Progress on the back of this sweater has been slow for a couple of reasons . . . I’ve been a bit distracted by wanting to work on spinning samples for the new project which has taken away from time spent on this and the kids have been sick this weekend so we haven’t been out anywhere for a few days. Lately, Must Have has been my “waiting in the car” knitting project and since we haven’t been in the car, I haven’t worked on it much.

Here is the back so far:

Must Have Cardi- back

Fern

After careful consideration I have decided to go ahead and frog Fern. I had a good chunk of the front and back knit but since the colorway of the yarn is interfering with the stitch definition and the pattern is a rather subtle one, I’ve decided to frog it. I do like the yarn and will likely use it for another project at some point. I think a cabled sweater with bulkier, better defined cables would work well . . . just nothing as subtle as Fern.

Bye, Bye Fern:

Fern to be frogged

St. Brigid

Over the weekend I spun a sample of Romney wool roving that was 2 fleece I purchased when I first started spinning from Skyline Farm and had processed by Zeilinger’s Wool Company.  The fleece were large and I had 2 of them so I have a sizeable amount of this wool left.  It was not the finest Romney but it does spin very easily . . .

Romney on the wheel

and here is a finished skein:

3 ply Romney

And then Sunday I knit a swatch: the same 27 stitches and 1 repeat of the cable pattern to make an easy comparison.

Romney swatch

What I found is that the Romney is courser (this particular fleece, not necessarily all Romney) and hairier than the corriedale cross, something more like a mohair blend actually.  While the swatch does have good stitch definition (I think that is due in large to the 3 plies) I feel this yarn is more of a true outer wear variety . . . and may actually knit an Einstein coat from it later this year.

Here are the two swatches side by side:

swatch comparison

I also considered trying a Border Leicester Fleece that I have on hand and some Merino.  The Border Leicester, as it turns out, feels very similar to the Romney and I ruled out the Merino as being too soft and not hard-wearing enough for what I’d like to knit this sweater in based on what I am likely to wear it for.   With all that said, it looks like the Corrie Cross Wool is the clear winner.

Next up, dyeing the fibers!

I spent an evening plying off all the random bits, even combining some of the smaller bobbins until I had cleared all but the last 2 of their contents.  Now there are several little skeins of yarns that might be used for small mittens or other little things . . . and several empty bobbins that I can use to start the project I’d like to be working on.

The “Must Have Cardigan” is almost finished; I’m about 1/4 of the way through the back of it now, and I’ve been inspired to work on another, more complicated, Cable sweater pattern.  The next one will be the St. Brigid pattern from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting.  The book is due to be republished in the Fall and in the mean time is available at the BPL for in-library use only.

Anyone who has seen my yarn/fiber stash could tell you, it is rather large.  That said, I do not have the right yarn for this sweater.  Not even close actually.  What I do have in the stash is a rather large amount of wool rovings and so I’ve decided to spin the yarn for this sweater.

Most of the spinning I have done has been inspired by the fiber, I have pulled out a bit and spun what ever it “felt” like becoming and for however long it actually held my attention.  There have only been a few instances where I have actually spun an entire fleece or enough of one yarn for something as large as a sweater and this will be the first time that I have started with the idea of the sweater in mind and worked “backward” from the sweater pattern to the proper gauge, ply and color for a particular pattern.

Actually, I will be dyeing, carding & spinning the yarn for this sweater.   There are several wools available to choose from and given the size of the project I thought it best to start a the beginning and actually sample at least 2-3 fibers before deciding which I liked best for the pattern.

Here is the first candidate: Corriedale Cross from Ashland Bay.  This is a true 3-ply, 9 wpi before setting the twist.

Corrie Cross

The whole sample skein is .8 oz:

Corrie Cross Sample

Once the twist had been set the yarn still seems to measure 9 wpi, which is great news since that is the size needed for the pattern.  I then decided to knit a swatch of one of the cable patterns from the sweater (1 repeat worth) in order to see how the cables would appear in the yarn.

Corrie Cross Cable Swatch

So far I really like the way the cables stand out in this yarn and it has a light and soft handle when working with it.  There is a strong possibility that this will be the fiber I choose to work this sweater in . . . but I plan to sample at least 1 more (maybe 2) fibers before actually making a decision.  Once the other fiber(s) have been spun and swatched I’ll compare the swatches and decide from that which is best suited to the pattern.

