Baby Sweater

Because someone else having a baby is really just an opportunity for me to knit something cute and quick.

The pattern is In Threes by Kelly Herdrich and I have knit it in Malabrigo Rios in color 412 Teal Feather.

I do recommend the pattern.  It was fun and fast.

But we will see about the yarn.  It is superwash (the pattern calls for a non-superwash yarn, but that is just cruel to a new mother), but the dye came off heavily on my hands while I was knitting the sweater.  I will wash it until the water runs clear, but I cannot guarantee that this will not make for a teal baby.

At any rate, congrats to friends who are procreating.  I'll just be the one who knits.  I like to sleep through the night.

Publish or Perish

Ok, so the title of this post is meant to be a really bad pun on dyeing.  I may occasionally be guilty of awful puns; I blame the geology degree.

It was a pretty good weekend.  I even managed to have a somewhat relaxing day on Sunday in which I only knit for some of the day.  Otherwise, some very exciting firsts happened:

I published my first pattern:

Double Heart Dishcloth

It can be found here, as a free Ravelry download or from the links on my brand new Patterns page!  Seriously, download one even if you don't need one; just to make me look good.

It actually is a kinda fun, quickie project and the cotton yarn it's made of is dirt cheap.

I also swatched for my Joji Locatelli Even Flow sweater.

Mmm . . . swatches

I have to admit: I hate swatching.  I want to just cast on and go!  That is why so many of the projects I do are items that you don't need to swatch for or that (like socks) you can measure your gauge as you are knitting it.  I know that you are supposed to swatch on pretty much everything, but I find it very boring.  

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that I would be more annoyed to knit an entire sweater only to have it not fit.  And judging by the fact that my swatch on the recommended needles didn't match the gauge in the pattern, it is time well spent.

Then, the most exciting news:

I am teaching myself how to dye yarn!

I started with food dye on some cream colored Cascade Eco Wool that I had lying around and came up with this:

My first attempt

Not too bad for the first time.  Of course it leaves plenty of room for improvement though. 

This was done with just water, white vinegar, and McCormick food dye.  Apparently if your dye bath is too acidic, the red will be taken up into the yarn faster than the blue and instead of getting a purplish-blue, you get red splotches with blue around them.

In order to prevent this from happening again, I have ordered pH paper from the internet.  When in doubt, apply science.

Finally, tonight I may go check out the Black Hills Fiber Arts Guild meeting.  I don't necessarily feel like going out and talking to people, but I think I have to remember that it is never as scary as it feels before hand.  And I have baked an apple spice cake to take with.  How could I go wrong if I'm bringing a cake?

A New Project

Today I finally decided to put aside the boring black socks and do something fun. Knitting was becoming drudgery, so I decided to spice it up and take a shot at doing a lace shawl. I chose the Ashton Shawlette pattern and pulled out some Berrocco Sox sock yarn. 

I'm going to try to do the pattern on straight needles because I don't have the circulars called for, and let's be honest here, I probably don't need to buy new needles for every project I do. I will let you know if any difficulties develop, but I have always liked using straight needles. I know that circular is all the rage, but I am a bit of a traditionalist. 

The yarn touches a bit of a nerve. I initially bought it to make socks for my husband. So much of life we never got to. But repurposing things helps to recontextualize life, and I'm sure he wouldn't have minded even if he were here to argue. 

This is the first project that I will be using a pattern on my iPad Mini for and I am excited. I will be traveling to the East Coast next week and it is awesome to not have to carry any books with. 

Finally, I am no longer in Saint Paul. I moved back in with my parents in Custer. Hopefully this means that I will have more time to knit and sew. Realistically, I have been traveling and working on incredibly boring socks. But things should perk up this fall, and I hope to have a lot more to share. 

My nascent shawlette:

A Bad Day

*Frown*  There is no new sock yarn yet.  There is no new anything yet and I am beginning to suspect that the postman delivered the box to the antique store downstairs that is only open from 11 AM to 5 PM.  (I work from 8 AM to 5 PM.)

All I wanted to turn this day around was some sock yarn.  I guess I will have to make do with my Big Cosy Cowl project.  After all, I did decide that I want to wear it out on Saturday night and I will need to kick some knitting butt to manage that one.

I promise that my next post will find me in a better mood.  I am just feeling a bit whiny today.

A Place to Keep My Yarn!

I just got a basket for my yarn today! It came from Ten Thousand Villages.

And the April Sock Is . . .

I actually took a bit of a break from knitting for a few days.  My carpal tunnel was acting up.  I actually get it from playing games on my mobile phone, but it is hard to knit when it flares.

