Skye Caps with Ear Flaps; Video: Cabling without a Cable Needle

Ohhh, what a headache I have today!  I was just having a nice conversation last night, and *crunch* went my neck.  Whatever got stuck (this happens to me often) is pinching some nerve(s) and giving me pain.  Perhaps I should move up my next chiropractor appointment. . . .

Anyway, I do have some successful knitting to report!

Front, color 106

Side, colors 106 and 111

Using Wisdom Yarns’ “Skye” bulky wool, I made 2 caps with earflaps for Monday’s toddler shower.  Some friends of ours are adopting 2 Haitian orphans and expect to be able to pick them up soon — perhaps as early as next week.  One of their grown daughters is hosting the toddler shower.  I checked before casting on as to whether the mom-to-be preferred wool or acrylic, and she wanted wool (hurray!), so I made these.  Only took 2 days per cap!

For flap placement, I used a rule of thumb from I-don’t-recall-where-I-read-it (I did the math from someone’s cap pattern in a book):  front and back are 3:1 and sides are 2:2.  In this case, 1 or 2 or 3 groups of 8 stitches each; BO 8, k16, BO24, k16.  Again used my own Top-down Square-Top Cap pattern (Ravelry links: child, adult) for the hat crown and sides.  I enjoyed making these, and hope the children will be kept warm by them — Flagstaff has got to be MUCH colder than Haiti!

I’m also moving forward on my submission for Cast On’s summer issue, but it’s still under wraps.

Found an interesting new blog today — actually she has 2: one on wordpress (Shifting Stitches link) and one on blogger (Curious Knitter link), both by Jeny Staiman.

And here’s a technique I’ve been trying out with good success lately:  a variation on cabling without a cable-needle, by Kathleen Cubley of Knitting Daily.  Link to Knitting Daily page with video.

Direct link to YouTube.  .

More KAL-ing, ILL-ing, and Other-ing

KAL = Knit-along;  ILL = Inter-library Loan.  No, we’re not sick (hurray!  Thank you, Lord).

The Schoolhouse Press knitalong (link here) has moved from Iceland to the Faroe Islands, and from lace scarf to footlets.  I began with a 2-color version, but switched over to solids to be quicker.

I have finished the blue footlet, edging it with gray, and began a gray foot to edge with blue (DS’s school colors).  I also plan to embroider an owl (mascot) on each toe.

His feet are bigger than mine. . . .

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I love to borrow knitting books!  When my libray doesn’t own a particular title, I can place an inter-library loan request for free.  If they can find it, and the other library agrees, they get it for me.   Recent titles include Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Carron, and Iris Schreier’s Reversible Knits.  From the former, I knit this “rose” embellishment (about palm-size).

From the latter, I hope to try some cables.

Here’s another top-down cap, this time in Wisdom Yarn’s “Skye” bulky and using Judy’s Magic Cast-on.  The yarn color-changes even look good inside out!

Most of my other knitting has been swatching for submissions to Cast On for next summer.

(I don’t want to show those yet.)

Sometimes this process is exhilarating, sometimes it’s plain frantic.  It can be rewarding! Level II of the Master Knitter program prepared me for this quite well, I’m finding.

Next is a pair of toddler hats for our friends who are adopting.

Oh, and the sweater I designed for my friend Bess to knit for our pastor is done, in time for the cold weather.  The yarn is a bit busy, so I only added a little cabling.  Simultaneous set-in sleeves — fun!!

(Sorry, the photos are both a bit blurry.)

Lots of Knitting (Scandinavian and Otherwise) and Girls in a Tree.

Before we get to the knitting, I’d like to show you my DDs in their new favorite hang-out.

And, just how high is that? 

They’ve gotten a few scrapes and scratches, but declare the tree to be “awesome”!

On to the knitting.

As you may recall, I finished the vest for Cast On’s spring 2010 issue, just in time to join a knitalong hosted by Schoolhouse Press.  The first design was a neck-scarf in the Icelandic style.

In the beginning, you can see the pink diamond shapes, above the green provisional cast-on.

But as you go along, the decreases fold the piece up the middle and in at the sides, making the diamonds look like grid squares.

When the 2 sides collapse together at top-center, you carefully decrease/graft the final stitches together, and then pick up the cast-on to begin the border.

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The border gets pretty frilly toward the end.

I switched to a contrasting color midway through.

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The Kidsilk Haze yarn knit up like a cloud on 4.5 mm needles (US size 7).

The scarf is light and, I think, oh so lovely!  Thank you Marilyn van Keppel and Meg Swansen and all at Schoolhouse Press!

Isn’t that a lovely, drapery, wispy thing?!

I’m planning to give it to my SIL for Christmas.  She loves pink.

