July Project Spectrum, et. al.

The MDK baby kimono, bib, and burp cloth are not quite finished, but I wanted to post a picture for July Project Spectrum. They'll be done in time for the baby's arrival.

MDK Purple Baby Gifts, for Project Spectrum, July

Marce asked if I'd made anything with the yarn I bought in New York, so I've posted a picture of my progress on the Shapely Tank, which is knit from a pale olive green cashmere blend that I bought at School Products. This is the front and I've done as much work on the back.

I completely frogged my first attempt at the front because I sloppily made adjustments without annotation and knew that I could not make the back match. And by the time I got to the bustline I had 15 or so stitches too many. I don't know how that happened. ACK! I discovered a neat trick - for me, at least - I slipped on a stitch marker every 20 stitches when I cast on. Makes it easier to count stitches later on. I hope it fits or I'll have to frog it again. Actually, I think it will fit, but it may be looser than Soleil.

If I do have to frog, I'll have to put it away for a while and work on simpler projects. I'm up to my ears in MDK dishcloths - I haven't even bothered to take photos of all of them. I got these skeins of Elann Canapone (hemp) today to make washcloths. The two skeins in front are a beautiful dark brown that I'd like to buy more of for Glampyre's Orangina if I can get gauge, the middle two are white, and last two are black.

I'll be swatching tonight.

STR and Shapely Tank

The new Socks That Rock arrived yesterday. I like the color and the pattern, but I wish there was more than 360 yards in the hank because I like longer socks.


The pattern is called "Hippy Crunchy," and is described as a "mesh" pattern.


I don't know when I'll get to them as I am in the midst of knitting the Shapely Tank. (And I'd better lay off those M-D Ballband washcloths!) Though my swatch gauge was spot on with the recommended 6s, when I begin knitting the tank it was too large. I frogged and used some old Susan Bates 5s and it seems to be OK now. The old Susan Bates have a better join, by the way. The short rows worked out OK, though I'm concerned that they may function as darts instead of creating the drape effect intended.

The yarn has little give and purling in particular is hard on my hands. Maybe the first attempt larger because I purled looser to compensate. Who knows?

The Key West Suite

Purple WIPS, Project Spectrum, July

StitchDC cancelled the Shapely Tank class because I was the only registrant. But it works out well for me: the two hours can be devoted to my two prime issues: negative ease and finishing. I worked one inch of negative ease into Soleil and it fit, but I feel like I just got lucky. I can devote one of classes to negative ease and the other to finishing. I can use some instruction on finishing, not one of my favorite things to do, nor one that I'm good at. Is it synchronicity?

Signed up for StitchDC's Shapely Tank class. I'm going to use the pale olive silk that I bought at School Products in New York. Here's the swatch:

The gauge is perfect. Too bad I'm using shitty Susan Bates circs, but they are the only US 6s I have. I'm afraid the rough joins will damage the yarn. I may buy KnitPicks new circs that everyone's talking about and switch mid-project. Hope that won't mess up the gauge. Any comments about changing needles mid-project?

In the meantime, I'm knitting a baby kimono, burp cloth, and bib from Mason-Dixon Knitting for a colleague. Pictures will follow. The baby is due in September. I'm pleased that I will have finished knitted gifts before the baby is born, for once.

I'm thinking about about buying this unit for yarn storage from Grandin Road.

It's black, and most of my furniture is cherry, but I may buy a section or two anyway.

Thank you all for your kind comments about Soleil!

Soleil is Done!

Blue Soleil, for Project Spectrum

And it fits! It's form-fitting but not too tight, and the armholes are perfect. I tried it on before blocking and it's not too short. This is my first attempt at blocking. It's hard to see the pins in the photo. It looks a little wonky, but it's still wet, so I may re-shape it later. I spun it out in the washer and it does not look as smooth as I'd like. Will it look better when it dries? It's knit with Elann Sonata. Does anyone have any advice?

Soleil Update

I'll probably get this done by the end of the month for Project Spectrum, but I think it's going to be too short. As you can see, the back is finished and the front left side is almost done. The right front is on waste yarn. I added a few rows at the bust line in an attempt to lengthen it, but should have added some at the waist and perhaps a couple of extra rows of the lace pattern at the bottom. (The bottom half inch is curled, and not truncated as it appears in the photo.) Otherwise, it's a perfect fit: the extra inch of negative ease was right on target. Other knitters have made the armhole higher - I decided to knit them the size of another tank that fits me well. Knitting it in the round has been fun and fast and will happily reduce the amount of seaming necessary. I also enjoyed watching the tank become a shapely object while working in the "darts." I will probably frog this in the end, but at least it's a fast knit.

Fall?

