Stumbling through stash
After having made it through the first sock and a bit, I am still wavering between loving them and being a little meh about them. Despite my ambivalence, I'm enjoying how quickly these are coming along and am more amused than I should be by the way that the yarn is pooling at different points along the way.
Everything has been blocked and the seaming has begun (meaning that of the 11 seams that must be sewn, one has been finished and one has been pinned). I'm still a little worried that things are not going to fit together quite like they're supposed to, despite my careful measuring.
This is a closeup of the seam that has been finished (click to big-ify). Although it looks a little lumpy (nothing a good blocking won't fix), I'm pleased with the result.
Now to make friends with the Canadian Income Tax Act and finish studying for my last law school exam, and possibly my last academic exam ever.
That is enough sock yarn to knit 34! pairs of socks. Sadly (or happily depending on how you see these things) this doesn't include the 4 skeins currently winging their way to me. This combined set of factors was enough to convince me it was time to consider picking up these again.
This sock is in its sixth incarnation. It started off as a plain toe-up. It then found life as a top-down jaywalker, which was later ripped to make way for a larger jaywalker. After some serious pooling, it became a sock of my own design. Problems with the design led to a sock with a clock/cable motif down the side and now it's been ripped back to once again become a plain old sock. The picture above is one taken during life #5, the clock phase, and thus is a little outdated.
I'm still not loving the plain sock but I've decided there's no fighting the yarn on this one. It if wants to be a plain sock, then and a plain sock it'll be.
Also, I've finished knitting and blocking all the pieces for the sand dollar pullover. More on that next time.
Project Specs: Under the Hoodie (Stitch n' Bitch )
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted Merino in Geranio, Lettuce, and Cuarzo
Amount: 6 hanks of Geranio, 1 of Lettuce, and 1 of Cuarzo
Left over: enough to make about three hats worth (one in each colour)
Needles: US 7 straight and US 9 circ
Size: Small (36") to fit a 36" bust
Started: November 2005
Completed: April 2007
Modifications: I added some length to the body and sleeves. The rest follows the pattern pretty closely.
After a few wears, this sweater has proven to be a cosy (read: warm and distractingly soft) spring chill chaser. I was a little unsure about the colours at first, but now that it's finished I find them cheery and not at all overwhelming as I initially feared (I expect that the amount of excess fuchsia dye that bled from the MC is to blame for that concern). I'll admit that while tackling this project, I also had reservations about Malabrigo's tendency to pill. They remain unfounded since the sweater is holding up much better than expected (perhaps it's the tight gauge).
Nothing has better demonstrated my completion aversion than the malabrigo sweater.
The yarn for this project followed me home in November of 2005 as a birthday gift from my mother. I cast on immediately and didn't put it down until I had the whole sweater knit about 6 weeks later. After this initial affair, the whole thing was shoved into a dark corner of the stash for another 8 months (putting us comfortably in the month of August, for those that are keeping track). After a half-hearted attempt at setting the sleeves, it was again forgotten. Spurred on by the cool weather in late October, I struggled through half of the finishing then gave up until just now.
Spurred on by this month's project spectrum colours, I finally locked myself into a distraction-free zone and forced my way through the seaming last night (over a year after completing the knitting). Now there are ends to weave in and I feel my interest waning once again.
Exhibit B: The books
The additional evidence suggests that my aversion to finishing isn't knitting specific. It also taints my legal studies.
I am fortunate enough to be in the final semester of a twenty-year education. One would think that after a particularly gruelling three-year stint in law school, I would be raring to finish my studying and move on with my life. The pristine, above-pictured books suggest otherwise.
For better or for worse, one more week and I'll be through the worst of both.
Send strength.
Here's a better picture of the hank's colours that should give you an idea of how they'll blend together.
Remember these rovings?
I've finally figured out what I'm going to do with the one of the left-hand side. It is a Lorna's Laces roving in the Seaside colourway. After seeing this waaaay back, I decided that this roving would be perfect stranded together with another merino/silk roving that still needs to be spun.
Here's what I've managed to accomplish so far on this project. Needless to say this is a long-term/post-exams sort of project.
I've been drooling over Eunny's Venezia pullover from the Winter issue of Interweave Knits since she gave us the first sneak peak on her blog.
Seeing as how I still haven't finished a sweater project (details on why to come), have never done stranded colour-work, and start to hyperventilate when a pattern calls for little needles (except socks) it was clear that a warm-up project was in order. These mitts were perfect since they are small (both in size and in yarn investment), require fair-isle, and use Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift (the same yarn called for in Venezia).
