Three Strand Colorwork

First, check out my stylish new sweater that I haven't taken off all weekend!

I am terrible at selfies.

Now, check out my new Craftsy and Etsy stores.

Finally, here's what I have been up to: Three Stranded Colorwork.  This is something that I really dreaded for a long time.  It just seems like there is so much potential for tragedy in the whole operation.  I mean, working with 3 strands of yarn at once?  Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

But it's pretty.  So very pretty.  And so, last week I picked up the Lampwork Hat and Mitts kit that I got a few years ago from Knit Picks and had at it.

Not too shabby. Now on to the matching fingerless mitts.

Now, I may be knitting with 3 colors, but usually a row will only call for 2 of them.  So I have been exploring ways to control the yarn.

The thing that has always baffled me about stranded knitting is that there are so many different ways to do it.  But there are 2 methods I want to look closer at: 1. knitting with a color in each hand and 2. my way, in which you drop the yarn when you are not using it.

I finally tried the first one this week.  (There is a tutorial with lovely pictures here.)  I normally knit continental style, with the yarn feeding through my left hand, but I understand how English style (with yarn through the right) works, so I thought I would give it a chance.  And really, it was kinda neat.  It does keep your yarns from getting twisted, and the efficiency of motion in your hands is awesome compared to dropping the yarns.  However, I tend to knit with a pretty high tension; I am forever going up a needle size to get gauge; and I just could not get the yarn to feed through both hands with the same tension.  Actually, I had trouble getting the yarn to feed through my right hand at all.  I have really worked hard on loosening up a bit, and where my left hand has been trained, my right doesn't seem to have gotten the message.  (Kinda funny to be right-handed, and yet less able to control your right hand while knitting.)

I'm certain that if I just kept at it, this method would totally work for me.  All it would take is a little practice.

But I am stubborn and impatient.

So I just went back to my usual method.  I will assign a top color and a bottom color (and a middle color if needed) and then knit while keeping them oriented that way.  When I am not using a color, I simply lay it out of the way to the right, being careful to keep it in its place of top, middle, or bottom.

I found that this way gives me a looser tension than I normally have, which is great because that way I don't have stitches that are buried into the background.  Also, this keeps my floats (the yarn that goes across the back of the piece to the next stitch of that color) nice and loose.

I have also finally learned to tack my floats.  If you just wrap the yarn you aren't using around the back of the stitch, it turns out that you don't have to continually catch your finger/toe/etc. on the yarn left on the back of the piece.

And then I discovered that there was such a thing as color dominance.  This one blew my mind.  It turns out that which yarn is assigned to the top and which to the bottom makes a difference in the appearance of the finished piece. (Check out the link for a great picture to demonstrate.)  So I have decided that I will always have the darkest color at the bottom and then grade by darkest shade to lightest from bottom to top.

Finally, I finished the hat and have started my French Market Socks.  And I have to say, the choice of yarn for colorwork makes a difference too.  The hat was made in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, a very nice South American smooth wool yarn.  I am making these socks in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, a Shetland wool yarn that has only a light twist and is a lot more "sticky" than the Wool of the Andes.  Turns out that Shetland is a very popular wool for colorwork and there's a reason for that.  The "stickiness" of the yarn makes tensioning a breeze.  Once a stitch is in place with the other stitches around it, it is not as likely as a smoother yarn to loosen up by itself.

Colors picked out by Shervie. Gotta love the twisted cast-on.

So, fairly long blog today, but it has been an enlightening week. 

A New Pattern!

That's right!  I have released a new pattern!

The Harney Peak Hat is a spiral ribbed hat made from wool and alpaca.  This hat is super warm but unlike 100% alpaca it holds its shape.  I am very excited to see other people's versions of this hat!

I have priced the hat at $2, but for the first week (until November 29), you can get it for $1 by entering the coupon code "AJC" at checkout.

So go!  Get your copy today! It can be found here or from my Patterns page.

You know you need a warm winter hat.

And in other absolutely amazing news, I finished the black socks of doom.  I just sat and watched Poirot and let my hands go.

Not too shabby

They are now washed and blocked and once they are dry I can give them to my dad.

So, grab a copy of my pattern for yourself or your favorite knitter and I think I will kick back and have a beer for a week well done.

Just Like a Little Bird

That's right!  Just in case you can't get enough of my obsessive ramblings, I am on twitter!  If you would like to follow me, please check me out @AngieChervenak or just follow the link on the right side of the page.

I have actually been making pretty good progress on my list of projects since last post.  Some of the progress is on design projects though and I won't be able to share those with you until they are done.

However, I did whip up the crocheted slouch hat!

See, I can crochet too!

I have to say, this was a fun project.  I especially love the look of the band.  It is done in back post single crochet.

However.  Hmm.  I apparently crochet at a much tighter gauge than whoever wrote this pattern and instead of starting over when I realized this, I just decided that I would keep going as long as it fit.  So my super slouchy hat basically has no slouch at all.

