

Nylon. Molded in one piece, with no joins at all, bendy, flexible, comfy. My only complaint is that they're not very pointy, but I was so enamored that I immediately used them for a swatch.

Drops Karisma, on US 7, 8 and 9 needles. None of which are quite right - 7s give me 5 sts/inch, 8s and 9s give me 4.5 sts/inch, and what I'm supposed to get for the pattern is 4 sts/inch. However, given that Mr. Fussy Mc-Wool-Is-Itchy-pants has okayed this yarn, I think I'll just knit a bigger size on smaller needles and hope for the best. Good plan, right? Right...(famous last words).

I also threw design-work to the wind last night, and started a birthday present for my Mom. I'm one third of the way into the first of two, and it's cranking along. Hopefully I can get them finished up by the end of next week and send them off. Should be do-able - school starts tomorrow, so my commuting time is about to take a drastic leap upwards. Hooray!

An autumn plan

I mentioned in my last post that I had a crazy list of projects for the next few months. In the spirit of making myself accountable to someone (or something in this case), I'm going to list out my goals for the next little while in the hopes that having it written down will mean that at least some of it actually gets done. Heh. Maybe...

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed.

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January.

If I had to prioritize, I'd say #1 first, then #4, then starting #5, then starting #3, then #6. #7 is going to happen this fall if I have any spare time - like if I quit working entirely, and #8 can fit in around the others. Maybe that will be my train knitting. Sigh...goodbye socks, goodbye shawls, hello garments and gifties.

Summertime, and the blogging is absent

Sorry about my unplanned hiatus. I've spent the last two weeks in the US with family, and the last two days trying to shake the jetlag before I get on yet another plane (this time for work). But I do have lots of finished objets to share with you.

First off: I did manage to spin up my yarn in those few days at home between trips. I ended up with 96 yds of bulky/superbulky superwash merino,

and about 175 yds of somewhat overplied Targhee.

About 91 yards of the merino became this,

and 170 yards of the Targhee became this,

which still needs the ribbing redone on smaller needles so it doesn't fall off quite so easily. The patterns are written and off to my wonderful test knitters, and I hope to have them available for release soon. Along with some better pictures!

I also managed to finish 99.9% of the mind-numbing stockinette on the Aran Necklace camisole. And then I ran out of yarn. Thankfully I was in the hidden section of the hem, and I had some DK weight random cotton lying around.

Last night's bout of jet lag-induced insomnia meant that this baby has it's hem sewn down and is blocked and drying on the guest bed as we speak. Hooray! Of course, autumn has arrived here in the UK (unlike in New England where it was ludicrously hot) (ok, it wasn't Texas hot, but it was hotter then England!), and it's not likely that it will be warm enough to wear on it's own, but that's ok. Especially since the armholes dip down below bra line on the side. Hmmm...

Finally, I finished my first pair of socks in a couple of months. I kind of lost my sock mojo at the start of the summer holidays in July, but 7 hour plane rides do allow for some concentrated sock time. I can only show part of these, since they're a design that I'm submitting, but they were great fun to knit. I liked the yarn alot too - Cherry Tree Hill Supersock merino. I think the colorway was "Blueberry Hill", which I liked. US 1.5/2.5 mm needles, 8.5 stitches per inch.

I wrote this up and sent it off to Sock Madness for next year, so the picture is deliberately obscured. Just in case you thought I was doing some drunken knitware photography.

So, two weeks vacation and no blogging means three completed original designs, and one summer tank I can't wear until next June. But there's a lot going on this fall - the iKnit Weekender is in a couple of weeks, and yesterday on my bike ride I hatched out a great and completely insane plan to knit sweaters for six people in my family (including me to be fair), four handspun, one cabled, one colorwork, by next March. Methinks that any Christmas knitting to be gifted has already been knit this year...