purlsandmurmers

I'm moving

2010-10-04T07:50:00-04:00

I have decided to integrate my blogs into a single new blog. There will be links to all posts here on the new blog, but topics will range beyond knitting.

Please join me at restingmotion.

Rushing forward only to stop.

2010-09-28T10:34:28-04:00

Glee come is progressing nicely. I finished the back and the left front and went ahead and blocked them. I don't have enough yarn to knit the sleeves, which I expected, as I am knitting this sweater at a much tighter gauge than recommended in the pattern even though I am using the recommended yarn. I just didn't like the hand of the fabric at the recommended gauge. I am much happier with what I have now and am happy to have to order yarn. But, since I am not sanguine about matching dye lots, and black varies as much, as any other color, I am not starting the sleeves until the new yarn arrives. In fact I have ordered enough yarn to knit both sleeves even though I have one skein of the original batch remaining.

While I am waiting for more black Taglia, I am knitting the right front, which is coming along rapidly.

This is knit in Karabella's Tango, a poly blend novelty yarn.

I've been told the black Taglia will ship out to me in early October so this project is about to hault for a bit. I should finish the right front today and get it blocked. I may be able to begin assembly and finishing the neck and front bands, but then I will have to wait.

I will undoubtedly start something new.

Progress on Glee Club

2010-09-23T10:57:49-04:00

I had planned to have a sweater sewn up and ready to wear and model today, but it did not happen. It is one of those weeks where any hope of a schedule goes out the window and there has been no opportunity to catch up. I fall further behind.

At least Glee Club is progressing, although again, not as quickly as I had hoped. I had the back finished and I took a picture to show you. I was so happy. Until I looked at the photo that is, because there, in the middle of the back (circled in purple lest you miss it) is a big mistake. It is a mistake I should have seen long before I bound of the neckline and knit the shoulders. It was a mistake that made me feel like throwing the piece in the corner and pounding my head on the table.

Yes I overreact sometimes.

So last night, when I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't going to get a sweater assembled, I bit the bullet and ripped out one shoulder, unbound the neckline, and dropped the stitches and fixed the error. It was a bit of a pain, picking up all those rows in garter stitch, but doable. I probably spent more time fretting over the thing and castigating myself for not paying attention than I spent fixing the problem.

Here is the now finished back, adorned with bits of cat hair which will wash off in blocking. The first front piece is shown beside it, and as you can see it is coming along nicely and I am trying to focus more on what I am doing. This recent string of mindless errors really has to stop. I used to be better than this.

But I think I am, generally, more focused now, somehow getting more comfortably into myself and regaining some discipline after a period where I seemed to be functioning purely reactively. It is about time.

Colorful Interlude

2010-09-21T06:35:00-04:00

For weeks I was attracted to a skein of Colinette Point 5 which was displayed near where I would sit on Thursday nights during knitting group. For weeks, I would get up, look at the yarn, admire the colors, and put it back. There were only two skeins. I have tons of scarvs, and two skeins of point 5 is not really enough for a good scarf. I really didn't think I wanted to knit a loopy thing to wrap around my neck.

But then last Thursday I gave in, bought the yarn and started knitting. What did I knit? A loopy thing of course. But I knit it a little longer than usual, casting on about 60 stitches, which makes the whole thing a good 35 to 36 inches long. I wanted to be able to wrap it around my neck twice rather than have a simple cowl.

I rather like the effect, and I love the colors, which are definitely many of "my" colors. I do believe this will positively cheer me up come some cold and blustery winter day.

It was a rather simple knit using size 17 needles. Bigger needles might have been nice, but 17s are the biggest I have. As I mentioned, I cast on 60 stitches and worked about four rounds of knit, followed by three or four rounds of purl, alternating in this way until I nearly ran out of yarn, at which point I bound off.

It was a good quick treat, and a successful way to avoid some minor frustrations with my other projects.

Status Report

2010-09-09T11:50:54-04:00

On the knitting front it has been a week shaped more by minor setbacks than by progress.

