All In All

According to Ravelry, the Knitter's Almanac has 19 patterns. Looking through the book, it is hard to say exactly what is a pattern and what is one of EZ's clever ideas in "pithy" form.  Trying to conform to a standard, though, of counting as a pattern anything that has a bold-and-capitol-letters heading, I counted 25 patterns. I finished up the year with 25 projects (with one unfinished, and one on hold; though my projects don't exactly match up with the aforementioned defined patterns).

The Knitter's Almanac is a study-at-home course for knitters, in addition to a proto-knitblog (as I've mentioned before), including sweet little stories about Elizabeth's life and history, as well as anecdotes about her design process. There are many clever tips on techniques and best-practices. 

I gained confidence with cables and steeking in January. February had lots of practical baby items, though I didn't feel like I learned anything new (others might find the foray into double knitting instructional, or if you haven't tried lace yet, the baby sweater is a perfect start). March was an exercise is endurance for me, it was not techincally difficult but it took a long time (I think this may have been my favorite project)! April scarred the Kitchener stitch into my brain forever. In May I learned more about two-color techniques, and to watch what I'm doing. June had lots of hats, and I learned yellow is not a good color for me (this was incidental, though, not really a part of the Almanac :). In July I learned a proper cast on for center-out shawls. The August projects were not particularly great, and I branched out to other pattern sources that month (thank you Knitty and Knitspot!). In September I re-learned the lesson from May... that while humans are symmetrical, you can't just knit two and expect them to fit. In October I found out that I am not as clever as I thought; October is the only project from The Almanac where I've declared a cease-fire. November had an innovative sock pattern, and maybe some day I'll knit #2. And December..., well, I didn't knit the December project. I thought the Wishbone sweater uncommonly ugly. I reworked the sweater a bit, as conceived as a sweater for my carboy. This project, is however on hold due to other knitting that demanded priority.

And with that, dear reader, I declare an end to my Blogger-blog. It's been fun, and more than a little annoying, but I'm through with Blogger. You may follow my continued knitting adventures on Ravelry, or on my family handcrafts blog (which was handcrafted by my husband :) [RSS feed]. If you noticed, the links in this post are to the posts on my other blog. But to warn you, there will be crafting from the whole family. I have a crafty mother, and mother-in-law, and historical handcrafts photos from my family. So if you are bored by pictures of old quilts and occasional children's artwork just stick to Ravelry.

We Now Disrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Almanac...

When I found out that a dear friend of mine was getting married, I knew I had to knit her something.

Anne Hanson had just released the Fernfrost pattern back in August and I was inspired. I decided to use the remainder of the silver silk from another wedding gift, and it gave the whole project a very frosty feel.

But while this is really a pretty pattern, I wish I’d picked one of her other patterns that is just as pretty but with a little less fiddliness. Really, pattern on every row and twisted purls? It took me about two hours per repeat, depending on my level of attention. 

Imagine my surprise that the thing fit in the palm of my hand after washing! All that work for something so tiny!

I made 14 repeats, and the scarf is 55” long and 8” wide. And, for the record, I wish I had blocking wires.

I added a fringe of twisted yarn, knotted together artfully, about 10”. The twisting and fringing was fun, and a new experience for me. I found it hard to believe it would work at first, but it really does. Just double up the yarn, twisty twisty, and carefully allow it to double back on itself again, then knot the ends. Et voila, fringe.

And if you read any blogs from northern regions, I'm sure you are sick of hearing people complain about the lack of decent lighting all winter, so I'll spare you. But really, this was the only decent picture I got outside...

but pretty enough, and I hope the bride likes it.

Next up on this blog: the Knitter's Almanac year-in-review. Stay tuned!

September Hot Pants

Ok, these are "hot" in the sense that they will keep little legs warm, and that they are hot pink, not in the B-52s sense of the phrase.

I knit the September longies for my daughter a) because she needed wool pants for recess at school and b) I did not want to admit how much yarn it would actually take to swath my post-3rd-baby behind in wool.

The yarn was a birthday gift from my mother-in-law, bought during our family vacation this summer in Stavanger. There was a charming little store called Bånsull close off the main square by the cathedral.

This pattern was a typical opaquely worded but highly customizable EZ design. Everything went swimmingly, except (in a typical move for me) I made two left legs. The increases above the knee are designed to hide discreetly on the inside of the leg, so the legs should be knit mirrored. Wait, it's just a tube, can't you just rotate it 180 degrees? you say. No, not with the charming calf shaping. Well, anyway, the increases are in the wrong spot and plainly visible if you look for them, but no one cares but me.

The pants still fit comfortable despite the wonky shaping, they are warm, and most importantly, they are pink.

July Pi

Back in July, this:

turned into this

and I took it here

and once I got all those people to get out of the way, we were able to take some nice picutres

it does look like I had a little run there, but I think I just poked it too much with my fingers as I was flipping it around. Yarn: cashmere and silk from Colourmart. Yay colourmart!

