This and that

Once again, we attended the Johnny Appleseed Festival this past weekend. Ordinarily, we go on Sunday morning, before the multitudes awaken. This year we went on Saturday morning, and we were not the only ones to think this was a perfect day for being out and about. As we wandered about in a crowd-induced daze, we watched for yarn. We found it in the last area we visited, which ironically was right next to the entrance. Some wildly colored pottery had distracted me and we walked right past the alpacas. Even though I have yet to use what I purchased last year, I bought a package of fingering weight alpaca (a suri alpaca yarn from Zathura and a suri/huacahya alpaca blend from Raval and Tess, who all live at Turkey Creek Farm), 1500 yards, enough for something.

Revisiting Tencel: The cotton-Tencel blend I used for the Clapotis sheds, but it should be noted that the wool-Tencel blend I purchased from Green Mountain Spinnery does not. I knit some socks with this a while back, and there is no shedding or pilling. This particular yarn, Sock Art Forest, apparently has been discontinued, but GMS now offers a DK weight blend called Sylvan Spirit (reviewed here by Clara Parkes - more colors are now available). I guess what I am trying to say is, if you want to try a Tencel-based yarn, buy a skein and knit it up and see how it behaves for you. Tencel gives yarn a sheen that turns color into eye candy, which makes hunting for a suitable Tencel-based yarn worth the effort.

While looking for the information on my blog about the above yarn and socks, I came across some empty promises I made myself about a year ago. There was a list of UFOs that begged to be finished, and some were, but many were not. There was also a sincere intention to spindle on a regular basis, but that did not happen, either. Unlike some people we know, I am not very good at enforcing self-imposed goals or rules AND I have a full time job. Besides, there is an impending grandbaby to knit for!

One down, three to go

Pattern:  Ann Norling Adult Socks (designer: Deridre Wallace)
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Sassy Stripes, in 767
Needles:  US1
Modifications:  None to speak of, except my gauge is much looser than Ms. Wallace's, as she recommends US3 to achieve 7 stitches per inch.

I considered trying to match up the stripes, but the last time I did that, there were so many splices in the second sock that it did not work.  In this case, though, there were no splices and the stripes would have been near perfect.  Oh, well.  They are not that far off as it is.

Blanket blues

The one blanket that needed just a border is still giving me fits because, well, borders roll.  I have tried several solutions, none very satisfactory, and finally settled on two rows of applied i-cord.  Three rows would be better, but I just don't have the yarn.  Hopefully, a little blocking will go a long way.

And then there is this:

I decided to block the pieces of the other blanket, but when I put them into the washer to soak, I noticed a pile of handknit socks nearby.  Thinking I would kill two birds with one stone, I threw the socks in with the blanket pieces.  A little voice in the back of my head said something about the red socks bleeding, but I ignored it.  STUPIDLY ignored it.  There are products out there to remove dye stains, but I'm afraid they will remove the aqua along with the pink.  Any suggestions?

I was not stupid enough to process the Blu jean pieces with the blanket because, well, HOT water in the washer?  And HOT drying in the dryer?  Even I knew better.

The pieces did shrink a bit, as expected.

And the denim fabric faded a bit as well.

At least some things go according to plan.

More EZ

Here is the post-button sewing onslaught:

Pattern:  Baby sweater on two needles from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Malabrigo Superwash Merino Sock yarn in 'Abril'

Yarn:  Wandering Cat Yarns Stray Cat in 'Kaia'

Yarn:  Schaefer Yarn Company Little Lola in 'Empress Wa-Zhao'

Pattern:  Baby leggings from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Malabrigo Superwash Merino Sock yarn in 'Violeta Africana'

Yarn:  Wandering Cat Yarns Stray Cat in 'Kaia'

The idea was to follow the pattern exactly for all these objects, but vary the yarn and needle size to produce different size garments.  As to how well these will fit the baby, well, we will have to wait until she makes an appearance sometime toward the end of October.

