Cleverbit

first steek cut

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I've been making slow progress on this project. I didn't get the neck decreases completed in time so I had to rip out a few inches and decrease more quickly. Hopefully the neck won't be shaped too oddly. I grafted the shoulders together which wasn't too hard and was quite satisfying in an organic seamless sweater sort of way and then I cut the first steek. I am quite surprised with how strong the arm hole feels now that I've picked up around the edge and started knitting. I was afraid that if I gave the arm a bit of a tug it would all just fall apart but the seam feels much stronger than that. Knitting the actual arm has been somewhat of a pain since I don't have any circular needles short enough for a small arm circle but my dpns are too short and I keep dropping stitches. Nevertheless I'm excited to get this project finished and see how it turns out.

Here is a photo of the sweater from the front with the first arm started.

Here is a closeup of the second armhole before I cut the steek.

getting going

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I started this project a week or two ago and I'm enjoying it but not too surprisingly it's a slow moving project. I'm using smaller needles than the pattern calls for (mostly because I just got a new pair of Turbo Addi needles that I really wanted to try out) and I'm doing a few extra pattern repeats to make up for the smaller gauge. Also I have more yarn than the pattern calls for which contributed to my bright idea to have a smaller gauge. (Oh, I forgot to mention this is the Stripes and Torchon lace wrap from Victorian Lace Today and the yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Merino Lace (2400 yards, yikes!).) (I seem have a surplus of punctuation at the moment but I blame it on the prime minister debate that Kim is watching which is making me want to squeeze the candidates and their oddly shaped ears between a couple of parenthesis to shut them up - even more so the crazy moderator who keeps randomly repeating the question for those of us with attentions spans shorter than two or three minutes.)

socks finished

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I really want to start a new project so I sat down this weekend and finished these socks. They are a simple design but I'm happy with how they turned out.

new spinning wheel

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Kim and I were at our favorite antique place a few weeks ago and I found this ebony and ivory spinning wheel which I couldn't resist bidding on. It is much more ornate than my other wheel and I think it's meant for spinning flax because of the large distaff sticking out the top. I tried it out this weekend and it does spin although it feels a bit more fiddly than my other wheel. It has two bobbins (apparently spinning flax with two hands was a popular idea once) but I'm having trouble getting the one on the left to spin counter clockwise without the drive band coming off. Also several bits were broken off and I had to glue them back on so hopefully it will hold up. The hooks to guide the yarn onto the bobbin are mostly broken off so I couldn't spin much because I couldn't fill the bobbin properly. I'm planning to try to buy some tiny hooks to screw in myself but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix it or not.

still changing patterns

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Well, I finished the bottom section of the sweater and then switched to the tree pattern from the original inspiration design and although there are some common colors in the two different sections I didn't like how it was turning out.

So I decided to get a bit more yarn and just carry the bottom pattern throughout the sweater but with a few more color combinations. My plan is to repeat the brown/tan background for a few pattern repeats and then switch back to the blues. I couldn't get more of the dye lot for the darker blue so the blue on the top will be a different shade but hopefully it will look ok.

I'm much happier with how it looks now though I wish the tan color was a bit darker. I think I'm getting a bit better at fair isle but with a kitten constantly trying to run away with my balls of yarn it can be a bit tricky to keep a consistent tension.

making slow progress

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I recently started my first real fair isle sweater. I've been itching to work on my fair isle technique and try out steeking for a while and I finally got started when I went on a wool shopping trip with a friend a few weeks ago. I was going to make a pattern from Vogue Knitting (Holiday 07) by Alice Starmore but I wasn't that excited about the pattern at the bottom of the sweater so I've been using an Alice Starmore book that I got for Christmas to make my own pattern inspired by the original Vogue pattern photos. I'm still going to try out the steeks, a technique that involves knitting the sweater as a long tube and then cutting the front opening with a pair of scissors, yikes! I haven't actually gotten to that part yet since I'm still working on getting my tension right. I've had to rip out the bit above the ribbing several times - a few times because one strand was so tight that it didn't show up properly in the pattern and a few times because I didn't like the color combination I used. I'm happy with how it looks now and hopefully the more I practice the less ripping out I'll have to do. I bought the number of colors and quantities of yarn needed for the sweater in the magazine and although I've been trying to keep the ratios sort of the same in my sweater I'm a bit worried that I might run out of one or two colors. I guess the good thing about fair isle is that if I have to get yarn from a different dye lot it hopefully won't show up too much. Here is what I have so far.

first sock nearly finished

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I got this yarn for my birthday last year and I was in the mood to make some socks (or more accurately to wear some knitted socks) so I pulled it out and started knitting. I normally make my socks too loose so I tried to be a bit more careful with this pair. I started from the toe using "Judy's magic cast-on" from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. It worked really well and hopefully I'll be able to make the second sock the same even though I've let this project take so long that I'm forgetting how I did the shaping. I think I have a few notes scribbled on a bit of paper. Somewhere. Anyway, here is a photo of the first one.

some progress both forwards and backwards

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Well I had a bit of a rough start with this sweater since I failed to pay enough attention to the hip dimensions and after several inches discovered that it was much too narrow. So I ripped it out, did some math, and stared over. Then I forgot the ribbing on the sides and instead of just dropping those stitches and picking them up in the right stitch, which would probably have been faster, I ripped out again. Now I'm up to about 6.5 inches with the correct width and side shaping. I think I'm going to have to stop and weave in the tails which I normally don't like to do because it impairs further ripping out but the ends are expanding and getting fuzzy and I think it would be wise to weave them in before they get worse. I didn't realize silk could get so fuzzy but I guess it is only partly silk so presumably it is the wool that is getting fuzzy.

scarf

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I made this scarf to match my slouchy hat with the bit of sock yarn that I had left from the hat and some of the gray yarn I had left from the thermal pullover. I can't remember what inspired the stitch pattern but I think it was a scarf I saw on Ravelry.com. I decided to start from the two ends and work towards the middle so that if I ran out of yarn and had to introduce another color or something it wouldn't be just at one end.