Here is the front just short of the halfway mark.
And the finished product, nicely posed with a napping dog (click for larger):
The yarn seemed a little scratchy after being knit up but blocking has turned it into a soft and uniform fabric. I didn't make any modifications to the pattern but next time I knit these I will be sure to make the thumb a few rows longer for a better fit.
I've also been working on some spinning that is moving slowly. Details tomorrow
The weather here was gorgeous today. Everywhere you looked, jackets were undone, hats and mittens were discarded, and winter boots were replaced with summer shoes. In some ways it makes me sad to see winter go and with it the sheepy goodness of warm woolly layers and the beauty of fresh snow. On the other hand the warmer weather means balmy afternoons on patios, summer cottons and silks, and the start of Toronto's best outdoor festivals.
The change in the weather has also inspired me to pick up a project that was cast aside when the cold took over the city back in November. This is the beginning of the Sand Dollar Pullover from Norah Gaughan's amazingly inspiring book, Knitting Nature.
This is my first project from the book, but I have the yarn for at least three others when I finally get around to working on them.
I'm using Posh Yarn's Victoria which is a cotton/silk/cashmere blend in a colour called Lagoon (and is pretty accurate in the photo below). It is a bit splitty but is a dream to work with and blocks beautifully.
So far, I've made it through all of the pieces for the front and back, and am now working to finish the sleeves so I can block all the pieces and start seaming it up. I'm hoping to finish the sleeves in the next couple of weeks so I can get some wear out of this during the summer (if I can bring myself to get the seaming done).
Here's a close-up of the sand dollar part of the sweater. I've had to re-knit it three times so far and I'm still not positive that I'm happy with the way that it has turned out. I do love the way the leaf points meet to form a pentagon in the center. The construction of this garment is really stunning.
First up, I thought I should show you some of the stuff I've been working on for Project Spectrum before April comes along and the colours change on me.
The above photo is taken pre-blocking and this next one was taken post-blocking. It still amazes me how much of a difference a simple dip in the sink makes with most yarns.
I made many of the same modifications mentioned here. In addition to those I also eliminated the purl ridge at the end of the crown and shortened the depth of the hat.
Now back to my Sand Dollar Pullover. Details on that next time.
Project Specs: Basic Sock
Yarn: Posh Yarn's Lucia (30% cashmere/70% merino) in the Cosmopolitan colourway.
Needles: 2.25 mm 30" Aero circs (Magic Loop)
Size: To fit a woman's size seven shoe with a 6 1/4" cuff.
Left over: approx 93 yards
Started: October 2006
Completed: Feb 2 2007
A close-up of the gusset. The colours are truest in this photo. This yarn is amazing! It is so soft and was a breeze to knit. The socks are very warm, cushy and comfortable. I will definitely use this yarn again despite being a little concerned with how well these socks will wear as they have already begun to pill.
Perhaps my favourite thing about these socks is that unintentionally, the toes match up perfectly.
Now if I could only finish some schoolwork . . .
Project Specs:
Here's a better photo of the pattern detail after the shawl had been unpinned and worn. I love the tweediness of the yarn. The colours are truer here.
One final look.
And the finished product (with a standard pair of scissors included for scale):
Many hours of spinning has left me with about 625 yards of two-ply, light worsted yarn. I've started to swatch for the shawl and so far it's knitting up beautifully. The thrill of knitting my handspun has yet to wear off.I also knitted Calorimetry using the wool/silk I spun up last month. What a great project! A quick day of knitting and I ended up with this:
Last but not least, I made the felted tote from One Skein. Another quick knit, made from Lamb's Pride Bulky in a colour called Wild Violet (a little darker than in this picture). I finally got around to weaving in the ends and doing the seaming. Next it's into the washer for a quick felt, hopefully I'll get that done when I go home next weekend.
Now it's off to stand in line at the Lululemon warehouse sale.
Instant gratification anyone? Feeling a little overwhelmed with the number of projects on the go and general life stress, I decided that finishing a lingering project would help turn things around. A few hours later and I had a funky knitted ring. A great way to use up those little bits of yarn I can't bear to throw out.
I've also been doing some spinning...
Lorna's Laces 10 oz Pencil Roving in Seaside and Tahoe that I picked up here while on summer vacation. Inspired by this, I decided that I wanted to make a handspun shawl for my grandma out of the purply-blue roving. Here's how the first bobbin is going so far. Wish me luck.