One modification I made to all three sweaters was to decrease the stitch count at the cuff by about 10% to remove the flare.  I also knit the body first, then knit the sleeves in the round, until I reached the cuff.  Knitting garter in the round caused a jog where each round ended, so I knit the cuffs back and forth, then stitched up the gap.

I ran out of yarn on the green leggings, so the legs are a bit short.  I wondered if the body was too large, but last night I compared them to the BumGenius diapers my daughter purchased, and the fit was just right.  However, she will have to be careful with the Velcro closures and the yarn.

I ran out of yarn on the blue sweater as well, so the sleeves are a bit short, but maybe by the time the baby is ready for that size sweater, it will be spring.  I think it will go well with the Blu jeans I am knitting.

NOW, I am hoping to wrap up the baby blankets.  One needs to be seamed and a border added, the other just needs a border, something that is currently driving me crazy.  And THEN I will allow myself to start something new.

Incoming

I ordered more yarn for more baby things, so I thought maybe, just maybe, I should put the finishing touches on some of the other baby things I started.  And having a three-day weekend with nowhere to go (on purpose) afforded me some time to do that.  Even though most of what remained involved nothing more difficult that sewing on buttons, sewing on buttons takes a surprising amount of time.

A year's worth of BSJs

The only difference between the pix below and the pix of the same projects elsewhere in this blog is that the buttons are for real this time.

Details of the above are here.

Details of the above are here.

Details of the above are here.

Button detail

A Warped Knitter asked about the Cascade Yarns Pima Tencel I used for the Clapotis shawl.  The yarn itself is soft and silky, and the color is very rich.  It is also inelastic, so it lacks the spring of something like merino wool.  The knitted fabric has a lot of drape, which makes it a good candidate for shawls and scarves.  I liked knitting it a bit better than knitting with cotton but less than with wool.  The big disappointment is the shedding - I wore the shawl over a black sleeveless knit tank top, and by the end of the day, the top was covered with red fuzz.  Comments about the yarn on Ravelry reveal that I am not the only one who has noticed the shedding and pilling.  I purchased 15 skeins of this, originally with the intent of making a sweater, and used 7 of them on the shawl.  Not sure what I am going to do with the rest.  Maybe a wall hanging?

How many days until xmas?

I like to gift handknit socks for xmas, but that means thinking sleigh bells before summer is even over.  It may also mean a false start or two.

A while back, I became frustrated with muddy-looking self-striping yarns, so I purchased a small boatload of Sassy Stripes.  And while I am perfectly content to knit plain vanilla socks, I feel gift socks should be something special.  I selected the Rock-A-Bye pattern from Joy of Sox.  Initially, I liked the contrast of the diagonal columns with the stripes, but the more I knit, the less I liked the stitching.

I don't know what you call it when the purl stitches show through the knit stitches, but I did not like the result, as the stripes lost their crispness.  So let's do plain vanilla.

Ah, that's better!

One clap handing

I got it into my head that I was going to finish the Clapotis by this past Saturday, so that I could wear it to a wedding. So I knit and knit and knit some more, my left shoulder whining "Are we there yet?" all the way.  Friday night, with just the decrease rows to go, I tried on my intended wedding outfit and discovered there was no way I was wearing that sausage casing ensemble.  Quick change of wardrobe plans to something more comfortable meant no Clap at the nuptials, but that was okay because there was no way in hell I could have finished the shawl anyway.  It seems like the decrease rows should take no time at all, but they do, as do the weaving in of the ends and the dropping of the stitches.  I finished it last night while watching pre-season football.

Pattern:  Clapotis
Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Pima Tencel in color 7478, a deep rich red
Needles:  US8, started with straights, switched to circs, finished with straights
Modifications:  none

The thing is huge and, despite its open appearance, warm.  I am looking forward to wearing it this winter, BUT the yarn sheds a bit, so I will have to be careful what I wear it with.

Now, back to those baby things.

