SourCherries

Cookie Sweater

I am at the point where I really should be in bed, but since it's so late and I'll be getting so little sleep anyway, I thought I'd take a few moments for a quick check-in before I leave for San Francisco in the morning. This is just going to be a quick trip to visit some friends and then on Friday I have a job interview (I am maybe, maybe thinking of moving towards that area, so am just taking advantage of an opportunity to test the job market). I have all my airplane knitting lined up and ready to go- The River Stole, the multi-directional scarf and a new project that is actually nearly finished, the Cookie Sweater, from  Miss Bea's Rainy Day. This sweater is actually to be a sample for my LYS, so the yarn and pattern were both picked for me which is a new and different experience. I am enjoying it though- the yarn, Cloud 9 from Cascade yarns- is incredibly soft, and I love the angora halo. The pattern is quick and fun, and I think really cute. I am making the smallest size and here are a couple of shots of where I am at now.

 

The second one also shows the tips of my new shoes. Anyway, I've finished both sleeves and the back and have started on the front, so hopefully, by the time I am back, this will be a FO.

Embroidery

The embroidered raglan if finished- almost. All the knitting and seaming up are finished, but it lacks buttons and some most of the embroidery. I must confess, I have never done embroidery before. It looked simple enough from the pictures though, so I boldly embarked. Embroidering on knitting is not all it's cracked up to be. It gets kind of hard, because all those nice little knitted stitches keep on getting in the way of the embroidery. Anyway after several hours of crap tries, I finally got this:

This was only after figuring out that it helped immensely if I pinned a piece of tulle over the space and embroidered on it, later tearing it away. This is probably not the most efficient way of doing it either. I am really debating whether or not to continue. I also still need buttons for the front:

So really, it's not quite finished.

While contemplating my embroidery conundrum, I've been working on a very simple scarf using variegated Andean wool.

This is Karen Baumer's multi-directional scarf. I found the link to this pattern at Marie Fly Fly. I loved the beautiful Karen Noe yarn she's using, especially the colours, so when I saw this blue/brown variegated Andean merino wool at the LYS the other day I snapped it up. This doesn't have nearly the effect as her yarn, but I still love these colours. The merino is also lovely and soft. You'll find I knit a lot of scarves. This is probably because I tend to wear a lot of scarves. I have never knitted a scarf that I have not worn multiple times, so I've always considered a couple of skeins of yarn good investment for my scarf collection. This may also be why I have very little stash. I always end up knitting my small purchases up into scarves.

Speaking of stash, a quick perusal today resulted in me finding hardly any future planned projects that I actually have yarn for. I'm taking a short trip to San Francisco next week and I need to have plane knitting projects since I for some reason decided to purchase tickets with 5-6 hrs of flight time as opposed to the two it should normally take (this is because the longer flight was 100 or so dollars less). I do have two skeins of kidsilk haze, in a teal shade that I can't remember the name of, that I got at Hilltop Yarn in Seattle a few months ago. I am planning to start the River Stole from Rowan no. 38 with this as soon as I get the right size needles. I should probably say, the right size needles of this as many around have been knitting river on smaller needles and I must admit, I like that neater, tidier look as well. Street and YOs has a lovely stole in the same colour I am doing mine, knit on size US 7's. Julia's (from Mind of Winter) version is on US size 8's- I love the bright pink. Elliphantom's version is done on the original size US 10 1/2's. I think I love tidiness of the smaller gauge but the etherealness of the larger. I suppose I will just have to start swatching.

An FO

Lady Eleanor is no longer fringeless!

Pattern: Lady Eleanor

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden color #82

Needles: Addi Turbos 5mm

Started: 09/01/2006

Finished: 09/17/2006

Modifications: Used different yarn, different needles and did more pattern repeats- although I am not sure how many more I did.

Impressions: This was my first time using Noro of any kind and also the first time I used Addi Turbos as well. I fell in love with the Addis and I'm okay with the Silk Garden. There is really nothing wrong with it, it would just never be a first choice of mine unless I was working some kind of project where I needed long color repeats. Actually I thought it was kind of scratchy and there quite a few knots and twiggy bits for the price of the yarn. I must say though it is nearly perfect for this pattern. There is a nice rustic texture with the thick and thin of the yarn and the entrelac which I really like. This was also my first ever entrelac project. I now know entrelac is easier than I ever imagined. It only looks difficult. I'm not really sure how wearable this will be, I'd like to wear it as a scarf, but it is very nearly too bulky. I might appreciate that bulkiness on a frigid winter day though.  It also looks quite nice draped across the back of my couch. Too bad it wasn't twice as wide- then it would make a great throw.