So I don't really have much to say about what I am working on.  But I think that I figured out which socks I am going to make in April:

Asymmetrical Cables, designed by Cookie A from the book Sock Knitting Master Class!

I am in love with this book and I want to make all of the socks in it in order!   However, I was thinking about what yarn to use, and I thought that I would save the beautiful green and blue Cascade Hand Painted Sock Yarn for the Almondine pattern.  Which left me wondering, what yarn should I get for Asymmetrical Cables?

As some of you who have been reading may know (hopefully that is at least one of you), I was trying to make the Basic Black Socks for my significant other.  When he tried them on, they were too small.  So I thought, maybe I should make these socks for him.  However, I will not work in black for two pair of socks in a row.  So I found Stroll Tonal Sock Yarn from Knitpicks in Thunderhead.

Once again, if anyone wants to knit along or has any words of wisdom to share on the pattern or yarn that I have chosen, feel free to let me know in the comments section.

A picture of Fritz the Cat for your amusement.

The Second Sock Blues

Today I want to cast on a new project so bad it hurts.  But I am being good and working on the second black sock.  I'm just afraid that if I let myself get started on something new, I will never want to finish the second sock and it will sit for several years until I forget which pattern I used and where I was in that pattern.

So for encouragement, I just keep singing to myself, "It's so nice . . . I wanna knit the same sock twice."  (To the tune of Boss D.J. by Sublime.)  But it still is boring me a little.

The second sock or mitten, or anything matched, is both a blessing and a curse.  You know the pattern.  You can do the pattern the same as the other one without too much cursing or problems.  (Well, you can if you remembered to take good notes and count.)  But it is something that you just did, and if you are like me, you will get impatient about moving on and learning new things.

The good news is that I am at the heel flap, and I have given myself permission to start a new project once I pick up the stitches on the sides of the heel and do the decreases going into the foot of the sock.

Part of the reason why I am so excited is that I got the yarn for a new project today!  (This is related to the fact that I had an interview with a local yarn shop this morning.  I will tell you all about that once I know the outcome.)  Granted, I have the yarn for at least 3 other projects, but I have been trying to find this yarn for over a month now.

The yarn is Plymouth Mushishi and I got it in the 09-red color.  And the project is the Big Cosy Cowl pattern by Jennifer Wilder.  This pattern was featured in the Fiber Art Almanac Companion Journal and I have been longing to make it ever since I saw it.  Also, I seem to have a thing going for wool/silk blend yarns lately.

Just as a personality note: normally, I do not make patterns in the same color as the photo.  Often I do not even make them in the same yarn.  However, this cowl just caught my eye, and as much as my rebellious nature tried to convince me to at least pick a different color than the picture, I was in love.

Well, *sigh*, I guess it is back to the sock slog for a while.  The more I work on it, the sooner I can move on.  And I like doing heels, they are interesting and fun.

I will be sure to update if I cast anything on this weekend and I will definitely be here celebrating when the second sock is finished.  I should be done well ahead of my deadline at the end of March.

I haven't quite picked out a pattern for the socks for April yet, but I do have a yarn.  I will be posting more about that before the beginning of April.  I would love some company in the sock of the month project.  So if anyone out there reading is interested in knitting along or even making your own pair of socks of any pattern, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Thanks for reading,

Angie

Hooray for wool/silk blends!!

Sock yarn for April.  Admit it; you are intrigued.

Works in Progress Report

I've been working on a pair of socks for my live-in SO.  I found a really simple sock pattern and some Heritage Silk yarn from Cascade Yarns and started knitting. 

I think sometimes I find things easy when other people don't because nobody ever told me that it was supposed to be hard.  I've been working these socks on number 2 DPNs and I decided to make them all in black fingering weight, because it is simple and will look good with anything.  Luckily, I picked a yarn that has great stitch definition.  And luckily, I didn't know that black was hard to work with until I was halfway done and used to working with the yarn already.

Next project that I will be casting-on is the Lampwork Hat and Mitts kit that I got from KnitPicks.  I actually was ordering the yarn that I needed for a sweater that I am designing for myself, but the order fell short of their $50 free shipping offer, so I picked this one up.  Because of indecision on design, I will be casting these on before I get started on the sweater.  (I will post about the sweater in a blog post of its very own soon.)  I am looking forward to practicing more color-work.  I've done a few things in 2 colors before, but I think this will be fun.

And as soon as I get the needles that I need, I will be casting on to make the Drop Stitch Cowl out of the gorgeous Berroco Soufflé that I just had to buy and then I didn't know what to do with but I couldn't afford to buy very much.  It will be beautiful and soft, but I do feel a little silly for paying nearly $18 for 100 yards of yarn.