First off I have all the little pieces of Sheelagh finally knitted: the waistband and the two i-cord ties. The waistband gave me fits, not because it was difficult but just because I was none to clear-headed when I started. The first time around I had trouble keeping up the k1 slip1 pattern and had to rip it out after I had almost finished the piece. Then, being tired and not thinking too clearly I tried other stitches which did not work as well as I would have liked either. Another evening I got a few inches knitted, fell asleep in my chair and awoke to find a cat sleeping on my lap and my knitting off the needles. Only as I put the knittng back on the needle did I make the connection to double knitting, which is surprising because I did make a double-knitted vest once years ago. Suddenly, once I understood what I was doing, everything became much easier. I suppose I was more tired and stressed than I had actually realized.

After knitting and reknitting the waistsband several times, it needed blocking, but the pieces are all ready for assembly now.

I had also started a new project and then ripped back about 2/3 of what I had done after finding a series of errors early down. I hadn't noticed them until I was in different light. There are dangers that come with knitting black in dimly lit rooms.

The yarn is Taglia by Lana Grossa, a cotton tape that I am finding I really really like as the fabric is light and cool despite the rather large gauge. It does unravel easily and you have to knot the ends together. I've found that a bit of fray block on the ends does wonders as well.

The pattern is Glee Club by L'Atelier. It was their May Sweater of the Month, and I am just as happy that I did not get it knit over the summer as it was so hot and humid for so much of the summer that I would not have worn it anyway. My chosen black and turquoise colorway however will lend itself perfectly well to warmer fall days and work well throughout the spring. It is a quick knit, and should be finished soon enough, but not too soon as I have two sweaters ahead of it in line for sewing up.

More Patterns

2010-09-07T07:57:57-04:00

One would think, given my recent focus on stash-knitting, that this same urge to use what I have would apply also to the acquisition of more patterns. But it does not seem to work that way. Although I may usually just look at the pattern advertisements and dream, this year I have been on a spending spree. Perhaps it is because both of my current projects have minor delays at the moment, perhaps it is because I am sorting through and cataloging my old knitting patterns, although if anything that should dissuade me from purchasing more.

As I perused the pages of the Vogue Knitting, I cam across an ad from Bergere de France, showing this lovely sweater, a sweater I definitely want to knit.

Now since I last ordered anything from Bergere de France, several years ago, they seem to have created an English website for North America with what appears to be a complete listing of US vendors. There is not one near me, but that is not particularly surprising.

What I could not find on the North American website was a link to the pattern CDs which I used to buy directly from Bergere de France. I am not really interested in the big pattern book with the yarn samples. I am not particularly interested in more pattern brochures that I have to scan into my computer to store digitally as PDF files, my preferred storage method. I wanted the CD.

Luckily the CDs are still available on the French website. So I bought one. In fact I bought three because I discovered that I had neglected to order the CDs from the last two years and I could not stand having a hole in my collection.

They arrived Saturday. And I am very happy. There are several things I like, the CDs are easily stored and the patterns can be printed at will. Although it is possible that someday I will download the patterns I really like to PDF files and keep them with the rest of my collection at the moment I am happy just to have the disks.

Schulana Fall 2010

2010-09-04T22:12:03-04:00

One of the joys of knitting magazines is not just the patterns, nor the articles about knitting tips and techniques. I simply enjoy looking at all the ads.

Inspired by ads by Schulana in both the Interweave and Vogue Knitting magazines, I ordered the fall book. I am very happy I did so as there are several things that appeal to me.

No long wordy posts this time though as I seem to be somewhat sleep deprived of late and I also decided to celebrate this labor day weekend by laboring in the kitchen and the garden, thereby elevating my general level of exhaustion.

Luckily dream knitting is not confined by the restraints of reality.

Vogue Knitting Fall 2010

2010-09-02T08:51:23-04:00

The new Vogue Knitting arrived over the weekend. I had already looked at the preview online, something I occasionally avoid, as I tend to want everything to be new when I open the magazine. But I also avoid the previews because if there is something I really really like, I get all antsy waiting for the magazine to arrive.