Not all baby all the time

I was in the midst of knitting up a pair of baby Blu jeans (pattern may be found on knitty and in Mason-Dixon Knitting)...

... when I had the urge to knit something not baby-related.

This is Clapotis, which also may be found at knitty.  I am probably the last knitter alive who has not made one of these, but when I saw some knit from Cascade Pima Tencel on Ravelry, I could resist no longer.  I purchased the Pima Tencel a long time ago, tried it with several patterns but did not like any of the results.  It seems perfect for a shawl/wrap/scarf thingy because it is quite drapey.

Public Service Announcement: XMAS IS COMING, sooner than you think.  If I want to gift handmade socks again this year, I'd better get going on that.

BTW, the baby shower was a success.  My daughter's BF organized it and helped me clean the house beforehand(!) and decorated.  I cooked up a ton of food that was greeted enthusiastically by the crowd (you'd think these people had never eaten homemade potato salad before).  We ate, my daughter opened a boatload of gifts, we ate some more, then everyone cleared out.  Fun, but whew!

Button, button, who's got the button?

Joanns had a sale on buttons last week - 50% off!  (Joanns is one of those places you should never pay full price.)  So I bought buttons for most of my buttonless baby sweaters.

Of course, the buttons are still not actually on the sweaters yet.  Instead, I started knitting a pair of Blu jeans, from Mason-Dixon   Fun!  But my shoulders do not like knitting with cotton.  I'm not quite sure what it is I do when I knit with cotton, but my left shoulder objects strenuously.

You won't hear much from me this week (like that is anything different) because there is a baby shower happening here next weekend.  Must clean!

Infrequent flier

Sorry for the long silence.  I was out of town, on a combined business/pleasure trip to New England.  The business part was a training class.  The "pleasure" part was more of a family-obligation/aging parent thing.  All I can say about that is, Old age is not for sissies.  It does not get any easier.  Then after I returned home, I got sick.  Diagnosis (so far) is UTI.  I think there may be something else going on, but I'm willing to give the antibiotics a try.

Anyway, knitting did occur while I was gone.  In an effort to travel light, I packed a minimum of yarn, knowing from past experience that I never get as much knitting and/or reading done as I expect to on trips.  I also took a book on CD, so I could "read" while I knit in the hotel(s).

But first, knitting occurred in airports.

I checked the TSA regulations beforehand, but did not see anything about knitting needles.  However, since I was traveling on smallish planes that were full up, I chose not to knit en route because, seriously, there was no elbow room.

Visiting my stepmother in the rehab unit (she is recovering from a broken leg AND hip) proved to be good knitting time, as did watching the Cubs on TV later that night.  (The Red Sox were playing on the west coast - way past our bedtime.)

After a couple of days with family, I changed towns to attend the training.  Per usual, we all had to introduce ourselves, including our hobbies.  That gave me the opportunity to ask if it was okay to knit in class.  The instructor agreed, but sometimes the training was just too intense for me to do so.

The traffic around Boston is just horrendous.  A trip to my brother's house took 30 minutes, but the trip back to the hotel took almost two hours because someone thought it was a good time to do construction and reduced the interstate to ONE LANE.  FOR MILES, even though the construction area itself was short.

After that experience, I did not want to drive anywhere in the evenings, and instead settled in for a good listen to Broken by Karin Slaughter.  The story is so enthralling and the performance so engrossing that I did not realize what I was knitting until I held up the sweater and found I had knit the cuff on sleeve number two without having actually knit the sleeve.

DO OVER.

The next night, I decided I did not like how the sleeves bell, so I reknit the cuffs to include a round of decreases.

And then, in a panic over having something to knit on the way home, I started a pair of leggings.

Some yarn stores were visited as well.  One, the Yarn Basket in Fitchburg, I have visited before.  No surprises there, but I did snag a couple of skeins of pink camo.  Somewhere I have a pattern for a blanket using this yarn.