I also started on the Embroidered Raglan Sweater from Knitting for Two by Erika Knight. I finished the front and the back and must say I am loving the Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL which I am using (this was from my stash). At the gauge I am using it knits up into a very firm, but smooth and incredibly soft fabric. I probably should have modified the pattern to knit it in the round, but I don't know that I will really mind the seaming. As is the pattern is quite simple.

I am still planning to do the embroidery, but sadly enough I am going to have to buy my yarn 'oddments'. I have nothing even close to the colors I would want to use. I am thinking maybe some kind of chocolaty brown, a soft buttercup yellow and some kind of either blue or pink colours.

Not a Six in Sight

The striped raglan baby sweater has not turned out to be my brightest knit (actually it technically is the most brightly coloured). I had a "duh" moment in the middle of the night and realized that I could carry my yarn up the inside thus eliminating the million-seventy-hundred ends I would have to sew in. So I started a sleeve and carrying up is definitely the way to go as far as weaving in ends, but not so much for keeping the yarn untangled. I'm not a very tidy knitter. I tend to be the knitter who gets up from her work spot and ends up with fifty yards of yarn trailing unbeknownst behind her as she walks to the bathroom. My six balls of cotton are mingling merrily and are getting very tangled up in the process. Oh well. Here's the start of one sleeve.

Sorry for the crappy night time shot- I got called in to work this afternoon to cover for "a few hours" and ended up staying ten because no one would come in. I did manage to wrangle a hefty bonus out of it though, so I am seeing some cashmere in my future.

Since the stripes were starting to get tedious I decided to swatch some of this-

For the Embroidered Raglan Sweater from Knitting for Two by Erika Knight. Grumperina has some lovely finished sweaters sans embroidery and also a picture of the original that she must have uploaded herself (I can find one nowhere no matter how persistently I Google). This yarn is actually a nice mossy green applicably named 'Moss Green' and I am going to do the edging in a soft cream. I am thinking that I want to try the embroidery, but we'll see. First I need to actually finish something. Anyway, I got all ready to swatch this morning, only to discover that I have no size 6 (US) needles of any kind- no single point, no double points, no circulars... nothing in a size six. I have about five different styles of size 5 needles, 6-7 size 7's, but not a six in sight. I did knit up a swatch on 7's which was way too big of gauge. I managed to very quickly drop in at my LYS on the way to work (did I mention that they're only a block away) to get some size 6 needles- Addi Turbos to be exact. I just bought my first pair of Addis about a month ago and have since purchased three more pairs because I find that I'm liking them much better than any of my straights at this point. I don't know if they're really any faster, but I feel zippy just 'cause I'm using 'turbos'.

Stripy Raglan Sweater

Yesterday I finally finished the knitting of Lady Eleanor. Towards the end she was getting so bulky and unwieldy that I thought I would never finish. Technically though, I'm not done- I still have to make the fringe- so this is just a sneak peak.

I ran outside in a short break in the rain to get this shot. It rained all day yesterday. I actually quite enjoyed it as it hadn't rained here for reals in months. It made finding a good dry spot to lay it out hard though. I ended up using the bottom of our bright orange canoe. So- here's the long shot- Miles and miles of entrelac.

Last night I also went to me LYS for an as yet unnamed knitting group. I started my Mandarin Petit stripy raglan sweater there. I don't know if it was trying to visit or just general distraction, but I managed to knit three inches of stocking stitch without realizing that I had not only twisted once, but twice when I joined for the round. It was quite frustrating because I don't think I've ever joined anything twisted in the round let alone knit three inches of it twisted. So anyway, out it came. I persevered though and restarted and this is where I'm at now-

And here is the inside- which I almost like better

 

Except for all of the ends I am going to have to weave in that is.  For some reason I keep on rowing out even though I'm knitting in the round so I'm not even purling anyway. Who knows. I am almost to the sleeve shaping and needing to stop and make the sleeves. That should keep me busy for the weekend although I do have to work. One nice thing about working swing shift is that if you get up early enough you don't have to feel guilty about sitting around and knitting for three hours first thing in the morning. That's about the only thing I like about it though. It's kind of annoying to sit and think about going to work all day.