This time I didn't mind looking and I still enjoyed the magazine; I've been looking at it ever since it arrived. In fact I think it is a fabulous issue and I can imagine knitting most of the sweaters in it at one time or another. So instead of showing you my favorites, I am going to do something different this time.

First of all there are two sections that do not appeal to me at all. The section titled "Home on the Prarie" is a miss in my book, although the idea is good, and the idea itself is not something that I would avoid, I like the motifs and the ideas, but the sweaters leave me cold. Perhaps I am just suffering from a "been there, done that" moment, because all these sweaters look like things I have knit and worn at previous times in my life.

The other pretty much solid "thumbs down" section is the one by Irina Shabayeva and I really wanted to like these sweaters. In fact, when I saw the sweaters on the preview I was quite interested, and I do rather like the oversized coat with the large shawl collar, but I think I have other bulky yarn coat and jacket patterns I like even better than this one. The detailed intarsia sweaters are interesting, they would be fun to knit, and in many ways they fit with my style, but the truth is that I just don't like the bird's wing/feather pattern. If it was leopard or pretty much any other animal pattern it wouldn't bother me but somehow feathers are not my thing, and they actually leave me feeling uncomfortable. I didn't know that about myself before.

So you've seen the sweaters I don't like (except for two in the Prairie section which I just didn't bother copying). You can safely assume I like everything else to some extent or another. But will I knit them? Will I knit any of them this season? Those are really good questions.

The truth is that I am really focused on yarns that are in my stash right now, and I have several projects that I want to knit and wear now, as well as several for the winter and for the most part these patterns don't fit into the existing stash/yarns I want to use paradigm, with one exception.

I really like this vest and I have two skeins of Cascade Eco+ which I traded for some old Katia Ceilan. The gauges are slightly different, the original yarn is more bulky than the Eco+, but I think I can work it out. Maybe not. As we get a little closer to actual fall temperatures, you might see me at least swatching for this project.

The other sweater that has plastered itself into my brain cells is the multicolored intarsia sweater by Deborah Newton. I really like the original version, as shown in the magazine; it is bright and cheerful and certainly attention getting. It is not the same old boring sweater. But although I do love color,and even rainbow colors, I am not a rainbow person. I am not comfortable wearing that much color at once and those particular colors are not my colors, much as I love the pattern.

Still I am obsessed. I may have to spend an afternoon with color cards and crayons and figure out if there is a happy meeting of my sense of color and this design. I realize that the spirit of the sweater would be entirely different; it would not have that bright happy, circus-like, appeal, but can it be something else? I don't know. I may have to find out.

Avril

2010-08-31T11:31:20-04:00

Avril is finally done, after nearly a year. To say that my knitting motivation, or at least the motivation to finish things, has been somewhat lacking seems like an understatement.

Pattern: Aline, Avril and Adrienne from Berroco. This is an older pattern from Book 219 Basic Classics collections.

Yarn: Cascade Venezia Bulky, wool and silk. I like the yarn and it is lovely to knit.

Pattern Modifications: None except adapting for gauge. I could not get the same gauge as any of the three original yarns used in this design so some math was required. I did not add buttonholes to the collar or use the two slightly smaller buttons I had set aside for use on the collar.

Continuing onward through the UFOs

2010-08-13T11:21:17-04:00

Picture of me wearing Stormy Wildflowers:

I knit this sweater with several inches of negative ease but as you can see, the fabric is quite light without much structure so it quickly becomes loose. Any bigger and I would be ripping it out. The sleeves are loose but better than the body of the sweater. The dolcino has better memory than the Maya.

Since I don't want to start another new project until I finish at least one or two more UFOs I resurrected Shelagh from the depths of the "projects past" drawer. I ripped the right front back to the fold line with the intention of re-knitting the top section correctly. However when I started to actually measure what I had and knit, I discovered that the entire thing was wonky so I ended up ripping the entire right front and starting over. I knit from the shoulder through the armhole shaping last night, 87 rows, but many of those rows are quite narrow. Now I'm on the thicker, double section which will take a while longer. This time however, I shall knit with thought and do it right.