Yarn Pr0n Friday: STR Walking on the Wild Tide

81 percent superwash merino wool, 19 percent silk




It's growing on me. And it came with an appealing knee sock pattern, perfect for the travel I have coming up.

Sorry I haven't been posting or reading your blogs, but maybe I'll catch up while I'm on vacation. I've been crazy busy with work and preparing for my upcoming trip so not much knitting either. Cross your fingers that my camera works so that I can blog on the road.

Yarn Pr0n Friday, Twinkle Soft Chunky, French Grey

to make this:
the Marilyn Jacket from Twinkle Big City Knits. I'll make a black and yellow one later if the solid grey one works out. You've all heard the horror stories about this book by now, but I really want this sweater.

Olga and I met Pam and Annemarie at StitchDC Georgetown at the Twinkle Party a couple of weeks ago. I recognized Pam from her blog and summoned my courage to introduce myself. I think we both freaked out a little! She was there with Annemarie and both of their husbands, who I think were both a little freaked out at what avid yarn lovers we all are! We met Svetlana and Amber at StitchDC Capitol Hill last Saturday and knit in the back room for a bit while we got acquainted. It's cool to other knitters! We loved Jess too, who works at the Georgetown store. She is enormously helpful and friendly and funny. I'd post pix but everyone of them is blurry.

Here's a late congratulations to Olga whose sweater will grace the cover of the new Sensual Knits due out early next year.

Congratulations, my talented friend!

Yarn Pr0n Friday: Karabella, Vintage Cotton

In honor of spring it's Karabella Vintage Cotton, 100 percent mercerized cotton. It's as soft as silk!

The lighting makes these skeins look like two different colors, but it's from the same dye lot. It's dusty pink - a kind of 1930s shimmy pink. It's almost still too cold to think about what tank top I'll make out of it. Any suggestions?

Not much knitting going on here. Just RPM using Sundara's Bird of Paradise.

I like the yarn. I think. I like RPM too, but not together. I'll probably frog.

Yarn Pr0n Friday: STR Monsoon

Blogger still sucks sometimes. It took forever to load these pix.

Had a really nice time with Saun and Olga last weekend.
I'm still amazed that I've made such good and interesting friends on the internet and through blogging.
Bought some yarn too, but I'll save it the next YPF.

Lost my Knitting Mojo

don't know what it is. I've been working on these Pomatomus mitts and though I've looking forward to wearing them, I'm really sick of knitting them. I've totally memorized the chart. I can put them down for days and figure out exactly where I was when I pick them back up. That's too much. I debated making gloves because I'm going to have lots of yarn left over, but I really don't think I could make it to the fingertips. I'm using Sundara Superwash Merino "Black over Plum."
It's really hard to take pix of opera length mitts on your own arm.

In the meantime I've finished these. Like the gloves, I finished them weeks ago but didn't get around to taking photos. Too cold to take my socks off. Not much comment about the Marble Arches. You've seen a gazillion of them. They're made of STR Pink Granite. Not much comment about the Monkey socks either. I like them, but don't feel the love like everyone else. I used Sundara "Gray over Periwinkle."

OK, I know I'm starting to sound whiny. The new STR Sock club yarn arrived and it's beautiful! It's shades of purple (my fave) and green. So far I can't get shots that do it justice, but maybe by Friday.

In the meantime I'll leave you with these designs from Sophia Kokosalaki found on Style.com.

Fall 2007 RTW: A Little Knitting Inspiration from Sarafpour, Pringle, and Armani

All photos are from Style.com, where you can view the full collections.
I'm fascinated by different ways to style traditional knits.

Behnaz Sarafpour
I live in turtlenecks all winter. What a great way to dress them up.























Pringle of Scotland
Love the opera length gloves in the Pringle collection - I've got some yarn that I might be able to knit up before this season's over. I'll certainly be looking at ponchos (shortened and belted) and moebii in different ways. I'm not sure the dress below is knitted, but it reminds me of the Stella McCarty coat everyone loves so much.


























Giorgio Armani
the skull caps and detached mesh sleeves are interesting.

But will I remember to knit this stuff next fall? I'm thinking Spring 2007 now.

Yarn Pr0n Friday: Habu, Tsumugi

100 percent silk.

Click for a larger view.

Yarn Pr0n Friday: Sundara Yarn, Grey over Periwinkle

100 percent hand-dyed superwash merino wool by Sundara, knit into a Monkey sock.

It seemed positively flimsy after knitting with STR, but I've come to appreciate their differences.

Yarn Pr0n Friday: STR Pink Granite II

Here's the first Marble Arches sock, made of STR Pink Granite. I think it's the medium weight. The hand is very firm, and will likely be a very warm socks. I'm knitting it with US 2, 12" Boyes circs. The firm hand, my tight knitt ing style, and stiff needle cables all combine to make my hands hurt after a while. Still, it's a pretty pattern and fun to knit. I finally got the PGR heel down. Turns out I wasn't following the instructions to the stitch in my other attempts.