Which doesn't really matter to me.  The even bigger problem is that my greatest fears about this yarn were realized.  The fiber content is wonderful, but the colors are hideous together.  Beautiful colors, absolutely goofy when knitted up together.  But I will wear this hat, because I love a hideous hat.  (Something my husband and I always had in common.)

There has been no sweater progress over the past few days because I decided to put it aside for a minute.  I have been working on that sweater very hard and I am proud to say that I will likely finish the whole thing within a month of starting.  But it is a personal project and I have other things to work on too.

However, the sweater has inspired me to add a list of links to helpful tutorials.  Check out the new "Links" tab at the top of the page.  This week I have added some links for my favorite yarn joining methods.  I have been spit splicing my yarn for this sweater and I am very pleased with the results.  Leave it to me to find a way to avoid weaving in all of those ends.  The russian join method is great for joining yarns of different colors without having to weave in ends.  I will be adding more links as I think of them.

Finally, I have a confession to make.  I gave in to the trend and made a ruffle scarf.  I can't see myself ever wearing it, but I am considering trying to start up a class in Custer on how to make these.  Gotta give the people what they want, but I can't help but think that this yarn would make a way better skirt embellishment than boa.

Not too bad.

A Very Busy Week

I have been working very hard in the last week.  Mostly because I am trying to spend more time working and less time dwelling on the traumatic past.  I guess this is the productive stage of grief.

I have been thinking lately of actually getting a job, but life is funny, and it seems to be easier said than done.  Out here in the Black Hills, the economy is very focused on tourist season.  It is very, very easy to get a job here between May and September, but it is almost impossible to find a job in winter, especially if you are looking for something non-professional.

So, here I am, with nothing to do but focus on my knitting and fiber projects.  And in a turn that I could never have predicted, I have the time, the support, and the space to really go for it.

First, the projects that I have finished:

A River Runs Through Mitt

I finally finished making the second mitt of A River Runs Through Mitt from Darn. Knit. {Anyway} at the 2013 MN Yarn Shop Hop!  I even wove in the ends.  Now I just have to give them a good wash and they will be ready just in time for cooler weather.

Double Bump Dishcloth

I tried my hand at dishcloth knitting with the Double Bump Dishcloth.  Amazingly, this is my first dishcloth.  It was fast, really fast, and kinda fun.  I worked this one up because I wanted to make one with someone else's pattern before designing my own.  I am currently planning out a 3-class, beginning knitting class that teaches the basics though a dishcloth pattern that I designed.  I will keep you all updated as to when and how this class might happen.

The black bamboo/silk socks from hell.

I really don't mean to whine about knitting.  I love knitting, and I love knitting socks, and I really love a challenge.  But these stockinette, black, size 1.5 needle socks really seem to be kicking my butt.  The stockinette is boring, the yarn can be hard to see, and there are quite a few stitches.  And just to make it harder, I was trying to make these socks for my husband just before he passed away.  But I believe that the project is worth it and they will be beautiful socks when I am finished, and I will be able to give them to my dad.

The good news with these socks is that I finished the first one this week and started the second.  The bad news is that I still need to pick up tiny black stitches along the heel of the second sock.  Oh well.  All projects have their frustrating points and I'm sure they will turn out beautifully.

A sweater finally?

I have also decided that I am going to make a sweater with the sport weight Wool of the Andes that I have had stashed for an age.  I picked up the pattern for Even Flow by Joji Locatelli.  I'm thinking of casting on today.  Wish me luck.

Finally, I submitted my first design proposal this week.  I have been designing a cowl and I pitched the pattern to a magazine.  We will see if anything comes of this.

Otherwise, for future excitement:
-  I will be working on networking in the Black Hills fiber arts scene.
-  I am signed up for a wheel spinning class next weekend at Fall River Fibers and my mother might be joining me in that adventure.
-  I am teaching myself how to dye yarn with food dyes.

Just some things for readers to look forward to.  I have assigned myself a posting schedule of Tuesday and Friday every week, so please tune in!

Check and Check

The shawlette is now officially finished and blocked and so is a hat for my brother's birthday!

I really enjoyed making the shawlette. The rhythm of lace knitting and reading the fabric as I knit was both relaxing and challenging. I particularly enjoyed how much it challenged my problem solving skills. 

I know that sounds like I am being sarcastic but I assure you that I am not. I have been working on solving missed stitches or incorrect stitches without ripping back and it was very educational to do this kind of fixing with lace. (I believe that this method of correction is called "laddering down".) One of the things that I find most fascinating about knitting is the geometry of it all. The series of knots that you must do to turn what is essentially a line into a 3 dimensional object. 

The hat was a quick project for the yak yarn I have in my stash as a present for my brother's birthday. I used the free Rinsessa-pipo pattern found on Ravelry. I really liked how easy this pattern was and the decreases at the top are very clever. The pattern goes all of the way to the point.