I also visited Edwina's Knitch in Burlington.  All I purchased was a couple of blanks from Happy Feet, with the intention of dyeing them, even though there was some lovely lavender sock yarn I was pining for.  I had to limit my yarn buying because there was only so much room in my carry-on for anything besides a week's worth of clothes.

For the record, I flew Delta/Northwest through Detroit and experienced no problems or delays.  I stayed at Hampton Inns, which offer free breakfast and high speed Internet and are always clean and comfortable.  Everywhere I went, people were friendly except for one b*tchy lady at the service counter in the Manchester NH airport.  All in all, a successful trip, but I am glad to be home.

EZ experiments

I'm taking a break from BSJs in order to knit up some February baby items, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac.  Toward that end, I was in the market for some yarn that would produce a gauge of 5 stitches per inch.  The proprietress at Dragonfly Yarn thought sock yarn could be knitted up at that gauge, so I bought some Malabrigo fingering.  Well, ha-ha, there was no way I could get that yarn to produce a decent fabric at 5 stitches per inch.

But, assuming the patterns in question are for babies of post-newborn size, like the BSJs, maybe I could go ahead and knit up the Malabrigo on US2 and wind up with a sweater and leggings for a newborn.  So I did just that.

The pattern for the leggings was easy to translate, as everything was in number of rounds.  The sweater, however, was described in inches.  This was a bit of a conundrum until I decided to go ahead and knit up a sweater in DK (this is Schaefer Lola) at the desired gauge (on US6) and count the rounds per inch and apply them to fingering.

This worked out pretty well, except I ran out of yarn.  Initially, I thought I could just shorten the sleeves, but now I want to find a comparable yarn in a contrasting color for the sleeve cuffs and bottom band and make the sizing "correct".  I was able to determine that two gull pattern repeats equals an inch on this sweater, so I could apply that knowledge to the newborn size.

The experiment would not be complete without also making a set out of sport weight.  Toward that end, I purchased the following from Wandering Cat:

This grandbaby will not be dressed in pinks and pastels alone!

By George, I think she's got it

Does anyone remember the Bog Jacket I was working on?  It stalled where I needed to graft garter-to-garter.  I tried and tried and tried, but it just never looked right.

Then I read on the Techknitting blog that she had written an article for Interweave Knits on grafting, so I purchased the appropriate issue (Spring 2010).  And that is as far as I got.

Now, does anyone remember the purple and pink BSJ I was working on?  That also stalled, at the point where I wanted to add a hood.  The other day I noticed that the A-B-C BSJ pattern I purchased about six months ago included instructions for adding a hood, so I did that.  But then the two halves of the hood needed to be grafted together, garter-to-garter.

So, I bit the bullet and dragged out the Interweave Knits magazine and scanned the article on grafting and, lo and behold, the instructions were so simple even I could understand them.

Voila!

I ran out of yarn, so could not include ties with the attached i-cord finishing on the hood.  And no buttons yet. But at least the knitting is finished.

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Leftover Lion Brand Baby Soft
Needles:  US5 (I think)
Modifications:  Added a hood

There is quite a pile of BSJs in the gift drawer now, so maybe I will knit something different.  For a while.

More squee

I read somewhere that knitting the BSJ in fingering would produce a newborn-size sweater, so I decided to test that theory out.

Is that too small?  I have no idea, but I enjoyed knitting it and love the results, even though it still needs buttons.  (I place buttonholes on both sides because 1) I can never remember which side is for boys and which is for girls, and 2) by sewing the buttons over one set of buttonholes, I can be sure buttons and buttonholes will line up.)

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn:  Oasis Yarn Aussie Sock in 'Faded Valentine' - 58g/2.0 oz.
Needles:  US2
Modifications:  None.

Pattern:  Infant Socks, by Judy Ellis
Yarn:  Oasis Yarn Aussie Sock in 'Faded Valentine' - 17g/0.65 oz.
Needles:  US1
Modifications:  None.

Next, I will knit a BSJ in sport weight, on US4 needles, to further the experiment along.