it's finally springtime!

Just the right time for a new pair of wool socks, right?

These are just a basic pair of socks in Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn. I love the colors, and the stripes amuse me. Yes, I am a bit obsessive about matching the stripes. I finished them a week or two ago, and they went right into my drawer for next fall. Details Raveled.

This leaves me with 2 WIPs on the needles -- a secret project and a very large and overdue project nearing completion. I am really, really, really trying to finish both of these projects before starting anything else. Let's see how long that lasts -- I have a rainbow calling my name.

clapette

Remember this? Yep, it's that time of the semester again. This time around, it's 15 pages on service-learning and the millennial student.

So, to distract you from the frightening lack of knitting around these parts, let me show you a FO that I eff-ed last week and never blogged - Clapette!

Trust me, I am much happier about this project than the photo above would lead you to believe.

This is the first project that I knit for myself with my own handspun. I bought the fiber at Rhinebeck with the intention of making yarn for a Clapotis, and I am pleasantly surprised that it all worked out as I hoped. I did make a narrower version, more scarf-like than wrap-like, and it's perfect! I even had yarn left over.

More info on Ravelry.

I am probably the only person ...

... to knit a sock during a performance by Chuck D.

(This is the before photo. The second sock is about an inch longer now.)

The MLK event on Friday night was great. A wonderful line-up of artists who talked about their work and then read their poetry, performed music, etc.

(Derek Walcott, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli; photo by Allen E. Dines)

I don't know if I've ever read anything by Nikki Giovanni before, but now I really must find one of her books.

I almost didn't go, but this post, plus a colleague who decided to join me, sealed the deal. I'm glad I went. I should do things like this more often.

one WIP, one FO

Remember the sweater with puppy dog buttons?

I finished it this weekend! It desperately needs blocking, though, so no FO pictures yet. Maybe later this week. Hey, the kid's not even born yet, so I'm ahead of the game on this one!!

Since I finished one project, I felt completely justified in casting on for another.

I present: CLAPETTE.

(Thanks for the name, Maryse. Way to put those French language skills to work!)

She's a mini-version of the infinitely popular Clapotis. Using purls for the stitches to be dropped, rather than knit stitches and stitch markers.

She's knit with my very own handspun, spun with this pattern in mind.

Have I mentioned that I love this yarn?

And, because inquiring minds want to know, here's how I wet-finished the yarn.

1. Tie each of the two skeins in eight places, using figure-8 ties.
2. Drape yarn in strategic locations all over the house for most of a week.
3. Right before leaving for a trip to the in-laws, decide that wet-finishing must happen NOW.
4. Fill a very large bowl with very cold water.
5. Fill the bathroom sink with the hottest possible tap water and a squirt of Soak, and let the yarn sit for 20 minutes.
6. Drain sink and squeeze out yarn.
7. Dunk in cold water, agitate with hands.
8. Return to sink, and fill with fresh hot tap water. Agitate with hands, squealing because the water is HOT! (Yeah, I know you can use a small sink plunger, but remember, I wanted to do this NOW and I didn't have a clean plunger.)
   
9. Squeeze out hot water, dunk in cold for another minute or so.
10. Repeat hot water/cold water cycle once more, and then one more hot cycle (that's 3 hots, not including the initial soak).
11. Drain sink, squeeze out as much water as possible from the skeins.
12. Roll in a beach towel and stomp aggressively to get rid of more water.
13. Lay the towel on the kitchen floor. Whack each end of the skein against the towel a couple of times.
14. Hang yarn to dry. I put coat hangers on the ends of the skeins, and draped a towel over the coat hangers for some extra weight. This probably wasn't necessary.

I'll try to get a good closeup of the finished yarn. The finishing did what you would expect -- the yarn fluffed out a little bit, and the plies became more integrated. The separate strands of yarn were fuzzed together like weak velcro as I was winding it off, but there was no felting.

I spun the yarn with a mostly worsted style, from a worsted prep roving. So, the wet-finishing probably didn't change the character of the yarn that much. In fact, I probably could have just soaked the skein and hung it to dry and called it a day. But, I had fun trying something new!

Bird in Hand mittens, complete

I just remembered that I never posted finished photos of my Bird in Hand mittens.

I started these in December and finished them earlier this month. I remember why I don't knit mittens more often -- I hate knitting thumbs! Fiddly little things. (I don't know how Sandy makes so many mittens.)

These thumbs are worth the aggravation though. So cute!

(My birds each have their own personality...)

The palms are plain with little flecks of white ...

And the insides are almost as pretty as the outsides.

Full specs on Ravelry.

These are beautiful mittens, and Kate's non-repeating design was so fun to knit!

Unfortunately, I don't know when I will ever wear these. One of my many quirks is that I only like matched sets -- hat, scarf, and mittens. See my winter accessories, or my father-in-law's hat, scarf, and mittens, or Thom's hat and mittens. (Apparently, I knit both hats in the pre-blog period, so I'll have to get some photos of those. They match the mittens, suffice it to say.)