While I was working on the scarf, I finished a 3-color spiral cap. I used my basic pattern (Ravelry link), but changed the cast-on to Judy’s Magic and began the other 2 colors right away.  I like that better  (– need to update the pattern soon!)

3-Greens Cap

Once that was done, and once I finished the scarf, I went a bit nuts starting Too Many Things.

I got hold of myself!

The green and white circlet to the left, I’ve pulled off the needles and laid aside for later.  (a cap to match the “Peek through the Windows” Cast On vest)

The gold lace cap, with the 2 green possible-yarns, I’ve returned to the get-around-to-it stack.  (I hope to write up the pattern.)

The blue is in that same stack.  (potential swatch for potential sweater)

The dark multi has progressed to half a hat, and moving quickly.  This is the first I’ve used Wisdom Yarns’ “Skye” bulky; it feels pretty good.

The dark Lamb’s Pride is way-way to the back of my mind, for one-day some-day nice color.

The pink is another Cast On submission in-the-making that I don’t want to show yet. . . .  The Cascade “Venezia” suits it well, I think.

Meanwhile, the second project in the Schoolhouse Press knitalong was posted on Wednesday this week.  Faroese footlets/slippers.

Another design in a Scandinavian style by Marilyn van Keppel:  first Iceland, now the Faroe Islands!  One more to go after this: modular footies (begins 2 November, 2009).

(link to the KAL)

I’m finding more slow going than the lace, and not as much chatter in the Yahoo group.

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Today, I’ve done some knitterly playing around.  Two swatches.

One, of some stitch patterns used by designers in the book, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders.

The lower pattern was a simple lattice, but the upper pattern involved twisted-st garter stitch, an ususual bind-off that I had to see to understand, and columns of dropped stitches.  Here’s a series of photos to show the process.

Every 4th stitch left live on needle during BO

Pull needle out of remaining stitches

Drop down the freed-up stitches, one at a time.

All stitch-columns now dropped. See the ladders.

Blocking

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Widens out substantially!

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In the second swatch of the day, I tried to adapt the neck-scarf’s lace pattern-stitch to a rectangle.  After several false starts, I figured that out to my satisfaction, and added on Marilyn van Keppel’s border at the top.  Perhaps this idea could become a sister-scarf to the triangle.  (I wonder how my other SIL feels about pink/purple?  She usually wears black and other “strong” colors. . . .)

Busy, busy!

I also posted some new videos to YouTube.  One on washing woolen handknits, especially intended for “my” pipers with special socks, and one (in 2 parts) demonstrating a tubular bind off for circular 2×2 ribbing.  (I’ll post the former here — not sure if it’ll link or embed.)

Slow Knitting. . . ahhhh.

Day 8

Endings and Beginnings and Middles

I finished the figuring for multiple child-sizes.

My brain finally found a “groove” on Friday midday; when I tried to get back to it in the evening, the “groove” was gone and I found the struggle SO frustrating.  Estimating fit is the area of knitting with which I am least comfortable.

What remains for this vest pattern project is only finalizing the schematic.  DH drew me one using Mathematica (don’t ask me how. . . .); I need to add inches and centimeters for the blocked vest in each size.

I started with widths, adding/subtracting whole multiples of the slip-stitch pattern symmetrically about the center-front and center-back.  I can add/subtract neck-width (increments of 8 stitches for front, plus 8 for back), shoulder-width (8 sts front and 8 back), and armhole width (4 sts each side).  Those are sizable width-changes, so I only altered one area each time I sized up or down.  For instance, going from 8/9 (model size) to 6/7, I kept the same neck and underarms, but narrowed the shoulders; from 8/9 up to 10, I widened the armholes.  It all worked out into 5 sizes:  18 months/2 years to 10 years.  Only 3 sizes are required by the publisher.

Lengthwise, I can add/subtract whole (4 rows/rounds) pattern-repeats below the underarm to add overall body-length, between underarm and neck-front (armhole depth), and along sides of the neck (neck-drop).

Having finished the vest knitting, I was able to join in on a knit-along hosted by Schoolhouse Press.

The design was created by Marilyn van Keppel, translator of nordic-language Faroese and Icelandic knitting books, especially patterns with lace.

I’m using Kidsilk Haze on US size 7 (4.5 mm) needles.  It’s knitting up like a cloud and I’m really enjoying this “neck scarf”.  (Green yarn is provisional cast-on; copper pins mark center column.)

It’s not the first time I’ve started a lace project; the last one I frogged and did not enjoy at all.  This time is different.  Perhaps it’s the timing, or perhaps it’s that this yarn is not slippery and “out of control”-feeling.  Either way, when I think knitting, this is currently the project I want most to pick up.

I do also have a relatively mindless hat on the needles.  (Lace takes lots of concentration.)