June Round Up

Added to the June pile: Ganomy

Knit in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, a very servicable nice wool. I held it double to closer match the stated guage in the pattern which is rather large. I did run out of yarn for the last few yards, so I used a matching green bit I had left over from something else. I rather liked the method for making the little bobble at the top. It's a nice alternative to pom-poms, tassles, or just a bare peak. I didn't use a ping-pong ball as suggested, but just a little leftover ball of somethig-or-other.

I added a line of embroidery just above the brim in green, to match the top of the bobble. All in all: a simple, solid pattern that I would be happy to knit again.

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Also knit in June, but not yet photographed: a mini fisherman's hat that is totally adorable on a baby head.

Pentagon Hat

By the same principle as the Three-Corner hat from the June chapter in the Knitter's Almanac, I devised this Five-Corner version. It was quite simple, just made a gauge swatch, and determined how many stitches around the headband should be. Then I knit up aways as instructed in the pattern (though with a deeper headband than in the pattern, which is quite shallow). I increased in the same proportion as the pattern, and then chose five points to decrease instead of three. I decreased at a slightly less-frequent rate to make up for the fact that I was decreasing more each round. Simple!

The yarn is Knit Picks Elegance in color Daisy. Silk and baby alpaca... heaven! The original pattern calls for a gauge of 11 stitches to 4 inches, so I held this yarn double on a 5mm needle to get a gauge closer to that. Way fatter gauge than I am used to knitting. But it was fast!

the best part: my son loves it!

May-June Mashup

After Ruby's mittens were finished, there was plenty of yarn, and when I was browsing the June hat patterns, the three-cornered tam seemed very similar to the construction of the mittens. So, I had the bright idea to make a matching 3-cornered hat for Ruby. Of course, with the Rauma 3-ply Strikkegarn the guage was all off from the pattern, but it's a fairly simple construction and I was able to translate it succesfully.

In my opinion the head band of this was way too shallow, and after the hat was all finished, I picked up the stitches and knit down another 5 rows or so. And as you can see, it's still rather shallow. I knit one other hat with this same pattern, different yarn (which was more to the guage of the pattern) and it was also too shallow.

the awesomeness of this hat is this big

I did not knit this

These were a gift for the new baby from a dear friend's mother. This is true Norwegian knitting mojo! I thought I should include them in my May Mittens Roundup.

The birds are Huginn and Muninn, Odin's ravens.

May Mitered Mittens

Daughter picked out the yarn, Rauma 3ply Stikkegarn. It's a finer guage than called for in the pattern, but the math is easy to adjust. I was impressed with the result of the i-cord cast on (easy and it looks nice) and the project overall was smooth sailing (unusual for me!).

Mayday!

from the Knitter's Almanac, Norwegian mittens; a fun and satisfying knit, once I got back into the swing of colorwork and started using 2 circular needles instead of dpns. I used Rauma Finullgarn which was fairly soft and not-scratchy compared to other Rauma wools. I chose oatmeal and brown, and the look is decidedly Norwegian. There's just one hitch, though...

"Mayday! Mayday! I wonder why it's 'Mayday'. The distress call. Why d'you say 'Mayday?' It's only a Bank Holiday. Why not 'Shrove Tuesday' or 'Ascension Sunday?' [Mimics] Ascension Sunday! Ascension Sunday! The fifteenth Wednesday after Pentecost! The fifteenth Wednesday after Pentecost!"

(10 points if you get the reference)

I knit two right mittens. Instead of pulling out the 2nd mitten, I'm just going to knit two lefts. At some point.

April Mystery Blanket

Ah, the April Mystery Blanket... not a mystery of construction as EZ suggests, but a mystery as to why anyone would want to knit this twice.

a maze of ends to weave in (at least two per square, plus perhaps 6 where I miscalculated ball endings, times 24 squares; plus 2 for each of the 15 corner-centers; plus 2 per each of the 38 sides to be woven, and at least 4 more for the border... more than 150 ends to be woven in)

a fuddle of fiddly little 4-round medallions

a devil of tiny pulling holes at each juncture that proves either I am not a good knitter, or EZ was an impossibly perfect knitter (perhaps both)

Knitting each square was oddly satisfying, and gratifyingly portable, but after the 10th square I found myself dreading the end of a square, knowing it meant that much more weaving (aka Kitchenering). I was not a fan of EZ's alternate weaving method described in this chapter (perhaps my yarn did not lend itself to this, and I'll be damned if I am going to "delicately steam" each little block.) I got fairly proficient at the two-needle method of weaving and I think I shall never forget it.

All in all: a learning experience, a good gift for the arsenal, and no regrets... but this pattern is definitely on my black list.

March 2.0

The Chainmail Sweater and I  duked it out for 5 epic days of knitting every second I could, usually 3 - 4 hours during the day (hey, I've got kids, that's an impressive number of day-time knitting hours), and 5 or 6 after bedtime.