I guess I could buy more yarn and design a hat and scarf to knit, but I just don't see that happening. So, I'll just enjoy looking at them.

silver lining

Do you remember my Nantucket Jacket? The one I started in 2006? It's finally finished.

(As always, click to Flickr-ize and embiggen.)

It fits exactly as I intended. However, it does not fit right, which is why there are no photos of it on me.

Bear with me while I explain ...
This is the cover sweater from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits. I loved the pattern, but I knew I wanted to make some modifications.

1. I wanted long sleeves. It's an aran weight jacket, after all.
2. I changed the triangular gussets. In the larger sizes, the gussets don't make those nice triangles with a column of lace above. Instead, they decrease into large panels of seed stitch (see this example on Ravelry or on Flickr). But, I was drawn to the pattern because of the gusset/lace column detail. So, I knit the smaller size gusset but added additional cables to make up the width.
   
3. I then had to change the armhole shaping because of this. I'm a little fuzzy now on what I exactly did, although I have detailed notes in a notebook somewhere.
   
4. I made it a little longer than the pattern called for ... I'm not particularly tall, but I wanted it to cover the waistband of my pants so that I could wear it to work.
   
5. I grafted the seed stitch collar rather than three-needle bind off. I thought it would look more finished that way.
   

I swatched and calculated and worked out the maths to figure out exactly what size I wanted to make, and how to get that size. And, I got exactly what I calculated for. (Come on, did you expect anything less? I was on the math team in high school, for chrissake.)

But, I failed to take several things into account.

1. The fit of the garment. I thought that an aran weight jacket (i.e. that I could layer over other shirts) should have about 3-4" of ease. With 20-20 hindsight, I realize that the model is probably wearing a sweater with little or no ease, or perhaps even negative ease. (Side note: I wish that Knitting Daily would post one of its fit galleries for all of IK's sweaters! So useful to see how the same size sweater looks at different ranges of ease.)
2. The cabling details of the sweater. There are purl stitch columns between all of the cable details, which makes the overall design act a little like a ribbed fabric. I don't think I stretched it enough while measuring gauge. So, the edge of the armhole is about an inch or two down my arm instead of where it should be. And the whole sweater is wider than I planned. It's just a smidge big when it is laying flat to block, but it grows a lot when I put it on due to #3, below.
   
3. The sproing factor of the yarn -- Berroco Pure Merino. This is some seriously bouncy, springy, stretchy yarn. If typical wool yarn has the bounce of a tennis ball, this stuff acts like one of those crazy super bouncy balls that we played with as kids. You would think that this makes for a good garment -- and it does -- but it also means that the yarn stretches easily. It bounces back, but acts like a slinky -- stretches and springs back, stretches and springs back. Not quite what I expected.
   
4. Most importantly, I didn't think enough about how this design would look on my body. As Maryse and the Mafia and I discussed recently, I'm an apple. My waist is almost as large as my hips are. Because of the gussets, this jacket flares out along the bottom. So, on me, there is extra fabric at the bottom and it just hangs there. It almost looks ruffled. NOT the look I was going for! Waist shaping = good, but ruffles = bad.

But, every cloud has a silver lining, right? My mother-in-law -- the one who taught me to knit! whose LYS is Webs! -- tried it on. It looks like it was made for her!! I'll try to get a photo later -- she was sick when she was at our house last, so I couldn't inflict a photo shoot upon her at the time.

I'm going to give her the sweater. In return, she offered to buy me a sweater worth of a comparable quality yarn. Sounds like a good trade to me! And it works nicely with my Knit From the Stash 2008 rules!

But, before I give her the sweater, I might enter it in some fairs. It think it's one of my best pieces of work. I paid a lot of attention to the seaming and finishing. I crocheted that damn edging no less than 4 times before I liked how it looked. I also learned how to graft seed stitch for the collar. I found just the right buttons, and I very carefully wove in all the ends. Superwash wool + large sweater with large collar + 92 yard skeins = lots of ends!

While the sweater isn't what I hoped for, I learned a lot from the experience. I'm glad that it will go to someone who will love it.

about the white stuff ...

Did you see the beautiful snow photos all over blogland today? Amanda posted some lovely ones, as did Julie and Caro. Fluffy white goodness, making everything clean and bright.

Let me present the alternative perspective.

(Thanks for the photo, Boston Globe.)

This is what we saw while driving home on Route 93 last night. Yes, that would be GRIDLOCK. People just stopping on the middle of the interstate highway to clean off their cars. My personal favorite was the guy in the panel van who reached out the window with a 6 floot long broom to clean his windshield. While driving. (Yeah, it was only 3 mph, but still...)

It took us FOUR AND A HALF hours to get home last night. Usually, the drive is about 50 minutes. Yesterday, the first 58 minutes of my commute were spent in here.


That's my parking garage on a sunnier day. See that street in the lower left hand corner? Completely backed up, which meant that NOBODY was getting out of the garage. Lucky for me, I had a sock to knit. I think I completed about 2" before getting out to the street. What did non-knitters do???