Crazy for Knitting

I think I must know every pregnant woman in my town. I'm not sure why, but everyone I know is pregnant right now. I have at least ten baby showers that I know I am going to be invited to in the future- either through work or friends. Obviously this means I have some baby knitting to do. So, I went to my new LYS (just happens to be a block away from my house!) today to pick up some lightweight cotton for this striped baby sweater from SandesGarn. Considering that there are six different colors in this sweater and that my LYS does not carry Mandarin Petit, I actually came fairly close to getting the same colors as the picture.

The yarn is Cotton Soft Speciale Baby by Mondial. I can't wait to start this even though it's knitted on tiny 2mm and 3mm needles.

While at the LYS I spotted probably one of the more bizarre knitted objects I've ever seen. A childsize bike, completely covered (except for the spokes) by knitting. The tires even have cabled tread.

And look, at the crocheted bike chain-

The woman who knit this bike was challenged by her husband, who is a sculptor, to do something "3D" with all of her fiber/yarn stash. This knitted bike is how she rose to that challenge.  Interesingly, this is not the only knitted bike out there. Go here to see a rainbow example. It's crazy what knitters can think of.

A smoky drive with a stole

I suppose, knitting content should be first- So, I've continued working on the Lady Eleanor Stole and so far have just started the 4th skein of Silk Garden. This is how she looks now:

I've battled a bit with both the right slanting and left slanting decrease edges. I just didn't think they looked very "pretty". They worked, but looked quite rustic to me- I'm not sure why. Finally I followed my gut instinct and started slipping all the first stitches on every row. I was right. The decrease edges look much smoother and less wonky. See how pretty my new slip stitches look-

I have actually contemplated frogging the entire thing so I can start over slipping all the stitches, but instead I blindly continue, especially since I am lacking that inner perfectionist. I really think though that this has taught me a lesson- I really need to follow my gut sometimes and not the pattern. I am not a designing type of knitter. I like patterns. I like to read them, follow them to the letter and produce objects that look like the picture. I don't know if that's because I'm unimaginative or if I just haven't finished knitting all the things I like in the patterns and don't need to dream up something new. I don't mind substituting  yarns or resizing a little, but for the most part I want a FO that looks like the picture. However, I do need to remember, that some patterns are not written so as to include every detail and if something doesn't look nice to me I can change it to make it look better. This is how Lady E looks from my perspective while I'm knitting.

Since J had a day off because of the holiday today, we took a little drive and this is where we ended up-

This is actually very close to where I grew up. My parent's house is literally just a few miles from here. McCroskey State Park is a 5300 acre state park donated to the state of Idaho in the 1950's and dedicated to pioneer women. If I remember right Mr. McCroskey donated the land in memory of his mother, or maybe his wife. Anyway it's a mountainous area good for hiking, mountain biking or scenic viewing. We pretty much just did scenic viewing which turned out not to be super scenic due to large amount of rural smog from all the field burning in the area. The sunset was quite surreal though.

And closer-

What to do while I wait for kidsilk haze

While waiting for my fourth ball of kidsilk haze which I ordered from Cucumberpatch at ebay (who by the way is awesome) I had the debate of whether to finish some projects, or start something new. So of course, I did both.

A couple of weeks ago inspired by Jess over at Fig and Plum I started this

and finished it in about two days. All it's lacked for the past couple of days is a lining. So this morning I finally got  busy and started sewing. So now my carpetbag looks like this

and this

and this

Like YaiAnn I find that there is a lot of stress on the bag even with very few items in it. The only way I can think of to fix it is to extend the lining to have a flap over the handles, but I really don't feel like redoing the whole lining thing. So I'm just going to live with all the stress on the bag.

Pattern:  Counterpane Carpet Bag from Handknit Holidays

Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton Shade 164 "Dusky" from stash!

Needles: 5mm circs

Started: 8/24/2006

Finished: 9/02/2006

Mods: Used different yarn/needles than the pattern specified. Left off one pattern repeat so as not to have a GIANT bag.

Impressions: Love, love, love this bag. It was a super fun, super easy knit. The pattern repeat is easily memorized, the purl 4 wrap was a fun trick and even seaming up was more interesting than usual. It turned out just the right size for me to throw in my camera, wallet, keys and a small project without it being bulky. I really liked the crispness of the all seasons cotton which I think helps show off the stitch pattern. Also because of the high cotton content it isn't very stretchy which helps to keep the bag from stretching too terribly with things in it. I can't wait to start using it.

I also started Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style. I've never done entrelac before, but it's like magic. It looks so complicated, however, it is incredibly easy. So, a quick progress shot on m'Lady.

I'm using Noro Silk Garden and size 8 Addi Turbos.