I’ve been away a lot this spring, but I’ve not been idle. Well, not completely idle. In addition to a bout of castonitis*, I’ve made some more squares for the Mawata Colossus:
Each of these counts as a finished object, right? I’m not sure how these will go together yet, but I don’t have to decide that right now.
The observant among you may have noticed a brand new knitting project at the bottom of my last post. “What’s that?” you may have wondered, “A new project? Does that mean she’s finished some of that giant, nagging heap of WIPs?” No. No, it does not, smarty trousers. What it means is that I have this compulsion to use every trip over half an hour long as an excuse to start something new. Continue reading →
While my computer issues are resolving themselves (or not), here’s a photo of one of the ridiculously late Xmas presents, modelled by my nephew and photographed by my exceptionally talented sister-in-law, Anusha Balram.
I think he likes it.
Info: The blanket is in Malabrigo Rios, in Sunset and Purple Mystery. I made the design up, though I haven’t decided whether to write it up as a pattern — there are a couple of kinks that I’d need to work out first. Looking at this photo, though, I’m seriously tempted.
Being stage 2 of ongoing experiments in becoming the boss of colour in spinning.
The Cormo spinning progresses apace, but as I mentioned last time, it’s going to take a while, and I have the attention span of a hummingbird on speed. Enter some English Shetland wool from Into the Whirled: one multicoloured braid
A little out of my comfort zone, but hey, green & purple — what can go wrong?
and I was thinking about how useful the embossed leaf motif is. It’s easy: a series of increases at the bottom, some straight rows if you wish, and a series of decreases at the top. It’s adaptable: you can change the appearance, shape, and size by changing the type and placement of your increases and decreases. It’s self-contained: an embossed leaf grows and shrinks independently of the rest of the piece, so that you can keep doing whatever you were doing for the rest of the stitches, and at the end of each leaf you’re back to the same stitch count you had at the beginning. If you prefer your leaf to be flat, rather than raised, you can use corresponding decreases and increases outside the edge of leaf, keeping the overall stitch count constant. Continue reading →
I designed Gimble with longish, close-fitting cuffs and a Scandinavian thumb. The cuffs go a few inches up under your coat sleeves because oh, mama, do I hate cold wind and snow on my wrists. I went with a Scandinavian thumb because I find that the thumb gusset — that ‘V’ shape at the base of the thumb that comes out from the mitten — tends to fit better, providing extra room for the ball of your thumb. This shape can be a bit trickier to design for, but it’s worth it.
I'm pretty pleased with the cuff/thumb embellishment.
These mittens are designed to go with Gyre, though in fingering weight rather than DK. I used Quince & Co.’s Tern for this pattern, and wow, do I love this yarn. Definitely wooly, with a nice sproinginess to it, softened by the 25% silk. Plus, the colours have a quiet loveliness to them that really appeals to me. I’ve been doing some swatching, and the corresponding colours of Chickadee would work for Gyre, if you wanted to make a matching set. A thousand thank yous to my doughty testers, Heike and Jerrica.
Coming off the high of last week’s get-it-done-athon, I decided to treat myself. I mean, look how productive I’d been, right? Surely I could do something small. For variety. As a palate-cleanser, if you will, and a reward. “Oh, I know!” thought I, “There’s that 2 oz of delicious cria alpaca waiting to be spun! It’s tiny. It won’t take long. I’ve got two bobbins free…ish. A couple of evenings, tops, and then I’ll get back to finishing ALL the things.”
But surely this is more than 2 oz, you say? Um. I'll get to that.
Yeah.
I was right, up to a point: the alpaca — rose gray cria roving (the first real shearing from a baby alpaca) from North Star Alpacas — did spin up quickly. I’d never spun alpaca before (apart from a sample at spinning lessons) and was a bit nervous that I’d screw it up, but the carded prep was smooth like butter, and made for some of the most effortless spinning I’ve ever done. Even worsted spun, the singles were nicely fuzzy, and the softness…oh, the softness. Plus, Maple had put a lavender sachet in the bag, so I’d get these delightful wafts of lavender as I spun it up. Even Chicken-Leg Al the Wonder Cat was powerless against it: he took about 3 seconds to go from, “Hmmm, what’s this new fluffy thing?” to full-on drooling alpaca faceplant. About halfway into the first ounce, I went back to the site and bought another 4 oz. You can see where this is going.
This is what I love about the internet. The roving came from this adorable animal, who lives down the road from Maple, the woman from whom I bought it. Photo from North Star Alpacas, used with permission.
Around the same time, I realized that we had a 6 hour road trip coming up — 3 hours each way — and none of the projects on the needles would make for good car knitting. They all require charts and/or concentration, which is a recipe for nausea and much ripping out of mistakes. Why not cast on something with my newly made yarn? Something simple; something that didn’t require charts; something I could knit without looking at it too much; something to show off the handspun-ness of the yarn. So I did some swatching and came up with a stitch pattern I liked.
There were a couple of swatches before this, but I wasn't wasting handspun in failed stitch patterns. No, ma'am.
I got about 250 yds/229 m of 2-ply from a generous 2 oz/57g of roving, so I’d end up in the ballpark of 750 yds/687m, which might be enough for a shawl, if I made it narrower than my usual giant wrap. If not, I could always spin some more. Perhaps I should order another 2 oz to be safe. A shawl, yes. That will take rather more than 6 hours and require the spinning of another 4-6 oz of roving.
You know, a little car knitting.
It will take several more trips to Atlanta to finish this sucker.
E. Elliott Knits 