After all my bleating yesterday* about being behind, I got my s___ together and started Soleil. I forgot that the yarn I chose is blue, the color for Project Spectrum this month. DUH! Here's my progress:

Of course I haven't cleaned or done laundry or anything else since I started it yesterday. I'm building in one inch of negative ease, but forgot to lengthen it as per Heather's instructions. Heather says she tries her projects on often, but I'm knitting Soleil in the round on a 29 or 30 inch circ, so there's no way I can try it on until I get to the straps. If I have to frog it won't be the first time.

I was going to make a felted M-D Buttonhole bag for Project Spectrum this month, but my felted swatch looks like a dog bed.

(*I read Erica's blog yesterday in which she writes about knitting for the fall. PANIC! I have to face the fact that I can't keep up with Project Spectrum, at least in terms of projects. I haven't made any of the summer tanks I wanted. I've swatched and washed, but haven't started them yet. Socks are stalled. Haven't touched the Habu yarn. Haven't even swatched for the corset tank or the Socks that Rock. Mermaid is progressing nicely, the body is nearly done but I discovered a dropped stitch so will have to rip back six rows or so. Seriously thinking of putting it aside for awhile to knit the summer projects. Work and life interfere too much. I really admire those of you who have finished summer tops in a week or two. How do you do it? Baby projects are the newest projects I've taken up. A work colleague is due in August and I'd like to give her a few knitted gifts, so I'm making a few things from Mason-Dixon Knitting. They are purple so maybe I will meet next month's Project Spectrum goals after all.)

Not much to report except some stash enhancement: I bought most of this at Yarns International in Bethesda, Maryland.




The brick and mortar is closing, but not the online presence. Everything in the store is 30 percent off. By the time I got there Saturday morning, most of the Koigu, the small-sized Addis, and sock yarn were gone. I bought two skeins of Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch, a hank of purple Koigu, Nashua Creative Focus Cotton in yellow, some t-pins for blocking, a pair of Addi Naturas, and some back issues of Interweave Knits. I was particularly pleased to find the books. While I was there, a buzz went through the store that Eunny Jang might be in the store. Don't know if she was actually present while I was there or if someone simply noticed that she'd signed up for the store's e-mail list. The store staff rather excitedly said that she had been a customer all that time and that they didn't know it! Eunny the StealthKnitter! Too late! You're already famous!

I swatched Adrienne Vittadini and Elan Sonata for Soleil on my commute, now I have to wash and block them. I started a M-D facecloth in allhemp3, but I'm not sure I like this yarn for this facecloth because the pattern is ill-defined. Maybe I should have used a smaller needle. Too bad that didn't occur to before I was halfway finished. I'm just maintaining this week. Anyway, I bought two hanks to make the facecloth and haven't begun to use the second one yet, so maybe I'll cast it on with smaller needles to see if I like it better and if it significantly reduces in dimension.

Haven't worked on the Filatura di Crosa shrug for a couple of weeks. I'm definitely a novice crocheter: the squares aren't consistent in size and I'm afraid it's going to look "homemade" rather than chic like the pattern book model. So before I use up all my beautiful Zara, I'm going to sew together and block the squares I've crocheted so far to see how it looks. If it looks OK, I will continue, if not, it's off to the frog pond.

It's getting late in the month, but I may try to make an M-D felted handbag for Project Spectrum. I had not been drawn to felted bags until I saw these on the M-D KAL. They are so cute!

Late breaking: I've been accepted into the Knitting Blogs Ring! Yea, me!

Project Spectrum, May

Scenes around Washington, D.C., Project Spectrum

I had too many WIPs - none of them green - to devote one entirely to this month's Project Spectrum. I suppose it would have helped if I had green yarn stashed, but I wasn't inclined to look at green yarn. That has changed. As you may recall, I bought pale olive yarn at School Products last week. I began this month's exercise tooling around with camera in tow looking for people wearing green and not finding many. Actually, none. Washingtonians wear lots of black, and I do too because it's easy and doesn't require much thought. I discovered that we frequently look as though we haven't given it much thought, but that's another topic entirely! Anyway, the exercise is subtly enabling me to really "see" things rather than looking beyond them, and changing the way I look at them. I probably would never have noticed that green house before. And I suppose that is the object of this exercise, or is one of them.

Tuesday Mermaid Update

The back is finished. Now, I'll begin the armhole (left side).

I-cord is looming...

New York Yarn Shop Adventures

Made a quick business trip to New York Friday and managed to get a couple of yarn shops in, Habu Textiles and School Products. I've seen them on many blogs, most recently on the Knitting Doctor's blog and had to see them myself. Would like to have gone to the other shops she mentioned, but didn't have time.