Next up, Romney that I purchased a few years back from Melissa at Skylines Farm.  I hope to spin up the sample this evening and be able to knit the swatch over the weekend . . . perhaps a post about that on Monday

One of the projects I need to make a decision about is Fern.  I started this sweater three years ago, put it down because I was too distracted to work on it and needed to work on a baby gift for someone and haven’t touched it since.

Fern

I actually have a little more than this done and was working on both the front and back at the same time . . . but I’m not sure now if this was really the right yarn for the project.  I’m not certain that I like the stitch definition with the colors of the yarn and feel that the pattern may be getting lost a bit.  Actually it looks better in the photo than it does in person (which I find odd) and I don’t know if I want to continue on it or frog it.

I’ve given myself until I’ve finished with the Must Have Cardigan)only the back left!)  to decide what to do with Fern.

The other knitting question I’m wrestling with is about my next project, St. Brigid.  I think I’m going to dye and spin the yarn for it and need choose a fiber from the stash.  I have several types to fiber to choose from and I’m not certain which I should use.  Perhaps the bed time reading the next few night will be Clara’s book of Wool . . . I’m sure the answer will be in there somewhere.

I’m actually getting a little anxious to finish this sweater since I have a couple of other things, both WIPS and new projects, that I am eager to work on.

Comment replies: I definitely plan to teach all the kids to knit, in fact my oldest niece was asking about learning just recently. As she is almost 8 I think she is ready to try it but I do have to allow her grandmother the opportunity to be the first to show her As for the hat set pattern, I hope to work on it this weekend if things go well and perhaps have it available by sometime next week. Thanks for the comments & please keep them coming, feedback is a great thing to have!

When I picked it up again last fall, I did, ultimately, decide to rip and reknit the offending sleeve top.  Once the sleeves were finished I began working on the fronts, both at the same time one one needle.  I find this the easiest way to be sure that they actually match.  However, after a few inches of Fronts I put them aside again to work on the Snow Ball Fight Mittens & Hat sets for the kids.  Now that winter is nearly over and I have finished knitting as many hat sets as I can stand to knit for now, I’m back to working on the Cardigan.  As of last night, I’d knit about 10 inches of the 15 I’m planning to knit before the underarm decreases begin.

Must Have Fronts

This afternoon I picked it up again to work another row or two.  When I’d done one right side row I laid it flat to look at it and found that I had, once again, messed up just one row of the Moss Stitch.  Having already ripped and fixed just this mistake once already I feel that I must fix it.  It isn’t as obvious as mixing up one of the cables would be but I can’t help but think I would notice it every time I look at the finished sweater.

Can you see the error?

Now I’m off to find another needle the right size and take this half off and rip back beyond the error to fix it.  Wish me luck!

Marianna in her hat and mittens

Every family has their traditions, some are carefully kept from generation to generation and others are allowed to lapse as the next generation takes over.  And some are worth picking up again even when it has been years since they were kept. In my family, we have one that I have been restoring over the past few years with hopes of being able to teach the next generation to continue it.

When my mother was a child, her maternal grandmother, who was a seamstress by trade as well as a knitter & spinner, would knit wool mittens for her grandchildren.  In my family this would have been a serious undertaking as my mother is the 2nd of 9 children; a lot of little hands to knit for each year!  My mother tells me that each winter her grandmother would present them with a batch of wool mittens that had been knit and then boiled in order to full them against the cold.  Her grandmother’s mittens were treasured by the children as they kept little hands far warmer than the store bought acrylic variety; so much so that by the end of the winter (when many had gone missing) the children would argue over the remaining, mismatched wool mittens rather than take the matching store bought ones when it was time to play in the snow.

Unfortunately for me, my maternal grandmother is not a knitter.  I believe her mother likely taught her at some point but she became a sewer rather than a knitter as did my mother after her.  Therefore, my generation did not benefit from the tradition of handknit mittens in winter (how I wish we had!) and as the current Grandmother (my mom) is also not a knitter our children were in danger of the same fate!