Unfortunately I didn't plan ahead quite enough and I made both sides the same so that when I got ready to graft the two halves together the waves did not match up because instead of being complementary they were mirror images. Fortunately being the fabulous knitter that I am I was able to overcome my earlier mistake by knitting one row on each side that had only decreases and not increases to make a flat edge for grafting. It makes for a sort of funny, none matching wave in the middle of the scarf but since it is the middle everyone will just think I put it there on purpose. Well anyway that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

new pattern

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Having just made a pullover from a Vogue that was full of errors I've sworn off Vogue (again) and picked out a more simple Interweave Knits pattern instead. I knitted up a gauge/swatch yesterday and I think there is enough going on with all the color changing in the yarn without adding fancy cabling. This pattern has nice clean lines including a hem, which I've never knitted before, and shaping for both the waist and the cap sleeves. I've only knitted about and inch and a half so far but I like how it looks. Here is a link to a photo of the sweater. It's from Spring 2007 and it's called the Slanted Neck Pullover.

finished!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I finally finished this sweater after spending an hour or so trying to knit the last four rows of the hood based on a completely incorrect pattern. Thanks Vogue Knitting for reminding me why I swore off your patterns the last time. Anyway I got some help from several Ravelry knitters who had figured it out but then when I finally got it finished I didn't like how big and floppy it was and since it didn't even look good up I just ripped it out and then made the fold over collar you see in the photos. I'm pleased with how the sweater turned out in the end. I did squeeze in one more cable on the back than the pattern called for when I had my second attempt at finishing. Other than that the only change I made was to lengthen the sleeves.

finished!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I finished this while I was visiting my parents for Christmas. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I didn't bind off for the neck until two inches after the armhole and I changed the sleeves because looking at the photos on Ravelry it seemed like the sweater was sort of pulling off the shoulders on some people. I think I ended up with the shoulder a stitch or two wider when I bound off at the top and I used the article from Interweave Knits winter 07 to calculate the perfect cap. I worked both sleeves up to the cap and then made both caps at once so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to remember what I did for the first one when I got to the second one.

finished!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I finished this sweater before Christmas but I only just got around to taking proper photos. I'm really pleased with how this came out. I was a bit worried about how the yarn was turning out when I was plying and finishing it but now that it's knitted and he's wearing it I think it looks really good. I changed the pattern to make it a bit smaller and I continued the cable down the back. Also I changed the sleeves because I didn't want to have to sew in sleeves that were shaped with a bo2 curve so I made the cap a bit smoother.

body finished

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Well I've finally finished the body of this sweater. I knit the whole thing in the round even after I divided/cast off for the neck. I really like knitting this way when I have to modify the pattern because I can modify all the pieces at once without having to try to remember what I changed later. However when you're working 4 different shoulders with 4 different incoming strands of yarn it does have a tendency to turn into a giant tangled mess. I decided to go ahead and to the pick up and knitting for the neck band. Then I'll only have one sleeve to work on. I doubt this will be done before the end of the year but possibly I'll take it home to work on over Christmas.

still knitting

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

12 out of 14 inches done on the body. so close, and yet, so far.

slouchy hat finished

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Here is my finished hat!

Its not quite as slouchy as I'd hoped but I'm happy with how it came out and my ears are much warmer now. I increased the width of the stripes between the ribbed band and the body of the hat due to the encouragement of a friend during a marathon knitting session and then decreased their size again as I was finishing the decreasing for the top of the hat.

I tried to switch to a 'jogless' striping method about half way through the body of the hat (slip the 1st stitch of the second round of each color) but I'm not particularly impressed as the jogs are still rather visible.

Well actually the stripes don't look so bad now that I've uploaded the photo. Maybe I'll just keep this image in my mind and try to avoid looking at the back of the hat ever again. Also, I have a bit of the sock yarn that I made this hat with left over so I'm hoping if I have enough gray left over from the thermal sweater I might be able to make a matching scarf of some kind.

raw materials

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This just arrived in the mail with the natural Gotland. Its Corriedale and it is dyed 'grey', 'indigo', and 'ice'. I want to try mixing the colors as I spin and then possibly make a two ply. It's a bit tricky to spin in the living room now and the days are getting shorter and the light isn't very good in here at the moment so I'm not sure when I'll actually get started.

unspun top

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This just arrived in the mail recently. It's natural Gotland wool and I'm excited to try spinning it. I took two photos because I normally don't like what the flash does but this wool has a sort of natural shininess to it that I was trying to show. I ordered this one as tops rather than raw fleece because after I spent so much time carding the last batch of raw fleece I wanted something a bit cleaner and less laborious

progress report

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This is the hooded pullover from Vogue Fall 2008.

I started this project because I've had the yarn for a while and I wanted to work on something a bit quicker than all my other fingering weight projects but this one is a bit tough to work so I find I have to take so many breaks that it doesn't actually seem to be going quite so fast as I hoped. I've done the body and started one of the sleeves, the only modification I've made so far is to extend the ribbing bit on the sleeve a bit.

slouchy hat

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

I started this hat this weekend when I was knitting at a friends' flat because it is getting cold here and my ears are cold on the way to work. I decided to make it out of sock yarn to try to get maximum wind protection for my ears without it being to hot although it is going quite slowly. I have about 4 inches so far and I just switched to stocking net although I haven't quite decided if I want to keep the stripes the same or maybe make them wider or narrower for the stocking net bit.