During the knitting of this sweater I was a little obsessed with time, hoping to get it done by the end of March (full confession: I didn't, but I did get it done.) I timed myself. Each body row took almost exactly 10 minutes. Doing this reminded me of the slip-stitch color work technique where you only knit one color at a time. You knit each row twice, though. So I experimented. It was certainly faster to knit the row with just one color, slipping the other color, but then you have to knit the row again, knitting the second color stitches this time. So each row took about 16 minutes to finish by this method. Ultimately, wrangling two strands of yarn was worth it vs. the extra time the slip-stitch method took.

After the 5 days of marathon knitting the body was done, and I moved to the arms at a slower pace. By the time I realized I wasn't going to make my goal of being done in March, I only had the steeking and sewing up to do. I took my time on this, not feeling the deadline pressure, and wanting to do a good job.

 

My previous experience steeking this Colourmart merino was a little scary, as it is a very slippy yarn. I used the crochet method to secure the steek and steeked away. I'm going to use the word "steek" a few more times, just out of nervous energy. Steek, steek. Because steeking makes me nervous, even though I've had three successful steeking experiences so far... it just feels like the potential is high for it to go disastrously wrong.

But it all went ok, and I am very pleased with the product. It's a well-constructed sweater that fits me and has lots of visual impact. One of my all-time favorite knits. Thanks, EZ!

In case you care: Colourmart Merino 15/44 nm (burgundy and black) and Kauni Effektgarn. If you really care, go to Ravelry.

March 1.0

Mid March: project still in the early stages.

*

February projects bled over into March, but I was confident I would have time to finish the Chainmail sweater, which I was really looking forward to. I decided to use stashed Colourmart merinos, in black and burgundy, and went searching for  a harmonizing yarn. I found a Rowan yarn in  pink. Not usually my color, but the yarns seemed to match ok in the store so I bought it.

I went ahead with the pink/burgundy color combination, partly to try new things, partly reassured when a search through Ravelry for this project turned up this  beautilful sweater with similar colors.

Ultimately (though not until after about 10 inches of the body was done) I decided against this and ripped it all out. I wish I could have made up my mind faster, but I still don't regret it.

Instead of pink, I chose a burgundy-green-purple-blue Kauni Effektgarn. This was a very different type of yarn than the merino. It was very hairy and sticky and really sorta scratchy. But the colors are gorgeous, and I do like the effect of color change in the pattern.

Next time: a finished sweater!

March: Beta Testing

 

March: "Chainmail Sweater"

As directed, I tried the pattern in a swatch cap first. It's the lovely Mirasol alpaca and a random green yarn I bought second-hand. The colors meld beautifully and I love it. Except I don't have the suggested medium color to match these, and the guage I got from the swatch cap indicated I would not have nearly enough yarn. So back to the drawing board.

And it's kinda pointy... which wouldn't be a problem in the sweater, really, but still. Otherwise this is my favorite hat I've ever knit!

March is the New February

I just couldn't resist finishing one more February project, even though it bled over into March. This, of course, made me behind on the March project, but more about that later. For now: Longies! 

Knit with Filatura Di Crosa Zarina. Usually I don’t choose varigated colors like this, but the yarn was so soft and squishy I was temporarily blinded. I ran out of the yarn on the longies and the store didn’t have any of the same dyelot, so I chose a pink varigation that matched the green of the blue/purple varigation, and used them in stripes on the legs and straight pink on the feet.

with matching BSJ

 The feet turned out really huge, but I think she’ll grow into them (given the genetic evidence).

like a little easter bunny

All in all, I liked many qualities of the yarn. It's soft and smooth, mega squishy and springy. It stretches to accomodate huge diaper butt. The color I chose is just a little loud.

Episode 3: Revenge of the Baby Sweater

I was delighted to knit this sweater again. The first time I used a heavier yarn and modified the stitch count a bit. This time I used a DK (and on the skinny side, even for DK) and it turned out a great 3 - 6 month size. My daughter is about 1 month old, and it is still a little large on her.

 

I do like this pattern. It's pretty easy (once you are used to EZ's general "pithy" style). The only thing I had a problem with was making up the sleeves. First I just sewed the edges along the perimeter: the initial stitches together, then extra cast-on stitches to extra cast-on stitches, and then arm edges to arm edges. And as you can see this made a pretty stupid looking silhouette there. On my second try, I gathered up the extra cast-on stitches and sewed them to the body. This makes a normal-looking sleeves and more ease in the underarm area. Surely this is what EZ intended, and maybe I'm just an idiot for doing it wrong the first time. But I know I'm not the only one who finds her directions "open for interpretation", so I hope this might help someone else.

 

I didn't have an opportunity to run out for the perfect button, so the button stash had to do. The contrast of the oatmeal color of the button is perhaps a little strong, but it went nicely with the burgundy and matches the natural colored soakers that usually grace the bottom half of my model.