For the past several years I have been working to turn things around for my children and my nieces and now little nephew.   I have altered the tradition a bit, expanding it to include a warm wool hat in addition to the mittens. And I’m including the two nieces on my husband’s side of the family which gives me a total of 7 children to knit for.   In addition, each year I try to knit for at least one or two children outside the immediate family, usually family friends, for whom I know a new wool hat and mittens will be a welcome winter gift.

In that spirit, this year I am attempting to knit as many as 10-12 sets of mittens and hats to be given out to all the children in the family and a few others.  Rather than choosing the colors for each child ahead of time I’ve taken a different approach this year; I am knitting hats & mittens in 3 sizes (toddler, preschooler, grade-schooler) and then allowing the children to choose for themselves which set they would like.  I have also taken to heart the advice of one of my favorite knitting authors, Elizabeth Zimmerman, and making mittens in sets of 3 to provide a spare for when the first one goes missing as they so often do.

My son refers to his hand=knit mittens as “Snowball Fight Mittens” and so that is what they are.  I am currently working on writing up the pattern for the set and will present it as a free pattern on Ravelry as soon as it is finished.  It is my hope to inspire you to knit up a set for the children in your life, that perhaps my family tradition may become yours as well.

Snowball Fight Mittens & Hat set

In the mean time, here are a few pics of the kids in their new sweaters, knit by Mari.

Thank you Auntie Mari!

However, I recently had the opportunity to step back from the day to day chaos that reins here by going to the Knitter’s Review Retreat.  And while I was away I realized how much I miss my online knitting community!

The KR Retreat was such a wonderful event, such a nice chance to catch up with friends old and new, to hang out with fellow knitters & even take a class! Unfortunately, my camera is acting up and I didn’t figure out until the end of the retreat what was happening with it so I don’t really have photos to post.   I can tell you that I was inspired by the knitters I met, their projects and the overall energy of the group to begin a new chapter in my knitting & fibery career.  I’ve come away from the weekend with a new sense of purpose and new pattern ideas.  I’ve also found the motivation to begin offering my patterns through Ravelry downloads under the name Margaret Testa Designs, many of my existing patterns are now in there and I’ll be loading the last few as soon as I round up the copies of the pdfs.  I hope to have several more patterns available over the course of the winter, including a couple of freebies, one of which I’m working on now but we’ll save that for the next post, shall we?

As for things around our little almost a farm: The kids are now 4 and 18 months and getting bigger by the day it seems.  Mimmo can’t wait for real snow to start so he can build a snowman and Caterina is now walking, talking and getting into everything.   We recently lost one of the cats, Isabelle; we believe the coyotes may have gotten her but can’t be sure.  Arrow is getting old, he’s almost 13, and his hips are giving him trouble.  I don’t think he is going to last the winter and we are all very sad that he will be leaving us soon.  We are looking into getting a puppy (shepard, lab, golden or a mix) so if anyone out there has puppies that need a home let me know.

We also hatched 8 chicks this past spring, 6 of them have turned out to be roosters! I plan to keep one but still have 3 available if anyone is interested.  The hens are taking a winter break from laying and I expect it will be after the solstice before we have eggs again.  This year we may be ordering a new round of hens and these may be retiring, at least most of them.

For now, I’ll leave you with a couple of photos of our first winter snow.

First snow 2009

PS.  Mari L. asked about photos of the children’s socks she’s knit so far this year . . . I’ll post them as soon as the little purple one shows up; its currently winning a game of hide & seek.

We’ve been having lots of fun this summer. Swimming at the beach, hiking, playing in the backyard . . . Mimmo has been catching the toads in the yard and playing with them.

Knitting wise, I’m working on socks for Caterina for the fall and have a winter hat for her on the needles as well. . . plan to take pics of both soon.

Here is how I spent my afternoon today! I built 3 compost bins in the back corner of the yard, just up from the chicken coop. They are built from wood pallets and clothes hangers so completely from reclaimed materials. The instructions came from someone else online . . . and it was pretty easy to put together. That is, once I’d cleared the brush from that corner and moved the manure pile. The only thing I would do differently is to use pallets with more boards than many of these have as the manure tends to go through the spaces; the plan is to use things like leaves, grass clippings and straw to stabilize the pile and prevent it going out the spaces.