Stuck

I have found myself in a bit of a rut recently, hence the general blog silence. Sadly, this is not only a fibery rut, but also a major career rut that I'm trying to work out. There is more to be said on that, but I'm not quite at a point to lay down my thoughts on virtual paper, so it will have to wait. Instead, I will give you some images from our Easter weekend in Edinburgh.

We went hiking on Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park.

 

Girls in gorse

We saw some interesting people on the Royal Mile.

 

Weirdest spinning outfit I've seen yet

I bought a bit of yarn,

and a new ring.

And I knit most of half a sock in three days.

Life goes on...

The perils of faithfulness

So, when last we had any knitting content on this here blog, I was gleefully starting my April socks after many evenings devoted to stranded colorwork, and bemoaning project monogamy.

Ehem. Starting those socks may have been a mistake. Because in the last week I've also cast on for a stashbusting "cat" bed and a new sweater design project. So much for being faithful!

The cat bed is actually for the SRD, who at his vet appointment today, tipped the scales at a whopping 3.13 kg, aka 6.9 lbs.

 

 Gratuitous cute puppy pic - he was looking at the treat in my hand.

This is kelp's Dotty Cat Bed. I'm using some random recycled grey merino, some leftover Karisma from IM's Aran, the last of the handspun pencil roving from the Northman Mittens and leftover Mountain Mohair from two incarnations of sweater. Excellent for getting rid of ~600 yds of yarn.

Socks are still singular, but are on to the gusset. I'm hoping to finish these in time for a May birthday. Hmmm.

I was about to start the last row before setting the armhole steeks on River Run last night when I realized I'd screwed up the stitch pattern at the beginning of the previous row. Grrrr....tink, tink, tink. After that I was too irritated to keep going on it, so I go the pattern going in the right order again and put it down to turn to this:

The prototype of my newest design. It doesn't look like it, but this is almost ten inches (of 12 needed) of ribbing. In a couple of inches, I get to switch to the lace pattern - yippee! This is going to be a cardigan with a deep scoop neck and elbow length sleeves (or a bit longer) - ribbing to just under the bust with vine lace on the bodice. The yarn is one of my favorites - Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in a dark purple. The real life color is much darker then I'm able to get a picture of for some reason. This is a batch I bought in Houston at the Yarns 2 Ewe winter sale right before I started my year-long yarn diet, and is the old formula (65% wool, 35% silk - currently it's 45% wool, 35% silk, 20% nylon). I love this yarn - it's soft to work with, but has a slightly crunchy feel from the silk. And the drape is awesome. I'm hoping to get the lace going tonight, but I've got to get the River Run steeks set first - there's a lot of armhole to go on the March sweater! Not to mention sleeves...

So that the ridiculous number of  active projects I've got on my needles. What about you? Are you a mono- or poly-knitting type? Anyone have more then four active projects going?

Monogamy is boring

Project monogamy that is. I've been slogging away on the handspun sweater without a break for the last week plus, and I'm almost to the underarms. It's lovely, but I've had to tink back 300+ stitches several times because I used the wrong color a few rows back, and I'm getting a bit tired of it. Thank goodness it's April 1st and I can start my new socks!

Originally this yarn was slated for Vinnland socks, but when I pulled it out I decided that particular pattern really needed a solid color yarn. So I cast on for Nornir, the Round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5 - it's working beautifully with the short color runs in this yarn (Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn).

I also had a fit of procrastination last week and finished spinning up the Little Barn tweedy fiber I started at the last Spin Night at the beginning of March.

 

It's actually a lot darker in real life - teal and navy and fuschia. The two big skeins are 562 yds of true 3 ply, fingering weight. The teensy skein is the remaining singles chain plied - I didn't both to measure the yardage, but it's probably somewhere in the range of 15-20 yds. Aka not much. This is not the softest yarn in the world, but it will be okay for mittens or something like that, somewhere down the road. Spun/plied at 15:1/12:1, drafting style was short forward draw from the fold.

I've also got a couple more sweater projects on the brain, so there's been much swatching going on.

This is the latest one. The plan is to knit up the prototype in the next month and write up that pattern for testers to finish by early June. I think it will be cute, but we'll see.

So, Month 3 is done - socks were finished, sweater was not, but I'm still plugging away. Hopefully it will be April's sweater.

March socks: Aquaphobia

I do not have aquaphobia. I do, however, have a lovely new pair of socks. And since my sock output so far in 2011 has been all for other people, these are mine! All mine!

Pattern: Aquaphobia by Crystal Smith
Yarn: Hill Country Yarns Sweet Feet in "Blueberry Wine", 400 yds/100 gr.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Start/finish: 1 March - 20 March 2011
Gauge: 10 sts/11 rows per inch in stitch pattern, 8 sts/12 rows per inch in stockinette.
Comments/mods: This is a terrific pattern for breaking up variegated or handdyed yarns with lots of contrast. The slipped stitch pattern lets you break up any pooling (except around the gussets there on the foot), and makes a really nice cozy, thick, cushy fabric.

Sorry for craptastic night time photos - will replace ASAP

The designer included a two-stitch cable on either side of the instep to give a bit of extra stretch. This was a great feature, and the pattern, while written for a women's medium, easily fit around my US 10s. I might have had to make them a bit longer, but that wasn't a big deal.

Fast knit, great breaking up of colors, new socks. What's not to love?

Process versus product

I been thinking lately about whether process knitting verus product knitting. I think it's fair to claim that I am largely a product knitter - 11 pairs of socks and 11 sweaters as a yearly goal seems to indicate someone who is concerned with the endpoint more then the process. And some of the evidence holds up that conclusion; for example:

 

Aquaphobia socks and my current book in progress. Luv. Him. To. Death. The socks are pretty good too.

It's barely halfway through the month, and I've got 1.65 socks there. Not too shabby.

But on the other hand, it's T = -4 days to my theoretical River Run deadline, and I've got this:

The ribbing and almost 2 full pattern repeats of the body chart. That's it. There is no way this sweater is going to be done by the end of the month, much less by the deadline. And I'm ok with that. After deciding that I would enjoy this project rather then rushing through it, I'm finding that I actually am really enjoying it. The way the colors are coming together is working much better then I anticipated, and I really like the semi-arrowhead pattern. I find it very difficult sometimes to translate Fair Isle charts into actual knitting in my mind's eye, and it's always a relief to see what the chart looks like knitted up.

So I guess I'm enjoying my foray into process knitting. It's funny - I'm definitely a process spinner, as evidenced by the whopping pile of handspun sitting up in my guest room, but not so much with the knitting. It's nice to be able to sit down and knit a few rows each night (or each night that I don't fall asleep at 8:30, like last night) and see how the pattern is developing, how the colors blend in to each other, and not feel like I have to keep going when I get tired. Which is good, because with the new addition to the family, I've been getting waaaay less then my usual allotment of sleep. Good things he's so cute...

I guess the only two questions now are: when will it get done, and will my Dad like it? I might need to ask him that now before I get too much farther on, I think. If he doesn't like it, he can have something else and this can be IM's 40th birthday present - he's already made approving noises!