Wanted to go to Habu first on 29th on the East Side, wasn't sure I was going to make it. My meeting was over about 4:30, which a nice New Yorker walking a yorkie told me was taxi witching hour, i.e. the time they change shifts and don't pick up anyone. After about 30 minutes on the corner of 52nd and 5th on the East Side, a cabbie took pity on me and said he'd take me to 29th, but if there was lots of traffic I'd have to hoof it to the West side. Better than nothin' I guess, and my bad back could use the walk.

I got lucky. Not much traffic, so he dropped me off at 29th and Broadway on the east side and walked to 135 West 29th Street about halfway down the block. Kind of a dumpy area, lots of wholesale shops, but hey, I love New York, so what did I care? I came to the address and there's no store, just the tiniest reception area with a doorman's station and no doorman. I squinted at the directory hanging behind the station and finally saw "Habu - 804" and took the elevator up.

The door to the suite was cracked about 5 inches, a tiny "Habu" sign next to it. Thought I'd made a mistake. I saw a young woman rummaging through boxes and decided to knock. I showed her my internet page print out and told her I was looking for a yarn store. She warmly threw the door open and I entered the most unusual yarn store I've ever been in.


The entry opens directly upon a small room with cloth hangings on the wall. Some of the hangings had skeins of representative yarn beneath them on a low shelf that runs the length of the wall. A collection of baskets filled with cones, skeins, and hanks of yarn were arranged in the center of the room.


The woman showed me the baskets containing sale yarns and then showed me to a tiny back room - actually a narrow hallway - with hanks of yarn hanging on one side and skeins in boxes and finished sweaters on the other.





I was immediately struck by how different Habu yarns are: linen "paper" yarns, silk and cashmere spun in different shapes and textures, wire yarns, alpaca, mohair, hemp, and wool of course. The colors seemed unusual too, maybe I've gotten so used to looking at bright variagated sock yarns lately, that muted earth tones and greys have become a novelty. That's not to say they are boring, in fact, they are among the most beautiful yarn collections I've ever seen.






Here's what I bought:


On the cone is 3oz. of cotton, which feels and looks linen tape, bottom left is 3.5 oz of the same, on the bottom right is 130 yds of silk.

Don't know what I'm going to do with any of it yet, I just bought enough to play with. Got to swatch and wash first. Since so few of my current projects lend themselves to commuting projects, I will knit swatches instead. There were no Japanese knitting books that so many of you love.

I was overwhelmed by possibilities I'd never considered.

My next stop was School Products around the corner on Broadway, where I picked up a couple of deals. Again, no storefront, instead a suite on the third floor, glass front so you can see in, but the door was locked, so I had to be buzzed in. I can see why knitters love School Products. Lots of sale items! Some left over yarn from the big design houses like Armani and Donna Karan in the garment district. The owner's husband told me that sometimes samples are big enough to make a sweater, others times just enough to make a scarf or gloves or something else small. Lots of cashmere, silk and wool on cones at discounted prices and yarn ready to dye too. There were two full walls of Karabella. Yow! I think she must carry the full line. I love Karabella. Can't afford it though. I know, I know! Stop buying so much small stuff and save for the bigger, more expensive projects. The owner's husband look alarmed when I said aloud, "I could camp out here!"

I bought 8 skeins of cashmere and silk in pale olive for $6.99 each, a one pound skein of cashmere for $25 (approx. 1200 yards, I hope this was a deal), and the Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners. Yeah, I know I can get patterns off the internet, but I wanted it.


I'm going to be doing lots of swatching. Pray for finished objects!

Blocking and Swatching

Unknown Green House in South East Washington, D.C.

for Project Spectrum

Go on over to Eunny's site for an excellent tutorial on blocking. I was surprised to learn that she doesn't use a blocking board. She covers her mattress with plastic and pins through. I have a pillow top so that may not work, but I will give it a try. I wanted ask her if she swatches everything, but I know better than to do that...I just can't seem to bring myself to swatch socks though I understand that it might be necessary. Actually I swatched Hawaii Joy, but that's because I'm concerned about maintaining the integrity of the Pomatomus pattern, not gauge.

Do you swatch everything?

Lest you think that I've forgotten Mermaid...

Here she is:


You can see the back neck formed on the top right plateau, and the ridge you see extending downward from the neck is the center of the back. It's still an easy knit. I'm beginning to anticipate adding the i-cord, though I still have to finish the body and two sleeves. The i-cord application is the point at which I could really screw it up. I suppose if I can't do the I-cord bind off, that I can just sew it on.