The Mafia parks in that garage too, but she got a 15-minute headstart on me, and there was no line when she left work. She lives about 15 minutes from me, and stayed ahead of me for the whole commute. She was my "advance man," calling from along the route to let me know which street or intersections to avoid. If it wasn't for her, I would probably have been on the road at least another half hour, maybe longer. Thanks, Mafia!

[I'm done whining now. Although, I hear that this weekend's expected storm is supposed to be equally messy ...]

study break socks

While I was studying for a final exam last week, I decided that I needed to take a little break and knit something. Unfortunately, none of my projects were at a stage where I could just pick up and knit mindlessly, so I started some socks. The yarn is some Regia Crazy Color that I picked up in the back room of Webs for $4/ball. Such cheerful colors!

And yes, I did match the stripes.

Obessive? Moi?

Maybe just a little!

One more pair towards my goal of having a month's worth of handknit socks (inspired by Margene). I don't much care for doing laundry.

I'm a little further along then when I took these photos. I'm about an inch past the gusset decreases on both socks. I'm going to take these to lunchtime SnB today, and work during the commute. It looks like we might get 2 good sized storms in the next 4 days, so I'm thinking I'll spend some time indoors this weekend! Maybe a new pair of socks by the weekend's end?

8 more sleeps

I'm going to Rhinebeck! A hotel room has been booked and driving plans arranged. Now all I need to do is finish the sweater...

This is the Nantucket Jacket that I started last fall. I put it on hold for a while this winter/spring while we were in the thick of house-hunting and home-improvements. Then summer came along and wool did not hold any interest for me. Then September came, and wool caught my fancy, but I was seduced by some Peace Fleece.

When I picked up the Jacket two weeks ago, all it needed was sleeves and finishing. These are the sleeves, above, being knitted two on the same needle. I've just started the sleeve cap shaping, so I'm into the home stretch.

Thanks for all your kind words about my new wheel earlier this week. I've played with her a bit, but I haven't had the time I need to spend to really get to know her. Hopefully, this weekend I'll get in some uninterrupted spinning!

Helleborus is finished

I finished my Helleborus scarf a while ago, but never got a good photo. So, I might as well post a bad photo.

Project specs:
Pattern: Helleborus, from mustaa villaa
Yarn: Shimmer, from Over the Rainbow Yarns
Gauge: eh, it's a scarf!
Needles: Addi turbos, size 9
Size: Absurdly long (72? inches)
Posted to Ravelry

I think I'll really enjoy this in the cool weather.

my new socks

Last month, I mentioned that I was working on some new socks for me. Here they are! The first photo shows the stitch pattern and color best, but the second one is there to prove that there ARE two socks. I'm going to SnB at lunch today, and brought the socks along to see if someone can take a better photo :)



Project specs:
Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 4, color 109
Needles: size 1 Knitpicks DPNs
Pattern: Diagonal Cross-Rib socks from Favorite Socks
Gauge: 9 sts/in in pattern, I think -- the pattern is written for a man size sock, so I knit at a smaller gauge to get socks that fit me
Pattern mods: added EOP heel
New techniques: first EOP heel!

Posted on Ravelry.

2 fuzzy photos

The clogs of the last post were indeed felted.
I felted them with some towels for agitation. The white fuzz on the clogs is from the towels. I'll remove it eventually.


See how the right one is a little bigger? I felted it some more so they are now the same size.

They are warm and cozy, especially on the wood floors of our new house. I might need to attach leather soles, though, as they are a bit slippery.

things about which I have not spoken, part A

I did not mean to disappear from the blog for so long. Really, I didn't. Life just got the better of me. I have still been knitting a bit, and there are several projects for which I need to provide updates.

However, that would require photos which in turn would require daylight. Not seeing much of that recently, the photos are on hold for a bit.

But, I did manage to find some unblogged photos on my computer.

Back in December, my SnB did a Yankee Stash Swap for the holidays. Everyone brought something small from their stash and gifts were exchanged...

I got this skein of Cascade Quattro (like 220, but with each of the 4 plies in a different color), and project bag.

It didn't stay in my stash very long, though! It grew up to become this ...


It's the ubiquitous felted clog pattern by Fiber Trends. Obviously still unfelted here, though!
(And look, handknit socks in action! And I'm wearing the same socks again today!)

This was a nice stashbuster -- the pattern calls for 3 skeins of feltable wool.

1) I used the gift yarn for the uppers (and got rid of a skein of something else in the gift exchange).

2) Then, I had a skein of navy blue left over from a hat/scarf/mitts set for my FIL.

3) I needed a second skein of navy blue, so I went to a local LYS and exchanged a skein of yarn that I bought for a gift project, yet never needed. I made the gift (socks in Baby Cashmerino) but had purchased an extra skein. So, I exchanged it for another skein of navy Cascade 220.

Net stash reduction -- 3 balls. Let's not talk about what's left to be busted still.

The slippers have been felted and the photos will be posted soon. Perhaps even tomorrow.