While the cat's away

Yesterday Himself left for a week-long chair building course in Dorset (his Christmas present). I am planning on using this time* to finish the goddamned blankity-blank fracking River Run pullover that I've been working on for more then a year. Because it's his birthday present (please God don't let him pick now to start reading my blog. Kthxbai!) and his birthday is Saturday.

This sweater, while gorgeous beyond all belief, is making me pull my hair out. Because it's taking FOREVER. Nine colors, a 20-something row repeat, and diminishing amounts of handspun, handyed yarn are combining to give me an ulcer. Last night I finished sleeve #1 and promptly celebrated by sticking it in the corner and finishing off the third edge of the sock yarn blanket(now at this stage). The sleeve was five full repeats in total. I am hoping to get one repeat done per night (hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!) this week and am considering sacrificing one of my children to the All-Powerful Handspinning Gods so that I don't run out of yarn. Because not only will my "schedule" not allow for spinning and dyeing any more, I'm also running out of fiber.

Oy. Thank goodness it's pretty!

* This assumes that the yarn for my sooper sekrit deadline knitting doesn't arrive in the next few days. If it does, Himself will be receiving a sweater with the needles still attached. I'm pretty sure he'll live.

PS - I've finally moved and updated my pattern pages (up there underneath the header) and added the newest pattern - the Southwark Collection (an ebook of my four London-inspired accessories). I've got two more patterns to release this week, so check back for those.

A finished present, only 6 months after the fact

My lovely mother-in-law turned 70 last August, and as a present I gave her the choice of any knitted item she might like. After a bit of hemming and hawing, she said she wanted a sweater. Off I went to Ravelry to search for a pattern. After a bit of back and forth, she settled on a lovely pattern from Artesano Yarns. And now, several months later, it's all done.

Pattern: Rachel by Ros Wilson
Yarn: Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-ply in midnight, just under 5 skeins for the 43" size
Needles: US 10/6.0 mm
Gauge: 15 stitches/20 rows per 4 inches
Start/finish: 4 November 2011 - 23 January 2012
Comments and modifications: Of course I changed things up - it's what I do after all. Can't leave well enough alone...

First off - the arms. The sweater is knit from one cuff to the other, casting on stitches for the body when you get there. The pattern calls for some seriously belled sleeves, but Mermaid wanted normally shaped sleeves, so I did a bit of math and off I went. Not a terribly difficult change, all in all, but I did have to take some careful notes to make sure the arms matched (since they were knit 2 months apart!). The only other change that I made in this version was to work a slightly deeper collar, to match the cuff detail.

However...the pattern, as written, is quite compressed, and I found what I interpreted as a number of errors. Nothing too egregious - mostly around the shoulder shaping and the number of rows that needed to be worked to get both sides to match. And a couple of instances where it seemed like an extra row was thrown in that would mean working things on the wrong side. It's entirely possible that it was operator error, so take that critique with a grain of salt. It's hard to complain with a free pattern after all.

If I made this sweater again (which I'm considering - it's nice and cozy), the only additional mods I would make are as follows: make the body a bit shorter - it's quite long in this version. Might be my gauge at issue, but when I tried it on, it came down way past my hips. I'd prefer it a bit shorter. I'd also change the hem. This has a double thickness hem around the bottom which I'm not a real fan of. I'd add a few of the same ridges that are around the sleeve cuffs and neck to make it a bit more cohesive.

The overwhelming upside of this project was the glorious yarn I used. Bartlettyarns are one of the last mule-spun yarns made. This results in a rustic, nubbly, almost-handspun feel that was a pleasure to work with. And as I was seaming up the finished item, I noticed an interesting thing about the yarn after blocking.

See that? The strand on the left is the unwashed yarn I used for seaming, the one on the right is the end of my blocked swatch. There's a bit of difference, no? I love how much the yarn poofs up after finishing, and I'm really glad I washed my swatch before I checked the gauge and cast on. Imagine the disaster otherwise!