Got my first my first Socks that Rock kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts today. The colorway is "Fairgrounds." I was a little stunned by the vibrant colors because this is not a colorway I would choose for myself, but it's growing on me. The yarn itself is wondrous: it's really soft and I'm sure it will feel glorious on my feet. The pattern is Rock and Weave, again, something I would not choose for myself because I like a longer cuff, but I'm intrigued by the slip stitch pattern and I'm eager to try it. The kit came with a neat 3 ring binder containing a little background info about the club and the first sock, Cedar Creek; extensive sizing guidelines; a page for recording sock sizes for yourself and for those for whom you knit; and instructions for Rock and Weave. I need all the help I can get keeping myself organized! Oh, and a miniature skein on a keyring.







I swatched, washed, and blocked Hawaii Joy. I don't notice any bloom that I was told would appear. I'm afraid to start Pomatomus for some reason. Still really love the yarn and colorway. Maybe I'll just start Rock and Weave first.

I also bought hemp yarn on sale at StitchDC to make Mason-Dixon handtowels. Ann and Kay suggest using Euroflax linen in their book, but at their booksigning they said the hemp would be nice too and I loved the colors, so here's what I bought: All of StitchDC's notions are 10 percent off this weekend so I bought a set of Addi Turbos for sock knitting on my commute. Might buy one more circ tomorrow for Magic Looping. Did I mention that I bought several skeins of Phildar Cecilia on eBay to make turtlenecks in the fall? Then when I came home I discovered that Scout still had one skein of the gorgeous Rosalie on sale at Etsy, and I had to have it. Before you decide that I'm out of control, don't forget that I had a major knitting slump all fall and winter and bought absolutely NO yarn and knit NOTHING. Just making up for lost time I guess...

Mom came to visit for a week for mother's day and I kinda got off of my knitting schedule. While we were out shopping, I crocheted at least 10 squares for the Filatura shrug - waiting in rush hour traffic, and during Mom's fabric foraging.

It makes her so happy! She's a seamstress and actually has more fabric than I have yarn!

I finished a Ballband Wash Cloth and started another and began a swatch for the MD baby kimono. I'm embarrassed to photograph the tons of Sugar and Cream I bought! I want to start a logcabin blanket but can't settle on colors. Should just knit from stash like Abi. Check hers out - it's really pretty. I also bought Patons Grace in taupe for Soleil. The yarn I bought at Elann for this skirt, Soleil (2 planned!), and for this cardi arrived, as well as Regal Silk for the Annie Modesitt Corset Tee. Acquisition photos will follow. Finally, I joined the STR sock club during the late invitation period (it's closed again). Don't ask me when I'm going to knit all these things.

No work on mermaid or socks.

Knitting from Both Ends

While I love both the Traveler's Sock and the Hawaii Joy yarn, I don't think they are suited to each other. The Traveler's Sock pattern is best worked in a solid or semi-solid color, I think, and the sea-inspired colors of Hawaii Joy will be best shown off in stockinette or the sea/shell/scale motif of Pomatomus. I couldn't bring myself to frog the cuff of the Traveler's Sock (top), so I cast on Pomatomus (bottom) from the center pull. Now I'm concerned that Hawaii Joy is too fine a gauge for Pomatomus. If there was ever a case for making a toe-up sock this is it: I can try it on more easily to determine the fit, than a top-down. I shouldn't let this give me heartburn. It's just a sock, right?

Instructions for My Short-Row Heels

Meridian House, Washington, D.C.

A couple of you have asked for instructions for my short row heel. I improvised it and didn't take notes, so I had knit through it a couple of times to reconstruct it. I'm a novice at pattern writing, so I hope my instructions are clear. Please don't hesitate to ask for clarification.

The heel is worked over half the stitches cast. All stitches are slipped purlwise. Work stitches tightly.

Row 1: slip first stitch, knit across to second to the last stitch, slip this stitch to right needle, turn.

Row 2: Move yarn to back, purl across to stitch just before the slipped stitch, ( second to the end), slip this stitch to right needle, turn.
Row 3: Move yarn to front, knit cross to stitch just before wrapped stitch, slip to right needle, turn.
Row 4: Move yarn to back, purl across to stitch just before the wrapped stitch, slip it to right needle, turn.

Continue in this fashion until you have 8-9 unworked stitches left on needle (10 -11 depending on your heel size).

End with purl row, slipping last unworked stitch to right needle, turn, yarn to front, knit across to last stitch before wrapped one, knit this stitch together with the next stitch through the back loops. Turn.

Slip stitch, purl across to last stitch before wrapped one, purl this stitch together with the next stitch. turn.

Continue until you've worked all the stitches.

There's still room for improvement, and I look forward to getting tips from you all!

I've never the tried the following tutorials, but I've seen them cited on a few other blogs:
Alison's (Blue Blog) short row tutorial
Wendy's toe up sock pattern contains short row heel instructions, and on
Purlwise.

Good luck!

Mason Dixon Knitalong

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