My Huge Swatch

I started my I Have Dream cardi last night with my new Addi circulars. (Thank you, Olga!) Unfortunately, I can't get the right gauge with the size required or the smaller circs, so I cast on with fewer stitches so that I at least get the correct width.

I don't like the severe roll that you see at the bottom. I made a swatch with one purl row to correct this, but at 3 stitches per inch, the purl row was too obvious. Given my experience with re-knitting entire sweaters, I've decided to knit the entire front left segment to see if I my adjustments give me the proper dimension, and to then block it to see if it corrects the roll a bit. If it doesn't work, I'll frog it. There's a bit of a roll in the picture of the finished sweater, but not this big.

Thank you all for your kind words about my MK cardigan!

It's Finally Finished!

The Michael Kors Cardigan is finally finished.



Yarn: Filatura di Crosa, Zara Plus
Pattern: Vogue Knitting, Fall 2004
Needles: US 7 and 9 circs
Modifications: None.
Started: 2005
Finished: January 30, 2007

It is soft, squishy, and warm. I love this yarn. The sleeves are a little long, but not too long. I learned how to do button holes, the backstitch, and after experimenting with connecting the collar, I have kitchenering down. I didn't block it, I just washed it in Euclan and laid it carefully out to dry without pinning. Be warned, this yarn stretches when wet.

Gloves are the New Socks

At least for me! I just finished the thumb and have started the index finger on my very first glove! I feel like I did when I could finally ride a bike without Dad holding the back. WHEEE!!! The holes created by the yarnovers and the not-quite-long enough thumb (don't look too close) are the equivalent of the wavering of the bike as I try to maintain my balance and aim the bike straight.

OK, I know they're just gloves.


(I will probably make fingerless gloves and mitts too. I thought they were interesting and most are very pretty, but not useful. One's fingertips get cold too. In fact the coldest part of my hands are my fingertips! But after walking into the 15 degree night bare-handed after my mani last night, I will probably make them just like everyone else. Ivete pulled a pair of mitts over leather gloves, which I thought was clever and pretty way to wear them.)

These are opera-length gloves that I plan to wear with a Michael Kors sweater set, cardi for which has 3/4 length sleeve. (Don't they kind of look like Frankengloves with all the needles and needle holders stuck out all over the place?) I'm making them out of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, my yarn pr0n this week.



But I don't think it qualifies as genuine pr0n. It's wool, but it's not silky. In fact, it's not even soft as the name would imply. It looks like an old rumpled sweater, and that's fine, except maybe it should be named something else. Still I like it for my first ever gloves, and it will be warm at the bus stop. And I got it cheap on Destash.

Yarn Pr0n Friday: Habu, Silk Organizine, Lace Weight

I intended to dye this silk, but it's too beautiful as is.

Click twice to enlarge.

Seaming

Nona expressed an interest in the seaming method I used for the MK cardigan. I used the backstitch. I got the name wrong in a previous post. You can find the instructions for it in Interweave Knits Winter 02/03's great article on seaming, Perfect Seams, Part II. You can find an excellent illustration on the Thomas B. Ramsden Company, Ltd website. Just scroll down to Backstitch Seaming.

I prefer backstitching because the seams don't pucker when I pull the seaming yarn tight. The major criticism of backstitching seems to be that the resulting seams are relatively bulky and may be difficult to block flat. I can see that that might be an issue for fine gauge yarns, but I don't find the cardigan seams to be objectionably bulky, even when I tried it on. Here are pix of the wrong and right side of the seam attaching the raglan sleeve to the body with the backstitch. I backstitched for my version of Orangina, knit with Rowan Linen Drape (22-24 stitches over 4 inches), and do not find the seams overly bulky.

The author of the Interweave Knits article also says that this technique is good for seams that can't be matched stitch for stitch, and another online article says that it's impossible to match row for row, but I found that careful pinning takes care of this potential problem.
I've completed the seaming and now I'm weaving in the loose ends. What a tedious chore! I kitchenered the ribbed collar, but I'm not perfectly pleased with the results. The instructions simply say "weave open stitches of each collar together." Careful adjustment with a needle will probably help some, and though it will be hidden under my hair, I will leave these ends the last to weave in case I find a better method. Any suggestions?

Yarn Pr0n Friday: Adrienne Vittadini, Rebecca

Turtlegirl76, hostess of Yarn Pr0n Friday, threatened to kill us :) if we don't follow the rules, so here on Friday morning, not Friday night, not Saturday, is Adrienne Vittadini Rebecca.


It's black cotton and nylon tape that I will use to make the Rebecca Jacket in the posting below. It requires (and I have) more than three skeins, of course.

I bought this yarn before I went yarn crazy, i.e. I waited to buy it until I was ready to knit the jacket. As most of you know Vittadini discontinues many yarns after a season or two. I panicked! I dropped everything, turning into an Internet Sleuth to find it. It took several hours but I found half of it at a store in Portland, Oregon, and the other half in another Oregon store clear across the state. And get this, it was all the same dye lot! Mom would say this yarn was just for me.