3 strands of related greens: one furry, one multi, one heather; round & round like a barber-pole, begun from a sock-type “Judy’s Magic CO” of 6 or 8 stitches at the top.  Very soft.

Eventually, I’ll get back to the red baby hat, the entrelac shawl, the gansey sampler, et al, but right now these are sufficient for me.

Vest: Knitting is Done! Writing and Grading next.

As of last night, the knitting part of this project is (finally) finished!  Hurray!!!

Pre-blocking, with ruler for scale (and helper)

Currently, the vest is drying from immersion-blocking (i.e., I washed it in the sink).  The green yarn bled horribly — not noticeable with swatch, so I hadn’t expected it — but so far it seems to be drying OK, with no staining of the cream yarn.

Blocking, with ruler

Everything is nice and flat and even.

Perhaps you will notice that it has stretched vertically somewhat with wetting.

Here is the unblocked version on my model (and eventual recipient, I hope).  A little wide, but I think the blocking will improve this.

Unblocked vest on model, with yo-yo

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Now . . . to whip the written pattern into shape — a non-trivial task! (I dreamt of final exams and term papers last night!  Poor dream-me couldn’t figure out what forgotten class(es) they might be for!)

[FYI: "grading" is where you cook up numbers for several other sizes.]

Vest: Edgings are Next.

I’ve completed the back and front, and joined them up (twice now — ahem — all part of “the design process”!).  Hurray!

(Do you have a helper like this?  I know Jean does. . . .)

Next, I went to pick up stitches around the neck opening, to add on the neckband, and discovered I had some more choices to make.

(I thought I’d figured this out already, but. . .) I see at least 2 ways to go from here, depending on when I bind off the neck sts and where I pick up the band sts.

The slip-stitch pattern has a single garter-stitch ridge of green between each rank of “windows”.  How many ridges do I want at neck-front?

I could have 2 ridges:

2 ridges

Or, I could have 1.5 (I don’t like the row of stockinette stitch — interrupts the flow):

1 1/2 ridges

Or, I could have a single ridge:

1 ridge

I don’t have the original swatch anymore, to examine and see what I did then.  I think I had 2 ridges.

Now, I’m thinking to go with the single ridge.

I still have enough (I think) time to do it that way, and then change it if I don’t like how it looks.

After the pick-up ridge(s), I’ll do one repeat of the border pattern, to echo the bottom edge.

Changing Colors . . . of Yarn

I thought you might like to see the inside and outside views of the spot where I change yarn colors as I work this slip-stitch pattern in the round.  Spot the jog?

not a bad transition, eh?

consistent twist keeps things elastic and neat

More Vest Progress

(and Less Anxiety — hurray!)

I have been cranking out the fabric, with the aid of audiobooks and podcasts to keep me going and not watching the clock.

The armhole shaping was interesting.  I kept close tabs on exactly where and when I made each decrease, so that the pattern write-up will be accurate, updating the computer file and marking on my hard-copy as I went.  (The paper seems more “real” to me. . . .)

I’m about to reach another decision point, and I would appreciate your input.

Neck-back shaping.  To work it straight or modify the slope/opening.

(A) The slip-stitch pattern has such strong horizontal lines, any stair-steps (especially how they don’t *exactly* match left-to-right!) will stand out, leaving me with doing short-rows if I want to raise the neck.

(B) I can drop the center section by binding it off one pattern-rep sooner.

Or I can do both.  Or neither.  (That latter is by far the easiest option.)

Here are sketches to illustrate my options, as I currently see them.

The thicker green lines are where I think I might insert a pair of short-rows.  At first, I thought I’d add cream, making one rank of boxes taller, but then I decided the green option would be less obtrusive.  Q:  Would I need to add rows on the front shoulders as well, to have the front and back meet evenly?  That would be visually distracting — and right near the face — blech!

Q:  Might the straight dropped-center make the shoulders sit better than if they were fully straight across?

Here’s the main question/ what I especially wish I knew: Q:  How do each of these options affect FIT?  (This is a vest for a child, but even kids have necks that sit to the front of center, and they individually do/don’t have shoulder slope.)  FIT is the only reason that I’m considering modifying the simple, straight shape.

I don’t think I’ll have time to experiment, and probably need to just Decide and Go.  Hopefully, there will be other garments in which to try out other combinations. . . .

INPUT:  What has been *your* experience with making and with wearing these different kinds of neck/shoulder treatment?  Thank you for taking the time to think on this and respond in the Comments! 

Turning of the Sumac — a September Progression

I love watching the colors turn in autumn.  I’ve been trying to document the process in my backyard this year, by taking photos from approximately the same vantage point over the course of several days/weeks.

Here is the north end (south-facing) sumac grove, labeled with dates.

09 September

16 September

20 September

21 September

27 September

28 September

29 September

30 September

1 October

2 October, after a *cold* and windy day and night