So Mermaid: the sweater is finished. It needs one more bath to even out the seaming, and then it can be on it's way to you. It might go via the Far East though, depending on how organized I get. Hope you can wait! But I'll need some better pictures once it makes it to its new home, ok?

Ooops!

Meant to blog about this yesterday.

A handspun sweater for Devil, finally photographed
Pattern: Tappan Zee by Amy King, from Knitty
Yarn: handspun Targhee from Hello Yarn, coloway Sprout, about sport weight
Needles: US 4/3.75 mm
Gauge: 6.5 sts/inch
Start/finish: 10 October - 28 November 2011
Modifications: the pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn so I had to do some finagling with the numbers. I knit a swatch (gasp!), got my stitch and row gauge, and plugged some numbers into a spreadsheet to figure out which size to follow from the pattern to get something that would fit her. From that point on it was pretty straightforward knitting from the pattern.

I did work buttonholes all the way down, as requested, and omitted the diamond detail at the bottom. I've got some yarn leftover, so I'm hoping to be able to lengthen it as necessary as she grows.

For the sleeves, I knit straight for about three inches, then decreased two stitches every inch down to about 7 inches at the cuffs, which are finished with a garter stitch band to match the neck and hem. Buttons are yellow hedgehogs found in a shop in York as we were wandering about in the fog.

This is the third time I've knit this pattern, and it's still fun to do. Now I just need to work up one for Boo, and we'll have a matching set in the house. So far the sweater seems to be a huge success. At least it's getting worn a lot! Most gratifying when that happens.

Photo-frustration

It's that time of year when blogging becomes much more difficult due to the fact that I seem to find it impossible to remember to take pictures of things on the weekends when the sun is out. During the week, we end up getting home anywhere from 4:00-6:00 pm, and by then it is pitch black. And I'm no good at taking good pictures with a flash yet.

It's frustrating, because I've got two patterns that are test knit and ready to go, except for pictures. And there is now a large backlog of unblogged finished projects. Bah! For the moment, I'll have to settle for a couple of cell phone pictures of girl stuff from the weekend.

Boo in a handspun hat and Devil in a new handspun sweater

I have grand plans however, grand plans...tomorrow I am going to actually be at home during the day, and the weather is looking like maybe it will cooperate a little bit (i.e. maybe a drizzle early on, but no heavy rain. No sun either, but we'll see how that plays out). The plans involve me, a tripod, Himself's lovely fancy camera, my back porch, a confused dog, and hopefully some good pictures! Although I'm afraid Dev's sweater won't fit me...might have to pin her down for some pictures on Friday afternoon. If I'm lucky, I'll get enough photos for a really looooooooooong post on Friday to update you on all this stuff.

The importance of rinsing

Yesterday I took a break from all the knitting that is ongoing, and did a wee bit of spinning instead. I tried another new-to-me wool, some mixed English wool that Boo dyed a few months back - same color scheme as her Cheviot socks, but slightly darker colors. However...I discovered that the fiber didn't get rinsed out quite enough, because my fingers turned blue. Oops!

 

That's after an hour of plying this morning - last night after a couple hours of spinning the singles, my fingertips were bright blue!  I gave the finished yarn a good soak, so hopefully all the other excess dye is now gone. I guess I'll know for sure when I start knitting with it.

 

This wool reminded me of the Cheviot in that it was not terrifically soft, but had a nice grippy feel when spinning the singles. The finished yarn reminds me a bit of the Bartlett yarn I'm using for my MIL's sweater, although not as lofty. It's a very rustic yarn. I'm thinking lined mittens for Boo, to match her socks.

In other spinning/handspun news, I've almost finished off Dev's Sprout sweater.

We went to York last weekend, and my yarn-dar did not let me down. While wandering around the city streets, we happened upon a yarn store. Dev and I went in while Himself and Boo continued on. The yarns were lovely, but nothing I needed to snatch up and take home with me. They also had a nice selection of buttons, so after much hemming and hawing, we brought home these.

Perfect buttons for my little English schoolgirl. Hopefully she'll be wearing it by next weekend.